Chapter 2 - Nero and the Bible

Summary

Past studies of the Nero-Antichrist paradigm have tended to focus on whether or not Nero is a plausible Antichrist figure by looking at the characteristics of the Antichrist and deciding whether the Nero we know from classical historiography does or does not fit the role. In doing so, some assume that the biblical writers themselves were thinking primarily of Nero, the same Nero with whom we are now familiar through the historiographical tradition, when composing their works. Left unexplored is the possibility that the Nero link was phase of the reception of biblical texts in late antiquity and not programmed into the texts themselves. This chapter investigates the problem of whether the historical Nero is in the Bible at all, and argues that the Bible’s Antichrist figures do not bear enough of a similarity to the historical Nero to warrant the assumption of intent on the part of its authors.