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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: The Political Dimension of Jesus Jesus lived in Jewish Palestine in the first century. This is the historical/cultural/social context in which he must be understood. PalestineAt that time, Palestine was part of the Roman empire, under the domination of a foreign empire. Rome ruled indirectly: 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 * These elite collaborated with the Roman government This domination system was marked by: * Peasant Society * Purity Society * Patriarchal Society Peasant Society wheatPeasant society refers to a pre-industrial agrarian society where: * Peasant agricultural production is the only real source of wealth * There is no manufacturing * There is no industry except small scale handcrafts 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): * Comprise 10% of population * Extract 66% of the value of rural production through: o Taxation - civil and religious (tithes are taxes on agricultural produce to be paid to the temple authorities) o Land rent - direct payment or sharecropping * Are enormously wealthy in the standards of the day * Don't produce anything and hardly provide any services except an army for warfare Peasant society was politically oppressive, economically exploitative, and religiously legitimated. 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. Purity was the core value structuring the society: * Purity was not an individual virtue * Purity was political * It was the ideology of the temple elites * The Jerusalem temple was geographically and symbolically the center of the purity system In general the pure/impure or clean/unclean social structure got attached to other central contrasts: Pure/Impure clean/unclean righteous/outcasts, sinners (sin is a matter of being unclean, not behavior) male(generally but not automatically pure)/female(automatically impure) rich(generally but not automatically pure)/poor (conventional wisdom said the poor hadn't lived right) Jew(generally but not automatically pure)gentile(impure by definition) well-healthy-whole/ill/maimed-diseased (social meaning of being impure) agricultural produce on which taxes were paid/agricultural produce on which taxes were not 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. patriarchPatriarchal Society Patriarchal society is: * 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.
Poster Comment: I see that things, economically and politically, were thousands of years ago as they are today. If Jesus ever do come back, the "elites," as always, are the ones gonna be in trouble. That includes all the faux Christians like John Hagee.
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#1. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
Pure/Impure clean/unclean righteous/outcasts, sinners (sin is a matter of being unclean, not behavior) male(generally but not automatically pure)/female(automatically impure) rich(generally but not automatically pure)/poor (conventional wisdom said the poor hadn't lived right) Jew(generally but not automatically pure)gentile(impure by definition) well-healthy-whole/ill/maimed-diseased (social meaning of being impure) agricultural produce on which taxes were paid/agricultural produce on which taxes were not 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. patriarchPatriarchal Society Patriarchal society is: * 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. Wonderful send-up of Byeltsin. Word salad like this is an art. Throwing in the occasional complete sentence, to throw off the reader, is a touch of genius. Great stuff for April Fools.
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