Power and the Society in Which Jesus Lived

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Shivani Devi Singh Social Justice Power and the Society in Which Jesus Lived. 1. List the three main social groups of Jesus’ world. List the kinds of peoples in each group. The first main social group was he upper and ruling class (the wealthy few). This group consisted of the royal household of Herod, priestly families, chief priests, lay nobility, and those who owned most of the land. The second social group was the middle class who were professional, shopkeepers, and traders. The last social group were the improvised multitude who were the poor, sick and disabled, widows and orphans, and the uneducated. 2. For each social group, list the way it used power or suffered powerlessness. The upper and ruling class used power to make them superior to theses who they thought were beneath them, who were the middle class but note specifically the poor. They made they poor and middle class pay taxes to them which in turn made the upper class wealthy. The poor suffered powerlessness because they were poor, therefore they were placed at the bottom of the social ladder. They were automatically placed at the bottom of the social ladder and were referred to as “sinners” because they were uneducated and poor. They were led to believe that they were inferior and were possessed like property that could be acquired, used , and disposed of the politics of the moment required. 3. Would you describe this society as a power-over or power-with society? Give reasons. I would describe this society as a power-over society because majority of the population was oppressed. Although the upper class was the minority they had power over the poor. If a superior were to insult an inferior was accepted and expected, but an insult from an inferior to a superior was not tolerated. Your status also determined how powerful you were and where

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