Meerderheden over minderheden: major- & minority's

After christians & jews got separated from each other after 'living together' for the first three ages, (DB) 'one of the most zealous defen-ders of that new orthodoxy was Saint Jerome; not exactly a household name, this Jerome (A.D. 347-420) was nonetheless one of the most important Christian scholars, thinkers, & writers of the late fourth & early fifth centuries. (CE) "Certain ecclesiastical writers have re-ceived the title of 'Saint' on account of the great advantage the whole Church had derived from their doctrine: in the Western Church the four eminent Fathers of the Church attained this honour in the Early Middle Ages: Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augus-tine, & Saint Jerome." Considered one of the four "doctors of the Church" by the Roman Church, he translated the Bible from Hebrew & Greek into the Latin Vulgate (this translation continues to be the official Latin Bible of the Catholic Church)! He also was one of the most important translators of important early Greek Christian writers into Laton (especially the work of Origen!). We have a wonderful, lively collection of his letters written to his more famous collegue Saint Augustine of Hippo, a fellow doctor of the Roman Church, on the best strategies for defending this new orthodoxy. In one of these letters, he stated: "IN OUR OWN DAY THERE EXISTS A SECT (MAIN-LY) AMONG THE JEWS THROUGHOUT ALL THE SYNAGOGUES OF THE EAST, WHICH IS CALLED THE SECT OF THE MINEI ('minim', AND IT IS EVEN NOW CONDEMNED BY THE PHARISEES. THE ADHERENTS TO THIS SECT ARE KNOWN COMMONLY AS NAZARENES; THEY ALL DO BELIEVE IN CHRIST THE SON OF GOD, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY; ANF THEY SAY THAT HE SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE AND ROSE AGAIN, IS THE SAME AS THE ONE IN WHOM WE BELIEVE. BIT WHILE THEY DESIRE TO BE BOTH (!) JEWS AND CHRISTIANS, THEY ARE NEITHER THE ONE NOR THE OTHER (...)! A close look at Jerome's text will explain several of the points that I (DB) have been making. Jerome described a group of people who believed in the orthodox Nicene Creed: Christ is the son of G d, he was born of a virgin, he was crucified & suffered, he rose. But they thought they were Jews TOO ~ they prayed in synagogues, kept the Shabbathday, and adhered to dietary & other rules. In fact, they didn't see "Christians" & "Jews" as TWO at all but as ONE complex category! Presuma-bly they were practicing some sort of Jewish ritual as well, although it is unclear from Jerome's precisely WHAT IT WAS. Jerome denied them their claim of being Christians, because of their claim to be Jews; he denied their claim to be Jews, because they claimed to be "Christians"! And he certainly denied them them the possibility of being BOTH, because that was an impossibility in Jerome's worldview ...