Context: Social/Cultural World of Jesus

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.

He was most likely of the Artisan class – similar to a caste system.

He doesn't seem to have been a peasant in the strict sense,
someone who was working the land for a living. He was close,
however, to peasant society; all of the images in his parables are
firmly associated with the peasant society and call upon everyday
things like a sower, or sowing seed. But they also call upon images
of land owners and relationships between slave owners and slaves,
masters and servants. So Jesus seems to have been aware of that
level of the socio-economic mix. And he may well have stood in
some relationship to it. So an artisan of some sort is probably the
best way of describing him. Preists also belonged to the Artisan
class.

The political situation of first century Jewish Palestine was a

domination system marked by peasant society, purity society, and
patriarchal society.

~ Marcus Borg

~ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/socialclass.html

Political dimension

Jesus lived in Jewish Palestine in the first century. This is the

historical/cultural/social context in which he must be understood.
 At 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
Peasant Society
Patriarchal Society

Peasant 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:
← Taxation: civil and religious (tithes are taxes on
agricultural produce to be paid to the temple
authorities)
← 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 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

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.
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.

Their role as messengers of God flowed out of intense experiences of the

Spirit, vivid in the Spirit-filled tradition of Israel.

Especially characteristic was their passionate and critical involvement in the

historical life of their people in their own day.

The prophets were:

Voices of religious social protest against the royal theology

God-intoxicated spirit persons
Bearers of the dream of God: a world of justice and compassion
Concerned with:
← the immediate present of their people
← the immediate future flowing out of the present

A threefold pattern marked the message of the prophets:

1. Indictment
2. Threat
3. Call to change

Evidence that Jesus was a social prophet is found in texts reporting:

Conflicts with Pharisees committed to the purity system

Anti-temple sayings and actions
Anti-purity sayings and actions
Forgiveness of sins apart from the temple and purity system
Jesus indicts and challenges the peasant, purity, and patriarchal domination
systems.

Indictment and challenge

Purity sayings
“It’s not what goes into a person from the outside that can defile; rather it’s
what comes out of the person that defiles.” (Mark 7:15, SV)

To say purity is what’s on the inside is a profoundly politically subversive

statement.

“Blessed are the pure in heart...” (Mat. 5:8, NRSV)

To say purity is a matter of the heart is to deny that purity is a matter of

observing the purity system.

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.

Relationships with women

Jesus subverts some of the most sacred taboos of his time by:

Speaking with women

Affirming Mary’s role as a disciple when questioned by Martha
Defending the woman who entered an all-male banquet and washed
Jesus’ feet
 Welcoming women as members of his itinerant group

Temple sayings and action

“Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive
out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he
overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold
doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the
temple....” (Mark 11:15-16, NRSV)
Jesus’ action in the temple is an anti-purity act
Money changers and sellers were serving the ruling elites,
facilitating payment of taxes and system of purity through sacrifice
Jesus’ action protested against the temple as the center of an
economically and politically oppressive domination system

Common table fellowship

Jesus is accused of eating with “tax collectors and sinners.”

In purity society, eating was a political act, who you ate with mattered.

Jesus’ open table fellowship was subversive and illustrated an alternative

wisdom.

Jesus challenged social/political understandings of his society system and

advocated an alternative social vision.

Politics of Compassion

Jesus taught a politics of compassion:

“Be compassionate in the way your Father is compassionate.” (Luke 6:36, SV)

Jesus’ alternative vision echoes and subverts the purity system:

Echoes the ideological justification of the purity system

“Be holy as God is holy” - holiness was understood to mean purity
“Be pure as God is pure” - dominant cultural paradigm of the time
“Be compassionate as God is compassionate” - echoes that paradigm
with a radical substitution of terms
 “Compassion” comes from the word meaning “womb” - life-giving,
encompassing, embracing

The Good Samaritan parable illustrates the 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

A politics of purity creates radical sharp social boundaries.

A politics of compassion dissolves sharp boundaries, is egalitarian

and inclusive.

Jesus as Movement Founder

The Jesus movement was spirit-filled, itinerant, joyful, and
compassionate.

~ Marcus Borg

During his lifetime, Jesus attracted a following of people who were captivated
by his alternative wisdom and alternative social vision.

After his lifetime, a full-fledged movement came into existence.

Jesus was a movement catalyst, a movement came into existence around him.

Jesus’ purpose was the transformation of the Jewish social world.

Jesus’ vision has two aspects: individual and social.

Jesus’ message and activities embodied an alternative social vision which is

seen most clearly in his open table fellowship.

He ate meals with tax collectors, sinners, outcasts, untouchables.

For Jesus, or for any public religious figure, to eat with untouchables is to
make a very sharp edged social statement.

It is deliberate, intentional, and is meant to embody the egalitarian, inclusive

social vision of Jesus.

← tradition containing two voices

Jesus’ invitation to see differently

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.

What does Jesus invite people to see?

What is this new or different way of seeing like?
What is the different vision of life to which Jesus points and to
which he invites his hearers?

Jesus’ alternative wisdom teaching undermines and subverts the social

boundaries generated by the conventional wisdom of his day and ours.

Jesus’ wisdom teaching points to the world of conventional wisdom as a world of

blindness. His aphorisms and parables invite us to see differently.

Conventional wisdom Jesus’ alternative wisdom

God is punitive lawgiver and judge
A person’s worth is determined by
measuring up to social standards
Sinners and outcasts are to be
avoided and rejected
Identity comes from social tradition
Strive to be first
Preserve one’s own life above all
God is gracious
All persons have infinite worth as a
children of God
Everyone is welcome around the table
and in the kingdom of God
Identity comes from centering in the
sacred, from relationship with God
The first shall be last...; those who
exalt themselves will be emptied...
The path of dying to self and being
reborn leads to life abundant
 Fruit of striving is reward Fruit of centering in God is compassion

Compare pre- and post-Easter Jesus

Pre-Easter Jesus Post-Easter Jesus

4 B.C.E. to 30 C.E. 30 C.E. to present

Corporeal, human being of flesh and

Spiritual, non-material reality
blood

Finite and mortal Infinite, eternal

Human Divine

A Jewish peasant King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Figure of the past Figure of the present

Jesus of Nazareth Jesus Christ

Becomes the second person of the

Monotheistic Jew
trinity, “God with a human face”

“The Face of God” (metaphor based on 2

Galilean Jew of the first century Cor. 4:6 Beholding the glory of God in the face
of Christ)

Summary in three strokes

Jesus was:

← A Jewish mystic and healer

← An enlightened wisdom teacher
← A social prophet

There was to Jesus a:

← spirit dimension
 ← wisdom dimension
← political dimension

Summary in five strokes

Jesus was a:

Jewish Mystic / Spirit Person: One of those figures in human history who
had frequent and vivid experiences of the sacred.

Jewish Healer: The historical evidence that Jesus performed paranormal

healings is very strong; he must have been a remarkable healer.

Jewish Wisdom Teacher: He taught a subversive and alternative wisdom.

Jewish Social Prophet: Jesus stands in the tradition of the great social
prophets of ancient Israel who challenged social systems.

Jewish Movement Founder / Initiator: A movement came into existence

around him which embodied his alternative wisdom.

Summary in one minute and 15 seconds

~ from Marcus Borg’s appearance on the “Today Show”

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.