Citizenship
Citizenship
(, ciuitas)
The conception of citizenship among the ancient Greeks and Romans was deeper than among ourselves. We can think of human existence and life apart from citizenship, but to the ancient member of a or ciuitas citizenship was life and life was citizenship. This explains why St. Paul could use practically in the sense of to live (Act 23:1, Php 1:27; cf. Php 3:20 ). The life of a city is a development out of the more primitive life of the village-community (, uicus). A in fact consists of a number of , each of which consists of a number of families (, domus). The unity was generally based on blood-relationship. The regular in the Greek world was on the model of the constitution of Athens. This constitution had a council (, senatus) or advisory body, and a popular assembly (, , Act 19:32; Act 19:39; Act 19:41), for membership of both of which free citizens were eligible. For citizenship the requirement was free birth within the community, the father being a citizen. It could be conferred on foreigners by a decree of the people. Each community contained also those who were not full citizens, but had certain privileges, viz. resident aliens (; cf. the scriptural , , Eph 2:19, 1Pe 2:11, etc.). There was also a third class, , strangers with no privileges at all, and a fourth class, the slaves, who were mere chattels. In such a constitution each citizen had to be enrolled in a particular tribe (, tribus). St. Paul refers with pride to his citizenship of Tarsus in Cilicia, his native city (Act 21:39). As a citizen of Tarsus he must have belonged to a particular tribe, and it has been plausibly conjectured by W. M. Ramsay that the kinsmen of St. Paul referred to in Romans 16 were his fellow-tribesmen of Tarsus.
One kind of citizenship in the Apostolic Age swamped every other, and that was citizenship of Rome. This fact is well illustrated by a much earlier document-Ciceros speech, pro Balbo (56 b.c.). In it the principle is affirmed that no one could be a citizen of Rome and of other cities at the same time, while foreigners who were not Roman citizens could be on the burgess-rolls of any number of cities (ed. J. S. Reid, 1878, p. 18). The spread of the Roman citizenship kept pace with the growth of the Empire. At first only inhabitants of Rome could be Roman citizens, but the citizenship was gradually extended as a result of Romes conquests. It could be conferred both on communities and on individuals. Moreover, it was of two kinds or grades. In addition to the full citizenship, a limited citizenship existed till about 200 b.c.-ciuitas sine suffragio, implying that the persons who possessed it had all the privileges of a Roman citizen except the power to vote in the assemblies and to hold office. The constant conferment of this limited ciuitas added greatly to the Roman army and territory, and was not intended for the subjects good. By the end of the 2nd cent. b.c. there were many country towns of Italy (municipia) which possessed citizen rights, and, as the result of the Social War and the Lex Iulia (90 b.c.), the Lex Plautia Papiria (89 b.c.), a senatorial edict of 86 b.c., and a law of Julius Caesar (49 b.c.), all peoples in Italy south of the Alps obtained the Roman citizenship. Such communities were created also outside Italy by Julius Caesar, Claudius, Vespasian, and others, until in a.d. 212, under Caracalla, every free inhabitant of the Roman Empire obtained the full Roman franchise.
The inhabitants of coloniae required no grant of citizenship because they were of necessity Roman citizens from the first; a colonia was in origin simply a bit of Rome set down in a foreign country, to keep a subject people in check. It had complete self-government (see article Colony). The smaller fora and conciliabula had in Republican times incomplete self-government. The municipia, referred to above as incorporated bodily in the Roman State, had complete self-government, differing thus from the praefecturae, which were also communities of Roman citizens but without complete self-government.
The partial citizenship known as Latinitas or ius Latii deserves mention. It conferred commercium (the right to trade with Rome, and to acquire property by Roman methods, etc.), but not conubium (the right of intermarriage with Romans). It was thus a kind of intermediate condition between citizenship and peregrinity, and such rights were not infrequently conferred on communities as a kind of step towards the full citizenship. The name is explained by the origin of the practice. It began in Romes early days as the result of her relations with other towns in the Latin League, and in 172 b.c. was first extended beyond Latium. Magistrates in such towns became ipso facto full Roman citizens.
The conferment of citizenship on individuals has a special interest for students of the Apostolic Age. During the whole of the Republican period the extension of the body of burgesses was the right of the comitia tributa. This assembly conferred the citizenship from time to time on individual strangers (peregrini) as well as on communities. Commissioners for carrying out colonization or divisions of ager publicus could confer it on a very limited number of persons, and C. Marius received such a power. About the time of the civil wars, Roman commanders conferred the citizenship on individual foreigners who had aided the Roman military operations. This must often have been done without the authority of any statute, but no one was ever disfranchised in consequence. Pompey, however, obtained the right, by the Lex Gellia Cornelia of 72 b.c., to confer the citizenship on individuals after consulting with his body of advisers. It was probably either from him or from Julius Caesar that the father or grandfather of St. Paul obtained the Roman citizenship. Tarsus as a community had not received the Roman franchise, nor was it a colonia. The possession of this honour (Act 16:37; Act 22:25 ff.) shows that his family was one of distinction and wealth. Members of such provincial communities who possessed the Roman citizenship constituted the aristocracy of these communities. During the Empire the burgesses could be added to by the Emperor only, and every citizen had the right to a trial at Rome. Of this right St. Paul took advantage (Act 25:10).
Literature.-On Greek citizenship: P. Gardner and F. B. Jevons, A Manual of Greek Antiquities, London, 1895, bk. vi.; G. Gilbert, Handbuch der griechischen Staatsalterthmer, i. 2 [Leipzig, 1893], ii. [1885] (Eng. translation of vol. i. 2 = The Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens, London, 1895); K. F. Hermann, Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitten, i. 6 [Freiburg i. B., 1889-1892], ii. [1895].-On Roman citizenship: J. Muirhead, Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome, Edinburgh, 1886 (new ed. by H. Goudy, 1899); J. S. Reid, On Some Questions of Roman Public Law, in Journal of Roman Studies, i. [1911] 68-99; J. E. Sandys, A Companion to Latin Studies2, Cambridge, 1913, vi. 1 (J. S. Reid), vi. 7, 8 (B. W. Henderson) and Literature cited there; Th. Mommsen, Rmisches Staatsrecht3, Leipzig, 1887.-On St. Pauls Roman citizenship: W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, London, 1895, pp. 30f., 225.
A. Souter.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Citizenship
the rights and privileges of a native or adopted citizen (, 2Ma 4:50; 2Ma 5:6; 2Ma 9:15; 2Ma 9:19; Luk 15:15; Luk 19:14; Act 21:39), in distinction from a foreigner. The laws in this respect are very different in different ages and countries. SEE ALIEN.
I. Hebrew. Under the Mosaic constitution, which was framed on a basis of religious rather than of political privileges and distinctions, the idea of the commonwealth (, Eph 2:12) was merged in that of the congregation, to which every Hebrew, and even strangers under certain restrictions, were admitted. SEE CONGREGATION. Strict isolation did by no means, as some suppose, form the leading principle in the system of theocracy as laid down by Moses, since even non-Israelites, under various names SEE STRANGER, not only were allowed to reside in Palestine, but had the fullest protection of the law equally with the native Israelites (Exo 12:19; Leveticus 24:22; Num 15:15; Num 35:15; Deu 1:16; Deu 24:17 : the law of usury, Deu 23:20, made, however, an exception), and were, besides, recommended in general terms by Moses to humanity and charity (Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9; Lev 19:33-34; Deu 10:18; comp. Jer 7:6; Mal 3:5; see Josephus, Apion, 2, 28), as well as to a participation in certain prerogatives granted to the poor of the land, such as a share in the tithe and feast-offering, and the harvest in the jubilee-year (Deu 14:29; Deu 16:10; Deu 16:14; Deu 26:11; Lev 25:6). In return, it was required on the part of non-Israelites not to commit acts by which the religious feelings of the people might be hurt (Exo 20:10; Lev 17:10; Lev 18:26; Lev 20:2; Lev 24:16; Deu 5:14. The eating of an animal which had died a natural death, Deu 14:21, seems to have been the sole exception). The advantage the Jew had over the Gentile was thus strictly spiritual, in his being a citizen, a member of the theocracy (the community of Jehovah, Num 16:3; Deu 23:2), on whom positive laws were enjoined. But even to this spiritual privilege Gentiles were admitted under certain restrictions (Deu 23:1-9); thus we find among the Israelites, Doeg, an Edomite (1Sa 21:8), as also Uriah, a Hittite (a Canaanite). The only nations that were altogether excluded from the citizenship of the theocracy by especial command of the Lord were the Ammonites and Moabites, from a feeling of vengeance against them; and in the same situation were all castrated persons and bastards, from a feeling of disgrace and shame (Deu 23:1-6). In the time of Solomon no less than 153,600 strangers were resident in Palestine (2Ch 2:17). SEE GENTILE.
II. Roman. The right of citizenship (, freedom, Act 22:28, i.e. to be considered as equal to natives of the city of Rome, jus civitatis, civitas) was granted in the times of the emperors to whole provinces and cities (Dio Cass. 41:25; Suet. Aug. 47), as also to single individuals (Tacit. Annal. 1:58; Sueton. Nero, 12; Dio Cass. 43:39; Appian, Civ. 3. 26), for some service rendered to the state (Cic. Balb. 22) or the imperial family (Sueton. Aug. 47), sometimes through mere favor (Tacit. Hist. 3. 41), or even for a certain sum of money (Act 22:28; Dio Cass. 41, 24; see Heinecc. Antiq. jur. Romans 1, 1, 11 sq.). The apostle Paul was a Roman citizen (civis natus, Sueton. Calig. 38; see Amntzen, De civitate Romans apost. Pauli, Utr. 1725) by family (Acts , 1.c.) SEE TARSUS, and hence his protesting against corporal or capital punishment (Act 16:37; comp. Cic. Verr. v. 57, 65; Eusebius Hist. Ecclesiastes 5, 1, etc.). It appears from a variety of passages in the classic writers that a Roman citizen could not legally be scourged (virgis or flagellis coedi); this punishment being deemed to the last degree dishonorable, and the most daring indignity and insult upon the Roman name. Such was the famous Porcia Lex. A Roman citizen, judges, exclaims Cicero, in his oration against Verres, was publicly beaten with rods in the forum of Messina; during this public I dishonor, no groan, no other expression of the unhappy wretch was heard amid the cruelties he suffered, and the sound of the strokes that were inflicted, but this: I am a Roman citizen!’ Neither was it lawful for a Roman citizen to be bound, or to be examined by the question, or torture, to extort a confession from him. These punishments were deemed servile; torture was only inflicted upon slaves; freemen were exempted from this inhumanity and ignominy. The right once obtained descended to a man’s children (Act 22:28; see Zimmern, Gesch. des rom. Privat-rechts, 1, 2, 441).
The Jews had rendered signal services to Julius Caesar in the Egyptian war (Josephus, Ant. 14, 8, 1 and 2), and it is not improbable that many obtained the freedom of the city on that ground; certain it is that great numbers of Jews who were Roman citizens were scattered over Greece and Asia Minor (Ant. 14, 10, 13 and 14). Among the privileges attached to citizenship, the most noteworthy was the above, that a man could not be bound or imprisoned without a formal trial (Act 20:29), still less be scourged (Act 16:37; Cic. Verr. 5:63, 66); the simple assertion of citizenship was sufficient to deter a magistrate from such a step (Act 22:25; Cic. Verr. v. 62), as any infringement of the privilege was visited with severe punishment. A Jew could only plead exemption from such treatment before a Roman magistrate; he was still liable to it from Jewish authorities (2Co 11:24; Selden, Syn. 2, 15, 11). Another privilege attaching to citizenship was the appeal from a provincial tribunal to the emperor at Rome (Act 25:11). SEE APPEAL.
The rights of the Roman citizen included several other important privileges: he had a full right over his property, his children, and his dependents; he had a voice in the assemblies of the people, and in the election of magistrates; and his testament had full authority after his death. See Smith’s Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Civitas; Sigon. De antiquojure civ. Roman. (Par. 1572; Hal. 1715; also in Grasvii Thesaur. 1); Spanheim, Orbis Romans (London, 1703; Hal. 1728); Cellarii Dissertatt. p. 715 sq.; also Bittner, De civ. Romans virgideniis exempt. (Jen. 1672); Lange, De immunitate civ. Roman. (Hafn. 1710). SEE FREEMAN.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Citizenship
the rights and privileges of a citizen in distinction from a foreigner (Luke 15:15; 19:14; Acts 21:39). Under the Mosaic law non-Israelites, with the exception of the Moabites and the Ammonites and others mentioned in Deut. 23:1-3, were admitted to the general privileges of citizenship among the Jews (Ex. 12:19; Lev. 24:22; Num. 15:15; 35:15; Deut. 10:18; 14:29; 16:10, 14).
The right of citizenship under the Roman government was granted by the emperor to individuals, and sometimes to provinces, as a favour or as a recompense for services rendered to the state, or for a sum of money (Acts 22:28). This “freedom” secured privileges equal to those enjoyed by natives of Rome. Among the most notable of these was the provision that a man could not be bound or imprisoned without a formal trial (Acts 22:25, 26), or scourged (16:37). All Roman citizens had the right of appeal to Caesar (25:11).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Citizenship
Paul’s Roman citizenship was of the lower kind, which though not entitling him to vote with the tribes and enjoy a magistracy, yet secured to him the protection of the laws of the empire, and the right of appeal from his own hostile countrymen to Caesar, as also exemption from scourging (Act 16:37; Act 22:25-28; Act 25:11). He seems to have inherited it from his father. Hence, he naturally uses the image to express the believer’s high privileges as a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem.
“Our citizenship (Greek, or rather our life as citizens; politeuma, not politeia) is in heaven,” etc. (Phi 3:20); an image especially appropriate at Philippi, it being a Roman colony and possessing Roman citizenship of which its people were proud. Moreover, it was there that Paul had compelled the magistrates publicly to recognize a Roman citizen’s privileges. So believers, though absent from their heavenly city in body, still enjoy its civic privileges and protection; pilgrims on earth, citizens of heaven (Eph 2:6; Gal 4:26; Heb 11:9-10; Heb 11:13-16; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2; Rev 21:10; Luk 10:20).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Citizenship
CITIZENSHIP.See Paul, Rome.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Citizenship
siti-zen-ship: All the words in use connected with this subject are derived from , polis, city.
1. Philological
These words, with the meanings which they have in the Bible, are the nouns, , poltes, citizen; , politea, citizenship; , polteuma, commonwealth; , sumpoltes, fellow-citizen; and the verb, , politeuo, to behave as a citizen. Each will be considered more fully in its proper place.
2. Civil
(1) The word for citizen is sometimes used to indicate little if anything more than the inhabitant of a city or country. The citizens of that country (Luk 15:15); His citizens hated him (Luk 19:14). Also the quotation from the Septuagint, They shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen (Heb 8:11; compare Jer 31:34). So also in the Apocrypha (2 Macc 4:50; 5:6; 9:19).
(2) Roman citizenship. – This is of especial interest to the Bible student because of the apostle Paul’s relation to it. It was one of his qualifications as the apostle to the Gentiles. Luke shows him in Acts as a Roman citizen, who, though a Jew and Christian receives, for the most part, justice and courtesy from the Roman officials, and more than once successfully claims its privileges. He himself declares that he was a citizen of Tarsus (Act 21:39). He was not only born in that city but had a citizen’s rights in it. See PAUL; TARSUS.
But this citizenship in Tarsus did not of itself confer upon Paul the higher dignity of Roman citizenship. Had it done so, Claudius Lysias would not have ordered him to be scourged, as he did, after having learned that he was a citizen of Tarsus (Act 21:39; compare Act 22:25). So, over and above this Tarsian citizenship, was the Roman one, which availed for him not in one city only, but throughout the Roman world and secured for him everywhere certain great immunities and rights. Precisely what all of these were we are not certain, but we know that, by the Valerian and Porcian laws, exemption from shameful punishments, such as scourging with rods or whips, and especially crucifixion, was secured to every Roman citizen; also the right of appeal to the emperor with certain limitations. This sanctity of person had become almost a part of their religion, so that any violation was esteemed a sacrilege. Cicero’s oration against Verres indicates the almost fanatical extreme to which this feeling had been carried. Yet Paul had been thrice beaten with rods, and five times received from the Jews forty stripes save one (2Co 11:24, 2Co 11:25). Perhaps it was as at Philippi before he made known his citizenship (Act 16:22, Act 16:23), or the Jews had the right to whip those who came before their own tribunals. Roman citizenship included also the right of appeal to the emperor in all cases, after sentence had been passed, and no needless impediment must be interposed against a trial. Furthermore, the citizen had the right to be sent to Rome for trial before the emperor himself, when charged with capital offenses (Act 16:37; Act 22:25-29; Act 25:11).
How then had Paul, a Jew, acquired this valued dignity? He himself tells us. In contrast to the parvenu citizenship of the chief captain, who seems to have thought that Paul also must have purchased it, though apparently too poor, Paul quietly, says, But I was free born (King James Versions; a Roman born the Revised Version (British and American), Act 22:28). Thus either Paul’s father or some other ancestor had acquired the right and had transmitted it to the son.
3. Metaphorical and Spiritual
What more natural than that Paul should sometimes use this civic privilege to illustrate spiritual truths? He does so a number of times. Before the Sanhedrin he says, in the words of our English Versions, I have lived before God in all good conscience (Act 23:1). But this translation does not bring out the sense. Paul uses a noticeable word, politeuo, to live as a citizen. He adds, to God ( , to Theo). That is to say, he had lived conscientiously as God’s citizen, as a member of God’s commonwealth. The day before, by appealing to his Roman citizenship, he had saved himself from ignominious whipping, and now what more natural than that he should declare that he had been true to his citizenship in a higher state? What was this higher commonwealth in which he has enjoyed the rights and performed the duties of a citizen? What but theocracy of his fathers, the ancient church, of which the Sanhedrin was still the ostensible representative, but which was really continued in the kingdom of Christ without the national restrictions of the older one? Thus Paul does not mean to say simply, I have lived conscientiously before God, but I have lived as a citizen to God, of the body of which He is the immediate Sovereign. He had lived theocratically as a faithful member of the Jewish church, from which his enemies claimed he was an apostate. Thus Paul’s conception was a kind of blending of two ideas or feelings, one of which came from the old theocracy, and the other from his Roman citizenship.
Later, writing from Rome itself to the Philippians, who were proud of their own citizenship as members of a colonia, a reproduction on a small scale of the parent commonwealth, where he had once successfully maintained his own Roman rights, Paul forcibly brings out the idea that Christians are citizens of a heavenly commonwealth, urging them to live worthy of such honor (Phi 1:27 margin).
A similar thought is brought out when he says, For our commonwealth (politeuma) is in heaven (Phi 3:20 margin). The state to which we belong is heaven. Though absent in body from the heavenly commonwealth, as was Paul from Rome when he asserted his rights, believers still enjoy its civic privileges and protections; sojourners upon earth, citizens of heaven. The Old Testament conception, as in Isa 60 through 62, would easily lend itself to this idea, which appears in Heb 11:10, Heb 11:16; Heb 12:22-24; Heb 13:14; Gal 4:26, and possibly in Rev 21. See also ROME.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Citizenship
Strict isolation did by no means, as some suppose, form the leading principle in the system of theocracy as laid down by Moses, since even non-Israelites not only were allowed to reside in Palestine, but had the fullest protection of the law, equally with the descendants of Abraham (Exo 12:19; Lev 24:22; Num 15:15; Num 35:15; Deu 1:16; Deu 24:17; the law of usury, Deu 23:20, made, however, an exception), and were besides recommended in general terms by Moses to humanity and charity (Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9; Lev 19:33-34; Deu 10:18; comp. Jer 7:6; Mal 3:5), as well as to a participation in certain prerogatives granted to the poor of the land, such as a share in the tithe and feast-offering, and the harvest in the Jubilee-year (Deu 14:29; Deu 16:10; Deu 16:14; Deu 26:11; Lev 25:6). In return, it was required on the part of non-Israelites not to commit acts by which the religious feelings of the people might be hurt (Exo 20:10; Lev 17:10; Lev 18:26; Lev 20:2; Lev 24:16; Deu 5:14. The eating of an animal which had died a natural death, Deu 14:21, seems to have been the sole exception). The advantage the Jew had over the Gentile was thus strictly spiritual, in his being a citizen, a member of the theocracy, of the community of God, on whom positive laws were enjoined. But even to this spiritual privilege Gentiles were admitted under certain restrictions (Deu 23:1-9). The only nations that were altogether excluded from the citizenship of the theocracy by especial command of the Lord, were the Ammonites and Moabites, from a feeling of vengeance against them: and in the same situation were all castrated persons, and bastards, from a feeling of disgrace and shame (Deu 23:1-6). In the time of Solomon, no less than 153,600 strangers were resident in Palestine (2Ch 2:17). Roman citizenship (Act 22:28), was granted in the times of the Emperors to whole provinces and cities, as also to single individuals, for some service rendered to the state or the imperial family, or even for a certain sum of money (Act 22:28). The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen by family (Act 22:28), and hence his protesting against corporal or capital punishment.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Citizenship
Citizenship. The Jew had no citizenship: he belonged to Jehovah. The use of this term in Scripture refers to the usages of the Roman empire. The privilege of Roman citizenship was originally acquired in various ways, as by purchase, Act 22:28, by military services, by favor or by manumission. The right once obtained descended to a man’s children. Act 22:28. A citizen could not be bound or imprisoned without a formal trial, Act 22:29, still less be scourged, Act 16:37. Another privilege attaching to citizenship was the appeal from a provincial tribunal to the emperor at Rome. Act 25:11.