CAESAR
Title given, since the beginning of the 1st century AD, to the supreme and absolute ruler of the Roman Empire (comes from the nickname “Caesar” of the Roman Julia family).
According to Luke (Lk. 2:1), Jesus was born in the time of Caesar Augustus (30 BC – 14 AD); according to Lk. 3:15, he begins public life under Caesar Tiberius (AD 14-37). With the mandate of Augustus, a period of peace begins in the Mediterranean world.
It was customary in the Ancient East to venerate kings as something like gods. Both circumstances together make it understandable that the emperor, still alive, soon began to be worshiped under titles such as savior, liberator, redeemer, bringer of salvation.
Some emperors sought to deliberately encourage this “veneration”; but most of them left it to the devotees. Christianity could not compromise on this issue, no matter how loyal it was to the State.
Other Roman emperors are also mentioned in the New Testament: (a) Claudius (41-54) is mentioned in connection with a famine that was to come (Acts 11:28) and with the expulsion of the Jews from Rome (Acts. 18:2).
When the Jews (Acts 17:7) cry out that Paul and his companions are acting against Caesar’s orders, the accusation has an entirely general meaning (cf. Acts 25:8); Then Claudio was in charge; in Acts. 25:8, Nero.
(b) Acts refer to Nero (54-68). 25:10 (Paul is before Caesar’s court) and Acts. 25:1 ff (Paul appeals to Caesar; cf. Acts 25:21; 26:22; 27:24; 28:19). The saints of the imperial court who greet the Philippians (Phil. 4:22) are Christians, freedmen or slaves in Nero’s palace.