Three considerations of the first-century culture and its peculiarities… 

It is obvious the first-century world was riddled with paganism and the various influences that brought, but I’m not sure we always appreciate the way that would have impacted the preaching of the gospel. We catch a glimpse of this in Acts 17 while Paul was in Athens. Ac. 17:18, “And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” I like the older translations that call him a “babbler.” The “scavenger of tidbits” reflects the culture of the ancient world. Those traveling smooth talkers went about picking up neat things and then wowed the crowds at the next place where they had never heard it. The world was full of traveling preachers peddling some ‘good news’. Seems like little has changed in that respect. The authentic gospel was competing for its audience then like it still does now.

Greek philosophy was widespread in the first century. The influence of the supposed intellectuals was far and wide in the Roman world. Again, consider Acts 17. This was a bigger issue than just in and around Athens, however, as Paul offered several warnings against such a mindset in many of his epistles. Most notably in Colossians 2:8: “See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.” The worldly have always had an affinity for the seemingly intelligent. No matter how much philosophizing we do, we can’t philosophize our way around God’s wisdom and methodology for salvation. Be humble and discerning. 

The regularity of violence and the acceptability of it was far greater than it is now. The world was certainly more violent, and places like the Colosseum were not for “Thursday night family outings.” But, reading about the blatant violence and vulgarity that was so regularly enjoyed in these places is astounding. Gladiatorial competitions are one thing, and animals turned into the arena, or the occasional flooding of the complex for naval conflicts. All of that has been demonstrated in books and cinema, but there is a side of the Roman first-century world that even our culture won’t depict in Hollywood. The rampant acceptability of sexual perversions was even more vile than in our day. While there is no shortage of perverts in our world, it wasn’t considered perversion then, it was considered entertainment. I can’t bring myself to describe some such acts recorded in history books, but I will allude to it. One type of entertainment in the Roman Colosseum involved a slave woman condemned to death subjected to acts of sexual brutality involving non-humans, then locked into a cage with a starving lion… They worked hard to create new forms of entertainment! Other occasions involved tying a man to a cross so a bear could rip apart his abdomen. Or blindfolding thirty to forty condemned people, arming them with various sorts of weaponry, and turning them loose in a bloody frenzy to the death; the last one standing was freed. Caligula was a fan of throwing elderly fighters in the ring against one another or posing people with various physical disabilities against each other. (See Albert Bell Jr., Exploring the New Testament World: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Jesus and the First Christians, [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998], 109-112). 

And yet, even in that world, the gospel flourished… It still can flourish today…