This work is based on the premise that to best understand what people say and mean to say, one must first understand the social context from which they speak. In order to understand the New Testament, this means grasping the social system of the Eastern Mediterranean in the first century AD. Drawing his information from the Bible, other first-century writings, and the modern Eastern Mediterranean social system, the author presents seven models that together help frame the social system of the New Testament. Included among these are honour and shame, the social psychology of the person, the perception of limited good, envy and the evil-eye, kinship and marriage, rules of purity, and small group development.