The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era

Exploring the Background of Early Christianity

James S. Jeffers

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780830878024
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Estudios bíblicos

What was life like for first-century Christians? Imagine a modest-sized Roman home of a well-to-do Christian household wedged into a thickly settled quarter of Corinth. In the lingering light of a summer evening, men, women and children, merchants, working poor and slaves, a mix of races and backgrounds have assembled in the dimly lit main room are are spilling into the central courtyard. This odd assortment of gathered believers—some thirty in number—are attentive as the newly arrived and travel-weary emissary from Paul reads from the papyrus scroll he has brought from their apostolic mentor. But if you were to be transported to this scene you would perhaps be overwhelmed by a flood of unexpected difference. The voice of the reader recedes as through open windows the din and clamor of the city assault your ears. Hooves clunk and cart wheels grind and echo from the street while drivers shout, vendors call and neighbors gather and converse. And later, as you accompany a family through darkened and dangerous streets to their third-story tenement apartment, you might try to mask your shock at the cramped and unsafe conditions. In The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era James Jeffers provides an informative and scenic tour of daily life during the time of Jesus and the apostles. He affords "you-are-there" glimpses of everything from legal codes to dinner foods, from social hierarchy to apartment living, from education to family dynamics. His eye-opening book will advance your understanding of the New Testament and early Christianity and enrich your reading and application of the Bible.

Chapter 1

Historical
Background to the
New Testament Era

IF YOU SUDDENLY FOUHND YOURSELF IN FIRST-CENTURY JERUSALEM,1 IN THE home of a member of the Jewish ruling class, you might be surprised by what you discover. You would soon learn that your host speaks Greek and some Latin as well as Aramaic.2 He dresses in Hellenistic clothing, possesses Roman citizenship and claims to worship the God of the Jews, but he does not follow Jewish dietary regulations very closely. In fact, the dinner he serves you seems more like a banquet in Athens or Rome than the meal of a devout Jew. The dinner table groans with various delicacies, some of which do not fit what you know of Jewish dietary regulations. The gleam of silver is everywhere, fine wine flows freely, and slaves bustle around you, each with his or her unique task.

His home is decorated with art from around the Mediterranean, and his library contains the works of a number of pagan authors. When he talks politics, he talks about the influence of the Jewish Sanhedrin, but also about the looming threat of Roman power. He speaks in hushed tones of Jewish desires for independence, as if afraid he might be overheard.

What has led to this situation, you ask your host. Why is his life such an amazing patchwork quilt of cultural and political influences? His answer leads you step by step into a world very different from ours, but in its own way equally complex and bewildering to an outsider.

Your host begins by telling you what you already know from reading the Jewish Scriptures—that Judea was once a prosperous, independent kingdom under David and his successors. Following conquests by the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Jewish people began a long history of varying levels of subservience to greater powers, and they gradually adopted some of those powers’ customs and ideas. They were allowed by their new overlords, the Persians, to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which the Babylonians had destroyed.

He tells you that Judea was still a client kingdom of the Persians when Alexander the Great and the Greeks arrived, conquering everything in sight. One of Alexander’s successors set up the Seleucid kingdom in the Near East, and another successor, Ptolemy, took control of Egypt. Ptolemy and his successors also ruled Judea for many years. Throughout Palestine the Hellenistic rulers built Hellenistic cities such as the cities of the Decapolis. Anyone doing business with them had to learn their language, Greek, and could not help but be influenced by their culture. Hellenistic culture, he adds, has much to offer the educated Jew. When you raise your eyebrows, he assures you that one can dismiss the idolatrous elements of Hellenism and still appreciate its philosophies and much of its culture. He adds that Egypt lost Palestine to the Seleucids in 198 B.C., so one way or another the destinies of the Jews were not theirs to control for nearly two centuries.

Then, with an air of pride, he says that an astonishing thing followed: the Jews successfully revolted from the Seleucids and set up an independent kingdom for the first time in centuries. It was not easy, and the Jews certainly benefited from the weakening state of the Seleucids, but it was a genuine victory against a despised regime. For the next century, Judea would pursue its own course—not without difficulties or infighting, but its own course nonetheless.

Your host becomes more subdued as he tells you that Rome came on the scene a little over a century ago. It had been chipping away at the old Hellenistic kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean for a number of years, but finally, in the person of General Pompey, it came to Judea. Seeing that the Romans were too strong to resist, Judea voluntarily allied itself with Rome, becoming a semi-independent client state of what was now an empire in all but name. This protected Judea from domination by the more powerful states around it—the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires at first and later the Parthian Empire to the east. Judea has remained a part of the Roman Empire, either as a client state or as a Roman province. Your host glances around as though he does not trust his slaves and quickly adds that, while Judea is not entirely free, the union with Rome has brought great benefits to the Jewish people and is certainly a gift from God.

Figure 1.1. View of the Mediterranean from the medieval crusader fortress (outer wall to the right) at Lindos on the island of Rhodes. The apostle Paul is said to have stopped here (Acts 21:1).

You must know something about the Roman people to understand the world we live in, your host says. The Romans arose some eight centuries ago on the Italian peninsula in the western Mediterranean. They were heavily influenced by Greek culture early on; consequently, the civilization of the Romans, at least in the eastern Mediterranean, is as much Greek as it is Roman. Rome was first ruled by kings, but the wealthy and powerful among them threw off their king and established a republic influenced by Greek ideas. The citizens of Rome elected the various officials of the Republic, but you must understand that much of the true power lay with the senate, a semiofficial body made up of the most wealthy and powerful men of the state who largely inherited their positions from their fathers.

In fact, the politics of Rome, like its religion and other institutions, was driven in part by an ancient institution: the patron-client relationship. This model, which grew out of Rome’s tribal origins, allowed aristocrats of the new republic to exercise power as patrons through their clients. A client, who was a Roman with less power and status than his patron, was expected to show honor to his patron, and to support him in any political action the patron took. The patron in turn owed his client legal protection and at times financial assistance. As Rome expanded, it would see the world through the lens of this relationship. Its generals would become the patrons first of their own soldiers, then of those people they conquered—even of entire nations in the case of great generals like Sulla, Pompey and Julius Caesar. This dynamic would weaken the power of the senate, as true power shifted from them to the generals. This power shift would help cause the transition from republic to empire.

Like a number of great civilizations of our past, Rome arose by gradually conquering the peoples around it. But unlike many other kingdoms, the Romans incorporated the conquered peoples into their society. They continue this practice today, he tells you, which helps explain why he is a Roman citizen. It was difficult at first for the Romans to accept the idea of sharing power with former enemies, but two things won them over. First, the Romans learned from dealing with their own people and the Italians they initially conquered that a small group of leaders can hold power only so long as the people let them do so. It took a series of uprisings in Italy to teach them this. Second, they learned that they could convince the upper classes of conquered peoples to buy into their system, partly out of greed and partly out of a sense of self-preservation. Your host adds, the Roman system offers great rewards to those locals who support it, as he himself has learned.

The Romans first took control of most of the Italian peninsula. After a series of bloody battles, many of which they lost, the Romans conquered their great rival in the West, Carthage in North Africa. This allowed them to dominate the western Mediterranean and freed them to pursue conquests in western Europe to their north. It also demonstrated an important lesson, your host says, which some of his countrymen tend to ignore to their grave peril: the Romans never give up. They can be bested in battle, even lose whole armies, but they are never beaten, for they refuse to admit defeat.

Then Rome turned its attention in a serious way to the east. They first defeated the kingdom of Macedonia and took control of Greece as well. Then they handed the Seleucids a series of defeats, which weakened them enough so that they could not prevent the establishment of an independent temple-state in Judea, under the rule of the high priest. By 143 B.C., Judea had voluntarily allied itself with Rome and thereby gained a number of important rights. To begin with, its religion was officially recognized by Rome. Later, when the odious cult of emperor worship was instituted, Jews were not required to participate, and Jews across Rome were allowed the unprecedented right to pay their annual tax to support the Jewish temple.

After dealing with a number of civil wars and revolts over the next century, it became clear that Rome had become an empire that could no longer be governed effectively by a large body of aristocrats. At the same time, these wars had made the generals of Rome even more powerful. Wars among them led to the emergence of a single leader, Julius Caesar, who seemed on the way to declaring himself king when he was killed by fellow senators. After more civil wars, his nephew, Octavian, used his uncle’s influence to take power as emperor in all but name. When he died early in the first century, Romans could call the Mediterranean “our sea.” Roman power in this part of the world was virtually unchallenged, and under the firm control of a single leader.

Your host turns to you with a half smile. So, he says, if you were in my place, what would you do? Would you try to fight against a power vastly superior to yours that you know has so far been unbeatable by anyone? Would you resist a people that, while at times insensitive to your beliefs and practices, for the most part allows you to pursue them in peace, a peace never known in this part of the world except perhaps at the height of King David’s power? Would you refuse out of principle to adopt those elements of Roman culture that are not necessarily in conflict with Jewish beliefs and values? Only if you are a fool, he says with a laugh.

Chapter 2

Life & Death in the First Century

I’ll teach him a trade—a barber’s or auctioneer’s or indeed a lawyer’s, for that’s what the devil alone can take away from him.

PETRONIUS SATYRICON 46: A POOR MAN THINKING OF HIS SON’S FUTURE

What race of men would you call more wretched than traders and shippers?

They sail about seeking markets ill-supplied, dealing with local agents and petty retailers, borrowing at unholy rates and risking their heads.

PHILOSTRATUS LIFE OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 4.32

But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you; so that you may command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:10-12

THE ANCIENTS LOOKED AT LABOR AND OCCUPATIONS DIFFERENTLY than the way we do on a number of counts. For example, they gave the greatest honor to those wealthy persons whose income came from agriculture. They respected the work of the lawyer as honorable in itself and as a main route to higher public service.

Some jobs and professions that we esteem they regarded with contempt. They knew that a lot of money could be made in trade, but the elite believed it was a dirty business. Any job typically done by a slave was despised. Professions that we regard highly, such as doctor, artist, and scientist, were part of the private realm, not qualifying one for service to the state. Because doctors and artists often were skilled slaves or former slaves, the upper classes did not esteem their work as much as we do. Figure 2.1 shows a medical procedure being performed by what appears to be a slave.

Figure 2.1. A bas-relief sculpture showing a medical procedure (removal of a spear), Herculaneum, Italy.

Food Production

In general, and much like the modern world, foodstuffs were produced in the country, and finished goods were manufactured in the city. Perhaps 90 percent of the Empire’s workers were engaged in farming and herding. The New Testament, especially the Gospels, depicts this more fully than does most of the other literature of the day.

Small, private farms were tended by the owning family, with perhaps some help from a couple of wage laborers or slaves. These independent farmers generally worked about 100 days a year. Often a wealthy landowner leased out five- to ten-acre plots of his land to tenant farmers (Mt 21:33-41; Mk 12:1-9; Lk 20:9-16). These farms may seem very small to us, but vegetables and cereals could be grown profitably on such small farms. At busy seasons, peasants would help each other with chores or hire extra workers by the day. Wealthy landowners, of course, could afford to add day workers (Lk 15:17, 19). Such day laborers waited in a public place each morning to be hired and were paid at the end of the day (Mt 20:1-16). James considers it sinful to withhold their wages (Jas 5:4).

Major landowners, especially in Italy, often farmed their lands with gangs of slaves under the supervision of slave or freed stewards. The use of slave gangs may have been a more efficient way to cultivate olives and grapes or to tend large flocks of sheep, goats or pigs. By the time of Jesus, this approach had become much more common among Roman aristocrats than was the practice of leasing land to tenants. This was because slaves could not be drafted into the army and thus lost to farming. In addition, slaves could be worked twice as many days as tenant farmers normally worked. Once the slaves finished the work in one field, they were simply rotated to another crop in another place.

Farmers with small holdings typically brought their own surplus to market. On carts and wagons they transported their goods to the city gates or to the town’s central market. Here they sold their olive oil, wine, grain, fruit and homemade wares.1

Herding meant caring for sheep, goats, pigs or cattle. Sometimes the owners cared for their own livestock, and sometimes they entrusted this work to their sons, slaves or hired hands (Jn 10:12-13). It was the custom in Palestine for shepherds to lead their flocks (Jn 10:4), but elsewhere it was more common to drive the flocks fro...