Greco-Roman Culture Vs Greek Culture

During biblical times, Israel was ruled by the Greeks and Romans. The Israelites had to assimilate to the Greco-Roman culture and try to maintain their own culture. The Greco-Roman culture focused on ideality. People from this culture strived to be the best person they could be; they believed that they had to do everything to the extreme. The Israelites were ruled by their strict adherence to the Halakha which is also known as the 613 laws from the Old Testament. They believed that they had to follow every law to be accepted into heaven. When Jesus came, he went against both Greco-Roman and Jewish culture. This is known as being countercultural. Jesus’s message is that you should be countercultural, and he communicates this concept through parables.
Jesus is being countercultural against the Greco-Roman Culture and the Jewish Culture.
In the parable, “A Rich Young Man’s Question”, a wealthy man inquires about what it is he should do to make it into heaven. Jesus tells him that he should follow specific commandments and give his wealth to the poor. The man walks away, and Jesus says, “Yes, I tell you that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24 ICB). For a camel to jump through the eye of a needle is physically impossible. Jesus means that to gain entrance into heaven, you must not be like most rich people who think of themselves and do not have a humble heart. Jesus also means that it is not all about the laws that you follow. This relates to the message of Jesus because Jesus says that you have to be countercultural, and by caring more about the type of heart you have rather than the law and physical traits, Jesus is going explicitly against the Greco-Roman concept of ideality and the Jewish strict adherence to the
Halakha. Jesus is also countercultural in his interactions with the Pharisees. In The Woman Caught in Adultery, Jesus is approached by the Pharisees and was asked his opinion about the punishment of a woman who committed adultery. Jesus tells them that only the people without sin can punish her; then Jesus lets the woman go free. Jesus says, “The person without sin can throw the first stone at this woman” (John 8: 7 ICB). The Pharisees thought that they should have killed the woman because the Halakha stated that death is the proper punishment for committing adultery. Jesus saying that the people without sin can kill her means that none of the Pharisees can kill her since none of them are without sin. This relates to Jesus’s message because the Jewish people believed that every law had to be followed, and Jesus said that it wasn’t about following the law. In this way Jesus is countercultural. Jesus’s message is that you should be countercultural, and he conveys this through parables. Jesus went against the culture he was in by teaching that you did not have to the best that you could be and that it was not about how many laws that you followed. Jesus cares about the type of heart you have. He says that the humble and the meek are the ones who get into heaven. Since the entry to heaven is more about your heart than cultural aspects, you have to be countercultural; otherwise, it will be easy to lose sight of what needs to be done to go to heaven.