Colin Duriez - AD 33: The Year that Changed the World

AD 33

COLIN DURIEZ is a writer and lecturer whose books include J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Story of a Friendship, A Guide to Middle Earth: Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings, A Field Guide to Narnia and The Unauthorised Harry Potter Companion. He lives in Derwent Water in Cumbria.

AD 33

T HE Y EAR THAT

C HANGED THE W ORLD

C OLIN D URIEZ

To Cindy

First published in 2006 by Sutton Publishing Limited

This paperback edition first published in 2008 by
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

Colin Duriez, 2008, 2013

The right of Colin Duriez to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9559 0

Original typesetting by The History Press

Contents

Preface

AD 33 was a remarkable year by all accounts, dominated, so far as the hindsight of world history is concerned, by two people, a Roman and a Jew. The emperor in this year is in the final chapter of his principate, trying to end the mischief caused by his deputy, Sejanus, while at the same time keeping a tight rein on the administration of the empire, in all its diversity. There existed no script for his endeavour. The other man, Jesus, was put to death by one of Tiberius minor governors, Pontius Pilate. Belief in his resurrection from the dead three days later invigorated his demoralised followers, leading within a few weeks to the birth of the Christian movement, which was ultimately to take over the mighty empire without force and to change the world irrevocably. While momentous events unfolded in the lives of the two kings, Tiberius and Jesus, one temporal and one spiritual, millions of people carried on their daily routines, rising at dawn and going to their rest in the evening.

I have tried to portray some of the people both humble and powerful who were of historical importance during this year, and to give a glimpse of the world as it existed at that time. As for all historical periods, much of what has come down to us has survived by accident, and much that is important for understanding the era has been lost. The ancient documents that have survived have done so because of the labours of many unknown individuals who copied and preserved them. In particular, surviving writings that record or touch on the events of AD 33 I have tried to use with respect and to understand through the minds of the time, so far as their beliefs and perceptions can be reconstructed.

In writing this book I have attempted to step back into a far-off world. It is a world that is not only distant in time, but also in the very way that people saw the skies, buildings and landscapes around them. It had an utterly different consciousness from ours, one that had a greater integration, to all appearances, than we have of the spiritual and the natural. I have tried to enter into it sympathetically, listening to its voices and observing its events. My aim has been to open up that world for readers of today.

My task has been finished with a profound sense that there is far more to say about this remarkable and yet elusive year, a year that has captured my imagination and attention for a considerable period. I offer my book in the hope that it will at least be an introduction to a year that provides a master key to so much that has happened since, a year that still has a remarkable influence in the early twenty-first century on culture, politics, literature and the very way that we see the world. We owe to it those who lived then, and who touch our lives now, to take account of the world as they saw it.

Colin Duriez

Keswick

Acknowledgements

I n researching and writing this book I have drawn upon the work of historical, classical and biblical scholars past and present and from many countries. This is an immensely rich, diverse and staggeringly extensive body of work I feel as if I have only paddled in a great sea.

In particular, I must express my gratitude to Dr Bruce Winter of Tyndale House, Cambridge, and for the use of the college library. He exemplifies all that the college stands for, and gave me some important orientation in exploring this vast subject. By the nature of my self-imposed task, I have had to find my own way to a great extent, and must take responsibility for any errors of fact or interpretation.

My editor at Sutton Publishing, Christopher Feeney, has been of huge importance to me with his judicious comments on the various stages of the work. He and the talented team at Sutton Publishing Jane Hutchings, Victoria Carvey, Wampe de Veer, Bow Watkinson, Jane Entrican and others have been a pleasure to work with.

The meticulous mapping of nineteenth-century cartographers of the Palestine Exploration Fund helped me to get a feel for the landscapes of some of the most momentous events in ad 33 such detail has been lost in subsequent urbanisation.

Throughout, the encouragement of the Leicester Writers Club, Rod, Chris, Gwyneth, Liz, Terri and many others, as well as that of Cindy Zudys, Sarah Manning and Christopher Catherwood, has been an important sustenance.

Scriptural quotations in the book are taken from the English Standard Version, which is a revision of the Revised Standard Version. The ESV is copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers; used by permission, all rights reserved. Its publisher, my friend Dr Lane Dennis, put many years of his life into the production of this beautiful translation. The predictions of first-century lunar eclipses are by Fred Espenak, at NASAs GSFC.

The world in AD 33.

The Silk Road from China to the Roman Empire in the first century AD.

The empire of Tiberius, AD 33.

Location of Tiberius Villa Jovis on the island of Capreae, AD 33.

Site of Villa Jovis on modern Capri.

Layout of Villa Jovis.