In a famous phrase, Paul declares that Christianity appeared on earth when the time was ripe for it: “when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son.”14 Whether we look at the Jewish people or the Greco-Roman world of the first century A.D., we can understand something of what he meant. Politically and religiously the world was ready for the gospel at that time as it had not been before. The greater part of the civilized world was politically united, but