LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST

Ø SOURCES OF HISTORICAL JESUS

The society in which Jesus and his disciples lived was oral-based and communal. The people
remembered the stories in their communal life, and passed them on in oral form for generations.
Jewish rabbis of the time are fine examples of this mind-set. A Jewish rabbi would gather
willing listeners around him, and teach the Law by spoken word and personal example, not
from textbooks or written lecture notes. Much as the rabbis taught the Law, Jesus taught “the
rule of God” to his disciples. Some gospel narratives even refer to him as “rabbi,” a term
reminiscent of an educated Pharisee.
Flavius Josephus
Josephus was born a few years after the death of Jesus (ca. 37–100 CE). A Palestinian Jewish
man of noble birth and priestly stock, Josephus believed his religion to be consistent with Greek
and Roman life and thought. When the Roman legions under general Titus invaded his land
through Galilee to the north in response to the first Jewish revolt, Josephus and his Jewish
resistance fighters held them off for as long as they could, but eventually had to surrender to
the more powerful imperial forces.
His two most notable and most quoted works are The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews.
The War is the story of the first battle of the Jewish people against the Roman military prior to
and after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The war broke out in 66 and continued after 70 until
all the pockets of Jewish resistance were eradicated. The Antiquities is a history of Israel among
the nations viewed through Jewish eyes. Both of these volumes were written during the last
quarter of the first century.
Josephus does not narrate much about the life and ministry of Jesus. What he does say
specifically appears at two places in the available manuscripts.
(1) “Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he
was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He
drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ.
(2) [Ananus] assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus,
who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an
accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
His narration about events and people in Palestine together with his insights into his own
religion and culture—which were also that of Jesus —make Josephus a worthy resource for the
enterprise of recovering Jesus in his time and place.
Roman Historians
Pagan writers said little about Jesus, and what they did say varies in its historical value and
interest.
v In a letter to his son, Mara bar Serapion (ca. a.d. 73) asks, “For what advantage did . . .
the Jews [gain] by the death of their wise king?”
v Tacitus (ca. a.d. 110) tells us that the name “Christian” “originates from ‘Christus’ who
was sentenced to death by the governor, Pontius Pilate, during the reign of Tiberius”
(Ann. 15.44).

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 v In a letter to Trajan, Pliny the Younger (a.d. 110) explains that Christians regularly
assemble to recite “a hymn antiphonally to Christ as God” and to “partake of a meal”
v In his Life of Emperor Claudius, Suetonius (ca. a.d. 120) reports, “Claudius expelled
the Jews from Rome [a.d. 49; cf. Acts 18:2] who, instigated by Chrestus, never ceased
to cause unrest”
Taken together, Roman witnesses to the historical Jesus see him through the lens of their
knowledge of Christianity. They are much more interested in Christianity than in its Christ.
Apostle Paul
The earliest surviving documents of the primitive Jesus-community come from a man who did
not know Jesus in the flesh. He believed in Jesus, of course, having heard about him from the
preaching of others. The man in question is the Apostle Paul, and the documents are his
personal letters to congregations he called into being in the name of Jesus Messiah. These
letters come from the decade of the fifties CE, but information in them about the historical life
and ministry of Jesus in Galilee and Judea two to three decades earlier is limited to these few
facts: that Jesus had a human birth (Gal 4:4); that he was Jewish (Gal 4:4); that he was betrayed
at night (1 Cor. 11:23); that he instituted a Eucharistic meal of bread and wine (1 Cor. 11:23
25); that he said (1) preachers of the gospel should be paid (1 Cor. 9:14), and (2) a wife and
husband should not divorce (1 Cor. 7:10–11); and that he was crucified by (unidentified)
earthly rulers (1 Cor. 2:8). These few facts, while important, are devoid of narrative context.
They are, instead, woven into the arguments of Paul’s letters. However much Paul may have
learned about the earthly Jesus from the Apostles during his two visits to Jerusalem (Gal 1:18;
2:1), he left the pre-Easter ministry of Jesus very much out of sight in his letters to his
congregations. His motivation for doing so is not revealed in his correspondence. One can only
guess that such narrative material from Jesus would have been secondhand to Paul, proving
only that he was dependent on the Apostles who had been with Jesus. When Paul does cite the
three sayings from the tradition of Jesus, he refers to them as coming from “the Lord” (1 Cor.
7:10; 9:14; 11:23).
Relevant literary sources
While gospels are the main sources of information about Jesus, even they fall under the
category of “according to.” the four narrative gospels of the New Testament constitute the
principal sources of information and insight pertaining to Jesus. The first three narrative
gospels in the New Testament, called synoptic because they share material in common, present
images of Jesus in Galilee and Judea that are less interwoven with post-Easter theology than
the narratives in John. For this reason, among others, the synoptic gospels are primary sources
in the search for Jesus of history. The Gospel of John is unabashedly evangelistic and
theological by its own testimony: “these [signs] are written so that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his
name” (John 20:30-31).

Ø THE WORLD IN WHICH JESUS LIVED

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES
Palestine derives its name from ‘Philistia’, and it is situated at the western end of the Fertile
Crescent. It is bounded on the west by the Mediterranean; on the east by the Jordan; on the
north by the Lebanon and Hermon; and on the south by the hills of Judea.

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It is a mountainous and colorful land whose most famous features are the blue lake of Galilee,
the vivid green of the Jordan valley, and the gleaming snows of Hermon. Galilee is the garden
of Palestine, well watered and fertile.

In our Lord’s day it was thickly populated and covered with roads to everywhere. In Christ’s
day Galilee was very open to Greek influences. The Galileans were very religious. The lake of
Galilee is pear-shaped and measures 13 miles in length and 8 at its broadest. In the time of
Jesus it supported a large fishing industry. At south of Galilee lies Samaria.
The primary features of the topography of Palestine are not difficult to describe. The land
naturally divides itself into four north-south regions parallel with one another. From west to
east, these four regions are the Coastal Plain, the Central Highlands, the Jordan Rift, and the
Transjordanian Highlands.
The Coastal Plain. The western boundary of Palestine is a long shoreline on the Mediterranean
Sea. A famous international highway, the Via Maris (“the Way of the Sea”), ran the length of
the coastline.
The Central Highlands. The central portion of Palestine, west to east, consists of low foothills
that rise out of the Coastal Plain and end in the central mountain range of Palestine. The Central
Highlands is composed of three regions from north to south: Galilee, Samaria, and Judah.
The Jordan Rift. The third of the geographic divisions of Palestine, the Jordan Rift, is a major
geological feature in the earth's surface that extends from the foot of Mount Hermon in northern
Syria through the valley of the Jordan River to the Dead Sea.
The Transjordanian Highlands.: the region does contain a few mountains over 3,000 feet.
Four perennial rivers flow westward from the Transjordan into the Jordan River. From north to
south, they are the Yarmuk, the Jabbok, the Arnon, and the Zered.
POLITICAL WORLD OF JESUS

HELLENISTIC ERA (332- 167 BCE)

Hellenism refers to Greek culture, especially that which was spread throughout the Near East
after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander’s conquests spread the use of the Koine
Greek (“common”) dialect, a simplified form of Attic Greek. Greek literature, drama,
philosophy, art and athletics, had influence on that time and most Jews came to varying degrees
of accommodation with Greek culture. The Classical Age of Greek city-states was replaced by
the rise of the Macedonians under the leadership of Philip and his son Alexander, who forcibly
unified the Greeks and launched a crusade against the Persians. Alexander the Great, who had
been privately tutored by Aristotle, became the king of Macedonia in 336 B.C. He was proven
to be a brilliant military general, whose conquest covered a whole part of Persian Empire and
beyond. Throughout these places he tried to promote Greek language and culture which had
prevailed till the first century when Christianity flourished in Asia Minor. Paul even being a
Jew had learned Greek language and was influenced by Greek culture and philosophies.
ROMAN ERA (27BCE-286CE)

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After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE the territories of Greek kingdom was divided for his three
successors by 275 BC; the Antigonids in Macedonia, the Ptolemies in Egypt, and the Seleucids
in Syria. But in two consecutive wars in 167 BCE and 146 BCE against Greek rulers named
Macedonian Wars brought Romans grew stronger than Greeks. Though victorious in wars,
Greek religious, philosophical and cultural influence continued even in Roman period. There
is hardly any aspect of higher culture which was not decisively influenced by the Greeks: art,
architecture, literature, drama, medicine, philosophy and religion were all deeply affected by
the Greeks. Educated Romans after the second century B.C. were expected to know Greek as
well as Latin. Hence, even after Romans were in rule Hellenism as an influential world view
continued. As a result, in modern scholarship the era is most often denoted not as two separate
ages but as one, Greco-Roman world.
GRECO-ROMAN RELIGION
Greek society, as the apostle Paul observed of Athens, was indeed “very religious” (Acts 17:22
).Religion was integral to community life, family life, and the private aspirations of individuals.
The conquests of Alexander the Great (334–323 BC) and the expansion of Hellenistic culture
and thought had a significant influence on the religious climate of the ancient world. There was
a notable expansion of traditional Greek religious conceptions. Greco-Roman religions were
comprised of myths, supreme deities, intermediary deities, rituals, sacrifices etc. The twelve
main Olympic deities (Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hermes,
Ares, Demeter, Dionysus, and Hephaestus) formed a family, with Zeus at its head, joined by
his wife (and sister), Hera. In addition there were regional deities such as Heroes and Diamones.
Mystery Religions: Mystery religions were alternative worship systems. Mystery religions are
so designated because each involved secret rites of initiation that could not be revealed to
outsiders. In the later Hellenistic and Roman era the mysteries of Isis, Cybele, and Mithras
became extremely popular. These mystery religions had rituals of purification, sacrifices, the
recitation of oaths, sacred vows, rituals involving the symbolic death and rebirth of the initiate,
and sacred meals. These rites have prompted comparisons between Christianity and the
mysteries.
Imperial cult: The imperial cult was particularly influential throughout Asia Minor, including
the eastern region where Tarsus was located. Beginning with the divine Augustus, Roman
emperors were frequently lauded with such titles as kyrios (“Lord”) and sōtēr (“savior”), and
these titles were also used of Jesus by Paul and other early Christians (Rom 1:4; 4:24; 16:2;
Phil 2:11; 3:20). While these titles are used of God frequently in the Greek OT, they would
have had clear associations with the imperial cult to many ancient Mediterraneans. While the
title “Son of God” was certainly derived from the OT (2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7), the phrase divi
filius (“son of god”) was used of Augustus (referring to his adopted father Julius Caesar) and
was a title taken over by other Roman emperors to underline their familial relationship to their
divinized predecessors, so that this designation would also have had associations with the
imperial cult for many ancients. In this backdrop NT claims of ‘’savior and lord’’ can be
considered as a dissent against the ongoing Roman rule. On Jesus’ death and resurrection,
Jesus’ followers came to declare that the risen Jesus himself was Lord and Savior of the
universe.

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GRECO-ROMAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY
As part of the Greco-Roman world, Jews participated in and interacted with the surrounding
culture. Features of that surrounding culture included Roman government, an agrarian society,
and traditional values and attitudes.

Government
The emperor and the Senate in Rome governed the provinces of the empire. The emperor
oversaw imperial provinces, over which he appointed governors (prefects or procurators). The
Senate oversaw senatorial provinces, over which they appointed proconsuls. Rome ruled other
territories indirectly through subject kings such as Herod the Great.
Governors of provinces collected a tax on agricultural produce and a head tax. For other taxes,
such as tolls on the trade routes, cities and districts contracted with local men of wealth and
influence to collect what was due to Rome. Military units of various sizes were stationed in the
imperial provinces. The smallest unit of the Roman army was the century, consisting of a
hundred men commanded by a centurion. Six centuries (600 men) made up a cohort, and ten
cohorts (6,000 men) made up a legion.
Pax Romana (peace of Rome)
With the rise of Roman Empire and their establishment as a super power came roads that
connected all parts of the empire. Paul and the other Christian preachers, especially Paul used
these roads to a great effect. The Augustinian peace led to mobility in society previously
unknown in the ancient world. It also encouraged the development of culture in every way,
leading to great achievements in literature, architecture, and sculpture. The study of law was
greatly developed. The economy provided varying degrees of prosperity throughout the empire.
Everywhere the Roman army was a symbol of Roman power, Roman law and Roman peace.
Not least there was a common language – Greek- in which one could communicate in the larger
part of the empire. When Christianity was emerging from Judaism, its earliest expansionary
moves were to cities and regions that were developing as commercial centers and that had
significant Jewish communities, such as Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and
Alexandria. An appreciation of the dynamic growth of Judaism and Christianity—and their
interplay—depends in part on how the economy was organized, trade encouraged, and
professions incorporated into the local economies.
MORAL WORLD OF JESUS
Ancient Greece provided the soil from which grew the discipline of philosophy (“love of
wisdom”). Roman philosophers followed the Greeks. The philosophers considered basic
questions of human existence in the world: what is the nature of the universe, how did it
originate, what is the place of humanity in the world, and what manner of life is appropriate
for human beings? Several important philosophical schools thrived in the Hellenistic period.
Socrates, Aristotle and Plato were the famous trio from Greek philosophical tradition.
Platonism, Stoicism (Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of
Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. ... Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—
emphasized that because "virtue is sufficient for happiness, accepting the moment as it presents
itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or by the fear of pain),

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Epicureanism (Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based on the teachings of Epicurus,
founded around 307 B.C. It teaches that the greatest good is to seek modest pleasures in order
to attain a state of tranquillity, freedom from fear ("ataraxia") and absence from bodily pain
("aponia")) and cynicism (skepticism) were some of the most important philosophical
traditions from the Greco-Roman world.
When Jesus first came, it was the fullness of the time morally. The apostle Paul terms the moral
condition of the world at the coming of Christ as ‘a world that was sunk in moral hopelessness
in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans. The world had sinned its youth away, and all the
freshness of the dew of youth was gone, and only the worm, the boil, and the grief were left.
Everywhere the best spirits were in despair. Everywhere to the noblest souls it seemed that the
whole world was pursuing its riotous way down to disaster and insensibleness and ultimate
night. And, it was then Christ came, travelling in the greatness of his strength and has made the
Old World new. It can be said in a very real way that in the moral sphere the fullness of the
time had come.
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
a. Torah

Torah simply means ‘law’. But in the Jewish religion Torah is referred as the collection of first
five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch). According to the Rabbis there were two laws:
the Written Law as revealed in the five books of Moses (Torah she-bi-khetav) and the Oral
Law (Torah she-be'al peh), which was handed down from one generation to the other. n Jewish
ideology, however, the Pentateuch is only the Torah she-bi-khetav (the written Torah). But in
the Hellenistic-Roman period Sadducees maintained that written laws contain the essence of
Jewish legislation and Pharisees on the other hand, believed that they need to be supplemented
by additional rulings.
b. Temple

It has always been recognized that the Jerusalem temple was a major and primary Jewish
religious institution. The temple built by Solomon was in one respect a "royal chapel," closely
associated with the king's palace and other royal buildings. The Temple of intertestamental
period (and of Jesus' day) had been built by Herod the Great. Being the goal of the pilgrim
festivals, the seat of the Sanhedrin and the site of the sacrificial system, the temple was the
pivotal point of Jewish people. Here God's praise was sung, the Torah was expounded, and
sacrifices were offered for the atonement and purification of the people. Furthermore the
Temple cultus symbolized the unity of God's people through their collective prayers. Payment
of temple tax and through pilgrimages Jews who lived far from the temple could feel their
participation and oneness.
c. Land

What binds the Jews together is not a creed but a history: a strong sense of a common origin, a
shared past, the promised land and a shared destiny. The high regard for the land of Israel and
them as the chosen people of God is an important characteristic of Jewish religion. The
uniqueness of the holy nation found expression in number of practices such as circumcision,

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observance of the Sabbath, etc. The Jews held a strong conviction of the necessity of being a
member of the chosen race by pure descendent in order to share the future blessings. Being on
the land conveys a sense of permanence and stability; but an existence away from the land
suggests alienation and abandonment (Psalm 137).
d. Monotheism

The emphasis upon monotheism was one of the primary characteristics of Jewish belief. It has
survived the threats such as idolatry and religious syncretism of the past. Jewish monotheism
was underscored in the daily recitation of the Shema (a confession of faith in Jewish liturgy
and the word meaning ‘hear’; Deuteronomy 6:4–9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37-
41). Jewish monotheistic notion was unique among the Mediterranean religions. The claims of
godship other than Yahweh was considered as a blasphemy.
e. Synagogue :The synagogue developed as a major religious and social institution during the
Greco-Roman period. The word 'synagogue' comes from the Greek. Synagogues were emerged
during the Babylonian exile, after the Jews had lost their temple and when they sought to
maintain their identity while they lived as a minority in a foreign land. Those exiles who
returned to Palestine found themselves a subject people surrounded by hostile groups. These
situations inevitably led, by stages, to the development of synagogue as a center of worship
and community life. In addition to the occasional, religious functions, the synagogue was at its
heart a communal institution and supplied a local center of worship. As such it served in some
cases as the communal treasury, archive, and school as the locus for legal and civic proceedings
and meetings, and as a hostel for people from other lands.
f. Sabbath :
The observance of the seventh day of each week as a holy rest day was an important element
in Jewish ideology. As long as the temple stood additional sacrifices were performed on
Sabbath. Jewish Sabbath (from Hebrew shavat,“to rest”) is observed throughout the year on
the seventh day of the week i.e Saturday. According to biblical tradition, it commemorates the
original seventh day on which God rested after completing the creation. Observance of Sabbath
was made mandatory for all the Jewish followers.
g. Eschatology and messianism
Jewish eschatology is well rooted in the prophetic books. It was clear that the world fell far
short of God's requirements and it was essential that something should be done to bridge this
gulf. Jewish flaunting ungodliness and their expectant covenant obligations pointed towards
the expectation that 'the Day of Yahweh' would come. The first allusion to it appears in Amos
(5: 18, s19). It would be a day of dread. But after the day of terror and judgment, the world
cleansed and regenerated would enter upon a new era.
On the other hand in Jewish ideology the "Messiah" (in Hb. ham-masiah, the Anointed One)
denotes an eschatological figure. He belongs to the last time and his advent lies in the future.
The messiah is the future, eschatological realization of the ideal kingship and this kind of a
hope was developed in the post-exilic period. But often this messianic figure is misunderstood
by the Jewish people as a political one.
MAJOR SECTS WITHIN JUDAISM
Second temple Judaism is considered to be the point of divergence towards Jewish piety. The
time between Babylonian exile (6th Century BCE) and the destruction of the second temple by

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the Romans (70 C.E) brought out a fascinating and complex variety of expressions of Jewish
identity and life. It was a time of reformation within Judaism. Dissatisfaction with the
Hellenization process in the second century BCE resulted in the formation of new sects within
Judaism. They are:
A. Pharisees: They considered themselves to be strict interpreters of the Torah. But towards
the first century they were turned out to be more of a legalistic group within Judaism. they
rigorously observed the rabbinic and Mosaic laws. They believed in the existence of angels and
spirits, in the immortality of the soul, and in the resurrection of the body. They gave much
importance for the purity laws. But, often their introspective intend on obedience to the law
turned out to be obsessively self-righteous. When interpreting the scriptures the Pharisees
devised legal loopholes for their convenience. So Jesus and Pharisees repeatedly clashed over
the artificiality of such legalism.
B. Sadducees: Although their party played political role, their party was above all a
religious party. In Judaism they were the wealthy aristocratic group consisting chiefly of
the families of the priesthood and of the leading rabbis. The Sadducees adhered to the
strictly literal interpretation of the Torah. Their rationalist tendency and anti-super
naturalism resulted in denying the existence of angels and spirits (Acts 23:8). They neither
believed in personal immortality nor in the resurrection of the body.

C. Essenes: They were monastic in character and led a separated life. They believed that
the temple worship was polluted and they did not participate in the animal sacrifices. They
wore white robes to signify inward purity. Compared to Pharisees they followed rigid
interpretation of the law. These men formed a fraternity, a religious association. They lived
in congregations, and expenses, clothes and food were in common. It is clear from Josephus
that they had a distinct organization with clear procedures for admission and expulsion.
Admission to the community was implied through different stages such as initiation,
purificatory baths. They deliberately became moneyless and landless.

D. The Zealots: They were a religious fanatic group. This group was emerged as a
resistance which was led by a Pharisee named Sadduq and a Galilean, Judas, who stirred
up a rebellion against Rome in A.D 6 (Acts 5: 37). They were a group of fanatical
nationalists who adopted violence as a means for liberation from Roman Imperialism.
ECONOMIC BACKGROUND
Socio-economic classes
In an agrarian society such as the Greco-Roman world, most people depended on agriculture
for their livelihood. In some cases, families owned and worked their own land. In other cases,
wealthy landholders with large estates leased the land to tenant farmers, who paid them with
part of the produce. At the top of society stood the ruler and a small governing class. It has
been estimated that this 1–2 percent of the population accounted for 50 percent of the
wealth. Beneath the ruling elite stood a few classes that had a measure of wealth and influence:
retainers (scribes, bureaucrats, and generals who served the ruling elite), as well as merchants
and priests. However, the bulk of the population, the common people, had little access to wealth
or power. These consisted primarily of peasant farmers, but also included artisans (weavers,

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builders, and potters) and even less reputable classes (prostitutes, outlaws, beggars, and
underemployed itinerant workers).
Slaves composed about a third of the population. Slaves came from conquered peoples,
criminals, debtors sold to pay their debts, infants sold or found abandoned, and children of
slaves. Some slaves experienced a hard life working in the fields. Others with education were
relatively well off, serving in households as administrators or tutors. They could be freed if
they were set free by their masters or bought their freedom. Relations between classes took the
form of a patron/client system. Lowerclass “clients” provided loyalty and services for a higher-
class “patron.” In return, the patron looked out for their interests and acted as intermediary on
their behalf with other higher-class individuals.

Lenski offers eight levels of social stratification characteristic of advanced agrarian economies:
(1) ruler, (2) governing class, (3) retainer class, (4) merchants, (5) priests, (6) peasants, (7)
artisans, and (8) unclean, degraded, and expendables. Crucial to this model is the assertion that
political systems are central to social inequality. With regard to the Palestinian economy, the
claim is made that wealth and power, including land ownership, were concentrated in the hands
of urban elites (particularly in Jerusalem), whereas the vast majority of the peasant population
in Judea and Galilee worked the land and paid taxes that supported the comfortable lifestyles
of the wealthy. There is no doubt that economic activity in Roman Palestine centered on
agricultural production, with the harvest of grain for food, olives for oil, and grapes for wine
the primary crops most of the land in Judea and Galilee seems to have been owned and farmed
by freeholding peasants (cf. Mark 10:29; Matt. 19:29).
Taxation
Two types of taxes required to be paid from the Jewish nationals. First is the Roman tax which
is paid to the emperor. Payment of the Roman tribute is an issue in the conversation between
Jesus and a contingent of Pharisees and Herodians in Mark 12:13–17 (cf. the parallels in Matt.
22:15–22 and Luke 20:20–26). When asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the
emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” (Mark 12:14–15), Jesus asks for a
denarius. Writing to the community of Jesus’ followers in Rome in the middle of the first
century, the apostle Paul advocates payment of taxes (Rom. 13:6–7).
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus frequently encounters or mentions these tax collectors (Matt.
5:46; 9:10–11; 10:3; 11:19; 18:17; 21:31–32; Mark 2:15–16; Luke 3:12; 5:27– 32; 7:29, 34;
15:1; 18:10–14). The NT Gospels mentions these tax collectors as “sinners,” that is, violators
of Jewish law (Matt. 9:10–11; 11:19; Mark 2:15–16; Luke 5:30; 7:34; 15:1; cf. prostitutes in
Matt. 21:31–32).
Temple tax: the second tax Jewish people had to pay is the temple tax paid to the Jewish
leadership and government. Most adult Jewish males in the early Roman period, whether they
lived in Palestine or in the Diaspora, paid a yearly half-shekel tax to the Jerusalem temple.
No doubt men may grow so desperately worried and care-ridden about material things, about
the question of where tomorrow’s bread is going to come from, that they may have little or no

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heart or interest left for religion. But no doubt, also, man’s extremity is still God’s
opportunity: and the very breakdown of all human resources may prepare the world at last to
listen to Christ. Economically, no less than politically, the fullness of the time had come.

The geographical places, chronological dating, climatic references, cultural artifacts, linguistic
expressions all points towards historical reliability of the Gospel narratives.
LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND OF JESUS
From the second century B.C. to the second century A.D., Greek became the most common
language of discourse between peoples found in the area east of Italy to the Levant. The most
obvious effect of Hellenization is indicated by the fact that the NT was written in Koine Greek.
Most of the citations of the OT in the NT are from the Septuagint (LXX). Hence we can
conclude that most of the NT writers might have read the Greek translations (LXX) of the Old
Testament portions and adopted LXX portions to the NT. Moreover, they widely used Greek
as a language for their exhortations, arguments and writings.
There were four primary used in the Palestine in the first century CE: Latin, Greek, Aramaic
and Hebrew. Latin was the legal language of the Roman Empire but were used mainly in the
West. In the East the lingua franca was the Greek. Besides Greek, Palestinian spoke Aramaic
and Hebrew. Whether more Greek or Aramaic was spoken in Palestine is debated. There are
epigraphic and literary indications that Hebrew was written in Jesus’ time and still used in
certain oral activities such as Midrashic Sermon, Halakic Teachings and legal discussions.

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