Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §9.7
Netofah valley) was being steadily acquired by Herod's elite. 214 That such tensions
did indeed exist between Sepphoris and inter alia Nazareth is strongly suggested
by the social situations reflected in many of Jesus' parables — wealthy estate
owners, resentment against absentee landlords, exploitative stewards of
estates, family feuds over inheritance, debt, day labourers (forced to sell off family
patrimony because of debt?), and so on. 215
How all this bears on Jesus and his own relationship with Sepphoris and
Tiberias remains unclear. The silence of the Jesus tradition in regard to both is
still surprising and somewhat ominous. It is another question to which we must
return (§9.9e).
9.7. Synagogues and Pharisees in Galilee?
Two other topics which have occasioned much dispute and which are of direct
relevance to our evaluation of the traditions regarding Jesus deserve some attention.
a. Galilean Synagogues/Assemblies
The Gospels refer a number of times to synagögai, 216 and particularly speak of
Jesus quite regularly teaching/preaching in Galilean synagögai. 211 In every case
the term is usually translated, not surprisingly, as 'synagogues'. But here again
the translation rests on a number of unexamined assumptions: particularly that
there were buildings ('synagogues') at the time of Jesus which were dedicated
places of worship, for Torah reading and prayer. A common linked assumption is
that the synagogue was a power base for Pharisees in some degree over against
the Temple authorities. 218 The translation itself, 'synagogue', can thus constitute
214. Details briefly reviewed in G. Theissen, '"We Have Left Everything . . ." (Mark
10:28): Discipleship and Social Uprooting in the Jewish-Palestinian Society of the First Century',
Social Reality 60-93 (here 89-91).
215. Freyne, 'Jesus and Urban Culture' 195-96, 205-206. See further Freyne's Galilee,
Jesus and the Gospels (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1988).
216. Note particularly reference to 'the best seats in the synagogues' (Mark 12.39 pars.;
Luke 11.43) and being beaten/flogged in synagogues (Mark 13.9/Matt. 10.17).
217. Matt. 4.23/Mark 1.39/Luke 4.44; Matt. 9.35; Matt. 13.54/Mark 6.2/Luke 4.16;
Luke 4.15; Luke 6.6; 13.10; John 6.59.
218. The common view of the time (mid-1970s) is voiced by Schillebeeckx ('the synagogues
were certainly supervised by "the Scribes of the Pharisees"' — Jesus 232), and Goppelt
('Pharisaic-Rabbinic Judaism . . . had gained control of the synagogue in Jesus' day' — Theology
1.88).
302