Managers, Goods and Services Producing Organizations, and First-Century Palestine

In order to interpret what the Gospel of Luke says about management via a firstcentury lens, it is necessary to understand the role of managers, and that of goods and service producing organizations, in their first-century socioeconomic context.1 Failing to understand the historical context of Luke makes readers likely to interpret it with modern assumptions and expectations. Unfortunately, contemporary Western readers “are rarely attuned to the differences between a first century Mediterranean context” versus their modern societal context.2 For example, the holistic nature of management in the first century is one of its key differences from a twenty-firstcentury understanding. In first-century Palestine, religion and management and economics and politics were seen as an integrated whole—to talk about one as though it did not have implications for the others would have been inconceivable. Whereas today some people may be keen to separate “business” from the holy affairs of the “church,” such a separation was impossible in the first century. In the first century, one’s understanding of God and religious faith pervaded all aspects of one’s life.3