But my argument was missing one important piece: a discussion of the cultural context of the first-century, in which claims are made by Christ and Christians about taxation and government. In this segment, we look more directly at the environment that gave rise to the New Testament writings. The condition of the soil largely determines the condition of the plant, after all.

The centuries immediately before and after the 100s CE in the Greco-Roman world were increasingly violent. There were frequent uprisings, attempted coups, assassinations of political leaders, reform efforts, and massacres of Jews and other groups led by the Romans. Palestine, the land of the Jews, was being controlled by the Romans in its ever expanding empire. The Jewish people, at times, tried to "get it back," sometimes with more success than others. Besides this ongoing struggle, the Romans also brought in new religious threats, political threats, and various forms of coercion—not to mention religious and cultural (Hellenistic) agendas. Revolts against this paganization stem all the way back to the Maccabean Revolt in the 160s BC.