The history of God's people in Scripture is lived in contention and opposition to empire. Hardly a page of Scripture escapes the political and religious ramifications of following God when world-spanning military and economic superpowers demand your allegiance.
But you may not believe me, for this is not typically how Western Europeans or North Americans read the Bible. After all, it's extremely inconvenient to read Scripture like this when you are one of those world-spanning superpowers.
When was the last time you heard the good news of Jesus expressed as nonviolent resistance to empire?
We simply don't view it that way. We've made the good news about being saved from personal sin and entry into heaven. All the time we see it this way, we fail to read Revelation in the way John intended us to by missing his brutal critique of empire that begins in chapter 13.
But first, some history.
The Priene inscription
The Priene inscription was first discovered on two stones in the marketplace of Priene, an ancient city in the Roman Province of Asia Minor.
Yes, the same province that the Jesus followers whom John is writing to live in.
This inscription declares the acceptance of a proposed edict by the cities of Asia Minor to make the birthday of Caesar Augustus (23rd September) the beginning of the new year.
The following excerpt records the speech given by the high priest Apollonius in 9 BCE (just three to five years before Jesus' birth).
All the cities [of Asia Minor] unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the new beginning of the year ... Whereas the Providence which has regulated our whole existence ... has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us (the emperor) Augustus ... who being sent to us and our descendants as Saviour, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and (whereas,) having become (god) manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times ... the birthday of the god (Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of good news concerning him.
— Excerpt from the Priene inscription
Richard A. Horsley
Jesus and Empire, pp.23-24
The good news of Caesar
The people of Asia Minor credit Caesar Augustus with creating world peace by putting "an end to war" and setting "all things in order." This leads them to accept his birthday as the beginning of the new year and as "the beginning of euangelion."
The beginning of good news.
The beginning of the gospel.
Which is a phrase you may be familiar with.
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
— Mark 1:1 NRSV
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
— Mark 1:1 NKJV
And the Greek word Mark uses for "good news" or "gospel?" Euangelion. The same word that the Priene inscription uses about Augustus.
The good news of Jesus is political
Mark begins his gospel with a political statement that says it's Jesus' birthday that ushers in a new era of "good news," and not Caesar Augustus'. He co-opts Rome's use of euangelion as an imperial pronouncement and turns it on its head to announce an anti-empire agenda.
Just like Jesus did with his use of the words ekklesia (assembly or church) and basileia (empire or kingdom), both of which had specific uses within the political system at the time. In the first part of The seven assemblies article, we saw how Jesus was seeking to set up an alternate ekklesia/assembly and establish a new basileia/empire as an antidote to Rome's.
Early Christians like Mark and John of Patmos are continuing Jesus' example by setting up his good news to counteract the gospel pronouncements of empire. Because that's the thing with Rome's gospel. By achieving peace and order through violent conquest and economic oppression, it only brings good news to some people. Whereas the gospel of Jesus is good news to all people.
And John doesn't hold back in his critique of Rome.
