Have you ever tried to read a part of the Bible for the first time and not understood clearly what was happening in the text?

There are reasons we can look at the eye witness testimony found in the Bible and not understand what it means. The reason that happens is because we have a different way of looking and thinking about the world that is unfamiliar to Jesus Christ and the authors of the New Testament.

The first century world that Jesus Christ and the authors of the New Testament lived in had four different cultures (or worldviews) that were present within the borders of the Old Roman Empire and I want to take a few minutes to explain the differences between them.

#1. Jewish Culture

In the Roman Empire, the Jewish people had a culture dominated by the Old Testament writings and the religious commentaries known as the Talmud. In Jewish culture they would study the Hebrew Scriptures and follow the life application principles that Rabbis had recorded in the Talmud(s).

When Jesus Christ was here, he began preaching and teaching the Hebrew Scriptures without following any of the life application principles recorded in the Talmud. In the first century the Talmud was treated as the final authority on how God wanted people to live their lives and Jesus disagreed.

This disagreement was the reason the religious authorities among the Jews wanted to get rid of Jesus: his point of view on the Talmud undermined everything they considered to be important.

The New Testament books that tend to focus on this conflict are the Gospel of Matthew along with the book of Hebrews and James. So when you are reading through Matthew, Hebrews and James I want you to remember the authors of those books were dealing with issues raised by the Talmud that rabbis used as a guide for interacting with God.

#2. Roman Culture

Roman culture was held by Rome and anyone who interacted with the men who held any kind of government office had to appeal to Roman culture to get things done. Interestingly enough, Roman culture was built on their military.

Their only contribution to society was the use of the military to maintain law and order. Aside from that, they would simply borrow anything else they found that could be useful in keeping the peace.

The main cultural habits of Roman society in the first century were impatience and leisure. If you had a meeting with a Roman official, they would probably ask you to state your business and make it fast.

The reason they were in such a hurry to get things done is so they could spend a large portion of their day relaxing. They tried to get all of their work done in the morning so they could spend the afternoon taking it easy living the good life.

The parts of the New Testament that tend to focus on cultural habits of Roman society are the Gospel of Mark and the letters of 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude. In fact, in the English Standard Version of Mark’s Gospel, the word “immediately” is used 36 times – a reflection of the urgency of Roman culture.

#3. Greek Culture

In the Roman Empire, Greek culture showed up in three main ways: 1) Greek architecture, 2) Greek philosophy, and 3) having Greek temples for Zeus and the others. In the New Testament writings the person who had the most contact to Greek culture was the Apostle Paul and the men who traveled with him from place to place.

So in the New Testament, Greek culture dominates the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts and all of the Apostle Paul’s letters. In the Book of Acts 17:21 (ESV) we are told that “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.”

So Greek culture valued story telling, and in Luke’s Gospel we are given more stories being told by Jesus to his followers. These stories Jesus told in Luke’s Gospel include the Parable of the Prodigal Son, to give one example.

#4. Wisdom Based Culture

The fourth and final kind of culture that existed inside of the Old Roman Empire was built on the pursuit of wisdom. The last parts of the New Testament to be written deal with wisdom based culture(s): The Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and the Revelation.

The people who pursued “wisdom” were the kind of people who spent days at a time in libraries surrounded by books searching for new ways of looking at the ordinary moments of day to day life.

Conclusion

These were the basic backgrounds of the audience that the first century New Testament authors were writing to and writing for. I am planning on going through every part of the New Testament to try (as God permits) to explain how these different cultures show up in the details so that we can have the same kind of faith the first century Church did.