• Somewhere in the middle, continued:
    • Tax collectors (publicans)
      • Bought position
      • Assessment arbitrary
      • Fill quota
      • Shaky heritage
      • High net worth
      • Very low esteem with all
      • Matthew 5:43-48
      • Matthew 18:15-17
      • Matthew 9:9-13
      • Luke 18:9-14
      • Matthew 21:23-31, 33-46
      • Luke 19:1-10 – Zaccheus was a rich tax collector.
  • The elites
    • The rich
      • Usually the most successful farmers and merchants
      • Not always Sadducees
      • Luke 15:11-32 – father of the prodigal son was a wealthy man
    • Pharisees, scribes
      • The religious elite
      • Rarely among the rich
      • John 3:1; 19:39 – Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but evidently a man of means.
    • Priesthood
      • The priestly elite
      • Usually among the richest
      • Priests made money on concessions around the temple and money-changing.
  • Regions, cities, enclaves of the Diaspora
    • Persia had largest regional Jewish population
      • Mostly remainders of Babylonian captivity
      • Had the lowest level of Hellenization of all Jews
    • Alexandria had largest Jewish urban population
      • About 200,000
      • Mostly around Heliopolis
      • Easy access to ports to rest of the world, relatively easy to get back to Jerusalem for worship
    • Enclaves from Morocco to India, Cape Horn to the Bosporus