Matthew Wrap Up: And Q&A for Chapter 28

0:00Welcome to Zachary Letters Discourse. For this is what the sovereign Lord says. Why do you need prophets to tell people who you are and what you want? If you can justify everything that the God of the Bible has done, then you can justify any of your behavior. A lot of this mentality is trickling into what is now mainstream right-wing Christianity. I am capable of empathy greater than this God of the Bible. This is a Bible that they tell kids. This is the Good Lord. This is the Good Book. This is he is fantasizing about murder, mass murder. And over to Zachary Letters Discourse.com right now to find out how to leave us a review or support us on Patreon. Hi, Sven. Why? Do you know what we're doing today? I think we're wrapping some shit up. Yeah, we're doing the Q&A finally for Matthew, little Matty, chapter 28.

1:02Yeah, yeah. So this will be the last chapter Q&A. Correct. And then we still have some other stuff to do. But we are getting on that. We are getting on it. Right. Yes. So if you, well, yeah, you could catch us live. Still, we're doing, we're already doing, we'll be at Mark chapter three. Yeah, because we're so far behind with the Q&A's that we have some stuff ready to roll once we're done with all the backlog of this. Right. So if you miss our chapter readings, you should try to catch us on Tuesday, 10 p.m. Eastern. Yeah. And then you can hear us reading our chapters. Definitely, definitely. So do you have any tidbits for us today before we jump into it or do you just want to get into it? Well, I will just say that part of the reason that this has been taking me ever forever is because we've had to do a Q&A for every single chapter in the New Testament. Yes. And it's exhausting. It is exhausting. It's more than I expected.

2:04And especially more than I expected to then not even like a single bit of what we've read. And then the final chapter of Matthew was super short. It's only 20 verses. And yet I anticipate that this will be about a 45 minute to an hour long episode because I have so much to say about this chapter alone. Fine. Yeah. So the actual Q&A is longer than the chapter itself. Correct. Correct. So I just wanted to put out there. Yes, I apologize that we're so behind. But there is a reason. There's a lot of research going into these. And it's kind of not fun until we get to record it. And then I get to bitch about it. That part is fun. Right. Right. All right. Well, you ready to do this? Sure. Fuck him. Let's do it. Okey dokey.

3:06All right. We are hopping into little Maddie chapter 28, which is the final chapter of the book of Matthew. Sure is. Think on. We're dumb, you know. Right. Right. It's all this damn fault. And I hated this chapter. I don't know if you were called. Yeah. I'm really fucking hated it. It was, it wasn't great. It was about Jesus is risen. Yeah. And then. Plus they left out zombies. I'm sorry, but you cannot bring up zombies. Right. And then not fucking readdressed. And then we never, we never talk about it again. And apparently those zombies are not in any other book of the Bible. I call absolute bullshit on that. No, so do I. So do I. Whatever. Apparently that is problematic for a lot of scholars. They're like, I'm sorry, what? People were raised, saints were raised. Holy people were raised. Yeah, she's like big news, you know. Like that's problematic. You didn't bring that back up. Yeah. Matthew tells the story from a very, almost fairytale kind of way.

4:09Like he's trying to make a magical point about Jesus's death and rising. And so he paints a lot of cosmic stuff happening. Sure. Part of which is earthquakes. And then the other part of which is right, the dead rising. And you're supposed to take from it like, oh, yeah, he says magical things. That means magic. Hmm. And so when you bring up magic and supposed real life occurrences, you need to explain it. It's a weird phenomenon. To our audience, yes. To our audience today, yes. To his audience, no. And that's what is so frustrating because we can't read it as his audience. See now, I feel like even their audience would be like, I think my parents would remember the dead coming back to life. But that's not how stories worked back then.

5:09Okay. Stories worked by symbolism and by like is like and comparison. And there was an understanding that if cosmic events were mentioned, that that was code for super seriously so fucking big, it was the big fish story. And that was understood and accepted as that's what this means. Not that these things are actually happening, but that they are descriptors for the thing that he is saying actually happens. Okay. So the rising from the dead is the thing that he's saying supposedly happened. And he's just saying, look how magical it was. There was all the magic. Yes. Yes. So we should look at all of the cosmic things surrounding Jesus' rising more as adjectives than as events. I did not know that zombies were adjectives. I mean, in the sense that he is describing this to his audience, yeah.

6:13No, I understand what you're saying. I understand what that entails too. But at the same time, we also have people walking around today in this country, in the United States of America, saying that the Bible and all the words in it are true and real. Right. And so we've got people taking the symbolism and the adjectives as the actual events. Yes. And that's problematic enough. We can't even talk about the thing that is supposed to be the actual event, which is also ridiculous. It's not even that it's problematic. It's that they can't disassociate themselves from the Bible. Right. And realize that there is some falsehoods in it. Right. Like, zombies didn't... They're not falsehoods. Um, I understand that it is saying things that happen that didn't actually happen. Right. I'm not saying from there, I'm not saying from the whoever wrote Matthew's perspective. Right. I'm saying from the perspective of somebody who views this Bible literally.

7:14Okay. Word for word, right? There are some... If you read this Bible literally and say, oh, zombies, the dead came back. This is false. Right. This is wrong. This is not correct. And it's only mentioned in one book of the Bible that's still heavily we've learned now from Mark, right? Who doesn't mention anything? It's a fantastical story that was added in just for effect. And yet, there are people that might read it literally. That do read it literally. That do read it literally. Right. Yeah. That's me as problematic. And my problem with it is that I am an atheist, so I'm automatically predisposed to be like, this is bunk, but I'm also a literature nerd, right? Sure. And so I'm trying to examine this from a literary perspective and from a historical context of literature. In its time and place perspective. And I'm trying to... I'm having to explain this and almost defend it to you and be like, well, the people at the time.

8:19And I hate that I had like it literally pisses me off that I'm being put in a position of defending certain ways and styles of the writing because it's bullshit. I would love to live in a world where we had the luxury to discuss the Bible as a literary piece of work. Right. Because then when I say, hey, well, no, those cosmic events that Matthew was describing, he meant them as symbols and as they're basically adjectives to tell you, hey, the event that I'm actually talking about is the big deal. And then you could just be like, oh, that's actually from a literary context. That's actually a really cool concept. Right. And you can't do that because you have to be like, oh, well, but people today think that those descriptors are the real event too. There is so much societal emotion attached to this book. It brings too much baggage. Right. And you have to tip to around these ideas because there is so much baggage and there are so many different ways to interpret from every perspective.

9:21Right. Every denomination has its own little quirk about how to interpret the Bible. Every person within that that church itself has their own other way of interlite. There is no actual correct interpretation according to any one single person that is Christian. In my opinion, like, this is how I run into what people want to describe to me. I'm like, well, have you, like, I always, I always start with like, have you actually read the Bible, like yourself or you, or you just like, keep smelling it together from the evocational pieces that you've heard from other people because it's an important question to ask. No, it does make a difference. Yeah. And I've noticed too that like per the, the fucking video that I quoted, that was, I think, Seth Andrews and one of his buddies that some caller called in and was like, well, I have a personal relationship with Jesus. So I don't need to read the Bible. And then it's like, well, how do you fucking have a discussion with that? You don't.

10:21And yeah, that's like click, hang up that call because that's not going to go anywhere. If you think you don't need to read this, we can't discuss it then. Right. And it makes, we can't reach an understanding. We are at an impasse. I think what is blown me away the most, and I'm sorry I'm taking up so much time with regard to this, but like what has blown me away the most with regard to the Bible and Christians in general is that the level of knowledge that they have is so low. Mm-hmm. I never really understood how low until we started doing this project. It's not just low. It's not just low knowledge of it. It's low curiosity to even learn it. I mean, that's the profile. If you like the curiosity is stifled from the higher ups in the church, right? Like the church itself does not encourage questions. Well, God in the Bible says don't ask questions. Right. Jesus says don't ask questions. Sure. Just take whatever your leader over there says and leave it at that.

11:23I mean, I don't think that the Bible, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, I don't think that those books were ever actually intended by church leaders to be available to a common audience. And I think it's almost done their religions. A big, huge disservice that people like you and I know, you and me can read through it. Yeah. And be like, wait, wait, wait, you all don't understand your own religion. And the leaders are like, oh, you don't understand the faith. And the people are like, yeah. Yeah. Your whole argument is, yeah, what you said. Right. All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm interrupting. And I know we got a lot to cover here. So no, that's okay. I mean, that conversation we just had fully like envelops my entire attitude about the book of Matthew. Yeah. So this chapter again is about Jesus having risen. And then that's the first bit, the second bit, which is just like super

12:26weird. He grants himself power by authority of himself. Yeah. He's like, because I said on the boss, because I said so. Right. Right. You know, as you do. Right. And then he commissions the 11 disciples. Apostles? Well, yeah, they are his apostles. The disciples slash whatever. Yeah. Okay. But your word is more accurate. They are the 11 apostles. Right. Who are disciples? Sure. He commissions them to spread the news. Okay. The good news, if you will. Right. So just one more thing about like the book of Matthew itself before I like dive into the Q&A. Yeah. Matthew is an ancient communities attempt to explain an extraordinary claim that it already become enormously important to them. I feel like it's important to state that emphatically because not for any of our listeners so much as for myself, because I keep having such a hard time viewing this as Jewish sects

13:36arguing amongst themselves about how to best interpret the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and y'all ways laws and how to live in community with what was happening around them. Yeah. And I have to keep reminding myself that although they were breaking away and they were radicals, they were still Jewish. Right. They were not Christians. Yeah. They were trying to understand these great claims. Right. Within a Jewish context of some time. Right. And I don't get that feeling when I'm reading it. So I have to academically say that out loud to myself. Yeah. Because I mean, there is a verse specifically towards the end of Matthew that says, and the Jew is believe this to this day. And it's like, so they were already having this argument when Matthew was written,

14:36which was like right around the time of the toppling of the second temple. Yeah. You know, what was it? I think we decided 30 to 40 years after Jesus had already died. Yeah, it was about 70 AD, I believe it's 70 AD. They were already dealing with or CE, sorry. Like we might still be Jewish, but we're not those Jews. Right. We're different. Better Jesus following Jews. Right. And so yes, they were not Christian yet, but they were no longer considering themselves common Jewish folk. Sure. They were better Jewish folk. They were different and understood. Well, yeah, and it alludes that in Matthew. I mean, that's what I'm saying. That specific verse, I want to say is like verse 19. Right. Is where he says, and the Jewish folk believe that to this day. Sure. And it's like, oh, do they Matthew? Day is in you. Like, is that what you're saying? And it's funny because when they're saying to this day,

15:37they're talking about 40 years after Jesus's death. Right. Right. And in the way it's read today is 2000 plus years after Jesus's death. Yeah, they're saying to this day now in 2026. And it's like, no, bro, you got the date wrong. Right. We're in the wrong calendar, my friend. So in reading this story, we are literally watching a religious movement. Explain itself into existence, which is kind of cool to think about just from the historical context. Yeah. And I mean, it even makes some of the the language and the ideas a little bit forgivable in that context as well. Right. Like, I mean, if if we didn't have such a high social value to this religion in the United States, it would be interesting to see this is where the spring from, right? Like as a as a historical context. I will even grant you that if it wasn't so problematic, we probably wouldn't have taken up this project. Absolutely. Yeah.

16:38So there is that mixed. But because part of this was was about politics for us was about the so American politics and the social impact on American culture and politics. Yeah. So I mean, I just want to make sure people are aware. This is very like American centric because American Christianity and evangelicalism is a very huge American problem today. It is. It is very much so. Um, that we need to like make sure we we state that because um, Christianity as a whole is like different than like American Christian versus European Christian. Right. So um, just want to make sure I put that out there. Yeah. All right. So the first part, like I said, is about the re the risen Jesus. Yeah. Okay, the resurrection and the report of the guard. Okay. Sure. So first we get all these marries, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany.

17:38Okay. The marries. Right. They find an angel at the tomb. The resurrection of Jesus is declared by some angel of the Lord. He comes down, pulls up a rock. Yeah. And he's like, bitches, guess what? The body is not just missing. Like I know exactly where it is. There's so cool marries. Yeah. We don't want to marry to other Mary. Right. Okay. And so we get these earthquakes, which is supposed to be, you know, cosmologically, uh, clue us in that this is big. Okay. Sure. But like what is the angel causing the earthquake to make the point or what? He's not causing the earthquake. Okay. Um, the earthquake happens to alert you. It's like, it's like if, um, you live in a tornado zone area and the tornado, the siren claxons go off. Okay. Okay. They just, it happens automatically. So it's just, uh, it's just a cosmological, um, alert system. Yes. For ancient times.

18:39Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Now here's the thing that I didn't realize when, um, the Jesus are coming, the Jesus are coming. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, that, that totally is exactly what that claxon sounds like. Got to get this. Yeah. I didn't realize though, like because I was so pissed and I'm still so pissed, I'm glad that I researched that to have it pointed out. Yeah. Um, there was, if, if we remember back in chapter 27, we already had an earthquake for when Jesus died. Okay. Yeah. Now we get the book and in Matthew chapter 28, where we get the other side of that. He died. We get an earthquake. We, he comes back. We get another earthquake. Right. And the symmetry there is something that Matthew loves. We see a lot of the, the pairs, the pairings. Right. You know, the, the twinning of events. Yeah. Okay. That's very important to Matthew because he is writing this more

19:41as like policy and story than the others. Yeah. Okay. So I just thought that was important to, to remind us that he is a storyteller. He's a tax collector, but he's also a storyteller. And so far as we, we, we definitely cannot account for the fact that Matthew wrote this. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just to remember. When I say he, I mean, whoever wrote fucking the authors. Yeah. Right. The author, uh, you know, parentheses, ask. Yeah. Okay. Author or authors. Yeah. They were the, the people that put this book together were very into the story of it all. Sure. And the symbolism of it all, the book end was very cool for them. Yeah. They were like, uh, uh, see what we did. Right. Right. Like you, y'all saw that, right? It's huge. The thing is huge and so big. Right. Okay. Okay. So we were like, hold on. Why are there so fucking many marries? Yeah. Like that's a lot of marries. And now they're like in the same chapter and they're not even like

20:41Jesus's mom isn't one of the marries. Sure. And she's got another one though. And really too many marries. Yeah. So here's the thing. I didn't realize Mary comes from Miriam who was Moses's sister. Oh. So like everybody was named Mary back back. Yes. Here a woman. Yes. I mean, that like there was a lot. There was a lot. No, it was an extremely common Jewish woman's name during that period because of Miriam. That's fair. And it had enormous cultural resonance. And the Jewish historian, Jasefic also shows just how common the name was among Jewish women in the first century and all of his writings. Like not just in the Bible. Like there was a ton of marries back then. Yeah. Everybody was Mary. Okay. Everybody had a suit like me and you like we both have Uncle Bob's right for us like everybody's Bob and our back. Yeah. Back in the day. Robert E. Bob. Robert Bob Bob Rob Robby Bobby. Yeah. We got that all over the fucking place today, right?

21:44For whatever reason, Robert's like big. Okay. Sure. Back then it was Mary. Everybody was Mary, a Mary Mary Mary. Right. Okay. It was one of the most frequently occurring female names of the period. Okay. So we thought it was weird. It actually in fact historically was not. And I will allow it. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So I mean like when I was in between seventh and tenth grade, I had four different Rachel's in my grade throughout that time period. And mind you, there were only like 20 to 50 people in my grade. Sure. And at any given time, four of them were rapers. Yeah. If you think about that at most, 50 people, right? Half of them were female, right? So we're talking 20 out of 25 girls for those 25 and any given. Pretty high percentage. We're Rachel. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, I'll allow some Mary's to be in the Bible.

22:45Yeah. Okay. So if you'll recall, the guards were like, whoa, an angel just rolled up the rock and sat down and there was an earthquake and I'm terrified and they were stunned, right? Yeah. And we were like, why? I thought angels were like rolling up on every corner and demon. Like angels are scary. Why? Right. Yeah. Like was so terrified. And like just to remind you what all we've seen just in the book of Matthew. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Like this is just one book that we've seen this shit happening. Right. Angels have appeared to Joseph. They've had prophetic dreams. We've had demons. We've had demons exercised from people. Yeah. We've had miraculous hearings. We've had miraculous consumption. We've had Satan. Yeah. Where he came to Jesus more than once. Yeah. We've had transfiguration. We've had dead people. We've had rising from the grave. Right. Right. We've had cosmic darkness.

23:46Remember? Yeah. Yeah. Like noon. Right. Like middle of the fucking day. Yeah. We've had scary earthquakes come out of nowhere. Right. So I mean, we've had all of this stuff happen. Why was this particular angel of the Lord terrifying to them? Well, I mean, I don't know if you recall in Ezekiel when they covered the way that angels look with the eyes in the wheel. That terrified the fuck out of me if I saw that. Oh, same, same. I'm just saying, you know, like it depends on which type of angel we're talking about here. Totally. We're talking about the Ezekiel angel. No, I'm out. Fuck that shit. I'm about to bounce. Right. I guess I got fired that day because I'm showing up. So from the reader's perspective, reader being me and you, the angel isn't like scary or even unprecedented. We're like, yeah, that tracks. Right. Like Jesus raises from the dead. There's an angel, of course there is. There's an angel in every street corner. And we're reading the Bible. It's already ridiculous. Sure. So does it. It doesn't matter, right? But the entire physical action of the angel, if you read like actually what actions he takes,

24:50like from a screenplay perspective, the angel descends, the angel rolls rolls away the stone from the tomb. Yeah. And the angel sits. That's it. What's scary about that, right? I mean, nothing. The angel itself. Right. But again, we just stated that like me and you are like, yeah. So generally in most of the Bible thus far, angels have been relegated to dreams for the most part. For the most part, yeah. Right. So one physically showing up in the world, especially to maybe a Roman soldier. Right. That might be a little weird. Okay. You know, I'm just trying to give some do. And that's what about you. The astonishment credit to this guy. Because like if that were to really happen, I think an angel sitting down on a rock that he just rolled away. He might be. He might be. Do anything. His presence. I've been blessed for me to handle at that point. Yeah. So maybe I'm not getting paid enough. You know, I don't know. Right. So. And Matthew, you know, the book thereof deliberately made the angel's arrival,

25:54a cosmic event. So that kind of goes along with what you're saying. Yeah. You know, on the heels of an earthquake, this happened. So like, okay, yeah, that's a little creepy. Well, in the guards, almost definitely were not Jewish and or Christian. No, they were Roman. They were almost certainly Roman, which I get to in just a second here, actually. Yeah. Because their actions are questionable too. Like, why the fuck? What? Yeah. So yeah, um, they were not expecting any of this, except that they kind of were. That's why they were there in the first place. Yeah. But they were expecting a body to get stolen out from under them. Not necessarily for like, earthquakes and angels. Right. So as we pointed out, the angel isn't necessarily scared because he's doing anything particularly scary himself. Right. His dear, just sitting on a rock, man. He's scary because he's a supernatural manifestation of divine power. Sure. So it's not just that, well, that is an angel. And that is scary.

26:54But it's also, wait, angels come from God. They're messengers of God. Yeah. And they took that shit serious, even if they were Roman, not Hebrew. Yeah. They had their own ideas about what God was or wasn't. Right. If they saw an angel, they were trying to interpret it in their eyes, like what they understood God to be or what God's messengers were. Who even fucking knows what they might have? Pretending that this happened for a minute. Right. Well, I do feel like anytime that physical angels have been present in the Bible prior to this, that it was preceding destruction. Yes. So it's maybe not a great sign. It's not a great sign. Like on the heels of the earthquake, right? Right. If we're reading this in the biblical context, right? Sure. So the dreams or messages, the physical appearances are like, fuck, what's going on? Right. So you're Roman, right? You see a messenger of some sort.

27:56Yeah. Calm down right on the heels of an earthquake, with the understanding that damage is about to come. Right. And you don't know if this is about to fuck your shit up or if it's going to not even notice you because you're not Jewish and you're hoping for the best. Sure. Right? Like maybe it doesn't mean... Maybe you're checking your drink for like, you know, lace something, or whatever. Right. Yeah. So earthquake plus blowing supernatural, being equals time to ship oneself. Sure. It's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Like that's what I would do. I think that's fair. I would definitely shit yourself. But yeah. I appreciate you doing that for me. Yeah. Yeah. So then we get to the part where the angels like, yeah, um, body's gone. That it'd be what it'd be. Sure. You know, he gone now, right? Right. Right. But the thing is that a missing body doesn't necessarily equate to and thus it has been resurrected. Right. Right. And that's where we get like the missing body question.

28:57Sure. Okay. And this is like, what the whole religion is founded on. Yeah. Which is like just so weird to me. Right. Like Matthew is essentially staging a debate. Right. Okay. The question explanation is that, well, the tomb is empty because Jesus was resurrected. Like one automatically leads to the other. Right? Of course. Yeah. I mean, if you can't find the body, obviously they were resurrected, right? Yeah. And I mean, they had already like the Jewish church leaders that were like against, um, you know, the Pharisees and stuff that were against the Jesus followers. Sure. They were already saying, hey, can you please place a guard here because we see what's going to happen. Right. They're going to steal the body and they're going to claim that fucking Jesus was resurrected because they've already said Jesus will be resurrected. Yeah, but look, we're talking about 2000 years ago. I don't really like there's this rich guy, right?

29:59Well, I can't remember his name. In don't know the matter. Who was the rich guy? He bought this, this tomb that Jesus was going to be put into and like they gave Jesus to this rich guy, right? Okay. Look, I, I don't know what happened, but you're a rich guy, right? You want to start a religion maybe? I don't know possibly. Yeah. Maybe you want to keep things going the way they were going, right? Maybe you hide the body. Sure. Why not? Maybe you pay the guard to be like, hey, dude, I'm just going to, I'm just going to go bear this over there and we're going to say this is empty. Okay. Yeah. Like I, you don't make that much, right? I got, I got lots of money here, man. Whatever you're being paid, I double. Right. Yeah. I mean, the, the, the answer to this is so, it's so much simpler than divine fucking intervention with a goddamn angel sitting on a rock. It's so comically obvious. Right. Yeah. Like, okay. And by comically, that was not a misnomer for the word cosmically. Okay. I literally mean comically. Right. Right. So, yeah, the opposing and more obvious explanation is, the tomb is empty because the dite disciples

31:00obviously stole the body. Yeah. And it didn't even have to be all the disciples. It could have been just the rich man alone. Sure. It could have, the rich man could have been not involved in any way whatsoever. Absolutely. And it could have just been the Mary's. Yeah. It could have been anybody. Yeah. Okay. So Matthew then supplies a supernatural witness in the angel. That's why the angel is there. Right. To give it godly credence, right? Yes. Like that's all this is. I've given you not just any witness, not just the Mary's, not just the guards who were Roman and therefore, you know, Pupu on them. I've given you a witness from heaven, the highest besides God himself, witness, that is possible. Clearly, it's true. But at the same time, given who is there, we still have to take the Mary's and the guards' reference and word for it, that this was, that there was the angel there too. Right. So no matter how you cut this, you're taking essentially three people's word or four people's word, whatever,

32:01for the fact that Jesus was not there. And what's really funny is that there's this, if you're writing a story, right? There's this phenomenon that's understood where you can't cram too many unbelievable items into a book because you're asking your audience, you're asking your readers to accept too many things, right? And so that's what's happening here. You're asking us to not just accept the reality of God, but now on top of that, you're asking us to accept a resurrection of anybody ever. On top of that, we're saying that, oh, in this case, that anybody ever was also the son of God, but also God. Right, because he said so. Because he said so. And that's three already. But now we've got something totally unfucking related. We've got a fucking angel. Yeah. Okay. So at the very least,

33:03you are asking your audience to accept four ridiculous claims. Just poor writing. Pist poor writing. I'm just trying to say like, if any any any believers out there happen to be hate listening or curiosity listening, that's why we have problems believing. You're asking too much of us because it's fucking unbelievable. It's ridiculous. It's there's nothing. There's nothing believable about too many. It's not just that each one of those claims in and of itself is ridiculous. It's that and then on top of that, there's so many of them. Yeah. If we could argue about any one of them, that would maybe be a discussion. But you want us to believe four separate individual ridiculous claims and not have any proof of them and say it's faith. But also say, oh, it's not just faith. It's because the Bible says so. Yeah. And why do we believe the Bible because faith?

34:05So your circular logic is believe at least for ridiculous things, because the Bible says so and then just have faith, because the Bible says so. Right. And that's faith. Yeah. That doesn't make sense, my guys. No. So just put in that out there. Right. Yeah. So we've got this witness and he is an excellent witness. Angels should always witness everything because then we could just question them. Right. Yeah. Sure. So that gives Matthew or, you know, authors thereof, his preferred interpretation. That's what that establishes. Yeah. Okay. So continuing on with resuscitation does not necessarily equal resurrection. Yeah. Okay. So Christian theology generally distinguishes between the two ideas because our question was, hang on, Jesus wasn't just resurrected,

35:07like those other guys that came back from the dead, they were resurrected, right? Yeah. Like the saints, the holy guys that came back to life, the zombies. Yeah. Right. Right. Um, but they actually were, that's a wrong word. They were not resurrected. They were resuscitated. And there's a difference. Let me tell you the difference. I'm very curious about this difference. Right. So resuscitation is a dead person comes back to ordinary mortal life, but then eventually dies again. And that's why we don't really hear about them. So we say that Jesus didn't die? No, no, no. Jesus, no. Okay. Maybe. I don't know. But as far as the zombies go, sure, they were resuscitated. Right. Because they died again. They did not stay alive. Yeah. According to Christians, maybe they are still alive. Who fucking knows? I don't know. Right. Okay. But Christian theology does differentiate. Okay. Now, resurrection is a person is raised into a transformed

36:11immortal mode of existence. Hmm. Okay. Okay. So he was resurrected because he did come back to life. He did then meet up with the Mary's and be like, don't forget to tell my guys to meet me at Galilee. And then he goes on to Galilee and he meets up with his guys. And he's like, hey, guys. But so like there's this physical being that is Jesus. And apparently with resurrection, he's some immortal being, right? Yeah. So he died, came back as an immortal being. Right. But we're supposed to await his return, but they never covered him. Dying again. He's not dead. He's in he was trans. He's like, cool. I got my message out and I'm peace out. I'm going to have it. I'll come back later. Yeah. We will probably, I believe, have more of that in the other books like the after he talked to his guys in Galilee. Okay. Like, hey, spread the word on God now. I'm with you forever. It wasn't real clear in Matthew though. No, it wasn't real clear in Matthew.

37:11But that's why I'm trying to give us a little bit of understanding of what's happening here. So we have a better understanding going into the other books. Okay. Okay. So apparently after he talked to his guys, then he like, you know, Scotty beat me up. Yeah. Into heaven. And so we're waiting for him to come back. Okay. To tell us. I don't know. Yeah, something. Something. Something. We're going to we're going to have a big party when Jesus comes back apparently. Yeah, I couldn't tell you. I haven't read that part yet. Yeah. I'm preparing for it for a long time. So, you know, so the theological claim is that Jesus doesn't merely return to life. Doesn't merely return to life. He enters a new kind of existence. Okay. So when he comes back to life, he's not just like, I'm a human brought back to life. Yeah. That's what makes his resurrection so quote unquote special. In Christian theology. Okay. Because like the other people that have been brought back to life like Lazarus

38:15or like all the other guys, right? Yeah. They were brought back to life. But then they continued on until their natural second death. But like how how special how much more special can you be when you could already have walked on water, create food out from nothing and like, you know, change the fucking weather? Like what what extra special thing happened after you like they don't really cover the hey, he's super Jesus now. And like, what does that mean? It means it means apparently they they talk about him for like five seconds and then they're like, we're done. Just in Matthew. They just know I know they'll tell us more in the other box. But that's that's what it felt like going Matthew. No, totally. What the fuck? And that's why it's important to read the other one. Sure, which we're getting. We're getting to it. But we're talking about Matthew right now. No, I know. It's like what the fuck? I'm just trying to address your concerns, which is that's fine. This book ended stupid and did not address my concerns. No. I said as much I was like, that's it.

39:16That's the end. Right. So abrupt. Yeah. What the fuck ever. So okay, after he's brought back to life. Right. Then we get the Mary's are commissioned by the angel. Hey, um, go tell my guys, you know, meet me in Galilee. Galilee. Galilee. Galilee. So, um, then they go and then, um, so that was the angel telling them at the cave. Hey, Jesus wanted me to tell you go, tell the boys, right to meet them in Galilee. Sure. And then the Mary's are like, cool, cool. We're running now to go tell the boys. Yeah. And then on the way to the boys, Jesus himself is like, I don't trust that fucking angel. I'm going to tell them myself girls. Girls, go tell my boys. Yeah. Meet me at Galilee. Okay. Okay. And the girls are like, that's where we were literally headed. But thank you. Yeah. Hey, it, it basically is almost like a post script added in, edited in to be like the girls did see

40:25Jesus himself. Yeah, right there. They, they saw Jesus. They saw an angel and then it's like, way, way, way, way. It felt very unnatural. Yeah. Like, they were already heading to tell them about like, it was unnecessary. That's what they should have just gone on with the, the mission that they were on to tell them. The angel done told you. There's no reason to bring Jesus in at that moment. Except to make it, to make the Mary's a witness to the fact that Jesus is. But it was extra stuffing that wasn't like it was actually, they were, they were fucking stories stuffing like bullshit. No, and that was our question. Why Jesus? No trust angel. Right. Yeah. So Jesus personally repeats the angel's message to the Mary's. Go tell my boys to meet me at Galilee. Right. This redundancy serves three things. Okay. Okay. It shows multiple levels of confirmation to ensure, you know, stupid girls. They can't do anything right to make sure they understand the importance of and thus pass on the message. I do want to say that these women have names.

41:25And that is significant in the New Testament. So that is something scholars do note that that is extremely significant. Right. Given that women were considered property and of low intellect. Yeah. They are very rarely named. Which could explain again why, you know, Jesus had to come down and repeat the message because, you know, how girls speak. Yeah. They're so fucking stupid. They're so fucking stupid. Yeah. Yeah. So it also allows Matthew to have Jesus personally appear to the women, which is what I said. So now we've got the girls, the dumb piece of shit women who don't have brains do potentially, if you can trust girls with their dumbness, um, be witnesses that Jesus did rise from the grave. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I can't just, I don't quite understand why an angel and a magical Jesus figure can't just like let those guys know that he's coming. Themselves. Right. Yeah.

42:26It seems like it'd be pretty easy. But especially if you think women are so fucking stupid, like why didn't you just go and go straight to the point of, you know, you're so magical until you're not. Right. And then then you're not for some reason. For some reason that we just don't just, why do you have to nitpick the story then? Right. That's what we get then. Yeah. And it's like because it literally doesn't make sense. Because because you guys use the story for such bullshity shit. Right. Sorry, that was a really bad phrase, but whatever. It's true. And it is bullshitty shit. Right. It's not just shit. It's bullshitty shit. Yeah. That's the worst kind of shit ever. So this also causes the women to become witnesses blah blah blah rather than merely witnesses to the empty tomb. Sure. They're not. First they were witnesses to the empty tomb. Right. And then they were witnesses to Jesus being resurrected. Yes. And that's very important. Yeah. We need lots of witnesses to a particular. I get lots of angels and women saw and guards saw dogs and cats living together.

43:27That's hysteria. And there is today's Ghostbuster reference. Right. All right. So then the watch goes into the city. The guards. Yes. Okay. And they report. So these roaming guards report to the chief priests. What has taken place? The Jewish priests? Yes. Okay. All right. These roaming guards. Yeah. Why were they reporting to the Jewish priests? They were. And then the priest. And then last thing for hired is like, well, they were assigned because the chief priests went to what's his butt? The one's the hamster. Maybe the chief priest was in charge of these like these sort of in charge of the guards. Yeah. They were doing a task for this chief priest. By pilot. Right. By Pontius Pilate. Right. And pilot have already washed his hands of the whole thing. So he's like just just report to him. The chief priests were like, give me a guard. And then pilot was like, here, have a fucking guard for the fucking dead body people.

44:30Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the roaming guards. And just I have to make sure that we emphasize who all these people are. Roman guards run to the Jewish priests. And they're like, oh my god, guess what happened. Yeah. Right. So the priest then give the guards money, bribe them to say that Jesus's disciples had stolen the body by night while they slept. This brings up a question that you and I overlooked. How did they have that conversation even reported? If, okay, look, look, there's two things that could have happened, right? They could have given them. None of this could have happened. First of all, so there's three things actually. But one thing is the priest paid them. They told the wrong story to everybody else because the priest paid them, right? So how would anybody know otherwise with regard to that? Or they ran out and they told people the opposite and took them. There's none of that works. But then there's another piece that we missed. Okay. You were asleep. How the fuck you know who took the body? Right? That's the biggest question. I'm sorry.

45:30Who stole the body? Right. Who were asleep? Per the message that you are putting out. Yeah. Right? You are literally making a claim that is like, we were asleep, but we had cameras mounted. So we know exactly who done it. No, because they weren't invented yet, my good sir. I'm sure who stole the body? I'm sure part of the story would have been not claiming they were asleep. No. They were literally told we suck as guards. We fell asleep and those pieces of shit, Jesus followers stole the body. Okay. That's what they were paying to the body. But just that plausibility of somebody stealing the, like if they fell asleep, right? Mm-hmm. The plausibility of them falling asleep and then somebody stealing the body is much more likely than a supernatural fucking angel goddamn event, right? No, totally. So, just them saying that, hey, we fell asleep. Sorry, the body's gone on. What happened? Right? That alone allows Jesus not to have happened. Right. Right? Like in, in so far as, right? Yeah. But I think that's the bigger point.

46:30It, it puts some doubt in people's minds as to whether this was a real event or right? And this is where we get the verse that says, and the Jews believe this and pass that story along to this day. Of course they did because that's probably what fucking happened. Right. Exactly, exactly. Because it's the only thing that actually makes even half a look a sense. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. The Roman guards running to the Jewish leaders was something that we missed, but that as I was like researching and going back through and rereading, I was like, hang on, hang on, hang on. What? Right. These were Jewish priests. Sure. But the guards were like, I put it together as a, so we had, we didn't have a question. I had a question as I was studying this. Sure. Okay. So the guards stationed at the tomb were almost certainly Roman. Yeah. Okay. Matthew says they were placed there because the Jewish authorities feared Jesus's prediction that he would rise. So they have went to the chief priests and the Pharisees.

47:30They went to Pilate and they were like, please give us priests or I'm sorry, please give us guards. And Pilate was like, fucking here. They were like, give orders for the tomb to be made secure. And Pilates like here, you have a guard, go. Yeah. Okay. So there is some ambiguity over what exactly Matthew means here by guard or by watch. Okay. The Greek word is custodia, custodia. Okay. And it's related to the Latin word custodia, which means like custodia. Right. It does mean guard or watch. But the most straightforward reading is that Pilate does provide a guard, which makes a Roman guard most plausible. Sure. Okay. But Matthew doesn't specifically say Roman soldiers and we do have to keep that into account because it is kind of important to the story. Okay. We have to allow for the fact that these very likely Roman guards may not actually have

48:34been Roman guards, but has hardly speaking. They were probably Roman guards. Okay. And ultimately, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't. Like this whole idea that Jesus resurrected and that this whole series of events actually happened to me is absolutely ludicrous. Right. Like if your entire claim to what really happened is balanced on whether or not the guards were Roman or not, that's you're arguing the wrong part of the story. Right. So the very likely Roman guards then go and report what happened to the definitely Jewish priest. Sure. Okay. And they're like, Oh my God, I guess what happened. And the priest in turn then meet with the elders, the Jewish elders and they devise the plan tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. Sure. Okay. And so then they pay the almost definitely Roman guards to throw themselves under the bus as the absolute worst security agents in all of history.

49:38Like they knew confirmed. Yeah. So they knew that this was coming. They understood the assignment and they fell asleep. Yeah, they fit. Like I just don't buy it. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Okay. Look, there's no way that they. Okay. This the whole story is stupid. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But people were not getting resurrected left and right and fucking ancient. You know, in these ancient times, expect them. You know, this was not happening. And so, but if you are a guard, a Roman God or a Roman guard, right? And you're sitting there going, they're saying this guy's going to get resurrected. I mean, I would have trouble giving a shit. I really would. You know, like this guy's nothing's happened. There's a giant thing to say happening. Hold on. Okay. You're saying this as you who understands that these things weren't happening. You should be saying this as you who during this time, these things weren't happening because magic isn't real.

50:38But you believed it was happening because you lived during those times. And that's what people were saying. And your cousin's cousin knew somebody that told you that that happened and that they saw it. Just like your cousin's cousin know somebody who said that they're putting litter boxes in cats in schools now because the kids are pretending to be cats. Yeah. I saw a video somebody that was like playing up like pretend like they were talking about their duties as a teacher. And I'm like, I have to clean the litter box every day. And they were being funny. Physicians. Yeah. Yeah. Which by the way, that's not a thing nobody has ever been able to confirm. No. Who started that fucking rumor? Because it's a rumor. There has never been a school that put litter boxes in bathrooms for kids who are identifying as cats. It's a ridiculous right wing bullshitery thing.

51:39That's like if they're going to claim to be girls when they're really boys, what next they'll be claiming to be ducks and cats. And then we'll have ducks getting married to humans. And it's just my hysteria. It's right wing nonsense bullshit. It is. So anyway, yeah. So these guys are like, I'm Jewish, but like I'm living in a Hebrew area and they keep saying all these things. And my cousin's cousin's friend said that they saw blah, blah, blah. So it doesn't matter if resurrection was happening or not. It doesn't matter if angels were happening. No, I get it. I get it. They thought it was. Including the Jewish people surrounding the Roman guards. It's going to rub off on them. So they're either going to be bullshit. I don't believe it. I'm staying awake all night and I'm watching with my own two fucking eyes. Or they're going to be like, oh my gosh, could this be real?

52:39I don't think so, but I mean everybody's saying it. I'm definitely staying awake to whether they believe they're not. They would stay in awake. Okay. They were not going to be like whatever this bullshit. I'm going to sleep. I feel like they probably thought I was a vacation or like fuck this. I'm just going to take a break. I don't know what was in it. But I don't know what makes you think that. That's just my hunch. It's my idea. But I don't think it's as good as any fucking Christian idea out there. But it's not based on historicity. Most of these things are not right. But I'm trying to say what a person back then might actually have thought based on what they heard. I think going to take a nap is as good a plausible. Based on what? Based on people likes to take maps. Oh my god. Anyway, that's good enough for me. You are not having a bear conversation about this. So. Naps are fucking wonderful. I think it's very. You're telling the queen of naps. There you go. See you. You on my side. I cannot have this conversation. It's not. You're not being real.

53:39And I don't like that. I'm so real. You are not real. All right. So anyway. Yeah. Bad guards. Blah blah blah. Yeah. So this whole thing is Matthew explicitly responding to an ultra-fabulous, and I'm going to say that I'm going to be a real man. I'm going to be a real man. I'm going to be a real man. I'm going to be a real man. An alternative explanation of the empty tomb that was clearly already being passed around as he's writing as this. Which is why this never fucking happened. Right. You're literally making up a story to counter a story. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly what is happening here. And he's really very oddly transparent about these competing explanations. It's like if he goes ahead and admits, this is the story that was passing around during that time. But here's what really happened. Can you even believe those dumb dumb? So that's actually a sales tactic. Right. That is something salesmen use. Right. Exactly. You acknowledge. You acknowledge the good and the bad, and then you use that leverage of trust.

54:40Because it looks like you're reliable if you admit the truth. Yeah. It's absolutely. That's a sales tactic. That's all that is. Yeah. And again, the problem goes to if the guards were asleep, how do they actually know who stole the body? And that's also Matthew's point to though. Sure. Because he's like, but I think the more likely outcome here is that the story is completely contrived. Yeah. Completely contrived from beginning to end. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, fuck Jesus. Sure. So this gets into the part where I said this is a deeply anti-Semitic story. Yeah. And I think that's one that one particular verse where he said, and the Jews have been telling this story to this day. Right. Okay. Matthew's gospel is deeply Jewish. He, Jesus is Jewish. His disciples are Jewish. The scripture is being interpreted or Jewish because you know, the Hebrew Bible. Yeah. The Old Testament is. They leaned into it hard. Yeah.

55:41So, yeah. The Messiah concept is Jewish because they had been talking about it late. Sort of. Yeah. In the Old Testament, they had come up. I'm not saying I didn't. I'm just. Right. I'm just trying to point out these. This is the part where I had a really hard time and I had to remind myself the audience was Jewish and the people telling the story were Jewish. Just to point out though, the problematic thing with regard to the mention, the mentioning of the Messiah from the Old Testament, a lot of the times when they mentioned the coming, whatever, Messiah, whatever they wanted to refer it to it as. It was often something that was going to be happening very soon, very soon. Late next week, not a thousand years later. Yeah. This was not something. Yeah. These were not things that would have been hundreds of years later. Right. Back then. But they were not things that were hundreds of years off at that point. Right. Right. So, and we talked about this all through Matthew, how these prophecies that they keep referencing for with regard to the coming Messiah, they're using and abusing them.

56:42They are very much because they are not taking them in the context that they were read them at all. Yeah. Which is unjust. Sure. And whatever. They're doing it. It's an abuse of literature. I hate it. Yeah. So the disputes again are overwhelmingly intra-Jewish disputes of these different sects of Jewish groups. Right. And Matthew's gospel also increasingly portrays certain Jewish authorities as opponents of Jesus. Okay. So by chapter 28, the end of the chapter, the rhetoric has become this explanation has been spread among the Jews to this day. Yeah. Right. And that's where I'm like, oh, we're no longer. They may call themselves Jewish, but they're not. This is not the same. One of these is not like the other. Yeah. That's no longer merely a case of chief priest disagreeing with Jesus.

57:44Yeah. It is beginning to create a rhetorical distinction between us and the Jews. Sure. Okay. It's us and them. And it is not good. This is actually this book in itself and that line in Matthew is historically fascinating because the people writing and reading Matthew were themselves deeply embedded in Judaism as they understood it, but we're trying to re-identify as something other than Judaism as they understood it. Sure. It's just really hard to wrap my mind around it. Yeah. The gospel reflects a period when the Jesus movement was undergoing a process of differentiation from other Jewish groups, even though that's what they were calling it. Yeah. But right here is where we can see that division start, the book of Matthew, specifically that

58:45verse. Yeah. And that, to me, it was so obvious, like right in that moment, I was like, oh, we call ourselves Jewish here, but we're not Jewish anymore. Right. Like that's where it starts. Yeah. And it felt very uncomfortable to read. I hated it. It felt gross. It was yucky because they spent a lot of time trying to distance themselves from Judaism. Yeah. Like, I mean, as much as they were attaching themselves to the ideas that they wanted to pull out of Judaism, they also spent a lot of time, especially from chapter 17 on, trying to detach from Judaism as well. So it wasn't completely unexpected that they would try to unidentify from Judaism. But just to have that specific and the Jews believe that to this day, I was like, oh, it's cute. It's not great. And moreover, it's had consequences. Right. You know, so they didn't know the consequences that would happen.

59:47Right. But it definitely, that is where anti-Semitism gains its roots. Yeah. And that's why it felt so gross to me. Right. Because I am a person who did not grow up in an anti-Semitic home. I did not understand that anti-Semitism was even a thing that existed. I didn't understand why it was a thing that existed. I'm like, why the fuck, why? Like I could not identify anybody in my life as Jewish or not Jewish. So I didn't know that it was a current day thing. And nobody that I knew hated Jews, nobody that I knew talked about Jewish people. So like as an adult now, I have come across it because I've moved around a lot and I've experienced life. I'm 50 years old. I've seen some shit. There's definitely a, and then there's been a growing movement on top of that.

1:00:50Right. And that's the other thing with everything happening in politics and in religion in the United States. Anti-Semitism is making it come back. It's much more obvious. But it's not something that I grew up understanding as a contemporary issue. Because it just, it wasn't in my life. No, we all, I mean, obviously the Holocaust is a horrible human event. And that's kind of where I, and I think most people from our generation, kind of associate anti-Semitism from, right? And as well we should. Like that is a terrible thing that happened in human history. Yes. That is just awful. Obviously. But it's so much more nefarious than that because it seeps into just everyday life, even here in the United States, even still today. Right. Right. It's just there. And not everybody, like there are so many types of stereotypes.

1:01:50And discrimination that happened in the world. And this is, you know, in the United States is probably one of the lesser of those things with regard to how nefarious it is. But it is still present, which surprises me. Well, I'm speaking of regard to people. It's that surprising. If you go back and you look at comedy and sitcoms from the 80s and 90s. I didn't realize how much anti-Semitism shows up in jokes, in late night comedy, like just comedy specials, and 80s and 90s sitcoms. It's like so prevalent, but because you and I as Gen X, we were kids and we didn't have that in our life. It kind of went over our heads. Yeah. And it didn't sink in. Right. That was nothing we related to. It wasn't in our life. We didn't know anybody overtly Jewish.

1:02:51We didn't really know anybody around us who hated Jewish people. So it wasn't a joke that landed. But I could see if I had grown up Christian knowing these things that I know now and then tying in some of those jokes that were happening in the world around me that it might have been more impactful with regard to how I felt about Jewish people. Sure. And I see how these things could have impacted people in our generation. Yes. I just, I never understood why that was still a thing that we are reckoning with. Early in my life, I understand now. But early in my life, I didn't understand why we don't like. And moreover, I don't think that our parents could have explained it either. Right. Because our parents were boomers who grew up during, you know, the aftermath, right? Of like the Holocaust World War II, like they, that's why they're called the boomers, right? Sure. They grew up in the aftermath.

1:03:52So they just understood, yeah, we don't hate Jews. The end. That's the whole conversation. Yeah. And that's all that ever should have happened, right? Right. Like, even in, with regard to religion and the Bible. I don't necessarily, I don't necessarily agree that's all the conversation had to be. Like I'd like to understand why do people hate in the first place? Sure. But you can talk about that with any group that gets destroyed against, right? Like there's all kinds of discrimination in this world and all kinds of wrongs that happen to people because of discrimination. Now this is just one more of those problems, right? And but it's just one that I didn't fully, it took me a long time in my life to understand at some level where and why this is the case. Right. You know, like I, I just didn't know where it stemmed from. I think for myself, it was something that I didn't understand that Judaism itself as a religion versus as a people is very similar to Muslims as a people versus Islam as a religion.

1:04:59Right. And differentiating races from people, or I'm sorry, religion from people groups, versus the faith that they may or may not have. Right. Um, I, I still kind of like don't always grasp that. Well, I mean, let's, let's be honest, like right now there's a big push to make the United States a Christian nation, right? So like we are, there are, there are certain groups in this country right now that are trying to push us to become a Christian nation state, right? Which then at some level in multiple hundreds of years, if they were to succeed, we would identify as Christian as, yeah, as a people, as a group, right? You know, so I mean, it is, it is definitely something that can happen to people. Mm-hmm. It's just a matter of how, how that all transpires. Well, yeah. And that kind of gets to what I was coming to, which is I don't have a firm grasp of it

1:05:59because I haven't experienced it. And because I didn't study um, history and geography very much when I was in school, they were not things that held my interest. So it wasn't until like my late 20s and 30s that I started trying to understand history and geography because it's become increasingly important. It has. And so now I'm trying to like fill in all those blanks. So this whole, you know, ew, and the Jews still believe it to this day. Like it just felt like I'm not supposed to say that. And I just read this out loud and that felt very gross to me. And like I just want to point it out that that is the correct reaction. Yeah. You know, we should all feel like that is icky. Right. Yes, that's all. Well, like all of that whole long conversation packed into that. Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. So anyway, Matthew's gross.

1:07:04So okay. So then we had some questions like if all of this happened, we've got the quote unquote Hebrew story. We've got the quote unquote Christian story. We've got the Roman guards. What? What a Roman story that corroborates fucking any of this shit. I'm going to say probably not. There are no surviving contemporary Roman records to corroborate the resurrection, the empty tomb, the guards or the angel. None of them report any of that shit. There are later references to some kind of Jesus dude in Roman and non Christian writers, notably tacitess around the early second century. So that's very early on. Yeah. Pliny the Younger was a young historian. Sure. Back then, I said young historian because I just meant like early back then it's not him being young, but he's known as Pliny the Younger.

1:08:06Yeah. Sua Tanias, Sua Tanias or Sudan, Sudan, Sudan. Doesn't matter. Yeah. That's very true. Well, his reference is more ambiguous. So those are like the three that we point to and be like those guys talked about some kind of Jesus dude, but none of them says we investigated the empty tomb and confirmed that Jesus rose from the death. Right. And all of them happen after these stories were already percolating in the world. Yes. Yes. So like literally no Romans were like, I was there. Right. There's no direct account of that. Yeah. And to me that says a lot because the Romans kept records man. Sure. They rose some shit. But there's literally zero direct evidence from a historian. Right. During those times of anything regarding Jesus until after stories started making the rounds in the world. And the Hebrews were like, no man, our Jesus, our Jewish story stops. Yeah. Like right here it tops out.

1:09:07Right. Like, not only does it top out, like we don't even include the bit that has like our Passover story in it. Macabees, right? We don't even put that in our fucking Hebrew Bible. So anything that happened after the Macabees like, nah, nah, right. Like they stopped keeping records. We're done there. Apparently. So and to me that also says something like where are these Philistines and other guys? That would actually be an interesting study because they didn't really stop writing. I don't think there are some early. But they stopped talking about all that shit. Maybe there wasn't anything to talk about. That's what I'm saying. You know, like, yeah, I'm not I'm not understanding. They were like and magic. There's not really a big. Bringing together like this just comes from one source, essentially. So and and not a very reliable source at that. No, no, not at all. Now tacitess, he's the earliest one that I mentioned.

1:10:10He was around the early second century. He confirms that obviously Christians at this time did exist, which we know they existed. I know that's true. That is actually true. He indicates that their movement was associated with Christ. Christ. Christ. Okay. And he records that he was executed under Pontius Pilate during the Tiberius reign. The end. But according to who? Right. He just he's reporting like this is what I learned. Right. Yeah. Did you ask the Christians? Yeah. I guess we're still giving them the same fucking story. Exactly. Exactly. So it's historical use. It's historically useful evidence that Jesus is execution and the early Christian movement were known outside of Christian literature. So yeah. These stories were circulating. Cool, cool, cool. Okay. Got it. But it doesn't corroborate any of the magic shit that Matthew reports. And it's not going to.

1:11:10No, it's not. There's no historical account. No, no precisely historical account that ever accounts for fucking magic as usual. Right. Yeah. Almost like magic isn't real. Yeah. Yeah. Weird. So that's the first part of the but of not the Bible of the book of Matthew. Okay. We move into the second part and it's like not very long at all. Okay. And this is where we get the great commission of the 11. Okay. Where Jesus does finally meet his boys. Yeah. Right. He's like, Oh, so you got the message from the Mary's? Good, good, good. I'm glad those dumb bitches made it up the fucking hill to tell you. You know, an angel told them, but then I was sure that they wouldn't get it right. And I did have to go tell them myself. Yeah. So I'm really glad y'all got the message. Right. Right. I'm sorry to give so much. Yeah. Anyway. Then we're told that they worshiped him with some doubted. And I was like, that's where I threw the Bible.

1:12:12No, no, no, no, no, I'm so mad. Like wait, wait, wait. This motherfucker came back from the dead. Yeah. What the fuck are you doubting at this point? Right. So I was like, Oh, then I don't get any shit for not believing. There's literally nothing to believe you. If you said somebody came back from the dead and they still doubted. Yeah. No, thank you in your story all the way. Yeah. Like that's not that's not an acceptable answer. No, that's what everybody does believe. Right. That's what everybody's like, fuck. Yeah. You were right, man. Oh, this really happened. Yeah. OMG, but they still they still know some doubt. No. People don't doubt what after resurrection. That's not how that goes. That's not how that goes. Right. So Matthew gives us no explanation whatsoever for the doubt. He just states it like some doubted. Anyways, this is really interesting in context of Matthew, okay? Because he doesn't tell us which of the 11 doubted. Right.

1:13:12He doesn't tell us why they doubt it. He doesn't tell us which parts of the story they doubted. He doesn't tell us whether they stopped doubting. He doesn't tell us if Jesus like really worked hard on them and convinced them by breaking bread again and making it make him one day. They were very forgetful. They kept getting amazed by the the bread thing. Yeah. Look, this guy that did this thing last week, he again made one low fee 5,000. I forgot he could fucking do that. Oh, you know what? I just I forgot about how I saw him walk on water. Like what the fuck? Yeah. So why so doubt? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. So we're they just down there. Anyways, I feel like that at that point. That's where you're just like knowing that now everybody believes. Yeah. Because why why wouldn't you at that point? Like that really made me angry on a very personal level because I'm like, Christians, why don't you believe? And I'm like, why didn't the disciples at the end of Matthew believe is my answer from that one?

1:14:12I read the book of Matthew and it didn't convince me and apparently it didn't fucking convince his disciples either. Yeah, there's a lot of it. There's 11 of them left and apparently they didn't all agree or believe. Yeah. So lay off. I don't know what happened, but it didn't convince 11 people even. So get off me. Right. That literally that is my answer. Yeah. I read all of Matthew while I'm one of I'm like the disciples. I'm still unconvinced. That's right. Sorry. Very much so. Yeah. But if the original disciples themselves weren't uniformly convinced on what basis can later believers demand certainty from people who weren't even fucking there. Preach. Yeah. Exactly. And that is a legitimate epistemological question. Yeah. Apparently. Those are like, yeah, no, but for reals though. Yeah. No, I think that's a legitimate question. It's a very legit question because it because it like to have doubt at that point. After all of that, right? That's that's piss poor storytelling.

1:15:13First of all. And then to it. That's the part. That's where I'm like, you just you cannot there is no reason that one of his biggest followers. Right. 11 of his biggest followers. Yeah. Even a single one of them at that point after he's died, he died. He died and came back. Right. There is no reason that any of them should doubt at all at that point. But some did more than one. Some indicates to me at least three. Right. Because I'm going to go with at least two. But I'm going to go with at least three because two would have been like a couple of them down. The very least. Some in the case more than one. Right. But I'm saying three at least three doubt it. It's a lot of doubt. That out of 11. Yeah. You only had at most eat solid believers. That's a book that Doug was out and didn't write the Apostle of doubt. Yeah. You were with the Sam and a doubt. Yeah, he did.

1:16:14You're right. The Sam and a doubt. They were all apostles. Yeah. Yeah. So here's how Christianity answers that question. Yeah. Because you don't need to have personally witnessed the resurrection. You trust the testimony of those who did, even though they didn't believe it either. That's the answer. But that's the answer. That's literally the question. If I were to ask a fucking pastor, that's what they would tell me or something. Something along the lines. Yeah. Just trust because we say to trust. Much like Jesus. Just trust because I said I was Jesus. Isn't that what they say? And just like, oh my God. This is all built on such flimsy ass bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. It's so such a weak origin story. It's weak, yeah. Totally. I mean, he is a piss poor Avenger. Spider-Man getting bit by a radioactive spider. It's so much more believable. So much more believable. Yeah.

1:17:14Yeah. But like if I would put that in there, I'd be like, okay. Yeah. I guess. Sure. Why not? Scientifically plausible trying. Instead of the mission. Listen, listen, it's one of the reasons why I didn't really like zombie movies until 28 days later because it offered a scientific basis for why the zombies exist. Sure. It was the rage virus or whatever the scientific. It made it plausible. Yeah. Right. And I was like, that shit is scary. When you make something unnatural realistic, that's when I can be down with it and that's what makes it scary. There is absolutely nothing believable in this. There's nothing rational in any of this. Right. Like none of it even can be, you can't, you can't. That's not to say that I'm sorry to interrupt, but that's not to say that I believe in zombies. Okay. But wife kind of does.

1:18:15Only. No, okay. Hold on. The wife is scared of zombies. A rational thing. Even though she doesn't believe in them. It's not a rational fear. Yeah. And I recognize it and I feed it by watching zombie movies and reading zombie books. Even though it scares me. I. It isn't a rational fear though. I'm aware there's no such thing as obvious. I accept that. Anyway, this, the Bible story is so stupid. It is. There's nothing good about it. No. All right. So how reliable is this fucking testimony? Right? That's the question. And it's not where historians and theologians start like seriously like getting up and arms with each other. There's literally nothing here that you can point to that says this is reliable. There's nothing reliable about this at all. And the problem is that the Christian position on this is like not hardcore. Right. Like everyone saw it and therefore everyone believed is not what they're saying.

1:19:16There were like a few people saw it and even fewer people believed it. And some of the most that should have didn't right. But I feel like that's to them. They almost have tried to turn it into a selling point, right? Right. If you are one of the very few who believe in this story, you're the most special boy. Yeah. Yeah. The most special boy. Yeah. It's so it's such a thick and twisted way to manipulate people like you are manipulating people who are easily like who want to be manipulated or easily manipulated or have no choice but to be in manipulated right. Right. And you're taking this idea and you're shoving it down people's throats as though this is the only way to exist. And it's so packed with just bad ideas. Bad. That it's you. I'm just. I'm just. You're losing your way and how actually stupid this story is.

1:20:18Yeah. We went into this not knowing how stupid it is. Right. We know it was stupid. Right. You know, but it makes it makes more and more sense to me that the people who believe the most have read the least. The least. Yeah. No, it makes sense. Yeah. You know that or you had to redefine why you believe in Jesus. Yes. Like we know some people who are very religious and actually you say very religious. What you mean is very faith based. Yeah. Yeah. And and there are there are times when that some of the people we know are able to question their belief, right? Or question parts of the Bible and not their belief with question parts of the Bible. Yeah. They hold on to their belief for different reasons that they have personally. They've separated their spirituality and their belief in a higher power or creator from the actual Bible.

1:21:18Yeah. Which I which it almost has to be you have to there's no way you can read the Bible and get your spirituality in your faith there. No, the good. This is this is just completely absurd. It's a night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, this is basically like some people encountered the risen Jesus became convinced and then testified to others, which means Christianity is fundamentally dependent upon testimony about experiences that most other people did not even personally experience. Which if you think about it, it's still now is. It's a yeah, that makes it even more ridiculous. You know, one of my my least favorite things about Christians. You know, of the many of the many, one of my least favorite things is how they always taught. It's almost a hundred percent of the time. They're going to tell you that they have experienced a miracle. They have experienced something they've been touched by Jesus. They've been they've heard he spoke to them. He spoke to them, right?

1:22:18All these things. He always spoke to them. But like when you dig like if you try to dig on that question, what does that mean? What is that? Not even an attackish. Yeah. Really. I want to understand what do you mean by that? That sounds awesome. It suddenly starts becoming very vague or or it's a lot of little things or it's a lot of like his coincidence is that led to something really awesome. And I admit like that is really cool the way that worked out. Right. But you know, it's a lot easier to rewrite history going backwards than it is to write it going forward. Right? Yeah. It's easy to place these markers after something awesome has happened. Sure. Then it is to this determined that it's happening in the moment like you didn't determine that this miracle thing was happening in the moment. I guarantee it. Right. Right. You determine after the miracle was finished and you're like, damn. Right. Thank you, God. Right? That's how that happens. Let me give you a very huge personal example. Yeah. In my life.

1:23:21My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Right. And she's okay. Yeah. Like everything got fixed like she had the best kind that you could possibly have if you're going to have such a horrible diagnosis. Yes. Yes. But in getting diagnosed, she had enough testing done that it was found that she has a heart issue that would not otherwise have been identified and definitely would have killed her. Right. And so before the breast cancer could be treated, they had to take care of the heart issue. And so the breast cancer, one could say, saved my mom's life. Sure. And that is a miracle. And thus we think God for the breast cancer. You're your parents, too. I'm saying we are supposed to. Yeah. That is what we do. That is how your parents took it. That's how they rewrote that. And that's what oftentimes is done by Christians is they take that thing when something good

1:24:25comes of something. Right. They rewrote history to include God with it. And I don't want to sound ungrateful. I am grateful that this happened in the order that it did and that my mom was able to have her life saved. Yeah. That's awesome. It's also very lucky that all those scientific things that existed to catch those things. Right. Which is, you know, thank you, science. I'm like, God could have not given you a heart problem. Right. You know, I've had to have the breast cancer to find it. That would have been cool. You know, I wouldn't have gotten caught back in Jesus' time. Either of those. Exactly. What is it? What is it? What is it? I'm also like, there's a lot of people that die from that. Right. So what makes you special? Right. No offense. No offense. I love my mom. I love my mom. I'm so glad she's here with us. Right. We are working on repairing our relationship and are like, I love having my mom alive.

1:25:26Absolutely. Like, it is a good thing in my life that my mom is alive. Yeah. But she's a very sweet person. I love her. Yeah. But at the same time, all of that, caveat, caveat, caveat, caveat, caveat. Right. Right. But what makes her more special than other people who didn't make the cut and who were maybe just as important to their families, you know? And maybe even just as spiritual. Yeah. Maybe even more spiritual. Right. Maybe they went to church more often and did more things. But then it becomes God's plan. Right. Right. There's never, there's always an answer. There's never. There's always an answer. And it's always just believe. Right. And it's like, but even the fucking Matthews boys didn't. So let me get this straight. Life happens and it's always God and therefore God. So sometimes, sometimes the breast cancer will save your life. But other times it will kill you. Sure. And you don't get to know which. But both are God and both are okay and both are acceptable because.

1:26:26Yes. Because God. It makes zero sense to me. I can't get there. But like Matthew, that's exactly what happens in those scenarios. I'm like, but you know, this is just, this is what we call life. It's just God then, but God didn't have to give you that. Right. Like we're saying, but just God. Yeah, let's just skip it then. Right. Because God. Sure. Like, okay, whatever. Anyway, moving on. But because you never have anything to say, thank you to God for it. I don't want to. Like literally, I don't want to know. I'm me either. Moving on. So Jesus gives his disciples this great commission. Like capital G capital C, okay? Great commission. Okay. Yeah. He's hurting their duty after his departure. I said, duty. He instructs them to preach the gospel throughout the land. Sure. Okay. To baptize in the name of the father of the son and of the Holy Ghost.

1:27:30Of course. And he promises to be with them to the end of the world. Okay. And I was like, why so bossy? Like, who gave Jesus that fucking authority? Right. And what exactly is the end of the world? We'll get there. Okay. So we were like at the time, wait a minute, Jesus is just like suddenly like, I'm the boss because I said so. God said and you didn't hear him, but I did because I'm Jesus. Sure. And I'm also God and I'm Jesus and I said so. Right. Okay. So Matthew's answer to this question is basically, God gives Jesus authority. Okay. Matthew says that Jesus is like, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Just believe me. Okay. The supporting narrative is supposed to establish why the claim is legitimate. Here we go. Ready? Sure. Jesus fulfilled scripture, you know, from the Hebrew Bible. God endorsed him.

1:28:30Okay. He performed miracles. He was crucified. God raised him from the dead. Right. Therefore, because of all of that, God has vindicated him. Therefore Jesus possesses divine authority. Therefore Jesus can command the disciples. Okay. You follow all that? Sure. So the resurrection leads to divine vindication, which leads to authority. Got it. That's the logic. So Jesus had to be resurrected so that he had official divine authority essentially. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. That is correct. Okay. So, it's the same. Divine authority. Right? Obviously. Yeah. And the Christian response is yes, but Jesus uniquely demonstrated God's approval through resurrection. But did he though? According to Jesus he did and that's all that matters. According to Jesus who hypothetically got resurrected and got seen by like 13 people.

1:29:33Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Sure. And I've decided of which maybe two or three of them didn't believe. Right. And so eight people. Yeah. According to eight people. Yeah. Okay. But listen, listen. Yeah. I've decided that since logic and science no longer matter. And since anyone can just declare themselves the new authority. Yeah. Ready? Yeah. Ready? Boom. Okay. That's the way it is. There's nothing stopping anyone else from pulling that stunt. Hold on. Don't interrupt me. Okay. And all the power of heaven has been bestowed upon me because I say so. And also because my cat told me it's true and my husband barely agrees. Say yes. Yes. Yes. Most days of the week except Tuesdays because that's when we hold our live discord. Yeah. Definitely not on Tuesdays. So husband gets to be in charge between 10 p.m. Eastern through midnight on Tuesdays.

1:30:33Unless we've run late at which point power reverts to our cat. Dagnia because low. That is what the angel of the Lord declared. Poo too wheat. So it goes and so say we all amen. Okay. Did I do it right? Am I God now? Yeah. Um, no. But I quoted Vonnegut. I know. And I also quoted Battlestar Galactica. I appreciate where you went with all that. I liked it. It was great. And I gave the cat some overtime. I even granted you some authority. Um, yeah. Very little. Sounded like actually on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays. Yeah. 10 p.m. Eastern which is why I think I'm still in the Dowling crowd here. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. If you would grant me more power, maybe I would have been on board. But you know, I mean, I think I think I'm going to doubt this. Yeah. I just feel like if anybody could do it, why not? Right? Sure. So I didn't. So that the story may go down in posterity.

1:31:34White is God. Maybe, maybe people worship you one day. I would love everybody to write it. White is God. So then we get into abrupt ending is abrupt. Yeah. Okay. That's what I wrote because I was like that the end. That's it. What? Oh, so mad. So Matthew doesn't tell us about the ascension. No. And apparently we're going to learn about that in the book of Luke. Oh, and then in the book of Acts. So not in Mark or John. Yeah. Right. I had to go through. I don't. I can't just tell you that. I do. Yeah. It's like the alphabet. I have to say the whole alphabet. Like I can't just. Josh, what judges route? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. You get me. Okay. This ending is extremely important, though, because Matthew's gospel is structured around Jesus as the new Moses. Okay. So Moses goes up a mountain. Jesus goes up a mountain.

1:32:34Moses receives divine instruction and Jesus receives divine authority. Right. Okay. Moses gives God's law to Israel. Jesus gives instructions to his followers to go out to all nations. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And he's like, go do all the things. Now go. He's like the new and improved Moses. Yeah. And he's Moses 2.0 for the new testament, which is another way of that whole parallelism that Matthew loves. Right. You see that less than the other gospel. Yeah. I think there should really be like an ad like trade in your old Moses model and come get the new Jesus. Dallas, Jesus for today. I 95 North. Exit 230. I'm just making shit up because I don't know what the exit numbers are for the highways. No. Okay. So he's like, okay, go do things now that I told you to do. Right. Right. So the order is go and make disciples of all nations.

1:33:37And this is a massive shift in Judaism. Yeah. Okay. The phrase usually called is usually called the great commission. Again, capital G capital C. Okay. And it's one of the most historically consequential sentences in the entire new testament. It's a great commission. It's a big fucking deal. That's fair. Yeah. Jesus tells the disciples to make disciples of all nations. Okay. Yeah. And that's ethnic in Greek, which is the word from which we get the word ethnic and ethnicity. Sure. So in this context, it generally means nations or peoples and can carry kind of the sense of Gentiles. Got it. Okay. It's pretty significant because Matthew has spent much of the gospel emphasizing Jesus's relationship to Israel. But now everybody, not just Israel, everybody gets to have a piece of Jesus. Yeah. Jesus is for the world.

1:34:38Right. Right. Okay. I want to talk a little bit about the truth. Yeah. Jesus pieces. Jesus pieces. Yeah. My God. Little peanut buttery. You know, in a candy shell. Yeah. Jesus pieces. Okay. But we got to talk about the Trinity. No, we do. We do. I know. I know. I hate it too. But it was kind of sort of brought up. It's like ice, paper, water, right? Yes. No. Simultaneously, shorting your cat. Okay. Yes. No simultaneously. Sure. Okay. So, remember when he was like the father of the son and the Holy Spirit and we were like, oh, there it is. Right. Yeah. That's actually not the Trinity, but it's where the Trinity is. It gets it's like base from. Sure. Okay. The Trinity wasn't officially established as mainstream Christian doctrine until roughly the 4th century CE. So about the time that they actually like when the Romans instituted the Christian church essentially. Yes.

1:35:38Okay. So in 325, we've got the Council of NICS. Yes. Okay. Jesus is affirmed as truly divine. And this is important of the same substance and essence with the father. Hmm. So, he's equal, equal, powerful. Yeah. Okay. But we don't have our three yet. Okay. Okay. That was 325. In 381, we've got the Council of Constantinople and the nice scene position is reaffirmed. So Jesus and God are equal. They're doing the constant novels now as temple. But that is nobody's business, but the church. I'm going to understand. Okay. But listen, the nice scene position is reaffirmed. So Jesus and God are of the same substance and essence as the father. Yeah. Okay. But it's expanded to include the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Okay. Okay. So now we've got these three things that are the same type of thing. Sure.

1:36:38By the late fourth century, the basic formulation of the Trinity, one God, three co-equal, co-eternal persons. Father, son, and Holy Spirit has become the standard Orthodox position. Okay. Okay. The idea itself, of course, developed much earlier. Like the earliest Christians inherited Jewish monotheism. There is one God. But Christians were also increasingly saying Jesus has divine status, though. And then the Holy Spirit has divine status too. So they're like, shit, we've got like three different gods here. I'm not really sure I quite understand what the Holy Spirit is specific. It's God, but only his voice. Okay. You know what I mean? It's God when God's not there because we can't see God. So he sends his voice or whatever. That's the divine spirit. It's when he visits us in a dream and shit like that. I just feel like there's not really a need to name it.

1:37:40There's not. It's what made the problem. It created this problem because they were like, the father is God. Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. We've got three different fucking gods. Forbidden, nobody understands the Holy Spirit. What the fuck is the Holy Spirit? It's just the voice of God is what they should have said. But they very embattically did not want to say, yeah, three different gods because totally were monotheistic. That wasn't working. Right? So the Trinity was essentially the eventual theological solution. One God, three separate persons, not three gods and not one person wearing three different hats, which is how I always understood it. And that's how the ice cube theory leans into. But apparently that's not the common thing either anymore. It's not like water, ice and vapor, which are three different forms of one, which to me makes the only way I can even slightly reconcile this is one guy wearing three different

1:38:43hats. But they're like, no, no, no, no, no. It's one guy, but three different persons. Okay. And I'm like, that literally makes no fucking sense. It doesn't. It doesn't. It can't make it make sense because it's stupid. And they recognized it was stupid. And that's why they had to have all these councils about it because they're like, what are we doing here? What are we even doing here? We've got a God. Now we've got Jesus, his son who is also God, but not God. And we've said already in the Bible that he's equally God. Yeah. How did that work? I mean, there are people that literally sit around and have serious discussions about this stuff. Yes. And apparently we are some of the people, right? But we're questioning the serious discussions. These people work like, how do we make this work? And we're like, you can't because it's stupid. I'm just, I'm not sure I can sit through one of those meetings without laughing my ass off. Right? And we're like, are you guys fucking serious? Yeah. Like what the fuck are we even talking about?

1:39:44This is so dumb. This is so dumb. Yeah. So it is important to note that the new testament itself, like not just Matthew, but the entire new testament, does not give us the Trinity. Okay? Okay. We never actually get any of this reconciled in the Bible. The Bible does not have a Trinity. So it's all political. Yes. It's people of authority, quote unquote, trying to decide for us how to interpret it and then they'll tell us what it means. So the Bible doesn't give us the Trinity. That's one of the things about the Bible is that it seems like a lot of what belief is based on and faith is based on actually ties back quite a bit more than people would think to political and social decisions. Yes. So it's really, we had one friend trying to tell us what Matthew or Jesus, oh, I think

1:40:46he was what Jesus might have been feeling and why he might have done or said certain things. And I was like, it is true. He might have, but he also might have had a splinter in his ass from sitting on a bench to like, we can might have a day. But her church came with these understandings of this is what Jesus probably was doing or feeling. And you and I do not come into that conversation about Jesus with any of that. So we're like, sure he might have, but he might have a lot, anything. He might have been eating goldfish that day. You know, I'm looking at a box of goldfish over there is why I said it. But like it just doesn't fucking make any sense, right? Right. Like, sure. I can't. I just can't. I can't. I just can't. Right. Like the fucking, so anyway, the fucking Trinity is stupid.

1:41:49And we never see it actually defined in the Bible. The closest we get like in Matthew is what's called the triadic formula, which is where the Trinity come eventually is defined as that. So we've got the father plus the son plus the Holy Spirit. And that's the triadic formula. Okay. The doctrine that we recognize as the Trinity emerged because Christians spent several centuries trying to reconcile three competing claims. There is one God. The father is God. And Jesus and the Holy Spirit somehow participate in God's divinity. Guys, this shit ain't working. It's not working. We need to sit down and make this work. Yeah. I mean, they were trying to make these three separate beliefs work. And by the fourth century, those arguments have become so consequential that emperors and councils were involved in determining which formulation counted as Orthodox.

1:42:52This is so fucked up. They had to plan on paper out loud. How are we going to religion? The stories were so bad. Yeah. The governments at that time. The superiors had to get involved or rewrite God damn religious. We have to make it make sense on paper. How do we? And so they sat down literally at a table and banged out. This is how we're going to Christian now. Yeah. That is how your religion is based. That's exciting. Yeah. It's stupid. So to summarize Matthew here, okay? We're at the end. Yeah. Matthew answers the theological question who was Jesus? His answer is Messiah, Son of God, fulfillment of Israel, scriptures, authoritative teacher, and resurrected Lord. He gives his audience a biblical interpretation. At the same time that he's answering that theological question, he's giving his audience

1:43:55a biblical interpretation because he's essentially constructing an argument that Jesus is the culmination of Israel's story. So he's like trying to combine all of this stuff, right? He provides a community identity as his answer increasingly becomes, we are the community that recognizes Jesus as Messiah and follows his interpretation of God's law. So he's given a theological answer. He's giving a biblical interpretation, you know, going back through the entire Hebrew Bible. Yeah. He's giving a community identity. He's taking a polimic stance, meaning a one extreme or the other, right? Yeah. You've got opposite poles. Yeah. He's taking a hard stance, one direction, opposed to the others arguing against competing interpretations of Judaism and against competing explanations of Jesus.

1:45:01Okay. So he takes a hard stance and then he issues a mission to God's audience to now go tell everyone else. So the book of Matthew is doing a lot of heavy lifting here that we cannot disregard as much as we hate the book itself. It's doing a lot. Sure. For Christian reader who already accepts the theological premises, it's an enormously triumphant ending, right? I mean, they got what they wanted. She just came back. Yeah. Whatever. And some of his guys may not have believed by whatever. That's not a whatever. That's what they are. I know. Christians are like whatever, but I believe and it allows them to be like, I'm better than the ones who didn't even believe who were there. I didn't even be there and I believe. So to them, the kingdom has arrived. We've been given a mission. Jesus will remain with us. That's awesome.

1:46:01Death has been defeated. Jesus is the Messiah. Scripture has been fulfilled. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. So Christian, there's much rejoicing. Yeah. Yeah. Christians give what they wanted out of it. Sure. So yay. I guess. Yay, Matthew. No. So we're going to do a contradictions, but I think honestly, that was that was the wrap up that we needed right there. I agree. I'm done with Matthew. Yeah. We'll reference that this was kind of a summary. Yeah. And, but because because we covered a lot. We did. We covered a lot. There's not really a me we covered everything so in depth. Yeah. That going back over would just be repeating the same shit over again. And it would just be more opportunities for us to repeat that we still hated it. So, so we're one episode closer to Mark now, because we got rid of an episode that we're going to be that was the normal idea. Yes. So perfect.

1:47:01Yeah. I love that. We can contradictions. So coming. You're always wrong. All right. Thank you all for joining us and thank you all for being so patient for these episodes to come out. I know we have not been as. Delicate as we had been in the past. So we are working on that. We are going to be back stronger better than ever. Hopefully soon. And again, we love you guys. So thank you so much. Yep. We'll see you next time. Bye. Hey, wife. I guess that's the end. Well, husband, that's just sad. It doesn't have to be. We are on lots of social media platforms like Twitter. Our handle there is sacralibus underscore D. For D's nuts. Oh my God. Stop doing that. Anyway, we're also on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. There's a link to all of our social media sites at our website. Oh, we have a website. Yeah. It's sacralibusdiscourse.com, where you can also find a link to our merch shop.

1:48:05We have a merch shop. Yep. We have podcast theme clothing, mugs, notebooks, and more, as well as an atheist and science theme products. Wow, our fans should really go check that out right now. Definitely. They can get in touch with us by sending an email to sacralibusdiscourse at gmail.com. But before they do that, we could really use some help. Oh, yeah, with what? Well, it's not free running the podcast, and we need some financial support in order to get better equipment, which we'll free up time so we can concentrate on our podcast and our fans. OK, so what should they do? Head over to patreon.com, forward slash sacralibusdiscourse, and sign up as a contributor on our podcast. The supporters that receive additional biweekly episodes that we record just for our Patreon numbers, for as little as $2 a month. Also, we'd really appreciate it if you would like and subscribe on whatever platform you're using. And Apple Podcast reviews help us out tremendously. Like and subscribe. Leave an Apple review. Join us on Twitter. Support us on Patreon. That's a lot of instructions. Don't forget to say thanks. Thanks. K-Bye.