Life at the time Of Jesus.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Life at the time

Of Jesus

Introduction

Life in the time Jesus lived was very different to life today.

In the first part of this essay I will tell you about the social life of Palestine and the political side of things and the daily routine of a family in early Palestine

In the second part I will tell you about how life was different then and compare the two lifestyles.

In the third part I will tell you about the time that I would prefer to live in and why it would suit me the best.

Part I

POLITICS AND RULERS:

Palestine was in the Roman Empire alongside countries like Egypt, Libya, Gaul, Syria, Spain, Italy and many more. At the time of Jesus’ birth the emperor was Augustus Caesar. Palestine had more privileges than most other countries; they were allowed their own king, Herod, because he was in the roman army his self when he was younger and they were aloud to follow their own religions.

Herod had three sons Archelaus, Antipas and Phillip. When he died Palestine was divided up between his three sons, so:

Archelaus became the governor of Idumea, Samaria and Judea.

Antipas became governor of Galilee and Perea.

Phillip governed the territory around mount Hermon.

Soon the Palestinians hated Archelaus because he was a very strict and very cruel ruler and he was sacked.

There were many different rulers at the time and different religious groups. The two major religious groups were the Sadducees and the Pharisees, they were led by the high priest. The leading Jewish council was the San Headron. The Pharisees created the own system of 613 rules for the Jews to follow called The Oral Tradition the Sadducees didn’t believe God’s law could be altered and didn’t follow these laws.

SABATH DAY:

The Jewish people kept one day of the week special for God this is called the Sabbath day, because God stated, “Keep holy the Sabbath day.” This special day is celebrated Friday evening to Saturday evening. The preparations would begin on the Friday evening when the food would prepare and another preparation would be to clean the house from top to bottom. The first act on the Sabbath day is when the mother lights a candle before the meal is eaten, and then the farther would bless the wine and bread. The Sabbath was ended when the first three stars appeared in the sky on the Saturday night and a trumpet was blown three times.

HOME AND FAMILY:

Life was different in every household. The houses rich people lived in were much better than poor peoples houses. They had many rooms and most of them led into a central courtyard.

Poorer houses were made up of one room split in to two halves. A half was raised up for the owners to sleep and eat on. The lower half was for the animals to sleep on. The house was made up of mud bricks and a thatched roof under that were wooden slates and the bottom layer was a wooden beam.

The person with ...