I never said that I consider the Jews men of perfection.
I never claimed that the Jews have faired well. Obviously their history is full of disasters.
I never claimed that the Jews remained God's Chosen people after the New Covenant was established..
Christianity is about being a spiritual Israelite-not a literal one.
As for being chosen, yes, according to Genesis they were clearly chosen to be the ones through whom the Messiah or the seed of God's woman as prophesied in Genesis 3:15 would come.
Should I conclude that this promise went to their heads and induced them to invent the rest of the biblical narrative after that Edenic promise? Well if I had good reason I would. But I see no compelling reason to do so. They seem honest enough in their historical accounts to describe themselves as despicable and rejected when they behaved despicably. So I have absolutely no justifiable basis to assume that they sought to deceive us into thinking otherwise. It just doesn't add up.
Much of it was exaggerated for effect, remember, Gentile dogs weren't the audience, the scattered Israelites were, it was an attempt to hold the faith of the confused people together after yet again being in slavery, and it did work! The Babylonian captivity was a devastating blow to the Israelites nationalist egotism (which they still have today).
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