A WORLD OF MANY TONGUES: LANGUAGES IN FIRST-CENTURY JUDEA
The sign that was nailed to the cross above Jesus’s head was written in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin.
In the Roman Empire, with its vast area and many conquered peoples, trade and travel among peoples was common. It was usual for a person to know more than one language. Jesus would have understood several languages and been able to read another.
Ancient alphabets, from left, Hebrew, Phoenician, Ancient Greek, Later Greek, English, and Hebrew used on coins. [North Wind Picture Library]
In Galilee, the predominant spoken language in the first century was Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew and Arabic. Growing up in Nazareth, one of Jesus’s tasks would have been to learn enough Hebrew to read aloud from the Scriptures. Most scholars agree that Hebrew was not a commonly spoken language at the time.
Roman soldiers spoke Latin, and it is likely that Jesus knew enough to understand some of what soldiers said. Pilate spoke Latin as his first language, and Herod must have spoken fluently too. Some historians think that Jesus’s trial was conducted in Latin.
Greek was used in trade and business. Since Jesus and Joseph may have worked in Sepphoris, they may have needed to know some Greek. Also, Capernaum, the city Jesus used as the base for his ministry, was a big trading center where several languages would have been heard.
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE FIRST CENTURY AD
The population of the world in the year AD I is thought to have been between 170 and 400 million. That is a huge range, but of course historians don’t have accurate population counts except for large cities in organized empires such as Rome’s. (The world population in October 2013 was about 7.2 billion.)
Percent of World Population
AD 1
2010
Asia
69%
60.3%
Europe
18%
10.7%
Africa
10%
14.9%
Latin America/Caribbean
*
8.6%
North America
*
5.0%
Oceania
*
0.5%
*The combined population of Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, and Oceania was 3% of the total world population of about 200 million people. Today the world population exceeds 7 billion with 200,000 people born every day.
Major World Cities Between 100 BC and AD 100
Alexandria, Egypt
Chang’an (Xi’an), China
Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey
Pataliputra, India
Rome, Italy
THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN 44 BC
The map below shows what the Roman Empire looked like during the life of Jesus. At the height of its powers in AD 117, the Roman Empire covered 2.5 million square miles in three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.
ROMAN GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS
As soon as Octavian became emperor in 12 BC, he was renamed Augustus. One of his first acts was to declare that his predecessor, Julius Caesar, was a god. Caesar’s name was added to the numbers of gods the Romans worshipped, the top three being Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. This began what is called the imperial cult, worshipping a person in government as a god. Augustus himself took the title divi filius, “son of the divine.” Purple was the color of power in the Roman Empire, and the emperor was the only person allowed to wear a purple toga.
Below the emperor were senators, eight hundred men who met to decide matters of law. These men and their families were considered to be the noble men and women of the empire. But they served at the will of the emperor, so if they misstepped, they might be banished. Senators wore tunics with wide purple stripes.
The equestrians were originally members of the Roman cavalry. By 200 BC, the class had evolved to be primarily businessmen who could prove that they had a certain amount of money. If an equestrian took a political job, he could move up to the senatorial class. Equestrians wore tunics with narrow purple stripes.
Roman senators outside a temple. A 4th-century marble frieze. [The Bridgeman Art Library]
Members of the common class were freeborn Roman citizens. They might be tradespeople like Joseph, farmers, fishermen, or small businessmen. They wore togas.
Junius Latins were former slaves who had been freed by Roman citizens. They had some rights but not the right of full citizenship unless they joined the legionnaires.
Foreigners were all the other free people who lived in the Roman Empire. Some foreigners were considered socii, or allies. In Jesus’s time, socii had some basic rights and could be conscripted into the Roman army. If Jesus had been a full citizen of the Roman Empire he would have been killed by another method, not crucifixion. Roman citizens could not be crucified. In AD 212, the socii revolted and were given full citizenship.
Liberati were former slaves who had purchased their own freedom. Their former owners were now called their patrons and still had some control over them. This status lasted for one generation. A liberati’s child would be truly free.
Slaves were either born into slavery, captured during wars, or sold into slavery by traders.
It was possible, by accumulating wealth, to move up from the common class to the equestrian class. And eventually, a very few equestrians were named to the senate.
ROMAN RELIGION
The tiny land of the Jews was surrounded by nations that worshipped differently than they did. Unique to the many peoples of the Roman Empire, the Jews worshipped one God. The other active civilizations around them worshipped many gods.
The Roman pantheon, the group of officially recognized gods, was huge. There were the major gods, and then hundreds of minor gods. There were gods for places, such as rivers and towns; for work, such as pottery and farming; for attributes, such as courage and humor; and for relationships, such as marriage and children. The greatest three of all the gods were Jupiter, the king of the gods; his wife, Juno; and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.
Athena, known in Roman mythology as Minerva. Roman copy of a 4th-century marble statue. [The Bridgeman Art Library]
The Romans chose their gods from the Latins, who lived in what is now Italy, and from the Greeks. For example, in Greek mythology, Zeus and Hera were the king and queen of the gods. They had different names but almost the same backgrounds and histories as Jupiter and Juno.
Over time, tales about the Roman gods, their wars and relationships, developed into long and complicated soap operas. Parents passed down stories to their children, sculptors carved scenes from the tales, and poets and musicians wrote of the goings-on in the kingdom of the gods.
Every Roman home had a small shrine devoted to a household god. Bits of food were left for the god or goddess or the household spirit. There were seasonal celebrations to honor gods and goddesses, and temples and shrines were built on every road and in every town.
When Augustus Caesar became emperor in 27 BC, he declared that he was the son of a god. And so the emperors joined the pantheon of gods and increased their power over all their subjects.
ROMAN LEGIONNAIRES: THE ARMY THAT CONQUERED GALILEE AND JUDEA
During the years of the Roman Empire, beginning in 31 BC, the Roman army was a vast force controlling most of the Mediterranean area. There were commanders, of course, who reported to the emperor. But the ones on the ground were the famous legionnaires, who fought in units of 3,000 to 6,000 men. Men of Roman birth and freed slaves could become legionnaires. (As soon as a freed slave was admitted to the legionnaires, he automatically became a citizen.)
Legionnaires carried javelins and short swords. They formed up for battle in phalanxes, rows of men eight to ten deep, walking close together. When they got near their enemy, they threw their javelins and rushed in. The battles were fierce and resulted in huge numbers of casualties. Legionnaires worshipped Mars, the god of war.
Statue of a legionnaire at the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome, Italy. [T
he Bridgeman Art Library]
ROMAN ROADS
The Romans were famous for the roads they built. Some are still used today, two thousand years later! And it was the legionnaires, along with prisoners of war and slaves, who did the hard work of building thousands of miles of roads that connected the faraway provinces of the Roman Empire. Roads helped messages and news travel, brought goods and food to cities from farmland and harbors, and allowed armies to travel quickly from place to place when needed. Built to a uniform width of 5 meters (5.46 yards), the Roman roads were wide enough for two wagons to pass each other.
Each road began with a layer of sand, followed by stone slabs, crushed stone in cement, and finally stone blocks, often called paving blocks. Drainage ditches were built on both sides of the road. Once the road was built, the locality through which it passed was charged with maintaining it. Soon rest areas, inns, and places to eat sprang up along the roads, providing local people with income from travelers.
A surviving Roman paved road near Tuscany in Italy. [The Bridgeman Art Library]
A WALK THROUGH TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY JERUSALEM
Recent excavations have uncovered some of the actual streets and homes of Jesus’s time, allowing visitors to walk in his footsteps and glimpse what life was like in Jerusalem in the first century AD.
King David founded Jerusalem more than three thousand years ago as his royal city. It is where the temples of the Jewish kings Solomon and Herod once stood. Today it is called the Eternal City and holds a special place in Jewish, Islamic, and Christian religions. The history of the city is rich, though filled with conflicts. The sights, archaeological evidence, and modern history are fascinating. Below are places you can visit that are mentioned in this book.
Let’s start outside the city on the MOUNT OF OLIVES. This is where Jesus often paused to teach his disciples. It offers a spectacular view of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount area, and the new city.
On the Mount of Olives, the CHURCH OF THE PATER NOSTER is built on the site where Jesus is said to have taught his disciples the “Our Father” prayer. There is a plaque there with the prayer translated into more than a hundred languages.
At the foot of the Mount of Olives is the GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE, where Jesus spent time in solitary prayer and was betrayed by Judas and arrested by the Romans. Today it is the site of the Church of All Nations. The olive trees in the garden are thought to be nine hundred years old.
Walking across the Kidron Valley, you approach the seven gates that lead into the OLD CITY. Today, the Old City is home to 35,000 people—about 26,000 Muslims, 6,000 Christians, and 3,000 Jews. The population of the whole city of Jerusalem is about 800,000. In 2011, there were 497,000 Jews, 281,000 Muslims, 14,000 Christians, and 9,000 who stated no religion.
You can see remains of the steps leading up to the temple in the Ophel Archaeological Park. The only remnant of Herod’s temple is the huge WESTERN WALL.
The Golden Dome Mosque on Temple Mount. [Shutterstock]
The CENACLE, on Mount Zion, is the traditional site of the Upper Room where Jesus held his last supper for his disciples. Today this building houses a tomb, a yeshiva, a church, a mosque, and a kindergarten. Mount Zion was the Upper City of Jerusalem in Jesus’s day and was inside the city walls.
The path that Jesus walked began at HEROD’S PALACE, near what is now the Jaffa Gate. It ends at the CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, which is thought to have been built atop the site of Golgotha and near Jesus’s tomb. Today, visitors can tour these sites and even touch the place where the cross of Jesus is said to have once rested.
GLOSSARY
Aloe: A fragrant resin from the Aquilaria agallocha tree.
Apostle: One who travels to represent beliefs or teachings.
Asia Minor: The peninsula between the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea.
Barracks: The building or buildings where soldiers live.
Bazaar: A street market.
Benefactor: One who makes a gift.
Blasphemy: The act of saying offensive things about God or a religion.
Caravan: A group of people or vehicles traveling together.
Card: To clean and untangle wool before spinning it into thread.
Charisma: A powerful personal appeal that attracts people.
Circumcise: To cut off the foreskin.
Citadel: A fortress that commands a city.
Cloister: A covered walkway with columns.
Crucify: To put to death by nailing hands, wrists, feet, or ankles to a cross.
Devout: Deeply religious.
Disciple: A student or pupil who helps to spread a teacher’s doctrines.
Gentile: One who is not of the Jewish faith.
Graven image: An object of worship carved from wood or stone; an idol.
Heresy: Views different from those of a particular religion.
Hosanna: A Hebrew term used to express praise to God, used today by Jews and Christians.
Imperial: Having to do with the empire or emperor.
Leaven: A substance, such as yeast, that makes dough or batter rise.
Legionnaire: A Roman soldier; a member of a legion of 3,000 to 6,000 foot soldiers.
Levy: To impose or collect by lawful actions or by force.
Limestone: A rock used in building and to make cement, formed from the remains of shells and coral.
Magi: The legendary wise men who visited Jesus soon after he was born.
Messiah: The expected king and deliverer of the Jews.
Mikvah: A ritual purification bath taken on certain occasions, such as before celebrating Passover.
Myrrh: A fragrant gum resin from various trees in the genus Commiphora.
Parable: A fable or story that conveys a moral or religious lesson.
Parchment: Heavy, paperlike writing material made from the skin of sheep or goats.
Passover: An important Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt.
Patriarch: The male head of a family or tribe, or an older man in a village, group, or tribe who is respected and holds a place of honor.
Persecute: To continually treat someone cruelly and unfairly, especially because of that person’s ideas or political beliefs.
Pilgrim: Someone who journeys to a holy place to worship.
Prophet: One who speaks or claims to speak for God; someone who predicts what will happen in the future.
Psalm: A sacred song written down in the Book of Psalms in the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Bible.
Rabbi: A Jewish religious leader and teacher.
Repent: To turn away from sin and agree to change one’s life.
Resin: A yellow or brown sticky substance that oozes from some trees, used to make polishes, glue, and incense, among other things.
Sabbath: A day of rest and worship that, for the Jews, takes place from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.
Sage: A wise person.
Scourge: To punish severely, especially by whipping.
Scribe: A person who copies books by hand.
Scripture: A sacred body of writing; usually applied to the Bible.
Seder: A Jewish service including a dinner held on Passover.
Serenity: The state of being calm and peaceful.
Shekel: An ancient Hebrew coin that was the only legal currency in the temple; also a unit of weight.
Slaver: Someone who steals, captures, or kidnaps people to sell them into slavery.
Synagogue: A building used by Jewish people for worship and religious study.
Tanakh: The Hebrew Bible, which contains the Torah, Nevi’im (or Prophets), and Ketuvim (other writings).
Tassel: A bunch of cords or threads tied together at the top and then sewn onto clothing or used as decoration.
Temple Mount: A 36-acre structure in the Old City of Jerusalem, including surrounding walls, courtyards, and the temple, that has been used and revered by Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
Ter
race: A series of steps or ridges built into a hillside so crops can be planted on them.
Torah: The sacred scroll on which is written in Hebrew the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
Tyrant: Someone who rules in a cruel or unjust way.
TIME LINE OF JESUS’S LIFE
We cannot be sure of the exact dates below. Scientists and archaeologists continue to try to pinpoint the year of Jesus’s birth and, therefore, death.
6 BC
John the Baptist is born (he is about six months older than Jesus).
6–5 BC
Jesus is born in Bethlehem in Judea.
5 BC
Herod the Great orders the massacre of all male children in Bethlehem under two years of age.