As an Iranian with some reasonable knowledge about the Iranian religion, I am really impressed with the depth of correct knowledge this gentleman has about the case. I really enjoyed this great scholarly lecture, thanks.

I’m really impressed with this Pastor. He is actually honest about the birth of Jesus. He’s not trying to dance around the historical evidence.

Every Christmastime I have wondered this for more than 20 years. Thank you for finally answering my question.

Thank you so much for these incredibly thorough and well-researched lectures. I’ve gotten more out of these than any traditional sermon. I feel so grateful for finding these-and right near me in Toronto, too. You are providing an antidote to fundamentalism that is so needed in today’s society. I cannot thank you enough for sharing your historical knowledge with us for free on KZfaq.

This is a thoroughly intelligent, informative, humorous, candid and most entertaining lecture. Thank you.

I want to move to Toronto from California just to be able to attend these lectures.

Super presentation. Enlightening.

This is enlightening and done with a kind heart and open mind. What a great communication in today’s cynical world.

You are my go to nightly watch. I love all your lectures and have learned so much!! I love it!

Well done. I've been listening for quite some time to John lectures. It's mostly he who speaks and never has to refer to open texts in order to recite. Well educated. Knows his history combined with theology. Have to admit, I enjoy the lack of ads. I can fall asleep listening without needing to skip ads. A nice bonus

This was excellent. Great teacher!

I really like your words and your teaching thanks and I think is so true

Absolutely enjoyed it, thankyou!

It is of particularly interesting that they called Magi. The Magi are what the Zorastians, the ancient religion of Persia, called their priests.

Amazing!

Very good presentation. Congratulation.

Excellent lecture as always.

I noticed that the text do not tell how many Magi came it just said Magi came but it did not say three

Sir you are a Great historian and a Good man

What a brilliant lecture!

this is good

These videos really bring out the crazies in the comments.

Greetings from Kaspar!

you must be a fantastic paster - love all your vids

Malekyoir could be mix of Hebrew and Persian; Melekh (King in Hebrew) and Yar( friend in Persian) . Keep in mind Shahyar is an actual Persian name that has been popular in Iran since Sassanid era

Wonderful explanation of the contradictory nativity stories.

Thanks a lot for explanations scientifically

we don't know the one true, pure, perfect, unadulterated truth - only what people wrote down and didn't destroy thru time

It's so funny to read so many comments that all think they know better than any other contemporary scholar could possibly know the events that happened over 2000 years ago. While we come up with all the various ways we think of the Magi, how can ANY OF US say or ant as if we KNOW what was what after +2000 years. Just enjoy learning someone else's view about the matter, no matter how different tp you'r own view, celebrate (or discount) the Magi as you set fit, and be within and enveloped by the Heart of our God of Light. Let one another have the views that are theirs, honor their ability to establish those for themselves, and enjoy your own views and what they mean to you. Knowing that you cannot know is more powerful than claiming you know all. And will help keep you humble as we're all should be.

Hi John. Listened on this morning Wed. Aug. 2nd. Who Was Mary? Very interesting , Amazing how little there is on her. Liked very much. Thank you. Kathy from Ft. Collins, Coo. Congregation

After 1:15:14 long video I did not understand who the Magi were. So who were the Magi?

The tribe Mug (Mag), the priests of Zoroastrianism, came from Media (modern day Azerbaijan,) were proficient in many fields, such as astrology, medicine, spell, metallurgy . There are many toponyms related to Mugs still exist in Azerbaijan. In the book of Enoch the fallen angel Azazel thought people who lived in this area to all those things (spell, magic, metallurgy, crafts and so on)

So i guess Herod couldn't see the star? Thank You for this! Great work!

Great historical lecture and demeanor Sir!

If when my son was born, wise men/hermits/princes turned up bearing rare gifts, I would remember it. But Mary tells her son to stop wasting time in the synagogue, and no-one in Nazareth seems to point to the adolescent Jesus and say " hey, that's the dude that those wise men visited." And did the family flee to Egypt, or stay in Bethlehem; can't be both.

Matthew's quotes about Nazareth and Nazarene is hotly debated, and there are many other sources that defend and make sense of this position. We should not expect the lecturer to know everything about the full mystery of God, or to lay out every single position in such a short space of time. Don't take everything he says as 'gospel' but do your own research. This has been great for me as his challenges to my belief made me search for the truth, and my faith is not swayed. Many church fathers were aware of some of the discrepancies but they were not swayed ultimately.

I hope you do a talk on the Bahai Faith and it's views and beliefs. Baha'u'llah talks about Zoroaster quite a bit. Lately I've started thinking Zoroaster was the beginning of the Magi.

Can they write questions down to ask at the end so we can keep going

Merci

A Blessed Christmas Day to Everyone!!! 🙏 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” -John 1:14 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” -2 Corinthians 9:18 “He’s the King of the Jews He’s the King of Israel He’s the King of Righteousness He’s the King of the Ages He’s the King of Heaven He’s the King of Glory He’s the King of Kings and He is the Lord of Lords Do you know Him? He’s the wellspring of wisdom He’s the doorway of deliverance He’s the pathway of peace He’s the roadway of righteousness He’s the highway of holiness He’s the gateway of glory He’s the master of the mighty He’s the captain of the conquerors He’s the head of the heroes He’s the leader of the legislators He’s the overseer of the overcomers He’s the governor of governors He’s the prince of princes He’s the King of Kings And He’s the Lord of Lords That’s my King Do you know Him?” His Name is Yeshua… Jesus! If you do not know the LORD, please do not wait another moment... “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” -2 Corinthians 6:2 None of us knows how long we have on this earth. The only opportunity we are guaranteed to have is right now... A: Admit you have Sinned
 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -Romans 3:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 6:23 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” -1 John 1:9 It is tough to admit that we are wrong. Even before God, we feel we are basically good, and we would like to think we are never as bad as some... we are ALL sinners and can never be good enough to earn our own way to heaven. Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees saying, “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” -Matthew 23:33 They believed that faithfully following rituals and traditions would get them into heaven. We are all like those scribes and Pharisees when we believe we can save ourselves by good works or following religious rituals and traditions. That path takes us to one place only... hell! Please listen, there is a way... The ONLY WAY... B: Believe in Jesus our Savior 
 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” -John 3:16-17 “So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” -Acts 16:31 “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” -1 John 3:23 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9 Salvation is not complicated. Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” - Mark 10:15 A child simply puts their trust (faith) in their parents protective arms. Likewise, we entrust our life to Jesus our Savior, believing on Him and His finished work on the cross. The Apostle Paul defined the message of the Gospel (good news) like this- “...that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 Jesus, the perfect, sinless lamb, the Son of God, laid down His life and took the death penalty meant for us, dying in our place (read Isaiah 53:6). He paid the debt we could not pay and redeemed us (bought us back) from the power of sin and death. (read John 1:29 / Galatians 3:13 / Romans 3:25) C: Confess Jesus is Lord and Savior “...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” -Romans 10:9-10 “The LORD is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” -2 Peter 3:9 God fulfilled His promise, sending His one and only Son to die in our place. He has offered us the most precious gift-salvation, the forgiveness of sin, eternal life with Him in heaven. BUT…we must receive that gift. We must confess our sins (read 1 John 1:9 ) and proclaim our faith (belief) in the death, burial and resurrection of God’s only begotten son, our Savior Jesus. Confessing with our mouth requires an outward, public action, not a secret, hidden, timid faith. The Apostle Paul boldly proclaimed his faith so that others could hear and be saved. God’s plan of salvation is freely offered to everyone. If you are not familiar with prayer, it is simply talking to God openly and honestly. Remember, the Bible says we are saved by grace through faith. God sees our heart. We are not saved by simply saying some special words in a formal prayer. We are saved when we reach out by faith, admit our sin, repenting from believing our actions save us to belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for us, confessing Him as our Lord and Savior. Saving faith produces a forever changed life. The Bible is God’s message to us. It’s readily available even online. Please read it. Your death penalty has been paid- you have been pardoned... The choice is yours to accept it or not. We’re all headed to one of two places - heaven or hell. Will you please accept the LORD’s gift of love today? “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” - Luke 15:10

i think i know why leaps of faith are so important now.

Good lecture, but if they were from different countries, why would they not go home?

Last phrase was truer than anything said in church

Matthew's claim that the messiah was prophesied to be from Nazareth is a midrashic extrapolation from Isaiah 11:1, "shoot from Jesse." "Branch" or "shoot" is "nitser". If you put in other vowels and semi-vowel performatives to NZR you can force out the "Nazareth" interpretation.

A small point that sometimes gets lost in discussions - if the Persians had won their wars with the Greeks (Thermopylae, Marathon, etc) they would have overrrun Europe and Zoroastrianism would have spread throughout the continent as the state religion (Zoroastrian cults such as Mithraism were already popular with the Romans). Christianity would have probably never taken hold, certainly not to the extent it did, and Zoroastrianism would have been the major religion today instead of the almost-extinct status it has today. That's how history works - sometimes all it takes is a battle or two for humanity to change and go off in different directions.

Brilliant video, thanks! Myrrh is the main ingredient in Chrysm, the holy oil used in anointing. It's still used in the UK to anoint new monarchs in the coronation ceremony, this part was considered too holy to be filmed in the 1952 coronation of Queen Elizabeth so it is was screened off. In a literal sense our monarchs are "Christs".

Is this lecture in Australia? Would love to talk this speaker

Thank you for your presentations very very informative. In the case Balthazar, Balthassar what were the identifying features to distinguish "Arabs from "Africans" if possible?. Why would Western projection of ethnicity have anything to do with it?

People quite frequently today report seeing ufos, whatever they are, and they would have been seeing them frequently in ancient times. And only a ufo would fit the scenario of being able to be followed, not a star. And also the scenario that ufos are explained away as stars or something so as not to be called crazy.

The three kings lived in Iran for years preaching to people . There toms are still near to kashan’s city

Indeed there is definitely a reform during this time...particularly away from animal/human sacrifice

I'm playing this and he says epiphany was yesterday , thats correct , two years ago and today

I thought this was about Magi...where exactly from and the purpose!

Myrrh was actually a well known contraceptive at the time. So they brought money, perfume, and contraceptives...lol

Gustav Fechner developed an Avestic Christianity. He wrote a book called the Little Book of Life After Death. He is considered to be a pioneer in psychology and also inspired one of the greatest mathematicians in human history Bernard Riemann.

It's a form of syncronism that this Video is increse in numbers of views

The flaw in historical investigation is that it is never settled. All assumptions are arrived at on the review of scantily available evidence. Should more evidence be uncovered that potentially affects the previous assumption. So on and so forth. It is a far more sober approach to take the experts viewpoints with a grain of salt. It is never in their place to be entirely sure as their line of work doesn't allow that. Rather it promotes enquiry and inquisition more than delivering final answers. Experts are prone to bias. Why would Josephus, who lived later, be a more credible source of the historicity of Jesus than his eye witnesses? Is it because he was a historian, and therefore credible, or that he wasn't a Christian? Luke was a Greek doctor who lived in the time of Jesus. Is his account not weightier than Josephus's who has no other corroborating contemporary?

1:06:00 minor point but I think the Chinese have historically (and even now to an extent) make you go back to your family's hometown for certain government things. I think it is called hukou

Clearly you are a Loki variant

Interesting that Isaiah 60 actually talks specifically of people from the islands, then mentions Sheba, Kedar, Tarshish of people going to Jerusalem. Isaiah talks quite a bit of these isles of the East. Not sure if scholars just want to ignore this or really don't think of it.

Huge omission, It was the Persian, Zoroastrian Empire that liberated the Jews from Babylonian conquest, slavery. Osmosis of Zoroastrian ideas into The Old Testament was not a result of casual encounters with neighboring religions.

who is the speaker ?

The professor sounds like he's still in his twenties

We should read the same books sometimes.

Most people don't know but there was a fourth wise man He is not talked about much because he brought a fruitcake.

The most interesting description, In my opinion, of the three wise men is in the novel BEN HUR by Lew Wallace. They are described as hermits, one from Egypt, another from Greece and the third from India, who each had an epiphany which led them to Bethlehem guided by a star...

The prophets would be called mediums or chandeliers at this time. Was the Bible written through automatic writing or just from the prophets experiences?

since there was no star, I guess "wise" meant something way different back then... like screwed up on hashish

The Persians were a branch off of the Corded Ware culture. Apocalypse is also found among the Germanic branch of the Corded Ware, etc.

Magi... Persian wise Men Al la Mani.....

According to ihe Bible how many of the magi were there?

28:05 The Parthian Empire which ruled Persia at that time had no state reøigion. Zoroastrianism appeared to become a state religion by Sassanids.

For the first century Jews, was the 2nd Temple more a symbol of fear or of hope?

"I'm herry happy that you all rerembered" - OK, thanks.

I think this a misunderstanding of Persian policy. Even after 200 years of rule in Bablyon, chaldean religion was still thriving there. Same with Canaanite religion and egyptian religion. U really don't get an empire with a policy of religious exclusivity until the time of the roman Constantine 500 years later.

There were a few herods in the bible. Herod the great, herod archelau, herod of antipas

He says that Satan didn't exist in the early Jewish religion, but I'm wondering, what about the Satan, or adversary in the book of Job?

Historians associate Caspar with King Gondophares (AD 21 - c. AD 47) mentioned in the Acts of Thomas. Thus One of the magi may have been a delegate of the same Indo Parthian king

🤠😘🥰

The Star Prophecy of Baalam

Bethlehem was a mere village back then. There's no reason to expect Josephus or any other writer to mention the murder of a few dozen, at most, children, especially if Herod did not publicize why he ordered it.

We three kings of orient are. One on a bike and two in a car.

I’m curious why no one makes any connection between the ancient Phoenician “bee kings” priests to Ishtar/ Astarte/ Venus, known as the Essenes, the Gnostics, the Sophists (Sophia is “wisdom” in Greek) rhetoricians of Greece that caused the death of Socrates, could also be of the same group as the “wise men” or “ three kings”, and also the scribes, the lawyers, the sopherim, that Jesus accuses along with the Pharisees as false interpreters of the law, There were 3 sects of Jewish leadership in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus according to Josephus: The Sadducees The Pharisees And the Essenes I believe the Essenes were the perpetuators of the written law, but manipulated the understanding of it through ecumenical councils, that outwardly appeared righteous, but were inwardly greedy for wealth, power, and prestige.

They was the size men the occultist from ancient time's magician means wise man a man who understands nature laws and occult law's. It's that simple.

In the bible, a star is always an angel.

Astrologically it would be about by the positions of the stars at the time could have come to a conclusion that at a certain time or date someone like jesus that they were expecting would be born, by some sort of natal chart interpretation of the stars at that time.

The oldest surviving manuscript (K1) of an Avestan language text is dated 1323 CE. There was certainly an ancient Persian religion that used some symbols and god names found in Zoroastrianism that goes back to darius or before. But I think we need to be carefully about the EXACT traditions and beliefs we apply to that ancient religion. Just because the 14th century avesta uses the same god names does NOT mean the none of the religious beliefs changed one iota between 1000BC to 1300AD. 2000 years is a long time. Or does the oft talked about "game of telephone" only apply to Christian texts?. It is possible Zoroastrianism borrowed material from Christianity and Judaism. Evidence for that would be the some of similarities found in the Avesta to the Christ story. Written copies of the Christ story PREDATE the copies of the avesta we have, so it is illogical (and a violation of the methods of modern historical scholarship to try to apply the influence in the opposite direction.

The Idumeans fully converted to Judaism🕎 in the generation before Herod, and were eventually absorbed into the Jewish people leaving no trace. They converted because the Jewish king Hyrcanus conquered them and ordered them to either leave the Land of Israel, or convert to Judaism. So they converted to Judaism🕎, but remained among themselves. Read Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews," book XIII, chapter IX.

🔥 Zoroastrians priests honoring Jesus at his birth makes perfect sense. 🕎Judaism teaches that there is NO Devil and what appears to be evil, is actually G-d concealing Himself. Jesus put himself in opposition to Judaism with his Devil theology. But the 🔥Zoroastrians advocated him.

Ophir, Tarshis, Sheba and Seba

Was this done during the pandemic?

Is that traditionally there are three gifts; the gold, frankincense and myrrh, potentially a theological allusion to the Trinity?

Why would the 3 be found in Persia? Didn't they each go back to their own countries and die there?

Magus or magi is a magician or someone who practices magic, or anything seen as a mystery by the people which would include astrology or even astronomy at the time.

Not only did Nazareth give the baby Jesus a town to call home but Nazareth also gave the world one of the greatest Rock groups of the late 1960's and into the 1970's.

Strange that they are praised when they likely used astrology and divination to determine when and where they should go.

After Reynaldo Gonzales observation of a Star humage to pay

Wall St is Wailing Wall extension project

It's all astrology, you can track the whole thing through the movement of the stars

Doesn't it say The Child greeted the Maji at the door? Not as an infant?