While researching Sunday's sermon, I came across the Progressive Involvement blog of John Petty. This section on Galilean fishermen caught my attention:
"For they were fishermen": The Sea of Galilee is a large freshwater lake, about 7 miles wide and 13 miles "long." The shore is dotted with villages connected with the local fishing industry, among which Capernaum was foremost.
Fishermen of that day did not operate in a "free market" economy. The fishing industry was state-regulated for the benefit of the urban elite. These urban elites were Greeks or Romans who had settled in Palestine following their military conquests, or they were Jews well-connected with King Herod and his sons. Everybody else was poor.
Caesar and Herod benefited from the fishing trade in a variety of ways. For one thing, they sold the fishing leases which entitled local groups to fish in the sea. Fishing rights generally were awarded not to individuals, but to local "coops" based in kinship--like, for example, the brothers Simon and Andrew, and the Zebedee family.
In addition, there were taxes on both the fish product and on the processing, as well as tolls on shipping and land transport. Fisherman were at the bottom of a very detailed economic heirarchy, the main beneficiaries of which were Caesar, then Herod, then major tax collectors.
Jesus made a strong appeal to local fishermen. In fact, the known harbors of the Sea of Galilee in the first century strongly correlate with locations where Jesus either lived or traveled--Bethsaida, Capernaum, Gennesar, Magdala, Gadara and Gergasa. (The original name of Magdala, hometown of Jesus' girlfriend, was Tarichaeae, which means "processed fish-ville." It was only a few miles south of Capernaum.)
In addition to collecting taxes, the local tax collector (Matthew?) probably also sold fishing rights, and may have even supplied capital for certain fishermen to build nets or boats. Naturally, he would charge interest for this service. It's not for nothing that the subject of "debt" pops up all through the four gospels.
Were fishermen Jesus' base of political support? Put another way, were fishermen particularly responsive to Jesus' message because of the rigid state-control of their livelihood, and the economic oppression of high taxation?
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