Misguided History

Many Romans were mystified. Who were the Jews? And how did they settle in their land? The land was seen as an important corridor and buffer to protect them from Rome’s rivals. So how did the Jews come to occupy this land?

Tacitus, the Roman historian, writing around 100 AD, speculated that they might have been fugitives from Crete, or possibly “an Assyrian horde.” But he thought it was most likely that they had been expelled by Egypt’s king after a disease broke out. Then, finding themselves in a desert, they sat “in a stupor of grief” until Moses urged them “not to look for any relief from God or man, forsaken as they were of both, but to trust in themselves.” Agreeing to follow Moses, they journeyed seven days and finally settled in their land.

According to Tacitus, Moses established the Jewish religion to help secure his authority. Tacitus concluded that their religion was “opposed to all that is practiced by other men.”

This account clearly reflected the attitude of many Romans. Their leaders certainly could not have imagined how God would use the census that had been ordered by Augustus. It was just part of governing their empire, and they had no idea that God used this census to fulfill His great design.

The Romans, for all their power and resources, did not know the truth. And they could not understand the Baby who, one day, would die on a Roman cross.

Many today are mystified by Believers and the faith we have in Jesus. How, they wonder, could He change lives? Why would we worship Him? But Believers know the truth. Jesus is the risen Christ. The Messiah. The Savior of the world.