Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [170]
64 The Great Fire in Rome destroys much of the city. Nero blames the disaster on Christians and begins the first official persecution of the group.
c. 65? The Gospel according to Mark is composed.
68 Emperor Nero commits suicide, ending 128 years of the line that had ruled Rome since Julius Caesar.
69 Roman general Vespasian lays siege to Jerusalem. A coup by Roman generals makes him the next emperor.
70 Jerusalem falls and the Temple, completed six years earlier, is destroyed. All that remains is the wall now famous as the “Wailing [Western] Wall.”
73 The Roman siege of Masada near the Dead Sea ends when Romans enter the Jewish fortress and find its Jewish defenders dead in an apparent mass suicide.
79 Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples erupts, killing thousands.
84/85? The Gospels according Matthew and Luke are written.
96 Emperor Domitian is stabbed to death; he is succeeded by Nerva.
98 Nerva dies suddenly and is succeeded by his adopted son, who will rule for nineteen years as the emperor Trajan.
c. 100? The Gospel according to John is written.
• In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the Christian prophet John writes metaphorically of “Babylon” but is referring to Rome.
Jesus Is Coming Look Busy
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” (Acts 2:40)
* How do you tell the world the “good news” if you don’t speak their language?
* What happens when you don’t pay your dues to church?
* Why was Stephen stoned?
* Was the apostle Paul a chauvinist, woman-hating homophobe?
No Jesus. Judas was dead. The eleven disciples, who had scattered like flies before a flyswatter at their leader’s arrest, were probably terrified. They must have been expecting a knock on the door at any minute. Either it would be Jesus coming back or Roman soldiers coming to take them away. Either way, they must have been anxiously thinking, “Now what?”
The beginnings of the Christian church were not like some Mickey Rooney—Judy Garland movie in which the kids say, “Let’s put a show.” Jesus’ earliest followers faced persecution and death, either at the hands of Jewish authorities or the most powerful government on earth. In telling their story, the Acts of the Apostles, a “sequel” by the author of Luke, covers approximately thirty years that roughly correspond with the notorious reigns of the Roman emperors Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Yet, for those with a taste for the Bible’s lurid side, this New Testament saga is fairly tame. At a time when these Romans were inventing the word “decadent,” the stories in Acts pale besides the racier details of earlier Bible stories. Sure, there are a few miracles, a prison break, a stoning, a shipwreck, and the death of a couple who don’t pay their promised dues to the church. But while Emperor Nero did more than just “fiddle”—he actually played the zither—the first Christians spent much of their time debating kosher food and circumcision. On the other hand, there are a lot of complaints about “fornication” by early church members. But Acts leaves out the seamy details and lacks the wholesale sex and violence that often made the Hebrew scriptures so compelling.
The author of Luke takes up his Acts narrative from the moment Jesus ascends into heaven, and carries it through the establishment of Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean world. Although Acts features a number of early Christian figures, including the first martyr, Stephen, the book is essentially a twoman show. First to be highlighted is Simon Peter (or Cephas), nicknamed “the rock” by Jesus because he would be the foundation on which the church was built. Peter is depicted primarily preaching among his fellow Jews, although he begins to expand his preaching to include Gentiles. Not yet called Christians, the Jewish followers of Jesus called themselves the people of “the Way.” Then the spotlight shifts to Saul/Paul, who became the leading advocate of Jesus’ message in the Gentile, or non-Jewish, world of the first century.
While modern Christians