ROME ENTERS
BIBLE HISTORY
Find out why Rome is often spoken about in the Holy Scriptures
FROM A SMALL VILLAGE TO A WORLD POWER
"AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS: FIVE HAVE FALLEN, ONE IS, AND THE OTHER HAS NOT YET ARRIVED."
REVELATION 17:10
If you are a Christian Jehovah's Witness you are used to dealing with ancient history.
According to scholars, the first settlements in the place that later became the city of Rome date back to about 3000-2700 years ago, then approximately 1000-700 B.C.E. This is the period that goes from the reign of Solomon to that of Hezekiah, so to speak. Rome also had kings at that time, but it was just an urban agglomeration mostly of farmers. His story and that of the Bible still do not cross.
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We have to wait for Daniel's prophecies for the first mention of Rome in the Bible, even though indirect. In fact the "iron legs" (Daniel 2:40), the "unusually strong beast" (Daniel 7:7) and for a phase the "King of the North" (Daniele 11:20-24) mentioned in Daniel's visions are all references to the future world power of Rome, which at that time had just become a Republic and was beginning to rival Greece and Carthage for dominance of the Mediterranean Sea.
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When Jesus was born in Palestine some 500 years later, the Romans had already become the undisputed masters of the Mediterranean and the sixth world power. They were the “superior authority” faced by the first-century Christian congregation, since Rome persecuted Christians and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E.
But how did Christianity arrive in Rome?
Jews had inhabited Rome since the second century B.C.E. They traveled every year to Jerusalem to celebrate the major fastivals, Passover and Pentecost of 33 C.E. included. As a result of Peter's preaching, that day 3,000 were baptized, certainly some from Rome, who preached on their return. Furthermore, it seems that Peter also preached in Rome. (it-2 pp. 822-825 Christianity Comes to Rome; w11 8/1 p. 25 Is the Pope “Saint Peter’s Successor”?, Broadcasting November 2017 minute 14:18)
Then, from the second century with the advent of the apostasy predicted by Jesus, Paul and John, Roman culture began to increasingly influence the now corrupt Christianity: the result was the Roman Catholic Church, which has lasted to this day.