Conclusion

Summary

This book has argued that Judaean elites gradually increased their political, economic, and ideological power as agents of institutional change in Early Roman Palestine. These Judaean elites were boundedly rational – they were self-interested social actors, but often their actions were economically inefficient because they were influenced by dispositions that we would designate as cultural or religious. The surging power of Judaean elites, notably, did not generally correspond to the increased impoverishment of non-elites relative to earlier periods and other provinces.