13. excursus, the roman empire at the time of luke's gospel

Lesson #13 Excursus, the Roman Empire at the

Time of Lukes Gospel

1 Excursus, the Roman Empire

In Lessons 11 & 12 we con-nued our journey to Jerusalem, listening with the crowds to Jesus teaching and conversa-on, and in both lessons we focused our a@en-on on Jesus parables, 5 of them in Lesson #11 and 8 of them in Lesson #12. In both lessons we reiterated that:

A parable is a succinct, didac-c story thrown alongside a common, ordinary truth to illuminate that truth in a striking and memorable fashion. Parables are meant to illuminate, not to hide or obscure.

Although Jesus did not invent the parable as a pedagogic device, he was a master at using it, and some of the synop-c gospels most memorable moments take place within Jesus parables.


All three synop-c gospels were wri@en 30-40 years aPer Jesus walked this earth, and each one of the gospels portrays Jesus in light of events that followed his death, burial and resurrec-on. Consequently, each gospel writer looks back at Jesus life, and his view is colored by his understanding of those historical events.

The Gospel according to Luke was probably wri@en some-me in the early to mid 70s, a -me of enormous turmoil in the Roman Empire. As we learned in our studies of Ma@hew and Mark, the back-story begins with the emperor Nero, who rose to power in A.D. 54. A brutal sociopath, Nero murdered his mother Agrippina in A.D. 59, set re to Rome in A.D. 64 (blaming the re on the Chris-ans) and began the rst state-sponsored persecu-on of the Church in Rome, A.D. 64-68.

During Neros reign the great Jewish revolt of A.D. 66-73 began, a revolt that resulted in the death of 1.2 million Jews, the destruc-on of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the Jewish exile from Pales-ne that lasted nearly 2,000 years, un-l the founding of the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948.


This experience was a current event at the -me the Gospel according to Luke was being composed, and it could not help but color our authors understanding of Jesus thoughts and ac-ons.

Here in Lesson #13 we examine Luke himself, and we review those events that had such an impact, not only on Lukes gospel, but on all the wri-ngs of the New Testament.


Although the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are anonymous, the early church unanimously held that Luke was the author of both.

Raymond Brown, perhaps the greatest Roman Catholic Scripture scholar of the 20th century, points out that the Muratorian fragment (A.D. 170) and St. Irenaeus (A.D. 180) support Lukes authorship, and the earliest manuscript of the gospel (Papyrus Bodmer, p75 c. A.D. 175-225) explicitly ascribes the work to Luke.



Papyrus Bodmer (P75) is the oldest surviving manuscript of the Gospel according to Luke, da-ng c. 175-225 The manuscript resides at the Va-can Library.

To understand the Gospel according to Luke it is essen-al that we understand the biographical, historical and cultural context from which Lukes gospel emerges. Specically, we must understand:

1. The perspec-ve from which Luke writes his gospel;

2. How Lukes perspec-ve informs and shapes the narra-ve that his gospel presents; and

3. The historical and cultural context from which Lukes gospel emerges.


Not me.

Excursus, the Roman Empire

Thats a good place to begin!

Ok, so what do we really know about

Luke?

8

Heres what we know from Scripture itself: The earliest reference to Luke is in St. Pauls le@er to Philemon (1: 24), in which Paul writes: Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as well as Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my co-workers.

Paul is wri-ng from Rome, some-me between A.D. 60-62, to Philemon, who lives in Colossae in Asia Minor. Here, we learn that Luke is with Paul in Rome, as he writes.

The 2nd reference is in St. Pauls epistle to the Colossians (4: 10-11, 14), in which he writes: Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greeKngs, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas . . . and Jesus, who is called Justus, who are of the circumcision [that is, Jews] . . . [and] Luke the beloved physician sends greeKngs, as does Demas.

Colossians is also wri@en from Rome between A.D. 60-62, and it is addressed to the church that meets in Philemons house (cf. Philemon 1: 2). Here, we learn that Luke is both a gen-le and a physician.


Dr. Creasy visits the unexcavated tel of Colossae in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).


Photography by Ana Maria Vargas

Logos students atop the tel of Colossae.




Colossae

Rome

Jerusalem

Some-me between A.D. 64-68 (most likely in 68), St. Paul is on death row in the Mamer-ne Prison in Rome, caught in Neros net during the persecu-on. In 2 Timothy 4: 9-11 (his last le@er), Paul writes to Timothy, his young protg: Try to join me soon, for Demas, enamored of the present world, deserted me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to GalaKa, and Titus to DalmaKa. Luke is the only one with me.

Only Luke stays the course, a@ending to Paulas his physician, traveling companion and friendfrom A.D. 50 un-l Pauls execu-on in Rome in A.D. 68.


Dr. Creasy and Logos students visit the Mamer-ne Prison in Rome.



This is the cell where tradi-on says St. Paul spent his nal days.



On Pauls 2nd missionary journey (A.D. 50-52) Paul, Silas and Timothy leave Pisidian An-och and make their way to Troas; from which they con-nue on to Philippi, ul-mately ending in Corinth where Paul spends the next 18 months.

In Acts Luke writes about Paul in the 3rd person plural (they and them) un-l Paul and company reach Troas. At that point (Acts 16: 10) Luke shiPs the pronouns to the rst person plural (we and us), indica-ng that Luke is now traveling with Paul and his companions.



Troas

Corinth

Pisidian An-och

Syrian An-och

Pauls 2nd Missionary Journey

Dr. Creasy teaching in Troas, at the harbor from which Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke set sail for Europe



At Troas, the Aegean Sea in the background.



Excursus, the Roman Empire 20

Andrea Mantegna. Luke the Evangelist [detail from the St. Luke altarpiece] (tempera on wood), 1454.

Brera Art Gallery, Milan

So, we may reasonably conclude that: Luke was a physician, a gen-le who lived in Troas;

Luke did not meet Paul and knew nothing about Jesus un-l A.D. 50, when Paul and company arrived in Troas;

Luke then leP Troas and traveled with Paul for the next 18 years, during which -me he learned about Jesus as viewed through Pauls eyes;

Luke stayed with Paul un-l Pauls execu-on in Rome, A.D. 68;

Some-me aPer thatin the early to mid-70sLuke wrote both his gospel and Acts; and

Tradi-on holds that Luke later lived in Syrian An-och (where Pauls home church was located) and that he died in Boeo-a, a region in central Greece, in A.D. 85.

asdfadsf

Not me.


That sounds reasonable to

me!

I suspect that Pauls thinking greatly inuenced Lukes portrayal of Jesus in his

gospel.

21

Yes, that would, indeed, be a reasonable assump-on. St. Paul was rst and foremost the Apostle to the gen-les (Romans 11: 13), and Pauls message to the gen-lesincluding to Lukeembodied a very high view of Jesus . . .

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he empKed himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2: 6-11)


Not me.


It sure is!

Thats a very dierent perspec-ve on Jesus than we nd in either Ma@hew

or Mark!

23

In addi-on to his very high Christology, St. Paul held a dis-nctly apocalyp-c view of the future, believing rmly that in the end -mes Jesus would return . . . and he believed it would happen within his life-me:

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are leV unKl the coming of the Lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep [that is, died]. For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise rst. Then we who are alive, who are leV, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

(1 Thessalonians 4: 15-17)


Not me.


I think thats fair to say.

So, Pauls (and Lukes) understanding of Jesus return and the Kingdom of God ts right in with Ma@hew and

Mark, but their Christology is much higher.

25

But were not nished yet! We also have to understand what was going on in the Roman Empire during the -me that Luke was traveling with PaulA.D. 50-68as well as what happened immediately aPerward, leading up to Luke composing his gospel and Acts. Understandably, Lukes immediate historical context colored his understanding of Jesus, adding tone and texture not only to his portrayal of Jesus, but also to how he viewed the emergence of the early Church.


Not me.


Good point!

I wonder, though, if Luke was fully aware of the historical events of his day, and if so, does he reect them accurately? APer all, the Roman Empire was a big place, and Luke didnt have the Internet, Facebook

or Twi@er!

27

Sir William Ramsay, the foremost authority on the New Testament in his day, wri-ng in 1915, says that Luke is a historian of the rst rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy . . . he should be placed among the very greatest of historians.1

E.M. Blaiklock, Professor of Classics at Auckland University, wri-ng in 1970, says that for accuracy of detail, and for evocaKon of atmosphere, Luke stands, in fact, with Thucydides.2


1 Ramsay. The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament. London! Hodder and Stoughton, 1915), p. 222.

2 Blaiklock. The Archaeology of the New Testament. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1970), p. 96.

Its important to understand, however, that ancient historians, such as Thucydides and Herodotusor Luke, for that ma@ershould not be judged according to modern standards.

New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson rightly observes that Lukes account is selected and shaped to suit his apologeKc interests, not in deance of but in conformity to ancient standards of historiography.3

Luke draws on the history he knowsas he perceives itand he uses that history to reinforce his narra-ve and to create verisimilitude.

3 Johnson. The Acts of the Apostles (Louisville: Liturgical Press, 1992), p. 474.


Not me.


But, its good to review!

So what do we know about the Roman Empire at the -me of Lukes gospel?

Much of it weve explored in our studies of Ma@hew and Mark; some we havent.

30

The 1st-century Roman Empire was not simply Italy and parts of Europe; rather, the 1st-century Roman Empire was the enKre land mass surrounding the Mediterranean Sea: nearly half of which is in north Africa!



1. By the end of the 1st century A.D. the Roman Empire consisted of 5 million square kilometers, encompassing 40 different modern-day countries and as many different cultures.

2. Its three largest citiesRome, Alexandria and Antiochwere over twice as large as any city on earth until the modern-day 18th century industrial revolution.


3. 50-60 million people lived in the Roman Empire.

4. Although commerce was conducted primarily by sea, the Roman empire built over 58,000 miles of roads, many of which are still evident today, over 2,000 years later!

5. To encourage efficient and effective commerce the Roman Empire had a fully-developed banking system and common coinage.


6. Thanks to Alexander the Great, Greek was the common language of the empire until the 4th century A.D., creating cohesion in a very geographically and culturally diverse population. Although a plethora of local languages were used, the entire New Testament was written in Greek.

7. Unlike most other ancient cultures, the Roman Empire did not have a rigid class system, but evidenced a high degree of social mobility.


8. The Roman Empire practiced slavery. Overall, 10-20% of the population throughout the Empire were slaves. Slaves were primarily war captives or indentured servants; slavery was not racially based. Slaves could earn their freedom or be granted their freedom by those who owned them.

10. Freeborn women were Roman citizens, kept their family name (not their husbands), could own property independent of their husbands, could own and operate businesses, could inherit property and wealth, wrote their own wills and could travel freely throughout the Empire.


10. Roman law formed the basis for the entire Western legal tradition, including that of Great Britain and the United States.

12. Religion in the Roman Empire was an integral part of civil life, and it encompassed practices and beliefs the Romans considered their own. Religions of other cultures within the Empire were respected and protected: the Jews, for example, were free to practice their religion and to operate their temple in Jerusalem.

Of course, like any great civiliza-on Rome had its share of rascals and rogues, heroes and villains, wars and brutali-es, scandals and horrors.

The New Testament mirrors a brief slice of Romes 1,000 year history, a -me of great achievement but also a -me of great turmoil and strife.


The 2nd half of the 1st centurythe period in which the Gospel according to Luke was wri@enwitnessed cataclysmic turmoil, especially as it aected the Jews in Pales-ne and the emerging Chris-an Church throughout the Empire.


The story begins with Julia Agrippina (A.D. 15-59), great granddaughter of Caesar Augustus; adop-ve granddaughter of the Emperor Tiberius; sister of the Emperor Caligula; wife of the Emperor Claudius; and mother of the Emperor Nero.

Through incestuous marriages, imperial intrigue and duplicitous assassina-ons, Agrippina engineered her sons rise to power. APer poisoning Claudius (her uncle and 3rd husband), her seventeen year-old son Nero became Emperor in A.D. 54, with Agrippina controlling the reins of power.

Quickly, however, Neros rela-ons with his mother deteriorated, ending by Nero having her murdered in A.D. 59. Julia Agrippina with her son Nero,

c. A.D. 54-59. Aphrodisias Museum, Turkey.


On 18 July A.D. 64 the Great Fire of Rome erupted, destroying a large por-on of the city. According to the historian Taci-us, the re raged for ve days, destroying three of fourteen districts and severely damaging seven others. Both Suetonius and Cassius Dio point to Nero as the arsonist, who wanted to clear a large part of Rome so he could build a new palace complex. Nero,

5th Emperor of the Roman Empire. Capitoline Museum, Rome.


Hubert Robert. The Fire of Rome, 18 July 64 A.D. (oil on canvas), c. 1760. Muse Malraux, Le Havre, France.


To deect blame, Tacitus writes that Nero blamed the re on Romes Chris-ans:

Therefore, to put an end to the rumor Nero created a diversion and subjected to the most extraordinary tortures those called ChrisKans, hated for their abominaKons by the common people. The originator of this name [was] Christ, who, during the reign of Tiberius had been executed by sentence of the procurator PonKus Pilate. Repressed for the Kme being, the deadly supersKKon broke out again not only in Judea, the original source of the evil, but also in the city [Rome], where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and become popular. So an arrest was made of all who confessed; then on the basis of their informaKon, an immense mulKtude was convicted, not so much of the crime of arson as for hatred of the human race.

Both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome during this -me.

Tacitus (c. A.D. 56-117) Austrian Parliament Building,

Vienna.


The persecu-on ended with Neros death. The Roman Senate had declared him a public enemy of the Roman people and announced their inten-on to have him executed. With that, Nero turned to suicide, but too cowardly to carry it out, he enlisted his private secretary, Epaphroditos, to do the deed. Nero died on 9 June A.D. 68, the 6th anniversary of his murdering his stepsister and rst wife, Octavia. Claudia Octavia, daughter of the

Emperor Claudius, step-sister and wife of Nero.

NaKonal Museum of Rome. 43 Excursus, the Roman Empire

Following Neros death civil war erupted and four emperors reigned in quick succession: Galba (8 months); Otho (2 months); Vitellius (8 months); and Vespasian (10 years). The rst three emperors were dispatched through murder or suicide within a year.

Galba, A.D. 68-69 (8 months) Assassinated

Otho, A.D. 69 (2 months) Suicide

Vitellius, A.D. 69 (8 months) Assassinated

Vaspasian, A.D. 69-79 (10 years)

Natural Death


At this -me of enormous poli-cal chaosin A.D. 66the great Jewish revolt began in Pales-ne. Nero chose the brilliant general (and future Emperor), Vespasian, to suppress it. Fielding more than 50,000 combat troops, Vespasian began opera-ons in Galilee; by A.D. 68 he had crushed opposi-on in the north, moved his headquarters to Caesarea Mari-ma, the deep-water port on the Mediterranean, and methodically began clearing the coast.


Meanwhile, the defeated Jewish leaders in Galilee escaped to Jerusalem, where a bi@er civil war among the Jews erupted, piwng the fana-cal Zealots and Sicarii against the more moderate Sadducees and Pharisees. By A.D. 68 the en-re Jerusalem leadership and their followers were dead, having been killed by their fellow Jews, and the Zealots held the temple complex, using it as a staging area for their war against Rome.


With Neros death in Rome, Vespasians troops proclaimed him Emperor. Support spread quickly, and in A.D. 69 Vespasian leP Jerusalem for Rome to claim the throne, leaving his son Titus to conclude the war in Jerusalem.

By the summer of A.D. 70, Titus had breached the city walls and captured the temple. During the erce gh-ng the temple complex caught re, and on Tisha BAv (29/30 July A.D. 70) the temple fell: 1,000 years of Jewish temple worship ended in a single day. The re spread quickly to the city itself, destroying most of it. Tacitus writes that no fewer than 600,000 Jews fought the Romans in Jerusalem; those captured were crucied, up to 500 per day; and historians es-mate that 1.2 million Jews

Titus Capitoline Museum, Rome.

died during the span of the Jewish Revolt, A.D. 66-73. It was the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history un-l the Nazi holocaust of 1939-1944.


David Roberts. The Siege and DestrucKon of Jerusalem by the Romans under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70 (oil on canvas), 1850. Private Collec-on.


During the Jewish Revolt of A.D. 66-73 thousands of Jews ed Jerusalem to other parts of the Roman Empire, many to the far west. In Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius was hea-ng up. Located a li@le over ve miles east of modern-day Naples, a short distance from the Mediterranean shore, Pompeii sits at the foot of a somma volcano, a 4,203 foot high, humpbacked mountain with a summit caldera surrounding a newer cone. It is one of the most dangerous volcanic mountains on earth, erup-ng countless -mes throughout history. In modern -mes Vesuvius has erupted six -mes in the 18th century, eight -mes in the 19th century and three -mes in the 20th century, the last in 1944. On several occasions post-erup-on ash blanketed all of southern Europe, and twice A.D. 472 and 1631Vesuvian ash fell on Constan-nople (modern-day Istanbul), over 750 miles to the northeast.


Mt. Vesuvius from the air.


Photography by Ross Ellio@

But never had there been an erup-on like that of A.D. 79. On the morning of 24 August a massive explosion occurred, blas-ng a column of ash and pumice 50,000 100,000 feet into the atmosphere at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second. Recent studies suggest that the energy suppor-ng the column came from steam superheated by magma. The cloud collapsed as expanding gasses lost the ability to support their solid contents, crea-ng a pyroclas-c surge, a huge turbulent mass of uid rock and gas traveling at near supersonic speed, releasing over 100,000 -mes the thermal energy of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima. Six such surges occurred over two days, dropping ash and debris at temperatures reaching 600 F and reaching a depth up to 75 feet, burying both Pompeii and neighboring Herculaneum. 16,000 people died instantly in the surges and thousands more from poisonous gasses, falling debris and collapsed buildings. Nothing like it had ever been seen.


Pompeii, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.



An entombed, ash-covered body at Pompeii.



Pliny the Younger gives us the only eyewitness account of the Vesuvius erup-on in his two le@ers to the historian, Tacitus. Heres a sample, wri@en by Pliny at Misenum, about 20 miles across the Bay of Naples from Vesuvius:

Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint and doubbul; the buildings all around us tocered . . . we therefore resolved to quit the town. A panic-stricken crowd followed us . . .. Being at a convenient distance from the houses, we stood sKll, in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots, which we had ordered to be drawn out, were so agitated backwards and forwards, though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them steady, even by supporKng them with large stones. The sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the convulsive moKon of the earth; it is certain at least the shore was considerably enlarged, and several sea animals were leV upon it.


On the other side [of the bay], a black and dreadful cloud, broken with rapid zigzag ashes, behind it variously shaped masses of ame; these were like sheet-lightning, but much larger . . .. Soon aVerwards, the cloud began to descend, and cover the sea . . . a dense dark mist seemed to be following us, spreading itself over the country like a cloud . . .. We had scarcely sat down when night came upon us, not such as we have when the sky is cloudy, or when there is no moon, but that of a room when it is shut up, and all the lights put out. You might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the shouts of men . . . some wishing to die, from the very fear of dying; some liVing their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced that there were now no gods at all, and that the nal endless night of which we have heard had come upon the world.

(Pliny the Younger, Le@er 66, to Cornelius Tacitus)


This is the world in which Luke lived, the soil from which Lukes gospel and Acts emerged.

It is the same world that formed the background of Ma@hew and Marks gospels, but Lukes high Christologycertainly, the result of St. Pauls inuencebrings another perspec-ve en-rely.


Rather than the fear and urgency that is visceral in Mark, Lukes gospel projects a calm assurance that Gods plan will unfold as he determined before the beginning of -me, with the Lord Jesus Christ in full control, from his Galilean ministry, to his journey to Jerusalem, and to his death, burial, resurrec-on and ascension.

Indeed, to his imminent return in glory.


1. How did Luke, a gen-le physician in Troas, learn of the Gospel?

2. Luke was St. Pauls physician, traveling companion and biographer for eighteen years. Can you think of another pair in literature with a similar rela-onship?

3. How does Lukes view of Jesus dier from that of Ma@hew and Mark?

4. What are some examples of the tumultuous -mes in which Luke lived?

5. How does the idea of history dier today from the way the ancients viewed history?


Copyright 2015 by William C. Creasy

All rights reserved. No part of this courseaudio, video, photography, maps, -melines or other mediamay be reproduced or transmi@ed in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informa-on storage or retrieval devices without permission in wri-ng or a licensing agreement from the copyright holder.


13. excursus, the roman empire at the time of luke's gospel

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