Caesar

And partly it's because I think partly it's because she, he hears the register of a voice change from this kind of dominant, more booming masculine mode to something that is vulnerable and tender.

And that is, that seems to be the thing that really frightens him about Gertrude Stein is that she's not, that she is, that she contains multitudes and, And she's not just the Roman Caesar, as he likes to call her, but is someone who is, you know, is also a queer woman in a relationship with another, in a loving relationship with another woman.

And so he renders her monstrous.

And for sure.

And at this time, Domitian had begun what we call the deification of the emperors.

So they have something called the divine Caligula, divine Caesar.

You'll be surprised that the word Augustus is from the English-- is fr- is where we get the English word August.

So Augustus was not necessarily a name.

That's why most of the Caesars had it.

Augustus was a title, the most August, the highest supreme one.

So Augustus is from the word August.

Oh

After arriving at a peace agreement with the Persians, who were the empire's greatest military threat, he created in 293 CE a more elaborate system of government in which the empire was ruled as separate Eastern and Western halves under two senior and two junior emperors, who were called Augustus and Caesar respectively, after the titles given to the first emperors.

Though these men were largely free to make their own decisions, they were closely bound to one another by their personal ties.

Diocletian and Maximian, who was the other Augustus, married their daughters to the men who became their Caesars and adopted them as their sons.

This was meant to guarantee that they would in turn become Augusti and make their own sons Caesars in their place.

These four rulers and their administrations were based in cities in Turkey, Serbia, Northern Italy, and Germany, which were close to the empire's problematic border regions, while the city of Rome, which was the home of the Senate, became more of a ceremonial capital than an administrative one.

In fact, as the imperial court of the fourth century became increasingly autocratic, the capital was wherever the emperor was, often at the front with Persia or the Germanic territories.

And they would say, and they would sort of do a kind of almost a biblical exegesis kind of approach and say, well, Christianity has separation of church and state.

It has render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

And Islam is totalitarian and does not see this space between, you know, the secular and whatever.

And I think the theological arguments are all very interesting.

And in this way, you do see this all the way through Islam.

You know, there's Muawiyah and the Umayyad dynasty.

They were like, they were the first dynasty of caliphs that ruled from Damascus, they were like Roman Caesars.

In fact, one of their opponents, Caliph Omar, said Mawir was like a Roman Caesar.

And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully and care for no man, for you do not regard the position of men.

Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, Why do you put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the money for the tax.

And they brought to him a coin.

And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this? They said, Caesar's.

Then he said to them, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away.

The gospel of the Lord.

foolish.

Tell us, then, what you think.

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?' But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, 'Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.' And they brought him a denarius.

Then he said to them, 'Whose head is this, and whose title?' They answered, 'Caesar's.' Then he said to them, 'Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' When they heard this, they were amazed.

And they left him and went away." The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Yeah.

Because he's gonna say something, just like he did in the last chapter against us.

Now he's gonna say something against Caesar, and we're really gonna get him, you know?

Now, Onkelos is someone that everyone should know.

Onkelos was actually a relative, some say even a nephew of the Roman Caesar at the time when the Romans were controlling Israel.

And he was so blown away by Judaism that he converted.

Not only did he convert, he wrote the translation.