When the persecution under Emperor Nero arose in AD 64, inspired New Testament writings appeared to have ceased. Then it was about another forty years before any writings from Christian believers appeared. That’s a total of 46 years of silence.
Many people ask this important question: If it is true that Christ returned in AD 70, why is there little documented evidence to show that this momentous event took place?
This post attempts to answer this perplexing question.
To explain this silence, some would conclude that this lack of evidence proves Jesus did not come. If He had come surely there would be many documents to confirm this.
But the absence of any evidence cuts both ways—others might argue that this lack of evidence proves nothing as we will see. There are many reasons why this is so.
Firstly. It is possible that the majority of believers were killed in the persecution as they preached the Gospel of the Kingdom (Mat 24:9-11). The two most prominent leaders, Peter and Paul met their deaths under Nero’s watch. Their deaths were an enormous blow to the early believers.
Second. It is possible that many people fell away from Christ in the apostasy Jesus spoke about (Mat 24:10-13). Thus only a small remnant may have remained scattered throughout the Roman world. God only knows.
Third. Others were forced underground anxiously waiting for the tribulation to be cut short (Mat 24:22). Then shortly after, the remaining faithful in Jerusalem were saved by obeying Jesus’ warning to leave Jerusalem and Judea and flee to the mountains (Mat 24:15-16) before the wrath was poured out on their unbelieving persecutors (Mat 24:29-31; 1 Thes 1:10; 5:9). Thus the Jerusalem church ceased as the centre of Christianity.
Consider these Jesus words:
-When the Son of Man comes, will he even find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8.
This statement about faith strongly suggests people will experience the second coming advent.
There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God when it has come with power.” Mark 9:1.
Some of those listening to Jesus’ words must have experienced the advent of the second coming and of the kingdom of God come with power. But how many of these few could write? Many would now be elderly and have been around much longer, given their age.
Jesus said Then he will send angels and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13:27) The Greek word for angels is angelos (messengers) and in this context that suggests believers would be preaching the Word and gathering people from around the Roman world into the kingdom! So an interesting question is how many of the elect were gathered? I think many, but how of them wrote about it?
Fourth. In the ancient world many documents were to have been destroyed for a number of reasons. Any extant document affirming the extraordinary events may have been destroyed by opponents of all kinds and all times. Since only a small percentage of the thousands of ancient writings have been translated, we simply do not know if any ancient sources recorded the fulfilment or not.
And there is more to understand about this question about the silence.
With Peter and Paul gone, John would be the central leader. He would have to keep in contact with the established churches. So one would expect to see letters from John to rebuild and strengthen the churches. Those letters would carry the news that Jesus’ promises were fulfilled. But where is such evidence?
Here are some more reasons for the silence
The ordinary believer did not write letters or document events. One might be expected to see such from wealthy places in the cities. But the early church composed mostly poor people from rural areas.
They were under Roman surveillance as a Jewish sect. It would be some time after the downfall of the Jews until they would have gained any significance.
So would we really expect to see much in the way of writings during this period? The inspired writers of the gospels wrote about Christ. But even they were more the exception than the rule among the people of God.
The majority of people whom Jesus impacted while here didn’t write anything. Those who could write wrote very little. Matthew and Mark wrote their gospels. Mark was very active assisting Paul and Peter but writing no more.
There is no more from Matthew. And Luke? We have only his gospel account and the book of Acts. Luke was a physician, so one must assume he would be more educated or more likely to write.
John wrote his gospel and while in exile, he wrote Revelation. John was very busy spreading the gospel for 30 years during the prime of his life. But all we see are three short letters.
We only have two letters from Peter despite all his work in the early Church for a period of over 30 years.
There are few Pauline letters written in response or questions from Titus or Timothy. The early church of the mid first century was definitely in the first stages of establishing itself. There were few wealthy people able to engage historians to document everything.
Christians went underground in the years between AD 60 and AD 70. They were very troubled years, not only for the Jews, but also for the people of God. While the church was still tied to Jerusalem, the political upheavals that hit Jerusalem affected the church. Christians had become very unpopular with both the Romans and the Jews. In AD 64 Rome burned, and Nero blamed the Christians. Christians throughout the empire were forced to go underground, meeting secretly. Writing about anything was dangerous.
Then just a few years later, Titus’ army advanced on Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed, the ultimate devastation for Jews.
The Jerusalem believers had followed Jesus’ words and fled to the hills. Paul and Peter were dead. The church was left in disarray. Travel was still somewhat restricted. The churches that had been established were still in fear and less vocal and less open regarding their beliefs. They became much more isolated than they had previously been because of the increasing Roman control.
So we can now see many reasons that explain the long silence.
Ian Thomson 