Welcome to the Bible Project Podcast, where in the middle of a series discussing how to

read the New Testament letters.

These are letters written by the apostles of Jesus sent to the early church.

And reading these letters is like listening to one side of a phone conversation.

So to understand them, we kind of need to know who's on the other side of the phone.

Who are these letters written to?

Today, we're going to try to figure out what kind of world did they live in.

So by the time Jesus is resurrected and ascended, the Roman Empire has been ruling over Israel

Palestine for about 60ish years.

What was it like to live in the first century under Roman occupation?

Well, in this episode, we're going to look at two ways that Rome shaped culture.

During the times of these letters, the first is the socio-economic realities of the Roman Empire.

But just try and imagine yourself into that packed Roman cities around the Mediterranean

are mostly full of people who are just surviving.

That's the vast majority.

And second, we'll talk about the honor and shame culture of the first century Roman world.

The whole concept of a human defining their value, not by a relation to their group or family.

This is one of the most radical realities of the gospel that broke into the human history in the Jesus Christ.

So let's take a trip to the first century and get into the skin of the first people to read the New Testament letters.

We are talking about how to read a section of the Bible, which are letters.

Yes, the New Testament letters from the Apostles.

The Apostles who have first-hand experience of Jesus and his teachings,

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