Definately Not the Earth!
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Thank you Lauren! She has spotted the obvious that I hadn't - the globe on the coin with Domitian's son on it cannot represent the earth as the ancients thought the earth was flat (see Rev 7:1). I've been looking forward to finding out more on this one since you raised this on Sunday Lauren. As you say, the globe definately does not represent the earth. I think Janzen's words are "The globe represents world domination and power" rather than the globe as the earth. I might have been misleading in my comments on Sunday's 1st service (I was clearer in the 2nd service that it was the seat of authority but I will clear it up this coming Sunday). If anyone can shed further light on what the globe represents please share it with us! There might be a lolly in it for any NBC people and an online hug for others... It's easy to access info online about it by googling "coin" and "domitian" and "son" another useful word is the technical word for this sort of study - "numismatics". Be careful where you read because not everything online is trustworthy. But if anyone comes across anything good or are a scholar that can help us out, please share it with us.
10:23 AM
David Barr in his commentary called "Tales of the End" writes this of this coin: "The coin shows a naked infant son seated on a globe with his hands extended into a field of seven stars, with the inscription beginning "The Divine Caesar..." There may thus be an implicit challenge to imperial claims in the image of Jesus. In addition, the coin suggests the notion that the deceased infant has not gone to the underworld, where dead humans go [in the ancient understanding], but rather has ascended to the stars, as befits a God. Suetonius wrote that a leading city official "actually swore that he had seen Augustus's spirit soaring up to Heaven through the flames" of his funeral pyre. Such claims were necessary for the eventual deification of the emperor. In this context, the picture of Jesus among the stars reinforces the declaration that death could ont hold him."