Hearing Mark: a completely alien world

If you have seen any episodes of the old HBO series, Rome, you will have some feeling for how alien the ancient world was to our own. Of course, technology was different and that is such a big part of our world that we often have a hard time seeing around it. However, there were bigger differences than just how they spent their spare time and how they were entertained. Here are some highlights to start with (though others will come up throughout our study).

No separation between church and state: In the ancient world the state was the church and the church was the state. The Senate of Rome was a holy body; the emperor was the Son of God; the priests worked for the government. There were some cults that were outside the power structures, but they too were controlled by the state: Judaism was one of these.
There were no Christians, and - in the story - everyone is a Jew (unless they are specifically referred to as Gentiles). This is important to remember when the word 'Jews' appears in the Gospel.

Less than 10% of folks could read (fewer - maybe 2-3% - could write): We kind of assume that the 'text' was always cut up into verses and chapters, but nothing could be further from the truth. This story was told, all at one shot in about 2 hours. It was up to the teller to make emphases and connections, since no one could turn to the notes. There were no red-letter to show when Jesus spoke. I'm reading Herodotus' Histories, 500 pages of tightly spaced text that would have been performed orally - hopefully not at one sitting!

'Persecution' was the norm: In ancient Rome, a slave's testimony was not to be accepted as truthful and honest unless they were tortured while testifying, and if they were killed during that torture: no harm, no foul. People were regularly struck and even beaten by their social superiors, often for little or no reason. A 'master' was allowed to strike - even kill - a 'servant' without any need to explain, and master and servant are relative: a governor could kill almost anyone in his province, and the emperor could have anyone killed at a whim. Since the Gospel was told to 'subjects' and 'servants' they would have known 'persecution' even outside of the context of their possible religious affiliation. [I wonder if this affects the crucifixion and the righteousness and truthfulness of Jesus' testimony?]

Action, not Belief: People's internal thoughts had no effect on the world. One didn't 'believe' in a god unless they sacrificed to that god. This is important because Mark's Gospel is not about belief, but action. Jesus tells only 4 parables, but does 20 healings.

There will be more as we move along, but this is a good starting point.