Seven Events That Shaped The New Testament World Chapter 4

Brittney Chow

Professor Kinnison

Bible 300

14 September 2017

“Analysis of Chapter 4 of Seven Events That Shaped the New Testament World” By the first century BCE, Rome has become a superpower amongst other empires. Rome has made it’s way to one of the top political, military, and economic powers. In 63 BCE, Rome takes control of Judea. Pompey the Great and Herod are play a key role in the Romans taking control over Judea. This piece of history is important in the writing of the Gospels as the Roman empire is in control of Judea.

One factor that helped Rome take control of Judea was the Roman commander Pompeius, or Pompey the Great. He wanted to be like Alexander, a macho military conqueror. The Roman Senate sent Pompey the Great to eliminate

In the Psalms of Solomon, the psalmist recognized God as punishing the people through Pompey’s actions and the aftermath of his actions. Some Judeans waited for God to act through the Messiah and some Judeans seeked justice in other ways. They took actions into their own hands, sometimes peaceably, sometimes violently, sometimes as a disorganized mob, sometimes by a leader and his band of supporters. For example, Herod placed an eagle, a symbol of Roman power, on the gate of the Jerusalem temple and two Judean teacher encouraged students to tear down the eagle. Herod sentenced some of the leaders to death as a reaction to this incident. Herod dies in 4 BCE and he appoints his son Archelaus to rule in Judea. Crowds urge Archelaus to lower taxes, release prisoners, remove sales taxes, and appoint a new high priest. Riots break out at Passover, and soldiers kill about three thousand to restore order. The Roman governor of Syria took control of Herod’s palace and treasury and this starts many revolts. Herod’s loyal troops attack the troops loyal to Archelaus. After Herod’s death, many riots, raids and attacks happen throughout

In the temptation scene in Matthew and Luke, the devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms/empires of the world only if Jesus will fall down and worship him. Jesus does not agree because he worships God, of course. It is significant that both Gospels present the devil as having authority to allocate the world’s empires. The devil is the power behind Rome’s empire. Matthew exposes the Roman empire’s violence, it exposes Herod’s employing spies, lies, and murderous violence to remove threats to his power. In Matthew 2, it claims that Herod kills the all baby boys in Bethlehem that are younger than two years. There is no evidence to prove this but it does not seem far off based off of the history of Herod’s character. The book of Matthew is very negative about the Roman empire and its allies. The Gospels present Rome’s world as under God’s judgement, it presents Jesus as the Son of Man entrusted with God’s rule. Rome’s armies are destroyed along with the cosmetic deities that sanctioned its power, and God’s life-giving rule or kingdom for all people is established. The Gospels also do not call people to abandon the empire, for example, people who believe in Jesus pay taxes. The Gospels also do not call people to fight the empire with violence, Jesus tells his followers to turn the other