First-century biblical history in the New Testament centers on Jesus Christ. Because the Bible is first and foremost a book of faith, it takes contemporary biblical historians some digging to undercover the historical circumstances surrounding the religious accounts.

Jesus in the Context of 1st Century Judaism

According to gospel accounts, Jesus was a Jew from a family heritage of Jewish royalty [Jesus' Genealogy], and his ministry took place mostly among first-century Jews.

Many of Jesus' parables and the biblical accounts of his ministry make little sense today unless one understands the Jewish context of this era.

Demons and Pigs

For example, consider an account well known to Christians of Jesus' encounter with a man possessed by demons (Mark 5:1-20). This gospel says that Jesus went to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee "to the country of the Gerasenes." There he encountered a man who had gone mad because he was possessed by demons. Jesus drives the demons into a nearby herd of pigs that promptly stampede themselves over a cliff and die. When the residents learn of this occurrence, they beg Jesus to go back where he came from.

Looking at this passage through the lens of historical context provides a deeper picture than its conventional interpretation as a miracle story.

Clues to the Culture

First, the story places Jesus on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, a region that likely had an ethnically diverse population. In addition to Jews, there could have been Syrians, Persians, and of course, Roman occupiers.

In other words, it's not the most likely place for a Jewish rabbi to travel.

Second, Jews of this era kept the dietary laws of kashut (kosher) more strictly than today. Yet the gospel account says that the Gerasenes were raising pigs, which the Jews among them shouldn't eat according to Jewish law. This reality raises lots of questions that the text doesn't answer. For instance, was food so scarce then that the Gerasenes would break sacred food laws in order to have sustenance? Or were they raising pigs to feed the hated Roman occupiers?

The text doesn't say, but historical accounts imply that either practice would have put the Jews in great danger. They could have been charged with religious violations by rabbis, or they could have been attacked as Roman collaborators by militant Jews like the Zealots. Given these realities, it's not surprising then that despite his having healed a mentally ill man, the text says the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go back home.

Hidden Political Commentary?

Finally, when Jesus asks the demons for their name, the scripture says that they reply they are called "Legion." The word "legion" had a specific meaning at this time, referring to a Roman army segment of about 6,000 men. Scholars now think this brief reference may be a veiled commentary on the Roman occupation of Judea at this time, thanks to the dating of the scripture.

The gospel of Mark in which this story is found is thought to be the earliest account of Jesus, written sometime between 65 and 75 A.D. This era marks what's known as the Great Revolt of Jews against Roman occupation, so historians find it plausible that Mark contains political commentary such as the veiled reference to "Legion."

The deeper meaning would have been apparent to first-century Jewish listeners who heard the story orally and to scholars who read Mark's text because they shared the same cultural experiences and rhetorics. Unfortunately, students of biblical history today must dig deeper to get the scripture's full meaning.

Sources:

• _{The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version (Oxford University Press: 1994).}
  
• _{The First Christmas: What the Gospel Accounts Really Teach About Jesus's Birth, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan (HarperOne: 2007)}
  
• _{"Inner-biblical Interpretation," by Benjamin D. Sommer, The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press: 2004).}