Source: “Custodians of Truth : The Continuance of Rex Deus”, by Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins, Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, 2005.
22. How One Catastrophe Remade the West.mp4
This extensive source details a repressed history of early Christianity and Judaism, emphasizing the profound impact of the Jewish revolt against Rome. It argues that the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple led to significant transformations in both Rabbinical Judaism, which adapted to survive Roman power, and early Christianity. The text highlights a fundamental divergence between the original teachings of Jesus, preserved by groups like the Ebionites (Rex Deus families) who viewed him as a human prophet, and the Pauline interpretation, which deified Jesus and aligned with Roman authority. Furthermore, the source posits that the Roman Church, after consolidating power, suppressed alternative Christian narratives and classical learning, ushering in the Dark Ages. In contrast, Moorish Spain is presented as a beacon of intellectual flourishing and religious tolerance, demonstrating a different path rooted in Islamic principles that, the text suggests, may have had a hidden connection to the "Rex Deus" lineage through the Prophet Muhammad.
Topic 1 The Fall of Jerusalem and its Immediate Aftermath: The failure of the Jewish revolt in 66-73 C.E. culminated in the devastating fall of Jerusalem. The city became a "smoking charnel house," with the Temple destroyed and streets filled with corpses. Thousands of survivors were crucified or paraded in chains through Rome, carrying the Temple's treasures, before their leaders were ritually executed and the captives dispatched to slave markets, arenas, galleys, and mines. This immense "horrendous price" paid by the people of Israel significantly altered international history.
Topic 2 The Far-Reaching Impact of the Failed Jewish Revolution: The full impact of the failed revolution of 66-73 C.E. is considered impossible to fully assess due to its profound influence on the history of Europe, the Middle East, and ultimately, the Americas. One immediate consequence described by historian Neil Faulkner was that the defeat of "apocalyptic hope" and the physical destruction of the "Judaeo-Christian sect" allowed Pauline Christians to "de-nationalise Jesus," "cauterise his revolutionary message," and "repackage him as a 'saviour-god' dispensing opiate for the masses."
Topic 3 The Transformation of Rabbinical Judaism: Following the destruction of the Temple, mainstream Judaism underwent substantial changes to ensure its survival under Roman power. Rabbi Yohanen ben Zakkai, a Pharisee who opposed the Zealot revolution, was smuggled out of Jerusalem during the siege. After the city's fall, he and his companions were the only Jewish leaders to retain credibility. He obtained permission from Emperor Vespasian to establish a school at Jamnia, serving as a spiritual center for restructuring Judaism, stripped of its messianic and intensely nationalistic zeal. Rabbis taught Jews to experience God in their neighbors, emphasizing the mitzvah "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This new form of Judaism, acceptable to Romans, altered emphasis but not substance, drawing on established beliefs, Scriptures, and exegesis, and continued to speak of Jerusalem's eternal symbolic reality.
Topic 4 The Persecution and Dispersal of the Rex Deus Families: After returning to Jerusalem briefly, the Ebionites and surviving members of the ma'madot, led by Simeon (Jesus' cousin), faced continuous persecution. Roman emperors, including Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Trajan, repeatedly ordered the tenth legion to hunt down and execute any Jew claiming descent from King David. To ensure their survival and preserve their sacred bloodlines, these descendants of the Davidic line, known as Rex Deus families, dispersed to various parts of Europe, including France, England, Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, and throughout the Middle East. They reinforced Cohenite marital practices and began transforming their beliefs to ensure survival, discarding fervent nationalism and anti-Roman stances.
Topic 5 The Beliefs and Practices of the Rex Deus/Ebionites: The Rex Deus families, also identified as Nazoreans or Ebionites, rejected formal worship at the Jerusalem Temple due to its perceived pollution. Their transformation involved laying greater emphasis on behavior and creating an elite dedicated to gnostic principles of justice and truth, aiming to preserve the spiritual core of their initiatory message ("doing Torah") without Roman persecution. According to Epiphanius, their outward beliefs included a daily ritual bath, a baptism of initiation, and annual celebration of mysteries using unleavened bread and pure water. They believed Jesus was "begotten of human seed," "not begotten by god the Father, but that he was created." They exclusively used the Gospel of Matthew, which they called the "Gospel according to the Hebrews." Karen Armstrong confirms they knew Jesus was human and not divine, as some had known him since childhood.
Topic 6 Pauline Christianity: Its Origins and Doctrinal Shift: Paul's followers had no difficulty aligning their beliefs with Roman power, as Paul, a Roman citizen, friend of Caesar, and kinsman of Herod, had already transformed "the Way" into a subservient form of worship. Pauline Christianity encouraged obedience to authorities ("render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"), superseded the Law of Moses with faith, ignored the nationalistic and apocalyptic vision of the original disciples, and "hijacked and perverted" the esoteric pathway to the God of the Jews. Paul's disputed claim to apostleship was based on visionary instruction from "the risen Lord," as he had never met the living Jesus.
Topic 7 The Two Main Factions of Early Christianity: In the aftermath of the Jewish revolt, Jesus' followers split into two main groups: the original apostles, known as Nazoreans or Ebionites, led by James and then Simeon, and their theological opponents, the Christians who followed Paul's teachings. The Ebionites were scattered or dispersing rapidly to escape Roman authorities, while Pauline Christians were relatively settled, with the group centered in Rome eventually dominating and shaping the future belief structure of this "new" religion. Ebionites relied on oral transmission directly from those who knew Jesus, while Pauline Christians received instruction from Paul, whose claims derived from visions.
Topic 8 The Chronological and Doctrinal Primacy of Paul's Letters: Paul's prolific letter-writing is widely recognized as providing the earliest documentation of this period, circulating among his communities from about 47 C.E., over thirty years before the first canonical Gospels. These letters were initially the only documents circulating among Paul's converts. Scholar Robert Eisenman asserts that Paul's letters are "indisputably the earliest reliable documents of Christianity" and "can be dated with a high degree of certainty," preceding the Gospels and the Book of Acts. He notes that the Gospels and Acts are largely "doctrinally dependant upon Paul," with Acts also relying on Paul's letters for historical information. This doctrinal dependence, coupled with the later, non-chronological ordering of the New Testament (Gospels first, then Acts, then Epistles), has caused confusion and distorted the true theological importance of the Scriptures.
Topic 9 The Writing and Dating of the Canonical Gospels: Scholarly consensus generally places the composition of the four canonical Gospels as follows: Mark was the first, written between 70 and 80 C.E. Matthew appeared approximately ten years later, followed by Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the first decade of the 2nd century. The first written version of the Gospel of John is dated variously from 100 to 120 C.E. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are believed by modern scholars to be largely based on an earlier lost common source known as Q.