This essay will discuss the ways in which the gospels reflect first century Palestinian culture, and the ways in which it contrasts with that culture. Using examples from the gospel texts, it will show how this distinction helps to read the texts more clearly.
The gospels are replete with vignettes of first century Palestinian culture. Biblical Israel had an agricultural economy. The parables often depicted agricultural scenes. Many people worked the land and were in tune with the various aspects of rural farm life. Women ground grain and made bread. Men tended flocks of sheep. Slavery, though not racial, was a common institution. Jesus taught a number of parables regarding slaves and their masters. Religious culture is prominent in the gospels. The various parties (Pharisees, Sadducees and Zealots) are given expression both through historical accounts of events and through their use in parables. Religious rights, rituals and festivals are routinely described in the gospels and become the backdrop for many of the more important events (Passover as the backdrop to the crucifixion, for example).
Insight into first century Palestinian culture enhances the power of the parables as teaching tools. For example, in the two passages regarding the “foolish man who built his house on the sand,” (Matt 7:24-27, Luke 6:46-49), the point is driven home more forcefully when one understands that the original hearers were familiar with the concept of torrents (sandy streambeds subject to flash flooding).
The parable of the sower and the seed is more powerful when one is aware of the fact that farmers in biblical Israel sowed seed by casting it in a more conservative manner than the parable depicts, keeping the seed to a more narrow area as it is sown. The idea conveyed with this additional insight is that the sower (Christ) casts his seed (God’s Word) more broadly to reach soil (hearts of men) that the sower would not normally have reached. In a sense, Christ casts a very wide net.
In the parable of the mustard seed (Matt 13:31-32), the normal mustard plant does not grow very large at all. However, Christ speaks of one that grows to become larger than it should be expected grow. When Christ speaks of the “gates of Hell” not prevailing against the church (Matt 16:18) the background knowledge that fortified cities’ weakest defense was typically their wooden gates helps the reader to see the church as a battering ram, rescuing souls from Hell.
In the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:30-37) the moral that whomever crosses one’s path is actually one’s “neighbor” is driven home with more punch when one is aware of the disdain the average Israelite had for the Samaritans. The Samaritans were considered religious half-breeds who refused to worship YHWH in Jerusalem, but rather maintained their own temple in Mt. Gerazim. Yet the despised Samaritan is depicted in the parable as being the benevolent on in comparison to the religious Jews that pass by the injured traveler.
