I took this photograph in the Luxor Hotel recently.
he had plenty of materials - every time he went to pull a splinter he found a timber.
It’s a commandment to Jews to form legal systems. A formal legal system is a major feature of Judaism.
The parties would take their dispute to a Bet Din - a court of rabbis, men learned in both the Torah itself and the Talmud, which is Judaism’s book of laws, cases, and commentaries on custom (6,000 print pages long). They would consider the principles and the precedent and render a decision. Most towns over a small size (I think it was 240 people) had a bet din court.
They wouldn’t have relied so much on Talmud in the days of Jesus, as the Talmud was written 200-500 years later.
Jesus may not have been a carpenter. All we know is He was the son of a carpenter. You can extrapolate with an educated guess, but for all we know He was a hairdresser or a chef or something.
A carpenter ended up being nailed to a large piece of wood? I’m guessing the initial joke was circa 2 A.D.
A carpenter ended up being nailed to a large piece of wood? I’m guessing the initial joke was circa 2 A.D.
I really really doubt that Nazereth would have had something so formal.
BTW, I thought the jury was still out on the exact meaning of tekton in context; i.e people are unsure if they meant carpenter at all.
If Jesus had constructed sub par work, you sued his righteous ass and took Him to court. Unfortunately for the Plaintiff, this where Jesus openly and freely admitted to shitty craftsmanship but followed with, “Hey. You can’t blame me for this crap. I’m not responsible for this because (are you ready for this?) it was an Act of God!”. He was never found guilty and I’m pretty sure this was the first use of the ‘Act of God’ legal defense. Yeah, pretty sure.
“Africa” is a pretty big continent with a whole lot of countries, some of which have functional legal systems. Saying something like this is akin to taking your example of Spain and generalising to say that “customers in Europe” have no recourse to the courts.
Yes, and some Americans are mentally retarded but that does not make them representative of the American population as a whole.
What percentage of Africans would normally resort to something similar to small claims court in the case of a personal dispute? My guess is that the number is very small.
In America personal relations have become more distant and impersonal than in most countries and the courts handle cases that would normally in other countries never go to court.
If you live in a small town or neighborhood you have people in positions of authority who would handle mediation informally. Religious leaders, rich persons, elders, those better educated like a medical doctor…
In Spain, as in the UK, they had a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace was just some way of endorsing some respectable person with some legal capacity to resolve small disputes.
The notion that you would go to a formal court over a small dispute is the exception in the world rather than the rule, even today.
The notion that you get police or other authorities involved in minor things like school truancy or bullying is very American and very modern.
Some decades ago resorting to state authorities for minor things would have been enough to make you an asshole in the eyes of your neighbors. Even some not so minor things like wife beating were mostly handled outside the legal system.
Today in Mexico or some Central American countries (or most of Africa) the resources of the State are minimal and if you go to the police or judges with minor squabbles they will just laugh in your face (and probably demand some money).
That depends a lot on what you mean by a “formal court”. If what you mean is that a lot of small disputes will be resolved in a manner different from the litigation procedures that would be applied in a big case, with a full court of law sitting, hearing evidence, and giving a formal verdict after a thorough deliberation of the case, then you’re probably right. But if you mean that for most of human history, and for most of the world even today, the government simply did not care about small disputes and left them entirely to informal extra-governmental bodies such as the elders you mention, then this is certainly wrong. Governments often establish separate procedures and bodies to deal with small disputes as opposed to the big cases, but this does not mean they don’t care about small cases at all. The Justices of the Peace that you mention are an example: They do not have the same status and qualifications as major courts, and the procedures before a Justice of the Peace surely follow different rules, but they are still governmental officials endowed with a governmental authority to decide disputes in a legally binding manner. There is plenty of evidence in official records throughout history which demonstrates that even small cases were taken to govermentally established judicial bodies. Even in a small outback town such as the first century Nazareth we’re talking about, neither Jewish nor Roman authorities would tolerate people taking the law into their own hands for small disputes, and would provide for some sort of governmentally sanctioned litigation options.
At least he would be accepted in his hometown. Better a bad carpenter than a great prophet.
On the serious side, I’ve been listening to a series of history of that period, and one thing which surprised me was the under the Roman system of law, richer people were formally treated better in courts as it was assumed they had less reason to lie.
This is one reason it was advantageous to have an important good patron to help with disputes.
What I have heard is that, for someone in the time of Joseph or Jesus, being a “carpenter” would been more like being a construction worker than being a craftsman who made items out of wood.
Yes. If Lazarus made much better stuff for similar cost.
But if Jesus were to raise Lazarus’ prices . . .
In the book Zealot, Aslan suggests the word used “tekton”, actually meant day labourer as well as woodworker. Herod (son of Herod) before building Tiberias, located his capital in the previously razed city of Sepphoris. The rebuilding and additional public works in this capital likely provided work for construction day labourers from Nazareth, about 10km down the road.
[QUOTE=Jesus, GAT Matthew 5:25-26]
Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
[/QUOTE]
Not the most pious advice, but probably useful. If you’re getting sued, settle out of court because it sucks going to jail. Maybe he spoke from experience?
You get Judas to turn them in.
If Jesus could turn water into wine he’d have no trouble turning planks of wood into kitchen cabinets.
I don’t know about palestine 30 AD, but the Hammurabi code was already pretty harsh wrt poor workmanship. If I remember correctly, it was eye for eye, basically. If the house you buid collapsed and killed the owner, you were put to death.
And in fact I would expect people in Palestin in 30 AD to have legal recourses in such situations.