Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins

Anthony Keddie. Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

The use of class analysis in biblical studies seems to ebb and flow. Since early works following Marx (such as that of Karl Kautsky), class fell out of favour, especially during the resurgence of social analyses in the mid- to late-20th century. Despite scepticism toward the category of class in social scientific strains of biblical studies, this approach has re-emerged in recent decades. Scholars like James Crossley, Neil Elliott, Roland Boer, Christina Petterson, and Robert Myles have reignited interest in this form of analysis, and their contributions shine brightly in the larger forest of biblical studies. This can be seen, for instance, in the well-received new framework of early Christian economic situations put forward by Petterson and Boer in Time of Troubles, as well as the recent (and first) volume on the New Testament and class struggle edited by Robert Myles, Class Struggle in the New Testament, which features an essay by the present author.

Anthony Keddie joins this rising movement of scholars interacting with class in a serious way, and his Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins stands as a welcome addition to recent provocative publications. Keddie’s volume provides a fulsome account, touching on a wide variety of archaeological and textual materials to sketch a more detailed depiction of the socioeconomic situation. Nevertheless, such a sketch requires some imaginative reconstruction to fill out the picture. Keddie exercises his “historical imagination” judiciously, warning against a tendency to overemphasize Roman oppression of the early Jesus movement(s).

The introduction situates the larger project, contextualizing the approach within the broader sweep of New Testament studies. Keddie posits that his “book analyses a diverse array of literary, archaeological, and comparative evidence in order to enhance and nuance our understanding of the sources, expressions and consequences of the difference between elites and non-elites in Early Roman Palestine” (pp. 1-2). Given the scope of the source materials and prior scholarship, Keddie aims to reconstruct a textured historical narrative, capturing how Judean elites were participants and even initiators of policies with (often) dire consequences. A secondary argument counters historiography that overemphasizes the extent of Roman oppression. Instead Keddie claims that some developments benefited the lower classes such as the remission of rent (pp. 104-05) and the financial independence of tenants (p. 109). At the very least, the socioeconomic situation of lower classes remained stable during the first (?) century.

These arguments unfold over five tightly constructed chapters. Keddie begins with a critique of a general conflict model which claims that “[u]rbanization in Early Roman Palestine was a slow and syncopated process that began long before the Romans” (p. 18). According to Keddie the evidence does not support claims that the urbanization of the region amounted to Roman exploitation (p. 19). An examination of land tenancy further strengthens Keddie’s claim. The institution of land tenancy existed prior to Roman governance, and it did not trigger an “alienated Judaean agricultural proletariat” (p. 71). While he does grant that land tenancy persisted through institutional structures that resulted economic inequality, he finds little evidence that Roman rule caused a “sudden proletarianization” (p. 71). This chapter also contains some of the more sustained criticisms of previous scholarship, surrounding the date when land tenancy emerged (p. 75). Readers may be especially interested in Keddie’s interpretation of debtors burning records. He claims that such actions were not motivated by “discontent” with debt, but “was largely [a] symbolic act since creditors had their own copies of loan agreements” (p. 103). One may object that more than one motivation may be present, “symbolism” is never “mere symbolism.” The symbolic isn't essentially superfluous.

The next chapter provides a highly nuanced examination of taxation, breaking it down from an amorphous category of Roman exploitation to a stratified system and geographically distinct extraction overseen by local authorities. Taxation was intertwined with other methods of resource extraction, like land tributes. As in previous chapters, Keddie spends time showing that rather than a simple story of an exploitative Rome, Judean elite took advantage of the situation (“ancient Judeans conflated direct taxation with Rome”) (p. 129). Pivoting from taxation to property, Keddie illuminates the place of the “Judean priestly elites” in “property rights, reducing their own transaction costs, and attaining profits from other workers' transaction costs,” often by utilizing the ideological power of scriptural interpretive authority (pp. 152-53). This chapter underscores Keddie’s claim that no major change occurred with the “economy of the sacred” with the shift to Roman rule. The final chapter turns to material culture, presenting evidence that 'a dichotomous class structure' was caused neither by the economy nor Roman rule (p. 198); Keddie wants to make clear that class distinctions were not caused by economic exploitation.

The volume represents a grand analysis and reassessment of a broad array of material and textual evidence. Keddie makes some well argued critiques of previous studies about causes of class division that are bound to provoke further conversation. One example is the claim that landowners “protected borrowers from debt spirals” (p. 104) through, basically, appeals to harmonious social relations. One might query the nature of such rhetoric and how the appearance of harmony may be a central strategy for upholding elites then and now. When Keddie speaks of the rights of borrowers and the futures of those trapped in spirals of debt, several questions are stimulated: Were these minimal rights effective? Or, if and when they are used, does it only serve to placate for purposes of harmonious call relations? Further, it may be that there is the “possibility” of escaping debt spiral, but what of its occurrences? Do the indebted ever escape? And, what does escape look like? It may not be possible to answer such questions adequately, but they need to be highlighted because of their relation to the broader thesis, and their relationship to theses regarding Roman occupation and class division. Another question which arises comes from Keddie’s claim that Romans “provoked resentment regardless of whether or how much taxes increased, for taxation was incessantly burdensome” (pp. 129-30). Historians must negotiate the competing perspectives enshrined in our evidence. The Romans stand as a symbol of oppression, intertwined with the elites who are materially agitating lower class Judeans. Various points of view on the extent of the burdens imposed by external rule and local elites jointly contribute to the growing class divisions of the period. Through lively discussion of the material and fascinating questions, Keddie’s book will continue to agitate the field, spurring on further work in class and power in ancient Palestine.

Taylor M. Weaver (PhD in Theology and Religious Studies, University of Kent) is a scholar focusing on Paul and early Christianity. His recent book is The Scandal of Community: Pauline Factions and the Circulation of Grace (Fortress Academic/Lexington Books, 2021).