"Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics." - Charles Peguy

"The first thing Jesus does when he comes back is (he) gets rid of all the Jews." What a load of crap. Why wasn't there someone in the audience to call him out on this garbage? He is preaching to a choir who read "The Da Vinci Code."

The apostles complaining about Mary Magdalene having too much influence over Jesus sounds like the moaning and groaning around Yoko and John.

I appreciated Reza's rich historical context of first century Judaism in the Roman occupation, but I find his approach to scripture conflicted. He initially invalidates the gospel records as a historical resource then he cherry picks his use of them to sketch out the details of Jesus' life-at times, misquoting them. For example, he confuses the account of the Samaritan woman at the well with the Canaanite woman who sought exorcism for her daughter. Contrary to what Reza says, Jesus did pass through Samaria. It was the Canaanite woman that he addressed with the statement, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” Reza's attributing the Lord's Prayer to John the Baptizer is even more troubling. If Jesus was John's disciple, why did John rather recognize Jesus as the ONE who should be baptizing him? Reza also erroneously states that John “invented” baptism. On the contrary, ancient Judaism required an immersion ritual for conversion. These ritual immersions were call “mikveh.” Outside of the bible records, I was surprised that Reza makes no mention of hostile independent sources such as Jewish historian Josephus (95 A.D.) and Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (116 AD). And finally, the earliest creeds created within three years of the crucifixion acknowledge the divinity of Jesus-not sufficient time for myths to develop regarding his deity, death, and resurrection. James the brother of Jesus, 11 of the original apostles, Paul, and many early followers died for holding these beliefs.The fact is, the basic tenets of faith were established from the very beginning. Even the term “Christian” was coined in ancient Antioch in the mid first century. So where is this “chasm” between the historical Jesus of Nazareth and the “Christ” (i.e., messiah)? Is this not the same person? “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 (40-60 AD)

What do they mean Jesus couldn’t read?! He knew the scriptures. He pulled them out and read from them in front of the priests....

I'm sorry that I missed to add one more... I'm from India and was a Hindu who accepted Jesus Christ. Please don't mislead people showing Krishna is the Christ version. That's a grave mistake. Please read Mahabharata (Epic of India) to figure out who Krishna is.... Not sure about other countries but definitely not in India. Thanks

Did Reza said he was going to keep his comment brief?

34:00 Aslan had his story of the gospels mixed up. The woman at the well whom Jesus asked for a drink was a Samaritan. This is found in the gospel of John. He is referring to the Syrophoenician who asked Jesus to cast out the demons possessing her daughter. Found in Mark. There is nothing about Jesus asking for a drink in this story.

the response to the woman who said "what's your favorite story in the gospels" has a lot of misleading facts. Unless you have other extraBiblical sources, the gospels don't teach that Jesus was John's disciple, secondly, the disciples of Jesus never said, "teach us to pray as JOHN TAUGHT YOU", you are adding to the info there and that's irresponsible of you. lastly, Jesus never baptized anyone (John 4). actually John makes it clear that Jesus baptized no one. Jesus did not start His movement when John died, that's another lie. by the time John died Jesus had massive crowds. actually this bothered John's disciples and John said it himself that Jesus much increase and he must decrease. All i'm asking is if you gonna comment on the gospels get your facts straight.

A nice reminder of some of my college courses so many decades ago. This had nothing to do with my major in equine husbandry but being a curious person I took a lot of side roads along the way.

Dearest Reza! I wish I could hug you!!! I can not believe that I just came upon your talk today for the first time! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your view, passion, wisdom and commitment to truth and keeping it "real". I would LOVE to talk to you about the "sequel" to your presentation, the aspect of Jesus/Yeshua as the "Christ". It is my conviction that the time is now for each and every human to consider finding that God-given aspect in ourselves, the Christ within and identify with their Christian (Krystian) aspect, meaning messiah, messenger, way-shower. - rather than waiting for a redeemer to do it for us - to wake up, take our power back and let our own Light shine! It is time for the Light to prevail over the illusion/slavery that ruled humanity for a long time.

Very interesting, much to ponder. Thank you !

Ahh Christianity!!! Christianity - The belief that God sacrificed God to God to save God's creation from God.

when people who only know bout Jesus from Sundayschool wants to debate with a man who is a scholar and professor in religion....

This presentation was so good I watch an hour long KZfaq video twice in a row. Great job!!

Very thorough question answering. Liked the presentation

I find it weird how you first mention (11:30) that the Gospels are more like credals of faith, not historical documents, testimonies of faith and should those be taken out you know very little about Jesus but, for every claim you've made about Jesus until now, you resort back to finding a ground of proof in the Gospels. But, they are creedal of faith, not historical documents.. ??

I am korean and i ve never seen jesus buddah in my life. I think he just wants to emphasize the fact that christianity can take on any religion and culture but that's non sense. There is no jejus christ in buddism.

I religiously watched Reza Aslan's show on TV until it got canceled =(( I could listen to him all day!

I have been investigating About Jesus more so with all the second coming of Jesus, and this was the most satisfying, cool talk I heard about him and history.. Brilliant!!!! Will continue looking for more of Reza. Very interesting your story about your personal development too.

At 38:07 he says that Jesus is "never" referred to as the son of Joseph, but this is flat-out wrong. Luke 4:22 has people asking "is this not the son of Joseph?" and in John 6:42 people ask, "Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?" Also the genealogies at the beginning of Matthew and Luke specifically mention Joseph as Jesus' father.

Thank You sincerely!

I am sorry I am having trouble with the name he says at 36:00 Elizabeth shutter Lorenzo?? I googled it but couldn’t find anything. Any help?

'Jesus' WERE called "Jesus, the son of Joseph" three times though ('Luke' 3:23, 'Joh' 1:45; 6:42).

I just want to point out that he made a Life of Brian joke at 15:19.

A journey is determined by your own understanding and when you think you know, you don't know, it is only when you come to the understanding you don't know that you are capable of learning and knowing.

This man needs to read Jeremiah 9:23,24

As others who have read this author’s book have noticed, there are many errors with this author’s book entitled, “Zealot: the life and times of Jesus of nazareth”. The book is an interesting read but flawed. It seems fashionable these days to attack Jesus and Christianity. But you be your own judge. If you read his book that I mentioned above please reference a Bible to verify his claims.

And aqueducts- I will admit they also gave us the aqueducts. And the sanitation. All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

There are quite a few points where he asserts things as if they are definite facts when they aren't. For instance it isn't an absolute fact that a rabbi had to be married; in some communities and some circumstances they would have to be married, for instance to be in the Sanhedrin, as it was thought necessary to have had a family before pronouncing judgement on others in order to have a better knowledge of life's problems and to develop compassion. Also the literacy rates among Jews were higher than he states, and he completely ignores the fact that Jesus is described as reading from the scrolls in the synagogue.

Where are you getting these info.??

Thank you SO MUCH for this video ❤

While I agree to the comment that the Christ of faith has transformed to the race/culture of many regions, the depiction of Krishna (or a version of the deity) as the primary visualization for Indian Christians is disingenuous and deeply insensitive. While I understand that the imagery is used to drive a point home, I now find myself questioning the other ‘facts’ that the speaker laid out. This is not to say that the myth surrounding Krishna ( which dates centuries prior to Christ) doesn’t have similarities with the Christ story - and it is absolutely fair to debate how these similarities came into being. But to show the Krishna image or some obscure artist’s/sect’s (if there is one) rendition of combined imagery , as representing the Indian Christians, has rooted out the authenticity of the session and the speaker. One can only wonder how many more ‘facts’ he conjured! PS: India has a rich tradition of many religions including Christianity. We have had the first Indian Christians prior to Romans converting any of the tribes in the modern Western world. The middle-eastern, Indian and later European influence to the Christ imagery in India is a bit more nuanced than showing a Krishna figure :)

22 minutes in and no scripture has been brought out... how you gonna talk about The Man of the Book and not read from the BOOK...

There are no Official Roman Records showing that Jesus ever existed in the time frame of Rome's control of Palestine. Nor are their any architectural evidences of his existence. You need to recall the early Church fathers who stated, and believed that Jesus and Joshua were one and the same person. Further, reda Ahmed Osman's " Jesus in the House of the Pharaohs".

I don't get it why historian would totally dismiss the bible as a historical document....why do not they compare it to historical documents !!?

Everybody I know who still claims to believe in Jesus as divine has their own very personal definition of who he is and usually, unsurprisingly, he approves of everything they believe, everything they are, and of everything they do. How convenient.

The presenter is confused between the Samaritan woman and the Syrophoenician woman.

Thank you for this! Just one point to make, baptism wasn't John's invention at all. It's based on a Jewish practice, called the Mikvah, where Jews submerge themselves in water as a cleansing ritual. Rivers were a common place to do this, since a Mikvah is supposed to have a natural water source. Earliest accounts of ritual baths that were actually built, for the purpose of this Jewish immersion ritual (the natural water source in this case might be rain water, which is also acceptable) are traced back to around 100 B.C. It's likely Jews were already doing this way before 100 B.C. but weren't actually building pools for this purpose yet (or there is no remaining evidence of those pools, if they were), and were doing this solely in other bodies of water, (i.e., rivers). The word "baptism" comes from the Greek word "baptizó," which makes sense since this the language that the New Testament was written in, and so people inaccurately believe that it was a new invention, if they aren't super familiar with Jewish practices. Jews were using the word "Mikvah", which is a Hebrew word meaning gathering/collection of water, and this word is first seen way back in Genesis. In Judaism, entering a Mikvah has always been a way to cleanse yourself and to come out with a clean slate. It's often done after difficult life events, or during life transitions (i.e., before marriage, after divorce, etc.) So this idea of being "reborn" as a result of a baptism totally already existed, and Jews were doing this already for over a century, at minimum, when John came around. He just incorporated this idea into his own teachings, which really wouldn't have been a stretch at all.

34:00 You're mixing up the story of the Samaritan woman with the Syro-Phoenician woman. The former he encounters in the Gospel of John, at the well, and presents himself as the Messiah to her, the latter is the one that approaches him so that he might heal her sick daughter, to her he says the line about the children and the dogs.

I read the book and this talk was a much more digestible format. I honestly took more away from this then the 8hrs I spent reading the book. I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but if you liked this talk and want a good deal more depth I recommend checking out the book.

Thank you for this info..very interesting stuff..well done.

Seems very little can be said about Jesus that is not some sort of putting words into his mouth, or painting history without strong factual evidence.

I spent couple of hours on translating this video over a year ago and still noone accepted it. Why @KZfaq? Why?

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8

You'll never hear him discuss IRAN literally ever, his ancestral home-land kinda strikes me as odd

Beautiful. Thank you Mr Aslan.

I heard the whole talk- I sensed much more than I heard. Reza presented well, however I think the number of scrolls now unearthed more than satisfy a good historian’s need for evidence of first and second hand accounts. Fascinating that he’s more interested in the humanitarian effort than the possibility of an eternal redemption story. Certainly a fresh perspective

When reading comments under something I am often reminded not to read comments under something as people take something worthy of discussion and turn it ugly and hateful. He is truly an academic offering his interpretation of his studies. Don't quote the Bible back at his statements as that is divine text/divinely inspired text and he is talking history; not necessarily the same thing.

To "flesh out" the Jesus of history with the minimal facts provided by ancient secular sources is a real challenge. This was a fair and respectful presentation of a not so easy subject. Good job!

One God one Christ one spirit. All is one and one is all. I have no time for religion of any denomination including Christian. I only have faith in Jesus Christ, The rest of it it’s just words of men in Hume I have no faith at all. There is no past, there is no future. There is only now. So live your life in there now. With love compassion and mercy peace forgiveness just as Christ did. God bless one and Paul🇬🇧❤️

this just made me wanna learn more about history and religion ...please what's his name ?

Show some honesty. MARK 16: 6 "And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid." The Jesus Christ of history is in the Gospel (memoirs of the Apostles).

I'd love to hear Reza Aslan speak on C.S. Lewis' vision of Great Lion, Aslan (thee-hee-hee!)

He wasnt illiterate because he read the scriptures, I believe he read Isaiah to the listeners in a synagogue in the gospels

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." -G K Chesterton

09:56 This is factually incorrect. I have spent my life all over India and haven't seen a single depiction of Jesus like this . This is Krishna all the way, there is absolutely zero christian imagery in the picture (not even the cross).

As the comments shows, it is never easy to deal with mythology and very old beliefs.

You should read Autobiografi of Jesus channeled by Tina Spalding available at amazon

Really blessed by this video. Eye opening!

Why do some people hold on to stories and consider them more important than their own experiences?

From which historical source do you get the idea that John the Baptist was Jesus' mentor?! Please, I'd like to know. Or, is it just something you concluded?

0:01 So the thumbnail; is that a painting of Reza? Looks exactly like his face.

What was the purpose of Jesus? Whatever the answer is to this question, I ask next: How does this purpose serve to humanity before Jesus and to those who lived in America until 1492?

This is such a great thought provoking talk. Whether you're a Christian or not I think everyone can benefit from it.

15:23 Documentation, killing and roads you say? Really? As one who has studied the life of Brian, I can assure you that Romans gave us sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health.

Thank you..this input will help me..

Great talk. I love Reza Aslan.

The Syro-phoenician woman was near Tyre. The woman at the well was Samaritan.

I agree with almost everything Reza said. But he is also the guy who said, *_"I'm definitely a Muslim and Sufism is the tradition within Islam that I most closely adhere to." He also proclaims himself a "genuinely committed disciple of Jesus of Nazareth."_*

This kinda makes it sound like the Jesus of history was just so good at talking himself up that he ended up inspiring the biggest fanfic of all time

If i was in this audience i would have waited until the 3rd lady asker was put on the mic then said out loud "Once.......Twice........Three times a lady" LOL

I enjoyed the talk, want the book🤗 thx

“...Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Why be a teacher unto death? Aslan points out that Jesus, as bandit, as insurrectionist, was one of many. But why? Are his teachings uncommon, profound truths? Why would the Generation Two bunch (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and PAUL) move these teachings forward, as they did? Again, are the truths expounded, special, in any way? Why the lasting quality? Why is Reza Aslan so enthralled with the historical Jesus, but declines from enjoying the rest of the New Testament, and further, enjoying the fellowship of the Christian faith. Aslan ends this video with a beautiful insight into family, working together, peace, brotherhood, etc, pitches a criticism at Christianity, and yet declines to engage Christianity for himself personally. I regard him as a passionate historian of religion, but regards himself to be "above all of it." Why can't Aslan, and many others too, have a scholarly view of religion, and still practice it too? Does Christianity require you to close half your mind? I don't think it does. Do we have to teach and practice Christian faith exactly as we were taught? There are beautiful timeless truths in Christianity. Identify, practice, and breath life into these. I believe we all don't receive the same sense of, or experience with, God. Some have to dig much harder, but it's a worthwhile mysterious fascinating dig! We sense truth. We sense the way of God. I guess one has to decide if they go it alone, or if they can enjoy the fellowship and practice of a religious sect.

He is risen...he is not here. Reza left out a line from Mark, "he is not here, HE IS RISEN." Yes, it is an abrupt ending, and some even think the original ending could be lost. Or, it could simply be Mark's abrupt writing style. Maybe Jesus was married, but I doubt it. My main reason: I think his singleness was part of his suffering: Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head." If he were married, would he have said this? I doubt it.

This guy looks like Spicy Jon Stewart.

He's no longer a Christian...after attending a Jesuit school. Says it all.

Thank you for great insight stay empowered

During his first question from his audience, Reza said: "So when He (Jesus) goes to see the Syrophoenician woman, really the only non-Jew that He ever has real contact with, in the Synoptic gospels". Then he describes the story further by explaining that Jesus went to draw some well (guess this was just a slip of the tongue and he actually meant water) and then He met a Syrophoenician woman there and she invited Jesus to her town to come and preach. He (Jesus) then has a conversation with the woman about the food for the children (Israel) and she famously said "the dogs (Gentiles) can eat the crumbs that fall from the table". After this Jesus said, "You're right. Go your faith has healed you". Then Reza makes this bold statement that "THAT Jesus never, ever sets foot in a gentile city, He never preaches to a gentile community. Why? ‘Cause He’s a Jew preaching Judaism to other Jews”... There are so many unbiblical and false statements here! First of all, make sure that when you quote events from Scripture you actually know Scripture and you quote them correctly. Merging events (The Syrophoenician Woman & The Woman at the Well) confuses your audience and drives home your view and not the truth! The Syrophoenician Woman is found in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 and the Woman at the Well is found in John 4 - go read it for yourself again to make sure you understand the context and the difference between the two. Secondly, the Syrophoenician woman wasn't the only non-Jew that Jesus ever had real contact with. Just from these two stories mentioned earlier, we see Jesus engaging with two different women who both were non-Jews. This statement was completely untrue! Jesus’ first encounter with Gentiles was when He was visited by the Magi when He was a toddler (Matthew 2). It is interesting that the Gospel of Matthew, written for a Jewish audience, kicks off with a visit of the Magi. Presumably, pagan Gentiles traveled hundreds of miles to worship the “King of the Jews.” With this visit, Matthew foreshadowed his theme of the Gentiles’ positive response to Jesus’ ministry. During His ministry, there was the encounter with the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:8; Luke 7:2). A Centurion was a Roman military leader with a rank equivalent to that of a captain in the U.S. Army. Being part of the occupying Roman military force, he would have represented everything the Jews would have hated about Rome. If Jesus is looking to make a prophetic statement, meeting with a Roman Centurion was the perfect way to start. Writing to a Jewish audience, Matthew gave no background information about the Centurion. When Jesus arrived in Capernaum, the Centurion appeared before Jesus asking for a miracle. To see a Roman leader asking a Jew for a favor would have been shocking for Matthew’s Jewish readers. In Matthew’s account, Jesus responded by asking “Shall I come and heal him?” (Matthew 8:7). Jesus asked the same question that Matthew’s readers would have asked. They would have said, “No”. Jews and Gentiles did not associate with each other. For a Jew to enter a Gentile home would make him ceremonially unclean. The Centurion offers a surprising response. He states that he is not worthy to have Jesus come to his house. One could imagine Matthew’s Jewish audience nodding their heads in agreement. This is when the narrative takes a surprising turn. The Centurion then told Jesus there is no need for Him to come to his home, “only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Matt. 8:8). In both Matthew and Luke, Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you with no one in Israel have I found such faith’ (Matthew 8:10; Luke 7:9). Jesus was saying to both his original Jewish audience and to Matthew’s Jewish readers that this Gentile had more faith than any Jew he had ever met. Undoubtedly, that would be a difficult thing for Jews to hear. Jesus’ next encounter with a Gentile occurs in the town of Gadara, part of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was a predominantly Gentile area and this story is included in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew 8:26-34; Luke 8:26-39; Mark 5:1-20). All three Gospels give the impression that Jesus’ sole purpose for traveling to this Gentile area was to heal the demoniac(s), because the moment He stepped out of the boat, he (they) appear. Jesus casts out the demons and sends them into pigs and the man was healed and, for the first time in a long time, totally sane. The pig herdsmen told the townfolk what Jesus did. Instead of being appreciative of Jesus delivering the demoniac(s), the locals saw His actions as hurting their economy. They asked Jesus to leave. The main point in all three Gospels is that Jesus was willing to go out of His way to the land of the despised Gentiles and show compassion by delivering a complete social outcast. Jesus not only goes out of His way but travels to a land of pig farming near tombs, all of which would be unclean to Jews. Jesus does not allow typical Jewish sensibilities to keep Him from helping this Gentile. He intentionally crosses well-known Jewish boundary markers to heal him. The Gospel of Mark includes two additional stories of Jesus interacting with Gentiles. The first of these follows immediately on the heels of our previous story of the Syrophoenician woman. According to Mark, Jesus travels from Tyre, which is 35 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and returns to the Decapolis, which is at the south end of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 7:31). This is the Gentile the same Gentile territory in which Jesus delivered the Demoniac (Mark 5:19-20). Apparently, the former demoniac that Jesus had commissioned to share what had happened to him did a credible job. When Jesus arrives, the people are aware that God has used Him to heal people. A crowd, presumably of Gentiles, brings a man with a speech impediment for Jesus to heal. Once again, Jesus heals the man. Mark writes this story in such a way that it gives every appearance that Jesus went significantly out of His way, headed into Gentile territory to heal this man. Since Mark gave no indication of Jesus’ returns to Israel, the view held by most Bible scholars is that Jesus continued His ministry to the Gentiles. He attracts a crowd. After several days of being with Jesus, the crowd was hungry. According to Mark, it was here, in the Decapolis region, where Jesus fed the 4,000. In Mark, Jesus fed 5,000 Jews and later, fed 4,000 Gentiles. Though both miracles were motivated by Jesus’ compassion, undoubtedly, in this case, Jesus wished to demonstrate having compassion for Gentiles for the benefit of His disciples. One wonders when it may have dawned on His disciples that Jesus had no qualms with breaking bread with Gentiles. By Jesus’ words and deeds, he demonstrated what racial reconciliation should be like between Jews and Gentiles. That Jesus went out of His way to travel Gentile territory twice - three times in the Gospel of Mark - each time healing Gentiles in Gentile lands, teaches us that we should be willing to leave our comfort zones and cross-racial barriers to restore broken relationships. Part of His mission was that we would no longer be divided by titles or race: slave versus free; rich versus poor; Jew versus Gentile; or today, Armenian versus Turk; Ukrainian versus Russian; or Black versus White. Jesus lived a life of racial reconciliation in a world full of racial hate. Jesus came not only to reconcile us with God, but also to reconcile us with each other: Jews and Gentiles, Armenians and Turks, Ukrainian and Russian, and Black and White. As the Apostle Paul said, Jesus came to reconcile ALL THINGS. (Colossians 1:20). The final thing I would like to touch on is where Jesus taught His disciples to pray. Again, when quoting Scripture, please quote it correctly! The Scripture states: “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught HIS disciples.”” (Luke 11:1). Incorrectly quoting Scripture confuses your audience and drives home your point of view and not the truth! Stop playing fast and loose with the text!

Somehow I don’t think this guy will Even mention Christian dogma.

At 33:51 you confused the stories of the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7 and Matthew 15) with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4)... 😐

Dr. Reza Aslan states the historical man was "an illiterate country bumpkin," despite the fact that Luke writes, "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for TO READ. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, HE FOUND THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS WRITTEN, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me....'" (Lk. 4:16-18). Matthew records six times that the historical man asked others "... have you not READ...?" or "... have you never READ...?" Mark records three times that the historical man asked others "... have you not READ...?" or "... have you never READ...?" That hardly sounds like something an illiterate man would do and say, Dr. Reza Aslan. Perhaps you should read "The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Like and Institutions, Vol. 2," specifically, Chap. 19, "Education and the Study of the Torah," pp. 945-970. You should also read Chana Safrai's "The Kingdom of Heaven and the Study of Torah," which can be found in "Jesus' Last Week: Jerusalem Studies in the Synoptic Gospels - Volume One," pp. 169-189. During the life of the historical man, each synagogue had attached to it a House of Study, where children were taught to read and write; and where these "anointed ones" became THE WORD OF HASHEM via recitation, memorization, internalization, and actualization. This is why the historical man stated, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you turn (στραφῆτε) and become as little children, you will by no means enter the Rulership of HaShem. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. 18:3-4) and "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 19:14). And the Rabbinic Literature contains many such sayings about the importance of educating the young. "Schoolchildren may not be made to neglect their studies even for the building of the Temple" and "The world endures only for the sake of the breath of schoolchildren" (Talmud Bavli, Shabbath 119b). Talmud Yerushalmi (Ketuboth VIII, 32c) states that Shimon b. Shetah, who was president of the Religious Sanhedrin of Seventy-One during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus and Salome (103-76 BCE), ordained "that children go to school." There has existed a push toward literacy among the People of the Book (Am HaSefer) since the days of Ezra and Nehemiah! As for the historical man being a country bumpkin.... Nazareth was within a short walking distance from Sepphoris, which, after Varus burnt it down, Herod Antipas rebuilt as the "Ornament of the Galilee" (Josephus, Ant. 18.27). Additionally, he settled in and owned a home in K'far Nachum! opentheword.org/2015/01/16/did-jesus-own-a-home-in-capernaum/

By using the gospels to provide details of the historical Jesus are you not confusing matters?

There is no contrariety, however subtle, between the Our Savior of the scriptures and that of the writings of first and second century historians and commentators. Every new piece of archeological or literature unearthed further demonstrates the accuracy of Bible history.

I noticed that the Icon of Jesus that kept being shown on the video was the one of Christ with the two different sized eyes signifying his divine and human nature. A very factual talk. But the average Christian sitting in a church pew has no idea of the real meaning of scripture or even how the scriptures came to be. The problem lays in the fact that you can not turn the Bible into a history book as we moderns understand it. If you take everything literally then it makes no sense. The Bible is memory historized not history remembered. Big difference, and if you can understand that then you can get to the “real” purpose of Holy Scriptures and the mystery of faith. Once Holy Scriptures are reduced to just reading and divorced from liturgy and rites they lose their meaning. When I speak of Holy Scriptures I am referring to ALL faiths not just Christians. The purpose of Holy writings are to raise us up to a higher spiritual level and to become better human beings hence the message of the Icon.

Who is the speaker?

Thank you for a wonderful lecture but I have an unanswered question. Why did you stop being a Christian?

What's the big deal? This guy isn't saying anything radical.

I think title of this piece was suppose to be "The Jesus(Yeshua) of History vs the Christ of Faith" because as far as this subject is concern there was never any man by the name Jesus in the true history of Nazareth(Bethlehem). The man whom the world has been made to believe was/is "Jesus"- was/is actually Yehsua ben Yoseph (the man who lived and worked and taught and did many of what the world perceive as miracles in that land) on one hand and "Jesus the Christ" of Greeco-Roman based Religious Faith(who came after what started as and was/is suppose to be a Translation of scriptures from a Hebrew language to the languages of Latin, Greek etc but was/is in actuality an Interpolation of the Hebrew scriptures and spirituality plus an interposition of a Greeco-Roman idea of a "Christ" versus/against the Hebrew "mashiach" which was/is a completely different idea of a Christ on the other hand. I think this is the gist of what this gentlemen was/is trying to unpack but in any case I'm not trying to say anybody's view,perception or research is invalid I'm subject to correction, I don't claim to know everything in this subject. Scholars of honor and integrity have no respect of person but will put the matter straight. These were just my thoughts based on the research that I have found and the spirit of discussion as he has mentioned in his words of introduction. Love and Peace all !!!

🤔34:05.. Is he combining the story of the woman at the well in John 4 with the story of the woman of Canaan in Matthew 15:21-28? Those are two different stories with two different meanings. 😔We should read the Word for ourselves.

Love this guy. Researched, even keeled, open minded. Agree or disagree with him, he lays it all out for us to review and make up our own minds.

+ I am not super religious. But I love History & loved this. Found it and Reza Aslan extremely fascinating.

I enjoyed listening to this presentation. I have read your books and I like the way you always open my mind to want to know more and to research... People do not have to agree but should at least be able listen, ponder and become curious.

Mistakes in your references to the primary material on Jesus. E.g. You conflated the story of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman and the Syro-phoenician woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus also preached in Galilee which is a region of the Gentiles with a high Gentile population. So while he mostly preached to the Jews, it is inaccurate to say Jesus never entered a Gentile city.In fact he spent a large part of the three years of his active ministry in Galilee. It makes me think you may be fudging the accounts to fit your narrative of the Jesus of history.

I wrote 2 paragraphs on what I felt about this video. Then I thought who am I to cast stones at somewhat and what they belive. May God Bless everyone 🙏

Reza, Merry Christmas..

Josephus flavius wrote about the tale of Titus Flavius the fisher of men.....documentation was always changed if it did not suit the current ruling families world view

I know this an old video and a serious subject topic. But am I the only who thought of Life of Brian @15:20 ?

Please share with other people my two brief videos. Thank you.