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Tag: roman

Roman Oversight of Jerusalem’s god
There’s been some trouble in town.

Now controversary and crowds are nothing out of the ordinary here (or in Roman oversight of Jerusalem), but I have been trying to determine how best to present an equitable view of recent events.

Oh, I might mention that today’s look back at history incites reaction in some no different than the acts concerning religion that caused mobs of angry men to fabricate their own stories on what actually took place.
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Can you imagine such a riot in a Common Era familiar to US?
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Jerusalem ~A.D. 56

Previously we witnessed the arrival of the Jewish Christ-follower Paul, or Saul as the Jews knew this Apostle of Jesus as he worshipped in the Temple along with thousands of others.

Jerusalem – a City Stirred Up

Today we will skip over some of Paul’s “Jewish” speeches, with which most Christians and Jews are most familiar from the Apostle’s THREE MISSIONARY JOURNEYS that go back several years to A.D. 47.

ACTS on Mission

Acts of the Apostles 21:
- Then the whole city was provoked…
- .. and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut.
³¹And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. ³²He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
- Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
- Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.
- he could not learn the facts because of the uproar
- he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
Let’s STOP here for a moment to view some conflicting reports.

The Antonia Fortress Barracks
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Note the several differences in archeological conjectures about the Temple and Antonia Fortress.
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A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes a thousand words will not paint the true picture.
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Even a simple scene from Luke's account enters into the controversies of the Jerusalem, Rome and religion to this day.
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And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”
Acts of the Apostles 21:35-36 ESV

A Greek View of Things

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?”

And he said, “Do you know Greek?
Acts21:37 μέλλων τε εἰσάγεσθαι εἰς τὴν παρεμβολὴν ὁ Παῦλος λέγει τῷ χιλιάρχῳ εἰ ἔξεστίν μοι εἰπεῖν τι πρὸς σέ ὁ δὲ ἔφη Ἑλληνιστὶ γινώσκεις

WHY does a ROMAN military ruler even care that this Paulos knows Greek?

Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a * revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
* to excite tumults and seditions in the State: Acts 17:6; Acts 21:38.

ROMANS, like the GREEKS, worship a pan-Theon of gods and show tolerance for the religions of all.

AS for the politics of war and assassins, ROME had conquered a crumbling democracy of the Athens with many gods and overran a Senate of its own Republic with daggers and legions to establish this Roman peace unconditionally ruled by those who served Caesars.

Paul replied,

“I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
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So the ROMAN COMMANDER here learns that in addition to Paul NOT being an Egyptian opponent of Caesar that he is an out-of-towner from CILICIA (probably here for the festival). 
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40 And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people.

And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language [dialect, probably Aramaic]..
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This accused man speaks Greek, the universal language of his Roman Empire AND also the local Judean language.
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A Jewish View of Things

Let’s just highlight a few of Paul’s points to this mob of Hebrews who were just going to stone him.

.. he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
Acts of the Apostles 21:28b-29 ESV
- Remember the controversy of the Jew Paul in Ephesus?
- But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  - Acts 19:34
- The Ephesians are pagans!
Acts of the Apostles 22:

Rav Sha’ul said, “Anashim, Achim, Avot, listen now to my hitstaddekut (defense).”

²And when they heard that Rav Sha’ul was addressing them in the language of the Hebrews, they were even more quiet.
Acts of the Apostles 22:1-2a Orthodox Jewish Bible
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A few of Paul's points:
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- brought up in this city,
- educated at the feet of Gamaliel
- strict manner of the law of our fathers,
- zealous for God as all of you are this day.
I persecuted this Way to the death..
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.. near to Damascus [nearly 20 years ago  in ~ A.D. 37]
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.. ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me,

‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’
Acts of the Apostles 22:8b ESV

.. ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth..
Acts 22:14b

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

A Roman Reaction

23 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air..
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And remember, just like two-score years [14] before when they stoned Stephen and two years before that when they murdered their Messiah Jesus, THE ROMAN SOLDIERS AND GOVERNMENT IS IN CHARGE!
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the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.
Acts of the Apostles 22:24 ESV
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Did these Roman soldiers under orders of their Tribune NOT believe this strange man the Jewish crowds insisted on killing?
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But when they had stretched him out with the leather straps [in preparation for the whip], Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to whip a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned [without a trial]?”
Acts of the Apostles 22:25 Amplified Version
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Paul, of course, knew the answer. For Romans promoted their culture under Law enforced by Centurions loyal to Rome's Caesar.

Once more, skipping ahead in Paul's arrival in Jerusalem: 
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So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.
Acts of the Apostles 22:29 ESV

a glance back toward Rome’s Empire

Herod the Great, half-Arab and half-Jew, was a politically adept client King of ROME, more Roman some believed than Judean.

Mostly, this King of the Jews (an official designation of the Roman Senate), is best known Biblically for his efforts to kill the Christ child while he tested the political winds of his time.

Herod, more famous for rebuilding and expanding the Second Temple ALSO built Jerusalem’s ROMAN fortress, naming it after Marc Antony.

Marcus Antonius had helped Caesar drive Pompey from Italy..

After Caesar’s assassination, Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) initially opposed Antony but later formed the Second Triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus. Antony helped defeat republican forces at Philippi and took control of Rome’s eastern provinces. On a mission to Egypt to question Cleopatra about her loyalty, he became her lover.. Octavian declared war on Cleopatra. Antony lost the Battle of Actium, and he and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, pursued by Octavian. When resistance became futile, they committed suicide.
Source: Britannica

Antonia Fortress
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Antonia Fortress had 3 towers 50 cubits (86 ft) high and a fourth tower 70 cubits (120 ft./36.75 m) high. 
The view from this highest tower, that, according to Josephus “commanded a view of the whole area of the Temple”
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At the place where the northern and western porticoes met, there was a staircase leading up to the roof of the porticoes. At this place there was an entrance to the Antonia Fortress.
Here we can imagine the scene portrayed in Acts 21 and 22, when the Roman captain, Lysias, allowed Paul to address his fellow countrymen from the safety of the Antonia.
Source:

All Roads Lead To ROME

Paul’s three Missionary Journeys have proclaimed Christ in many places. Next: Rome

By now, in the year of our Lord 56, the Apostle Paul will continue to balance his evangelism of all the world as a Roman citizen defending his faith in Jerusalem, but also in a race to the finish in Rome.

ACTS of the Apostle Paul

To Be Continued…

Talk of JESUS . com
May 31, 2024
Approaching Athena the ruling goddess of Athens
The Lord’s apostle to the gentiles — Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, a Roman citizen of CILICIA — has hurriedly fled Thessaloniki and Berea MACEDONIA sailing south along the Aegean coast of ACHIA to Athens.
Sailing from Macedonia to Athens
Approaching Athens
Unknown gods and goddesses
Acts of the Apostles 17:
The Jews (in the eyes of Athens)
Dialogue with men in the Agora
Sailing from Macedonia to Athens

Although fleeing the Jews we must think of Paulos as a ROMAN citizen on some sort of commercial Roman ship traveling from Macedonia to Achia. Yes, the destination of his ticket in Athens – a city of a 300 year old fading glory – but the more important city of Roman Achia is now Corinth.

What is more important here along Paul’s nearly 300 mile journey here is the context of culture so evident as he sails to Athens and then walks through the entrance of a city steeped in its former Hellenist glory.

Jews in Berea receive and believe the Gospel

Previously we addressed the ‘Greek‘ influence of Alexander the Great and Macedonian culture.

This modern-day statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, Greece partially demonstrates this Macedonian’s lasting influence even since his death in 323 B.C.

Paul would have no sooner left port in Macedonia than all would have viewed the great mountains of Greek mythology on their starboard side.
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(We will approach these gods Zeus and others upon arrival in Athens.)
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Mount Olympus – Highest peak in Greece, home of Zeus and the mythology of the Greek gods and goddesses

As we noted earlier the apostles’ journey along this mountainous coast of about 300 miles takes them from Macedonia (with its Alexandrian history) to Achia, the Roman region of strategic importance which includes Corinth on an inland isthmus and the port of Athens, formerly devastated by war but brought back to prominence by Rome as a ‘free city.’

Approaching Athens

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As their commercial Roman sailing ship rounded mountains descending into the Aegean on their approach Athens, Paul would have seen ruins of the destroyed Acropolis appear on the hill to their starboard side prior to their ship docking in port.

acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, “highest point, extremity”) and πόλις (polis, “city”). – source – Flickr (same as photo)

Upon arrival, as we noted last time, Paul sent his Berean brothers back to let the church know that he had arrived safely — again a 300 mile return trip while the Apostle Paul takes in the sights of this ancient ruined Greek city of Hellenist influence and lessor free city of Rome gaining the attention of its Emporer (a Caesar and god of the people).

Visitors to the Athens of A.D. 50 would have walked along streets lined with monuments and statues as they ascended the hill into the city and its agora (marketplace).

Unknown gods and goddesses

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
Acts of the Apostles 17:16

NOTE: Although I have researched several sources as a background for Paul’s Acts 17 speech in Athens, you will find this one most useful and detailed. – Roger@TalkofJesus.com

https://thomascahill.com/books

YOU and I cannot fully understand Paul’s more contemporary knowledge of his first century A.D. context of clashes between Hellenist, Roman and Hebrew cultures; however after a brief overview of the text we will take a glance at Athens through the A.D. 50 eyes of all.

Acts of the Apostles 17:

17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles,

and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are speaking? 20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. So we want to know what these things mean.”
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Luke now inserts a parenthetical glance at our 1st century A.D. philosophers of Athens.
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21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.)
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Luke's account continues from ACTS 17:22 'So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus..

We will listen to the apostle to the gentiles addressing the men of Athens next time, but first some CULTURAL CONTEXT.
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The Jews (in the eyes of Athens)

Saulos of Tarsus frequented the synagogues of his Hebrew brothers first in many other cities. He is a Pharisee who had believed in the Resurrection even prior to meeting the risen Messiah Jesus (same as Joshua in Hebrew) live and in Person.

This belief in the resurrection of JESUS, Ἰησοῦς in the common Greek language, yᵊhôšûaʿ or Joshua in Hebrew, held by some Pharisees and some Essenes but not the Jewish sect of the Sadducees attracted Pharisaic Jews and proselytes to Christ’s fulfillment of Hebrew Scripture.

Jews were merchants who mostly seemed to fit into the Pax Romana like any other religious culture except for one strange belief: Jews only had One God.

An even more strange belief of some Jews about what happened to the body after death seemed somewhat ghoulish. (Just imagine some neighbor walking around Athens after he died — laughable!) What a strange belief of some of these Jews.

For the Jews, who had little or no belief in the immortality of the soul, only salvation in one’s body could have any meaning.
Thomas Cahill, Why the Greeks Matter, p.260

The ‘peace’ of Rome accomplished in Athens by conquest was tenuous. Athenians and Romans were somewhat suspicious of Jews who the Emperor Claudius had just expelled from Rome.

Therefore, just as Saul of Tarsus had fled Macedonia secretly and swiftly, Jews in Achia and other cities of the Roman Empire most likely worshiped somewhat ‘under the radar’ in A.D. 50 so as to peaceably blend in with other Greeks.

As to Jewish cultural traditions of the past, Hellenist and Roman alike would have admired the great Jewish Empire of Solomon which was even more ancient than the centuries-old fallen glory of Alexander of Macedon who also conquered all of the world including the ancient cities of Greece.

To the Hellenist eyes of Athenian philosophers Jewish wisdom differed from their own ancient Greek wisdom. Paul understood both.

.. a Hebrew mode of argument .. proceeds by assertion and contrast rather than step-by-step reasoning [of ‘Socratic method’]
Thomas Cahill, excerpt ibid. p.165

17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles

Dialogue with men in the Agora

.. and in the marketplace^G58 every day with those who happened to be present.

You might think that based on previous witness in other cities the apostle would have steered clear of the agora where everybody who’s anybody gathers in town.

A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

But when her masters saw that their hope of profit had left, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, – Acts 16:19 LSB

Paulos, sent out by Christ to the world of the Greeks, is a Roman citizen with a public duty, a Greek-speaking orator with a heart for the One God revealed in Hebrew Scripture and by the Messiah and the Spirit of the Living God.

This visitor to Athens brings a unique perspective to Roman authorities and citizens of this free Roman city in addition to an appeal to traditional and classic Greek values represented in-part by their many gods.

The agora in Athens is crowded with Gentiles EVERY DAY.

ἀγορά –
1. any assembly, especially of the people
2. the place of assembly
3. market place, street
- Source: BlueLetterBible.org
The Greek or Hellenist or Roman agora is a multi-purpose public place.

For: public debating, in-person democratic elections, trials, for buying and selling and all kinds of business

Aristotle & the pantheon of Athenian gods of philosophy
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Classic Greece is long gone. Aristotle died in 322 B.C., his student Plato in 347 B.C. and Socrates had accepted his death sentence of hemlock for disbelief in the gods of Athens way back in 399 B.C.
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~A.D. 50

Acts 17:18

And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.

Who are these endless debaters of the Agora?

Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?”

Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

Classic Schools of Philo-sophy [love of wisdom]

Roman and Hellene aristocratic families would send their young men to Athens. It’s schools included: Cynicism, Stoicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism and others. Among these that Paul would have encountered:

Stoics taught virtuous detachment from the physical things of the world (a sort of monastic approach). Epicureans taught to love of life and pleasure much to the liking of most powerful Roman and well-healed Greek men celebrating so many festivals of various gods with little thought of wisdom at all.

In fact, over the centuries since the esteemed Greek philosophers Athens and other Hellenist cities had had so many varied festivals and pantheons of gods that no man could truly remember them all.

THE LOVERS OF WISDOM continually TALKED about gods and religion as a contest between PHILOSOPHERS seeking advantage over their opponent without seeking the TRUTH of the LOGOS which the Apostle Paul was about to present.

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus

Acts of the Apostle Paul in ATHENS — To be continued…
April 14, 2023
The Keeper of the Philippian Prison
What is your experience as the keeper of something important?

Have you ever been the one of importance kept safe in some place?

(Were YOU ever the prisoner OR a jailer guard charged as the keeper a prisoner for justice?)
Prison and Prisoners
S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies
Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?
Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi
Acts of Awesome Faith
Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge
Prison and Prisoners

IF the only light you ever see seeped filtered though a hole in the ceiling of your cell WOULD YOU SING?

(Likely, neither would I.)

Roman prisons were nothing to sing about, but that didn’t stop Paul and Silas.

S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies

Imprisonment was not a sentence under Roman statutory law.. Incarceration (publica custodia) .. was intended to be a temporary measure prior to trial or execution; abuses of this principle occurred but were officially censured. Located near the law courts, the [prison (carcer) with a dungeon (oubliette)] was used as a jail or holding cell for short periods before executions and as a site for executions.
Source: Wikipedia Commons

Of course this Philippian carcer of the Roman colony is bound by the same same rules for jailer and prisoner alike according to Roman Law and the SOP manual of its occupying Legions of this Greek-speaking European colony of Macedonia.

φυλακή – Strong’s translates G5438 in the following manner: prison (36x), watch (6x), imprisonment (2x), hold (1x), cage (1x), ward (1x).

Paul and Silas end up in the ‘temporary’ place near the agora and forum where they have already been punished severely by flogging under the jurisdiction of a Roman Magistrate for unspecified crimes against culture and misdemeanors for which they will most likely be run out of town rather than executed.

Therefore, this evening they have been placed into the care of a prison keeper (jailer) in Philippi for final disposition of their case in the morning.

Previously:

A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

ACTS 16: 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

.. they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?

φυλάσσω –

Strong’s G5442 – phylassō, Probably from φυλή (G5443) through the idea of isolation
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NOTE, however the same responsibility of the Roman 'keeper' of prisoners AND the jailer's two Roman prisoners, apostles sent out with the message of the Jerusalem Council to communicate interpretation of the LAW for these Gentiles as well as the few Jews of Philippi. 
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to guard
- to watch, keep watch
- to guard or watch, have an eye upon: lest he escape
- to guard a person (or thing) that he may remain safe
- to guard i.e. care for, take care not to violate
  - to observe
- to observe for one’s self something to escape
  - to avoid, shun flee from
  - to guard for one’s self (i.e. for one’s safety’s sake) so as not to violate, i.e. to keep, observe (the precepts of the Mosaic law
Source: BlueLetterBible.org

And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
ACTS of the Apostles 16:4 KJV – Mission of Paul, Silas and Timothy

Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi

A guard of the second watch [9 pm] comes on duty and shouts down to you in the hole and other prisoners in cells near you, “Lights out!” He then extinguishes the candle above expecting all to go to sleep.

Unlike the other prisoners YOU and your brother have been locked in here with wooden stocks bound to your ankles and chained to the floor of your cell.

What now?

We prayed for a while. Out loud. In fact, we recited much scripture as we prayed. Other prisoners complained to us, but after no intervention from the keeper assigned to this second watch they had no choice but to sleep (or just ignore us).

A little later we hear sounds through the darkness of the third watch [midnight-3 am] keeper coming on duty.

Silas starts singing and Paul joins his voice to the familiar Psalm:

Acts of Awesome Faith

As we continue with the Acts of Paul, Silas and Timothy in Philippi put yourself in their place — an uncertain and unpleasant prison of the moment. Hear the cries of each soul cast into the trembling darkness — the fear of God resounding in each heart.
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What Psalm? (For they knew so many from faithful worship.) 

YOU may find other PSALMS on TalkofJESUS.com which will encourage you in such dark circumstances: https://talkofjesus.com/shaken/ 

Perhaps this: The LORD is My Salvation from Psalm 27:13 OR
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Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge

A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
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With my voice I cry out to the LORD;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.

When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.

I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.
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Suppose that you are another prisoner listening to the apostles sing..

And then, something happens!

Acts of Paulos and Silas

δικαίωμα Παῦλος δέ Σιλᾶς

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice,

“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

29 And [he] called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all,” Paul will write a decade later to the church in Philippi from a prison in Rome.

Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
ACTS of the apostles 16:30-31 ESV – Keeper of the Philippian jail to Paul & Silas, followed by the apostles’ answer.

Acts of the Apostles 16 – To Be Continued in the light of a new day in Philippi
March 16, 2023