The Gospel of Jesus vs. The Gospel of Rome

<p>We can be tempted to think of the word "gospel" as a private, spiritual word. But in Jesus' day, "gospel" was public news with implications for the whole world. </p><p>When Jesus was born, he entered a world that already had it's own gospel: the good news of Caesar and the Roman empire. The similar language is striking, and shows that the announcement about a Jewish Messiah directly confronts the Roman story. </p><p>The Institute for Bible Reading is a nonprofit ministry. Support our work, including the production of The Bible Reset podcast, by joining ChangeMakers: <a href="https://instituteforbiblereading.org/changemakers/">https://instituteforbiblereading.org/changemakers/</a></p><p><strong>Records and sources showing how Rome told their story:</strong></p><p>Roman statesman Pliny the Elder declared that Rome was a universal gift to the world:</p><p> </p><p><em>The Roman peace has a boundless grandeur, a peace which takes in not only men in their different lands and tribes, but also the mountains and peaks soaring into the clouds, their offspring and even the plants. May this gift of the gods last, I pray, forever! Truly the gods seem to have given to the human race the Romans, as it were, a second sun</em>. </p><p>Later, Aristides, another historian, added this about the rise of the empire: </p><p> </p><p><em>Before the rule of the Romans the dregs came to the surface and everything happened through blind chance; but since your appearance confusion and revolt have come to an end. Order has returned everywhere and in everyday life and in the state there is clear light of day. Cities now gleam in splendor and beauty, and the whole earth is arrayed like a paradise</em>. </p><p>A decree about Caesar Augustus, written just a few years before Jesus was born:</p><p> </p><p><em>The birthday of the most divine emperor is the fount of every public and private good. Justly would one take this day to be the beginning of the Whole Universe . . . for when everything was falling into disorder and tending toward