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EMPEROR
Official designation of the Roman sovereign beginning in 27 BC with the reign of Caesar Augustus; a derivation of imperator, an honorary title of supreme command conferred by the Roman Senate upon one of its victorious generals. See Caesars, The.
Emperor Worship
Emperor worship had its origins in the Near Eastern practice of considering the king divine. The Egyptian pharaoh was considered a descendant of the sun god Ra (Re), and Mesopotamian legends speak of kingship “descending from heaven.” Alexander the Great and other Greek heroes were worshiped after their deaths. The idea of a ruler’s divinity was encouraged by the central place of the king in pagan cults. Israel was directly affected by such worship during the Babylonian exile (see Dn 3).
Such a background set the pattern for the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who believed himself to be an incarnation of the Greek god Zeus. He desecrated the temple in Jerusalem by setting up an altar to Zeus in it (167 BC). That event, which the Jews never forgot, triggered the Maccabean war for the liberation of Palestine.
Roman generals and emperors likewise assumed godhood as soon as they penetrated Asia Minor, especially after Augustus Caesar came to full power (27 BC). Augustus saw his reign as the inauguration of a new age of peace for Rome and the world. Although the Romans acclaimed him as “savior,” he claimed for himself only the high priesthood. In the eastern provinces coins were minted with a double temple for Rome and Augustus. In Antioch coins depicted Augustus as the incarnate Zeus or “worship-worthy Son of God,” and altars were erected in his honor. Augustus encouraged the cult as a unifying element in his diverse empire and as a type of patriotism. After his death, temples were built in his honor and the symbols of divinity were transferred to succeeding emperors. For decades all new temples were for the imperial cult. (In Mk 12:13-17 and parallel passages about paying taxes, the coin was probably inscribed “Tiberius Caesar . . . Son of the Divine Augustus.”)
Gaius Caesar, nicknamed Caligula (AD 37–41), was the first emperor to be worshiped in Rome during his own lifetime. On hearing of a dispute between Jews and Gentiles over worshiping him in Jamnia, he ordered a statue of himself to be placed in the temple in Jerusalem. His plan, which would surely have caused a general revolt, was averted only by the intercession of Herod Agrippa I. Under the succeeding emperors, Claudius (AD 41–54) and Nero (AD 54–68), the cult reached ridiculous extremes. Later emperors varied in how seriously they took the imperial cult, but it remained a test of loyalty to the empire, similar to loyalty oaths or pledging allegiance to the flag. For the sake of the empire’s unity, other religions had to accommodate emperor worship one way or another.
Emperor worship naturally caused problems for Christians, since the titles given to the emperor (“lord,” “prince of peace,” “son of god,” “savior”) were the same as those used for Christ. The confession “Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9) was bound to conflict with the claim “Caesar is lord.” Christians who would not sacrifice to the emperor were charged with treason. The conflict between emperor worship and Christianity remained a focal point for the persecution of the church until the time of Constantine (AD 306–37).