Incarnate timing

God became incarnate at a certain time, place, context and culture. It is one of the distinguishing features of Christianity. God became a human.

During the week I was asked about the timing of Jesus. Why did Jesus appear when He did?

My answer revolved around two things. Rome and Jews.

If I was waiting for an appropriate time for Jesus to arrive on the scene, it would be with the onset of the Roman empire. This was of immeasurable benefit for spreading the gospel.

The first advantage was the Pax Romana. Relatively, Christianity rose during a time of unrivaled peace and prosperity. This lead to the second advantage inherited from Rome.

With a "global" empire, the known world was opened up like never before. Transportation, both of paved road and by sea, was made significantly easier, safer and a common language allowed the message of Jesus to spread efficiently.

Until the time of Augustus, no previous time of human history was as appropriate to spread a message to as many people as possible.

And Rome played a part in the Jewish side of the equation. Jesus was a Jew. His initial followers were predominately Jews.

Jesus lived and taught in a Jewish culture and context.

This is significant with both Jesus' fulfilment of prophecy, His claim to be the awaited Messiah and the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70AD (and subsequent fall of an "independent" Jewish nation).

The rise of Rome and the annihilation of the Temple gives God a tight window of opportunity to make the greatest impact on human history (up until that point). If I was God, I would have chosen the same time to become incarnate that He did.