The land is mine

Ernest Van Eck

doi:10.17570/stj.2021.v7n1.a09

Abstract

The parables told by Jesus the Galilean, when read from a realistic perspective, can be seen as a window to the exploitative socio-economic, political and religious situation of the peasantry in first-century Roman Palestine. The Galilean’s parables picture this exploitative world, and also speak of ways to address the societal ills of his day. In an agrarian world, land meant life. For most of the peasantry, however, this was not the case anymore. In reaction to this situation, Jesus proclaimed the possibility of a world in which the land, especially its produce, belongs to everyone. This world he called the kingdom of God, a different kind of world, a world ruled by God’s generosity and goodness. In this world, everybody has enough.

Highlights

In the early first century of Roman-Palestine land, for some, meant life, and for some it meant the end of meaningful life
The parables told by Jesus the Galilean, when read from a realistic perspective, can be seen as a window to the exploitative socio-economic, political, and religious situation of the peasantry in first-century Roman Palestine
For most of the peasantry, this was not the case anymore. In reaction to this situation, Jesus proclaimed the possibility of a world in which the land, especially its produce, belongs to everyone. This world he called the kingdom of God, a different kind of world, a world ruled by God’s generosity and goodness

Summary

Introduction

In the early first century of Roman-Palestine land, for some, meant life, and for some it meant the end of meaningful life. The kingdom of the Temple, based on an exclusive purity system, confiscated peasant land as a form of religious “punishment”. Peasants or small landholders had to pay rent to live on their ancestral lots. Added to this was different levels of taxes, including what was known as the so-called “surplus of the harvest”. If these demands were not met, loans, at very high interest rates with land as collateral, were readily available. Loans meant the eventual confiscation of land.

Peasants – the land is ours

Rome – it belongs to us

Land and the parables

Opening a window to the realities of the land

Findings

Concluding remarks