I have been reading “The Global Gospel– Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World” by Werner Mischke. I still have a long ways to go (I think I am around 1/3 done), but I want to share a diagram from the book. It is in Section 2.7 (I am Kindle-ing it, so I don’t have a page number). It shows the diagram of society based on a work— Richard Rohrbaugh, The Social World of the New Testament: Insights and Models (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008), 147.

A common way to show socioeconomic classes is to show them in a similar format with the shape looking somewhat like an upside down brilliant-cut diamond. This drawing looks something like that but with a tail sticking upward. This makes it clear that there was a tiny class of the rich and powerful that held huge sway over the mass population.

This drawing perhaps makes clearer the dynamics of the time related to patronage (as Mischke was focusing on). The vast majority of people lives that bordered on destitute. They needed benefactors to thrive, and sometimes just to survive. Recorded history was almost exclusively reserved for the few at the top.

In the last 50 years there seems to be some shifts going on in many places. One of these, the US, seems to have some major changes. One seems to be the return of the extended family. Back in the 70s and 80s it seems like the extended family was almost gone (except for Christmas and funerals). In the Philippines the extended family has always been stronger, but the OFW phenomenon has also weakened it considerably. However, with the problems of affordable housing being so great, and the struggles with affordable childcare, multiigenerational families sharing the same house has increased. Additionally, under-regulation of the free market has increased the gulf between the haves and havenots (as well as the have-a-ton and have-nothings). This is moving things back in some ways to the situation that drove the patronage system.

Is this good or bad. Well, it may be good, or it may be bad. Regardless, it just is. Perhaps if the trend continues, we will better understand aspects of the Bible because we share many of the socio-econonomic and sociological conditions. That may be a silver lining, but the situation of first century Judea was certainly not one to seek out. Jesus cried out against the abuses of the powerful and spoke in favor of the downtrodden. It is, I think, a bit sad that the church has struggled in picking whether to side with the powerful or the powerless. Perhaps some of these economic changes will help it better pick a side.