Tag Archives: History

Led as a Captive

13 Monday Sep 2021

Posted by in History, Studies

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Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

I have a NIV Journal the Word Bible which I find eminently useful.  The margins are wide and lined so I have plenty of space to note where the same Greek word has been translated by different English words or where the same English words in a passage are, in fact, different Greek words.  I recently opened it to 2 Corinthians 2 and read verse 14: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere”.  I was struck with the thought: “I bet Paul is referencing a Roman Triumph”.

There is always the chance he was not.  Most armies had some sort of celebration when returning triumphant from the battlefield.  There is a celebration recorded in 1 Samuel 18:  “Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments.  So the woman sang as they dance and said; “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens thousands” (verses 6 & 7).  The great carved scenes in Egypt portray the triumphant Pharaoh and captives in chains.  I am not prepared to say unequivocally that Paul is referencing specifically the Roman Triumph.

And yet, Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37-38, 25-28).  Unger’s Bible Dictionary states, “The character of a Roman citizen superseded all others before the law and in the general opinion of society, and placed him amid the aristocracy of any provisional town” and refers to Tarsus, the city of Paul’s birthplace, as “no mean city”.  As Paul, or Saul as he was then, would probably have been thirteen when he went to Jerusalem to take up his studies, I can’t say with any certainty that he would have ever visited Rome and seen a Triumph for himself.  However, Paul was extremely well read, showing familiarity with Greek authors (Acts 17:28), so I have no doubt he’d have been familiar with the details of a Roman Triumph.  Both The Passion Translation and The Archeological Study Bible suggest Paul was alluding to the Roman Triumph in their commentaries on this particular scripture.

Since it is a possibility, what word picture could Paul be painting by comparing believers to captives in a Triumphal procession?  What exactly did a Roman Triumph consist of?

Firstly, they were far more frequent during Rome’s Republic than during its Empire when only Emperors could hold them.  They were the highest honor awarded to a military commander but were thought to be the pinnacle of a political career as well.  There were rigorous criteria that had to be met before a Triumph could take place.  Philip Matyszak writes, “The most important of these are: 1: At least 5,000 enemy combatants must have perished in battle.  2: The battle must have brought the campaign to an end.  3: The campaign must have enhanced the majesty of the Roman empire”.

The senate had to vote to allow a Triumph and, once the afore mentioned criteria had been verified and a Triumph granted; Rome prepared for a party.  Streets and squares were festively adorned, temples were opened, decorated with flowers, and incense burned on the alters.  The commander gathered with his troops in the Campus Martius near the temples of Bellona and Apollo and then were met at the Porta Triumphalis-a gate used only for triumphal processions-by the senate, the city magistrates, and numerous citizens who took the lead of the procession, while lictors opened a way through the crowd.  Trumpet fanfares heralded the approach of the triumphant general.  The spectators would not see him yet.

The Military Commander or Emperor in later years would have sent on ahead the booty captured for the state and this consisted of armour, standards arranged as trophies, models of the cities or ships taken from the enemy, pictures of battles, tablets with the deeds of the victor inscribed on them, statues personifying the rivers and towns of the subjected country-all of which followed the city dignitaries and tibicines (flute-players) and would be carried by crowned soldiers at the points of long lances or on portable stands, or would be trundled through the streets on wheeled carts.  There would also be art, valuables like plate and vases, and gold and silver coins. 

There was human booty as well.  The survivors of the conquered army came in chains and were jeered at by the crowds and not just the surviving fighters: kings, princes, and other nobles were paraded through the streets.  The procession also contained sacrificial oxen who had their horns gilded accompanied by the priests, and then there were more singers, musicians, and dancers.

Finally, came the triumphant general himself.  He would be in a turret-like triumphal chariot with his male offspring accompanying him on horseback.  He would have a crown of gold and either have a laurel crown held over his head or be holding a branch of laurel taken from a grove planted by the emperor which would be planted again after the Triumph.  After the general came more musicians and representative cohorts of his triumphant legions. 

This would be a spectacular site, to be sure, but what could Paul mean by saying God leads us captive in Christ’s Triumphal Procession?  Captives did not fare well in a Roman Triumph.  Some were sold into slavery, some went to fight in the amphitheater, some were destined to imprisonment in the Mamertine prison, and some were strangled inside that prison at the foot of the Capitoline Mount.  There are a few instances of some (like the British King Caratacus) who were allowed to live out their days in Rome but still; it wasn’t a happy thing to be a captive in a Triumphal Procession.  Better to be one of the conquering army, marching in the Triumph of our great general to the cheers and accolades of all the inhabitants of the city.

Yet, Paul says we are led captive in Christ’s triumphal procession.  There is joy in Paul.  It can’t be missed.  He delights in doors being opened for him to teach in Troas but how he was troubled in his spirit because he could not find Titus there and so continued to Macedonia.  Then comes that cry, “But thanks be to God…!” (2 Corinthians 2:12-14).  What, if anything at all, can be gleaned from this passage?

God-willing, I will share what I have found next week.  Until then, the blessings of the Lord be upon you.

Amen.

References:

Archeological Study Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2005

NIV Journal The Word Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1973/2016

The Passion Translation, Broadstreet Publishing Group, LLC, 2018

Dando-Collins, Stephen, Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion, St. Martin’s Press, New York, New York, 2010, Pages 81-83

Guhl, E. & W. Koner, The Romans: Life and Customs, Konecky & Konecky, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, Pages 290-295

Matyszak, Philip, Legionary: The Roman Soldier’s Unofficial Manual, Thames & Hudson Ltd. London, 2009, Pages 183-185

Unger, Merrill R., Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1957/1982, Page 831

Travels Through Greco-Roman Antiquity :: The Roman Triumph (villanova.edu)

The Roman Triumph – Spectacles in the Roman World (bccampus.ca)

Parallel Cultures

07 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in History

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2015-06-01 14.50.41

I’ve never paid too much attention to American History.  I’ve always been fascinated with Rome, Carthage, Egypt, and Parthia.  Medieval England is the latest period I’ve spent any time with.  Still, I’m a history buff and I was able to persuade my family to stop at the Anasazi and Fremont Indian State Parks during our trip to Utah.

The Fremont Indian State Park was a fascinating place and I highly recommend stopping there if you ever get a chance.  My family and I were the only visitors so I had the museum to myself.  I was delighted to spend as much time with the exhibits as I liked without having to try and read over someone else’s head or dodge children.  It was in the museum that the similarities between Ancient American and Ancient Egyptian Cultures first clicked in my mind.  I was grinding corn with the mano and metate when I looked up to read the description of the artifacts.  Whoever had written it had added that the Ancient Americans suffered from painful teeth due to bits of stone ending up on the grain.  I’d read the exact same thing in Red Land, Black Land by Barbara Mertz and was struck by the similarity.  But, of course there would be similarities between cultures, I told myself: there are only so many materials from which basic tools can be crafted.  It makes sense both cultures would grind grain between two stones.

And yet…as I traveled through the outdoor exhibits and saw the cave paintings, I was struck again with-even though these cultures are utterly unique-I could see similarities.  I thought perhaps it was merely human nature to wish to leave something behind; something carved into stone that tells future generations ‘I was here.  I lived.’  Apparently, this was a desire felt by all Ancient Peoples.  A vast ocean and a continent separated these two cultures so it wasn’t possible they could be linked in any way.

Pictures of the Cave Paintings-you have to look close to see some of them

Or could they?  Always drawn to books, I’d perused the Fremont State Park library and jotted down some titles I was interested in reading.  While searching for those titles, I found They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima; a professor of Afro-American studies at Rutgers University.  I was curious what Professor Van Sertima had to say about pre-Columbian visitors.  I had read about a Viking presence but had never heard of an African presence before so I bought the book.

The entire book is fascinating.  I can’t say enough good things about it.  Get it.  Read it.  I wish I had time to discuss the entire book but I’ll limit myself to Chapters 7 through 9 because they reminded me of the sense of similarity between Egyptian and American cultures I’d had.

Chapter Seven, titled Black Africa and Egypt, introduced me to the influence of ethnically black Africans on Egypt and how many of things I considered uniquely Egyptian-mummification, tomb painting, bird and animal deities-had their origins among Africans south and west of the Nile.  Chapter Eight, titled The Black Kings of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, introduced me to Nubian Kings who liberated Egypt from Assyrian vassalage and ruled it for a century.  Chapter Nine, titled African-Egyptian Presences in Ancient America, took me through the archaeological evidence that not only proves Africans had crossed the Atlantic and mingled with Ancient Americans, but that there are astonishing similarities between Ancient American and Ancient Egyptian cultures. (Professor Van Sertima used the term “Ancient American” so I have continued use of his term for clarification purposes)

The North Equatorial current and counter current make travel between the African and American continents possible.  Professor Van Sertima includes descriptions of experiments proving such travel and culture sharing was possible with the level of ship sophistication of the time, especially that of the Egyptians and Phoenicians.  Travel and culture sharing happened across the Sahara and that culture sharing was carried across the Atlantic long before it was believed to be possible.  This book shows there is archaeological proof for culture sharing hundreds of years before Columbus.

I found this absolutely fascinating.  And, the culture sharing went both ways: I read it’s a bit more difficult to make the crossing from America to Africa (due to currents) but Professor Van Sertima shows examples of linguistic similarities that suggest an Ancient American influence in Northern Africa.

I never learned this in school.  Public school classes are, by necessity, overviews of history and I get that but I think this African influence, the culture sharing across the Sahara, and the fact that there were great explorers who carried their culture across a vast ocean, is worth knowing.  I look forward to studying more African history.  And, my interest in American history has been piqued.  I think seeing how these African-Egyptian influences were absorbed into and made unique by Olmec, Aztec, and Mayan cultures will be fascinating.  I’m going to need more bookshelves.

These all came from the Cave of 100 Hands
I wonder what the squiggle means…
The Little Frog Man is a bit blurry-I couldn’t get closer
The Cave had to be barred because of vandals so I pushed my camera’s zoom capability to the limit
These hand prints are awe-inspring