The World of Jesus (Putting the Bible in Its Place Book 1) by Anthony J. Tomasino

Author:Anthony J. Tomasino [Tomasino, Anthony J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Religion, General
ISBN: 9781498273138
Publisher: Wipf & Stock, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2015-11-12T05:00:00+00:00

1. The phrase Coele-Syria was the Roman designation for the lands of Syria and Palestine. It was probably a Latin corruption of the Aramaic phrase meaning “All of Syria.”

2. See Tzaferis, “Crucifixion.”

6

The Cultural Context

Many modern men and women like to believe that all people of the world are basically the same. There is surely a grain of truth in the sentiment, since we all share the same biology and many of the same values. But on the other hand, there are also numerous differences between the peoples of various geographical regions and ethnic groups. There are different languages, different customs, and different values. There are also technological differences, especially when we are considering ancient civilizations. All these features of society constitute what we call “culture.”

We will not attempt to present a comprehensive account of Jesus’ cultural background in this little book. First of all, culture is simply too vast a phenomenon for us to cover in all its many facets. A comprehensive discussion of all the features of daily life, of family relations, of religious observance, etc., that constitute the cultural aspects of Jesus’ world would fill several volumes. But on the other hand, we really do not know that much about the culture of the ancient Palestinian rural class to which Jesus belonged. Historical and literary accounts are usually written by (and about) the urban elites, not the people of small towns in Galilee. Often, the villagers were illiterate, but even those who were able to read had little reason to do much writing. Also, writing materials were not cheap in those days, so the words and thoughts of the common folk have been mostly lost to us. Furthermore, most of the artifacts that have been discovered have come from the urban centers, not the villages, because those are the areas where archeologists have concentrated their efforts. So while we have far more information than we can possibly present, there is still much that we would like to know that we simply have not been able to discover, given the nature of our sources.

Instead of trying to survey the culture of Jewish world in the time of Jesus, we will only consider some of the most cogent points for understanding the Gospels’ presentation of Jesus’ life and ministry, while filling out the picture in other volumes of this series. We will proceed here from broad to specific, starting with the general Mediterranean context and the shared culture of the Roman world. We will then focus on the East, and the unique features of the Near Eastern culture. We will finally devote the bulk of the chapter to the unique features of Palestinian Jewish culture. In popular treatments of this era, we frequently find a failure to distinguish between practices that are uniquely Jewish and those that are common to the Near East, or even to ancient civilizations in general. But when we acknowledge the cultural universals of the era, the unique features of Jewish society stand out in even greater relief.

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