A BOOK YOU CAN TRUST

Rome in Bible History

JESUS founded Christianity, and his followers spread it abroad during the day so the Roman Empire. You can still see Roman roads, aqueducts, and monuments in such lands as Britain and Egypt. Those Roman remains are real.  They remind us that Jesus and his apostles were also real, as were the things they said and did. As a case in point, if you walk on the ancient Appian Way, you are walking the same path that the Christian apostle Paul may have traveled on his way to Rome. - Acts 28:15, 16. 

Trustworthy History

The Bible record of Jesus and his disciples includes numerous references to historical events in the first century. Notice how carefully the Bible writer Luke flagged the year that saw two extremely  important events: the   commencement of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus, at which point he became the Christ, or Messiah. Luke wrote that those events occurred in "the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar [29 C.E.], when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was district ruler of Galilee." (Luke 3:1-3, 21) Luke also mentioned  four other important officials-Philip (Herod's brother) , Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas. All seven names have been corroborated  by secular historians. For now, though, let us consider Tiberius, Pilate, and Herod. 

Tiberius Caesar is well-known, and his physical appearance has been depicted in artwork.  The Roman Senate appointed him as emperor on September 15 of the year 14 C.E., when Jesus was about 15 years of age. 

Pontius Pilate's name appears with that of Tiberius in an account written by Roman historian Tacitus shortly after the Bible was completed. In regard to the terms "Christian,"  Tactius wrote:  "Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus." 

Next time: A BOOK YOU CAN TRUST - Rome in Bible History

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2011