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proofs

Jesus: The

\”Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession\” by Richard Wightman Fox (HarperSanFrancisco, $27.95).

\”American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon\” by Stephen Prothero (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $25)

One of the staples of American humor is the \”three proofs that Jesus was…\” joke, whose completion is always an ethnic identifier.

Thus, three proofs that Jesus was Jewish:

1. He went into his father\’s business.

2. He lived at home until the age of 33.

3. He was sure his mother was a virgin, and his mother was sure he was God.

Interestingly enough, this ongoing joke series includes no entry headed, \”Three proofs that Jesus was American.\” Only in a country like Israel, where \”American\” names an ethnic group within the nation, could such a joke be told. If such has been told, I hope somebody will be kind enough to send me the three proofs.

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