Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Corinthians 7:17-24, Circumcised or not, slave or free
Paul tells each believer to live the life the Lord assigned when he was called: the circumcised should not undo it, the uncircumcised should not seek it, and a slave should not be troubled, though he should take his freedom if he can.
1 Corinthians 7:17-24, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul gives a rule for all his churches: believers should stay in the life they had when God's call reached them. Circumcision and its absence make no difference; what counts is obeying God. A slave should not let his status trouble him, though he should take freedom if he can, because in the Lord a slave is free and a free person belongs to Christ, and all of them were bought at a price.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/patrons-and-benefactors\/","n":"Patrons, clients and benefactors","s":"Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-colony\/","n":"Roman colonies","s":"Cities refounded by Rome for its veterans and settlers, run on Roman law with Latin on their monuments. A colony was a small copy of Rome in the provinces, and its citizens were citizens of Rome.","r":""}
Stoics urged people to accept their lot, but identified the God who directed it with Fate (Keener and his notes). Greeks exercised naked and mocked circumcision, and some Jews had an operation to pull the foreskin forward; Josephus says that the Hellenizers who built a gymnasium in Jerusalem "hid the circumcision of their genitals, that even when they were naked they might appear to be Greeks." Urban household slaves could suffer hardship but some wielded real power, and slaves who earned money could buy their freedom; the ESV Study Bible stresses that Roman slavery differed from slavery in North America (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV Study Bible). A freed slave stayed part of the former owner's household and owed him honor (Keener and his notes). Corinth had many Roman citizens, and a slave freed by a citizen usually gained citizenship as well (the cultural backgrounds notes). Price and House read bought at a price against manumission: the verb was common in deeds of sale, and an inscription at Delphi records Apollo buying a slave woman, Nicaea, for freedom at a stated price.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, and on 7:17, 7:18-20, 7:21, 7:22 and 7:23-24
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 7:17, 7:18, 7:21 and 7:22
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Corinthians 7:21
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 12.5.1, trans. William Whiston
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, 1 Corinthians 7:22 Freedom from Slavery
