Intro to video 1

In the New Testament, there are 21 letters or epistles written by early Christian leaders to communities of Jesus' followers in the ancient Roman world. A wise reading of these letters involves learning about their historical context. Who were the letters written to, where did the recipients live, and what prompted sending the letter? In this video, we explore the different layers of historical context with these letters, so that we can better understand the wisdom they still have to offer.

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Discuss

1. Who were the letters written by, and to whom? (by the apostles to the early followers of Jesus around the Roman world)

2. What 3 levels of historical context did the video highlight? (Scriptural context, cultural context and situational context)

   1. Scriptural context = how do the letters fit into the wider story of the Bible? (the Old Testament points forwards to a coming Messiah; the apostles are heralds, declaring that it’s Jesus who they’ve been waiting for)

   2. Cultural context = what was going on in the wider world at that time? (Rome was the dominant force, enslaving, taxing and showing preferential treatment to high-born men - discriminating against women, slaves and others)

   3. Situational context = what was happening in the local world of the recipients of the letters? What prompted the writing of the letter? (various situations such as conflict between Jewish and gentile believers, conflict over food laws etc.)

3. How can we gain anything from reading these letters today? (The situations are different, but we can extrapolate wisdom from the logic, reason and perspective of the apostles - we can gain wisdom)

Intro to video 2

In the New Testament, there are 21 letters written by early Christian leaders to communities of Jesus' followers in the ancient Roman world. These letters are rich with theology and guidance for what it means to be a community of Jesus followers, but they can also be dense and hard to understand. In this video we’ll explore the literary style of ancient letter writing and show you how to trace the core ideas from a letter’s beginning all the way to its end.

Watch

Discuss

1. Letters were expensive to write in those days. How does this affect how we read them? (because of the cost, they are carefully crafted, so treat it as such, and as a whole literary work)

2. What was the process of Paul writing a letter? (He worked in a team; he was always collecting bits of material from speeches and other letters; he talked it through with his team; he paid a professional scribe to draft and write it into a coherent whole; he got a close and trusted friend to deliver and “perform” the letter in exactly the right way)

3. What was the general structure of a letter in those days? (see image below - click for larger image to screenshare)

4. Paul uses certain phrases to indicate the progression of his thoughts. Can you remember the example “transition words” Paul uses in Ephesians and other letters? (“so”, “as for you”, “so then”, “because of this”, “therefore”)

5. When reading a new testament letter today, what’s a good step by step plan? (break the letter down into smaller parts to see the point of each paragraph; trace repeated ideas and transition words to see how everything fits together; think about how what the apostles said to the original hearers could speak to us today in our situation)