Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Jesus' Social Class

Although Jesus has historically been viewed as a peasant, new archaeological discoveries suggest the he might have been in a slightly higher social class and was probably an artisan but was still close to peasant life. It is also suggested that he grew up in a village near a large city instead of in the more rural country side, which allowed him to experience Greek and Jewish culture at the same time. These discoveries have been very controversial and have caused people to reconsider his social class, some believe that he was in the upper-lower class and some believe that he was in the middle class, especially if he lived in the urban area near his childhood home. Although there is evidence to suggest the Jesus was above the lower class, some people still believe there is evidence that he was a peasant because there was no solid middle class in that society, and sometimes artisans and carpenters were in a lower class than peasants. Also, most of his parables and stories that he told were things that peasants could relate to and understand. There is a lot of evidence for both social classes, so it is hard to determine exactly what social class Jesus was in.

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