The Origins of the New Testament

The earliest books in the New Testament are the Epistles and Paul. So on the whole, the New Testament comes from a period of about 50 or 60 years. Do you think this complicates the tendency among some faith groups to want to use it as a direct set of lessons that can be applied to other societies? Well, I mean, studying the Bible in this kind of way makes you a bit relativistic. But it does make you aware how much it depends on the particular culture in which it all developed. And if you were to apply that to the modern world, you have to find analogies rather than thinking of it in terms of direct commands.