According to James McPolin SJ, we come to know Christ better when we understand more about the nature of Jewish society – its politics, economics, religion, and so on – during his lifetime.
We come to understand and know Jesus much better if we learn about the world in which he lived out his life. In this way Jesus becomes more real for us. It is necessary to understand the political, socio-economic and religious situation in Palestine in his time. That was the world to which he related, with which he interacted.
Pilate’s inscription
We read in John’s Gospel (Ch 19): ‘Pilate had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And it was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek’. These words tell us something important about life in the time of Jesus, namely that he lived in a country which was not only Jewish but also very strongly influenced by Greek and Roman culture. That is why the inscription was written in three languages. Jesus himself, then, was part of that cultural situation which was Jewish, Greek and Roman.
A Greek world
The country in which Jesus lived was influenced by Greek culture. Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia in Greece (333-323 BC), extended his conquests right as far as India and left behind a great empire, ruled by his successors, who occupied Palestine and brought with them Hellenistic (Greek) language and culture as well as their power.
The effects of this Hellenisation continued right into the time of Jesus. Cities, temples, theatres and education centres were built on a Greek model, and Greek was the language of administration. The Greek city model influenced the situation politically. Greek cities were independent; they were a self-contained unit of free citizens, having their own territory, ruled over by a council of citizens, at the head of which was an elected official. Some of these cities were built in Palestine.
A Roman world
Even though in the time of Jesus Rome was the political ruler of the Middle East world, Greek culture continued to shape it. In 63 BC Rome intervened in Palestinian affairs. Herod the Great was the king of Judea under the Romans (47-4 BC) but then Judea became a Roman Province, ruled by a Roman official who was called a ‘procurator’. Herod Antipas was another subject-king who ruled in Galilee.
In the Gospels (Lk., 2 and 3) there is mention of Romans, Roman soldiers and rulers.
Rule under the Romans was well organized as they had good skills of administration and were well disciplined. But sometimes there was great brutality under Pilate (a massacre in Lk.,13), under Herod the Great (Mt. 2) and also under Herod Antipas of Galilee (the murder of John the Baptist in Mk. 6). Pilate was the Roman procurator in Judea in the time of Jesus (26-36 AD).
A Jewish king complained to the emperor in Rome about Pilate, accusing him of ‘insults, robberies, assaults, executions without trials, unending cruelty’. On one occasion, when the Jews opposed Pilate because he used money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct (that is, a construction for supplying water) he had his soldiers mix with the demonstrators and cruelly beat them. Into such a violent world was Jesus born.
Socio-economic situation
Alexander’s campaigns effected great changes even in Palestine. They opened up new traderoutes never before explored. The riches of the East began to flow westward in the succeeding centuries – minerals (gold, silver, copper, iron); frankincense (for religious worship); foodstuffs (corn, wine, oil, fish); textiles (especially linen) and luxury goods of all kinds. There was increased productivity everywhere due to better techniques in agriculture and mining and the like. It was easier to transport a variety of goods and seek more profitable markets, especially after the construction of roads.
New trade routes opened up people and nations to one another and people travelled more freely from one country, or region, to another. Some of these routes passed through Palestine.
The new wealth was mainly centred in trade and commerce, and this led to the emergence of a wealthy middle class who were in a position to profit from the new possibilities. Many Jews emigrated at this time to seek better conditions and greater wealth, and so many Jewish communities were establised abroad and flourished.
Sometimes, however, there was unemployment in the cities. The peasant farmers were squeezed out of existence by competition from large landowners, and heavy taxes were levied for the support of a bureaucracy. This continued in the time of Jesus and was made worse when occupying armies took over some of the land.
Violence and injustice
Under the Romans taxes were imposed. For most Jews paying taxes to a Roman overlord meant giving to Caesar what belonged to God, namely, Israel’s money and possessions (Mk. 12). Such taxes were an oppressive symbol of injustice.Taxes imposed by the Roman and Jewish authorities were exploitative and burdensome for the people, especially for the small tenant farmers. Then there was the presence of the military. John the Baptist, like Jesus, enters into dialogue with them: ‘Rob no one by violence or by false accusation and be content with your wages’ (Lk. 3, 7).
The atmosphere of violence and social injustice leading to poverty, especially after the death of Herod the Great, made Palestine very unstable. It was at this time that revolutionary and discontent groups were formed.
Herod the Great
Power was all that mattered to Herod the Great. He put his own sons to death. He hired an army of foreign soldiers beyond the needs of the country as well as an army of informers to keep the people in check and permanent fear. A Jewish historian around that period, Josephus, writes about him: ‘He sank the nation to poverty and to the last degree of injustice.’
The Romans and the rulers appointed by them, such as Herod the Great, continued the policy of extreme exploitation of the land. Great estates forced back the peasant farmers and the number of landless tenants increased, particularly after the time of Herod the Great. Great estates in Galilee and other places were owned by the Jewish aristocracy of Jerusalem, in particular by the Sadducees.
Background of parables
This environment, in which Jesus lived and carried out his ministry, is reflected in his parables, which provide pictures of the poverty, violence and oppression that existed in his times. Absentee landlords (very rich people in Jerusalem had their property administered by others in their country estates), tenant revolts, debts and debtors, slavery, extortion, corruption, starving beggars, uncaring rich people, day labourers waiting around for employment, a widow badgering a corrupt judge to get justice – all these are situations described in the parables of Jesus which are based on real life in his day.
(Lk.12: the rich farmer who hoards grain; Lk.16: the rich man and Lazarus; Lk.18: the widow and the judge; Mt.18: debts and debtors; Mt. 20: the day labourers lining up for work).
Great landowners had much influence because of the volume of the crops, especially wine, oil, wheat. They employed a large workforce. Land was leased at a high price and this increased the poverty. Larger estates were often in the hands of royal or priestly families and of foreigners (from the Roman Empire living outside Palestine).
Fertile land
There were also great wheat crops grown for the Emperor in Palestine. The big estates were located principally in Galilee and Judea (Southern Palestine) around the river Jordan, and all these areas were very fertile. Skilled labour was centralised in Jerusalem. Taxes were a great burden for the poor.
Social Classes
In Palestine there were generally three social classes:
1. There were very rich people from the royal court and their followers: merchants, large landowners, tax-officers, bankers, families with inherited means and high priestly families
2. There was a small middle class: those working in small trades; craftspeople who had their shops in the market; those of the fish trade. (In Galilee there was every kind of fish and there was a salted fish trade there which exported to cities even as far away as Rome.)
3. Then there were the poor. These were mainly of two kinds: (a) those who sought to earn their livelihood (e.g. slaves; day-labourers dependent on each day’s work; people of the land, such as small tenant farmers and small landowners); and (b) those who lived on subsidy, partially or wholly: beggars, the sick, blind, lame, lepers, destitute, orphans and widows.
But there was a vast gap between the rich and the poor. This gap is well illustrated by the contrast between the rich man and Lazarus in Luke’s parable (Lk.16)
This, then, provides a general picture of daily life in the time of Jesus.
This article was first published in
The Messenger, a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
