The dating of New Testament events, with reference to Roman history.
The substantial and detailed information which is
available about t Roman empire in the first century A.D. provides us with a
clear historic setting for the events of the New Testament. When we turn to the
New Testament, we find many references to that setting, particularly in the
writings of Luke, in his two-volume work, Luke-Acts, both written for the
Gentile Theophilus (Luke 1 :1-4, Acts I :1). We shall look in some detail at
some of these references, but before this, we should mention the Jewish
historian, Josephus, whose writings provide us with valuable information about
the family of the Herods and the Jewish rebellion which resulted in the
destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Josephus was born in Jerusalem in A.D. 37
and was sent to Rome as a young man, being there during the time of the great
fire of A.D. 64 and Nero's attack on' the Christians. During the time of the
Jewish rebellion, Josephus was a military commander of the Jews in Galilee but
survived the fighting and gave himself up to the Romans. He made a favourable
impression on the Roman general Vespasian, who was made Emperor in A.D. 69, and
Josephus went to Rome with him. Josephus took the Roman name, Flavius, to
honour his imperial patron who also had this name, amongst others. From this
time onwards, Josephus settled down to writing many historical books, in Greek,
including long accounts of the Herods and the Jewish rebellion and war. He
remained in Roman favour and eventually was given land again in his Jewish
homeland. He died around the beginning of the second century A.D. Josephus was
regarded as a traitor by most of his fellow Jews but this may not be a fair
verdict on an intelligent man who saw the hopelessness of continuing to fight the
Romans.
In one ancient version of Josephus' writing on the Jewish
history of the first century A.D., there is a description of an unnamed man who
can be identified with John the Baptist, and a description of yet another who
can be identified with Jesus. Scholars have debated how accurate and
trustworthy the accounts of Josephus are. In archaeological excavations in 1955
and 1956 of the mountain fortress of Masada, fortified by Herod the Great,
details given by Josephus in his description of the fortress when he knew it
were found to be extremely accurate. Expert scholarly opinion maintains that
Josephus provides us with most valuable and firsthand information, from outside
the Bible, on the Jewish situation which was the background to the time of
Jesus and the spread of the new faith in Palestine in the first half of the
first century A.D. Being a Jew who defended his traditions, he would have had
no interest in the teaching of the new faith but it seems clear that he had
heard something about its origins and could hardly have failed to hear of the
public killing of Christians in Rome by Nero when he was in Rome himself. In
one passage of his writing he refers to the stoning to death of James, whom he
calls 'the brother of Jesus called Christ'.
There are no references to the early Church in official
Roman r which have survived from the first century A.D., but early in the s
century A.D. the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius refer to Christians who
were seized by Nero and falsely accused of causing the fire in Rome in A.D. 64.
Suetonius also refers to the emperor CIaudi expelling Jews who were influenced
by Christ from Rome, this sup Acts 18: 1-2 which tells of Paul's meeting with
Aquila and Priscill Corinth, where the couple had gone after leaving Rome
following decree by Claudius that all Jews must leave. It is not surprising
that the new faith was not officially noticed by the Romans in its early ye For
some years it would have appeared as a sect of Judaism to an outs observer and
the Romans had no wish to interfere with the Jew religion, or with any other
religion in their empire providing its followed were not causing trouble to the
authorities. Trouble eventually came' Christians who refused to offer token
sacrifice to the Roman Emperor