Transcript Historical Background 1. History: Politics, Dates, Individuals 2. Culture: Social customs, mores, traditions 3.

Historical Background
1. History: Politics, Dates, Individuals
2. Culture: Social customs, mores, traditions
3. Geography: Topography, weather,
flora, fauna.
This would include: Dress, food, homes, weddings,
funerals, dance, mourning, tools, literature, war,
etiquette, agriculture, employment, taxation, religion,
holidays, economics, etc.
Why be concerned about this?
1. A passage can’t mean what it never meant.
2. Christianity is Historically based.
3. It helps you appreciate the Bible
and its characters.
4. You can’t understand the NT without
understanding the OT.
Paul’s Culture Shock Today
• Relationships between men and women
Egalitarian, communication, sexual openness
Politics
Democratic, freedom, capitalism
Popular Culture
Dichotamized; entertainment; time; money;
individualism vs. Corporate identity;
shame/honor
Two ways of investigating:
1. Internal: Allowing the Bible to become a
commentary on the Bible.
2. External: Using sources other than the
Bible such as other ancient historians and
modern reference tools.
Investigative Questions: Who, what, where,
when, why, how?
Internal Historical Investigation:
1. Listen carefully to your text through repeated
readings.
2. Read the OT until it is second nature
3. Notice marginal readings and references.
Examples: Weddings, shepherding, feasts, war,
birth, legal proceedings, worship, etc.
External Historical Investigation
1. Atlases (e.g. Acts 18:18-22; Acts 27).
2. Historians: Josephus (AD 37-95); Tacitus
(AD 55-117); Plutarch (AD 46-120).
3. Philosophers: Seneca, Epictetus, Philo.
4. Talmud and Mishna – Jewish oral tradition.
5. Early Church Fathers--Clement of Rome,
Ignatius (c. A.D. 115).
6. Apocrypha--Epistle of Barnabas (c. 130);
Shepherd of Hermas (c. 140 .
7. Archaeology & Sociology.
8. Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Commentaries.