(We are beginnings studies in Luke today. We have, in a different setting, written on the birth of Christ and resurrection passages. Thus we begin in Luke 3. After Day 31 there will be a more complete bibliography.)
The Bible is solidly anchored in history: real
people and real events at real times and places. The typical view of the gods of Rome and Greece was that of the Babylonian magi in Daniel’s
time who noted that their dwelling was not with men (Dan. 2:11). Not so the God of the Bible who made Mankind
that He might delight in Mankind. God’s
involvement with Mankind is seen supremely in the Incarnation of Christ. The Bible says He came when the fullness of the time had come (Gal. 4:4). Luke anchored the birth of Christ in history
(2:1-7); he does the same with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
·
In the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius ruled from 14-37AD, though he began
as a co-regent in 11AD. Thus the 15th
year is around 26AD making Jesus around 30 years of age. This was the age when priests began their
service in the temple.
·
Pontius
Pilate being governor of Judea. Pilate
observed Jesus’ ministry from a distance until the time of the cross when he
became a central figure.
·
Herod
being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region
of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene (cf. map, next page).
Consider this description of life in the Roman Empire at
this time.
* * * * *
Slavery … a seething mass of cruelty
and oppression on the one side, and of cunning and corruption on the
other. The free citizens were idle,
dissipated, sunken; their chief thoughts of the theatre and the arena; and they
were mostly supported at the public cost.
What of the old Roman stock remained
was rapidly decaying, partly from corruption, but chiefly from the increasing
cessation of marriage, and the nameless abominations of what remained of family
life.
All belief in a personal continuance
after death … ceased among educated classes. The only religion on which the
State insisted was the deification and worship of the emperor. The ancient Roman religion had long given
place to foreign rites, the more mysterious and unintelligible the more
enticing. (Alfred Edersheim,
p120f)
* * * * *
·
Annas and
Caiaphas were high priests. “The
former, though deposed, retained much of his influence, and, probably, as sagan or deputy, exercised much of the
power of the high priesthood along with Caiaphas (Jn. 18:13; Ac. 4:6).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) The position was very political, requiring
the approval of the Romans. Rome was
happy if they maintained order, something that was quite tricky. Herod the Great’s beautification of the
temple illustrated this. He did this to
please the Jews, and yet gave the face of the temple a Roman look to please the
emperor and connected the fortress Antonia to the northwest corner so he could
keep his eye on the Jews. Neither of
these things made the Jews happy. No one
in the empire was as difficult as the Jews who chafed under Roman authority;
they longed for a Messiah to deliver them politically.
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