New Testament Survey
The Family of Herod
Before concluding our study of the background history of this time, a couple of points need to be made.
First, although the Romans did not enter into the history of the region until “late,” the Roman empire played a considerable role in God’s “fullness of time.” The Romans were a very “civilized” people who viewed their comforts as a necessity. Many of these comforts are of the same type that we enjoy today. There was peace in the land – Pax Roma. Admittedly this peace was originally created by the army, and was also enforced by the army, but it was an empire-wide peace. This allowed trade and people to move about the entire region without visas or trade barriers. Further, being a people of comfort, the Romans built a massive road system throughout the empire. This made travel all the much easier. The means of spreading the Gospel message of Christ was now in place.
There was also a commonality of speech throughout the empire. It was not, however, the language of Rome. Rome may have conquered the land, but Alexander the Great still ruled the peoples’ hearts. Three hundred years after his death, common Greek, or Koine, was the language of trade, commerce, and diplomacy. Just as today everyone speaks American, in the days of Jesus everyone spoke Greek. Even in Rome this was the language of culture, business, and politics.
Koine is also the language of the New Testament. All the books of the New Testament were originally written in Greek.
