World English Bible · Under Rome
Luke 4
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, full of , returned from and was led by into for forty days, being by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry. said to him, "If you are the Son of , command this stone to become bread." answered him, saying, ", 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of .'" , leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. said to him, "I will give you all this and their , for it has been to me, and I give it to whomever I want. If you therefore will before me, it will all be yours." answered him, "Get behind me, ! For , 'You shall your , and you shall him only.'" He led him to and set him on the pinnacle of , and said to him, "If you are the Son of , cast yourself down from here, for , 'He will put his in charge of you, to guard you;' and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.'" answering, said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not your .'" When the devil had completed every , he departed from him until another time. returned in the of into , and news about him spread through all the surrounding area. He taught in their , being glorified by all. He came to , where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the on the , and stood up to read. The book of the was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, " of is on me, because he has me to preach to . He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim to the , recovering of sight to the blind, to those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of ." He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the were fastened on him. He began to tell them, "Today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing." All testified about him and wondered at the words which proceeded out of his ; and they said, "Isn't this son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will tell me this , 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at , do also here in your hometown.'" He said, "Most certainly I tell you, no is acceptable in his hometown. But truly I tell you, there were many in Israel in the days of , when was shut up three years and six months, when a great came over all the land. was sent to none of them, except to , in the land of , to a woman who was a . There were many in Israel in the time of the , yet not one of them was cleansed, except , the ." They were all filled with in the as they heard these things. They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff. But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way. He came down to , a city of . He was teaching them on the , and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with . In the there was a man who had a of an ; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Ah! what have we to do with you, of ? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the One of !" rebuked him, saying, "Be silent and come out of him!" When the had thrown him down in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no harm. Amazement came on all and they spoke together, one with another, saying, "What is this word? For with and he commands the , and they come out!" News about him went out into every place of the surrounding region. He rose up from the and entered into house. mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him to help her. He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she rose up and them. When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he on every one of them, and healed them. also came out of many, crying out and saying, "You are , the Son of !" Rebuking them, he didn't allow them to speak, because they knew that he was . When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place and the looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn't go away from them. But he said to them, "I must preach the of Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent." He was preaching in the of .
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.