Palestine Series, Episode 4 – Roman and Christian Rule, Proselytism and Ethnicity (63 BCE to 638 CE)

E4.1 The Roman Empire

E4.1.1 New Religious Stories and Jewish Revolt

• The Roman Republic becomes the Roman Empire
  • Palestine was ruled by the Roman Republic from 63 BCE. In 49 or 27 BCE (depending on your view), the Roman Empire was established
    • Some historians regard 49 BCE as the start of the Roman Empire, when Ceaser defeated Pompey, ended the civil war in the Roman Republic and became the first Dictator of Rome (until he was assassinated 5 years later)
    • Others put it at 27 BCE when Ceaser’s adopted son, Octavianus, consolidated his power, officially became the first Emperor of Rome and took the name, Augustus
  • He ruled as Emperor for 41 years, until his death in 14 CE, during the birth of Jesus (and the start of quite a few new stories)
• The birth of Jesus
  • The birth of Jesus is placed around 6 BCE to 4 BCE by most Biblical scholars (while Palestine was ruled by the Roman Empire)
  • The new monotheistic religion of Christianity gradually developing mid 1st century CE, based on the teachings of Jesus and especially Paul
    • Jesus was a Jew who worshipped Yahweh. In other words his religion was Judaism
      • “He was a Jew, born to Jewish parents, raised in the Jewish culture; he became a teacher of the Jewish law, gather around him a group of Jewish followers, and interrupted them in the essence of what he saw to be the true worship of the Jewish God” [5b]
      • There were many wandering preachers at the time. One interesting book by a New Testament scholar is “The Life of a Galilean Shaman” by PF Craffert [5c]
    • It was largely Paul who turned Christianity into a new universal religion for “gentiles”
  • Jesus and his followers spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language closely related to Arabic, which became the lingua franca of the lower classes. Greek was then well-established as the language of the urban elite as a result of the Hellenization accompanying the previous Greek rule
• New Stories Emerge about Jesus
  • More than a generation after the death of Jesus (placed between 28 and 35 CE), the written Gospels started to appear, from around 90 – 110 CE [3]
  • They were not written by illiterate Aramaic-speaking fishermen (or people who personally knew Jesus), but by educated people writing in good Koine Greek
  • With the passage of time the stories about Jesus became embellished, and by the time some of these stories were put in writing, in  the Gospels, words were also put in Jesus’ mouth about his status as the “Son of Man” or the “Son of God” (and “Luke” started the virgin birth story)
    • If one looks critically at the original sources, rather than through the lens of the Christian narrative or current dogma, it’s pretty clear that Jesus did not see himself as god. He worshipped Yahweh
    • And even so long after the death of Jesus, 3 of the Gospels still do not describe him as divine
    • The term “Son of God” also did not imply divinity at the time. In the Tanakh it was applied to humans, like the king. It gained a different meaning after the Trinity dogma emerged in the 4th century
  • The claim that a person living among them was actually divine was inconceivable in the Judaism of the 1st century. Keep in mind they only became fully and strictly monotheistic about 300 years earlier after many centuries of strive
    • Which is why this story could only gain credibility later, among people who did not know Jesus personally
    • It also created a bigger rift between Judaism and Christianity, as the former found the claims of Jesus’ divinity unacceptable and offensive
    • It is one of the reasons why Judaism initially had a better rapport with Islam than Christianity (see following Episodes, like Episode 5)
  • The divinity of Jesus remained quite controversial for centuries, and only became church doctrine in 325 CE with the strong influence of the Roman Emperor (Constantine I). This was almost 300 years after the death of Jesus
  • And the Biblical canon (including the current 4 Gospels), was only finalized and formalized between 350 CE and 419 CE
  • Good critical sources on the development of the stories about the divinity of Jesus:
    • Prof Maurice Casey published “From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God – The Origins and Development of New Testament Christology” in 1991 [4]
    • “Jesus Interrupted” by Prof Bart D. Ehrman [5]
    • “The Life of a Galilean Shaman” by Prof P.F. Craffert [5c]
    • “And Man Created God – A History of the World at the Time of Jesus” by Selina O’Grady [6]
    • “How Jesus became God” by Prof Bart D. Ehrman [7]

• Jewish Revolt
  • There were several wars and two major revolts by the Jews against the Romans, the Great Jewish Revolt (or the Zealot Revolt) starting in 66 CE and the Bar Kokhba Revolt starting in 132 CE
  • The Great Jewish Revolt in 66 CE led to the Romans destroying the 2nd temple in 70 CE. Only the Western (wailing) Wall remained on the Temple Mount. It has not been rebuilt to this day, despite several plans to do it
  • The Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132 CE. The Jews, under the leadership of Shimon bar-Kokhba, revolted against Roman rule. They mustered a large force, captured 50 strongholds (including Jerusalem) as well as 985 other towns/villages. It took the Roman army 3 years with several reinforcements to fully squash this revolt
  • The Romans officially renamed “Roman Judea” to “Provincia Syria Palaestina” in 135 CE, after they squashed the Bar Kokhba Revolt [15]
• Several of the Roman Emperors worshipped the pagan gods of Rome, including the son god, Mithra or Mithras. These Emperors included, Commodus (180 – 192 CE), Septimus Severus (193 – 211 CE), Caracalla (211 – 217 CE) and Diocletian (284 – 305 CE)
  • Mithraism was a thriving religion in the Roman Empire until the 4th century [15b]
  • It was a strong competitor of the small new religion, Christianity
  • Both Judaism and Christianity were troublesome religions for them and their Empire 
  • This led to persecution of Christians and Jews for not worshipping the right gods, for lack of loyalty and for bringing calamity to the Empire in that way
  • This is very similar to the religious elite in Judea in the 6th century blaming their countrymen for not only worshipping Yahweh, but also a pantheon of other gods, and blaming their political problems on this
  • Diocletian was the last Emperors who persecuted Christians, at the start of the 4th century.

E4.1.2 The narrative of the Jewish exile in 70 CE (Layer 2)

• A central part of the Zionist narrative holds that the Jews were forcibly exiled from their land by the Romans after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE, wandered the globe hoping to return to freedom in their ancient homeland (”The Wandering Jew”). This is covered in many sources, including Israel’s Declaration of Independence of 1948
• Let’s investigate the historic reliability of this narrative. Many historians (especially Jewish historians) researched this thoroughly. A good example is Prof Shlomo Sand at the Tel Aviv University. When he started his research into this “exile” he was a secular Jew and not a Zionist, but he still naively accepted the historical accuracy of this narrative, as he was raised with it in Israel [10]
• However, he could not find a single scholarly historical study on the topic, as there is simply no evidence for it. What the evidence actually indicates:
  • The meticulous and well-preserved Roman records of the time does not mention an exile at all
  • The Romans never exiled the local population anywhere in their empire. The locals had to do the work (like work the land, produce food) and pay taxes. The Assyrians and Babylonians, in some cases, deported a part of the population (the ruling class) for political reasons, but the Romans did not follow this custom
  • There is no archeological evidence of refugee groups around the borders of Judea after the revolt
  • The Palestinian Jews were largely agriculturalists at the time (and not merchants), whose livelihood depended on their land, which they would unlikely give up. In addition, they were not seafarers with no logistical means to migrate in large numbers
  • A vital fact: A mere 60 years after this supposed large-scale forced exile in 70 CE there was a 2nd major revolt against the Romans (the Bar Kokhba Revolt). Who revolted on this scale that the Romans needed military reinforcements, if all/most of the Jews were exiled?
• Jewish historian, Shmuel Safrai, showed that by the end of the 1st century the Jewish culture went into one of its most fruitful periods in Palestine [16]
• Another Jewish historian (Israel Jacob Yuval, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem) showed that the story of the Jewish exile originated in the 4th century [17]
  • With the big rivalry between Christianity and Judaism during the first few centuries (and with the development of Christian Antisemitism, covered in Episode 7), Christian apologetics started writing about Jewish exile as divine punishment for their sins/transgressions
  • This story then also made it into the Jewish tradition 
  • And from there it eventually made its way into the Zionist Narrative during the 19th century
• One of the biggest problems with the exile story is that it cannot account for the large Jewish communities outside of Judea, some of them well before 70 CE
  • There was a large thriving Jewish community in Babylon, ever since the Babylonian exile (the only one established as a result of forced exile)
  • But there were also large communities in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Antioch, Damascus, Ephesus, Salamis, Athens, Rome, Thessaloniki and Corinth
  • Indications are that Alexander the Great’s conquering of Persia and the establishing of the Hellenic world was the catalyst, with Judaism spreading alongside Hellenism
  • In 59 BCE the Roman orator, Cicero, complained about the many Jews in Rome and during the 1st century the Alexandrian philosopher Philo mentioned the large number of Jews in Egypt (by all accounts more than in Judea)
• The conclusion is clear: there was no forceable and large-scale deportation of Jews by the Romans after 70 CE. At most some Jews migrated voluntarily, partially to escape oppressive conditions. But such a migration cannot account for the large number of Jewish communities or the time of their appearance. We’ll have to look elsewhere for an answer (see E4.3 below).

‘A mere 60 years after this supposed large-scale forced exile in 70 CE there was a 2nd major revolt against the Romans (the Bar Kokhba Revolt). Who revolted on this scale that the Romans needed military reinforcements, if all/most of the Jews were exiled?’

E4.1.3 Constantine the Great

• The 4th century CE was a critical turning point for Christianity and Judaism, with 2 Roman Emperors playing a decisive role
• Diocletian became Emperor in 284 CE towards the end of a very turbulent 3rd century for the Roman Empire. Diocletian was a significant emperor who managed to stabilize the Empire. He was also a worshipper of Mithras, the sun god, and a strong supporter of Mithraism. He persecuted Christians for their lack of loyalty to the Roman Empire and their gods, and is typically harshly judged from a Christian perspective, but was quite a successful Emperor under challenging circumstances [2c]
• The Tetrarchy
  • From 286 – 293 CE Diocletian formed the Tetrarchy of 4 Emperors ruling the big and unstable empire 
  • He started by appointing a junior emperor (Maximian), with the title ceasar, to assist him in the western part of the empire in 285.  In 286 he promoted Maximian to full co-emperor, with the title augustus
  • He expanded this arrangement into the full Tetrarchy in 293, when he appointed two junior emperors (ceasars): Galerius to be his junior in the East and Constantius to be Maxentius’ junior in the West
  • This was not a division of the EMpire, it was co-ruling with different spheres of influence. All 4 tetrarchs more or less ruled a quarter of the empire, with the ceasers each falling under an ausgustus
  • The Tetrarch was set up with a term to expire in 305 CE
  • In 305 CE both augusti (Diocletian and Miximian) abdicated as their term expired. Both the ceasers were promoted to augusti. Severus II was appointed ceaser in the west under Constantius, and Maximinus in the east under Galerius. Diocletian’s innovative and inclusive Tetrarchy functioned very well to ensure transfer of power, and the 2nd Tetrarch was on its way
  • However, that would change very soon. In 306 CE Constantius died leading to the end of the Tertrarchy and a complex power struggle 
• The Rise of Constantine I
  • Constantine was installed as augustus in the west in 306 CE, by the army of his father Constantius, but this was bitterly contested
  • Maxentious emerged as his main challenger in the west. Their armies met at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome on 28 October 312 CE, where Constantine I was victorious and consolidated his power as the Western Emperor. He credited his victory to the Christian god [11] [11a] [11b]
  • It took him another 12 years to consolidate his power over the entire empire (see below)
• The Stories about Constantine’s Conversion
  • Constantine’s mother, Helena, was a devout Christian who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Some stories claim that she was the reason he converted to Christianity
  • The most common story comes from Constantine’s biography, written by Bishop Eusebius who was his Court Bishop for the entirety of his reign. According to Eusebius Constantine personally told him about a vision he had the day before the battle about the Christian symbols he should use to conquer. This was reinforced by a dream that night that he should use the Christian symbols for protection. Constantine then instructed his army to add the Christian symbols to their shields and credited his victory the next day to the Christian god
  • Many modern historians are understably quite skeptical about these claims and for good reason
    • Eusebius published a “Church History” the year after this battle, yet he made no mention of this which one would expect to be enormously important for a Church History in 313 CE
    • Eusebius only mentioned this in Constantine’s posthumous biography, after Constantine’s death in 337 CE (and 25 years after the event). Why did he only publish it after Constantine’s death, when the powerful Emperor could no longer dispute the authenticity of the story?
    • Lucius Lactantious, another Christian author of the time, mentions the dream but not the vision. There are also differences in the 2 stories about the dream
    • As a Christian bishop, Eusebius clearly had an interest in supernatural stories legitimising Christianity and the political influence it (and he personally) started to gain
    • Critical sources:
      • “Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age” by Jonathan Bardon [12]
      • “The Emperor Constantine” by Hans Pohlsander [13]
  • Be that as it may, it seems fairly sure that Constantine credited the Christian god with his victory in 312 CE, and that he became a protector of this religion ever since, which had a big impact on Christianity and the course of history
  • As Pohlander (and other historians) point out, Constantine’s embrace of Christianity was far more likely an example of realpolitik:
    • He was a cautious and conservative political strategist
    • He had ambitions to gain control of the entire Roman Empire of which only a small percentage was Christian (and they were neither influential nor well-regarded). With Constantine not even assured of his position as the Western Emperor at the time, it seems highly unlikely that he would gone all-in on a new unpopular religion
    • He probably used religion strategically for a wider support base, and later to unite the empire
• Emperor Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan in 313 CE, in which he legalized Christianity and allowed them freedom of religion (a mere 8 years after the persecution by Diocletian). This edict did not make Christianity the State Religion of the Roman Empire, as often claimed. That only happened 77 years later, long after Constantine’s death
• In 324 Constantine I defeated the Eastern Emperor (Licinius) and unified the Roman Empire again. With this Palestine became a Christian protectorate of the Roman Empire

• In 325 Constantine called the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (the year after he became sole emperor). He also funded and opened this council
  • This marked the beginning of the Roman Emperors’ influence on (and direct interference in) Christianity, and the rise of the political influence of Christianity
  • At this Council the Nicean Crede was accepted, the first standardised creed of Christianity, brought about by the emperor. This creed declared Jesus to be divine, almost 300 years after his death. It did not establish the doctrine of the Trinity, as is often claimed
  • Constantine banned Arius and his followers, the church leaders who did not accept the divinity of Jesus
• In the same year his mother, Helena, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in which she claimed to have witnessed Jesus’ real tomb and the real cross on which he was sacrificed. Constantine then funded and commanded the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchar in Jersualem. It is supposed to house the real tomb of Jesus. Construction commenced in 326 CE and it was consecrated in 334 CE. It is still one of the 4 “most holy” buildings on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (and the only Christian one)
• In 330 CE Constantine I relocated the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium in present-day Turkey. It became known as Constantinople (and later as Istanbul). Palestine was therefore ruled by the joint Roman Empire from Constantinople from 330 CE until 395 CE

E4.1.4 Theodosius I and the story of the Trinity

• In 379 CE Emperor Theodosius I was baptised into the Christian faith in Thessalonica, during a serious illness [14]
• In 380 CE Christianity became the State Religion of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica issued by the 3 co-emperors. Theodosius I (the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire at the time) played the leading role in this development
  • This Imperial decree also made Christianity and the acceptance of the Trinity compulsary within the Empire, and declared heresy illegal 
  • This was the year before the Trinity became church dogma
  • Christianity becomes the Official Religion of the Roman Empire – The CSF
• In 381 Emperor Theodosius I called the First Council of Constantinople and actively interfered in it
  • The Trinity Dogma Finally Emerges – The CSF
  • The dogma of the Trinity became offical dogma, about 350 years after the death of Jesus, while Theodosius I issued Imperial Decrees to enforce all the decisions of the council
  • The Roman Catholic Church used violent coercion to enforce the dogma of the Trinity until 1826
• In 385 (a mere 5 years after they became State Religion) Christianity started their persecution of “heretics”, “witches”, Jews and later scientists, with the beheading of 1 of their bishops and 6 of his followers (devout Christians for not accepting the dogma of the Trinity on biblical grounds)
  • Christianity starts its 1,500 years of Persecution – The CSF
  • Episodes 5 and 6 discuss the persecution of Jews by Christians in more detail
• As the new Catholic Church (the term coined by Theodosius) started to wield its newfound political power quite ruthlessly, they found it useful to refocus on some of the violent Old Testament stories about Yahweh, the erstwhile warrior-god of Edom [9]
• It is important to realize that in the first few centuries CE, before Christianity became the State Religion of the Roman Empire in 380 CE, there was rivalry between Judaism and Christianity, with Jerusalem gradually becoming a Christian city
• All these developments (with Christianity moving up from the religion of the poor and the under dog to the State Religion of the mighty Roman Empire), had a big impact on the forming and influence of the Bible, on Christian dogma and thus on the influence of foundation layer of the Zionist narrative

Only the last 15 years of the Roman Empire ruling Palestine, can be regarded as Christian rule (380 CE to 395 CE).

E4.2 The Byzantine Empire

• Despite several schisms and reunifications of the Roman Empire the date largely accepted as the final partitioning is 395 CE with the death of Theodosius I, who divided his Empire between his two sons. Palestine fell inside the Eastern Empire
• After the partition of the Roman Empire the Western Roman Empire fell to Germanic tribes in 476 CE, but Palestine remained under the control of the remaining Eastern Byzantine Empire
• So technically Palestine was ruled by the Byzantine Empire from 395 CE, for almost 250 years until Jerusalem fell to the Muslim Caliphate in 638 CE
• The Byzantines created “Provincia Palaestina” and divided it into 3 [15]:
  • Palaestina Prima
  • Palaestina Secunda
  • Palaestina Tertia, which at some point also included Arabia
• Jews were oppressed under the Christian Byzantines and in some cases forced to convert
• Under the Byzantines there was also still a pronounced class divide based on language, with Christian peasants speaking Aramaic and the urban elites speaking (and writing in) Koine Greek
• During this period some of the Arabic speaking Arabian tribes became part of Provincia Palaestina. There was an inflow of Arabic speaking people into Palestine under Christian rule, as Arabian tribes migrated westwards. Archeological evidence point to the start of this migration during the rule of the Byzantine Empire
• Palestine was under Christian Imperial rule for 258 years, from 380 CE to 638 CE

“17 In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them” – Esther 8:17

E4.3 Proselytism and Ethnicity

• In E4.1.2 above, we saw that the story of the large-scale forced exile of Jews by Rome in 70CE is not supported by the evidence. Apart from the lack of evidence for this, and the evidence to the contrary, one of the main flaws with this story is that it cannot account for the timing and scale of Jewish communities outside of Palestine, even before 70 CE 
• The crux of the answer is that contrary to popular belief, Judaism historically was an active proselytizing religion, like Christianity and Islam would later be. It is still a proselytizing religion to this day (see Critical Insights, below) 
• In his doctoral thesis in 1965 the Jewish historian (and expert on Second Temple Judaism) Uriel Rappaport, pointed out that the large scale of the expansion of Judaism in the ancient world cannot be accounted for by natural increase or migration, but only by mass conversions [18]. He also concluded that Judaism enthusiastically proselytized
• Their proselytizing later took place outside the Christian Roman Empire and the Muslim Caliphate, as both these religions tolerated Jews but prohibited them from proselytizing (among other restrictions)
• It is also clear that the large number of Jewish communities in a way prepared the way for the other two monotheisms where they conquered areas with a strong Jewish presence (like it happened in Mecca for example)
• The Mishnah, the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud and several commentaries contain a large number of passages urging Jews to accept proselytes and to treat them as equals. In the Rabbinical tradition several rabbis are on record with this same message, and proselytes held prominent positions, including that of rabbis. Examples: Shemaiah who became the president of the Sanhedrin in the Hasmonean Kingdom, Rabbi Yochanan the Convert, Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph, Rabbi Meir, etc. Proselytes were required by the Talmud to undergo both immersion and circumcision, and by the 3rd generation they were typically regarded as fully Jewish. [19][20]
• The main examples of large-scale proselytism [21]
  • Conversions in Persia by the Jewish community which elected not to return to Jerusalem. Some of the evidence of this is parents with Persian names, who converted to Judaism and then gave their kids Jewish names
  • Evidence from the Bible in Esther 8: 17 (written in the late Persian period): “17 In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them”. Also take note of the coercion
  • The forced proselytizing by the Hasmonean Kingdom, like the entire Kingdom of Edom in 125 BCE (as covered in Episode 3)
  • Conversions in Rome, with Cicero already complaining in 58 BCE about the large numbers of Jews in Rome
  • Damascus was a flourishing centre during the Hellenistic Period, and conversions to Judaism here was even bigger in the 2nd and 1st century BCE, than in Egypt. Arab historians write about the Jews from Syria who took their religion to North Africa
  • Antioch was a flourishing centre during the Hellenistic Period. The Egyptian Philo Judaeus, who converted to Judaism is a prime example of these conversions. In Egypt we found the same evidence as in Persia, with converted Egyptians giving their kids Jewish names. There is evidence of Judaism also spreading from Egypt to other parts of North Africa
  • Early conversions in North Africa, in the 1st century BCE from both Syria and Egypt
  • The Kingdom of Himyar (E4.3.1, directly below)
  • Queen Kahina and the Berbers in North Africa (E4.3.2)
  • The Kingdom of Khazaria (E4.3.3)

E4.3.1 Kingdom of Himyar

• Himyar was a tribal kingdom on the southern end of the Arabia peninsula (present-day Yemen)
• There is clear archeological evidence that this kingdom converted to Judaism towards the end of the 4th century CE under King Abu Karid Assad, who returned from the north with two Jews and then proceeded to convert his entire kingdom. [22]
• There are numerous sources mentioning the execution of a Christian missionary in Himyar by the Jews
• And there is evidence of a continued war between the Jewish Himyar and the Christian Kingdom of Aksum in Ethiopia
• Some Zionist historians tried to make the argument that this was not a conversion, but Jews of ethnic Jewish descent (without any evidence). This part of history was also removed from Israeli school text books during the 1950s.

E4.3.2 Queen Kahina and the Berbers in North Africa

• North Africa was one of the regions where Judaism was most successful with large-scale proselytizing in the first few centuries CE. This started to slow somewhat around the Mediterranean from the 4th century when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. The growth of Judaism in North Africa by proselytizing is a topic Zionist do not like to emphasise, or if they acknowledge it, try to rationalize it (which Sand calls the “Realm of Silence”) [21]
• There was large-scale conversions to Judaism among the Berbers. During the 7th century the Judaized Berbers were led by Queen Kahina, who was killed by invading Arabs in 694 CE. Some of her followers converted to Islam and other stayed loyal to Judaism
• Two of the famous Christian Church Fathers were from North Africa, Tertullian and Augustin. They were concerned about the large number of Jews in North Africa and especially Tertullian was sharply critical of proselytized Jews
• Andre Chouraqui, a French-Israeli scholar, stated that by the 12th century half of the Jews of North Africa were descendants of Berber converts [23]
• The famous Arab historian of the 14th century CE (Ibn Khaldun) writes the following “Some of the Berbers practiced Judaism, which they had received from their powerful Israelite neighbours in Syria. Among the Jewish Berbers were the Djeraoua, who inhabited Aures, the tribe of Kahina, who was killed by the Arabs in their first conquest. Other Jewish tribes were the Nefouca, of the African Berbers, the Fendelaoua, the Mediioun, Behloula, Giatha and the Berbers of the extreme Maghreb, the Fazaz” [24]
• Several other Arab historians referred to these proselytes in North Africa.

E4.3.3 Khazaria or the Khazar Kingdom

• The Khazar Kingdom existed from around the 4th century between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia, north-eastern Turkey and possibly south-eastern Ukraine)
• This kingdom should not be confused with the Muslim Khwarazmian Empire (a Turkish-Persian Sunni Muslim Empire and a dominant force in the 13th century), mentioned in Episode 5. They both existed during the Abbissid Caliphate
• A gradual process of conversion to Judaism started in the 8th century and took about a century.
• The mass proselytizing which started with the Hasmonean Kingdom reached a climax with the Khazars in the 8th century
• They consisted of Turkic, Hunn and Bulgar tribes, with the Khazarian language also a combination of these dialects, but their written language was Hebrew (due to their conversion). There is also evidence of some Jews fleeing to Khazaria from Constantinople to escape the Bizantynes
• Zionist historians did not make a research effort with Khazaria and in some cases tried to downplay its size and influence, and also tried to provide an ethnocentric perspective on the origins of this kingdom. By the 19th century the mass conversions were beyond doubt, based on all the evidence
• Based on some correspondence of the time, it looks like one of the reasons why they did not convert to Christianity or Islam, which both conquered large parts of the area, is that they wanted to be more independent (and somehow militarily succeeded)
• Their pagan and polytheistic background led to their kingdom being quite tolerant and pluralistic after conversion
• It is important to realize that the Kingdom of Khazaria was much bigger and more powerful than the Kingdom of Judea
• “Although the medieval Kingdom of the Khazars existed in distant obscurity, and no gifted theologians had praised and immortalized it as the biblical authors had done in their time and place, it is, however, attested by external sources far more varied and abundant than exist about the kingdom of David and Solomon. Jewish Khazaria was, of course, immeasurably bigger than any historical kingdom in the land of Judah. It was also more powerful than Himyar or the desert realm of Dihya al-Kahina.” [25]
• The Khazarians migrated westward and ruled the Principality of Kiev as a vassal
• Initially it was thought that the Khazar Kingdom was wiped out by the Russians in the 10th century. It is now clear that Russian attacks (and several wars with Muslims forces) diminished the kingdom and its influence, but that it survived until the 13th century when Gengis Khan and his Mongols invaded the area
• This was the end of the Khazarian Kingdom as a political entity, but many of the Khazarians migrated further west to present-day Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Some of them converted to Islam, but indications are that most of the ones who migrated west remained Judaists
• From there they later made their way to central Europe
• Here is a link to the “Khazars” article in the Jewish Virtual Library [26]
• More about this in Episode 6.

E4.4 Palestine Episode 4 – Critical Insights

E4.4.1 INSIGHT 1 – Layer 2 of the Zionist Narrative

• As shown in E4.1.2 above, there was no forced mass exile of Jews from Judea by the Romans in 70 CE, and even if there was, it cannot account for the large number of Jewish communities which appeared in the ancient world (many of them before 70 CE, from 150 BCE to 70 CE). If you regard this Layer 2 narrative as historical fact and you skipped E4.1.2 above, I suggest you revisit it
• The stories about “The Wandering Jew” being punished for his transgressions originated from 4th century Christian apologetic literature and from there made its way into the Jewish tradition
• One aspect of the Layer 2 Narrative is that the Jews were forcibly expelled by the Romans in 70 CE. The other exile story is that they were forcibly expelled by the Arabs in 638 CE. This story will be assessed in the next Episode (Episode 5)

E4.4.2 INSIGHT 2 – Mass Conversions to Judaism

• Contrary to popular belief, Judaism was an enthusiastic proselytizer, with mass conversions in many areas like the mediterranean, North Africa, Europe and Asia
• Some of these conversions were by force, like under the Hasmonean Kingdom
• Mass conversions is the only way to explain the spread of Judaism and the large number of Jewish communities, combined with an abundance of evidence. The evidence and detail were covered in E4.3.3 above
• What is quite ironic about Khazaria is that the Zionist narrative fully accept their own mythical foundational layer as historical fact, despite the evidence, and likewise reject the accurate Khazaria history as a myth, despite the evidence again. People tend to not question their narratives, and if they do to some degree, fall prey to the confirmation bias.
• There were at least 2 mass conversions in the 20th century (in 1948 and 1968), with ongoing conversions to this day, as covered in Episode 6 and 18.

‘It is clear that Jewish communities in large parts of the world were not ethnic Jews, but religious communities practicing Judaism with a significant part of them descendents of converts from a very large variety of different ethnicities‘

E4.4.3 INSIGHT 3 – Ethnicity

• It is clear that Jewish communities in large parts of the world were not ethnic Jews, but religious communities practicing Judaism with a significant part of them descendents of converts from a very large variety of different ethnicities
• We will return to this in more detail in subsequent episodes, like Episode 6 and 7, and it will be quite important when we analyze Layer 3 of the Zionist Narrative.

E4.4.4 INSIGHT 4 – The Second Monotheistic Abrahamic Faith with Political Power

• In 380 CE (544 years after Judaism became a strict monotheistic faith with political power which resulted in the conquest and forced conversion of the entire Kingdom of Edom) Christianity became the State Religion of the Roman Empire
• 5 Years later, in 385 they beheaded one of their bishops and 6 of his followers, the start of violent coercion and persecution which lasted for almost 1500 years until 1826
• The trend of intolerant monotheism and its lethal combination with political power continued.

E4.4.5 INSIGHT 5 – Historical Randomness and what could have been

• History is filled with random developments, a specific person winning a power struggle or a specific narrative gaining the upper hand, or both. And in many cases this is despite their respective merits. Joffrey becoming King of Westeros in The Game of Thrones is a good fictional example. Let’s look at a few relevant historical examples
• Yahweh. In Episode 2 we saw the centuries long struggle between different religious streams within the Israelite Kingdoms
  • In the 7th and 6th centuries BCE the Cult of Yahweh gained the upper-hand, and Yahweh (the erstwhile warrior-god of Edom) made his way into the Jewish scriptures
  • It is entirely possible and plausible that another group could have been victorious and that Baal or several of the other members of the Israelite pantheon could have made it into their scriptures
• Greek Philosophy. In Episode 3 we saw the spread of the powerful Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, with Hellenization sweeping the world
  • One has to wonder what would have happened if Alexander did not die young. It seems to me it is possible that it could have become bigger, more powerful and survived much longer
  • It is possible that in such a scenario Western civilization would have had a much stronger influence from Greek philosophy and much less influence from the Abrahamic religious stories 
• Christianity as a new universal religion. In this epsiode we saw how Paul turned the teachings of Jesus into a new universal religion, instead of a renewal of Judaism, as Jesus saw it
  • These new stories (and different interpretations of Jesus’ message) more than a genaration after Jesus’ death may not have been successful
  • And what if Jesus was not executed, he did not become a martyr figure (with all the opportunity to create myths about his death), and he had to deal with the daily problems of the Jews under Roman Rule as well as the big disgreements among themselves? He would have been in his 60s at the time of the Big Jewish Revolt and the destruction of the 2nd Temple
  • It is quite possible that the Ebionites (the original followers of Jesus) could have been more successful with their/his narrative and that this movement only succeeded in achieving some reforms within Judaism (or they could have failed with that)
  • And it is quite possible that if Jesus was not executed his following and reputation might have fizzled or eclipsed by one of the other wandering preachers or political leaders of the Great Jewish Revolt
• Mithraism. Mithraism was a flourishing religion in the Roman Empire with several Emperors worshipping Mithra. It was a stronger competitor to Christianity in the first few centuries CE
  • Constantine I and Theodosius I went with another god, and in they end they carried the day
  • If Constantine stayed loyal to Mithra (like Diocletian) or fought the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in the name of Mithra, the religion and main narratives of the West would have been very different, and Christianity might have been an obscure little religion today
• The divinity of Jesus. And even if Christianity still became a new religion (courtesy of Paul) and became the state religion of the Roman Empire (courtesy of Constantine and Theodosius), it is still entirely possibe that the Christian dogma could have developed in a very different way
  • Theodosius especially interfered heavily in Church matters. He made it illegal not to believe in the Trinity, before it was Church dogma, and he used the power of the state to issue edicts enforcing all the decisions of the Council of Constantinople (where the dogma of the Trinity was accepted with a strong push from Theodosius himself)
  • How different would Christianity be today, if the dogma of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus were not violently established and enforced? 

• Let’s zoom in on one very specific event in this ocean of random stories which influenced history, the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE (over and above the factual points already made in E4.1.3 above)
• It was commonplace for rulers to fight in the name (and under the protection) of a variety of gods
  • In some cases, the battle went their way and in others it didn’t
  • Darius the Great attributed his military victories to Ahura Mazda and Tiglath-Pileser III attributed his military victories to Ashur
• A few critical questions:
  • When Tiglath-Pileser III crushed the Kingdom of Judea in 734 BCE and turned them into an Assyrian vassal state (Episode 2), was the national Assyrian god Ashur, more powerful than Yahweh, the primary god of the Kingdom of Judea?
  • Why find significance and divine involvement in Constantine’s victory and not in Tiglath-Pileser’s?
  • Why not entertain the obvious explanation that in both cases the stronger military power was simply victorious?
• It’s also a good example of the confirmation bias, people see the hand of their god in events when it suits them and when it fits in with their narratives
• A critical thinker would say that the outcome of any battle is down to military power, logistical capability, strategy, funding, morale and possibly a bit of luck. A historical story of a supernatural vision and divine protection is about as credible as ancient Greek literature claiming Zeus threw thunderbolts or Persian records of Ahura Mazda giving Darius the Great military victories.

‘Why find significance and divine involvement in Constantine’s victory and not in Tiglath-Pileser’s? Why not entertain the obvious explanation that in both cases the stronger military power was simply victorious?
… people see the hand of their god in events when it suits them and when it fits in with their narratives‘

E4.4.7 INSIGHT 7 – The Biblical Narrative became Widespread and Powerful

• Christianity becoming the State Religion of the Roman Empire, was a monumental historical development with far-reaching consequences to this day
• It was a double-edge sword for the Jews:
  • On the one hand, a competing religion became the State Religion of the Roman Empire, with significant political power:
    • This diminished the status and influence of the Jews
    • It led to Christianity growing into a much bigger religion
    • It was the origin of Christian antisemitism, which became influential in Europe, and resulted in legal restrictions and discrimantion for centuries (see Episode 7 for details on Christian antisemitism)
    • This would only change again with the narrative of the “Judeo-Christian Tradition”, which emerged in the 18th century (see Episode 7)
  • On the other hand, it provided unprecedented status, influence and power to a religious document, the Bible (even though the biblical canon was not closed yet in 380 CE)
    • Most books of the Old Testament are from the Tanakh, so that means the foundational stories of Judaism (the Layer 1 Narrative of Zionism) are contained in the Bible too
    • The perscution of people not accepting the Church dogma (including that the Bible was “the word of god”), unsurprisingly had a significant impact on the acceptance and influence of the Bible and its Trinity throughout the empire
• At the end of Episode 3 we concluded that it seemed unlikely that the Layer 1 Zionist narrative would survive, due to the evidence against its historical basis and also the promise not lasting long [8]
• Theodosius I turning Christianity into the state religion of the Roman Empire made all the difference and gave the Layer 1 story, about a Chosen People and their Promised Land, a new lease on life. The Bible stories were now backed by the power of the mighty Roman Empire, in contrast with the Israelite Kingdoms which were on the wrong side of the powerful empires of their time. 

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