The Roman Empire eventually encompassed what was at the time the known world. Today the known world encompasses the globe. With all the changes in the world how are things today different from the world of the Roman Empire? How are they the same?
Looking at a map of the Roman Empire we see that it encompassed much of what is now Europe, Southeast Asia, and the areas immediately surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The Romans are well known for their roads, aqueducts, and buildings many of which can still be seen today in the areas that the empire covered. The roads that they created were necessary for the flow of information, their “information highway.” Much of the empire was bordered by water which provided another way to get information, goods, and the army from one place to another. Today we are not encumbered by distance. With the Internet we can send an email half way around the world in an instant, something that took the Romans days, even weeks to accomplish.
There was little government involvement in running the empire as this was left to the cities to take care of. “Military installations were spread throughout the empire but, except in troubled areas (like Galilee and Judea), direct Roman intrusion into daily affairs was minimal.” (Achtemeier, Green, & Thompson, 2001, p. 28) The Roman army was in place to keep the peace within its borders. Countries today have military installations around the world to keep the peace.
Land taxes, income taxes, and toll taxes were used to pay wages and fund the military. The bulk of the taxes fell to those who were already struggling to get by. In addition to these taxes Jews imposed additional taxes which furthered the hardship. The rich could get out of paying taxes by giving money and time to the running of the cities. Every country collects taxes of some sort to help pay for the government and bulk of the burden of these taxes falls to those who have the hardest time paying them. Taxes that are collected still go to paying for wages and the military. In the United States and other countries taxes also go to providing social services.
The Jewish people lost their national identity but they stuck to following the Law of Moses and ultimately went from a country to a religion. (Achtemeier et al., 2001, p. 32-33). From this grew what Josephus refers to as the “four parties within Judaism – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenses, and the “Fourth Philosophy.””(Achtemeier et al., p. 33) These groups made up a small portion of the population of the Jews. Today putting your religious identity before your national identity can still get you arrested and in some countries killed. Just like the “four parties” that Josephus put Judaism into, religion today is splintered along beliefs. In Christianity there are different “parties” each with their own subtle nuances. Like Israel, many countries, like France once considered a Christian country, are no longer associated with a specific religion.
Jews in living in the 1st century were separated from God by where they fell in the structure of their culture. If you wanted to be a priest you were out of luck unless you had the right parents, you had to be born into the priesthood. Today we are all ministers of our faith where ever God has placed us. Judaism could be looked at like an exclusive club that only certain people could get into whereas Christianity is inclusive and all are invited. If you had a problem with a Jewish priest, you had a problem with God. Today if we have a problem with a minister we refer to the teaching from Matthew 18:15-17 where we are given instructions on how to resolve the problem. (Oxford University Press, Inc., 1977, p. 1195)
The Scriptures, while considered by all to be God’s Word, were interpreted differently by those who taught it to the people. Today Scripture is still interpreted differently by those who teach. Through out history the Scriptures have been used to justify all kinds of abuses. In the New Testament world the father had the ultimate power and final say in a family. The family in this included his wives, children, slaves, and anyone else who lived in the household. This could and did lead to all kinds of abuses, physical and mental, that would have a person today in therapy. This paternal oversight did not stop in the home; it carried over into the government with the emperor seeing himself as the father of the empire. Outside of the home reciprocity was based not on kinship but on who did what for whom. Different groups emerged from this and their “overlapping obligation spread throughout the empire, ultimately with everyone indebted to the emperor as benefactor…” (Achtemeier et al., 2001, p. 49) This same web of “overlapping obligation” can be seen in many governments today. In the United States this is what has led to the ear marks that get attached to legislation to get certain pet projects funded. Yet unlike today money was not as important in determining your power in the 1st century. Power and privilege were things that you were born into and could lose. Like today you could earn it, but it was more difficult and you could still lose it.
In some ways things have changed and in others they have remained the same. Today the world bigger place geographically, but with all the advances that have been made it is also much smaller. People are still paying taxes to governments but now some of that money is funding social programs. We still struggle for our identity as God’s people. Fathers in most cultures today do not wield the power that they did in the 1st century and they have also become more nurturing with their families. Things have changed and we must have a good understanding of the 1st century Roman Empire if we are to understand the writings of the New Testament.
Looking at a map of the Roman Empire we see that it encompassed much of what is now Europe, Southeast Asia, and the areas immediately surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The Romans are well known for their roads, aqueducts, and buildings many of which can still be seen today in the areas that the empire covered. The roads that they created were necessary for the flow of information, their “information highway.” Much of the empire was bordered by water which provided another way to get information, goods, and the army from one place to another. Today we are not encumbered by distance. With the Internet we can send an email half way around the world in an instant, something that took the Romans days, even weeks to accomplish.
There was little government involvement in running the empire as this was left to the cities to take care of. “Military installations were spread throughout the empire but, except in troubled areas (like Galilee and Judea), direct Roman intrusion into daily affairs was minimal.” (Achtemeier, Green, & Thompson, 2001, p. 28) The Roman army was in place to keep the peace within its borders. Countries today have military installations around the world to keep the peace.
Land taxes, income taxes, and toll taxes were used to pay wages and fund the military. The bulk of the taxes fell to those who were already struggling to get by. In addition to these taxes Jews imposed additional taxes which furthered the hardship. The rich could get out of paying taxes by giving money and time to the running of the cities. Every country collects taxes of some sort to help pay for the government and bulk of the burden of these taxes falls to those who have the hardest time paying them. Taxes that are collected still go to paying for wages and the military. In the United States and other countries taxes also go to providing social services.
The Jewish people lost their national identity but they stuck to following the Law of Moses and ultimately went from a country to a religion. (Achtemeier et al., 2001, p. 32-33). From this grew what Josephus refers to as the “four parties within Judaism – the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenses, and the “Fourth Philosophy.””(Achtemeier et al., p. 33) These groups made up a small portion of the population of the Jews. Today putting your religious identity before your national identity can still get you arrested and in some countries killed. Just like the “four parties” that Josephus put Judaism into, religion today is splintered along beliefs. In Christianity there are different “parties” each with their own subtle nuances. Like Israel, many countries, like France once considered a Christian country, are no longer associated with a specific religion.
Jews in living in the 1st century were separated from God by where they fell in the structure of their culture. If you wanted to be a priest you were out of luck unless you had the right parents, you had to be born into the priesthood. Today we are all ministers of our faith where ever God has placed us. Judaism could be looked at like an exclusive club that only certain people could get into whereas Christianity is inclusive and all are invited. If you had a problem with a Jewish priest, you had a problem with God. Today if we have a problem with a minister we refer to the teaching from Matthew 18:15-17 where we are given instructions on how to resolve the problem. (Oxford University Press, Inc., 1977, p. 1195)
The Scriptures, while considered by all to be God’s Word, were interpreted differently by those who taught it to the people. Today Scripture is still interpreted differently by those who teach. Through out history the Scriptures have been used to justify all kinds of abuses. In the New Testament world the father had the ultimate power and final say in a family. The family in this included his wives, children, slaves, and anyone else who lived in the household. This could and did lead to all kinds of abuses, physical and mental, that would have a person today in therapy. This paternal oversight did not stop in the home; it carried over into the government with the emperor seeing himself as the father of the empire. Outside of the home reciprocity was based not on kinship but on who did what for whom. Different groups emerged from this and their “overlapping obligation spread throughout the empire, ultimately with everyone indebted to the emperor as benefactor…” (Achtemeier et al., 2001, p. 49) This same web of “overlapping obligation” can be seen in many governments today. In the United States this is what has led to the ear marks that get attached to legislation to get certain pet projects funded. Yet unlike today money was not as important in determining your power in the 1st century. Power and privilege were things that you were born into and could lose. Like today you could earn it, but it was more difficult and you could still lose it.
In some ways things have changed and in others they have remained the same. Today the world bigger place geographically, but with all the advances that have been made it is also much smaller. People are still paying taxes to governments but now some of that money is funding social programs. We still struggle for our identity as God’s people. Fathers in most cultures today do not wield the power that they did in the 1st century and they have also become more nurturing with their families. Things have changed and we must have a good understanding of the 1st century Roman Empire if we are to understand the writings of the New Testament.
References
Achtemeier, P. J., Green, J. B., & Thompson, M. M. (2001). Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Oxford University Press, Inc. (1977). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc..
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