Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FROM THE GOSPELS TO JESUS §9.9
Antipas's other administrative centre at Tiberias. We have already noted the virtual
silence of the Jesus tradition in relation to both cities. 318 Does it indicate that
Jesus deliberately avoided these cities, whether for religious, social, or political
reasons? The issue is made a little more complex when we consider references
(notably in Q) which envisage mission to 'cities', 319 and others which warn
against giving priority to the accumulation of wealth 320 — presumably with
landowners and the social elite of the cities primarily in view. 321 The 'broad
streets' (plateiai) referred to in some passages 322 were more likely to be found in
cities, possibly implying some familiarity with the two Galilean cities. 323 Matt.
7.13-14 uses the imagery of a city gate (pule). Q tradition refers to law-courts
and prisons (Matt. 5.25-26/Luke 12.57-59) and to deposits with bank(er)s
(trapezites/trapeza) (Matt. 25.27/Luke 19.23), references rather more redolent of
city than village life. 324 And Jesus was evidently accustomed to dining out 325 and
familiar with the Greek practice of reclining at the meal table 326 and the custom
of 'places of honour' at dinners. 327 Where, we might ask, did a relatively poor
preacher learn such habits and learn of such customs? 328 We are not in a position
to give a clear answer to such a question, but villages of the size of Nazareth,
Capernaum, and Chorazin would hardly provide much opportunity, 329 and the
318. See above, §9.6b. Freyne also notes the absence of any 'Woes' pronounced against
Sepphoris and Tiberias similar to those against Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum ('Jesus
and Urban Culture' 190).
319. Matt. 10.11, 14-15/Luke 10.8-12; but given the indiscriminate use of polls in the
Synoptics not too much should be made of these references.
320. Matt. 6.19-21/Luke 12.33-34; Matt. 6.24/Luke 16.13; Luke 12.13-21; 16.19-31.
321. In this section I am drawing on Reed, Archaeology particularly 192.
322. Matt. 6.5; Luke 10.10; 13.26; 14.21.
323. The 'marketplaces' alluded to in Mark 12.38/Luke 20.46 and Matt. 23.7/Luke
11.43 are probably the larger agorai of cities, but villages too would have had marketplaces
(Mark 6.56) and other references are insufficiently specific (Matt. 11.16/Luke 7.32; Matt. 20.3;
Mark 7.4).
324. But R. A. Piper notes 'the suspicion about the institutions of power' evident in such
material ('The Language of Violence and the Aphoristic Sayings in Q', in J. S. Kloppenborg,
ed., Conflict and Invention: Literary, Rhetorical, and Social Studies on the Sayings Gospel Q
[Valley Forge: Trinity, 1995] 53-72 [here 63]).
325. Mark 2.15 pars.; Matt. 22.10-11; Luke 14.10; 22.27.
326. Mark 14.3/Matt. 26.7; Mark 14.18/Matt. 26.20; Luke 7.37, 49; 14.15.
327. Mark 12.39 pars.; Luke 14.7-8.
328. Cf. Buchanan, Jesus 180-83.
329. Though possibly Bethsaida might have afforded some opportunity, since it was
Herod Philip's second city. According to Josephus, Philip raised Bethsaida from the status of a
village (körne) to that of a city and renamed it Julia, after the Emperor's daughter (Ant. 18.28);
Schürer, History 2.171-72, argues that this must have happened before 2 BCE, when Julia was
banished by Augustus, but Murphy-O'Connor thinks that Julia the mother of the reigning em-
320