What is the significance of the city of Rome in the Bible?
What is the significance of the city of Rome in the Bible? Rome is not mentioned in the Old Testament but figures prominently in the New Testament. Although the city of Rome is not often directly mentioned, every place and event in the New Testament has a Roman rule as its background. Rome came to prominence in what is called the intertestamental period —the roughly 400 years between Old and New Testaments. During that time Israel was under the thumb of Greek rulers, gained independence for a brief period of time, and then came under the control of the Roman Empire . The city of Rome ruled most of the Mediterranean world at that time. Within the empire, there were citizens of Rome, who had special protections, and then everyone else, who were more or less conquered peoples and did not have the same protections. Simply living within the borders of the Roman Empire did not make one a citizen of Rome. It was a decree from Rome, by Emperor Caesar Augustus, that moved Mary and Jo...