What occupations did the people of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth at the time of Jesus?
Answer The kind of occupations which people follow is affected by the kind of life people lived. Like any ancient or modern society Judea (as the land of Israel was known in the days of Jesus) was divided into two kinds of life, rural and urban. Societies were mostly rural but soon after the days of Jesus, after developments and changes in the system of government in the Roman Empire there was a shift to more urbanisation. So we find new occupations developing. This means that at first,before urbanisation, most people earned their living on the land. Most occupations involved the production of food. As urbanisation increased the percentage of farmers and food producing labour decreased. Urbanisation meant that many people became administrators and merchants. Farms gradually became bigger govenment operated enterprises rather than small private individual run enterprises. This naturally caused poverty as people’s land was taken from them and if they didn’t find work in the towns they’d
