An independent, interactive look at what the Gospels record Jesus teaching about poverty, outsiders, violence and power, read in their first-century setting, with the range of scholarly and church views where they differ.
Many of Jesus' parables draw on everyday economic life: debtors and creditors, day laborers' wages, harvests, landowners and tenants.
One decree of Julius Caesar has been read as a land tax of anywhere from 5 to 25 percent of the harvest. Historians still disagree over whether the overall tax burden in Jesus' day was crushing or ordinary for the Roman world.
Five short questions point you to Gospel passages on wealth, outsiders, the law, violence and power, with the range of ways Christians have read them.
Which Gospel themes speak most to the questions you care about? Answer five questions to find passages to read, and see how different Christian traditions have read them.
When people in your community are without housing or food, what do you think matters most?
Read Gospel passages (World English Bible) alongside notes on their first-century setting and the ways scholars and churches have read them.
The Gospels record Jesus warning often about the danger of riches and calling for generosity to the poor. Christians have long debated how literally to apply these sayings.
Most people in first-century Galilee and Judea lived close to subsistence, while land and wealth were concentrated in a small elite of rulers, high-priestly families and large landowners. Luke's beatitude, "Blessed are you who are poor, for God's Kingdom is yours" (Luke 6:20, WEB), reverses the usual assumption that the prosperous are the fortunate ones.
Refers to the context of Luke 12:33
mercy; charitable giving, alms
"Sell what you have and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don't grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn't fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys."
In Luke the saying follows the parable of the rich fool and Jesus' words to his disciples not to be anxious about food and clothing (Luke 12:13-32). Interpreters differ on whether it was meant for all believers or for the traveling disciples.
"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into God's Kingdom."
The image is of a real needle and a deliberate impossibility. Jesus goes on, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26, WEB).
Compare traditional readings of three parables with socio-economic readings proposed by some scholars, such as William Herzog.
Readers have long taken Jesus' parables as pictures of God and the spiritual life. Some modern scholars, such as William Herzog, read them instead as commentary on the economic world of first-century Galilee. Compare the two approaches.
God's grace is distributed equally to everyone, regardless of when they convert or join the faith.
The parable pictures day laborers waiting in the marketplace to be hired (Matthew 20:3, 6-7). How many Galilean farmers lost their land to debt is debated: some historians see widespread dispossession, others find little evidence of an exceptional crisis.
Parables are short and open-ended, so readers bring different questions to them: about God, about discipleship, or about the economic world they depict.
See what key Greek words in the Gospels meant in ordinary usage, how standard lexicons define them, and how interpreters read them.
The Gospels were written in Koine, the common Greek of the eastern Mediterranean, though Jesus himself is believed to have taught in Aramaic. Click a word to see its ordinary meaning and how interpreters read it in the Gospels.
Kingship or royal rule; a kingdom or dominion.
In the Gospels, God's reign or kingdom, announced as "at hand" (Mark 1:15, WEB). Scholars debate whether Jesus meant mainly a future act of God, a present reality, or both, and how far it carried a political edge against Rome.
Experiment with the kinds of taxes first-century households paid: land tax, tolls and tithes. The rates are illustrative, because historians disagree about how heavy the burden was.
See how Roman tribute or royal taxes, tolls, tithes and rent could stack up for different households. No ancient source gives an overall rate: one decree of Julius Caesar (47 BCE) has been read as anything from 5 to 25 percent of the harvest, and historians disagree about how heavy the total burden was. The percentages below are illustrative assumptions.
Illustrative assumptions, not historical rates: the incomes, percentages and survival cost are made up for this exercise.
In Matthew 20:2 a denarius is a day's pay for a hired laborer
In Judea after 6 CE, a land tax paid to Rome (whether a head tax also applied is debated). Galilee under Antipas paid its taxes to him, not to Rome.
Tolls, customs duties and other local taxes owed to Herodian rulers or cities.
Tithes and offerings for priests and Levites, plus the yearly half-shekel Temple tax.
Landlord's share or repayment on grain seed loans.
After paying taxes, rents, and basic survival necessities (180 Denarii for bread, oil, shelter).
When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12, World English Bible), Matthew's Greek uses ὀφειλήματα (opheilēmata), the ordinary word for debts. Luke's version reads “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). Some scholars read the prayer as including literal debt release in the spirit of the Jubilee; many others read “debts” mainly as a metaphor for sins.
Scholarly Note: Many scholars think small farmers had little margin: a bad harvest could mean borrowing, and unpaid debt could cost land or freedom. Others, such as Fabian Udoh, argue the evidence does not show an exceptional economic crisis in first-century Palestine.
Add sample loans and see how the release laws of Deuteronomy 15 and Leviticus 25 would have applied. Whether the Jubilee was ever practiced is debated.
The Greek word aphesis (ἄφεσις, 'release') is used in the Greek Old Testament for the Jubilee 'year of release' (Leviticus 25), and in Luke 4:18 for 'release to the captives.' Add records to this imaginary village ledger, then proclaim a Jubilee to see what the biblical ideal described.
Walk through key sites of ancient Galilee and Judea and what archaeology has found there.
Click a first-century site on this simplified map to see what archaeology has found there and how it fits into the places and settings of Jesus' ministry.
About four miles from Nazareth, Sepphoris was rebuilt by Herod Antipas after Roman troops burned it in 4 BCE. Josephus says Antipas walled it and "made it the metropolis of the country" (Antiquities 18.2.1, Whiston). Excavators have found a planned street grid and a first-century basilica; a theater there may date to the late first century. Scholars debate how much Antipas's cities strained surrounding villages.
Excavations show Antipas-era building with white-plastered walls, frescoes, mosaics and red roof tiles, setting the city apart from Galilean villages. Sepphoris's famous large mosaics come from later centuries.
Sepphoris is never mentioned in the Gospels. Some scholars have suggested Jesus, a craftsman, worked there or even borrowed the word 'hypocrite' (Greek for stage actor) from its theater, but the theater may postdate him and the idea is disputed.
Jonathan Reed notes that Jesus' movement is linked with villages like Capernaum and Nazareth, not with Antipas's cities, and asks whether Antipas's rebuilding of Galilee helps explain why the movement arose when and where it did. Other scholars think Galilee changed only moderately under Antipas.
Look at objects, such as the Pilate inscription and coins, that shed light on Roman rule in Judea and Galilee.
Examine objects excavated from the first-century world. Click an artifact to see where it was found and how it relates to the Gospel accounts.
A damaged limestone block with a Latin inscription recording that Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, dedicated a Tiberieum, a building honoring the emperor Tiberius: '[...]S TIBERIEVM [...PO]NTIVS PILATVS [...PRAEF]ECTVS IVDA[EA]E'.
Pilate was already known from Josephus, Philo, Tacitus and the Gospels. The stone, found in 1961, was the first inscription known to name him and shows his official title was prefect, though Josephus and Tacitus call such governors procurators.
Confirms that the Roman governor named in the Gospels' trial accounts was a real official of Tiberius in Judea.
Compare Gospel passages with the claims Roman emperors made about themselves, and see how scholars debate the connection.
Select a theme to compare a Gospel saying with what we know of Roman practice and ideas in the same period.
"I was a stranger and you took me in... Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
Roman citizenship was a valued legal status held by a minority of provincials in this period; most inhabitants of Judea and Galilee were not citizens.
The Greek word for stranger here is xenos (ξένος), meaning a foreigner, stranger or guest. Hospitality to strangers was a strong duty in both Jewish and Greek tradition; in this parable, care for 'the least of these' becomes the measure at the final judgment.
Review the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots to understand the social matrix Jesus entered.
Josephus describes several Jewish schools of thought in Jesus' time. Click a group to see what the ancient sources say about it. Most Jews belonged to none of them.
Itinerant preaching, healing and shared meals
Proclaimed the coming kingdom (basileia) of God and taught love of enemies. Scholars debate how political this message was.
Jesus urged generosity to the poor; after his death, Acts says the Jerusalem believers "had all things in common" and distributed "according as anyone had need" (Acts 2:44-45).
Combined teaching on the kingdom of God, care for the poor, love of enemies and open table fellowship. Historians and churches weigh these elements differently.
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To understand Jesus' teachings on social issues, it helps to study the political and fiscal landscape of first-century Judea and Galilee under Roman rule.
Rome's tax-farming companies (publicani) were removed from Judea under Julius Caesar. The Gospels' "tax collectors" were mostly local toll collectors, often resented as collaborators and suspected of overcharging (Luke 3:12-13).
Jesus called the tax collector Matthew to follow him (Matthew 9:9) and stayed at the house of Zacchaeus, who then pledged half his goods to the poor and fourfold repayment to anyone he had cheated (Luke 19:8).
In Luke's story, a wealthy collector gives to the poor and repays those he cheated.
Under the law of Leviticus 13, a person with a skin disease lived "outside of the camp" until a priest declared them clean.
Mark says Jesus touched a man with a skin disease, healed him, and told him to show himself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded (Mark 1:40-44).
In Mark's account the healed man is sent to the priest to offer what Moses commanded for his cleansing (Mark 1:44); under Leviticus 13 it was the priest who pronounced a person clean.
Roman rulers presented peace (pax) as the fruit of victory, and revolts were crushed by force.
Jesus taught, "love your enemies... and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).
A movement that spread across the empire and, by the fourth century, became the empire's favored religion, which raised new questions about Christians and war.
The guides on this site draw on ancient texts such as Josephus and the Gospels, archaeological reports, and scholarship from a range of viewpoints. Each guide lists its sources.
Books and articles by scholars quoted or discussed on this site, with citations you can copy.
These books by historians and theologians shaped the interpretations behind this page. They are influential but contested; filter them and copy reference details for your notes.
By Walter Wink — 1992 (Fortress Press)
Exposes the 'myth of redemptive violence' and argues that Jesus' commands (like turning the other cheek) were active, creative methods of nonviolent resistance designed to strip oppressors of moral dominance.
Relevance to Jesus: Directly explains the historical context of Matthew 5:38-41 (slapping, suing, and the second mile) as active defiance.
By Richard A. Horsley — 2003 (Augsburg Fortress)
Argues that the Roman imperial system extracted wealth from Jewish peasants through heavy tribute. Argues that Jesus' movement was fundamentally a social revolution for local renewal.
Relevance to Jesus: Provides the socio-political foundation for poverty and wealth and Jesus' critique of Caesar.
By John Dominic Crossan — 1991 (HarperSanFrancisco)
Reconstructs Jesus' worldview as an advocate for 'open commensality' (unconditional shared meals regardless of rank or gender) and radical egalitarianism in a highly stratified Roman world.
Relevance to Jesus: Offers one reconstruction of the historical context of Jesus dining with societal outcasts, tax collectors, and women.
By N.T. Wright — 1996 (Fortress Press)
Analyzes Jesus' announcement of the 'Kingdom of God' as a direct, politically charged alternative to Caesar's gospel of Pax Romana.
Relevance to Jesus: Explores the original Jewish/Roman context of the term 'Kingdom' as a tangible social renewal model.
By Gustavo Gutiérrez — 1973 (Orbis Books (English translation; Spanish original 1971))
A founding work of Latin American liberation theology that calls Christians to stand with the poor; it significantly advanced the idea later known as the 'preferential option for the poor.' A 1984 Vatican instruction criticized some forms of liberation theology for borrowing Marxist analysis.
Relevance to Jesus: Connects Gospel poverty passages with Christian reflection on poverty and injustice.
By Fabian E. Udoh — 2020 (Brown Judaic Studies (open-access edition))
A detailed study of the evidence for Roman-era taxes in Palestine. Argues that tax rates cannot be calculated from the sources and that the evidence does not show taxation caused an economic crisis.
Relevance to Jesus: A counterweight to reconstructions of a crushing tax burden; read alongside Horsley and Crossan.
No. This is an independent educational site. It looks at what the Gospels record Jesus saying and doing, the first-century world in which he lived, and how Christians have applied his teaching since, with sources listed for each guide.
Knowing the setting makes many sayings concrete. For example, Matthew 5:41 says, “Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two” (World English Bible). The Greek verb, angareuō, means to press someone into service, the same word used when soldiers compel Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus’ cross (Matthew 27:32).
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” — Matthew 5:6 (World English Bible)
Plain-English guides to the history and texts behind these tools: what the Gospels record, the world they were written in, and how Christians have read them since. Every guide lists its sources.
What the Gospels record Jesus saying about the poor, debt, wealth, mercy and power, read in context.
Roman rule, taxes, land, temple and village life in Galilee and Judea: the setting the teachings were spoken into.
How Christians across the centuries have read these teachings, and the range of views that came out of them.