Member-only story
A Walk Through the Book of Acts: A Little Background to Start
Continuing a new series
At the end of the introduction to this series, I said that because the Acts of the Apostles is a book that was written 2,000 years ago, before digging into the first chapter a bit of background information was necessary first. This may not seem all that necessary, but it really is. If someone living today picked up a book about the history of the United States from the years 2000 to 2020, they would already have a good grasp of the people, events, and culture of the time the book covers. Knowing the historical and cultural context of the Book of Acts is important to understanding it as well.
From a historical standpoint, during the period covered in Acts (roughly 30 AD to 63 AD), the Mediterranean world (including Israel) was ruled by the Roman Empire. There were four Roman emperors during that time: Tiberius (14–37 AD), Caligula (37–41 AD), Claudius (41–54 AD), and Nero (54–68 AD). Acts also mentions several other Roman officials, including Felix (Governor of Judea 53–60 AD), Festus (Governor of Judea 60–62 AD), and Sergius Paulus (Proconsul of Cyprus).
Many think that the Roman emperors persecuted Christians from the outset, but persecution did not really begin until the reign of Nero, specifically following Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD (when Nero…
