Here Come The Romans

By John Powell

Here Come the Romans is a progressive survey on the historical influence of Rome and how it influenced the times, events, customs, religious institutions, and specifically the life of Jesus, the Jewish people, and the New Testament. Its progressive style guides the reader through a six-hundred and seventy-five-year period of selected history to educate how Rome fitted the biblical narrative and story. The Bible ascribes divine inspiration to the Scriptures, but we often forget the human side. The birth of prophecy or all Scriptures originated out of human struggles, circumstances, and situations. This book will teach and inform Bible readers on the origins of parties, sects, authorities, and the backgrounds of the times that influenced the writers as they wrote the New Testament books. Rome had its starting point before 605 BC (viz. 753 BC), but its presence in the land of Judea, and Jerusalem, was not solidified until a little more than a half-century before the birth of Christ. It emerged from a simple monarchy, to a senate-ruled republic, into the world's first major superpower ruled by Caesars and Procurators. The presence of Rome, with Jews and Christians, vastly affected the writings of all twenty-seven books of the New Testament as we have them today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644717554

Book preview

1

Introduction

As a result of no prerecorded biblical history of Rome, I intend to fill this gap by providing a history of how Rome fitted the biblical narrative and story of the Gospels and New Testament. Each of the four Gospel writers exalts Jesus based on divine revelation granted to them. Matthew presents Jesus as the King of the Jews. Mark presents Him as the Son of God. While Luke calls Him the Son of Man, John says Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Luke will be used as our primary text while Matthew, Mark, and John will be used as supplementary to reference and expound on themes and passages that Luke excludes.

Our introduction of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon to the text is important for two reasons. First, it is important to help students of the Bible understand how Rome was part of God’s plan to serve the purposes of Christ in His birth, life, ministry, death, crucifixion, and resurrection, and that such has made salvation possible for the entirety of humanity. The second reason is to provide the readers with a lesser grammatical-historical starting point in a quest to better understand the gospel message and so to find an even more appreciation for the biblical text.

Daniel’s account of biblical history illuminates how the legs of iron and the rock cut out without human hands disclose God’s will and purpose of the world’s future. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty, and as we look back into history, we understand the revelation of scripture in a much clearer context. Given all the lesser kingdoms depicted by Nebuchadnezzar’s image, Jesus creates a kingdom that is far greater, larger, powerful, and mightier than all the earthly kingdoms combined. Unlike all earthly kingdoms before and after Christ, His kingdom endures forever and will never end or be conquered and destroyed.

The history of the four gospels in the New Testament is seen in the purview of a dominant society and a dominant ruler. The conquered helots or socius group were the Jews in the Roman Empire, and the dominant ruler were the Romans. Before the four written Gospels (i.e., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), there was first the existence of a fifth Gospel called queue (or Q). Q was a designation derived from the German word quelle which means source. Q, in other words, was the oral Gospel proclaimed by those who seen and experienced Jesus first hand during His life on earth.

Before any written Gospel, those who heard Jesus told stories of His life, works, and deeds. These stories were collected into what became known as the sayings, and thus Q or Quelle was designated as the sayings’ source. Q was denoted hypothetical because no written documents were never found of these so-called sayings. But we know it was factual because the stories about Jesus were told over and over by the early disciples as they witnessed of His words, teachings, works, and deeds to others as Christians are instructed to do today.

Among the four written Gospels, Mark was the first written account of the ministry of Jesus Christ.¹ Mark depended upon Peter as a father figure, and from his time with Peter became the basis of how he derived his story known as the Gospel of Mark. Unlike what Matthew and Luke do for Christ within the genealogy table of Israel, none of the gospel writers reveal a starting point for Rome. Rome dominates the pages of the New Testament before, during, and after the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. When you begin reading the New Testament, the Gospel writers write from the vantage point that Israel and Rome were already intermingled, like iron and clay does not mix, without thus revealing a starting point of the latter.² According to the book of Daniel, Rome, in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, is the legs of iron, and iron and clay do not mix. Throughout Israel’s Hellenistic era, Rome had emerged as a thorn in the life of the Israelite people.

It can be attested as factual that Alexander and the Greeks was a primary tool used to prepare the way for the gospel by spreading the Koine (i.e., common) Greek language throughout the conquered world. At the time of Jesus, Greek was the primary language of the day, while both Jews and Romans held on to their primary language of Aramaic and Latin as bilingual citizens. The Romans built the roads and infrastructure which God would use to assist with the proclamation and carrying of the gospel message to the world. One example is the Roman milestone, a one-mile marker along the side of the Roman roads where Jesus said, "And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles" (Mt. 5:41, GNT, italics mine). The Roman roads were long and straight and made it safe and easy for traveling.

Jesus’ Great Commission to the eleven apostles along with His ascension to heaven consummates the end of the recorded history of the ministry of Christ by the Gospel writers. Luke’s Gospel provides the smoothest bridge into the New Testament from the Old Testament. The book of Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. It continues the Christian story taking off from the place where Jesus ascended up to heaven (see Lk. 24:51, Ac. 1:8), the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the first disciples (Ac. 2:4), the ministry of Saul of Tarsus (i.e., Paul the apostle) and of the Christian church. At the end of the recorded history of the book of Acts, the apostles such as Paul, Peter, and the others begin to disappear from the pages, culminating and beginning a new era in Christian history.

The book of Acts doesn’t appear to have an ending because all New Testament Christians participate in the story. The recorded biblical narrative of Acts however abruptly comes to an end. Luke brings the story of Paul to the point where Paul, imprisoned in Rome, has been waiting for two years to be tried before Caesar. But we read no more. What happened to Paul? Did he ever appear before Caesar? If so, was he condemned? Martyred? Acquitted? Released? Luke does not tell. Many suggestions are offered to explain the abruptness of this ending. I intend to answer these questions. The abruptness with which Acts ends suggests the unfinished task of worldwide evangelism. What the early church began, the later church is to finish.

The writings of Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius provide additional insight regarding the martyrdom of Paul and Peter in Rome and also about the destruction of the second temple approximately five years after the martyrdom of Peter. While Peter was on an escape for his life out of Rome, he met Jesus. Jesus pointed him back to Rome to face his destiny, where he was crucified—inverted on a cross where he was able to see the world how it was—upside down.³

For the earthly life of Jesus, we point back to the tribe of Judah from where he descended and where Judah itself was a nation (1 Ki. 12:19–24). Almost eight hundred years before Christ, the tribes Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (was not numbered among the twelve tribes) were the three that made up the southern kingdom.⁴ The livelihood and culture of the Judeans centered around Jerusalem and the temple. When dating back to the times through Moses, Joshua, and Samuel, the temple was mobile. The Israelites packed up and moved in the direction of the Shekhinah glory cloud, whenever and wherever it moved them.⁵

At the time of David and Solomon, the first nonmobile stationary temple was built which became known as Solomon’s temple. To generations followed, it became what we call the first temple. Its construction began around 959 BC and was completed around the year 952 BC.⁶ It was then laid to waste by the Babylonians some 365 years after it was erected. The captivity of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, begins with Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians surrounding Jerusalem to overthrow it and its people. Thus, I will be using the prophecies of Daniel to tell and interpret most of the story.

Why Study Extra-Biblical Literature?

All the added attention given to Babylon, Greece, Persia, and Rome aid our understanding of how the world was shaped before the birth of Jesus Christ. The times and events were given by God in a dream to the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel also received a series of visions that pointed to similar world kingdoms. These empires and kings contributed greatly to the shaping of biblical history, and we continue to feel their impact on us today. The Bible is a book of the redemption of humanity and flows in the narrative of how God got here from Adam to Jesus. He could have sent the Christ (i.e., Messiah) immediately after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden but rather chose to delay His coming some four hundred years after the close of the Old Testament era. It is essentially how we get here; I participate in telling the story.

The study of extra-biblical literature is important today to help us understand much of the history surrounding the events recorded in the Bible. The term extra-biblical can be defined to identify information and content that is outside the Bible. It is not part of the Old and New Testament canon and should not be read as the inspired revelation of God. It should also be noted that only the sixty-six individual books that make up our Bible completes the Old and New Testament canon of Holy Scripture. The study of extra-biblical literature is not only important for researchers but also Christians, teachers, and those who minister from the Bible. Where the Bible is silent about the rise of sects, empires, and religious movements, our study of Second Temple literature, for instance, enhances our understanding of the New Testament in a clearer light where these terms overwhelmingly appear. It equips us with a greater depth of the history surrounding the shaping and development of Judaism and the New Testament. It helps us understand the world around Christ regarding how things got there and why things were the way they are/were during the time of His earthly ministry.

Most of the elements which make up the New Testament story had their beginnings, not during the Old Testament period, but during the Intertestamental years. It includes the main literary developments, groups, movements, institutions, and ideas of that time.⁷

It is important for us to understand the Jewish historical situation and how such power structures, parties, and sects came into existence as they appear in our New Testament. In doing so, we will come to understand better the Bible we teach, but not only will we come to understand it better but also become better equipped to witness and teach it in its full capacity. Our study of extra-biblical literature and the works of other ancient writers like Flavius Josephus provide historical information that is worth examining. Such literature can fill in the voids where the Bible is silent on the specific subject matter.

The most common time-span and the gap in the Bible is the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament commonly known as the silent years. There was a lot of abnormal chaotic activity and turmoil during this period. The time is named as the silence of God because there was not an inspired Word, or prophetic voice, from the Lord during this period to attest to any of the activity during this period of history.

This four-hundred-year period or silent years was a transition period from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The events that transpired for over four hundred years prepared the way for our New Testament. For as much as Malachi’s Elijah-like prophet, John the Baptist of whom Jesus identified as the Elijah that was foretold, proved his prediction; because no other Elijah-like prophet came forward during the time between Malachi and Jesus. The four Gospels (i.e., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) open up with Jewish opposition against Jesus and His followers. It also includes the Roman Empire and Herods as ruling monarchies in the land of Judea at the time of Jesus.

We see religious sects and movements with no prior knowledge of their history or how they came on the scene. The entirety of the New Testament fathoms these groups as the leading worldly and religious power structures of their day. And how the ministry of Christ, His church, and kingdom triumphs to overcome and supersede them, for as much as the Rock and Great Mountain superseded Nebuchadnezzar’s great golden image.

The Role of Extra-Biblical Literature Today

As mentioned in the previous section, the term extra-biblical literature is used to identify the literature that does not make up the canon of Scripture. It is a mistake to perceive such literature as inspired and on par with Holy Scripture. It should only read in the same light as Josephus or any other historian writing history. There are at least two sources of literature that correspond with the Old Testament and with the New Testament. For the Old Testament, we will refer to it as Second Temple literature at this point forward. The reason for doing this is because the majority, if not all, of the extra-biblical literature we have, more likely originated during this period. It is with exception to the later literary and apocryphal literature written during, and after the time the New Testament books were written.

Second Temple literature can play an important role in our study of the Bible today. One example is Luke 2:1, that "there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the entire world should be taxed (italics mine). Another translation reads the verse this way: At that time Emperor Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Roman Empire" (GNT, italics mine). So, without any prior knowledge or information on the subject at hand, we are left clueless as to the meaning and reason to what Luke’s intentions in telling us this information. The only thing we understand about the statement in the development of his thesis is that Rome ruled the world at the time of the events specified in his writing. But the Bible does not tell us anything about how Rome became masters, introducing Emperors, Caesars, Procurators and Rulers in the land of Judea, or about the events leading up to their conquest in the land. The eager Bible reader, learner, and researcher would like to know this information.

Another example is found in Luke 3:1–2. For example, "It was the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius; Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was the ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip was the ruler of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias was the ruler of Abilene, and Annas and Caiaphas were High Priests…" (GNT, italics mine).

One of the first questions we should ask is, what happened between the Augustus in chapter 2 and now Tiberius in chapter 3? Are these two different people or is it the same person just carrying a different title? If this is the same person, then why does Luke not use the same name to identify him as the same person? In many places, the New Testament has this play on words according to the biblical writer’s intent and purpose in writing this way. It is commonly the case because the writer’s audience was already familiar with the terms at hand. Later readers like us have to skillfully navigate through the text to grasp the writer’s intent, to properly understand the text in the correct exegetical context. To do otherwise can often lead to misinterpretations of the text and thereby miss the writers meaning of the information he is giving to us.

The Augustus and Tiberius in Luke’s chapter 2 were, however, two different people. We are obliged to navigate through the various contexts to put together the missing parts of the narrative. I intend to explain all of this much later in detail. We will examine how Caesar Augustus died in AD 14, which is when the account for the two emperors between Luke chapter 2 and chapter 3 took place. His stepson Tiberius succeeded him as the second dictator of the Roman Empire. Luke, in writing to his present-day audience, takes it for granted that his readers already knew this and didn’t take the time to explain the details surrounding the change in a dictatorship. We, however, are left to figure this out on our own. I intend to cover this in a chapter much later in more detail. Furthermore, power figures like Pontius Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas were three of the individuals involved in the orchestration of the crucifixion of Jesus. It, therefore, should be our goals to understand the backgrounds of such power figures and structures to better equip us in our teaching of the text to other people.

Religious parties, sects, and power structures from the Second Temple period, at the time of the Maccabees and Hasmoneans, were already formed at the time before Jesus and the New Testament. These, for instance, were Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, Herods, and the Caesars. The role of Second Temple literature helps enlighten our understanding of the Jewish historical situation in the New Testament, and how parties, sects, and power structures came about as they appear in our New Testament.

The Roman Empire is felt not only in the Gospels but also the Epistles and spans the entire New Testament all the way through the book of Revelation. Not only was this the power structure under which Jesus was crucified but also the power structure under which the apostles Paul, Peter, and others were martyred. It is the manifestation of the partial image in Daniel’s vision of the legs of iron, and feet mixed with iron and clay.

Notes

¹. Robert H. Gundry, A Survey of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 126

². The Gospels of Matthew and Luke provide a genealogy of Jesus going back to the beginning of the Jewish/Hebrew and Gentile races. Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, begins with Abraham which is the starting point of the Jews. Luke, on the other hand, is directed to the Gentile Theophilus, and therefore begins with Joseph and traces Christ’s genealogy back to Adam, the beginning of humanity.

³. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Scriptures (New York: Oxford, 2003), 152

⁴. The tribe of Levi was a tribe but was not a tribe added to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh replaced Levi and Joseph among the twelve tribes. See Gen. 48:5, Jos. 13:14.

⁵. The word Shekinah is not found in either the Bible or the Dead Sea scrolls. It’s derived from a Hebrew verb that means to settle, inhabit, or dwell. The term was imposed and affixed to the word glory to represent the closeness and directness of the presence of God among the children of Israel.

⁶. John Bright, A History of Israel: 4th Edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster, 1973), 281

⁷. George Balla, The Four Centuries Between the Testaments (North Richmond Hills, TX: Babal, 1993), 45

2

Fall of the Southern Kingdom

In the year 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar’s army surrounded Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah appealed to King Mattaniah, whom Nebuchadnezzar renamed to Zedekiah, to surrender to the king of Babylon. Jeremiah warned Zedekiah that if he did not surrender, the Babylonians would burn down the city and that he would not escape the judgment of the Babylonians. Zedekiah rejected Jeremiah’s counsel, and the Babylonians stormed through Jerusalem, laying waste to it, and besetting its citizens. Zedekiah and his three sons tried to escape to the wilderness only to be tracked down by Nebuchadnezzar’s menaces. Nebuchadnezzar then killed Zedekiah’s sons in front of his eyes, saying that this was the last thing he would ever see again. Nebuchadnezzar then plunged out his eyeballs, completely removing them from the sockets, and carried him off to Babylon as a slave.

The destruction of the first temple, also called Solomon’s temple, and Judah’s exile to Babylon was significant and devastating for their nation. The center of Judaism, their entire religion and life purpose were attached to the temple and priesthood. The temple was the dwelling place of YHWH (i.e., the Lord) in their midst. In that perspective, to them, the temple