The letters of the New Testament are valuable ancient documents that reveal the mind-set of the early Christian leaders and their people. The political, religious and cultural environment in which they lived was anything but sympathetic to their cause, but the first century Jesus people remained undeterred in spreading their message of a living Messiah who had once been crucified. Many of their contemporaries regarded them as eccentrics but to others they seemed to have discovered a new meaning to life which altered their priorities and gave them a clear perspective on morality,...