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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.