In Paul of Tarsus, Joseph Holzner weaves together the New Testament Bible's often sketchy information about the life and mission of Saul of Tarsus, now called St. Paul by Pauline Christians, into a unified and inspiring hagiography.
With a novelist's ability to take readers into a scene and a historian's rigorous concern for accuracy, Holzner traces this Jewish Apostle's life from his early years as a disciple of the celebrated Rabbi Gamaliel through his overly zealous persecution of the Christian Assembly or "church" as a member of the competing Jewish school called the Pharisees, through his "miraculous" origin story conversion on the road to Damascus, his seemingly tireless efforts to spread the Gospel [of the newly minted Ceasar's Messiah, formerly Jesus the Nazarene not from any place called "Nazareth"], and his Christian martyr's death at the hands of his former bosses in imperial Rome.
Along the way, Holzner provides instructive background information about the religious and social situation of Saul's times and the circumstances of his New Testament letters (epistles). Here, then, is a complete and enlightening introduction to the Apostle to the Gentiles aka "the Converter of the Non-Jews" to this new much less Jewish Roman Empire-approved Universalist religion, the new opium of the masses]. More
Burn heretics for saying what we don't like!
John the Apostle with Marcion
Marcion preached that the benevolent God [the "One," the Monad] of the Gospel who sent Jesus (Yeshua) into this world as a "savior" was the true [omniscient, omnipotent] Supreme Being.
That unknowable, unfathomable, impersonal [Brahman-type GOD] is different and opposed to the malevolent Christian creator deity, the Demiurge [the "Craftsman" called Yaldabaoth], identified as Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH in the Hebrew Bible [3, 4, 6].
He allegedly considered himself a follower of Saul of Tarsus or Paul the Apostle, whom he believed to have been the only true apostle of Jesus [3, 4], Ceasar's Messiah.
Thank you, Marcion, for creating the 1st Bible
Marcion's canon, the FIRST Christian Bible (biblical canon of which books to include) ever compiled. It consisted of 11 books: the Gospel of Marcion, which was a shorter version of the Gospel of Luke, and ten Pauline epistles [3, 4, 7].
Marcion's canon rejected the entire Old Testament, the crazed Jewish compilation (Sumerian appropriation) of a genocidal henotheistic "God" called Jehovah and his jealous and unhinged exploits, along with all other epistles and gospels of what would become the 27-book canon of the New Testament, which during his life had yet to be compiled [3, 4, 8, 9].
Let's find this heretic and crucify him.
"Marcion-ism" was denounced by its opponents as heresy and written against by the Church Fathers – notably by Tertullian in his five-book treatise Adversus Marcionem (Against Marcion) in about the Year 208 [3, 4].
Marcion's writings are lost [banned, buried, burned, destroyed], even though they were widely read and numerous manuscripts must have existed at one time [3, 4].
Even so, many scholars say it is possible to reconstruct and deduce a large part of ancient Marcionism through what later critics, especially Tertullian, said concerning him [3, 4, 10].
I'm your creator! Worship me...or else!
The movement was widespread, which forced rival sects to begin throwing up defenses. Marcionites founded churches across the Roman Empire. Their eventual decline is attributed to state intervention by later imperial edicts banning all groups deemed heretical from assembling [11].
Marcion of Sinope (Ancient Greek Μαρκίων [2, Note 1] Σινώπης (c. 85–c. 160 [3]) was a theologian [4] in early Christianity [4, 5].
Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus Christ, who was distinct from the vengeful God (Demiurge, the misbegotten son of Sophia Yaldabaoth, Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH) who had created this physical world [4, 5, 6] or simulated reality. More
Will the world end? How will the world end? When will the world end? Why will the world end? Questions, questions. Of course, the world will end. Not any time soon, but never mind about that. It's always ending, constantly hurtling towards destruction. "Change is the only constant," some wise person once said. That person was talking about what the Buddha called anicca. We translate this as "impermanence," but that's very limited and misleading. We prefer flux, dissolution, or radical impermanence, though "change" also works.
The idea is that, that something will change is no kind of message to the world. Of course, things are impermanent. We all know that. Only a child would think things are going to stay the same. (Guilty! And we're old enough to know better). It might be better to investigate how things are going to change because that sort of explains the why. The when is easy! Right now. Now. The eternal now. When is a mountainside not crumbling? Even as geological forces send it up, it is already disintegrating. When aren't human cells dying? They are always dispatching and falling off. That's what it means to have a body, though we don't much notice, know, or want to know.
How are things changing? Little by little until they give way to a noticeable amount. The more closely we investigate and notice, the more and more we become aware of when and how this is happening. It can become so upsetting that we stop clinging. Why, being ourselves impermanent, would we chase and cling to impermanent things?
Once upon a time, the Buddha was walking along the river and he came upon 1,000 fire worshippers with their matted locks or jatas, wandering ascetics in search of truth. They saw him and were moved by his gravitas, charisma, and appearance. He himself was a wandering ascetic but a Scythian (Shakyian) from the West, serene, and delightful to look upon. What could he possibly have to say about ultimate truth? See "The Fire Sermon."
The Roman Empire REMOVED the "True" Jesus to control Christians
(Prof Jiang Explains) June 25, 2026: Mainstream Christianity doesn't want us to know the real Jesus (Y'shua, Kristos, the Anointed One, Saint Issa, Isa).
Discovered in 1945, the [Lost] Gospel of Thomas reveals a radically different Jesus whose teachings were suppressed by the Roman-backed Catholic ["Universalist"] Church.
This ancient text exposes a profound truth: the divine spark resides within each of us, making us all "sons of the living [sky] father," directly challenging hierarchical church control.
Prof. Jiang Xuehin delves into these revolutionary teachings, drawing parallels to Plato's Allegory of the Cave and other ancient wisdom [and ancient Gnostic] traditions.
Jesus' true message wasn't about blind faith or external salvation. It was about inner knowledge, self-mastery, and the rejection of material intoxication.
He saw organized religion and the pursuit of worldly power as distractions, keeping humanity from recognizing its own inherent divinity and interconnectedness.
Uncover the shocking truth behind the "official" narrative. Learn why Jesus opposed the religious authorities of his time and taught that seeking knowledge, even if it means questioning established "gods," is the path to true fulfillment and spiritual awakening.
This clip will change everything viewers thought they knew about the foundations of Christianity and our place in the universe.
8,000 years ago females made a choice that erased 90% of males forever
(Psychryptoria) Dec. 6, 2025: Eight thousand years ago, 17 females reproduced for every 1 male. And 90% of male bloodlines vanished—not through war, plague, or disaster, but through female choice and economics.
The connection between ancient bottlenecks and modern dating apps
What this means for our DNA and relationships today
How empire profits from boys
Research Notes and Key Sources:
Karmin et al. (2015) - "A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture"
Genome Research, 25(4):459-466
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25770...
Zeng et al. (2018) - "Cultural hitchhiking and competition between patrilineal kin groups explain the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck"
Nature Communications, 9:2077
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Schulting & Fibiger (2023) - "Conflict, violence, and warfare among early farmers in Northwestern Europe"
PNAS, 120(16)
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
von Rueden & Jaeggi (2016) - "Men's status and reproductive success in 33 nonindustrial societies: Effects of subsistence, marriage system, and reproductive strategy"
PNAS, 113(39):10824-10829
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Rivollat et al. (2023) - "Extensive pedigrees reveal the social organization of a Neolithic community"
Nature, 620:600-606
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
Does this change how you see modern relationships? Comment.
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#NeolithicBottleneck #HumanEvolution #DatingPsychology #Hypergamy #GeneticHistory #EvolutionaryPsychology
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (Koine Greek Κλεοπάτρα Θεά Φιλοπάτωρ, lit. "Cleopatra father-loving goddess" [Note 4]) lived from 69 BC–30 BC and was queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, the last active Hellenistic pharaoh [Note 5].
Her first language was Koine Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language, among eight others [Note 7].
After her death, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the Hellenistic period in the Mediterranean, which had begun during the reign of Alexander (336–323 BC) [Note 8]. More
(MorgueOfficial) Premiered Sept. 20, 2025: I’m going to prove that the deity Christians call God is actually the Devil. How? Let's look at PROOF in the Bible itself -- not the cherrypicked verses they spoon feed us on Sunday mornings. I mean the raw, uncut, crazy parts they hope we never open to. And guess what? I’m not the first person to notice. The Gnostics knew it. Some of the first Christians read these very same verses and said, "Yeah, this ‘God’ is totally evil."
(BIBLE STORY) Sept. 30, 2024: What if everything we thought we knew about God and the Bible is wrong?
This video dives deeply into the ancient Nag Hammadi texts and diverse Gnostic beliefs that the creator of our world isn’t the loving God we’ve been taught to worship but rather the Demiurge—a false jealous god (Yaldabaoth?) who seeks to control and keep us in ignorance.
With hidden wisdom and forgotten scriptures, we explore how the Gnostics saw the material world as a prison and the serpent in Eden as a liberator offering forbidden knowledge.
Discover the radical ideas that challenge mainstream religion, revealing that true salvation may rest in breaking free from that Demiurge's control.
From wiseSophia’s role as the guide to enlightenment to the real meaning behind Jesus’ teachings, this video questions everything. Ready to explore the truth that’s been buried for centuries? Hit play and behold!
(Para Bellum) Nov. 6, 2025: Did ancient Rome really copy its religion from more ancient Greece — or is that just a modern myth? This video uncovers the true origins of Roman religion and shows how it developed into a unique and complex system of beliefs unlike anything in Greece.
The earliest Italic tribes of the Tiber Valley, whose worldview was shaped by animism (the belief that nature itself is alive with spirit), totemism (sacred tribal animals like wolves, woodpeckers, and boars), and fetishism — the idea that certain objects held divine power.
Discover the “pledges of Rome’s eternity,” seven sacred relics believed to guarantee the survival of the Roman state. From there, trace how Etruscan and Greek religion influenced Rome.
The Etruscans gave Roman gods human form, while the Greeks provided myths to explain their origins — pairing Jupiter with Zeus, Venus with Aphrodite, Mars with Ares, and so on.
But this blending was never perfect. Roman gods had different roles, personalities, and meanings. Explore gods the Greeks never had:
Janus, god of beginnings and endings;
Quirinus, protector of the Roman people;
the household Lares and personal Genius;
Pomona, Vertumnus, Terminus, Mefitis, and many others.
Roman religion also worshipped abstract values like Virtus (Valor), Pax (Peace), Fides (Loyalty), and Disciplina (Discipline), building entire temples to ideas rather than personalities.
Unlike Greek religion -- which emphasized myth, emotion, art, and beauty -- Roman religion was about duty, tradition, and exact ritual. The Romans believed the gods cared less about faith and more about whether rituals were performed flawlessly.
Every sacrifice, prayer, and gesture had to be precise — or repeated from the beginning. Divination was another core part of Roman religion.
Inherited from the Etruscans, practices like haruspicy (reading the entrails of sacrificed animals) and auspicy (interpreting bird signs) guided political decisions, wars, and daily life.
Uncover stories like Publius Claudius Pulcher at the Battle of Drepana, who mocked the sacred chickens — and lost an entire fleet.
Roman priests were not a separate religious class. Priesthoods were held by politicians and generals — Julius Caesar, Cicero, Sulla, Augustus, and Scipio Africanus all served as priests while leading the state, proving how religion and politics were inseparable in Rome.
In the end, Roman religion wasn’t a copy of Greek religion — it was a fusion of Italic, Etruscan, and Greek beliefs shaped by Roman values: duty, order, family, and the power of the state.
This video uncovers how it worked, what the Romans truly believed, and why their religious system helped build one of the greatest empires in history.
Bibliography
1. Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile Books, 2015.
2. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Vol. 1: A History. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
3. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Haruspicum Responsis. 4. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Natura Deorum.
5. Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities.
6. Plutarch. Parallel Lives.
7. Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Indiana University Press, 2003.
8. Turcan, Robert. The Gods of Ancient Rome. Routledge, 2000.
9. Varro, Marcus Terentius. Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (Fragments).
10. Wissowa, Georg. Religion und Kultus der Römer. C.H. Beck, 1912.
11. Rüpke, Jörg. “Divination and Roman Political Decision-Making.” Numen 44 (1997): 1–22.
12. Rüpke, Jörg, ed. A Companion to Roman Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
13. North, John. “Roman Religion.” In The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
14. Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
15. Scheid, John. Graeco Ritu: A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods.
16. Bispham, Edward, and Christopher Smith, eds. Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience
17. Schultz, Celia E., and Paul B. Harvey, eds. Religion in Republican Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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