Tax Collectors, Prostitutes and Aristocrats

We know the tax collectors were scum, bleeding their own people dry and handing the profit to their Roman oppressors - except, of course, for the profit they kept for themselves. Prostitutes have pretty scummy labels in any society. And the puzzling designation ‘sinners,’ doesn’t exactly bode well for someone’s character (including mine, unfortunately).

But what about a woman too far UP the ladder to be respectable? Luke 8:1-3 indicates that Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of King Herod’s household, was one of the women following Jesus full-time, and supported his ministry out of her own pocket. Ah, we think, the wealthy. And we move on.

Since Herod lived in Tiberias, Joanna would have also. She probably woke up to a view somewhat like this. The Tiberias harbor is in the foreground.

The Greek word designating Cuza ‘the manager of Herod’s household’ refers to a prestigious position paralleling a minister of finance, and in Rome the holder of that position was referred to as part of the king’s family, symbolically speaking. Joanna’s husband Cuza was more than a manager of slaves – he was pretty tight with Herod Antipas.

Like most kings of agrarian societies, Antipas taxed his people brutally, and the peasants paid roughly – and I do mean roughly – 40% of their income in taxes, including religious taxes. This did not make him or the ruling aristocracy popular, and the wife of the finance minister would not have fared well in her travels with prostitutes and tax-collectors – or with Simon the Zealot.

Joanna must have had a tough time switching from servants to camping out. The region of the Galilee, which is most of northern Israel, was pretty crowded in Jesus' time. Since fields lay fallow every other year, it seems like a reasonable guess that the large band of disciples would have slept in those fields at times. Joanna was probably uncomfortable, freezing, and not always smelling great, although I'm sure that at times they had people to stay with.

A typical Galilean field on a typical March day. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Matthew 8:19-20)

Joanna is one of several women listed as following Jesus full-time and Simon the Zealot was an apostle, which would have thrown them together with some frequency. An awkward situation, to say the least, as the Zealots were known for their violent attacks on aristocrats, merchants and tax collectors - anyone allied with Rome.

Thus, Matthew the tax-collector would have once been Simon’s target for annihilation, and Joanna would have fared similarly. They both would have considered Simon the Zealot their enemy and, furthermore, had little respect for each other. It’s a wonder that the three of them made it to the cross alive!

I can’t help wondering, honestly, what happened to Joanna along the way. Was she raped, perhaps multiple times? Teased, insulted? It seems likely. Must be some powerful gospel to drag a woman used to easy living through all that…

Sources
Bauckham, Richard, 2002, Gospel Women, Eerdmans Publishing

Hanson, K.C., and Oakman, Douglas, 1998, Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts, Fortress Press

Safrai, Ze'ev, 1994, The Economy of Roman Palestine, Routledge