Chapter 10: Rome, Herod, and the World of Jesus
Study activity, printable worksheet, explained answers, and source references for your chapter.
Printed chapter: pages 59-64. Complete connected chart: pages 98–145. These page references match the reviewed manuscript.
Listen to Chapter 10 · View Chapter 10 on the chart · Download the two-page worksheet
Match rulers to Gospel episodes
Read Matthew 2 and Luke 2-3. Make separate infancy and ministry groups. Put Augustus, Tiberius, Herod the Great, Archelaus, Antipas, and Pilate in the appropriate settings. Ask learners to distinguish a named office from a family relationship and a biblical statement from a later artistic addition.
Find the detail on the chart, identify what each number measures, and record the source used for your explanation.
Practice questions and explained answers
Try the worksheet first. Tap a question to reveal its explanation.
1. Why separate Pompey’s intervention from AD 70?
They are separate Roman interventions: Pompey’s capture in 63 BC and the destruction under Titus in AD 70. The earlier capture is not the later destruction of the temple.
2. Distinguish Herod the Great, Archelaus, and Antipas.
Herod the Great belongs to the infancy setting; Archelaus rules Judea afterward; Antipas is associated with Galilee in the ministry setting. Shared family naming does not make them one ruler.
3. Is Augustus Octavian or Julius Caesar?
Augustus is Octavian. Julius Caesar is a different person, although the names and political succession are connected.
4. Does Matthew specify exactly three kings visiting the child?
No. It names Magi from the east and three kinds of gifts. The gifts do not count the visitors or explicitly call them kings.
5. Why qualify the Quirinius census correlation?
The historically attested census under Quirinius belongs to AD 6, creating a difficulty in relating Luke’s account to Herod’s reign. Proposed reconciliations are not settled facts.
6. What differs between the Gospel genealogies near Joseph?
Matthew names Jacob as Joseph’s father; Luke’s list proceeds through Heli and qualifies Jesus’ relation to Joseph with “as was supposed.” Preserve the texts before proposing a harmonization.
Complete connected chart
Download all four parts and print in order, at actual size (100%). These contain one complete set of 48 numbered chart tiles, divided into four downloads. Follow the tile labels to connect the chart. Use the chapter enlargements for small lettering.
- Chart part 1 of 4 — tiles 1–12
- Chart part 2 of 4 — tiles 13–24
- Chart part 3 of 4 — tiles 25–36
- Chart part 4 of 4 — tiles 37–48
Sources to consult
These are the chapter’s source references, not quotations from those works. Use the named title, institution, record number, or passage to locate the source. Some external sources may have access restrictions.
- Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 14.3-4, especially 14.69-74: the Hasmonean dispute, Pompey’s intervention, siege, and settlement. Whiston translation hosted by the University of Chicago, penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-14.html. Posen Library, “Pompey’s Conquest and Appointment of Hyrcanus II”: historical context and 63 BCE placement.
- British Museum, “Herod the Great,” collection biography BIOG71600: Roman appointment in 40 BC, capture of Jerusalem in 37 BC, conventional 4 BC death date, and territorial settlement among his sons. NET Bible, Matthew 2:1 study note: Herod the Great and the usual 37-4 BC rule dating.
- British Museum, “Herod Archelaus,” BIOG92394: ethnarch, 4 BC-AD 6, removal and Roman administration. The regional distinction matters: removal of Archelaus is not treated as simultaneous removal of Antipas from Galilee.
- Matthew 14:1-12; Luke 23:6-12; Acts 12, KJV. NET Bible, Acts 12:1 study note.
- U.S. Naval Observatory, “The 21st Century and the 3rd Millennium,” aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/millennium: conventional Christian-era development, historical absence of year zero, distinction from astronomical numbering, and uncertainty in an exact birth date. The worked interval from the start of 4 BC to the start of AD 30 is 33 years, not an independently established lifespan.
- Matthew 1-2, especially 1:16; 2:1-12, 19-23.
- British Museum, “Augustus (Octavian),” BIOG57074; “Tiberius,” BIOG60814: change of name in 27 BC, Augustus’ death in AD 14, and Tiberius’ AD 14-37 reign. Imperial dates are not treated as the full lifespan of the ruler or a count of every year of earlier political activity.
- NET Bible, Luke 2:1-2 study notes, Biblical Studies Press: known AD 6 census, Quirinius/Cyrenius, and proposed correlations. USCCB, Luke 2:1-2 notes: the historical difficulty and limits of proposed solutions. Josephus, Antiquities 18.1, is the ancient census account identified in those notes.
- Matthew 1:6-16 and Luke 3:23-38.
- Luke 3:1-3, 21-23.
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem, “Latin dedicatory inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate,” collection description and inscription reading presented on Google Arts & Culture. Found reused at Caesarea; dated AD 26-36; inscription title preserved as prefect of Judea. Some catalogue prose uses “procurator”; the manuscript distinguishes that common label from the inscription’s title.
- 1 Kings 6; 2 Kings 25; Ezra 3-6; Luke 2:41-52; John 2:19-22. Josephus, Antiquities 15.11, Whiston translation, University of Chicago.
- John 19:16-22; Matthew 27-28; Luke 23-24.
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