For Christians, it is a core belief that God came in human flesh as Jesus and made himself known in a specific time and place — 1st Century C.E. Palestine. While Christians have long held that our beliefs can be translated into every language and culture (unlike other religions such as Islam, which holds the Q’aran is only the perfect word of Allah when it’s written in Arabic), it is nevertheless the case that one’s understanding of Jesus and his teachings will be enhanced if we bear in mind the contexts and cultures he was speaking to. There are two immediate ways that this must be applied. First, I strongly believe Christians need to increase their understanding of ancient Jewish laws, customs, and culture. Without that, Jesus’ references to things like Jubilee, Sabbath, and even his death on the cross during Passover lose much of their significance. I strongly believe that much of what makes Christianity unique and special is lost when we ignore the Jewish underpinnings of the New Testament.
However, the second cultural context that we must keep in mind is that of the Roman Empire, which by the time of Jesus had displaced the Greek empire and established control of the entire Mediterranean region. While in our time it has become fashionable in elite circles to jettison learning about the “Classics” in favor of non-Western perspectives, Christians of all backgrounds will always derive benefits from learning about ancient Greek and Roman culture because it is in that context that the New Testament was written. When Paul, Luke, Mark, and others write to their readers, they include many words, phrases, and concepts that are loaded with meaning that would have been commonly understood by those who lived in this Greco-Roman context, but that are harder for us modern readers to grasp. Thus while the Good News of Jesus is simple enough that even a child can understand it, modern adults can benefit from a more thorough understanding of Roman history and culture. Jesus could have come at another time in history (say, during the Babylonian or Persian empires), but he was born right at the dawn of the Roman Empire—which has significance for how we understand his teachings and ministry.
Here are three specific insights that have been on my mind recently.
1. Adopted by God
While Julius Caesar was the man who effectively ended the Roman Republic by crossing the Rubicon with his army and assuming emergency powers in 49 BCE, it was his adopted son Octavian (known now as Caesar Augustus) who really ushered in the age of Roman Empire. It is this same Caesar Augustsus who is named in the beginning of Luke, and every person in the Roman Empire would be well familiar with his story. After Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, his will stated that Octavian, who was biologically only a great nephew, was to be considered as his adopted son. As historian Adrian Goldsworthy writes in Augustus: First Emperor of Rome, “Adoption was taken very seriously by the Romans, and an adopted son became to all intents and purposes the same as a true son…a young man who received Julius Caesar’s wealth and name inevitably also took on the political expectations of continuing the family’s success.” Interestingly, Julius Caesar was soon to be consecrated as a god, and Augustus therefore became known as “the son of god.” This Augustus, the son of a god, would go on to defeat all his enemies, both domestic and foreign, conquer the entire known world, and establish a long era of “peace” through overwhelming military might. Moreover, he would also be installed as “pontifex maximus”, or “high priest,” therefore solidifying his status as both ruler of the physical world and interceding for his people to the gods in the spiritual realm.
[As one example of how this was understood by the people of this time, in 9 BCE an inscription in western Turkey described Augustus this way: “Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good news/gospel/evangelion [εὐαγγέλιον] for the world that came by reason of him.” Notice how much of this language about Caesar would later be appropriated by early Christians to refer to Jesus! To call Jesus as savior and lord was to say that Caesar was not—a very controversial and dangerous claim.]
Augustus would die in about 14 CE, when Jesus was a teenager, dying at about the ninth hour of the day (the same hour Jesus would later die on the cross). Augustus’ face was the most recognized in the entire ancient world, having been copied onto millions of coins. It is very likely that the coin that Jesus held in the Temple when questioned about the matter of taxation had Caesar Augustus’ face on it.
With all this in mind, it is incredibly interesting to me that in Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians, he explicitly uses the imagery of “adoption” to describe our relationship to God. In Romans 8 he writes, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship….Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his suffering in order that we may also share in his glory.” These Roman Christians would be well aware of Augustus’ adoption as a son of god, and now, Paul was using similar imagery to describe the status of Christians in relation to God! Paul was stating that in the same way that Augustus inherited his adopted father’s kingdom, with all of the rights and responsibilities, so we as Christians now inherit our adopted Father’s Kingdom! And unlike Augustus, who died and left his kingdom to others, as Christians we believe that Jesus rose again and continues to reign, as our brother and co-heir to the Kingdom of God. However unlike the peace that Rome brings, which comes through violence and domination, the peace of Christ comes through love, servanthood and suffering. Thus Romans 8 —a powerful passage even without these insights— becomes even more potent and interesting once we know the cultural and historical context.
2. Crowned as King
In the Roman Empire, emperors were seen as quasi-gods, worthy of worship and elaborate ceremonies establishing their status and right to rule. Interestingly, the coronation ceremony for a Roman Emperor is directly adapted in the Gospel of Mark in reference to the crucifixion of Jesus. Compare the following description of a Roman emperor’s inauguration to how Mark describes Good Friday (taken from Shane Claiborne’s Jesus For President):
A Roman Coronation
The Praetorian Guard (six thousand soldiers) gathered in the Praetorium. The would-be Caesar was brought into the middle of the gathering.
Guards went to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, got a purple robe, and placed it on the candidate. The candidate was also given an olive-leaf wreath made of gold and a scepter for the authority of Rome.
Caesar was loudly acclaimed as triumphant by the Praetorian Guard.
A procession began through the streets of Rome, led by soldiers. In the middle was Caesura. Wlalking behind him was a sacrificial bull, whose death and blood would mark Caesar’s entrance into the divine pantheon. Walking next to the bulls as a slave, who carried an axe to kill the bull.
The procession moved to the highest hill in Rome, the Capitolene hill (“head hill.”) On this hill is the Capitoleum temple.
The candidate stood before the temple altar and was offered, by the slave, a bowl of wine mixed with myrrh. He took as if to accept, and then gave it back. The slave also refused, and then the wine was poured out either onto the altar or onto the bull. Right after the wine was poured, the bull was killed.
The Caesar-to-be gathered his second in command on his right hand and his third in command on his left. Then they ascended to the throne of the Capitoleum.
The crowd acclaimed the inaugurated emperor. And for the divine seal of approval, the gods would send signs such as a flock of doves or a solar eclipse.
VERSUS
Jesus’ Coronation in Mark
Jesus was brought to the Praetorium in Jerusalem. The whole company of soldiers (200+) was gathered there.
Soldiers brought Jesus a wreath (of thorns), a scepter (an old stick), and a purple robe.
Sarcastically, the soldiers acclaimed, mocked, and paid homage to Jesus.
The procession began. But instead of a bull, the would-be king and god became the sacrifice, the bull. But he could not carry the instrument of death and be the sacrifice, so they stopped Simon of Cyrene and gave him the cross to carry.
Jesus was led up to Golgotha, which means “head hill.”
Jesus was offered wine, and he refused. Right after, it is written, “and they crucified him.”
Next came the account of those being crucified on his right and his left. The word for them —lestes—can mean terrorist or insurrectionist.
Jesus was again acclaimed (mocked) and a divine sign confirmed God’s presence. The temple curtain ripped in two, the sky darkened, and an earthquake hit. Finally, the Roman centurion (who had undoubtedly pledged allegiance to Caesar, the other ‘son of god”), converted and sincerely acclaimed this man as the ‘son of God.”
Once we notice these parallels, which are so similar that they have to be intentional by Mark, it gives us more insight into the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross. Some Christians only view his death as comparable to that of a sacrificial lamb, taking on sins like that of a Jewish sin offering. While that is certainly part of the metaphor, we see here that Jesus’ death on the cross is also connected to his enthronement as the son of God and ruler of the kingdom. But in contrast to the enthronement and deification of a Caesar, which was all about praising Caesar’s strength and giving honor to him, Jesus’ enthronement comes through suffering, dishonor, and weakness. Jesus’ upside-down Kingdom stands in market contrast to the Kingdom of Caesar. And similarly, if Jesus tells his followers to take up our crosses and follow him, then we must understand that our path to glory will similarly involve suffering and weakness, rather than worldly strength and domination.
3. Jesus as the Ultimate “Trophy”
I wrote in a previous blog post how Jesus’ death on the cross seems incredibly similar to the ancient Greek practice of erecting “trophies”, which involve placing the empty armor of one’s defeated and disarmed enemy on a tall wooden post to display to everyone. What I recently learned was how this practice was adopted by the Romans and even explicitly put in place in Jerusalem, very near to where Jesus would be crucified! Adrian Goldsworthy writes that around 20 BCE, King Herod (operating under Rome’s authority) built a massive hippodrome (amphitheater) in Jerusalem in honor of Augustus Caesar. This hippodrome was decorated with “mounted trophies commemorating his victories and listing them by name. The trophies were to the traditional Roman design, representing a post and crossbeams bearing shields and topped by a helmet, all supposedly taken from the enemy. A crowd of [Jewish] Jerusalemites mistook the shapes for crude figures of men and immediately broke into an uproar,” since it seemed to be a violation of the commandment against graven images. King Herod, eager to calm the mob, had the helmet and shields removed, showing that it was not a figure of a man at all but merely a post and crossbeam. At this the crowd was relieved and able to move on.
BUT— think about the significance of this imagery, that just a few football fields from where Jesus would be crucified, stood a massive Roman hippodrome decorated with wooden…crosses! The connection may be lost to us, but would have been very clear to the early Christians—Jesus death on the cross would have been seen as a victory for Rome and Jesus’ opponents; his beaten and bloody body nailed on a cross a visual trophy of who really had power—Caesar. But for the early Christians, it was this very death on the cross that was actually the emblem of Jesus’ power and victory, because it was there that he exhausted and overcame all the power of sin and evil, triumphing over them through his resurrection on the third day. Thus we see Christians appropriating the very symbol of Roman power and authority—the cross—and using it as an illustration of the way that Jesus conquers his enemies. But unlike Rome, which uses the cross to dominate and humiliate the opponents of Caesar, Jesus is the one who willingly chooses to be killed and humiliated—and it’s in this way that he shows his true power. Christ crucified is a “stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23), but for Christians, Jesus on the cross is the ultimate trophy of the great victory he accomplished there. While a Roman trophy is showing that the victim has been disarmed, at the cross it was Jesus who “having disarmed the powers and authorities, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). Do you see how much more potent and interesting these Bible verses become when better understand the historical context?
There are many more examples that we could go into, of obscure Roman customs and traditions that give greater insight into the New Testament. But hopefully for now these three serve to whet your appetite, illustrating just how vital it is that Christians study history and culture—otherwise we are only scratching the surface of what the authors of the New Testament wanted us to know about Jesus.