Posted on 07/07/2026 7:55:34 AM PDT by week 71
Ancient inscriptions written in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, have revealed a forgotten chapter of early Christianity's rise across the Roman Empire.
Etched into stone, the text mentions both Jesus Christ and Mithras, the deity worshipped by a mysterious all-male religion once popular among Roman soldiers and merchants.
The inscriptions were discovered at the entrance to an underground Mithras temple in southeastern Turkey, where researchers say it records the sanctuary's symbolic closure by early Christians around 1,700 years ago.
Located at Zerzevan Castle, the remarkably preserved temple still contains four sacrificial hangers, a basin believed to have collected the blood of sacrificial bulls, and three wall niches used in the cult's secret ceremonies.
The inscriptions date to roughly 300 years after Jesus' crucifixion, during a period when Christianity was rapidly spreading across the Roman Empire.
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hmmm... you are correct. I was going by what I had read about this before - that coins found in it were before the 4th century AD
Don’t forget the Plague of Justinian & the Volcanic Winter of 536 AD both events set the stage for societal collapse particularly in the East.
But things like rebuilding the Temple (as you posted) was a means to destroy Christianity from within (as I posted). The same for Julian trying to weaponize theological differences (again, an attack from within).
IMHO it's much like the left does today with God's church. They'll attaboy church leaders who are "inclusive" to homosexuality. Or they'll promote theistic evolution (regardless of what one believes on the age of the earth, saying God did it by using natural selection promotes a modern version of deism in which He doesn't have an intimate relationship with His creation). Or they'll ban you from teaching at universities if you espouse your Christian beliefs (i.e. can't be a professor of biology if you point to characteristics showing God's design).
Even if the left isn't currently outright banning Christianity. They're certainly undermining it in ways similar to Julian. At least that's my humble opinion.
I need to think about what you wrote after that - it does sound right. I thought you were projecting our current state backwards and you, instead are projecting the state in 360 AD forwards :)
Possibly, but I'm not sure about those - wasn't Anatolia and Italy more affected than the parts that fell to the Arab empire?
I also think it was the stupid in-fighting caused after Chalcedon AND the persecution of the Jews
when the Arabs took over the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, the Copts, Syriac Christians as well as the Jews helped the Arabs take over - the Arabs were initially "our religion is ours alone, we don't want none of you losers"
The Volcanic Winter was world-wide, significantly effect crop production - famine. Justinian’s Plague was particularly hard in the east. Both effected populations, hence effected trade, economies and the ability of the Eastern Empire & Persians to maintain and raise troops. As you pointed out both empires had devastated themselves with a 40 year war, the pressures of the plague and Volcanic Winter left a scarcity of resources to rebuild. They became a hollow shell. The Arabs essentially punched an empty bag!
You know, I did not know about that volcanic winter - or i may have read it somewhere and not focused on it, but your points are very very good.
Thank you! you’ve taught me something new today and I am grateful!
Thanks for the link. I have followed some of Dr. Jeremiah Johnston’s work this year. His conclusions have my attention.
Hi Cronos. I appreciate your input on the subject. One can tell you are very informed.
BFL
IIRC the translation of the OT into Greek was done by Jewish scholars in Alexandria Egypt, in the years soon after Alexander’s conquests.
The resulting text is the “Septuagint”, the name being a reference to 70 scholars having contributed.
Anyway thanks to Alexander the Great the Greek language was widespread and well established at the time of Christ.
Aramaic is a sister language to Hebrew and may have developed during the Babylonian exile. So in that fashion a variety of Hebrew was still spoken in Israel at Christ’s time but it isn’t identical to the real thing. But modern Hebrew is apparently remarkably similar to ancient Hebrew.
“then, in the years around 600 to 640 the Roman and Persian empires entered into a decade long war with each other that was utterly devastating - think WwI+II combined but for decades. They were utterly exhausted.”
I’ve seen speculation that plague and drought had weakened the Empire along the north African coast and made it vulnerable to conquest.
But then watching how the current Western world is handing itself over to 3rd world savages maybe it didn’t take anything special to make it collapse.
“So in that fashion a variety of Hebrew was still spoken in Israel at Christ’s time...”
All I can find indicates Hebrew was known and used, primarily in religious matters but still Hebrew. The Septuagint met a need but Jesus taught in the synagogues and shows every sign of being familiar with contemporaneous rabbinical discussions, and many of those would have been in Hebrew.
That could well be. The great majority of the Dead Sea scrolls are in Hebrew and some of those should be close in time to the Christian era. However the NT never having been written in Hebrew seems to argue that it was already losing ground as a living language.
“it was already losing ground as a living language”
Agreed.
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