Citizenship in the New Testament

The New Testament uses the language of citizenship within the Roman Empire. Both the New Testament and Septuagint use the Greek word for “citizen” (πολίτης, politēs), referring to members of a city or city state (πόλις, polis). The parable of the Prodigal Son implies that citizens had the right to own land and hire help in farming it (Luke 15:11–32). The parable of the Talents implies that citizens of noble birth had the ability to rise in power to the status of king or ethnarch. This ruler had the power to execute subjects who revolted against him, even if they were citizens (Luke 19:12–27). In Acts, Paul replies to a military commander who purchased his citizenship by stating that he, Paul, was a Roman citizen by birth (Acts 22:28). Paul’s Roman citizenship was linked directly to the city of Tarsus, where he was born (Acts 21:39). The idiom “no ordinary city” (οὐκ ἀσήμου πόλεως, ouk asēmou poleōs), which Paul uses in regard to Tarsus in Acts 21:39, indicates a city’s greatness and as such reflects Paul’s pride in his citizenship (Longenecker, “Acts,” 1043). Hebrews 8:11 references Jer 38:34 LXX (Jer 31:34 MT), which translates the Hebrew word for “friend,” “fellow,” or “neighbor” (רֵעַ, rea') with the Greek word “citizen” (πολίτης, politēs).

The New Testament draws on the Greek and Roman notion of city-granted citizenship when speaking of divinely granted citizenship within the house of God. In the ancient Near East, the phrase “house of a deity” referred not only to the temple wherein people worshiped a deity, but also to the surrounding city in which the essence of the deity dwelled. In the ancient Near East, the granting of citizenship to a foreigner would be equal to adopting the foreigner into the socio-religious customs of the city, making him or her a full member of the religious community. Ephesians 2 carries this same implication when it speaks of Gentiles being adopted as citizens into the house of God: Those who were formerly “separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph 2:12 NASB) have been adopted into the community through Christ. As such, they are no longer “strangers and aliens,” but rather “fellow citizens with the saints,” members of the house of God (Eph 2:19–20 NASB). These citizens of God’s kingdom—the Church—are in turn growing into the new temple of the Lord, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph 2:21–22).