King James Version · Under Rome
John 2
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And the third day there was a marriage in of ; and the mother of was there: And both was called, and his , to the marriage. And when they wanted , the mother of saith unto him, They have no . saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the , containing two or three firkins apiece. saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made , and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the , And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good ; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good until now. This beginning of miracles did in of , and manifested forth his ; and his on him. After this he went down to , he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his : and they continued there not many days. And the ’ was at hand, and went up to , And found in those that sold oxen and sheep and , and the changers of money sitting: 15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of , and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold , Take these things hence; make not ’s house an house of merchandise. And his remembered that it was written, The of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20Then said the , Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of of his body. When therefore he was from , his remembered that he had said this unto them; and they the , and the word which had said. Now when he was in at , in the feast day, many in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
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.