Just now I was reading the new Jack Chick masterpiece, "It’s The Law, and almost sprayed cheap bourbon all over my cat and my monitor when I got to the part where the aptly named Uncle Bob says, “Would he be willing to go to earth and be born in a smelly stable, in a minority group…?” My first thought was that it was silly to consider Jews in ancient Israel to be a minority group, but then I decided I don’t really know about the demographics of the area back then. So, were the Jews a minority group? If so, who was the majority?
i am not familiar with the author, but he sounds like a likely western european, and i would think he was just making the point of jesus not being a white guy. maybe, just my first reaction.
At the time of the birth of Jesus, the Jews had their own (Roman dominated) kingdom. Herod is even mentioned in the New testament. Applying the idea of “minority” status to that time and period is anachronistic. (I believe, following the text of the linked tract, that this makes Jack Chick a liar.)
I found this, which is of no help in answering your question, but is too funny not to share: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/1998/article1jun98.html
Jews were not yet a minority in Israel.
Rome had come in at the invitation of squabbling factions in the wake of the Macabean victory (to help settle the squabble) and took over without any massacre needed. The Great Revolt occurred in 66-70 CE with huge Jewish losses and culminated with the destruction of the Temple. The Bar-Kokhba Rebellion in 132-135 CE resulted in the deaths of half of the remaining Jewish population. Many others were sold into slavery. This is were a minority status for Jews in Israel dates from.
Rome continued to deal with mutiple revolts and attacks on various fronts (Persians, Goths, Egyptians, etc) and by the time before Constantine was divided between various generals.
(It is within the framework of this backdrop that the growth of Christianity from a minority sect within a defeated and demoralized Jewish people to a dominant religion must be viewed.)
Shocking, huh?
Not to defend Mr. Chick, but perhaps he meant a smaller subgroup within Judaism?
I think I remember my Religion prof saying that Gaileans (I think) had a reputation for being rather out there, religion-wise.
Nah, the Galileans were considered hicks, but they were not a religious group unto themselves or an actual"minority."
In a sense, however, the Jews were being oppressed, even though they were in the majority.
So now I’ll be singing “We are occupied! Have you forgotten how put down we are?” in my head for the rest of the day…
:D, maralinn.
Myself, I’m singing “I dreamed I met a Galilean …”
Hmm…in that lovely Chick tract (naturally based in response to some anti-Christian sentiments I’ve yet to see in any school), is there some kind of error in the first panel after Uncle Bob finishes talking about the 10 plagues God sent?
It states: “Jesus said to Moses…when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.”
Now, I admit I haven’t read the Bible in a while, but didn’t Moses and all his shennanigans occur before the birth of Jesus? Please correct me if I’m wrong on that; I figure I don’t remember all of this too well and Jack Chick probably reads his Bible, uh, religiously.
-Neil
Jesus talking to Moses would be very hard to understand, unless you take the book of John and combine it with fundies. John says “In the beginning there was the Word”. That means that Jesus was there during the creation, as part of God. So then the fundies figure, well if he was around, he must have been doing something. Last step is they have him talking to Moses.
“A most amazing man…”
Argh, now you’ve got me doing it…
Re the tract: In the first panel, the kid defends his choice of paper topics by saying “But it’s true! They made a movie about it!” Was Chick trying to be ironic or what?
(Incidentally, a few people in my OT class in high school tried to get the teacher to show us that movie, mostly to suck up class time, but the teacher refused on the grounds that it was both historically and scripturally inaccurate. But then, my school was run by a bunch of Isis-worshipping Death Cookie munchers, so what did they know? ;))
This reminds me of the Doonesbury plot line in the seventies, when Duke was appointed ambassador to China. He bragged to someone that he was a good person for the job because he knew how to deal with minorities.