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Context: Social/Cultural World of Jesus: Political Dimension
Context: Social/Cultural World of Jesus: Political Dimension
Context: Social/Cultural World of Jesus: Political Dimension
Jesus grew up in the town of Nazareth. Like other boys he was most
likely educated in the local Synagogue. He would have spoken the
local Aramaic tongue, but learned to read the Hebrew of the
Scriptures and probably also had a working knowledge of the Greek
language, the dominant language of commerce. He learned the trade
and worked for several years as a carpenter. This is the Jesus the
people of Nazareth knew.
~ Marcus Borg
~ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/socialclass.html
Political dimension
Galilee:
In the north
Ruled by Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great)
Herod owed his appointment to Rome
Judea:
In the south
Ruled by a circle of the Jewish aristocratic elite
Peasant Society
Purity Society
Peasant Society
Patriarchal Society
Peasant societies are marked by an enormous gulf between rural peasants and
urban ruling elites.
The urban ruling elites (king, aristocratic families, high government officials)
and retainers (servants, army, lower government officials, religious officials):
Purity System
The central social structure of the society was organized with purity as the core value.
Purity systems generate a class of untouchables and outcasts.
clean unclean
male female
(generally but not automatically (automatically impure)
pure)
rich poor
(generally but not automatically (conventional wisdom said the poor hadn't lived right)
pure)
Jew gentile
(generally but not automatically (impure by definition)
pure)
well/healthy/whole ill/maimed/diseased
(social meaning of being impure)
agricultural produce on which agricultural produce on which taxes were not paid
taxes were paid (declared unclean, boycotted by the righteous)
The purity system creates a society with very sharp social boundaries.
The temple elites were also the economic elites and the purity elites.
Patriarchal Society
Male dominated
Hierarchical
Mirrored in the family structure
It is crucial to see the centrality of the temple and the temple aristocracy in
the whole system because of the centrality of the temple in the world of
Jesus life.
Jesus as Social Prophet
Jesus not only challenged the politics of purity, but advocated the
politics of compassion.
~ Marcus Borg
Of all the figures in his tradition, Jesus was most like the classical prophets of
Israel.
1. Indictment
2. Threat
3. Call to change
Healings
As the sun was setting, all those who had people sick with various diseases
brought them to him. He would lay his hands on each one of them and cure
them. (Luke 4:40, SV)
Jesus violated the purity system in his healings by touching those the purity
system considered unclean.
Friend, your sins are forgiven you. (from Luke 5:17-25, NRSV)
He subverted the boundaries, healed and forgave sins outside the purity
system.
Jesus subverts some of the most sacred taboos of his time by:
In purity society, eating was a political act, who you ate with mattered.
Politics of Compassion
The priest and the Levite passed by the wounded man because of
purity boundaries: death was unclean
The practice of purity interfered with the practice of compassion
The Samaritan, considered impure by the purity system, was the one
who acted with compassion
~ Marcus Borg
During his lifetime, Jesus attracted a following of people who were captivated
by his alternative wisdom and alternative social vision.
Jesus was a movement catalyst, a movement came into existence around him.
Seeing is central to the wisdom teaching of Jesus. There are many sayings and
healing stories about seeing. How you see makes all the difference.
Human Divine
Jesus was:
spirit dimension
wisdom dimension
political dimension
Jesus was a:
Jewish Mystic / Spirit Person: One of those figures in human history who
had frequent and vivid experiences of the sacred.
Jewish Social Prophet: Jesus stands in the tradition of the great social
prophets of ancient Israel who challenged social systems.
He was associated with peasants, which tells us about his social class.
Clearly, he was brilliant. His use of language was remarkable and poetic, filled with
images and stories. He had a metaphoric mind. He was not an ascetic, but world-
affirming, with a zest for life.
There was a social-political passion to him. Like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, he
challenged the domination system of his day.
He was a religious ecstatic, a Jewish mystic, if you will, for whom God was an
experiential reality. As such, he was also a healer. And there seems to have been a
spiritual presence around him, like that reported of St. Francis or the Dalai Lama.
And I suggest that, as a figure of history, he was an ambiguous figure. You could
experience him and conclude that he was insane, as his family did, or that he was
simply eccentric, or that he was a dangerous threat, or you could conclude that he
was filled with the Spirit of God.