Page 44 - Bible Geography and Near East Studies

Legionnaires marching upon them swiftly, gaining access to the battles throughout the country. The
roads funded and facilitated Roman expansion. But God used Rome to be a part of spreading the Gospel
to the known world. As persecution came to Jerusalem, believers walked down these roads in swift
retreat. A new kind of soldier was traversing the roads of Rome: onward Christian soldiers! The roads
were used to quickly disseminate the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.

The interaction of Rome with the people of Israel began in 63 BC when the Roman general Pompey
conquered Jerusalem. Julius Caesar defeated Pompey in 45 BC and took control of Palestine, and
recognized Judaism as a legal religion, which was also recognized by Augustus after Caesar’s
assassination in 44 BC. Augustus was ruling when Jesus was born (Luke 2:1).

Herod the Great

Herod came from a family that had been forced to convert to Judaism only a generation before he was
born. He was not religious, though he maintained the Jewish diet and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem.
Born of Arab parents (his father was an Idumean and his mother was a Nabatean), the vast majority of
Jewish citizens resented his appointment as their ruler. In the eyes of a Jewish community, he was

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