Abstract: Several recent studies have raised postcolonial issues in relation to the biblical texts. Render to Caesar aims to address that conversation and to offer some critique. Chapter 1 discusses Israel’s traditions about empire and its attitudes toward international superpowers as it experienced them from the Egyptians to the Greeks. Chapter 2 considers the same question during the period from the Maccabees to the War with Rome and its aftermath. Against this background, chapter 3 examines what we may know or surmise of the teaching and ministry of Jesus and considers its likely significance vis-à-vis Rome and Roman imperium. Chapter 4 does the same with the passion narratives. Chapters 5 and 6 turn to other early Christian witnesses, namely Paul, Luke-Acts, 1 Peter, and the Book of Revelation. Chapter 7 reflects on appropriate and possibly inappropriate relationships between the study of first- century Israel and Rome, and contemporary postcolonial insights. A concluding “unscientific postscript” reflects on the possible significance of this for our own understanding of empire and “superpower status,” then and now.

Keywords: Empire, Imperium, Israel, Jesus, Postcolonial, Rome, Superpower