Negotiating the Political Powers

How did the Judeans in the era around Jesus negotiate with the Roman powers and the Judean powers? We might need to begin with the observation that they had to since Rome’s power was pervasive and, if need be, brutal.  In 63 BC Pompey the Great was sent to the eastern Mediterranean to calm things down, which he did and what he did in particular was grab hold of Judea to occupy it. Judea was in the middle of its own brutal power struggle (between Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II). The former set up camp in Jerusalem and Pompey conquered the city.

Where do you see the approaches to negotiating power today? How do you see the Progressives? Christian Republicans? Anabaptists?

Warren Carter, in his Seven Events That Shaped the New Testament World, examines the Roman occupation of Judea as shaping how both Jesus and the earliest Christians negotiated the power of Rome. Awareness of this issue can help reshape our “NT theology” so that it takes on a more accurate political theme.

Who lost when Pompey took over? Judeans, especially poor Judeans; military takeovers always mean bad news for the poor. The Hasmoneans lost control though they attempted many times and many ways to gain back their control. Winners? Romans, Hyrcanus II who negotiated better than Aristobulus II, and eventually became an ethnarch. King Herod eventually found his way to the throne over Judea.

Rome ruled through military might, alliances, taxation and the appointment of Herod as a client king on their behalf. King Herod was brutal and was constantly watching his back – from Rome and from Egypt and from the Hasmoneans and from family members. He killed so many family members and rivals that Augustus, emperor of Rome, is quoted as saying he’d rather have been Herod’s pig than Herod’s son!

Now to our question: How did they negotiate power?

1. Accept and embrace their power: Hyrcanus II.
2. Fight their power: Aristobulus II.
3. Hope for a Messiah: Psalms of Solomon tell the story of Pompey’s takeover, that it was divine discipline for sinfulness, and appeal to God’s faithfulness to the covenant, and then sketch a vision of a non-violent Messiah who will take over Jerusalem and send Rome packing.
4. Popular protests: one time after another various Jewish populist groups acted the part of a rebellion by protesting one or more actions of Herod or the Romans, including placing an eagle on a gate into the Temple. Think boycotts with the willingness to be martyrs.

What about the Christians? Carter sees two major themes: there is a more positive embrace or accommodation to Roman ways as the Christians went about their business doing what they could, and he sees this in 1 Peter, in Romans 13, and in Tim 2:1-2, Titus 3:1-2.

The second was a more apocalyptic expectation of Roman destruction as one reads in Revelation 13 and 18, alongside his way of reading some texts in the Gospels. He’s right in pointing to an alternative way of life over against imperial power and rule.