"In These Last Days": Chapter 1 of "The World of Saint Paul"

In These Last Days | Joseph M. Callewaert | Chapter One of The World of Saint Paul | Ignatius Insight

Before entering upon the life of Saint Paul, let us consider how in his era the world had become a field well-suited to receiving and propagating the good news, the euangelion, of Jesus Christ. "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the ages" (Heb 1:1-2; italics added). And this Son, the Christ, commanded his disciples: "[Go] .... And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

The world of the first century of our era had been prepared providentially to receive this gospel as a result of several favorable circumstances, which we will review quickly.

The Diaspora of the Jews

By 721 B.C. Sargon II of Assyria had taken more than twenty-seven thousand inhabitants of Samaria away in captivity to Asshur. At the same time a large number of Israelites from the same region took refuge in Egypt (see Hos 9:6).

Nearly one and a half centuries later, in June to July 587, Jerusalem was captured, the Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and a new deportation ensued. This caused a new influx of refugees in the land of the Nile, bringing with it the prophet Jeremiah, against his will. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the lingua franca of almost the entire ancient East. The books of the Old Testament were translated into Greek, the Septuagint (LXX), for the benefit of the Hellenized Jews of Alexandria in Egypt. In 233 B.C., Antiochus IV Epiphanes colonized the entire coast of Asia Minor with émigrés, most of them Jewish, who were originally from Babylon and Palestine.

In 63 B.C. Pompey, the famous Roman general, brought some Jews as captives to Rome. Later these Romanized Jews provided Julius Caesar with funds to help him in his rise to power. In return, in 47 B.C. Caesar promulgated a decree worded as follows: "Hyrcanus and his sons will preserve all their rights to the title of high priest, whether it be granted to them by law or by a free gift. If, subsequently, a question arises concerning Jewish polity, I desire that it be settled by referring it to him." The decree continues: "All other measures notwithstanding, I allow these persons [the Jews] to gather and to organize their community following the customs of their fathers and according to their own laws." This favorable decree of Julius Caesar was approved after his death by the Senate of the Republic and later by Caesar Augustus also.

The historian and geographer Strabo reports that Jews inhabited all the cities of the ancient world and that it was not easy to find a place in the world where their influence was not felt. In his Oratio pro FIacco, Cicero speaks about thousands of Jews residing, around one century before Jesus Christ, in the province of Asia. This comprised the western part of present-day Turkey: Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia. Herod Agrippa I wrote to the emperor Caligula, "Jerusalem is the capital not only of Judaea but also of many other countries." The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, perhaps exaggerating somewhat, declared that more than a million Jews lived in Egypt. At the time of Paul, Jews in Rome numbered several thousands, served by numerous synagogues.

Some of these Israelites were well-to-do and even very rich. There were more than seventy gilded seats in the leading synagogue of Alexandria. Many synagogues were among the most beautiful buildings in Antioch and Alexandria. Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus (112-62 B.C.), seized the Jewish treasury on the island of Cos, the value of which had been estimated at more than eight hundred talents, a considerable sum at the time. Flaccus, in the province of Asia, appropriated large sums destined for the Temple of Jerusalem. The commerce in grain produced in Egypt and shipped to Rome was largely in the hands of the Jews.

The Roman poet Juvenal notes that some Roman men had themselves circumcised and practiced the Jewish religion, following the Law handed down by Moses. Dio Cassius mentions, as an item of great interest, the expansion of Israel's religion throughout the empire. A high-ranking Roman noblewoman, Fulvia, sent some very precious gifts of purple and gold to the Temple in Jerusalem. For her part Poppaea Sabina, the mistress and later the wife of Nero, converted to Judaism.

These examples did not prevent the cultivated classes in Rome from hating the Jews. Cicero described their religion as "barbarous superstition". Juvenal ridiculed their refusal to eat pork. Tacitus treated "that abominable race" as sluggards, because they did not work on the Sabbath day or during the sabbatical year. But the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus retorted: "For a long time now, there has been great zeal among the masses for our religion; there is scarcely a Greek or barbarian city or nation in which the custom of resting on the seventh day is not observed." This is confirmed by Seneca, who writes, "This custom of that despised race is so widespread that it has been adopted in practice in all countries: the conquered have imposed their law on the conquerors."

The ground, therefore, had been prepared well. The Law was the didaskalos (teacher) who led the people to the Messiah, the Christ announced by the prophets. It would be the task of the apostles and especially of Paul to proclaim him to the ends of the earth.

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