Romans - Background #2

How was a Jewish presence established in Rome and how was a church birthed in this town so distant from Jerusalem?

The Jewish presence in Rome possibly stems from a victory party led by Pompey the Great. In 61 BC, Pompey the Great brought Jewish captives to Rome as slaves to celebrate the conquest of Judea. Many of the freed descendents of these slaves scattered throughout the Roman Empire and likely some remained in Rome. These descendants were known as Freedmen. A reference to the Synagogue of the Freedmen is found in Acts 6:9.

One clue as to how the church may have started is in Acts 2. It says that when the miracle of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place at Pentecost (30 AD), there were visitors there from Rome who were among the spectators (Acts 2:10). Peter stood up and preached to the Pentecostal spectators that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah and that everyone must repent and be baptized. About 3,000 people responded to this message and it is likely that some of the Roman visitors were among the respondents. When they returned to Rome, they told the Jews about what they had seen. From this, the church in Rome was likely born.

Two events, one in 61 BC and another in 30 AD were likely very significant in the eventual writing of Romans. One event must have seemed like the darkest moment in Jewish history for those living at the time. Yanked out of their homeland and paraded through the streets of Rome as slaves. It doesn’t get much worse than that. However, what man meant for calamity, God meant for good. The stage was set for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birth of a church in the capital of a pagan Empire. Eventually, during the reign of Constantine 300 years later, the Empire was declared to be a Christian empire.

Never rule out the dark moments of life as wasted moments or meaningless moments. God has a reputation of turning dark moments on their head!