A Man Named Jesus (II)

A History of Mankind (234)

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A posting in Palestine was no picnic for Roman soldiers or administrators. Most, if not all, struggled to understand the very foreign mentality of a deeply religious population and a powerful Jewish clerical class that was inclined to barbarian practices, partly because the harsh law of the desert remained a guideline for many Jews.

One shocking example of this is the way the Torah prescribes death by stoning for a child who defies his parents. To the Roman Empire's chattering classes, that was simply evidence that the Jews were wacky, uncivilized madmen. The Jews had a different opinion: legal authorities chose to read into the wording of the biblical verse requirements that could not in practice be satisfied, so that children stoning may have been extremely rare or even completely inexistent – for instance, a requirement for the punishment was that the mother and father bringing the accusation must have identical voices and be identical in appearance¹.

Regardless of what foreigners may have thought, Jesus the Galilee was born into a region in perpetual change, into a maelstrom of physical conflict but also of theological and political debate. His followers would later tell contradicting legends about his parentage and early life, and his oh-so-convenient birth in Bethlehem, a suburb of Jerusalem’s, King David city. It’s clear that he was supposedly fathered by an old man who married a young woman, fueling predictable rumors, and it’s not clear whether he had any brothers or sisters.