Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §9.6
burial in kochim shafted tombs with ossuaries). 200 The conclusion that Sepphoris
contained a predominantly Jewish and devout Jewish population is hard
to avoid. 201
All this tells against the Cynic hypothesis regarding Galilee and Sepphoris
in particular. Sepphoris's 'thin veneer of cosmopolitan culture' was hardly conducive
to Cynic philosophers: 202 and for their presence in Galilee there is no evidence
whatsoever. 203 Of course the hypothesis that Jesus was influenced by Cynicism
has been built primarily on the Q material. 204 But the attempt to restrict a
Greek document like Q (even Q 1 ) to Galilee ignores the evidence that Jesus' sayings
were much more widely known. 205 And whether the Q teachings presuppose
what Gerald Downing repeatedly insists is 'distinctively Cynic' influence,
206 rather than, say, a prophetic lifestyle which echoes that of Elijah and a
prophetic critique of rich oppressors which echoes many oracles of the classical
prophets, is a question to which we shall have to return. 207 For the present, however,
it is important to observe that the historical context envisaged to explain Jesus'
alleged indebtedness to Cynicism is poorly supported by what we know of
that context.
The relationships predicated between Sepphoris and its surrounding villages
(including Nazareth) are more difficult to assess. Horsley disputes with
those who assume the traditional European pattern of market towns serving as
200. Reed, Archaeology 84, 127-28, 134; Crossan and Reed, Excavating Jesus 165-72;
similarly Freyne, 'Jesus and Urban Culture' 191; M. Chancey, 'The Cultural Milieu of Ancient
Sepphoris', NTS 47 (2001) 127-45.
201. Similarly Meyers, 'Roman Sepphoris': archaeological excavations 'point to a
Torah-true population, judging by the number of ritual baths (miqva'ot) in houses and by the
strict practice of burial outside the city precincts' (325). Reed adds that 'the coins and inscriptions
from Sepphoris verify that Jews ranked in the highest civic circles in the first century' (Archaeology
134, referring back to the modest data on 121-22).
202. Horsley, Archaeology 59, 179-80; similarly Reed, Archaeology 218.
203. As Downing readily acknowledges (Cynics 146-47). Crossan's 'peasant Jewish
Cynic' 'designates an unattested hybrid unlikely to be recognized as such in first-century Galilee
or Judea' (J. W. Marshall, 'The Gospel of Thomas and the Cynic Jesus', in Arnal and
Desjardins, eds., Whose Historical Jesus? 37-60 [here 60]). Further critique in D. E. Aune, 'Jesus
and Cynics in First-Century Palestine: Some Critical Considerations', in Charlesworth and
Johns, eds., Hillel and Jesus 176-92; and above chapter 7 n. 71.
204. Kloppenborg Verbin's attempt to reexpress the hypothesis in terms of a 'cynic-like'
rather than Cynic Q (above chapter 7 n. 71) appears somewhat disingenuous, since the issue
presumably is not simply one of analogy but of genealogy, that is, whether Cynic influence explains
features of Q which otherwise would be less plausibly explained.
205. Koester, 'Sayings of Q' 138-40.
206. Downing, Cynics 143, 150, 152, 153, 160, 161.
207. Cf. Freyne, 'Jesus and Urban Culture' 197-98. Mack sees the Cynics 'as the Greek
analogue to the Hebrew prophets' (Lost Gospel 114).
300