Reading the Bible Badly. Karl Allen Kuhn

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      1 Caesar is a godly Lord and Rome a godly realmOne of the first things we need to get straight about the Roman world (though this is also true of most cultures throughout human history) is that within it, “religion” is inextricably intertwined with politics, economics, and social standing. Caesar, in other words, is not simply a “secular” ruler. The Roman empire was not a secular state. Rather, Caesar was a “religious” figure, and after his death he even became enshrined as one of the Roman deities. Temples were built in honor of him and the royal family. Sacrifices were offered to seek his ongoing patronage and blessing. Eventually, some Roman emperors, like Domitian (late first century CE), would claim to be divine even before their deaths.A central profession of Roman religion and of the “Imperial Cult” divinizing the emperors was that the Roman state and its leaders both existed and ruled with the assistance and approval of the gods. They ruled with a “divine mandate.” Caesar, in other words, enacted the will of heaven. Other Roman rulers, serving under Caesar’s authority, also enacted the will of heaven. Roman military, political, legal, and economic policy enacted the will of heaven. Things were the way they were because this was the world mandated by heaven. At least that is what those Romans benefiting from the status quo enthusiastically proclaimed.

      2 Elite Privilege to the ExtremeAnd it is not hard to figure out why. Roman political and economic policy was an extraordinary source of blessing for an extraordinarily small proportion of the population. As declared by the anthropologist, G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, the Roman economy was “a massive system of exploitation of the great majority by the ruling class.”14 This ruling class, consisting of only 2 to 5 percent of the population, enacted economic hegemony through aggressive taxation, a market system that “nickled and dimed” the underclass through rents and tariffs, lending policies that routinely resulted in the foreclosure of peasant land holdings, and cheap labor in the form of institutionalized slavery, artisans, and agricultural workers.These policies, enforced by a bureaucratic system of officials, police and military who benefitted from their loyalty to the elite, ensured the flow of wealth and resources from the underclass to the very wealthy micro-minority. As a result, 2 to 5 percent of the population controlled about 60 to 65 percent of the empire’s resources, leaving 95 to 98 percent of the population the difficult task of getting by with the remaining 35 to 40 percent.

      3 The Brutal Realities of Roman RuleNot surprisingly, for most within the Roman world, life was nasty, brutish, and short. In sharp contrast to the elite and the higher class officials keeping them in power, 75 to 85 percent of the population, consisting of peasants and slaves, oscillated near or below “subsistence.” This means that they suffered irregular access to adequate nutrition, water, hygiene, and secure shelter. The consequences of perpetually living on the edge were devastating.For most lower-class people who did make it to adulthood, their health would have been atrocious. By age thirty, the majority suffered from internal parasites, rotting teeth, and bad eyesight. Most had lived with the debilitating results of protein deficiency since childhood. Parasites were especially prevalent, being carried to humans by sheep, goats, and dogs. . . . If infant mortality rates, the age structure of the population, and pathological evidence from skeletal remains can be taken as indicators, malnutrition was a constant threat as well (Fiensy, 1991, 98).15Take note of these shocking figures offered by anthropologists: because of the way resources were distributed in the Roman world and the resulting poverty afflicting the overwhelming majority, the life expectancy of urban peasants was twenty-seven, and rural peasants thirty-two. Infant mortality rates were about 30 percent, and over half of all peasant children living past age one would fail to make it past age sixteen.16I’ll give you a second to absorb that.In short, many of the underclass were struggling to survive, their days filled with worry about the next harvest, the next tax, tribute, rent, or loan payment, and often the next meal. This was the world mandated by Caesar, and by the gods. This was the world the elite zealously and often brutally protected with their military might, police forces, prisons, and crosses. This was the lived reality of most of the earliest followers of Jesus.

      4 More of the Same Among the People of GodThis very same exploitative economic and political system resulting in the tragically disparate distribution of resources was replicated within Israelite society. In reality, the rule and power of the Israelite elite was an extension of the rule and power of Rome. Herod the Great ruled over Israel from 37–34 BCE as a “client king” of the Roman emperors, and following him his descendants ruled in various capacities with the mandate of Rome. The Jerusalem temple was the center of the Judean economy until its destruction in 70 CE. It received tithes, offerings, and sacrifices from the populace, and also collected tribute for Rome, in exchange for its “brokerage” of divine forgiveness and blessing.17The economic benefits for the temple priesthood were significant, establishing them as members of the elite. Just like the Roman upper class, this priestly aristocracy acquired much of the arable land in the region through its own onerous lending policies and peasant foreclosure.18 And just like the Roman elite, the Israelite elite claimed that their rule and the current state of affairs were mandated by heaven, by God.

      5 Yearning for the Kingdom of God