What First Century Life was like in Palestine

The typical Jew did not live in Palestine during the New Testament period because only about six hundred thousand Jews lived in Palestine while as many as eight million Jews lived in the Roman Empire (Lea, 37), and this means that more than ten times as many Jews lived in the Roman Empire as what lived in the Palestinian aria during the time of the New Testament. Both Rome and Alexandria had more Jews each than Jerusalem, and these cities would have been the centers for Jewish people during the time of Jesus Christ (Lea, 37). The fact that Jesus in his early ministry did not go to Rome or Alexandria tells us that he especially cared for those that had been his own special people as seen in the crucifixion at Jerusalem, but through the Jews the way was made for expanding the kingdom of God more into the Roman Empire than what could have been accomplished through the problem of Jews with Jewish pride for the homeland found in Jerusalem.

Differences existed with Palestinian Jews and wealthy Roman citizens in that despite the comparative poverty of the Palestinian Jews the poorest Jew would have felt that he was accepted by God the same as the wealthiest son of Abraham (Lea, 36). Roman civilization however had vast class distinctions based upon wealth (Lea, 35), and that wealth was based upon capital ownership that could be utilized for production. Roman civilization thus would have been a lot more materialistic than Palestinian Jewish civilization because Romans may have more easily associated assets with self worth.

Living as a Roman would have involved going to public displays of violence (Lea, 41) like in the Coliseum for entertainment, but Palestinian Jews however would have danced, sung songs, and had guests every night as part of daily evening entertainment (Lea, 40). Despite social connectivity with others at night for entertainment, the lifestyle of the typical Palestinian Jew would have involved two meals a day with mainly bread, fruit, and vegetables (Lea, 34) as compared to the four meals a day that wealthy Roman citizens would have enjoyed while even the Roman food itself was better (Lea, 35). Education for Palestinian Jews at the time of Christ would have involved education from a Rabbi among young males while females would have only learned home skills from their mothers, but in the Greek world of the Roman Empire education was available for both boys and girls until the age of eighteen (Lea, 39). Overall, the differences between Palestinian Jews and Roman citizens in entertainment, diet, and education showed a huge indicator that Roman culture was more interested in obtaining individual gains on self worth while Palestinian Jews had been more community focused in being connected together without a vast class system to mediate interactions between people (although Palestinian Jews had some class distinctions too).

For most Palestinian Jews working would have involved simple trades, but for Romans work could have involved big business operations involving much wealth as a result of the business power that Rome had over the world. Evidence of the differences between work done by Palestinian Jews and work done by Roman citizens can be identified through the differences in the quality of the road systems, transportation, and communications. Overall, unfortunately many Palestinian Jews basically shut themselves in from the rest of the world while the Roman civilization thrived on doing just the opposite by making the entire world accessible to Rome.

Palestinian Jews of the time of Christ lived a lot like the Greeks of today that live throughout Greece in traditional Greek culture under the awesome banner of the Greek Orthodox national church, and like the Palestinian Jews of the time of Jesus they will get together every night for food and sometimes dancing without vast distinctions of class. The United States, Great Britten, Germany, and other highly developed western civilizations are more like what Rome once was in its tremendous materialistic culture that was highly class based. Overall, the Greeks of today like the ancient Jews enjoy a more social lifestyle with each other, but highly developed western people have a way of being very 'cold' to one another and indulging in entertainment that centers on violence like what Roman civilization would have had.

Bibliography:

Lea, Thomas, and David Alan Black. The New Testament: Its Background and Message, 2nd ed. Nashville, Tennessee: H&B Academic, 2003.