CHAPTER 5: THE FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN AND THEIR ROLES IN THE FIRST CENTURY MEDITERRANEAN WORLD
5.2 The Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean region during the first century Having in mind the objectives of this work, the main aspects that attract our attention in
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Greek was a common language of the Empire. The possibility remains that the implied audience of the Fourth Gospel consisted of a broad area of the Mediterranean region within the Greco-Roman world rather than a narrow region of Palestine. For the purpose of this work, it is assumed that the audience of the Fourth Gospel consisted of the Christian Jews and Gentile converts who were living in the broader Mediterranean region both on the Jewish land and in the Diaspora. It is then important to look into some aspects that characterized that broad region starting from the milieu of the Greco-Roman world during the first century, with specific interest in the condition of women.
5.2 The Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean region during the first century
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born therefore and during his life, Palestine, which is part of the broader Mediterranean region, was under dominion of the Romans. Daniel-Rops provides some information about the Roman rule during that period:
The Romans held the country in the fullest sense of the term, either directly or by means of servants…But at the same time they followed their usual custom and allowed their subject people to continue to be administered by the regime that they were used to, which meant, for Palestine, the organization of the Jewish community as it had grown up since the return from exile. There was, therefore, a super-imposition of authorities, a fruitful source of complication…The city- empire or the empire took to themselves the right of imposing a rule upon their subjects’ lives that was in accord with their highest interest (Daniel-Rops 1962:51-2).
During this period, every aspect of life in Palestine including economics, politics, and culture, was influenced by the Greco-Roman civilization. The structure of the economy in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean region was determined by the leadership of the empire (Duncan-Jones 1992:1). A discussion of the political system of the area during this time may shed some light on the involvement of women in the economic domain.
5.2.1.1 The political structure and women’s participation
The economic system in the Mediterranean region during the first century highlights the interdependence of political, economic and religious spheres, interpenetrated by kin relations. To illustrate this, Hanson and Oakaman give the example of Herod the Great.
He not only expanded the Jerusalem temple mount with tax monies, but built temples in honour of Roman emperor’s gods. They point out that the emperor of Rome was not only supreme commander of the government and military Princeps (head man) but was the highest priest of Roman religion (Hanson and Douglas 1998:5). Stambaugh affirms that the political was the means of shaping the economy in that area during the first century.
The political organization consisted of hierarchical layers of patron-client relationships.
This system involved a kind of a reciprocal exchange of goods and services between the patron and the client (Stambaugh 1989:64). The chief patron at the top of the system was the emperor who was the patron of his client-kings.
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Wordelman adds that a male emperor, along with a senate of wealthy Roman males governed the empire with a heavy hand. Romans appointed male governors for outlying provinces and administered the taxes and military forces through which Rome exercised its power over the vast empire. Moreover, there were some councils consisting of men from the wealthiest strata of the community which were dealing with other affairs of the local communities (Wordelman 1998:482; Yamaguchi 2002:15-14). It is observed from the above argument that the leadership of the empire was in the hands of males. As it appears in their description, no females had the privilege of holding office in that leadership system. Moreover, in Ando’s description of the structures of the leadership of the empire, a consistent use of the pronoun ‘he’, without any single use of the pronoun
‘she’ may be a further evidence of the absence of females in leadership positions. Ando even specifies later that those leaders, official and unofficial, were men. He says: “Such men specifically ranged widely in age and experience…” (Ando 2006:180).
The absence of women in the leadership of the empire extended into the army, where it seems there were no females at all. Referring to the composition of legions, Pollar writes:
“the number of legions in the empire (each composed of c.5-6,000 men)…this military unit had an actual strength of 750 men. … At the start of the First Jewish revolt, Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, had 14,000 men mostly archers and cavalry… three legionary vexillations of 2,000 men etc.” (Pollar 2006:209, 212). The absence of women in this office implies the impossibility of women performing the role of peace-making, because, as Ando states, “Romans governors were required to make themselves available to their provinces to settle disputes and receive petitions on matter great or small” (Ando 2006:190). It seems that the political system was closed to women. They were not allowed to participate actively in the public politics of the Empire. The hierarchical administration of the Empire depicts a lack of gender-shared power in terms of leadership. This had implications on the way economic power was shared since those in political power were also the ones who controlled the economy.
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5.2.1.2 Economic structure and women’s participation
During this period, the Romans, Greeks and Hebrews measured wealth and status in terms of land and flocks. The economic system was agrarian, based on the land. And one needs to note that land was owned only by males. Many New Testament scholars, including Kehoe (2006:298-300) and Mattingly (2006:284-288), believe that the land was very much valued by all the inhabitants of the Empire as it was the economic source of the empire. The tradition of the economy based on land continued even in the early times of the New Testament. But during this period the land was no longer the only source for the economy. Stambaugh notes that by the time of the New Testament, money and movable wealth had also become important (Stambaugh 1989:63). Despite this additional source, the land kept its value, and socially speaking, farming and land-ownership were the most respected sources of wealth; manufacturing and commerce were looked down on (Mattingly 2006:284). Arguing in this line, Duncan-Jones estimates that the effectiveness of trading, especially in lending money as investment, leaves it doubtful whether the very rich who controlled a large part of all the liquid resources sought to invest in trade. He believes that there was little to suggest that commercial success engendered the large operating-units seen in much later societies (Duncan-Jones 1990:489)
The economy during this time was controlled by a limited number of people. The elite class controlled more than 50% of the wealth of the society and lived in luxury with enormous power (Yamaguchi 2002:14). The overall economy was in the hands of a few as the material wealth of the Greco-Roman world was distributed unevenly among the population. A tiny fraction of the population owned a vast proportion of land and resources while the masses were obliged to make use of moderate means (Stambaugh and Balch 1989:65).
The structure of the relationship between economic and political power in the Roman Empire is illustrated by a pyramid. This sketch shows that the wealthy citizens were occupying the upper tip controlling most of the wealth and political power and the base of the pyramid was occupied by the poor people. According to Wordelman the structure
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of the household mirrored that pyramidal shape of the economy and leadership of the empire. The head of the family (the father) occupied the upper tip of the pyramid in the household and as male power and authority dominated political life, the male figure (husband) in his household controlled all aspects of economic and household life.
Women could not be at the upper tip of it. The exception was only in the case of widows of citizens; they could play the role of heads. Opportunities for women to acquire wealth in order to get to the upper tip of the pyramid were limited. Only citizen women could benefit from social privileges of ownership and they inherited wealth either from the late father or husband. But most of the time women were not free; even as owners they were obliged to have a legal male guardian (Wordelman 1998:483-484). This weak position of women was part of the general condition of women at this time. The following sections provide first a general overview of the condition of women in the whole Mediterranean region before focusing on Jewish women in particular.
5.3 The condition of women of the first century Greco-Roman Mediterranean world