As the poison choked out Britannicus’ life during a dinner with other nobles and their families, Nero calmly told those in attendance that Britannicus was simply having an epileptic seizure and would soon recover. [3], Knowledge of the situation facing the Roman Christians in A.D. 57 is crucial to the interpretation of this text. It was around this time, with the backdrop of ten years of murders, adulteries, and injustices by the rulers of the Roman Empire, that the Christians in Rome received a letter from the apostle Paul which said in part, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. Yet, the Senate persuaded him not to by claiming it would bring ruin to the State. The whole sum of the parts is different from any one leader in particular. We rape the Scriptures when Romans 13:1-7 is used to justify such ignorance of and even the active participation in streams of society, culture, and policy which go against the grain of God’s kingdom. I am also very much indebted to the discussion as the source of the historical information in this paragraph. After Britannicus died, Agrippina continued to scheme for power for herself, while Nero fully exerted his own. Tensions were building because of indirect taxation. Around this time Nero became infatuated with a married woman and was also known to have homosexual relationships. Romans 13 means, "Remember them which have the rule over you," as you will also find at Hebrews 13:7. Instead, the Roman believers are to “overcome evil with good” (12:21b), and this is illustrated in 12:20, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.”. Dunn (1988: 758) also mentions the phrases ekdikew / ekdikoV (12:19; 13:4) and pantwn anqrwpwn / pasin (12:17-18; 13:7) to provide evidence for a link between the two passages, before demonstrating links between Romans 2:7-11 and 13:3-4 in order to refute the claims of some that this passage is a non-Pauline insertion. The church must live as a sign of the kingdom yet to come, but since that kingdom is characterized by justice, peace, and joy in the Spirit [14.17], it cannot be inaugurated in the present by violence and hatred. Government was to emerge from compacts made by men mediating their rights for the good of all. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. [11] It is therefore quite reasonable to see a connection between 13:1-7 and 12:9-21. Paul writes, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. Her rage soon turned against Claudius, and she plotted his death after hearing him say “it was his destiny to have to endure his wives’ infamy and at last punish it” (The Annals, Tacitus). She wanted him to be adopted by Claudius as well, thus placing him at equal rank with Claudius’ biological son, Britannicus. There were two problems with these plans: 1) the marriage of an uncle to his niece was unprecedented and looked upon as incestuous and 2) Octavia was already betrothed to someone else. Paul expects the attitudes and actions that are to typify believers’ relationships with their fellow believers should also typify their dealings with the governing authorities. Tyranny was defined as ruling without the sanction of God. Of these three, Tacitus, who was a close friend of Pliny the Younger, lived closest to the time of the events surrounding the book of Romans, and his accounting of that time period is the most detailed. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Romans 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is important to give some historical context to both what the Bible teaches us and to our personal setting. It is only through the delimiting influence of context that words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs are endowed with significance. 4 (October 1989): 325-343. He then redefines in 13:1-7 how the people of God in the church at Rome should relate to the power structures of the society in which they dwell. In Romans 13:1-7, Paul exhorts the Roman believers to apply his previous commands toward love (12:9), harmony (12:16), and peace (12:18) in the context of obedience to government (13:1-5) and the payment of taxes (13:6-7). To be baptized into Christ is to be clothed with this mighty power, and to be summoned to battle with all that deflects us from the mutual love enjoined in the larger context of Romans 13:8-15:6, including all that divides the community and sets Christians against one another. As Christianity became mainstream and even established, elite Roman intellectual culture and theology blend. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/ho... http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.html. Used twenty-one times in the New Testament, hupo-kouo always suggests a hierarchical context, as in the relationship between children or slaves and their parents or masters (Eph 6:1 and 6:5). Agrippina continued to exterminate people either out of jealousy or fear that they hindered her power. Furthermore, the Jewish believers who had returned to the city in A.D. 54 might not have been on the best terms with neither the Roman authorities nor the Gentile believers. I don't believe I've ever seen Nero superimposed over an American flag before now. It is possible that Paul was beheaded around the time of Nero’s persecution of the Roman Christians, just a few years after the apostle had written, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” of Rome—the place where, according to Tacitus, “all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”, (Tomorow: Can We Celebrate Independence without Celebrating Revolution?). For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Much of what Paul has to say in this epistle speaks to this issue: the relationship between Jewish and Gentile Christians within the Roman context. 46, no. Harmony is commanded within and outside the church, extending even to persecutors (12:14, 16). But Agrippina wanted even more for her son. And Jews in Palestine were growing more and more rebellious.[16]. In speaking to the broader issue of historiography they give many admissions regarding the revised view and expose the lies of the progressive view. Soon after, Nero emerged from the locked-up palace on a litter amid joyful shouts. There are a number of reasons for this, including what appears to many as a \"crisis in character.\" In any event, this is, generally speaking, the situation.
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