The World of Jesus

A Christian fashion accessory in widespread circulation throughout the 1990s was a wristband with the acronym W.W.J.D. (standing for ‘What Would Jesus Do’) printed across it. In some circles of Christianity, this was considered a tool for spreading understanding about Jesus, an evangelical device or ‘conversation starter’. The concept was to consider how Jesus would respond to the people and situations that we encounter on a day-to-day basis.

However, the task set by that wristband is a tougher one than many may assume. As Christians, many of us rightly ‘thank Jesus’ for good things in our daily lives, ‘praise Jesus’ in church, ‘seek Jesus’ in the choices we make, and ‘love Jesus’. Yet the Jesus that we refer to in these situations can be devoid of context. Jesus becomes something of a mixture between a wish-granting gene who helps us find car parks, a rock star worthy of mass hysteria, a mystic guru who shares wise sayings and a best friend who simply empathises with everything we do. Curiously, in making Jesus the centre of our modern, twentieth century world in these ways, Christians actually lose some of the important things that the historical Jesus and his world had to tell us!

The world that Jesus lived in was not a blank canvas. In the modern world, we usually learn about Jesus through films, cartoons, sermons, illustrations, and readings all relaying stories from the Bible. An issue is however that we often see these stories in isolation. We will hear a sermon on Jesus and the Five Thousand, or Jesus healing a blind man, or Jesus at Easter. Very rarely do we hear an entire gospel (the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) read in a single sitting, and even less common is the opportunity to sit and think about how these events would have been perceived by the people who lived them.

The result is that we sometimes see Jesus and his world a little bit like the way we may watch a T.V. sitcom or read a comic strip. The cartoon show The Simpsons is the one that comes to my mind here, but you may be thinking of others. In any given episode of The Simpsons, we are given a town without geographical context (Springfield), full of a cast of colourful, larger than life characters, easily recognisable by catch phrases and their yellow-skinned appearance. Homer, in white shirt and blue trousers shouting ‘Doh’. Bart—his distinctive spikey hair, red t-shirt and skateboard. Lisa, with her love for her saxophone and highly knowledgeable. None of the characters ever age, and from one episode to the next, their lives don’t usually change in any profound way.  We do usually know who is going to appear in an episode based on the settings within a town—the regulars at Moe’s bar, the teachers and students at Bart’s school, the workers at the Power Plant. However, the story that emerges out of this cartoon background can be wildly unpredictable.

When we see Jesus and his world in this way, he can appear to us as a predictable, unchanging cartoon character – white robe with a sash, shoulder length brown hair, European appearance with blue eyes. He appears in a number of different towns. Like Springfield, they all have names but don’t normally have any geographical relevance… most of us could not name where they are. When Jesus is in certain places, we know that certain characters will show up—the grumbling mob of Pharisees at the synagogue, the varied and colourful disciples by the sea. But, like a Simpson’s episode, the stories we hear are usually ‘wrapped up in a neat little package’ by the end of an episode—all ready for next week’s instalment, where the previous episode is forgotten amidst a new series of antics.

If we are going to understand the full impact that Jesus had on his own world and ours, we need to move that world out of a cartoon and consider what it meant to those who lived and breathed it. Jesus’ world was shaped and coloured by the interaction, conflict and discussion between various social groups in history. It was shaped by culture, history, religion and politics. It was full of people with pasts, families, hopes, dreams, aspirations, anger, and sadness. The world Jesus lived in was a real world, with real locations. Those locations were not just settings for stories—they had histories and social significance of their own. In the same way we think of films when one mentions Hollywood, or know that Manchester in England is famous for its soccer teams, names like Jericho, Samaria or Capernaum would have brought specific things to mind for the people who lived in the region. Likewise, the word Pharisee meant more than a ‘mob of legalistic killjoys’ and the disciples had there own backgrounds shaped by their families, history and politics.

Before we introduce the New Testament, we need to grasp the ‘realness’ of Jesus’ world—people with hopes and dreams, cities with smells and sounds. We need to imagine conversations as heated exchanges of ideas between people who didn’t like each other. We need to hear the rumbles in the stomach of five thousand hungry people by the sea. We must smell the mixture of fishiness and sweat as the disciples hauled nets out on their boat. We must visualise the fear as Jesus is arrested, surrounded by rough, armed guards. We need to feel Jesus’ sadness at the loss of his friend Lazarus. We need to know about the ache of muscles after long walks between towns, feel the relieving coolness as dust is washed from one’s feet, and imagine the wonder and exhilaration of walking after years of lameness. We need to think of the smell that would fill an ancient Middle Eastern city… baking bread, cooking meat, animal droppings in the streets, decomposing rubbish down dim, close alleyways and in heaps outside the city walls.

We should keep all of this in mind as we read the story of the New Testament. As well as bringing God into the world in a way we have not seen before or since, Jesus was addressing real people and real issues in his day. For this reason, our next group of chapters will focus on describing the world that Jesus lived in—the social groups, politics, religion, and geography. Once we have done that, we will be better prepared to explore (a) Jesus’ message, (b) the New Testament and (c) the religion that is established after Jesus, Christianity. We will point to passages in the Bible that add to our understanding of this world, but will only focus on the creation and compilation of the New Testament itself after Jesus’ world has been described.

Kings, Prophets and Revolutionaries: The Social Groups of Jesus’ World

The summary chapters of the Old Testament, Apocrypha and Josephus discussed the tortured history of conquest, liberation, reconquest and hope for a new freedom for the Jews. Egypt, the Canaanite tribes, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans all at times either controlled or threatened the freedom of the Jewish people. Each cycle of domination ended with a hero who would restore the rightful order—Moses, the Judges, King David, King Josiah, Cyrus the Persian, the Maccabees.

Jesus’ life was marked by the dominance of the Roman Empire. With the Roman ally of King Herod ruling Judea at his birth, Jesus grew up in a world controlled by Roman military, political and economic power. Roman soldiers would have trekked through the countryside, forcing Jewish people from their jobs to serve as porters. Taxes were gathered for the Romans by corrupt, greedy collectors, who added their own tolls to the sums that most people could already not afford to pay. Roman religion and law was forced upon the people as new Roman cities like Caesarea Maritima and Tiberius were established in Jewish districts.

The heroes of the past were well remembered by the Jews as those who had been anointed—with oil poured upon their head—setting them aside for special tasks. The term for ‘anointed one’ was ‘messiah’. Kings, prophets and priests were all ‘anointed’ with oil, such as David was when chosen as king by Samuel. In this tradition, Jewish scholars in Jesus’ day anticipated that another great leader or messiah would come to tear down the power of the Roman world, and restore a kingdom where Jewish practice and religion would rule. Conquest of territory, independence from the Romans and correct practice of Jewish religion were all anticipated marks of this kingdom. Earlier in our summary chapters, we saw where the anticipation of this kingdom was building for the Jewish people in the book of Daniel, of a Kingdom of God that would know no end (unlike the other Jewish kingdoms that were later conquered). In this environment of expectation, a number of contrasting social, political and religious groups emerged. In his various writings, Josephus outlines a number of these groups, which he describes as Jewish ‘philosophies’. These ‘philosophies’ are also described in the gospels, which outline Jesus’ life. Some of these groups are religious, while others are more political in nature. In addition, there are a number of other social groups which shall also be identified in this chapter.

Sadducees

One of the main Jewish social groups in Jesus’ day was the Sadducees. In addition to their storied rivalry with the Pharisaic party through Maccabees and Josephus, the Sadducees appear as opponents of Jesus in the gospels. In fact, the Sadducees are likely the group most responsible for prosecuting the case against Jesus. The Sadducees were a party of privilege, and followed most closely the rule of the High Priest and the operations of the temple. Ironically, while they were at the centre of Jewish religion, they were often regarded by their opponents as corrupted and abusive of their power. Josephus describes them as ‘able to persuade none but the rich’ (Antiquities Book 13 Chapter 10:6). The Sadducees placed the most emphasis on the first five books of the Bible, and less weight on the later writings and prophets. It is possibly for this reason that the New Testament mentions that the Sadducees did not believe in the idea of resurrection or afterlife, as that notion only entered Jewish thinking late (in the book of Daniel). Josephus’ Antiquities (Book 18 Ch 1:4) also tells us that they believe ‘that the souls die with the bodies’. It is perhaps the absence of an afterlife that drives the Sadducees towards wealth and a grasp on earthly power, as they did not believe in eternal consequences for their actions. This is what Josephus says:

But the Sadducees are those that… take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to everyone, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades (Jewish War, Book 2 Ch 8:14).

He further states that the Sadducees are therefore largely self-centred, without any particular sense of loyalty to one another. “The behaviour of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them”. Historians often link the Sadducees with the ‘Herodians’, those Jews who have embraced pagan culture (and the pursuit of secular power) alongside Jewish practice. This does not mean that Sadducees did not have strong views on religion, but rather separated the ‘letter of the law’ which they followed for legal and public purposes, from their own private lives. As one of the leading parties in the Sanhedrin, or Jewish religious court, the Sadducees were known to push for harsher penalties for those who disobeyed the ‘law of Moses’. Josephus refers to these penalties when he discusses the way that Sadducee officials sometimes had to curb their judgements to be more in line with the more popular rulings of the Pharisees. “When they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them” (Antiquities Book 18 Chapter 1:2).

Pharisees

The main rivals of the Sadducees were the party of the Pharisees—the other main voice in the Sanhedrin. The Pharisees enjoyed the support of the majority of people, in opposition to the dominance of the elite Sadducees who controlled the temple (where even Pharisees still had to enter to offer sacrifices). This does not mean that Pharisees were not involved with the temple, or that priests could not be Pharisees, but rather that the focus of Pharisaic life was outside of the temple where teachers (Rabbis) would interpret the law of the Hebrew Bible (the whole Christian Old Testament). For this reason, Pharisees emphasised the ‘Oral Torah’ (or spoken beliefs of the Jews) as being a vitally important part of Jewish life. Josephus says ‘They also pay a respect to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in anything which they have introduced’ (Antiquities Book 18 Chapter 1:3). To listen to these teachers, they met in meeting houses called synagogues, where the scripture was read and then its meaning discussed. The collected discussions and commentary of the Rabbis was eventually worked into a compilation called the Talmud. These various commentaries, while secondary to Torah, became key points for Pharisaic understanding of the law. This meant that Pharisees often had vastly different interpretations on legal matters to the Sadducees.

Because they were trying to move power away from the temple, Pharisees tried to establish how the laws of purity and ‘virtuous conduct’ could be lived out in everyday life, for all of the Jewish people (Antiquities Book 18 Chapter 1:3). It is for this reason that the Pharisees become viewed in the New Testament as a people who are obsessed with the interpretation of rules. On a day to day basis, the Pharisees were much more concerned with reading and engaging with the messages of scripture. The Pharisee focus was on making the laws of the past find a new expression for their own time.

Essenes

A third ‘Philosophy’ that Josephus identifies was known as the Essenes, and are most extensively written about in Josephus’ Jewish War Book 2, although some other ancient historians also write about them. This group is not mentioned in the Bible. However, some scholars connect the Essenes with the archaeological discoveries at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Others also try and connect the Essenes with the community of John the Baptist. The Essenes are described as a community of men (only one branch of the group is described as allowing marriage) who lived a communal life, sharing belongings and devoting themselves to study and the pursuit of purity. If they were indeed connected with the Qumran community of the Dead Sea Scrolls, they believed that the Temple, the priesthood and indeed most other Jews, were corrupted. Only the teacher of the Qumran community, the ‘Teacher of Righteousness’, could give Israel its proper direction. Josephus says that the Essenes live in communities throughout Judea, although others place them in remote wilderness locations. There seemed to be an emphasis on separation from perceived ‘corrupted lifestyles’, with a rigorous initiation process, ritual washing and giving up of personal possessions all important to distinguish the community of Essenes from others.

Revolutionaries

In his description of the Jewish social groups, Josephus also refers to a ‘fourth philosophy’ that was founded by a man named Judas the Galilean. Judas was a man operating in the aftermath of King Herod’s death, and tried to claim a throne for himself. The essence of his ‘philosophy’ was an ultra-nationalistic, anti-Roman platform that wanted to create an independent Roman state. While no Jews liked the Roman presence in Judea, the other movements were able to at least tolerate Roman rule for the sake of peace (Pharisees, Essenes) or even actively work with them (Sadducees).

A number of Jewish freedom fighters led movements eager to bring about this Jewish kingdom—some attached to Judas, others seemingly independent with their own aspirations for ‘kingship’. References to bandits and robbers in Josephus appear ifrequently—groups that sought to create chaos for the Romans and those that cooperated with them. There were also movements such as those mentioned in Acts by Gamaliel, a Pharisee Rabbi.

These type of movements came to be known as the Zealots. Jesus’ disciple ‘Simon the Zealot’ was possibly from one such movement. Barabbas, the man who is released from crucifixion in place of Jesus, was probably another.

Hellenic Jews

 Another social group we can consider from the time is a group we can call the ‘Hellenic Jews’ or sometimes ‘Hellenists’. These were people that still identified as sincerely Jewish in their religion and ritual, yet were somewhat removed from the Middle-Eastern cultural emphasis of the Jews of Judea. The Hellenic Jews used Greek instead of Hebrew or Aramaic, and were more comfortable with absorbing Greek culture and practices into their daily lives. Some Sadducees could be regarded as Hellenists, but Hellenic Jews could also come from a broad spectrum of life. The Hellenic Jews become the focus of much of the New Testament in Acts and the Epistles, as they became a focal point for the expanding Christian community.

 Samaritans

Another significant social group in Jesus’ day were the Samaritans. Samaritans came from the territory to the north of Judea, where the Jewish population was centred, but south of the Jewish territory of Galilee. The Samaritans strictly followed the first five ‘Books of Moses’ but rejected the remainder of the Torah. They were possibly descended from the intermixing of the northern tribes and the settlers brought in by the conquering Assyrian tribes. They were excluded from the building of the Jewish temple by Ezra and Nehemiah, and instead worshipped God in the Samaritan hills. For these ancient differences in practice and exclusion, Jews and Samaritans never got along. Today, the Samaritans still exist as a tiny minority in the modern state of Israel.

Gentiles

 The word gentile is a translation of a Hebrew term meaning ‘not Jewish’ or ‘from other nations’. This generic term was used to define all other national and religious groups, including Romans and Greeks. Gentiles were not allowed to enter into the temple (except for the outermost ‘Court of the Gentiles’), and were usually excluded from aspects of Jewish social and communal life.

Converts and God-Fearers

While gentiles could convert, it was difficult for them to lose the perceived stigma of their non-Jewish background, such as the Herods continued to discover. Such people were known permanently as ‘converts’ rather than ‘real Jews’. Conversion was a complex process that required rigorous study and usually also circumcision, so it was not eagerly sought by non-Jews. Much more common was for Gentiles with an interest in Jewish religion and philosophy to become ‘God-fearers’, who might support and listen in on synagogue activities, discussion and ritual, without becoming Jewish.

Slaves

Up to two thirds of people in the Roman Empire in Jesus’ time were slaves. This means that slavery was a common, even normative aspect of life and was not viewed as the great evil we regard it as today. It essentially meant that you lived with a different legal status to ‘free citizens’. Your employment, travel and family situation was not your own choice, but instead that of your master. It somewhat depended on the personality of the person who owned you, but slaves could with permission have children, own property, save money and even buy their freedom. Slaves could rise into positions of power and respect. Slaves could be unskilled labourers, put into work in fields or mines, or they could be highly educated teachers, performers, and scribes. However, running away was the equivalent of theft (theft of another’s slave), and was punishable by death.

Slavery could, intriguingly, in some cases be better than freedom. Normally being a slave meant you had food and shelter, which was not always available to the destitute, poor and unfortunate of the day (who we discuss next). A worldview that considered such unfortunate people as ‘cursed by God’ (or cursed by the gods, depending on your religion) for some hidden sin or failing meant that there was little charity in the ancient Roman world. To be a slave meant that you at least knew where you belonged. If you had a good master, your situation in life would be relatively comfortable… it would just not be your own.

Outcastes—Unclean, Widows and Orphans

 Another significant group in the world of Jesus was the outcastes. This essentially includes all those people who were basically viewed as being of no worth to the rest of the society, and were reliant on the goodwill or charity of others to survive. ‘Unclean’ people like lepers or those with diseases and people who were crippled with deformities would fall into this category. Widows and orphans were often in difficult places because they were people without a significant male relative to see to their affairs. The ancient Mediterranean (Rome, Greece, Judea, etc) was largely a man’s world. Men were needed to oversee legal and business transactions, and women were essentially ‘subjects’ of the men in their household. If there were no men, the women were responsible for their own affairs, but would struggle to gain respect or advantage in transactions unless they had inherited a family estate or business. This placed childless widows and orphans in extremely vulnerable positions.

Roman Empire

As we conclude our discussion of significant social groups in the first century world, we need to give some dedicated space to discussion of the Roman Empire. Romans were gentiles, from the ancient city of Rome in Italy. According to tradition, the city was founded by a man named Romulus in 753 BC, who became the city’s first king and gave it its name. Seven legendary kings ruled Rome for almost 250 years, until the monarchy was replaced by a Republic with a Senate representing the wishes of the nobles, and two elected Consuls who would share power (so that no one would become an absolute ruler, like the kings once were). Under the Republic, the nobles in Rome won greater freedom, but used that freedom to fund military campaigns for the conquest of other nations. These campaigns saw the Republic conquer Italy, much of Europe and even North Africa.

However, in 49 BC a former Consul and Roman General named Julius Caesar, refused to give up his power. He took control of the Roman government for five years until he was assassinated by the Senate. In the aftermath of this event, Rome was thrown into a civil war. When the dust had settled, his heir Augustus ruled as Emperor. The Empire continued to conquer and pressure other nations into alliances that guaranteed the wealth and security of its citizens—which is how the Romans ended up in Judea. Jesus was born under the rule of Augustus, and lived his adult life in the time of Tiberius, Augustus’ step son.

As Roman territory grew, it used a ‘carrot and stick’ approach (reward and punishment) to ensure the security and peace of Roman law called the “Pax Romana”. People who resisted would be brutally oppressed and enslaved by the highly effective Roman army. However, those who cooperated would be rewarded with friendship. In the time of the Empire, this included the awarding of Roman citizenship to those who had proven their loyalty and value—the right to vote, and additional legal protection. Citizenship was hereditary, passed on from father to son, so if your father had been made a citizen, you would also become a citizen.

Roman citizenship was not available to all residents of the Empire, however. Slaves were not citizens. Neither were free subjects of client states (like Judea, until Herod’s death) automatically citizens. However, such free people could be citizens. For example, the apostle Paul—a Greek educated, Jewish man from Tarsus (in modern Turkey) was also a Roman citizen.

The local language of the Romans was Latin. The local languages of Judea were Hebrew and Aramaic. However, Greek was the major language used right across the Empire, as much of the world had been heavily influenced by Hellenistic culture. It was the international language of scholarship and debate—much in the way that English is so widely taught and used today.

Roman religion focused on a pantheon of many gods and goddesses. The favour of the gods was sought through prayers, offerings and sacrifices, and could be interpreted through rituals such as reading animal entrails. Keeping the gods on side was important for the Roman state, because displeasing the gods could mean abandonment. This could in turn lead to defeat for the Roman army, or a poor harvest which would mean famine. For this reason, properly appeasing the gods was a duty of all citizens of the Empire. It was highly significant that the Romans allowed the Jews to continue following their own religion—a mark of honour and respect for the devotion the Jews showed to their God. The one request made of the Jewish people was that they would perform a sacrifice to their God on behalf of the Emperor.

A world of complex interactions

All of these groups, movements and identities converged in the regions of Judea and Galilee in the first century in a climate of diversity and difference. Although some people tried to separate themselves—Jews from Gentiles, Jews from Samaritans, Pharisees from Sadducees, Clean from Unclean, Free from Slave, Male from Female—the high population and location of Judea at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa meant that the people of the region were inevitably forced to interact. This was the world of Jesus—dominated by religion, ruled by the Romans. For a first century Jew, the world was highly political and needed to be carefully navigated to ensure that you didn’t make enemies, but also that you didn’t make yourself ritually unclean (and therefore become excluded from Jewish life until you had made the correct sacrifices, etc). Speaking or acting in the wrong way with the wrong group of people could create enormous trouble for you, as another significant aspect of Mediterranean culture was honour. If you insulted someone, you insulted their honour, and they were culturally obliged to take their revenge. If your family then also retaliated, this could result in long lasting feuds. This idea of honour, shame and revenge was a core aspect of that ancient society.