Does the writing of a gospel count as an anti-Roman action?

[Giuseppe]

Only curious.

[GakuseiDon]

My guess: no, quite the opposite. Pilate is portrayed as being reluctant to kill Christ, and there is "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". They read like they were made for a pagan audience.

[Leucius Charinus]

Not anti-Roman rather (IMHO) more like Roman mimicry. Even Roman propaganda. I say this because I'd suggest that nearly everyone educated in the ancient world of the 1st century Roman empire may have known of the existence of Gospel of Caesar Augustus. Augustus was a very important person, unlike the historical IS XS.

SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_ ... _of_Priene

The Calendar Inscription of Priene speaks of the birthday of Caesar Augustus as the beginning of the gospel announcing his kingdom, with a Roman decree to start a new calendar system based on the year of Augustus Caesar's birth.

[Giuseppe]

GDon and Leucius,
ok with the pro-Roman propaganda as short-term goal. But don't remember that as long-term goal, the Christians wanted the destruction of all the material kingdoms, Rome included.

Sure that have your judgements taken also this into account?

[StephenGoranson]

As to
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"
different hearers may reach different conclusions about which are Caesar's and which are God's.

[Paul the Uncertain]

ok with the pro-Roman propaganda as short-term goal. But don't remember that as long-term goal, the Christians wanted the destruction of all the material kingdoms, Rome included.

Where's that in a gospel?

[Giuseppe]

Isn't the use of the Danielic prophecy in Mark 13 sufficient to prove that the Roman rule, as the last material kingdom, had to be destroyed also just as the kingdoms that preceded it?

Isn't the abomination of desolation Hadrian (or if you like a previous dating, Titus) ?

[Leucius Charinus]

GDon and Leucius,
ok with the pro-Roman propaganda as short-term goal. But don't remember that as long-term goal, the Christians wanted the destruction of all the material kingdoms, Rome included.

Sure that have your judgements taken also this into account?

Momigliano ironically IMO emphasises "the very remarkable attitude of those Christians who, though persecuted by the Roman Empire, defended the notion that the Roman Empire had been providentially created to foster and support the Christian message."

[Leucius Charinus]

As to
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"
different hearers may reach different conclusions about which are Caesar's and which are God's.

But not which gets to be rendered before the other.

[Giuseppe]

As to
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"
different hearers may reach different conclusions about which are Caesar's and which are God's.

I see anti-Roman irony, here, indeed. Only the money is Caesar's, but the land is God's.

Something of similar to the legend about Dido's founding of Carthage: she was obliged by native peoples to take possession only of the land that could be surrounded by the skin of an animal, and she was able to conquest the entire land by a clever expedient.