The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 638
CH. 18 AL-KAHF Britain by St. Philip and having been given a small island in Somersetshire there constructed with twisted twigs the first Christian Church in Britain, afterwards to become the Abbey of Glastonbury. According to another account Joseph is said to have wandered into Britain in the year 63 A. D. . . . according to the legends which grew up under the care of the monk, the first Church of Glastonbury was a little wattled building erected by Joseph of Arimathea as the leader of the twelve apostles sent over to Britain from Gaul by St. Philip (Enc. Brit. , 10th edition & 13th edition, under Joseph of Arimathaea & Glastonbury). All these accounts may appear to be no more than picturesque legends or later interpolations or they may belong to the realm of poetry rather than genuine tradition but they do not seem to be completely devoid of all reality and are not without an undercurrent of truth. Anyhow, they possess a deep and far-reaching significance. Joseph of Arimathea may or may not have gone to England or that country may or may not be "the cave", under discussion, but the story of the Dwellers of the Cave does symbolize the story of the early persecution and later rise and expansion of Christianity. Our recent research, however, assigns the catacombs at Rome rather than Glastonbury as the site of "the cave" and a study of early Christianity lends great weight to this research. Accounts of the Dwellers of the Cave given above by Ibn Ishaq and other historians also seem to substantiate and reinforce this recent theory. PT. 15 From these accounts the following facts unmistakably emerge: (1) That early Christians were believers in the Unity of God and that they suffered great persecution for their beliefs. (2) That some of these Christians fearing persecution and death took refuge in a cave in the time of a king variously known as Dacyuse, Dacyānūse or, in Latin, Decius. (3) That the persecutors of these Christians were idol-worshippers who sought to compel them to worship their own idols and offer sacrifices to them. (4) That these young men came out of the cave in the time of a king named Nandūsis or, as Gibbon says, Theodosius. Now it is a well-known historical fact that early Christians had to suffer untold persecutions at the hands of the idolatrous Roman Emperors for their belief in the Oneness of God. This persecution began as early as in the time of the notorious Emperor Nero who is said to have set fire to Rome and fiddled while that great seat of learning and civilization was burning. It continued intermittently till the reign of the Emperor Constantine who became converted to Christianity and made it the religion of the State. According to Tacitus Nero inflicted most inhuman tortures upon Christians in order to shift the blame for the burning of Rome on to them. He caused them to be hanged, burned alive and thrown to hungry dogs. Even St. Peter is said to have met his death at this cruel Emperor's hands. Tertullian states that Peter was crucified under Nero, 1846