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Historical context

Roads, travel and the Diaspora

The routes the Gospel traveled

Roman roads, sea routes, Greek as a common language and synagogues scattered from the Euphrates to Rome formed the network along which Paul and the first Christians carried the Gospel.

Jews all over the world

In Jesus’ time, more Jews probably lived outside the land of Israel than inside it, though exact numbers are unknown. The dispersion began with the Assyrian deportation in 722 BC and the Babylonian one in 586 BC; many exiles never returned, and Babylon kept a large Jewish community for centuries. After Alexander, Jews spread through Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. Alexandria had huge Jewish quarters; Philo, who lived there, speaks of a million Jews in Egypt, a figure probably exaggerated (Against Flaccus 43). The geographer Strabo, quoted by Josephus, wrote that it was hard to find a place in the inhabited world where this people was not present (Antiquities 14.115). It was in Alexandria, in the third century BC, that the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek began: the Septuagint, the Bible most of these Jews read and that New Testament authors quote often.

A synagogue in every city

Far from the Temple, Jewish life was organized around the synagogue, a Greek word meaning gathering; it was also called proseuche, place of prayer. There the Law and the Prophets were read on the Sabbath, teaching took place, community matters were settled and travelers were welcomed. In Jerusalem, an inscription found in 1913 says that Theodotos, a priest and synagogue leader, built the house for reading the Law and teaching the commandments, with guest rooms and water facilities for those coming from abroad. At Ostia, Rome’s port, the ruins of a synagogue were discovered in 1961 whose earliest phases may date to the first century, though the dating is disputed. Around the synagogues moved Gentiles drawn to the God of Israel, whom Acts calls God-fearers. They were often the first to listen to Paul with interest, and the synagogue became the apostle’s doorway into each new city.

All the roads

The Romans built the largest road network of the ancient world: estimates speak of more than 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles) of main roads, with milestones, bridges and stations for changing animals. The roads served first of all the army and the official post, but merchants, pilgrims and preachers used them too. The Appian Way, begun in 312 BC, linked Rome to southern Italy; the Egnatian Way, built from around 146 BC, crossed Macedonia coast to coast and passed through Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia and Thessalonica, exactly the sequence in Acts 17:1. On foot a traveler covered 25 to 30 kilometers (15 to 20 miles) a day; an official courier, changing mounts, could go much farther. Inns had a bad reputation, so hospitality among fellow believers was precious. The dangers were real: flooded rivers, robbers, cold and hunger, as Paul reminds the Corinthians.

The sea and its seasons

By sea one traveled faster and more cheaply, but at greater risk. There were no passenger ships: people boarded a cargo ship heading in the right direction, brought their own food and slept on deck. Safe sailing ran roughly from late May to mid-September; from mid-November to mid-March the sea was practically closed, as the military writer Vegetius records (Epitome of Military Science 4.39). That is why Luke notes that Paul’s voyage had become dangerous because the Fast, the Day of Atonement, in late September or October, had already passed. Great grain ships carried wheat from Egypt to feed Rome, and some carried hundreds of people: Paul’s had 276 on board. Josephus says that on a voyage to Rome around AD 63 his ship sank on the open sea with about 600 people, and only some 80 were saved after swimming all night (Life 15).

A language for the world

Since the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, common Greek, called Koine, was the language of trade, administration and culture throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and widely spoken even in Rome. A Jew from Tarsus like Paul, a merchant from Corinth and a freedman in Rome could understand one another in Greek. In Judea and Galilee, people spoke Aramaic day to day, Hebrew was the language of Scripture and prayer, and Greek served trade and government; Latin was the language of soldiers and Roman law. The Pentecost list in Acts 2, from Parthians and Medes to Romans, Cretans and Arabs, shows Jews from the whole Diaspora gathered in Jerusalem, each with a mother tongue. The entire New Testament was written in Koine Greek, including the letter to the Romans. That is why the message could travel so quickly: it needed no translation to reach the cities of the empire.

Paul in the empire’s network

Paul’s journeys show this network at work. He followed Roman roads and sea routes, started at the synagogue and worked with his hands: in Corinth he lodged with Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers, Jews who had left Rome when Claudius expelled the Jews from the city. Suetonius records that expulsion, prompted by disturbances connected with a certain Chrestus, perhaps a garbled reference to Christ (Life of Claudius 25.4). An inscription found at Delphi names Gallio as proconsul of Achaia and allows Paul’s stay in Corinth to be dated to around AD 51. Scholars estimate that he traveled more than 15,000 kilometers (about 10,000 miles) in all. Arriving in Italy as a prisoner, he landed at Puteoli and went up the Appian Way; believers from Rome came to meet him at the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns, about 65 and 50 kilometers from the city. Early Christian writers such as Origen saw in the Roman peace a providential preparation for the Gospel (Against Celsus 2.30).

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