GOSPEL OFF! Matthew vs. Luke: Nativity Edition.

[onager]

7. Why Archelaus was chucked out is also interesting...

According to Isaac Asimov's "Guide to the Bible," a bi-partisan committee of Jews and Samaritans complained about him to the Roman governor in Syria.

Which is interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. The Jews and Samaritans NEVER got together on anything. They hated each other, mostly because the Samaritans worshipped their own off-brand god, not Y*h-whoever. The Bible story about the "good Samaritan?" It probably started out as an ethnic joke about the self-righteousness of the Jews.

Archelaus must have been one really piss-poor ruler to unite those two factions. The Romans sure didn't mess around with him. They not only fired Archelaus, they deported him about as far away from Judea as they possibly could. He ended up in the vicinity of modern Vienna, Austria.

2. According to Xian mytho-history, the Roman occupation of Judea was just one long grind of oppression, near-slavery, etc. etc. So it's interesting that the Romans booted out their own hand-picked ruler at the request of those oppressed people.

Going by Xian accounts, you'd expect the Romans to just say: "Tough Santorum. Deal with it."