Dominion

As ancient international relations went, there was no love lost between the Athenians and the Persians. The Athenians viewed the Persians as brutal, bloodthirsty barbarians. They were horrified by Persian methods of execution – in particular, the gruesome practice of crucifixion. A criminal was attached to a stake, with nails driven through his feet and hands, and then he was left to expire while crowds jeered. 

The Persian king who sanctioned this type of punishment believed he had a divine mandate to dispense justice. According to the Persian belief system, everyone had a choice. People could choose between truth and lies, darkness and light. It was up to the king to punish those who had chosen unwisely.

The Athenians found this style of politics repellent. In Athens, it was up to every citizen to ensure they didn’t cause offense. According to Aristotle, who was writing in the fourth century BCE, an elegant order cascaded from the mind of a just and universal god. Humans were superior to other species, men were superior to women, and so-called barbarians were only fit to serve the Greeks as enslaved people. 

Rome built its power on the foundation of Greek thought. Early Roman philosophers, who became known as the Stoics, believed that heaven’s order was governed by mathematical phenomena. What followed was this: everyone on earth – man, woman, master, or enslaved person – was able to observe these phenomena and, therefore, tell right from wrong. 

Further, there was a spark of the divine within everyone. That spark was the conscience. 

But one nation that formed part of the Roman empire was peculiar: the Jews. They only worshipped one god, and their relationship with him was personal. With the Ten Commandments, delivered to Moses on Mt. Sinai, God made a pact with the Jews: follow the rules and you might avoid punishment. It’s this covenant that kept the Jewish religion alive.

But for the Jews, too, things were about to change. A dangerous cult had sprung up in the Roman colonies around Jerusalem. Followers of an itinerant named Jesus believed, despite their leader’s hideous crucifixion, that he was the son of God – and that he had risen to heaven after his death.

In the year 19 CE, a Jewish scholar called Paul was passionately dedicated to stamping out this cult. Little did he know that he would soon become one of its apostles.