1

Part 2 The First Nativity

Kairos of the Messiahrsquos First Advent

Sons and Heirs

41 I mean that the heir as long as he is a child is no different from a

slave though he is the owner of everything 2 but he is under guardians and

managers until the date set by his father 3 In the same way we also when we were

children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world 4 But when the

fullness of time had come God sent forth his Son born of woman born under the law

5 to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons

6 And because you are sons God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying

ldquoAbba Fatherrdquo 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir

through God (Galatians 41-7 English Standard Version online

httpwwwgnpcborgesvsearchq= Galatians + 4 Emphasis on v 4 the authorrsquos ndash

JDR)

Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

5 In the days of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah of the

division of Abijah And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name

was Elizabeth 6 And they were both righteous before God walking blamelessly in

all the commandments and statutes of the Lord 7 But they had no child because

Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty

9 according to the custom of the priesthood he was chosen by lot to enter the temple

of the Lord and burn incense 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying

outside at the hour of incense 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord

standing on the right side of the altar of incense 12 And Zechariah was troubled

when he saw him and fear fell upon him 13 But the angel said to him ldquoDo not be

afraid Zechariah for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear

you a son and you shall call his name John 14 And you will have joy and gladness

2

and many will rejoice at his birth 15 for he will be great before the Lord And he

must not drink wine or strong drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even

from his mothers womb 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the

Lord their God 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn

the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the

just to make ready for the Lord a people preparedrdquo

18 And Zechariah said to the angel ldquoHow shall I know this For I am an old man

and my wife is advanced in yearsrdquo 19 And the angel answered him ldquoI am Gabriel I

stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this

good news 20 And behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that

these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be

fulfilled in their timerdquo 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah and they were

wondering at his delay in the temple 22 And when he came out he was unable to

speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple And he kept

making signs to them and remained mute 23 And when his time of service was

ended he went to his home 24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and for

five months she kept herself hidden saying 25 ldquoThus the Lord has done for me in the

days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among peoplerdquo

(Luke 11ndash25 English Standard Version online See references above)

3

I The Historical Setting of the World

Pax Romana

Such were the various forms of relief suggested by human planning Then means

were taken to propitiate the gods The Sybilline books were consulted and prayers

were offered as the books prescribed to Vulcan to Ceres and to Prosperine Juno

was supplicated by the matrons first on the Capitol and afterwards at the nearest

point upon the sea coast from which water was drawn to sprinkle the temple and the

image of the goddess banquets to the goddess and all-night festivals were celebrated

by married women But neither the aid of men nor the emperorrsquos bounty nor the

propitiary offerings to the gods could remove the grim suspicion that the fire had

been started by Nerorsquos order To put an end to this rumor he shifted the charge on to

others and inflicted the most cruel tortures upon a group of people detested for their

abominations and popularly known as lsquoChristiansrsquo This name came from one

Christus who was put to death in the prinicipate of Tiberius by the Procurator Pontius

Pilate Though checked for a time the detestable supersition broke out again not in

Judea only where its mischief began but even in Rome where every abomination and

shameful iniquity from all the world pours in and finds a welcome First those who

acknowledged themselves of this sect were condemned not so much on the charge of

arson as for their hatred of the human race Their death was turned into an

entertainment They were clothed in the skins of wild animals and torn to pieces by

dogs they were crucified or staked up to be burned to serve the purpose of lamps

when daylight failed Nero gave up his own gardens for this spectacle he provided

also games during which he mingled with the crowd in the garb of a charioteer But

guilty as these people were and worthy of direst punishment the fact that they were

being cut off for no public good but only to glut the cruelty of one man aroused a

feeling of pity1 (Tacitas Annals 1544)

The media often report some new discovery or publication which it is claimed

finally proves that Jesus was after all nothing but a magician a freedom fighter or a

devout mystic Television or newspaper features appear quoting the opinions of

scholars to the effect that Jesus was not really the supernatural figure Christians had

believed him to be These matters are seldom presented in a balanced way by allowing

scholars who hold orthodox beliefs an opportunity to respond Only the sensationalist

opinions tend to be reported The cumulative effect has been that many people think

the New Testament thas been effectively discredited

I believe many readers will be surprised at the wealth of solid historical

information to be found with the New Testament and the degree to which the New

Testament story can be reconstructed The data is of course uneven in its distribution

At some points we are able to plot the movements of Jesus and Paul with pinpoint

accuracy as to both time and place At other times however a whole decade is passed

4

over in silence That however is the nature of all evidence from antiquity not merely

the New Testament 2

Augustus and the Establishment of the Pax Romana

As one closes the sacred pages of the Hebrew Scriptures at least in the last historical

narratives of that older Testament the reader is to assume that Judea as well as the remainder of

Western Asia were part of the ancient Persian empire of which Daniel ch 6 ff speaks The last

monarch specifically named is ldquoDarius the Persianrdquo who is also referred to in Nehemiah 1222

According to many scholars this is probably Darius II (423 ndash 405 BC) or perhaps Darius III

(336 ndash 331 BC) the last king of Persia (who was conquered by Alexander the Great) But after

almost four silent centuries we encounter a new world culture and empire in the New

Testament According to FF Bruce a totally new situation then existed

When we open the New Testament we find another world dominating the Near

East and indeed the whole Mediterranean area The New Testament writings from first

to last are set in the context of the Roman Empire The story which they tell from the

closing years of the pre-Christian era to the end of the first century AD presupposes

throughout the dominating presence of the Roman power The Third Evangelist connects

the birth of Jesus with a decree issued by the first Roman Emperor Augustus lsquo that all the

world should be enrolled rsquo(Luke 21) Jesus grew to manhood in a land where the

propriety of paying to Rome a tribute which it imposed was a live political and

theological issue it was a Roman magistrate who sentenced him to death and it was by a

Roman form of execution that the sentence was carried out The most prominent

character in New Testament history after Jesus himself is Paul a Roman citizen by birth

who carried the Christian message from its Palestinian homeland throughout the eastern

provinces of the Roman Empire until he reached Rome itself our last certain view of Paul

see him living there in house-arrest for two years at liberty to urge the Christian way of

salvation on all who came to visit him Nor does the New Testament stop there it carries

the story forward to the following decades in which Roman law set its face against

Christianity so that a man was liable to suffer lsquoas a Christianrsquo without its being

necessary to produce evidence of positive criminal action on his part The Roman Empire

is presented in the powerful imagery of Johnrsquos Apocalypse as a seven-headed monster

waging war against the people of God and all who refuse to pay it divine honours but

doomed to go down in defeat before lsquothe patience and faith of the saintsrsquo as they win

through to final victory lsquoby the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimonyrsquo

(Rev 1310 1211)3

Thus we come to the controversial matter of our present chapter the so-called Pax

Romana Undoubtably for first and second century Jews and Christians this ldquopeacerdquo was

5

externally and forcibly imposed and the everyday universal superintendence of this immense

classical imperial bureauracy was something less than always either blessed or benign Yet in

that over-ruling providence of God in which both Christians and Jews believe there were many

important positive aspects to the pacification and empire-building of the masters from the great

Italian city on the Tiber Indeed that it was both the right chronological and existential moment in

human history for God to send His Son forth into history to redeem both Israel and the nations

cannot be doubted by any Christian who has received the Gospel and experienced Christ to

whom it bears witness

But let the term itself first be defined in a more or less neutral way Pax Romana is a

historical description for the long period of relative tranquility extending to the entire

Mediterranean world as conquered or annexed by the Roman Empire in the first and second

centuries AD or actually from about 27 BC to about 180 AD or from the official beginning of

Emperor Augustusrsquo reign until the beginning of the imperial control of Marcus Aurelius This

historical setting can be readily linked to the Apostlersquos Paulrsquos expression in Galatians 44 ὅτε δὲ

ἦλθεν τὸ πλήρωα τοῦ χρόνου lit ldquo but when it had come ndash the fullness of the time lsquorsquo The Greek

word chronos is used about 53 times in New Testament and in the majority of cases it designates

some kind of measured or calendrical time although about 19 times it is used in an abverbial

way with miscellaneous denotations or even not separately translated Sometimes theologians

have contrasted chronos with kairos another Greek designation which occurs in about 87 places

in the New Testament and indicates a special time an appointed occasion observed season

unique opportunity or due time Probably since ldquothe fullnessrdquo (τὸ πλήρωα) precedes the word

the whole phrase is to be understood as similar to kairos because a particular era or moment in

human history is Divinely chose for the Messiah to appear in history So the question remains

Why is the particular moment of the Messiahrsquos birth so important and how is it related to Pax

Romana

The phenomenon which historians call Pax Romana was first identified by the rationalist

historian Edward Gibbon in his classic nineteenth century work The Decline and Fall of the

Roman Empire This term was proposed for that period of moderation and relative cessation

6

from foreign wars under Augustus and his successors James T Dennison Jr in a chapel

sermon preached a few years ago offers a good basic summary of the notion

The Age of Augustus was celebrated by the poets (especially Virgil) as a new era ndash the

dawn of the age of gold The empire was expanding in every area law culture arts

humanities military might religious revival The economy boomed the temples were

fullndashany and every new cult had opportunity to erect a temple in Rome Reform was in

the airndashreform of mannersndashreform of religionndashreform of the republic4

In one sense the Pax Romana was a relative cessation of the traumatic civil strife that

affected Roman society in Italy and a temporary mild reduction of its foreign wars in Gaul the

upper Danube North Africa the Eastern Mediterranean the Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine It

was not so much an era of natural peace as a time of momentary pacification by numerous

powerful Roman legions sent to all parts of the world Although from another perspective the

story of Pax Romana actually began with a bloody and violent assassination

On the cool misty morning of March 15 44 BC Emperor Julius Caesar was brutally

assassinated by several members of the Roman Senate including Brutus and Cassius Just one

month before Caesar had proudly declared himself dictator of the Roman world Now in the

wake of his political execution a new Roman triumvirate was formed by three other Roman

leaders in order to punish the perpetrators the trio of Mark Anthony (a consul) Lepidus (a high

assembly official) and Octavian (the grand-nephew of the murdered emperor) Until 37 BC

there was relative calm in the Roman world even though a major battle had transpired when

Anthony and Octavianrsquos legions decisively defeated those of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of

Philippi in 42 BC These days were perilous ones however Even that great ancient statesman

and philosopher Cicero was publicly executed for his sympathies to the fallen republican

conspirators and had his head severed and his hands cut off to be placed for public view in the

Roman Forum Then even the bonds and pledges of alliance with the new triumvirate began to

break and fray in 37 BC The cause of this disintegration of the three power players was due to

the vicissitudes of human passion and the complications of an extra-marital romance Mark

Anthony was not only Octavianrsquos political ally but also his brother-in-law He had formed a

marriage contract with Octavianrsquos sister Octavia Yet while attending to his duties in the East

he had met the seductive Cleopatra in Taursus and formed a second marriage contract with her

7

(previously Cleopatra had formed an cohabitative alliance with Julius Caesar and had a child by

the late emperor whom she named Caesarium) Thus after a number of political and personal

disagreements Octavian and Anthony came into open conflict in 32 BC and this eventually led

to the defeat of Anthonyrsquos legions at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC And as all schoolboys

know Anthony fled to Egypt where he committed suicide soon to be followed by princess

Cleopatra who took an asp to her bosom

Following the milestone victory at Actium Octavian Caesar became the sole master of

the Roman world and actually realized the dream of his great-uncle Julius He would be ruler of

the Roman Empire for the next forty-five years until 14 AD Despite his highly questionable

route to this supreme power he made the most of the opportunity and was quite successful in

reforming almost every major Roman institution He was the main contributor to the idea of Pax

Romana because he helped to establish the Roman Empire on a rational and ordered basis Since

his reforms set the patterns of the Imperium for the next two centuries and thus the first major

era of this period of history a period of unbelievable creativity is called the Augustian Age

On January 13 27 BC the confident and ever-victorious Octavian appeared before the

Roman Senate and declared his supreme authority At this same time Octavian changed his

name to Augustus Caesar (in Latin Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus) The Senate had

already been brought into compliance with the Emperorrsquos wishes and its total number had been

reduced from about 1000 to 800 members Most of the senators were voluntarily solid

supporters of Augustus or else had been hand-picked for their loyalty to the new central

power Ironically Augustus also declared that he had just restored the Republic (even though

the Roman Empire was now a virtual dictatorship) Augustus was promised an immediate ten

years rule (but this was a mere formality) For now Augustus controlled all the legions which

were obliged to defend the Senate and the Roman people Each senator took a solemn oath of

allegiance to the new Emperor as imperator the One who was the will of Rome Later in 23 BC

Augustus was also granted the authority of tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life Thus Augustus

had supreme veto power and could deal directly with the people of Rome5

Because many of Augustusrsquo reforms were practical and sensible he became larger than

life to most of the Roman people Some then began to speak of the Emperor as hero and others

8

went further to describe Augustus as a god The changes that he made were compromises

between traditional Republican values and the new imperial reality The propaganda praised

the old traditions but the economic political and social realities were rapidly changing Thus

while Augustusrsquo reforms saved the new Empire the traditional institutions the Roman Senate

in particular became an empty shell of the past The historic ideas of representative government

and hard old Roman virtues were being systematically undermined All the historic republican

institutions now would be united in one person ndash the Emperor himself Professor FF Bruce

describes the situation quite well

In January 27 BC Octavian having established peace throughout the Roman

world lsquohanded the republic back to the Senate and the people of Romersquo He himself was

acclaimed as princeps chief citizen of the republic and among other honors was given the

name Augustus by which he was thenceforth known In fact he retained all the reins of

power in his own hands but he knew the psychological and diplomatic value of

restoring the forms and nomenclature of the old republican regime

When he handed the republic back to the Senate and people of Rome he handed

back the provinces many of which were at the time administered directly responsibility

for the administration of some of the most important of these provinces It is often said

that he administered directly those provinces which required the presence of a standing

army while the more peaceful provinces came under the jurisdiction of the Senate This

is roughly true though not completely so Augustus was commander-in-chief of the

Roman army so provinces which required Roman arms either for external defense

(along the Rhine Danube and Euphrates frontiers) or for internal security were more

conveniently administrated Asia and Achaia) which were nominally under the control of

the Senate and were governed by proconsuls appointed by that body were none the less

really under the control of Augustus and his successors Neither the Senate in

appointing a proconsul nor the proconsul in administering his province could afford to

ignore the will of the princeps

Those provinces which required legionary troops to be posted in them (like

Galatia and Syria) were administered by an imperial legate the legatus pro praetore For

the sixty years following AD 6 when Judea became a Roman province it was

garrisoned not by legendary but by auxiliary troops and was garrisoned not by

legionary but by auxiliary troops and was governed by an officer or lower rank than an

imperial legate ndash by a member of the equestrian order the praefectus or procurator6

Augustus was an able administrator and to deal with his four major problems he

pursued the following steps to secure and organize his empire Firstly the frontiers especially

in the north and east were consolidated against attack by barbarians This meant that he

extended his borders to the Rhine and Danube rivers and no further to heavily bolster the

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

4

over in silence That however is the nature of all evidence from antiquity not merely

the New Testament 2

Augustus and the Establishment of the Pax Romana

As one closes the sacred pages of the Hebrew Scriptures at least in the last historical

narratives of that older Testament the reader is to assume that Judea as well as the remainder of

Western Asia were part of the ancient Persian empire of which Daniel ch 6 ff speaks The last

monarch specifically named is ldquoDarius the Persianrdquo who is also referred to in Nehemiah 1222

According to many scholars this is probably Darius II (423 ndash 405 BC) or perhaps Darius III

(336 ndash 331 BC) the last king of Persia (who was conquered by Alexander the Great) But after

almost four silent centuries we encounter a new world culture and empire in the New

Testament According to FF Bruce a totally new situation then existed

When we open the New Testament we find another world dominating the Near

East and indeed the whole Mediterranean area The New Testament writings from first

to last are set in the context of the Roman Empire The story which they tell from the

closing years of the pre-Christian era to the end of the first century AD presupposes

throughout the dominating presence of the Roman power The Third Evangelist connects

the birth of Jesus with a decree issued by the first Roman Emperor Augustus lsquo that all the

world should be enrolled rsquo(Luke 21) Jesus grew to manhood in a land where the

propriety of paying to Rome a tribute which it imposed was a live political and

theological issue it was a Roman magistrate who sentenced him to death and it was by a

Roman form of execution that the sentence was carried out The most prominent

character in New Testament history after Jesus himself is Paul a Roman citizen by birth

who carried the Christian message from its Palestinian homeland throughout the eastern

provinces of the Roman Empire until he reached Rome itself our last certain view of Paul

see him living there in house-arrest for two years at liberty to urge the Christian way of

salvation on all who came to visit him Nor does the New Testament stop there it carries

the story forward to the following decades in which Roman law set its face against

Christianity so that a man was liable to suffer lsquoas a Christianrsquo without its being

necessary to produce evidence of positive criminal action on his part The Roman Empire

is presented in the powerful imagery of Johnrsquos Apocalypse as a seven-headed monster

waging war against the people of God and all who refuse to pay it divine honours but

doomed to go down in defeat before lsquothe patience and faith of the saintsrsquo as they win

through to final victory lsquoby the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimonyrsquo

(Rev 1310 1211)3

Thus we come to the controversial matter of our present chapter the so-called Pax

Romana Undoubtably for first and second century Jews and Christians this ldquopeacerdquo was

5

externally and forcibly imposed and the everyday universal superintendence of this immense

classical imperial bureauracy was something less than always either blessed or benign Yet in

that over-ruling providence of God in which both Christians and Jews believe there were many

important positive aspects to the pacification and empire-building of the masters from the great

Italian city on the Tiber Indeed that it was both the right chronological and existential moment in

human history for God to send His Son forth into history to redeem both Israel and the nations

cannot be doubted by any Christian who has received the Gospel and experienced Christ to

whom it bears witness

But let the term itself first be defined in a more or less neutral way Pax Romana is a

historical description for the long period of relative tranquility extending to the entire

Mediterranean world as conquered or annexed by the Roman Empire in the first and second

centuries AD or actually from about 27 BC to about 180 AD or from the official beginning of

Emperor Augustusrsquo reign until the beginning of the imperial control of Marcus Aurelius This

historical setting can be readily linked to the Apostlersquos Paulrsquos expression in Galatians 44 ὅτε δὲ

ἦλθεν τὸ πλήρωα τοῦ χρόνου lit ldquo but when it had come ndash the fullness of the time lsquorsquo The Greek

word chronos is used about 53 times in New Testament and in the majority of cases it designates

some kind of measured or calendrical time although about 19 times it is used in an abverbial

way with miscellaneous denotations or even not separately translated Sometimes theologians

have contrasted chronos with kairos another Greek designation which occurs in about 87 places

in the New Testament and indicates a special time an appointed occasion observed season

unique opportunity or due time Probably since ldquothe fullnessrdquo (τὸ πλήρωα) precedes the word

the whole phrase is to be understood as similar to kairos because a particular era or moment in

human history is Divinely chose for the Messiah to appear in history So the question remains

Why is the particular moment of the Messiahrsquos birth so important and how is it related to Pax

Romana

The phenomenon which historians call Pax Romana was first identified by the rationalist

historian Edward Gibbon in his classic nineteenth century work The Decline and Fall of the

Roman Empire This term was proposed for that period of moderation and relative cessation

6

from foreign wars under Augustus and his successors James T Dennison Jr in a chapel

sermon preached a few years ago offers a good basic summary of the notion

The Age of Augustus was celebrated by the poets (especially Virgil) as a new era ndash the

dawn of the age of gold The empire was expanding in every area law culture arts

humanities military might religious revival The economy boomed the temples were

fullndashany and every new cult had opportunity to erect a temple in Rome Reform was in

the airndashreform of mannersndashreform of religionndashreform of the republic4

In one sense the Pax Romana was a relative cessation of the traumatic civil strife that

affected Roman society in Italy and a temporary mild reduction of its foreign wars in Gaul the

upper Danube North Africa the Eastern Mediterranean the Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine It

was not so much an era of natural peace as a time of momentary pacification by numerous

powerful Roman legions sent to all parts of the world Although from another perspective the

story of Pax Romana actually began with a bloody and violent assassination

On the cool misty morning of March 15 44 BC Emperor Julius Caesar was brutally

assassinated by several members of the Roman Senate including Brutus and Cassius Just one

month before Caesar had proudly declared himself dictator of the Roman world Now in the

wake of his political execution a new Roman triumvirate was formed by three other Roman

leaders in order to punish the perpetrators the trio of Mark Anthony (a consul) Lepidus (a high

assembly official) and Octavian (the grand-nephew of the murdered emperor) Until 37 BC

there was relative calm in the Roman world even though a major battle had transpired when

Anthony and Octavianrsquos legions decisively defeated those of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of

Philippi in 42 BC These days were perilous ones however Even that great ancient statesman

and philosopher Cicero was publicly executed for his sympathies to the fallen republican

conspirators and had his head severed and his hands cut off to be placed for public view in the

Roman Forum Then even the bonds and pledges of alliance with the new triumvirate began to

break and fray in 37 BC The cause of this disintegration of the three power players was due to

the vicissitudes of human passion and the complications of an extra-marital romance Mark

Anthony was not only Octavianrsquos political ally but also his brother-in-law He had formed a

marriage contract with Octavianrsquos sister Octavia Yet while attending to his duties in the East

he had met the seductive Cleopatra in Taursus and formed a second marriage contract with her

7

(previously Cleopatra had formed an cohabitative alliance with Julius Caesar and had a child by

the late emperor whom she named Caesarium) Thus after a number of political and personal

disagreements Octavian and Anthony came into open conflict in 32 BC and this eventually led

to the defeat of Anthonyrsquos legions at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC And as all schoolboys

know Anthony fled to Egypt where he committed suicide soon to be followed by princess

Cleopatra who took an asp to her bosom

Following the milestone victory at Actium Octavian Caesar became the sole master of

the Roman world and actually realized the dream of his great-uncle Julius He would be ruler of

the Roman Empire for the next forty-five years until 14 AD Despite his highly questionable

route to this supreme power he made the most of the opportunity and was quite successful in

reforming almost every major Roman institution He was the main contributor to the idea of Pax

Romana because he helped to establish the Roman Empire on a rational and ordered basis Since

his reforms set the patterns of the Imperium for the next two centuries and thus the first major

era of this period of history a period of unbelievable creativity is called the Augustian Age

On January 13 27 BC the confident and ever-victorious Octavian appeared before the

Roman Senate and declared his supreme authority At this same time Octavian changed his

name to Augustus Caesar (in Latin Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus) The Senate had

already been brought into compliance with the Emperorrsquos wishes and its total number had been

reduced from about 1000 to 800 members Most of the senators were voluntarily solid

supporters of Augustus or else had been hand-picked for their loyalty to the new central

power Ironically Augustus also declared that he had just restored the Republic (even though

the Roman Empire was now a virtual dictatorship) Augustus was promised an immediate ten

years rule (but this was a mere formality) For now Augustus controlled all the legions which

were obliged to defend the Senate and the Roman people Each senator took a solemn oath of

allegiance to the new Emperor as imperator the One who was the will of Rome Later in 23 BC

Augustus was also granted the authority of tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life Thus Augustus

had supreme veto power and could deal directly with the people of Rome5

Because many of Augustusrsquo reforms were practical and sensible he became larger than

life to most of the Roman people Some then began to speak of the Emperor as hero and others

8

went further to describe Augustus as a god The changes that he made were compromises

between traditional Republican values and the new imperial reality The propaganda praised

the old traditions but the economic political and social realities were rapidly changing Thus

while Augustusrsquo reforms saved the new Empire the traditional institutions the Roman Senate

in particular became an empty shell of the past The historic ideas of representative government

and hard old Roman virtues were being systematically undermined All the historic republican

institutions now would be united in one person ndash the Emperor himself Professor FF Bruce

describes the situation quite well

In January 27 BC Octavian having established peace throughout the Roman

world lsquohanded the republic back to the Senate and the people of Romersquo He himself was

acclaimed as princeps chief citizen of the republic and among other honors was given the

name Augustus by which he was thenceforth known In fact he retained all the reins of

power in his own hands but he knew the psychological and diplomatic value of

restoring the forms and nomenclature of the old republican regime

When he handed the republic back to the Senate and people of Rome he handed

back the provinces many of which were at the time administered directly responsibility

for the administration of some of the most important of these provinces It is often said

that he administered directly those provinces which required the presence of a standing

army while the more peaceful provinces came under the jurisdiction of the Senate This

is roughly true though not completely so Augustus was commander-in-chief of the

Roman army so provinces which required Roman arms either for external defense

(along the Rhine Danube and Euphrates frontiers) or for internal security were more

conveniently administrated Asia and Achaia) which were nominally under the control of

the Senate and were governed by proconsuls appointed by that body were none the less

really under the control of Augustus and his successors Neither the Senate in

appointing a proconsul nor the proconsul in administering his province could afford to

ignore the will of the princeps

Those provinces which required legionary troops to be posted in them (like

Galatia and Syria) were administered by an imperial legate the legatus pro praetore For

the sixty years following AD 6 when Judea became a Roman province it was

garrisoned not by legendary but by auxiliary troops and was garrisoned not by

legionary but by auxiliary troops and was governed by an officer or lower rank than an

imperial legate ndash by a member of the equestrian order the praefectus or procurator6

Augustus was an able administrator and to deal with his four major problems he

pursued the following steps to secure and organize his empire Firstly the frontiers especially

in the north and east were consolidated against attack by barbarians This meant that he

extended his borders to the Rhine and Danube rivers and no further to heavily bolster the

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

5

externally and forcibly imposed and the everyday universal superintendence of this immense

classical imperial bureauracy was something less than always either blessed or benign Yet in

that over-ruling providence of God in which both Christians and Jews believe there were many

important positive aspects to the pacification and empire-building of the masters from the great

Italian city on the Tiber Indeed that it was both the right chronological and existential moment in

human history for God to send His Son forth into history to redeem both Israel and the nations

cannot be doubted by any Christian who has received the Gospel and experienced Christ to

whom it bears witness

But let the term itself first be defined in a more or less neutral way Pax Romana is a

historical description for the long period of relative tranquility extending to the entire

Mediterranean world as conquered or annexed by the Roman Empire in the first and second

centuries AD or actually from about 27 BC to about 180 AD or from the official beginning of

Emperor Augustusrsquo reign until the beginning of the imperial control of Marcus Aurelius This

historical setting can be readily linked to the Apostlersquos Paulrsquos expression in Galatians 44 ὅτε δὲ

ἦλθεν τὸ πλήρωα τοῦ χρόνου lit ldquo but when it had come ndash the fullness of the time lsquorsquo The Greek

word chronos is used about 53 times in New Testament and in the majority of cases it designates

some kind of measured or calendrical time although about 19 times it is used in an abverbial

way with miscellaneous denotations or even not separately translated Sometimes theologians

have contrasted chronos with kairos another Greek designation which occurs in about 87 places

in the New Testament and indicates a special time an appointed occasion observed season

unique opportunity or due time Probably since ldquothe fullnessrdquo (τὸ πλήρωα) precedes the word

the whole phrase is to be understood as similar to kairos because a particular era or moment in

human history is Divinely chose for the Messiah to appear in history So the question remains

Why is the particular moment of the Messiahrsquos birth so important and how is it related to Pax

Romana

The phenomenon which historians call Pax Romana was first identified by the rationalist

historian Edward Gibbon in his classic nineteenth century work The Decline and Fall of the

Roman Empire This term was proposed for that period of moderation and relative cessation

6

from foreign wars under Augustus and his successors James T Dennison Jr in a chapel

sermon preached a few years ago offers a good basic summary of the notion

The Age of Augustus was celebrated by the poets (especially Virgil) as a new era ndash the

dawn of the age of gold The empire was expanding in every area law culture arts

humanities military might religious revival The economy boomed the temples were

fullndashany and every new cult had opportunity to erect a temple in Rome Reform was in

the airndashreform of mannersndashreform of religionndashreform of the republic4

In one sense the Pax Romana was a relative cessation of the traumatic civil strife that

affected Roman society in Italy and a temporary mild reduction of its foreign wars in Gaul the

upper Danube North Africa the Eastern Mediterranean the Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine It

was not so much an era of natural peace as a time of momentary pacification by numerous

powerful Roman legions sent to all parts of the world Although from another perspective the

story of Pax Romana actually began with a bloody and violent assassination

On the cool misty morning of March 15 44 BC Emperor Julius Caesar was brutally

assassinated by several members of the Roman Senate including Brutus and Cassius Just one

month before Caesar had proudly declared himself dictator of the Roman world Now in the

wake of his political execution a new Roman triumvirate was formed by three other Roman

leaders in order to punish the perpetrators the trio of Mark Anthony (a consul) Lepidus (a high

assembly official) and Octavian (the grand-nephew of the murdered emperor) Until 37 BC

there was relative calm in the Roman world even though a major battle had transpired when

Anthony and Octavianrsquos legions decisively defeated those of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of

Philippi in 42 BC These days were perilous ones however Even that great ancient statesman

and philosopher Cicero was publicly executed for his sympathies to the fallen republican

conspirators and had his head severed and his hands cut off to be placed for public view in the

Roman Forum Then even the bonds and pledges of alliance with the new triumvirate began to

break and fray in 37 BC The cause of this disintegration of the three power players was due to

the vicissitudes of human passion and the complications of an extra-marital romance Mark

Anthony was not only Octavianrsquos political ally but also his brother-in-law He had formed a

marriage contract with Octavianrsquos sister Octavia Yet while attending to his duties in the East

he had met the seductive Cleopatra in Taursus and formed a second marriage contract with her

7

(previously Cleopatra had formed an cohabitative alliance with Julius Caesar and had a child by

the late emperor whom she named Caesarium) Thus after a number of political and personal

disagreements Octavian and Anthony came into open conflict in 32 BC and this eventually led

to the defeat of Anthonyrsquos legions at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC And as all schoolboys

know Anthony fled to Egypt where he committed suicide soon to be followed by princess

Cleopatra who took an asp to her bosom

Following the milestone victory at Actium Octavian Caesar became the sole master of

the Roman world and actually realized the dream of his great-uncle Julius He would be ruler of

the Roman Empire for the next forty-five years until 14 AD Despite his highly questionable

route to this supreme power he made the most of the opportunity and was quite successful in

reforming almost every major Roman institution He was the main contributor to the idea of Pax

Romana because he helped to establish the Roman Empire on a rational and ordered basis Since

his reforms set the patterns of the Imperium for the next two centuries and thus the first major

era of this period of history a period of unbelievable creativity is called the Augustian Age

On January 13 27 BC the confident and ever-victorious Octavian appeared before the

Roman Senate and declared his supreme authority At this same time Octavian changed his

name to Augustus Caesar (in Latin Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus) The Senate had

already been brought into compliance with the Emperorrsquos wishes and its total number had been

reduced from about 1000 to 800 members Most of the senators were voluntarily solid

supporters of Augustus or else had been hand-picked for their loyalty to the new central

power Ironically Augustus also declared that he had just restored the Republic (even though

the Roman Empire was now a virtual dictatorship) Augustus was promised an immediate ten

years rule (but this was a mere formality) For now Augustus controlled all the legions which

were obliged to defend the Senate and the Roman people Each senator took a solemn oath of

allegiance to the new Emperor as imperator the One who was the will of Rome Later in 23 BC

Augustus was also granted the authority of tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life Thus Augustus

had supreme veto power and could deal directly with the people of Rome5

Because many of Augustusrsquo reforms were practical and sensible he became larger than

life to most of the Roman people Some then began to speak of the Emperor as hero and others

8

went further to describe Augustus as a god The changes that he made were compromises

between traditional Republican values and the new imperial reality The propaganda praised

the old traditions but the economic political and social realities were rapidly changing Thus

while Augustusrsquo reforms saved the new Empire the traditional institutions the Roman Senate

in particular became an empty shell of the past The historic ideas of representative government

and hard old Roman virtues were being systematically undermined All the historic republican

institutions now would be united in one person ndash the Emperor himself Professor FF Bruce

describes the situation quite well

In January 27 BC Octavian having established peace throughout the Roman

world lsquohanded the republic back to the Senate and the people of Romersquo He himself was

acclaimed as princeps chief citizen of the republic and among other honors was given the

name Augustus by which he was thenceforth known In fact he retained all the reins of

power in his own hands but he knew the psychological and diplomatic value of

restoring the forms and nomenclature of the old republican regime

When he handed the republic back to the Senate and people of Rome he handed

back the provinces many of which were at the time administered directly responsibility

for the administration of some of the most important of these provinces It is often said

that he administered directly those provinces which required the presence of a standing

army while the more peaceful provinces came under the jurisdiction of the Senate This

is roughly true though not completely so Augustus was commander-in-chief of the

Roman army so provinces which required Roman arms either for external defense

(along the Rhine Danube and Euphrates frontiers) or for internal security were more

conveniently administrated Asia and Achaia) which were nominally under the control of

the Senate and were governed by proconsuls appointed by that body were none the less

really under the control of Augustus and his successors Neither the Senate in

appointing a proconsul nor the proconsul in administering his province could afford to

ignore the will of the princeps

Those provinces which required legionary troops to be posted in them (like

Galatia and Syria) were administered by an imperial legate the legatus pro praetore For

the sixty years following AD 6 when Judea became a Roman province it was

garrisoned not by legendary but by auxiliary troops and was garrisoned not by

legionary but by auxiliary troops and was governed by an officer or lower rank than an

imperial legate ndash by a member of the equestrian order the praefectus or procurator6

Augustus was an able administrator and to deal with his four major problems he

pursued the following steps to secure and organize his empire Firstly the frontiers especially

in the north and east were consolidated against attack by barbarians This meant that he

extended his borders to the Rhine and Danube rivers and no further to heavily bolster the

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

6

from foreign wars under Augustus and his successors James T Dennison Jr in a chapel

sermon preached a few years ago offers a good basic summary of the notion

The Age of Augustus was celebrated by the poets (especially Virgil) as a new era ndash the

dawn of the age of gold The empire was expanding in every area law culture arts

humanities military might religious revival The economy boomed the temples were

fullndashany and every new cult had opportunity to erect a temple in Rome Reform was in

the airndashreform of mannersndashreform of religionndashreform of the republic4

In one sense the Pax Romana was a relative cessation of the traumatic civil strife that

affected Roman society in Italy and a temporary mild reduction of its foreign wars in Gaul the

upper Danube North Africa the Eastern Mediterranean the Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine It

was not so much an era of natural peace as a time of momentary pacification by numerous

powerful Roman legions sent to all parts of the world Although from another perspective the

story of Pax Romana actually began with a bloody and violent assassination

On the cool misty morning of March 15 44 BC Emperor Julius Caesar was brutally

assassinated by several members of the Roman Senate including Brutus and Cassius Just one

month before Caesar had proudly declared himself dictator of the Roman world Now in the

wake of his political execution a new Roman triumvirate was formed by three other Roman

leaders in order to punish the perpetrators the trio of Mark Anthony (a consul) Lepidus (a high

assembly official) and Octavian (the grand-nephew of the murdered emperor) Until 37 BC

there was relative calm in the Roman world even though a major battle had transpired when

Anthony and Octavianrsquos legions decisively defeated those of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of

Philippi in 42 BC These days were perilous ones however Even that great ancient statesman

and philosopher Cicero was publicly executed for his sympathies to the fallen republican

conspirators and had his head severed and his hands cut off to be placed for public view in the

Roman Forum Then even the bonds and pledges of alliance with the new triumvirate began to

break and fray in 37 BC The cause of this disintegration of the three power players was due to

the vicissitudes of human passion and the complications of an extra-marital romance Mark

Anthony was not only Octavianrsquos political ally but also his brother-in-law He had formed a

marriage contract with Octavianrsquos sister Octavia Yet while attending to his duties in the East

he had met the seductive Cleopatra in Taursus and formed a second marriage contract with her

7

(previously Cleopatra had formed an cohabitative alliance with Julius Caesar and had a child by

the late emperor whom she named Caesarium) Thus after a number of political and personal

disagreements Octavian and Anthony came into open conflict in 32 BC and this eventually led

to the defeat of Anthonyrsquos legions at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC And as all schoolboys

know Anthony fled to Egypt where he committed suicide soon to be followed by princess

Cleopatra who took an asp to her bosom

Following the milestone victory at Actium Octavian Caesar became the sole master of

the Roman world and actually realized the dream of his great-uncle Julius He would be ruler of

the Roman Empire for the next forty-five years until 14 AD Despite his highly questionable

route to this supreme power he made the most of the opportunity and was quite successful in

reforming almost every major Roman institution He was the main contributor to the idea of Pax

Romana because he helped to establish the Roman Empire on a rational and ordered basis Since

his reforms set the patterns of the Imperium for the next two centuries and thus the first major

era of this period of history a period of unbelievable creativity is called the Augustian Age

On January 13 27 BC the confident and ever-victorious Octavian appeared before the

Roman Senate and declared his supreme authority At this same time Octavian changed his

name to Augustus Caesar (in Latin Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus) The Senate had

already been brought into compliance with the Emperorrsquos wishes and its total number had been

reduced from about 1000 to 800 members Most of the senators were voluntarily solid

supporters of Augustus or else had been hand-picked for their loyalty to the new central

power Ironically Augustus also declared that he had just restored the Republic (even though

the Roman Empire was now a virtual dictatorship) Augustus was promised an immediate ten

years rule (but this was a mere formality) For now Augustus controlled all the legions which

were obliged to defend the Senate and the Roman people Each senator took a solemn oath of

allegiance to the new Emperor as imperator the One who was the will of Rome Later in 23 BC

Augustus was also granted the authority of tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life Thus Augustus

had supreme veto power and could deal directly with the people of Rome5

Because many of Augustusrsquo reforms were practical and sensible he became larger than

life to most of the Roman people Some then began to speak of the Emperor as hero and others

8

went further to describe Augustus as a god The changes that he made were compromises

between traditional Republican values and the new imperial reality The propaganda praised

the old traditions but the economic political and social realities were rapidly changing Thus

while Augustusrsquo reforms saved the new Empire the traditional institutions the Roman Senate

in particular became an empty shell of the past The historic ideas of representative government

and hard old Roman virtues were being systematically undermined All the historic republican

institutions now would be united in one person ndash the Emperor himself Professor FF Bruce

describes the situation quite well

In January 27 BC Octavian having established peace throughout the Roman

world lsquohanded the republic back to the Senate and the people of Romersquo He himself was

acclaimed as princeps chief citizen of the republic and among other honors was given the

name Augustus by which he was thenceforth known In fact he retained all the reins of

power in his own hands but he knew the psychological and diplomatic value of

restoring the forms and nomenclature of the old republican regime

When he handed the republic back to the Senate and people of Rome he handed

back the provinces many of which were at the time administered directly responsibility

for the administration of some of the most important of these provinces It is often said

that he administered directly those provinces which required the presence of a standing

army while the more peaceful provinces came under the jurisdiction of the Senate This

is roughly true though not completely so Augustus was commander-in-chief of the

Roman army so provinces which required Roman arms either for external defense

(along the Rhine Danube and Euphrates frontiers) or for internal security were more

conveniently administrated Asia and Achaia) which were nominally under the control of

the Senate and were governed by proconsuls appointed by that body were none the less

really under the control of Augustus and his successors Neither the Senate in

appointing a proconsul nor the proconsul in administering his province could afford to

ignore the will of the princeps

Those provinces which required legionary troops to be posted in them (like

Galatia and Syria) were administered by an imperial legate the legatus pro praetore For

the sixty years following AD 6 when Judea became a Roman province it was

garrisoned not by legendary but by auxiliary troops and was garrisoned not by

legionary but by auxiliary troops and was governed by an officer or lower rank than an

imperial legate ndash by a member of the equestrian order the praefectus or procurator6

Augustus was an able administrator and to deal with his four major problems he

pursued the following steps to secure and organize his empire Firstly the frontiers especially

in the north and east were consolidated against attack by barbarians This meant that he

extended his borders to the Rhine and Danube rivers and no further to heavily bolster the

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

7

(previously Cleopatra had formed an cohabitative alliance with Julius Caesar and had a child by

the late emperor whom she named Caesarium) Thus after a number of political and personal

disagreements Octavian and Anthony came into open conflict in 32 BC and this eventually led

to the defeat of Anthonyrsquos legions at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC And as all schoolboys

know Anthony fled to Egypt where he committed suicide soon to be followed by princess

Cleopatra who took an asp to her bosom

Following the milestone victory at Actium Octavian Caesar became the sole master of

the Roman world and actually realized the dream of his great-uncle Julius He would be ruler of

the Roman Empire for the next forty-five years until 14 AD Despite his highly questionable

route to this supreme power he made the most of the opportunity and was quite successful in

reforming almost every major Roman institution He was the main contributor to the idea of Pax

Romana because he helped to establish the Roman Empire on a rational and ordered basis Since

his reforms set the patterns of the Imperium for the next two centuries and thus the first major

era of this period of history a period of unbelievable creativity is called the Augustian Age

On January 13 27 BC the confident and ever-victorious Octavian appeared before the

Roman Senate and declared his supreme authority At this same time Octavian changed his

name to Augustus Caesar (in Latin Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus) The Senate had

already been brought into compliance with the Emperorrsquos wishes and its total number had been

reduced from about 1000 to 800 members Most of the senators were voluntarily solid

supporters of Augustus or else had been hand-picked for their loyalty to the new central

power Ironically Augustus also declared that he had just restored the Republic (even though

the Roman Empire was now a virtual dictatorship) Augustus was promised an immediate ten

years rule (but this was a mere formality) For now Augustus controlled all the legions which

were obliged to defend the Senate and the Roman people Each senator took a solemn oath of

allegiance to the new Emperor as imperator the One who was the will of Rome Later in 23 BC

Augustus was also granted the authority of tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life Thus Augustus

had supreme veto power and could deal directly with the people of Rome5

Because many of Augustusrsquo reforms were practical and sensible he became larger than

life to most of the Roman people Some then began to speak of the Emperor as hero and others

8

went further to describe Augustus as a god The changes that he made were compromises

between traditional Republican values and the new imperial reality The propaganda praised

the old traditions but the economic political and social realities were rapidly changing Thus

while Augustusrsquo reforms saved the new Empire the traditional institutions the Roman Senate

in particular became an empty shell of the past The historic ideas of representative government

and hard old Roman virtues were being systematically undermined All the historic republican

institutions now would be united in one person ndash the Emperor himself Professor FF Bruce

describes the situation quite well

In January 27 BC Octavian having established peace throughout the Roman

world lsquohanded the republic back to the Senate and the people of Romersquo He himself was

acclaimed as princeps chief citizen of the republic and among other honors was given the

name Augustus by which he was thenceforth known In fact he retained all the reins of

power in his own hands but he knew the psychological and diplomatic value of

restoring the forms and nomenclature of the old republican regime

When he handed the republic back to the Senate and people of Rome he handed

back the provinces many of which were at the time administered directly responsibility

for the administration of some of the most important of these provinces It is often said

that he administered directly those provinces which required the presence of a standing

army while the more peaceful provinces came under the jurisdiction of the Senate This

is roughly true though not completely so Augustus was commander-in-chief of the

Roman army so provinces which required Roman arms either for external defense

(along the Rhine Danube and Euphrates frontiers) or for internal security were more

conveniently administrated Asia and Achaia) which were nominally under the control of

the Senate and were governed by proconsuls appointed by that body were none the less

really under the control of Augustus and his successors Neither the Senate in

appointing a proconsul nor the proconsul in administering his province could afford to

ignore the will of the princeps

Those provinces which required legionary troops to be posted in them (like

Galatia and Syria) were administered by an imperial legate the legatus pro praetore For

the sixty years following AD 6 when Judea became a Roman province it was

garrisoned not by legendary but by auxiliary troops and was garrisoned not by

legionary but by auxiliary troops and was governed by an officer or lower rank than an

imperial legate ndash by a member of the equestrian order the praefectus or procurator6

Augustus was an able administrator and to deal with his four major problems he

pursued the following steps to secure and organize his empire Firstly the frontiers especially

in the north and east were consolidated against attack by barbarians This meant that he

extended his borders to the Rhine and Danube rivers and no further to heavily bolster the

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

8

went further to describe Augustus as a god The changes that he made were compromises

between traditional Republican values and the new imperial reality The propaganda praised

the old traditions but the economic political and social realities were rapidly changing Thus

while Augustusrsquo reforms saved the new Empire the traditional institutions the Roman Senate

in particular became an empty shell of the past The historic ideas of representative government

and hard old Roman virtues were being systematically undermined All the historic republican

institutions now would be united in one person ndash the Emperor himself Professor FF Bruce

describes the situation quite well

In January 27 BC Octavian having established peace throughout the Roman

world lsquohanded the republic back to the Senate and the people of Romersquo He himself was

acclaimed as princeps chief citizen of the republic and among other honors was given the

name Augustus by which he was thenceforth known In fact he retained all the reins of

power in his own hands but he knew the psychological and diplomatic value of

restoring the forms and nomenclature of the old republican regime

When he handed the republic back to the Senate and people of Rome he handed

back the provinces many of which were at the time administered directly responsibility

for the administration of some of the most important of these provinces It is often said

that he administered directly those provinces which required the presence of a standing

army while the more peaceful provinces came under the jurisdiction of the Senate This

is roughly true though not completely so Augustus was commander-in-chief of the

Roman army so provinces which required Roman arms either for external defense

(along the Rhine Danube and Euphrates frontiers) or for internal security were more

conveniently administrated Asia and Achaia) which were nominally under the control of

the Senate and were governed by proconsuls appointed by that body were none the less

really under the control of Augustus and his successors Neither the Senate in

appointing a proconsul nor the proconsul in administering his province could afford to

ignore the will of the princeps

Those provinces which required legionary troops to be posted in them (like

Galatia and Syria) were administered by an imperial legate the legatus pro praetore For

the sixty years following AD 6 when Judea became a Roman province it was

garrisoned not by legendary but by auxiliary troops and was garrisoned not by

legionary but by auxiliary troops and was governed by an officer or lower rank than an

imperial legate ndash by a member of the equestrian order the praefectus or procurator6

Augustus was an able administrator and to deal with his four major problems he

pursued the following steps to secure and organize his empire Firstly the frontiers especially

in the north and east were consolidated against attack by barbarians This meant that he

extended his borders to the Rhine and Danube rivers and no further to heavily bolster the

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

9

outposts that remained Secondly he ordered a reduction in the size of the army and the

remainder were stationed in the provinces He provided a cash payment to those soldiers who

had served for more than twenty years thus securing their loyalty to the Roman state and not to

their generals The army was removed from Rome where they could be tempted to a meddle in

civic affairs Additionally he created a special army supremely loyal to himself eg the

Praetorian Guard This was an elite force of over 9000 soldiers charged specifically with the

defense of Rome and the Emperor The Praetorians were to be from Italy only and received

higher wages than the average Roman legionnaire During the reign of Augustus this worked

well since these troops were new and fiercely devoted to the Emperor But in the decades and

centuries to come the leaders of the Praetorian Guard had the power to make or break even the

power of the emperor Thirdly the Emperor and the Senate (by his insistence) provided

subsidies to farmers and free grain and other necessities to the masses of Rome (hence a

welfare ldquostaterdquo began to emerge in later times) Fourthly in the home provinces near Rome

Augustus entrusted the Senatorial class with formal powers creating a new senatorial

aristocracy Even though real power was being quickly lost by the Senate they were made to

feel like the old Republic still endured Thus for a time the reforms or Augustus Caesar

stabilized the economy and political structure of the Mediterranean world The empire with its

provinces seemed self-sufficient and the Emperor was the apparent ruler of the civilized world

(ie the oecumene)

There were though dangerous if yet unseen flaws in the virtually perfect imperial order

of things Economically the system was based on a network of mutually interdependent areas

If one province fell it could hurt the whole Empire Moreover the vast system of slave labor

was also showing signs of deterioration Slaves with no future for freedom had no motivation to

work Furthermore the number of slaves had been reduced since many slave families had won

their freedom by manumission As a result manpower was drained off the farms At the same

time Rome and other Latin cities became more crowded with unemployed men and women

who would follow whatever leader and whatever cause brought them bread and shelter

Pedagogues and conniving politicians could influence the Senate and eventually the election of

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

10

new emperors Author Steve Kreis has offered a provocative summary of the Roman Peace

which lasted from Augustus to the time of Marcus Aurelius in the late second century AD

In general the Augustan system worked fairly well in fact it lasted more than 200

years It provided a material and political base of cultural achievement that rivaled the

Greeks under Pericles This is the age of the Pax Romana the Roman Peace But the Augustan

reforms were not limited to political economic and social issues alone They also envisioned

a fundamental change in Roman culture itself Augustus tried to turn Rome into a world

capital and taught the Romans to identify their destiny with the destiny of all mankind They

were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing

world7

The Jews and the Coming of Pax Romana

For one to appreciate the overall impact of the later Pax Romana on the Jews and

Palestine it is necessary to recall the earlier historical waves of the expanding Hellenistic

empire of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) This vast domain however was divided into four

dynastic kingdoms by Alexanderrsquos main generals (the details are actually a bit more complex

but a thorough general history is not being presented here) After Antigonus was killed in battle

in Asia the Macedonian Empire was split into the following areas and rulers (1) Syria and Asia

Minor controlled by Seleucius (2) Egypt and its vicinity ruled by General Ptolemy (3) Thrace

under the dominion of Lysimachus and Macedonia and Greece under Cassander the son of

Antipater

Neither the Macedonian nor the Thracian kingdoms endured into the first century BC

but Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties were significant for almost two and a half centuries and

each of these powers fought over control of Palestine and hence the Jewish nation8

The Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt was founded by Ptolemy I in 323 BC with its capital in

Alexandria while the Seleucid dynasty originated in Syria created by Seleucus I in 312 BC

with its capital in Antioch Judea remained under the overlordship of the Ptolemies under 198

BC But that year marked a change of times and suzerainities Because the armies of Seleucia

won a victory at Panieon (near the sources of the Jordan River later known as Caesarea

Philippi) for the next fifty years Judea was required to live under the rulers of Seleucia

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

11

In earlier times Judea had lived in relative peace and freedom ndash having a large measure

of political and religious autonomy Professor Bruce describes it thusly

The country was controlled by imperial governor and the people had to pay

taxes to the imperial exchequer but Judea itself ndash which consisted of a restricted

area radiating but a few miles from Jerusalemndashwas organized as a temple-state

whose constitution was laid down in the priestly law of the Pentateuch The high

priest as head of the internal administration of the tiny Jewish state There were

were many Jews outside Judea came directly under the jurisdiction of the high

priest The high priest was always drawn from the ancient family of Zadokndash the

Zadok who had been chief priest in the earlier Temple built by King Solomon

about 960 BC 9

It was thus providentially inevitable if one accepts the prophetic visions of Daniel 7 and

8 as real forecasts of world history that the Seleucid rulers of Judea (the last of the Bronze

kingdom of the Hellenistic Alexander) should clash with the new emerging power in the

Aegean world ndash the Romans And so in 190 BC at the battle of Magnesia the Seleucid armies

were crushed by the powerful legions of the republic of Rome As peace followed the terms of

the Peace of Apamea (188 BC) not only gave away the Seleucidsrsquo wealthy provinces in western

Asia Minor but also enforced a heavy tribute upon them which was to be paid in twelve

annual installments As the history of these times progressed the periods of payment of these

indemnities had to be extended by new owners for several years because of the difficulty of the

subservient rulers in raising the tribute money

This financial hardship spurred on by pagan Hellenistic dislike of the non-cosmopolitan

culture and religion of Jews led to both economic suffering and military conflict It happened

like this Jason the brother of the Zadokite high priest Onias III offered the new Seleucid king

Antiochus IV (175-163 BC) a hefty cache of gold if he would make him high priest in his

brotherrsquos place Antiochus was only too happy to accept the generous bribe because Jason (a

liberal Hellenized Jewish leader) was quite ready to expedite the process of Hellenization of the

Jewish nation A few years later (171 BC) Menelaus an even more zealous Hellenizer who did

not even belong to the Zadokite priestly family offered the king a still larger endowment if he

would make him high priest in Jasonrsquos place Antiochus was overjoyed to nominate the new

candidate which brought an end to the genuine Zadokite priestly line as ministers in Jerusalem

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

12

During this era (170 ndash 167 BC) Antiochus IV began to exhibit his maniacal egotism and

adopted the unbelievable epithet ldquoEpiphanesrdquo (implying he was the incarnate manifestation of

the Olympian Zeus) He was also perhaps trying to compensate for his fatherrsquos dynastic losses

in the Aegean realm by the Roman forces by annexing Egypt to the Seleucid dominions Yet on

the brink of his success he was powerfully checked by Roman intervention in the conflict (168

BC) Meanwhile the news of this political and military check on Antiochusrsquo ambitions

prompted the people of Judea to oust the despised Menelaus for the more highly favored

deposed Jason This act made the proud Antiochus furious and he quickly planned to punish

the offending rebels When he returned from Egypt he assaulted Jerusalem as enemy city

demolishing its outer walls and later looting the Temple treasury

But the visceral sources of Antiochusrsquo rage was more than political he wished to ensure

the absolute loyalty of Judea the southwestern frontier of his empire His advisors then urged

him to abolish the Temple constitution ban the distinctive practices of the Jewish faith and

recreate Jerusalem as an Hellenistic city in which only the thorough-going assimilationists in

Judea would have citizenship Other Jews were to be killed or enslaved The Temple once more

under the leadership of Menelaus was turned over to the cult of Olympian Zeus locally

identified with the Syrian deity Barsquoal Shamen ldquo the lord of heavenrdquo10 In one of the milestone

eras of Jewish history the people of God suffered three years of a blasphemous sacrilege ndash from

December 167 BC to December 164 BC ndash this ldquoappalling sacrilegerdquo or ldquoabomination of

desolationrdquo transpired11

Enter into the record of history the aged Mattathias of the Hasmonaean family who

demonstrated for all time that some Jews valued loyalty to their ancestral faith above

everything in this world there were stalwart men who so loved the Old Testament Scriptures

that they refused to submit to royal pagan decrees and willingly suffered martyrdom But in

Mattathiasrsquo case he and his sons took up arms against Antiochusrsquo harsh regime He and his five

sons were to become legendary Jewish guerilla fighters who fought (with Godrsquos help) against a

number of larger and better equipped royal armies and eventually defeated them Antiochus

who had vast designs to conquer lost provinces beyond the Euphrates found it highly

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

13

impractical to forever bog down all his armies in the Judean struggle Thus he saw the wisdom

of making a truce with the Jewish insurgents He was forced then to remove the ban on the

former practice of the Jewish religion and the worship of the God of Israel was resumed in the

purified Temple according to the ancient Hebrew ritual (164 BC)12

Unfortunately while the Hasmonaeans had faithfully struggled to recover religious

liberty for the Jewish nation the next generation (following Mattathias Maccabaeus and the

older sonrsquos deaths) had to continue to preserve this accomplishment (and for the next twenty

years were aided by the frequent dynastic rivalry and civil strife among their more powerful

Seleucid neighbors) Finally genuine national autonomy was actually won under Simon

Maccabaeus the last of that family in ca 142 BC However when national sovereignty was

secured under Simon (who succeeded his brother Jonathan after the latter was taken prisoner

and executed in 143 BC) the popular Jewish assembly happily decreed that he not only be

their military leader but that he should also be a lsquo high priest for ever until a trustworthy

prophet should arise lsquo (I Maccabees 1441) This unsatisfactory situation came about because the

only suitable remaining Zadokite candidate for the high-priesthood had departed to Egypt

about twenty years before to assume the leadership of the new Jewish temple at Leontoplis13

The Jews and Judea thus went on for over a century and for about seventy-five years or

son the Jewish leaders and people remained stubbornly independent While the original

Hasmonaean rulers experienced prosperity and the support of their countrymen eventually

became divided among themselves Once more Professor Bruce has a precise and fast-paced

exposition of this prelude to the era of Pax Romana as it affected the people of Israel

The Hasmonaeans who had so recently been hard put to secure bare

survival for their nation now saw undreamed - of the opportunities of expansionopening

before them Simonrsquos son John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) overran Idumea Samaria and

part of Galilee and them to his realm his sons Aristobulus I (104 ndash 103 BC) and

Alexander Janneaus (103 ndash 76 BC) who took over the title lsquokingrsquo continued their

fatherrsquos conquering enterprise until the kingdom of Judea extended from the

Mediterranean seaboard on the west into Transjoradan on the east was nearly as

large as the united monarchy of David and Solomon

These kings however were unprincipled characters aping the ways of minor

Hellenistic rulers but lacking any redeeming pretensions to Hellenistic culture Janneaus

in particular as he besieged and destroyed one Hellenistic city after another on the

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

14

perimeter of his kingdom showed himself a complete vandal Nor had his vandalism the

excuse that it was the product of zeal for the God of Israel against the idolatries of the

heathen of all the high priests of Israel some of whom did little to adorn their sacred

office none was unworthier than he He showed no concern for anything but personal

power and military conquest in his unquenchable thirst for this way of life he hazarded

his nationrsquos independence more than once exhausted the national wealth and forfeited

the respect and goodwill of the best elements in the nation

At his death in 76 BC he was succeeded as civil ruler by his wife Salome

Alexandra (her Jewish name Salome is an abbreviation of SelomndashS iyyon lsquopeace of Zionrsquo)

Her elder son Hyrcanus II a man singularly lacking in the characteristic family

ambition became the high priest her younger son Aristobulus II whose excess of

ambition amply compensated for his brotherrsquos deficiency was given a military

command Her reign of nine years was remembered a brief golden age her death in 67

BC followed by civil war between the partisans of her two sons While Hyrcanus was

completely unambitious he was used as a facade by the gifted Idumean politician

Antipater who saw how useful Hyrcanus could be to the promotion of his own

ambitions Antipater saw clearly that the path of wisdom for a man with his ambitions

was to co-operate with the Roman power which at this juncture was establishing itself in

Western Asia His opportunity came with Roman occcupation of Judea in 63 BC The

pretext for this occupation was the civil war between the two Hasmonaean brothers

Each of them invoked the support of the Roman general Pompey who in the course of

reorganizing Western Asia was at that time reducing Syria to the status of a Roman

province He intervened very readily but Aristobulus and his followers soon found

themselves opposing him and their opposition led to his occupation of Jerusalem in the

spring of 63 BC followed by the three monthsrsquo seige and storming of the well-fortified

Temple area Judea lost her independence and became subject to Rome14

During the era of General Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) several wars were fought by

Roman armies in Asia Minor and Syria Perhaps the most important and extensive conflict was

that between Rome and Pontus ruled by Mithridates VI (134 to 63 BC) Mithridates was

doubtless one of the Roman Republicrsquos most formidable and successful enemies who engaged

three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars Lucius

Cornelius Sulla Lucullus and Pompey

King Mithridates came to power as a boy of thirteen years of ages in ca 120 BC and

was heir to a kingdom which had once been a satrapy of the Persian Empire Geographically its

borders stretched along the southern shore of the Black Sea (from whence Pontus derived its

name) from the lower Halys eastwards to Colchis In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great

had incorporated it into his vast empire but because of the intermittent wars between his

successors the kingdom regained its independence Furthermore in 133 BC when Attalus III

15

last king of Pergamum bequeathed his kingdom to the Senate and people of Rome Mithridates

V of Pontus (father of the later Mithradates) acted as an ally of the Romans Indeed he aided

them in their war against Aristonicus half-brother of Attalus who imagined that he could claim

the kingdom of Pergamum for himself For Mithradatesrsquo assistance to the Rome he was

rewarded with part of the territory of Phyrgia

Mithradates VI took over his fatherrsquos kingdom when the elder was assassinated in 120

BC But the Romans took advantage of the youth of this ruler to reclaim the valuable Phrygian

province once more Still in a a few years Mithradates was able to console himself for his loss

by extending his power to the east into Armenia While he dared not interfere with his western

and southern neighbors (Bithynia Galatia and Cappadocia) which lay clearly within Romersquos

sphere of influence he could extend his rule eastward into Armenia and also east and north

along the coast of the Black Sea and to occupy part of the Crimea An intelligent fellow he then

allied himself with Tigranes the king of Armenia and even pledged his daughter to the latter in

marriage He also embraced in political friendship the rulers of Armenia and the distant

Parthians His outstanding statesmanship and martial energy vastly increased his power in the

whole of Asia beyond other rulers and made him far more formidable than any of the warring

claimants of the crumbling Seleucid Empire Even the Romans began to view the Pontic

monarch as a serious challenge

Mithradates clashed with Rome and its legions when he endeavored to place his own

puppets on the thrones of Cappadocia and Bithynia Immediately the Roman-sponsored king

of Bithynia acted with Romersquos full support to invade the territory of territory of their new

challenger Initially the king sent envoys to protest in Rome but that overture proved pointless

So acting on his own counsel he invaded both Cappadocia and Bithynia in 88 BC and overrun

them In the process he decisively trounched a Roman army in the region Thus for a time he

was master of virtually the whole province of Asia Since the provincials hated their Roman

masters so thoroughly (having lived under their full dominion for over forty years) they gladly

aided the armies of Pontus And when Mithradates ordered the cities of Asia to put to death all

Roman and Italian citizens in residence the new allies readily cooperated with him to massacre

over 80000 persons Even dissatisfied Athenians and patriots in other Greek cities saw this as

16

an opportunity to throw off the Roman yoke Many therefore welcomed Mithradates as a new

liberator

The war between Rome and Mithradates persisted for nearly a quarter of century and

had three distinct stages First the famous General Lucius Cornelius Sulla was sent out in 87

BC to fight and he defeated the Pontic armies in Greece and brought back the Greek cities to

their Roman allegiance then he carried the war on to Asia itself In 84 BC his legions had

several victories and he compelled Mithradates to give up all his conquests in the Roman

province and imposed an indemnity on him

Second fighting once against broke out between King Mithradates and the Roman

forces in Asia Minor but it reached a crisis when the Romans re-annexed Bithynia the country

just west of Pontus into the Roman Empire in ca 75 BC This spurred the frustrated ruler to

invade Bithynia as a champion of a prince of a former royal house who now claimed the throne

By this time Sulla had retired from active life and thus a new general Lucius Lucullus was

sent out to battle the Pontic forces Initially Lucullus was successful in driving the armies of

Mithradates out of Asia Minor and even pursuing him into Armenia However while

Mithradates and his forces remained intact in their mountain fortresses Lucullusrsquos weary

troops mutinied and the campaign failed Thus by 67 BC Mithradates was once again in

possession of his domain in Pontus still again

It took a third brilliant and determined general Gnaeus Pompey to finish the struggle to

the end The Roman Senate gave Pompey unlimited command over all the Roman forces in the

east and full authority This was a good choice because the year before this same leader had

achieved great notoriety for purging the eastern Mediterranean from the pirates who infested it

and attacked merchant ships carrying grain to Rome then threatened by famine Pompey had

accomplished this remarkable feat in three months and now the Senate had bestowed

extraordinary powers upon him to carry out a new mission (the Manilian Law 66 BC) After he

had arrived in Asia and assumed command form Lucullus he vigorously pursued

Mithradaties Mithradates was driven from Pontus once more but this time his son-in-law in

Armenia refused him safe haven there So he withdrew to his Crimean dominions and two

years later (65 BC) committed suicide

17

Now all of Asia Minor was at the mercy of Pompey Even Tigranes of Armenia had to

acknowledge Pompey as his conquerer and was confirmed as king of Armenia Yet he still had

to surrender to Rome the territories he had taken in Cappadocia Cicilia and Syria Now

Pontus was a new Roman province Furthermore in 64 BC Syria was also made a client

province of Rome This spelled the absolute end of the Seleucid kingdom and this having

collapsed the neighboring principalities (once ruled by Syria) including Judea were obliged to

concede Roman sovereignty

The Negative Aspects of Pax Romana

Anyone who has (like the author) enjoyed the old Hollywood movies about ancient

times and the Roman Empire will recognize that Roman generals and Roman soldiers were

frequently cruel and unjust and that they had a high tolerance for violence against others The

story of the mass crucifixion of six thousand slaves along the Appian Way under the leadership

of Spartacus is one historic example15 Another illustration that comes to mind is well illustrated

by the classic epic movie Ben Hur based on the late 19th century novel by Lew Wallace The

narrative takes place in the early decades of the first century AD and is set in Judea The

protagonist Prince Judah ben Hur a wealthy Jerusalem merchant and a Jewish patriot is played

by Charlton Heston The antagonist is the Roman military tribune Messala played by Stephen

Boyd Messala a childhood friend of Judah ben Hur arrives in Jerusalem as the commander of

the Roman garrison there While the two initially are happy to be re-united soon their

respective political and religious convictions bitterly divide them Messala believes in the glory

of Rome and its imperial power while Ben-Hur is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the

Jewish people Messala asks Ben-Hur for names of Jews who criticize the Roman government

Ben-Hur counsels his countrymen against rebellion but refuses to name names and the two

part in anger

Later during a parade held for the new Judean governor Judea Valerius Gratus a tile

falls from the roof of Ben-Hurs house and startles the governors horse which throws Gratus

off nearly killing him Although Messala knows it was an accident he condemns Ben-Hur to

16

an opportunity to throw off the Roman yoke Many therefore welcomed Mithradates as a new

liberator

The war between Rome and Mithradates persisted for nearly a quarter of century and

had three distinct stages First the famous General Lucius Cornelius Sulla was sent out in 87

BC to fight and he defeated the Pontic armies in Greece and brought back the Greek cities to

their Roman allegiance then he carried the war on to Asia itself In 84 BC his legions had

several victories and he compelled Mithradates to give up all his conquests in the Roman

province and imposed an indemnity on him

Second fighting once against broke out between King Mithradates and the Roman

forces in Asia Minor but it reached a crisis when the Romans re-annexed Bithynia the country

just west of Pontus into the Roman Empire in ca 75 BC This spurred the frustrated ruler to

invade Bithynia as a champion of a prince of a former royal house who now claimed the throne

By this time Sulla had retired from active life and thus a new general Lucius Lucullus was

sent out to battle the Pontic forces Initially Lucullus was successful in driving the armies of

Mithradates out of Asia Minor and even pursuing him into Armenia However while

Mithradates and his forces remained intact in their mountain fortresses Lucullusrsquos weary

troops mutinied and the campaign failed Thus by 67 BC Mithradates was once again in

possession of his domain in Pontus still again

It took a third brilliant and determined general Gnaeus Pompey to finish the struggle to

the end The Roman Senate gave Pompey unlimited command over all the Roman forces in the

east and full authority This was a good choice because the year before this same leader had

achieved great notoriety for purging the eastern Mediterranean from the pirates who infested it

and attacked merchant ships carrying grain to Rome then threatened by famine Pompey had

accomplished this remarkable feat in three months and now the Senate had bestowed

extraordinary powers upon him to carry out a new mission (the Manilian Law 66 BC) After he

had arrived in Asia and assumed command form Lucullus he vigorously pursued

Mithradaties Mithradates was driven from Pontus once more but this time his son-in-law in

Armenia refused him safe haven there So he withdrew to his Crimean dominions and two

years later (65 BC) committed suicide

17

Now all of Asia Minor was at the mercy of Pompey Even Tigranes of Armenia had to

acknowledge Pompey as his conquerer and was confirmed as king of Armenia Yet he still had

to surrender to Rome the territories he had taken in Cappadocia Cicilia and Syria Now

Pontus was a new Roman province Furthermore in 64 BC Syria was also made a client

province of Rome This spelled the absolute end of the Seleucid kingdom and this having

collapsed the neighboring principalities (once ruled by Syria) including Judea were obliged to

concede Roman sovereignty

The Negative Aspects of Pax Romana

Anyone who has (like the author) enjoyed the old Hollywood movies about ancient

times and the Roman Empire will recognize that Roman generals and Roman soldiers were

frequently cruel and unjust and that they had a high tolerance for violence against others The

story of the mass crucifixion of six thousand slaves along the Appian Way under the leadership

of Spartacus is one historic example15 Another illustration that comes to mind is well illustrated

by the classic epic movie Ben Hur based on the late 19th century novel by Lew Wallace The

narrative takes place in the early decades of the first century AD and is set in Judea The

protagonist Prince Judah ben Hur a wealthy Jerusalem merchant and a Jewish patriot is played

by Charlton Heston The antagonist is the Roman military tribune Messala played by Stephen

Boyd Messala a childhood friend of Judah ben Hur arrives in Jerusalem as the commander of

the Roman garrison there While the two initially are happy to be re-united soon their

respective political and religious convictions bitterly divide them Messala believes in the glory

of Rome and its imperial power while Ben-Hur is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the

Jewish people Messala asks Ben-Hur for names of Jews who criticize the Roman government

Ben-Hur counsels his countrymen against rebellion but refuses to name names and the two

part in anger

Later during a parade held for the new Judean governor Judea Valerius Gratus a tile

falls from the roof of Ben-Hurs house and startles the governors horse which throws Gratus

off nearly killing him Although Messala knows it was an accident he condemns Ben-Hur to

17

Now all of Asia Minor was at the mercy of Pompey Even Tigranes of Armenia had to

acknowledge Pompey as his conquerer and was confirmed as king of Armenia Yet he still had

to surrender to Rome the territories he had taken in Cappadocia Cicilia and Syria Now

Pontus was a new Roman province Furthermore in 64 BC Syria was also made a client

province of Rome This spelled the absolute end of the Seleucid kingdom and this having

collapsed the neighboring principalities (once ruled by Syria) including Judea were obliged to

concede Roman sovereignty

The Negative Aspects of Pax Romana

Anyone who has (like the author) enjoyed the old Hollywood movies about ancient

times and the Roman Empire will recognize that Roman generals and Roman soldiers were

frequently cruel and unjust and that they had a high tolerance for violence against others The

story of the mass crucifixion of six thousand slaves along the Appian Way under the leadership

of Spartacus is one historic example15 Another illustration that comes to mind is well illustrated

by the classic epic movie Ben Hur based on the late 19th century novel by Lew Wallace The

narrative takes place in the early decades of the first century AD and is set in Judea The

protagonist Prince Judah ben Hur a wealthy Jerusalem merchant and a Jewish patriot is played

by Charlton Heston The antagonist is the Roman military tribune Messala played by Stephen

Boyd Messala a childhood friend of Judah ben Hur arrives in Jerusalem as the commander of

the Roman garrison there While the two initially are happy to be re-united soon their

respective political and religious convictions bitterly divide them Messala believes in the glory

of Rome and its imperial power while Ben-Hur is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the

Jewish people Messala asks Ben-Hur for names of Jews who criticize the Roman government

Ben-Hur counsels his countrymen against rebellion but refuses to name names and the two

part in anger

Later during a parade held for the new Judean governor Judea Valerius Gratus a tile

falls from the roof of Ben-Hurs house and startles the governors horse which throws Gratus

off nearly killing him Although Messala knows it was an accident he condemns Ben-Hur to

18

the galleys and imprisons his mother and sister to intimidate the restive Jewish populace by

punishing the family of a known friend and prominent citizen Ben-Hur swears to return and

take revenge En route to the sea he is denied water when his slave gang arrives at Nazareth

Ben-Hur collapses in despair but a local carpenter named Jesus gives him water and renews his

will to survive Thus far the story of Ben Hur One can see even from this historically imperfect

movie with a definite Christian bias that the Romans were not particularly merciful not even

consistently just Life under Pax Romana usually meant grinding submission for those

conquered nations under the sway of Romersquos legions

That the Romans especially the legionaires had a strong inclination to cruelty and

rapacity is accepted by most historical investigators The evil reputation of the Romans allowed

their enemies (who were often not that less cruel) an opportunity for effective propaganda The

ancient Roman writer Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus 86-35 BC) quotes an excellent example

from a letter of Mithridates of Pontus written to Arsaces XII king of Parthia (c69)

The Romans have from old known but one ground for waging war with all nations

peoples and kings ndash inverterate lust of empire and wealth Do you realize that they

leave nothing that do not lay their hands on ndash homes wives land power that they are a

gang of men with no fatherland or ancestry of their own swept together of old to be a

plague to the whole world No law human or divine can stand in their way they

uproot and drag off their lsquofriendsrsquo and lsquoalliesrsquo whether they live near at hand or far

away whether they are weak or strong they treat as their enemies all men and

especially all kingdoms that refuse to serve them as slaves16

The Jewish dissidents and radical separatists in the Qumran viewed the Romans as the

quintessential pagans There is hint of the Roman rapacity and viciousness in the famous

Habakkuk Commentary from the Dead Sea Scrolls collection This is from a document which

scholars believe was written shortly before the Roman occupation of Judea by Pompey in 63

BC While the Old Testament Habakkuk accurately named the Chaldeans as the invaders of

Judea in the Qumran writing Habakkukrsquos Chaldean invaders are reinterpreted as the ldquoKittirsquoimrdquo

or ldquoKittimrdquo which is a thinly disguised reference to the Romans (cf with Daniel 1130) The text

reads as follows

19

Their fear and terror are on all the nations and in the council all their device is to

do evil and with trickery and deceit they proceed with proceed with all peoples

They trample the earth with all their horses and their beasts from afar they come from

the coastlands of the sea to devour all peoples like an eagle and there is no sating them

With wrath and anger and fury of face and impetuous of countenance they speak with all

peoples They scorn great ones they despise mighty men of kings and princes they

make sport and they mock at a great people They sacrifice to their ensigns and

their weapons of war are their objects of worship They apportion their yoke as their

tribute the source of their sustenance on all peoples to lay waste many lands year by

year They destroy many with the sword ndash youths men in their prime and old

men women and little children and on the fruit of the womb they have no

compassion17

Yet in their reading of the inscrutable judgments of God the Qumran theologians saw

the Romans (ie the Kittim) as executors of Yahwehrsquos wrath against the corrupted

Hasmonaeans who had usurped the high priestrsquos holy office and unique privileges of the

Zadokites Surely as the decades of the iron Roman rule lingered on the people of Qumran and

the Jews in general must have felt that the Divine punishment was harsh indeed Another

reflection of the sectarian interpretation of the Roman presence in Israel may be found in the

Psalms of Solomon (ca 50 BC) although the rationale is different here the Hasmonaeans are

Divinely punished not for their offense against the Zadokite high-priesthood but because that

they ldquo laid waste the throne of David rdquo (Cf Psa Sol 178) Here is the full pericope in context

But thou O God wilt cast them down and remove their seed from the earth

For there has risen up against them a man alien to our race

According to their sins wilt thou recompense them O God

So that it befalls them according to their deeds

God will show them no pity

He has sought out their seed and let none of them go free

Faithful is the Lord in all his judgments

Which he accomplishes on earth (Psa Sol 178-12)

Professor Bruce explains this pericope thusly ldquo The man lsquoalien to our racersquo is Pompey in

whose triumphal procession Aristobulus II and his sons with many other Jews of noble birth

were led as captives in 61 BC But like the Qumran commentator the psalmist deplores the

savagery of the Romans rdquo18 Still the Qumran writer was no fan of the brutality and

heartlessness of the Romans

20

The lawless one laid waste our land so that none inhabited it

They destroyed young and old and their children together

In the heat of his anger he sent them away to the west

And exposed the rulers of the land unsparingly to derision

Being an alien the enemy behaved arrogantly

And his heart was alien from our God (Psa Sol 1713-15)

The most blasphemous and shocking deed of General Pompey and his Roman legions

occurred when he captured the Temple complex in Jerusalem and insisted on forcing his way

into that holy sanctuary even into the holy of holies where the altar of God was bathed in the

invisible glory of God This contemptuous act of a pagan soldier was viewed by all the Jews as

an outrageous sacrilige It comes as no surprise then when fifteen years later (ca 48 BC) that

Pompey himself eventually met an awful and tragic doom when fleeing from the armies of

victorious Caesar he is assassinated in butcherous style as he sets foot on the Egyptian shore

Many religious leaders and most of the common people of Judea who remembered his

sacreligious insult viewed this punishment as Divine justice the eventual nemesis of

blasphemer Once more the writer or writers of the Psalms of Solomon recites the theme of justice

in respect to the vicious excesses of Pompey

I had not long to wait before God showed me the insolent one slain on the mountains

mountains of Egypt Esteemed less than the least on land or sea His body tossed this

way and that on the billows with much insolence With none to bury him since he had

rejected God with dishonour19

Once Pompey had conquered the Jewish nation Hyrcanus II was confirmed as the high

priest in Jerusalem Thus he was the figurehead leader of Judea But since the nation was a

conquered tributary of Rome the Judean government had no control over the nearby Greek

territories nor Samaria (even though the Hasmonaean rulers had conquered these areas in their

earlier extension of the kingdom of Israel) Still from the time of Pompeyrsquos hegemony both

Judea and Syria became Roman territories and became important bases of Romersquos sphere of

influence on their Eastern frontier Moreover they were key areas from which imperial politics

and the relations of Rome with the ancient empires of Egypt and Parthia were carried on

Ironically Antipater (a Idumean) remained the real power behind Hyrcanusrsquos throne As the

decades after 63 BC progressed the wily Antipater craftily played his cards increasingly

21

making himself the ally and agent of Rome Indeed on one occasion he demonstrated his value

to Julius Caesar when the latter was besieged in the palace quarter of Alexandria in the winter

of 48-47 BC Later Caesar reciprocated by making Antipater a tax-free Roman citizen with the

official title of procurator of Judea This status allowed him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem

which Pompey had earlier destroyed in war Also in appreciation of Antipaterrsquos services

Judearsquos tribute to Rome was reduced and a number of other important concessions were made

to the Jews

Herod and Pax Romana An Uneasy Relationship

Now we return to that immensely crucial historical episode mentioned earlier in this

chapter the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC This event was a tragic blow to the Jews

themselves but saavy Antipater was willing to support whatever Roman governor who

happened to be sent to the East Yet even after he was himself murdered in 43 BC his sons

Phasael and Herod carried on their fatherrsquos policy as partisians of Caesar Now Caesarrsquos legacy

was being promoted by Octavian who was Caesarrsquos adopted son and by his admirer Mark

Anthony At the famous Battle of Philippi in 42 BC Anthonyrsquos legions decisively defeated the

anti-Caesarian armies of Brutus and Cassius in which Phasael and Herod provided support

Now that the eastern part of the empire came under Anthonyrsquos dominion Phasael and Herod

were appointed joint-tetrarchs of Judea

World events were in a flurry in the late decades of the first century BC and in 40 BC

the armies of the Parthian empire overran the provinces of Syria and Judea The Parthians now

placed the Hasmonaean Antigonus (son of Aristobulus II) as the ruling priest-king of Judea

Herodrsquos brother Phasael himself was captured and killed but Herod managed escape to Rome

where the Senate at the direction of Mark Anthony and Octavian declared him to be the

legitimate king of the Jews From the Roman point of view this was no great matter they had

simply rewarded a client-king in Palestina Yet for the Jews this was a calamity a paganized

half-Idumean (a descendent of their ancient mortal enemies the Edomites) now sat on Davidrsquos

throne in Jerusalem

22

For Herod the reconquest of Judea was a difficult struggle and by October 37 BC

Jerusalem came into Herodrsquos control It had required the aid of Roman troops however and

three long months of warfare For poor Antigonus things turned out tragically he was sent in

chains to Anthonyrsquos camp at Antioch and there executed according to Herodrsquos bequest

However Herodrsquos rule of thirty-three years began with violence and ended with more violence

and infamy Such circumstances were an ill omen if he ever hoped to gain the goodwill of the

Jews While he attempted to ingratiate himself with the people of Jerusalem by choosing

Mariamme the Hasmonaean princess as his new queen this failed to favorably impress the

Jews especially the devout20

So in the three decades preceding the Nativity of Jesus Herod would display the traits

of both a capable yet ruthless administrator Throughout the entirety of his reign his Roman

overlords more than once had reason to regret the day that they entrusted Herod with power

Nevertheless Herod consistently upheld the interests of Rome both at home and the Eastern

provinces and himself found no contradiction between the goals of Rome and his own

kingdom ndash generally Historians sometimes offer a partial defense of Herodrsquos harshness by

observing that integration into the Roman sphere of influence would best serve to preserve the

Jewsrsquo political and religious freedom This conclusion however is debatable in light of the next

eighty or ninety years of history in the first century AD

Another interesting conincidence (or perhaps the design of Providence) was Herodrsquos

fear of the political ambitious of Cleopatra in Egypt during his early reign he was anxious that

Egypt might endeavor to reassert the power of the Ptolemies in his new kingdom During this

time Mark Anthony was his close friend but he worried about Cleopatrarsquos amorous influence

over General Anthony Cleopatra had already had a son by Julius Caesar and now she was the

paramour of Anthony and her ancestors had held control over Judea in earlier times In fact

she had already used her seductive influence to gain revenues from some of the richest parts of

Herodrsquos Judea especially Jericho and the adjacent territories There is also evidence that she

manipulated the strife between Herod and the king of the Nabatean Arabs on his Eastern

border From the very start Herodrsquos kingdom not only faced internal instability but external

insecurity

23

The most immediate threat to Herodrsquos security however came from within his own

family His mother-in was Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus II and cousin of the lately

executed Antigonus Hyrcanus himself the genuinely legitimate high-priest had been rendered

incapable of resuming the high-priesthood because his contestant (the late Antigonus) had

ordered his ear cropped off the sword However the next rightful candidate in the Hasmonaean

succession was the teenage Aristobulus III (only seventeen) At Alexandrarsquos insistence young

Aristobulus was appointed as high priest by Herod in 36 BC But in a not so unpredictable

manner Aristobulus III drowned in a mysterious bathing accident Herod was widely

suspected of having arranged this tragedy because of his political paranoia Apparently the

mother-in-law had no delusions about Herodrsquos responsibility and quickly sent messengers who

conveyed her indignant charges to Anthony and Cleopatra Cleopatra was herself convinced by

her friend Alexandra and she persuaded Anthony to inquire into the alleged crime At this

point an incensed Anthony summoned Herod before him at Laodicea in North Syria However

Herod made a reasonable defense and Anthony acquited him of the charge of murder He then

stated to Cleopatra that ldquo one must not inquire too closely into the actions of a king lest he

ceases to be a king rdquo21

History was moving on toward another denouement however Mark Anthony and

Cleopatra were becoming more and more suspicious in Octavianrsquos eyes (especially since

Anthony had abandoned his sister Octavia and taken to the bed of Egyptian Cleopatra) As has

already been observed hostility between the two great Roman leaders came to a head at the

Battle of Actium in Western Greece in 31 BC There the legions of Anthony supported by

Cleopatrarsquos Egyptian troops were roundly defeated by Octavianrsquos forces Afterwards Anthony

and Cleopatra both fled to Egypt and late each committed suicide in the next year This left

Octavian (soon to become Augustus) the sole master of the Roman world and it was to him that

Herod had to now appeal for the authority to continue his reign The story of Herodrsquos being

summoned to meet Octavian in Rhodes is well known Herod came fearfully but determined to

maintain his throne and kingdom His intrepidation arose from the fact that he was an intimate

friend of Anthony who was Octavianrsquos latest enemy But when he met with the future emperor

he did not try to hide his friendship with Anthony in any way but simply pleaded with

24

Octavian to believe that he would now be as loyal to him as he had in the past been loyal to

Anthony Obviously Octavian was impressed with Herodrsquos skill if not his sincerity moreover

he saw that the present interests of Rome would be well served if Herod remained as king of

the Jews and his ally in the East Octavian thus granted Herodrsquos petitions for clemency and he

was to keep his little kingdom for a time Herod also was able to secure Cleopatrarsquos old claims

in the Jericho region and even a number of Greek cities on the Mediterranean coast and cities in

the TransJordan

According to the latest version of Wikipedia the following is the current consensus on

the chronology of the Herodian rule in Judea

30s BCE Map of Judea and Other Provinces of the Levant

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

20

The lawless one laid waste our land so that none inhabited it

They destroyed young and old and their children together

In the heat of his anger he sent them away to the west

And exposed the rulers of the land unsparingly to derision

Being an alien the enemy behaved arrogantly

And his heart was alien from our God (Psa Sol 1713-15)

The most blasphemous and shocking deed of General Pompey and his Roman legions

occurred when he captured the Temple complex in Jerusalem and insisted on forcing his way

into that holy sanctuary even into the holy of holies where the altar of God was bathed in the

invisible glory of God This contemptuous act of a pagan soldier was viewed by all the Jews as

an outrageous sacrilige It comes as no surprise then when fifteen years later (ca 48 BC) that

Pompey himself eventually met an awful and tragic doom when fleeing from the armies of

victorious Caesar he is assassinated in butcherous style as he sets foot on the Egyptian shore

Many religious leaders and most of the common people of Judea who remembered his

sacreligious insult viewed this punishment as Divine justice the eventual nemesis of

blasphemer Once more the writer or writers of the Psalms of Solomon recites the theme of justice

in respect to the vicious excesses of Pompey

I had not long to wait before God showed me the insolent one slain on the mountains

mountains of Egypt Esteemed less than the least on land or sea His body tossed this

way and that on the billows with much insolence With none to bury him since he had

rejected God with dishonour19

Once Pompey had conquered the Jewish nation Hyrcanus II was confirmed as the high

priest in Jerusalem Thus he was the figurehead leader of Judea But since the nation was a

conquered tributary of Rome the Judean government had no control over the nearby Greek

territories nor Samaria (even though the Hasmonaean rulers had conquered these areas in their

earlier extension of the kingdom of Israel) Still from the time of Pompeyrsquos hegemony both

Judea and Syria became Roman territories and became important bases of Romersquos sphere of

influence on their Eastern frontier Moreover they were key areas from which imperial politics

and the relations of Rome with the ancient empires of Egypt and Parthia were carried on

Ironically Antipater (a Idumean) remained the real power behind Hyrcanusrsquos throne As the

decades after 63 BC progressed the wily Antipater craftily played his cards increasingly

21

making himself the ally and agent of Rome Indeed on one occasion he demonstrated his value

to Julius Caesar when the latter was besieged in the palace quarter of Alexandria in the winter

of 48-47 BC Later Caesar reciprocated by making Antipater a tax-free Roman citizen with the

official title of procurator of Judea This status allowed him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem

which Pompey had earlier destroyed in war Also in appreciation of Antipaterrsquos services

Judearsquos tribute to Rome was reduced and a number of other important concessions were made

to the Jews

Herod and Pax Romana An Uneasy Relationship

Now we return to that immensely crucial historical episode mentioned earlier in this

chapter the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC This event was a tragic blow to the Jews

themselves but saavy Antipater was willing to support whatever Roman governor who

happened to be sent to the East Yet even after he was himself murdered in 43 BC his sons

Phasael and Herod carried on their fatherrsquos policy as partisians of Caesar Now Caesarrsquos legacy

was being promoted by Octavian who was Caesarrsquos adopted son and by his admirer Mark

Anthony At the famous Battle of Philippi in 42 BC Anthonyrsquos legions decisively defeated the

anti-Caesarian armies of Brutus and Cassius in which Phasael and Herod provided support

Now that the eastern part of the empire came under Anthonyrsquos dominion Phasael and Herod

were appointed joint-tetrarchs of Judea

World events were in a flurry in the late decades of the first century BC and in 40 BC

the armies of the Parthian empire overran the provinces of Syria and Judea The Parthians now

placed the Hasmonaean Antigonus (son of Aristobulus II) as the ruling priest-king of Judea

Herodrsquos brother Phasael himself was captured and killed but Herod managed escape to Rome

where the Senate at the direction of Mark Anthony and Octavian declared him to be the

legitimate king of the Jews From the Roman point of view this was no great matter they had

simply rewarded a client-king in Palestina Yet for the Jews this was a calamity a paganized

half-Idumean (a descendent of their ancient mortal enemies the Edomites) now sat on Davidrsquos

throne in Jerusalem

22

For Herod the reconquest of Judea was a difficult struggle and by October 37 BC

Jerusalem came into Herodrsquos control It had required the aid of Roman troops however and

three long months of warfare For poor Antigonus things turned out tragically he was sent in

chains to Anthonyrsquos camp at Antioch and there executed according to Herodrsquos bequest

However Herodrsquos rule of thirty-three years began with violence and ended with more violence

and infamy Such circumstances were an ill omen if he ever hoped to gain the goodwill of the

Jews While he attempted to ingratiate himself with the people of Jerusalem by choosing

Mariamme the Hasmonaean princess as his new queen this failed to favorably impress the

Jews especially the devout20

So in the three decades preceding the Nativity of Jesus Herod would display the traits

of both a capable yet ruthless administrator Throughout the entirety of his reign his Roman

overlords more than once had reason to regret the day that they entrusted Herod with power

Nevertheless Herod consistently upheld the interests of Rome both at home and the Eastern

provinces and himself found no contradiction between the goals of Rome and his own

kingdom ndash generally Historians sometimes offer a partial defense of Herodrsquos harshness by

observing that integration into the Roman sphere of influence would best serve to preserve the

Jewsrsquo political and religious freedom This conclusion however is debatable in light of the next

eighty or ninety years of history in the first century AD

Another interesting conincidence (or perhaps the design of Providence) was Herodrsquos

fear of the political ambitious of Cleopatra in Egypt during his early reign he was anxious that

Egypt might endeavor to reassert the power of the Ptolemies in his new kingdom During this

time Mark Anthony was his close friend but he worried about Cleopatrarsquos amorous influence

over General Anthony Cleopatra had already had a son by Julius Caesar and now she was the

paramour of Anthony and her ancestors had held control over Judea in earlier times In fact

she had already used her seductive influence to gain revenues from some of the richest parts of

Herodrsquos Judea especially Jericho and the adjacent territories There is also evidence that she

manipulated the strife between Herod and the king of the Nabatean Arabs on his Eastern

border From the very start Herodrsquos kingdom not only faced internal instability but external

insecurity

23

The most immediate threat to Herodrsquos security however came from within his own

family His mother-in was Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus II and cousin of the lately

executed Antigonus Hyrcanus himself the genuinely legitimate high-priest had been rendered

incapable of resuming the high-priesthood because his contestant (the late Antigonus) had

ordered his ear cropped off the sword However the next rightful candidate in the Hasmonaean

succession was the teenage Aristobulus III (only seventeen) At Alexandrarsquos insistence young

Aristobulus was appointed as high priest by Herod in 36 BC But in a not so unpredictable

manner Aristobulus III drowned in a mysterious bathing accident Herod was widely

suspected of having arranged this tragedy because of his political paranoia Apparently the

mother-in-law had no delusions about Herodrsquos responsibility and quickly sent messengers who

conveyed her indignant charges to Anthony and Cleopatra Cleopatra was herself convinced by

her friend Alexandra and she persuaded Anthony to inquire into the alleged crime At this

point an incensed Anthony summoned Herod before him at Laodicea in North Syria However

Herod made a reasonable defense and Anthony acquited him of the charge of murder He then

stated to Cleopatra that ldquo one must not inquire too closely into the actions of a king lest he

ceases to be a king rdquo21

History was moving on toward another denouement however Mark Anthony and

Cleopatra were becoming more and more suspicious in Octavianrsquos eyes (especially since

Anthony had abandoned his sister Octavia and taken to the bed of Egyptian Cleopatra) As has

already been observed hostility between the two great Roman leaders came to a head at the

Battle of Actium in Western Greece in 31 BC There the legions of Anthony supported by

Cleopatrarsquos Egyptian troops were roundly defeated by Octavianrsquos forces Afterwards Anthony

and Cleopatra both fled to Egypt and late each committed suicide in the next year This left

Octavian (soon to become Augustus) the sole master of the Roman world and it was to him that

Herod had to now appeal for the authority to continue his reign The story of Herodrsquos being

summoned to meet Octavian in Rhodes is well known Herod came fearfully but determined to

maintain his throne and kingdom His intrepidation arose from the fact that he was an intimate

friend of Anthony who was Octavianrsquos latest enemy But when he met with the future emperor

he did not try to hide his friendship with Anthony in any way but simply pleaded with

24

Octavian to believe that he would now be as loyal to him as he had in the past been loyal to

Anthony Obviously Octavian was impressed with Herodrsquos skill if not his sincerity moreover

he saw that the present interests of Rome would be well served if Herod remained as king of

the Jews and his ally in the East Octavian thus granted Herodrsquos petitions for clemency and he

was to keep his little kingdom for a time Herod also was able to secure Cleopatrarsquos old claims

in the Jericho region and even a number of Greek cities on the Mediterranean coast and cities in

the TransJordan

According to the latest version of Wikipedia the following is the current consensus on

the chronology of the Herodian rule in Judea

30s BCE Map of Judea and Other Provinces of the Levant

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

21

making himself the ally and agent of Rome Indeed on one occasion he demonstrated his value

to Julius Caesar when the latter was besieged in the palace quarter of Alexandria in the winter

of 48-47 BC Later Caesar reciprocated by making Antipater a tax-free Roman citizen with the

official title of procurator of Judea This status allowed him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem

which Pompey had earlier destroyed in war Also in appreciation of Antipaterrsquos services

Judearsquos tribute to Rome was reduced and a number of other important concessions were made

to the Jews

Herod and Pax Romana An Uneasy Relationship

Now we return to that immensely crucial historical episode mentioned earlier in this

chapter the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC This event was a tragic blow to the Jews

themselves but saavy Antipater was willing to support whatever Roman governor who

happened to be sent to the East Yet even after he was himself murdered in 43 BC his sons

Phasael and Herod carried on their fatherrsquos policy as partisians of Caesar Now Caesarrsquos legacy

was being promoted by Octavian who was Caesarrsquos adopted son and by his admirer Mark

Anthony At the famous Battle of Philippi in 42 BC Anthonyrsquos legions decisively defeated the

anti-Caesarian armies of Brutus and Cassius in which Phasael and Herod provided support

Now that the eastern part of the empire came under Anthonyrsquos dominion Phasael and Herod

were appointed joint-tetrarchs of Judea

World events were in a flurry in the late decades of the first century BC and in 40 BC

the armies of the Parthian empire overran the provinces of Syria and Judea The Parthians now

placed the Hasmonaean Antigonus (son of Aristobulus II) as the ruling priest-king of Judea

Herodrsquos brother Phasael himself was captured and killed but Herod managed escape to Rome

where the Senate at the direction of Mark Anthony and Octavian declared him to be the

legitimate king of the Jews From the Roman point of view this was no great matter they had

simply rewarded a client-king in Palestina Yet for the Jews this was a calamity a paganized

half-Idumean (a descendent of their ancient mortal enemies the Edomites) now sat on Davidrsquos

throne in Jerusalem

22

For Herod the reconquest of Judea was a difficult struggle and by October 37 BC

Jerusalem came into Herodrsquos control It had required the aid of Roman troops however and

three long months of warfare For poor Antigonus things turned out tragically he was sent in

chains to Anthonyrsquos camp at Antioch and there executed according to Herodrsquos bequest

However Herodrsquos rule of thirty-three years began with violence and ended with more violence

and infamy Such circumstances were an ill omen if he ever hoped to gain the goodwill of the

Jews While he attempted to ingratiate himself with the people of Jerusalem by choosing

Mariamme the Hasmonaean princess as his new queen this failed to favorably impress the

Jews especially the devout20

So in the three decades preceding the Nativity of Jesus Herod would display the traits

of both a capable yet ruthless administrator Throughout the entirety of his reign his Roman

overlords more than once had reason to regret the day that they entrusted Herod with power

Nevertheless Herod consistently upheld the interests of Rome both at home and the Eastern

provinces and himself found no contradiction between the goals of Rome and his own

kingdom ndash generally Historians sometimes offer a partial defense of Herodrsquos harshness by

observing that integration into the Roman sphere of influence would best serve to preserve the

Jewsrsquo political and religious freedom This conclusion however is debatable in light of the next

eighty or ninety years of history in the first century AD

Another interesting conincidence (or perhaps the design of Providence) was Herodrsquos

fear of the political ambitious of Cleopatra in Egypt during his early reign he was anxious that

Egypt might endeavor to reassert the power of the Ptolemies in his new kingdom During this

time Mark Anthony was his close friend but he worried about Cleopatrarsquos amorous influence

over General Anthony Cleopatra had already had a son by Julius Caesar and now she was the

paramour of Anthony and her ancestors had held control over Judea in earlier times In fact

she had already used her seductive influence to gain revenues from some of the richest parts of

Herodrsquos Judea especially Jericho and the adjacent territories There is also evidence that she

manipulated the strife between Herod and the king of the Nabatean Arabs on his Eastern

border From the very start Herodrsquos kingdom not only faced internal instability but external

insecurity

23

The most immediate threat to Herodrsquos security however came from within his own

family His mother-in was Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus II and cousin of the lately

executed Antigonus Hyrcanus himself the genuinely legitimate high-priest had been rendered

incapable of resuming the high-priesthood because his contestant (the late Antigonus) had

ordered his ear cropped off the sword However the next rightful candidate in the Hasmonaean

succession was the teenage Aristobulus III (only seventeen) At Alexandrarsquos insistence young

Aristobulus was appointed as high priest by Herod in 36 BC But in a not so unpredictable

manner Aristobulus III drowned in a mysterious bathing accident Herod was widely

suspected of having arranged this tragedy because of his political paranoia Apparently the

mother-in-law had no delusions about Herodrsquos responsibility and quickly sent messengers who

conveyed her indignant charges to Anthony and Cleopatra Cleopatra was herself convinced by

her friend Alexandra and she persuaded Anthony to inquire into the alleged crime At this

point an incensed Anthony summoned Herod before him at Laodicea in North Syria However

Herod made a reasonable defense and Anthony acquited him of the charge of murder He then

stated to Cleopatra that ldquo one must not inquire too closely into the actions of a king lest he

ceases to be a king rdquo21

History was moving on toward another denouement however Mark Anthony and

Cleopatra were becoming more and more suspicious in Octavianrsquos eyes (especially since

Anthony had abandoned his sister Octavia and taken to the bed of Egyptian Cleopatra) As has

already been observed hostility between the two great Roman leaders came to a head at the

Battle of Actium in Western Greece in 31 BC There the legions of Anthony supported by

Cleopatrarsquos Egyptian troops were roundly defeated by Octavianrsquos forces Afterwards Anthony

and Cleopatra both fled to Egypt and late each committed suicide in the next year This left

Octavian (soon to become Augustus) the sole master of the Roman world and it was to him that

Herod had to now appeal for the authority to continue his reign The story of Herodrsquos being

summoned to meet Octavian in Rhodes is well known Herod came fearfully but determined to

maintain his throne and kingdom His intrepidation arose from the fact that he was an intimate

friend of Anthony who was Octavianrsquos latest enemy But when he met with the future emperor

he did not try to hide his friendship with Anthony in any way but simply pleaded with

24

Octavian to believe that he would now be as loyal to him as he had in the past been loyal to

Anthony Obviously Octavian was impressed with Herodrsquos skill if not his sincerity moreover

he saw that the present interests of Rome would be well served if Herod remained as king of

the Jews and his ally in the East Octavian thus granted Herodrsquos petitions for clemency and he

was to keep his little kingdom for a time Herod also was able to secure Cleopatrarsquos old claims

in the Jericho region and even a number of Greek cities on the Mediterranean coast and cities in

the TransJordan

According to the latest version of Wikipedia the following is the current consensus on

the chronology of the Herodian rule in Judea

30s BCE Map of Judea and Other Provinces of the Levant

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

22

For Herod the reconquest of Judea was a difficult struggle and by October 37 BC

Jerusalem came into Herodrsquos control It had required the aid of Roman troops however and

three long months of warfare For poor Antigonus things turned out tragically he was sent in

chains to Anthonyrsquos camp at Antioch and there executed according to Herodrsquos bequest

However Herodrsquos rule of thirty-three years began with violence and ended with more violence

and infamy Such circumstances were an ill omen if he ever hoped to gain the goodwill of the

Jews While he attempted to ingratiate himself with the people of Jerusalem by choosing

Mariamme the Hasmonaean princess as his new queen this failed to favorably impress the

Jews especially the devout20

So in the three decades preceding the Nativity of Jesus Herod would display the traits

of both a capable yet ruthless administrator Throughout the entirety of his reign his Roman

overlords more than once had reason to regret the day that they entrusted Herod with power

Nevertheless Herod consistently upheld the interests of Rome both at home and the Eastern

provinces and himself found no contradiction between the goals of Rome and his own

kingdom ndash generally Historians sometimes offer a partial defense of Herodrsquos harshness by

observing that integration into the Roman sphere of influence would best serve to preserve the

Jewsrsquo political and religious freedom This conclusion however is debatable in light of the next

eighty or ninety years of history in the first century AD

Another interesting conincidence (or perhaps the design of Providence) was Herodrsquos

fear of the political ambitious of Cleopatra in Egypt during his early reign he was anxious that

Egypt might endeavor to reassert the power of the Ptolemies in his new kingdom During this

time Mark Anthony was his close friend but he worried about Cleopatrarsquos amorous influence

over General Anthony Cleopatra had already had a son by Julius Caesar and now she was the

paramour of Anthony and her ancestors had held control over Judea in earlier times In fact

she had already used her seductive influence to gain revenues from some of the richest parts of

Herodrsquos Judea especially Jericho and the adjacent territories There is also evidence that she

manipulated the strife between Herod and the king of the Nabatean Arabs on his Eastern

border From the very start Herodrsquos kingdom not only faced internal instability but external

insecurity

23

The most immediate threat to Herodrsquos security however came from within his own

family His mother-in was Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus II and cousin of the lately

executed Antigonus Hyrcanus himself the genuinely legitimate high-priest had been rendered

incapable of resuming the high-priesthood because his contestant (the late Antigonus) had

ordered his ear cropped off the sword However the next rightful candidate in the Hasmonaean

succession was the teenage Aristobulus III (only seventeen) At Alexandrarsquos insistence young

Aristobulus was appointed as high priest by Herod in 36 BC But in a not so unpredictable

manner Aristobulus III drowned in a mysterious bathing accident Herod was widely

suspected of having arranged this tragedy because of his political paranoia Apparently the

mother-in-law had no delusions about Herodrsquos responsibility and quickly sent messengers who

conveyed her indignant charges to Anthony and Cleopatra Cleopatra was herself convinced by

her friend Alexandra and she persuaded Anthony to inquire into the alleged crime At this

point an incensed Anthony summoned Herod before him at Laodicea in North Syria However

Herod made a reasonable defense and Anthony acquited him of the charge of murder He then

stated to Cleopatra that ldquo one must not inquire too closely into the actions of a king lest he

ceases to be a king rdquo21

History was moving on toward another denouement however Mark Anthony and

Cleopatra were becoming more and more suspicious in Octavianrsquos eyes (especially since

Anthony had abandoned his sister Octavia and taken to the bed of Egyptian Cleopatra) As has

already been observed hostility between the two great Roman leaders came to a head at the

Battle of Actium in Western Greece in 31 BC There the legions of Anthony supported by

Cleopatrarsquos Egyptian troops were roundly defeated by Octavianrsquos forces Afterwards Anthony

and Cleopatra both fled to Egypt and late each committed suicide in the next year This left

Octavian (soon to become Augustus) the sole master of the Roman world and it was to him that

Herod had to now appeal for the authority to continue his reign The story of Herodrsquos being

summoned to meet Octavian in Rhodes is well known Herod came fearfully but determined to

maintain his throne and kingdom His intrepidation arose from the fact that he was an intimate

friend of Anthony who was Octavianrsquos latest enemy But when he met with the future emperor

he did not try to hide his friendship with Anthony in any way but simply pleaded with

24

Octavian to believe that he would now be as loyal to him as he had in the past been loyal to

Anthony Obviously Octavian was impressed with Herodrsquos skill if not his sincerity moreover

he saw that the present interests of Rome would be well served if Herod remained as king of

the Jews and his ally in the East Octavian thus granted Herodrsquos petitions for clemency and he

was to keep his little kingdom for a time Herod also was able to secure Cleopatrarsquos old claims

in the Jericho region and even a number of Greek cities on the Mediterranean coast and cities in

the TransJordan

According to the latest version of Wikipedia the following is the current consensus on

the chronology of the Herodian rule in Judea

30s BCE Map of Judea and Other Provinces of the Levant

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

23

The most immediate threat to Herodrsquos security however came from within his own

family His mother-in was Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus II and cousin of the lately

executed Antigonus Hyrcanus himself the genuinely legitimate high-priest had been rendered

incapable of resuming the high-priesthood because his contestant (the late Antigonus) had

ordered his ear cropped off the sword However the next rightful candidate in the Hasmonaean

succession was the teenage Aristobulus III (only seventeen) At Alexandrarsquos insistence young

Aristobulus was appointed as high priest by Herod in 36 BC But in a not so unpredictable

manner Aristobulus III drowned in a mysterious bathing accident Herod was widely

suspected of having arranged this tragedy because of his political paranoia Apparently the

mother-in-law had no delusions about Herodrsquos responsibility and quickly sent messengers who

conveyed her indignant charges to Anthony and Cleopatra Cleopatra was herself convinced by

her friend Alexandra and she persuaded Anthony to inquire into the alleged crime At this

point an incensed Anthony summoned Herod before him at Laodicea in North Syria However

Herod made a reasonable defense and Anthony acquited him of the charge of murder He then

stated to Cleopatra that ldquo one must not inquire too closely into the actions of a king lest he

ceases to be a king rdquo21

History was moving on toward another denouement however Mark Anthony and

Cleopatra were becoming more and more suspicious in Octavianrsquos eyes (especially since

Anthony had abandoned his sister Octavia and taken to the bed of Egyptian Cleopatra) As has

already been observed hostility between the two great Roman leaders came to a head at the

Battle of Actium in Western Greece in 31 BC There the legions of Anthony supported by

Cleopatrarsquos Egyptian troops were roundly defeated by Octavianrsquos forces Afterwards Anthony

and Cleopatra both fled to Egypt and late each committed suicide in the next year This left

Octavian (soon to become Augustus) the sole master of the Roman world and it was to him that

Herod had to now appeal for the authority to continue his reign The story of Herodrsquos being

summoned to meet Octavian in Rhodes is well known Herod came fearfully but determined to

maintain his throne and kingdom His intrepidation arose from the fact that he was an intimate

friend of Anthony who was Octavianrsquos latest enemy But when he met with the future emperor

he did not try to hide his friendship with Anthony in any way but simply pleaded with

24

Octavian to believe that he would now be as loyal to him as he had in the past been loyal to

Anthony Obviously Octavian was impressed with Herodrsquos skill if not his sincerity moreover

he saw that the present interests of Rome would be well served if Herod remained as king of

the Jews and his ally in the East Octavian thus granted Herodrsquos petitions for clemency and he

was to keep his little kingdom for a time Herod also was able to secure Cleopatrarsquos old claims

in the Jericho region and even a number of Greek cities on the Mediterranean coast and cities in

the TransJordan

According to the latest version of Wikipedia the following is the current consensus on

the chronology of the Herodian rule in Judea

30s BCE Map of Judea and Other Provinces of the Levant

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

24

Octavian to believe that he would now be as loyal to him as he had in the past been loyal to

Anthony Obviously Octavian was impressed with Herodrsquos skill if not his sincerity moreover

he saw that the present interests of Rome would be well served if Herod remained as king of

the Jews and his ally in the East Octavian thus granted Herodrsquos petitions for clemency and he

was to keep his little kingdom for a time Herod also was able to secure Cleopatrarsquos old claims

in the Jericho region and even a number of Greek cities on the Mediterranean coast and cities in

the TransJordan

According to the latest version of Wikipedia the following is the current consensus on

the chronology of the Herodian rule in Judea

30s BCE Map of Judea and Other Provinces of the Levant

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

25

Judaea under Herod the Great

30s BCE

39ndash37 BCE ndash War against Antigonus After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over

Antigonus Mark Antony executes Antigonus

36 BCE ndash Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus III of Israel high priest

fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III of Israel in his place

35 BCE ndash Aristobulus III is drowned at a party on Herods orders

32 BCE ndash The war against Nabatea begins with victory one year later

31 BCE ndash Israel suffers a devastating earthquake Octavian defeats Mark Antony so

Herod switches allegiance to Octavian later known as Augustus

30 BCE ndash Herod is shown great favour by Octavian who at Rhodes confirms him as King of

Israel

20s BCE

29 BCE ndash Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his

wife Mariamne I She learns of Herods plans to murder her and stops sleeping

with him Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery His sister Salome I was the

chief witness against her Mariamne Is mother Alexandra made an appearance and

incriminated her own daughter Historians say her mother was next on Herods list to

be executed and she did this only to save her own life Mariamne was executed and

Alexandra declared herself Queen stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve

Josephus wrote that this was Alexandras strategic mistake Herod executed her

without a trial

28 BCE ndash Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar (husband of Salome father to

Berenice) for conspiracy The same year he held a large festival in Jerusalem as Herod

had built a Theatre and an Amphitheatre

27 BCE ndash An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled To honor Augustus Herod rebuilt

Samaria and renamed it Sebaste

25 BCE ndash Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid program to combat the

widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought He also waives a

third of the taxes

23 BCE ndash Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea

He married his third wife Mariamne II the daughter of high priest Simon

22 BCE ndash Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbor The Roman emperor

Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis Batanaea and Auranitis to the

northeast Circa 20 BCE ndash Expansion started on the Temple Mount Herod completely

rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herods Temple)

10s BCE

Circa 18 BCE ndash Herod traveled for the second time to Rome

14 BCE ndash Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene Owing to the prosperity in

Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes

26

13 BCE ndash Herod made his first-born son Antipater (his son by Doris) first heir in his will

12 BCE ndash Herod suspected both his sons (from his marriage to Mariamne I) Alexander and

Aristobulus of threatening his life He took them to Aquileia to be tried Augustus

reconciled the three Herod supported the financially strapped Olympic Games and

ensured their future Herod amended his will so that Alexander and Aristobulus

rose in the royal succession but Antipater would be higher in the succession

Circa 10 BCE ndash The newly expanded temple in Jerusalem was inaugurated War against the

Nabateans began

First decade BC[E]

9 BCE ndash Caesarea Maritima was inaugurated Owing to the course of the war against the

Nabateans Herod fell into disgrace with Augustus Herod again suspected Alexander

of plotting to kill him

8 BCE ndash Herod accused his sons by Mariamne I of high treason Herod reconciled with

Augustus who also gave him the permission to proceed legally against his sons

7 BCE ndash The court hearing took place in Berytos (Beirut) before a Roman court Mariamne Is

sons were found guilty and executed The succession changed so that Antipater was

the exclusive successor to the throne In second place the succession incorporated

(Herod) Philip his son by Mariamne II

6 BCE ndash Herod proceeded against the Pharisees

5 BCE ndash Antipater was brought before the court charged with the intended murder of Herod

Herod by now seriously ill named his son (Herod) Antipas (from his fourth marriage

with Malthace) as his successor

4 BCE ndash Young disciples smashed the golden eagle over the main entrance of the Temple of

Jerusalem after the Pharisee teachers claimed it was an idolatrous Roman symbol

Herod arrested them brought them to court and sentenced them Augustus approved

the death penalty for Antipater Herod then executed his son and again changed his

will Archelaus (from the marriage with Malthace) would rule as king over Herods

entire kingdom while Antipas (by Malthace) and Philip (from the fifth marriage with

Cleopatra of Jerusalem) would rule as Tetrarchs over Galilee and Peraea (Trans-

jordan) also over Gaulanitis (Golan) Trachonitis (Hebrew Argob) Batanaea (now

Ard-el-Bathanyeh) and Panias As Augustus did not confirm his will no one received

the title of King however the three sons did attain rule of the stated territories 22

Judea and Pax Romana

Unlike the proconsuls of Asia and Africa who were normally ex-consuls of Rome or like

the proconsuls of the senatorial provinces (who were usually ex-praetors) or even the prefect of

Egypt a direct appointee of the princeps a number of the Eastern territories of Rome were

governed in Romersquos interest by native dynasties of ldquoclient kingsrdquo For our purposes here the

27

one with which we are most concerned is that of Judea under the Herods so ruled from 40 BC

to AD 6 and again from AD 41 to 44 But other examples of Roman peace (or pacification)

existed in various places Cappadocia for example was governed by a native dynasty until

Tiberius annexed most of it as a province on the death of its aged king Archelaus in AD 17

Then there was Commagne which lay southeast of Cappadocia and north of Syria The king

Antiochus III had died around the same time as Archelaus the Roman authorities thus added

his kingdom to the province of Syria Yet about twenty years later (37 AD) under Emperor

Gaius Caligula it was restored to his son Antiochus IV who was allowed to add to it a

westward extension going toward eastern Galatia and also include a coastal strip between

Pamphylia and Cilicia He temporarily lost possession of his kingdom in ca 40 AD but

Claudius ironically restored it to him when the latter entered into his reign as Roman emperor

in 41 AD Antiochus thereafter reigned several years as a friend and ally of Rome

Such was to be the case in many of the provinces in the East (in Asia and Syria and Judea)

and likewise in the case of many large barbarian and semi-barbarian territories in the West (in

Gaul Tarraconensis Lusitania Baetica Mauretania Raetia Noricum Germania Belgica

Pannonia Dalmatia Dacia Moesia Thracia and even Britannia) And the lives of millions of

subjected peoples of numerous European African Semitic and Asiatic peoples would

successively come under the domination of the Roman Caesars Tiberius Caligula Claudius

Nero Vepasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius and Marcus

Aurelius From the time of vivacious Augustus until the stoic Marcus Aurelius Rome ruled the

civilized world and established Roman order and law either by the gentle persuasion of

political pressure or by sheer force of arms There was peace regularly interrupted naturally by

various fierce local wars eventually dominated by the ever powerful and numerous Roman

legions In the map below one can surmise something of the extent of the Roman organization

of the civilized world in that time following the era of Christ

28

Positive Aspects of Pax Romana

Despite the negative side of Pax Romana there were beneficial characteristics to the vast

Roman empire and the order imposed by Romersquos mighty legions This must not be overlooked

when one considers the Divine preparation for the Gospel and ponders how God used the

historical circumstances of the classical world to provide for the relatively rapid evangelism of

the Near Eastern and Western world during the first two centuries There are at least four

29

aspects of the ancient Roman Empire that should be reckoned as positive factors for the birth

and growth of the Christian faith

1 The political unity of the Roman Empire did produce a certain economic

and political stability notwithstanding its many faults This encouraged trade

between large cities and regions

2 The military and trade routes meant relatively easy access to large numbers

of people (both by land and sea)

3 The universal use of Greek as a result of former conquests aided

communication

4 The cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Empire ndash mixed cultures ndash enabled

easier cross-cultural evangelism eg Jews who were culturally Greek

(Barnabus from Cyprus Paul the Roman citizen) were able to bridge cultures

The political unity of the Roman Empire arose not only from the political order imposed by

a vast bureacracy of Roman officials and numerous military garrisons spread over the entire

ancient civilized world but from the fact that Roman officials encouraged local and

interprovincial industry and trade Not only did the various Roman legates tribunes and

governors encourage local crafts and all lucrative commerce but under Roman supervision

multitudes of foreign nations began to develop a sense of human unity under a universal law

Until this time (with the possible exception of the ancient Persians) no empire had created such

a since of the solidarity of mankind and so never before had any empire created an enviroment

favorable to reception of the Gospel The truth of this assertion is intuitive because the Gospel

(cf Romans 3-8 ) itself declares the unity of the human race under Adamrsquos sin with its Divine

penalty and at the same time the Divine remedy for that sin in Christ The salvation offered in

this message invites men from every tongue nation and race to become a part of one universal

living family which is the Christian church the Body of Christ

No ancient empire in either the East or West not even that of Alexander the Great had

given to men such a sense of their unity in a political organization The Romans indeed believed

that their peculiar destiny was to establish a sense of political unity and order in the world The

universal application of Roman law to all citizens within the empire was daily enforced upon

both native and foreign subjects and regular appeal was made to the impartial justice of Roman

courts This tradition of universal and impartial law grew out of the early Roman tradition in

the customs of the early monarchy These principles had been codified in the historic Twelve

30

Tables which became an essential part of every schoolboyrsquos education As the Roman legions

conquered new territories Roman governors and scholars quickly realized that the great

principles of Roman law were also part of the laws of the all the nations being joined to the

empire These local laws or traditions were incorporated into the Latin praetos peregrinus the

bureaucrat entrusted with duty of handling cases in which foreigners were involved This new

acquaintance with legal principles and systems of foreign nations enriched the Roman

jurisprudence This expansion of the law codes and principles of justice had a definite

philosophical impact on Roman thinkers They reasoned that the early Greeks had been correct

in their concept of a universal law whose principles were written into menrsquos nature (ie

conscience) and that aspirations of the heart were observable by right reason23

Another process which helped nurture this idea of unity was the extension of Roman

citizenship to non-Romans Ironically this practice began shortly before the time of Christ and

was climaxed in 212 AD when Emperor Caracalla admitted all freemen into the privilege of

Roman citizenship Since the Roman empire (eg Pax Romana) eventually included the whole

Mediterranean world this practically meant that all men were under one system of law and

citizens of one vast earthly kingdom Imperfect as the practice of Roman law was it did have an

emphasis on the dignity of the individual and the notion of Roman citizenship implied the

availability of justice which fused men into a greater political unity even though they had

diverse racial and cultural histories This helped to prepare men to understand that the

universal Savior of sin came to remove the penalty of death from all and to admit one into the

society of the redeemed The Apostle Paul thus reminded the people of the church at Philippi

that they were now members of the commonwealth of heaven through Jesus Christ (Philippians

320)

The common system of Roman law and order made free movement possible throughout

the empire for most all of its citizens and its respected allies Previous to the reign of Caesar

Augustus (27 BC ndash AD 14) it would have been much more difficult for messengers of the

Gospel to travel the Mediterranean and even in the East because the world was divided into

small jealous kingdoms isolated cities and remote irascable tribes With the extension of the

Pax Romana however the empire was built and thus unity was created and stabilized for

31

convenience of travel and the spread of new ideas and goods Pompey for example had swept

the pirates out of the Mediterranean and later Roman legions kept the peace and secured the

roads of Asia Africa and Europe Such a relatively peaceful and ordered international scene

meant that Christian apostles and missionaries could move from one country to another and

one region to another with safety and freedom from fear or geographical obstacles24

An excellent illustration of the unifying effect of Roman law and the political security of

Roman rule is found in the highly advanced Roman postal system Rev Michael R Jones has

written a fine brief summary of this ancient service ndash ahead of its time and almost modern

The Roman postal system was the most advanced in the Western world up until that

time Postal carriers followed routes that allowed riders on horseback to cover up to 170

miles in a day and averaged 100 miles a day This system used roads that lasted well into the

9th century before in the west and even longer in the East where the Byzantine Empire and

the Islamic empire centered in Baghdad absorbed the system into their own postal services

While it was not always so reliable it was still the most advanced the ancient world had seen

and was second only to Chinarsquos This postal service allowed the apostles to correspond with

others from one end of the Empire to the other Such an advanced system not only made it

possible for the apostles to correspond it also almost guaranteed such correspondence since

it was an easy and reliable method of long-distance communication The letters written

provide the basis for not only for the scholarrsquos and historianrsquos understanding of the ancient

church they are also the foundation of the Christianrsquos theology and despite some scholarly

objections to the contrary are still the best source for the theology of the apostles and the

early church25

As has been indicated by the second bullet point earlier the epitome of Roman peace

and security is seen wonderful system of Roman roads and safe sea lanes on the Mediterranean

Dr George P Fisher distinguished Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale a little over a

century ago provided this unforgettable description

Friedlander in his learned discussion of this topic has pointed out that at

no time down to the beginning of the present century has it been possible to make

journeys with so much ease safety and rapidity as in the first centuries of the imperial

era The motives and occasions of travel were quite as various then as now The Empire

brought peace to the world It was a new condition of mankind The constant

employment of nations had been war The ancient writers dwell with rapture upon the

reign of tranquility which now prevailed The security of the traveller and facility of

intercourse are a common theme of congratulations of writers from one end of the

Empire to the other The majesty of Rome as Pliny proudly declares was the shield of

the wayfarer in every place Epicetetus and the Alexandrian Philo are especially fervid in

32

their remarks on this subject They dilate on the busy appearance of ports and marts ldquo

Caesarrdquo writes the Stoic philosopher ldquo has procured us a profound peace there are

neither wars nor battles nor great robberies nor piracies but we may travel at all hours

and sail from east to west rdquo The vast territory subject to Rome was covered with a

network of magnificent roads which moved in straight lines crossing mountains and

bridging rivers binding together the most remote cities and connecting them all with

the capital The deep ruts worn in the hard basaltic pavement and still visible in places

far from the metropolis show to what extent they were used Five main lines went out

from Rome to the extremities of the Empire These with their branches running in

whatever direction public convenience required were connected at the sea-ports with

routes of maritime travel A journey might have been made upon Roman highways

interrupted only by brief trips upon the sea from Alexandria to Carthage thence

through Spain and France and northward to the Scottish border then back through

Leyden Cologne Milan eastward by land to Constantinople and Antioch and thence to

Alexandria and the distance transversed would have exceeded 7000 miles The traveller

could measure his progress by the milestones all along these roads and maps of the

route giving distances from place to place with stopping-places for the night facilitated

his journey Augustus established a system of postal conveyances which were used by

officers couriers and other agents of the government but private enterprise provided

similar means of travel for the public generally In the principal streets of large cities

carriages could be hired and one could arrange for making a journey in Italy at least by

a method resembling the modern post or vetturino The fact that so extensive territories

were united under one government gave rise to a great deal of journeying from one part

to another Magistrates and official persons of every sort were travelling to and from

their posts There were frequent embassies from the provinces to Rome Large bodies of

troops were transferred from place to place and thus became acquainted with the

regions remote from their homes A stream of travel flowed from all directions to the

capital but there was also lively intercourse between the several provinces

ldquo Greek scholars rdquo says Friedlander ldquo kept school in Spain the women of a

Roman colony in Switzerland employed a goldsmith from Asia Minor in the cities of

Gaul were Greek painters and sculptors Gauls and Germans served as the body-guards

of a Jewish king at Jerusalem Jews were settled in all the provinces rdquo The Empire gave a

new impetus to commerce There was everywhere one system of law free trade with the

capital and uniformity in coins measures and weights In the reign of Claudius an

embassy came to Rome from a prince from the island of Ceylon who had been struck

with an admiration for the Romans by finding that the denairii though stamped with the

images of different Emperors were of just the same weight In ancient times mercantile

transactions could not as now be carried forward by correspondence Hence merchants

were commonly travellers visiting foreign markets and negotiating with foreign produndash

cers and dealers in person Horace frequently refers to the unsettled rambling life

characteristic of merchants Pliny describes them as found in a throng upon every

accessible sea In an epitath of a Phyrigian merchant accidentally preserved he is made

to boast of having sailed to Italy round Cape Malea seventy-two times

The pirates who before the time of Pompey and Caesar had rendered

navigation so perilous had been swept from the Mediterranean The annexation of Egypt

enabled Augustus to establish a new route of commerce with the East by way of the Nile

and the Arabian Gulf Roman merchants visited every land They had their ports for

trade in Britain and on the coast of Ireland They bought amber in the first century from

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

28

Positive Aspects of Pax Romana

Despite the negative side of Pax Romana there were beneficial characteristics to the vast

Roman empire and the order imposed by Romersquos mighty legions This must not be overlooked

when one considers the Divine preparation for the Gospel and ponders how God used the

historical circumstances of the classical world to provide for the relatively rapid evangelism of

the Near Eastern and Western world during the first two centuries There are at least four

29

aspects of the ancient Roman Empire that should be reckoned as positive factors for the birth

and growth of the Christian faith

1 The political unity of the Roman Empire did produce a certain economic

and political stability notwithstanding its many faults This encouraged trade

between large cities and regions

2 The military and trade routes meant relatively easy access to large numbers

of people (both by land and sea)

3 The universal use of Greek as a result of former conquests aided

communication

4 The cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Empire ndash mixed cultures ndash enabled

easier cross-cultural evangelism eg Jews who were culturally Greek

(Barnabus from Cyprus Paul the Roman citizen) were able to bridge cultures

The political unity of the Roman Empire arose not only from the political order imposed by

a vast bureacracy of Roman officials and numerous military garrisons spread over the entire

ancient civilized world but from the fact that Roman officials encouraged local and

interprovincial industry and trade Not only did the various Roman legates tribunes and

governors encourage local crafts and all lucrative commerce but under Roman supervision

multitudes of foreign nations began to develop a sense of human unity under a universal law

Until this time (with the possible exception of the ancient Persians) no empire had created such

a since of the solidarity of mankind and so never before had any empire created an enviroment

favorable to reception of the Gospel The truth of this assertion is intuitive because the Gospel

(cf Romans 3-8 ) itself declares the unity of the human race under Adamrsquos sin with its Divine

penalty and at the same time the Divine remedy for that sin in Christ The salvation offered in

this message invites men from every tongue nation and race to become a part of one universal

living family which is the Christian church the Body of Christ

No ancient empire in either the East or West not even that of Alexander the Great had

given to men such a sense of their unity in a political organization The Romans indeed believed

that their peculiar destiny was to establish a sense of political unity and order in the world The

universal application of Roman law to all citizens within the empire was daily enforced upon

both native and foreign subjects and regular appeal was made to the impartial justice of Roman

courts This tradition of universal and impartial law grew out of the early Roman tradition in

the customs of the early monarchy These principles had been codified in the historic Twelve

30

Tables which became an essential part of every schoolboyrsquos education As the Roman legions

conquered new territories Roman governors and scholars quickly realized that the great

principles of Roman law were also part of the laws of the all the nations being joined to the

empire These local laws or traditions were incorporated into the Latin praetos peregrinus the

bureaucrat entrusted with duty of handling cases in which foreigners were involved This new

acquaintance with legal principles and systems of foreign nations enriched the Roman

jurisprudence This expansion of the law codes and principles of justice had a definite

philosophical impact on Roman thinkers They reasoned that the early Greeks had been correct

in their concept of a universal law whose principles were written into menrsquos nature (ie

conscience) and that aspirations of the heart were observable by right reason23

Another process which helped nurture this idea of unity was the extension of Roman

citizenship to non-Romans Ironically this practice began shortly before the time of Christ and

was climaxed in 212 AD when Emperor Caracalla admitted all freemen into the privilege of

Roman citizenship Since the Roman empire (eg Pax Romana) eventually included the whole

Mediterranean world this practically meant that all men were under one system of law and

citizens of one vast earthly kingdom Imperfect as the practice of Roman law was it did have an

emphasis on the dignity of the individual and the notion of Roman citizenship implied the

availability of justice which fused men into a greater political unity even though they had

diverse racial and cultural histories This helped to prepare men to understand that the

universal Savior of sin came to remove the penalty of death from all and to admit one into the

society of the redeemed The Apostle Paul thus reminded the people of the church at Philippi

that they were now members of the commonwealth of heaven through Jesus Christ (Philippians

320)

The common system of Roman law and order made free movement possible throughout

the empire for most all of its citizens and its respected allies Previous to the reign of Caesar

Augustus (27 BC ndash AD 14) it would have been much more difficult for messengers of the

Gospel to travel the Mediterranean and even in the East because the world was divided into

small jealous kingdoms isolated cities and remote irascable tribes With the extension of the

Pax Romana however the empire was built and thus unity was created and stabilized for

31

convenience of travel and the spread of new ideas and goods Pompey for example had swept

the pirates out of the Mediterranean and later Roman legions kept the peace and secured the

roads of Asia Africa and Europe Such a relatively peaceful and ordered international scene

meant that Christian apostles and missionaries could move from one country to another and

one region to another with safety and freedom from fear or geographical obstacles24

An excellent illustration of the unifying effect of Roman law and the political security of

Roman rule is found in the highly advanced Roman postal system Rev Michael R Jones has

written a fine brief summary of this ancient service ndash ahead of its time and almost modern

The Roman postal system was the most advanced in the Western world up until that

time Postal carriers followed routes that allowed riders on horseback to cover up to 170

miles in a day and averaged 100 miles a day This system used roads that lasted well into the

9th century before in the west and even longer in the East where the Byzantine Empire and

the Islamic empire centered in Baghdad absorbed the system into their own postal services

While it was not always so reliable it was still the most advanced the ancient world had seen

and was second only to Chinarsquos This postal service allowed the apostles to correspond with

others from one end of the Empire to the other Such an advanced system not only made it

possible for the apostles to correspond it also almost guaranteed such correspondence since

it was an easy and reliable method of long-distance communication The letters written

provide the basis for not only for the scholarrsquos and historianrsquos understanding of the ancient

church they are also the foundation of the Christianrsquos theology and despite some scholarly

objections to the contrary are still the best source for the theology of the apostles and the

early church25

As has been indicated by the second bullet point earlier the epitome of Roman peace

and security is seen wonderful system of Roman roads and safe sea lanes on the Mediterranean

Dr George P Fisher distinguished Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale a little over a

century ago provided this unforgettable description

Friedlander in his learned discussion of this topic has pointed out that at

no time down to the beginning of the present century has it been possible to make

journeys with so much ease safety and rapidity as in the first centuries of the imperial

era The motives and occasions of travel were quite as various then as now The Empire

brought peace to the world It was a new condition of mankind The constant

employment of nations had been war The ancient writers dwell with rapture upon the

reign of tranquility which now prevailed The security of the traveller and facility of

intercourse are a common theme of congratulations of writers from one end of the

Empire to the other The majesty of Rome as Pliny proudly declares was the shield of

the wayfarer in every place Epicetetus and the Alexandrian Philo are especially fervid in

32

their remarks on this subject They dilate on the busy appearance of ports and marts ldquo

Caesarrdquo writes the Stoic philosopher ldquo has procured us a profound peace there are

neither wars nor battles nor great robberies nor piracies but we may travel at all hours

and sail from east to west rdquo The vast territory subject to Rome was covered with a

network of magnificent roads which moved in straight lines crossing mountains and

bridging rivers binding together the most remote cities and connecting them all with

the capital The deep ruts worn in the hard basaltic pavement and still visible in places

far from the metropolis show to what extent they were used Five main lines went out

from Rome to the extremities of the Empire These with their branches running in

whatever direction public convenience required were connected at the sea-ports with

routes of maritime travel A journey might have been made upon Roman highways

interrupted only by brief trips upon the sea from Alexandria to Carthage thence

through Spain and France and northward to the Scottish border then back through

Leyden Cologne Milan eastward by land to Constantinople and Antioch and thence to

Alexandria and the distance transversed would have exceeded 7000 miles The traveller

could measure his progress by the milestones all along these roads and maps of the

route giving distances from place to place with stopping-places for the night facilitated

his journey Augustus established a system of postal conveyances which were used by

officers couriers and other agents of the government but private enterprise provided

similar means of travel for the public generally In the principal streets of large cities

carriages could be hired and one could arrange for making a journey in Italy at least by

a method resembling the modern post or vetturino The fact that so extensive territories

were united under one government gave rise to a great deal of journeying from one part

to another Magistrates and official persons of every sort were travelling to and from

their posts There were frequent embassies from the provinces to Rome Large bodies of

troops were transferred from place to place and thus became acquainted with the

regions remote from their homes A stream of travel flowed from all directions to the

capital but there was also lively intercourse between the several provinces

ldquo Greek scholars rdquo says Friedlander ldquo kept school in Spain the women of a

Roman colony in Switzerland employed a goldsmith from Asia Minor in the cities of

Gaul were Greek painters and sculptors Gauls and Germans served as the body-guards

of a Jewish king at Jerusalem Jews were settled in all the provinces rdquo The Empire gave a

new impetus to commerce There was everywhere one system of law free trade with the

capital and uniformity in coins measures and weights In the reign of Claudius an

embassy came to Rome from a prince from the island of Ceylon who had been struck

with an admiration for the Romans by finding that the denairii though stamped with the

images of different Emperors were of just the same weight In ancient times mercantile

transactions could not as now be carried forward by correspondence Hence merchants

were commonly travellers visiting foreign markets and negotiating with foreign produndash

cers and dealers in person Horace frequently refers to the unsettled rambling life

characteristic of merchants Pliny describes them as found in a throng upon every

accessible sea In an epitath of a Phyrigian merchant accidentally preserved he is made

to boast of having sailed to Italy round Cape Malea seventy-two times

The pirates who before the time of Pompey and Caesar had rendered

navigation so perilous had been swept from the Mediterranean The annexation of Egypt

enabled Augustus to establish a new route of commerce with the East by way of the Nile

and the Arabian Gulf Roman merchants visited every land They had their ports for

trade in Britain and on the coast of Ireland They bought amber in the first century from

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

29

aspects of the ancient Roman Empire that should be reckoned as positive factors for the birth

and growth of the Christian faith

1 The political unity of the Roman Empire did produce a certain economic

and political stability notwithstanding its many faults This encouraged trade

between large cities and regions

2 The military and trade routes meant relatively easy access to large numbers

of people (both by land and sea)

3 The universal use of Greek as a result of former conquests aided

communication

4 The cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Empire ndash mixed cultures ndash enabled

easier cross-cultural evangelism eg Jews who were culturally Greek

(Barnabus from Cyprus Paul the Roman citizen) were able to bridge cultures

The political unity of the Roman Empire arose not only from the political order imposed by

a vast bureacracy of Roman officials and numerous military garrisons spread over the entire

ancient civilized world but from the fact that Roman officials encouraged local and

interprovincial industry and trade Not only did the various Roman legates tribunes and

governors encourage local crafts and all lucrative commerce but under Roman supervision

multitudes of foreign nations began to develop a sense of human unity under a universal law

Until this time (with the possible exception of the ancient Persians) no empire had created such

a since of the solidarity of mankind and so never before had any empire created an enviroment

favorable to reception of the Gospel The truth of this assertion is intuitive because the Gospel

(cf Romans 3-8 ) itself declares the unity of the human race under Adamrsquos sin with its Divine

penalty and at the same time the Divine remedy for that sin in Christ The salvation offered in

this message invites men from every tongue nation and race to become a part of one universal

living family which is the Christian church the Body of Christ

No ancient empire in either the East or West not even that of Alexander the Great had

given to men such a sense of their unity in a political organization The Romans indeed believed

that their peculiar destiny was to establish a sense of political unity and order in the world The

universal application of Roman law to all citizens within the empire was daily enforced upon

both native and foreign subjects and regular appeal was made to the impartial justice of Roman

courts This tradition of universal and impartial law grew out of the early Roman tradition in

the customs of the early monarchy These principles had been codified in the historic Twelve

30

Tables which became an essential part of every schoolboyrsquos education As the Roman legions

conquered new territories Roman governors and scholars quickly realized that the great

principles of Roman law were also part of the laws of the all the nations being joined to the

empire These local laws or traditions were incorporated into the Latin praetos peregrinus the

bureaucrat entrusted with duty of handling cases in which foreigners were involved This new

acquaintance with legal principles and systems of foreign nations enriched the Roman

jurisprudence This expansion of the law codes and principles of justice had a definite

philosophical impact on Roman thinkers They reasoned that the early Greeks had been correct

in their concept of a universal law whose principles were written into menrsquos nature (ie

conscience) and that aspirations of the heart were observable by right reason23

Another process which helped nurture this idea of unity was the extension of Roman

citizenship to non-Romans Ironically this practice began shortly before the time of Christ and

was climaxed in 212 AD when Emperor Caracalla admitted all freemen into the privilege of

Roman citizenship Since the Roman empire (eg Pax Romana) eventually included the whole

Mediterranean world this practically meant that all men were under one system of law and

citizens of one vast earthly kingdom Imperfect as the practice of Roman law was it did have an

emphasis on the dignity of the individual and the notion of Roman citizenship implied the

availability of justice which fused men into a greater political unity even though they had

diverse racial and cultural histories This helped to prepare men to understand that the

universal Savior of sin came to remove the penalty of death from all and to admit one into the

society of the redeemed The Apostle Paul thus reminded the people of the church at Philippi

that they were now members of the commonwealth of heaven through Jesus Christ (Philippians

320)

The common system of Roman law and order made free movement possible throughout

the empire for most all of its citizens and its respected allies Previous to the reign of Caesar

Augustus (27 BC ndash AD 14) it would have been much more difficult for messengers of the

Gospel to travel the Mediterranean and even in the East because the world was divided into

small jealous kingdoms isolated cities and remote irascable tribes With the extension of the

Pax Romana however the empire was built and thus unity was created and stabilized for

31

convenience of travel and the spread of new ideas and goods Pompey for example had swept

the pirates out of the Mediterranean and later Roman legions kept the peace and secured the

roads of Asia Africa and Europe Such a relatively peaceful and ordered international scene

meant that Christian apostles and missionaries could move from one country to another and

one region to another with safety and freedom from fear or geographical obstacles24

An excellent illustration of the unifying effect of Roman law and the political security of

Roman rule is found in the highly advanced Roman postal system Rev Michael R Jones has

written a fine brief summary of this ancient service ndash ahead of its time and almost modern

The Roman postal system was the most advanced in the Western world up until that

time Postal carriers followed routes that allowed riders on horseback to cover up to 170

miles in a day and averaged 100 miles a day This system used roads that lasted well into the

9th century before in the west and even longer in the East where the Byzantine Empire and

the Islamic empire centered in Baghdad absorbed the system into their own postal services

While it was not always so reliable it was still the most advanced the ancient world had seen

and was second only to Chinarsquos This postal service allowed the apostles to correspond with

others from one end of the Empire to the other Such an advanced system not only made it

possible for the apostles to correspond it also almost guaranteed such correspondence since

it was an easy and reliable method of long-distance communication The letters written

provide the basis for not only for the scholarrsquos and historianrsquos understanding of the ancient

church they are also the foundation of the Christianrsquos theology and despite some scholarly

objections to the contrary are still the best source for the theology of the apostles and the

early church25

As has been indicated by the second bullet point earlier the epitome of Roman peace

and security is seen wonderful system of Roman roads and safe sea lanes on the Mediterranean

Dr George P Fisher distinguished Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale a little over a

century ago provided this unforgettable description

Friedlander in his learned discussion of this topic has pointed out that at

no time down to the beginning of the present century has it been possible to make

journeys with so much ease safety and rapidity as in the first centuries of the imperial

era The motives and occasions of travel were quite as various then as now The Empire

brought peace to the world It was a new condition of mankind The constant

employment of nations had been war The ancient writers dwell with rapture upon the

reign of tranquility which now prevailed The security of the traveller and facility of

intercourse are a common theme of congratulations of writers from one end of the

Empire to the other The majesty of Rome as Pliny proudly declares was the shield of

the wayfarer in every place Epicetetus and the Alexandrian Philo are especially fervid in

32

their remarks on this subject They dilate on the busy appearance of ports and marts ldquo

Caesarrdquo writes the Stoic philosopher ldquo has procured us a profound peace there are

neither wars nor battles nor great robberies nor piracies but we may travel at all hours

and sail from east to west rdquo The vast territory subject to Rome was covered with a

network of magnificent roads which moved in straight lines crossing mountains and

bridging rivers binding together the most remote cities and connecting them all with

the capital The deep ruts worn in the hard basaltic pavement and still visible in places

far from the metropolis show to what extent they were used Five main lines went out

from Rome to the extremities of the Empire These with their branches running in

whatever direction public convenience required were connected at the sea-ports with

routes of maritime travel A journey might have been made upon Roman highways

interrupted only by brief trips upon the sea from Alexandria to Carthage thence

through Spain and France and northward to the Scottish border then back through

Leyden Cologne Milan eastward by land to Constantinople and Antioch and thence to

Alexandria and the distance transversed would have exceeded 7000 miles The traveller

could measure his progress by the milestones all along these roads and maps of the

route giving distances from place to place with stopping-places for the night facilitated

his journey Augustus established a system of postal conveyances which were used by

officers couriers and other agents of the government but private enterprise provided

similar means of travel for the public generally In the principal streets of large cities

carriages could be hired and one could arrange for making a journey in Italy at least by

a method resembling the modern post or vetturino The fact that so extensive territories

were united under one government gave rise to a great deal of journeying from one part

to another Magistrates and official persons of every sort were travelling to and from

their posts There were frequent embassies from the provinces to Rome Large bodies of

troops were transferred from place to place and thus became acquainted with the

regions remote from their homes A stream of travel flowed from all directions to the

capital but there was also lively intercourse between the several provinces

ldquo Greek scholars rdquo says Friedlander ldquo kept school in Spain the women of a

Roman colony in Switzerland employed a goldsmith from Asia Minor in the cities of

Gaul were Greek painters and sculptors Gauls and Germans served as the body-guards

of a Jewish king at Jerusalem Jews were settled in all the provinces rdquo The Empire gave a

new impetus to commerce There was everywhere one system of law free trade with the

capital and uniformity in coins measures and weights In the reign of Claudius an

embassy came to Rome from a prince from the island of Ceylon who had been struck

with an admiration for the Romans by finding that the denairii though stamped with the

images of different Emperors were of just the same weight In ancient times mercantile

transactions could not as now be carried forward by correspondence Hence merchants

were commonly travellers visiting foreign markets and negotiating with foreign produndash

cers and dealers in person Horace frequently refers to the unsettled rambling life

characteristic of merchants Pliny describes them as found in a throng upon every

accessible sea In an epitath of a Phyrigian merchant accidentally preserved he is made

to boast of having sailed to Italy round Cape Malea seventy-two times

The pirates who before the time of Pompey and Caesar had rendered

navigation so perilous had been swept from the Mediterranean The annexation of Egypt

enabled Augustus to establish a new route of commerce with the East by way of the Nile

and the Arabian Gulf Roman merchants visited every land They had their ports for

trade in Britain and on the coast of Ireland They bought amber in the first century from

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

30

Tables which became an essential part of every schoolboyrsquos education As the Roman legions

conquered new territories Roman governors and scholars quickly realized that the great

principles of Roman law were also part of the laws of the all the nations being joined to the

empire These local laws or traditions were incorporated into the Latin praetos peregrinus the

bureaucrat entrusted with duty of handling cases in which foreigners were involved This new

acquaintance with legal principles and systems of foreign nations enriched the Roman

jurisprudence This expansion of the law codes and principles of justice had a definite

philosophical impact on Roman thinkers They reasoned that the early Greeks had been correct

in their concept of a universal law whose principles were written into menrsquos nature (ie

conscience) and that aspirations of the heart were observable by right reason23

Another process which helped nurture this idea of unity was the extension of Roman

citizenship to non-Romans Ironically this practice began shortly before the time of Christ and

was climaxed in 212 AD when Emperor Caracalla admitted all freemen into the privilege of

Roman citizenship Since the Roman empire (eg Pax Romana) eventually included the whole

Mediterranean world this practically meant that all men were under one system of law and

citizens of one vast earthly kingdom Imperfect as the practice of Roman law was it did have an

emphasis on the dignity of the individual and the notion of Roman citizenship implied the

availability of justice which fused men into a greater political unity even though they had

diverse racial and cultural histories This helped to prepare men to understand that the

universal Savior of sin came to remove the penalty of death from all and to admit one into the

society of the redeemed The Apostle Paul thus reminded the people of the church at Philippi

that they were now members of the commonwealth of heaven through Jesus Christ (Philippians

320)

The common system of Roman law and order made free movement possible throughout

the empire for most all of its citizens and its respected allies Previous to the reign of Caesar

Augustus (27 BC ndash AD 14) it would have been much more difficult for messengers of the

Gospel to travel the Mediterranean and even in the East because the world was divided into

small jealous kingdoms isolated cities and remote irascable tribes With the extension of the

Pax Romana however the empire was built and thus unity was created and stabilized for

31

convenience of travel and the spread of new ideas and goods Pompey for example had swept

the pirates out of the Mediterranean and later Roman legions kept the peace and secured the

roads of Asia Africa and Europe Such a relatively peaceful and ordered international scene

meant that Christian apostles and missionaries could move from one country to another and

one region to another with safety and freedom from fear or geographical obstacles24

An excellent illustration of the unifying effect of Roman law and the political security of

Roman rule is found in the highly advanced Roman postal system Rev Michael R Jones has

written a fine brief summary of this ancient service ndash ahead of its time and almost modern

The Roman postal system was the most advanced in the Western world up until that

time Postal carriers followed routes that allowed riders on horseback to cover up to 170

miles in a day and averaged 100 miles a day This system used roads that lasted well into the

9th century before in the west and even longer in the East where the Byzantine Empire and

the Islamic empire centered in Baghdad absorbed the system into their own postal services

While it was not always so reliable it was still the most advanced the ancient world had seen

and was second only to Chinarsquos This postal service allowed the apostles to correspond with

others from one end of the Empire to the other Such an advanced system not only made it

possible for the apostles to correspond it also almost guaranteed such correspondence since

it was an easy and reliable method of long-distance communication The letters written

provide the basis for not only for the scholarrsquos and historianrsquos understanding of the ancient

church they are also the foundation of the Christianrsquos theology and despite some scholarly

objections to the contrary are still the best source for the theology of the apostles and the

early church25

As has been indicated by the second bullet point earlier the epitome of Roman peace

and security is seen wonderful system of Roman roads and safe sea lanes on the Mediterranean

Dr George P Fisher distinguished Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale a little over a

century ago provided this unforgettable description

Friedlander in his learned discussion of this topic has pointed out that at

no time down to the beginning of the present century has it been possible to make

journeys with so much ease safety and rapidity as in the first centuries of the imperial

era The motives and occasions of travel were quite as various then as now The Empire

brought peace to the world It was a new condition of mankind The constant

employment of nations had been war The ancient writers dwell with rapture upon the

reign of tranquility which now prevailed The security of the traveller and facility of

intercourse are a common theme of congratulations of writers from one end of the

Empire to the other The majesty of Rome as Pliny proudly declares was the shield of

the wayfarer in every place Epicetetus and the Alexandrian Philo are especially fervid in

32

their remarks on this subject They dilate on the busy appearance of ports and marts ldquo

Caesarrdquo writes the Stoic philosopher ldquo has procured us a profound peace there are

neither wars nor battles nor great robberies nor piracies but we may travel at all hours

and sail from east to west rdquo The vast territory subject to Rome was covered with a

network of magnificent roads which moved in straight lines crossing mountains and

bridging rivers binding together the most remote cities and connecting them all with

the capital The deep ruts worn in the hard basaltic pavement and still visible in places

far from the metropolis show to what extent they were used Five main lines went out

from Rome to the extremities of the Empire These with their branches running in

whatever direction public convenience required were connected at the sea-ports with

routes of maritime travel A journey might have been made upon Roman highways

interrupted only by brief trips upon the sea from Alexandria to Carthage thence

through Spain and France and northward to the Scottish border then back through

Leyden Cologne Milan eastward by land to Constantinople and Antioch and thence to

Alexandria and the distance transversed would have exceeded 7000 miles The traveller

could measure his progress by the milestones all along these roads and maps of the

route giving distances from place to place with stopping-places for the night facilitated

his journey Augustus established a system of postal conveyances which were used by

officers couriers and other agents of the government but private enterprise provided

similar means of travel for the public generally In the principal streets of large cities

carriages could be hired and one could arrange for making a journey in Italy at least by

a method resembling the modern post or vetturino The fact that so extensive territories

were united under one government gave rise to a great deal of journeying from one part

to another Magistrates and official persons of every sort were travelling to and from

their posts There were frequent embassies from the provinces to Rome Large bodies of

troops were transferred from place to place and thus became acquainted with the

regions remote from their homes A stream of travel flowed from all directions to the

capital but there was also lively intercourse between the several provinces

ldquo Greek scholars rdquo says Friedlander ldquo kept school in Spain the women of a

Roman colony in Switzerland employed a goldsmith from Asia Minor in the cities of

Gaul were Greek painters and sculptors Gauls and Germans served as the body-guards

of a Jewish king at Jerusalem Jews were settled in all the provinces rdquo The Empire gave a

new impetus to commerce There was everywhere one system of law free trade with the

capital and uniformity in coins measures and weights In the reign of Claudius an

embassy came to Rome from a prince from the island of Ceylon who had been struck

with an admiration for the Romans by finding that the denairii though stamped with the

images of different Emperors were of just the same weight In ancient times mercantile

transactions could not as now be carried forward by correspondence Hence merchants

were commonly travellers visiting foreign markets and negotiating with foreign produndash

cers and dealers in person Horace frequently refers to the unsettled rambling life

characteristic of merchants Pliny describes them as found in a throng upon every

accessible sea In an epitath of a Phyrigian merchant accidentally preserved he is made

to boast of having sailed to Italy round Cape Malea seventy-two times

The pirates who before the time of Pompey and Caesar had rendered

navigation so perilous had been swept from the Mediterranean The annexation of Egypt

enabled Augustus to establish a new route of commerce with the East by way of the Nile

and the Arabian Gulf Roman merchants visited every land They had their ports for

trade in Britain and on the coast of Ireland They bought amber in the first century from

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

31

convenience of travel and the spread of new ideas and goods Pompey for example had swept

the pirates out of the Mediterranean and later Roman legions kept the peace and secured the

roads of Asia Africa and Europe Such a relatively peaceful and ordered international scene

meant that Christian apostles and missionaries could move from one country to another and

one region to another with safety and freedom from fear or geographical obstacles24

An excellent illustration of the unifying effect of Roman law and the political security of

Roman rule is found in the highly advanced Roman postal system Rev Michael R Jones has

written a fine brief summary of this ancient service ndash ahead of its time and almost modern

The Roman postal system was the most advanced in the Western world up until that

time Postal carriers followed routes that allowed riders on horseback to cover up to 170

miles in a day and averaged 100 miles a day This system used roads that lasted well into the

9th century before in the west and even longer in the East where the Byzantine Empire and

the Islamic empire centered in Baghdad absorbed the system into their own postal services

While it was not always so reliable it was still the most advanced the ancient world had seen

and was second only to Chinarsquos This postal service allowed the apostles to correspond with

others from one end of the Empire to the other Such an advanced system not only made it

possible for the apostles to correspond it also almost guaranteed such correspondence since

it was an easy and reliable method of long-distance communication The letters written

provide the basis for not only for the scholarrsquos and historianrsquos understanding of the ancient

church they are also the foundation of the Christianrsquos theology and despite some scholarly

objections to the contrary are still the best source for the theology of the apostles and the

early church25

As has been indicated by the second bullet point earlier the epitome of Roman peace

and security is seen wonderful system of Roman roads and safe sea lanes on the Mediterranean

Dr George P Fisher distinguished Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale a little over a

century ago provided this unforgettable description

Friedlander in his learned discussion of this topic has pointed out that at

no time down to the beginning of the present century has it been possible to make

journeys with so much ease safety and rapidity as in the first centuries of the imperial

era The motives and occasions of travel were quite as various then as now The Empire

brought peace to the world It was a new condition of mankind The constant

employment of nations had been war The ancient writers dwell with rapture upon the

reign of tranquility which now prevailed The security of the traveller and facility of

intercourse are a common theme of congratulations of writers from one end of the

Empire to the other The majesty of Rome as Pliny proudly declares was the shield of

the wayfarer in every place Epicetetus and the Alexandrian Philo are especially fervid in

32

their remarks on this subject They dilate on the busy appearance of ports and marts ldquo

Caesarrdquo writes the Stoic philosopher ldquo has procured us a profound peace there are

neither wars nor battles nor great robberies nor piracies but we may travel at all hours

and sail from east to west rdquo The vast territory subject to Rome was covered with a

network of magnificent roads which moved in straight lines crossing mountains and

bridging rivers binding together the most remote cities and connecting them all with

the capital The deep ruts worn in the hard basaltic pavement and still visible in places

far from the metropolis show to what extent they were used Five main lines went out

from Rome to the extremities of the Empire These with their branches running in

whatever direction public convenience required were connected at the sea-ports with

routes of maritime travel A journey might have been made upon Roman highways

interrupted only by brief trips upon the sea from Alexandria to Carthage thence

through Spain and France and northward to the Scottish border then back through

Leyden Cologne Milan eastward by land to Constantinople and Antioch and thence to

Alexandria and the distance transversed would have exceeded 7000 miles The traveller

could measure his progress by the milestones all along these roads and maps of the

route giving distances from place to place with stopping-places for the night facilitated

his journey Augustus established a system of postal conveyances which were used by

officers couriers and other agents of the government but private enterprise provided

similar means of travel for the public generally In the principal streets of large cities

carriages could be hired and one could arrange for making a journey in Italy at least by

a method resembling the modern post or vetturino The fact that so extensive territories

were united under one government gave rise to a great deal of journeying from one part

to another Magistrates and official persons of every sort were travelling to and from

their posts There were frequent embassies from the provinces to Rome Large bodies of

troops were transferred from place to place and thus became acquainted with the

regions remote from their homes A stream of travel flowed from all directions to the

capital but there was also lively intercourse between the several provinces

ldquo Greek scholars rdquo says Friedlander ldquo kept school in Spain the women of a

Roman colony in Switzerland employed a goldsmith from Asia Minor in the cities of

Gaul were Greek painters and sculptors Gauls and Germans served as the body-guards

of a Jewish king at Jerusalem Jews were settled in all the provinces rdquo The Empire gave a

new impetus to commerce There was everywhere one system of law free trade with the

capital and uniformity in coins measures and weights In the reign of Claudius an

embassy came to Rome from a prince from the island of Ceylon who had been struck

with an admiration for the Romans by finding that the denairii though stamped with the

images of different Emperors were of just the same weight In ancient times mercantile

transactions could not as now be carried forward by correspondence Hence merchants

were commonly travellers visiting foreign markets and negotiating with foreign produndash

cers and dealers in person Horace frequently refers to the unsettled rambling life

characteristic of merchants Pliny describes them as found in a throng upon every

accessible sea In an epitath of a Phyrigian merchant accidentally preserved he is made

to boast of having sailed to Italy round Cape Malea seventy-two times

The pirates who before the time of Pompey and Caesar had rendered

navigation so perilous had been swept from the Mediterranean The annexation of Egypt

enabled Augustus to establish a new route of commerce with the East by way of the Nile

and the Arabian Gulf Roman merchants visited every land They had their ports for

trade in Britain and on the coast of Ireland They bought amber in the first century from

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

32

their remarks on this subject They dilate on the busy appearance of ports and marts ldquo

Caesarrdquo writes the Stoic philosopher ldquo has procured us a profound peace there are

neither wars nor battles nor great robberies nor piracies but we may travel at all hours

and sail from east to west rdquo The vast territory subject to Rome was covered with a

network of magnificent roads which moved in straight lines crossing mountains and

bridging rivers binding together the most remote cities and connecting them all with

the capital The deep ruts worn in the hard basaltic pavement and still visible in places

far from the metropolis show to what extent they were used Five main lines went out

from Rome to the extremities of the Empire These with their branches running in

whatever direction public convenience required were connected at the sea-ports with

routes of maritime travel A journey might have been made upon Roman highways

interrupted only by brief trips upon the sea from Alexandria to Carthage thence

through Spain and France and northward to the Scottish border then back through

Leyden Cologne Milan eastward by land to Constantinople and Antioch and thence to

Alexandria and the distance transversed would have exceeded 7000 miles The traveller

could measure his progress by the milestones all along these roads and maps of the

route giving distances from place to place with stopping-places for the night facilitated

his journey Augustus established a system of postal conveyances which were used by

officers couriers and other agents of the government but private enterprise provided

similar means of travel for the public generally In the principal streets of large cities

carriages could be hired and one could arrange for making a journey in Italy at least by

a method resembling the modern post or vetturino The fact that so extensive territories

were united under one government gave rise to a great deal of journeying from one part

to another Magistrates and official persons of every sort were travelling to and from

their posts There were frequent embassies from the provinces to Rome Large bodies of

troops were transferred from place to place and thus became acquainted with the

regions remote from their homes A stream of travel flowed from all directions to the

capital but there was also lively intercourse between the several provinces

ldquo Greek scholars rdquo says Friedlander ldquo kept school in Spain the women of a

Roman colony in Switzerland employed a goldsmith from Asia Minor in the cities of

Gaul were Greek painters and sculptors Gauls and Germans served as the body-guards

of a Jewish king at Jerusalem Jews were settled in all the provinces rdquo The Empire gave a

new impetus to commerce There was everywhere one system of law free trade with the

capital and uniformity in coins measures and weights In the reign of Claudius an

embassy came to Rome from a prince from the island of Ceylon who had been struck

with an admiration for the Romans by finding that the denairii though stamped with the

images of different Emperors were of just the same weight In ancient times mercantile

transactions could not as now be carried forward by correspondence Hence merchants

were commonly travellers visiting foreign markets and negotiating with foreign produndash

cers and dealers in person Horace frequently refers to the unsettled rambling life

characteristic of merchants Pliny describes them as found in a throng upon every

accessible sea In an epitath of a Phyrigian merchant accidentally preserved he is made

to boast of having sailed to Italy round Cape Malea seventy-two times

The pirates who before the time of Pompey and Caesar had rendered

navigation so perilous had been swept from the Mediterranean The annexation of Egypt

enabled Augustus to establish a new route of commerce with the East by way of the Nile

and the Arabian Gulf Roman merchants visited every land They had their ports for

trade in Britain and on the coast of Ireland They bought amber in the first century from

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

33

the shores of the Baltic They went with their caravans and vessels to Ethiopia and India

The increase of luxury in capital stimulated trade Whatever could gratify the palate was

brought from all quarters to the markets of Rome and the same was true of the

multiform products of art and mechanical skill26

The Ancient Roman Road System27

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

34

The third bullet point earlier observed was that the universal use of Greek as a result of

former conquests aided communication in the Roman Empire The Romans were heavily

indebted to the earlier culture of the Greeks From the time of the early conquests of Rome in

the first century BC until the era of the further extension of the Empire at the end of the second

century the common language of the realm was not the official Latin but Greek known as the

Koine This was the language of the common working people the language of the market place

and the port and even the language of many of the learned of that time Such a circumstance

would prove invaluable to the early Christian missionaries who would find by it an open door

to preach the Gospel to the multitudes of various peoples flung throughtout the Roman world

It was no accident that the New Testament itself the founding document of Christianity would

be written in this universal language of the day The esteemed late Professor Everett F Harrison

(who taught at both Dallas and Fuller Seminaries) commented on this unique circumstance

An Aramaic New Testament would have comparatively few readers outside

the nation Israel On the other hand if the message of the Christian faith could be sent

forth in the Greek tongue which had become the truly international language of the day

the Word could penetrate almost everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world In his

[Godsrsquos] providential overruling he gave the devout Hebrew heart a Greek tongue in

order to make itself intelligible to the world 28

Scholars differ much on the precise details but most Greek philologists and his-torians

of Greek culture tentatively agree that the Greek language had its beginnings in ca 1500 to 900

BC This period is called the formative period of Greek and during this time Greece was

divided up into three separate states and distinct languages (1) Sparta which spoke the Doric

dialect (2) Athens which spoke the Ionic dialect (3) and Thebes which spoke the Aeolic dialect

Still later came the period of classical Greek from about the mid-tenth century until ca 322 BC

This is sometimes called Attic Greek and it was the ruling dialect Attic Greek an Ionic dialect

was the language of the philosophers of Socrates Plato and Aristotle It was one of the great

literary languages for through it the deepest and most complex thoughts of man were

communicated Classical Greek was the language of Athens in her ldquoGolden Agerdquo it was the

language of the historian Thucydides and the great political thinker Demosthenes In time

however the language began to break down mdash especially as Greek began to be spoken broadly

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

35

as a second language by foreign peoples The late Princeton and Westminster professor of

Greek and New Testament (as well as theology) J Gresham Machen has a wonderful account

of how this occurred

Various causes contributed to make the Attic dialect dominant in the Greek-

speaking world First and foremost must be put the genius of the Athenian writers But

the political and commercial importance of Athens was also not without its effect Hosts

of strangers came into contact with Athens through government war and trade and the

Athenian colonies also extended the influence of the mother city The Athenian Empire

indeed soon fell to pieces Athens was conquered first by Sparta in the Peloponnesian

wax and then in the middle of the fourth century before Christ along with the other

Greek cities came under the domination of the king of Macedonia Philip But the

influence of the Attic dialect survived the loss of political power the language of Athens

became also the language of her conquerors

Macedonia was not originally a Greek kingdom but it adopted the dominant

civilization of the day which was the civilization of Athens The tutor of Philips son

Alexander the Great was Aristotle the Greek philosopher and that fact is only one

indication of the conditions of the time With astonishing rapidity Alexander made

himself master of the whole eastern world and the triumphs of the Macedonian arms

were also triumphs of the Greek language in its Attic form The empire of Alexander

indeed at once fell to pieces after his death in 323 BC but the kingdoms into which it

was divided were at least so far as the court and the governing classes were concerned

Greek kingdoms Thus the Macedonian conquest meant nothing less than the

Hellenization of the East or at any rate it meant an enormous acceleration of the

Hellenizing process which had already begun

When the Romans in the last two centuries before Christ conquered the eastern

part of the Mediterranean world they made no attempt to suppress the Greek language

On the contrary the conquerors to a very considerable extent were conquered by those

whom they conquered Rome herself had already come under Greek influence and now

she made use of the Greek language in administering at least the eastern part of her vast

empire The language of the Roman Empire was not so much Latin as it was Greek Thus in the first century after Christ Greek had become a world language The

ancient languages of the various countries did indeed continue to exist and many

districts were bilingual ndash the original local languages existing side by side with the

Greek But at least in the great cities throughout the Empiremdashcertainly in the Eastmdashthe

Greek language was everywhere understood Even in Rome itself there was a large

Greek-speaking population It is not surprising that Pauls letter to the Roman Church is

written not in Latin but in Greek

But the Greek language had to pay a price for this enormous extension of its

influence In its career of conquest it experienced important changes The ancient Greek

dialects other than Attic although they disappeared almost completely before the

beginning of the Christian era may have exerted considerable influence upon the Greek

of the new unified world Less important no doubt than the influence of the Greek

dialects and far less important than might have been expected was the influence of

foreign languages But influences of a more subtle and less tangible kind were mightily at

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

36

work Language is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual habits of the people who

use it Attic prose for example reflects the spiritual life of a small city-state which was

unified by an intense patriotism and a glorious literary tradition But after the time of

Alexander the Attic speech was no longer the language of a small group of citizens

living in the closest spiritual association on the contrary it had become the medium of

exchange for peoples of the most diverse character It is not surprising then that the

language of the new cosmopolitan age was very different from the original Attic dialect

upon which it was founded

This new world language which prevailed after Alexander has been called not

inappropriately the Koine The word Koine means common it is not a bad

designation therefore for a language which was a common medium of exchange for

diverse peoples The Koine then is the Greek world language that prevailed from about

300 BC to the close of ancient history at about AD 50029

To this also may be added the explanation of Dr Gerald Stevens a contemporary Greek

scholar

However the use of Greek by non-Greeks altered the language A continual metandash

morphosis transformed the ancient native dialects within the new world order of Alexndash

ander The fine nuance of meanings within the sophisticated Attic Greek began to blur

Grammatical principles were ldquobrokenrdquo (as English are told not to split infinitives but do

all the time) This second-language Greek became the common tongue of all which we

call koine Greek The New Testament Greek basically is this koine Greek but also

includes literary Greek as well as unusual forms to Semitic influence30

The last point to be addressed we have already hinted at ie the cosmopolitan nature of

the Roman Empire with its blended cultures The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online

edition) gives a brilliant summary of the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire which

particularly emphasizes its Stoic universalizing philosophical ethos

Stoic cosmopolitanism in its various guises was enormously persuasive throughout

the Greco-Roman world In part this success can be explained by noting how

cosmopolitan the world at that time was Alexander the Greats conquests and the

subsequent division of his empire into successor kingdoms sapped local cities of much of

their traditional authority and fostered increased contacts between cities and later the

rise of the Roman Empire united the whole of the Mediterranean under one political

power But it is wrong to say what has frequently been said that cosmopolitanism arose

as a response to the fall of the polis or to the rise of the Roman empire First the polis fall

has been greatly exaggerated Under the successor kingdoms and even mdash though to a

lesser degree mdash under Rome there remained substantial room for important political

engagement locally Second and more decisively the cosmopolitanism that was so

persuasive during the so-called Hellenistic Age and under the Roman Empire was in fact

rooted in intellectual developments that predate Alexanders conquests Still there is no

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

37

doubting that the empires under which Stoicism developed and flourished made many

people more receptive to the cosmopolitan ideal and thus contributed greatly to the

widespread influence of Stoic cosmopolitanism

Nowhere was Stoic cosmopolitanism itself more influential than in early

Christianity Early Christians took the later Stoic recognition of two cities as independent

sources of obligation and added a twist For the Stoics the citizens of the polis and the

citizens of the cosmopolis do the same work both aim to improve the lives of the

citizens The Christians respond to a different call ldquoRender therefore unto Caesar the

things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Godsrdquo (Matthew 2221) On

this view the local city may have divine authority (John 1911 cf Romans 13147) but the

most important work for human goodness is removed from traditional politics set aside

in a sphere in which people of all nations can become ldquofellow-citizens with the saintsrdquo

(Ephesians 220) 31

Ethlebert Stauffer a famous German Protestant theologian who taught at the

Universities of Bonn Halle-Wittenberg Berlin Tubingen and who assumed a professorship at

the Erlangen Divinity School in 1953 achieved international fame as a scholar of Roman history

and its relationship to early Christianity Professor Stauffer was also noteworthy because as a

young professor of New Testament Studies and Ancient History at the University of Bonn he

was removed from his post in 1943 by the German authorities under Hitler for his firm anti-

Facist stance and his visceral opposition to Nazi ideology After the fall of Hitler he was

restored to his teaching post in 1946 Later as a professor at Erlangen he published his highly

applauded works on his research Christ and the Caesars and the New Testament Theology (both in

1955)32 His description of the year of Christrsquos birth is a classic exposition of the mood and

circumstances of the Roman world when Christ appeared Even though this author believes he

is about two years too early (on the basis of other Biblical and historical evidence) neverthess

this brief section of Professor Staufferrsquos of Jesus and His Story provides a fitting closure to this

chapter on the Pax Romana and the era of Augustus

The year 7 BC was a fatalis annus a year of destiny In the heavens the planet

Jupiter entered the Great Conjunction thus proclaiming the coming ruler of the final

Golden Age In Rome Augustus reached the climax of his career and Tiberius held his

great triumph ad maiorem Augusti patris gloriam ndash to the greater glory of Father Augustus

On the Nile the Emperor was being celebrated as Freedom- giving Jove On the

Euphrates the astrologers were setting out Palestine to seek the promised king of peace

In the land of Israel however a tempest was brewing

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

38

Herod had been demoted several months before Quiriniusrsquo census-takers were

descending upon towns and villages swords in their hands The large clans were on the

move The bureaucracy ran wild and the people fought back The resistance movement

grew Six thousands Pharisees refused to take the imperial oath to ldquofreedom-givingrdquo

Jove Herod having so recently been demoted was nervous and did all in his power to

satisfy the Roman tax commissioners His nervousness increased when on all sides

people began talking about signs in the heavens and divine revelations of the imminent

overthrow of all things and of the advent of a new ruler of the world In the face of these

sinister portents he resolved to exterminate all who might endanger him In Samaria he

had the two Hasmonean princes killed in Jerusalem the three hundred officers faithful to

the Hasmoneans the page Carus all suspect courtiers and the oracular Pharisees It was

only natural and consistent for him also to strike at Bethlehem the center for the house of

David For even if the Hasmoneans were no more the Davidites still remained and

would be more dangerous than ever33

Conclusion to Chapter One A Greater King Than Caesar

The Romans were without controversy the masters of the ancient civilized world in the

first century BC and the early centuries of the new era But Christians know that there was

another infinitely greater Power that moved the foundations of the earth and ruled over the

heavens as well Neither Caesar Augustus in Rome nor Herod in Jerusalem could alter or

prevent the Son of God the promised ancient Anointed One of Yahweh (Psalms 2 Isaiah 667)

from coming into the world on his redemptive mission to reconcile man to God and sanctify

human nature From the tiny hamlet of Bethlehem in Judea a special child born to a poor Jewish

couple would forever change the world

Charles Wesley captured this paradoxical tension in the words of his great Christmas

hymn to which Jewish Christian Felix Mendelssohn put magnificient musical score This hymn

definitely proclaims a peace that is more enduring and profound than the Pax Romana

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

39

Christ by highest Heavrsquon adored Hark The herald angels sing

Christ the everlasting Lord Glory to the newborn King

Late in time behold Him come Peace on earth and mercy mild

Offspring of a virginrsquos womb God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail thrsquoincarnate Deity

With thrsquoangelic host proclaim Pleased with us in flesh to dwell

Christ is born in Bethlehem Jesus our Emmanuel

Refrain

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

40

Refrain Refrain

Come Desire of nations come Hail the heavrsquonly Prince of Peace

Fix in us Thy humble home Hail the Sun of Righteousness

Rise the womanrsquos conqursquoring Seed Light and life to all He brings

Bruise in us the serpentrsquos head Risrsquon with healing in His wings

Now display Thy saving power Mild He lays His glory by

ruined nature now restore Born that man no more may die

Now in mystic union join Born to raise the sons of earth

Thine to ours and ours to Thine Born to give them second birth

41

Refrain Refrain

Come Desire of nations come Adamrsquos likeness Lord efface

Fix in us Thy humble home Stamp Thine image in its place

Rise the womanrsquos conqursquoring Seed Second Adam from above

Bruise in us the serpentrsquos head Reinstate us in Thy love

Now display Thy saving power Let us Thee though lost regain

Ruined nature now restore Thee the Life the inner man

Now in mystic union join O to all Thyself impart

Thine to ours and ours to Thine Formed in each believing heart

Hark how all the welkin rings Christ by highest Heaven adorrsquod

Glory to the King of kings Christ the everlasting Lord

Peace on earth and mercy mild Late in time behold him come

God and sinners reconciled Offspring of a Virginrsquos womb

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail the incarnate deity

Universal nature say Pleased as man with men to appear

Christ the Lord is born to-day Jesus Our Immanuel here

Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace Come Desire of nations come

Hail the Sun of Righteousness Fix in us thy humble home

Light and life to all he brings Rise the womanrsquos conquering seed

Risen with healing in his wings Bruise in us the serpentrsquos head

Mild He lays his glory by Now display thy saving power

Born that man no more may die Ruined nature now restore

Born to raise the sons of earth Now in mystic union join

Born to give them second birth Thine to ours and ours to thine

Adamrsquos likeness Lord efface

Stamp Thy image in its place

Second Adam from above

Reinstate us in thy love

Let us Thee though lost regain

Thee the life the inner Man

O to all thyself impart

Formed in each believing heart 34

42

43

Endnotes for Part II Chapter 1

1This passage is from Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome 1544 quoted by EM Blaiklock in Jesus Christ Man Or

Myth (Nashville Thomas Nelson Publishers 1974) Ch 2 pp 21-22 The late Professor Edward Musgrave Blaiklock

OBE LittD held the chair of Classics at Aukland University in New Zealand from 1947 to 1968 and had lectured

for nearly twenty years before that He was an expert in classical Greek and Latin as well as ancient and Biblical

history subjects on which he profusely wrote Besides authoring nearly sixty books and commentaries he wrote

hundreds of articles on classical subjects and Christian apologetics One of his most famous lectures given in 1951

was The Christian In Pagan Society The Tyndale Lecture (London and Nashville Tyndale House Publishers 1951) in

which Roman Tacitasrsquo attitude toward Christians is examined at length Hereafter however Michael Grantrsquos newer

translation of Tacitas Annuals will be cited Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome Translation Notes and Bibliography

by Michael Grant Preface by Theodore K Rabb ([Revised Edition Originally Published Harmondsworth

Middlesex UK Penguin Books Ltd 1989] Republished London The Folio Society 2006) 2

Paul Barnett Behind The Scenes of the New Testament Foreward by Michael Green (Downers Grove ILL Intervarsity

Press 1990) ldquoIntroductionrdquo pp 11-12 Dr Barnett has been the Master of Robert Menzies College Macquarie

University in Australia for over twenty years and was also the Anglican Bishop of North Sydney from 1990-2001 He

holds an MA Hons (Sydney) ThL from Australian College of Theology a BD Hons and a PhD (University of

London) His doctoral work and continuing research has been on the interaction between the New Testament and

first century Jewish history He is the author of at least seven books and scores of articles In this work his major

research mongraph Jesus amp The Rise of Early Christianity A History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove ILL

Intervarsity Press 1999) has been consulted by this author with enthusiastic approbation

3New Testament History London and New York Marshall Morgan amp Scott Ltd and Doubleday Galilee Books 1969) ldquo

From Cyrus to Augustusrdquo pp 1-2 Professor Bruce who passed away in 1990 was the Rylands Professor of Biblical

Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester from 1959 to 1978 He authored over fifty books on the Old

and New Testaments and several hundred articles He has been considered one of the leading evangelical scholars of

the 20th century 4

`` Pax Romana Pax Christi rdquo (Luke 21-20) A sermon preached at Westminister Theological Seminary in Escondido

California on April 23 1987 Professor Dennison is the Professor of Church History and Biblical Theology at

Northwest Theological Seminary in Linnwood Washington 5

Cf The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable and Michael Grant The Twelve Caesars New York

Scribners 1975) chs 1 amp 2 and FF Bruce New Testament History pp 15-19 6

The emperorrsquos own account can be found in the Rex Gestae Divi Augusti completed shortly before his death (AD

14) and preserved in the bilingual Monumentum Ancynanum (see section 34) cited as a footnote to the quotation here

by Professor Bruce here in New Testament History p 16 One other comment here Praefectus Iudaeae is the title given

to Pontius Pilate in the inscription bearing his name which archaeologists discovered in an excavation of the theater

of ancient Caesarea in 1961 Bruce observes that the title procurator was probably not borne by governors of Judea

before the time of Claudius (Cf AN Sherwin-White Roman Society and Roman Law in the First Century Oxford

Oxford University Press 1963 pp 6ff cited by Bruce Ibid pp 16-17 in footnote 10) 7

The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable Dr Steven Kreis holds a dual BA in Philosophy and

Political Science from Boston University (1977) and a MA and PhD in History from the University of Missouri-

Columbia (1984 1990) He has taught European intellectual social and economic history as well as courses in the

humanities at the college level since 1988 in south Florida and most recently in Raleigh NC 8

Conservative Bible interpreters who take the 6th century prophecies of Daniel more or less literally view the break-

up and course of Alexander the Greatrsquos empire and the subsequent historical episodes as fulfillment of Daniel 2 39-

41

Refrain Refrain

Come Desire of nations come Adamrsquos likeness Lord efface

Fix in us Thy humble home Stamp Thine image in its place

Rise the womanrsquos conqursquoring Seed Second Adam from above

Bruise in us the serpentrsquos head Reinstate us in Thy love

Now display Thy saving power Let us Thee though lost regain

Ruined nature now restore Thee the Life the inner man

Now in mystic union join O to all Thyself impart

Thine to ours and ours to Thine Formed in each believing heart

Hark how all the welkin rings Christ by highest Heaven adorrsquod

Glory to the King of kings Christ the everlasting Lord

Peace on earth and mercy mild Late in time behold him come

God and sinners reconciled Offspring of a Virginrsquos womb

Joyful all ye nations rise Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Join the triumph of the skies Hail the incarnate deity

Universal nature say Pleased as man with men to appear

Christ the Lord is born to-day Jesus Our Immanuel here

Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace Come Desire of nations come

Hail the Sun of Righteousness Fix in us thy humble home

Light and life to all he brings Rise the womanrsquos conquering seed

Risen with healing in his wings Bruise in us the serpentrsquos head

Mild He lays his glory by Now display thy saving power

Born that man no more may die Ruined nature now restore

Born to raise the sons of earth Now in mystic union join

Born to give them second birth Thine to ours and ours to thine

Adamrsquos likeness Lord efface

Stamp Thy image in its place

Second Adam from above

Reinstate us in thy love

Let us Thee though lost regain

Thee the life the inner Man

O to all thyself impart

Formed in each believing heart 34

42

43

Endnotes for Part II Chapter 1

1This passage is from Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome 1544 quoted by EM Blaiklock in Jesus Christ Man Or

Myth (Nashville Thomas Nelson Publishers 1974) Ch 2 pp 21-22 The late Professor Edward Musgrave Blaiklock

OBE LittD held the chair of Classics at Aukland University in New Zealand from 1947 to 1968 and had lectured

for nearly twenty years before that He was an expert in classical Greek and Latin as well as ancient and Biblical

history subjects on which he profusely wrote Besides authoring nearly sixty books and commentaries he wrote

hundreds of articles on classical subjects and Christian apologetics One of his most famous lectures given in 1951

was The Christian In Pagan Society The Tyndale Lecture (London and Nashville Tyndale House Publishers 1951) in

which Roman Tacitasrsquo attitude toward Christians is examined at length Hereafter however Michael Grantrsquos newer

translation of Tacitas Annuals will be cited Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome Translation Notes and Bibliography

by Michael Grant Preface by Theodore K Rabb ([Revised Edition Originally Published Harmondsworth

Middlesex UK Penguin Books Ltd 1989] Republished London The Folio Society 2006) 2

Paul Barnett Behind The Scenes of the New Testament Foreward by Michael Green (Downers Grove ILL Intervarsity

Press 1990) ldquoIntroductionrdquo pp 11-12 Dr Barnett has been the Master of Robert Menzies College Macquarie

University in Australia for over twenty years and was also the Anglican Bishop of North Sydney from 1990-2001 He

holds an MA Hons (Sydney) ThL from Australian College of Theology a BD Hons and a PhD (University of

London) His doctoral work and continuing research has been on the interaction between the New Testament and

first century Jewish history He is the author of at least seven books and scores of articles In this work his major

research mongraph Jesus amp The Rise of Early Christianity A History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove ILL

Intervarsity Press 1999) has been consulted by this author with enthusiastic approbation

3New Testament History London and New York Marshall Morgan amp Scott Ltd and Doubleday Galilee Books 1969) ldquo

From Cyrus to Augustusrdquo pp 1-2 Professor Bruce who passed away in 1990 was the Rylands Professor of Biblical

Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester from 1959 to 1978 He authored over fifty books on the Old

and New Testaments and several hundred articles He has been considered one of the leading evangelical scholars of

the 20th century 4

`` Pax Romana Pax Christi rdquo (Luke 21-20) A sermon preached at Westminister Theological Seminary in Escondido

California on April 23 1987 Professor Dennison is the Professor of Church History and Biblical Theology at

Northwest Theological Seminary in Linnwood Washington 5

Cf The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable and Michael Grant The Twelve Caesars New York

Scribners 1975) chs 1 amp 2 and FF Bruce New Testament History pp 15-19 6

The emperorrsquos own account can be found in the Rex Gestae Divi Augusti completed shortly before his death (AD

14) and preserved in the bilingual Monumentum Ancynanum (see section 34) cited as a footnote to the quotation here

by Professor Bruce here in New Testament History p 16 One other comment here Praefectus Iudaeae is the title given

to Pontius Pilate in the inscription bearing his name which archaeologists discovered in an excavation of the theater

of ancient Caesarea in 1961 Bruce observes that the title procurator was probably not borne by governors of Judea

before the time of Claudius (Cf AN Sherwin-White Roman Society and Roman Law in the First Century Oxford

Oxford University Press 1963 pp 6ff cited by Bruce Ibid pp 16-17 in footnote 10) 7

The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable Dr Steven Kreis holds a dual BA in Philosophy and

Political Science from Boston University (1977) and a MA and PhD in History from the University of Missouri-

Columbia (1984 1990) He has taught European intellectual social and economic history as well as courses in the

humanities at the college level since 1988 in south Florida and most recently in Raleigh NC 8

Conservative Bible interpreters who take the 6th century prophecies of Daniel more or less literally view the break-

up and course of Alexander the Greatrsquos empire and the subsequent historical episodes as fulfillment of Daniel 2 39-

42

43

Endnotes for Part II Chapter 1

1This passage is from Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome 1544 quoted by EM Blaiklock in Jesus Christ Man Or

Myth (Nashville Thomas Nelson Publishers 1974) Ch 2 pp 21-22 The late Professor Edward Musgrave Blaiklock

OBE LittD held the chair of Classics at Aukland University in New Zealand from 1947 to 1968 and had lectured

for nearly twenty years before that He was an expert in classical Greek and Latin as well as ancient and Biblical

history subjects on which he profusely wrote Besides authoring nearly sixty books and commentaries he wrote

hundreds of articles on classical subjects and Christian apologetics One of his most famous lectures given in 1951

was The Christian In Pagan Society The Tyndale Lecture (London and Nashville Tyndale House Publishers 1951) in

which Roman Tacitasrsquo attitude toward Christians is examined at length Hereafter however Michael Grantrsquos newer

translation of Tacitas Annuals will be cited Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome Translation Notes and Bibliography

by Michael Grant Preface by Theodore K Rabb ([Revised Edition Originally Published Harmondsworth

Middlesex UK Penguin Books Ltd 1989] Republished London The Folio Society 2006) 2

Paul Barnett Behind The Scenes of the New Testament Foreward by Michael Green (Downers Grove ILL Intervarsity

Press 1990) ldquoIntroductionrdquo pp 11-12 Dr Barnett has been the Master of Robert Menzies College Macquarie

University in Australia for over twenty years and was also the Anglican Bishop of North Sydney from 1990-2001 He

holds an MA Hons (Sydney) ThL from Australian College of Theology a BD Hons and a PhD (University of

London) His doctoral work and continuing research has been on the interaction between the New Testament and

first century Jewish history He is the author of at least seven books and scores of articles In this work his major

research mongraph Jesus amp The Rise of Early Christianity A History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove ILL

Intervarsity Press 1999) has been consulted by this author with enthusiastic approbation

3New Testament History London and New York Marshall Morgan amp Scott Ltd and Doubleday Galilee Books 1969) ldquo

From Cyrus to Augustusrdquo pp 1-2 Professor Bruce who passed away in 1990 was the Rylands Professor of Biblical

Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester from 1959 to 1978 He authored over fifty books on the Old

and New Testaments and several hundred articles He has been considered one of the leading evangelical scholars of

the 20th century 4

`` Pax Romana Pax Christi rdquo (Luke 21-20) A sermon preached at Westminister Theological Seminary in Escondido

California on April 23 1987 Professor Dennison is the Professor of Church History and Biblical Theology at

Northwest Theological Seminary in Linnwood Washington 5

Cf The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable and Michael Grant The Twelve Caesars New York

Scribners 1975) chs 1 amp 2 and FF Bruce New Testament History pp 15-19 6

The emperorrsquos own account can be found in the Rex Gestae Divi Augusti completed shortly before his death (AD

14) and preserved in the bilingual Monumentum Ancynanum (see section 34) cited as a footnote to the quotation here

by Professor Bruce here in New Testament History p 16 One other comment here Praefectus Iudaeae is the title given

to Pontius Pilate in the inscription bearing his name which archaeologists discovered in an excavation of the theater

of ancient Caesarea in 1961 Bruce observes that the title procurator was probably not borne by governors of Judea

before the time of Claudius (Cf AN Sherwin-White Roman Society and Roman Law in the First Century Oxford

Oxford University Press 1963 pp 6ff cited by Bruce Ibid pp 16-17 in footnote 10) 7

The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable Dr Steven Kreis holds a dual BA in Philosophy and

Political Science from Boston University (1977) and a MA and PhD in History from the University of Missouri-

Columbia (1984 1990) He has taught European intellectual social and economic history as well as courses in the

humanities at the college level since 1988 in south Florida and most recently in Raleigh NC 8

Conservative Bible interpreters who take the 6th century prophecies of Daniel more or less literally view the break-

up and course of Alexander the Greatrsquos empire and the subsequent historical episodes as fulfillment of Daniel 2 39-

43

Endnotes for Part II Chapter 1

1This passage is from Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome 1544 quoted by EM Blaiklock in Jesus Christ Man Or

Myth (Nashville Thomas Nelson Publishers 1974) Ch 2 pp 21-22 The late Professor Edward Musgrave Blaiklock

OBE LittD held the chair of Classics at Aukland University in New Zealand from 1947 to 1968 and had lectured

for nearly twenty years before that He was an expert in classical Greek and Latin as well as ancient and Biblical

history subjects on which he profusely wrote Besides authoring nearly sixty books and commentaries he wrote

hundreds of articles on classical subjects and Christian apologetics One of his most famous lectures given in 1951

was The Christian In Pagan Society The Tyndale Lecture (London and Nashville Tyndale House Publishers 1951) in

which Roman Tacitasrsquo attitude toward Christians is examined at length Hereafter however Michael Grantrsquos newer

translation of Tacitas Annuals will be cited Tacitas The Annals of Imperial Rome Translation Notes and Bibliography

by Michael Grant Preface by Theodore K Rabb ([Revised Edition Originally Published Harmondsworth

Middlesex UK Penguin Books Ltd 1989] Republished London The Folio Society 2006) 2

Paul Barnett Behind The Scenes of the New Testament Foreward by Michael Green (Downers Grove ILL Intervarsity

Press 1990) ldquoIntroductionrdquo pp 11-12 Dr Barnett has been the Master of Robert Menzies College Macquarie

University in Australia for over twenty years and was also the Anglican Bishop of North Sydney from 1990-2001 He

holds an MA Hons (Sydney) ThL from Australian College of Theology a BD Hons and a PhD (University of

London) His doctoral work and continuing research has been on the interaction between the New Testament and

first century Jewish history He is the author of at least seven books and scores of articles In this work his major

research mongraph Jesus amp The Rise of Early Christianity A History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove ILL

Intervarsity Press 1999) has been consulted by this author with enthusiastic approbation

3New Testament History London and New York Marshall Morgan amp Scott Ltd and Doubleday Galilee Books 1969) ldquo

From Cyrus to Augustusrdquo pp 1-2 Professor Bruce who passed away in 1990 was the Rylands Professor of Biblical

Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester from 1959 to 1978 He authored over fifty books on the Old

and New Testaments and several hundred articles He has been considered one of the leading evangelical scholars of

the 20th century 4

`` Pax Romana Pax Christi rdquo (Luke 21-20) A sermon preached at Westminister Theological Seminary in Escondido

California on April 23 1987 Professor Dennison is the Professor of Church History and Biblical Theology at

Northwest Theological Seminary in Linnwood Washington 5

Cf The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable and Michael Grant The Twelve Caesars New York

Scribners 1975) chs 1 amp 2 and FF Bruce New Testament History pp 15-19 6

The emperorrsquos own account can be found in the Rex Gestae Divi Augusti completed shortly before his death (AD

14) and preserved in the bilingual Monumentum Ancynanum (see section 34) cited as a footnote to the quotation here

by Professor Bruce here in New Testament History p 16 One other comment here Praefectus Iudaeae is the title given

to Pontius Pilate in the inscription bearing his name which archaeologists discovered in an excavation of the theater

of ancient Caesarea in 1961 Bruce observes that the title procurator was probably not borne by governors of Judea

before the time of Claudius (Cf AN Sherwin-White Roman Society and Roman Law in the First Century Oxford

Oxford University Press 1963 pp 6ff cited by Bruce Ibid pp 16-17 in footnote 10) 7

The History Guide Lectures On Ancient and Medieval History Lecture 12 Augustus Caesar and Pax Romana

httpwwwhistoryguideorgancientancienthtmltable Dr Steven Kreis holds a dual BA in Philosophy and

Political Science from Boston University (1977) and a MA and PhD in History from the University of Missouri-

Columbia (1984 1990) He has taught European intellectual social and economic history as well as courses in the

humanities at the college level since 1988 in south Florida and most recently in Raleigh NC 8

Conservative Bible interpreters who take the 6th century prophecies of Daniel more or less literally view the break-

up and course of Alexander the Greatrsquos empire and the subsequent historical episodes as fulfillment of Daniel 2 39-

44

40 Daniel 76 and Daniel 81-22 See for example the website Daniel Key to Bible Prophecy ldquo Introduction to Daniel

Chapter 8 rdquo from httpwwwtruthnetorgDanielChapter8 See the tabulation of these prophecies in Tim

LaHaye and Ed Hindson (Eds) The Popular Bible Prophecy Commentary ldquoThe Ram Goat and Little Hornrdquo pp 236-

241 Finally see the classic comments in John E Walwoord Daniel the Key to Prophetic Revelation (Moody Press

Chicago 1971) pg 188-189 9

New Testament History Ch 1 ldquo From Cyrus to Augustusrdquo p 3 It should be observed that the priestly law of the

Torah was officially interpreted for the people by priestly and scribal leadership whom had been appointed in post-

Exilic times by Ezra see Ezra 714 ff 10

This is undoubtably a later Graeco-Roman adaptation of the old Syrian and Canaanite Baal the consort of Astarte

the fertility and weather deity against which the Old Testament prophets passionately inveighed 11

The Hebrew phrase here is ltmw)v+m sWqqv which was satrical pun on the use of the name Barsquoal Shamem with

reference to Yahwehrsquos holy house Bruce (Ibid p 4) notes the Greek equivalent to this phrase ie

ς and cites I Maccabees 154 Daniel 813 927 1131 1211 and Mark 1314 See also Professor Brucersquos

comments on Jesusrsquo words from Mark 1314-19 in New Testament History ldquo Crisis Under Gaiusrdquo Ch 19 pp 256-7 12

This purification and reconstruction of the Temple ever since has been annually celebrated in the Jewish festival of

Hannukkah celebrated on the twenty-fifth of the month Kislev Hanukkah literally means ldquodedicationrdquo and since it

occurs near the winter soltice it has acquired both a historical and spiritual significance as a rebirth of life in the

midst of winter Bruce (Op Cit pp 4-5) says this ldquo pattern [was] established much earlier for Israelrsquos sacred year (cf I

Macc442-59 II Macc 118 101-8 John 1022)rdquo 13

Bruce explains about this temple founded by Onias IV whom Antiochus IV deposed from the high-priesthood in

174 BC See his footnote 7 p 5 and see his excellent documentation from I Maccabees Josephusrsquo Jewish Wars and

Antiquities Philo Judaeus and the Mishnah Bruce also remarks on p 6 ldquo There was no means of ascertaining the will

of God in the matter nor would there be until the expected prophet of the endtime arose to declare it until he did

Simon and his descendents were to occupy the high-priestly officerdquo 14

New Testament History pp 6-7 For a critical and elaborately detailed account of the culture of the Jews and

Jerusalem in the late 1st century BC and 1st century AD see the classic work of Joachim Jeremias Jerusalem in the

Time of Jesus An Investigation into the Economic and Social Conditions during the New Testament Period (Philadelphia

Fortress Press 1969) 15

Cf KR Bradley Slavery and Rebellion in the Roman World 140 ndash 70 BC (London Batsford Press 1989) cited in

Arthur Cotterell The Pimlico Dictionary Of Classical Civilizations (London Random House Pimlico Press 1989) 382-

383 It was Crassus with the later minor assistance of Pompey who put down the slave rebellion led by Spartacus in

72-71 BC During the winter of 72-71 BC the slave armies of Spartacus were trapped on the southern tip ndash the ldquotoerdquo

of Italy and General Crassus (112 ndash 53 BC) with an army of 40000 men there crushed the unfortunate rebels and their

gladitorial leaders Spartacus died on the battlefield but the prisoners taken alive were crucified along the Appian

way This was the regular method of the stern Romans to set an example for any future slave rebellions or conquered

nations who dared to resist the governance of Rome 16

Sallust Histories fragment iv 69 1-23 A Kurfess (ed) C Sallustius Crispus Bibliotheca Teubneriana (Leipzig

1954) pp 162-164 cited by F F Bruce New Testament History Ch 1 p 10 Even Cicero patriotic orator that he was

unflinchingly acknowledged the ldquounbridled and and outrageous behavior of the menrdquo Rome sent to govern the

provinces in his time Cf Pro Lege Manilia 65ff (written in 66 BC) 17

1QpHab iii 4-vi 12 (on Habakkuk 17-17) cited in FF Bruce New Testament History p 11 Professor Bruce also

comments further ldquo The Qumran lsquoKittimrsquo have also been interpreted as the Seleucid forces under Antiochus IV rdquo Cf

eg HH Rowley lsquo The Kittim and the Dead Sea Scrolls rsquo PEQ 88 (1956) pp 92ff 18

New Testament History Ch 1 p 12 Cf the precise summary of Jona Lendering ldquo Wars Between the Jews and the

Romans the subjagation of Judea (63 BCE) rdquo at httpwwwliviusorgja-jnjewish_wars jwar01htm

Generally Professor Lenderingrsquos articles are found on the web at Livius Articles on Ancient History

httpwwwliviusorg 19

Psa Sol 230-2 cited in Bruce New Testament History Ibid

45

20Princess Mariamme was the granddaughter of both the rival brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II But Herod

to whom morals were a minor inconvenience had already put away his first wife Doris in order to marry her Cf

further on Herodrsquos general character Peter Richardson Herod King of the Jews and friend of the Romans (Minneapolis

Fortress Press 1999) Michael Grant Herod the Great (New York American Heritage Press 1971) and Aryeh Kasher

and Eliezer Witztum Karen Gold translator King Herod A Persecuted Persecutor A Case Study in Psychohistory and

Psychobiography (Berlin Walter de Gruyter 2007) The last study is however a precarious indulgence in

reconstructing by inference the mindset of a man in the ancient world and tends to ignore the whole question of the

evil and sinfulness of Herodrsquos acts 21

Josephus Antiquities of the Jews xv 76 cited by FF Bruce New Testament History p 15 While King Herod publicly

identified himself as a Jew and was considered as such by some this religious identification was undermined by the

decadent lifestyle of the Herodians which would have earned them the antipathy of observant Jews See the

comments of Joseph Jacobs and Isaac Broyde Jewish Encyclopedia ldquoHerod Irdquo httpjewishencyclopediacom

viewjspartid=630ampletter=Hampsearch=Herod20the20 Great 1684 See also the provocative summary by

Rabbi Ken Spiro ldquo History Crash Course 31 Herod the Great rdquo at Aishcom httpwwwaish

comjlh48942446html 22

rdquo Herod the Greatrdquo in WikipediahttpenwikipediaorgwikiHerod_the_Great See further the excellent

exposition ldquo Herod Idumean King of the Jews rsquorsquo in Professor Paul Barnettrsquos Jesus amp the Rise of Early Christianity A

History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove ILL Intervarsity Press 1999) Ch 4 pp 66-89 23

This theme is explored for example in David Breed A History of the Preparation of the World for Christianity 2nd Edition New York Fleming R Revell Company 1893 A broad picture of the Graeco-Roman is to be found in the

works of the great classicist Michael I Rostovtzeff A History of the Ancient World 2 Vols Oxford UK The

Clarendon Press 1930 and his The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire 2 Vols Oxford The Clarendon

Press 1926 A excellent contemporary scholarly work on this topic is Everett Ferguson Backgrounds of Early

Christianity Second Edition Grand Rapids MI William B Eerdmans Publishing Company 1993 The Apostle Paul

himself appeals to this sense of universal right and wrong contained in menrsquos minds and hearts in Romans 1 and 2 24

Professor Ferguson (now Emeritus Professor of Church History at Abilene Christian University in Abilene Texas)

has gathered some wonderful facts and figures concerning the main land and sea routes which were most frequently

used by Romans and provincials in the early centuries See again his Backgrounds of Early Christianity Op Cit pp 87-

90 25

`` The Intertestamental Period and its Preparation for Christianityrdquo an essay by Pastor Michael R Jones of Zion

Baptist Church Taylor Michigan p 7 He is an honors graduate of William Tyndale College and Michigan Theology

Seminary (highest honors) The web address is httpwwwzionbaptist church taylorcompastorspage

intertestamental_period_prep_ christianitypdf See also the older classic work by Professor George P Fisher

of Yale University The Beginnings of Christianity With A View of the State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ (New

York Scribner Armstrong amp Co 1877) Ch 2 pp 40-74 26

The Beginnings of Christianity With A View of the State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ pp 60-63 Cf Also

Raymond Chevalier Roman Roads (Berkeley CA University of California Press 1976) pp 1-27 27

This chart is from ldquo Roman Roadsrdquo at httphistorylink102comRomeroman-roadshtm The Roman road

system was a construction effort stretched over a distance of 53000 miles (about 85000 kilometers) which

interconnected every part of the Empire It was Roman legions (sometimes employing the help of thousands of

slaves) which built them by the sweat of manual labor The classic saying thus came about ldquo All roads lead to

Romerdquo Thus one could begin travelling on a Roman road in northwest Africa travel around the whole

Mediterranean Sea and end up in Rome and yet never travel on anything but a Roman highway Cf also ldquo Roman

Road Construction and Dimensionsrdquo at httpwwwbrrpbhamacukconstructionconstructionhtml 28

Introduction to the New Testament ( Grand Rapids MI William B Eerdmans Publishing Company 1971) Pt II Ch

2 p 50

46

29New Testament Greek for Beginners (New York The Macmillian Press 1923) Ch1 ldquo New Testament Greek A Brief

Introduction rsquorsquo pp 1-6

30New Testament Greek Second Edition ldquo Lesson 1( s) Writing and Pronouncing Greek ldquo p 1 Cf further pp 2-12

31Pauline Kliengeld and Eric Brown ldquo Cosmopolitanismrdquo in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at

httpplatostanfordeduentriescosmopolitanism See also the explanation of this new cosmopolitan

viewpoint as the result of the Roman administration and political philosophy in Nicholas Purcell ldquo The Arts of

Governmentrdquo in John Boardman Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray (Eds) The Roman World The Oxford History of

the Classical World (Oxford and New York Oxford University Press 1998) Ch 7 pp 150-181 32

The German title of the first is Christus und die Caesaren (Hamburg 1952) This was translated as Christ and the

Caesars Historical Sketches Translated by Kaethe Gregor Smith and Ronald Gregor Smith (London SCM Press 1955)

The second title mentioned is Die Theologie des Neuen Testaments (Bonn 1941 Original Edition) The English edition is

based on the fifth German edition (Bern Francke Verlag 1955) and entitled New Testament Theology Translated by

John Marsh (New York The Macmillan Press 1955) Another equally famous work of the late Dr Stauffer (who died

in 1979) was his Jerusalem und Rom im Zeitalter Jesu Christi (Bern Francke Verlag 1957) The English translation of this

book is Jerusalem and Rome in the Time of Jesus Christ Ronald Gregor Smith trans (Philadelphia The Westminster

Press 1955) 33

Translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston (New York Alfred A Knopf 1959) Pt II 7 ldquo The

Apocalyptic Year rdquo pp 41-42 The original German title is JESUS Gestalt und Geschichte (Bern A Francke AG

Verlag 1957) 34

Words Charles Wesley Hymns and Sacred Poems 1739 alt Music MENDELSSOHN in his cantata FESTGESANG AN DIE

KUumlNSTLER 1840 (second movement Vaterland in deinem Gauen) the cantata celebrated the 400th anniversary of Jo-

hann Gutenbergrsquos invention of the printing press This arrangement by William H Cummings appeared in the Con-

gregational Hymn and Tune Book by Richard R Chope 1857 Alternate tune DENT DALE traditional tune in The Eng-

lish Hymnal (London Oxford University Press 1906) number 23