Thanks for making these videos. I listen to them whilst doing my leather work. Keep at it, what you said about numbers, it can take years and years to get lots of subs and then thousands start binge watching your old content so i hope you keep it up!

The counter on gods performance to deliver the holy land was hilarious😂

I agree that Heaven and Hell as we know them are probably modifications to Judaism from Zoroastrianism. But you missed one of the major themes of Judaic apocalyptic literature. For Jews and Christians throughout history, though less so today, the final afterlife was not eternity in heaven, but a much more interesting concept. Some of the most ancient Biblical literature is in the Psalms, and a few of the pre-exilic psalms, like the psalms of Asaph and the sons of Korah speak of being saved from death, raised from the pit, or lifted out of Sheol. In other words, these pre-exilic psalmists expected to be resurrected. While these ideas were modified to their modern form after the exile by exposure to foreign religions, they already existed in their seed-form very early in Israelite religion, and were taken up again by Christians in the 1st century CE.

Ah yes Jon! Cyrus the Great! Mazda Ahura! Most people don't understand that the "Old Testament" of the Bible was not written at all until the 5th Century BCE, and had the addition of both Zoroastrian beliefs and Classical Greek philosophy from then on. Also not all the people of Israel and Judah were monotheistic. It's true that the belief in angels and demons is simply a carry-over from pagan religions where there was a supreme being and many demigods. This is ubiquitous in religion. The Lumad (native) people here in Northern Mindanao where I live believe in a creator called Magbabaya, and many "migbaya" or "diwata" who inhabit the natural world and interact with people as well. There is a common belief in each household having a "tumanud ku abu" (Binukid for "I watch over the ash"), a guardian spirit of the hearth and home. This reminded me of the Roman "lares et pinates". The diwata and the ancestors are respected, and ambivalent.

I would like to thank you for your work - I've watched about a dozen at this point. These are matters that I have studied since I was about twelve, as I recall Mastodons still roamed the Earth. Religions, literatures, language, archeology, diasporas ... you know, stuff. While I have been aware of the general shape of the world you describe and in the broadest sense have learned little - though an very welcome juxtaposition of detail has been a great benefit. You do a VERY good job of following - and more importantly, blazing - a trail through the thickets of evolution and change. You are a good guide, a good teacher and I thank you for that. You ARE a benefit to the community of humans. Strength be with you.

Thanks for your videos. You tell the stories to inform and give background to who we are, without trying to fit them in a mold of modernity. Very useful, informative and enjoyable. Again, thanks.

This was incredible thank you it mind sound extreme but it honostly blew my mind, i was born and raised a christian by a man who tried to become a priest! Im sure if i could speak to him now this would blow his mind aswell. Great job

Rarely does one find such a breadth of scholarship compressed into such a delightful narrative. Thank you so much.

Loving your channel. I studied theology at university many moons ago and even managed to get a degree out of it. One of the things I most enjoyed was studying the gospels to see which elements cropped up in which gospels (surprisingly few), which elements were tweaked to try to grab a new audience (wise men to shepherds, Roman ordained execution to Jewish ordained), and which elements never made the grade from non-canonical gospels like St. Thomas. It's fascinating, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Thank you for presenting this information. It's sad that I see that as a brave act. It's fascinating material. Keep it coming.

I can speak about the ancient people of Kemet/Egypt when I say that they burned incense for their gods because it was an alluring scent. They brought Gold and precious stones to adorn their gods. Also, they had scripture about their gods. The story of the 3 Wisemen, and what they're bringing with them as the travel West, reminds me of these three things. I'm pretty sure that this is what they're doing in that story, regardless of how many wisemen were being received by what seems to me to be a goddess. In that region, the gods all lived in houses and if that god had an actual room, they were the god of prominence. If a god had an alcove, they were still somewhat important. What I see, in that story, is that the wisemen acknowledged the boy (baby) for a little while but went into the "Virgin's" room. This tells me that this house was a house dedicated to a god/goddess and she was the most prominent one. The baby was important, himself, or he wouldn't have had an alcove outside of her room. They brought this goddess incense, Gold and the writings about the gods from their culture - in the East.

Thanks for the play-by-play, as well as the count (ha-ha). A Blessed, Happy Samhain to You & Yours - Cheers! CA Shawin.

out of all the primates, humans definitely do the weirdest stuff “humans should have rights” “yes let’s write them on a weird clay egg”

Very interesting video. Did think you were going to talk about the idea of mystical numbers. The number 3 runs through a lot of old stories. Not sure if you've done a video, or perhaps will, on the subject of the recurring three and ties to Indo-European tales. Cheers for another great video. 👍

Good video. 99% of Christians have no idea that an afterlife is not mentioned in the Torah.

5.6k likes with 315 likes? Only 35 comments? You must have upset a lot of people, lol. Thank you for making all these videos. ❤

I love your content. And this bite sized clip was awesome! Love the long forms obviously these these digestible vids are an awesome balance!!

Dantes inferno would be interesting here too, hell is where you stay untill you forgive yourself, wich is very very hard to do, so having a god to forgive you is easier

Awesome Jon.gradually getting through your old videos.keep em coming.your knowledge is a gift.

Just found your channel and started binge watching your videos. Every one of them has been fascinating. Keep up the good work brother. Looking forward to more videos in the future.

The fact that no one is allowed to say Gods name strongly reminds me of your other video, where you talk about the pagan tradition of not uttering the name of bears, etc, and that one explanation as to why that was, is that they were sacred. I guess if you keep that up for long enough and no one is left to remember the original name and perpahs you even move to a different terrain, where the animal doesn't even exist, and you even forget how that thing in your myths originally looked, and you're only left with the orally kept tradition of "it was powerfuly and almighty, and you're not supposed to name it".. I can see it becoming something very abstract as people tried to make sense of the old wisdom. I haven't finished all your vids yet, so you might get into this too at some point :)

As always, utterly fascinating and educational. As a professional forensic facial reconstruction artist, I am reminded of an analogue... the current craze for photo real reconstructions that have paper thin visual credentials, but the reality of how this forensic discipline developed and is adjusting to 21 st century knowledge is quite unlike the product seen so often now on the news and KZfaq. What we encounter about religious claims today, interwoven into scary political memes, feels like another version of just enough information to entertain or manipulate. You do a great service in providing a broader background to understand things more deeply. Much thanks.

Any questions, or thoughts about the next videos please let me know. Thanks for watching, Jon

Great work, but unfortunately when you're getting schooled on what the Bible says by a believer, you'll probably hear "but I have faith" and they won't believe a thing you just said. It's what the canon says now and that's all that matters. You really nailed these topics and I love it, definitely see the connection between the Indo-Aryan people and the concept of karma which instead of a rewarded rebirth brings you heaven or hell in Zoroastrianism and later in Abrahamic faiths. One idea for new content, we need to understand more about Yule, it's very poorly understood overall.

Thank you! Most clarification is coming from that tiny line from the most ancient history! You’re projecting light through thousands of years!

Jon, thanks for gathering all this knowledge and sharing to educate people! 👏

Loved it .

I found this particular podcast a revelation and consider myself loaded with new interesting topics to share with my pals at the local agora aka The Snooker Club.

Loved that you kept score 😂

The content on this channel is second to none.

Great job. Thank you for all your hard work.

The end song always makes me think of the song chokechain by 3oh3

Excellent video Jon

Great, informative research once again!

Hello, look at the Egyptian myths. It was believed that after death your heart will be weighed against that of a feather. That would determine if you would be granted safe passage into the underworld.

High quality video! Thank you for the content

Love this channel

Wow, I loved this. I love to see how things how they came to be. In 2022, I did some study into the origins of Christianity/Bible and discovered Zoroastrian influence in Judaism which in term influenced Christianity specifically the duality of heaven/hell, good/evil, judgement/afterlife. I was blown away by it because I saw the influence from the Jewish exile. After more study, I soon after left fundamental Christianity all together because I saw how it came to be. The knowledge you shared is so valuable. I never knew about the number not being 666, but actually is 616. Thanks again for the video, you won me over to sub to your channel.

Yehawah means "one/something that will exist/consist/be" in Hebrew. Its a world you can use, although it's a bit arachaic and way too formal for normal use, also lacking context it's a bit hard to understand which of those is the actual meaning in this case. When asked by Moses who is he, Yaweh answers in a cheeky pun saying "I will be whoever I will be" or "I will be as I will be" - which is both an honest answer and a "don't question your god, peasent". Feel free to DM if you need some help with the Hebrew, I speak it and can understand the Tanach version (pronounced ta-na-hh) as well.

Keep it up brother realy enjoyed that

men you are amazing i am iranian and i love hearing those words awesome .finally i find video in your channel about Zoroastrianism thanks. love to hear more

I’ve literally been binging your content my man lol what are some books you’d recommend that have to do with pagan influences on the Bible?

Thanks 👍. Interesting subject.

Thank you!

Only so many ways to say that I think what you do is incredibly fascinating, Crecganford. Thank you for what you do! As for what I want to know, I love learning, and so I want to learn all of it, LOL!

I really enjoy your channel! I can tell you do your research & I appreciate the knowledge you share. Quick question that you can reply to me privately: Of all the myths that you talk about, which ones apply to your life? I'm trying to figure out that for myself. Any suggestions would be appreciated. We as humans need to feel some connection to our universe. How do you connect?

The promised land bit is hilarious. 😂 to be fair though, if I’m made in God’s image, it makes sense that we’d probably share the same success rate 😉 Love the videos, I’ve been bingeing them lately, keep up the good work!

Thank you

Imagine God screaming from heaven on his chosen people, "Guys!! You had one job!".

I love watching your videos

strange how YWHW is described. some say it sounds like the description of a dragon.

it feels odd to see a video without the cup of tea 😂😂

I feel it's very weird to imagine an old testament without the one only creator god, heaven and hell, judgement, end of world story, angels, these are the first things that would come into my mind when I think of the bible, it's like fish & chips without actual fish and potato chips, the sandwiches without the slices of bread and veggies, the spicy hot pot without the spicy hot soup

There is also no mention of one of the three wise men having darker skin. However, in the depicttions of the three wise men, one always does. This is because many of the aspects of christian/jewish religion is not contained in the books, but passed on through traditin. Such is the case with there being three wise men (and one of darker colored skin). ignoring these is just telling half the story. Great video otherwise, really learn alot from these. Thank you!

Little known fact was that one of the Wise Men was turned away for bringing a fruit cake.

Just to say more clearly: “Isra-el” the name given to Jakob after wrestling with an angle- or god - it’s not really clear in the text if it’s this or that - shouldn’t be translated into “the one who fight with god” as you say on 05:06 but into “the one who stayed with god” or similar. The term “Isra” at list for us today that speaks Hebrew do not mean fight but more of “being in present with”. And pls keep on! What You’re doing it great

About Judaism being 4000 years old, I wonder, was it monotheistic for all that time? Or did it only become so in a later period?

I heard that it was said you can’t say the Tetragrammaton because it would undo creation. I don’t know the veracity of this.

Jonathan, your scholarship is, as always, extremely impressive. The moral of the story is that we, today, are the product of our far distant ancestors and what happened to them. If they are lucky, our own far distant descendants will have their own version of "Crecganford" to explain how they came to be. By the way, what the heck is "Crecganford"? I realize that I'm 2 years behind the times, so this comment (and question) will probably be lost in the shuffle.

Judaism wasn’t monotheistic from the start. An observant reader of the old testament will notice the editors of the books did a sloppy job when editing out the other gods. Even the ten commandments mention that there are other gods that Israelites weren’t allowed to worship. The book even pretends the Israelites didn’t practice child sacrifice, which they definitely did. The story of Abraham and Isaac is probably meant as a way to stop the practice.

Excellent. This information may be illegal in certain states.

What about El , Baal , Ashra

As usual I recall reading, somewhere, many moons ago, that the original ''Number of the Beast'' was NOT 666. Since each Aramaic letter has a numerical significance as well, mythological numerology in the Old Testament has become a staple of biblical proportions (sorry I couldn't help that, it just slipped out... as the Bishop said to the actress). I did not recall what the original Number was, or what it referred to except that it would have been the cumulative total of some name, title or short story (or a combination of all three) that would have been well-known originally but was changed for religio-political reasons to 666 as a slur against someone who the Church hierarchy wished to weaken. The number 616, does, however, ring a bell. I do not recall if there was any explanation of the actual meaning of 616 or who 666 was purported to damage. Any ideas?

1:27 not 4,000 years old. Maybe 2,300.

Surely, as with modern Hindu understandings, Dravidian and Indo-Iranian alike, the older/oldest "Western" pagan religions had a cyclical worldview and this idea of rebirth. Is it possible Christianity RE-introduced this, perhaps from Judaism, which has so many hints of reincarnation and bodhisattvas and such, especially tied to messianic figures. I have a hard time believing the same cultures, Neolithic proto-European and proto-Indo-European, that had Demeter and Persephone and the Eleusinian mysteries and Dionysus reborn from the sacred heart and domestication of Zeus, not to mention the mists of the Germanic and Celtic worlds, with their weave-work and spiral symbolism being ubiquitous, simply never believed in reincarnation. It's actually Classically attributed to the Druids (though so much is that, well...). It might be a very interesting line of study to try and ferret out and describe how exactly European cultures seem to have LOST this understanding, having replaced them with Greek and Roman notions of underworlds and sections thereof. Arthurian romance, Celtic poems and folklore, and hints from Norse beliefs about Valhalla OR Idonna's Island (or Freya's) seem to imply return to feasting and battle and seeking glory in worldly estates was contrasted with something like seeking Avalon. There's so much to all this that is simply missing from most historical and modern cultures...It's like we lost some primordial religion that seems a bit more advanced than we'd expect from Mesolithic cave dwellers or Mammoth hunters on the tundra or even the Neolithic farming towns and steppe or forest branches/phases of the pastoralists. I try not to actually evoke something "revelatory" or "supernatural" in these comments, but I have to admit this content is very inspiring and I am not an academic and the very topic seems to lead to semi-spooky currents of thought. Cheers, and keep it up. Wonderful content and great presentation. The simplicity is key to this. Though it would be very interesting to see other researchers occasionally involved, discussion style, if that ever becomes something that makes sense, feasibility-wise, on your end.

12:15 No heaven and hell: Wasn't there a similiar concept of heaven and hell in old egyptian mythology?

I always enjoy your talks but gee I found your unheard of pronunciation of Canaan distracting! (Ker nan instead of K nin) . Keep up the good work 🤡

Is Jacob the son of Abraham in the Torah? I haven't read the Torah, but in the old testament, I remember him being the grandson of Abraham through Isaac and Rebecca.

Just to point out... Didn't Christianity influence Paganism, and Paganism influence Christianity? Can't both be true?

wouldn't it be funny if the Cyrus Cylindar is a scholar's thesis? 🙃

Do me a favor. Make a whole course in zoroastrianism. I don't get it.

I really dont understand why Christians felt they needed to compete with the pagan gods and the cycles..unless it was in designing our role in the pisces era? To me gods and gods are of the history of the divinity of Gaia and the Christian God is more of a universal quantum field type force--atom from nothing.

@2:45 should be 3ky ago not 4

Judaism was influenced by Zoroasterism.

Interesting video I learned somethings, you may already know that there were no wise/magi/kings at the birth of Jesus, however if there was a number it would be three because they are actually Orions belt, you can draw a line from the three stars to Sirius (star of Bethlehem) and then to the ground on christmas day and it points to where the sun rises ( Jesus the SUN of god). He save the world because longer days begin to return and spring will return soon. Jesus "dies" and resurrects every winter.

watching this video at 6,666 views....

Cyrus allowed the slaves to return to their homeland for practical reasons, not out of any sense of humanity. It was the practice of the Assyrians to relocate troublesome peoples away from their homeland into the middle of their empire to prevent further uprisings, being closer to the source of power rather than on the fringe. The Babylonians continued the practice, the Jewish diaspora being the result of their rebelling. Cyrus became the new ruler of an empire by conquering the previous king, in order to prevent the vassals on the fringes of the empire from breaking away he sent those members of their nation that had been held in captivity back to their homelands to inspire good will and hopefully prevent them from rebelling so he wouldn't have to conquer each part of that empire in turn but keep it intact. It worked. Jews weren't the only people sent back. I think this needs to be explained any time this is mentioned because younger people are being led to believe that this act by Cyrus was putting an end to slavery in his empire. Not the case, it would have destroyed the entire economy of the region. Not arguing with Crecganford but I believe it's important to fully spell out what was going on, having had too many arguments with recent college grads about a subject they spent one chapter in one semester learning about while I have been studying history for 40 years. I've also seen the idea of the ending of slavery being proposed in more recent 'documentaries' including on the so called History Channel.

Rebirth and Resurrection are not the same. Some people are not eating enough protein

Why are there so many bad translations in the Bible. When translated from Greek...

The 666 number comes from the title of the pope which is vicarius Filii dei which is vicar of the son of god, which you can find in the catechisms to the new converts. As far as I know, this title has been changed now so it doesn’t translate into Roman numerals as 666. The contract with God and the Jews in the bible gad ‘if’ you keep…. They broke the contract the final time when they cried out at Jesus’ trial. Let the curse if God be on us and our sons’. Extremely sad really. He left them as a nation after that.

isn't jacob isaac's son? cause you said he was abraham's

Pour the Juice down the drain

Lmao I loved the snarky comments

2 for 6 bruh

Your conjectures are interesting, but completely ignorant of how the prophet/messiah system built on the laws of reincarnation and karma works in practice. The emergence of the concepts of heaven and hell represent the evolution of understanding why the multiverse was cocreated. Heavens and hells are the universes of emergent gods and goddesses who attract souls with resonant merkabas to play in their universes to plan their next physical incarnation or take on a soul guide role for a while once they attain spiritual levels of consciousness. When souls reach god level consciousness, they begin to be able to create their own "perfect" universe to suit the godhood they aspire to. Some complain this still creates too many love goddesses and war gods, but I think the mix is just about right for what we need to accomplish in day 8 of creation. Happy Karma!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV, Ephesians 2:8-9, Jesus Christ is the only way.

Saying BCE and CE is a bit confusing. A 'before' word and and an 'after' word feels better. Why not BC and Ad? Even Bart Ehrman sometimes slips and says BC! Then he uses his focus to say 'BCE' the next time. This is baffling. (I notice other academics of the Mythvision podcast also sometimes slip up). Surely we are not Moaists or revolutionaries who need to change the words for ideological reasons? Your channel is great but it is ironic that your deep learning leads you to conform to a tiny American segment of academia.. A billion Indians use BC and AC. You can use words freely if they fit. Like the word 'Thursday' for example. As you know, back in the day, those serious Viking hordes probably felt a real bond with the god Thor and so they named a day after him! But today the word 'Thursday' slips off the English speaking tongue. Saying Thursday doesn't mean you are worshipping Thor. Ideology is a strange thing. People who think they are super smart are really in their bubble. So the Thursday example, it'll isn't even noticed by the average academic who things he's being deep and edge by editing language. Or take those statue toppling students from a few years back. The believe their intelligence identified historical slave holders but they ended up toppling everything in their way. This is the danger of ideology. The ideologue is in a bubble. And all the Hindus and other Asians who speak English are not infected by ideology so they say BC and AD without trying the be smart

The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is W (equivalent) so 666 = WWW Which makes sense as the MARK of the Beast links to the number or Internet (WWW) Which will link into the Kingdom of Heaven Descended upon the Earth (MetaVerse/Matrix). A Virtual Reality cyberspace prison.

Judaism is not 4000 years old. Judaism was born in the Babylonian exile. Before that, the israelites/Judaites (they weren't still Jews) practiced at best monolatry, and there is no doubt that originally they practiced polytheism. If we talk about them as separate people, they are at most 3300 years old, and by that time they weren't too different from their surroundings. Circumcision was a religious precept only since the Babylonian exile. Before that it was borrowed from Egypt because it prevented infections in the penis.

You shouldn’t mix history with myth, like you do in this video. Even Jewish biblical scholars agree that Moses never existed and the story of the exodus is exactly that: a story, not history. To a lot of people, both christian and atheist, this is not common knowledge. Also, many of the stories in the bible aren’t as old as they pretend to be.

There are some misconceptions about abrahamic religions that make it seems like the analysis was done by a angry teenager talking about Christianity with their 100 IQ white parents. While it is obvious that abrahamic religions are heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, there a lot of points to correct in this video, but I'm going to talk about the few main issues: 1) Abraham is a late addition to the list of patriarchs. He was a hero created in the exile (kind of "as our ancestor left this land, we also must believe in god so that he bless us"). Also, many Jews chose to not leave mesopotamia after the liberation, what reiterates that they didn't believe in the concept "holy land like it became after that. 2) Following the last topic, Jacob is kind of a later hero too. After the CEOs of Warcrimes killed/exiled the elite of northern Canaan and brought terror to the common population, many fled to Jerusalem. Then, the local priesthood came up with a great idea to make everyone happy about religious rituals and still keep above the rest of cannanite priests: "we are all children of Jacob, he fought with El himself to get a everlasting blessing to our people that even his name became Israel, so we should forget worshipping the other gods, even our temple to YHWH will become a temple to El" (El was like a actual "all-father" to the cannanite pantheon, but no city had him as main deity before the Assyrian invasion) 3) Christianity is not just influenced by PIE elements. It is a Greek religion around Sky Father with hero cult (saints) and resurrection/salvation mixed in. So, it is PIE mythology on steroids (too much philosophy and morality).

Stick to History you're good at that. Extremely lacking in theological understanding of scripture however

Wow totally missed the history up so badly. I don't know where to begin. First G-d's holy name was never forgotten. It's only used for certain purposes. Judaism never incorporated Zoroastriansm or any other religions. Go to orthodox Jews for your information, never any where else. We live and breathe the Torah and Judaism. It's not a one day a week thing but a 24 hour, 7 days a week thing. It encompasses our whole existence. Totally misrepresented Judaism. Jews believed the same way before and after the Babylonia exile.