Roman in the Bible

After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, [I saw] a fourth beast (the Roman Empire), terrible and extremely strong; and it had huge iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns (ten kings).

For ships of Cyprus [in Roman hands] will come against him; therefore he will be discouraged and turn back [to Israel] and carry out his rage against the holy covenant and take action; so he will return and show favoritism toward those [Jews] who abandon (break) the holy covenant [with God].

After Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Captain in the Roman army came up to him, entreating his help.

Shew me the tribute-money. And they brought Him a Roman Penny.

"Therefore, when you see that disgusting thing which causes total destruction [i.e., the Roman armies. See Luke 21:20], which Daniel the prophet spoke about [Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11], standing in the sacred place [i.e., Jerusalem and especially the Temple area], (let the reader understand [what is meant by this]),

So, they chained Him, led Him away and turned Him over to Pilate, the [Roman] governor.

Meanwhile Jesus was brought before the Roman Governor. "Are you the King of the Jews?" asked the Governor. "It is true," answered Jesus.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him.

The Roman Captain, and the men with him who were watching Jesus, on seeing the earthquake and all that was happening, became greatly frightened and exclaimed: "This must indeed have been God's Son!"

"But when you see that disgusting thing that causes total destruction [i.e., the Roman army. See Luke 21:20] standing where it ought not to be [i.e., surrounding the besieged city of Jerusalem], (let the reader understand [what is meant by this]), then those of you in Judea are to run away into the [nearby] mountains.

As soon as it was morning the leading priests, along with the [Jewish] elders and experts in the law of Moses and the entire Council, held a conference. Then they tied Jesus up, led Him away and turned Him over to Pilate [the Roman governor].

The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they *called together the whole Roman cohort.

The Roman Officer, who was standing facing Jesus, on seeing the way in which he expired, exclaimed: "This man must indeed have been 'God's Son'!"

Joseph, from Arimathea, a highly respected member of the [Jewish] Council, who was expecting the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate [i.e., the Roman appointed governor] and asked [him] for the body of Jesus.

Now in those days a decree went out from [the emperor] Caesar Augustus, that all the inhabited world (the Roman Empire) should be registered [in a census].

A Captain in the Roman army had a slave whom he valued, and who was seriously ill--almost at the point of death.

Now there were some there at that very time who told Jesus about some people from Galilee whose blood Pilate [the Roman governor] had mixed with their sacrifices [i.e., he had them murdered while they were offering their sacrifices].

"So, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by [Roman] armies, then you will know that her total destruction is near.

It will be too bad for pregnant women and those who are nursing [babies] in those days! For there will be great distress in this land [i.e., Judea, and especially Jerusalem], and raging anger [will be shown] against these people [i.e., by the Roman armies].

And there was also an inscription written over him in Greek, and Roman, and Hebrew letters: This is the King of the Jews.

The Roman Captain, on seeing what had happened, praised God, exclaiming: "This must have been a good man!"

Then He said to them, "Come, and you will see." So, they went and saw where He was staying and they stayed with Him that day. It was about ten o'clock in the morning. [Note: Hour designations in this book are being calculated by Roman time, but this would have been

After these things happened Jesus went across to the east side of Lake Galilee, also called Lake Tiberias. [Note: This lake also bore a name honoring the Roman Emperor Tiberias].

Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, *came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him,

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor's residence. (Now it was very early morning.) They did not go into the governor's residence so they would not be ceremonially defiled, but could eat the Passover meal.

[They said this] so that the words Jesus had spoken would be fulfilled, regarding the kind of death He would die. [Note: Jesus had predicted he would be "lifted up," indicating a Roman crucifixion. See 12:32-33].

Now it was about six o'clock in the morning [Note: This was according to Roman time, but if Jewish time were meant, it would have been

this title, therefore, read many of the Jews, because the place was nigh to the city where Jesus was crucified, and it was having been written in Hebrew, in Greek, in Roman.

So, when the [Roman] soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His clothing and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took His seamless coat [i.e., which was left over], woven from top [to bottom] in one piece,

Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.

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,

indeed Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya which is beyond Cyrene, and Roman sojourners, 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 some members of the so-called 'Synagogue of the Freed-men,' together with some Cyrenaeans, Alexandrians, Cilicians and men from Roman Asia, were roused to encounter Stephen in debate.

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.

and from thence to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the first of the district, a Roman colony: and we were in this city tarrying certain days.

But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public without due process--men who are Roman citizens--[and] threw [us] into prison, and now they are wanting to release us secretly? Certainly not! Rather let them come themselves [and] bring us out!"

So the police officers reported these words to the chief magistrates, and they were afraid [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 was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.

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--

To whom I gave answer that it is not the Roman way to give a man up, till he has been face to face with those who are attacking him, and has had a chance to give an answer to the statements made against him.

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;

Or, do you not know, brothers, (I am talking to people who know how law works) that the law has authority over a person only as long as he lives? [Note: It is not clear whether this refers to Roman law or the law of Moses].

Give my greeting, also, to the Church that meets at their house, as well as to my dear friend Epaenetus, one of the first in Roman Asia to believe in Christ;

But I will come to you after I have gone through Macedonia, for I am planning to go through Macedonia [Note: This was the Roman province of northern Greece].

The Churches in Roman Asia send you their greetings. Aquila and Prisca and the Church that meets at their house send you many Christian greetings.

We want you, Brothers, to know that, in the troubles which befell us in Roman Asia, we were burdened altogether beyond our strength, so much so that we even despaired of life.

Three times I have been beaten with Roman rods, once I have been stoned, three times I have been shipwrecked, once for full four and twenty hours I was floating on the open sea.

came to you. This Gospel is [now] also producing fruit all over the world [i.e., throughout the Roman Empire] and growing [in its influence], just as it is doing among you people also, since the day you [first] heard and understood God's unearned favor in [all its] truth.

Of this you are aware, that all the Christians in Roman Asia have deserted me: and among them Phygelus and Hermogenes.

At my first defense [Note: Paul here refers to his initial hearing before the Roman court] no one supported me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ: To God's own people scattered over the earth, who are living as foreigners in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Roman Asia, and Bithynia,

From John, to the seven Churches which are in Roman Asia. Blessing and peace be yours from him who is, and who was, and who shall be, and from the seven Spirits that are before his throne,