"Now look what a fine mess you've gotten us into...!"

[Joe Chi Minh]

"But, while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a concerted attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal. 'We accuse this man', they said, 'of persuading people to worship God in a way that breaks the Law.' Before Paul could open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, 'Listen you Jews. If this were a misdemeanour or a crime, I would not hesitate to attend to you; but if it is only quibbles about words and names, and about your own Law, then you must deal with it yourselves - I have no intention of making legal decisions about things like that.' Then he sent them out of the court, and at once they all turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue president, and beat him in front of the court house. Gallio refused to take any notice at all."

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. An even more hilarious image is conjured up: Satch and the gang

turning on Mo (Sosthenes). A bit more difficult to imagine Satch (the leader of the rebels) making a fist and bringing the underside down on Sosthenes' head, Mo-style, while slapping his face with the other.

But they sure were a wild bunch those Jews of old, weren't they? Gnashing heir teeth and tearing their clothes when they got really worked up; wearing sack-cloth and sitting in ashes poured over their head, when they were really penitent.

It's easy to see where the Latins* and Catholics, generally, for that matter, get their wildness from, isn't it? Four or five thousand years of Judaeo-Christianity don't exactly make for fatalism and holy resignation. Maybe "holy resignation" isn't one of us Christians' most natural/supernatural fortes. Christ was divinely serene, of course, but it didn't stop him getting very worked up about injustice, particularly when cloaked in hypocrisy.

*Not that Americans are the most dull and phlegmatic.