Jesus in the Roman Empire
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- Category: Empire of Yahweh
Since the times of ancient Egypt, the Israelite people have been finding themselves in the crosshairs of Empires throughout history. If we fast forward to the times of Jesus Christ, it is the Roman Empire that exercises dominance across the Mediterranean world and over the Israelites.
- Caesar has essentially taken over the role the Pharaoh used to play. He is both ruler and god of the people.
- Rome dominates its subjects in the far reaches of its Empire by systematic oppression, indentured servitude of the masses and hoarding of wealth in the hands of a few.
- Caesar installs client kings in occupied territories and rules those nations by proxy. He picks his client kings from the local aristocracies, and they become part of Rome’s well-oiled propaganda machine that promotes the idea that the people should be loyal to Caesar because he is a benevolent god who bestows vital amenities upon the masses.
At the onset of first century CE, Herod sits in Israel as the Roman client king. The Temple in Jerusalem is the local power center of the Empire, with the religious establishment fully in bed with the political leaders, all serving the imperial hierarchy that leads up to Caesar.
The first century Israelite people are looking for a Moses-like savior to liberate them from the Empire of Rome, which is the Egypt of their times. During the times of Moses, the Pharaoh used to be called a god. Now Julius Caesar is given the same title, with his heir Augustus Caesar deemed as a son of god. The Israelite society is rigged to work toward the benefit of Caesar and his cronies, with the occupied people purely seen as a means of generating more wealth and power for their overlords.
It is the same old story of Egypt again. It’s in such a time that an unassuming man from Nazareth enters the scene. The people call him the Teacher. His disciples call him Jesus, the Christ. The subjugated people of Israel have been told time and again by the Empire that Julius Caesar was god but Jesus reassures them that Yahweh, the ancient God of the Slaves, is still the god of the universe. And he calls Yahweh as his own Father. The religio-political leaders in Jerusalem quickly recognize that he is calling himself the son of God, essentially claiming the title of Rome’s Augustus Caesar. The rest, as they say, is history.
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