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March 27, 2005
easter politics
Okay, so this Leunig cartoon is pretty quirky (Jesus as a Jewish nationalist resisting the Roman imperialists), but it is rather neat, don't you think?
But where is the national security state? The imperial Roman state of Caesar Augustus and Tiberus is invisible. The Romans occupied Palestine as an imperial power sometime before Christ----63 B.C. when the Roman army under Pompey took control of Judea. So why the absence of imperial political power in the cartoon?
Was not Israel feeling the weight of the oppressive Roman occupation? Did not the Jewish resistance to the Roman conquest and Roman occupation result in three wars between the Jews and Rome during 66-74, 115-117 and 132-135.
Were there not numerous messianic prophets appearing in Palestine during the first decades of the first century? Was not Judaism deeply concerned to prepare for the messianic liberation of Israel? Did not the Jews dream to be politically free of foreign occupation?
And the Jews? Where are the representatives of the nation, religion and state who collaborated with the Roman Governor and occupiers?
These are odd silences.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at March 27, 2005 06:11 AM
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