WEBVTT 00:23.570 --> 00:28.430 Shalom, and welcome to the Yeshua of History. 00:29.150 --> 00:33.870 I'm Andrew Gabriel Roth, and I'm privileged to take you on this journey to 00:33.870 --> 00:39.070 discover the historical Yeshua, that is to say, the extra biblical 00:39.070 --> 00:45.770 references regarding our Savior as a real person, or as I like to call it here, 00:46.670 --> 00:50.430 a survey of the available evidence. 00:51.730 --> 00:54.070 So, where do we begin? 00:54.990 --> 01:00.630 Well, I think with any good story, we need to start with the official record. 01:01.390 --> 01:05.990 Let's look at what we know, and then we can go into what may not be so clear. 01:06.970 --> 01:13.410 So basically, Markipha, or St. Peter, sketched out this challenge very, 01:13.510 --> 01:20.090 very well when he said, For we have not gone after fables cleverly crafted in 01:20.090 --> 01:25.010 making known to you the power and advent of our Master Yeshua the Mashiach, 01:25.690 --> 01:31.430 but it was after we had been spectators of his majesty, for when he received from 01:31.430 --> 01:36.550 Elohim the Father honor and glory, and after the splendid glory of his 01:36.550 --> 01:46.330 majesty, a voice came to him thus, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 01:46.330 --> 01:46.770 pleased. 01:47.730 --> 01:53.630 Now, for those of us who believe this quote is nothing less than a confirmation 01:53.630 --> 01:59.950 of the gospel record, a direct quote from Matthew, from one of his leading Talmudim, 02:00.070 --> 02:06.690 or disciples, and history tells us Kepha, or Peter, was dead by the year 64. 02:07.430 --> 02:11.990 But for some extreme skeptics, it is simply, and we'll be using this word 02:11.990 --> 02:15.270 a lot, phrase a lot, faith literature. 02:16.070 --> 02:21.250 And they can't wait to toss faith literature out the window and claim there 02:21.250 --> 02:25.110 isn't any supporting documentation outside the New Testament. 02:25.870 --> 02:31.930 Our task here is a simple one to explain, but a hard one to do. 02:34.330 --> 02:39.490 Basically, what I'm going to try to do is to see if, like Thomas depicted here, 02:40.750 --> 02:48.010 Yeshua himself can prove them wrong with witnesses from Jewish and pagan sources. 02:50.030 --> 02:55.530 So, it's important to note that even in the gospels themselves, again, 02:55.810 --> 03:01.330 starting with the official record, there is an understanding that many folks 03:01.330 --> 03:03.330 will have trouble believing. 03:04.050 --> 03:08.730 But the outright denial of Yeshua, that he was never really a human being, 03:09.290 --> 03:14.110 this is something the renewed covenant writers would never have had to deal with. 03:14.370 --> 03:15.830 It's simply too extreme. 03:16.630 --> 03:19.910 And Yeshua was a real person that was very well known. 03:20.270 --> 03:22.450 So, why would they have to deal with it? 03:22.990 --> 03:29.710 In other words, this is a modern artifice that requires a modern wrecking ball. 03:31.010 --> 03:36.970 So, over the years, many skeptics have asked me, Andrew, why do you believe? 03:38.250 --> 03:42.010 They'll go, there's no evidence outside of the gospels from the time in question that 03:42.010 --> 03:43.670 Yeshua ever existed. 03:44.450 --> 03:50.730 And some go a step further, as if that is even possible, to suggest that Yeshua is 03:50.730 --> 03:56.330 simply a reworking of paganism, like Osiris and Hercules. 03:57.090 --> 03:59.870 Essentially, the argument goes like this. 04:00.270 --> 04:01.070 Let's take a look. 04:01.730 --> 04:08.630 This is an email from a friend of mine, or someone who I used to be fairly close 04:08.630 --> 04:08.830 to. 04:09.270 --> 04:15.630 I'm going to call him Thomas, because like the Apostle Thomas, he doubted, 04:15.910 --> 04:23.310 and I have hope that, like the Apostle Thomas, he will recover his faith and not 04:23.310 --> 04:24.070 doubt anymore. 04:25.650 --> 04:28.950 Thomas was a great supporter of my ministry as well. 04:29.070 --> 04:34.170 So, it really shook me to the core when, some time ago, he sent an email, 04:35.150 --> 04:41.250 and you can see it here, as to explaining why he doubts the historical Yeshua. 04:41.930 --> 04:47.450 He writes, historical records of Yeshua's birth, death, resurrection, miracles, 04:47.830 --> 04:49.990 and, quote, rabble rousing, none. 04:50.710 --> 04:55.230 First-hand eyewitness accounts written down during Yeshua's lifetime, 04:55.630 --> 04:56.010 none. 04:57.050 --> 05:00.810 Fraudulent documents and passages like that of Josephus' testimonium, 05:00.970 --> 05:03.450 I'll explain what that is a little later. 05:04.470 --> 05:09.030 Fraudulent relics like the James ossuary, accounts of Yeshua's followers, 05:09.170 --> 05:10.490 is that even evidence? 05:11.270 --> 05:12.730 What of the Krishna followers? 05:13.450 --> 05:15.070 Did Krishna then also exist? 05:15.410 --> 05:17.870 Which savior god-man should we follow? 05:18.290 --> 05:19.350 Love, Thomas. 05:21.050 --> 05:27.390 In addition, Thomas wanted answers for three main... I have questions here. 05:27.450 --> 05:30.150 It's really more fields of inquiry, to be more precise. 05:31.050 --> 05:38.350 He writes, amazingly, we have not one word written down during the supposed life of 05:38.350 --> 05:38.690 Yeshua. 05:39.270 --> 05:43.450 We rely on hearsay and fraud, penned down decades. 05:43.690 --> 05:45.070 Oh, and that's Thomas's writing. 05:45.270 --> 05:46.990 He really mastered the caps lock key. 05:47.010 --> 05:47.730 I'm so proud. 05:48.250 --> 05:52.170 And even centuries after the supposed events. 05:52.770 --> 05:53.890 How can we trust these? 05:55.650 --> 06:01.010 Number two, there are an incredible amount of similarities between Yeshua's story and 06:01.010 --> 06:06.170 the stories of gods who supposedly lived thousands of years earlier, with no 06:06.170 --> 06:07.630 evidence of Yeshua's existence. 06:07.830 --> 06:09.430 I'm like, well, that's a good place to start. 06:10.050 --> 06:10.370 Really? 06:10.510 --> 06:11.970 No evidence of Yeshua's existence? 06:12.170 --> 06:12.790 We'll see. 06:14.070 --> 06:20.430 Why reject the pagan god stories as false and accept the Yeshua story as true? 06:21.850 --> 06:24.250 Well, that's what we're going to find out. 06:26.310 --> 06:32.270 Third area that Thomas wanted me to get into, he says, the earliest believers in 06:32.270 --> 06:37.010 Yeshua believed in a mythical Yeshua, not a historical one. 06:38.090 --> 06:42.430 Literalist Yeshua believers arrived on the scene later and won the battle by 06:42.430 --> 06:45.150 persecuting the non-literalist Yeshua followers. 06:46.010 --> 06:48.010 Well, I got news for you, Thomas. 06:48.850 --> 06:54.990 If you read the history, it was the Jewish followers of Yeshua who were persecuted, 06:55.370 --> 06:58.530 not these mythical pagan Yeshua people. 06:59.230 --> 07:04.070 Because if that persecution happened, history has left absolutely no trace of 07:04.070 --> 07:04.230 them. 07:04.570 --> 07:06.430 So they did a really, really good job. 07:07.350 --> 07:11.750 But on the other hand, I do know, Thomas, what you are talking about in 07:11.750 --> 07:15.550 terms of people who held a radically different vision of Yeshua. 07:16.330 --> 07:19.650 But this doesn't give you the evidence that you think it does. 07:20.250 --> 07:22.090 And we're going to see why. 07:22.810 --> 07:27.110 But continuing from what Thomas says, just to go back to what he wrote here, 07:28.230 --> 07:34.690 he says, with no actual evidence of Yeshua's existence, what reason is there 07:34.690 --> 07:39.450 to believe that the literalists, I guess he means me, I'll take that. 07:39.490 --> 07:42.810 I'll take that literalist title any day of the week, Thomas. 07:43.650 --> 07:48.610 Literalists were correct in their belief of Yeshua and in the persecution of other 07:48.610 --> 07:50.450 Yeshua believers and pagans. 07:51.610 --> 07:54.070 You know, don't mince words, Thomas. 07:54.210 --> 07:56.610 Please say what you really feel. 07:57.590 --> 08:02.710 So while I will be dealing comprehensively with the issues Thomas raises, 08:03.470 --> 08:09.070 because again, the names have been changed to protect the guilty, my order of 08:09.070 --> 08:13.570 evidence is going to be tailored and reordered for better understanding of my 08:13.570 --> 08:13.930 answer. 08:14.370 --> 08:20.610 Because this is a very important question that requires very careful historical 08:20.610 --> 08:21.410 analysis. 08:22.210 --> 08:26.390 So this is going to be the order of the issues that we will be discussing. 08:28.490 --> 08:36.490 The reality of ancient documentation, the true and false testimony of Josephus, 08:36.870 --> 08:37.790 I will explain. 08:39.090 --> 08:44.610 Does Philo, who was a Jewish historian who lived just before Josephus, lived in 08:44.610 --> 08:49.670 Alexandria, does Philo matter in the sense that Philo doesn't directly mention Yeshua 08:49.670 --> 08:52.050 or his followers and Josephus does? 08:53.110 --> 08:58.030 Then we'll look into the importance of Roman historians like Tacitus and 08:58.030 --> 08:58.670 Suetonius. 08:59.550 --> 09:05.370 We'll look then at the real knowledge of the Gnostics, Jewish and rabbinic sources, 09:06.050 --> 09:11.970 and then we're going to take a very interesting journey into how the Renewed 09:11.970 --> 09:16.930 Covenant was formed, based on its own information, believe it or not. 09:17.470 --> 09:18.690 And then we'll wrap up. 09:20.070 --> 09:21.370 So that's my plan. 09:22.190 --> 09:27.370 So let's start with the reality of ancient documentation. 09:28.090 --> 09:31.770 I want you all to imagine a time before any mass media. 09:32.390 --> 09:35.250 No internet, TV, radio, or newspapers. 09:36.230 --> 09:38.570 In fact, you don't even have a printing press. 09:39.210 --> 09:42.050 And unless you're rich, you don't have books at all. 09:42.610 --> 09:47.530 Paper is expensive, animal skin is expensive, and clay and other things 09:47.530 --> 09:50.790 likewise are either scarce or, you guessed it, expensive. 09:52.150 --> 09:58.550 And so 99% of the world's population in antiquity cannot read or write. 09:59.270 --> 10:03.890 And into this mix, we have to add a surprising fact, which I have right here. 10:04.270 --> 10:05.370 Let's take a look at this. 10:06.230 --> 10:15.970 Most scholars agree that 99% of all ancient documents have not survived. 10:16.810 --> 10:20.550 Of the 1% that have, this is what they look like. 10:21.990 --> 10:25.290 This is the oldest surviving religious book in the world. 10:26.050 --> 10:30.190 It's not really a codex per se, it's paintings on a tomb wall, 10:30.890 --> 10:33.330 stone inscriptions from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 10:35.410 --> 10:38.310 And here's another common class of surviving documents. 10:38.990 --> 10:42.630 These are clay tablets, the Amarna tablets. 10:43.250 --> 10:45.990 Next best thing to writing or painting on stone. 10:46.490 --> 10:48.670 They also last many thousands of years. 10:50.530 --> 10:52.110 But here's the issue. 10:53.110 --> 10:57.410 If you're not a king or a pharaoh, and we're talking about, as I said, 10:57.870 --> 11:03.210 vellum, papyrus, similar paper materials, the situation is quite different. 11:04.090 --> 11:09.130 You might be able to get your hands on some papyrus, but paper is the easiest to 11:09.130 --> 11:09.530 destroy. 11:10.430 --> 11:15.010 And in particular, with respect to the Bible, there were two Jewish revolts 11:15.010 --> 11:19.250 against Rome, where one of the chief targets were books by their enemies. 11:20.650 --> 11:24.690 Jewish books, Nazarene books, sacred books. 11:26.630 --> 11:31.970 But you see, the Tanakh, or the Old Testament, had a really good head start, 11:32.490 --> 11:34.210 so more of those documents survived. 11:34.270 --> 11:35.770 But that's another story. 11:36.690 --> 11:40.590 But even when this is not the case, we need to look at the track record. 11:41.990 --> 11:47.350 Going back to Thomas, he goes, historical records of Yeshua's birth, 11:47.450 --> 11:51.110 death, and resurrection, miracles, and rabble rousing, none. 11:51.870 --> 11:55.910 Firsthand eyewitness accounts written down during Yeshua's lifetime, none. 11:57.170 --> 12:02.350 Leaving aside the Gospels as history, let's compare Yeshua to other famous 12:02.350 --> 12:04.390 people of antiquity. 12:06.830 --> 12:09.710 Pliny the Younger wrote a book called Natural History. 12:10.570 --> 12:17.990 The distance between the manuscript record from when he wrote it, 750 years. 12:19.250 --> 12:21.630 Julius Caesar's The Gaelic Wars, great reading. 12:22.150 --> 12:25.350 You see Julius Caesar in a guerrilla warfare with a very determined foe. 12:26.610 --> 12:29.650 Definitely a suspense novel for the time. 12:30.210 --> 12:33.310 Distance from the manuscript record, 1,000 years. 12:34.610 --> 12:40.870 Herodotus' histories, distance from the manuscript record, almost 1,400 years. 12:41.770 --> 12:42.990 But what about Yeshua? 12:43.950 --> 12:44.710 Let's see. 12:46.090 --> 12:52.010 As we read here, going from the writings of Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a 12:52.010 --> 12:59.510 Verdict, absolute classic Christian apologetic work, he writes, The Renewed 12:59.510 --> 13:03.590 Covenant has nearly 25,000 ancient manuscripts discovered and archived so 13:03.590 --> 13:09.830 far, at least 5,600 of which are copies and fragments in Greek, almost 1,000 in 13:09.830 --> 13:10.330 Aramaic. 13:11.330 --> 13:16.330 Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time 13:16.330 --> 13:20.570 between the original manuscripts, which is to say the autographs, 13:20.770 --> 13:25.510 and our earliest existing fragment being a remarkably short 40 to 60 years. 13:26.330 --> 13:31.550 Also bear in mind, this is my spin on what Josh says, the Aramaic is even older than 13:31.550 --> 13:31.910 the Greek. 13:33.310 --> 13:37.210 So we're looking at a very narrow window of time. 13:38.250 --> 13:43.390 The reality is, if we deny the historicity in some form of Yeshua of Nazareth, 13:44.010 --> 13:49.270 we must then apply that test across the board to all these other ancient figures I 13:49.270 --> 13:57.030 mentioned, and deny the history of every major person prior to the invention of the 13:57.030 --> 14:02.070 printing press in the Middle Ages, late Middle Ages, and into the Renaissance 14:02.070 --> 14:02.530 even. 14:03.370 --> 14:07.110 So considering what's been preserved, we get this conclusion. 14:08.430 --> 14:11.110 This is from the eminent Bible scholar F. 14:11.170 --> 14:11.270 F. 14:11.370 --> 14:17.910 Bruce, who wrote, in real terms, the New Testament is easily the best 14:17.910 --> 14:23.150 attested ancient writing in terms of the sheer number of documents, the time span 14:23.150 --> 14:27.890 between the events in the document, and the variety of documents available to 14:27.890 --> 14:30.250 sustain or contradict it. 14:31.150 --> 14:36.910 There is nothing in ancient manuscript evidence to match such textual 14:36.910 --> 14:39.370 availability and integrity. 14:39.970 --> 14:41.070 I agree. 14:41.930 --> 14:43.910 I totally agree with that statement. 14:45.990 --> 14:52.770 So even some of our non-biblical sources, though, are within 60 years. 14:53.710 --> 14:54.830 60 years. 14:55.290 --> 15:00.490 Not 750, not a thousand, not 1,300 or more. 15:00.770 --> 15:05.330 60 years, almost unheard of in the ancient world. 15:05.730 --> 15:11.170 So to expect documents from Yeshua's lifetime, like he had a Facebook page or a 15:11.170 --> 15:13.230 blog or something, is unrealistic. 15:14.630 --> 15:18.790 Let's compare the renewed covenant, though, with the only other body of 15:18.790 --> 15:20.970 literature that has been so well preserved. 15:21.560 --> 15:24.630 And it's this, the works of Homer. 15:27.690 --> 15:39.030 Homer's Iliad has 643 copies that we have so far, and in those copies we have 764 15:39.030 --> 15:41.470 disputed lines of text. 15:42.310 --> 15:43.030 Imagine that. 15:44.950 --> 15:46.390 764 disputed lines. 15:47.190 --> 15:51.330 Josh McDowell would say there are 40 lines of disputed text in the Greek. 15:52.200 --> 15:56.210 I am, of course, a bit of a stronger critic on the Greek New Testament, 15:56.730 --> 16:04.770 but even in my, shall we say, most tough moment, I would never dispute more than 16:04.770 --> 16:08.350 250 lines in the Greek New Testament. 16:08.970 --> 16:14.150 250 is a lot less than 764. 16:15.730 --> 16:19.410 And by the way, just want to show you guys something. 16:20.590 --> 16:28.850 I think we should point out, as we see here, we found Troy from instructions in a 16:28.850 --> 16:30.490 faith document. 16:31.610 --> 16:35.550 Those things that Thomas tells us we can't rely on. 16:36.290 --> 16:41.390 Which brings me to the trashing of faith documents. 16:41.810 --> 16:43.430 Let's see what Thomas says. 16:43.430 --> 16:50.130 He writes, we are left with faith documents such as the New Testament books, 16:50.230 --> 16:53.750 the writings of the early church fathers, and even the Jewish Talmud. 16:54.250 --> 16:56.910 These documents contradict each other and history. 16:57.210 --> 17:00.910 Right, so Thomas, ancient writers in different faith traditions, they never 17:00.910 --> 17:03.470 would argue with one another, would they? 17:04.450 --> 17:09.710 But you've got a great comeback because you actually say here, consider also, 17:09.890 --> 17:14.610 and we got a caps and a bold and underlining thing happening here, 17:15.070 --> 17:20.110 consider these are faith documents which were written decades and centuries after 17:20.110 --> 17:21.190 the supposed events. 17:21.830 --> 17:27.330 If we take that as evidence, why not also take the Muslim Quran and the Hadith or 17:27.330 --> 17:30.030 the Egyptian Book of the Dead as evidence for other religious beliefs? 17:30.190 --> 17:31.930 Well, I got news for you, Thomas. 17:32.210 --> 17:33.010 I do. 17:35.010 --> 17:40.150 Does the Quran accurately record the beliefs of the first generation of Muslims 17:40.150 --> 17:41.030 who wrote it down? 17:41.910 --> 17:42.810 Of course it does. 17:43.530 --> 17:47.950 Does the Egyptian Book of the Dead accurately record what the Egyptian people 17:47.950 --> 17:50.850 believed happened to their pharaoh in the afterlife? 17:51.070 --> 17:52.090 Oh, you better believe it. 17:53.050 --> 17:55.590 So, it's a distinction without a difference, Thomas. 17:56.630 --> 17:58.010 You're going to have to do better than that. 17:59.570 --> 18:05.290 So, as I said, I do take these things as evidence, and of course, faith documents 18:05.290 --> 18:09.570 contradict one another, as do historical documents. 18:10.470 --> 18:12.210 But here's the thing, Thomas. 18:13.310 --> 18:17.910 What about places where the ancient sources agree? 18:19.150 --> 18:26.310 If we're honestly going to say that you're going to put uncertainty on a historical 18:26.310 --> 18:30.910 event because two groups disagree, what about when they come together and 18:30.910 --> 18:32.450 say, yes, this happened? 18:33.350 --> 18:38.490 Because we need to get real and be consistent with our definitions, 18:38.630 --> 18:40.510 and I'll tell you exactly why. 18:41.710 --> 18:48.150 This is a faith document, but these are real people with real names carved on 18:48.150 --> 18:48.650 these walls. 18:49.270 --> 18:49.910 And you know what? 18:50.630 --> 18:51.610 So is this. 18:52.230 --> 18:53.210 And guess what? 18:54.370 --> 19:01.270 These are, as well, real people, real historical events on faith documents. 19:03.370 --> 19:04.110 This, too. 19:06.930 --> 19:14.390 So, as historians, we draw real history out of almost nothing but faith documents. 19:15.010 --> 19:20.370 So, Thomas, if we follow your advice, I'd really like to see a non-faith 19:20.370 --> 19:25.810 document, you know, that podcast of the Sermon on the Mount would be nice, 19:26.370 --> 19:26.690 you know. 19:27.310 --> 19:34.150 Show me something where historians draw history out of that is not a faith 19:34.150 --> 19:34.530 document. 19:34.530 --> 19:38.170 Because if you find something about a battle that happened, the Battle of 19:38.170 --> 19:42.330 Kadesh, the Battle of Megiddo, I guarantee you, you'll find references to 19:42.330 --> 19:44.470 the gods of those armies. 19:44.750 --> 19:48.030 And whoever wins, they're going to say their gods won that battle for them. 19:49.090 --> 19:57.310 So the question is, not if we draw history out of faith documents, but how. 19:58.270 --> 19:59.550 What's the process? 20:00.770 --> 20:06.870 And if we can do that for a whole bunch of things that are in the ancient world that 20:06.870 --> 20:12.050 have a lot more problems than what we're talking about here, why can't we do it 20:12.050 --> 20:13.430 with a renewed covenant? 20:14.170 --> 20:20.670 Which, as we just saw from FF Bruce and other authorities, has the best track 20:20.670 --> 20:21.530 record of them all. 20:22.510 --> 20:28.990 And we who believe, we who are in the community of faith, we're the ones who 20:28.990 --> 20:29.930 can't be objective. 20:31.110 --> 20:34.950 Thomas, your faith is greater than mine, my friend. 20:35.810 --> 20:37.770 I have evidence on my side. 20:40.750 --> 20:45.050 So, Thomas, when you ask, am I being unreasonable? 20:45.990 --> 20:47.710 Well, here's your answer. 20:48.770 --> 20:49.390 You are. 20:50.430 --> 20:53.010 You are being unreasonable, Thomas. 20:54.190 --> 20:56.990 I want you to think about what you are saying. 20:59.190 --> 21:05.290 So, since faith documents are an inevitable source for at least some of our 21:05.290 --> 21:11.050 history, again, the question becomes what history we can draw, and not just to 21:11.050 --> 21:12.010 discard them totally. 21:12.730 --> 21:18.250 Nevertheless, I think a good place to start with is, what can we draw from other 21:18.250 --> 21:18.870 sources? 21:19.590 --> 21:26.670 Let's begin with this, the true and false testimony of Josephus. 21:28.710 --> 21:34.730 Josephus is a critical witness, as I've been saying for quite some time 21:34.730 --> 21:34.970 now. 21:34.970 --> 21:39.490 A first century witness to everything that happened in Israel and the Middle East. 21:40.150 --> 21:42.670 Very often our only source of information. 21:43.530 --> 21:47.310 But Josephus comes under attack occasionally. 21:48.050 --> 21:51.250 And this is what people get upset about. 21:52.090 --> 21:55.150 I'm going to show what I'm talking about right now. 21:55.610 --> 22:01.130 As we go to this analysis here, the most important extra-biblical mention 22:01.130 --> 22:06.610 of Yeshua, bar none, are two places in the writings of Josephus. 22:07.610 --> 22:13.690 Because of Josephus' prominence and overall high reputation, no reference is 22:13.690 --> 22:17.350 more hotly debated by proponents and critics of Yeshua. 22:18.170 --> 22:25.510 But there's also a lot of misinformation, quite honestly, a lot of noise regarding 22:25.510 --> 22:29.250 these passages, which I hope to be able to correct. 22:30.990 --> 22:35.390 Now, for a very balanced and detailed discussion on the majority of Josephus' 22:35.470 --> 22:40.670 opinion, I would recommend reading A Marginal Jew by John Meyer, who is a great 22:40.670 --> 22:41.370 Catholic scholar. 22:42.330 --> 22:45.470 This is the first book of, I believe, three that he wrote on the topic. 22:46.190 --> 22:52.450 An excellent job in synthesizing the sources for a balanced analysis. 22:52.970 --> 22:53.810 Highly recommend it. 22:54.850 --> 22:59.610 But moving on, I want to define the problem. 23:00.930 --> 23:06.010 In the AENT, I put forth my reasoning for believing that Josephus was actually a 23:06.010 --> 23:12.670 secret Nazarene, a follower of Yeshua, like Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea, 23:13.070 --> 23:13.330 perhaps. 23:14.310 --> 23:16.470 However, that's another story. 23:17.290 --> 23:23.810 I share the skepticism of Thomas and many others on at least some portions of one of 23:23.810 --> 23:28.950 Josephus' references, which we in the scholarly community call the Testimonium 23:28.950 --> 23:30.050 or the Testimony. 23:30.730 --> 23:35.310 But that doesn't mean all of Josephus' references are suspect. 23:36.230 --> 23:38.190 So here is the text in question. 23:39.570 --> 23:44.210 What you see in white is the disputed text. 23:44.910 --> 23:46.570 So I'm just going to read this through. 23:47.590 --> 23:52.830 Now, there was about this time Yeshua, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a 23:52.830 --> 23:58.950 man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men, has received the 23:58.950 --> 24:00.050 truth with pleasure. 24:00.750 --> 24:04.170 He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. 24:04.570 --> 24:05.810 He was the Mashiach. 24:06.350 --> 24:10.650 And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned 24:10.650 --> 24:15.570 him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. 24:16.290 --> 24:20.590 For he appeared to them alive again on the third day, as the divine prophets had 24:20.590 --> 24:23.990 foretold, and 10,000 other wonderful things concerning him. 24:24.690 --> 24:29.050 And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day. 24:30.810 --> 24:34.510 Now, there are several problems with this passage as it is written. 24:35.350 --> 24:38.730 I actually agree with you, Thomas, that this can be problematic. 24:39.590 --> 24:45.550 The first problem with this text is that it basically breaks into the narrative. 24:45.970 --> 24:48.290 It's a sign of really, really bad editing. 24:48.790 --> 24:53.930 When you have history jumbled up and it appears in the wrong place or the wrong 24:53.930 --> 24:59.390 order, that's when, you know, you've basically got a sloppy hand of revision. 25:00.290 --> 25:02.950 And so I'm going to show you exactly what I'm talking about. 25:03.630 --> 25:05.230 Let's look at this another way. 25:06.350 --> 25:11.890 This testimonium was sandwiched between two calamities, as Josephus calls it. 25:12.270 --> 25:16.230 And these calamities are regarding a name of somebody that I think you're familiar 25:16.230 --> 25:22.890 with, Pontius Pilate, when he took over as governor of procurator Judea in the year 25:22.890 --> 25:23.330 26. 25:24.490 --> 25:29.490 And basically what you see in white is where they sandwich the text. 25:30.810 --> 25:34.370 So you can see, and thus there was put an end to this sedition. 25:34.690 --> 25:36.790 Now there was about this time Yeshua a wise man. 25:37.050 --> 25:41.410 And then the black text below, about this same time, another sad calamity 25:41.410 --> 25:42.810 put the Jews into disorder. 25:44.190 --> 25:51.670 And Josephus only gets to Yochanan the Immerser two chapters after talking about 25:51.670 --> 25:54.810 Yeshua living and dying. 25:56.890 --> 26:00.710 Doesn't Josephus, as the careful historian, know that the forerunner comes 26:00.710 --> 26:01.310 first? 26:02.070 --> 26:04.790 So this is a sign of bad editing. 26:06.810 --> 26:13.930 However, we should also compare the flow of the testimonium to a non-disputed 26:13.930 --> 26:14.410 passage. 26:15.510 --> 26:17.550 Let's see what good editing looks like, shall we? 26:18.430 --> 26:19.190 And here it is. 26:20.490 --> 26:24.650 So Aretas made this the first occasion of his enmity between him and Herod, 26:25.130 --> 26:29.390 who had also some quarrel with him about their limits at the country of Gamalatis. 26:30.250 --> 26:35.970 And when they had joined the battle, all of Herod's army was destroyed by the 26:35.970 --> 26:37.930 treachery of some fugitives. 26:38.670 --> 26:39.170 Why? 26:39.810 --> 26:40.610 Let's see. 26:42.710 --> 26:46.910 Some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from 26:46.910 --> 26:52.750 Elohim, and very justly, as punishment of what he did against Yochanan that was 26:52.750 --> 26:56.130 called the immerser, John the Baptist. 26:57.690 --> 26:59.210 For Herod slew him. 27:00.630 --> 27:05.870 Herod, who once feared lest the great influence of Yochanan had over the people, 27:06.390 --> 27:10.930 might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion. 27:11.850 --> 27:15.810 Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a 27:15.810 --> 27:20.530 punishment upon Herod and a mark of Elohim's displeasure to him. 27:23.450 --> 27:25.550 So here's what I'd like to ask. 27:26.790 --> 27:31.450 Don't you think criticism should work both ways if we're being fair? 27:32.210 --> 27:36.570 So if bad editing or bad flow, whatever you want to call it, sheds doubt 27:36.570 --> 27:44.050 on a package, on a passage of history, shouldn't good editing, like we just saw, 27:44.530 --> 27:45.290 do the opposite? 27:46.030 --> 27:51.590 Or are we simply going to say to people who believe in Yeshua, you know, 27:51.690 --> 27:54.730 as if we could flip a coin and say, heads, I win. 27:55.290 --> 27:56.650 Tails, I also win. 27:56.910 --> 27:58.550 Go home, you believers in Yeshua. 27:59.290 --> 28:02.890 Because that's what it seems to me some folks are doing. 28:04.350 --> 28:10.030 You see, let's also see what it's like to look at a non-disputed report about the 28:10.030 --> 28:16.550 immerser to show how horrible Thomas's faith-based documents and accounts of the 28:16.550 --> 28:17.770 renewed covenant are. 28:19.090 --> 28:23.310 Because if it agrees with history, shouldn't we look at it? 28:24.430 --> 28:25.150 Let's see. 28:26.470 --> 28:30.850 As we read here, and I'll just start at the beginning here. 28:31.330 --> 28:34.650 Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from 28:34.650 --> 28:35.050 Elohim. 28:35.590 --> 28:37.410 This is partly what we went over before. 28:38.510 --> 28:43.770 And that very justly as a punishment of what he did against Yochanan, that was 28:43.770 --> 28:44.930 called the immerser. 28:45.570 --> 28:51.010 For Herod slew him who was a good man and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, 28:51.410 --> 28:55.950 both as righteousness towards one another and piety towards Elohim. 28:56.630 --> 29:01.830 And so come to baptism, for that the washing with water would be acceptable to 29:01.830 --> 29:03.850 him if they made use of it. 29:04.210 --> 29:10.270 Not in order to the putting away for the remission of some sins only, but for the 29:10.270 --> 29:16.290 purification of the body, supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified 29:16.290 --> 29:18.210 beforehand by righteousness. 29:19.010 --> 29:22.310 So let's ask some really important questions here. 29:23.070 --> 29:29.950 Why would Josephus the Pharisee, the Orthodox Jew of his day, endorse 29:29.950 --> 29:34.070 Yochanan if he were, as Thomas might think, a pagan? 29:36.770 --> 29:42.910 Why would the immerser also be popular among other Orthodox Jews of their days if 29:42.910 --> 29:44.930 he were a pagan or a gnostic? 29:46.110 --> 29:47.250 Does that make sense? 29:47.610 --> 29:51.790 Would there be crowds protesting the imprisonment of some rabble-rouser pagan 29:51.790 --> 29:52.970 in Israel? 29:53.690 --> 29:55.070 I don't think so. 29:56.210 --> 30:02.010 Question number two, why don't these same critics of Yeshua admit there isn't a 30:02.010 --> 30:09.570 single discrepancy, not one, regarding the immerser between Josephus and the renewed 30:09.570 --> 30:09.970 covenant? 30:11.470 --> 30:16.490 And question number three, how could the New Testament be truthful about the 30:16.490 --> 30:23.590 immerser as a real guy and totally lying about the existence of his master, 30:23.990 --> 30:26.630 the star of the whole show? 30:26.870 --> 30:29.910 How does that work, Thomas? 30:34.110 --> 30:41.470 Finally, must we visit all the places in the Gospels where we get agreement from 30:41.470 --> 30:42.130 Josephus? 30:42.890 --> 30:44.290 We'll be here all day. 30:45.430 --> 30:47.830 Or is the point sufficiently made, Thomas? 30:49.810 --> 30:53.510 So let's look at the rest of this non-disputed passage together. 30:56.210 --> 31:03.710 As we read, now when many others came in, crowds about him, for they were very 31:03.710 --> 31:06.930 greatly moved, pleased, by hearing his words. 31:07.490 --> 31:13.270 Herod, who feared lest the great influence of Yochanan had over the people, 31:13.690 --> 31:18.470 might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, 31:19.390 --> 31:24.430 for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise, thought it best by putting 31:24.430 --> 31:29.370 him to death to prevent any mischief he might cause and not bring himself into 31:29.370 --> 31:36.090 difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too 31:36.090 --> 31:36.350 late. 31:37.550 --> 31:43.890 Accordingly, he was sent a prisoner out of Herod's suspicious temper to Machairus, 31:44.230 --> 31:48.510 the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. 31:49.510 --> 31:53.910 Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a 31:53.910 --> 31:57.730 punishment upon Herod and a mark of Elohim's displeasure to him. 31:58.970 --> 32:05.950 So ladies and gentlemen, I respectfully submit to you that Josephus has just 32:05.950 --> 32:12.610 validated a key person in the Gospels as a historical fact. 32:13.350 --> 32:18.930 And Josephus did this in the first century. 32:22.060 --> 32:26.930 But as they say in the commercials, wait, there's more. 32:30.070 --> 32:35.910 Now as we read, this is another letter from, you know, this is another quote from 32:35.910 --> 32:36.670 Josephus, rather. 32:37.310 --> 32:44.630 We read, Festus was now dead and Albinus was but on the road, so he assembled the 32:44.630 --> 32:49.210 Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council, spiritual supreme court of 32:49.210 --> 32:54.890 Israel, and brought before them, here it is, the brother of Yeshua, 32:55.230 --> 33:02.210 who was called Mashiach, whose name was Yaakov, and some of his companions. 33:03.670 --> 33:07.490 And when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, 33:07.950 --> 33:09.710 he delivered them to be stoned. 33:10.530 --> 33:15.630 But as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and as such as 33:15.630 --> 33:20.390 were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done. 33:21.150 --> 33:30.770 So Thomas is so busy giving us grief about the one place Yeshua is mentioned in 33:30.770 --> 33:36.190 Josephus, it looks like you totally forgot about the other one, didn't you? 33:37.410 --> 33:42.470 How many men named Yeshua were called Mashiach with brothers named Yaakov, 33:43.170 --> 33:46.570 who were popular in that part of the first century? 33:47.510 --> 33:48.050 Tell me. 33:49.610 --> 33:51.110 I'll tell all of you. 33:51.530 --> 33:52.610 Only one. 33:53.490 --> 33:54.870 Don't forget that, Thomas. 33:56.710 --> 34:02.070 So, moving on, just so that we could summarize here, what I have written here, 34:02.910 --> 34:10.710 once again, Josephus and the Gospels are in perfect agreement regarding the overall 34:10.710 --> 34:11.190 history. 34:12.090 --> 34:18.870 And as we just saw, Josephus mentions the brother of Yeshua, who was called 34:18.870 --> 34:25.350 Mashiach, whose name was Yaakov, indicating Yeshua was well known as a real 34:25.350 --> 34:29.010 person to have claimed being who he was. 34:29.510 --> 34:31.550 And I got more bad news for you, Thomas. 34:32.130 --> 34:35.210 Maybe I should call you Tom, because you're going to get real upset over this 34:35.210 --> 34:35.450 one. 34:36.150 --> 34:41.630 No scholar has ever disputed this passage, not even you, Thomas. 34:42.830 --> 34:47.750 It has none of the editing problems of the Testimonium, and it adds to the other 34:47.750 --> 34:49.030 evidence about the Immerser. 34:50.090 --> 34:54.830 And by the way, Josephus is writing this, as I said, in the first century, 34:55.230 --> 34:57.390 regarding the year 62. 34:59.570 --> 35:00.990 Not bad. 35:03.950 --> 35:10.510 But, to be fair, let's return to these three problematic lines in the 35:10.510 --> 35:11.170 Testimonium. 35:12.990 --> 35:21.370 Number one, if it be lawful to call him a man, as if to suggest we're ready to bow 35:21.370 --> 35:25.770 down to him, and, you know, let's put a golden calf behind him, as long as we're 35:25.770 --> 35:28.990 doing this, and forget about the one Elohim. 35:30.790 --> 35:33.770 Number two, he was the Mashiach. 35:33.870 --> 35:35.010 Well, thank you, Joe. 35:35.730 --> 35:40.210 That's really big of you, considering if you did believe in Yeshua, you did a 35:40.210 --> 35:42.270 really good job at keeping that secret. 35:42.750 --> 35:47.850 But, hey, just because you like us for you, we're going to say it outright. 35:48.090 --> 35:48.990 He's the Mashiach. 35:49.930 --> 35:53.710 And we might as well just organize a church social with this next line. 35:54.470 --> 35:58.790 For he appeared to them alive on the third day, as divine prophets had foretold these 35:58.790 --> 36:01.310 and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. 36:02.370 --> 36:03.450 Okay, I'm done. 36:03.550 --> 36:04.130 Pass the bacon. 36:06.070 --> 36:12.330 So, the logical conclusion, and the only one, I believe. 36:13.030 --> 36:18.970 A Christian redactor, a very Christian redactor, encouraged by the brief 36:18.970 --> 36:24.010 mentioning of Yaakov and Yeshua elsewhere, he decided to be a little creative. 36:24.790 --> 36:29.410 But when we take these statements out of the testimonium, take those three 36:29.410 --> 36:35.510 problematic lines, all of a sudden it agrees with everything else Josephus said 36:35.510 --> 36:40.370 elsewhere, and also the earliest Greek manuscripts of his work. 36:41.150 --> 36:47.130 And as John Meyer pointed out, the original Christology of the original 36:47.130 --> 36:50.210 text of the testimonium is quite low. 36:51.350 --> 36:53.430 Let's see how low it goes. 36:56.430 --> 37:02.070 Now there was about this time Yeshua a wise man, for he was a doer of wonderful 37:02.070 --> 37:06.090 works, and a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. 37:06.970 --> 37:11.870 He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles, and when Pilate, 37:12.010 --> 37:15.510 at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the 37:15.510 --> 37:19.410 cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. 37:19.910 --> 37:25.150 And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. 37:25.450 --> 37:27.070 So let's break this down. 37:28.490 --> 37:34.150 Josephus and the New Testament agree that, number one, Yeshua was a miracle worker 37:34.150 --> 37:36.730 around the same time as the immersers ministry. 37:37.750 --> 37:42.130 Two, Yeshua was popularly known as the Mashiach, Messiah. 37:43.970 --> 37:48.350 Three, Yeshua was killed under Pilate while Yochanan was killed by Herod 37:48.350 --> 37:48.930 Antipas. 37:49.850 --> 37:55.550 Number four, Yeshua's followers were persecuted, accused by some of being 37:55.550 --> 37:56.950 lawbreakers. 37:57.450 --> 37:58.770 This sounds a little familiar. 37:59.850 --> 38:04.790 But in Yaakov's case, most Jews thought he was a righteous man. 38:07.900 --> 38:09.700 And that brings us to our next topic. 38:10.440 --> 38:12.660 Does Philo matter? 38:13.780 --> 38:18.760 Now, as I was mentioning before, Philo is the other major Jewish historian 38:18.760 --> 38:20.140 of the first century. 38:20.500 --> 38:23.080 He's actually writing about 50 years earlier. 38:23.940 --> 38:29.920 Philo was born around 20 BCE and he died around 50 BCE. 38:31.220 --> 38:35.960 Josephus actually mentions Philo in his writings as an old man leading a Jewish 38:35.960 --> 38:43.340 entourage to protest something that the Romans were planning to defile the temple 38:43.340 --> 38:43.700 about. 38:44.440 --> 38:48.380 And Philo's writings are just as fascinating, though much less read, 38:48.660 --> 38:49.420 than Josephus. 38:50.200 --> 38:53.480 But here is what I mean by, does Philo matter? 38:55.100 --> 39:01.840 So, as I have it here, this may seem a really odd question regarding this only 39:01.840 --> 39:04.280 other first century Jewish historian that we know of. 39:04.820 --> 39:06.880 But here is how Thomas puts it. 39:08.800 --> 39:13.880 Philo mentions Pontius Pilate, but doesn't mention the far more 39:13.880 --> 39:16.260 significant Yeshua of Nazareth. 39:17.060 --> 39:17.820 Love, Thomas. 39:18.600 --> 39:19.260 How nice. 39:20.920 --> 39:22.740 Well, here's what I say to that, Tom. 39:24.240 --> 39:26.820 Philo lived all his life in Alexandria, Egypt. 39:26.940 --> 39:27.660 He says so. 39:27.800 --> 39:28.880 Read it in his biography. 39:30.520 --> 39:31.480 That's point one. 39:31.640 --> 39:37.940 Point two, Philo died no later than the year 50, probably before even Raphshaw's 39:37.940 --> 39:40.400 letters began to be circulated. 39:41.060 --> 39:43.920 That's pretty early time for the faith. 39:45.620 --> 39:52.840 So, here's the thing, Thomas, this is what I don't understand. 39:55.080 --> 40:01.520 Josephus, eyewitness, reliable as anyone else, lives in Israel, says there was a 40:01.520 --> 40:03.560 man named Yeshua with a brother named Yaakov. 40:04.220 --> 40:04.980 What do we know? 40:06.360 --> 40:12.500 But Philo, who lives in Alexandria, who is away from this drama, doesn't 40:12.500 --> 40:16.020 mention the historical Yeshua, and that's evidence. 40:16.720 --> 40:17.120 Really? 40:18.700 --> 40:22.440 As I said, Thomas, your faith is greater than mine. 40:23.460 --> 40:27.740 I would think it's more important that Josephus, who is in Israel, mentions 40:27.740 --> 40:31.640 Yeshua, than Philo, who is out of Israel, doesn't mention him. 40:32.260 --> 40:35.940 And there are other reasons why Philo doesn't mention Yeshua, as we're going to 40:35.940 --> 40:36.300 get to. 40:38.520 --> 40:46.340 So, for example, my next point, Philo's writings are almost exclusively 40:46.340 --> 40:50.560 focused on scripture and comparative philosophy, or what we sometimes call 40:50.560 --> 40:51.540 syncretism. 40:52.400 --> 40:57.800 While Philo is clearly a conservative Pharisee, he doesn't like to get into 40:57.800 --> 40:59.580 recent Jewish history and politics. 40:59.580 --> 41:04.080 He doesn't have Josephus' focus, so he doesn't have Josephus' details. 41:04.880 --> 41:09.080 And those details by Josephus are scant on the subject as it is. 41:09.380 --> 41:11.940 As I said, it only gets mentioned twice. 41:12.860 --> 41:18.000 So it's at this point we must turn to the renewed covenant writings for a very basic 41:18.000 --> 41:20.480 non-theological question. 41:21.960 --> 41:30.160 Just how important was Yeshua's movement in the 20 years since the resurrection? 41:31.800 --> 41:38.360 So, while we know there was a controversy and a lot of Pharisees came to the faith, 41:38.940 --> 41:40.160 this is what we also know. 41:42.420 --> 41:49.220 Most of the apostles were running for their lives while they were trying to 41:49.220 --> 41:49.520 minister. 41:50.480 --> 41:56.540 Even the Apostle Paul, Rav Shaul, he hides out in Saudi Arabia, of all 41:56.540 --> 41:58.540 places, for nine years. 41:59.300 --> 42:01.680 He doesn't start his ministry until the year 45. 42:03.140 --> 42:07.540 Philo is dead in the year 50, at the latest. 42:08.160 --> 42:11.820 Not a lot of time for Rav Shaul to reach Philo. 42:12.800 --> 42:16.100 And Alexandria itself is hardly a success story. 42:16.720 --> 42:19.660 Let's see what we can glean from the actual record here. 42:20.480 --> 42:27.160 As we read, and men from the assembly, which is called the Libertines and the 42:27.160 --> 42:33.160 Cyrenians and the Alexandrians, there they are, and those from Cilicia and 42:33.160 --> 42:37.640 from Asia, rose up and were disputing with Estophanos. 42:38.220 --> 42:41.860 And they were not able to stand against the wisdom and the spirit which he spoke 42:41.860 --> 42:42.320 by him. 42:44.520 --> 42:50.220 Then they sent men and instructed them to say that we have heard him speak words of 42:50.220 --> 42:53.420 blasphemy against Moshe and against Elohim. 42:55.180 --> 42:59.020 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came and stood 42:59.020 --> 43:03.080 against him and seized him and brought him into the midst of the assembly. 43:03.280 --> 43:04.340 That's from the book of Acts. 43:05.140 --> 43:10.520 Notice these men were from Alexandria, but the gospel doesn't get preached in 43:10.520 --> 43:12.480 Alexandria while Philo lived there. 43:12.920 --> 43:19.220 And this is how men from Alexandria behave on the road when they're in Jerusalem, 43:19.660 --> 43:21.760 when they're supposed to behave themselves. 43:22.800 --> 43:25.340 What's going to happen when the show comes to their hometown? 43:26.180 --> 43:27.180 How will that go? 43:28.500 --> 43:36.860 And finally, we know there were many false messiahs and pretend prophets in Israel at 43:36.860 --> 43:37.280 the time. 43:37.820 --> 43:41.580 If Philo had heard of Yeshua, he might have just thought, hmm, just another 43:41.580 --> 43:41.920 rebel. 43:42.780 --> 43:47.020 It's almost certain that not even Pontius Pilate would have given the execution of 43:47.020 --> 43:50.900 Yeshua a second thought, given the thousands of others he crucified. 43:51.960 --> 44:02.980 So if Pilate, who is there, doesn't care about the death, why should Philo, 44:02.980 --> 44:06.960 who wasn't there, care about his life? 44:09.080 --> 44:14.000 And now we're going to move on to the importance of Tacitus and Suetonius. 44:16.440 --> 44:21.920 The reason that the Romans are important here is, and I'm going to say this quite 44:21.920 --> 44:29.080 often, you can learn a lot about the real history when two groups of people who hate 44:29.080 --> 44:33.200 one another end up having to agree that something actually happened. 44:34.360 --> 44:39.720 So in the case of Tacitus and Suetonius, they could not have hated the followers of 44:39.720 --> 44:41.260 Yeshua with greater passion. 44:42.140 --> 44:47.100 And yet they were forced to admit that Yeshua was a real guy. 44:47.600 --> 44:50.640 And very, very quickly after the crucifixion, too. 44:51.300 --> 44:52.760 So let's take a look, shall we? 44:54.300 --> 45:01.340 As we read here, both Tacitus and Suetonius, as I said, are well-respected 45:01.340 --> 45:02.220 Roman historians. 45:02.920 --> 45:06.200 They authored definitive histories within 90 years of the crucifixion. 45:06.740 --> 45:12.880 And like Josephus, no serious modern historian questions these men on the 45:12.880 --> 45:16.160 details of their comprehensive surveys of the previous century. 45:16.460 --> 45:18.700 You know what Tacitus and Suetonius are writing about? 45:19.300 --> 45:23.700 They're writing the official biographies of the emperors of Rome. 45:24.980 --> 45:27.420 Kind of important for their culture, wouldn't you think? 45:30.780 --> 45:38.160 So, but I understand that for some you will view with skepticism the writings of 45:38.160 --> 45:39.980 people who are in favor of a controversy. 45:40.960 --> 45:47.180 But again, what about the details that even the enemies of the Gospels admit to 45:47.180 --> 45:47.720 be true? 45:48.640 --> 45:53.720 Imagine that an extreme liberal and an extreme conservative politician agree on 45:53.720 --> 45:54.740 how to solve a problem. 45:55.940 --> 45:57.280 How often does that happen? 45:57.620 --> 46:01.040 And how significant must that agreement therefore be? 46:02.640 --> 46:06.580 So as I said, these men hated both the Jews and the Nazarenes. 46:06.800 --> 46:09.600 They ridiculed followers and encouraged their persecution. 46:10.680 --> 46:14.560 And yet, with all that going on, here's what they said. 46:16.760 --> 46:20.220 This is Tacitus writing in the year 116. 46:21.140 --> 46:22.660 He sure was crucified in the year 30. 46:24.180 --> 46:29.540 Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the 46:29.540 --> 46:34.880 most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations called Christians, 46:35.700 --> 46:40.840 or as it's actually spelled, Crestians, by the populace. 46:41.800 --> 46:46.380 Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty 46:46.380 --> 46:51.540 during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius 46:51.540 --> 46:52.100 Pilatus. 46:53.220 --> 46:59.260 And a most mischievous superstition, very interesting, thus checked for the 46:59.260 --> 47:06.400 moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in 47:06.400 --> 47:11.080 Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find 47:11.080 --> 47:12.600 their center and become popular. 47:16.040 --> 47:21.160 Now Tacitus, perhaps like Philo, views the Nazarene Crestian movement with 47:21.160 --> 47:23.680 disdain, just another rebel group. 47:24.860 --> 47:29.640 But while Tacitus doesn't directly mention what the Nazarene Crestians believed, 47:30.160 --> 47:37.020 he does call it a most mischievous superstition from Judea, hideous, 47:37.700 --> 47:38.360 shameful. 47:41.160 --> 47:48.320 And so he continues, this is actually Suetonius speaking now, as the Jews were 47:48.320 --> 47:53.600 making constant disturbances at the instigation of Crestus. 47:53.920 --> 47:55.880 There it is again, Crestus, Crestus. 47:56.580 --> 47:58.620 He, Claudius, expelled them from Rome. 47:59.360 --> 48:03.140 Punishment by Nero was inflicted on the Crestians, again the Crestians, 48:03.540 --> 48:04.380 a class of men. 48:04.800 --> 48:10.640 Now we get a different detail, now they are given to a new and 48:10.640 --> 48:12.780 mischievous superstition. 48:15.760 --> 48:19.060 So, mischievous, new superstition. 48:20.000 --> 48:25.300 Hmm, I wonder what that could possibly be from Judea. 48:25.620 --> 48:26.680 Very curious. 48:27.480 --> 48:31.300 I mean, I wonder what they could possibly be talking about. 48:31.980 --> 48:34.900 Nothing really happened, it could be about anything, right? 48:36.620 --> 48:40.940 Again, I can't emphasize this enough. 48:41.900 --> 48:45.160 These men hated the early believers. 48:45.900 --> 48:49.560 There's no reason to promote the movement if it did not exist. 48:50.320 --> 48:57.660 In fact, the more they eliminate that movement, the more money they are likely 48:57.660 --> 48:58.680 to make. 48:59.880 --> 49:07.300 So, why would they do this if Christus or Crestus, which in Greek becomes Christos, 49:08.000 --> 49:13.360 and in Hebrew, Mashiach, why would they do this if he wasn't a real person? 49:13.820 --> 49:14.900 Why would they lie? 49:18.260 --> 49:24.080 And so, moving on now from that point, we're going to get into another very 49:24.080 --> 49:26.820 interesting and perhaps controversial topic. 49:27.760 --> 49:32.000 I call it, as you see it here, there's a picture of these books from the 49:32.000 --> 49:37.860 Nag Hammadi library, the real knowledge of the Gnostics, or what did the Gnostics 49:37.860 --> 49:40.700 know, and when did they know it? 49:42.800 --> 49:48.660 There is no doubt that the Gnostics were an ancient mystical Jewish sect that 49:48.660 --> 49:51.260 co-opted certain beliefs from the growing Nazarene movement. 49:52.140 --> 49:59.460 There is also no doubt that the Gnostics were attacked by name in scripture. 50:02.000 --> 50:08.420 For example, here's Titus, therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound 50:08.420 --> 50:15.320 in the faith and do not throw themselves into Jewish fables and the precepts of men 50:15.320 --> 50:20.800 who hate the truth for to the pure everything is pure but to them who are 50:20.800 --> 50:26.520 defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but their understanding is defiled and 50:26.520 --> 50:34.540 their conscience and they profess that they know Elohim but in their works they 50:34.540 --> 50:40.920 deny him and they are odious and disobedient and to every good work 50:40.920 --> 50:42.280 reprobates. 50:44.720 --> 50:50.400 Now, this is from Dr. Charles Reary, one of the greatest Greek New Testament 50:50.400 --> 50:56.250 scholars on the planet, who wrote the Reary Study Bible for the NASB, 50:56.810 --> 51:03.990 and he says, Jewish myths, speculations of a Gnostic sort supposedly based on Old 51:03.990 --> 51:04.750 Testament scripture. 51:05.350 --> 51:08.170 For Gnosticism, see the introduction to 1 John. 51:08.970 --> 51:10.530 Well, okay, fair deal. 51:11.050 --> 51:14.950 Let's go to that page in 1 John. 51:16.650 --> 51:24.010 Dr. Reary writes, The heresy of Gnosticism had begun to make inroads among the 51:24.010 --> 51:25.570 churches in John's day. 51:26.450 --> 51:32.970 Among its teachings were, knowledge is superior to virtue, the non-literal sense 51:32.970 --> 51:37.210 of scripture is correct and can only be understood by a select view. 51:38.610 --> 51:42.670 Number three, evil in the world precludes God's being the only creator. 51:43.910 --> 51:49.190 Number four, the incarnation is incredible, unbelievable, because deity 51:49.190 --> 51:51.430 cannot unite itself with anything material. 51:51.770 --> 51:53.530 We call this heresy Gnosticism. 51:54.870 --> 52:01.850 And five, there is no resurrection of the flesh as in ever. 52:03.250 --> 52:05.390 Not then, not now. 52:06.650 --> 52:11.990 Not surprisingly, as Dr. Reary writes, the ethical standards of many Gnostics 52:11.990 --> 52:13.070 were low. 52:15.890 --> 52:24.230 But while the doctrine of the Gnostics is trash, there's no other word for it. 52:25.950 --> 52:34.070 They can still provide very important confirmations to us, because they have a 52:34.070 --> 52:37.210 very ancient source in common with the Gospels. 52:38.270 --> 52:42.790 And this was used by a group of controversial scholars in the 1990s, 52:43.470 --> 52:49.030 where they would throw out a lot of the Gospel record, and they would cling to 52:49.030 --> 52:50.830 this Gnostic tradition. 52:51.750 --> 52:56.470 These liberal scholars were known as the Jesus Seminar. 52:57.050 --> 52:59.670 There you see their logo right there. 53:00.790 --> 53:04.630 That's one of the books of the founders, Robert Funk. 53:05.190 --> 53:06.110 Five Gospels. 53:06.430 --> 53:11.010 The fifth Gospel is the Gospel according to Thomas, ironically. 53:11.630 --> 53:16.690 And this is neither ancient Thomas nor is it my Thomas either. 53:17.630 --> 53:23.930 So, let's take a look at what these gentlemen had to say. 53:26.010 --> 53:33.590 Many conservative and religious leaders, including myself, were very upset when the 53:33.590 --> 53:38.470 Jesus Seminar said, and by the way, I'm not converting this Jesus, 53:38.630 --> 53:43.370 this J, to the Yeshua Seminar, because I don't like these people very 53:43.370 --> 53:43.730 much. 53:45.230 --> 53:49.970 And yet, it's pretty useful what they're going to say once we get through it. 53:49.970 --> 53:51.690 So, here we go. 53:52.810 --> 53:56.210 Among other things, 78% of the Gospels were unreliable. 53:56.770 --> 53:57.810 That's the bad news. 53:58.270 --> 53:59.130 Here's the good news. 54:00.570 --> 54:05.970 What that means is, the flip side has a relevant echo with the ancient critics. 54:06.330 --> 54:11.770 Namely, that just because they don't take the faith doesn't mean they deny the 54:11.770 --> 54:13.250 existence of the man. 54:13.870 --> 54:19.790 Because now, 22%, the remainder that didn't get tossed out by our buddies at 54:19.790 --> 54:27.230 the JS Group, have come from the mouth of a physical man named Yeshua of Nazareth. 54:28.390 --> 54:31.210 That's the good news about the good news. 54:34.690 --> 54:39.370 So, but these were some of the other conclusions of the Jesus Seminar. 54:39.930 --> 54:46.070 This is what they said, and we'll compare it with your learned opinion, Thomas. 54:47.230 --> 54:48.930 And I mean, my Thomas. 54:50.490 --> 54:57.190 They said, Yeshua was, survey said, was born during the reign of Herod the 54:57.190 --> 55:02.370 Great, an itinerant sage, shared meals with social outcasts. 55:02.810 --> 55:06.730 He practiced healing without the use of ancient medicine or magic. 55:06.850 --> 55:09.530 Now that's a very interesting concession, I think. 55:10.290 --> 55:13.990 He was arrested in Jerusalem and crucified by the Romans. 55:14.750 --> 55:18.890 My question is, doesn't this sound just a little familiar? 55:19.730 --> 55:26.650 The same type of facts arranged a little differently, because I think we've gone 55:26.650 --> 55:29.610 over this set of facts before. 55:31.430 --> 55:32.390 Perhaps here. 55:33.750 --> 55:38.570 When we take out the problematic words of Josephus' Testimonium, the controversial 55:38.570 --> 55:44.470 statements, this is what we're left with, that it was about this time Yeshua, 55:44.690 --> 55:50.990 a wise man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men, has received 55:50.990 --> 55:52.430 the truth with pleasure. 55:53.070 --> 55:56.830 He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles, and went pilot 55:56.830 --> 55:59.770 at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us. 56:00.110 --> 56:04.730 Had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not 56:04.730 --> 56:05.330 forsake him. 56:06.090 --> 56:10.450 And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day. 56:12.290 --> 56:15.550 Sounds like a good match. 56:17.170 --> 56:22.130 It's also interesting to note that while the Jesus Seminar denied the resurrection, 56:22.550 --> 56:28.450 they didn't deny that the earliest followers believed a resurrection had 56:28.450 --> 56:28.830 happened. 56:30.310 --> 56:31.350 It's really interesting. 56:31.590 --> 56:33.790 They'll say, yeah, you know, Peter did think this. 56:33.930 --> 56:35.310 Mary Magdalene did think that. 56:35.610 --> 56:36.790 But they must have been drunk. 56:38.130 --> 56:42.990 Maybe they gathered the wrong kind of grass or something, and that spice wasn't 56:42.990 --> 56:44.790 what they thought it was that they were buying. 56:45.010 --> 56:47.230 And next thing you know, it's like, did you see him? 56:47.290 --> 56:47.810 Yeah, man. 56:47.850 --> 56:49.170 Hey, he's like over there. 56:50.190 --> 56:56.510 But let's dig a little deeper, shall we, with some ancient quotes rather 56:56.510 --> 56:58.830 than modern reconstructions. 57:00.490 --> 57:01.330 Here's a quote. 57:02.690 --> 57:06.850 Yeshua said, the kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. 57:07.470 --> 57:09.450 One of them, the largest, went astray. 57:10.250 --> 57:13.270 He left the 99 and looked for the one until he found it. 57:13.910 --> 57:19.250 And after he toiled, he said to the sheep, I love you more than the 99. 57:20.470 --> 57:23.290 Not exact, but familiar. 57:25.630 --> 57:26.690 Here's another one. 57:27.810 --> 57:33.330 And Yeshua said, person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea 57:33.330 --> 57:36.210 and drew it up from among the sea full of little fish. 57:37.150 --> 57:40.290 Among them, the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. 57:40.730 --> 57:46.190 He threw all the little fish back into the sea and easily chose the large fish. 57:47.210 --> 57:50.430 Anyone here with two good ears had better listen. 57:51.450 --> 57:56.850 I mean, it sounds like they're reading from perhaps the same type of oral sources 57:56.850 --> 57:58.230 before they got written down. 58:00.990 --> 58:02.090 Here's another one. 58:03.310 --> 58:08.110 Yeshua said, the Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge. 58:09.910 --> 58:13.490 Now, that is in one of the Gospels, the keys of knowledge, but then you kind 58:13.490 --> 58:14.550 of get the keys to heaven. 58:15.430 --> 58:19.090 But they would rather talk about the keys of knowledge because that's their spin. 58:19.930 --> 58:20.790 And they have hidden them. 58:20.990 --> 58:25.050 They have not entered, nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so. 58:29.270 --> 58:34.690 And in saying 16, Yeshua said, perhaps people think I have come to cast 58:34.690 --> 58:35.670 peace upon the world. 58:35.750 --> 58:39.270 They do not know I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth. 58:40.110 --> 58:42.150 Fire, sword, war. 58:42.990 --> 58:45.990 I did not come to bring peace, but division. 58:47.370 --> 58:51.290 Now, I could keep doing this all day, honestly. 58:52.110 --> 58:55.970 But instead, let me just tell you, every single thing that I have read, 58:56.570 --> 59:01.090 while similar to the Gospels, is from the Gnostic Gospel according to Thomas. 59:02.330 --> 59:06.710 Now, I want you to brace yourself for what I'm about to tell you, especially you, 59:06.890 --> 59:14.210 my friend Thomas, because, as I said, when opponents agree on something, 59:14.610 --> 59:15.850 maybe that's significant. 59:16.770 --> 59:18.810 Are the Jesus Seminar my opponents? 59:19.150 --> 59:20.490 Oh, you better believe it. 59:21.070 --> 59:25.250 They haven't backed down one bit since they made this statement in the 1990s. 59:25.730 --> 59:29.930 And yeah, if I were to meet one of them, I'd let them know how I felt about it. 59:30.970 --> 59:37.430 But here's where we agree, and you are left out in the cold, my friend, 59:38.070 --> 59:46.470 because they, not me, the Radical Jesus Seminar and many other scholars have dated 59:46.470 --> 59:48.270 the Gospel of Thomas. 59:48.510 --> 59:49.490 Are you ready for this? 59:49.650 --> 59:52.050 We're going to put this up right now for everyone to see. 59:52.510 --> 59:57.850 They have dated this to, here it is, the middle of the first century. 01:00:01.190 --> 01:00:03.570 So, are you being unreasonable, Thomas? 01:00:04.390 --> 01:00:07.970 According to your buddies over at the Jesus Seminar, they don't want to have 01:00:07.970 --> 01:00:08.970 anything to do with you. 01:00:10.990 --> 01:00:13.710 But let's look at some other facts that Thomas relates. 01:00:15.450 --> 01:00:22.910 He says, these are the secret sayings that the living Yeshua spoke and Didymus Judas 01:00:22.910 --> 01:00:23.750 Thomas recorded. 01:00:24.970 --> 01:00:31.310 So, yes, I know that in their writings, the Gnostics would say that Yeshua wasn't 01:00:31.310 --> 01:00:35.490 really flesh, that he was an ascended spirit and only looked like flesh. 01:00:36.270 --> 01:00:41.770 But they also admit that to the rest of the unenlightened world, he would have 01:00:41.770 --> 01:00:43.110 looked just like you and me. 01:00:44.070 --> 01:00:50.250 And so, they are not really denying that he appeared to be human and therefore that 01:00:50.250 --> 01:00:52.970 others would have perceived him as a real guy. 01:00:54.510 --> 01:01:00.570 That's your non-literalist followers of Yeshua, your pagan-influenced followers of 01:01:00.570 --> 01:01:01.790 Yeshua, right there. 01:01:04.410 --> 01:01:10.870 And he said, this is saying number one, whoever discovers the interpretation of 01:01:10.870 --> 01:01:13.870 these sayings will not taste death. 01:01:14.970 --> 01:01:18.470 So, Yeshua's first words are about eternal life. 01:01:21.350 --> 01:01:24.530 Saying 51, this is one of my favorites. 01:01:26.510 --> 01:01:31.270 His disciples said to him, when will the rest for the dead take place and when will 01:01:31.270 --> 01:01:32.170 the new world come? 01:01:32.210 --> 01:01:34.650 What we call the Ulam Haba in Hebrew. 01:01:35.770 --> 01:01:41.750 He said to them, what you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know 01:01:41.750 --> 01:01:41.930 it. 01:01:42.430 --> 01:01:49.630 His disciples said to him, 24 prophets have spoken in Israel and they all spoke 01:01:49.630 --> 01:01:50.490 of you. 01:01:51.250 --> 01:01:53.070 So, let me ask you something, Thomas. 01:01:53.870 --> 01:02:00.010 How many Old Testament Tanakh books did the rabbis accept in the first century? 01:02:00.250 --> 01:02:02.730 I'll give you a hint, 24. 01:02:04.490 --> 01:02:05.390 All right? 01:02:06.190 --> 01:02:11.730 So, if you're looking for paganism, I'd like you to find some paganism here, 01:02:12.130 --> 01:02:17.330 because I don't see any pagan influence in this early movement dated to the first 01:02:17.330 --> 01:02:18.850 century at all. 01:02:19.690 --> 01:02:22.470 Not in Josephus and not here. 01:02:23.290 --> 01:02:24.610 So, let's continue. 01:02:25.430 --> 01:02:34.130 As we read, Yeshua said, and this is one of my favorites, I am the light that is 01:02:34.130 --> 01:02:35.470 over all things. 01:02:36.250 --> 01:02:42.830 I am all, from me all came forth, and to me all attained. 01:02:43.610 --> 01:02:45.550 Split a piece of wood and I am there. 01:02:46.530 --> 01:02:50.350 Lift up the stone and you will find me there. 01:02:51.610 --> 01:02:52.490 That's beautiful. 01:02:54.130 --> 01:02:58.250 But I thought the light of the world was only in John's gospel. 01:02:59.090 --> 01:03:02.630 And this sounds a little bit like Hebrews 1, 1 through 5, doesn't it? 01:03:03.790 --> 01:03:08.210 That he is the reflection of the nature of Elohim. 01:03:09.530 --> 01:03:11.890 Very similar language. 01:03:13.790 --> 01:03:18.170 So, take it all together, while the gospel of Thomas and these other non-biblical 01:03:18.170 --> 01:03:24.690 sources clearly reject our theology, and therefore we reject them, there is a 01:03:24.690 --> 01:03:32.050 lot of agreement on the historical Yeshua, who he was, and some of what he preached. 01:03:33.910 --> 01:03:39.110 And this brings us to Jewish and rabbinic sources, i.e. 01:03:39.590 --> 01:03:39.990 Talmud. 01:03:42.750 --> 01:03:47.410 As I said before, it's often been observed that when enemies agree, the source of the 01:03:47.410 --> 01:03:48.470 agreement must be credible. 01:03:49.090 --> 01:03:53.070 With that thought in mind, let me pose this question. 01:03:53.910 --> 01:04:00.570 If the rabbis of the Talmud, Thomas, could prove Yeshua never existed as you 01:04:00.570 --> 01:04:03.490 believe, wouldn't they have done it? 01:04:04.110 --> 01:04:06.150 Didn't they kind of have a head start on you, Thomas? 01:04:07.490 --> 01:04:11.490 I mean, why not, considering what happened over the past 2,000 years? 01:04:12.690 --> 01:04:17.210 But instead, the Talmud shows something very, very different. 01:04:18.490 --> 01:04:23.750 They don't deny they can't, so they do the next best thing. 01:04:25.170 --> 01:04:26.450 Spin control. 01:04:28.810 --> 01:04:32.030 I'm going to show you how they spin. 01:04:34.910 --> 01:04:42.390 From Talmud Sanhedrin 43a, it is taught, on the eve of Passover, they hung Yeshu, 01:04:42.390 --> 01:04:49.090 and the crier, or the gaver, went forth for 40 days beforehand, declaring that 01:04:49.090 --> 01:04:53.530 Yeshu is going to be stoned for practicing witchcraft, for enticing and leading 01:04:53.530 --> 01:04:54.570 Israel astray. 01:04:55.610 --> 01:04:58.810 Anyone who knows something to clear him should come forth and exonerate him. 01:04:59.430 --> 01:05:04.250 But no one had anything exonerating for him, and they hung him on the eve of 01:05:04.250 --> 01:05:04.770 Passover. 01:05:05.810 --> 01:05:10.290 Ullah said, would one think that we should look for exonerating evidence for him? 01:05:10.290 --> 01:05:18.850 He was an enticer, and God said in Deuteronomy 13, verse 9, show him no pity 01:05:18.850 --> 01:05:22.210 or compassion, and do not shield him. 01:05:23.010 --> 01:05:26.030 Yeshu was different because he was close to the government. 01:05:27.370 --> 01:05:28.710 Oh, we'll be getting into this. 01:05:31.820 --> 01:05:39.080 So, point one, the Talmud deliberately leaves off the final ion in Yeshua's name, 01:05:39.200 --> 01:05:41.840 so they call him Yeshu rather than Yeshua. 01:05:43.020 --> 01:05:48.080 And that is to change his meaning of the name from Yah is salvation to may his name 01:05:48.080 --> 01:05:49.160 be blotted out. 01:05:50.440 --> 01:05:55.560 Rabbinic literature is full of these incidents where letters, or lack thereof, 01:05:55.680 --> 01:05:58.620 result in false power or losing power. 01:05:59.120 --> 01:06:00.440 Let me give you an example. 01:06:02.080 --> 01:06:07.520 Medieval legend talks about a creature called a golem, clay avenger, about seven 01:06:07.520 --> 01:06:08.440 or eight feet tall. 01:06:09.380 --> 01:06:12.460 He could not be stopped no matter what anyone did. 01:06:12.980 --> 01:06:14.600 Bullets, knives, arrows. 01:06:15.180 --> 01:06:18.800 If he's been called to get you, you will be God. 01:06:19.720 --> 01:06:25.100 This was a tool of the rabbis to get even with their crusader oppressors. 01:06:26.000 --> 01:06:30.960 And the golem could not be stopped as long as the word amit, alef-mim-tav, 01:06:31.240 --> 01:06:33.820 was on his palm, or on his wrist rather. 01:06:34.880 --> 01:06:39.140 So he goes, they try to kill him, night after night, nothing works. 01:06:39.800 --> 01:06:44.580 And when the golem's work is done, they obliterate the alef. 01:06:45.160 --> 01:06:51.360 And now it's just mim-tav, met, dead, and he dies. 01:06:52.660 --> 01:06:54.540 So this is the same idea. 01:06:55.320 --> 01:07:02.180 In later rabbinic polemics, such as the Toledoth Yeshu, we will see, as we do, 01:07:02.340 --> 01:07:09.560 you know, in the actual record, that Yeshua gets to heal, but he heals 01:07:09.560 --> 01:07:14.440 through false means, by getting the 72-letter name of creation, or Yahweh's 01:07:14.440 --> 01:07:16.480 name, off of the foundation stone. 01:07:17.180 --> 01:07:22.140 And when he is defiled, the letters escape him and he is able, he is powerless, 01:07:22.300 --> 01:07:23.620 he's able to be killed. 01:07:24.440 --> 01:07:26.440 Again, spin control. 01:07:27.520 --> 01:07:33.860 You cannot deny what he did, so you put a new reason behind why he did, or how he 01:07:33.860 --> 01:07:34.080 did. 01:07:35.600 --> 01:07:39.060 So let's continue into our analysis here about the rabbinic tradition. 01:07:39.620 --> 01:07:40.320 Point number two. 01:07:41.920 --> 01:07:46.600 Some have attacked this passage's authenticity on the basis that Yeshua died 01:07:46.600 --> 01:07:47.660 on Pesach. 01:07:47.740 --> 01:07:49.960 Well, actually, the 15th. 01:07:50.300 --> 01:07:51.400 We'll get to that. 01:07:52.440 --> 01:07:53.600 Not the evening before. 01:07:54.400 --> 01:07:59.800 However, they forget that in the first century, the Passover lamb was slaughtered 01:07:59.800 --> 01:08:05.040 over two days, the Galileans went on the 14th, and the Judeans on the 15th. 01:08:05.240 --> 01:08:05.980 How do I know? 01:08:06.760 --> 01:08:13.020 In addition to the Mishnah telling us this was the case, we know that Yeshua and his 01:08:13.020 --> 01:08:16.980 disciples have their last supper in the first three Gospels. 01:08:17.200 --> 01:08:18.660 It is a Passover Seder. 01:08:19.380 --> 01:08:21.540 He blesses bread, he blesses wine. 01:08:22.680 --> 01:08:27.560 And what bread do you think is more resembling of the trauma he's about to go 01:08:27.560 --> 01:08:27.780 through? 01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:32.760 Some spongy wonder challah that he brings home from the market, or white bone-like 01:08:32.760 --> 01:08:34.020 matzah that snaps? 01:08:34.660 --> 01:08:35.440 I ask you. 01:08:36.360 --> 01:08:40.980 And that's why the next morning, the Pharisees haven't eaten their Passover 01:08:40.980 --> 01:08:45.000 yet, because they were going to eat it a day later. 01:08:45.620 --> 01:08:48.240 So the Mishnah and Yolkanon agree here. 01:08:49.820 --> 01:08:54.360 And, you know, I think that that's also a significant historical point. 01:08:54.920 --> 01:08:59.800 But obviously, Passion Week is a much more detailed discussion than just that one 01:08:59.800 --> 01:09:00.380 little point. 01:09:00.900 --> 01:09:03.600 So continuing, point number three. 01:09:04.560 --> 01:09:05.780 You gotta love this. 01:09:06.660 --> 01:09:10.080 Yeshua was different because he was with the government. 01:09:10.820 --> 01:09:11.380 Really? 01:09:13.260 --> 01:09:19.640 Well, maybe you thought he was with the government because, what, the Romans just 01:09:19.640 --> 01:09:24.300 basically dressed up a bunch of themselves as Jews, pretending to support him and 01:09:24.300 --> 01:09:28.380 crowd around him and boo you when you tried to take him into custody? 01:09:29.320 --> 01:09:34.100 Or maybe his message was better than yours, but oh, we wouldn't want to admit 01:09:34.100 --> 01:09:35.420 that now, would we? 01:09:36.800 --> 01:09:38.120 Popular with the government. 01:09:38.880 --> 01:09:44.000 His interaction with the government didn't exactly end well, Tom. 01:09:46.240 --> 01:09:47.500 Point number four. 01:09:49.200 --> 01:09:53.380 They also admit that they tried to stone him and that Yeshua worked miracles so 01:09:53.380 --> 01:09:55.400 well that he led Israel astray. 01:09:56.680 --> 01:10:01.480 Okay, but in so doing, they verify the miracles that are in the Gospels. 01:10:02.780 --> 01:10:03.920 Here's what happened. 01:10:04.020 --> 01:10:05.620 Well, maybe not exactly 40 days. 01:10:05.700 --> 01:10:10.060 It's probably a bit more than 40 days, but I'm thinking that this may be their 01:10:10.060 --> 01:10:15.320 inspiration for something that happened 40 days, roughly, before the crucifixion. 01:10:18.400 --> 01:10:23.220 Yeshua said to the Pharisees, I and the Father are one. 01:10:24.260 --> 01:10:27.420 And again, the Yehudians took up rocks to stone him. 01:10:27.600 --> 01:10:31.640 Yeshua said to them, many pleasing works from the presence of my Father I have 01:10:31.640 --> 01:10:32.180 shown you. 01:10:32.180 --> 01:10:35.380 For which of them do you stone me? 01:10:36.220 --> 01:10:40.320 The Yehudians said to him, it is not because of the pleasing works that we 01:10:40.320 --> 01:10:45.700 stone you, rather because you do blaspheme and that while you are a son of man, 01:10:45.960 --> 01:10:48.160 you make yourself Elohim. 01:10:49.160 --> 01:10:55.820 Yeshua said to them, is it not written in your Torah that I have told you that you 01:10:55.820 --> 01:10:56.820 are Elohim? 01:10:57.780 --> 01:11:02.720 If those people who was called Elohim, because the miltha, which is Aramaic for 01:11:02.720 --> 01:11:07.200 word, most of the time, because the word of Elohim, miltha of Elohim was with them, 01:11:07.540 --> 01:11:11.360 and the scripture is not able to be broken. 01:11:14.160 --> 01:11:20.760 So, to wrap up here, the Talmud, of course, began to be compiled in the 01:11:20.760 --> 01:11:22.440 last years of the first century. 01:11:22.900 --> 01:11:24.920 It took major shape by the year 200. 01:11:25.520 --> 01:11:28.780 With centuries of later opinions being added throughout the Middle Ages. 01:11:29.580 --> 01:11:33.300 Nevertheless, these stories and ideas have been in the picture. 01:11:34.060 --> 01:11:37.900 They've been circulating for a very long time. 01:11:38.760 --> 01:11:39.580 How long? 01:11:40.240 --> 01:11:41.280 Let me show you. 01:11:42.620 --> 01:11:47.080 And they said to him, say that his disciples came and stole him in the middle 01:11:47.080 --> 01:11:49.260 of the night while we were sleeping. 01:11:49.960 --> 01:11:55.780 And if this is heard before the governor, we will persuade him, we will not to make 01:11:55.780 --> 01:11:56.640 trouble for you. 01:11:57.080 --> 01:11:59.880 And when they took the money, they did as they had instructed them. 01:12:00.180 --> 01:12:06.380 And this word has gone out among the Yehudians to this very day. 01:12:06.620 --> 01:12:07.200 Guess what? 01:12:07.580 --> 01:12:08.280 It has. 01:12:09.720 --> 01:12:16.780 I can testify to that as a fact from my background in doing anti-missionary work 01:12:16.780 --> 01:12:17.480 for a little while. 01:12:18.060 --> 01:12:18.320 Okay? 01:12:18.740 --> 01:12:20.560 The whole idea here, look at this. 01:12:21.200 --> 01:12:22.160 Look at what they say. 01:12:22.960 --> 01:12:27.880 They say that they came in the middle of the night and, you know, to steal the body 01:12:27.880 --> 01:12:32.400 and just tell the governor that you were sleeping when they stole the body. 01:12:32.660 --> 01:12:36.340 But if you were sleeping, how do you know they stole the body? 01:12:37.920 --> 01:12:41.500 I mean, do we need a CSI episode to unravel this evidence? 01:12:42.420 --> 01:12:43.640 I don't think so. 01:12:44.300 --> 01:12:47.220 Thomas, you will have to do better than that. 01:12:48.760 --> 01:12:50.000 Let's move on. 01:12:52.080 --> 01:12:57.900 The following appeared in this newspaper that we've got right here, the Kansas City 01:12:57.900 --> 01:13:01.360 Star, January 7, 2004. 01:13:03.020 --> 01:13:11.340 Quote, in an essay written for the book Passover and Easter, Origin and History to 01:13:11.340 --> 01:13:13.720 Modern Times, Israel J. 01:13:13.880 --> 01:13:20.060 Yuval of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, that's no lightweight, that's an Orthodox 01:13:20.060 --> 01:13:26.720 Jewish scholar, Tom, reported a find in the Talmud that appears to show Matthew 01:13:26.720 --> 01:13:30.680 could have been written earlier than some scholars contend. 01:13:31.520 --> 01:13:36.060 Yuval wrote that a leading rabbinical scholar of the time was, quote, 01:13:36.660 --> 01:13:40.780 considered to have authored a sophisticated parody of the gospel 01:13:40.780 --> 01:13:42.840 according to Matthew. 01:13:43.980 --> 01:13:51.340 The parody was written by a rabbi known as Gamaliel, believed to be by some 01:13:51.340 --> 01:13:54.840 well-respected liberal Christian scholars to have been written about A.D. 01:13:54.980 --> 01:13:56.280 73 or earlier. 01:13:57.300 --> 01:14:06.060 Yes, Thomas, that Gamaliel, the one who taught the Apostle Paul, that Gamaliel. 01:14:09.200 --> 01:14:15.900 So, not only does the Talmud verify a historical Yeshua, a popular healer, 01:14:16.120 --> 01:14:21.460 with a compelling oratory, it also comments on his disciples, on his 01:14:21.460 --> 01:14:22.020 Talmudim. 01:14:23.040 --> 01:14:23.600 Surprising? 01:14:24.780 --> 01:14:25.500 Maybe. 01:14:27.280 --> 01:14:28.140 Let's see. 01:14:31.550 --> 01:14:34.230 This is from Talmud Sanhedrin 43a. 01:14:35.330 --> 01:14:39.930 It is taught that Yeshua, again, they leave off that final lion to turn 01:14:39.930 --> 01:14:48.990 power out of his name, had five disciples, Mattai, Nechai, Netzer, Buni, and Todah. 01:14:50.450 --> 01:14:55.990 They brought Mattai before the judges and he said to them, will Mattai be killed? 01:14:56.410 --> 01:15:03.190 It is written, Psalm 42.2, when Mattai shall come and appear before God. 01:15:04.110 --> 01:15:08.530 They said to him, yes, Mattai will be killed as it is written, when Mattai 01:15:08.530 --> 01:15:10.950 shall, he die and his name perish. 01:15:11.730 --> 01:15:13.810 This is a very clever rabbinic trick. 01:15:14.670 --> 01:15:18.030 And they do this with Yeshua's name, as I just mentioned, with the Golem 01:15:18.030 --> 01:15:19.410 legend, as we also saw. 01:15:20.050 --> 01:15:21.390 And the idea is this. 01:15:22.170 --> 01:15:24.550 They say, we really don't want to kill this guy. 01:15:25.190 --> 01:15:27.070 His name means something nice. 01:15:27.830 --> 01:15:29.170 Never mind if he's a criminal or not. 01:15:29.190 --> 01:15:29.930 We like his name. 01:15:30.290 --> 01:15:31.370 It's a cute name. 01:15:32.470 --> 01:15:36.710 Okay, dismissing that fallacy for a second and just going with the rest of this, 01:15:37.650 --> 01:15:42.210 they will then go, but you know, in another place, that name is not so 01:15:42.210 --> 01:15:42.570 nice. 01:15:42.930 --> 01:15:45.710 So let's pick up some stones and have some fun. 01:15:47.650 --> 01:15:49.310 Well, that's their logic. 01:15:50.070 --> 01:15:51.550 Let's see how this continues. 01:15:54.070 --> 01:15:58.130 So the question is asked, I showed that Mattai is mentioned in the Talmud. 01:15:58.130 --> 01:16:03.170 What about four of the other names, Nekei, Netzer, Buni, and Todah? 01:16:04.010 --> 01:16:08.750 First of all, I think it's pretty important that Matthew has been verified 01:16:08.750 --> 01:16:09.450 in the Talmud. 01:16:10.010 --> 01:16:15.650 I mean, here's a guy who wrote the first gospel, and there he is in the Talmud. 01:16:16.770 --> 01:16:20.510 So I think that's pretty important, you know. 01:16:20.950 --> 01:16:24.410 And he was following a teacher, a miracle worker named Yeshua, 01:16:24.410 --> 01:16:27.130 who was hung on a Passover. 01:16:28.430 --> 01:16:29.970 Not bad, huh? 01:16:31.350 --> 01:16:41.190 Nevertheless, okay, I try to earn my keep here, and I will try to answer at least 01:16:41.190 --> 01:16:44.030 two of these four, in my opinion. 01:16:46.650 --> 01:16:50.870 The rabbis associate the name Buni with B 'nai, sons. 01:16:51.710 --> 01:16:56.810 Two of Yeshua's Talmudim, Yaakov and Yochanan, which is to say James and John, 01:16:57.010 --> 01:16:58.470 were nicknamed sons of thunder. 01:16:59.570 --> 01:17:00.730 So it could be one of them. 01:17:01.290 --> 01:17:05.730 B'nai, Buni, sons of whatever, we don't care, we've got them, 01:17:05.930 --> 01:17:06.710 we're going to kill them. 01:17:07.630 --> 01:17:09.390 Maybe Barnabas, perhaps? 01:17:11.850 --> 01:17:18.630 But the one for Todah is a lock, because Todah is exactly how the Apostle 01:17:18.630 --> 01:17:21.130 Thaddeus' name appears in Aramaic. 01:17:22.270 --> 01:17:24.790 Word for word, letter for letter, there it is. 01:17:26.270 --> 01:17:31.950 Now, as for Nekei and Netzer, well, we should bear in mind we don't have the 01:17:31.950 --> 01:17:34.090 Hebrew names for all of the Apostles. 01:17:34.710 --> 01:17:40.410 In terms of those 72, those second-tier Apostles that Yeshua sent out in the 01:17:40.410 --> 01:17:43.990 Gospel of Luke, not even the tradition has all of their names. 01:17:44.410 --> 01:17:45.990 So it could be one of them. 01:17:46.090 --> 01:17:50.290 Again, are the Rabbis keeping track as to who's important or who isn't? 01:17:50.550 --> 01:17:54.730 Or are they just saying, huh, here's another one, folks, let's bring him in. 01:17:55.630 --> 01:17:57.530 I think the latter is more true. 01:18:00.230 --> 01:18:06.390 But going further, it once happened, as the Talmud, Tosef Tachulim 223, 01:18:07.190 --> 01:18:12.730 once happened that Rabbi Eleazar ben Dama was bitten by a snake, and Yaakov of the 01:18:12.730 --> 01:18:17.450 village of Seconiah came to heal him in the name of Yeshu ben Pandera. 01:18:19.270 --> 01:18:23.030 Yeah, but Rabbi Ishmael did not allow him. 01:18:23.510 --> 01:18:28.050 Okay, this does take a little background to explain. 01:18:30.330 --> 01:18:35.290 Pandera is the name of a Roman soldier, a mythical Roman soldier. 01:18:36.090 --> 01:18:44.790 In a very nasty slander, the Rabbis decided to sort of throw a stink bomb at 01:18:44.790 --> 01:18:49.230 the Christian community and say, oh, he was virgin birth. 01:18:49.630 --> 01:18:50.270 Really? 01:18:50.770 --> 01:18:58.450 Well, maybe that's because Joe never was able to make progress for whatever reason. 01:18:59.150 --> 01:19:03.010 So we're going to say Joseph is not Yeshua's father. 01:19:03.590 --> 01:19:07.110 So he's half Roman, because this Roman soldier raped his mother. 01:19:07.990 --> 01:19:12.410 And if he's half Roman, he can't be a son of David, and he's a pagan, and he's a 01:19:12.410 --> 01:19:12.670 Roman. 01:19:13.910 --> 01:19:18.890 What an effective thing to do, if it's to be believed, to deny his 01:19:18.890 --> 01:19:23.430 heritage from the kings of Israel, which is, by the way, the order of the 01:19:23.430 --> 01:19:27.890 Matthew's agenda, the first thing he gets to in his first chapter. 01:19:28.870 --> 01:19:32.350 But again, let's look at the flip side. 01:19:33.470 --> 01:19:38.990 They still are telling us that people thought they could heal in the name of 01:19:38.990 --> 01:19:39.370 Yeshua. 01:19:41.230 --> 01:19:45.630 Well, they're leaving off that final on ion, and I'm not going to say Gesundheit, 01:19:45.890 --> 01:19:46.210 whatever. 01:19:46.610 --> 01:19:54.910 But my point is, they had to have heard these stories about Yeshua that his very 01:19:54.910 --> 01:19:57.010 name was a healing force. 01:19:58.490 --> 01:20:04.210 And so, spin, spin, spin. 01:20:06.550 --> 01:20:12.930 So, this last point is absolutely critical, because some have suggested the 01:20:12.930 --> 01:20:16.910 Talmud shows a wide variety of people under the umbrella name of Yeshua. 01:20:17.710 --> 01:20:25.050 But again, how many perform miracles like this and had others heal in their name? 01:20:25.870 --> 01:20:27.190 How many? 01:20:28.730 --> 01:20:31.330 Again, only one. 01:20:33.990 --> 01:20:40.930 Now, in another place, talking further about Ben Pandera, he originally brought 01:20:40.930 --> 01:20:42.730 witchcraft from Egypt. 01:20:43.570 --> 01:20:46.570 But we still know his mother, Mariam. 01:20:48.270 --> 01:20:54.090 Now, talk about out of Egypt I called my son. 01:20:55.170 --> 01:20:57.550 Out of Egypt I called, what, Harry Potter? 01:20:59.230 --> 01:21:00.130 I mean, come on. 01:21:00.810 --> 01:21:04.330 So, now some of these sites are later than others, and they continue to be debated. 01:21:04.790 --> 01:21:08.930 But again, in the Talmud, some form of Yeshua must be dealt with because he was a 01:21:08.930 --> 01:21:09.610 real man. 01:21:11.050 --> 01:21:16.430 And finally, regardless of the details of all rabbinic opinion, they certainly 01:21:16.430 --> 01:21:21.310 co-opted a lot of Yeshua's teachings, but they broke one of their cardinal 01:21:21.310 --> 01:21:21.810 rules. 01:21:22.390 --> 01:21:24.130 They didn't give him credit. 01:21:25.610 --> 01:21:26.350 Here we go. 01:21:28.390 --> 01:21:32.770 Rabbi Yochanan Bar-Yosef said, the Sabbath is committed into your hands, 01:21:33.170 --> 01:21:34.410 not you into its hands. 01:21:34.650 --> 01:21:34.990 Really? 01:21:36.770 --> 01:21:37.290 Thanks. 01:21:38.050 --> 01:21:42.850 You're about 200 years late on that one, Rabbi Yochanan, so I guess your Yochanan 01:21:42.850 --> 01:21:43.790 bent come lately. 01:21:45.750 --> 01:21:51.990 And Rabbi Simeon says, be meticulous in the recitation of the Shema and the 01:21:51.990 --> 01:21:55.790 prayer, and when you pray, don't treat your prayer as a matter of routine. 01:21:55.790 --> 01:21:59.930 In other words, don't go babbling endlessly like the pagans do. 01:22:01.010 --> 01:22:03.530 Oh, we got that memo a little late too. 01:22:03.950 --> 01:22:05.790 That's from Pirkei Avot, 213. 01:22:07.570 --> 01:22:13.310 And from whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, removes the yoke of the 01:22:13.310 --> 01:22:14.070 state of our labor. 01:22:14.210 --> 01:22:18.270 Well, I don't know, maybe my burden is light. 01:22:20.250 --> 01:22:28.490 And while we're at it, Judah Hanasi, Judah the prince, lifted Yeshua's parable 01:22:28.490 --> 01:22:34.610 of the great banquet almost verbatim 150 years after the crucifixion. 01:22:34.850 --> 01:22:38.690 I actually line up the statements of the Talmud and the Gospels, they are almost 01:22:38.690 --> 01:22:42.070 verbatim, line by line, paragraph by paragraph. 01:22:42.990 --> 01:22:48.490 Not bad for a guy who, according to Thomas, wasn't supposed to exist at all. 01:22:49.450 --> 01:22:54.430 Neat trick, maybe a greater one than the resurrection itself that you can't even 01:22:54.430 --> 01:22:55.270 believe in. 01:22:58.310 --> 01:23:04.930 Finally, how was the renewed covenant formed or refuting modern fables about 01:23:04.930 --> 01:23:05.850 ancient texts? 01:23:07.370 --> 01:23:15.330 There are two huge hypocrisies to some, not all, his higher textual criticism 01:23:15.330 --> 01:23:15.930 paradigms. 01:23:16.870 --> 01:23:21.790 First is the blindness of ignoring faith documents, when as we see, that simply 01:23:21.790 --> 01:23:24.670 means ignoring faith documents we disagree with. 01:23:25.810 --> 01:23:32.030 And second, to categorically ditch ancient testimony that is perfectly consistent 01:23:32.030 --> 01:23:35.770 with modern fables that vary from scholar to scholar. 01:23:36.490 --> 01:23:37.970 So here's what we're going to do. 01:23:39.390 --> 01:23:44.630 We will focus on the most ancient and best attested to eastern and western traditions 01:23:44.630 --> 01:23:45.990 of the renewed covenant. 01:23:46.810 --> 01:23:50.790 We will give particular emphasis to traditions that have not been disputed 01:23:50.790 --> 01:23:54.970 among the assemblies who disagree about almost everything else. 01:23:56.010 --> 01:23:57.270 What have we seen? 01:23:57.470 --> 01:24:02.390 Again, when two warring factions agree, there is credibility. 01:24:03.790 --> 01:24:10.650 But the most important thing we can do is look at what we know biographically about 01:24:10.650 --> 01:24:16.110 the renewed covenant writers and simply apply that to our overall analysis. 01:24:16.970 --> 01:24:21.830 What do they say about themselves and their contemporaries who wrote this book 01:24:21.830 --> 01:24:24.670 that we call, oh, I don't know, the New Testament? 01:24:25.890 --> 01:24:27.610 We begin with the Gospels. 01:24:29.610 --> 01:24:36.670 Ancient tradition is unanimous that Matthew, not Mark, wrote the first Gospel. 01:24:37.330 --> 01:24:41.690 The Church of the East, the COE as I call it, they're the ones who have preserved 01:24:41.690 --> 01:24:45.350 the text from when the Apostle Peter founded them. 01:24:45.870 --> 01:24:49.730 The assembly in Babylon in 1 Peter 5 chapter 12 to 13. 01:24:50.390 --> 01:24:54.610 These people say that Matthew circulated in Israel as early as the 40s. 01:24:55.630 --> 01:25:00.470 Matthew himself, an eyewitness to these events, was murdered in the early 60s. 01:25:01.630 --> 01:25:07.310 Around that same time, Rav Shaal in 1 Corinthians and Yaakov or James in his 01:25:07.310 --> 01:25:11.270 epistle quote verbatim from Matthew. 01:25:12.870 --> 01:25:17.410 Number two, it is clear that Matthew had large agreements with the general oral 01:25:17.410 --> 01:25:22.090 sources of Yeshua's sayings that most certainly were circulating in Aramaic 01:25:22.090 --> 01:25:23.850 during the first 10 years of the faith. 01:25:24.470 --> 01:25:30.010 While the final form of Thomas added its own Gnostic touches later, such as saying 01:25:30.010 --> 01:25:35.170 1.14, it is clear that Thomas and Matthew drew from the same collection. 01:25:36.210 --> 01:25:37.370 But here's the difference. 01:25:38.650 --> 01:25:44.410 The Gospel writers appealed to the testimony of each other to cross check 01:25:44.410 --> 01:25:44.990 their facts. 01:25:45.750 --> 01:25:49.490 In some cases, multiple versions of an event circulated with the Gospels 01:25:49.490 --> 01:25:54.570 collectively deciding, such as with the feeding of the 5,000, on a basic 01:25:54.570 --> 01:25:56.230 complementary vision. 01:25:56.870 --> 01:25:59.810 Whereas others went off onto wild tangents. 01:26:00.610 --> 01:26:06.950 But Luke 1 verses 1 through 4 talks about compiling eyewitness accounts. 01:26:07.910 --> 01:26:15.330 And John 21-25 adds the phrase that in addition to his own witness, we know his 01:26:15.330 --> 01:26:16.450 testimony to be true. 01:26:17.250 --> 01:26:18.110 Who is the we? 01:26:19.170 --> 01:26:24.130 Is it anyone other than the other apostles who were there checking his work? 01:26:27.070 --> 01:26:32.210 So it's very likely that the Jesus Seminar folks are generally correct in the sense 01:26:32.210 --> 01:26:37.530 that sayings Gospels might have circulated first, possibly. 01:26:38.210 --> 01:26:44.190 But within Thomas, this could simply be a matter of a Spartan writing style. 01:26:44.810 --> 01:26:51.850 Thomas gives a couple of hints in some places about a narrative other than the 01:26:51.850 --> 01:26:52.170 saying. 01:26:52.350 --> 01:26:54.610 A little bit about the setting, in other words. 01:26:55.190 --> 01:26:59.450 So he might simply like to leave a lot of those details out, focus on what Yeshua 01:26:59.450 --> 01:27:03.190 said, but that doesn't mean he isn't recording historical events. 01:27:05.050 --> 01:27:09.950 The idea that none of the Gospels are eyewitness accounts is a lie. 01:27:10.770 --> 01:27:11.850 All of them are. 01:27:12.950 --> 01:27:15.110 That's right, all four of them. 01:27:16.110 --> 01:27:17.810 Matthew and Yolkanon are disciples. 01:27:18.470 --> 01:27:19.130 They were there. 01:27:20.410 --> 01:27:25.310 According to the best testimony we have, Eastern and Western, Mark is taking 01:27:25.310 --> 01:27:29.070 dictation from Kepha, Peter, who was also there. 01:27:30.050 --> 01:27:36.470 And again, Luke is compiling eyewitness accounts from people who were there. 01:27:37.650 --> 01:27:42.630 People whose testimony to Luke could be checked by the disciples. 01:27:44.050 --> 01:27:51.190 So, because many, as Luke says, have desired to write history, 01:27:51.350 --> 01:27:55.770 which I say may be sayings collections, of those works we are familiar with, 01:27:56.330 --> 01:28:00.110 according to what they delivered to us, those who from the beginning were 01:28:00.110 --> 01:28:05.570 eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, it seemed good also to me, because I have 01:28:05.570 --> 01:28:09.810 attended carefully to all of them, that everything I should write down in its 01:28:09.810 --> 01:28:15.730 order for you, Noble Taupila, that's Aramaic for Theophilus, that you may know 01:28:15.730 --> 01:28:18.030 the truth of the words that you were taught. 01:28:19.930 --> 01:28:26.210 So, when dealing with the letters of Rav Shal and others, we need to be careful. 01:28:27.170 --> 01:28:31.410 Liberal scholars decry this method that I'm using because they claim it's a 01:28:31.410 --> 01:28:36.470 circular argument to use one part of the Renewed Covenant to prove the historicity 01:28:36.470 --> 01:28:36.850 of another. 01:28:37.650 --> 01:28:42.450 To answer that charge, I will again focus on these things that are agreed on in 01:28:42.450 --> 01:28:43.550 extra-biblical sources. 01:28:45.370 --> 01:28:52.070 The general historicity of the Renewed Covenant has been confirmed to the 01:28:52.070 --> 01:28:54.350 greatest extent that archaeology can provide. 01:28:55.310 --> 01:29:00.090 So, go back to my friend the modern Thomas, he says, fraudulent relics like 01:29:00.090 --> 01:29:01.450 the James ossuary. 01:29:02.490 --> 01:29:04.850 Oh boy, here's a question. 01:29:05.470 --> 01:29:09.770 What does this statement have to do with the real fairy tale of the Wizard of Oz? 01:29:09.870 --> 01:29:14.870 And the answer is, they both feature a straw man as the main character, 01:29:15.610 --> 01:29:17.350 if they only had a brain. 01:29:20.450 --> 01:29:24.870 But I'm going to deal with another accusation that Thomas gives, the 01:29:24.870 --> 01:29:26.290 fraudulent James ossuary. 01:29:26.490 --> 01:29:29.490 Uh-oh, we've got a graphics problem here. 01:29:30.670 --> 01:29:34.590 This is not the fraudulent James ossuary. 01:29:34.830 --> 01:29:35.830 What was I thinking? 01:29:36.790 --> 01:29:43.550 This is the ossuary of Caiaphas, a real guy in the New Testament, 01:29:43.950 --> 01:29:46.990 the high priest who condemned Yeshua. 01:29:48.110 --> 01:29:53.230 Found in his family plot, exactly where it was supposed to be in 1990. 01:29:53.890 --> 01:29:59.890 There's the Hebrew to prove it, Yosef Bar Kaffa, right there. 01:30:01.290 --> 01:30:07.970 So, why, Thomas, do you mention the frauds and ignore the facts? 01:30:11.910 --> 01:30:17.550 Continuing, in terms of the written record of wider history, Josephus and the renewed 01:30:17.550 --> 01:30:19.190 covenant are also in agreement. 01:30:19.790 --> 01:30:24.310 So, why would the renewed covenant be wrong about Yeshua, the star of the show, 01:30:25.150 --> 01:30:27.830 when it agrees with Josephus on these basics as well? 01:30:29.430 --> 01:30:34.090 Number three, the idea that the gospel is developed after the rest of the New 01:30:34.090 --> 01:30:39.710 Testament, with traditions not known to Raphael and others, is ridiculous. 01:30:41.590 --> 01:30:45.270 The epistles don't come first, they come last. 01:30:45.830 --> 01:30:48.450 Let me show you, from Romans 1, 1 through 4. 01:30:50.070 --> 01:30:55.590 Paul, a servant of Yeshua, the Mashiach called and sent, separated the good news 01:30:55.590 --> 01:31:00.810 of Elohim, that he, Elohim, had before promised by his prophets, and set apart 01:31:00.810 --> 01:31:05.190 scriptures concerning his son, who was born in the flesh of the seed and 01:31:05.190 --> 01:31:10.090 the house of Dawid, was made known as the son of Elohim by power, and by the rule of 01:31:10.090 --> 01:31:14.770 Kakadesh, who arose from the dead, Yeshua the Mashiach, our master. 01:31:15.310 --> 01:31:16.810 This is a gospel account. 01:31:17.630 --> 01:31:22.510 This is a summary of Yeshua's ministry, dated to the year 60. 01:31:25.710 --> 01:31:29.730 And then we have these other quotes, written of a written form of Matthew, 01:31:30.050 --> 01:31:35.130 or other gospels, that come out of the mouths of people who are dead by the year 01:31:35.130 --> 01:31:35.590 67. 01:31:37.690 --> 01:31:43.690 All I'm doing here is saying that Paul wrote Paul's letters, and so on and so 01:31:43.690 --> 01:31:43.950 forth. 01:31:43.990 --> 01:31:45.250 It's not that radical. 01:31:46.170 --> 01:31:48.130 When you do that, look at this. 01:31:48.970 --> 01:31:53.890 For I deliver to you from the first as I had received it, that the Mashiach died on 01:31:53.890 --> 01:31:56.190 account of our sins, as it is written. 01:31:57.250 --> 01:32:00.490 Not as it was spoken, as it was written. 01:32:00.950 --> 01:32:05.970 And that he was buried and arose on the third day, as it is written. 01:32:06.670 --> 01:32:10.930 What written account can he be talking about, other than the gospels? 01:32:13.350 --> 01:32:14.610 And here's another one. 01:32:15.750 --> 01:32:19.590 For I have received from our master that which I delivered to you, that our master 01:32:19.590 --> 01:32:23.470 Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and blessed it and broke it and 01:32:23.470 --> 01:32:27.470 said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for your sakes, 01:32:27.590 --> 01:32:28.950 do this in remembrance of me. 01:32:30.410 --> 01:32:34.750 So after they had dined, he also gave the cup and said, this is the cup of the 01:32:34.750 --> 01:32:36.190 renewed covenant in my blood. 01:32:36.610 --> 01:32:39.350 Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. 01:32:40.470 --> 01:32:45.410 Matthew the Mashiach, Matthew 26, 1 Corinthians 11. 01:32:48.310 --> 01:32:54.530 Verbatim quote, had to be Matthew circulating within the lifetime of the 01:32:54.530 --> 01:32:55.130 Apostle Paul. 01:32:57.530 --> 01:32:58.730 And here's another one. 01:32:59.750 --> 01:33:03.370 But above all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven nor by 01:33:03.370 --> 01:33:08.410 earth, nor by any other oath, but let your language be yes, yes and no, no, 01:33:08.950 --> 01:33:10.970 or else you become subject to judgment. 01:33:12.290 --> 01:33:16.410 Yaakov, James 512 and Matthew 537. 01:33:17.370 --> 01:33:23.770 So it's clear that the second section of the renewed covenant uses the written 01:33:23.770 --> 01:33:29.750 source of the first section, the one that came before it, the Gospels, to justify 01:33:29.750 --> 01:33:31.270 their beliefs. 01:33:32.770 --> 01:33:34.650 And I'm just getting warmed up on these. 01:33:34.730 --> 01:33:37.930 I could go all day on the rest of them, but I hope this makes the point. 01:33:38.190 --> 01:33:41.490 So let's move on to the conclusion. 01:33:43.050 --> 01:33:44.770 So here's where we start. 01:33:45.230 --> 01:33:49.070 We're going to finish the remainder of Thomas's points, where he says, 01:33:50.190 --> 01:33:53.410 accounts of Yeshua's followers, is that even evidence? 01:33:54.090 --> 01:33:55.290 What of the Krishna followers? 01:33:55.910 --> 01:33:57.450 Did Krishna then also exist? 01:33:57.750 --> 01:33:59.470 Which Savior God-man should we follow? 01:33:59.710 --> 01:34:00.250 Love, Thomas. 01:34:01.410 --> 01:34:03.650 Yes, Thomas, you're right. 01:34:04.290 --> 01:34:09.610 This is evidence different from these others you mentioned, and here's why. 01:34:11.210 --> 01:34:16.770 No follower of Krishna, Osiris, Hercules, Mithras, any of them has ever 01:34:16.770 --> 01:34:19.610 appealed to the history that they were directly a part of. 01:34:20.350 --> 01:34:25.410 In other words, the Shechim, the Apostles, tell us plainly, we were there, 01:34:25.870 --> 01:34:27.770 these things happened before our eyes. 01:34:28.250 --> 01:34:32.410 But for these others, they only report about legendary accounts, and you said it 01:34:32.410 --> 01:34:38.030 yourself, that happened thousands of years ago, centuries or millennia before they 01:34:38.030 --> 01:34:38.910 actually lived. 01:34:40.350 --> 01:34:45.790 And also, Thomas, there isn't a single bit of historical evidence that the people 01:34:45.790 --> 01:34:48.290 around these gods and heroes ever existed. 01:34:49.610 --> 01:34:51.790 Show me, Thomas, because I've read them all. 01:34:52.810 --> 01:34:59.570 Show me an eyewitness to Jason and the Argonauts, or Odysseus, or any of this 01:34:59.570 --> 01:35:02.310 other stuff that you read about Osiris or whatever. 01:35:03.090 --> 01:35:09.450 No, it's always, I'm telling you a story from a long time ago and a galaxy far, 01:35:09.690 --> 01:35:09.990 far away. 01:35:11.510 --> 01:35:17.790 But Caiaphas, Pilate, the Apostles, Yeshua, they have all been verified 01:35:17.790 --> 01:35:23.530 directly in the records, biblical and extra-biblical alike. 01:35:25.030 --> 01:35:30.370 And no enemy of the faiths of these false gods ever had to begrudgingly go, 01:35:30.730 --> 01:35:32.030 well, I hate those people. 01:35:32.410 --> 01:35:36.270 I hate what they believe in, but I admit that they existed. 01:35:36.710 --> 01:35:38.110 I admit that these things happened. 01:35:38.850 --> 01:35:43.970 But the rabbinic and the Roman sources have basically been dragged, kicking and 01:35:43.970 --> 01:35:47.810 screaming, to admit that Yeshua was a real person. 01:35:49.290 --> 01:35:53.910 So my final answer to Thomas on this point is, there's an email. 01:35:55.450 --> 01:35:59.650 Again, the main point I want to stress is that every claim Yeshua made about 01:35:59.650 --> 01:36:04.810 himself, every claim the original and real followers did in his name, not what got 01:36:04.810 --> 01:36:10.890 corrupted later into Christianity, was derived from Tanakh, from the Old 01:36:10.890 --> 01:36:11.250 Testament. 01:36:12.290 --> 01:36:17.790 From my point of view then, I believe that the enemy wants to confuse people then and 01:36:17.790 --> 01:36:23.530 now, so he makes counterfeits that look like the truth, but have just enough lie 01:36:23.530 --> 01:36:25.130 in them to lead people astray. 01:36:26.230 --> 01:36:31.230 Satan is the father of lies, the prince and the power of the world, and he has 01:36:31.230 --> 01:36:34.870 lied to us from the very beginning while appearing as a being of light. 01:36:35.430 --> 01:36:39.990 That's why, Thomas, the word Lucifer means light bearer, in case you were wondering. 01:36:41.690 --> 01:36:46.250 But then Thomas writes me back, and while he's not British, I seem to be 01:36:46.250 --> 01:36:52.850 feeling or channeling a British accent with this highfalutin language, 01:36:53.010 --> 01:36:53.710 as we like to say. 01:36:54.490 --> 01:37:02.130 And he says, you seem to be alluding to the defense of diabolical mimicry, 01:37:02.630 --> 01:37:07.610 a pathetic and desperate defense that I once came up with also. 01:37:08.010 --> 01:37:14.410 The idea that Satan knew what Yeshua would do outsmarted Yahweh, and so was smart 01:37:14.410 --> 01:37:19.250 enough to ensure that his evil followers would copy Yeshua's story thousands of 01:37:19.250 --> 01:37:23.870 years before they would happen for real, that is an utterly pathetic and 01:37:23.870 --> 01:37:25.390 disgraceful offense. 01:37:26.270 --> 01:37:27.070 Pip pip cheerio. 01:37:27.910 --> 01:37:35.390 Well, yes, Thomas, there's something very pathetic going on, and it isn't me. 01:37:36.390 --> 01:37:43.650 You saw the truth yourself, and through the eyes of faith, and then you closed 01:37:43.650 --> 01:37:45.870 your eyes, and you discarded it. 01:37:46.470 --> 01:37:47.690 Think about it, Thomas. 01:37:48.030 --> 01:37:55.370 Just imagine, if there was a being like Satan, isn't this exactly the kind of 01:37:55.370 --> 01:37:57.090 thing he would do to confuse you? 01:38:00.070 --> 01:38:05.350 So, Thomas, and each of us needs to seek that path of truth, no question. 01:38:06.590 --> 01:38:08.730 So we are confident we found the way. 01:38:09.290 --> 01:38:13.710 So, until such time, let us review where we've been together. 01:38:16.570 --> 01:38:21.050 We've seen that the test asked for by skeptics to prove a historical Yeshua 01:38:21.050 --> 01:38:23.790 don't apply to any other ancient figure. 01:38:24.190 --> 01:38:24.870 Not fair. 01:38:26.370 --> 01:38:31.290 That even if we throw out Josephus' testimonium, the controversial passage 01:38:31.290 --> 01:38:36.650 about Yeshua completely, other parts of Josephus mention a historical Yeshua and 01:38:36.650 --> 01:38:39.450 have never been disputed by any scholar. 01:38:40.770 --> 01:38:45.910 Number three, that the lack of a mention about Yeshua by Philo neither adds nor 01:38:45.910 --> 01:38:47.450 detracts from the overall discussion. 01:38:49.050 --> 01:38:55.230 Number four, that the Roman historians writing only 90 years later, again, 01:38:55.390 --> 01:39:01.530 not 750, not 1,000, not 1,300, have no reason to lie about a historical 01:39:01.530 --> 01:39:01.970 Yeshua. 01:39:02.630 --> 01:39:03.190 Why bother? 01:39:05.490 --> 01:39:10.270 That Talmudic and Gnostic sources, while clearly rejecting the theology of 01:39:10.270 --> 01:39:15.550 the Renewed Covenant, nevertheless retain a basic historical memory of both the man 01:39:15.550 --> 01:39:16.930 and his teachings. 01:39:18.930 --> 01:39:24.210 And number six, that the Renewed Covenant itself is the most ancient and reliable 01:39:24.210 --> 01:39:25.470 witness. 01:39:25.470 --> 01:39:31.290 The most ancient and reliable witnesses, East and West combined here, have much to 01:39:31.290 --> 01:39:36.030 say on how this corpus of literature came into existence. 01:39:37.530 --> 01:39:42.070 And number seven, that the historical record can prove the earliest believers 01:39:42.070 --> 01:39:46.070 consistently proclaimed Yeshua as a miracle worker who, by the way, 01:39:46.450 --> 01:39:47.610 rose from the dead. 01:39:50.290 --> 01:39:55.570 But as for proving the resurrection itself, proving the eyewitnesses 01:39:55.570 --> 01:40:02.490 themselves correct, I need to defer to one more modern source. 01:40:05.890 --> 01:40:07.790 The Gospel according to the Matrix. 01:40:09.510 --> 01:40:12.350 Remember, I'm offering the truth. 01:40:13.290 --> 01:40:16.270 I can only show you the door, but you have to walk through it. 01:40:17.050 --> 01:40:17.790 Why the Matrix? 01:40:18.730 --> 01:40:24.190 Well, the forerunner is named Morpheus, which means change. 01:40:24.730 --> 01:40:28.370 The Messiah figure is named Neo, which means new. 01:40:29.410 --> 01:40:33.370 And by the way, the character named Trinity dies twice. 01:40:34.330 --> 01:40:35.450 What's not to like? 01:40:36.090 --> 01:40:41.150 And so, as we get ready to close, I'd like to pose a very important question 01:40:41.150 --> 01:40:42.030 to all of you. 01:40:42.690 --> 01:40:48.450 And the question is this, will you walk through the door, the path that leads to 01:40:48.450 --> 01:40:49.250 life? 01:40:49.750 --> 01:40:54.350 As Yeshua said in the book of Revelation, Behold, I have been standing at the door 01:40:54.350 --> 01:40:55.790 and I will knock. 01:40:56.310 --> 01:41:01.330 And if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and he will 01:41:01.330 --> 01:41:04.570 dine with me and I will dine with him. 01:41:05.650 --> 01:41:11.130 And as we wait for that particular day, I just wanted to say thank you so much for 01:41:11.130 --> 01:41:13.330 taking time to hear me out. 01:41:13.550 --> 01:41:20.430 And I encourage you to write to me at theyeshuaofhistory.com, where we can 01:41:20.430 --> 01:41:25.030 discuss all the historical facts together in civility and mutual respect. 01:41:25.390 --> 01:41:32.570 Let's plumb the mysteries of the word together and let's reason together as this 01:41:32.570 --> 01:41:36.390 is pleasing to our father Yahweh in all respect and truth. 01:41:37.050 --> 01:41:40.690 And I look forward to getting that correspondence and going over that 01:41:40.690 --> 01:41:41.630 information with you. 01:41:42.270 --> 01:41:45.970 And until that time, I wish you all Shalom. 01:41:46.710 --> 01:41:47.290 Thank you.