The annotated History of the World, Part II... part one

Some quick notes on 'Curb Your Judaism' and 'Notebook of Mary', the first two Jesus sequences in Mel Brooks' miniseries.

Judas (the one with the glasses) makes a wisecrack about Mary to Luke.

Because I can’t help myself, I figured I’d take a closer look at the Jesus segments in History of the World, Part II—just pointing out what they’re referencing, or what they’re missing, or what they reminded me of, in more-or-less chronological order.

I do this as one who was very amused by the title of Peter’s one-man show in the first segment—he’s an aspiring actor, apparently—and as one who got a kick out of the fact that Peter wants to know what the other disciples thought of his “accents”. As it happens, the only “accent” that is ever mentioned in the New Testament is Peter’s! Were the writers of this sketch aware of that, or is it just a happy coincidence? I don’t know and I don’t care; it’s just a fun opportunity to get a little Bible-geeky.

So, let’s get right into it: a quick look at how the first two Jesus-themed sequences touch, intentionally or otherwise, on accents, marriages between Israelites and Moabites, what Jesus had to say about latrines, whether Jesus and the apostles kept kosher, whether it was possible to reverse a circumcision in the first century, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and how two different scenes reminded me of The Chosen.

First, an overarching comment: As I noted in my review, one of the fascinating things about this series is how it tells four completely different stories about Jesus—each of which is a parody of a different film, TV show, or genre—and how that basically parallels the fact that there are four different gospels in the New Testament, each of which has its own style, chronology, and thematic concerns.

And now, my comments about the first two stories, i.e. the stories that have already been released on Hulu (in the US) and Disney+ (in other countries):

Curb Your Judaism (from episode 2)

• This sequence is a parody of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. I’m familiar with the show through memes and the like, but I have never actually watched it, so if this sequence makes any reference to specific episodes, I’m missing them.

• This sequence is set in Jerusalem, and it begins with Luke eating ‘Haagen-Gods Dulce de Leper Ice Cream’. I have no idea why anyone would name an ice cream after leprosy. The more interesting point here is that Luke is a major character in this sequence (and in two of the other ones, too); he even says that he is Jewish. The biblical Luke was a traveling companion of Paul’s who is credited with writing one of the gospels (Luke, natch) and its sequel (the book of Acts). There is no evidence anywhere in the New Testament that Luke was Jewish or that he was a follower of Jesus during Jesus’ ministry; in fact, many historians assume that Luke first met the early Christians in Turkey about 20 years after the ministry of Jesus, because that is when the author of Acts switches from talking about what “they” did to talking about what “we” did (Acts 16:8-10). Still, that being said, there are ancient traditions to the effect that Luke was one of “the Seventy”—a group of disciples who were sent two-by-two throughout Galilee by Jesus (Luke 10:1-24)—and also to the effect that Luke might have been one of the two people who met the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).

• Luke says he’s eating the ice cream because “that last supper” was too small and he needed to eat some more. Judas replies, “More like a last snack, right?”

• Judas complains about “all that feet-washing. Why is everybody washing feet all the time? Why is Jesus obsessed with washing feet?” Well, feet have a tendency to get really dusty—hence the early Christians stamped the dust off their feet whenever a community rejected them (Matthew 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5, 10:11; Acts 13:51)—and Jesus once chided a host of his for failing to give him water for his feet as a basic act of hospitality (Luke 7:44). The biblical Jesus washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper—just as the Jesus of this sequence seems to have done—and he even got into an argument with Peter over whether he should do it (John 13:1-17). When he was done, Jesus told his disciples to follow his example, but the only reference to foot-washing that I can find in the New Testament after that is a passage that lists foot-washing among the “good deeds” that widows over the age of 60 were expected to perform (I Timothy 5:9-10).

• Someone knocks at the door. Luke, without knowing who it is, says, “That’s why you put blood on the door frame! So you can pass over us! See? Pass! Over!” All four gospels agree that Jesus was betrayed during the Passover season, though they don’t quite agree on when he was betrayed within that season: the three Synoptic gospels say the Last Supper was a Passover seder, while John’s gospel says the supper took place the night before Passover. Either way, the link between Jesus’ death and Passover is also reflected in I Corinthians 5:7, where Paul calls Jesus “our Passover lamb”. (Incidentally, if the Last Supper mentioned in this episode was a seder, would that affect how big it was?) All that being said, I don’t believe anyone would have painted blood on the door frame in Jesus’ day. The ancient Israelites painted blood on the door frame once, on the night of the tenth plague (Exodus 12:1-30), but they did not make it part of the annual ritual.

The Romans give Judas 30 pieces of silver.

• It turns out there are Roman soldiers at the door (“It’s the Ro-Ro!” says Luke), and they pressure Judas to betray Jesus for them; they even give him 30 pieces of silver.