Son of God in a Roman World

In this series of articles we have been trying to take a look at the message of the New Testament from the eyes of the people alive in the first century. We have been asking the question: what would the apostles message sounded like to the average Jew and Roman. In the last article we noticed that the gospel of peace would have an additional message beyond what the 21st century mind would recognize. While the gospel of peace was the message of the reconciliation of the sinner to God, it also implied the celebratory news of a conquering emperor subjecting the world unto him. Christ, of course, is the conquering king of the whole earth. In this article, I would like for us to look at the implication and significance of teaching Jesus to be the Son of God.

The Romans spoke about the gods in a unique way. The Latin word deus was the word used to refer to the traditional Roman gods. A living Roman emperor was never called deus. But we know the emperors thought of themselves as gods and called themselves gods. But they used a different Latin word divus. At first, this word was assigned to an emperor after his death, but over time was used for the living emperors. While this convention was useful for the Romans in Latin, the common person in the empire did not speak Latin. Greek was the language of the common person. The Greek language has no distinction for the word “god” like the Latin does. In the Greek, the only word to use for “god” is theos.

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Author: Brent Kercheville

Keywords: Augustus, Augustus Caesar, Caesar, Emperor Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, Emperor, Divine emperor, Coin inscription, Coin inscribed

Bible reference(s): Psalms 2:7, Matthew 22:17-21, Mark 12:14-17, Luke 20:22-25, Matthew 4:3, Matthew 4:6, Matthew 8:29, Matthew 14:33, Matthew 26:63, Matthew 27:40, Matthew 27:43, Matthew 27:54, Mark 1:1, Mark 3:11, Mark 15:39, Luke 1:35, Luke 2:1, Luke 3:1, Luke 3:38, Luke 4:3, Luke 4:9, Luke 4:41, Luke 9:35, Luke 20:22, Luke 20:25, Luke 22:70, Luke 23:2, John 1:34, John 1:49, John 3:18, John 5:25, John 10:36, John 11:4, John 11:27, John 19:12, John 19:15, John 19:7, John 20:28, John 20:31, Acts 9:20, Acts 13:33, Acts 17:7, Acts 25:8, Acts 25:11, Acts 25:12, Acts 25:21, Acts 26:32, Acts 27:24, Acts 28:19, Romans 1:4, 2 Corinthians 1:19, Galatians 2:20, Ephesians 4:13, Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 6:6, Hebrews 7:3, Hebrews 10:29, 1 John 3:8, 1 John 4:15, 1 John 5:5, 1 John 5:10, 1 John 5:12, 1 John 5:13, 1 John 5:20, Revelation 2:18, 2 Esdras 2:47

Source: Brent Kercheville , Son of God in Roman World, Christian Monthly Standard, March 15, 2005.

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