As a Eastern Orthodox Christian☦️ this was great to watch but also painful simultaneously, he paints a lot of things with personal spiritual biases often
The reason the Jews were so hard to govern was because the Romans said you had to follow our laws but the Jews believed that following roman law was an affront to their own beliefs. Most cultures were perfectly fine following roman law in addition to their own personal beliefs but for the Jews they believed if was incompatible hence the irishness
Thats how monotheistic think. You can always keep peace and cooperation with polytheist because they can agree with different interpretations. YOU CANNOT KEEP PEACE with monotheists, they wont obey, not tolerate others interpretations and eventually convert them. Judaism did it by force, Christianity did it by pressure, Islam a combination of both. That's why no polytheist kingdom has conquered and spread as much as monotheist.
@@hermitcard4494 Greek empires, Roman Empire, Mongol Empire all were pagan. Now tell what exactly Judaism did violently? Lived in a tiny kingdom and were exercising their ethno-religion?When pagan invaders came and forced them to abandon their ancestral cult?
I don't think that is the case. It is the restrictions on Jews following Jewish law which have however often led to social conflicts, sometimes (infrequently) right up to war, not the fact Jews also had to obey the law of an occupier.
It's because they remember how Cyrus the great treated them under their Empire. Also, in the Bible, the Jews strayed from God, hence their exile from Jerusalem initially in the Persian conquest
@@robleahy5759 no, Georgia didn’t convert until early 400s ce. Armenia officially converted in 301ce and is well documented. Osroene converted in 200ce but the kingdom fell in 214ce.
1. The Eucharist (Communion) was not (originally) a hallucinogen. It literally was the Passover bread! This claptrap comes from 1 of 2 fallacies: A. Everything needs a mechanistic explanation. This is obviously false. B. These people absolutely need to find some way to make Christianity “dirty” or a trick so they can discount it. Not only is this claim nonsensical, it also violates the concept of Ephesians 5:18 “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” and 1 Peter 4:3-4 “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.” 2. It wasn't simply claimed by Christians that Jesus died, it's denied by pretty much zero historians. He lived, was condemned, and was executed. All the relevant sources say such. 3. There are *not* lost books of the Bible! There were a bunch of books in the 1st 2 centuries that claimed or implied that they were authoritative ...and they were rejected by the early Church for very good reasons. 4. Please stop the constantly disproven claptrap about December 25th (or Christmas in general) being some sort of pagan holiday. It wasn't. Any reference that the pagans celebrated that day post dates references that Christians celebrated that day. In fact, it's the pagans who tried to steal the day from the Christians! Why December 25th? There was an old belief that prophets died on the day they were conceived. They knew Jesus died March 25th, so they went back (Edit: actually forwards, as @Ch-ew9tm points out below) 9 months to December 25th, and that's when they celebrated his birth. … Given I've found errors in other history you've presented, and a lot here (in a subject I know well), I'm really wondering why I'd trust you to avoid pitfalls of historical thought in other subjects. After all, just because someone wrote it in a book, that doesn't mean it's correct!
Yeah, a lot of what he said in the video just drove me crazy. I think he just reads random books on the subject but doesn't check the quality of the source. I usually really like his video but after this it made me realize he doesn't know how to filter out bad sources.
The pattern with Rudyard is that he's great when it comes to the big picture but usually gets the details wrong so the comments are usually good for correcting and balancing him out
@@grogdizzy5814 1. I don't know everything about Christianity. I'm not God. 2. I know about all the claims that December 25th was a pagan holiday. The issue with these claims is that they post-date our evidence that December 25th was already being celebrated as Jesus' birthday. They also ignore that we already know *why* they celebrated it then, in that it was thought to have been when Jesus was conceived. InspiringPhilosophy has a dozen or so videos on this subject.
There's a lot wrong here, alas. You can tell that Rudyard's high openness (he mentioned he's on the far right of that bellcurve) sometimes leads him into traps, since he wants to assume the truth is always hidden and needs to be uncovered rather than being out in the open. The bread and wine is "just" bread and wine in material terms. The magic is that it's also the body and blood of Christ.
“There was room for Yahweh on Mt Olympus, but no room for the Olympians in the Holy of Holies.” The Casual Historian. There was no way the Jews would worship other gods after the Babylonian Exile.
I love Diarmaid MacCulloch's description of Christianity: 'It is a dialogue between Judaism and Classical philosophy.' (His works on the history of Christianity are exemplary, highly recommend.)
@@FozzyBBear The Green Knight is a figure from the Arthurian tale of Gawain and the Green Knight, most likely some sort of fae spirit. If you want to know how the faithful considered tales such as this, look no further than J. R. R. Tolkien, whom penned a loving rendition of the tale in poetic verse. He was a devout Catholic.
Rudyard, I think you might find a book on the history of the turbulance in the early Christian Church to be interesting. It's by James E. Talmage and is titled "The Great Apostasy". You were discussing various groups like gnostics trying to infiltrate the Christians from almost the beginning, and this can help explain how even the Apostle Paul was writing in the Epistle of Jude over the matter. Also, I think the third group you were thinking of among the Jews were named the Sadducees. Hope this helps!
The Sadducees were a sect and also there were the scribes who were in alignment with the Pharisees, but had a different role in the religous structure. And lastly, the Herodians were aligned with the state and Roman state influence, possibly Greek also but not completely sure on that.
The pattern I've noticed with him is that he usually nails the overall picture but misses or gets details wrong that can mess up the point he's trying to make if you know more about the subject than he does. Still worth listening to though.
30:04 I think you need to watch some inspiring philosophy videos as inspiring philosophy debunks all of those fabricated myths by atheists to diss Christs word
The Edict of Serdica in 311 AD/CE forbade the persecution of Christians in the Empire The Edict of Milan in 313 AD/CE legalized Christianity as one of the religions of the Empire The Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD/CE made Christianity the State Religion of the Empire
@@m3c4nyku43 The Church, and only The Church could, Created ALL you know, don't know, and take for granted. without your Remaining Catholic Capital you lose it ALL.
@@HunnysPlaylists bro he said he's "not religious". Say that to him. These type of people who say "I'm not religious but we need religion" are on a high horse and believe themselves superior to the average person and they think they don't need religion but it's good to keep the cattle in check, that's their belief system. I used his own words to point out the hypocrisy. And if we're to split hairs, it's not the Church that created everything, it's God. He created the Church.
30:03 our first source of the mitra/sol Invictus on December 25th literally post-dates the first source for christmas on that date. So, no, it isn't adopted from a dif religion.
I can't consider myself a good Christian, because I struggle with it so much. But, being WOKE seems insane. Partly, this is because I have been influenced by the Stoics. Christianity, to my mind, is about conforming myself to God's wishes. "Love God with all my heart, soul and mind and love my neighbor as myself. " Stoicism pursues the Best life by changing how we think about whatever happens to us. External events can be awful or disconcerting, but we have no idea what good can come from those events. So, a Stoic asks "what lesson are we supposed to learn from this?" Thus, a Stoic practices the four virtues: pursue Wisdom, exercise Temperance (or moderation), be Just (doing the right thing) and possessing Courage. I believe God wants these actions from us. Thus. we are expected to act toward other people, by being modest, gentle, kind, mature, peaceful and selfless, where it makes sense. God has given us a brain so we can determine what is the wise response in any situation. Nothing is automatic, nor must we necessarily allow ourselves to be manipulated. I ask, instead, "What does God think is wise?" While being WOKE looks like Live Action Role Playing. It is virtue signaling on a global scale. It never looks at consequences or reactions. Disaster tends to follow such people.
Iota in Greek doesn't mean nothing, it is a letter of the alphabet, basically the debate was about a part of the Nicene Creed, that described Jesus as having equal value to God the Father (omoousios), but some heretics thought it was of similar value (omoiousios)
Gessius Florus was told by Nero to take money from the Temple of Jerusalem and they revolted. They weren't just "being like the Irish". Also, the Pharisees were the Hellenized group and the Sadducees were the older, more conservative law-keeping sect.
This is a factually incorrect statement. Also you unknowingly inferred that the jews had a historical homeland and therefore your statement makes even less sense
I strongly recommend you read The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity to learn a cool story about the persecution of Roman Christians. The parables of the Desert Fathers is also an amazing read. St Anselm’s “Proslogium” is a beautiful (yet also wordy) proof of God. St Francis of Assisi also has some beautiful poems about God and nature.
The problem: "One of the best traits of Christianity is it's adaptability" @18:20 I know what you mean in that humans have tried to adapt "Christianity" to make it palpable to them However Hebrews 13:8 directly contradicts this. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ, and what he tells us it means to follow him, is the least adaptable thing imaginable.
I think you're confusing what he means there. I don't think he's talking of changing doctrine but changing organization. Christianity has managed to survive in many different forms from as organized state religion to as decentralized as having no priesthood. It has managed in agriculturalist and pastoralist societies etc.
“Iota” isn’t a Greek word, it’s a Greek letter, and it’s the difference between “homoousian” and “homo*I*ousian,” (same substance/different substance). It’s a serious theological debate over the trinity and whether Christ is divine.
@@declanodenki9728 His point was that most bureaucratic classes provided lip service to the Gods but weren't religious. Consider politicians today. Even today almost no politician would say they are atheist, despite no one actually believing these politicians are at all religious. Similar concept. E.g. Biden is a Catholic, but is ok with abortion. Ted Cruz says he's a Christian but clearly is not. Etc.
Peasants weren't afraid of the Eucharist because it was somehow psychedelic. They were afraid from the rhetoric, yet people still sometimes broke in and stole the wine anyhow.
Where are you getting your gnostic history from? I’ve done some light research and it usually states that it started as a twisted branch of Christianity with many different versions like Sethians first appearing in either the 1st or 2nd centuries. Not saying that’s correct just wondering where you got the Iraqi origins from
I'm assuming he's saying the dualistic elements of Persian religions particularly Zoroastrianism (which mostly were present in Iraq at that time) influenced gnostic elements in Christianity.
Nah, what's i've read as well is that gnostic cosmology of the world that all gnostic groups have to be really considered gnostic, pre-existed Christianity.
@@thorpeaaron1110 It's crazy how it started off as a lunatic cult that preached the world was ending in everyone's lifetime. It was a genuine lunatic cult and Christians have tried really hard to make people forget that. I think Christianity became less psycho only because it became Europeanized and had Greek and Roman values put into it. If it remained strictly Middle Eastern, it would likely be just like Islam and be the source of mass terrorism.
It's interesting how Professor Lynch keeps referencing the video on the late Roman Empire (which is natural, as that was produced first), but I am binge-watching from the History 102 playlist that has re-arranged topics in chronological order. As per the playlist, I'm going to watch "Explaining the Fall of Rome" next.
The problem with this analysis is that Rome respected religions older than their own. The Jews were given exemptions from Roman religious laws. Despite this, the Jews chafed at Roman rule because they still had to answer to Rome rather than God.
I much prefer your regular, more structured whatifalthistory episodes. These are too rambling and have the maybe inevitable inaccuracies of a spoken format.
Christmas is a Christian holiday, no one disputes that. However, for those claiming the pagans/heathens stole Dec 25 from Christians: Christianity dates from at the earliest, the death of Jesus, approximately 33 AD. In your own holy book, the Bible, pagan customs are mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures/aka Old Testament, mentioning seasonal and moon celebrations specifically. This dates pagan religions, by the testimony of your own holy book, at about 1000 years BEFORE Christianity. Considering that there are archaeological discoveries, such as the Ugaritc texts, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform that are even more ancient, that date from before the earliest dates of the Bible, that describe the ancient pagan religions and their habit of celebrating seasonal changes and astrological phenomenon, such as the equinoxes and solstices, it seems rational that a celebration that occurred around Dec 25 existed among pagans, before Christians came to celebrate Christmas. And in fact we know this was the case, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia until Dec 23 and then on December 25 began their Sol Invictus celebration. Many pagan religions had/have celebrations that time of year to celebrate the lengthening of the day. From Nordic/Germanic religion we get the term Yule. Another name for Odin was Jolnir, 'the Yule one.'
Jesus considered himself a Jew, he did not create Christianity as a new religion. Historically that goes to the first pope (Peter) who wanted to differentiate Jesus’ philosophy in order for it to not get lost to the sands of time.
Yes, he did as the messiah predicted by the Torah. “Christianity” is the fullfillment/continuation of Hebrew scripture while post-Jesus Judaism is the schism that rejects the messiah.
@@Fenster21 Jesus stated himself that his teachings were in accordance with the torah. Christ never stablished his own separate church from the Jews during his lifetime. Christianity as a codified religion separate from Judaism began with Peter. Jesus was a jew and Christian’s seem unable to accept that fact and their cognitive dissonance is astounding. The lack of a logical revision of Christianity is just gonna lead to the belief system to crumble like it’s has over the last 2 centuries.
@carlossaborio6716 that's what I'm saying. Jesus was a continuation of Judaism, a fulfillment of the prophesies. Rabbinical "judaism" is a schism off this that reject the Messiah. Christianity is just a renaming of Mosiac Judaism not some separate contrived religion.
Good video but a few notes: - Rodney Stark argues convincingly that early adopters of Christianity were largely of the upwardly mobile middle class. A better analogy might be a small business owner rather than a walmart worker. - Calling the Essenes "hippies" might be misleading. They observed the ritual law very strictly, but did so in isolated communities not unlike later Christian monasteries. - The third group were called the Sadducees and represented the aristocratic class. They had the most power and best relations with Rome, hence the trend towards Hellenization. - The Rest is History did a good podcast debunking the idea that Xmas was stolen from pagans. Likewise Christians traditionally did not depict God the Father in artwork and depictions of the Father as a Zeus-like bearded man are usually renaissance and later.
again the 25 december thing is originally Jesus' birthday, you can read how the early church established it, and they already celebrated it in the first century
We do need a consistent worldview for the right. Christianity is one present and (I'm biased as a Christian) but it is a pretty good to follow and end up with.
Such a great episode! Still I would have wished for a small tour to the great christian shisms/schools of the beginning, like Arianism and their extend ... I mean wouldn't it make Middle/Eastern Europe christian before the arrival of the huns? Could Persia have converted in time if not for the rise of Islam? Etc. ...The Christian world nearly was much larger and different in the beginning.
Because of Rudyard Lynch I started writing popular books about society, for example The Tao of Christ: Understanding Chinese Religions in Comparison with Christianity (by Eric Engle). Thank you Rudyard! (or, if you prefer, Mr. Lynch)
@@WhatifAltHist If you mean for real" yes in fact. Basically your method is interesting and unique, you look at history both as facts and as various conflicting emotional drives, and with a moral perspective without being moralistic. That's definitely unique. Most of your analysis is qualititative, rather thant quantitative, which is a point to criticize, and when you do get quantitative (Spengler) it's determinist and insufficiently deep to be taken seriously. Macrocyclicity isn't even understood well in economics, where people have money riding on predictions and so consider the question of cyclicity much more intensely. Regarding the rise of Christianity, I shall watch it again, though I don't think you brought out the deliberate christianization of the empire to impose unity sufficiently. Caesar and Christ were nearly contemporaries and both claimed to be god, which is a fact modernity also ignores. Good arguments can be made for Christianity as a covert Caesarism and the empire absolutely needed something to keep all those disparate nations together. I was surprised that as man as 14% of the empire were Jews though I still think its overcounting and wonder how well founded that stat is. I do take your word for it and can understand that after the mass murder of lots of jews that their % dwindled.
No they were Slaves and upper and middle class women. That was its original audience. Feed some slaves bread; tell an old Greek story (reformatted to look more Jewish) about being proud that they are victims. Then rich woman throw money at you. Pocket the coins then move to the next town.
Glamorgan was the first Christian Kingdom circa AD 36, then to Rome with its invasion, with King Caratacus's speech to the Roman senate still extant - 1st Century AD
Referring to 10:30 - The Jews revolted because Semitics have an ethno-religious world view (until today), the Romans thought sacrificing to the Emperor means you show loyalty to the Empire, to the Jews it is worshiping a man, which is a very big no-no and has NOTHING to do with secular loyalty which they had no issue with, it's a misunderstanding between different cultures (in Judaism you have only 3 sins for which you should refuse performing even onto death - incest, murder, foreign worship - even in the holocaust you have Jews refusing to kill, even when they know it means they or/and their family immediately being shot in the head for refusing, the Romans put an altar in the holiest of holies in the temple, of course this would bring endless Jewish revolts). Jew and Israeli here
Christians with trinitarian beliefs literally went to war over different interpretations of trinitarianism. Correct me if I'm wrong but Armenia killed tens of thousands of Greeks for believing that Jesus Christ was both 100% God and 100% man united under Christ. While Armenians believe Christ is 100% man-god in a Miaphisite style belief. It sounds the same but functions differ and that's theology I am not gonna go into. This was when the eastern Roman empire was at its height after the western Roman empire fell during the age of Justinian.
Very Intresting video from outsider perspective(not Roman and not Christian),still I really love this time period in history. Btw The Rabbi that you mentioning that said "Love your nighbour as you love yourself,this is the entire Torah the rest is commentary" is Rabbi Hillel the Elder(I think he died around 10CE). Hillel was Babylonian Jew not Roman, poor farmer and direct decedent of David line(later the leader of Sanhedrin),who was almost killed as kid climbing the window above Jerusalem Synagogue buried under snow as he wanted to study Jewish laws but didn't have the money. The main reason he is famous is his argument with another famous Rabbi and Av Beit Din(Shammai)which was another leader of Sanhedrin and strick legalist(those are the most famous arguments in entire Talmud)Hillel vs Shammai. One example of thier argument is "what do you say to ugly bride on wedding day"(how and when are you allowed to lie to person)Shammai say that you have to tell the truth as Torah commands and hiding from her will not help,while Hillel said "there is no ugly bride on her wedding day" or what you mentioned before gentile comes to Rabbis asking them to explain the whole Torah while he is standing on one leg(what is the main point),Shammai kicked him out and said that honor of Torah doesn't allow this simplicity and needs to be explored while Hillel says like I wrote before loving the nighbour is main lesson.
I truly wonder what his theology is. It would be interesting to see him integrate all his theory’s and ideas in to a cohesive theology (video idea: would probably piss a lot of people off). I suspect it would either be brilliantly bound together and simple or retarded. I also wonder about the psychedelic Eucharist it seems crazy to me.
Muhammad (peace be upon him) did not start out as a "warlord." He was a merchant and a shepherd prior to the first revelation of the Holy Qur'an. Peace be upon Jesus of Nazareth as well, and his virgin mother, Maryam (Alaihis Salaam), who was the greatest of all women.
44:30 Arianism says Jesus was Divine, just that he was also created by God the Father. Since Nicenian Creed followers had to do the mental gymnastics claiming a concept as absurd as the Trinity (three Gods in one essence) they could not allow Arian Christianity to compete with their compromise made in the Council of Nicea
This is justified with the old testament, wherein god does not have a creator, and can manifest his essence on earth as the burning bush, or as the angel of the lord, yet not being the same person as god, therefore the trinity can work.
