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.
02x20 - What Happened to the JC Bunch? Part 3: The Early Christian Underground
Watch/Buy Amazon
Show examines biblical stories and tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts.
Show examines biblical stories and tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts.