Stories of Jesus’ ascension, more specifically, that which is described in Acts was not as entirely unique and astounding to hear as we think it must have been today. In fact, the Romans had a belief of their own, apotheosis, the process in which a Roman emperor would become a god and ascend to the heavens after passing away. White uses a relief (shown on page 70) depicting Empress Sabina, wife of Hadrian, being carried away from the site of her cremation by an angel to further prove this point. More so, the similarities did not end or begin here as it got to the point where philosophers Justin Martyr and Celsus debated on whether or not Christian stories were one of a kind. Celsus questioned how Martyr could site Roman and Greek mythology to defend and assert Jesus’ importance and credibility yet continue to argue that Christian stories were completely different.

As far as worship, divine status being given to kings and emperors occurred in many places in different ways but the emperor cult religious system was prominent. In Israel, the king would be “adopted annually to be God’s son as a symbol of the special relationship between God and nation” (White 71). Here, the king although not divine, was chosen and overseen by the gods (White 71). In Egypt, the pharaoh was a god in every sense of the word, being symbolized as Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis. The emperor cult system came into Hellenistic culture after the death of Alexander when he was then heroized and stories like that of his birth were told to solidify the idea that he was divine. Furthermore, White states that miraculous birth stories “link the divine-man tradition to the rise of the Roman imperial cult” (72). As one would expect, naming emperors as gods became much more popular after Alexander (White 72).

Although the emperor cult system was popular, there were some skeptics, for example, Livy, who wrote about Romulus’ deification. Based on the language he chose to use we can see that he did not fully believe some of the stories he was mentioning because he was using phrases like “I believe,” “it is said,” “as the story goes,” and “it is amazing…” (131). White also mentions that “the worship of the emperor as divine did not sit quite well with the old Roman aristocracy as it might have with the Greek provincials” (73) and goes on to say that Augustus was cautious about titles such as “divi filius,” son of god (74), which hints to some reluctance to keep the practice going.

However, something must have changed along the way because he later chose to expand emperor worship into Greek territory which may have been an attempt at creating some cohesion between the large empire that stretched from Spain to Syria. Building sanctuaries in far places within the empire would then make the knowledge more accessible and that society more willing to follow. This is what I would think Luke is trying to do if I were reading Lk 2:1-14 and 25-35 in the first century, make the idea accessible by molding it to fit into what I know, the emperor cult religious system, just as we have learned all the authors have done while accentuating details that would define Jesus as divine. For example, just like Alexander (a famous figure at the time), Jesus has a miraculous birth story, one of the characteristics that identifies a divine figure.