Roman in the Bible

Some of us are Parthians, some Medes, some Elamites; and some of us live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Roman Asia,

Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and the Roman strangers, both Jews and proselytes,

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob --- the God of our forefathers --- has highly honored His servant Jesus, whom you people turned over [to the Roman authorities] and denied [Him freedom] in the presence of [governor] Pilate, who had already decided to release Him.

[Then, at the hands of the Roman authorities] you killed the Prince of [never ending] life, but God raised Him from the dead, and we [apostles] were [reliable] witnesses of it.

After him, at the time of the enrollment for the Roman tax, Judas the Galilean appeared and influenced people to desert and follow him, but he too perished and all his followers were scattered.

But certain men from the so-called "Synagogue of the Freedmen" and certain Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, Cilicians, and men from Roman Asia, started to dispute with Stephen,

About three o'clock one afternoon [Note: This is based on Jewish time calculations; if Roman time were employed, it would have been

AM if calculating by Roman time], to the top of the house to pray [Note: The roofs of houses were flat areas, often used for resting, meals, prayer, etc.].

Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine throughout the Roman world. This took place during the time of Claudius.

He was with a very intelligent magistrate, [a Roman official named] Sergius Paulus. This man called for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the message of God.

They next went through the Phrygian district of Galatia, but were restrained by the Holy Spirit from delivering the Message in Roman Asia.

From there we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony, the leading town in that part of Macedonia. In this town we stayed some days.

But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public and that without a trial, and put us in jail although we are Roman citizens! Let them come here themselves and take us out!"

The policemen reported this message to the chiefs of the police court, and they became alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens,

Jason has welcomed them and [now] all of them [i.e., Paul, Silas, Jason and the others] are going against the [Roman] laws of Caesar by saying that someone else is [our] king; that Jesus is [king]!"

There he met a certain Jewish man named Aquila, a native of Pontus, [in northern Asia Minor] who, with his wife Priscilla, had recently come from Rome, because Claudius [the Roman Emperor] had ordered all Jews out of that city. Paul met this couple

Then, all of them [Note: This "all" could refer to the Greeks, the Jews or the Roman officers. Since the text does not specify, it seems most reasonable to suggest it was the Romans] grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court of justice. But Gallio showed no interest in the whole affair.

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland districts of Roman Asia, and went to Ephesus. There he found some disciples, of whom he asked:

This went on for two years, so that all who lived in Roman Asia, Jews and Greeks alike, heard the Lord's Message.

But he sent two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he himself remained for a while in Roman Asia.

And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but in almost the whole of Roman Asia, this Paul has convinced and won over great numbers of people, by his assertion that those Gods which are made by hands are not Gods at all.

So that not only is this business of ours likely to fall into discredit, but there is the further danger that the Temple of the great Goddess Artemis will be thought nothing of, and that she herself will be deprived of her splendor--though all Roman Asia and the whole world worship her."

If Demetrius therefore, and the artificers that are with him, have a charge against any one, the law-courts are open, and there are Roman proconsuls likewise: let them implead one another.

He was accompanied by Sopater the son of Pyrrhus, of Beroea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, as well as by Tychicus and Trophimus of Roman Asia.

For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so as to avoid spending much time in Roman Asia. He was making haste to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the Festival at the close of the Harvest.

And, when they came, he spoke to them as follows: "You know well the life that I always led among you from the very first day that I set foot in Roman Asia,

But, just as the seven days were drawing to a close, the Jews from Roman Asia caught sight of Paul in the Temple, and caused great excitement among all the people present, by seizing Paul and shouting:

Now while they were trying to kill him, word came to the commander of the [Roman] garrison that all Jerusalem was in a state of upheaval.

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.

Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.

And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship. And Paul said, But I am a Roman born.

Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

This man had been seized by the Jews and they were on the point of killing him when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

having been informed he was a Roman, I had him brought before their Sanhedrim, to hear what crime they laid to his charge.

For we have found this man [to be] a public menace and one who causes riots among all the Jews throughout the Roman Empire and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

There were, however, some Jews from Roman Asia who ought to have been here before you, and to have made any charge that they may have against me--

I answered them that it was not the Roman custom to give up anyone for punishment until the accused met his accusers face to face and had an opportunity to defend himself against their accusations.

We went on board a ship from Adramyttium, which was on the point of sailing to the ports along the coast of Roman Asia, and put to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, went with us.

There the Roman Officer found an Alexandrian ship on her way to Italy, and put us on board of her.

The Roman Officer, however, was more influenced by the captain and the owner than by what was said by Paul.

When Paul said to the Roman Officer and his men: "Unless the sailors remain on board, you cannot be saved."

But the Roman Officer, anxious to save Paul, prevented their carrying out their intention, and ordered that those who could swim should be the first to jump into the sea and try to reach the shore;