The Jesus Movement and Social Network Analysis (Part I: The Spatial Network)

Abstract

This study is Part I of a "thought experiment" that reconfigures Theissen's "itinerant charismatics" and "community sympathizers" in terms of social network analysis. It briefly describes social network analysis and then, building on Graph Theory, Central Place Theory, and Urbanology about population centers, it summarizes literary and settlement archeological information about Galilean towns mentioned in the Gospels, emphasizing the central places around the Sea of Galilee. The study also briefly describes nearby harbors and roads and constructs imaginative lake lanes and road routes that connect these places. It proposes that villages around the Dead Sea found in the Babatha archive offer an analogy for those around the Sea of Galilee. Without abandoning the inland villages, it shifts attention to Capernaum-based lake towns as a major spatial context for Jesus' social network (Part II).

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