- 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.
- Tax collectors (publicans)
- 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.
- The rich
- 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
- Persia had largest regional Jewish population
For further study, see also:
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