ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine the institutional function of the agora and its relevance to New Testament (NT) studies. There are four sections in this chapter. The first is a short introduction of the texts related to outlining the unanswered question regarding the use of agora as a context. The second section introduces the relevant New Institutional Economics (NIE) concepts and methods used in research. The third section uses economic concepts to analyze the institutional functions of the agora from the Hellenistic period to the early Roman period using the Athenian agora as an example. The Athenian agora was chosen because it is the most representative, well-documented model of an agora in history. The particular topic of interest here is people’s perceptions of an agora in the first century CE in general. Although we are not interested in a particular agora, using the most typical one offers the most comprehensive information possible. The fourth section focuses on how the investigation of the agora through the lens of NIE can better illustrate NT texts. This section will not give a detailed interpretation of each text but will instead show how various perspectives can offer a deeper understanding of the concept of the agora.
