Claudia [book review]

Do you know what life was like in the height of the Roman Empire? Most of us have a very limited understanding that goes something like this: We remember that part in Easter plays where the judgy kind of guy is wearing a robe accentuated by some sort of laurel crown asking, “Hey, what’s wrong with this guy named Jesus? Why do you want to kill him? I can’t figure out what he’s done to break the law.” Then a bunch of chaos breaks out, and some loud guy that’s usually so very quiet during Sunday school and church car washes stands in the middle of the sanctuary yelling, “Crucify Him!” about the associate pastor. Who would have thought it could happen? As you can tell, I’ve had some overly-traumatic church experiences, but it doesn’t compare to what is revealed about the Roman Era in Claudia: wife of Pontius Pilate by Diana Wallis Taylor.

In order to understand the politics of Jesus Christ’s death sentence, we need to review the history of the Jewish people. Jewish history is really not as complicated as we usually make it, and it goes in a much straighter timeline than we usually think. It all began when Abraham and his wife, Sarah, received a covenant from God that they would have countless descendants – so many that they would form entire nations of people. Then a bunch of stuff happens. Then Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac, is born and lots of stuff happens. Then Isaac and his wife, Rebekah, have a son named Jacob. Jacob (whose name is later changed to Israel) and his wives, Leah and Rachel, have twelve sons and one daughter. The sons all sell their brother, Joseph, to a caravan of Egyptians that are passing through Canaan and they tell Jacob that his favorite son is dead. Years later, when Joseph is all grown up and holds the position of viceroy within the royal Egyptian household, his family back home in Canaan suffers a really severe famine. In a great example of poetic justice, the family goes to Egypt to get food from Joseph, and then the family relocates to become Egyptian slaves. Well, it’s actually not what they had in mind, but that’s how history goes.

Here’s how it happened. Joseph and all his brothers lived out their lives, then a new Pharaoh decided that he didn’t like any of the Israelites who were left and he enslaved them in a manner that was similar to the work camps in WWII Germany. Then his hatred progressed into an order to kill all male Israelites as they were born. One smart family hid their male baby in the bulrushes and he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter. She adopted him, he grew up like a prince, and he led the Israelites out of Egypt into the middle of the desert. They wandered around for 40 years and eventually made it to the Promised Land after the first generation of people in the desert had all died.

God’s orders were to conquer the “Promised Land” without letting anyone live who wasn’t an Israelite, without adopting any foreign culture or religion, and especially without marrying anyone who wasn’t an Israelite. The land that the Jewish Scriptures call “The Promised Land” is the area that we now call the Southern Levant, which includes parts of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon. Essentially, it’s the land between Egypt and Turkey.

Of course, the Israelites didn’t follow the rules. They liked what they saw in the land already. The people who lived there had nice homes, nice things, and pretty women. The Israelites took the belongings of those people already living in the land, and they married those who were nice to look at. And they adopted some of their religious practices so that it was a dualistic, blended amalgamation of religious beliefs. The new blended society preferred to live wildly and irresponsibly, and didn’t follow any of the rules. The Israelites just wanted to be like everybody else – not “set apart” or “peculiar.”

Eventually, the Israelites spent so much time away from their Scriptures that they forgot the scrolls even existed. Except for a few Prophets who held out, the Jewish people abandoned their entire belief system and they were captured and relocated to Assyria/Babylon in 605 B.C, where they lived for about 70 years until Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 B.C. Then King Cyrus of Persia slowly allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem in small batches. In 537 B.C., about 50,000 Jews made the journey. On March 12, 516 B.C., many more Jews had returned to Jerusalem and they had completed the building of a brand new Temple. Solomon’s Temple had been burned and ravaged. This new Temple was smaller but it would witness the teaching of Jesus the Messiah. In 445 B.C., the last of the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, and they finished building the wall around the city.

Then the Bible skips ahead 400 years, but those years have well-documented historical events that are very important to the Jewish people. It was this period of time, directly after the rebuilding of the city wall, that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written; the Jewish Scriptures were translated into Greek; Alexander the Great was King; Greek philosophers taught their wisdom; Greece defeated the Persians; Syria fought Egypt; and Rome became a world power.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek King, captured Jerusalem in 169 B.C. This is that “Maccabean Revolt” that mainstream Christians don’t often read about. Why? Because the Apocrypha tells about much of the event and Protestant Christians tend to associate that with the Catholic religion. In 168 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes rededicated the Jewish Temple to the Greek god, Zeus, forbidding worship to any other. The Jewish people protested and civil war broke out between the Jews and Greeks. From this event in history, we get the Festival of Lights, also called… Hanukkah. In 165 B.C., the Temple was restored to the Jews, and ceremonially cleansed of the sacrifices made to Zeus.

In 64 B.C., Pompey captured Jerusalem. Four years later, Pompey formed a coalition with Julius Caesar of Rome, and (General) Marcus Licinius Crassus of Rome. In 43 B.C., this coalition hadn’t held up, but Augustus, General Marcus, and Mark Antony formed a coalition that carried the Roman Republic into the status of the Roman Empire. This is the time in history when Rome conquered Europe, including Britain and Gaul. This is the time in history when Cleopatra was the Queen of Egypt. This is the time when Herod became King and captured Jerusalem. This is the time when:

“it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” – Luke 2:1-7

This is the political setting for the crucifixion of Jesus. The Roman Empire was in charge, Jerusalem was a battlefield, and the Jewish priests were fighting to keep foreign gods out of the Jewish Temple. This is the setting in which The Jewish leaders became so fervent in their religious practices that they became legalists and Jesus yelled at them inside the Temple,

“Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  Matthew 12:34

No wonder there was chaos. No wonder the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate didn’t quite know what to do about the entire situation.  No wonder he washed his hands and turned his back.

This is the setting of Claudia: wife of Pontius Pilate by Diana Wallis Taylor. Get ready to see Pontius Pilate, otherwise known as Lucius, in an entirely different light.

Rating: worth reading – helps gain perspective about world history.

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