Week 01
ISRAEL & ROME
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, February 24th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How the Romanization of Israel resulted in both Violent Rebellion & Nonviolent Resistance
Objective: Establish the political matrix of Jesus’ world through historical reconstruction. We will examine…
- The process of Romanization in first-century Israel
- The spectrum of Jewish responses—from violent rebellion to nonviolent resistance
- The historical evidence for where Jesus and his movement fit within this landscape
Week 02
BAPTISM & JORDAN
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 3rd (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How John’s “baptism” was so distinctive that he was nicknamed “Baptist” by both Josephus and Mark
Objective: Examine what history tells us about John’s movement and Jesus’ participation in it. We will examine…
- What made John’s baptism distinctive enough to become his defining title
- The convergent historical evidence from Josephus and the Gospels
- How Jesus’ emergence from this movement shaped his own mission and message
Week 03
TRADITION & TRACTION
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 10th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How the biblical vision of distributive justice got socio-political traction from Antipas’ lake enclosure
Objective: Discover how historical circumstances gave ancient prophetic traditions urgent new relevance. We will examine…
- The economic and social impact of Antipas’ commercialization of the lake
- Israel’s deep biblical tradition of distributive justice
- How imperial policy inadvertently created the conditions for Jesus’ message to resonate—then and now
Week 04
MEDIUM & MESSAGE
Livestream QnA: Tuesday, March 17th (10am PT / 1pm ET)
How Jesus’ Parables were a Participatory Pedagogy for a Participatory Divine Rule on Earth
Objective: Understand the inseparable relationship between how Jesus taught and what Jesus taught. We will examine…
- The parable as a distinctive and deliberate pedagogical form
- How participatory teaching embodies and enacts participatory divine rule
- Dom’s mature reflection on parables fifty years after the book that started it all
