Why Rome?

As I grew up I never gave the phrase "in the fullness of time" much thought, but as my knowledge and understanding of history has grown so has my consideration of "the fullness of time." The first real revolutionary change was when I began to learn more about Alexandria, Egypt. I thought about the implication the city had on the time Jesus' birth. The major change was that I began to pay much more attention to the geopolitical situation and factoring it into God's plan for the world.

In the past year and a half I read a tremendous amount about Rome, just for general knowledge at first, but later for more specific reasons. I have always liked Rome for several reasons. As a kid my interest was just in fascination with Antiquity. As a teen I learned a little more about Rome and was fascinate with her military power. In my Twenties it became because of Christ that I was fascinated with Rome and that is what it remains with me today. All of Jesus' life on Earth was spent in the Roman Empire and that recently struck me as vitally important information. Less than sixty years after the annexation of Judea by the Roman state Jesus was born. About a decade after Rome became an Empire Jesus was born (maybe even less than that). It began to look to me like God had a purpose for the Roman Empire, and I maintain that is true - God wanted to become a man and live under the dominion of the Romans because they would best fit His purpose.

The first question that occurred to me was why didn't God manifest Himself under an independent Jewish state? Well, Judea was almost entirely independent under Roman rule at the time of the birth of Jesus. One example of the privilege they enjoyed was their taxes. Eight years after their annexation Judea was given the right to collect their own taxes. This was almost unheard of and was even the cause of complaint in other areas of the Empire. Then I thought Why Rome? What made the Roman Empire desirable over all others who ruled over Israel? What distinguished Rome from Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Egypt? It is easy for me, so in love with Rome, to come up with quick answers, but I do not think we would come to see the complete picture by doing that.