Emperor Constantine: Is Western Christianity Based On A Lie? | Secrets Of Christianity | Parable

at the beginning of the christian movement jesus's followers were fed to wild animals for roman entertainment then as the story goes the roman emperor constantine had a vision of the cross which inspired him to adopt jesus as his savior as a result the west became christian but did constantine really convert to christianity or are modern christians worshiping a version of jesus created by a die-hard pagan this is one of the secrets of christianity being unearthed by investigative journalist simka yakubovic from deserts to tombs from rome to the holy land simca tracks down the truth behind historical myths long-held beliefs and some of the greatest biblical stories ever told [Music] simca has come to turkey to the city of istanbul back in the 4th century a.d constantine built his new capital here and called it constantinople by that point constantine had already legalized christianity but it's still a matter of controversy whether constantine himself became a true christian i'm underneath modern istanbul the city that constantine built until constantine some 300 years after the crucifixion christianity was essentially an illegal movement after constantine within a few years a few decades it would become the official religion of the roman empire and the reason why so much of the world today is christian the question is who was he and the religion that he created is it a religion that jesus would recognize in the fourth century a.d the roman empire was divided into four major areas each region had its own ruler but when constantine's father who ruled the west died in york england in the year 306 his army declared constantine ruler of the entire roman empire this sparked a bloody struggle to determine who would end up emperor in the year 312 constantine was pitted against the general maxentius who controlled the central region including the city of rome their famous struggle for power was depicted twelve hundred years later in these frescoes by renaissance artist raphael based on early christian sources raphael painted these narratives on the vatican walls and it's these frescoes that tell us the traditional story of how constantine converted to christianity but there's a much older work of art that tells a different tale it's called the arch of constantine and constantine himself had it built here in the center of rome to celebrate his victory over mcsanchez over six stories high constantine's arch was erected just 91 meters from the coliseum where christians were once killed for sport for fear of damage the department of antiquities in rome hasn't given anyone permission to examine it up close for more than 30 years until now the closest you can get to constantine is the arch behind me across from the coliseum it's constantine's victory arch and on it he sculpted his narrative the problem is you can't get close to it in 30 years no one has but now we're going to go up and take a look in his quest to decode the arch simca is joined by constantine expert elizabeth marlowe who has seen the carvings on constantine's arch only from ground level or in photographs until now she has never seen them up close oh my god look at that that is so fantastic look how big they are from this elevated perspective simca can now see how constantine wanted his victory over max sanchez depicted in stone for all time this is amazing i'm excited spectacular to be up here everyone should see constantine's arch this way constantine's arch depicts the battle between constantine and maxentius for strategic control of the milvian bridge just north of rome according to the tradition depicted in raphael's paintings constantine's forces were greatly outnumbered but then constantine is said to have had a vision of the cross followed by a dream of jesus that changed his life and ours forever in that moment constantine was said to have denounced the roman paganism that he was brought up with in favor of a newfound belief in christianity he ordered his soldiers to paint their shields and banners with the symbol of the cross and led his army to victory he then went on to convert the entire roman world to the christian faith that's what the christian tradition tells us but what does constantine's arch have to say in this panel constantine's face was deliberately hacked out by a long forgotten opponent to his legacy here we can still clearly see the defeated maxentius drowning in the river tiber but is there any evidence that constantine really had a vision of the cross that converted him to christianity who's that guy behind him that's one of his own men carrying a standard that's a military standard no cross there no cross there you can't see that from down below no i see a shield very clearly yes no cross there no no when we look at the evidence from constantine's reign itself the arch of constantine really being the best source we have in the years immediately following that battle there's no trace of christianity on this monument no images of jesus no crosses no christian symbolism anywhere on his arch considering his vision you would think constantine would be championing christianity is it possible that there was no vision at all in constantine's day emperors had to win over the roman army was the vision invented to win over christian soldiers but wait a minute the roman army persecuted christians it crucified jesus there wouldn't have been christians in the roman army maybe there were [Music] to investigate the possibility of christians in constantine's army simca travels to northern england once the outer reaches of the roman empire it's here where constantine's rise to power began the area is littered with roman military forts like this one located at hadrian's wall on the scottish border and it's here that andrew burley has found evidence of christians in the roman army now what do you make of it well this is not a random thing this is a very purposeful thing now corresponding with the cross inside the room in this building here on the section of the wall next door there are seven crosses like this one inserted into the wall all in one section of wall to have seven so close together it's very unusual third century christian symbols carved into stone but the same roman army that crucified jesus evidence that christians were fighting in constantine's army even before constantine came to power winning them over would have been of paramount importance but were christian soldiers also serving in his rival maxentius's army they'd be much more likely to be christians in in accenture's army than in constantine and constantine army was largely composed of people from from the far barbarian north where christianity had made very much less impact so it seems christians were well entrenched in the roman military before either constantine or maxentius fought their famous battle for the milvian bridge but if maxentius also led christians into his army then what's so unique about constantine's claim to be a christian sympathizer to learn more simka needs to find out what maxentius really stood for the only personal relics for maxantius's reign were recently unearthed here just meters from constantine's arch by archaeologist clementina pinella pinella believes that these royal scepters spears and weapons belonged to maxentius himself and were venerated by his faithful followers just as christians venerate the [Music] crosstalk presentation upon his victory constantine tried to wipe maxentius from history's good books by portraying him as a pagan tyrant and a christian persecutor so if the image we have of maxentius as an evil pagan tyrant has been fabricated is it possible that the image we have of constantine as a christian emperor has also been fabricated to answer that question sim can now investigates a secret religion that claimed the most powerful people in the empire as its followers this religion worshipped a pagan god who had an uncanny resemblance to jesus early christian history states that the roman emperor constantine received a divine vision of jesus before defeating his archrival maxentius winning control of the roman empire and causing the western world to become christian but was constantine a true christian the most important statement we have from him is his triumphal arch in rome on it sumka doesn't find a single christian icon but he does find pagan symbols on this panel constantine is surrounded by pagan gods the god of the river tiber a winged goddess of victory and by roma goddess of rome an archaeological patchwork of pagan symbolism evidence that constantine only adopted christian ideas to gain favor with roman soldiers in both his and maxentius's armies but winning over common soldiers wasn't enough to gain control over the entire roman empire constantine needed the support of the officer corps and the roman elite many members of these classes belonged to a mysterious cult that had been around since before jesus that cult was called mithraism named after a mediterranean sun god called mithras how did constantine mobilize both these religions to serve his own ants can it be that what appealed to him was a blend of mithraism and christianity did he fuse the two together to create a super religion that would allow him to gain control over the entire roman world not far from the roman military fort where zimca has seen evidence of christian soldiers in constantine's army another fort was discovered in 1949 by a french bulldog sniffing for bones but instead of bones or christian symbols this fort revealed a special temple built by roman officers that were devoted to the pagan god mithras my father's dog same breed is this one french bulldog was sniffing around and found the middle altar as you can see it's very wet here it was all preserved due to the dampness now this is close to the roman fort yes and it was 500 foot soldiers and mithras was for the officers so that's why it's so small so the roman officer class which constantine belonged to secretly worshipped mithras at this temple at the exact same time an increasing number of ordinary roman soldiers were worshiping jesus right next door mithraism was an elitist and secret religion practiced only by men initiates walked into this clandestine temple lit only by a few torches arriving at the front of the temple these initiates would have seen an altar to the god mithras rays projecting from his head lit from behind by candlelight the halo effect symbolized mithras's status as a sun god a striking precursor to the halo that surrounds the head of jesus this could be mere coincidence if it weren't for the fact that archaeologists have found the remains of mithraic temples all over the roman empire and more often than not those temples were found hidden beneath the world's first christian churches to see one of these mathrayams now goes to the santa priska church in rome here excavators pulled up the floor of the church and discovered one of the largest methraic temples ever found in cavernous dark rooms like these the roman elite would worship in secret this is amazing i feel like i'm in the notre dame cathedral of mithraism well this is a pretty sizable one the idea is this is a recreation of the primal cave where mithras commits the sacrifice of the bull which is the core event in mithraism the one source of light in this dark temple illuminates the centerpiece a bass relief that depicts the main myth of mithraic belief jutting out from the primordial rock the sun god mithras the sun of the sun slaughters the sacrificial bull and through the shedding of his blood the universe is created anew essentially what we're seeing is mithras being seen as the key creator guard who makes possible the regeneration of life and you've got the primordial rock you know the cocoon out of which the whole universe is burned impressive but it also sounds pretty pagan and yet a strange inscription here suggests a more christian approach we don't have many inscriptions of mithras right it's a secret and they didn't write that much this is unusual this place that it does have a very faded inscription that is correct one particular text the latin translates is and you have saved us through the shedding of the eternal blood you have saved this through the shedding of the eternal blood yes so here this central bloodletting yes is seen as an act of salvation yes and the the key event in the whole nature of cosmic creation and the whole nature of life mithras sacrifices the bull and spills its blood strangely corresponding to the christian concept of jesus offering his own blood to save mankind but the similarities don't end there a lot of the mithraic rituals very closely corresponded to what the christians would do in their worship the sacred meal that they would participate in is taking the body or the blood of the sacrifice by sharing a meal of bread and wine here here that's communion it's basically a communion a eucharist and those who partake in this feast will live forever so just as christians reenact the last supper with jesus before his death a form of communion was also practiced here and just as jesus died and was resurrected so was mithras which is why at this altar mithras is pictured right next to a sculpture of an egyptian god in this particular god if you look carefully at his forehead you know it's that little lock that hangs down there that actually would signify that he is the reconfiguration of the god osiris and osiris is the dying exactly the resurrection right god of the egyptians right just like christians muthrace believed in the concept of resurrection which may explain why both religions were popular to members of the roman military faced with the daily risk of death who wouldn't put their faith in the possibility of resurrection and eternal life but what's most compelling is evidence that mithras followers celebrated his holy birth on december 25th the same day that christians would later celebrate the birth of jesus it was shocking to me when i learned that nobody talked about jesus's birthday as december 25th when right jesus was walking the earth yes it was mithras's birth that is correct and this is because december 25th was but the romans are always a traditional important holiday the feast of the saturnalia which went on for 12 days and everybody was expected to give presents during that time period so suddenly 12 days gift giving december 25th and a lot of these symbols do find their way into christian iconography as it turns out mithraism is embedded in the gospels themselves through the story of the three wise men at the church of saint paulinare nuovo in ravenna italy the iconography is still methraic here we have the three wise men also known as the magi this is the scene as recounted at the birth of christ that these three wise men are bringing these gifts to the christ child and the hats that they're wearing and greco-roman art this sort of became the standard hat that would be used in their artwork to denote somebody who's an easterner but these hats weren't worn by just any non-christian from the east called for g in caps they were the official hats of the matraya priesthood also known as the magi even mithras is depicted wearing the same style of hat and although there are no christian symbols on the arch of constantine the arch is literally ringed by eight magi-looking figures wearing the phrygian hats of the matreya priesthood but if constantine was the worshiper of a sun god how could he have championed christianity unless he created a new version of christianity partially fashioned in the image of mithras to do that he would have had to convince christians that he was one of them while in reality supporting the introduction of pagan ideas into their faith and to do that i believe constantine needed the help of someone someone working on the inside of the early christian church constantine is known to history as the emperor who converted the roman empire to the teachings of jesus but the arch of constantine has no christian symbolism on it whatsoever and evidence found beneath the first christian churches suggests that constantine fused mithraism with christianity to win the patronage of the powerful roman elites but this leaves one problem how could constantine get true christians to go along with his version of their faith and what about the founding fathers of the church after years of persecution of worshiping in secret surely they wouldn't let constantine manipulate their religion for his gain or would they this compelling evidence to suggest that constantine's vision was a postscript to what really happened at the milvian bridge as it turns out while constantine was still alive there was only one church father who recorded constantine's life and his celebrated conversion to christianity his name was eusebius and besides becoming constantine's soul biographer he also became constantine's right-hand man in the christian world according to eusebius's writings it's here at the milvian bridge north of rome that constantine had a vision of the cross and a dream about jesus that inspired him to win the battle and change the world forever so here's the milvian bridge this is the bridge that gets associated with the battle so this bridge behind you becomes in a sense a metaphor for the change of human history yes the bridge becomes a way to refer to not necessarily the battle itself but the consequences of the battle yet in eusebi is his first draft of this account he doesn't mention constantine's vision at all no vision no dream yet so eusebius's first account of the battle of the milvian bridge that took place somewhere right where we're standing even eusebius who's like a church father bishop great admirer of constantine does not mention visions in that account no [Music] without a vision of jesus how did constantine convince his contemporaries that he had converted to christianity eusebius's own writings suggest that constantine persuaded eusebius to rewrite his account of the milvian bridge during a great banquet that constantine held for the leaders of the christian church in the year 325 after years of persecution eusebius and his fellow bishops were now being hosted by the emperor himself and it seems that it was at this banquet 13 years after the battle of the milvian bridge that eusebius first heard anything about constantine's vision so constantine tells the story about the vision of the cross before the battle at the milvian bridge when constantine tells the story he emphasizes first of all the vision of a cross in the sky at noon time secondly he then had a dream in which jesus christ himself appeared and explained the vision to him almost like he's a prophet he has visions he has dreams jesus speaks to him precisely and here in these original texts by eusebius one can see the impact of constantine's story on eusebius and his fellow bishops so here's eusebius's description of the banquet he compares this banquet with the emperor to the coming of jesus and christians had anticipated if there was going to be a christian ruler it might well be jesus come back to earth and now suddenly it turns out to be the emperor himself now portrayed as a christ-like figure constantine turned his so-called vision into the official history and that history was soon propagated by christian art here we have raphael yes a raphael when he paints he paints a vision in the sky it's a cross by this sign you will conquer and so on this is mythology becoming history yes even without knowing the narrative you just want to stare at these frescoes so this is sort of a last attempt to reaffirm this papal narrative which had already been shown to be a fiction a myth based not on history but on a fiction but if eusebius's biography of constantine represents the myth what did constantine really believe in the only direct link we have to constantine is his arch which is adorned by pagan symbols but on it we can also see reliefs depicting three former emperors the philosopher marcus aurelius the conqueror trajan and the statesman hadrian all stolen from previous monuments and strategically recycled for his arch begging the question why would constantine decorate a monument to his own achievements with reliefs taken from other emperors unless he was really saying something about himself isn't he telling us what everybody thinks are winners are really losers and me i'm i'm the real winner at the end of the day i'm going to re-fashion the world in a way that hadrian trajan and marcus aurelius could not even imagine i would agree with you that constantine would have been very happy if people looking at his arch had been able to take away the message that he is going to supersede the legacy of even rome's best previous emperors but how is he going to do that the answer may lie at the very top of the arch here there is an inscription and it states in latin instinct to divinitates which describes constantine as divinely inspired but if it's not jesus who's inspiring him which god is when looking at what's depicted on his arch what we find are pagan gods from the roman pantheon and none so prominently rendered as the sun god apollo the light is amazing and it's so appropriate with the rising of the sun god right there to have it illuminated by the sun this way before constantine's alleged vision he followed the official religion of the roman empire the imperial cult a pagan religion that worshiped apollo above all else much like the pagan god mithras apollo was the sun god that represented the light of creation according to the imperial cult constantine as emperor was a superhuman avatar the link between apollo and the rest of humanity [Music] and from the archaeology it's clear that constantine bought into this idea completely he commissioned this 12 meter statue of himself and not surprisingly the statue came with an enormous head built into this statue's healthy hairline may be evidence that constantine believed he was more than a mere representative of apollo there are dowel holes that certainly were for some kind of insert and it seems likely that it was for a raid crown that's not christian to me to me that's saying i am god right there's absolutely no humility uh in any of constantine's self-fashioning i mean he's very happy to have a 40-foot tall statue of himself looming over this space in the center of rome he allows cities in the north of italy to erect cults to his family to worship him as a god he is aloof he's giant and he's godlike yes he's superhuman he is superhuman the image of constantine with sun rays emanating from his head not only matches the earliest images of apollo it also matches the iconography of mithras and is a just coincidence that christian art begins to depict jesus the same way with a halo of light around his head or was constantine combining all the gods of light into one when constantine claimed to have had a vision of the melvian bridge which religion was constantine truly embracing did constantine abandon paganism for christianity or did he blend apollo and mithras into jesus christ and then re-fashion all three in his own image [Music] as it turns out when constantine had his arch built he topped it off with a bronze portrait of himself destroyed in antiquity this statue depicted him riding the same kind of chariot as apollo seemingly taking off into sunny skies constantine is known to history as the first roman emperor to convert to christianity legalize it and thereby change the world but the archaeology he left behind suggests an alternative history his triumphal arch is covered with pagan symbols and from the statues he erected of himself it seems that constantine not only worshipped pagan gods he saw himself as having a special relationship with them if constantine saw himself as divinely ordained he would have seen his reign as a new founding he would have believed that he was responsible for changing the course of human history and the new founding needs a new capital rome would no longer do so he went to what is today istanbul in modern-day turkey and he founded a new capital for his new empire he didn't name it after jesus or the apostles rather he stayed true to his nature and he named it after himself he called the new city constantinople he left rome and he certainly never returned there again settled on this incomparable site it bridges the two continents it's strategically and tactically located in in virtually an ideal position easily defended and i think he wanted a monument to himself he wanted his own city with his own imprint on it [Music] despite constantine's reputation as the first christian emperor the most dominant feature of constantinople's skyline was not a christian church but a giant column that was once topped by a huge bronze statue of the sun god apollo the statue is long gone and the column is under renovation but at the time of constantine people were worshiping the sun god here when the city was built this was a big plaza or forum and that column was in the center of it it's about 100 feet in the air what's significant about it is that in subsequent years christian bishops and theologians were very upset about the fact that the people of constantinople conducted divine services here and yet constantine's statue of apollo was not like other pagan images he did make a slight modification to it he replaced apollo's face with his own what's even better is the tradition continues that in this statue he put a relic of the true cross so he's attaching relics of jesus to or inserting them in this statue so he erects a statue of himself and this statue depicts him as apollo but for good measure we've got a little bit of the true cross mixed in yes did constantine pull off the greatest hoax of all time by pretending to be a christian was he actually equating himself with both apollo and jesus or did he merely see himself as their special emissary to find out simca returns to the arch but this time he's not looking at what's on the arch this time he's looking at how the arch was positioned from this bird's eye view he is reminded that constantine's arch is off-center by almost two meters from the original road that ran through it but why the romans were famous for their feats of engineering surely they wouldn't make a mistake when building the emperor's new arch there had to be some other reason a reason that must be hiding in plain sight based on ancient records we know that during constantine's time there was a colossal statue that stood 108 meters behind the arch but this was not just any statue it was a 30 meter high monument to apollo is there a connection between the statue and the arch expert elizabeth marlow thinks she's found that connection so then i started playing around on the living room floor in my apartment where i made a little cutout of the arch and i propped it up and i got a doll and i set him up and then set the arch up in front of him and i worked out the proportions very carefully lying down and peering through the central passageway for me that was the aha moment based on her living room reconstructions marlo came up with a compelling new theory as to why constantine's arch was built where it was but to prove her theory marlo first had to brave rush hour roman traffic so that she could gain the right perspective [Music] the evidence on the ground confirmed her hypothesis constantine's arch was built off center on the road so as to perfectly frame the colossus of apollo behind it according to marlowe as you entered rome you would have seen apollo's head looming above the statue of constantine on his arch as if watching over constantine but as you moved closer to the arch itself the sun god would have dropped below constantine until he was left standing in the center of the main archway at the point when the statue is framed in the central passageway it is the figure of constantine that is now looming above in the sky as the sun is setting what is rising is constantine yes yes the arch is literally a reframing of the sun god with constantine on top of the arch marlow has revealed a clear example where on the surface constantine seems to be putting himself under apollo but covertly he is letting us know that he is greater than apollo can it be that he did the same with christianity seemingly worshiping jesus while replacing jesus with himself our investigation has revealed that constantine merged the great pagan sun gods mithras in apollo and replaced their images with his own maybe that's not blasphemy by christian standards but it does tell us what constantine thought of himself by depicting himself with rays of light coming out of his head constantine was telling the world that he was to be worshipped as a god now where does that leave christianity was constantine willing to step aside and bow down to the king of the jews as any christian would i don't think so i think constantine took jesus and refashioned him in his own image thereby turning the anti-roman rebel we read about in the gospels into a symbol of roman imperialism to find evidence for this simca travels to the archbishop's chapel in ravenna italy where there's a 6th century mosaic that depicts jesus in a whole new light [Music] that's a mosaic of jesus dressed as a roman soldier although if you look at it more carefully you can see that he's actually a roman emperor dressed for command he's got the military equipment and of course he has the cross over his shoulder so when you can kind of see that christ is also taking on the role of being the roman emperor he's depicted as the emperor as the emperor in a military role so constantine didn't start running around dressed like jesus right he got jesus to dress like him right the irony is that after constantine jesus who had been crucified by the roman army was now depicted as its leader but what was constantine's goal was he trying to change jesus or was he trying to replace him [Music] to answer this question simca now looks into the plans constantine made for his own funeral well he was actually buried in uh in constantinople in the church of the holy apostles which no longer exists it was reported that he was buried with the 12 apostles surrounding him so constantly prepares his burial by creating a real coffin for himself right and then these pretend coffins for the other disciples right if you take jesus's place one way to interpret it is i i am jesus well you could see it that way on earth the roman emperors do become the stand-in for jesus because now with the christian roman empire the emperor takes on the role as being the leader of the worldwide christian community but by taking jesus's place did constantine see himself as someone who could promote jesus's message or subvert it can the arch also answer this question from this high vantage point simca suddenly makes a discovery that would have never occurred to him below how you position something relative to something else that's sacred geometry he's essentially putting himself in a relationship with the flavians just on the other side of constantine's arch is the famous coliseum built by the emperor vespasian flavius across on the left is a triumphal arch built by the same emperor's son titus flavius and in the center where there is now a circular depression in the grass once stood a giant fountain built by vespasian's other son domitian flavius one of the greatest persecutors of early christianity why would constantine want to associate himself so intimately with the flavian dynasty as it turns out the first century flavian emperors have gone down in history as the men who destroyed jerusalem and the holy temple in it they could literally boast that they had torched the house of god jesus wept for the destruction of the temple in contrast by positioning his arch in close proximity to the destroyers of the temple constantine was permanently linking his legacy with theirs but if that wasn't enough he celebrated the flavian name as his own he called himself flavius constantinus [Music] could it be that just as the flavians boasted that they had defeated the god of israel constantine schemed to defeat the religion that worshiped jesus as god's son but as we have seen constantine was going to do it not by oppressing christianity but by adopting it not by defeating it but by defining it he would out flavian the flabbians he wouldn't fight people he would fight their ideas he would defeat jesus by transforming him from a crucified judean rebel into a roman emperor for 1500 years people accepted the story that constantine was a true christian that he had a vision of the cross and that he converted a pagan roman empire to christianity but our investigation has revealed another story one that isn't particularly christian we're not the first other investigators have noticed discrepancies in constantine's character but they concluded that maybe he wasn't religious maybe he was just pragmatic but maybe he was religious after all not in a christian sense but in a pagan sense it seems that he put his faith in the sun he believed in the son's only begotten son himself

Channel: Parable - Religious History Documentaries

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Keywords: parable, parable channel, parable documentary, religious history, religious history documentary, bible documentary, bible documentary bbc, jesus documentary, constantine the great, christianity, pagan roman empire, pagan, pagan rome, jesus christ

Id: 0E_bRADucBI

Length: 44min 5sec (2645 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 29 2020