World English Bible · Under Rome
James 5
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Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a against you and will eat your like . You have laid up your . Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of of Armies. You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have murdered one. He doesn't resist you. Be therefore, brothers, until the coming of . Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being over it, until it receives the early and late . You also be . Establish your , for the coming of is at hand. Don't grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won't be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of , who spoke in the name of . Behold, we call them who . You have heard of the of and have seen in the outcome, and how is full of and mercy. But above all things, my brothers, don't —not by , or by the earth, or by any other ; but let your "yes" be "yes", and your "no", "no", so that you don't fall into . Is any among you suffering? Let him . Is any cheerful? Let him sing . Is any among you sick? Let him call for the of , and let them over him, anointing him with oil in the name of ; and the of will heal him who is sick, and will raise him up. If he has committed , he will be forgiven. your to one another and for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent of a person is powerfully effective. was a man with a nature like ours, and he earnestly that it might not , and it didn't on the earth for three years and six months. He again, and gave , and the earth produced its fruit. Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a from the error of his way will a from and will cover a multitude of .
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The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.