44 MORTEN HØRNING JENSEN narrow and well-defined topics proceeding one step at a time. In particular, engagement in the ongoing archaeological research in Galilee itself seems of particular value, since it is from the realm of archaeology that most of the advances have been made throughout the last decades of Galilean research. Likewise, renewed reflection on the theoretical models explicitly or implicitly involved in our synthetic approach to the sources seems appropriate, since much of the divergence might stem precisely from a different approach to sociological models. However, the amount of recent archaeological data as well as several specialized studies at hand make the present stage a good point for pursuing a fresh evaluation of the central question of the socio-economic situation of Antipas’ Galilee while keeping in mind, naturally, that new material might profoundly change such a synthesis. 2. Rapid Change The first question confronting us is how to conceive such an investigation and not least how to use sociological models. Should we take a “social scientific approach” or a “social historian approach”, where the former is more occupied with complex models and the latter more hesitant and concerned with the interplay between sources and model? Should we choose a structural-functionalist model or a conflict model, where the former is designed to describe balance and equilibrium in a society and the latter designed to detect imbalance and disruptions within a society? 5 These issues have recently been discussed by Douglas E. Oakman and David A. Fiensy in connection with Galilean studies. Oakman argues for a distinct use of sociological models in what he describes as an “abductive social” approach, in contrast with the “inductive positivist” approach that is marked by “social ‘flatness’ of social stratification” 6. Fiensy, on the other hand, sees the danger in a too overt use of models: “The social scientist-New Testament scholar can be so model-driven that the model becomes the evidence, or in other words, 5 Cf. the discussion in JENSEN, Herod Antipas, 30-34. 6 Cf. D.E. OAKMAN, “The Shape of Power and Political-Economy in Herodian Galilee”, Liberating Biblical Study. Scholarship, Art, and Acvtion in Honor of the Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice (eds. C. MYERS – L. DYKSTRA) (Eugene, OR 2011) 147-161.