King James Version · Under Rome
Matthew 4
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Then was led up of into to be of the devil. And when he had forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of , command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, , Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the of . Then the devil taketh him up into the city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of , And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of , cast thyself down: for , He shall give his charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. said unto him, again, Thou shalt not thy . Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and me. Then saith unto him, Get thee hence, : for , Thou shalt thy , and him only shalt thou . Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, came and ministered unto him. Now when had heard that was cast into prison, he departed into ; And leaving , he came and dwelt in , which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the , saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by of the sea, beyond Jordan, of the ; The people which sat saw great ; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of is sprung up. From that time began to preach, and to say, : for of is at hand. And , walking by , saw two brethren, called , and his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, the son of , and his brother, in a ship with their , mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their , and followed him. And went about all , teaching in their , and preaching of , and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all : and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him of people from , and from Decapolis, and from , and from , and from beyond Jordan.
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.