McDowell responds to Moss's dismissal of Nero persecution: (1) 50-year gap doesn't warrant dismissal — McDowell's father remembers Nixon 50 years ago. (2) Suetonius provides additional support she doesn't cite. (3) Her claim that "Christian" wasn't used until end of first century is false — Acts records the term at Antioch c.47 AD. (4) Tacitus says "great multitude" — not a handful. Nero needed a sufficiently large scapegoat group.

Moss dismisses Nero account because: (a) 50-year gap (but we routinely accept 50-year-old testimony), (b) "Christian" is anachronistic (but Acts places the term at Antioch ~47 AD, two decades before Nero), (c) only a tiny group (but Tacitus says "great multitude" — the scapegoat strategy required a known, sizable, hateable group). McDowell notes Moss's inconsistency: she accepts that "martyr" predates its later technical meaning, but won't extend the same logic to "Christian."