13. Excursus. Mark's Roman Empire

8/10/2019 13. Excursus. Mark's Roman Empire

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Lesson #13

Excursus,

Marks Roman Empire

1Excursus, Mark's Roman Empire


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In Lesson #12, having entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to thecheers of thousands welcoming Jesus as he who comes in the name

of the Lord,Jesus quickly engages the religious leaders in a series of

heated debates, first with the chief priests, scribes and elders; then

with the Pharisees and Herodians; next with the Sadducees; and

finally with the scribes alone. In each of the four encounters, Jesusbests his opponents, publically humiliating them in the eyes of the

growing crowd, fueling the crowds resentment against the religious

leaders, their privileged positions and their implicit collaboration with

the Roman authorities. As Holy Week progresses, the crowds grow

ever larger, as does their resentment, fueling the very real threat of a

massive insurrection.

Jesus is playing a very dangerous game, one that will virtually ensure

his imminent arrest, trial and crucifixion.



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Lesson #13 offers an Excursus on the Roman Empire at the time ofMarks Gospel. We touched on this topic in Lesson #2, but here we

explore it in greater depth.

The Gospel according to Markwas written sometime during the

second half of the 1stcentury, probably in the mid to late 60s, a time

of great turmoil in the Roman Empire. The back-story begins withJulia Agrippina (A.D. 15-59), great granddaughter of Caesar

Augustus; adoptive 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 assassinations, Agrippina engineered her son Neros

rise to power in A.D. 54. A brutal sociopath, Nero murdered his

mother Agrippina in A.D. 59, set fire to Rome in A.D. 64 (blaming the

fire on the Christians) and began the first state-sponsored

persecution of the Church in Rome, A.D. 64-68.



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During Neros reign the great Jewish revolt of A.D. 66-73began, a revolt that resulted in the death of 1.2 million

Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and

the Jewish exile from Palestine that lasted nearly 2,000

years, until the founding of the modern state of Israel on

May 14, 1948.

This is the lived experience of Christians in Rome, the

world from which the Gospel according to Mark

emerges; this is the world that is the backdrop for the

Olivet Discourse recorded in Mark 13 and presented in

our next lecture, Lesson #14.



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To understand the Gospel accord ing to

Mark it is essential that we understandthe historical and cultural context from

which the gospel emerges. Specifically,

we must understand:

1) The lived experience of the audience

to whom Mark addresses his Gospel;and

2) How that lived experience informs

and shapes the narrative that Mark

presents.



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We learned in Lesson #1 that John Mark,

a young man, was not an Apostle, but he

was on the fringes of the group that

followed Jesus. He is first mentioned in

Acts 12: 12When this dawned on him

[Peter],he went to the house of Mary the

mother of John, also called Mark, where

many people had gathered and werepraying.

Mark was a nephew of Barnabas

(Colossians 4: 10) and the spiritual son of

Peter (1 Peter 5:13). Mark was with Peter

in Rome when Peter wrote his 1stepistle,

sometime in the early 60s (1 Peter 5: 13).


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Papias, the Bishop of Hierapolis (his

writings date c. 95-120)who was a friend

and companion of Polycarp, the Bishop ofSmyrna (in the early to mid 2ndcentury)

who had personally heard the Apostle John

speakwrites that Mark wrote his Gospel

using Peters teaching and conversations as

his primary source material.

Further, as we have already learned, Mark

addresses his Gospel to the Christians in

Rome, almost certainly during the

persecution under Nero, A.D. 64-68 and

the beginning of the catastrophic Jewish

Revolt against Rome, A.D. 66-73.


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If we go back to the time of

Marks composition in the midto late 60s, what do we really

need to know about the

Roman Empire in order to

understand Marks Gospel?


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Good question!

On the whole, the Roman Empire

was a great blessing to humanity,bringing stability and prosperity to

millions for nearly 1,000 years.


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The 1st-century Roman

Empire was not simplyItaly and parts of Europe;

rather, the 1st-century

Roman Empire was the

entire land masssurrounding the

Mediterranean Sea:

nearly half of which is in

north Africa!


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1. By the end of the 1stcentury A.D. the Roman

Empire consisted of 5 million square

kilometers, encompassing 40 different modern-

day countries and as many different cultures.

1. Its three largest citiesRome, Alexandria and

Antiochwere over twice as large as any city

on earth until the modern-day 18thcentury

industrial revolution.


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3. 50-60 million people lived in the Roman

Empire.

4. Although commerce was conductedprimarily 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.


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6. Thanks to Alexander the Great, Greek was the

common language of the empire until the 4th

century A.D., creating cohesion in a verygeographically and culturally diverse population,

although a plethora of local languages were also

used (e.g., Jesus and his friends spoke Aramaic,

the local language of Palestine, but the entire New

Testament was written in Greek).

7. Unlike most other ancient cultures, the RomanEmpire did not have a rigid class system,

but evidenced a high degree of social

mobility.


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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.

9. 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.


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10. Roman law formed the basis for the entire

Western legal tradition, including that of the

United States.11. 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..


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Of course, like any great

civilization Rome had its share

of rascals and rogues, heroesand villains, wars and

brutalities, scandals and

horrors.

The New Testament mirrors abrief slice of Romes 1,000 year

history, a time of great

achievement but also a time of

great turmoil and strife.


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The 2ndhalf of the 1st

centurythe period in

which the Gospel according

to Markwas written

witnessed cataclysmic

turmoil, especially as itaffected the Jews in

Palestine and the emerging

Christian Church throughout

the Empire.


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Marks Gospel mirrors this

tumultuous time, and the

Christians in Rome livedat its epicenter.


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The story begins with Julia Agrippina (A.D.

15-59), great granddaughter of Caesar

Augustus; adoptive 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 assassinations,

Agrippina engineered her sons rise to

power. After poisoning Claudius (her uncle

and 3rdhusband), her seventeen year-old

son Nero became Emperor in A.D. 54, with

Agrippina controlling the reins of power.

Quickly, however, Neros relations with hismother 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.

Thats my

boy!

Stop it,

Mom!


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On 18 July A.D. 64 the Great Fire

of Rome erupted, destroying a

large portion of the city.According to the historian

Tacitius, the fire raged for five

days, destroying three of

fourteen districts and severelydamaging 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,5thEmperor of the Roman Empire.

Capitoline Museum, Rome.


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

Muse Malraux, Le Havre, France.



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To deflect blame, Tacitus writes that Nero

blamed the fire on Romes Christians:

Therefore, to put an end to the rumor Nero created a

diversion and subjected to the most extraordinary

tortures those called Christians, hated for their

abominations 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 Pontius Pilate. Repressed for the time

being, the deadly superstition broke out again notonly 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 information, an immense multitude 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 time.

Tacitus (c. A.D. 56-117)

Austrian Parliament Building,

Vienna.


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The persecution ended with

Neros death. The Roman

Senate had declared him a

public enemy of the Roman

people and announced their

intention to have him executed.

With that, Nero turned to

suicide, but too cowardly tocarry it out, he enlisted his

private secretary, Epaphroditos,

to do the deed. Nero died on 9

June A.D. 68, the 6th

anniversaryof his murdering his stepsister

and first wife, Octavia.Claudia Octavia, daughter of the

Emperor Claudius, step-sister and

wife of Nero.

National Museum of Rome.


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Following Neros death

civil war erupted and four

emperors reigned in quick

succession: Galba (8

months); Otho (2 months);

Vitellius (8 months); andVespasian (10 years). The

first three emperors were

dispatched through

murder or suicide within ayear.

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


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At this time of enormous political

chaosin A.D. 66the great

Jewish revolt began in Palestine.

Nero chose the brilliant general(and future Emperor), Vespasian,

to suppress it. Fielding more than

50,000 combat troops, Vespasian

began operations in Galilee; byA.D. 68 he had crushed opposition

in the north, moved his

headquarters to Caesarea

Maritima the deep-water port on

the Mediterranean and

methodically began clearing the

coast.


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Meanwhile, the defeated Jewish

leaders in Galilee escaped to

Jerusalem, where a bitter civil

war among the Jews erupted,

pitting the fanatical Zealots and

Sicarii against the more

moderate Sadducees and

Pharisees. By A.D. 68 the entireJerusalem leadership and their

followers were dead, having

been killed by their fellow Jews,

and the Zealots held the templecomplex, using it as a staging

area for their war against Rome.


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With Neros death in Rome, Vespasians troops

proclaimed him Emperor. Support spread

quickly, and in A.D. 69 Vespasian left 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 fierce fighting the temple complex caught

fire, and on Tisha BAv(29/30 July A.D. 70) thetemple fell: 1,000 years of Jewish temple

worship ended in a single day. The fire 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 crucified, up to 500 per day;

and historians estimate that 1.2 million Jews

TitusCapitoline Museum, Rome.

died during the span of the Jewish Revolt, A.D. 66-73. It was the greatest catastrophe

in Jewish history until the Nazi holocaust of 1939-1944.


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Roman Forum.Situated between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, the Forum was the center of

political and civic life in Imperial Rome.

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas.



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David Roberts. The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under the

Command of Titus, A.D. 70 (oil on canvas), 1850. Private Collection.



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Fallen and scorched stones on the pavement parallel to the Western Wall of the

Temple platform, Jerusalem. The stones fell on August 10thA.D. 70 when the

Temple burned. Recent excavations in Jerusalem have unearthed them.



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Arch of TitusOn the Via Sacra, south-east of the Forum, the Arch of Titus

celebrates Roman victory at the Siege of Jerusalem, A.D. 70.

The arch was erected by the Emperor Domitian in A.D. 82.

. 31Excursus, Mark's Roman Empire

Detail of the Arch of Titus, depicting the triumphal

procession with spoils of war, including the menorah

from the Temple.

Photography by Ana Maria Vargas


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All of this occurred in a brief span

of six years, A.D. 64-70, the very

time the Gospel according to Mark

was being composed.

Obviously, living through such an

experience profoundly affected

Marks audience and shaped

Marks narrative strategy for his

Gospel. Like a skier caught in an

avalanche, Markand the

Christians in Romewere swept

up, tumbling down the mountainlike loose scree, powerless to

resist the violent turbulence of

history.


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We have already seen how MarksGospel rhetorically mirrors the

speed, tension and turbulence of

such an historical and culturalcontext, with its staccato use of

and and immediately, the steady

beat of the historical present tense,

the withholding of critical

information and demons dartinghelter-skelter back and forth through

its landscape, like so many skeletal

insects.

Rhetorically and stylistically Marks

narrative rockets forward, keepingpace with the heart-thumping,

adrenalin-pumping events

experienced by its audience in real

time.


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This intense historical

and cultural context is

the foundation on which

Mark will build Jesus

Olivet Discourse in

Lesson #14, our nextlecture.

Stay tuned!


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1. All artliterary, visual and musicalmirrors thehistorical and cultural context from which it emerges.Can you think of how other historical periods haveinfluenced art in a variety of media?

2. How do the tensions of the times influence Marks

narrative strategy?3. How do the events in Rome during A.D. 64-70 influence

the way Mark portrays Jesus?

4. Mark clearly portrays Jesus as a radical reformer, if not arevolutionary. If Mark were writing his Gospel addressedto Rome today, how do you think he would portray

Jesus?5. How do you think todays historical and cultural context

would influence Marks rhetorical strategy and prosestyle.



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Copyright 2014 by William C. Creasy

All rights reserved. No part of this courseaudio, video,

photography, maps, timelines or other mediamay be

reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any

information storage or retrieval devices without permission in

writing or a licensing agreement from the copyright holder.

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