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Preview
What you get:
- Over 100 Discussion Questions and Answers for all 16 chapters of Romans
- Atlas of 13 High Definition 3D maps
- Tips for teaching Romans in a Bible study
Sample maps in the Romans Leaders Guide & Atlas
Before Paul’s trial
Before Paul’s trialThe last we hear of Paul in the Bible, he’s under arrest and headed to Rome for trial in the emperor’s supreme court. Bible scholars debate whether he was executed after that trial or released, only to be arrested an executed later.
But before this arrest and trial, he wrote a letter to Christians in Rome. The Book of Romans, as the letter is called, is considered the first Christian theology book.
Paul systematically explains to the Romans, most of whom he had never met, what it means to be a Christian. He lays out the basic beliefs a person must have to qualify as an authentic follower of Jesus.
He angered fellow Jewish followers of Jesus by teaching that you didn’t have to be Jewish to follow Jesus. Many Jews expected non-Jews to convert to Judaism before they qualified as Christian.
Had they convinced Paul, Christianity might have become just one more branch of the Jewish faith, along with Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox.
It’s unclear exactly what they saw. One theory is that they saw a conjunction of planets that appeared like stars. In 7-6 BC the planets of Jupiter and Saturn came close together and appeared beside the constellation of Pisces. If the magi were stargazers, as many theorize, they interpreted the meaning of what they saw in the sky.
1. Jupiter, the largest of the planets, represented kings, which suggested a king had been born.
2. Saturn represented the Jews because they worshiped on the day that honored the god Saturn: Saturday.
3. “Pisces” means “fish,” and it represented the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel is located.
So the sages did the math: king plus Jews plus Jewish homeland. They figured a king of the Jews had been born. They went to the Jewish capital of Jerusalem to introduce themselves and pay their respects.
In addition to the Romans Leaders Guide & Atlas
You might consider the atlas for Isaiah
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