Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the dominant political power of the Mediterranean world during the entire New Testament period, providing both the governing framework and the physical infrastructure (the Pax Romana and the road network) within which Christianity spread. The first biblical mention of Rome appears in 1 Maccabees 1:10 (c. 161 BC). Rome absorbed Judea through Pompey's conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BC, after which a succession of client kings (the Herods) and Roman prefects and procurators governed the province. The NT is set entirely within the empire: Jesus was born during Caesar Augustus's census (Luke 2:1), was tried before the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (John 18:28–38), and was crucified by Roman soldiers. Paul's Roman citizenship (Acts 22:28) gave him legal protections he used repeatedly, and his appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11) brought him to Rome where he wrote several epistles. Paul's letter to the Romans addresses the church in the empire's capital, and Revelation's symbolic references to "Babylon" and the beast are widely understood as coded critiques of Roman imperial power and its demands for emperor worship.