Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00371)

In a message dated 3/18/04 9:41:04 AM Central Standard Time, 
bartl@sprynet.com writes:

<< 
One interesting thing is the extension of the "dirty Jew" myth (also 
promulgated by Alice Bailey), showing the Jews to be much dirtier than 
the Romans. However, this contradicts even the New Testament, where 
Jesus comments on the Jews', for the time, religious obsession with 
personal cleanliness.
>>

Well, not to defend Gibson in any way, but it was a lot easier to be clean in 
Rome in the first century CE than it was in Judea simply because there was a 
lot more fresh water available. The Romans in Judea, would have most likely 
bathed as often as possible simply out of habit (public baths were a Roman 
social institution) and thus would have appeared cleaner simply because they were 
not working the same way as the natives. The soldiers would get dusty and 
then jump in the nearest body of water and the other Romans would probably have 
been obsessed with cleanliness to the point of making Lady Macbeth jealous. 

Another thing to consider. Our cultural ideas of beauty are still greatly 
influenced by the Romans and the Greeks. To our eyes, the Romans are just more 
attractive than the folks in the ancient middle east so the physical portrayal 
is probably accurate and the rest is just how our eyes are conditioned to 
work. 

Chuck the Heretic