Historical background

A crucial point for understanding is: Why was this book written? What was the challenges of the first readers?

We will have a quick look on them.

The first topic, what was known as “Roman Peace” - a challenge to compromise faith and a big propaganda machine. The emperor in Rome claimed to be the mediator of the blessings f the Gods and therefore worthy of worship. This was a challenge to Christians which they could ignore and try to go along or challenge this as Jesus only is worthy of worship.

The other challenge was the relationship to the Jews. On the one hand Christians had their root in the Jews but on the other hand the Jews were also causing a lot of trouble for them.