After their return from Babylon to Jerusalem, the history of the Jews for the next 400 years was troubled by wars.  Then, about 60 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Romans, who came from Italy, conquered Palestine.  The Roman Empire was the greatest there had ever been, stretching as it did from the English Channel to North Africa and from Spain to Palestine itself.

Communications

Under the Romans the world enjoyed a long time of peace such as it had never known before, and that meant that one could travel all over the Empire in safety. A few years earlier the Mediterranean Sea had been very dangerous on account of pirates, but now they had all been rounded up by the same general who captured Jerusalem.  It was also safe and easy to travel by land because the Romans made wide, first class roads which went from Rome, the capital, to all parts of the Empire.  One of the best known in Britain was Watling Street which ran from Canterbury to Chester.  Many of these roads have been resurfaced and parts are still in use today.

As a result, one could get without difficulty from Palestine to Spain either by land or sea.  When the Roman Empire fell to pieces, travel never became as easy again until the invention of railways in the middle of the 19th century.

In those days there were no such things as passports because the world, being under one government, was more like one big country.  A Roman citizen might be an Italian or a Jew or an Egyptian.

For these reasons St Paul and the early Christian missionaries were able to go where they wanted without any difficulty, which meant that the Church could spread rapidly all over the Empire.

Language

Another thing which makes travelling abroad today not too easy is the difference in language.  Most countries have their own language which means that, if you wanted to teach these people you would first have to learn French, German, Polish and so on.

In the time of Jesus, however, there was one language which almost everyone understood and that was Greek.  No matter where you went or to whom you spoke, you would be all right if you spoke Greek, just as in North America today everyone speaks English.  That is why St Paul and the other Apostles had no difficulty in making themselves understood.  Actually they spoke two languages, Greek and also Aramaic, the language of Palestine, just as in Wales today people speak both English and Welsh.

The dispersion of the Jews

God's Chosen People

The only people to whom the one, true God had made himself known, were, you remember, the Jews.  Whereas the other nations were pagan and knew practically nothing about him, God had been teaching and training the Jews for 2,000 years in preparation for his coming into the world.  The Jews had a written record of all this teaching and preparation in the Books of the Old Testament which also looked forward to the birth of a great King and Deliverer whom they called the Anointed One (the Messiah or Christ).  It was the Jews whom God had chosen, when the time was ripe, to be his missionaries among the pagan nations, so that they too might learn to know him and love him and obey him.

Jews of the Dispersion

The total number of Jews was between four and five million.  Their home country was Palestine but more than half of them had been dispersed or scattered to various parts of the Empire, and groups of them of them were living in the cities of Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome itself.  These were known as the Jews of the Dispersion, and in each place they had built synagogues for themselves where they held services every Sabbath Day.  At these services, which were also attended by many people who were not Jews, the Books of the Old Testament were read in a Greek translation known as the Septuagint.  This meant, of course, that everyone could understand them.  It was called the Septuagint, which means Seventy, because of a legend which said that the translation to Greek had been made by 70, or rather 72, learned Jews from Jerusalem.  It was started about the year 250 BC in Alexandria in Egypt, and was finished a little more than 100 years later.

Waiting for a Saviour

The result was that, at the time Jesus was born, people all over the world were waiting for the Birth of a Saviour.  For example, only about 35 years before Our Lord’s Birth in Bethlehem, the Roman poet Virgil had written a remarkable poem in which he looked forward to the birth of a child under whose peaceful reign cruelty and evil would be ended.  As he put it, “Under the infant boy the iron age shall cease and the golden age shall rise over all the world”.  And he finished the poem with a prayer to the coming Saviour: “Dear child of the gods…see how all rejoice at the approaching age.  Oh that I may live long enough to see it and sing to thy deeds.  Begin, sweet babe, to recognise thy mother with a smile” (Eclogue IV).  Actually, Virgil never knew of Our Lord’s birth nor heard of his deeds, because he died about 15 years before Jesus was born, when he was only 51.

God's preparation complete

So God’s preparation of the world, after 2,000 years, was complete and everything was ready for him to become a human being.  There was peace in every part; travelling was easy and nearly everyone spoke the same language.  In many different places there lived groups of Jews who had learnt much about God from the Old Testament and they, with thousands of others, were waiting for a Saviour to come.

Later we shall see what kind of a welcome the Saviour actually had when he did come.

SUMMARY

1. When Jesus was born, God’s preparation of the world was complete.

2. Under Roman rule the world was at peace, travelling was easy and safe, there were no frontier restrictions and nearly everyone spoke the same language, Greek.

3. Jews, with their knowledge of the true God, lived in many different parts and were waiting for God to send them a Great King and Deliverer whom they called the Anointed One (the Messiah or Christ).