The sale of slaves in the ancient world was conducted just as sales of other goods and wares–in a market, in public. Captives to be sold would be displayed on stands, sometimes revolving. Usually, they were naked so potential buyers could see exactly what they were purchasing. If captives were not already nude, buyers could demand that they be stripped …
15 Facts About Slavery
The Roman Empire depended on slaves. It simply couldn’t function without them. As many as 33% of the population across the Empire were slaves. Inequality was an accepted part of life and freedom was not a right. Romans believed the freedom of some was possible only because of the slavery of others. The fact that slaves most often came from …
The Mountains Quake Before Him
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. ~Acts 16.26 I grew up in southern California. I remember several earthquakes, but none that were really serious. In college in Tulsa, I experienced my first tornado warning. I was terrified, but …
Familia Ante Omnia
The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ~Acts 16.14-15 At that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. ~Acts 16:33 Familia Ante Omnia: Family Before All I …
Bad Blood in the Body
On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ~Acts 16:13 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ~Philippians 4:2 When Paul …
Think You Know Claudius?
His full name was Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. He ruled from 41 to 54 AD. He had the pedigree to rule. He was the nephew of both Mark Antony and Tiberius, the uncle of Caligula, great-nephew of Augustus, and the great-great-grandnephew of Julius Caesar. He suffered from many physical ailments, possibly cerebral palsy, and was ridiculed by his own …
The Ancient Order of Tribunes
Sold into Freedom’s hero is Quintus, a military tribune. In Rome’s earliest history, all Roman citizens were contained in three tribes organized by Romulus (8th century BC). Each tribe was headed by a tribune. There was no standing army, so each tribe sent one commander when an army was mustered. In Imperial times, military tribunes were the six most senior …
Please Wait, Wait a Minute, Mister Postman
The Apostle Paul wrote almost half the New Testament—all in the form of letters. (Although volume-wise, his beloved physician Luke wrote more.) We might imagine a thoughtful Paul sitting in a chair at a table in a darkened room. A single candle illuminates his workspace, a quill is posed over a piece of parchment. But that’s not exactly the way …
All Roads Really Did Lead to Rome
One of the reasons Christianity spread so quickly in the first centuries after Jesus’s death and resurrection was the sophisticated and extensive Roman road system. Copies of the gospels as well as Paul’s letters—later to become Holy Scripture—were carried throughout the Empire on these roads. They were built to serve the military. As the famed Roman legions conquered new regions, …
Ancient Words, Ancient Bibles
What image comes to mind when I say “book”? If you’re like most people, you think of separate pages bound together, with a cover. Known as the “codex,” this has been the most common form of a book for the past two millennia. The codex is a book constructed of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or similar …
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