02x20 - What Happened to the JC Bunch? Part 3: The Early Christian Underground

[bunniefuu]

What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Oh, hi how are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

A shrine to a bellybutton.

Is this a rock of salt?

Look at that!

No one gets into this place?

Whoa, don't take me too far!

Now that's naked archeology.

[theme music]

[SIMCHA] Every year there's a best selling book

about a secret cult preserving some original and pure form

of Christianity. These stories of ancient bloodlines

and underground sects are purely works of fiction...

or are they?

As it turns out there was an original movement

that may have gone underground for centuries and beyond.

I'm on a search for the original Jesus movement,

the Judeo Christians, or as I like to call them, the JC bunch.

The earliest followers of Jesus were Jews,

they gave props to Moses and all his laws,ate Kosher chow,

circumcised and made Saturday a day to chill out.

You have some strange customs

you Isrealites.

[SIMCHA] They sang exactly the same tune

as traditional Jews

except for one note: they believed Jesus was the Messiah,

the prophet who would reunite the Jewish tribes

and liberate Judea from the Romans.

After the crucifixion of Jesus, his brother James

led the entire movement...

that is until he had a little run-in with the apostle Paul.

Paul took the original Judeo-Christian message

and removed commandments to present

what he believed was a more

accessible reflection of the faith.

[SIMCHA] Paul changed it from a Jewish sect

into one of the most popular religions around...

Christianity.

But what happened to the original Jewish Jesus movement?

Most scholars say that by the time Christianity was made legal

in the th century, the original Jesus following had dissolved.

But I don't think that's what happened.

I think the Jesus movement went underground!

Now this is what we do. We take two cars...

we drive south all night and all day...

[SIMCHA] I think they continued with their beliefs

and traditions well into the th and th centuries,

maybe even further than most scholars have ever imagined.

And in this episode, I'll try to prove it!

And I'm going to start by going to the source,

Jesus' hometown of Capernaum.

This is Capernaum.

It lasted from about BCE to CE or AD.

For about years it was a beautiful village.

And why is it so important?

Because the Gospels say this is where Jesus hung out.

You know, the Gospel of Matthew says this was his home.

Jesus may have preached in that synagogue.

Well, not exactly the white synagogue,

maybe in the synagogue that stood in that black foundation

before this white synagogue.

Here is also where he recruited some of his apostles.

Some of the most famous ones, like the two brothers,

the sons of Zebedee.

Hello all you people out there in game land!

Today we're going to play a game called...

I've got to find a Christian

who knows about the sons of Zebedee.

Is there a Christian in the house?

Who were the Sons of Zebedee? In the new testament.

The Sons of Zebedee... He only speaks polish.

Excuse me father. You know what I forgot.

This is a crazy question.

Who were the Sons of Zebedee?

[speaking in Romanian]

Ah, Romanian. One of my many talents.

[speaking Romanian]

James

[speaking Romanian]

These are both priests. They've cleared it up.

Two of the Apostles, James and John

are the sons of Zebedee.

[speaking Romanian]

Shalom, Shalom

Shalom.

The sons of Zebedee- James and John,

the son of Zebedee, and they were partners

according to the gospels in the fishing business

with Simon Peter. And there's another apostle,

James, the son of Alpheus, and these names, Zebedee, Alpheus,

they're not that common. And yet, right here,

in Capernaum, what we have, right behind me,

right over there, are these names literally carved in stone.

[SIMCHA] This stone column is from

this th century synagogue, built at a time

when most scholars believe the Judeo-Christians

had disappeared, even from here in Capernaum,

their original 'hood.

But if the rare names inscribed on this stone

are unique to the JC tribe,

it would mean that the descendants

of the very first Judeo Christians were living here

well into the th century.

I asked archaeologist Motti Aviam to tell me about the pillar.

So somebody made a donation to the synagogue...

And his name was written on the pillar.

He probably gave the money for this pillar

or for a group of pillars.

But here's the thing, what you have here is John,

Zebedee, Alpheus, all connected to this area in the Gospels.

Could be even relatives of the original people

that we talk about here.

But not necessarily means that this stone

from this synagogue is connected to the Jewish Christians.

You have strong circumstantial evidence.

Because at the very least

you have these names associated with this place

in the gospels. They're rare names.

You have them on a column, in a synagogue,

in the same place. Knowing how villages work,

it's probably the same clan that had the names

and you keep getting called after the grandfather

and so on. If it is the same clan or the apostles of Jesus,

odds are that they believe that he is the guy.

That's a hypothesis I would not buy immediately.

[SIMCHA] Motti thinks I'm stretching the evidence

over the centuries and well into a time

when he believes there were no Judeo-Christians

in Capernaum, especially not donating columns

to synagogues.

He says that by the th century the JC-bunch

had been pushed out.

There were inside Jewish community

towards the end of this period, towards the nd and rd century,

Jews pushed them out.

There was a great split between the Jewish Christian

and the Jews.

And then when Christianity became what it is

when that took over, they also pushed the early Christians out.

They didn't want them because they were Jews.

The Jews didn't want them because they were Christians,

and the Christians didn't want them because they were Jews.

Exactly.

[SIMCHA] By the th century,

Christianity had been legal for a hundred years...

and it had evolved.

Thanks to the apostle Paul, the belief in Jewish laws

like circumcision and eating Kosher

were replaced solely by a belief in Jesus...

and Christians now worshiped Jesus as divine.

On the flip side, the Judeo-Christians followed

all the Jewish laws and they believed Jesus

was a mortal prophet, a messiah but not a god.

So they would have found the new church

a strange place to worship.

But why couldn't the Judeo-Christians

go on honoring Jewish law alongside traditional Jews

in synagogues like this one?

Where's the evidence of the clear cut split

Motti is talking about between Jew and Judeo-Christian?

Would you believe a couple of rabbis put it down on paper

years ago and it just may have driven

the Judeo-Christians underground.

[SIMCHA] I just may have the proof

that by the rd century Judeo-Christians

were not a tiny sect inside Judaism

but a force to be reckoned with.

Professor Isaiah Gafni tells me

that years ago the rabbis took them so seriously

that they changed Jewish liturgy

to get the Judeo-Christians out of the synagogues.

You have prayers that are introduced

into the synagogue liturgy

that seem to be castigating others,

and the phrase that appears in Rabbinic literature is minim,

and nobody really knows what that word "min" means,

but it seems to relate to otherness, in other words,

somebody who is different,

who has embraced some sort of problematic belief.

But these are Jews.

These are definitely Jews, and in fact,

in one of the benedictions that was inserted into the liturgy,

it's really a curse of the minim,

says that "they should have no hope

unless they return to the torah."

When the rabbis were codifying Jewish liturgy,

they warned readers of the heretical "minim",

the others. They even introduced a "curse"

against the "Minim" that was to be recited

with a loud voice in the synagogue.

What they're doing is they're cursing others,

and I'm sure that a lot of people say, well,

I'm not an other, I'm a mainstream Jew!

In fact, I'm a super mainstream Jew,

I even believe in the Messiah.

So again, it's hard to know

who is really being singled out in the original version

of this text.

But the Jesus movement are a good candidate, aren't they?

I think so, yes. I think Christian Jews,

or Judeo-Christians, however we want to call them,

would've been one of those others.

[SIMCHA] What set the JC-bunch apart

from traditional Jews was their belief in Jesus as the messiah.

A messiah? Who is he?

[SIMCHA] And what made their belief

in Jesus difficult among Jews

was the simultaneous worship coming from Pauline Christians.

It was the Apostle Paul's version of the faith

that had become the new Christianity

and Paul's followers were emphasizing

the supernatural qualities of Jesus, the divinity.

For Jews, the messiah was supposed to be a mortal prophet,

not a divine god.

Because the JC-bunch chose Jesus as their messiah

the Judeo-Christians were now perceived

as confusing the traditional Jewish faith

and so they were called "minim"...

the others, and bounced from the synagogue.

They seemed trapped between a rock and a hard place.

They are between a rock and a hard place

because obviously gentile Christians

are going to suspect them of backsliding.

And of not really...you read this in Christian literature.

They are constantly suspect.

Obviously rabbis are pushing them out

and they are stuck between a rock and a hard place,

and by the th century,

they seem to be already a museum piece.

[SIMCHA] And that's how most scholars believe

the JC-bunch disappeared.

But what if they went underground?

There just might be evidence that some synagogues

were "minim friendly" for hundreds of years

following the crucifiction.

I've heard of some strange mosaics

that may point to an ancient hideout.

Look at that!

[SIMCHA] This is Tiberias, the ancient centre

of Jewish culture beginning in the nd century.

But there is evidence here that suggests

an underground brotherhood,

a Jewish-Christian combo and a Jewish-Christian hideout.

I'm in a , year old synagogue

But there's something very weird about this synagogue,

which has mystified scholars from the time that it was found.

There are pagan symbols in here.

What are the Jews doing bringing idolatrous images

into the synagogue?

[SIMCHA] This ancient mosaic

is a mixture of traditional Jewish icons, pagan idols,

and what just might be early Christian symbols.

Directly underneath the menorah

and Jerusalem's holy temple are the signs of the zodiac.

And in the centre of the wheel is a depiction of Helios,

the Greek sun god that some say was adopted

by the Romans as Sol Invictus.

The sun god, which becomes Sol Invictus for the Romans,

which becomes Jesus resurrected.

You have to understand that this symbol,

the double-halo became a symbol synonymous with Jesus,

not the emperor, not Sol Invictus.

[SIMCHA] Sol Invictus was often depicted

with the suns rays sh**ting from his crown

and Roman emperors wore similar crowns.

Christian iconography adopted

some of the artistic language of paganism

and Sol Invictus was changed to depict Christ with a halo.

And what you have here is the rays coming out of his head,

but he's also got the symbol of Jesus.

In fact, Roman emperors did not wear that crown

once they became Christian

because it was identified with Jesus.

This is a Christian symbol.

And they encoded it because at the time

that they built this house of worship,

Christianity was still illegal.

So the Roman soldiers outside could come in here,

look at this, and say, "Oh, we know those images.

Zodiac, Sol Invictus. They're worshiping the emperor.

That's wonderful" and they leave.

Except you've put in a Christian halo.

What you've essentially said is that,

"I'm not worshiping the pagan god,

I'm worshiping Jesus."

And look over here.

We've got an uncircumcised, naked boy in a synagogue.

What's he doing here?

Remember, it was Paul that said,

"You don't have to circumcise anymore."

No kosher synagogue would put an image

of a naked boy, uncircumcised on top of that,

in the synagogue.

Unless they're not exactly kosher Jews,

we're literally standing in the middle

of an encoded early Christian mosaic, Judeo-Christians.

[SIMCHA] This mosaic contains all kinds of contradictions

but perhaps it's reflecting a specific moment in history.

Is it possible that here we have snapshot

of a transition from Jewish to Judeo-Christian to Christian?

Is this an early-Christian synagogue?

How come they wrote all the signs of the zodiac properly,

except Aquarius represented water, next to the fish.

Only those two signs have been tampered with.

Now, you can say, "Well, you're imagining things.

You think this is a Judeo-Christian.

This is really just a mosaic.

It's really a pagan symbol," except it's written in Hebrew.

The word for Aquarius is "GLEE" for vessel.

And what you have here is three letters,

Dalet, Lamet, Yud in Hebrew,

except they flipped the Hebrew letters

so that the only way to read it is with a mirror.

Are they telling us there's a code here?

[SIMCHA] Before the Last Supper

Jesus told his disciples, "a man will meet you

carrying an earthen pitcher of water;

follow him into the house where he goes".

And so Aquarius was important for the early Christians,

the carrier of holy water to be followed into the house of God.

How come only one letter in the sign of the fish,

a traditional and early Judeo-Christian symbol,

is flipped to create a symbol

instead of the letter "GEE-mel" or G?

Suddenly you have a symbol.

By flipping the "G" the ancient artists

changed the letter into a chevron right next to the fish.

Perhaps it's a coded message for an underground movement.

Are they telling us there's a code here?

Flip everything. You think it's pagan. It's not.

[SIMCHA] The Jewish-Christian images here

are exciting because they may reflect the beliefs

of an original Jesus following.

And it's got me thinking that other ancient synagogues

may have been hideouts for the early Christian movement.

I wanted to test out my theory on archaeologist Motti Aviam.

He took me to the ruins of another th century synagogue

in Chorazin and it didn't take long

to discover something a little fishy.

What do you call this?

This is the tip of the gable...

Gable that used to be up there, right?

And look at it. I mean, this is fine workmanship.

But right over here... Can you see it?

The fish is known as an early Christian symbol.

It's a fish. And there was an eagle, and there are lions,

and there are figurative decorations.

Just a decoration. -Just a decoration.

I just had a very fishy idea.

You have in Tiberias that funny zodiac

right under the temple, in the synagogue.

You have the fish, the symbols of the fish,

and smack dab the Gee-mel is inversed

in the middle of "Dagim".

Yes, so?

I think scholars are playing too casually

about the potential symbology of these signs.

People generally don't do everything

for decorative reasons,

especially not in places where they pray.

No, no. I don't agree.

I completely disagree with you.

[SIMCHA] Motti wasn't buying my theory

on fish and gables.

But he did tell me of an ancient village not far from here,

in the Golan, where an archaeologist claims

to have discovered exactly the kind of evidence

I'm looking for.

Here we are in Farge.

Farge is in the Golan Heights.

It's a modern Syrian-Arab village

and it's built on the ruins of a Byzantine,

a year old Christian village. And right now,

we're looking for Jews, Christians, and something in between.

[SIMCHA] A controversial discovery was made here

in the early 's.

Here's a cross! In a-

[SIMCHA] The archaeologist Claudine Dauphin

recorded mysterious symbols carved in the stone lintels

of these house, that she believed unveiled

a Judeo-Christian presence in a city

that most scholars believe was Christian only.

Look at this thing. Eh?

Menorahs with crosses in them.

Let's try and look for it-

Find it. -Yup.

I think that's in the picture of the article,

Dauphin's article. Look at that.

That's a beautiful building here. Beautiful building.

Do you need a flashlight?

I don't see any Judeo-Christians.

I don't think that Jews and Christians lived together

in the Byzantine period.

In my view, this was a Christian village,

and only Christian village.

Look at this...see this?

That's something.

An oval with a Tree of Life, like you said, on its side.

Far be it from me to jump to any assumptions,

but it's exactly where Jews put their Mezuzahs.

In exactly the same position, on an angle.

Yeah. So what?

Tell me this...Tree of Life Christian?

Tree of Life exists in many cultures.

Also in Judaism and Christianity.

Ok. So this could be a Jewish symbol?

Yes.

And it's not on top but like...

Yes. It's on the door jam.

It's on the door jam.

So I'm in a quote, unquote, Christian village,

and I see a symbol that you say is Judeo or Christian.

In a context that is suggestive to me of Judeo Christianity.

They seem to be using a Christian Jewish symbol,

if you will, in a new way, but in an old way.

According to the crosses found in this village,

I would assume this is a Christian village.

And this Tree of Life could be some kind of a Christian symbol,

but it could also be a samaritan house

or someone who is carrying some kind of

earlier Jewish traditions. But it's not a proof itself.

It's not proof.

It is not enough to declare it as a Jewish-Christian village.

Look at this. What I will say it this- it's very suggestive.

If you were moving from Judaism to Christianity,

you stopped using a Mezuzah, stopped using

overtly Judaic orthodox symbols.

But you want your house to be blessed.

It makes sense that you would put it on your door jam to bring...

Luck.

To bring luck, blessing on your house.

Support from Heaven.

You don't have a Mezuzah, you put a Tree of Life.

Could happen, yeah.

[SIMCHA] If it "could happen" maybe it did happen,

And this village is one of the last bastions

of the Judeo-Christians,

still around some years

after most scholars say they disappeared.

But perhaps what we're seeing is how they became invisible,

continuing as a heresy, chiseling codes and symbols,

and passing their message forward through the centuries,

maybe as far as Leonardo da VInci and beyond.