Researchers are rethinking the 1st century BC population of the Roman Empire.
The first century B.C. was one of the most culturally rich in the history of the Roman Empire - the age of Cicero, Caesar and Virgil. But as much as historians know about the great figures of this period of Ancient Rome, they know very little about some basic facts, such as the population size of the late Roman Empire.
Now, a group of historians has used caches of buried coins to provide an answer to this question.
. . .
The model [developed by University of Connecticut theoretical biologist Peter Turchin and Stanford University ancient historian Walter Scheidel] using the coin distribution and less
controversial census data from earlier periods suggests that the
population of Rome did in fact decline after 100 B.C., suggesting the
census did likely begin to include women and children and that Ancient Rome wasn't substantially larger than historians had thought.
By these estimates the entire population of the Roman Empire - and not just its male population - was somewhere around 4 million to 5 million people by the end of the first century B.C.
This represents a 200% decrease in previous estimates of the empire's population during this period. Read more here.
Raviv Shapira, director of the southern
district of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority told Ynet that the
sight of the destruction was awful: "We came in the morning and found
the place in shambles," described Shapira, "They broke the staircase,
destroyed the walls, and painted on them. The worst is that the two
most ancient churches in Israel were destroyed, and 13-foot columns
were shattered with hammers along with artifacts and the authentic
marble alter, which is the most important (artefact) in the city."
The Oxyrhynchus Hymn (P. Oxy. XV 1786) is the earliest known manuscript
of a Christian hymn - dating from the 3rd century AD - to contain both
lyrics and musical notation. It is now kept at the Papyrology Rooms of
the Sackler Library, Oxford. The text, in Greek, poetically invokes
silence so that the Holy Trinity may be praised.
Scot McKnight thinks that pastors, ministers, and leaders of churches are in need of some changes in in focus. He writes:
Evangelical pastors have flipped in the last generation. 30-40 years
ago what most incited excitement was a new book by the arch-pastor and
expositor, John Stott, expositing a New Testament book or a J.I. Packer
book on theology. Today's evangelicals pastors are enamored with the
latest book on leadership, like that morsel of an idea in the book
called Tribes, or the latest book on management, or the latest fad in
creativity.
. . .
So let me say this: (too many) evangelical leaders have become too
enamored with management skills and techniques and have neglected the
nitty-gritty of soaking themselves in the great texts of the Old and
the New Testament.
He goes on to call for a new type of leadership conference in which participants ". . . [devote themselves to] two days of exposition of key biblical texts on pastoral theology and
ministry. And no one can bring up a modern management or leadership
expert; and no publisher or book table present can sell anything but
commentaries."
Karyn inteviews 
