Abstract
Until recently, and for a variety of reasons, most historical Jesus scholarship has typically seen Jesus as essentially non-political. Recently, this has begun to change, to a large extent because of the fuller description of the social world of Jesus made possible by the use of interdisciplinary models and insights. Seen within the context of a social world described as a peasant, patriarchal and purity society, many of the Jesus traditions reflect both a sharp critique of society and advocacy of an alternative social vision. Jesus' action in the temple (including E P Sanders view of it) is treated as a case study of the difference made by an interdisciplinary understanding of the social context of Jesus' public activity.
Highlights
One of the most notable features of contemporary Jesus scholarship is a reopening of the question of Jesus and politics
Seen within the context of a social world described as a peasant, patriarchal and purity society, many of the Jesus traditions reflect both a sharp critique of society and advocacy of an alternative social vision
In a work commonly seen as the beginning of the quest for the historical Jesus, Hermann Samuel Reimarus argued that Jesus' message about the Kingdom of God referred to a this-worldly kingdom which would involv:e liberation from Rome, and that Jesus' death resulted from his naive expectation that he could stir up a successful revolt
Summary
One of the most notable features of contemporary Jesus scholarship is a reopening of the question of Jesus and politics. Significant voices in North American scholarship, in what could be an emerging majority position, are affirming that there was a sociopolitical dimension to the message and activity of Jesus. This is a new development, even though the claim that Jesus was political goes back to the birth of the discipline over two hundred years ago. The major reason is one of the central characteristics of the contemporary renaissance: the entry into the discipline of interdisciplinary models and perspectives These provide new angles of vision for seeing the social world of Jesus. I will describe three of these perspectives, what they enable us to see about the social world of first-century Jewish Palestine, and their effects as lenses through which to see the Jesus tradition
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