Greco-Roman Culture Essay

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Judaism and the Greco-Roman world had significant influences in early Christian communities. Each notably impacted the ways these communities defined themselves and related to the greater Greco-Roman culture in the earliest era of Christianity. As many authors and audiences in the New Testament were Jewish and lived in the Greco-Roman world, the connections between these communities and the earliest stages of Christianity are diverse and sometimes conflicting. The earliest Christian communities defined their identities in relation to Judaism and the larger Greco-Roman context in many and conflicting models, some of which include the relationship between Hebrew scriptures and the community, the inclusion of Gentiles based on faith, and accommodation …show more content…

Sections of this book address Greco-Roman culture, and, unlike other writings such as The Acts of Paul and Thecla, are accommodating to the Greco-Roman societal expectations and the writer encourages them throughout the book. Dale Martin notes several consistent Greco-Roman societal expectations in his book, New Testament History & Literature, and includes the paterfamilias household, which includes the father at the head of the household and the women in domestic and modest roles. This household also promotes marriage and childbearing as the Roman world always wanted more soldiers. 1 Timothy is accommodating to these expectations, as passages in this chapter encourage marriage and childbirth. The author wrote that bishops and deacons should be married once, have children, and manage their households well (1 Timothy 3:2,4,12). It is even written that “she (women) will be saved through childbearing” (1 Timothy 2:15), which promotes the Greco-Roman expectation of childbirth. The domestic private and modest roles of women are also explicitly commanded in 1 Timothy, as it is written, “…women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing…Let a woman live in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent” (1 Timothy 2:9-12). The silence and modesty of women noted in this passage …show more content…

In this book, the expectations of marriage and childbirth are discouraged, as shown in the following passage: “Thecla’s mother says to the fiancé, “Thamyris, this man is upsetting the city of the Iconians, and thy Thecla in addition; for all the women and young people go in to him, and are taught by him. “’You must’ he says, ‘ fear one single God only, and live chastely’” (APT 9). Paul discouraged marriage and sexuality in order for Christians to focus on

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