[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on The Social World of Jesus
In the period of Jesus’ activity, with focus on the revitalization of Israel, the new in-group would consist essentially of the core group around Jesus plus faction supporters around the country, notably in Galilee (as in the “mission field” of Mark 6:6-12 and parallels). Good outcomes for the other group were undesirable, even when they were in no way related to one’s own outcomes (concerning the almsgiving, prayer and fasting of Pharisees in Matt. 6:1-18; or concerning Pharisee behavior in Matthew 23). Each individual was responsible for the actions of all other in-group members, and the in-group was responsible for the actions of each individual member (hence the need to address Judas’ shameful behavior, notably in Matt. 27:3-10).
Thus, for instance, even as regards the broad in-group of regional residents, Galileans related to Judeans in response to Judean policies in Galilee as if each Judean were the maker of those policies, and they interpret the actions of individual Judeans which fit their general ideological framework as the actions of all Judeans (the special note of Jerusalemite scribes at Mark 3:22.What, then, were the “principal aspirations” that Jesus despite his Galilean origins and non-elite standing seemed so well to satisfy?
The abruptness and intensity of Jesus’ veneration after his successes in Galilee must be understood in the context of Israelite attitudes toward the social situation in Palestine in general. Although Jesus repeatedly doubted and denied his own capacities to lead his following to victory over the range of social, boundary-penetrating evils (for example, Roman taxation, usurpation by more powerful Israelites, demon infestations, illness, general situations of dishonor), those who followed him—from disciples to the crowds—were not so pessimistic. Israel’s glorious political past as recounted in the Torah and its various updated versions had more than enough instances of successful reversals of the status quo and revivals of the past to warrant such moderate optimism......
