Book Review: The Roman Army and the New Testament,by Christopher B. Zeichmann

In this helpful study, Christopher Zeichmann examines the nature and activities of Roman armies within Palestine and reviews the depictions of the military in the New Testament in light of this examination, thereby addressing two lacunae in scholarly literature. The heart of Zeichmann's study, both thematically and physically, is chapter 3, which, by foregrounding the representation of the military in the canonical Gospels and Acts, is the only chapter that addresses the presence of the Roman army in both Palestine and New Testament literature. This chapter is preceded by two others that establish, using literary and material evidence, a profile of military personnel in early Roman Palestine (63 bce–135 ce), and it is followed by two chapters that analyze the use of military language and imagery in canonical texts attributed to Paul and John of Patmos, respectively.

The first chapter reconstructs the demographic composition of Roman armies in Palestine, and the second reviews the activities that occupied their time, with a particular focus on the ways in which soldiers interacted with civilians. As might be expected, the Roman Empire changed its policies regulating the demographic composition of armies after the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 ce). Prior to the revolt, soldiers were stationed in Palestine as members of either a Roman auxiliary (indicating noncitizen status) or a client kingdom's royal army. These soldiers were recruited locally, and they were often of low economic status—both before and after enlisting. In contrast, following the revolt, locals who enlisted could no longer serve in their home region, and so soldiers stationed in Palestine were members of either a nonlocal Roman auxiliary or a Roman legionary (indicating Roman citizenship). As a result, post-revolt soldiers in Palestine—because of their linguistic abilities, ethnicities, and general sensibilities—could be perceived as distinctly foreign in a way that was unlikely for pre-revolt soldiers. These soldiers performed any number of official and unofficial functions, from constructing aqueducts and paving roads to policing the region and resolving disputes. Zeichmann also discusses the material impacts attributable to the presence of soldiers in Palestine—from an increase in the use of coinage (and the concomitant effects of this change) to the importation of goods to satisfy the tastes of the soldiers, which, of course, became increasingly nonlocal after the First Jewish Revolt.

In the three remaining chapters, Zeichmann applies this materially-informed understanding of soldiers in Palestine to the depictions of the military in New Testament literature, reviewing most, if not all, of the military-related passages in the New Testament and commenting on selected questions of interpretation. In chapter 3, Zeichmann is particularly interested in resolving the tension between the violence inflicted by Roman soldiers in the Gospels and Acts and the generally positive portrayal of centurions in these same texts. He resolves this tension by appealing to papyrological evidence from the Roman East, where centurions were often petitioned “for aid” and distinguished “from the rabble comprising most of the army's ranks” (p. 65). Accordingly, he argues, the apparent inconsistency in New Testament narratives reflects a common distinction. In chapters 4 and 5, Zeichmann reviews military-related themes in Pauline literature and the book of Revelation. These chapters differ from the first three inasmuch as they do not concern the military in Palestine but rather in the eastern regions of the Roman Empire more generally. Zeichmann observes a disparity in the use of military themes in the undisputed and disputed Pauline letters. In the undisputed Pauline letters, military language and imagery are used metaphorically, demonstrating a casual knowledge of the Roman military and no commitment in favor of or in opposition to it; military metaphors function here as a helpful way to express group unity amid embattling circumstances. In contrast, he says, references to the military in the disputed Pauline letters reflect a positive disposition toward both the military and Roman imperialism generally, such as with the metaphorical “armor of God” exhortation in Ephesians 6:10–17. Overall, Zeichmann concludes that New Testament literature exhibits both ambivalence and ambiguity with respect to the Roman military.

Throughout, readers are often referred to an open-access online resource managed by Zeichmann, the Database of Military Inscriptions and Papyri of Early Roman Palestine [ArmyOfRomanPalestine.com]. The material evidence collected here not only informs Zeichmann's understanding of armies in Palestine, it also functions as a resource for mediating contested interpretive issues. For example, he refers to evidence included in the DMIPERP in order to discredit the assertion, common among New Testament scholars, that it was compulsory for centurions to worship the emperor. He likewise appeals to evidence in this database to correct misinformation in biblical texts. For example, Paul suggests in 1 Corinthians 9:7 that soldiers did not pay for their own rations; nevertheless, Zeichmann identifies papyrological evidence that contradicts Paul, indicating that the cost of rations was in fact deducted from soldiers' pay.

Zeichmann thus makes a valuable contribution to the study of both the New Testament and the ancient Mediterranean world. The first two chapters decisively advance scholarship on the nature and activities of the military in early Roman Palestine. Readers interested in references to the military in the New Testament likewise have a reliable and insightful resource in the final three chapters. Accessible enough for nonspecialists, The Roman Army and the New Testament is recommended especially for libraries supporting readers interested in early Christian literature and/or the military of the Roman Empire.