“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

The famous opening of Charles Dickens‘ “A Tale of Two Cities” describes two extremes existing side-by-side in society. In the setting of the book (the French Revolution in 1775-1793), the aristocracy were living the high life while the peasants were miserable and downtrodden…and getting very angry at the situation.

Why does a Christian website care about Dickens’ choice of opening paragraphs? Because God entered into humanity during another best-and-worst of times. Jesus came at just the right moment. Things were very, very dark, but there were also perfect conditions for the Gospel to be spread.

…when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law…

Galatians 4:4 (Full context in Galatians 4:1-7)

I’d like to explore those contrasts a bit.

The Worst of Times

Compared to the golden age of David and Solomon, Israel was now pretty pitiful. Instead of an autonomous kingdom led by a descendant of David (whose reign had been promised to last forever, 2 Samuel 7:8-17), they were a vassal state under the Roman Empire. Their “kings”, Herod the Great and his successor Herod Antipas, were installed by Rome due to political manipulation despite a lack of royal bloodline. They ruled only as long as the Emperor was satisfied with them. Even that rule was only nominal: Judea was a Roman province governed by officials such as Pontius Pilate.

Roman occupation was harsh. Any occupation would have been greatly resented, naturally. That of the Roman Empire included religious insult, high taxes, and violent response to dissent.

Insults: Herod the Great (the one of Jesus’ birth) placed an eagle, the symbol of Jupiter, over the entrance of the Temple in violation of the commandment against graven images. In 26 A.D., Pontius Pilate provoked a similar controversy by allowing military standards to display images of the Emperor. The high priest was appointed by Rome rather than being a descendant of Aaron as established in Exodus. Even that high priest’s robes were insulted: The sacred vestments were kept locked up by Rome, and the priest had to request permission to wear them for holy days.

Taxes: Between Rome and the Temple, taxes ate up to half or more of the average person’s income. Rome had land taxes (a percentage of crop yield), head or poll taxes (per person), tolls, customs duties, sales taxes, etc. Herod the Great had added his own taxes to pay for his massive building programs, such as the expanded Temple, palaces and fortresses, and the entire city of Caesarea Maritima. It didn’t help that those who collected the taxes often cheated, demanding even more than was legally required.

The Roman taxes were in addition to the required religious giving. There was not only the ten-percent tithe supporting the Levites (in lieu of their owning land while working to maintain the Temple) as required by Exodus. There was also an annual Temple flat tax per adult male and a second ten-percent tithe used to support pilgrimages and the poor.

Response to dissent: Protests were often met with harsh suppression. For instance, remember that golden eagle Herod installed at the Temple entrance? When a group of men tore it down, Herod had them burned alive. Another example is when the people objected to Pilate’s use of Temple funds to build an aqueduct. In response, he infiltrated the protest with his own soldiers disguised and armed with clubs instead of swords. On signal, they began to attack the protesters from within. Many were killed immediately. Others were trampled in the rush to escape.

In some ways, even Judaism itself was just a zombie, with the shell of the original covenant but little of the true heart. The ruling class of religious leaders were not far from the French-revolution aristocrats, and the normal people were downtrodden by them as well as by the Romans. Jesus reserved His harshest words for the “Scribes and Pharisees” who imposed much heavier burdens than the Law intended (Matthew 23:13-36).

God had been silent for four hundred years. No new prophet had brought any word from Him since Malachi. Had He finally given up on His chosen people?

The Best of Times

The same Roman Empire that conquered sixty million people and two million square miles also built over 100,000 miles of roads to connect them ¹. Here is a map of some of those roads.

Notice that along these roads we see cities prominent in the New Testament, such as Ephesus, Thessalonica and Antioch. Paul would have traveled these highways on his missionary journeys. Couriers would have used them to distribute his letters — including those that became part of the New Testament — back to the churches he founded.

In addition to roads, the Roman Empire also provided a common language for communication. Although each culture that it conquered would continue to speak their original native language, inter-cultural commerce was conducted in either Greek or Latin. In the area where Christianity was born, Greek was in widespread use, while Latin was more for official Empire business.

Over the centuries, many Jews had migrated (or been driven out) to other parts of the Roman world. These became known as the “Diaspora”, the dispersed Jews. Each place they landed, they formed synagogues and continued to worship God as always. During his missionary journeys, Paul’s ministry in each new city began by preaching the Gospel in the local synagogue ². Here is a map of those ready-made evangelistic opportunities. Again, you will see some familiar cities.

The Fullness of Time

When Jesus was born, the world very obviously needed a Savior. Of course, that is pretty much always the case! The lineage prophesied for that Savior was in trouble, though: No Davidic king, centuries with no prophet, crushing Roman occupation, corrupt and oppressive religious leaders. But at the same time, the Roman infrastructure provided ideal conditions for the spread of the Gospel via good roads, common language, and dispersed Jewish communities.

…you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks ³…

Daniel 9:25 (For full context, Daniel 9:24-27)

Six hundred years earlier, Daniel had predicted that the Messiah would arrive 483 years ⁴ after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, after the return from Babylon captivity. There is disagreement about whether this meant the very first decree, which was issued by King Cyrus in 538 B.C. or the fourth and last one, issued to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. That last one, 444 B.C., plus 483 years would end at 39 A.D. Regardless of which decree is used for a starting point, it was time for Him to arrive.

And so, arrive He did… in “the fullness of time“!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David ⁵ a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11 (KJV)

1. Some of those roads still exist today.
2. When, as often happened, he was rejected there, he then turned to sharing with the Gentiles also.
3. “Weeks” are sets of seven, like our “dozen” for twelve of anything. In this case, it is sets of seven years.
4. Seven “sevens”, or 49 years, plus 62 “sevens”, 434 years, equals a total of 483 years.
5. Bethlehem, as foretold in Micah 5:2, 700 years earlier