From: Kevin (kevin@xap.com)
Date: Wed Oct 16 2002 - 23:15:13 BST
Steve said:
> Is anyone sufficiently versed in the social context of Jesus' time
> that they could describe the social establishment that Jesus would
> have been railing against (if in fact he was not supporting that
> establishment)? e.g. Double
> taxation, the Saducees, holiness, and the Pharisees and other
reactions to
> the problem of being a Jew under Roman occupation.
>
DMB says:
I'm not sure we need tons of detail about the social context.
People who support the status quo are usually not crucified. It seems
sufficient to know that he was considered a threat to those who were in
charge and that he excited those who were not in positions of authority.
Kevin:
If the NT account is to be trusted, Jesus was found "not guilty" by a
Roman court but was crucified to appease the Jewish Establishment. (I
know some that claim the NT account is inaccurate to villify Jews, but I
can't speak to that.)
It begs the question that I raised at the beginning of the thread. Jesus
was considered a threat to the Social Patterns of Judaism, but NOT a
threat to the Social Patterns of the Roman Empire. In fact, the Jewish
Establishment (Pharicees, Saducees) questioned his claim to be the
Messiah precisely because he DIDN'T offer enough of challenge to the
Roman Empire to suit them, but rather threatened their (Pharicees,
Saducees) control over a conquered people.
I'm not as practiced as some around here of sorting out the conflict
between SQ layers so I'm still waiting for someone to offer a top down
view. This scenario strikes me as especially interesting because it's a
conflict between Social vs. Intellect Layers (Jesus challenge to
Judaism) within a lager Social vs. Social Conflict (Jesus NOT advocating
rebellion against the Romans, but submission). How do we rate Jesus' MOQ
Morality Score (tm) in this scenario?
With hope,
Kevin
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