S P Q R
The letters were tattooed on the
muscular right arm of the young man getting off the plane in front of me. Does he know what that means? He had an explanation. “Senatus
Publusque Romanus; it means the Roman Senate and the people. The soldiers of the Empire had this tattooed
on the arm that wielded the sword.”
Shouldn’t the Republican candidates for
president sport this tattoo? In their
quest for the evangelical vote they advocate increased military action in the
Middle East. Ted Cruz suggested carpet bombing. It is the gospel - evangelium - of the Roman Empire – peace through military might as
opposed to the Jewish, Christian program of peace through justice. Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan writes:
We are at the start of the twenty
first century, what the Roman Empire was at the start of the first century. Put succinctly: Rome and the East there,
America and the West here. Put
succinctly: they then, we now. Put more succinctly: SPQR is SPQA.
John Dominic
Crossan, In Search of Paul, Harper SanFrancisco, p. 412.
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