Serious question: What is the origin of the phrase

[QuettaKid]

"chosen people" in re: to the jews? Is this in the bible or something? Where does it come from?

[babylonsister]

1. From wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chosen_people

hroughout history, various groups have considered themselves chosen by God for some purpose. This status may be viewed as a mark of superiority or a rank of special purpose and responsibility.

Check out that link; almost everyone considers themselves 'chosen'!

[acmavm]

2. Of course they do. That's the major problem with religion.

Western religions that is. Which is a misnomer because western religions have their roots in the Middle East.

[aquart]

3. Yeah. It's in the Bible.

The Jews are the people chosen by God to receive His covenant. Deal with it.

[acmavm]

4. That post is so indicative of everything that's wrong in the

Middle East today.

[Benhurst]

9. Don't knock it. You're dealing with

cutting-edge Bronze Age thought.

[Zebedeo]

20. I fail to see how modern advances in metallurgy

or other technology necessarily implies greater moral authority than was possessed by ancient civilizations.

I wonder this every time I see the familiar pejorative reference to the Bible being a product of the "Bronze Age."

[Benhurst]

23. Much of the Bible is a product of Bronze Age thought. Whether or not

one finds that fact pejorative is in the mind of the beholder.

Even in the Twenty-first Century, many in our country find the best of Bronze Age thought quite radical.

In a nation where a pre-Copernican view of the universe is common and and a pre-Darwinian view close to dominant, any world view, whether it be Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Industrial Age, whatever, is still in play.

It is fair though to judge another's actions in light of his own religious beliefs, in which case all parties of the present dispute would be found lacking.

America's founding fathers, realizing that moral authority rests upon the beliefs of the individual, wisely created a secular state.

There are many now who would prefer to live in a theocracy. They have attempted as of late to rewrite history and make their radical view of America the norm.

Samuel Johnson once said patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. In modern America, unfortunately, religion has become the first.

[Igel]

10. But it doesn't stop there.

Israel was the best of nations, but they corrupted what they got and rejected Issa.

The Christians were the best, but they corrupted what they got and rejected Muhammed.

Now it's the Muslim Ummah that's the best of nations. As the very nice CAIR-provided free Qur'an says, 3:110, "You are indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for ... mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is wrong and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God." It's a sucky quasi-paraphrase, but what can you do, it's an officially approved and therefore partly bowdlerized version.

Also the origin of all those wonderful committees for the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" (an older translation of the same passage).

So not only are Jews *not* the chosen people any more, they're actually ex-chosen-people who have corrupted what they had.

[mzteris]

7. did you forget

this?

:sarcasm:

(I certainly hope so...)

[JuniperLea]

14. Well! Excuse the hell out of me!

No wonder people can't discuss issues. No wonder there is war instead of diplomacy. Seems there's no room for diplomacy with thoughts like that.

That's one heck of an attitude you go there, Bucko. Hope it serves you better elsewhere than it does here.

[Howardx]

17. jesus is my favorite fictional character

n/t

[shain from kane]

19. From a book that the Jews wrote, about events that only they witnessed.

[Zhade]

24. You'll forgive us if we don't go with that fairy-tale assertion.

Jews are no better and no worse than any other non-chosen people. They're human, that's it.

Unless, of course, you can PROVE 1) god exists, 2) the bible is accurate (hint: rabbits don't have cloven hooves or chew their, or any, cud), and 3) the claim that Jews are somehow chosen is actually true.

Don't waste your time, because you can't, and you'll NEVER be able to, as far as I can tell.

[whistle]

5. Google "Jews as a choosen people"....

<snip>
Chosenness in the Hebrew Bible
According to the Hebrew Bible, Israel's character as the chosen people is conditioned by obedience to God's commandments. "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine: and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5, 6). "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your ancestors." (Deuteronomy 7:7, 8).

The obligation imposed upon the Israelites is emphasized by the prophet Amos (Book of Amos 3:2): "You only have I singled out of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities." This idea is also expressed in Deuteronomy 14:2: "You are a holy people unto the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth."
<more>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_as_a_chosen_people

[TexasProgresive]

6. SInce the Israelites did not keep the covenant

Those 10 tribes of Israel are lost forever and the Jews of Judea did not keep the covenant they were thrown out of the land ultimately by the Romans. This would lead one to think that they are no longer the chosen people but are the once and former chosen people.

[QuettaKid]

8. wow. . . . .just WOW.

to see how all of this bloodshed today stems from the fevered delusions of desert dwelling nomads. un-real.

[Igel]

11. I would have said

Bedouins, but I guess they were nomads after all.

[mzteris]

12. interesting article about this:

http://www.aish.com/literacy/concepts/The_Chosen_People.asp

[dysfunctional press]

13. in a different vein, i believe it was jackie mason who said:

"...5,000 years of prosecution- don't you ever ask yourself...maybe there's a reason...?"

[Totallybushed]

15. It's in the bible or something.

Check out these verses from Leviticus 26. God is speaking

11 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

I cannot speak as to the exact phrase, but the import is that God chose the Jews as his special people.

[helderheid]

16. I think it has something to do with this

http://frogstar.soylentgeek.com/wav/toyalien.wav

Edited to add: Sorry not to have a serieus answer but DU needs some levity! I may need to go hang in the lounge for awhile.

[treestar]

18. Everybody thinks they are the chosen ones

Even Americans. Though a highly individualized culture, it's still - America is no. 1, the only superpower, etc.

Seems part of human nature to believe you are part of some special group.

Isn't that special?

O8)

[HamdenRice]

21. A little more on "chosen people" and monotheism

We often are told that the Jews were the first people to believe in only one god. That's not exactly correct. Other middle eastern groups also worshipped one god. When these groups fought, however, the winner would basically say, my god is greater than your god. You can see this in parts of the Old Testament -- which implies that Yaweh is the god of the Jews and other gods, like Baal-Zbub (which became in English Belzebub or Satan), are the inferior gods of other tribes.

The innovation that the ancient Jews and others eventually developed, though, was to believe that there was only one god of all people. So Yaweh is god not just over the Jews, but the Egyptians, the Philistines and so on.

But if there really is only one god, how would this particular tribal tribal people, the Jews, be blessed with his favor? They came up with the idea of the Covenant (or promise or contract). God would love, protect and cause to prosper this one people, the Jews, if they would follow his laws. These included dietary prohibitions, circumcision, sexual regulations, etc., that you find in Leviticus and other legal books of the old testament. So God "chose" the Jews to make the covenant with and as long as they kept the law he favored them over all other people, according to that view.

According to the New Testament of Christians, the Jesus arrival was fulfillment of the law and prophecy of the old testament, and he stands as the embodiement of the relationship between god and man. Therefore, the covenant is no longer necessary. So it is always bizarre to me to see fundamentalist Christians embrace the idea of the Jews as the chosen people. That view goes against the core of Christianity as an offer of grace by god to all people on the basis of faith, rather than obedience to law or membership in a tribe.

But fundies' use of the "chosen people" trope is political. It's the political deal between Likud and right wing Christians and neocons. As many critics of religion in politics say, breaking down the barrier between church and state is as bad for the church as it is for the state. The embracing by Christian fundies of the essentially blasphemous idea that the Jews are still "chosen people" shows how politics will corrupt even the core of a religion's values.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. Yes, it is all through the Bible.

Then there are the Episcopalians, of which I am one.

We are God's Frozen People.

[Zhade]

25. Why, from the Jewish-written Old Testament, of course

Nah, no self-interested parties THERE...