King James Version · Under Rome
Revelation 15
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And I saw another sign in , great and marvellous, seven having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up . And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with : and them that had gotten the victory over , and over his , and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of . And they sing the song of the , and the song of , saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, ; and true are thy ways, thou King of . Who shall not fear thee, O , and thy name? for thou only art : for all nations shall come and before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and, behold, of the of the in was opened: And the seven came out of , having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four gave unto the seven seven golden vials full of , who liveth . And was filled with smoke from the of , and from his ; and no man was able to enter into , till the seven plagues of the seven were fulfilled.
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.