The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, state that hostile questioners tried to trap Jesus into taking a stand on whether Jews should or should not pay taxes to Roman authorities.
The accounts in Matthew 22 and Mark 12 say that the questioners were Pharisees and Herodians, while Luke 20 says only that they were spies sent by teachers of the law and the chief priests.
At first the questioners flattered Jesus by praising his integrity, impartiality, and devotion to the Truth. Then they asked the question. Jesus first called them hypocrites, and then asked one of them to produce a Roman and one of them showed it to Him. Then Jesus asked them whose head and inscription were on it, and they answered,"Caesar's," and Jesus responded:"Render therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."
The questioners were impressed. Matthew 22 states that they marveled and were satisfied with the answer, then they went away.
The account in John 18 Jesus responds to Pontius Pilate about the nature of His kingdom: "My kingdom is not of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. My kingdom is not from the World.
Caesar's title was applied in the explanation because its representation as the World's power, cycling over and over, generation after generation.
During his early career, Caesar had seen how chaotic and dysfunctional the Roman Republic had become. The Republican machinery had broken down under the weight of imperialism, the central government had become powerless, the provinces had been transformed into independent principalities under the absolute control of their governors, and the army had replaced the constitution as the means of accomplishing political goals. With a weak central government, political corruption had spiraled out of control, and the 'status quo' had been maintained by a corrupt aristocracy, which saw no need to change a system that had made its members rich.
Caesar established a new constitution, which was intended to accomplish 3 separate goals. First, he wanted to suppress all armed resistance out in the provinces, and thus bring order back to the empire. Second, he wanted to create a strong central government in Rome. Finally, he wanted to knit together the entire empire into a single cohesive unit.
The first goal was accomplished when Caesar defeated Pompei and his supporters. To accomplish the other 2 goals, he needed to ensure that his control over the government was undisputed, so he assumed these powers by increasing his own authority, and by decreasing the authority of Rome's other political institutions. Finally, he enacted a series of reforms that were meant to address several long-neglected issues, the most important of which was his reform of the calendar.
The calendar was then regulated by the movement of the moon and the way it worked for them was chaotic. Caesar replaced the moon calendar with the Egyptian calendar, which was regulated by the sun. He set the length of the year to 365.25 days by adding an intercalary/leap day at the end of February every fourth year. To bring the calendar into alignment with the seasons, Caesar decreed that 3 extra months be inserted into 46 BC (the ordinary intercalary month at the end of February, and 2 extra months after November). Thus, the Julian calendar opened on 1 January 45 BC. This calendar is identical to the current Western Calendar.
In 48 BC, Caesar was given permanent powers and the highest in rank concerning all Rome for an indefinite period, which made his person sacrosanct.
In 46 BC, Caesar gave himself the title of "Prefect of the Morals," which was an office that was new only for his name. He could hold censorial powers, not subjecting himself to the same checks to which ordinary censors were subject, and he used these powers to fill the Senate with his own partisans.
In February 44 BC, one month before his assassination, he was appointed "Dictator for Life." Under Caesar, a significant amount of authority was vested in his lieutenants.
Caesar also set the precedent, which his imperial successors followed, of requiring the Senate to bestow various titles and honors upon him. He was, for example, given the title of "Father of the Fatherland" and "Imperator (latin)."
Coins bore his likeness, and he had the right to speak first during Senate meetings. He took steps to transform Italy into a province, and to link more tightly the other provinces of the empire into a single cohesive unit, as he planned. Individuals outside Rome and Italy now were considered "Roman," thus were not given full citizenship rights.
After Caesar's assassination, this process of fusing the entire Roman Empire into a single unit, rather than maintaining it as a network of unequal principalities, was completed by his successor, the emperor Augustus.
On March 15, 44 BC, Caesar was due to appear at a session of the Senate. The plotters assassinated him, stabbing his body 23 times. Caesar's body was cremated. He was immensely popular that the crowd at his funeral boiled over, throwing dry branches, furniture, and even clothing to the funeral pyre causing the flames to spin out of control, seriously damaging the Forum.
Caesar was thought to have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. He had 4 documented episodes of complex partial seizures. The debilitating symptoms of the condition were a factor in Caesar's conscious decision to forgo personal safety in the days leading to his assassination. Caesar's fathert and forefather died without apparent cause while putting on their shoes. These events can be associated with a genetic predisposition for cardiovascular disease leading to the temporal lobe epilepsy.
The Roman historians described Caesar as tall in stature with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a somewhat full face, and keen black eyes.
Caesar's adopted heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, became the first Roman emperor, under the name Caesar Augustus, a name that raised him to the status of a deity in the language of the World.
Caesar's name itself became a title; it was promulgated by the Bible in many teachings about the World.
Then the title became Kaiser in German and Tsar or Czar in the Slavic languages. This means that for two thousand years after Julius Caesar's assassination, there is at least one state bearing the name and maintaining it alive.
Now we are able to understand why Jesus said: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God."
No comments:
Post a Comment