There is a word used in the New Testament that provides us with a wonderfully vivid picture of what Jesus accomplished as the Christ. This word, triumph (qriambeuvw), is only used twice in the Bible:
2 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Colossians 2:15 (ESV)
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
This word, triumph, is not simply another word for "being
victorious" (the word for victorious, nikavw, is used 28x in the NT). This word comes from a very specific practice from the ancient
world which the Romans perfected.
Since every single person to whom the New Testament was originally written lived under Roman rule it is safe to say that they would all be familiar with this practice and it is quite likely that a significant number of them would have witnessed something very similar to a triumph at some point in their lives.
The Roman Triumph was a celebratory procession that marked a great victory and the end of a war. This procession (a glorified parade) was designed to heap praises upon the victorious General and to heap abuse and shame upon the hapless losers.
But not just any soldier or General could qualify for a proper triumph. No! they had to meet a strict set of criteria in order to qualify. They had to:
1. be a of a certain social class and from a proper family line
2. kill a minimum of 5,000 enemy soldiers
3. bring their army home with them (symbolizing that the victory was so complete that there was no need to leave soldiers behind to keep the peace)
4. the senate had to approve and endorse the triumph
5. etc... (there were a lot of criteria)
Once the General met all of these qualifications he could have his triumph which looked roughly like this:
1. Leading the parade were the members of the senate who endorsed the triumph
2. Trumpeters and priests with incense (engaging the senses of the onlookers... notice how in 2Cor2:14 Paul talks about fragrance...)
3. Carts and wagons full of the spoils of war
4. the conquered war leader/king with his family and other important people of the conquered nation all of whom were bound
5. the victorious General with his family and other important people. The General is crowned with the laurel wreath.
6. finally the procession is rounded out with the disarmed, defeated army who gets to march through Rome while the people ridicule them.
And once the whole procession reaches it's destination the defeated army is sold into slavery and the defeated leaders are publicly executed. This usually happened either by crucifixion or strangulation: both of those emphasize the helplessness of this once powerful leader.
Take a few minutes and watch the video below. This gives you an idea of what sort of imagery Paul and Timothy were using when they wrote 2 Cor. & Col. This is the imagery they wanted to conjure in the minds of their readers/listeners:
[warning: this is a little graphic]
So, I'm going to leave the application of this to you!
What is the significance of Paul/Timothy's use of triumph?
What does this say about what Jesus has done?
What other thoughts do you have that this brings to mind?
5 comments:
Hey Tim B. What show is this from? I thought about Jesus leading the victorious with all his people gathered and watching him conquer Satan. When I think of Jesus killing some man, like the video does, just to prove he's the champion... well, that really bothers me because it doesn't seem right. But when I think of God killing Satan and defeating sin and death, that makes me excited! I know the victory is won, but I can't wait to see the enemy vanquished.
This clip is from HBO's series "Rome." I haven't seen enough of it to know if it's any good or not... I just found this clip a while back and thought it did an OK job of capturing the vibe of what a TRIUMPH may have been like.
It's interesting that Paul/Timothy would use such a "merciless" image, isn't it? Like you say, we don't like the idea of Jesus mercilessly slaughtering a captive; but if Jesus mercilessly destroys sin that's a different story isn't it?
... kind of like the conquest of the Promise Land?
Makes sense to me, Jesus conquered Satan at the cross but hasn't actually carried out his final "execution" yet.
Random fact: did you know that (in Shakespeares version of the story anyway) Cleopatra actually committed suicide to avoid that triumphal march into Rome even though she was promise immunity from any physical harm?
Arlana
Of course Shakespeare sensationalized it a bit, but yeah, she committed suicide (by snake-bite!) before she could be taken captive by Octavian.
But she was captured by Octavius! His soldiers were guarding her chamber and he sent a messanger to her to say "I admire you and you will come to no harm" (paraphrase) and she said to the messanger "but he will march me into Rome in shame, won't he?" (still paraphrasing) and the messanger said, "yes, but you will not be harmed, he has given his word" (or something like that) and she couldn't face that, so she committed suicide. So it wasn't just about defeat or capture, it was about the shame of her enemies triumphing over her in public... of course this is all per Mr Shakespeare, but he based his version on the account in Plutarch's "Lives", which is a good historical source, so I still say it's a good example of what you are describing, despite the admitted sensationalizing.
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