The "Good Thief"

One of my readers asked me to comment on Luke 23:39-43.

In this short sequence, Jesus is hanging on the cross between two "thieves" who were also being crucified. One of the thieves mocks him. The other thief rebukes the first thief saying "We deserve this death. Jesus did not". Then, the "good thief" asks Jesus to remember him in paradise.

At first glance, this appears to be a story of ancient law administering capital punishment to common thieves. But there is probably more to the story than is revealed by a casual reading that does not comprehend history.

Background

There were two levels of law in Israel* at the time. There was the "civil law"  which stoned women caught in the act of adultery. And there was the law of the Roman Empire.

Since crucifixion was NOT a method sanctioned by Mosaic law, the two "thieves" were executed for violating Roman law.

In all likelihood, the real crime they committed was that they were revolutionaries. Perhaps they killed a Roman soldier and stripped him of his weapons and armor. That would be both "revolution" and "theft". Perhaps they attacked a tax-collector carrying taxes to the Roman treasury.

Even deeper background

There were at least three viable attempts to overthrow the Romans in the time of Christ (roughly 30 years). One of those attempts was led by Judas of Galilee in 6 A.D. and his home-base was about four miles from Nazareth. 

The Romans were very, very sensitive to any indications of revolt. Perhaps that explains the disdain many ordinary Jews had for Jesus when they learned he came from Nazareth (John 1:45,46). Judas of Galilee's failed revolt undoubtedly caused an intensification of Roman repression of Jewish religious and economic freedoms.

That environment explains the authorities intense interest in John the Baptist and, later, Jesus. It also provides context for Herod's seemingly over-the-top reaction to the news of Jesus's birth and the killing of all male infants in Bethlehem. 

That environment turned Israel into a political pressure-cooker and ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem in the 72 A.D. time-frame.

Why did Rome care about Israel?

For one thing, Israel is strategically placed at the east end of the Mediterranean. Any operations in Egypt or down the west side of the Arabian peninsula required a "pacified" Israel.

Additionally, Israel blocked access to the Dead Sea which represented a very-easy to mine source of salt. Not only were there vast deposits of solid salt easy to access from the ground, but it was only five or six days away from the coast by donkey or camel train.

Another factor is that Israel was a crucial link in the ancient spice, perfume and incense trade routes. Gold traveled in one direction and raw materials like frankincense and myrrh traveled in the other. Sound familiar? In a world without deodorants or a functional understanding of sanitation and hygiene, pleasant smelling materials were in very high demand.

How did a typical Jew in the time of Jesus see Rome?

The Jews were the first (or one of the first) people to have a written language that was accessible to everybody. Consequently, nearly every adult Jew was intimately familiar with their history.

The earliest Jewish people survived Sodom thanks to Divine intervention.

They escaped the Egyptian captivity; Egypt being the major power of the world at that time. 

The forty years in the desert was probably the pivotal event in the formation of the Jewish people. The "selection pressure" was intense and all of the weak parts left the body.

Then the Jews conquered the tribes who occupied the Promised Land.

In approximately 735 B.C. the Jews were defeated by the Assyrians, the major power of the world at that time. About ten years after the defeat, the Assyrians deported vast numbers of them. Many of the Jews fled the Promised Land to avoid the Assyrians. That is seen as the first "diaspora" in the Old Testament. A remnant of the families who were deported trickled back to Israel after the Assyrian empire collapsed.

In approximately 597-587 B.C. the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians and many of them were exiled to Babylonia; at that time the major power of the world. The exiled Jews were able to return to Jerusalem approximately 540 B.C. when the Babylonian empire collapsed.

So, the attitude of the typical, Jewish man with regard to the Romans was "Meh. Been there, done that. We will out last these heathens."

When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in approximately 70 A.D., there were already communities of Jews scattered throughout the known world thanks to the previous two diasporas. Incidentally, those Jewish communities were instrumental in allowing Christianity to spread like wild-fire across the Roman Empire.

* I use the term "Israel" to refer to the "Promised Land" and "Jews" to refer to the descendant of Abraham who adhered to Mosaic Law. 

An early start to the day

Today should be an easy day. No play-dates for Quicksilver. No plans other than changing the oil in my truck.

Southern Belle has the chest-cold that Handsome Hombre had and Quicksilver has the sniffles. In due course it will hit me and Mrs ERJ, but for now we are good-to-go.

SB was running half-speed yesterday. She saw this coming.

Quicksilver and I went grocery shopping for her yesterday afternoon. Quicksilver picked out the rotisserie chicken, the bag of salad and sweet potatoes and, most importantly, the dessert. She chose cheese Danishes covered with lemon goo. 

I remember working and being sick. Small kindnesses like having somebody else "handle" getting dinner seemed like a really big thing.

Handsome Hombre dropped off Quicksilver this morning. She was out-of-sorts since it was 90 minutes earlier than her (and my) usual routine. She settled down in a minute after settling into the rocking chair (i.e. my recliner), a fuzzy quilt and LiaChaCha kiddy show on the TV. 

She is now on the floor next to Zeus and they are both watching Shaun the Sheep and happy-happy-happy and I now have enough ambition to make a second cup of coffee.

So far, so good. 

Presented without comment

 

All politics are local

One of the more measurable costs of a high population of uninsured, illegal aliens is increased loading on Emergency Rooms and Doc-in-Box healthcare providers.

In just one city, Denver, a $70 million hole appeared in their budget. Pundits identified heavy use of Emergency Rooms by illegal aliens as the primary driver of that funding shortfall.

Emergency Rooms are a VERY expensive way to deliver medicine. The patient usually arrives with no history so a broad array of diagnostic testing is ordered and since it is by default an EMERGENCY, timing is compressed.

It would be interesting to see if Emergency Room wait-times improved from 2024-to-2025 with the self-deportation of one million undocumented migrants. Measuring budget performance usually lags by at least three months but hospitals now measure "average wait" in Emergency Rooms in real-time.

Terrorizing? 

Apparently, this woman is an "influencer" who eats in swanky restaurants and then "dashes" without paying.

Since she lives in a city that depends on tourism, her antics enrage the restaurants. If she slags them in a review, they lose business. If her followers copy her practice not paying, they go out of business.

The legal system is too slow and cumbersome to deal with this little ball of slime.

Suddenly, there are people in uber-blue cities who are cheering ICE. It appears that she is "an undocumented immigrant" and can be deported.

Killing people...no problem
Raping women...no problem
Causing multiple traffic accidents...no problem
Human trafficking...no problem
Importing drugs...no problem
Flooding Emergency Rooms...no problem 
Not paying for a $260 meal...BIG PROBLEM 

City people! 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Frank H. Johnston was born in Toronto, Ontario Canada in 1888 and died in 1949. Unlike many other Canadian artists, Johnston traveled to many provinces and stayed long enough to produce significant numbers of paintings.

Another tip of the old fedora to Lucas Machias for suggesting this artist.

The morning light show

 

Mushrooms, Chugunoks, Apples and Icons (video review)

Mushrooms

I am still enjoying the videos of the "widow" from Ukraine. She appears to have a fairly large network. Different people keep popping in and helping her.

Eastern Europeans love their mushrooms.

She is collecting them from what appears to be a managed forest of Pinus sylvestris (commonly called Scotch Pine, a Eurasian species) and Quercus rubra (commonly called Northern Red Oak, a North American species). The Boyarka Forest Station is one place that is documented as having that combination of trees but I am sure that combination exist in many other places.

There are many places in Michigan and Pennsylvania where you can find this combination. The difference is that the Pinus sylvestris is from abandoned Christmas tree farms and the Red Oak is the native. 

Mistletoe in trees circled in red

 

Mistletoe population density in Ukraine. Lifted from a peer reviewed academic paper.

Given that she prepares Chicken Paprikash (a classic, Hungarian dish) in this video and the prevalence of mistletoe, it is a decent guess to assume she is in not in the eastern half of Ukraine.

Kettles

The widow has a cooking system. The stove in the outdoor kitchen has a side-draft fire-box.

 

Called a "Chugunok"

The shape of the kettle means it can be fit through a hole in the top of the stove and more surface area is exposed to the heat than a square-bottomed kettle.

The rolled-in top means that it can be picked up with a very simple tool that doesn't rely on pivots or grip strength. Large, heavy ones can be lifted by two people with nothing more than a couple of poles.

Gathering firewood is a time-consuming task, especially if you cannot use power equipment. A nice thing about hand-tools is that they always start and hand-saws are not very loud.

Her indoor cook-stove has inserts that can be removed to create a hole that is sized to the pan or for gentle heat, she can rest the pan on top of the inserts.

Cooking systems that reduces the amount of firewood needed on a daily basis can save hundreds of hours of work a year. 

Apples 

Yes, I am an apple nerd. These look like "Idared" apples.

Many of the apples grown in Europe are of North American origin. Idared is a popular storage and cooking apple in Europe. The trees are precocious and productive. The fruit are large, keep well and is relatively tart. Unfortunately, the tree is very susceptible to fire blight. "Enterprise" is a good substitute for Idared.

Icons

The Ukrainian widow whose videos I have been enjoying appears to follow the Orthodox practice of Christianity. I am unfamiliar with the shrouding or decorating of icons for Advent. If memory serves, those icons were not shrouded before Advent in earlier videos.