Roman Imperial Texts: A Sourcebook

24. Conclusion

24 Conclusion Revelation maintains that Christ is above all lords and kings (Rev. 17:16; 19:16). Whether this supremacy means that the Roman Empire was ignored or directly confronted by the writers of the New Testament is contested, as discussed in the introduction to this sourcebook. But reading the Roman texts and viewing its images that are contemporary to the New Testament’s composition sharpens our focus on what was at stake, at least for some in the Roman Principate, when they decided to follow Christ (Matt. 16:26; Mark 8:36; John 21:18-19; Rev. 6:9-11). The emperors of the early Principate were proclaimed to be sons of God, and their generous gifts to people throughout the Mediterranean world were considered good news. The social contexts of urbs, collegium, and domus, wherever one traveled in that world, would be difficult to escape. To maintain one’s identity necessarily involved defining oneself in relation to these three social frameworks. And within the framework of the urbs, the city of Rome was most tenacious in exerting a hold on those under its rule, wherever they lived. Did Rome’s hold on its empire influence the ideas found in the New Testament? Certainly it did in the sense that the New Testament describes Roman officials, such as the procurator Pontius Pilate or the centurion Cornelius, encountering Jesus or his followers. But are the New Testament’s descriptions of Christ’s rule, its records of the church’s growth, or its pictures of end times written in light of or in reaction to Roman rule and the golden age that Roman propaganda traced back to Augustus? If the texts and images in this volume motivate readers to discern new dimensions in the New Testament’s voices, then this sourcebook’s venture to Rome will bear some fruit. 241 ...