Enemies of the State

The paper “reminds us that the early followers of Jesus and perhaps Jesus himself were inevitably thrown into conflict with arbitrary state terrorism by the Roman Empire... [More]

So, like the modern day SPLC / "Homeland Security" / fusion centers axis, they were targets of intentional tyranny-bolstering conflation?

Furthermore, she says, the Greek word used in the Gospels that Martin interprets as sword really means something more akin to knife.

Actually, when I looked into it some years back, I found:

[L]ooking at the Greek source for this passage, the word used was "machaira" (makh'-ahee-rah), and it was a very special kind of sword. Derived from the root word "mache" (mach'-ay), meaning fighting, strife, combat, of those in arms, battle, etc., the machaira was a short thrusting weapon, designed for close infighting. This also allowed for concealment, a requirement when you consider the need for discrete deployment of weapons under Roman occupation, plus it was readily affordable by common people- kind of the "Saturday night special" of its day.

But what does an infidel/heretic like me know?

[Via Jess]