PALESTINE IN JESUS' TIME 23 the case with Jesus' attitude with regard to the sabbath, to fasting, and the new wine that could not be put in old bottles. We cannot pass over in silence the idea expressed, about the destruction of the Temple, when th^ significance of the Temple was not only that of a religious symbol, but of a fundamental symbol for the whole society. All of this, spelt out in a traditional, precapitalist society has a precise meaning. It is evident that Christ acted fundamentally in the religious field, although the religious field in Palestinian society has a different connotation from that in a Western or Westernized culture. / It is likewise interesting to note that the death of Jesus was the result of a collusion among the forces of the Roman Empire and the Jewish social elite (the High Priest, the Sadduccees), the Pharisees and even the crowd which those Barrabas. It appears very clearly that the message of Jesus had gone far beyond what these different groups could tolerate and that the overthrow of the social order which his message and practice signified and which was well understood by the different groups who put him to death, went further not only in reference to religious beliefs, but even to a reorganization of the existing order. On this subject, could one not say that the fundamental project of Christ envisaged a "Utopia" which in modern language means a classless society? [The materials/or this article have been drawn from the several sources given in the bibliography below, particularly/row the work of Fernanda Belo, Lecture materialiste de 1' Evangile de Marc, du Cerf, Paris 1974.] S W Baron, Histoire9 Israel, vie sociale et religieuse, PUF, Paris 1956. Fernando Belo, Lecture materialiste de I'Evangile de Marc, du Ccrf, Paris 1974. E Bikerman, Les Herodiens, dans Rev. BibL, (47), 1938, p. 193 ss. Joseph Bonsirvcn, Lejudaisme palestinien au temps de Jesus-Cfnrist, t. I. Joseph Bonsirven, Les ideesjuives au temps de J^otre-Seigneur, Blond et Gay, Paris 1934. Joseph Bonsirvcn, Les esperances ' messianiques en Palestine au temps de Jesus-Christ, dans NRTH, (61) 1934, pp 113-139 ct 250-276. Gunter Bornkamm, Qui est Jesus de Nazareth? Seuil, Paris 1971. R Bultmann, Le Christianisme Rrimitif, PB'P, Paris. R Bultmann, Jesus, mythe et demythologisation, $euil, Paris 1S68. Joseph Coppens, Le messianisme royal, du Cerf, Paris 1968. Georges Crespy, Recherche sur la signification politique de la mort du Christ, dans Lumiere ctVie,nl01, 1971. p 100-110 Oscar Cullmann, Dieu et Cesar, Ncuchatel, Paris 1956. Oscar Gullmann, Jesus et les Revolutionnaies de son temps, Neuchatcl, Paris 1970. C H Dodd, Le Fondateur du Chrisfianisme, Seuil, Paris 1970. C H Dodd, La predication apostolique et ses developpements, Ed. Universitaires, Paris 1964. Joseph Flavius, Guerre juive et Antiquites Bibliques, trad. Rcinach. Fliche et Martin, Historic de I'Eglise, 1.1, Blond-Gay, Paris. J B Frey, Le conflit entre le messianisme de Jesus et le Messianisme des Juifs de son temps, dansBiblica, (14), 1933. Erich Fromm, Le dogme de Christ et autres essais, PUF, Paris 1975. Joseph Ciblet^ Un mowement do resistance armee au temps de Jesus?, dans Revue Thcologi-quc de Louvain, 1974. p 409-426.