The First-Century Power Players

The disciples of Jesus were shaped by the religious culture and the political climate of their day. How they dealt with the Messiah's death and what happened upon the Master's reappearance and ascension are both touched by their culture.

The Acts of Faith series (The Centurion's Wife, The Hidden Flame, and The Damascus Way), take place in AD 33, immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus. To help you better understand the historical-cultural context of the books (and of the biblical and historical characters Janette Oke and I fictionalized), I'd like to introduce you to the primary Judean authorities at the early part of Acts.

You'll learn why the power structure responded to Jesus and his followers as it did.

The years after Jesus' return to heaven saw only an escalation of antagonism from the religious leaders, and along with the resulting persecution came expansion of the believers' understanding of the new covenant, which now included the Gentiles.

What does this mean for us in the here and now?

To my mind, the similarities and parallels to today's world are nothing short of amazing.

During this series of blog posts, which will run weekdays for the next two weeks, I'll introduce you to the major first-century power players, including:

The Pharisees
The Sadducees
Jesus and the Pharisees
The Scribes
The Sanhedrin
The Zealots
The Sadducees and Jesus
Back to the Pharisees
What This Means for Us

Here are links to each of the books in the Acts of Faith Series. I believe it will enhance your understanding of first-century power players to read the novels as we progress through this series.

This is going to be an exciting series; I can't wait to share my findings with you. To make sure you receive every article, please subscribe to my blog via e-mail or your feed reader by clicking this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavisBunn

We'll begin by discussing The Pharisees in tomorrow's post.