One big mistake I’ve made since Hamas attacked Israel is to read Twitter. By the end of the second day of the war, I remembered the most excellent internet advice I’ve ever gotten, “don’t feed the trolls.” The two most maddening statements I’ve read over the past few days are: Jesus was a Palestinian, which I can’t understand why it’s an issue in the Hamaa/Israel and that destroyed the historical Palestinian state (which never existed.).
Anyone who believes that Jesus was a Palestinian is lousy at arithmetic (my son, who graduated with a degree in applied mathematics, says that calculation isn’t math. It’s arithmetic.
Because I’m (the Lid) Jewish and lived over 2,000 years after Jesus’ death, I can’t speak Christian theology, but I can use the knowledge of my Christian friends to address when he lived and when he died. Per the Christian description, Jesus was an Eastern Judean. However, he is usually portrayed as a European nobleman living in the Middle Ages. Yes, Judean. The country was called Judea. That’s where the term “Jews” comes from.
To explain the arithmetic. Per Christian theology, Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Humble) calculated the calendar to make Year 1 (not 0) the year of Jesus’ birth, but he miscalculated. Various guesses put the birth within 1-4 years BCE. No estimate counts the number zero. Using the earliest number of those estimates, If Jesus was born in the year 4 BCE and Judea (the Jewish state wasn’t defeated until 135 CE, there was a 139-year difference.
There seems to be some consensus that the crucifixion date is April 3, 33 C.E… or 106 years before the Romans destroyed the Judean state. Again, the numbers do not work.
After the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, the Romans punished the Judeans (Jews) for revolting for the second time in sixty years. To poke those rebellious Judeans in the eye, the Romans changed the Jewish state’s name from Judea to Syria Palaestina. The Romans used Palestina because it was the name of the ancient enemy of the Jews, the Philistines. The Philistines didn’t exist anymore (they had disappeared from existence around eight hundred years earlier). Its people were not called Palestinians because its residents were still primarily people who followed the Jewish state.
The Romans tried to throw out many Judeans from their own country, creating the Jewish exile that lasted till 1948. Not all the Jews were thrown out. Many Jews lived in the Holy Land through 1948 when a Jewish state was declared the eternal homeland of the Jews.
Psalm 137 is the first “Jewih never forget.” which says in part:
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill, May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you. if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem’s fall, those who said: “Tear it down!
The Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire formed from its eastern provinces. They took control of the holy land around the year 330 C.E. Three centuries later, in the year 638 C.E., the land was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate, which was the first four caliphs that took over after Muhammad died. Eight hundred years ago, the land t became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire (in the 1400s,
After WW1, the League of Nations made the entire Homeland of the Jews a British protectorate, known as the British Mandate Of Palestine. That lasted until 1948, when the modern Jewish State, Israel, was created. Throughout that period, from the year 135 through the year 1948, there was a large population of Jews living in the land. In fact, before 1948, Jews living in the holy land were called Palestinians.
Putting the timeline together, it is clear to anyone with basic math arithmetic skills that Jesus couldn’t have been a Palestinian. Based on Christian theology, the land was called Judea until a century after Jesus died. Muslims didn’t control the area until 600 years after Jesus’ death. Even then, it was part of a Califate, not an independent state. t became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the 1400s. And part of Christian Great Britain
Based on facts, anyone who looks at history knows there was never an independent state called Palestine, and there have always been Jews living in their eternal homeland.
Putting the timeline together, it is clear to anyone with basic math arithmetic skills that Jesus couldn’t have been a Palestinian. Based on Christian theology, the land was called Judea until a century after Jesus died. And Muslims didn’t control the area until 600 years after Jesus’ death. Even then, it was part of a Califate, not an independent state. t became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the 1400s.
Anyone claiming that Jesus was a Palestinian is trying to create a new history for the Palestinians. Those who claim that there was a Palestinian state are too thick-headed to understand history.
