MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
In a recent series of articles, we explored Jesus as prophet, priest, and king, and how He was the long-awaited Messiah. Last week we used history, religious facts, and scriptures concerning Israel to lay a foundation, explaining how its people became the vehicle God used for sending His Son. Their unity of worship, plus isolation from outside influence, protected them from losing their distinctiveness. Even after conquest, dispersion - even destruction of Jerusalem and the temple - the people of Israel held to their prophets' promises that a liberator, a Messiah, would come.
Around the time of Christ, when Romans controlled much of the known world, the Jews' desire for a deliverer was at a high pitch. Preparations had been made for centuries, with the temple in Jerusalem, sacrifices and priests, and worship of the one true living God as all part of the foreshadowing. This week we'll see how the promised deliverer came at just the right time.
The Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies estimates that the population of Jerusalem in the first century CE was around 40,000, which would swell to 200,000 on feast days. The total world population of Jews was probably somewhere between 4 and 5 million. The Feast of Weeks, known today in Christian circles as Pentecost, was held following Jesus' death. Acts 2:9-11 describes attendees from:
• Mesopotamia which encompasses present day Iraq and Iran.
• Judea which is the area around Jerusalem, probably also including today's Syria and Lebanon.
• Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Roman provinces in Asia Minor which is Turkey today.
• Egypt where the Jewish population was estimated to be around one million.
• the districts of Libya around Cyrene, the largest city in North Africa.
• Rome, both Jews and proselytes, numbering in the thousands.
• the southeast of Greece and west of Judea.
• northern Arabia, probably the Nabateans who built Petra.
By the time of Christ, there were more Jews living elsewhere than in their original homeland. On the Day of Pentecost, all of these people miraculously heard Jesus' followers - unlearned Galileans - speaking in all their different languages which was a miracle of the Holy Spirit.
Other factors made this an ideal time in history. There was the widespread presence of the Roman Empire, a time of relative peace (the Pax Romana), a well-developed road system, common coinage, and use of a nearly universal written language, Greek, which is intricate and expressive. It was also a time of social and political restlessness, opening the door to new ideas and a desire for change.
I would like to add another observation. By this time Judaism had spread and had been established throughout the known world, providing a religious and social basis for understanding monotheism and the basic concepts of Jesus’ message. This was all a part of the plan: God had either caused, allowed, or used events, to spread Judaism far and wide, which prepared the world for Christianity. Following is just a summary of the ongoing dispersion of the people He chose.
Six centuries before Christ, many Jews were carried away to Babylon. Though much was written about their longing for Jerusalem and their homeland, only a small percentage returned after Cyrus the Persian king allowed them to leave. After Jesus' death and destruction of the temple in 70 CE, Babylonian influence is reflected in the development of the Talmud (the study of Jewish law and theology), which advanced first in Galilee and then in Babylon.
We remember the movement of Israelites into Egypt during the time of famine, when Joseph was second in command to Pharaoh. They later returned to the promised land with Moses, but through the centuries, several waves of Jewish people would migrate to Egypt, escaping persecution from invaders. The successors of Alexander the Great gave Jews a section of Alexandria and allowed them to freely practice their beliefs. A Jewish philosopher there, Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE to 50 CE), remarked that his countrymen, meaning Jews, were “in all the cities of Europe, in the provinces of Asia and in the islands.” His works were in koine Greek, which was used throughout the Roman world for written communications by the learned; Egyptian libraries also included the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible commissioned by their Ptolemaic ruler.
All of this shows why the message spoken by Jesus resonated with a Jewish Pharisee such as Nicodemus; a Roman citizen and Greek-speaking Jew from Asia Minor like Paul; a centurion named Cornelius; and an Ethiopian eunuch as he read from Isaiah. Much of the known world had been already prepared to receive the promise, given first to Abraham and others through the centuries, "'I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing'" (Genesis 12:2). That blessing is Jesus, and He comes at just the right time. Though the events of our day may be troubling, remember that God is working all for our good. When we need Him most, we can call on Him and He is near. He has prepared and brought us to this point. According to God's Word, Jesus arrived “when the fullness of time was come” (Galatians 4:4) and "at the right time" (Romans 5:6).
