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June 18, 2005
Everyday People
The vast preponderance of first-century Judeans will have felt no strong allegiance to a distinct party within their faith. After one parcels out the card-carrying Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, rebels, and Samaritans, the remaining Judeans will make up a generally faithful, generally observant, generally loyal body of believers.
Practical considerations will have affected the strictness with which some ordinary Judeans adhered to the Torah; not everyone could travel to Jerusalem for every pilgrimage feast. Differing dispositions will have influenced their piety; some ordinary Judeans may have been quite fiercely observant (without necessarily being Pharisees) or anti-Roman (without enrolling in a rebel movement). Judaism in the first century probably comprised a very mixed lot of sentiment and conviction and practice.
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External Links:
Calgary Conference on “Common Judaism”
Posted by AKMA at June 18, 2005 08:28 PM