Text and Artifact in the Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Peter Richardson

10. Placing Jesus of Nazareth: Toward a Theory of Place in the Study of the Historical Jesus1

10 PLACING JESUS OF NAZARETH: TOWARD A THEORY OF PLACE IN THE STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS1 HALVOR MOXNES With his magisterial historical study, Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans, Peter Richardson has presented an intriguing parallel to historical studies concerning that other "King of the Jews": Jesus of Nazareth. The biblical narratives themselves make this connection. The Gospel of Matthew sets up Jesus as a kingly threat to Herod, who, according to the legend, retaliated bykilling allnewborn boysin Bethlehem (Richardson 1996: 295­98). Moreover, in the time ofHerod's son, Antipas, the passion narrative accusation against Jesus was that he presented himself as King of the Jews, an act that was regarded as a symbol of revolt against the emperor (John 19:12). In this brief essay I would like to point to an approach to the study of Herod and Jesus that highlights commonalities, complementing Richardson (1997: 297­99),who has focussed on the differences. 1. "Herod Shaped the World" What I find most intriguing for a study of the historical Jesus is the way in which Richardson constructs his picture of Herod. He moves beyond a mere construction on the basis of texts and draws on the architectural evidence for "the reconstruction of society and its concerns, the sense of cultural and religious conflicts on a larger scale" (1996: xii). That is, the buildings, structures and places that Herod built, their location, function and meaning, become important material for Richardson's picture of Herod (chaps. 8 and 1 Earlier versions of this study have been presented as lectures at the universities of Copenhagen and Arhus in Denmark, and at the SBLannual meeting in Orlando in 1998. Another, longer version is printed in Danish in Engberg­Pedersen (1998: 103­26). PLACING JESUS 159 10). It is Richardson's eye, trained in architecture, that makes him see the importance of material structures. But his perspective is even wider, clearly evidenced by chapters on the geo­political region of Syria and its dependent areas (chap. 4), as well as on the geographical and economic character of the regions of Herod's kingdom (chap. 6). Taken together these chapters amount to a presentation of the space in which Herod lived, where he created places, and thereby political control and social and economic relations. No doubt Richardson is right when he says that Herod "shaped the world in which early Christianity began" (1996: xiii). In Richardson's construction Herod's Palestine isan example ofplace not as something given, but as something created by humans (Smith 1987). It is ironic, however, that it has been impossible to locate hisburial place within the impressive structures of Herodium which he built for that purpose. Thus, he shaped the world through his politics and building projects, but then he disappeared from the space that he had created. 2. "The Son of Man Has Nowhere to Put His Head" It seems a good idea for a construction of the historical Herod to focus on "space" and "place," but can it also work for a construction of the historical Jesus? It would mean entering the common space that they occupied from very different locations. Herod ruledhiskingdom and wasat the centre ofthe power pyramid ofPalestine. His wasa political geographythat he strongly influenced, since the use and control of the land, as well as its economy and religious observance, were part of politics. Jesuscame from the lower part of the power pyramid, and he lived within the geography created by Herod and his successors. In a way,he also shaped the landscape of Palestine, but at a much later time when Christian villageswereestablished in Galilee and churches put up over the holy places in Jerusalem,Bethlehem and elsewhere from the time of Constantine. But is this perspective useful for a study of Jesus in his own time? The present stage of historical­Jesus studies, the so called "third quest," shows great interest in the context of Jesus, in particular the geographical, socio­economic, political and religioussettingsin Galilee (Arnal and Desjardins 1997). Richardson (1997: 300­301) points specifically to the need for more attention to archaeological and artifactual data, as well as closer studies of the 160 TEXT ANDARTIFACT socio­historical setting, especially of the regions surrounding Galilee. It is impossible to undertake such detailed studies here, but I can point to an approach that attempts to combine texts and contexts with a focus on...