Has anybody told you that after Jesus married Mary Magdalene, in a ceremony at the center of the great Temple in Jerusalem, they took off to the south of France in one of those FBI’s black cool helicopters where they lived happily ever after? I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that popped out on the news or on the bookshelves of some fancy library. We are living in a golden age of bogus history and archeology, some of which are easily identifiable as rubbish and some of which is pseudoscholarship carefully dressed up to look genuine. Not to be mistaken, alternative “truths” and conspiracy theories were always around. However, until several decades ago, all the books belonging to bogus history could be found on shelves marked “Mysteries” or “Estoreric”. The problem nowadays is that you can find pseudohistory in the history section. We are living in an age where “History channel” is everything but history. Not to mention internet as a platform where every conspiracy theorist and charlatan can have its own 5 minutes of glory. Meanwhile, most of the critical scholars are focused only on their professional work (writing scholarly articles, participating in a conferences or workshops, teaching at the university level, etc.). In other words, their views never reach broader audience.

Despite my patient nature, I have to confess that sometimes the prevalence of pseudohistory annoys me. Recently, I saw on YouTube a part of an interview with Goran Šarić who has presented himself as a theologian and historian. I wasn’t able to find his credentials so I don’t know where did he got his degrees from. Also, I couldn’t find any per reviewed article that he wrote about the history of Christianity. Anways, a few years ago Šarić was a guest at the Podcast Inkubator – the most popular podcast show in Croatia. He spoke on many different issues, but the thing that piqued my curiosity was related to his views on the historical Jesus and the early Church.

It is 4 minutes of pure gibberish packed with notoriously stupid and incorrect interpretations of historical events. I was astounded both at the level of incompetence and certainty with which Šarić spoke about the history of early Christianity. As you can see, he made numerous claims and it would take a book to rebuke it all in detail. Since I have better things to do with my life, I’ll just glance over the most important things.

• The reigns of Theodosius the Great: At the beginning of the video Šarić explains how Theodosius was crowned as emperor in Sirmium which is correct. But then he states that Sirmium was the “most important and capital city” of the Roman Empire. That’s simply not true. The capital city was Constantinopole where Theodosius moved his court at the end of 380 CE. As high school students know, after his death, the Empire was officially divided into the western and eastern parts. From the beginning of the 5th century, the capital of the western part was Ravena, while Constantinopole remained the capital in the east.
  1. In Croatia, this is considered to be basic (elementary) knowledge that kids at school are familiar with.
• The question of Jesus’ divinity, and the canon of the New Testament: Šarić thinks that Jesus was declared God at the beginning of the 4th century. Later, he agrees with the interlocutor’s suggestion that the books of the New Testament were chosen by a close vote of bishops and other church leaders. This is a prime example of bogus history soaked with ideas that Dan Brown popularized. I’ve already written about this (see: here and here). Furthermore, Šarić claims that the canonical status of the Book of Enoch was, during the course of the 4t century, rejected. As you can guess, this is also incorrect. If you want to know more about the process of canonization (developing the New Testament) take a look at the great series of articles by my friend Ante (see: here). If you want a full detailed historical analysis I would recommend a classic book by Bruce Metzger (see: here).
• The historical Jesus and the Gospel of Thomas: He claims that the best way to uncover Jesus is by reading the Gospel of Thomas which contains, according to his perverted view of history, Jesus’ pure sayings. The Gospel of Thomas is a real document. It is one of the so-called “apocryphal” gospels – written probably at the beginning of the 2nd century. Therefore, it doesn’t predate any of the canonical Gospels. It actually depends on them. The Gospel of Thomas is a valuable source for understanding diversity in the early Christian movement. However, there isn’t any shred of evidence that this document is helpful in the reconstruction of Jesus’ words and deeds. Furthermore, Šarić portrays this gospel as a “spiritual pearl” that reflects a form of spirituality shared by many including Budha and Jesus. Budha and Jesus? I rest my case…
• The historical Jesus and magic mushrooms: Here things start to be really weird! In his presentation, Šarić refers to the great scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls (a major archeological discovery) who showed that Jesus “was a magic mushroom”. Believe it or not, there really is a book like that. Back in 1970, John M. Allegro published the book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East in which he argued that (roughly speaking) Jesus never existed. Rather, he was a product of the imagination of the first Christians (e.g. Peter, James, etc.) who would get high by consuming psychoactive substances (e.g. mushrooms). Up until that point, Allegro was a well-known and respected scholar and an expert in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Needless to say, after that his career was over. What prompted him to write a book like this, we’ll never know!
• Christianization of the Roman Empire: Šarić asserts that the crucial breakthrough in the process of Christianization was made when the upper-class people joined the new religion. This can’t be further from the truth. The mass Christianization of the upper class (e.g. people from the senatorial rank) happened only after Constantine converted. Even then, it was a slow process. Moreover, the upper class was just the tip of the iceberg. Before that, Christianity spread all across the Roman Empire. At the beginning of the 4th century, there were probably around 3 or 4 million Christians! Although Constantine’s conversion helped the process of Christianization, it wasn’t crucial. With the rate that Christianity was going, at the beginning of the 4th century, the end result was already set. There is a massive mountain of books and articles written about this phenomenon. Maybe the most accessible is Bart Ehrman’s Triumph of Christianity (see: here).

This is just a part of the nonsense and incorrect information that Šarić managed to cram into a few minutes. For example, he asserts that Christians were responsible for the destruction of the Alexandrian library – a popular myth that originated with E. Gibonn in the 18th century. It has nothing to do with real history (see: here, and here). Unfroutantly, Šarić was a guest on a widely popular podcast. Consequently, more than 23 thousand people saw this video. That means that more tan 23 thousand people were subjected to bunch of nonsense about the history of Christianity. I feel sorry for them…