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You know, usually when we talk about history

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or religious categorization, there's this really

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ingrained expectation of precision, like it's

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engineering or something. Right. Yeah. Like it

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can all be graphed out. Exactly. You look at

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a timeline and the textbook just shows that clean,

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solid line separating one era from another, one

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belief system from other. And a historian just

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points and says, you know, there it is. That's

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exactly where it splits. It's a very comforting

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illusion, honestly. It really is. We desperately

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want the past to be visible and, well, neatly

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categorized into these easily digestible little

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boxes because it gives us a sense of analytical

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control. But then you stepped into the world

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of first century religion. Specifically, you

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know, the development of ancient Jewish thought

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and the origins of the early Christian movement.

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And suddenly that historical x -ray machine is

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just totally broken. Oh, completely. It shatters.

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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that

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defies every single attempt at clean categorization.

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The rigid boundaries we depend on to make sense

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of the world, they just dissolve the closer you

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look. It is the absolute definition of diagnostic

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muddy waters. I mean, when you look at the primary

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sources from the early Roman period, they don't

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paint a picture of monolithic unified institutions.

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Not at all. No, they paint a picture of a vibrant.

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arguing, splintering, intensely passionate community,

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just trying to figure out what it means to be

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faithful to God under the crushing existential

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weight of the Roman Empire. And that is exactly

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what we are unpacking today. Welcome back to

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The Deep Dive. To you, the learner listening

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right now, we are so thrilled to have you with

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us as we continue exploring this explosive era.

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It's an incredible period to study. It really

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is. Yeah. And just for context, this is part

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three of our four -part deep dive into the history

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of Judaism in the early Roman period. We're going

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to be covering chapters 18 through 23 today,

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and we are going to be meticulous. We have to

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be. There is so much ground to cover. So we are

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moving away from the broad strokes of political

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history. We're moving past the physical architecture

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of the temple, and we are diving headfirst into

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the minds, the theology, and the intense social

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fractures of the people living through this chaos.

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Over the next hour or so, we are exploring a

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period of intense fragmentation. We'll look at

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forgotten sects that history actively tried to

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erase, hyper -local regional rivalries, the intensely

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Jewish mechanics of the early Jesus movement,

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and these radical apocalyptic thinkers who basically

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decided the earth was a lost cause and looked

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to the heavens instead. The overarching theme

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here for all of these chapters is staggering

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diversity. Yeah. Using a word like Judaism in

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the singular for this period can actually obscure

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a lot more than it reveals, honestly. if you

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aren't careful to recognize the sheer variety

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of thought operating under that umbrella. Okay,

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so let's untack this. Because to truly understand

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this fragmentation, we really have to start with

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the margins. We have to look at a group that

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was pushed to the absolute edge of the religious

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narrative, which is the Samaritans. Right, the

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Samaritans. Now, obviously, that's a group most

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people know by name. But when historians try

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to actually pin down their precise theology and

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practices in this early Roman period, they hit

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a massive, like, Almost insurmountable historiographical

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roadblock. That is the great tragedy of studying

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the Samaritans in this era, honestly. The roadblock

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is that almost all the surviving literary sources

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about them from this time are overtly, aggressively

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hostile. We have virtually nothing written by

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them about themselves. Exactly. Nothing from

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this specific time frame. We are entirely reliant

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on the writings of people who actively despise

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them. And this was for deep -seated theological,

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political, and, you know, territorial reasons.

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Wow. So we only have the perspective of their

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enemies. Yeah. I mean, the Samaritans as a community

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were deeply tied to the land of Samaria, which

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was situated geographically right between Galilee

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in the north and Judea in the south. Right in

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the middle. Right. And they revered the Torah.

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They were strictly observant of circumcision

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and the Sabbath, but they had a distinct rival

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priesthood. And most crucially, they believed

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the proper divinely ordained place for worship

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was Mount Gerizim, not the temple in Jerusalem.

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Which instantly makes them the ultimate existential

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rivals to the Judean religious establishment.

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Absolutely. But what's fascinating and I guess

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deeply frustrating is that our sources don't

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just depict them as rivals. They don't just say,

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you know, here is what they believe and here

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is why they're wrong. The sources actively distort

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and mutilate their history. to fit very specific

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narrative agendas. This is where we get into

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the mechanics of ancient historiography. And

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it's just fascinating. We can actually see the

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mechanical needs of ancient historians permanently

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warping our understanding of this religious group.

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Okay, walk me through how that actually happens.

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Well, let's look at the works of the famous first

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century Jewish historian Josephus. And then you

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compare that to later texts by the third century

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Christian writer Hippolytus. They both dedicate

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space to describing the different sects of Judaism.

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Right. They're trying to map out the religious

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landscape for their readers. Yes. And if a scholar

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puts the Greek texts of Josephus and Hippolytus

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side by side, structurally and linguistically,

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it becomes glaringly obvious that they were both

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relying on a lost, common, older source document.

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So they were both working out the same ancient

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cheat sheet, basically. Precisely. But this lost

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original source had a very specific structural

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quirk. You see... In antiquity, writers were

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obsessed with symmetry and rhetoric. Right. They

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absolutely loved the number three. It was rhetorically

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pleasing. It felt intellectually complete to

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them. So this original source document was determined

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to present exactly three major sects of Judaism.

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Just three. Just three. And originally, it seems

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highly likely that this foundational list consisted

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of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Samaritans.

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Okay, that makes sense. I mean, those are the

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major historical players. Exactly. But then the

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landscape shifts. How so? It shifts because the

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Essenes emerge in the historical consciousness

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as a major fascinating sect. Ah, right. The group

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we associate with the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.

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That's the one. So the author of this source

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document suddenly has a problem. How do you add

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the Essenes to your master list without ruining

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your perfectly symmetrical rhetorical structure

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of three? Oh, man. So you don't just make it

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a list of four. You don't just say, actually,

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you guys, there are four. Yeah. Because that

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ruins the literary elegance. You don't. You force

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the data to fit the model. That is wild. The

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original author awkwardly, violently condensed

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the Sadducees and the Samaritans into a single

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garbled overlapping account. So they only took

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up one slot on the list. You're kidding. Nope.

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Then they added the Essenes to make the new list

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of three. So it became Pharisees, the Sadducee

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-Samaritan hybrid slot. and Essenes. That's just,

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it's so frustrating for a historian. It gets

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worse. Because Josephus and Hippolytus inherit

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this condensed, confusing text. Hippolytus, for

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instance, he repeats this structural condensation.

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He notes merely that there was a sect of Samaritans,

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but he strips away almost all the granular detail.

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Because his source material had already compressed

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them to make room for the Essenes. Exactly. The

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mechanical need to keep a neat list of three

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structurally erased the distinct theological

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identity of the Samaritans from the mainstream

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historical record for centuries. OK, I have to

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jump in here because this raises a massive red

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flag. Go for it. If our entire literary view

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of the Samaritans is filtered through the lens

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of their bitter enemies and those enemies are

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literally cutting and pasting their identity,

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compressing them with the Sadducees just to fit

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a rhetorical rule of three. How do we actually

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know anything about their true beliefs? It's

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a huge problem. I mean, are we essentially just

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studying an ancient smear campaign? How do you

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extract history from propaganda? You've hit on

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the essential methodological crisis for any historian

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working with ancient texts. Yes, we are reading

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smear campaigns. So the technique is that we

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have to read the sources against the grain. Read

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against the grain. Okay, what does that look

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like in practice? It means looking for the negative

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space. When a rival text accuses the Samaritans

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of a certain bizarre practice, or mocks a specific

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interpretation of a purity law, the historian

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has to ask, well, what kernel of actual practice

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is being twisted here into a caricature? Ah,

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I see. You deconstruct the insult to find the

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theology beneath it. Exactly. Furthermore, we

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aren't completely devoid of other avenues. We

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rely heavily on later Samaritan documents, you

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know, their own chronicles and liturgical texts.

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Though dating those back is tough, right? Incredibly

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difficult. Trying to date those oral and written

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traditions back to the precise window of the

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first century is a huge challenge. Because they

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were written down centuries later. So you're

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trying to figure out if a belief in the fourth

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century actually existed in the first. Precisely.

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And of course, we look to the ground. Archaeology

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is the great corrective to biased literature.

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Right. Excavations, particularly around Mount

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Gerizim, are uncovering Samaritan synagogues,

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distinct ritual baths and inscriptions. And they

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tell a story of a robust, wealthy, heavily populated

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and fiercely independent religious community.

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So the physical evidence pushes back against

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the narrative. It does. The material culture

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doesn't completely match the weak, marginalized

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caricatures drawn by their Judean rivals. It

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is such a profound lesson in media literacy,

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and it feels incredibly relevant today for anyone

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listening. Imagine if, 2 ,000 years from now,

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historians tried to understand a modern political

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or social movement solely by reading the most

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vitriolic, extreme commentary from their absolute

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worst detractors. Right, you'd get a completely

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warped view. You would get a monstrous, distorted,

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totally unrecognizable picture. And that is exactly

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what history did to the Samaritans. It forces

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us to approach these ancient texts not as objective

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reporting, but with a profound skepticism about

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the motives, the geography, and even the literary

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formatting needs of the authors. And you mentioned

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geography, which is actually the perfect pivot

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for our next chapter. Because this hostility

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we're seeing wasn't just theological abstract

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debate. It was deeply physically territorial.

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The North -South divide. Exactly. The tensions

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defining this era weren't just between the acceptable

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center and the pushed out margins. They were

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also intensely regional. Right. Which brings

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us to chapter 19, a geographical rivalry that

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literally shapes the future trajectory of both

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Judaism and Christianity. Right. We are talking

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about the profound friction between Galilee in

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the north and Judea in the south. The geographical

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reality of Palestine in the first century is

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really the engine of its social history. Okay,

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set the scene for us. So you have Judea in the

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south. This is the seat of Jerusalem. This is

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the temple. This is the absolute center of political

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power, the center of the hereditary priesthood,

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the center of the religious establishment. It

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is the metropole. The big city. Right. Then,

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separated from Judea by the territory of Samaria

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we just discussed, you have Galilee to the north.

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And Galilee is Jewish, right? Oh. Unquestionably

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Jewish. Yeah. Deeply devoted to the God of Israel.

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But it had a fundamentally different cultural,

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economic and religious flavor. And what I find

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amazing is that the historical sources don't

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just talk about broad, sweeping philosophical

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disagreements between these two regions. They

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get totally into the weeds. They really do. They

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detail these incredibly specific, hyper -local

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behavioral differences between the Galileans

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and the Judeans. It's the tiny details of daily

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life and ritual that define who you are and who

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you belong to. Because in a highly ritualized,

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00:11:44,279 --> 00:11:47,320
law -observing society, theology is expressed

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00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:49,919
through action. Exactly. Let's look at some of

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these behavioral markers from the sources. Take

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work customs around major holidays. Our sources

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00:11:54,500 --> 00:11:56,759
note that on the 14th of Nisan, which is the

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exact eve of Passover, the most critical festival

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00:12:00,379 --> 00:12:02,600
on the calendar. Galileans completely refused

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to work at all. The entire day was a work stoppage

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for them. But Judeans, the sources say Judeans

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would work their normal trades right up until

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noon on that exact same day. Now, to a modern

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ear, whether you take a half day or a full day

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off before a holiday just sounds like trivial

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HR policy. Yeah, who cares, right? But in the

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00:12:19,899 --> 00:12:22,299
first century, how you prepare for the commemoration

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00:12:22,299 --> 00:12:24,700
of the exodus is a massive cultural identifier.

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00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:27,980
Passover preparation was rigorous. You're clearing

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out leaven, preparing for the sacrifice. So the

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00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:33,940
extra time mattered. It did. The Galileans taking

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the entire day off suggests a distinct approach

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00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:38,960
to ritual time. It implies a more stringent,

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00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,960
perhaps more conservative or cautious piety regarding

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00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,679
festival preparation compared to the Judeans,

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who were comfortable balancing the sacred preparation

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with a half day of commerce. It's a totally localized

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00:12:49,500 --> 00:12:52,480
rhythm. And then there is the approach to fasting

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and feasting. The sources explicitly note that

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Galileans had this unique ingrained custom of

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00:12:58,750 --> 00:13:02,009
throwing a feast on the 9th of Tishri. Yes. And

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00:13:02,009 --> 00:13:04,230
for context for you listening, the 9th of Tishri

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00:13:04,230 --> 00:13:06,389
is the day immediately preceding Yom Kippur.

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00:13:06,450 --> 00:13:08,470
And Yom Kippur is the most solemn day of the

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00:13:08,470 --> 00:13:11,870
year, defined by a strict... Total fast. Right.

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00:13:11,950 --> 00:13:14,230
So why in the world would you feast the day before?

295
00:13:14,409 --> 00:13:17,090
Well, feasting before a major fast, it's historically

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a way of acknowledging the solemnity and preparing

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00:13:19,769 --> 00:13:22,269
the body for the physical toll of the impending

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00:13:22,269 --> 00:13:25,409
deprivation. It honors the fast by contrasting

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00:13:25,409 --> 00:13:27,330
it. Okay. That makes sense physically. But the

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00:13:27,330 --> 00:13:29,309
key here isn't just that people did it. It's

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00:13:29,309 --> 00:13:31,389
that the sources identify it specifically as

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00:13:31,389 --> 00:13:35,080
a Galilean custom. To institutionalize that pre

303
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,279
-fast meal as a regional hallmark shows that

304
00:13:38,279 --> 00:13:40,559
the cultural and ritual rhythm in Galilee had

305
00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:42,759
evolved on its own separate track from Jerusalem.

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00:13:43,019 --> 00:13:45,299
Right. Now here is the example from the chapter

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00:13:45,299 --> 00:13:47,600
that really blew my mind, because it touches

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00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,379
on the rawest human emotions. The mourning custom.

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00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:54,039
Yes. In the 2nd century CE, the rabbinic sources

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00:13:54,039 --> 00:13:56,740
discuss how the people of Sepphoris, which was

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00:13:56,740 --> 00:13:59,899
a major influential city in Galilee, would completely

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00:13:59,899 --> 00:14:02,460
refuse to greet a mourner on the Sabbath. Right.

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00:14:02,659 --> 00:14:04,220
If you were grieving, they wouldn't formally

314
00:14:04,220 --> 00:14:07,000
acknowledge it on that day. But folks down south

315
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,500
in Judea, specifically in the southern region

316
00:14:09,500 --> 00:14:11,799
known as the Dharam, they would formally greet

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00:14:11,799 --> 00:14:13,960
a mourner on the Sabbath. This is a beautiful,

318
00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:17,019
complex example of how regions prioritize competing

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00:14:17,019 --> 00:14:20,399
theological values. How so? You have two massive

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00:14:20,399 --> 00:14:23,580
legal principles colliding here. First, the Sabbath

321
00:14:23,580 --> 00:14:25,740
is commanded to be a day of rest, of delight,

322
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:29,019
of unblemished joy. Second, comforting the bereaved

323
00:14:29,019 --> 00:14:32,220
is a profound communal obligation. So what happens

324
00:14:32,220 --> 00:14:35,539
when they intersect? Exactly. Does acknowledging

325
00:14:35,539 --> 00:14:38,919
a mourner's deep grief violate the mandated joy

326
00:14:38,919 --> 00:14:41,679
of the Sabbath? The Galileans in Sepphoris apparently

327
00:14:41,679 --> 00:14:45,299
thought so. Yes. They prioritize the strict,

328
00:14:45,419 --> 00:14:49,120
almost insulated atmosphere of Sabbath joy. The

329
00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:51,779
sanctity of the day superseded social interaction

330
00:14:51,779 --> 00:14:55,039
with grief for them. And the Judeans. The Judeans

331
00:14:55,039 --> 00:14:58,019
in the South, however, were seemingly more lenient.

332
00:14:58,519 --> 00:15:00,639
or perhaps more socially integrated in their

333
00:15:00,639 --> 00:15:03,519
theology, they allowed social compassion and

334
00:15:03,519 --> 00:15:06,000
the communal obligation to the mourner to supersede

335
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,500
that strict interpretation of unblemished joy.

336
00:15:08,860 --> 00:15:11,740
It's a subtle legal difference, but it represents

337
00:15:11,740 --> 00:15:14,279
a vast psychological difference in how a community

338
00:15:14,279 --> 00:15:16,820
operates. That is just fascinating. But the divide

339
00:15:16,820 --> 00:15:19,419
wasn't just about holidays and mourning. It was

340
00:15:19,419 --> 00:15:22,039
deeply economic, tied directly to the mechanics

341
00:15:22,039 --> 00:15:24,740
of the temple. There is this fascinating legal

342
00:15:24,740 --> 00:15:27,259
debate in the text about vows that illustrates

343
00:15:27,259 --> 00:15:31,340
this Oh, the Terumah vows. Yes. So in the mid

344
00:15:31,340 --> 00:15:34,259
-second century, you have Rabbi Judah issuing

345
00:15:34,259 --> 00:15:37,379
a ruling about vows concerning something called

346
00:15:37,379 --> 00:15:41,600
undefined Terumah. Now, we need to clarify how

347
00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:43,480
this agricultural system worked for a second.

348
00:15:44,159 --> 00:15:46,659
Terumah is the mandated portion of agricultural

349
00:15:46,659 --> 00:15:51,539
produce, you know, grain, wine, oil, that a farmer

350
00:15:51,539 --> 00:15:53,720
must separate and give to the priests. Correct.

351
00:15:53,820 --> 00:15:56,320
It is the economic engine of the priesthood.

352
00:15:56,590 --> 00:15:58,830
So Rabbi Judah rules that if a person makes a

353
00:15:58,830 --> 00:16:00,950
vow restricting themselves from undefined truma,

354
00:16:01,090 --> 00:16:04,509
that vow is legally binding in Judea. But if

355
00:16:04,509 --> 00:16:07,169
a Galilean makes that exact same vow, it is not

356
00:16:07,169 --> 00:16:09,889
binding. Right. And the reason given is astounding.

357
00:16:09,909 --> 00:16:12,090
It's because Galileans supposedly didn't even

358
00:16:12,090 --> 00:16:14,149
know about the specific temple chambers where

359
00:16:14,149 --> 00:16:16,070
these dues were stored. It's incredible. And

360
00:16:16,070 --> 00:16:18,690
it worked in reverse, too. Vows concerning undefined

361
00:16:18,690 --> 00:16:20,789
devoted things, meaning... property permanently

362
00:16:20,789 --> 00:16:23,250
dedicated to the temple treasury were binding

363
00:16:23,250 --> 00:16:25,889
in Galilee, but not in Judea, because Galileans

364
00:16:25,889 --> 00:16:27,750
were familiar with dedicating things to the temple

365
00:16:27,750 --> 00:16:30,049
generally, but didn't know the specific mechanics

366
00:16:30,049 --> 00:16:32,169
of things devoted directly to the personal use

367
00:16:32,169 --> 00:16:36,049
of the priests. This ruling is a brilliant, unvarnished

368
00:16:36,049 --> 00:16:39,049
window into the socioeconomic divide between

369
00:16:39,049 --> 00:16:41,429
the center and the periphery. Let's break down

370
00:16:41,429 --> 00:16:44,190
the mechanics of this. Please do. Judea is the

371
00:16:44,190 --> 00:16:47,559
home of the temple. The entire economy of Jerusalem

372
00:16:47,559 --> 00:16:51,440
and the surrounding Judean countryside is intimately,

373
00:16:51,620 --> 00:16:55,080
inextricably tied to the temple complex. It is

374
00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:57,519
a massive bureaucratic apparatus. So everyone

375
00:16:57,519 --> 00:17:00,340
there knows how it works. Exactly. A Judean farmer

376
00:17:00,340 --> 00:17:03,080
interacts with priests constantly. They know

377
00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:05,680
exactly how Terumah works mechanically. They

378
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:07,859
know which courtyard it goes to, which chamber

379
00:17:07,859 --> 00:17:10,359
the oil is stored in, how the priests divide

380
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,000
it. It's literally their local industry. Precisely.

381
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:15,339
Now look at the Galilean farmer. They live days

382
00:17:15,339 --> 00:17:18,180
away by foot. They are religiously fiercely committed

383
00:17:18,180 --> 00:17:20,140
to the idea of the temple, to the god of the

384
00:17:20,140 --> 00:17:22,359
temple. But they are completely disconnected

385
00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:25,400
from its daily logistical bureaucratic reality.

386
00:17:25,660 --> 00:17:28,440
The rabbis recognize this geographical disconnect

387
00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,859
in their legal rulings. The logic is profound.

388
00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:34,039
You cannot be held legally or spiritually liable

389
00:17:34,039 --> 00:17:37,019
for a vow if you don't actually comprehend the

390
00:17:37,019 --> 00:17:39,079
logistical reality of what you're vowing about.

391
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:41,519
OK, let's use an analogy to ground this for you

392
00:17:41,519 --> 00:17:44,720
listening. Think about the friction between a

393
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,980
remote working class mining town in, say, the

394
00:17:48,980 --> 00:17:52,240
mountains of the Pacific Northwest and the gleaming

395
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,240
corporate headquarters of the mining company

396
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,180
located in a major financial capital like New

397
00:17:57,180 --> 00:17:59,660
York. That's a great comparison. The people in

398
00:17:59,660 --> 00:18:01,559
the mining town are doing the physical labor

399
00:18:01,559 --> 00:18:03,940
right. They understand the raw material. They're

400
00:18:03,940 --> 00:18:06,950
fiercely proud of the work. But they have zero

401
00:18:06,950 --> 00:18:09,910
connection to the boardroom politics, the specific

402
00:18:09,910 --> 00:18:12,289
accounting departments, or the quarterly financial

403
00:18:12,289 --> 00:18:14,369
structuring happening in the city. Right. It's

404
00:18:14,369 --> 00:18:16,170
a different world. And the corporate executives

405
00:18:16,170 --> 00:18:19,730
in the city view the miners as rough, unpolished,

406
00:18:19,730 --> 00:18:22,569
and maybe a little ignorant of how the real business

407
00:18:22,569 --> 00:18:25,390
operates. That is an exceptionally accurate analogy.

408
00:18:25,730 --> 00:18:28,029
The Galileans are the remote workers. Jerusalem

409
00:18:28,029 --> 00:18:30,250
is the corporate headquarters. They are part

410
00:18:30,250 --> 00:18:32,589
of the same enterprise, the worship of the God

411
00:18:32,589 --> 00:18:34,910
of Israel. but they experienced the mechanics

412
00:18:34,910 --> 00:18:38,430
of that enterprise in totally alien ways. And

413
00:18:38,430 --> 00:18:41,890
this structural friction gave rise to very specific

414
00:18:41,890 --> 00:18:45,450
sociological factions. Our sources talk extensively

415
00:18:45,450 --> 00:18:48,910
about the tension between two groups, the Amiharats

416
00:18:48,910 --> 00:18:52,230
and the Haberim. Yes, the Amiharats translates

417
00:18:52,230 --> 00:18:55,839
roughly to the people of the land. Which sounds

418
00:18:55,839 --> 00:18:58,140
nice, but it wasn't, right? No, it was actually

419
00:18:58,140 --> 00:19:00,940
a slightly derogatory term. It was used by the

420
00:19:00,940 --> 00:19:03,619
elite to describe the common folk, the vast majority

421
00:19:03,619 --> 00:19:06,559
of everyday agricultural workers. Basically,

422
00:19:06,700 --> 00:19:08,539
the people who were simply trying to survive

423
00:19:08,539 --> 00:19:11,819
and who were perhaps less rigorous or less educated

424
00:19:11,819 --> 00:19:15,359
about the absolute minutia of purity laws. And

425
00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:17,440
on the other side, you have the Haberim. The

426
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:20,119
Habarim, which means the associates or the pietists,

427
00:19:20,259 --> 00:19:22,799
were groups of men often closely associated with

428
00:19:22,799 --> 00:19:24,980
the ideological movement of the Pharisees who

429
00:19:24,980 --> 00:19:26,759
made a radical commitment. What did they commit

430
00:19:26,759 --> 00:19:29,119
to? They committed to eating their ordinary,

431
00:19:29,460 --> 00:19:32,160
everyday, secular meals in a state of strict

432
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,420
ritual purity, exactly as if they were consecrated

433
00:19:35,420 --> 00:19:38,259
priests eating holy food inside the temple precincts.

434
00:19:38,259 --> 00:19:40,569
Which is just a massive logistical burden. It

435
00:19:40,569 --> 00:19:44,029
is an incredible burden. It requires hypervigilance

436
00:19:44,029 --> 00:19:46,890
about tithing, about handwashing, about the purity

437
00:19:46,890 --> 00:19:49,829
status of every vessel and every guest. It sounds

438
00:19:49,829 --> 00:19:52,609
exhausting. It was. But the Haberim fundamentally

439
00:19:52,609 --> 00:19:54,930
believed that the holiness of the temple should

440
00:19:54,930 --> 00:19:58,150
extend to the family dinner table. Consequently,

441
00:19:58,150 --> 00:20:01,029
they looked down on the Amiharids as ignorant

442
00:20:01,029 --> 00:20:04,009
and ritually impure. They wouldn't eat with them.

443
00:20:04,190 --> 00:20:06,269
They wouldn't buy certain goods from them. And

444
00:20:06,269 --> 00:20:08,349
you can imagine how the Amiharids viewed the

445
00:20:08,349 --> 00:20:11,940
Haberim. Oh, likely as arrogant, insufferable,

446
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:15,259
out of touch elitists judging them for just living

447
00:20:15,259 --> 00:20:17,380
their lives. Right. And while this class divide

448
00:20:17,380 --> 00:20:19,799
existed everywhere, the sources imply it took

449
00:20:19,799 --> 00:20:22,859
on a very specific, volatile flavor in Galilee.

450
00:20:23,180 --> 00:20:26,039
Because Galilee was largely agricultural and

451
00:20:26,039 --> 00:20:28,539
removed from the direct daily suffocating oversight

452
00:20:28,539 --> 00:20:31,079
of the Jerusalem elite, it fostered a different

453
00:20:31,079 --> 00:20:33,220
kind of religious expression. How so? Instead

454
00:20:33,220 --> 00:20:35,539
of the bureaucratic priest or the hyper -legalistic

455
00:20:35,539 --> 00:20:37,920
scribe debating the exact volume of a ritual

456
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,680
bath, Galilee became known as the breeding ground

457
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,839
for charismatic miracle workers. Right. Men like

458
00:20:43,839 --> 00:20:46,839
Hanina Bendosa. Hanina Bendosa is the absolute

459
00:20:46,839 --> 00:20:50,109
archetype of the Galilean charismatic. The sources

460
00:20:50,109 --> 00:20:52,769
mention him as this almost legendary figure who

461
00:20:52,769 --> 00:20:55,410
could pray for the sick and immediately know

462
00:20:55,410 --> 00:20:58,309
with absolute certainty if they would live or

463
00:20:58,309 --> 00:21:01,430
die based solely on how fluidly the prayer came

464
00:21:01,430 --> 00:21:04,690
to his lips. Yes. Like if the words flowed, the

465
00:21:04,690 --> 00:21:07,150
person was healed. If he stumbled, the person

466
00:21:07,150 --> 00:21:09,230
was doomed. Exactly. And look at the mechanics

467
00:21:09,230 --> 00:21:12,250
of his authority. He doesn't derive power from

468
00:21:12,250 --> 00:21:14,710
a hereditary priesthood. He doesn't derive power

469
00:21:14,710 --> 00:21:18,049
from institutional ordination or scholarly pedigree.

470
00:21:18,210 --> 00:21:20,089
Right. He was just a regular guy. He was poor.

471
00:21:20,289 --> 00:21:23,529
He lived incredibly simply. And his authority

472
00:21:23,529 --> 00:21:27,150
came entirely from his perceived direct, unmediated,

473
00:21:27,190 --> 00:21:29,470
intimate relationship with God. I bet Jerusalem

474
00:21:29,470 --> 00:21:31,829
loved that. Oh, they hated it. The institutional

475
00:21:31,829 --> 00:21:34,069
establishment in Jerusalem often didn't know

476
00:21:34,069 --> 00:21:35,970
what to do with these Galilean charismatics.

477
00:21:36,170 --> 00:21:38,849
They couldn't deny their popularity or the power

478
00:21:38,849 --> 00:21:41,430
of their perceived miracles, but they were deeply

479
00:21:41,430 --> 00:21:43,740
suspicious of their complete life. lack of institutional

480
00:21:43,740 --> 00:21:46,619
control. I mean, a man who speaks directly to

481
00:21:46,619 --> 00:21:49,559
God doesn't need a priest. Wow. So why does all

482
00:21:49,559 --> 00:21:52,180
this hyperlocal Galilean trivia, the fasting,

483
00:21:52,299 --> 00:21:55,500
the vows, the charismatics, why does it matter

484
00:21:55,500 --> 00:21:58,140
in the grand sweep of history? If we connect

485
00:21:58,140 --> 00:22:00,420
this to the bigger picture, it matters immensely

486
00:22:00,420 --> 00:22:02,579
because of what happens after the time period

487
00:22:02,579 --> 00:22:06,619
we are discussing. In 135 CE, following a catastrophic

488
00:22:06,619 --> 00:22:09,880
Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans, the empire

489
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:13,619
brutally cracked down. The Emperor Hadrian ordered

490
00:22:13,619 --> 00:22:16,519
all Jews entirely expelled from Jerusalem and

491
00:22:16,519 --> 00:22:18,680
its surrounding Judean territories. The entire

492
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,460
region. Yes. So the entire center of gravity

493
00:22:21,460 --> 00:22:24,220
of Jewish life, learning, and authority had to

494
00:22:24,220 --> 00:22:25,980
shift overnight. And where did it go? It moved

495
00:22:25,980 --> 00:22:29,140
north. it moved directly into galilee the great

496
00:22:29,140 --> 00:22:31,339
rabbinic academies that would eventually compile

497
00:22:31,339 --> 00:22:34,200
the mishnah and the jerusalem talmud which are

498
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,160
the absolute foundational texts of all modern

499
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:39,859
rabbinic judaism those were established in galilean

500
00:22:39,859 --> 00:22:43,839
cities like sephorus and tiberius therefore understanding

501
00:22:43,839 --> 00:22:47,130
this pre -existing galilean culture Its unique

502
00:22:47,130 --> 00:22:50,289
rural customs, its charismatic leanings, its

503
00:22:50,289 --> 00:22:53,190
deep tension with the urban elites is the skeleton

504
00:22:53,190 --> 00:22:55,569
key to understanding the foundation of the rabbinic

505
00:22:55,569 --> 00:22:58,130
Judaism that ultimately survived and flourished.

506
00:22:58,630 --> 00:23:01,710
The Galilean soil is what rabbinic Judaism was

507
00:23:01,710 --> 00:23:04,029
forced to grow out of. That is an incredible

508
00:23:04,029 --> 00:23:07,740
historical irony. The margins are forced to become

509
00:23:07,740 --> 00:23:09,759
the center. The remote mining town becomes the

510
00:23:09,759 --> 00:23:11,819
new corporate headquarters because the old one

511
00:23:11,819 --> 00:23:13,660
burned down. That's exactly what happened. And

512
00:23:13,660 --> 00:23:15,599
speaking of this Galilean environment. Yeah.

513
00:23:16,039 --> 00:23:18,880
Having established this unique, fiercely independent,

514
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,400
anti -institutional atmosphere, we move naturally

515
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:24,240
to chapter 20 and the most famous historical

516
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,500
resident of this region. Right. We have to look

517
00:23:26,500 --> 00:23:29,059
at Jesus of Nazareth, not as an abstraction,

518
00:23:29,140 --> 00:23:31,619
but as a Galilean Jew operating entirely within

519
00:23:31,619 --> 00:23:33,839
this complex, fractured environment we just described.

520
00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:36,660
Indeed. When historians look at the figure of

521
00:23:36,660 --> 00:23:38,779
Jesus, they are looking at a man who is entirely

522
00:23:38,779 --> 00:23:42,019
a product of the charismatic, tense, localized

523
00:23:42,019 --> 00:23:44,440
environment we just spent time detailing. Our

524
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:46,079
sources point out something fascinating about

525
00:23:46,079 --> 00:23:48,039
how scholarship has traditionally handled him.

526
00:23:48,500 --> 00:23:51,240
For a very long time, historians basically fell

527
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,450
into two camps. Right. One approach. heavily

528
00:23:54,450 --> 00:23:57,509
influenced by later theology, viewed early Christianity

529
00:23:57,509 --> 00:24:01,029
as a completely supernatural, unprecedented phenomenon.

530
00:24:01,450 --> 00:24:04,710
Like it broke into the world with radical discontinuity,

531
00:24:04,730 --> 00:24:07,130
completely severing itself from the Jewish past.

532
00:24:07,289 --> 00:24:09,329
It was something entirely new dropped from the

533
00:24:09,329 --> 00:24:12,009
sky. And the second approach, which gained a

534
00:24:12,009 --> 00:24:14,049
lot of traction in the 19th and 20th centuries

535
00:24:14,049 --> 00:24:16,750
as scholars tried to be more historical, sought

536
00:24:16,750 --> 00:24:19,109
to place Jesus firmly within the religions of

537
00:24:19,109 --> 00:24:21,109
the first century. But even then there was a

538
00:24:21,109 --> 00:24:23,599
deep divide, right? There was. Many scholars

539
00:24:23,599 --> 00:24:25,500
tried to explain the origins of Christianity

540
00:24:25,500 --> 00:24:29,359
through the lens of Hellenistic Greek pagan syncretism.

541
00:24:29,539 --> 00:24:32,380
They looked at Greek mystery cults, dying and

542
00:24:32,380 --> 00:24:35,240
rising gods, and tried to map that onto Jesus.

543
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,359
But the sources for this deep dive are absolutely

544
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:40,240
emphatic. They argue that we must view Jesus

545
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,289
as a figure. who initiated a movement entirely

546
00:24:43,289 --> 00:24:46,769
100 % within the confines and language of Palestinian

547
00:24:46,769 --> 00:24:50,170
Judaism. That is the crucial defining paradigm

548
00:24:50,170 --> 00:24:53,630
shift in modern historical scholarship. For centuries,

549
00:24:53,869 --> 00:24:56,710
theological biases caused many European scholars

550
00:24:56,710 --> 00:24:59,869
to subconsciously and sometimes explicitly de

551
00:24:59,869 --> 00:25:01,849
-Judia's Jesus. Right, they wanted to separate

552
00:25:01,849 --> 00:25:04,309
him. They wanted to emphasize how different he

553
00:25:04,309 --> 00:25:07,049
was from his contemporaries to isolate him from

554
00:25:07,049 --> 00:25:10,029
Judaism. But when you strip away centuries of

555
00:25:10,029 --> 00:25:12,430
later European Christian theology and look at

556
00:25:12,430 --> 00:25:14,210
the actual first century texts historically,

557
00:25:14,529 --> 00:25:17,309
Jesus is completely legible as a first century

558
00:25:17,309 --> 00:25:20,549
Jewish teacher. So give us some examples. Well,

559
00:25:20,650 --> 00:25:23,369
he debates the nuances of the law. He teaches

560
00:25:23,369 --> 00:25:26,130
extensively in parables, which is a classic foundational

561
00:25:26,130 --> 00:25:29,789
rabbinic technique. He operates in Galilee as

562
00:25:29,789 --> 00:25:32,089
a charismatic healer in the exact same vein as

563
00:25:32,089 --> 00:25:35,210
Hanina Bendosa. And his core message is fundamentally

564
00:25:35,210 --> 00:25:37,410
about the imminent arrival of the kingdom of

565
00:25:37,410 --> 00:25:39,349
the God of Israel. But I need you to clarify

566
00:25:39,349 --> 00:25:41,329
something here, because the sources also tackle

567
00:25:41,329 --> 00:25:43,950
this idea of Hellenistic versus Judaic cultures.

568
00:25:44,150 --> 00:25:46,230
Yes, this is important. For a long time, the

569
00:25:46,230 --> 00:25:48,089
scholarly assumption was, you know, well, the

570
00:25:48,089 --> 00:25:50,269
Greek Hellenistic stuff is out there in the wider

571
00:25:50,269 --> 00:25:54,069
Roman Empire and the pure, unadulterated Jewish

572
00:25:54,069 --> 00:25:57,430
stuff is isolated in Palestine. But our sources

573
00:25:57,430 --> 00:26:00,210
argue that this rigid boundary is a total myth.

574
00:26:00,450 --> 00:26:02,650
Right. So if Jesus is Jewish, what does that

575
00:26:02,650 --> 00:26:05,329
actually mean in a Hellenized world? It's a vital

576
00:26:05,329 --> 00:26:08,309
clarification. The idea of an insulated, purely

577
00:26:08,309 --> 00:26:11,750
Semitic Palestine utterly untouched by Greek

578
00:26:11,750 --> 00:26:14,670
culture is a historical fantasy. Right. By the

579
00:26:14,670 --> 00:26:17,130
first century, Greek culture, language, administrative

580
00:26:17,130 --> 00:26:20,089
structures and philosophy had. deeply, thoroughly

581
00:26:20,089 --> 00:26:22,809
interpenetrated Palestinian Judaism for over

582
00:26:22,809 --> 00:26:26,009
300 years, ever since the conquests of Alexander

583
00:26:26,009 --> 00:26:27,869
the Great. So what does that syncretism look

584
00:26:27,869 --> 00:26:30,289
like on the ground? On the ground, it means there

585
00:26:30,289 --> 00:26:32,490
were Greek -speaking synagogues operating right

586
00:26:32,490 --> 00:26:34,829
in Jerusalem. It means you have Jewish thinkers

587
00:26:34,829 --> 00:26:37,589
in Palestine using Greek rhetorical forms like

588
00:26:37,589 --> 00:26:40,630
the diatribe or specific logical syllogisms to

589
00:26:40,630 --> 00:26:43,470
argue and develop Jewish legal concepts. It means

590
00:26:43,470 --> 00:26:46,089
Greek loanwords entered the Aramaic vocabulary

591
00:26:46,089 --> 00:26:49,720
for commerce and administration. So when scholars

592
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,359
place Jesus firmly within Palestinian Judaism,

593
00:26:52,799 --> 00:26:55,279
they aren't placing him in an isolated, culturally

594
00:26:55,279 --> 00:26:58,220
pure vacuum. They are placing him in a vibrant,

595
00:26:58,380 --> 00:27:01,579
cosmopolitan, profoundly Hellenized Jewish world.

596
00:27:01,700 --> 00:27:03,839
I have to push back here though. Let's follow

597
00:27:03,839 --> 00:27:07,130
this logic. Okay. If we entirely contextualize

598
00:27:07,130 --> 00:27:09,309
Jesus within first century Palestinian Judaism,

599
00:27:09,450 --> 00:27:12,250
if we say, look, he's just another Galilean charismatic

600
00:27:12,250 --> 00:27:15,450
healer, he's devoting the exact same purity laws

601
00:27:15,450 --> 00:27:18,150
as the Pharisees, he's using the same parables,

602
00:27:18,269 --> 00:27:21,670
do we risk losing what made his specific message

603
00:27:21,670 --> 00:27:24,109
radical? That's the big question. I mean, something

604
00:27:24,109 --> 00:27:26,390
he did or said was explosive enough to eventually

605
00:27:26,390 --> 00:27:28,609
spark a global religion and get it executed by

606
00:27:28,609 --> 00:27:30,630
the state. Does making him thoroughly Jewish

607
00:27:30,630 --> 00:27:32,910
make him seem less unique, or does it actually

608
00:27:32,910 --> 00:27:35,369
bring his historical reality into sharper focus?

609
00:27:35,650 --> 00:27:37,970
It's a phenomenal question, and it's the exact

610
00:27:37,970 --> 00:27:40,809
tension historians grapple with constantly. The

611
00:27:40,809 --> 00:27:42,529
answer from our analysis is that rooting him

612
00:27:42,529 --> 00:27:45,630
entirely in Judaism doesn't diminish his radicalism.

613
00:27:45,670 --> 00:27:48,230
It is the only way to explain what was radical

614
00:27:48,230 --> 00:27:50,849
about him. Explain that. How does the context

615
00:27:50,849 --> 00:27:53,650
create the radicalism? Because rebellion is only

616
00:27:53,650 --> 00:27:56,009
meaningful within a specific framework. Right.

617
00:27:56,109 --> 00:27:58,289
If you don't understand the intensely complex

618
00:27:58,289 --> 00:28:01,029
mechanics of Sabbath observance and the deep

619
00:28:01,029 --> 00:28:04,329
anxieties about ritual purity held by the Hebrim,

620
00:28:04,430 --> 00:28:07,890
you cannot understand why Jesus' specific deliberate

621
00:28:07,890 --> 00:28:10,730
violations of those norms, like healing on the

622
00:28:10,730 --> 00:28:13,029
Sabbath or eating with tax collectors, were so

623
00:28:13,029 --> 00:28:15,509
deeply shocking and offensive. Oh, I see. If

624
00:28:15,509 --> 00:28:18,289
you don't understand the intense burning Jewish

625
00:28:18,289 --> 00:28:21,670
longing for a devout Messiah to violently overthrow

626
00:28:21,769 --> 00:28:25,150
throw the Roman occupation, you can't understand

627
00:28:25,150 --> 00:28:27,250
the political tension and the threat of state

628
00:28:27,250 --> 00:28:29,630
violence surrounding his entry into Jerusalem.

629
00:28:29,890 --> 00:28:32,490
So the contrast requires the background. You

630
00:28:32,490 --> 00:28:34,309
can't see the disruption if you don't know the

631
00:28:34,309 --> 00:28:36,910
rules being broken. Precisely. Understanding

632
00:28:36,910 --> 00:28:40,009
his deep Jewish roots strips away later anachronistic

633
00:28:40,009 --> 00:28:42,890
theological layering. It removes medieval debates

634
00:28:42,890 --> 00:28:45,289
about the Trinity or Greek metaphysical concepts

635
00:28:45,289 --> 00:28:47,309
of substance that he never would have discussed

636
00:28:47,309 --> 00:28:50,250
to reveal the actual historical dynamics at play.

637
00:28:50,349 --> 00:28:52,470
So what was his actual goal, historically speaking?

638
00:28:52,940 --> 00:28:55,279
His radicalism wasn't that he was trying to start

639
00:28:55,279 --> 00:28:58,019
a brand new religion. His radicalism was his

640
00:28:58,019 --> 00:29:00,940
specific, urgent, and highly controversial interpretation

641
00:29:00,940 --> 00:29:04,079
of how the God of Israel was acting right now

642
00:29:04,079 --> 00:29:06,759
to redeem the Jewish people. It was an internal,

643
00:29:06,900 --> 00:29:09,720
localized Jewish debate with perceived cosmic

644
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,200
stakes. Okay, that makes perfect mechanical sense.

645
00:29:12,660 --> 00:29:15,359
Jesus roots the movement entirely in Palestinian

646
00:29:15,359 --> 00:29:18,880
Judaism. But if we look at the historical map

647
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,700
just a few centuries later, the movement is overwhelmingly

648
00:29:21,700 --> 00:29:25,279
Gentile. Oh, completely. It is Roman. It is Greek.

649
00:29:25,380 --> 00:29:27,819
It spans Mediterranean. So how do we get from

650
00:29:27,819 --> 00:29:30,599
a Galilean charismatic preaching to Galilean

651
00:29:30,599 --> 00:29:33,480
farmers to a global Gentile religion? Well, it

652
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,200
was another specific figure who architected that

653
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:38,720
massive transition, which brings us to chapter

654
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,039
21 and a figure our sources refer to as the anomalous

655
00:29:42,039 --> 00:29:44,200
Colossus. We are talking, of course, about Saul

656
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,559
of Tarsus, known universally to history as the

657
00:29:46,559 --> 00:29:48,900
Apostle Paul. Paul is the guy who wrote a massive

658
00:29:48,900 --> 00:29:50,740
chunk of what would become the New Testament.

659
00:29:51,230 --> 00:29:53,430
He wrote these dense, passionate letters to the

660
00:29:53,430 --> 00:29:55,630
early communities he founded across the Mediterranean

661
00:29:55,630 --> 00:29:58,990
basin. Yeah. Letters like 1 Thessalonians, Galatians,

662
00:29:59,069 --> 00:30:01,049
1 Ancestor Corinthians, Romans, Philippians,

663
00:30:01,109 --> 00:30:04,250
Philemon. And Paul remains perhaps the most polarizing

664
00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:06,410
debated figure in this entire history. Really?

665
00:30:06,529 --> 00:30:09,130
Why? To many historians and theologians, he is

666
00:30:09,130 --> 00:30:11,589
the true founder of Christianity as a distinct

667
00:30:11,589 --> 00:30:14,730
global religion, the one who severed it from

668
00:30:14,730 --> 00:30:17,369
its Jewish moorings. But here is where the historical

669
00:30:17,369 --> 00:30:21,250
reality bends the mind. Because Paul, the ultimate

670
00:30:21,250 --> 00:30:23,849
architect of the Gentile mission, the man who

671
00:30:23,849 --> 00:30:26,069
fundamentally argued that Gentiles did not need

672
00:30:26,069 --> 00:30:28,910
to be circumcised or keep kosher dietary laws

673
00:30:28,910 --> 00:30:32,829
to follow Jesus. He was himself profoundly, thoroughly,

674
00:30:33,089 --> 00:30:35,569
undeniably Jewish. Very much so. He literally

675
00:30:35,569 --> 00:30:37,849
describes himself in his own letters as a Hebrew

676
00:30:37,849 --> 00:30:40,809
of Hebrews. It is the great animating paradox

677
00:30:40,809 --> 00:30:44,210
of Paul's life and letters. He was a Pharisee.

678
00:30:44,519 --> 00:30:46,839
He was educated in the strictest, most rigorous

679
00:30:46,839 --> 00:30:49,680
interpretation of the law. And what is brilliant

680
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:52,380
is that even when he is actively arguing against

681
00:30:52,380 --> 00:30:54,599
the necessity of the law for his new Gentile

682
00:30:54,599 --> 00:30:57,579
converts, he relies entirely on sophisticated,

683
00:30:58,019 --> 00:31:00,480
highly technical rabbinic methods of biblical

684
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,220
exegesis to make his points. He uses their own

685
00:31:03,220 --> 00:31:06,519
tools. Exactly. He argues exactly like a rabbi

686
00:31:06,519 --> 00:31:08,660
to prove that the era of the rabbi has fundamentally

687
00:31:08,660 --> 00:31:10,759
shifted. I am still hung up on this, though.

688
00:31:11,019 --> 00:31:13,579
Walk me through the logic. How does a stripped

689
00:31:13,579 --> 00:31:16,460
Pharisee, a guy whose entire worldview is built

690
00:31:16,460 --> 00:31:18,900
on the eternal validity of the Torah, wake up

691
00:31:18,900 --> 00:31:20,779
and decide to dismantle the boundaries of the

692
00:31:20,779 --> 00:31:23,460
law for Gentiles? How does he justify that internally?

693
00:31:23,700 --> 00:31:26,460
It's all about time. Time. Our sources dive deep

694
00:31:26,460 --> 00:31:28,480
into his conceptualization of time in history

695
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,119
to explain this right. Yes. To understand Paul's

696
00:31:31,119 --> 00:31:33,019
logic, you have to understand his eschatology,

697
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,680
his theology of the end times and the structure

698
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:38,329
of history. Our sources point out that Paul relies

699
00:31:38,329 --> 00:31:40,789
on a historical timeline that is deeply embedded

700
00:31:40,789 --> 00:31:44,230
in ancient Jewish apocalyptic thought. To illustrate

701
00:31:44,230 --> 00:31:46,650
this, the sources point to a rabbinic compilation

702
00:31:46,650 --> 00:31:50,710
called the Tanadevi Elihu. Now, I know the Tanadevi

703
00:31:50,710 --> 00:31:53,069
Elihu was technically compiled later, around

704
00:31:53,069 --> 00:31:55,630
the 3rd century CE, but the forces emphasize

705
00:31:55,630 --> 00:31:57,970
that the chronological structure it uses contains

706
00:31:57,970 --> 00:32:01,309
much older 1st century material. Exactly. It

707
00:32:01,309 --> 00:32:04,380
preserves the worldview of Paul's era. This text

708
00:32:04,380 --> 00:32:06,740
divides the entirety of world history into a

709
00:32:06,740 --> 00:32:10,180
massive 6 ,000 -year master plan. And the mechanics

710
00:32:10,180 --> 00:32:12,700
of that plan are specific. It goes 2 ,000 years

711
00:32:12,700 --> 00:32:15,160
of desolation or anarchy, stretching from the

712
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,640
creation of the world to Abraham. Then 2 ,000

713
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:20,779
years of the epic of the Torah, from Abraham

714
00:32:20,779 --> 00:32:23,240
and Moses onward, where the law is the defining

715
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,200
mechanism of God's relationship with humanity.

716
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,819
Right. And finally, the last 2 ,000 years are

717
00:32:27,819 --> 00:32:30,099
the Messianic era. That is the structural map

718
00:32:30,099 --> 00:32:32,259
of time. And when you read Paul's letters, you

719
00:32:32,259 --> 00:32:35,240
see him operating with a very similar eschatological

720
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,980
map in his head. So he hasn't rejected anything.

721
00:32:38,180 --> 00:32:40,920
No, Paul hasn't rejected Jewish history. He believes

722
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:43,720
he is simply reading the clock. He believes that

723
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,160
the resurrection of Jesus has triggered the cosmic

724
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:48,920
shift from the epoch of the Torah to the epoch

725
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:51,759
of the Messianic era. He isn't discarding the

726
00:32:51,759 --> 00:32:54,759
law as bad or useless. He is claiming that its

727
00:32:54,759 --> 00:32:58,460
specific apical function in the grand preordained

728
00:32:58,460 --> 00:33:01,279
clock of Jewish history has simply reached its

729
00:33:01,279 --> 00:33:04,339
intended conclusion. The bell has rung. But that

730
00:33:04,339 --> 00:33:07,319
eschatological shift creates a massive psychological

731
00:33:07,319 --> 00:33:10,400
and theological crisis for Paul. Oh, a huge one.

732
00:33:10,619 --> 00:33:12,839
Because if the Messianic era has truly arrived,

733
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,299
why aren't the overwhelming majority of his fellow

734
00:33:15,299 --> 00:33:17,900
Jews accepting it? If this is the culmination

735
00:33:17,900 --> 00:33:21,000
of Jewish history, where are the Jews? The sources

736
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,039
do a deep dive into his letter to the Romans,

737
00:33:23,119 --> 00:33:24,900
specifically chapter nine, where Paul is just

738
00:33:24,900 --> 00:33:28,119
in absolute gut wrenching agony over this reality.

739
00:33:28,339 --> 00:33:31,200
It is a profound existential and theological

740
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,619
crisis for him. He loves his people. He writes

741
00:33:34,619 --> 00:33:36,839
that he wishes he himself could be cursed and

742
00:33:36,839 --> 00:33:39,059
cut off from Christ if it would somehow secure

743
00:33:39,059 --> 00:33:41,359
the salvation of his fellow Israelites. That's

744
00:33:41,359 --> 00:33:44,279
intense. It is. But beyond his personal grief,

745
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:47,019
he has a theological problem. He has to explain

746
00:33:47,019 --> 00:33:49,759
how God's sovereignty and promises are reliable

747
00:33:49,759 --> 00:33:52,539
if the chosen people are seemingly rejecting

748
00:33:52,539 --> 00:33:55,480
the culmination of those promises. And to solve

749
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:57,900
this massive theological dilemma, He doesn't

750
00:33:57,900 --> 00:34:00,980
invent a new Greek philosophy. He reaches deep

751
00:34:00,980 --> 00:34:03,859
into the Jewish scriptural tradition and deploys

752
00:34:03,859 --> 00:34:06,140
the concept of the remnant. Okay, let's explore

753
00:34:06,140 --> 00:34:08,719
the mechanics of this remnant concept, because

754
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:11,360
he uses intense biblical midrash to build his

755
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,500
case. Paul argues, by reading the Torah, that

756
00:34:14,500 --> 00:34:16,519
God has always worked through a principle of

757
00:34:16,519 --> 00:34:18,920
selective choice within Israel, a remnant, rather

758
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,699
than through blanket physical descent. He cites

759
00:34:21,699 --> 00:34:23,699
the Genesis narrative directly. Right, Isaac

760
00:34:23,699 --> 00:34:26,079
and Ishmael. Exactly. He points out that God

761
00:34:26,079 --> 00:34:28,500
chose Isaac to inherit the promise but specifically

762
00:34:28,500 --> 00:34:31,219
did not choose his older brother Ishmael even

763
00:34:31,219 --> 00:34:33,059
though both were physically descended from Abraham.

764
00:34:33,300 --> 00:34:36,039
Then he goes a generation further. God chose

765
00:34:36,039 --> 00:34:38,559
Jacob but rejected Esau even though they were

766
00:34:38,559 --> 00:34:41,280
twins in the same womb. So biological descent

767
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,139
isn't enough. Right. Paul is using these texts

768
00:34:44,139 --> 00:34:46,539
to argue that physical biological descent from

769
00:34:46,539 --> 00:34:48,840
Abraham was never the sole guarantee of being

770
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,960
the carrier of the promise. There was always

771
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:54,000
a process of divine sovereign selection. He also

772
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,260
pulls from the prophets, right? He uses the story

773
00:34:56,260 --> 00:34:59,800
of Elijah. Yes, very powerfully. He references

774
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,599
the days of the prophet Elijah, a time when the

775
00:35:02,599 --> 00:35:04,519
northern kingdom of Israel had overwhelmingly

776
00:35:04,519 --> 00:35:07,400
fallen into state -sponsored idolatry under King

777
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,360
Ahab. Elijah complains to God that he is the

778
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,670
only faithful one left. And God responds, I have

779
00:35:13,670 --> 00:35:16,789
kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed

780
00:35:16,789 --> 00:35:19,929
the knee to Baal. So those 7 ,000 are the remnant.

781
00:35:20,269 --> 00:35:23,289
Exactly. Those 7 ,000 hidden faithful people

782
00:35:23,289 --> 00:35:26,530
are the remnant. Paul takes that historical precedent

783
00:35:26,530 --> 00:35:29,389
and maps it onto his current reality. He argues

784
00:35:29,389 --> 00:35:32,190
that in his own day, the relatively small number

785
00:35:32,190 --> 00:35:34,789
of Jewish believers in Jesus constitute the new

786
00:35:34,789 --> 00:35:37,559
remnant chosen by grace. While the rest of the

787
00:35:37,559 --> 00:35:40,079
nation has been temporarily hardened or blinded

788
00:35:40,079 --> 00:35:42,960
by God specifically to allow the Gentiles a window

789
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:45,519
to be brought into the covenant. It is an incredibly

790
00:35:45,519 --> 00:35:48,219
complex, almost desperate theological tightrope

791
00:35:48,219 --> 00:35:51,920
walk. But every single tool he uses to walk that

792
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,019
tightrope is forged in the fires of Jewish scriptural

793
00:35:55,019 --> 00:35:57,219
interpretation. Every single one. It makes me

794
00:35:57,219 --> 00:36:00,250
think of an analogy. Imagine Paul as this brilliant,

795
00:36:00,389 --> 00:36:03,309
top -tier constitutional lawyer. He knows every

796
00:36:03,309 --> 00:36:06,050
precedent, every obscure statute, every founding

797
00:36:06,050 --> 00:36:08,449
principle of this ancient, powerful institution.

798
00:36:08,829 --> 00:36:10,630
Okay, I like where this is going. But then he

799
00:36:10,630 --> 00:36:13,369
experiences this radical new vision for the future,

800
00:36:13,489 --> 00:36:16,869
and he uses the exact, intricate rulebook of

801
00:36:16,869 --> 00:36:20,980
that old institution to legally... meticulously

802
00:36:20,980 --> 00:36:23,840
justify the creation of an entirely new rival

803
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,019
institution that opens its doors to everyone

804
00:36:26,019 --> 00:36:29,400
he uses the constitution of judaism to write

805
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,599
the declaration of independence for the gentile

806
00:36:31,599 --> 00:36:34,360
church that is a brilliant way to conceptualize

807
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,179
it he used the internal logic of the system to

808
00:36:37,179 --> 00:36:39,719
permanently breach the walls of that system and

809
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:41,980
that is exactly why our sources describe paul

810
00:36:41,980 --> 00:36:45,420
as an anomaly a colossus bestriding both worlds

811
00:36:45,420 --> 00:36:48,170
he was the vital bridge But not everyone saw

812
00:36:48,170 --> 00:36:50,389
him as a bridge. No, definitely not. You can

813
00:36:50,389 --> 00:36:52,530
completely understand why to many of his Jewish

814
00:36:52,530 --> 00:36:54,929
contemporaries and even to many Jewish followers

815
00:36:54,929 --> 00:36:57,929
of Jesus, he appeared as a dangerous, radical

816
00:36:57,929 --> 00:37:01,050
apostate. He was actively tearing down the protective

817
00:37:01,050 --> 00:37:03,309
fences of the law that they believed kept them

818
00:37:03,309 --> 00:37:05,929
holy and distinct from a hostile pagan world.

819
00:37:06,090 --> 00:37:08,489
Which inevitably leads to a massive collision.

820
00:37:08,590 --> 00:37:10,409
Yeah. Because Paul's mission to the Gentiles

821
00:37:10,409 --> 00:37:13,349
was wildly successful. But that success created

822
00:37:13,349 --> 00:37:15,630
an absolute crisis of identity back home. It

823
00:37:15,630 --> 00:37:18,110
absolutely did. If you have all these Greeks

824
00:37:18,110 --> 00:37:20,570
and Romans worshiping the Jewish God through

825
00:37:20,570 --> 00:37:24,019
Jesus, but they aren't keeping kosher, they aren't

826
00:37:24,019 --> 00:37:25,699
observing the Sabbath, and they aren't getting

827
00:37:25,699 --> 00:37:28,900
circumcised, what happens to the people who desperately

828
00:37:28,900 --> 00:37:33,059
wanted to follow Jesus but remain strictly observantly

829
00:37:33,059 --> 00:37:36,340
Jewish? This is chapter 22, and it's one of the

830
00:37:36,340 --> 00:37:39,219
most poignant, fascinating, and often overlooked

831
00:37:39,219 --> 00:37:41,920
aspects of this history. We are talking about

832
00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:44,429
the phenomenon of Jewish Christianity. And the

833
00:37:44,429 --> 00:37:46,409
sources start with a vital historical reality

834
00:37:46,409 --> 00:37:49,369
check here. The term Jewish Christianity itself

835
00:37:49,369 --> 00:37:52,730
is a total modern invention. Yes, it is an 18th

836
00:37:52,730 --> 00:37:55,590
century neologism coined by the influential German

837
00:37:55,590 --> 00:37:58,269
scholar F .C. Bauer to describe this historical

838
00:37:58,269 --> 00:38:00,750
phenomenon. The ancient people living through

839
00:38:00,750 --> 00:38:03,070
this didn't use that blanket term. So what did

840
00:38:03,070 --> 00:38:05,099
they call them? While later Christian heresy

841
00:38:05,099 --> 00:38:07,599
hunters, Orthodox writers like Epiphanius in

842
00:38:07,599 --> 00:38:10,119
the 4th century and Jerome in the 5th century,

843
00:38:10,300 --> 00:38:13,320
they did explicitly name and describe specific,

844
00:38:13,519 --> 00:38:15,800
distinct groups of people who fit this description

845
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,300
perfectly. They referred to them by names like

846
00:38:18,300 --> 00:38:20,599
the Ebionites, the Nazarenes, and the Alcocites.

847
00:38:20,940 --> 00:38:23,360
And we can see the tension surrounding these

848
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,059
groups boiling over right in the 1st century.

849
00:38:26,659 --> 00:38:29,780
The book of Acts, chapter 15, describes the famous

850
00:38:29,780 --> 00:38:32,420
council of Jerusalem. A huge turning point. Yeah.

851
00:38:32,519 --> 00:38:35,079
You have Peter and James, the actual brother

852
00:38:35,079 --> 00:38:37,360
of Jesus, leading the original church in Jerusalem.

853
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:40,679
The sources point out that Peter and James eventually

854
00:38:40,679 --> 00:38:43,780
agreed not to strictly insist that Gentile converts

855
00:38:43,780 --> 00:38:47,360
be circumcised. But other believers in that exact

856
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,559
same community absolutely demanded it. They said,

857
00:38:50,699 --> 00:38:53,679
unequivocally, you cannot be saved unless you

858
00:38:53,679 --> 00:38:55,579
are circumcised according to the custom of Moses.

859
00:38:56,150 --> 00:38:58,329
Which demonstrates a massive amount of diversity

860
00:38:58,329 --> 00:39:00,530
and fierce debate within what we call Jewish

861
00:39:00,530 --> 00:39:02,610
Christianity. It was never a Hanalith. Right.

862
00:39:02,769 --> 00:39:04,869
You had groups who were willing to accept Gentiles

863
00:39:04,869 --> 00:39:07,570
without the burden of the law. You had hardliners

864
00:39:07,570 --> 00:39:09,929
who demanded the full law for everyone. And you

865
00:39:09,929 --> 00:39:12,269
had groups who strictly kept the law for themselves,

866
00:39:12,530 --> 00:39:15,130
but didn't feel the need to force it on Gentile

867
00:39:15,130 --> 00:39:17,780
believers. And did they stay in Jerusalem? No,

868
00:39:17,820 --> 00:39:20,559
we have concrete historical evidence that these

869
00:39:20,559 --> 00:39:23,059
communities didn't just stay isolated, they spread

870
00:39:23,059 --> 00:39:25,719
out. We see historical hints of their presence

871
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,920
in Syria, we see them debated in Asia Minor through

872
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,400
the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, and we see

873
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:33,800
evidence of them down in Egypt via polemical

874
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,139
texts like the Epistle of Barnabas. They were

875
00:39:36,139 --> 00:39:40,019
everywhere. Even as late as a 160 CE, The Orthodox

876
00:39:40,019 --> 00:39:42,699
Christian writer Justin Martyr acknowledges that

877
00:39:42,699 --> 00:39:45,519
they still exist and openly debates whether someone

878
00:39:45,519 --> 00:39:47,920
who keeps the Jewish law can truly be saved.

879
00:39:48,119 --> 00:39:50,739
What absolutely fascinates me is that these weren't

880
00:39:50,739 --> 00:39:52,940
just loose collections of confused people. They

881
00:39:52,940 --> 00:39:55,960
had their own robust, parallel intellectual and

882
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,909
literary life. Our sources highlight that. These

883
00:39:58,909 --> 00:40:00,730
Jewish Christian groups had their own distinct

884
00:40:00,730 --> 00:40:02,710
literature. Yes, they weren't just reading Paul.

885
00:40:02,829 --> 00:40:05,150
Right. They didn't just passively read the four

886
00:40:05,150 --> 00:40:07,610
canonical gospels we know today. They had their

887
00:40:07,610 --> 00:40:09,929
own gospels, often written in Aramaic or Hebrew,

888
00:40:10,110 --> 00:40:12,610
which have largely been lost except for fragments.

889
00:40:13,070 --> 00:40:16,090
They wrote their own alternative histories. For

890
00:40:16,090 --> 00:40:18,309
example, there are texts embedded in later works

891
00:40:18,309 --> 00:40:22,050
known as the Ascents of James or AJ2. This text

892
00:40:22,050 --> 00:40:24,610
tells the story of the early church. from a uniquely

893
00:40:24,610 --> 00:40:27,469
Jewish perspective. And in those texts, the theology

894
00:40:27,469 --> 00:40:29,889
is radically different from the Pauline narrative.

895
00:40:30,230 --> 00:40:32,829
Right. In those texts, James, the brother of

896
00:40:32,829 --> 00:40:35,590
Jesus, is the ultimate hero defending the purity

897
00:40:35,590 --> 00:40:38,809
of the faith. And Paul is heavily implied to

898
00:40:38,809 --> 00:40:41,269
be the villain, the enemy man, who corrupts the

899
00:40:41,269 --> 00:40:43,710
teaching. They also produced extensive theological

900
00:40:43,710 --> 00:40:46,250
commentaries. There are records of a specific

901
00:40:46,250 --> 00:40:49,010
Nazarene commentary on the book of Isaiah, interpreting

902
00:40:49,010 --> 00:40:51,789
prophecy through their unique lens. But perhaps

903
00:40:51,789 --> 00:40:53,769
most fascinating is how they dealt with the texts

904
00:40:53,769 --> 00:40:56,550
of the Hebrew Bible itself. Some of these groups

905
00:40:56,550 --> 00:40:58,989
developed incredibly sophisticated, totally unique

906
00:40:58,989 --> 00:41:01,150
hermeneutical theories to explain away parts

907
00:41:01,150 --> 00:41:03,369
of the Torah they violently disagreed with. You

908
00:41:03,369 --> 00:41:05,789
mean the theory of false pericopes found in the

909
00:41:05,789 --> 00:41:09,210
KP source. Let's explain the mechanics of this

910
00:41:09,210 --> 00:41:11,449
to the listener, because the theological gymnastics

911
00:41:11,449 --> 00:41:15,369
here are wild. KP stands for the Karagmata Petro,

912
00:41:15,530 --> 00:41:17,929
or the Preachings of Peter, which is an ancient

913
00:41:17,929 --> 00:41:21,070
source document embedded in later pseudo -Clementine

914
00:41:21,070 --> 00:41:24,650
literature. The group behind this text was fiercely,

915
00:41:24,650 --> 00:41:27,429
uncompromisingly devoted to the law of Moses.

916
00:41:27,670 --> 00:41:30,530
However, they also abhorred the practice of animal

917
00:41:30,530 --> 00:41:32,530
sacrifice. Which presents a massive problem.

918
00:41:32,940 --> 00:41:35,360
Because the Torah, the law of Moses, is absolutely

919
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,079
filled with explicit commands from God to sacrifice

920
00:41:38,079 --> 00:41:40,860
animals. Leviticus is basically an instruction

921
00:41:40,860 --> 00:41:42,820
manual for the slaughter of animals. Exactly.

922
00:41:42,820 --> 00:41:45,179
So how do you maintain absolute fidelity to the

923
00:41:45,179 --> 00:41:47,900
authority of the Torah while simultaneously rejecting

924
00:41:47,900 --> 00:41:50,400
a core pillar of what the Torah commands? You

925
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,079
get creative. You do. Their solution was the

926
00:41:53,079 --> 00:41:55,440
brilliant radical theory of false pericopes.

927
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,059
They argued that the original divine law given

928
00:41:58,059 --> 00:42:01,300
directly to Moses on Sinai was pure and contained

929
00:42:01,300 --> 00:42:04,340
no commands for sacrifice. But, they claimed,

930
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:06,340
after it was transmitted and eventually written

931
00:42:06,340 --> 00:42:10,239
down, wicked, ignorant scribes maliciously inserted

932
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:13,599
false passages, pericopes, into the text. Wow.

933
00:42:13,940 --> 00:42:16,980
So they just blamed scribes. Yes. Therefore,

934
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:19,969
according to their hermeneutic, Any passage in

935
00:42:19,969 --> 00:42:22,630
the Bible commanding animal sacrifice wasn't

936
00:42:22,630 --> 00:42:25,190
actually the word of God. It was a corrupt human

937
00:42:25,190 --> 00:42:27,969
insertion that should be ignored. It is a highly

938
00:42:27,969 --> 00:42:30,969
sophisticated way to edit the Bible without admitting

939
00:42:30,969 --> 00:42:33,469
you are editing the Bible. You maintain the divine

940
00:42:33,469 --> 00:42:35,969
authority of the text while completely rewriting

941
00:42:35,969 --> 00:42:38,750
its theology. It's remarkably clever. Our sources

942
00:42:38,750 --> 00:42:40,710
also mentioned they had their own officers, their

943
00:42:40,710 --> 00:42:42,869
own bishops, and their own distinct sacramental

944
00:42:42,869 --> 00:42:45,650
systems. But despite all this incredible intellectual

945
00:42:45,650 --> 00:42:48,889
output and organization, Their story doesn't

946
00:42:48,889 --> 00:42:51,110
end well. They're the tragic middle ground. They

947
00:42:51,110 --> 00:42:53,489
really are. If we connect this to the bigger

948
00:42:53,489 --> 00:42:56,630
picture of historical forces, we see a vibrant,

949
00:42:56,769 --> 00:43:00,150
deeply devout community being slowly, agonizingly

950
00:43:00,150 --> 00:43:02,690
crushed between two immovable tectonic plates.

951
00:43:02,929 --> 00:43:05,230
Walk us through that collision. On one side,

952
00:43:05,349 --> 00:43:07,210
you have the Christian church becoming increasingly,

953
00:43:07,449 --> 00:43:10,170
overwhelmingly Gentile in its demographics and

954
00:43:10,170 --> 00:43:13,010
its theology. As the decades passed, the mainstream

955
00:43:13,010 --> 00:43:15,989
church began to view continued adherence to Jewish

956
00:43:15,989 --> 00:43:19,449
law, like circumcision, kosher diets, and Sabbath

957
00:43:19,449 --> 00:43:21,769
keeping, not just as an unnecessary burden for

958
00:43:21,769 --> 00:43:24,989
Gentiles, but as outright heretical for anyone.

959
00:43:25,539 --> 00:43:28,000
They viewed it as a denial of the sufficiency

960
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,320
of Christ's sacrifice. And on the other side.

961
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,820
On the other side, following the traumatic destruction

962
00:43:32,820 --> 00:43:35,900
of the temple in 70 CE and the crushing defeat

963
00:43:35,900 --> 00:43:39,619
of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, rabbinic

964
00:43:39,619 --> 00:43:42,179
Judaism is fiercely consolidating its power to

965
00:43:42,179 --> 00:43:43,880
survive. Right. They're circling the wagons.

966
00:43:43,980 --> 00:43:47,119
Exactly. They are defining strict, rigid boundaries

967
00:43:47,119 --> 00:43:49,519
of what is and isn't acceptable Jewish belief

968
00:43:49,519 --> 00:43:52,039
to ensure the survival of the decimated people.

969
00:43:52,650 --> 00:43:55,030
Believing that a crucified Galilean was the divine

970
00:43:55,030 --> 00:43:57,750
Messiah fell completely outside those new, strict

971
00:43:57,750 --> 00:44:00,469
boundaries. Consequently, Jewish Christians were

972
00:44:00,469 --> 00:44:02,590
formally excommunicated from the synagogues.

973
00:44:02,610 --> 00:44:04,590
I want to read a quote from the sources written

974
00:44:04,590 --> 00:44:07,590
by Jerome in the 5th century. It is just a brutal,

975
00:44:07,750 --> 00:44:11,170
clear -eyed assessment of the Nazarenes. He writes

976
00:44:11,170 --> 00:44:13,170
that because they wanted to be both Jews and

977
00:44:13,170 --> 00:44:15,750
Christians, they ended up being neither. Ouch.

978
00:44:16,070 --> 00:44:18,369
Yeah, that is the knockout punch of history.

979
00:44:18,769 --> 00:44:21,750
It perfectly captures the tragic reality of occupying

980
00:44:21,750 --> 00:44:23,530
the middle ground in a time of polarization.

981
00:44:24,110 --> 00:44:26,369
They became too Christian for the rabbis and

982
00:44:26,369 --> 00:44:29,010
too Jewish for the Gentile bishops. They were

983
00:44:29,010 --> 00:44:32,309
slowly starved of oxygen, unable to recruit meaningfully

984
00:44:32,309 --> 00:44:34,869
from either side until they simply faded from

985
00:44:34,869 --> 00:44:37,150
the historical record entirely by the fifth or

986
00:44:37,150 --> 00:44:39,329
sixth century. But I want you, the listener,

987
00:44:39,429 --> 00:44:40,909
to really think about this for a second. Were

988
00:44:40,909 --> 00:44:44,110
they just a historical dead end? an evolutionary

989
00:44:44,110 --> 00:44:46,449
branch of religion that simply failed to adapt?

990
00:44:46,690 --> 00:44:49,170
Or is it possible that their attempt to bridge

991
00:44:49,170 --> 00:44:52,269
that gap represents the greatest what -if of

992
00:44:52,269 --> 00:44:55,969
first century religion? It is a profound counterfactual.

993
00:44:56,110 --> 00:44:59,250
They represented the original primary matrix

994
00:44:59,250 --> 00:45:02,429
of the Jesus movement. Had they survived the

995
00:45:02,429 --> 00:45:04,530
screes, had they remained the dominant strain,

996
00:45:05,260 --> 00:45:07,820
Christianity today would not be a separate global

997
00:45:07,820 --> 00:45:10,420
religion defined by Greek philosophy and Roman

998
00:45:10,420 --> 00:45:13,300
structure. It would likely look like a vibrant

999
00:45:13,300 --> 00:45:16,139
sect of Judaism, keeping kosher, observing the

1000
00:45:16,139 --> 00:45:18,860
Sabbath, and debating the Torah. Which is mind

1001
00:45:18,860 --> 00:45:20,380
-blowing to think about. Their disappearance

1002
00:45:20,380 --> 00:45:23,280
didn't just alter religious history. It fundamentally

1003
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:26,079
altered the entire trajectory of Western civilization.

1004
00:45:26,659 --> 00:45:28,860
Okay, we've talked about groups fighting over

1005
00:45:28,860 --> 00:45:31,360
how to interpret texts, fighting over which city

1006
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:33,320
is holiest, fighting over whether to keep the

1007
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:35,389
law. But while all these groups were fighting

1008
00:45:35,389 --> 00:45:37,670
over the mechanics of life on Earth, there was

1009
00:45:37,670 --> 00:45:39,869
another massive faction that decided the Earth

1010
00:45:39,869 --> 00:45:42,170
was a lost cause altogether. They looked up.

1011
00:45:42,369 --> 00:45:45,329
Which brings us to Chapter 23 and our final major

1012
00:45:45,329 --> 00:45:49,190
topic, apocalypticism. Yes. When the political

1013
00:45:49,190 --> 00:45:52,030
and social reality becomes so grim, so systematically

1014
00:45:52,030 --> 00:45:54,389
oppressive that conventional human solutions

1015
00:45:54,389 --> 00:45:56,989
no longer seem viable, the religious imagination

1016
00:45:56,989 --> 00:46:00,190
invariably turns to cosmic intervention. Our

1017
00:46:00,190 --> 00:46:02,929
sources define apocalypticism very precisely,

1018
00:46:03,170 --> 00:46:05,230
and we need to clarify this because apocalypse

1019
00:46:05,230 --> 00:46:07,969
is a loaded word today. Today we use it to mean

1020
00:46:07,969 --> 00:46:11,090
a giant disaster, a nuclear apocalypse, a zombie

1021
00:46:11,090 --> 00:46:13,969
apocalypse. It means the end of the world. But

1022
00:46:13,969 --> 00:46:16,929
the actual Greek root of the word apocalypsis

1023
00:46:16,929 --> 00:46:20,070
doesn't mean disaster at all. No, it doesn't.

1024
00:46:20,090 --> 00:46:22,949
The sources define it mechanically as the disclosure

1025
00:46:22,949 --> 00:46:26,269
of heavenly knowledge. That is the crucial foundational

1026
00:46:26,269 --> 00:46:29,219
distinction. an apocalypse is not an explosion

1027
00:46:29,219 --> 00:46:32,500
it is a revelation it is a pulling back of the

1028
00:46:32,500 --> 00:46:34,920
cosmic curtain that separates our earthly realm

1029
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:37,320
from the heavenly realm so it's about seeing

1030
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:40,000
what's hidden exactly apocalyptic literature

1031
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,099
texts like the book of daniel the book of enoch

1032
00:46:42,099 --> 00:46:44,260
the book of revelation claim to offer the reader

1033
00:46:44,260 --> 00:46:46,519
a privileged glimpse into the divine throne room

1034
00:46:46,519 --> 00:46:48,980
they claim to show how god is secretly operating

1035
00:46:48,980 --> 00:46:51,639
behind the scenes of history And crucially, they

1036
00:46:51,639 --> 00:46:54,280
revealed a hidden, imminent timetable for when

1037
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:57,460
God will violently intervene to destroy the wicked

1038
00:46:57,460 --> 00:46:59,760
oppressors and save the righteous sufferers.

1039
00:46:59,900 --> 00:47:02,380
Now, in the 20th century, there was a very influential

1040
00:47:02,380 --> 00:47:05,719
scholar named G .F. Moore. And Moore argued that

1041
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:09,179
all this apocalyptic stuff, the angels, the demons,

1042
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:11,599
the cosmic battles, the bizarre visions of multi

1043
00:47:11,599 --> 00:47:14,039
-headed beasts rising from the sea, was just

1044
00:47:14,039 --> 00:47:16,940
a fringe element of Judaism. He argued it was

1045
00:47:16,940 --> 00:47:19,760
unrepresentative, a weird sideshow compared to

1046
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:22,519
the real Judaism of the rabbis soberly studying

1047
00:47:22,519 --> 00:47:25,360
the law. But our expert analysis in the sources

1048
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:28,400
directly fiercely refutes G .F. Moore. Moore's

1049
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,079
view was deeply skewed. It's a great example

1050
00:47:31,079 --> 00:47:33,860
of historiographical error. He relied entirely

1051
00:47:33,860 --> 00:47:36,519
on later rabbinic texts to reconstruct the first

1052
00:47:36,519 --> 00:47:39,280
century. But those later rabbinic texts had...

1053
00:47:39,460 --> 00:47:42,199
actively intentionally downplayed apocalypticism

1054
00:47:42,199 --> 00:47:44,239
for political reasons. So they basically hit

1055
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:47,059
it. Yes. Our sources argue forcefully that in

1056
00:47:47,059 --> 00:47:49,260
the first century, apocalypticism was not a fringe

1057
00:47:49,260 --> 00:47:51,980
phenomenon at all. It was the mainstream atmospheric

1058
00:47:51,980 --> 00:47:54,639
pressure of the era. It was widespread. It deeply

1059
00:47:54,639 --> 00:47:56,960
influenced the Essenes at Qumran, who were preparing

1060
00:47:56,960 --> 00:47:59,199
for a literal war between the sons of light and

1061
00:47:59,199 --> 00:48:01,900
the sons of darkness. It profoundly shaped the

1062
00:48:01,900 --> 00:48:04,619
urgent eschatological preaching of John the Baptist

1063
00:48:04,619 --> 00:48:07,639
and Jesus, and it deeply energized the violent

1064
00:48:07,639 --> 00:48:09,639
zealots who eventually took up arms to fight

1065
00:48:09,639 --> 00:48:13,239
Rome. So why did the later rabbis downplay it?

1066
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:16,179
Why did scholars like Moore get fooled into thinking

1067
00:48:16,179 --> 00:48:19,500
it was fringe? Because apocalypticism is incredibly

1068
00:48:19,500 --> 00:48:22,599
dangerous to the institutional status quo. Think

1069
00:48:22,599 --> 00:48:25,019
about the mechanics of belief. If you genuinely,

1070
00:48:25,079 --> 00:48:28,039
fervently believe that God is about to send armies

1071
00:48:28,039 --> 00:48:30,559
of angels to destroy the Roman Empire tomorrow,

1072
00:48:30,820 --> 00:48:33,300
you might be inspired to pick up a sword today

1073
00:48:33,300 --> 00:48:35,619
to help get the party started. Yeah, that makes

1074
00:48:35,619 --> 00:48:37,719
sense. You don't compromise with an empire that

1075
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:39,960
God is about to annihilate. And that is exactly

1076
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:42,570
what happened on the ground. The intense fever

1077
00:48:42,570 --> 00:48:45,070
pitch apocalyptic fervor of the first and second

1078
00:48:45,070 --> 00:48:48,230
centuries led directly to the disastrous, catastrophic

1079
00:48:48,230 --> 00:48:50,690
armed revolts against Rome, the Great Jewish

1080
00:48:50,690 --> 00:48:54,469
War in 66 CE and the Bar Kokhba revolt in 132

1081
00:48:54,469 --> 00:48:57,889
CE. Millions died. The temple was burned to the

1082
00:48:57,889 --> 00:49:00,949
ground. The land was utterly devastated. Exactly.

1083
00:49:01,050 --> 00:49:04,190
After those unimaginable traumas, the surviving

1084
00:49:04,190 --> 00:49:06,530
rabbinic leadership looked at apocalypticism

1085
00:49:06,530 --> 00:49:09,230
and saw a match that had burned down their house.

1086
00:49:09,630 --> 00:49:11,829
They realized that living in a state of constant

1087
00:49:11,829 --> 00:49:14,050
imminent expectation of the end of the world

1088
00:49:14,050 --> 00:49:16,769
was suicidal for a marginalized people. So they

1089
00:49:16,769 --> 00:49:19,210
had to shut it down. They deliberately marginalized

1090
00:49:19,210 --> 00:49:22,349
the apocalyptic texts. They excluded books like

1091
00:49:22,349 --> 00:49:24,909
Enoch from the biblical canon. They actively

1092
00:49:24,909 --> 00:49:27,809
focused the community's energy inward on studying

1093
00:49:27,809 --> 00:49:30,730
the law, on the minutia of daily ethics, on sheer

1094
00:49:30,730 --> 00:49:33,329
survival. They pushed the apocalyptic timeline

1095
00:49:33,329 --> 00:49:36,969
into a vague, distant, indefinite future to prevent

1096
00:49:36,969 --> 00:49:39,539
further suicidal rebellions. But the sources

1097
00:49:39,539 --> 00:49:42,880
note something vital. Despite this massive coordinated

1098
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:45,980
rabbinic suppression, apocalyptism wasn't a spent

1099
00:49:45,980 --> 00:49:48,539
force. You can't just kill an idea that powerful.

1100
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:50,599
It went underground, it simmered in the texts

1101
00:49:50,599 --> 00:49:53,420
that survived, and it erupted with, as the source

1102
00:49:53,420 --> 00:49:56,260
text explicitly says, volcanic intensity centuries

1103
00:49:56,260 --> 00:49:58,519
later. The sources specifically point to the

1104
00:49:58,519 --> 00:50:00,619
Sabbatian movement of the 17th century to prove

1105
00:50:00,619 --> 00:50:04,619
this. Yes, it's a perfect parallel. In the 1660s,

1106
00:50:04,619 --> 00:50:07,760
a man named Sabbatai Zivi claimed to be the Messiah.

1107
00:50:08,300 --> 00:50:11,280
This claim sparked a massive, frenzied global

1108
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,500
apocalyptic movement that swept through the entire

1109
00:50:14,500 --> 00:50:17,699
Jewish diaspora. Wow, centuries later. It caused

1110
00:50:17,699 --> 00:50:20,739
absolute economic and social chaos before he

1111
00:50:20,739 --> 00:50:22,719
eventually shocked his followers by converting

1112
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:24,960
to Islam under threat of death from the Ottoman

1113
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:27,719
Sultan. The point the sources are making is that

1114
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:30,260
the embers of apocalypticism are always burning

1115
00:50:30,260 --> 00:50:32,739
in the basement of the tradition, ready to ignite

1116
00:50:32,739 --> 00:50:35,000
whenever the historical conditions of oppression

1117
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:37,519
and despair are right. Which brings me to a philosophical

1118
00:50:37,519 --> 00:50:39,420
question I really struggle with when looking

1119
00:50:39,420 --> 00:50:42,380
at this era. Is apocalypticism a feature or a

1120
00:50:42,380 --> 00:50:45,360
bug of... ancient Judaism? Is it just the ultimate

1121
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:47,860
desperate psychological coping mechanism for

1122
00:50:47,860 --> 00:50:49,739
an oppressed people who have absolutely no military

1123
00:50:49,739 --> 00:50:53,480
power? Or is it a core irreducible theology of

1124
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,000
revelation that is necessary to fully understand

1125
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:58,880
the religion? It is arguably both. From a sociological

1126
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:01,320
standpoint, it is absolutely a literature of

1127
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:03,719
the oppressed. It is a profound coping mechanism,

1128
00:51:03,820 --> 00:51:06,579
a way of maintaining hope and sanity when all

1129
00:51:06,579 --> 00:51:08,960
empirical evidence suggests absolute despair.

1130
00:51:09,219 --> 00:51:12,219
But theologically, it is a profound, audacious

1131
00:51:12,219 --> 00:51:15,460
claim. It claims that history is not just a random

1132
00:51:15,460 --> 00:51:18,159
series of meaningless, brutal events dictated

1133
00:51:18,159 --> 00:51:21,340
by the strongest empire, but a purposeful narrative

1134
00:51:21,340 --> 00:51:24,539
authored by God moving toward a definitive moral

1135
00:51:24,539 --> 00:51:27,780
conclusion. It insists that ultimate justice

1136
00:51:27,780 --> 00:51:30,679
will prevail, even if it requires the shattering

1137
00:51:30,679 --> 00:51:33,300
of the current world order to achieve it. So

1138
00:51:33,300 --> 00:51:35,480
what does this all mean? Let's take a breath

1139
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:38,019
and synthesize the incredible, chaotic journey

1140
00:51:38,019 --> 00:51:40,690
we've just been on. We started with the Samaritans,

1141
00:51:40,710 --> 00:51:42,929
marginalized and literally written out of history

1142
00:51:42,929 --> 00:51:45,550
by rivals who needed to satisfy the formatting

1143
00:51:45,550 --> 00:51:48,250
requirements of a neat list of three. We traveled

1144
00:51:48,250 --> 00:51:50,210
to the north to see the fierce, charismatic,

1145
00:51:50,389 --> 00:51:53,530
and hyper -specific economic regionalism of Galilee,

1146
00:51:53,610 --> 00:51:55,469
rubbing up against the institutional corporate

1147
00:51:55,469 --> 00:51:58,690
power of Judea. We looked at Jesus not as an

1148
00:51:58,690 --> 00:52:01,349
alien invader. but as a figure completely woven

1149
00:52:01,349 --> 00:52:03,750
into the fabric of that Galilean Jewish context.

1150
00:52:04,010 --> 00:52:06,909
Yes. We watched Paul, the anomalous colossus,

1151
00:52:06,929 --> 00:52:10,010
use the highly sophisticated internal tools of

1152
00:52:10,010 --> 00:52:12,630
a rabbi to dismantle the boundaries of the covenant

1153
00:52:12,630 --> 00:52:15,829
for the Gentile world. We witnessed the tragic

1154
00:52:15,829 --> 00:52:18,530
squeeze of the Jewish Christians crushed out

1155
00:52:18,530 --> 00:52:20,750
of existence between two rising orthodoxies.

1156
00:52:20,769 --> 00:52:23,369
And finally, we saw the suppressed but volatile

1157
00:52:23,369 --> 00:52:26,599
power of apocalypticism, the ultimate desire

1158
00:52:26,599 --> 00:52:29,179
to bypass the corruption of earth and appeal

1159
00:52:29,179 --> 00:52:31,659
directly to the justice of heaven. What you have

1160
00:52:31,659 --> 00:52:33,840
just described is a portrait of a society in

1161
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,579
the midst of profound, agonizing, and incredibly

1162
00:52:36,579 --> 00:52:39,420
creative transformation. It really is. The destruction

1163
00:52:39,420 --> 00:52:43,179
of the temple in 70 CE forced a massive, unprecedented

1164
00:52:43,179 --> 00:52:45,559
reinvention of what it meant to relate to God.

1165
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:48,260
The rabbinic Judaism and the Gentile Christianity

1166
00:52:48,260 --> 00:52:50,500
that emerged from this crucible and survived

1167
00:52:50,500 --> 00:52:52,920
into the modern world are the direct products

1168
00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:56,119
of this specific, deeply fragmented, fiercely

1169
00:52:56,119 --> 00:52:58,119
debated era. Which brings us right back to where

1170
00:52:58,119 --> 00:53:00,539
we started, that broken historical x -ray machine.

1171
00:53:00,940 --> 00:53:03,159
It is so easy to look back at the past and see

1172
00:53:03,159 --> 00:53:06,280
the clean, solid lines of the winners. But history

1173
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:08,300
is always written by the survivors. The religious

1174
00:53:08,300 --> 00:53:11,039
world we inherited was shaped entirely by those

1175
00:53:11,039 --> 00:53:13,619
who successfully navigated the wreckage. But

1176
00:53:13,619 --> 00:53:16,900
what if the losers hadn't lost? Imagine how fundamentally

1177
00:53:16,900 --> 00:53:18,940
different the Western world would look today

1178
00:53:18,940 --> 00:53:21,159
if the Jewish Christians had managed to hold

1179
00:53:21,159 --> 00:53:23,820
the center. What if they had become the dominant

1180
00:53:23,820 --> 00:53:26,480
strain of the Jesus movement, forever bridging

1181
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:28,679
the gap between church and synagogue instead

1182
00:53:28,679 --> 00:53:32,579
of watching it tear apart? Or, what if the apocalypticists

1183
00:53:32,579 --> 00:53:35,199
had successfully seized and held the reins of

1184
00:53:35,199 --> 00:53:37,780
Jewish thought, keeping the community in a permanent

1185
00:53:37,780 --> 00:53:41,519
state of revolutionary cosmic expectation? The

1186
00:53:41,519 --> 00:53:43,780
margins of history are filled with futures that

1187
00:53:43,780 --> 00:53:46,559
almost happened. The past is never as neat as

1188
00:53:46,559 --> 00:53:48,880
the textbooks want it to be. It is filled with

1189
00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:51,719
lost voices, alternative paths, and brilliant

1190
00:53:51,719 --> 00:53:54,800
anomalies that defy our desire for simple categorization.

1191
00:53:55,079 --> 00:53:57,519
And that is exactly why we do these deep dives.

1192
00:53:57,619 --> 00:53:59,900
Thank you to you, the listener, for joining us

1193
00:53:59,900 --> 00:54:02,239
on this rigorous exploration of the early Roman

1194
00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:04,880
period. Keep questioning the clean lines on the

1195
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:07,019
maps of history and keep looking for the messy,

1196
00:54:07,099 --> 00:54:09,599
fascinating truth hidden in the margins. We'll

1197
00:54:09,599 --> 00:54:10,179
see you next time.