Was Jesus a Racist?

[TexasBEAST]

The Israelites were racists. They hated anybody that wasn't a Hebrew. Their tales brag about killing the other races with impunity. Their laws forbid intermarrying. It's all rather sick.

And Iesous (Jesus) apparently went right along with this. He never once taught that racism was evil. That is a glaring omission. Instead, in the book of Matthew, he ordered the Apostoloi (Apostles) not to go to the Ethnoi (Ethnics; Goyyim, "Gentiles"). He said that the kingdom was only meant for the children of Israel. In both the books of Mark and Matthew, considered to be the earlier of the Gospels, he calls the Ethnoi kunarionoi--little dogs, or puppies, unfit for the kingdom. He even initially refuses to save a woman's ill daughter because of her race. In another Matthew passage, he adds the word khoiros--swine.

That the Apostoloi came along and the Gospel was to be spred to the Ethnoi after all doesn't change the nature of Iesous' view of them while the character was alive. The sudden change of heart by Iesous at the close of the book of Matthew, and the tales that he in fact did go about preaching to the Ethnoi in the books of Luke and John, all stand in rather conspicuous inconsistency with the earlier Gospels. "How conveeenient!"

So my question: Was Jesus a racist?

[CapelDodger]

It seems clear that the actual Jesus, if one such person existed, would have been a racist and a Jewish exclusivist. That, apart from anything else, was the sort of Judean the Romans were nailing up in those parts. That Jesus/Yeshua may have been the inspiration of a sect, subsequently led by James (a substantial historical figure). That sect was not the one that became Christianity; it was hammered in Jerusalem by Titus and run to ground over the next few decades. The Pauline cult, end result of two centuries of efforts to amalgamate Greek and Jewish philosophy, was the foundation of Christianity.

The Jamesian cult (the Jerusalem Church) must have had made enough impression to require the inclusion of anti-gentile ideas by the gospel writers. However the thrust of the New Testament is away from racial exclusivity (and very specifically away from Judaism and Jews). Paul's big claim was that he was meant to preach the cult of Jesus to the gentiles, and Paul is made the pillar of the New Testament by the founders of Christianity.

Any argument that the Judaism of a zealot such as the putative Jesus was not racist since conversion was possible fails when considered against the whole thrust of the Old Testament. Descent is absolute, as is even displayed in the 'House of David' prophecy assigned by Christians to Jesus. The Hebrew god-totem chose them, not the Hebrews and to-be-announced. The sort of zealot that any real Jesus would have been would have idolised the Old Testament. He would neverhave regarded a convert as clean.

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by TexasBEAST
And Iesous (Jesus) apparently went right along with this.
What Would <s>Jesus</s> Yahshua Do? He'd use his real name.

So my question: Was Jesus a racist?
From his familiar teaching "Live Thy Neighbor", I wouldnt think so. The story goes Jesus helped blind men, fed the hungry, etc. so it doesnt seem to me that Jesus would be immediately "Jewish Exclusive" (Thank you CapelDodger for that phrase, I would have spent all night trying to come up with that :wink: ).

Edit: Added smilies because it sounds like I'm being sarcastic when it wasnt my intention.

[a_unique_person]

The parable of the good samaritan was supposed to have shown he wasn't racist. The Samaritans were a different racial group who were looked down upon by the jews, but jesus makes the one in his storey out to be a hero. The Pharisees, who he diss's, were a Jewish sect.

[CapelDodger]

From yahweh:
From his familiar teaching "Love Thy Neighbor", I wouldnt think so
As per my previous, there's no good reason to think that this was the teaching of a real Jesus. In fact it has a good Greek background amongst Platonists and others, as does "do unto others ..."

OK, "Jewish exclusivist" is clumsy, but I'm not getting paid for this, you know.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

No more racist than the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus.

[Skeptical Greg]

Originally posted by a_unique_person
The parable of the good samaritan was supposed to have shown he wasn't racist. The Samaritans were a different racial group who were looked down upon by the jews, but jesus makes the one in his storey out to be a hero. The Pharisees, who he diss's, were a Jewish sect.


I thought that the story of the good Samaritan was to show that even a Samaritan, could behave better than a Levite and a priest...

If he wasn't a racist, it wouldn't have occured to him to use one of the despised, as an example. ( .... i.e. Some of my best friends are Samaritans... )

[Skeptical Greg]

Originally posted by Yahweh


From his familiar teaching "Love Thy Neighbor", I wouldnt think so.



I think this assumes one's neighbors, are Jews in good standing...;)

[TexasBEAST]

Originally posted by Yahweh
What Would <s>Jesus</s> Yahshua Do? He'd use his real name.
Hey, I'm just quoting the Bible. "Iesous": iota eta sigma omicron upsilon sigma. That's what the scriptures name him. The Aramaic "Yeshua" or Hebrew "JYehoshua`" are only scholastic conjecture; projections of what name would've given rise to the Hellenization "Iesous" in the commonly promulgated scriptures.

WWJD? Apparently, Jesus would call Gentiles "little dogs" and deny them his saving grace on the basis of race. Then, he would order his henchmen to avoid those little doggies at all cost. And then have a miraculous change of heart once he was dead.

From his familiar teaching "Live Thy Neighbor", I wouldnt think so.
As stated in the other posts, "neighbor" wasn't considered to include just anybody. In the OT scriptures, you could covet, steal from, enslave, and murder people who weren't Hebrews. Those other people weren't considered your "neighbor", therefore, the law's prohibitions on behavior did not protect them.

Also as was stated, the point of the "Good Samaritan" story was to serve as yet another dig at the Farisim ("Pharisees") and TZadokim ("Sadducees"), Jewish popular community leaders at the time. Such groups bragged about their greatness but seldom helped the downtrodden. When Iesous praised the Samaritan of his story, it was as if he were saying,

Dude! You guys suck! You don't help the downtrodden. Even a no-good, stinkin' Samaritan helps the downtrodden! Man, you sheisty!
I envision a KKK member turning to his racist buddy and saying,

You see that? Those N---s over there? They're working in groups, and they have a common purpose. That's we gotta do. We gotta get organized, like a N---. No wonder they been taking over the country; even N--s know how to get organized!
At any rate, it needs to be noted that the "Good Samaritan" story appears in the book of Luke, which differs considerably from the earlier two Gospels. Mark and Matthew both feature a racist, proud Jew Iesous struggling to prove his Jew-ness; Luke and John feature a Iesous who was more open to the Gentiles, and occasionally flippant about violating the Torah. In Matthew, Iesous forbids the Apostoloi to go to the Ethnoi (Ethnics; "Gentiles"), and in both Mark and Matthew, he calls the Ethnoi "little doggies" unfit for his attention. It is only after his death that he conspicuously (I say suspiciously) changes his mind. The chapters at the end of Mark where he does so has been discredited as a later forgery by scholars; the passage concluding Matthew, not officially so, but it nevertheless bears the mark of a tell-tale forger as well. But in Luke and John, which were written later, and which scholars theorize were written primarily for a non-Jew audience, Iesous and the Apostoloi strangely evangelize to the Ethnoi while he's still alive! How quickly the Legend of Jesus changed.

And religionists say we don't have proof of evolution!