3 Myths Ancient Christian Scholars Actually Believed

Did you know that Saint Augustine believed that peacock flesh was incorruptible? Proto-orthodox scholars, AKA the early Church Fathers believed some odd things. Legendary phoenixes and heretical, demonic magicians like Simon Magus were very real in their minds, and they told us so. Here we discuss St. Augustine’s City of God, the text of First Clement, the New Testament Book of Acts, Ireneaus’ Against Heresies, and Cyril of Jeruselem’s Catechetical Lecture 6. Across these texts, we find colorful tales of Christian myth, legend, and magic.

Surprised? Well, you probably shouldn’t be. Between apocalyptic prophecies and heresiological arguments, they already believed some strange things. Are the beliefs covered in this video the ONLY thing that makes their beliefs outlandish?

The Wild World of Ancient Christian Propaganda:

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Sources and other links:

Augustine’s City of God, Book 21

First Clement

Irenaeus in Against Heresies on Simon Magus and his magical powers:

Cyril of Jeruselem, Catechetical Lecture 6, 15:

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This video contains 100% therapeutic grade skepticism.*

*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA

[TierZoo]

lol so St Augustine discovered jerky? what a chad

[bassman]

Legend has it, Simon had the power to make groups of people do exactly what he said, as long as he predicated each command specifying his name and that he did in fact say it. This transferred to anyone invoking his name, and to this day groups of people respond to the command “Simon says, clap your hands” by clapping their hands.

[eila]

Ah! i know where that salamander and fire thing came from!

In some forests theres this salamander species that likes to live in logs. And when people would get firewood and burned it, the salamander would escape the log. And people thought that these salamanders came from fire. And called them, Fire Salamanders.

[SawtoothWaves]

two days later and I'm still dying at "..in him?"

[cireyenned]

“Salamanders don’t live in fire” what? So what about charmander, huh?

[alcyonae]

The Devil can make you fly?
Red Bull is cancelled

[sippethefrogge]

That "when the supposed god Simon wished to show himself off, they straightway showed him as a corpse" is so funny to me 😂 It makes me think that the moment Simon opened his mouth they just gonked him with a shovel or something (and later on claimed that the power of prayer had killed him).

[billguthrie]

Yep. As a Christian studying for the ministry in the 80's, I was excited when I purchased the huge set of early church fathers thinking I would find deep profound spiritual insights in their writings. Spent a few months reading through some of their writing thinking... "These guys are a bunch of morons." The set then sat untouched on my bookshelf for close to 15 years before I sold it on ebay. Garbage.

[pjrama]

To be fair: “Salamanders” likely wasn’t referring to the animal. It likely was referring to the mythological fire spirits (though I think those come from Norse Mythology).

[ogg]

I love learning about the ancient world and religions. This is a terrific video; super interesting. Please do more like it. I wish that quality material like you and your wife create was around when I was growing up in the 60s/70s. It would've helped me a great deal but that's a whole 'nother story. Thank you!

[gregm]

Phoenix is real, I visited there in 1980.

[dennistan]

My friend: logic comes from the devil
Me:...
My friend: you cant argue back because you know you are wrong
Me: no it's just that the statement is so unbelievable stupid I got speechless

[McFlingleson]

Speaking of Christians believing in weird things, back when I was a kid my dad hired this old Mormon church lady to babysit me and my little sister while he was single-parenting us and working 60+ hours a week at the same time, and one day me, my sister and her were talking about things and the subject of unicorns came up and I said something about how they're not real, and the Mormon lady who was babysitting us insisted that they are, in fact, real, and she took a Bible off the shelf and found a verse in the Bible that mentions unicorns, which she claimed as evidence that unicorns actually are real. She may have said something to the effect of that they died because Noah didn't get them on the Ark so they drowned in the flood with the dinosaurs.

Well, just a few months ago I got curious and googled it, and it turns out that the Bible mentions an animal that early English translations translated into unicorn, but most contemporary biblical scholars really don't think that's what it was.

[MegaDublinguy]

Love your channel. Been binge watching it since I discovered it a week ago. Was brought up catholic but had become atheist before I'd left school. Am now agnostic and reserve the right to keep changing my mind as long as I'm alive. I love to hear all well informed arguments on both sides of the divide and your videos certainly epitomise 'well informed' as well as being vastly entertaining. Keep them coming!

[KayVolkering]

This vid was so funny and I loved the editing hahaha. I feel like you're showing more and more ' you ' in your videos instead of just information and it's highly entertaining and informative still. Thanks Drew! ♥ ♥ ♥

[micah]

Your videos sent me down a path that eventually got me to realizing that I was bisexual and helped me climb out of the alt right. If I could give you money I would. Thank you for the person I am today.

[Arexion]

When it comes to Lilith's story, apparently knowing God's true name also allows one to fly.

[pdoylemi]

So, how could they know that the "miracles" of Jesus were not also done with demonic power?

[zipzapzipzap]

> "things only get more outlandish as more myths we uncover"
> "peacock flesh is incorruptible"

Holy shit, starting out strong

[oAvalono]

This is a really great set & lighting array; I don't often comment on something like that, & it may be due to the camera quality or color balancing in editing, but it is very pleasing to the eye.