Matthew Stuckey here and I want to make a quick video giving you three myths of
the ancient Persian Empire. Three myths of the ancient Persian Empire. If you're
looking at ancient civilizations that the Bible speaks heavily about, there's
no civilization where there's more confusion and more lies and more
misunderstanding about their history than the Persian Empire. And there's a
few big reasons why. Number one, you need to realize that throughout human history
not every society and culture and even Empire did a great job of giving you
detailed information of what was happening during their time period. You
know, writing down stuff to be known as being part of history and to be
remembered was just not something civilizations always did. And the Greek
civilization, the Greek Empire was really the first ones to do that. Now their
leader Alexander the Great was a large part of that as he had a goal that Greece
could be remembered forever. And as much as Alexander the Great was a bad person
and had many shortcomings, he was very successful in that regard. And there was
a man in the Greek Empire known known as Herodotus who was known as the father of
human history. He's really the first person that really wrote down in great
detail information about the events that were happening. And there were some
others in the Greek Empire but he was definitely the most famous. Now here's
the thing about Herodotus though, he was known as the father of history. He's the
first person to give detailed information but as they've been doing
as they've been excavating, you know, remains of these civilizations, what
they're finding is from the archaeological evidence that Herodotus
was a phony with a lot of stuff he said. He had either a very slanted view or he's
just flat-out lying. And so he's been nicknamed the father of lies as well. And
that's not a nickname that I give him. That's just a nickname that the secular
world has given him over especially these last 20 years as all this stuff is
being discovered showing, especially with Persia, that Persia was not this
evil wicked empire of morons and idiots like Herodotus claimed. They were
actually the most benevolent of all of the ancient empires. And so I'll explain
that here in this video. And you know the other thing you need to realize is this
that history is written by the winners and Persia got defeated by the Greek
Empire. And so you know what it's gonna be a Greek perspective of you know Persia
especially as they didn't even write their own history about themselves in
much detail. And so I've said before that when it comes to American history Samuel
Adams is known as the father of the American Revolution but think about if
America lost that war he'd be known as the greatest terrorist who ever lived.
And so a lot of things are to a matter of perspective. And so when it comes to
three myths about the ancient empire ancient Persian Empire myth number one
is that they were barbarians. Myth number one is that they were barbarians. That is
a term that Herodotus and various Greeks would say about them. There are a bunch
of barbarians or savages or these just animals. It was common that they would
say well there are a bunch of barbarians but it's not just the words
that Herodotus was saying. You have to look at why was he calling them
barbarians? What evidence did he have to call them barbarians? And so here's a
quote from Herodotus because there's really two main reasons why he accused
them of being barbarians. One of them is because they did not practice idolatry.
They did not worship idols. This is a quote from Herodotus. The customs which I
know the Persians to observe are the following. They have no images of the
gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This
comes I think from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with
men as the Greeks imagine. And he will criticize them for being mainly
monotheistic and not having these lesser gods that they worship. Now I've said
before in videos that you know the Greeks really did have like a Hindu
type of monotheistic view which is kind of like warped monotheism. That's kind of
a whole other topic. But the Persian civilization they didn't have all
these idols that they were worshipping. They didn't have all these lesser gods
that they were worshipping. And you know Herodotus said the Persians were
barbarians because they didn't practice idolatry. Well as a Bible believing
Christian what does the second commandment say? Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image. So look I don't look at the Persians as being barbarians
because they didn't practice idolatry. Actually that's a good thing. The other
main reason why he said that they were barbarians is because they did not
practice you know homosexuality or pedophilia in any form whatsoever. And
so what was common in the Greek society is that you would have these men who
would have these little boys as their sex slaves. And it was a form of
pedophilia that was socially accepted to buy a little boy as your sex slave. That
was very common in the Greek Empire. You know homosexuality was running rampant
throughout the Greek Empire and everybody agrees with that. Even in the
secular world they would agree with that. It was very common in the Greek society
and they bragged about it. Herodotus bragged about it. Well in his writings
about Persia he often talks about how the Persians were barbarians and he
brags about the fact that they introduced pedophilia to the Persian
Empire. And he talked about how before that you know the kings and the rulers
didn't have these little boys as their sex slaves. Talk about a depraved and
wicked society the Greek Empire was. And you know by trying to criticize the
Persians it just makes the Greeks look bad. It actually makes the Persians look
like a good civilization that was actually you know a lot more godly than
you know the other empires that were out there. A lot more godly than the Greek
Empire. So the reason why I said they were barbarians is because of the fact
they didn't practice idolatry and they didn't practice pedophilia or
homosexuality in any form. They believed that marriage was between a man and a
woman. And you know when you're reading the Bible because the Bible should be
your number one source of information on all topics. And if the secular world will
come in contrast with the Bible you're gonna believe the Bible or you should
believe the Bible. When you look at the Persian kings in the Bible does King
Cyrus seem like such a wicked guy? Not a lot is mentioned about King Darius
because the Darius of the Persian Empire who's very famous in history is
different than Darius or Darius the Mede that's mentioned in the Book of
Daniel. But even King Darius from the Persian Empire or even Hasuares which
you know I believe Xerxes which we'll talk about later on. You're not seeing
these really wicked evil people even though the world tries to portray them
in that way. And what they found out recently is that King Cyrus was
incredibly benevolent and the Persian Empire was incredibly benevolent with
other empires that they took over. They weren't just like you know destroying
them and being really wicked and evil. And so you know what? Myth number one is
that they were barbarians. That can be proven to be false even given the
reasons why he says that they are barbarians that shows that. Myth number
two is that the Persians were just a bunch of drunks. And this is something
that Herodotus also said about the Persians that they were the biggest
drunks that ever existed. Here's a quote from him. He says they are a bunch of
drunkards who make decisions while drunk. If they make a decision sober then they
get drunk to make sure they still have the same conclusion. Now this is a quote
from Herodotus but you have to realize you can't necessarily believe what
people say. Ask yourself does this logically make sense? The most powerful
empire in the world is just always just a bunch of drunks and whenever they make
decisions they get drunk just to finalize it. Is that really how you rise
to power? Because the Bible shows that if you are a drunk you're gonna be a loser
in life. You're gonna fail in life. And to suggest that the Persian Empire were
just a bunch of drunks. You know what? That would just go against just common
sense and common logic. But you know here's the thing about this. It's not
just my opinion against Herodotus's opinion that they were drunks. We can
actually go to the Bible. And some people would go to the book of Esther chapter
1 to try to say they are drunks. But if you actually read closely it's that's
not what you actually see. It says in Esther 1 verse 8, and the drinking was
according to the law. None did compel. For so the king had appointed to all the
officers of his house that they should do according to every man's pleasure. So
what the Bible says is the drinking was according to the law. What did the law
state? None did compel. Nobody tried to compel you to drink alcohol. Basically
you had a free will choice whether you wanted to drink or not. So we've got a
party here with the Hazawaris and a lot of different people but they were
given free will whether they wanted to drink or not. And this is actually quite
amazing because whenever you have parties with people drinking they always
try to force you to drink alcohol. But here part of the law was none is going
to compel you. But it says every man did according to every they should do
according to every man's pleasure. So everybody got their own free will. What
did they want to do? So you had a free will choice. Did you want to drink
alcohol? No one tried to compel you. Now I've heard people try to use this verse
to say well they should do according to every man's pleasure. Meaning if they
wanted to rape and kill and do all these wicked things, practice pedophilia, they
were allowed to do that. Is that what that verse says? Because the Bible says
that none did compel meaning they didn't compel you to drink alcohol. When it says
they did according to every man's pleasure it's saying if somebody wanted
to drink he drank. If he didn't then he didn't drink. Now look I don't condone
drinking in any form and of course the Hazawaris drank alcohol and probably a
lot of the men did. And so I'm not I'm not sitting here saying the Persian
Empire is the godliest perfect empire that ever existed. I'm just showing you
that they weren't a bunch of drunks according to Esther 1 verse 8 because
part of the law was the fact you had a free will choice and you weren't forced
to or compelled or try to push into drinking alcohol. You had your own free
will choice to make. So look Herodotus is shown to be false in this as well
according to the Word of God. And so point number one is that they were
barbarians. Herodotus is the one that spread that rumor about them. Point
number two is that they were a bunch of drunks. That's false as well. Herodotus
spread that rumor. And point three is that Xerxes was an evil evil wicked
reprobate evil wicked person. And you know what the movie 300 depicts the
Persians as being these bunch of barbarians uncivilized you know freaks
and weirdos and everything like that. And what it says about them you know
especially Xerxes you know he's bald and he's got all these face tattoos and he's
this effeminate little weirdo and everything like that. But the question is
is that what we actually see from the Bible? Now it's kind of a side topic but
most people would agree that King Ahasuerus is referring to Xerxes and I
personally believe that myself. I have various reasons for that. But you
know what it says here about Xerxes and what it talks about the movie 300 says
in its essence 300 is a retelling of Herodotus's account of the Battle of
Thermopylae meaning that its basic narrative is as historically accurate as
we could hope for. However there are at least three layers of historical
inaccuracy piled on top of that which makes the result ever so slightly less
reliable. So it says the movie 300 is based on Herodotus's writing so it's as
accurate as we could hope but there's all of these lies that we've actually
discovered. Here's the thing if you've discovered this many lies and
inaccuracies and what Herodotus said how many more have you not discovered? And so
the movie 300 is based on Herodotus's account and it proves that he is the
the father of lies symbolically speaking right? He was just a fraud. He
was a liar. He wrote a lot of things that were not true. The question is does the
Bible teach that Xerxes was a really wicked person? Does the Bible teach that
King Ahasuerus was a really wicked person? Well here's some quotes from
Esther chapter 2 because people have this idea with the story of Esther that
you know King Xerxes was just sleeping with all of these virgin women and just
deciding which one he wanted. But that's not actually what you see when you read
closely. Now there's no question that King Xerxes, Ahasuerus, he did have
concubine wives but so did godly characters in the Bible. That was more
common especially during that time period. Solomon, David, all these
different characters and I'm not condoning that. I believe it's wrong but
what I'm saying is this just because Ahasuerus had concubine wives and not
just one doesn't make him this wicked evil reprobate because many godly
characters in the Bible also had that as well. So here's the thing he had
concubine wives but when he was choosing a wife, when he chooses Esther above the
other women, he's not sleeping with these various women and then deciding which
one does he want. He actually wants a godly woman with class, a woman who is
and when I say godly I'm not saying Ahasuerus was saved but a woman with
class, a woman who wasn't a whore, a woman who wasn't a harlot, but a woman that had
kept herself pure. They looked for a virgin woman because of the fact he
didn't want to have some you know wicked you know whore to be married to. He wanted
a virgin woman. It says in Esther 2 verse 2, let there be fair young virgins
sought for the king. Okay so he looks for a young virgin wife and it says
here in verse 9, and the maiden pleased him and she obtained kindness of him. If
she obtains kindness of him does that sound like he rapes her? Because that's
the way people try to make it seem in Esther 2 but it says she obtained
kindness of him. Esther 2 verse 15, and Esther obtained favor in the sight of
all them that looked upon her. And look there's no indication that he's just
raping, just forcing all of these different women. Verse 17, and the king
loved Esther above all the women and she obtained grace and favor in his sight
more than all the virgins so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made
her queen instead of Vashti. So mentions more than all the virgins at the end of
Esther 2 verse 17 and what that indicates is that they were still
virgins at that point. So yes Ahasuerus had concubine wives but when he's
choosing the queen he wants a pure woman and he's not just sleeping around with
all of these different women. That wasn't part of his decision-making. He
actually wanted a woman who was probably intelligent, had class, and he chooses
Esther above all of the other women. Verse 19, and when the virgins were
gathered together the second time then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. So once
again the virgins are gathered together indicating he wasn't sleeping
with all these women, they were still virgins. Now look I'm not saying Ahasuerus
was saved, I'm not saying he was a Bible believer, and I will say this though I do
believe it's more likely that at some point Esther or maybe Mordecai was able
to get King Ahasuerus saved, get King Xerxes saved, as opposed to him actually
being a child of the devil. There's just no indication from the book of Esther
that he's a child of the devil. I'm not saying he's godly, obviously he's
drinking, obviously he has concubine wives, obviously he has sins, but there's no
indication to me that he's a child of the devil. And look when you look at the
various kings of the Persian Empire, King Cyrus, King Darius, even the Medes, Darius
the Mede that's in the book of Daniel, you look at Ahasuerus, they're not
these wicked people like some of the other empires that had wicked rulers. So
my question as a Bible believer is this, what exactly happened to the Persian
Empire that actually made them destroyed? What happened to the Persian Empire where
God basically rejected them? And this is just kind of my opinion I want to tack
on the end because I believe some of their kings might have been saved, King
Cyrus especially seemed like a decent guy, might have gotten saved, and I
understand there's the Cyrus cylinder out there that people will talk about.
Whether that's valid or not I guess I would have to study more in detail to
know whether that's accurate or not, which actually talked about his beliefs
of religion supposedly and things such as that. But I believe the religion of
Zoroastrianism is probably what was the fall of the Persian Empire. And you know
it's funny because when I first heard about the Zoroastrian religion and
studied it a little bit, it didn't seem as wicked as other religions, but
actually I think it's far worse than most religions. It actually goes to this
ancient Vedic religion and they actually follow the the old Vedas more
than the Hindus actually do. An obsession with fire. One of the big things is
sorcery was a large part of the Zoroastrian religion and it's something
they don't really talk about now because they want to focus on them supposedly
being the first monotheistic religion. But actually sorcery was a large part of
it and their priests were known as the Magi. M-A-G-I. Think of the word magic. Now
we have Bible-believing Christians saying that Jesus was visited by three
Magi supposedly after he was born. The Bible doesn't say that though, okay? The
Magi, the Zoroastrian leaders, they were sorcerers. And so I believe that
sorcery kind of ended up taking over the empire eventually and Zoroastrianism
just grew as a religion and basically what ended up happening is it destroyed
what was before a somewhat godly society. At least a lot more godly than the
Egyptians, than the Assyrians, than the Romans, than the Greeks. But what always
ends up happening is empires become wicked and that did happen. But before
that took place, if you're a Bible-believing Christian, when you read
the Bible is there any indication that the Persian Empire was just the most
wicked empire that ever existed? Because that's what Herodotus said and the
reasons why he said that is they're not pedophiles. They don't practice idolatry.
Actually the Persians were much more godly than these other ancient empires.
Anyways, thank you and God bless.