7 Misconceptions about Paul and the Roman Imperial Divine Honors
Guest Writer: Dr. Clint Burnett
Nijay here. I am so excited to welcome a guest writer today, Dr. Clint Burnett, a NT scholar and historian of early Christianity in the Roman world. Burnett recently published an excellent book called Paul and Imperial Divine Honors (Eerdmans, 2024). He kindly agreed to share some of his insight here on Engaging Scripture.
#1 That “the imperial cult” existed.
There was no one, centrally controlled Roman imperial cult that the reigning emperor of the Roman Empire oversaw and administered. What is often called “the imperial cult” consists of various and diverse cultic acts that the city of Rome/her colonies, provinces, cities, associations, and even individuals bestowed on certain, by no means all, Roman emperors and their family members most often of their own volition to express gratitude for imperial benefaction.
#2 That emperors demanded to be worshiped.
Aside from a possible handful of mentally unstable Roman emperors, emperors did not promulgate empire-wide edicts demanding that the inhabitants of the Roman Empire worship them or even their deceased predecessors. To the contrary, emperors were content to allow local communities a great deal of freedom in their local governance and choice of their objects of worship, if they paid taxes and maintained peace.
#3 That divine honors for rulers was a new phenomenon in the Roman Empire.
Long before the advent of Rome, many Greek communities of the eastern Mediterranean had a habit of offering divine honors to powerful men and even women who provided significant benefactions for their them. The earliest known Greek to whom other Greeks gave such honors was the Spartan general Lysander (454–395 BC) on the island of Samos. To show appreciation for their restoration of power, certain aristocrats from Samos dedicated an altar to Lysander; honored him with sacrifices, Greek games, and hymns; renamed the festival of their patron goddess Hera to include his name, the Lysandreia, and dedicated an image of the general in Olympia.
#4 That divine honors in the early Roman Empire were reserved for only Roman emperors and their family members.
Contrary to some, inscriptions attest that Greek communities granted divine honors to men and women who provided significant benefaction for them, yet were not part of the Roman imperial family. In the mid-first century AD, a group of cities of Lycia in modern-day southern Turkey promulgated a decree in which they gave a Roman woman who lived in Corinth named Junia Theodora a golden crown and “apotheosized” her because of the aid that she provided them, including allowing certain people from Lycia to stay with her while in Corinth. These cities even went so far as to write letters to the local government of Corinth informing the city’s magistrates of their decision (Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 18:143).
#5 That divine honors for Roman emperors and their family members eclipsed those given to the Greek and Roman gods.
The fascination of New Testament scholars with imperial divine honors has led to the misconception, sometimes unstated but at other times openly noted, that the honors in question were the most important ones in the Roman Empire. However, the only cults and/or deities mentioned by name in the New Testament documents are those of traditional gods, not Roman emperors: Zeus and Hermes in Lystra (Acts 14:8–18, esp. 12–13), a Pythian Spirit in Philippi (Acts 16:16–18), Artemis of the Ephesians in Ephesus (Acts 19:23–40, esp. 24, 27, 28, 35), and Justice on the isle of Malta (Acts 28:4). This fact suggests that for these communities their traditional gods were still important for the civic identity.
#6 That imperial divine honors were offered in isolation of honors to the gods.
Frequently, imperial divine honors are discussed by scholars as if they were isolated cultic acts that Rome, provinces, cities, associations, and individuals provided Roman emperors and their family members. To the contrary, much of the primary evidence associated with imperial divine honors evinces that these communities and persons offered divine honors to Roman emperors, their family members, and their gods at the same time. For example, a record of sacrifices that a priestly college in Rome offered from 21 BC to AD 304 demonstrates that imperial sacrifices were almost always made alongside those given to the gods. During Augustus’s lifetime, the provinces of Asia and Bithynia set up grants of divine honors for the emperor and the goddess Roma, albeit at Augustus’s request. Greek cities most often worshiped emperors and their family members simultaneously. For example, the city of Thessalonica had a temple dedicated to Hercules, Augustus, and the personification of the city. Finally, some individuals set up statues of emperors and their family members among their domestic gods. The emperor Hadrian had a bronze statuette of Augustus placed “among the household gods of his bedroom” (Suetonius, Augustus 7).
#7 That early Christians were always in conflict because of imperial divine honors.
For many scholars, imperial divine honors were one of if not the main reason for the ill-treatment and persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. However, there is very little evidence from our ancient sources for such a view. To the contrary, Christians suffered for various reasons and often because of their lack of participation of Christians in the cults of the traditional gods. One of the best examples is mid-first century AD Ephesus, where a riot occurred because of St. Paul’s preaching. According to some Ephesians, they fomented civic unrest because the Gospel’s proclamation threatened to displace, not the emperor, but the goddess Artemis of Ephesus (Acts 19:23–40). This is despite the fact that there was shrine for Augustus in Ephesus’s upper agora and another temple of Augustus inside the temple complex of Artemis of Ephesus.
For more information about imperial divine honors and early Christianity, see D. Clint Burnett, Paul and Imperial Divine Honors: Christ, Caesar, and the Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2024).