This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 516 Sean Finnegan on Restoring Authentic Christianity with Tom Huzsti

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

Sean Finnegan:
Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to restart studio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today.

Tom Huszti:
Sean Finnegan, welcome to Unitarian Anabaptist.

Sean Finnegan:
Thanks for having me.

Tom Huszti:
So this has been a long time in the waiting. I was interviewed by you about 8 months ago and now you're being interviewed by the Unitarian Anabaptist. What a privilege there is. A lot that you have to say today in the limited time that we're going to do this, you just came back from a trip of Italy and Greece. You finished a 500 year history of the early church. There's just so much interrelated and what I would like to do, as we discussed earlier is to relate these things back to the 1st century faith of our early Christian brethren. So to begin, could you give us a summary of the important highlights that you saw on your trip related to church history?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, we ended up going to a number of touristy spots in Greece like Santorini and Mykonos, but we also hit Athens and we came into the port of Piraeus and then got to the city of Athens and and the first thing that I will note. And anyone who's been to the Mediterranean in August will. We'll know what I'm about to say is. That it's hot. It's a very.
Speaker
Hot part of the.

Sean Finnegan:
World. So is the Middle East, so it's it's. It's interesting that, you know, like times I've been to Israel, times have been to Greece or Turkey. It is a very different climate than what I'm used to here in New York or you in Ohio there.

Tom Huszti:
Sure. Yes, yes, absolutely. Uh.

Sean Finnegan:
And you know that that. Brings to mind the importance of water. Hmm. And something that really stuck out to me in Israel I. Would have never. Gotten that from reading books, but going to Israel you go to these ancient sites and. These cisterns dug into the ground these huge caverns to store water because it doesn't rain that much water is is still a big deal in the 1st century in Rome in.
Speaker
Yes. Yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
Other cities Pompeii also got to visit Pompeii.

Tom Huszti:
A lot.

Sean Finnegan:
And they brought. The water in through aqueducts and this is. All part of. Their system of city structure, but the question. Who pays for the aqueducts? Who pays for the bath houses? You know, I got to see some bath houses in Pompeii where you had the the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calidore. Yum, you know, and this is the really cold water, the tepid water and the hot water. And this is just what people did. These are these are public facilities. This actually ended up having a great deal of prestige. As wealthy people step forward and this happened in the 1st century, but also in the the 2nd century, was really the heyday of this period, where wealthy people would come forward and they would donate money to build these public works and they would build other great structures like theaters. And whatnot. And these would then be the ones who controlled the cities and won political office.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
And so it's a very different kind of world, you know, just like I don't think about water, I don't think. About wealthy people building bath houses or pools, right? It's just we, you know, we pay taxes and then, you know, we argue about the police. It's just a very different world. And that was really driven home to me on the trip, you know, in Athens, you're on the Acropolis and you're seeing the Parthenon and some of the other structures that still remain.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
It's just like this is an utterly different world, and it's just so helpful to remember that Tom because. We don't do that when we read the Bible, what we do is we just. We have what we. Understand the world to be, and then we encounter the scripture. We read the text and then we think to ourselves. How can I incorporate this new information? I'm reading about the book of acts or one of the church epistles. For example, how do I incorporate that into what? I know about the world. This is an automatic process and the problem is if you don't force yourself to stop and say wait, they lived in a different world where they had different. Different language, different politics, different weather, different everything. Then you can easily misunderstand so much of the New Testament I.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Think that's a? Lot of what we as pastors do is we're trying to help people understand the scriptures. So the trip was really enlightening in that sense. Also, I'll make another quick point about it is that we did manage to go to the very edge of Mount Vesuvius. Now Mount Vesuvius blew in 79 AD 79, and that's what killed all the people in Pompeii and Herculaneum. And so they say it's still an active volcano. But you can take a.
Speaker
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Bus all the way up to the top and then you hike until.

Tom Huszti:
What's the way?

Sean Finnegan:
You get to the very crater. You can look down into the crater and it's just incredible. It's just dirt and some like grass and stuff. There's no like lava. Or anything cool but.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
It's just a weird experience to like, stand on the edge of an active volcano and think, wow. This thing blew. And you could kind of see why ancient people were like, ohh, the gods are angry, right? Because. Like who would it?

Tom Huszti:
Uh-huh. Well, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
There's no one in living memory of seeing this thing blow the last time, and it's just such a otherworldly power, sure.

Tom Huszti:
How far is Pompeii from Rome?

Sean Finnegan:
I think about two hours. If I had to guess something like that, so we approached.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh that far OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Pompeii, from Naples, Naples, is on the. Coast came at it from the West to get to Pompeii in the east, and then you get to Vesuvius and. At the top. Of the Zeus, you can see everything you can see just miles and miles in different cities and. It's really incredible.

Tom Huszti:
My, my. So how far did the lava have to travel to make it to Pompeii from?

Sean Finnegan:
Well, wasn't it? They didn't get buried in lava, actually. Yeah, you, you. You would, I guess you would expect that, but it was, it was a I think it was a toxic gas.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
That swept through it well. Initially it was uh. Was launching projectiles and ash and rock straight up, and then that fell because of the wind onto the city and so that, you know, imagine like a hail storm, but with stones and bigger ones and smaller ones. But then a gas came from the mountain and.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
I believe that's what happened and it killed the people, but then it continued to rain. Ash, I think they said like 20 feet of ash, something crazy.

Tom Huszti:
Oh wow. OK.
Speaker 5
And it just.

Sean Finnegan:
Settled on the city and people just didn't have a reason to go there for anything or I'm. I'm not really sure why, but it just laid there. Century after century, and I'm not sure exactly when. Maybe in the 1700s eighteen, 100 something something around there, they're just like, hey, I think we found. A city over here, you know? Archaeology. Just finally gets started. And what happened, Tom, is they would come against these air pockets. So they're digging through. And they hit like a pocket of air and they're. Like this is so weird. What is this? And someone got the bright idea of. Of squeezing into it some plaster, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
plaster plaster. OK OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, if you have you seen these images?

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, I have. Yeah. That's what I was wondering. OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. Yeah. And so then they let it dry and harden, and then they chip around it and then they see the exact shape of a human being. Sometimes even with fine detail. Of like facial expressions and stuff. That's kind of become their customers when they hit an air cavity. They just do that and there there are lots of these casts of human beings in various positions. And what's crazy about them is it's. Just like a. Plaster, but inside the plaster are that person. 'S actual bones.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. I was gonna ask. OK. I was gonna ask, you know, something that you mentioned to me back. Louisville, KY, was the length of time that bones. Yeah. And we were talking about resurrection and literal resurrection. And you mentioned that bones last a long time. That's something I really was impressed by something that Rabbi Tovia singer was speaking out against being cremated because. Because the bones are supposed to be the material that used for in part anyhow to reconstitute us as human beings in the resurrection. So that view is very Jewish in origin, as you well know.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, I tend to agree with Rabbi Tovia singer on that. I'm not a fan of cremation. I'm not going to say it's going to defeat God's ability to resurrect somebody, feel like that's a pretty extreme position to take. But I have learned a lot and I know you've been to Israel and you've stood on the Mount of olives and you see. Well, the the tombs there that are, I don't know why they're buried above ground, but they're all these stone rectangles and or stone boxes, really rectangular shaped boxes and inside are the bones. And it's like, well, what's the deal with this? Why are they so worried about bones or not worried but concerned about bones and focused and.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
About caring for the bones and you know they have these ossuaries where you know they they found Caiaphas ossuary.

Tom Huszti:
I know I saw it when I was in Israel.

Sean Finnegan:
Incredible ornate.

Tom Huszti:
In the Israel, yeah. In the Israel hit Natural History Museum of all places, back in 2004, I was shocked.

Sean Finnegan:
Isn't it beautiful?

Tom Huszti:
Well, well, it's a beautiful ossuary, but what was most shocking was the was the plaque beside it. The plaque, the plaque beside it, said this was the high priest in the days of Jesus that was responsible for his crucifixion. And I thought to see that advertised in the Israel.

Sean Finnegan:
Oh, what did it say?

Tom Huszti:
Natural History Museum was just shocking because it's a recognition that this thing happened and this is the man responsible to it. I was, yeah, that was the last thing I saw in the museum on my way out because we were we had a very short time frame and it was at the entrance of the. Museum so we saw it as we exited. Very cool. Fascinating, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
Very cool. And you see that stuff? You just say to yourself. These are real. These are true stories. This is history, you know. You see. The the litho what is that Lithos Stratos? You know that that street that is beneath Jerusalem, that was discovered where this is where Jesus was beaten or. He was. It's the layer that goes back to the 1st century. It's kind of underneath the city of Jerusalem. You see these things you say to yourself like I like. I've stood there, Tom. Like, I know for sure. Now. Vesuvius is a real volcano. I looked into the.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes. Crater. Yes, yes. Yeah, right, right.
Speaker
It's like not that.

Sean Finnegan:
I ever really doubted it, but like when you do it and you stand there and you see and you, you know, you see the cast and the horror on the faces of the.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
People in Pompeii, you're like. OK, this is not a story, this is history.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, no.

Sean Finnegan:
And it's very powerful. But back to your point about resurrection and bones. What really started me on this, this is going to be a really random source, is a Freakonomics podcast episode. They're talking about cremating animals. The guy was saying, when it comes to cremating animals, they it was, they were trying to do an investigation. The big question they had was.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Do they actually give you the ashes for your animal? This is like a pet crematorium. Or are they just like scooping random ashes? And you know what? What's really going on here? Right. And they were talking it. So they got into the subject of cremation and bones. And they're like, well, you know, what really happens to the crematorium is they burn, you know, the human or the animal or whatever. And then the bones are there.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
Their bones are not burnable, they just, they're just there.

Tom Huszti:
Right, right, right.

Sean Finnegan:
So what they do is they grind them.

Tom Huszti:
That's what Tovia said, too.

Sean Finnegan:
And after they grind them down, that's the ashes that you get. They're actually ground bones.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh, is that right?

Sean Finnegan:
That they return to you. At least, that's what this podcast episode was saying. It was talking about animals, but like, it also talked about humans, whatever. And it and it made me think to myself, like, wait a second. I always just assumed the bones desiccated. I assumed that they disintegrated over.

Tom Huszti:
OK. Ohh you did. OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Time and then it it it kind of informed my thinking about, you know, the James Ossuary and the Caiaphas archery and some of these other ossuary findings, like some of the more sensationalized ones said we think we found Jesus and all this, which has been pretty much not accepted by scholarship but anyhow.
Speaker 5
The idea of.

Sean Finnegan:
Bones lasting for centuries and centuries was just like common sense to ancient people because they didn't have this separation. Like we have from our dead. Like we don't, we don't. Know but like they would go.

Sean Finnegan:
A year later.

Sean Finnegan:
Back to the tomb and they would pick up the bones and put them in a. Little bone box. Space is limited and you want to fit as many ancestors, descendants, relatives in the same cave or tomb as possible. But you're not looking to, like, mix all the bones together. So yeah, it just kind of made sense to get a box the width of the skull and the length of a femur, and to use that to, you know, organize people and just scratch on the side, the person's name. And so I think this all goes back to whether we're talking about the amount of olives.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Oh, OK.

Sean Finnegan:
To this day in Jerusalem, or we're talking about the austrias in the 1st century this or or Tovia Singer's preferences. This all goes back to the same thing which is this. Really strong belief in resurrection and so burying your dead in a way that preserves the bones or cares for the bones is is in a sense, I think a an act of faith that the Jewish people have always had. Again, I'm not saying that cremation is a sin or that it's going to damn somebody to, you know, eternal judgment or, you know, that's not where I'm going here, but I think.

Tom Huszti:
Yes. No.

Sean Finnegan:
We should ask the question, is this really this is really fit as Christians like I know it's less expensive. OK, but like is it? Is that always the right course of action? Just cause something's less expensive. So I I think burial. Traditional burial it can be an act of faith because you're saying I'm going to Mark Toome. I'm going to rise. Out of this to. Him so.

Tom Huszti:
Let's get back to your your trip details. I'm trying to picture this, the framework of well picture this setting that the acts of the apostles was written in. Is Athens set on a hill?

Sean Finnegan:
Well, the Acropolis certainly is.

Tom Huszti:
The acropolises OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. So, yeah, there there are definitely hills there. The propolis is a very high point in the center of Athens and it is kind of steep. I don't know what you call like a plateau that just. Rises out of nowhere. In the old days, that would be the spot where you would retreat to if Athens were invaded, because it can be held much longer.

Tom Huszti:
Apostle Paul preached in that place.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, I think he preached. On Mars. So which is right next to it. So it's yeah, it's right. Right nearby.

Tom Huszti:
Can you imagine the possible Paul in that setting?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. Well, I mean, the interesting thing about the apostle Paul at the Areopagus or Mars Hill is that he is looking at all these statues. And I when I was in Athens, I got to go to the museum.

Tom Huszti:
Can you picture him there? Carry out this OK?

Sean Finnegan:
The Acropolis Museum, which is. Walk. We got there and we went inside and you see all these statues? These are all these statues that they found? Of course. The Acropolis had actual temples to gods on it and that wouldn't have been unusual. There would be temples and statues of gods all throughout the city. And that's not weird for Athens. All Greco-roman cities had statues to gods, shrines, little other ways of worshipping their gods, you know, depending on what gods we're talking about, they're all a little different. You know, there's Paul. He's not really from the West, you know, for and for his perspective as as somebody from. Horses and cilicia. Athens is the. West, we say Athens is east, but for him that's.

Tom Huszti:
OK, he's from us. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
West and you know, so for Paul, he would have seen plenty of this throughout his travels and stuff. But for whatever reason, his heart was just so troubled in Athens, he saw that people just in the city just given to this in Act 17, he finds this altar to the unknown God and he's like. All right, well, here's. Here's someplace where I can hook on a gospel presentation. Really good speaking. But it's interesting too, going back to our former conversation about burial and resurrection, when it comes to the part where Paul says that God has furnished proof by raising that Jesus is the Messiah by raising him from the dead. The Athenians had no trouble hearing that Jesus would be the Messiah. I don't think that was like a really understood category to them. They wouldn't have a hang up about that as him being a king or whatever. But when he says. He has given proof by raising him from the dead. Suddenly they're just like this is ridiculous. Everybody knows you don't want your body back again. This is stupid. I'm out of here. And like the Greeks, the Greeks, they're standard approach to the afterlife.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh yeah yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
That's right.

Sean Finnegan:
Was to get rid of the body. It was not to keep the body or to get the body back. Restored and renewed. And so this. This was always a big issue between Jews and Christians. Agree on. Over against the the Greco-roman, whether the philosophers or just like the folk religion of like going down to Hades and you know all the stuff they, you know, they had stories about all that.

Tom Huszti:
Have you been to Cesarea Philippi in Israel?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, it's like they call it banya or.

Tom Huszti:
Something banyas. Yes, banyas. And actually, I guess you know why it's called banyas.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, there was a. Shrine to the God pan there.

Tom Huszti:
Right pan, right. So the original name was panyas. But the Arabs have a hard time pronouncing the sound, so they change it to bond. Yes, believe it or not. But yes, yes, yes. So now.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, that makes sense. Thank you.

Tom Huszti:
You learn something. From me for a change, right? OK.

Sean Finnegan:
There it is. There it is. Yeah. I have been there. It's a beautiful spot. And you know, again, talking about the heat and the the arid climate of Israel to have a place with a beautiful water supply.

Tom Huszti:
Oh my.

Sean Finnegan:
Like sensory flip by where you say, OK, this is it. This is going to be a big spot. This is going to be a place where people are going to want to go and build things and live because there's plenty of water.

Tom Huszti:
Yes. Yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, it's beautiful there, isn't it? Maybe the most beautiful place in Israel. In my my view, as far as the physicality of it, that's arguable, but.

Sean Finnegan:
I don't know. I loved Dengeki. I thought it was.

Tom Huszti:
And Betty was beautiful too. Yes. Also water the the shrine. So do you remember what the shrine of Pan looked like? And and with the details about what was happening there.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, yeah. No, no, remind me.

Tom Huszti:
OK, there's a a graven image of pan on the the wall of the the side of Mount Hermon, the base of Mount Hermon there. And there is a cave right next to it. And there would would have been an altar for a member, correct? There would have been an altar in front of The Cave, and they were doing sacrifices to the God pan, and they were throwing the sacrificed beast into The Cave and the Jordan River begins flowing from that area. So. There was some kind of a relationship to throwing the sacrifice into The Cave and and whether or not the blood came out at the Jordan River that cave. On the side of the mountain, Mount Hermon was supposed to be the gateway to the underworld.

Sean Finnegan:
It is certainly the case that the Greeks and the Jews looked very differently at the dead. The Jewish mindset was at the dead are resting and they had the term show all for that. The sort of realm of the dead where all the dead are they're they're awaiting, they're asleep, they use that language. Lot, even in the the Christian New Testament. Tons of references, a lot of our translations, just like get rid of it and they say died or. Something like that. But that it actually says fall asleep or fell asleep. Ohh which you know the a Greek person wouldn't say that they would say no, they're in a different realm. And they're in the underworld of Hades, and Hades is not just a realm. It's also the name of a God who's in charge of all of those shades or departed souls. And you know, so, like, these are very different views. You know what I mean? And it's sad to say, but Christianity has more often than not. Agree with the pagans over against the early Christian. Of view, which is a shame, right?

Tom Huszti:
Unfortunate indeed. Yes, it is in the the first conversation I had with Tovia Singer, we hit upon so many touch points that we agree upon resurrection life in the age to come. The term Messiah is something that we can talk freely about. There's so many things from my Christian view that actually are terms that you can talk to Jewish people in this present day about, especially those who are inclined to study the Old Testament. And that's a conversation that most nominal Orthodox kind of Christians cannot have with Jewish people. The the rule seems to be that Jews have to leave Judaism in order to come over to Christianity. But strangely enough, we received Christianity from the Jews. And so the context that you're you're seeing here is something that is is very interesting. In restoring Christianity to its 1st century foundations, which is your your big desire so.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's what, that's what I'm all about, is trying to clear away the accretions of the Middle Ages and the post Christian. Developments and getting back to that original earlier version of Apostolic Christianity, you know what? What would the church have thought about this in the 1st century rather than in the 2nd and following centuries? The the subsequent centuries? And, you know, I'm not against technology. Renovation. But I am against changing our beliefs from what the New Testament says and that has happened a lot and it happens very slowly. And I've had a a a desire to understand that development. For a long. Time and did my masters on the subject and was really surprised to see that, you know, people are just not asking this question. Like I'm I'm a member. Of the even to this day of the the Boston area patristic society. OK. And so I get emails and, you know, invitations to attend their meetings, which I attended when I lived out there. And, you know, they're held either at Harvard or at Brown University or sometimes at Providence College as well as three schools have good patristic good, early church history programs. And you know so. They they issue these papers a couple. Of times a year. I don't know like 3 or. Four to five times a year and you know you have lint chocolates and a little wine and a little cheese. And you know, you sit around and, you know, just kind of listen in with these, you know, somebody presents on some aspects some facet of. Early church history. Three, I've been a member of this for I don't know a decade they have never done. A doctrine not once. Not once. There's no interest at all in doctrinal development or this mindset that says, hey, let's get back to living out our faith the way they lived out there is, as far as how we treat people or how we think about the government or whatever practical area. There's zero interest in that. In the the more liberal side of the fence and then on the conservative side of the fence, you have the Catholics that really dominate. And not that there aren't liberal Catholics. I'm sure there's plenty of them too. But I'm talking about the more conservative minded ones and they're always just trying to show that what the church teaches now is really what Christians have always believed. So it's apologetic. It's not OK, let's see what happened. It's more like, alright, well, this person like, for example Ignatius of Antioch, there's going to be an amazing presentation on this.

Tom Huszti:
Come on.

Sean Finnegan:
At the Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference next month, Nathan Massey has done some cutting edge research on Ignatius of Antioch. But anyhow, people, Catholic scholars in particular love Ignatius, and they'll go to Ignatius and they say, well, see, Ignatius calls Jesus God. Therefore, the Trinity is true as we, you know, 20 centuries later. Teach it it. It's it's all true because Ignatius said Jesus is God, and there's just more problems with that than you can shake a stick at, which you know I won't get into unless you're interested. But like my my point is. There's very few scholars who are honestly going to the sources of ancient Christians. Whatever books have survived right, and saying what were they saying? And and just taking them on their own words, their own terms, giving them the credit that they knew what they. Were talking about even. If it disagrees with what the? First later said was the right way to think, right? So let me let me just give. You one example. So for example. Justin Martyr, Justin Martyr doesn't fit with anybody, right? I mean, he's just idiosyncratic. He has his own way of thinking and talking. About things, he will even call Jesus, the second God sometimes. And you know he doesn't. Think at all that. Jesus, even in his preincarnate state, was equal. With God the. Father ever, you know, at the same time he's he's sort of like very much like in mesh with the Jews and and like very much talking to the Jews and at. The same time, incredibly rude. And it, you know, by what I would say, it's totally inappropriate. You know, some of the ways he he talks to in in one of his books, the book against Trifle. So yeah. So anyhow, Justin Moorer, you know, a church historian will come along and say, Justin, Monta was just.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh trifle.
Speaker 5
You know, he was reaching in the dark for the doctrine of the Trinity. He just didn't quite have the language yet to express it, and it's like.

Sean Finnegan:
No, he wasn't. He had a he had a mature developed view of who he thought Jesus was. And it's just different than yours, man. Just just. Allow him to be him.

Tom Huszti:
He might have squeeze everybody into the.

Sean Finnegan:
You know.

Tom Huszti:
Same mold, huh?
Speaker
He's not.

Sean Finnegan:
Hinting at anything he thinks he knows what he's talking about. You're not.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Tom Huszti:
He wore the philosopher's robe, didn't he?

Sean Finnegan:
He did, and he had a he had a a little meeting spot in Rome above a, you know, above a shop, you know, he had a little apartment or whatever, and he'd he'd meet with people and he'd teach him what he thought was the definitive understanding of the Christian religion, just because nobody else later on agrees with him doesn't mean he was just like. Undeveloped or something, you know, he he believes what he believed, and it's just different and that's OK. And what I see when I look at Justin or Irenaeus or, you know, a lot of these guys is I see development. And when I see development, I think to myself, let's rollback the tape and see the trajectory overtime. Yeah. What is the vector? Where is this heading? So if I see you know a couple of points on a line that go in One Direction, I could say OK, I make a measurement here, make a measurement here, connect those dots and trace it backwards. What's there in the? 1st century and that's that's what I love to do. That's what I want to know. That's my my research, my investigation to find. What's the earliest beliefs and practices and that I'm crazy enough to think we can live that out today?

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, you are a strange bird, but I agree with you I. Guess I am too so.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, and The thing is we both came to this from very different milieus, different backgrounds, denominations and so forth. But we both recognize that it makes logical sense that if the church has gotten off track. Then you know the best way to do it is to reform back to the, you know, whatever we can recover of the original version of Christian.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
And you know, that's. Yeah, it makes sense to me. A lot of people don't. They don't believe in Restorationism. They they say, oh, that's you can't go back there. It's impossible and it's like.

Tom Huszti:
That's so true.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, well, why let?

Tom Huszti:
Me. Share you with you my thought on this. So the the 1st century church was waiting for the return of Jesus and it didn't happen in their age, but. We who claim to desire the return of Jesus need to be postured as they were. Like I'm I'm just. Wondering you know. Like if Christianity gets far enough away from their origins, it's an awful lot to ask Jesus to return when we've strayed so far from. What our forefathers believed so that the church that I was put out from is called the Apostolic Christian Church Nazarene. And the term Nazarene is a a term that is very, very honorable, I would say. But when you think in terms of the early church, the term Nazarene meant Jewish believers in Messiah. And I still call myself a Nazarene, even though my community has, for the by and large, has disfellowship. Hit me. I'd like to to trace my origins back to the the Nazarenes my my Jewish Brethren, believers in Jesus, and this is something that you touched upon in your. Your church history. You think you could fill us in a little bit about the views of different Jewish Christians, Abbey Knights and Nazarenes and. Any others that would kind of fit that category maybe give us a little summary.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, to do work on the Ebionites or the Nazarenes is to read late reports. By their enemies. I don't know of a single document that survives other. Than I would. Argue that, dedicate, I would say that dedicat is a Nazarene document.

Tom Huszti:
Oh wow.

Sean Finnegan:
It reads that way to me. It has a low Christology. It's very Jewish, you know, it's very Christian, you know. And it it just seems to kind of fit that that mindset. So I would argue that the dedicate would be a Nazarene document. Now these these terms, Nazarene, it's actually in the New Testament. The sect of the Nazarenes. Where was that? They said.

Tom Huszti:
Right, Paul Paul, was it? Yes, they did. That's correct. Yeah. Yes.

Sean Finnegan:
That about Paul, right? Yeah. So that's old school. Right. But what we can kind of gather is from these late reports and when I say late, I'm talking like from the year 375, we get this heresy hunter named Epiphanius of Salamis and he writes a book called The Panarion. You know, so this is this is riding 300 years after all the action and the excitement has already happened, right? Where's where's the action? Where's the parting of the ways? As James Dunn's famous book called it? Well, it's really in that post 70AD pre. Justin. So like between like 70 AD when the temple.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
Got destroyed and the Romans conquered Jerusalem to the time of Justin Mortar where, like he begins in, you know, maybe like 135 was the 2nd revolution. Right. So you have the the bar Copa revolt.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
Actually, some people might call it a third revolution because there was another one in between the two, but whatever. It wasn't in. Jerusalem. But you know, in that period there, what is that like? Probably like 60-70 years something happened and there was a a splitting away and Gentile.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh there was OK Ohh.

Sean Finnegan:
Christians and Jewish Christians. Stops influencing each other. And it's a really murky period of time. Scholars have all kinds of theories from there was never a parting of the ways. What are you? Talking about to it.

Tom Huszti:
Uh-huh. Well.

Sean Finnegan:
It happened because of this or because of that. But let's just put it this way, the the the official Christian line on it has always been since. The time of Eusebius. That the followers of Jesus when they. Saw the Roman legions coming. Abandoned the city of Jerusalem. And if that's true and they, he says they went to power, they went to this other area. If that's true, then the native Jewish people who stayed and fought and died. And then many of them also survived. Would not very much like the Jewish Christians because. They didn't stay, they didn't like.

Tom Huszti:
So you're talking for 70, you're talking about from 70 AD that the Christians would have left.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. Yeah. So, like, after the city is conquered by the Romans, things kind of settle down politically. I mean, I guess the last holdouts are at Masada up until what, like 7370?

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
4 but like. Then that OK, this period ends, the Romans have reasserted their dominance. But you know a lot of Jewish people survive and and. And they're not looking at the Jewish Christians positively, they're looking at them negatively. And we have this Birkat hominem. Yes. Are you familiar with that? It says for the apostates, let there be no hope and uproot the Kingdom of arrogance speedily. And in our days, may the Nazarenes and the sectarians perish, as in a moment let them be blotted out of the book of life.

Tom Huszti:
I am.

Sean Finnegan:
And and so forth. So it's like OK by the time of Justin, he makes mention of this and he says you. Know why? Why? You guys cursing us in your synagogues, right? So like Justin knows about it, so. It's got to be before 160 and it's. Probably after the month.

Tom Huszti:
So let me ask you this, would that curse? Be specific to Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus. She will. Or would it? That was specifically for them because they were thought they were thought to be created.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, they they would be the ones to go to the synagogue. So this is something. That would be spoken. Publicly in the synagogue, along with the other blessings and.

Tom Huszti:
OK. Ah. So that would discourage them from attending synagogue.

Sean Finnegan:
It would expose them as well because they wouldn't be able to recite that.

Tom Huszti:
Oh, they wouldn't be able to recite it, OK.

Sean Finnegan:
You can't curse yourself, you know. It's just awkward.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, so so so.
Speaker
You know, right.

Tom Huszti:
During the time of the Barkha revolt, the Jewish believers in Yeshua Miss Jesus would not have taken up arms against the Romans and this would have been a further offense against the. Against the revolution, revolutionaries against the Jews.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, you know. We we see we see rumblings even before in the I don't know if it's the Jewish war or the antiquity of the of the. Jews with Josephus. He talks about how there was a power vacuum just for a moment in Jerusalem and during that power vacuum when the old governor had, I don't know if he died or just had left or whatever happened to him. But the new governor, I think, was Albinus, was on his way then the non Christian. Jewish people were able to gang up on James, and when James was fairly old brother of Jesus and that they were able to more or less lynch him, you know, they just got a mob together and they they were able to to kill.

Tom Huszti:
A friend.

Sean Finnegan:
Him. So there was already animosity before the war. War starts in 66, you know it. It did blow up from time to time. We see it in the book of Acts. Right. There's a lot of animosity between the Jewish Christians, the non Christian Jews. OK, so this this continues. But after the war.
Speaker
OK.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
It it's it seems like there's not even much real space left for Jewish Christians to even go to a synagogue with this curse that's put there specifically against them. Again, the war is such a massive historical event. The Jewish War of Rome, 66 to 74, where I mean, how many kinds of Judaism. Do we know? About from the 1st century, you have your Sadducees, you have your Essenes, you have the rebellious types. They call the 4th philosophy and Josephus. You have your Pharisees, and then you have the Christian Jews.

Tom Huszti:
They would be the zealot. Would there be the zealots or the sikari?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, yeah, that would be the 4th philosophy. The Zealots, the sicari, all the revolutionary types. Right. So you have like, five types of Judaism. And so the Christian Jews.

Tom Huszti:
OK. OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Five and the Pharisaic Jews survive, but the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the revolutionaries. They're all gone, or completely disempowered.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
After the war, so now you have pharisaic Judaism, which eventually kind of develops into rabbinic Judaism, and you have the Jesus Jews. And they gave birth to the Christian movement, which is kind of like, it's almost like in a sense gone public like a like a corporation offers an IPO. And then, like, the, the company has kind of a life of its own, independent of what the founder, really.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. OK.
Speaker
His vision was.

Sean Finnegan:
And maybe that's a good analogy for it, cause like Christianity goes pretty much Gentile and there it's Jew and Gentile together in the 1st century for sure. But like as we get into the 2nd century. The kinds of literature that survive from Christian pens. It's just like either ignorant of Jewish practices and interpretations of the Old Testament or outright antagonistic, where you get like documents from like the middle of the 2nd century. Like I'm thinking of the Epistle of Barnabas, and some of the other documents in the Apostolic Fathers, where like they're just like you, Jews are crazy because you kept the law. And it's like, how could you ever say that if you're if you're a little more aware of what the, you know, that that was the law that God gave to the Jewish people to keep, why would they be crazy to keep it? Right? So it seems like there's just a parting of the ways. And that's the term James Dunn used for it. And, you know, we just wish so much that we had. We have more information about it. We just kind of get these little bits and pieces. We don't know exactly how it happened. We just know that it happened.
Speaker
Oh yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Some hostile witnesses, of all places.

Sean Finnegan:
So now you've got. These Jewish Christians, Tom and they're kind of isolated in the east, they're not well loved by the Gentile Christians or they don't have access or I don't know, for whatever reason, there's just not a lot of interaction, which is tragic in my opinion.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. Yes.
Speaker
But they're also.

Sean Finnegan:
Alienated from their own Jewish brothers and sisters because they're not allowed in the synagogue and you know, if you're in a little village and there's only one place putting shoes on horses. Or doing some other craft or trade. And they don't want to sell to you. Guess what? You're in trouble, you know, because you're one of the Nazarenes or. One of the Ebionites.

Tom Huszti:
Sure, sure.

Sean Finnegan:
So you know these people had a really tough go of it and you know, we hear about them later on and they may have survived pretty well. Outside the Roman Empire, in the east, in the Persian Empire. But we don't know much about that either, so it's really hard to do scholarship on them. There are more questions than answers, but my best guess, OK. And that's really what it is, is it's a guess is that the community of James, the brother of Jesus, they didn't really get on board. With what Paul? And Gentile Christianity was doing they got on board to a certain degree and and this we see this conflict in the book of. Acts 15 and then later.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, 15.

Sean Finnegan:
On in .2 what happens is.
Speaker
They say all.

Sean Finnegan:
Right. Well, you you can have. Gentiles and they don't need to keep the law. Fine, but we Jews are going to keep the law. Still, I don't think Paul got on board with that. Paul would say Jews don't need to keep the law either. Obviously they can. Anybody can keep the law. Who wants to? But Jewish Christians, I should say I should be clear. I'm not talking about just Jews in general. I'm saying Jews who believe in Jesus because of a covenantal understanding expressed later.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
In the Book of Hebrews, whoever wrote Hebrews that it is clear that Jewish Christians don't need to keep the law. James and his group of Jewish Christians disagree with. That viewpoint, they say no. This is the covenant. We're Jewish Christians. We're going to continue to keep the law. So I think this James Community is what left during the war and survived north and east of Jerusalem. And that then this community had a doctrinal division where some of them. Accepted the Gospel of Matthew, which possibly was in Hebrew or Aramaic. You know some language that the people could readily read.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
There are lots of hints of that in the patristic literature. People talk about it quite a bit. They don't talk about any other writing. From the new. Testament, all the other books in the New Testament. They never mentioned as being in Hebrew, just Matthew.

Tom Huszti:
Wow, just Matthew cross.

Sean Finnegan:
It's the only one. Yeah. So why would you? Put it in Hebrew, whether it was written in Hebrew originally or translated into Hebrew. Why would why? Because you have Jewish people. Reading it. You read the Gospel of Matthew. What does it begin with? A genealogy? Who loves genealogies? The Greeks? No, they don't care about genealogies. The Jews love genealogies. So Matthew begins by making a convincing argument that this Jesus of Nazareth has a claim. And. Could possibly be the Messiah because of his ancestry. That's how it starts. So you've got this community and in. The Gospel of Matthew as well as. Luke, you have. The virgin birth. You have the virgin conception and you know this idea that in in some way Jesus is the son of God.
Speaker 5
Some of the.

Sean Finnegan:
Jewish Christians in this community don't believe that. And others do, and that is, and again, this is a reconstruction based on hostile sources like Epiphanius, and you siberius, and there are plenty of later ones too. Like Jerome mentions this stuff and it, and and it's even possible that these Jewish Christians survive. Arrived and they there was some interaction with them. It wasn't just all hearsay. OK, but it's possible for us to know today how reliable these reports are. But so you have the James, Jewish Christians. They go away from Jerusalem and they settle in north and east of of Jerusalem. And they have this difference.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Among them the ones who? Believe in the virgin birth. Are Nazarenes the ones that do not? Are Ebionites both of them believe that Jesus is a human being?

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
Whom God anointed as a Messiah. They both believe in crucifixion. Both believe in resurrection. Both believe in Ascension. Both believe in the coming Kingdom. So the question is, you know whether he is biologically. Whatever that means, you know, like, if there was this miracle to get him started or if he was the son of Joseph. OK, so that's that seems to be the disagreement there between the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. And here's here's just one more thing to complicate it, make it worse is some Christians will call both groups of unites.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, that's a mistake.

Sean Finnegan:
And they're saying, well, some of you guys believe this and some even nice believe. That it's like.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, right. Well, it seems to me the very, very important doctrines they agreed upon. And I know I noticed in the Apostle Paul's writing, he never mentions the virgin birth, he does emphasize. The authority that Jesus received through the resurrection, most notably in Romans chapter one, that's where.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. I mean, I think the closest pull comes is Galatians 4 four, where it says when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law. Sort of like the closest. To it you. Can interpret that a number of different ways.

Tom Huszti:
So it's fascinating to understand that we've actually lost connection to a large extent to the original source of our our gospel message. And I suppose that makes that makes your challenge of restoring 1st century Christianity even a bit. Your task you're trying to recreate these things based on what you know and based on hostile witness accounts.

Sean Finnegan:
Here's the good news. We still have the Bible. We have the New Testament. You know, we can read it, we can see. And it's not like the New Testament is hiding or covering over any controversy like the The Paul. James, things is is is plain as day in Galatians like pull, yes, pull lays it out, you know, and I and. I'm going with Paul on. This I'm going to. I'm going to disagree with James. I think he was a great. And but I think he just didn't have the full understanding of how Jesus, through his actions, how he affected our relationship with God and and this whole understanding of covenant. So I'm going to go with Paul on that. What happened among Pauline Christianity is. A development that slowly moved away from the New Testament read from a Jewish perspective because I think Pauline Christianity basically got swamped by Gentiles.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, I think so.

Tom Huszti:
Too and I.

Sean Finnegan:
Think the leaders. Of Pauline Christian. Probably not in his day, but maybe within a generation or two. Became highly educated intellectual gentiles who were financially well off enough to get an education because education costs them money. Otherwise you got a farm or you got to do a craft or a trade, right? So is that is that sort of movement occurred away from? Apostles and their appointed success. More towards these intellectuals. We get Christian doctrine shifting away from what's in the New Testament into these more Greek and Roman ways of thinking. And that's kind of an area where I've been doing a lot of work recently. Trying to understand. Especially on Christology, how would a a Greek or a Roman person? How would they hear the story of Jesus? What would that sound like to them? And so I've done a lot of work on that and I'm going to be presenting that in a month as well at the UCLA conference. Yeah. But that will be out later on YouTube as well. If you don't make.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh at the OK. But that should be very interesting.

Sean Finnegan:
It to the conference, you know.

Tom Huszti:
I bought my ticket already. Ohh, good. Yes. Yes. I'll look forward to that. I guess we probably shouldn't talk too much about it in advance because we have to. We don't want to. Take the the. Thunder out of your presentation.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, I I just mentioned, I'll just mention one thing, OK. So let's imagine you're a non believer, you're a Pagan. You've worshiped the gods all your life. You've heard stories about Apollo getting banished down to Earth and having to work as a servant. You've heard stories about Zeus coming down impregnating women. You've heard stories about.

Tom Huszti:
Hercules. Dad. Huh, Hercules. Dad.

Sean Finnegan:
You've heard stories about Hercules as well, and Asclepius was originally a human who got deified, and he got deified to such a level that he became essentially an Olympian God, that that level of. Elevation and exultation was possible. So you hear all these stories about these gods who come down to become men, or appear as men being made in appearance as a man, right? Like this is this. Is their vocabulary. That's their world. And then you hear lots of stories.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes, right.

Sean Finnegan:
Humans, who had a beginning normal humans, but were so exceptional that they got to skip Hades and instead go to Olympia or instead go to some heavenly realm like.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
You this is just your.
Speaker 5
World these are all your stories.

Tom Huszti:
OK. Uh-huh.

Sean Finnegan:
Now you're going to hear a story about a miracle worker, Jewish miracle worker. Who was executed came back to life. And now lives in heaven. And is immortalized. You have a category for that. Kind of a being.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
It's called a God.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. Yes.

Sean Finnegan:
Like in our in our language. Today we would say a lower case G God, right? They didn't fuss with capital. A lowercase. You know, like everything's capital pretty much and all the inscriptions we have in the manuscripts from this period, right. So they would just say, oh, that yeah, we. I know, I know. Plenty of other beings that are like that too. Yeah, they're they're called. Gods. And so you're you're trying to say that Jesus is a man and now he's become.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
God. So like you could just imagine a like an evangelism encounter going like that. And if you don't have that Jewish sensibility to say, well, hold on a second.
Speaker
There's only.

Sean Finnegan:
One God, and that's the supreme God who created everything. You can just see like Christian saying well. Yeah, I guess so. Like in that way of thinking. Yeah, he's a God. So now people. Start calling Jesus God. And now the question becomes well, in what sense has he got? Does he have a beginning before he was a human, you know, and you're just operating in a totally foreign. World View, mindscape than the Jewish mode, which is the Jewish mode, sees Jesus doing miracles and they say how great it is that God has given such authority to men.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
What do they say when they see a miracle in the book of acts, when Paul and Barnabas?

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
You know, get that guy filled.

Tom Huszti:
The gods are come down to us, the gods.

Sean Finnegan:
Of course, that's what they. Said that's what they believe could happen, right? We really have two different thought worlds that are combining in in weird and innovative ways. And that's just like one step along the path that leads to the doctrine of the Trinity, which doesn't really get fully developed until the late 4th century.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.

Tom Huszti:
So Paul is trying to emphasize that Jesus is a human being, a second Adam. So that has a different flavor to it, like you have to. Paula is using the first Adam story to introduce the second Adam. And this is a glorified human being who is residing in heaven until God sends him back. That's a different. Category isn't it? For the Greco Roman mine?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, they don't. They don't. That doesn't. That doesn't make sense to them. You know, it's just that's just weird. That's like resurrection. Like, why do you want your body back? And what did Christianity do with that one? We get rid of it. You go to any funeral like unless it's somebody from my own group of churches, network of churches, or maybe like one or one or two other denominations. Right. Like you go to a funeral. What 99% of the? Funerals you go to they. Say this person is now in heaven and their soul. Whatever you know, they make up all this stuff. You know, it sounds just like the Greco Roman stuff from the ancient times. It doesn't sound. Like the Bible.

Tom Huszti:
Right, yes. Can you imagine sitting in the audience when Paul was preaching from the Acropolis?

Sean Finnegan:
Not to me.

Tom Huszti:
Can you put yourself in the in the shoes of a a Greek sitting in the audience hearing this message for the first time? And you know the setting. What would have impressed you or what you already mentioned this earlier but like if you as an individual were doing this? What would be going through your mind? Given your background and context.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, I think. There's a lot of misunderstanding going on. And and that's just normal. We shouldn't be upset about that. We should expect that. I think we see the same thing today. In the 21st century, where you try to explain something and somebody just doesn't get it, who's not a Christian, and I think that's what was happening here. And what happened is Paul is is evangelizing people. He's talking to people in the marketplace, his Jewish sensibilities, I think, are offended by seeing a city full of idols. It's just as somebody who was raised with the 10 Commandments, it's offensive. I mean, it's offensive to most Christians. Well, I don't say most, but many Christians today are offended. By seeing idols and statues and seeing people actually worshiping them, Paul is very disturbed by this. He's trying to to help. He's reasoning in the synagogue. And also in the marketplace every day. You've got the Epicureans, you've got the Stoics there, and then they say this is act 1718, he says. He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities. Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection and see the word resurrection, there is Anastasia.

Tom Huszti:
OK. It's a Greek.

Sean Finnegan:
Word it means resurrection. You know, stand up again, but it seems like. And I I think some translations might do it this way, that they're thinking that. Jesus is 1 divinity. And they think that Paul saying that Jesus is divine being, which is interesting, right in light of what I said just a minute ago. And then the other thing they think resurrection is is another divinity. Right. So there's just. Misunderstandings all over the place. They're. Like you know, it seems like he's bringing in some new gods. Let's go here. What these new gods have to say, he's kind of like you. Remember. Back in the old days, kids would collect baseball cards. Or like when my kids were little, it was Pokémon cards. And you know, you trade with each other. This one, it's like gods to the, to the Athenians. You know, they're like, oh, you've got that. Tell me about that. God, I let me tell you.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
The story about this. One you know, so they're.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
Interested. And they put them up there and they say, OK, what is this new teaching? Tell us what this is all. About and so we know. There's going to be misunderstanding. We know there's going to be confusion, but that's no reason not to get started. And so he does. He starts in a very friendly and flattering way.

Tom Huszti:
He used their own poets. Their own poetry. Yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
He's building the bridge as much as he can to their thought world, but at the same time. He's so disturbed. Buy the idolatry that like he just. He just wants to hit that, you know, like it's just and it's not. It's not out of sense of superiority. I don't think. I think it's a sense of empathy and compassion. And so it just starts in with, like, explaining who God is. And he's like there's a God above everything else that made everything else. And he doesn't need you. He doesn't need you to. To offer animals. And he believed in animal sacrifice. I don't know if he still believed in animal sacrifice or not, but he believed in it. At least most of his life. And still, he's just like, look, he doesn't need. He doesn't need anything. God is radically. What do they say? Ah, say he's not contingent or dependent on us for anything, and that's not. How they thought about their Greek gods. They thought their Greek gods needed to be cared for. They believed that the Greek gods created humans to do the work for them, so they didn't have to do the work all the time, including feeding them these sacrifices that nourish them.
Speaker
Right.

Tom Huszti:
Right, right.

Tom Huszti:
A hutch.

Sean Finnegan:
You know it's a.

Tom Huszti:
Very the gods. They were very dependent. They're their gods, were very dependent.

Sean Finnegan:
They needed a bunch of slaves to do all the hard work of cultivating the lands, raising the animals, planting the vegetables, do all the things so that they could be properly cared for and fed. And if you didn't do that, then they messed with you. They stopped the rain, or they brought war or whatever, you know. So that's the kind of thing he's coming against here. And he says, look there the the God who made the world and everything in it, Lord of heaven and Earth, does not need temples. This is a radical message. I mean, it's just like. You're in a. City, now that I've been there, like I've literally seen the temples.
Speaker
With my or.

Tom Huszti:
Not they're still there. They're still there. Tom remnants. Amazing.

Sean Finnegan:
Wow, there's actually, when I was there was scaffolding all around it. You know, they're always restoring these things because of the weather erosion and what, you know, but.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
You know, massive, massive. Structures unquestionable. You don't go to a Greek ancient Greek city and say God doesn't need tempo.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
You know that they. Would really get their attention, it's. Like, wow, what is this guy saying?

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, I can imagine. What would it like these temples were full of pillars and the structure would have been probably unprecedented structures.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're looking at structures that are so impressive that if you didn't live in a city. If you live somewhere out in the country, you can't in the city. It would just take your breath away and then going into the temple itself, seeing most cities, temples they have what's called an apps, which is kind of like the back curved area where they had the statue itself and to see, you know, this huge statue. The artistry was magnificent. And you know, I've seen this where I think I saw this in a museum in Ephesus, on site, they have a little Ephesus museum there. And they had the head of Domitian. Which is a Roman. And it looked like a baby head. The proportions were all wrong. You know, just you know how, like, baby heads look. Weird, I don't know really how to describe it like there. May be a little spot.

Tom Huszti:
Oh yeah, yeah. Compared to the rest. Of the body you mean?

Sean Finnegan:
No, no, it was just the head. It was just the head and it and it. It looked like a baby head. And I asked my team. I was a part of a class at Boston University. I asked my teacher. I'm like, what's the deal with this? Why does it look like a baby head? And he just kind of laughed a little bit. And he said.

Tom Huszti:
Or it was just a hat? A hat. OK, OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Get low. Imagine this being 20 feet up in the air. Change your perspective and look at it again and it was exactly right. If you got. Low and looked at that same head. Of the mission. From that angle that you would see it. From the ground. All the proportions were perfect.

Tom Huszti:
So it was designed to be looked up to right?

Sean Finnegan:
So we're looking at people that have the. Artistry of the skill. Well, to to you know to like factor in perspective and angle. You know what I mean? Like that's something I would never think of you.
Speaker
Oh yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
Know. Of course I'm. Not a sculptor, but you know. I mean, you come in and you and you're.
Speaker 5
Confronted by this?

Sean Finnegan:
Stone object that is beautifully done. You just takes your breath away. For anyone to question it. It would just be like. What are you talking about, man? Everybody believes in this. And then there's a parade where they bring the portable idols through the city, and then they end up out front of the temple and you get a big barbecue and everybody's rejoicing and you know, the Jews and the Christians are just like, we're not going, we're going to stay home free.

Tom Huszti:
Oh yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Neat, right? And they're they're.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, free meat.

Tom Huszti:
For the pagans, right? Yeah. For the pagans. Right. Right. Yeah. Do you happen to know this story about the Roman general? Was it Pompeii that when he came into Jerusalem? And he was going to go into the holiest of holies, and the priests were. Standing in the way. And he ordered several, several of them killed with a sword. He wanted to see what the God of Israel looked like, and and he entered in the Holy, Holy Holiest of Holies. After these priests gave their life and he found nothing. What a surprise, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, so the Paul is preaching the same unseen God, but he's preaching the Jewish Messiah, who was seen, who was raised from the dead. Exalted into heaven, and whom God made judge over the earth. So this is the Athenians are being told that this Jesus God gave authority to for judgment, and that the world will be judged by him.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, even before that, you know, just talking about how you mentioned that Paul quoted a couple of their poets. You know that in him we move and have our being, we live and move and have our being and the other statement for we indeed are his offspring. You know, there's a lot of depends on how deep you want to go in this town. But like, there's a lot going on. The schools of the philosophers.

Tom Huszti:
You know, delve into it? Sure. Sure. Please.

Sean Finnegan:
OK, so so you have the Epicureans. Founded by Epicurus, and then you have the Stoics founded by Zeno, and they are just. Like total opposites? Right. So the the goal of the Epicurean is to to seek pleasure.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
But not in a primitive like spring break frat party way. You know where, like you just go crazy, and then you you're in pain and suffering the next morning. That's amateur hour. For that, you'd be curious. Or maximizing pleasure over the course of your entire life.

Tom Huszti:
OK. OK.

Sean Finnegan:
What would maximize my pleasure, and the Epicureans tended to say that either the gods don't exist, or they exist, but they don't care about us. So you don't need to worry about the gods. There's a lot of precursors to modern atheism and agnosticism there, but the Stoics are saying, ohh pleasure is bad and you got to serve the gods. You have civil duty. The Stoics tended to be the ones in charge of the cities, and the Stoics are absolutely convinced pleasure is. Inherently sinful, like any kind of any kind of pursuit of bodily pleasure, is well, I would say, at least, question. Bowl, but probably like if you could really live without food that tastes really good, or beds that are nice and soft, or a woman's touch or a man's touch if you're. A woman, you. Know like that you would be happier, you would live the good life. So the philosophers are all all about Greek philosophers in particular, or all about how do you lead the good life? Then you have the cynics which are not mentioned here, so we don't need to get into the cynics, but the Stoics and the Epicureans, they have their own view about the gods. The Epicureans are convinced that gods don't care about people. Why? Because the good life is characterized by maximizing pleasure, and what pleasure could a God possibly gain by being? And all aware of the miseries in the human world. So therefore the gods are out to lunch. Where they don't exist, whereas the Stoics are like no the gods exist, and they are very much like involved, but they're punishing in tune with this mindset of pleasure being wrong.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Or questionable, I'll just add. One one other thing. Here there's a lot about the logos and Stoicism. Well, let me let me picture it this way. Imagine you you. Are a dog tied by a rope on the back of an ox cart? You can pull you can borrow. You can protest and justice like freeze up your limbs, but wherever that ox is pulling the ox cart. You're going. So the Stoic is saying walk with the ox cart in the direction that the ox is going. That's the logos. So the logos is kind of like pulling or pushing everything along in a certain direction. And you're the dog tied to the back of it. So you want to go with fate or logos into the predetermined. Direction that everything is going already. Right. So there's a lot of philosophical stuff, baggage ideas going on here. That pull, you know, he would be aware to some degree, but he's bringing this Jewish message about a A crucified and risen hero who is now appointed to this exalted role from which he's going to come and rule the world. It's it's very it's very political.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, right. So so when you?

Sean Finnegan:
And non philosophy. He's like he's not engaging with any of their philosophical focuses. He just talk about pleasure. He has to talk about faith. Just like.

Tom Huszti:
He's coming. Coming. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
He's just like an alien coming in here and they and they don't know what to do with him. They're just like resurrection.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. Right.

Tom Huszti:
So so when he projects Jesus, he's talking about a human being that entirely of his own free will, offered himself up in order to gain life for himself and for the rest of humanity and God. And for that reason God exalted him and made him judge. Over all of human. Unity, this is really strange stuff to them.

Sean Finnegan:
It just would have sounded so like, yeah, weird. It just.

Tom Huszti:
It's got to be.

Sean Finnegan:
But then a couple people believe. Right. Demaris and Demetrius, right or no. Dionysius and Demaris, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, Diane, nice. That was a diary, Dionysius. What does dionese? What does the name mean? Any idea?

Sean Finnegan:
Dionysus so a lot of times what you do is you put a little eye in the end of the last syllable of a name to make it for a human. So Dionysus. Is the God Dionysius is a human named after the God. Dionysus is the God of partying, equivalent to Bacchus, the Roman God. So the Dionysus is the God of wine and parties and ******, and just, you know.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh really?

Tom Huszti:
Oh, that's interesting. That would been quite a conversion, wouldn't.

Sean Finnegan:
It well, it doesn't. Mean that this guy was into that lifestyle, you know? But you know, that's just what the God was was known for. He's the kind of, like the patron God of feasting and and and partying and whatnot.

Tom Huszti:
No, no, that it was necessarily, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's new.

Sean Finnegan:
You could imagine he was. A very popular God to worship.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, I imagine especially for the Epicureans, if they happen to if they happen to worship a God, right, yeah. OK. So could you comment a little bit on the first, say, 200 years of Christianity and maybe when was the the martyrdom of?

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, Yep. Yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Perpetua. And was it Felicity? Felicity. Yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
Felicitas or yeah, elicits. I think that's the name we.

Tom Huszti:
Can you? I mean, what kind of?

Sean Finnegan:
Get from it, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
They were two different individuals that were that were martyred at the same time. Is that correct?

Sean Finnegan:
Yes, yes, they were. What?

Tom Huszti:
Would their faith have been like, how would you frame it with respect to the gospel that Paul was preaching?

Sean Finnegan:
The martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas or Felicity. Occurred in Carthage, so Carthage is North Africa.
Speaker
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
And I know there was 3rd century. I'm I'm not sure when exactly. I'm just looking up about it right now. Yeah, like early 3rd century. It's like 2/02/03. This is kind of like a really interesting period in time. The 3rd century. We happen to know a lot about Carthaginian Christianity from Tertullian.

Tom Huszti:
Oh, OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Because Tertullian wrote in the one nineties, one seventies, one 90s, and early 2 hundreds, up until about like 213. Yeah, yeah. And he's from that area and so.

Tom Huszti:
That he was there, right?

Sean Finnegan:
Tertullian be like the main guy to go to if you. Want to know what? You know, at least upper crust Christians thought about things and you know by his time there, there were some developments that were already occurring. And you know, I'm I'm not really 100% sure what he believed about the afterlife. I've seen some reports, like ancient Christian reports saying are Tertullian believed in the Kingdom? I think that's certainly possible, but I think he also held a very philosophically mainstream view of the soul that souls are immortal. Go up to heaven. I think he was already. In that direction, if not wholly embracing that and. As far as like Jesus and God and stuff like that go he he holds to a very physical doctrine of the Trinity like he's actually the 1st. First Latin person to use the word trinitas, which is the word Trinity, but tortuous Trinity has sort of like a God's substance.

Tom Huszti:
Find if.

Sean Finnegan:
And the father has more of it than the son, and the son has more of it than the spirit. And so I. Always can imagine it as like a. What do you call it? A fertilized egg embryo. OK, so like an embryo, like a single cell, and then it divides. And then it divides again, right? So like OK, except usually with cells they divide equally, right? But in this case you have this single cell called the Father and it and a little portion of it divides off and that becomes the son. Then a little portion of that becomes a spirit. So like, there's less divine stuff substance. In the son than there. Is in the father. It's a very different way of thinking about, OK, any of this then what we've just been? Talking about with. The apostle Paul and so.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
I think tortilla is kind of. Like late later on. You know more than 100 years after Christ. Ah. 170 years after Christ, and so it could be that Perpetua Felicitas had some ideas about that, but one of the most interesting quotes from Tertullian is.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
That he talks about the Threeness and he's super concerned that other Christians in his area will find it hard to believe. That they are preferring oneness to threeness.

Tom Huszti:
That that most. Christians prefer oneness to three, and if?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. In his local area. So he I think you have to be careful like just because somebody's writing survived doesn't mean they characterize everyone in that area. Like, no, doesn't even matter if you're necessarily a leader. Does it mean everyone else believes that too? So when you ask me about perpetual Felicitas from the same town, the same part of North Africa. I'm going to think of Tertullian cause you wrote around this time. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they 100% were on board with his philosophical speculations. OK, they could have been one. Of the people that were just like you know. I don't know. What brother Tertullian is on about you. Know and he eventually. Got pretty radical because he got he joined. Up with the montanists. And took a very stoic view where he started saying that, you know, you shouldn't even have. Sex within marriage. That you should live with your wife. As if she's your sister, you know, and this is again going back to our earlier point about the Jews. Christians and the non Jewish Christians. That if only. We had our Jewish brothers still in involved and engaged a lot of this shenanigans with weird sexual views that permeated early Christianity in the 2nd century onwards. We could have combated. Instead, we ended up with priests who don't get married, and now they're going to the priest is going to officiate them a marriage, and the priest has never been married. And the priest is going to teach you how to be a parent. And the priest has never raised children. You read the. New Testament man. It says the Bishop has to be the. Husband of a. Wife and he has to have kids, right? I mean, where did all this come from? Well, these were Greco-roman ideas. And the culture that kind of crept into Christianity, we didn't have that Jewish antidote within the body of Christ to to fight off these.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. What a pity. What a pity.

Sean Finnegan:
By ascetic sensibilities.

Tom Huszti:
We have to pray for revival among our Jewish brother and in Israel that many would come to Messiah according to the 1st century Nazarene's perspective, I've met a few. I interviewed 1 so May God bring it to pass.

Sean Finnegan:
So anyhow, on perpetual Felicitas, just a brief story about them is that they got arrested. This is probably one of the clearest and most powerful examples of Christians recognizing heroism and courage in women that you can find in in ancient times. Where basically, these women are the heroes of the story. They're the ones that very boldly face down. Just terrible torture and you know they they they hold themselves with poise. One of them's a slave and the other is a a noble woman. And they they, it's just this beautiful example of Christian women who are going to be respectful to the authority and defiant at the same time. I just love it. It's so powerful. It's like anybody can just be like, I don't care what anybody thinks. You're old. You know, I'm not going to listen. That's childish rebellion, right? Any.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
One can just show respect and and never have the courage to stand up for their faith and just become a sycophant, right? But these women, they're just like, no, I can't go with you on this, but I'm still. Going to call you. Sir. And then defy you by not bowing to Caesar's image and holding true to Christ. It's incredible. Incredible, powerful. Example to all of us.

Tom Huszti:
One thing we can take away from. This is that they held that Jesus was Lord like the only one to whom you should bow and serve among the sons of humanity is is that safe to say, like Jesus, not Caesar.

Sean Finnegan:
I think it's there's so much going on here politically. We have clear statements in the New Testament to show proper honor and respect to the Emperor, to those in authority, whether emperor or provincial governors. We have clear statements to pay our taxes, but Caesar is not content to be the ruler of the Roman Empire. He wants to be Lord. You know he wants he. I think he claims. In the Christians view, he was claiming more than just political power. So my suspicion is that that's really where the conflict comes in. Because Christians die for this left and right. So it's not, it's not a minor. It's not like. A difference of how to say things correctly, you know it's considered to be a major issue, but usually it's. The idea of offering. Incense to the genius of Caesar, which is kind of like. This spirit, I don't know if it's an ancestral. Spirit or what? But like there's.
Speaker 5
There's some other stuff going on.

Sean Finnegan:
Other than just politics.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
And what they're asking them to do, and they're refusing and they're saying no, I'm not going to swear by the genius of Caesar. Genius is like a spirit. It's not like being really smart. I'm sorry if that's confusing.

Tom Huszti:
OK. No, no, just briefly, does this go back to the? The Caesar cult worship from Asia Minor.

Sean Finnegan:
Cult worship was already it's already getting big. It's already they're already starting to recognize, you know, this title, son of God. We have the subscription from Preen City from ancient well modern day Turkey. But Ancient Asia, right and in in this inscription, they talk about Octavia. This that he is a son of God, changed his name to Augustus, the first emperor. I would say Julius Caesar was not really an emperor, but you know, certainly. The first Caesar.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, yes, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
But Octavia and his his successor becomes the first real emperor who actually wields the power. Without getting like. Stabbed to death. For it, and he defeats Marc Anthony at the Battle of Actium and he is hailed as a son of God and the people in the city of Pray and say. You know what we're going to we're going to restart our calendar. Based on your birthday.

Tom Huszti:
Is that where it started in that city?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. And of course, to this day, the month of August. Hails back to Augustus and this this whole thing, but they start giving living Caesars authority and honor that is beyond just the political office. And that really just for Jews and Christians.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
It's just like. It's too cringey. It's too much for us to admit to that authority. We'll admit that God has put an authority. Those who are in authority. But we can't say beyond that. You know to to say. OK, well.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, right. Yes.

Sean Finnegan:
There's some metaphysical reality occurring here that we need to bow the knee to. It's too much.

Tom Huszti:
Mm-hmm. Yes, yes.

Sean Finnegan:
And a lot of it had to do with sacrifice, you know, cause sacrifices, worship and. You know, the Christians never offered any sacrifices to anyone other than God in the very early days. I think Christians were still offering sacrifices in the temple even after Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, because I don't think the understanding that the Book of Hebrews explains was immediately clear. I think it took time for Jewish Christians and non Jewish Christians to be like oh. OK. The sacrifice has been given once for all. So I think that understanding was already starting to be present before the temple got destroyed, but it's a it's a moot point afterwards because after the year 70, there are no sacrifices to this day for the Jewish people or for Christians.

Tom Huszti:
Yes, right, right. Yeah, the Jews had to reformat their religion in order to accommodate that reality. Right? Right. So that's rabbinic. Judaism is the byproduct of that.

Sean Finnegan:
Yes, rabbinic Judaism is the the successor. Of the pharis. These, and you know what we see with rabbinic Judaism is a focus, just like the Pharisees, a focus on tour observance rather than a focus on temporal and sacrifices. Not that Pharisees didn't believe in those things, but that was more the purview of the Sadducees in the 1st century. Rather than, you know, the worship of God through sacrificing of animals, the worship of God through its votes, the commandments.

Tom Huszti:
Ah, OK.
Speaker
And its vote.

Tom Huszti:
Well, based on what you've learned, doing this series on the 1st 500 years of Christianity. What is your advice? What is your vision looking forward for the restoration of 1st century Christianity?
Speaker
Yeah, well, I.

Sean Finnegan:
Think we've already stated pretty clearly the motive that drives me. It's the same motive that drives you, and it's just impulse that says. Christianity has gotten off track, so we want to get back to the earlier form of Christianity Apostolic. That's the Christianity at the time of the apostles as. Whereas the the beliefs that we can find in the New Testament and read the New Testament from a 1st century perspective so that we're not reading it from, we're misreading it from a 21st century perspective or American perspective or just a technological perspective that they didn't have. So that's really the impulse that's driving me as a result of that. I have been so curious about how Christianity developed and I remember I used to ride the train from Providence to Boston every day with this Mormon guy. Named Hans, Great Guy, and he was telling me. Oh, that's fascinating. You're studying early church history. I said, yeah. Hans, you know, it's I'm into it. It's. I'm curious about it. He says, oh, well, we Mormons. We believe that the church completely fell away right after the apostles and didn't get reformed or rediscovered until Joseph Smith.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh wow.

Sean Finnegan:
And I was just like. Hans, baby, there's just no way. There's just no way you can't. I mean, there there's no institutional church yet. There's no powerful centralizing authority to force anyone to do anything or to think anything. It's all based on persuasion. And if you look at the 2nd century, it's the Wild West. You got Gnostics, you got Marcia Knights. You've got valentinians. You've got philosopher types like Justin. You've got more down to Earth type Christians. The Jewish Christians you've got. All of these things, all at the same time. Separated by great distances and people don't travel like we travel today. They don't travel like that in the ancient world, there's no communication other than if you can convince A traveler to carry a letter that costs you big money to have written.

Tom Huszti:
Right.
Speaker 5
Right. So I mean it's just.

Sean Finnegan:
There's just no way to force everyone to follow. Away from original Christianity. Very fast. It's got to be a slow process and uneven, where in some areas they're still holding to this view that has already started to develop differently in other areas, right? Does that make sense? So I think I was able to show that in not that that was like what I was trying to prove or anything. It's just.

Tom Huszti:
Uh-huh. Yes. Yeah, sure, it does. Absolutely.

Sean Finnegan:
Observation that when you look at all the different strands and you know what I do is I cover it topically. So I'll just like 1 lecture on the Gnostics. And when I do the Gnostics, I'm not. My goal is not to blast the Gnostics and say what a bunch of idiots. How do they believe in this crazy stuff? No, that's not the goal. You have to take a look at my gnostic lecture to see what you think. If I you think I succeeded, my goal is to present it on its own terms. So you understand. What it is, and if anything, I want you to understand the attraction, the pull of narcissism. Which I don't know if I really succeeded. At that. But now it's just OK.

Tom Huszti:
You you did succeed. You did succeed, yes.
Speaker 5
Narcissism was so attractive.

Sean Finnegan:
That for decades, maybe even centuries, Christians wrote books against it. Right. Why do we have so many of these heresies, ologists, where it talks about the Gnostics because it was a real issue that Christians were facing in their local churches and they're hearing about in other churches where people are getting taken out into the the gnostic world. And saying, you know what, you guys are fine, but you're a little primitive. You're not really up on Plato. No offense, but like what you're saying doesn't really jive with, you know, the cutting edge, you know, education of today, whereas the nastics was just like, oh, man, sounds so good. So that's what I'm trying to do, whether I'm talking about the Gnostics or origin or Philo or Clement of Alexandria. Or whatever is I'm trying to put the listener or the. If you watch it, the viewer in tune puts you into that world and do it in a way that's based on the primary sources so that you can hear them in their own words. And this is not this is this is common in the. The Academy. OK. In the universities, yes, this is this is standard. University will take it to another. Level in their own. Words exactly not in their own words translated into English because that's amateur hour. You know, you should really have a full command of Classical Latin and Classical Greek if you're going to do business with the with the early church fathers. Obviously that's way too much to expect of a popular audience, you know, to do that.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
But in most churches in most just like even books, people are telling the story of. Christianity all the time. And what they're not doing? Is letting the those early Christians speak for themselves or those early heretics speak for themselves because. Then you can characterize them however you want, so that was a big motive behind my class was to show people put people into their world and it was really like an intro where I was anticipating that people who take this early Christian history class would or early church, what do they call it? Early church history that they would then be able to do their own research. And they would be able to get it like a lay of the land with my lecture and then be able to say, OK, well, let's follow up on some of these books that I mentioned in the in the, in the class itself, so that they could do their own research because. You know, it's hard for me to predict what somebody's really interested in, right? So I. Tried to cover. Everything in a survey mode where you could get a little understanding.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah. So you talked about vectors and what you're doing is you're trying to allow us to trace these vectors back to the original source, so to speak.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, well, I. Think you can see that in this? Class especially you know. Like I do a lot with. Christology I didn't want. To like just only focus on. That because there's so much other stuff. But like Crystology really becomes such a big deal in the 4th and 5th centuries in particular. And I knew that was coming. So I. Wanted to like. Hit the precursors along the way, and I think you can really see that development very clearly in the class that I did, but also there was always a minority. There was always another group of Christians that. Were like, yeah, I don't. So you know, you know, like even in even in the 4th century, you have Photinus.

Tom Huszti:
Right. Right, right.

Tom Huszti:
For for China?

Sean Finnegan:
Of serum, right. And he's a Bishop and he's. A biblical Unitarian. He, he. Never. He doesn't even believe in the pre existence of Jesus, and he's a Bishop. He's a recognized Bishop in a major city where a lot of creeds get developed. Or Paul of Samosata before him. Right. So like he's he's such a big deal over there. And then you have other important Christians. Who live outside the Roman Empire here. Here. I just offer a little teaser. I don't know when this episode you're planning to air it, but I interviewed Sam Teeman on offer. Hot. Have you ever heard of offer hot?

Tom Huszti:
No, I think so.

Sean Finnegan:
All right, this would be great. You're. Going to love this. So Africat is living in Persia. He's writing in Syriac. He's approaching everything from a very eastern point of view. And he says if you run into some Jew. This is in 17 of his demonstrations. If you run into some juice that asks you the question, why do you call Jesus God and why? Do you worship Jesus? This is what you should say to them, afraid says. You should say to them we call Jesus God because God has seen fit to give the title of Divinity to exceptional humans. Like Moses, who's also called God. We worship Jesus because God has seen fit to to give that honor to humans who are deserving of it, and then he gives other examples of Israelite kings or or other individuals in their own Persian society that you would take the knee before you don't. You're not believing their God.

Tom Huszti:
King David yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
But you are worshipping that person in this like lower sense of of bowing and and so forth and. It's like.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Wow, this is an incredible testament. It's from the year 340. But it's not in the Roman. Empire. It's in Persian.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
And we have very little, very little from Persia from this period, because eventually the Muslims come and you know you don't have the copying continuing by the monks and the monasteries and and so forth because it becomes Muslim older.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's.

Sean Finnegan:
Right, but this is a witness. To a Christology that is either Biblical Unitarian with no preexistence or it's Subordinationist Unitarian where you do have preexistence. But it's clear that there's still only one God at the top. Either way, it's a very Unitarian Christology coming out of Christian and and. Not for hearts, no small guy. You know he's a he's a monk, but he's of some significant.

Tom Huszti:
Very interesting. Yeah. So who knows? Outside the Roman Empire what the numbers are actually a biblical Unitarians. Yeah, could be staggering.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, certainly the Germans that eventually conquered the Roman Empire, they were non Trinitarian. You know, for a long time I covered that and you know the the Aryan kingdoms, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, I remember hearing that.

Sean Finnegan:
Nobody knows about that one either, Tom.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, well, you revealed it. Thank you.

Tom Huszti:
I'm just curious to know like. Do you have any idea how many hours it took to prepare for this? 500 years?

Sean Finnegan:
Oh, that's that's unanswerable because because, you know, this is this is my field of study, you know? So, you know, the first exposure I I think I mentioned this in the first episode in the introduction of this class, I was at the Atlanta Bible College in Georgia.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
And I took a block class A1 week long block class and a professor came in. I think his name was Jim Graham if I remember correctly out of Arizona and he covered the Kusto Gonzalez book on. Early church history. And I remember him just like talking about all this stuff and me thinking to myself. What are you talking about?

Sean Finnegan:
What? Who are these people?

Sean Finnegan:
Like I've never heard. Of it like it was just like a whole new. Field and I'm like. Why isn't anybody else talk about these names and these ideas and? Like why? Why is this hidden? But like in evangelical and most Protestant Christianity, we do. Not do church history. We do Bible. We do theology. You know, but you we're not doing we'll. Do a lot of apologetics.
Speaker 5
You know a. Lot of focus.

Tom Huszti:
You might learn about John Calvin. Or Martin Luther or something like that. Right. Perhaps. OK, so so so you had an interest from very early early age?

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, so however many hours that class was and then you had Part 2 of that class. And then after that, I was like. You know. This stuff is super fascinating, and I remember at Boston University, I just, you know, really focused on it. And I I took every class I could at Boston University, Boston College and Harvard on the subject. Of early Christian history, because it was just like not a major field in any of those universities. So I was just like taking a class here in a class there. And just like kind of.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Making my own program in a sense.

Tom Huszti:
So you went to Harvard University as well? Lieutenant classes there. OK, because that's.

Sean Finnegan:
I mean, I went. I'm not. I didn't apply and get in. But you know, when you're in Boston University or if you're in any of Boston theology school, you can cross register to other schools. So I was a a BU student, but I was actually attending classes at these other.

Tom Huszti:
Interesting. Wow and at.

Sean Finnegan:
Harvard is where I learn most what I know about Philo. Some of what I know about origin because we read Philo in Greek. Well, we read Plato and Greek, and then Philo and Greek. So we read Plato's Timaeus and then Philos day officio Monday, which means on the creation of the world. The works of the. World. So we're reading these things. In such a way that, like you see the influence of 1 on the other.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
So if that makes any sense. So I I don't know how many hours I've spent on church history. But like, there's a lot in the background, but Even so, I did a lot of a lot of fresh research for this class.

Tom Huszti:
Ohh that's what I was kind of interested in knowing. Like like in just in preparation for this class you read several. Books. I mean, you must have been engrossed for hours upon hours and taking notes and then trying to synthesize all this down for your audience.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, and and you know. I had to buy a lot. Of books too. You know, I probably spent over $1000 in books just to just to do this class because, you know, I'm trying to get those primary sources and a lot of times the only thing available is like those old 1800s translations that are. In the public domain. You know, scholarship has has done a lot and you know a more modern translation is going to be based on better manuscripts or more manuscripts. And so I'm trying to give people, you know, the best, not just a lot of. Times 1800. Stuff is fine, but like I wanted I. Wanted the the the most up to date. That scholarship was doing. And, you know, I also have full access. Well, I would say full access, I have good access. To most journal articles. From attending Boston University as an alum. I'm I still have access? So I'm able. To access journal articles. Which sometimes you know you'll find an article that's like from this very year. Sometimes it's an article from 10 years ago, 20. But like those articles, a lot of times would be my window into a subject where then I could look at their footnotes, look at their sources and be like, OK, this is the version of this, that, that we're using these days as opposed to what was cool. Or, you know, happening 10 years ago.

Tom Huszti:
Well, I'd like to thank Lord you for your efforts in bringing this 500 year history and for all your insights.

Sean Finnegan:
Did you enjoy?

Tom Huszti:
The class I did, you know, I it's probably more enjoyable to listen to an episode a week than trying to cram 8 episodes into, you know, six episodes into.

Tom Huszti:
A day but.

Tom Huszti:
You know, there's a difference between getting a feel for the stuff and actually being able to retain it. This is something obviously you've been. Thinking about a lot over the last how long? 20 years, 1520 years.

Sean Finnegan:
Well, and I've talked to, I've talked to similar version. Of this class. At the Atlanta Bible College, I've done a lot with it over time, so this is like iteration upon iteration development upon development and you know, just kind of like this is the next level of it. You know, I think I probably. Previous versions were like 15 sessions long. This one was what 22.

Tom Huszti:
21 or 22 was.

Sean Finnegan:
So we're we're talking about a lot more added material and you know the the area where I've always like had the as the greatest weakness has been. In the east. And in the. South, where I just didn't. You know, just because of the way Christian education happens or or church history education, like the focus is always on Europe. And so I was able to like really expand beyond that, getting into the barbarian kingdoms, which is still European, but then also getting into the African Kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia and learning a lot about the Armenians. I actually did a a project last year on Armenian church history. So I've got, like, a whole library of Armenian. Church history books. I've got a lot of familiarity with that now, which is really helpful for yes, for this class. And then Asian Christianity was, I was just blown away by. I I got a couple of really good books on that with, like really good primary sources where they would quote the originals and you know, really help me to see what was going on in India. And I was just like, wow, this stuff, you know, because like, I always hear, OK, Thomas is in India. You.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah, I found that particularly fascinating.

Sean Finnegan:
Know you asking. Any in person, that's what they say you're like, but is there. Any actual evidence for that?

Tom Huszti:
Well, you actually demonstrated that there were actually ships that were making their way out there and back big ships with.

Sean Finnegan:
Yes, that blew my mind.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah. Yeah. In the Roman Empire. You. 10 miles away from another village and never visit. Because of, you know. There's not a road that goes between the two.

Tom Huszti:
OK.

Sean Finnegan:
Or they don't have a commodity that you need, right? And you just never visit, right when? At this very same period, you could end up going thousands of miles from the Red Sea to Sri Lanka or India.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah.

Sean Finnegan:
And that was happening on like a regular basis. That trade route you. Know it's incredible.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, just. Well, I had a I have a pretty famous ancestor. Who was the governor of South Carolina. He had a plantation, the Middleton Plantation. I'm not really proud of him. He was a slave owner and so forth. Yeah. Yeah. His name is Arthur Middleton. He actually signed the Declaration of Independence.

Sean Finnegan:
Oh, OK, well, that's a bummer.

Tom Huszti:
His plantation is right along a river. That goes out to Charleston and what would happen? The tide goes out from that place. The tide goes out in the morning. And it comes in in the evening. So he would load his ships, his riverboats up with their goods. The tide would take the goods. With the slaves that were taking it to market in the morning, they would load the same ships up with dainties for the plantation and the tide would bring them back in the evening. So it's like a perfect setting to conduct that kind of trade. And it was, you know, just excellent for business. And you were talking about the the winds that carry ships. Out to India at one season and carry them back in the other direction.

Tom Huszti:
It was kind of like it.

Tom Huszti:
Just reminded me of that kind of scenario where where the weather currents were just the perfect match for the kind of trade that was going on.

Sean Finnegan:
So let me just encourage your audience for a second. If you want to know the inside scoop of what happened in early Christianity, check out my class early church history.

Tom Huszti:
Hey, man, that's good. That's good.

Sean Finnegan:
And it at least give you an introduction, you know, and then you can use whatever resources that you have available or or buy some books on it and really delve into your subject so that you understand it better and you can. And understand what was going on because you know it's it's investigative and it's exciting to learn and we didn't really get into this, Tom. But like there's also so many. Inspiring individuals and and events that occurred that like.
Speaker
You know.

Sean Finnegan:
I I just. Carry with me and so many deplorable, horrifying.

Tom Huszti:
Right.

Sean Finnegan:
Situations that remind me not to repeat the mistakes of the past, so there's actual practical benefit to this.

Tom Huszti:
Right, right, right.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, Sean, we got some examples on both sides, very, very distinct examples on both sides. Well, May God bless you. May he provide for you and your ministry and. Enable you to continue the wonderful work you're doing. I really appreciate it, and I'm sure, and I know for a fact many, many have appreciated it. Your podcast restitutio was really instrumental for my own faith journey because you're not afraid to tackle so many very difficult subjects that no one else is willing to talk about and things that really need to be reasoned through. And compared to the biblical sources, the truth that we have in God's word. So God bless you, Sean. Thank the Lord. And you for your time as well.

Sean Finnegan:
Thanks for having me. And you know that whole restoration bit, you know that it. It's like the key that unlocks the door. Man. If somebody could just get that in their head then then they start reading the Bible differently.

Tom Huszti:
Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Sean Finnegan:
And you know, start start asking the right questions.

Tom Huszti:
Well, I'll tell you what for me.

Sean Finnegan:
I don't see this in my Bible, pastor.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Yeah, I guess that the situation that I I experienced was I came. I came to the conviction that there's only one guy. And I thought, oh, this is an interesting conviction, but then once you come to that place. There's so much more that's based on that. There's there's just, you know, and then everything, almost everything else changes. You know, the concept of heaven as you know, I mean is gives way to resurrection. And there's so much more involved and your podcast. Have really, you know, just amazing interviews with people that have that fellow from New Zealand who talked about. What was that topic? It was. It had to do with sleep with the dad. Yeah. Conditional and worked out. Yeah. Yeah. You know, some of these things you you just never would hear about otherwise. And and and to think and to know that there are actually people that.

Sean Finnegan:
Was the sleep of the dead conditional? Immortality is. The the proper term for it.

Sean Finnegan:
Yeah, yeah.

Tom Huszti:
Are out there who hold these views and that can point to clear biblical passages is just just amazing.