Jesus was a non-violent resister who was totally opposed to the role and whims of empire. The Roman program was peace through victory. Jesus' program was peace through justice. According to Philo who was alive at the time of Paul and Jesus justice meant equality. Another way to put this was justice meant distributive justice. It had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with retributive justice. Equality is not to be read as sameness but meeting the needs of everyone. Perhaps it is time to explore this very much missed but major thrust of the life of the early Christians. Both Micah and Amos clearly show that this was also the thrust of the Hebrew Bible.
Empire has not worked in thousands of years and will not work today.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Empire
Empire
I addressed this issue in the thread "proof of God" as it relates to the US. I can only conclude from the lack of response that perhaps it is closer to the truth than even I thought.
Rome was one of the world's great empires in the past. It would seem that the US is trying for that designation in this era.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Rome was one of the world's great empires in the past. It would seem that the US is trying for that designation in this era.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Empire
I'm hyper tonight and responding to many posts sort of haphazard, sorry if I seem inconsiderate by my response, because actually I am pretty stuck on Jesus for some reason.
Well my idea is Rome wasn't even a state in Jesus' time. Well it came after Jesus, more in the time after he died was resurrected and his followers tried to spread the word. Some apostles were imprisoned in Rome, like who? Paul? He wrote lots of letters about the church and Jesus. That's about all I remember from Sunday school.
Most spiritual people might've had problems with Rome's ideology simply because it was obvious they were copiers of Greece. Then they ran around trying to be dominant. There was a huge power structure in the olden times.
ladybug
Well my idea is Rome wasn't even a state in Jesus' time. Well it came after Jesus, more in the time after he died was resurrected and his followers tried to spread the word. Some apostles were imprisoned in Rome, like who? Paul? He wrote lots of letters about the church and Jesus. That's about all I remember from Sunday school.
Most spiritual people might've had problems with Rome's ideology simply because it was obvious they were copiers of Greece. Then they ran around trying to be dominant. There was a huge power structure in the olden times.
ladybug
Empire
watermark:-6
According to "The Timetables of History" pg. 16 the Roman Empire began about 400 BCE making it well entrenched by the time Jesus was born.
Shalom
Ted:-6
According to "The Timetables of History" pg. 16 the Roman Empire began about 400 BCE making it well entrenched by the time Jesus was born.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Empire
Ted;881240 wrote: watermark:-6
According to "The Timetables of History" pg. 16 the Roman Empire began about 400 BCE making it well entrenched by the time Jesus was born.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Why thank you for that piece of historical evidence, Ted! :-6
According to "The Timetables of History" pg. 16 the Roman Empire began about 400 BCE making it well entrenched by the time Jesus was born.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Why thank you for that piece of historical evidence, Ted! :-6
Empire
Empire and religion are usually the same thing run by the same people. Both are tools used by political or religious elites to get the general populace to follow a desired direction or thought process. It is for the good of the empire or god wants us to do this, same thing really with the same results. If you look at history every empire had its own religion working in tandem with it, both usually fading at the same time or being taken over by a more a aggressive empire and religion. The Roman empire was preceded by the Republic 510 BC -- 1st century AD. The empire began between 44BC -- 27AD, either with Julius Ceasar(44BC) or Augustus(27AD).
Empire
FUBAR:-6
An interesting comment but certainly has not been my experience. The church today and at the time of Jesus was the "people" themselves. It was and is the people that select their leadership and decide on how to spend money etc. This is not to deny there are charlatans out there for there most certainly is.
It is interesting to note that empires have come and gone many times over and the world's great faiths continue to exist and practice. They have not disappeared with the empire.
In the case of Rome its imperial theology was very much tied up with the political aspects as Caesar was Lord, God, God from God, Saviour of the world, Son of God etc.
Rome was, of course, very smart in that instead of changing the religions of those it conquered it incorporated them in one way or another thus not turning the people against itself.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Yes, Rome was declared a republic between 600 BCE and 501 BCE.
An interesting comment but certainly has not been my experience. The church today and at the time of Jesus was the "people" themselves. It was and is the people that select their leadership and decide on how to spend money etc. This is not to deny there are charlatans out there for there most certainly is.
It is interesting to note that empires have come and gone many times over and the world's great faiths continue to exist and practice. They have not disappeared with the empire.
In the case of Rome its imperial theology was very much tied up with the political aspects as Caesar was Lord, God, God from God, Saviour of the world, Son of God etc.
Rome was, of course, very smart in that instead of changing the religions of those it conquered it incorporated them in one way or another thus not turning the people against itself.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Yes, Rome was declared a republic between 600 BCE and 501 BCE.
Empire
The worlds great faiths are fairly modern in human history. What about the Greek gods, the Roman gods, Hittites, Egyptians etc. Each had an accompanying empire to further the religion against the others, I don't think many of the present religions are over 3,000 years old. Without a symbiotic religion most ancient empires would have failed early in their history. The Romans were quite rare in that they believed in everybodies gods not just their own. I guess if you are going to be religious that it is a good thing to believe if your god is real then every one else's must be as well, pity that thought isn't more general now.
