Context is the key to understanding the Bible. Without it, we are reading the equivalent of ancient replies to lost letters, so we don’t know what news or views they are responding to. We don’t know whether the law of Moses is unusually strict or unexpectedly merciful if we don’t know what was normal in the surrounding nations. We don’t know whether Paul is telling people to fit in with Roman sensitivities or to take a stand against Roman vices if we don’t know how Romans actually lived. In my research