The New Testament: Intertwined Aspects Of The Greco-Roman World

To study the New Testament from an academic perspective, you have to study it as historical literature; a piece of literature that not only influenced history but also was influenced by it. You can only interpret things based off what you know about it so if you know nothing about the New Testament writings then you cannot fully comprehend it. The history of the New Testament authors gives an understanding of the environment in which it was written. Since everyone is influenced by their environment, everything the writers wrote was influenced by their environment accordingly. Therefore, one would have to grasp the intertwined aspects of the Greco-Roman world because that is the context in which the New Testament was written in. Most importantly,
During the time when the New Testament literature was composed, the Jews, the writers of the New Testament, were living for many years under the political oppression of foreign rulers. The area of Palestine, the home of the Jews, was ruled by different empires over time including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Syrians, and Romans. During the time of the Babylonian rule, notable suffering occurred when the Babylonians destroyed the Jewish temple and forced the Jews into exile. However, the Babylonians lost the land to the Persians who returned the Jews from exile. The Persians also, allowed the Jews to be autonomous to some extent by allowing the priest of the rebuilt temple to be the local rulers of the land; nonetheless, the priest had to answer to the Persian ruler as their authority figure. Because the idea of their rulers answering to foreign humans contradicted their religious beliefs, Jewish sentiments towards foreign rulers began changing. The Jews believed that Palestine was a gift from God to this particular group of people. Being under foreign control, however, clashed with the belief because the land was not completely theirs and their local rulers were answering to humans not God (Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, 35). Later, the conquering of the land by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the
However, he did not rule the areas for long, for he died at a young age, with no successor, forcing his generals to distribute control. Nonetheless, Greek culture continued to spread throughout the empire in a process known as Hellenization. In fact, the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes mandated the adoption of Greek culture in his empire as a means of unification. Jews of Palestine accepted this ordinance with mixed reviews leading some to protest the process. Therefore, Antiochus put laws in place to enforce Hellenism and essentially make it illegal for Jews to practice their religion (Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, 35). Over the course of time, the Jewish people continued to become weary of oppression from foreign authorities. The injustice that they suffered as a result of the Greco-Roman culture created the foundation for the apocalyptic idea mentioned in the New Testament (Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament, 37). The cultural impositions of the Greco-Roman world affected the political climate during the time of the New Testament and also the religion of the