Life in the first century
A growing library of short illustrated explainers — a reference library rather than a feed.
- 01
Rome and the Temple: the two powers pressing on every life
The political vice the whole series sits in
In preparation - 02
What crucifixion actually was, and why Rome did it by the roadside
Grim, careful, non-gratuitous; explains why Demas expected nothing
In preparation - 03
The ledger and the sword: how tax-farming could ruin a family without breaking a law
The engine of Bar-Abba’s rage
In preparation - 04
The Sanhedrin: seventy-one men and the danger of speech
Why Joseph’s silence was rational and cost him everything
In preparation - 05
Who were the Zealots and the sicarii?
The violent underside of the occupation
In preparation - 06
What a Roman centurion actually was
Rank, pay, the vine-staff, and why a provincial like Aziz would enlist
In preparation - 07
Passover in an occupied city
The pilgrimage, the crowds, the extra garrison, the tension
In preparation - 08
Could a woman testify? The legal status of the resurrection’s first witnesses
And why that makes the accounts strange
In preparation - 09
The house-churches: how the first Christians actually met
The historical reality behind Miriam’s table
In preparation - 10
Burial customs, spices and rock tombs
Why a hundred pounds of myrrh is an absurd, extravagant quantity
In preparation - 11
Names in the first century: Semitic, Greek and Roman, and what changing yours meant
The spine of the whole series
In preparation - 12
The Aaronic blessing: the oldest words in the story
Numbers 6:24–26, and why it runs through all six books
In preparation