1. Join Us at the Table a Study in Romans (Intro)

4 Layers of Context

Narrative Context: Where does the book lie with in the larger Biblical narrative?

Cultural Context: What is the culture(s) into which the book or letter was written? 

Situational Context: What is the relationship between the author and the recipients

Literary Context: “We must avoid the modern misconception: Paul and the apostles wrote their letters in solitude producing a single unedited daft that was hastily sent, or that Paul used a secretary to whom he dictated his letters word for word and then signed and sent the original draft. This mental image is completely out of sync with everything we know about letter writing in the ancient Greco-Roman world of 1st century” T. Mackie