On the Holy Family as Refugees

On the Holy Family as Refugees · Trying to Sign for Zodhiates and Failing · As Said - Will Trump do the Right Thing?

Yes. The Holy Family were Refugees
DECEMBER 27, 2018 BY MARK SHEA
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2018/12/yes-the-holy-family-were-refugees.html

Mark Shea resuming

Ariel Gonzalez Bovat

Ah, but the ingenious conservative Christian is ready with his pettifogging and minor legalisms to declare nonetheless that Jesus was not a refugee. He achieves this effect by the ridiculous method of saying that since Judea and Egypt were both under Roman rule, it was therefore like moving from Maryland to Virginia for the Holy Family to flee Herod’s death squads.

Ariel Gonzalez Bovat

in his own words

Herod was an Arab practicing Jew, whose father was given honorary Roman citizenship in 47 B.C., citizenship that was passed on to Herod. That same year Herod arrived on the political stage when his father appointed him governor (modern day equivalent to mayor) of Galilee. Six years later Herod was promoted to tetrach, a higher form of governorship that ruled over a province, a territorial subdivision of the Roman Empire. A tetrach had the authority of a Roman magistrate and held executive power, though was still subordinate to Rome. Herod was technically a “client king” of Caesar.

It’s important to note that Egypt was not a different country from Bethlehem, but rather Egypt was part of a Roman province and Bethlehem was a town in Judea, another Roman province. ...

... Egypt is approximately 430 miles from Bethlehem. The reality can be compared to the holy family leaving New York City to settle right over the South Carolina border…..or leaving Chicago to settle in Omaha, Nebraska….or leaving Los Angeles and settling in Tucson Arizona. The mileage is not the issue here, but rather, leaving Bethlehem for Egypt was the equivalent of moving from one U.S. state to another, negating the label of refugee completely.

Yes, Herod was a client king .... so going from Judaea to Egypt was like going from NYC to SC?

Hmmm ... no.

Client King means, Judaea was a Roman Protectorate.

Suppose it was moving from Cuba (before Castro or just after he came to power), from Puerto Rico, from Guam or from Philippines to United States. The mileage is not the issue. The issue is, Holy Land esp. Judaea functioned as a protectorate, not as a province.

Recall the people getting from Cuba to US because they didn't like Castro's régime? Cuba had been a US protectorate since Spanish-American War. Were they not refugees?

Ask around in Miami, where many of them or their descendants still live.

After Herod and perhaps Archelaos too, Judaea became a Roman Province. With tax collectors.

This is one difficulty in the Childhood narratives, since in normal due procedure, Judaea could hardly have had a census prior to after Herod's death, when Judaea became a Roman Province:

A later appointment by Julius Caesar was Antipater the Idumaean, also known as Antipas, as the first Roman Procurator. Herod the Great, Antipater's son, was designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE[3] but he did not gain military control until 37 BCE. During his reign the last representatives of the Hasmoneans were eliminated, and the great port of Caesarea Maritima was built.[4]

...

In 6 CE Archelaus' tetrachy (Judea, plus Samaria and Idumea)[6] came under direct Roman administration. The Judean province did not initially include Galilee, Gaulanitis (the Golan), nor Peraea or the Decapolis.

Now, confer Galilee:

Galilee in the first century was dotted with small towns and villages.[6] The Jewish historian Josephus claims that there were 204 small towns in Galilee,[6] but modern scholars believe this estimate to be an exaggeration.[6] Many of these towns were centered around the Sea of Galilee, which contained many edible fish and which was surrounded by fertile land.[6] Salted, dried, and pickled fish were an important export good.[6] In 4 BCE, a rebel named Judah plundered Galilee's largest city, Sepphoris. In response, the Syrian governor Publius Quinctilius Varus sacked Sepphoris and sold the population into slavery.[6]

After the death of Herod the Great that same year, the Roman emperor Augustus appointed his son Herod Antipas as tetrarch of Galilee, which remained a Roman client state.[5] Antipas paid tribute to the Roman Empire in exchange for Roman protection.[5] The Romans did not station troops in Galilee, but threatened to retaliate against anyone who attacked it.[5] As long as he continued to pay tribute, Antipas was permitted to govern however he wished[5] and was permitted to mint his own coinage.[5] Antipas was relatively observant of Jewish laws and customs.[5] Although his palace was decorated with animal carvings, which many Jews regarded as a transgression against the law prohibiting idols,[5] his coins bore only agricultural designs, which his subjects deemed acceptable.[5]

This is where Nazareth was.

Now, this is not unimportant. You see, Rome levied tribute in Galilee, and this could have been prepared back in the time of Herod. Meaning, a kind of inofficial census could have taken place.

And as some have claimed Nazareth did not exist, it could have been in administration a subdivision of Sepphoris, explaining why Josephus gave no separate mention to Nazareth.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris XI
St. Sylvester, Pope
31.XII.2018

In an obnoxious and ghoulish display of gross insensitivity Jason Chaffetz, while speaking about Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7 year old girl who died in the custody of US Border Patrol agents, told his Fox News audience that the tragic death of the young girl sent the right “message.”

It should send the message that taking away people from their parents is grossly evil - including obviously when they are refugees, even illegal ones, but also including when they are not.

Will Trump do the right thing and end the state custody for illegal immigrants AND for a lot of lawabiding US Citizens? Honour THY father and THY mother and forget about the evil "parens patriae" doctrine!

Egypt has no need to be "just another Herod" .../HGL