The world in which early Christianity developed consisted of a complex of distinct communities and cultural layers, which interacted with one another, sometimes co-operatively, and sometimes in confrontation. This text explores this world through the life of the apostle Paul, examining the three fundamental cultural layers: the native cultures; the common Hellenistic culture which had been spread in the east as a result of the conquests of Alexander; and the culture of the political overlord, Rome and how Paul, as a Jew, a Greek-speaker and a Roman citizen, participates in all of these...