Unfortunately, most Christians have no clue what the scroll nailed to the top of the cross stating INRI actually means.
The initials are actually a painters/sculpturers device for the three languages on the original scroll (Temple Hebrew, Koinē Greek, Liturgical Latin), all translating to “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”.
ישוע הנצרי ומלך היהודים
ιησους ο ναζωραιος ο βασιλευς των ιουδαιων
IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM
It was pagan Rome who began the Western tradition of labeling criminals in writing of the crimes committed. I’m pretty sure every Van Halen fan is at least somewhat familiar with such.
For obvious reasons, the Western Church leans on the Latin, reducing the scroll to simply “INRI”. And as anyone who’s ever seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, already knows there is no letter “J” in Latin.
None of the three languages come even close to “Jesus of the Occupied West Bank, King of the Palestinians”.
Another popular myth is that the Holy Family were “refugees.”
Keep in mind that Egypt was also a province of Rome. Leaving Judea for Egypt was essentially the same of moving from Nevada to Arizona.
Going from Bethlehem to the closest Egyptian territory was less than 50 miles distant (modern-day Rafah). Even with the Christ Child in-tow, that was less that one week’s worth on foot and hoof.
Last myth I’d like to bust is the tag Palestine.
History isn’t malleable. The fact of the matter is that “Palestine” is what Emperor Hadrian in 135 AD decided to rename Judea, Galilee, Samaria, and at least large tracts of Decapolis, Idumea, and Perea.
After the Romans crushed (and I mean CRUSHED) the revolt of Bar Kokhba, not only were the vast majority (but not all) of the Jewish people scattered to the winds, but to add insult to injury, the victors decided to erase any memory of Judaism.
Any geographic area with even a hint of a Jewish history was about to be rubbed from history.
Palestine being the name of a rather small and insignificant pagan region that the ancient Greeks named the area known today as the Gaza Strip.
Bottom line, no matter how badly a decidedly effeminate cleric of the Church of Francis lisps on CNN that Christ was a Palestinian, know was every time someone refers to Him as anything other than a Jew… you make Baby Jesus cry.
