Early Church History 

Nero's 11th year that the people of Alexandria received repeated and reliable reports that a sustained 

persecution of Christians was occurring in Rome with the instigation and full approval of the emperor. Once 

they realized that the emperor allowed and encouraged such treatment of Christians, they would have 

wondered if they could get away with the same. 

    Mark the Gospel writer had been leader of the church at Alexandria for many years. Some of those who 

worshipped the pagan gods would have liked to have killed him much sooner than they did. But the Roman 

government did not permit the peoples under their jurisdiction to put anyone to death, especially for reasons of 

solely a religious disagreement. That is why they did not put Mark to death on the first day that they 

mistreated him. On Easter Sunday, they dragged Mark through the streets with a rope around his neck. They 

had him under their control and could have killed him that day, but they did not. They waited a day to see 

how the Roman government at Alexandria would react. They were testing the limits of what they could get 

away with. Did Nero's persecution of Christians mean that the Roman government would not intervene if 

they attacked Mark? By the next day they realized that the Romans would not stop them from harming Mark. 

So, on the day after Easter Sunday, they again dragged Mark through the streets of the city with a rope around 

his neck. But this time they did not stop until he was dead.

694

    Finegan asserts that Mark died in a year when Easter Sunday coincided with the feast day of a particular 

pagan god, Sarapis, on Barmudah 29 in the Egyptian calendar.

695

 Chronologists generally hold that Mark was 

put to death because of this coincidence of dates. The idea is that the pagans were afraid that the Christians 

were going to put an end to their religion by holding Easter on the same day as their celebration. However, the 

Romans would not have allowed anyone to be put to death by a mob and without the intervention of Roman 

authority. The killing of Mark could not have occurred before Nero began to order the death of Christians, 

thus creating an implied permission for others to do the same. 

    The usual year given for the martyrdom of Mark is Nero's 8th year, before the fire at Rome. That year in the 

generally accepted chronology is 

A.D.

 68, a year in which, according to Finegan, Barmudah 29 coincided with 

April 24.

696

 Easter Sunday, at that time in history, (before the Council of Nicaea), was placed on the first 

Sunday after the first full moon after the spring Equinox. In 

A.D.

 68, the Spring Equinox was March 22 and 

the first full moon after that date was April 6, a Wednesday.

697

 Therefore, Easter that year was the following 

Sunday, April 10th, not April 24. April 10 that year coincided with Pharmuthi (Barmudah) 16 in the Egyptian 

calendar.

698

    Furthermore, in the usual chronology, Nero's 11th year is 

A.D.

 71. Easter Sunday that year fell on April 7, 

not April 24.

699

 April 7 of 

A.D.

 71 coincided with Pharmuthi 13 in the Egyptian Alexandrian calendar.

700

    On the other hand, in my revised chronology, Easter Sunday fell on April 2 in Nero's 8th year (

A.D.

 47, 

revised).

701

 Easter Sunday fell on March 29 in Nero's 11th year (

A.D.

 50, revised).

702

 None of the above dates 

comes anywhere near Pharmuthi (Barmudah) 29 in the Egyptian calendar.

703

    Therefore, the reason for Mark's death was not because Easter happened to coincide with Barmudah 

(Pharmuthi) 29, a pagan religious day; it did not. Rather, pagan religious leaders had wanted to kill Mark for 

many years and did not have the opportunity until they heard that Nero had undertaken a sustained and 

severe persecution of Christians. Mark the Gospel writer was killed in the spring of Nero's 11th year. 

    In my revised chronology, Nero's 11th year was 

A.D.

 50. Easter Sunday that year occurred, earlier than 

usual, on March 29. This date coincides with the 4th day of the month of Barmudah (Pharmuthi) in the 

Egyptian Alexandrian calendar. (Saint Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, writes in one of his letters about the 

same date, March 29 and Pharmuthi 4, which also coincided with Easter Sunday in the year about which he 

wrote, 

A.D.

 347.)

704

 Mark did not die on the day after Pharmuthi 29 (as is generally claimed), but rather on the 

day after March 29, in the month of Pharmuthi (Barmudah). Saint Mark the Evangelist died on March 30 of 

A.D.

 50, less than  a year after Nero began his persecution of Christians. 

    Implied permission to persecute Christians was a major factor in Mark's death. In contrast, such implied 

permission was clearly not present at the time of James the Less' death. Albinus rebuked the Jewish high 

priest, Ananus, for killing James. And Herod Agrippa II promptly removed the high priest from office for the 

same reason.

705

 James was killed in the spring, about the time of Passover, in Nero's 10th year. The burning of 

Rome occurred in the summer of Nero's 10th year, beginning, according to Tacitus, on July 19.

706

 Nero's 

persecution of Christians began after the fires in Rome and so after the death of James the Less. Thus, at the 

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