Quote: The ancestors of New Testament Galileans were forced to convert to Judaism.
Yes. And I was amazed to find out how recent that was when I first looked into it.
The OT tells the bullshit tale about how the entire population of the northern kingdom was deported ( Sargon II of Assyria himself only records some 20,000+ people moved) but the other side of the coin is that the Assyrians moved others in. Those brought with them whatever religion they had from elsewhere in the Assyrian empire.
It was not until the very end of the second century that King Alexander Jannaeus conquered Galilee ( c 101 BC) and forcibly converted the inhabitants to Judaism...including circumcision! However, a mere 38 years later the region was "liberated" when Gnaeus Pompey overran the Hasmonean kingdom. One does wonder how deeply a forced religious conversion could have taken root in a such a short period of time, huh?
The Galileans had spent the preceding 250 years under Hellensitic rule either from Seleucia or Alexandria. One imagines that Greek thought was far more deeply ingrained than jewish horseshit especially when brought at the point of a sword.
As with so much else, I think the xtians are full of shit.
