Free Republic

“These finds tell the story of the last battle between the Roman forces and the Jewish rebels who had barricaded themselves in the city, a battle that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem,” the Antiquities Authority said. “This battle is described by the historian Flavius Josephus [born 37 CE]: ‘On the following day the Romans, having routed the brigands from the town, set the whole on fire as far as Siloam (Josephus, Wars, Book 6:363).’” According to Nahshon Szanton and Moran Hagbi, directors of the excavation on behalf of the authority, the ballista balls were fired by Roman catapults used...

Subtitle: What Would the Romans do? Foremost among the reasons I despise the democrat party is its destructive nature. It builds nothing; it exists to destroy. In the name of social justice, it corrupts and soils every previously noble institution it comes to dominate. ‘Divide and conquer’ is a tactic as old as warfare, and one which the democrat party puts to skilled use for its nefarious goals. Together with their fellow travelers in the media, they exploit every possible Alinsky distinction in race, wealth, education, gender, and sexual orientation. Keep society back on its heels. Keep various factions at...

“An Eternal Gospel to Reclaim and Proclaim” (Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28) It was 499 years ago tomorrow, on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther nailed Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, thus beginning the movement known as the Reformation. We are the heirs of that heritage, and so it is that on the last Sunday in October every year we observe Reformation Day in our churches. We are grateful to God for raising up his servant Luther to bring the clear truth of the gospel to light and to prominence once again. And we want...

With remarkable insouciance, NYT writers Jeremy W. Peters and Lizette Alvarez blithely make reference to “a Bible verse from Romans that calls for the execution of gays,” meaning Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans 1:18-32.As anyone who has ever read the New Testament knows, Saint Paul never permits that Christians should commit any violence whatsoever against homosexuals, but the Times editors apparently thought that fact-checking with the original text was superfluous or that readers were too ignorant to check for themselves.The Times report, titled “After Orlando, a Political Divide on Gay Rights Still Stands,” follows on the fatal shooting of...

An archaeological dig has turned up the earliest known handwritten documents in Britain among hundreds of Roman waxed writing tablets. Some 410 wooden tablets have been discovered, 87 of which have been deciphered to reveal names, events, business and legal dealings and evidence of someone practising writing the alphabet and numerals. With only 19 legible tablets previously known from London, the find from the first decades of Roman rule in Britain provides a wealth of new information about the city's earliest Romans.

When the Romans expanded their empire across three continents, they probably seemed like the neat-freakiest people to attempt global domination. The Romans brought aqueducts, heated public baths, flushing toilets, sewers and piped water. They even had multiseat public bathrooms decked out with contour toilet seats, a sea sponge version of toilet paper and hand-washing stations.

In two years from now, many Christians will be commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Already there are signs of this significant date approaching. The German toy company PLAYMOBIL has even issued a special, commemorative, limited edition figure of Martin Luther; and it's already sold out! While many of my colleagues at Reformed Theological Seminary are already thinking about 2017, most of us are not aware of a very important church history anniversary this fall. I'm thinking, of course, of the 500th anniversary of Luther's lectures on the Book of Romans, which helped pave the way for the...

A stained glass portrait of St Augustine After Mary Beard's list of important Romans, here's mine...Mary Beard has done more than anyone else, I think, to bring ancient Rome alive, and over at the Guardian she provides us with her list of the ten best ancient Romans. Lists are very personal things, and everyone will have a rival version, so I cannot resist submitting my own. Here are ten people we call all learn from, indeed need to learn from, in the order in which they popped into my head.1. Aurelius Augustinus, better known as St Augustine of Hippo,...

“The Law and the Prophets Bear Witness” (Romans 3:19-28)Today being the last Sunday in October, this is the day we observe Reformation Day, celebrating what happened 498 years ago, when, on October 31, 1517, Dr. Martin Luther went to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, and there posted 95 Theses questioning the sale of indulgences. That was the beginning of the great Reformation of the church, and as Lutherans we are here today as the beneficiaries of that movement and that heritage. We thank God that he used Luther as his instrument to bring the clear gospel of Christ to...

In the days of the early church – I’m thinking specifically of the 2nd century – Christian apologists had to defend the faith against false charges, accusations, and misrepresentations. One such apologist, Athenagoras (d. 200 AD?), wrote a booklet to Roman rulers called A Plea for the Christians. This apology by Athenagoras is still quite relevant today because it discusses things we still talk about today. I’ll come back to this booklet later, but for now I want to point out what this 2nd century Christian apologist said about sexual immorality and homosexuality. Athenagoras refuted the claim or accusation that...

Archaeologists from the Jezreel Valley Regional Project say they have unearthed the remains of a 1,900-year-old camp of Legio VI Ferrata (Sixth Ironclad Legion) near the archaeological site of Tel Megiddo.During the past three excavation seasons (2013-2015), the archaeologists have made a number of significant finds at the site. They uncovered defensive trenching earthworks next to the foundations of a great wall about 20 feet (6 m) wide. They also found numerous ceramic roof tiles with the legion’s mark, Roman coins and the fragments of scale armor, and exposed rooms likely belonging to one of the barracks areas. “During the...

The world's largest ancient Roman rubbish dump is revealing intriguing details about the extent and sophistication of trade in the Mediterranean 2,000 years ago. Monte Testaccio is an artificial hill in the centre of Rome that is made up of an estimated 25 million shards of broken amphorae, many from as far afield as Spain and North Africa. The amphorae, containing wine and olive oil, were broken up and dumped on the spoil heap after being unloaded from a nearby port on the River Tiber. They could not be reused because wine and oil residue seeped into the clay, turning...

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.(Romans 10:1-4)Again the apostle Paul pours out of a broken heart his deepest desire and prayer, that Israel be saved.He has already assured us in the name of the...

Let's pretend it is 56 B.C. and you have been fortunate enough to be invited to a party at the home of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, a great social coup. Piso, after all, was Julius Caesar's father-in-law and a consul of Rome... You need to prepare for pig. Archaeologists studying the eating habits of ancient Etruscans and Romans have found that pork was the staple of Italian cuisine before and during the Roman Empire. Both the poor and the rich ate pig as the meat of choice, although the rich, like Piso, got better cuts, ate meat more often and...

“Something in the Water” (Mark 1:4-11; Romans 6:1-11; Genesis 1:1-5)I don’t listen to pop music or country music on the radio, but recently I read that there is a song that’s popular on the airwaves right now that makes some references to baptism. That caught my attention, naturally, so I looked it up and listened to it online. It’s a song called “Something in the Water,” by a singer named Carrie Underwood. I don’t know if you’ve heard it or not. But it does have to do with baptism. Now very likely it’s coming from a theological perspective on baptism...

People living in Roman Britain had healthier gums than their modern-day descendants, a feat of archaeological dentistry shows. A team at King's College London and the Natural History Museum found only 5% of adults had gum disease in the Roman, and certainly pre-toothbrush, era. Modern day smoking and type 2 diabetes are blamed for a figure of nearly one in three today. But ancient Britain was certainly not a golden age of gleaming gnashers. The smiles of our ancestors were littered with infections, abscesses and tooth decay, the study showed... The research group analysed 303 skulls from a burial ground...

“Love Is the Fulfilling of the Law” (Romans 13:1-10)Do you want to know what you should be doing this week? I can tell you with sure confidence what God’s will is for you this week. It’s pretty simple, actually. I can sum it up in one word: Love. That’s right. Love. In terms of how you deal with the people you encounter this week, that’s about the size of it: Love them. How can I be so sure of this? Because God’s Word tells me this is so, that this is God’s will for each one of us. It’s no...

I WILL SERVE No FOREIGN GODSHoly God We Praise Thy Name For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for therein the righteousness of God is revealed…Romans 1:16The book of Romans is unique among the epistles in that it isn’t polemic, that is it isn’t trying to refute any error. Romans is therefore a clear rendering of the Gospel of salvation . Paul calls it the “Gospel of God” , and takes us from the bankruptcy of Jew and Gentile to the glorification of man and creation, all realised by the gospel. Paul begins with the declaration that...

Published: April 2014Roman Boat Romans in France An ancient wreck tells the tale of Romans in France. By Robert Kunzig Photograph by Rémi Bénali The Romans had a serious trash problem, though by our standards it was good-looking trash. Their problem was amphorae. They needed millions of the curvy clay jars to ship wine, olive oil, and fish sauce around the empire, and often they didn’t recycle their empties. Sometimes they didn’t even bother to pop the cork—it was quicker to saber the neck or the pointy base, drain the thing, then chuck it. In Rome there’s a five-acre,...

I believe that the greatest ethical issue today is that of abortion. In recent years many have come to see terrorist as more concerning than abortion. I am baffled by that, because more people were killed on September 10 in the womb of U.S. women than were killed on 9/11 in New York City. More babies were slaughtered on September 12 than adults were killed on 9/11. If we had a camera on the womb so that CNN could show us graphic videos of what actually happens in the slaughter of unborn children, abortion would be quickly abolished, but the...