Ryan Burns

Candidate Number: 1021                 Page  

Edexel Religious Studies

Specification A

Coursework 1

Marks Gospel. Unit P

In this section of my coursework I am going to describe the persecution of Christians by the roman emperor Nero. Nero was emperor at the time 64AD and was rumoured to have started a fire to burn down the city of Rome and rebuild it. However when people started to rumour that it was Nero. He blamed it on the Christians. He decided to blame the Christians because they were easy to blame as they did not know much about the Christians and people often fear and hate people they do not know much about. Also the Romans didn’t understand why Christians drank wine and ate bread in rituals. Another reason is that Christians were rumoured to be cannibals and ate babies!

Nero killed and tortured Christians in many horrible ways. Tacitus said, “Mockery of every sort was added to their death” this suggests to me that Christians were killed uncivilised such as pouring tar and pitch over them and using them as “living torches” to light his chariot races. Also they were sewn into animal skins and killed by dogs or even nailed to the cross like Jesus in fact when Peter was put to death he insisted he would be crucified upside as he felt he wasn’t worthy to die like Jesus. Overall Nero prosecuted and treated Christians very badly just to save his reputation as an emperor.

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In this section of my coursework I am going to explain why some people think Marks Gospel was written for non- – Jews facing persecution. Firstly when he writes anything in Amaraic, this is the Jewish lanuage at the time of Jesus he translates it into Greek his suggests that is writing for none Jews, as they wouldn’t understand Amaraic. When I read specific parts of Marks gospel its says words like “Talitha Cumi” which is Amaraic and “Ephphatha” which means be opened.

I think Marks Gospel was written in Rome because Marks is a Latin name and ...

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