One of the more fascinating tales from the late Roman Empire is about a man called Moses of Crete who declared himself to be the Messiah that the Jews had always been waiting for. He was, he told his fellow Jews, a reincarnation of his Old Testament namesake and promised them an even more spectacular miracle than the original Moses had allegedly shown.
He would lead the Jewish people on the island back to Judea by dividing the Mediterranean Sea just like the original Moses is said to have done with the Red Sea. But this was a promise that led to disaster for the Jewish community of the island, with many of his followers drowning en masse.
The story is a cautionary one and gives an insight into the extreme dangers of believing in a religion modelled on some sort of messiah or saviour and the blind belief that is invariably demanded from followers towards the leader. So in this video let's take a closer look at this tale from the 5th century, an era when the Western Roman Empire was rapidly crumbling away and religious intolerance was rising with Christianity having been made the official religion of the empire.
So I'm pretty sure most people are familiar with the story of the original Moses, but if you're not the salient section of his story, the short bit covering the crossing of the Red Sea is covered in Exodus chapter 14 of the Old Testament. And of course the movie, the 1956 version starring Charlton Heston, which Cecil B. DeMille produced, is also worth seeing if you haven't seen that yet.
In fact there's an even earlier film on the same subject made by the same director in 1923 which is available online. As ever, I appreciate your time is valuable and the video is split into chapters, so if you'd like to get straight to the events surrounding Moses of Crete himself or any other particular section, do feel free to click on the chapter link in the description below. So, a quick mention of the sources from where we get this story.
The most well-known and one of the earliest sources is Socrates Scholasticus, a 4th slash 5th century church historian who, as the title of his book suggests, was documenting church history. Living during the same period, he was a contemporary of Moses. Being a church historian, his account is not impartial by any means when it comes to mentions of pagans and Jews.
positive side of the book though is that it has plenty of non-church related references which make his account pretty useful as a resource for general political and social history of that time. Socrates shows a lot of delight and satisfaction in his book when he narrates stories of the conversions of pagans and Jews to Christianity. And as expected, the accounts are liberally sprinkled with alleged miraculous occurrences to show that Christianity...
was the real deal. Another good source is John of Niku, the 7th century Egyptian Coptic bishop of Niku. John is also an important source on the Muslim conquest of Egypt since he lived during the time of the Arab invasion himself. And other sources include Agapius of Hierapolis, a 10th century Melkite Christian bishop and historian from Mambo. So how did the Jews get to Crete in the first place?
Well, we know the Jewish community in Crete was quite an old one, Jews having first arrived on the island in good numbers in the 4th century BC. Many of these first immigrants had come as refugees following the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great. And then there were further influxes as exiles from the Maccabean revolt arrived on the island in the second century BC.
By this time there were substantial numbers of Jews in the city of Gortina which seems to have been the Jewish centre of gravity on the island. In fact the city is mentioned in the Old Testament book of 1st Maccabees as well. and large Jewish communities were also located in the cities of Kisimos, Hainia, Rethimnon, Nosos and Sitia.
One of the best Jewish sources we have of this time is that of Philo of Alexandria who mentions in his account that most of the Greek islands had large Jewish settlements, Crete being one of those with the largest. And in terms of Roman sources Tacitus also mentions large Jewish settlements on the island. So prevalent were the Jewish communities of Crete that he believed the Jews actually came from Crete itself, with their nation named after Mount Ida on the island.
Quote, the Jews are said to have been refugees from the island of Crete who settled in the remotest corner of Libya in the days when, according to the story, Saturn was driven from his throne by the aggression of Jupiter. This is a deduction from the name Judei by which they became known. The word is regarded as a barbarous lengthening of Idei, the name of the people dwelling around the famous Mount Ida in Crete. Unquote.
The Jews of Crete are also mentioned in the New Testament in Acts chapter 2 so we can deduce they had all in all a well-established community on the island by late Roman times. By the mid-5th century though, the Western Roman Empire was on its last legs and in fact would officially come to a close in 476 CE. And it was also a time of violent religious conflict and repression as well.
The atmosphere was one of strong Christian religious fervour as Christianity had taken a very strong hold over the empire and paganism had been banned and pretty much eliminated by the new Christian regimes of the later Roman emperors. And that left the Jews as the only other major religious community. But the Jews were also under pressure, although they were protected to some extent under Roman law.
While the Roman emperors did not ban Judaism, there was increasing legislation restricting Jews and Judaism in the social, political, and religious spheres. These were mainly due to the Emperor Theodosius, the younger. and his decrees, along with previous laws passed since Constantine a hundred years earlier, were collected and became known as the Theodosian Code.
According to the Theodosian code Jews were not allowed to own Christian slaves for example or build new synagogues, hold public office or try cases between a Jew and a Christian. Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews was made a capital offence, as was the conversion of Christians to Judaism.
And perhaps because of this repression both Socrates Scholasticus and John of Nicu and others describe large conversions of Jews at this time to Christianity. John of Nicu attributes the conversion certainly partly to the persecution of Jews. Just before narrating the story of Moses of Crete, he mentions Emperor Theodosius being told of the Jews in the eastern portion of the empire in Syria had been mocking Jesus and had allegedly killed a Christian child.
And in response, the emperor instigated widespread reprisals against the community. Quote, and when the Emperor Theodosius was told of the atrocities committed by the Jews, he commanded the magistrates of the province to punish the criminals. And they punished the Jews that were in the east and took vengeance on all the mockers who had mocked Christ and his faithful.
John of Neku also mentions the Jews of Crete themselves undergoing large-scale conversions because of this pressure being put on them by Emperor Theodosius. Quote, and in those days, many of the Jews in Crete believed and became Christians in consequence of the greatness of the persecution that befell them, unquote. So a pretty uncertain time for the Jewish people, but...
Creating an upbeat atmosphere in the community, according to the sources of the time, was the popular impression many Jews had that, according to an interpretation of the Talmud, a Messiah should appear around 440 CE to lead the Jewish... nation and many Jews were looking forward to this event including those living in Crete and various historians write on the hankering for a messiah type figure amongst the Jews of the time as well.
And of course, this made the common people highly vulnerable to any charismatic preacher popping up and claiming to be the person they were waiting for. And the Roman Empire, being in such a state of flux and uncertainty at this time, may have raised expectations still further, just like Christian expectations of a second coming are touted around every time there is some large-scale conflict or natural... supposedly heralding the second coming.
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Patreon account as well as other ways for one-off donations. Any help is greatly appreciated. So it was in these times when Jewish expectations were highest that Moses of Creed appeared and began preaching on the island. John of Nicu in his account mentions that his real name was Fiscus but that he referred to himself as Moses. Fiscus addressed the Jewish communities of the island. Quote, I am Moses the chief of the prophets for I have been sent from heaven by God.
I have come to conduct the Jews who dwell in this island through the seas and I will establish you in the land of promise he declared. Socrates also mentions the same information, adding Fiscus had spent over a year preaching throughout the island and was successful in gathering a following. He moreover bid them renounce their money and other property, pledging himself to guide them through a dry sea into the land of promise. And Agapius also mentions Fiscus stressing he had a divine mission.
Now, that is much more of a miracle than the original Moses had executed. For one thing, the Red Sea is only around 10 miles in width at its narrowest point. And you can easily imagine a person or group of people walking that distance in one night, if we assume that the alleged miracle took place, that is.
The distance between Crete and Israel is around 500 miles, however, and that is a distance that would take around a couple of months, if not more, by a group of not only men, but women and children and elderly. So, a miracle an order of magnitude bigger than what the original Moses and his clan allegedly managed. And there doesn't seem to have been any discussion or questions raised on logistics either. Food, for instance, for a journey lasting this long.
Presumably Moses of Crete thought that food from heaven, manna in other words, or something similar would drift down for his people. Whatever the case, it's apparent many Jews developed a strong belief in this chap and followed his instructions to the hills. Socrates describes the Jews of the island selling all their possessions as Moses had commanded and that many simply gave up working in expectation of this coming journey.
John of Nikkei suggests it was Moses himself who industriously encouraged his people to stop working as the time was near when they would be crossing the sea. Quote, and he prevailed on them to abandon their industries and to despise their goods and possessions and so they dissipated all that they had, unquote.
And then suddenly one day Moses decided that that would be the day of the great miracle and encouraged all of his followers to come with him to the coast in anticipation of the crossing of the sea. Socrates writes that Quote, he led them therefore until they reached a promontory that overhung the sea from which he ordered them to fling themselves headlong onto it, unquote. And Agapius suggests he himself was one of the first to jump off the cliff.
Then he said to them, Verily, I will take you across the sea, beginning with myself. Now, we don't know exactly where Moses led them and which promontory this was, but I would hazard a guess he led them to the eastern side of the island, which is the nearest point to begin the crossing of the sea, and therefore it may have been the neck of land stretching out. the sea near Akrotiro, Plaka or perhaps Argyllus beach or Godurus.
But it wasn't long before, as his followers commenced jumping into the sea after him and those waiting on top of the cliff readied themselves to jump, that many realised that the sea was not parting and leaving a dry path for them. By this time many of his followers who had already jumped in the sea had already died.
Socrates writes that quote those who came first to the precipice did so and were immediately destroyed some of them being dashed in pieces against the rocks and some drowned in the waters unquote. And John of Nikku has a similar story with many dying simply from the fall from such a height. And when the day which he had fixed for leading them out drew near, he commanded them to come with their wives and children and follow him to the seashore and cast themselves into the sea.
And many perished, some through the fall and others from being engulfed in the depths of the sea, unquote. He also gives the story a Christian spin by mentioning crowds of curious Christians watching the scene who then help rescue the survivors in the sea by helping them back to the shore.
Now, Moses' followers were understandably enraged at the failure of the miracle to manifest itself and the resulting death of many of their friends and family. And Socrates describes them hunting around for Moses. And it looks like he would have been... lynched by his own disciples for causing such an incident.
Quote, when at length the Jews perceived how fearfully they had been duped, they blamed first of all their own indiscreet cruelty and then sought to lay hold of the pseudo-Moses in order to put him to death, unquote. Now at this point we get the biggest variation in the stories regarding the death or disappearance of Moses depending on which source you read. Most Christian writers prefer to give the ending a supernatural flavour, showing Moses as a villain associated with demons and spirits.
Socrates writes that quote they were unable to seize him for he suddenly disappeared which induced a general belief that it was some malignant fiend who had assumed a human form for the destruction of their nation in that place unquote. And this is what another source Agapius of Hieropolis describes too, attributing his disappearance to some, quote, unclean spirits, unquote.
And Cassidorus, a fellow Christian, also goes for the supernatural explanation, writing that it was a demon that led the Jews into error. However, others gave more down-to-earth reasons, simply mentioning he was dispatched by his own angry supporters and that is no doubt a more authentic version.
Fleeing from the mob would have been no simple task and certainly on an island it would not have been easy to make a getaway. Al-Makeen Ibn Al-Amid writes that his followers managed to apprehend Moses and then killed him in anger. And John F. Nicky writes that Moses' disappearance can be attributed to drowning, an equally likely explanation as he most probably jumped into the sea before his disciples to show them the way.
And that's probably the most likely explanation. So what was the result of this delusion? And what happened to his followers who survived the tragedy? Well, most of the Christian writers give the story a positive spin and end by mentioning that the Jews who survived the disaster, disgusted at what happened, began converting en masse to Christianity.
And this is certainly what Agapius and John of Nicu describe, quote, through these means many Jews turned to our Lord Jesus Christ and received the light of holy life-giving baptism and believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, unquote. And Socrates also suggests this, mentioning that, quote, a great number of Jews who dwelt in Crete were converted to Christianity, unquote. Although both of these accounts may just be hyperbole from fervent Christians.
So, an interesting if sobering story relating to the belief and expectations of a Messiah figure. And this belief, when added with the gullibility of common people, combined to create a disaster for the Jewish community. And with Christianity inheriting the same belief in prophecies and messiahs and miracles, this kind of event also occurs in Christian communities as well. And perhaps the most famous example was the Millerites during the 19th century.
the millerites who took their name from william miller who had started the movement believed that the christian messiah jesus christ would be making a comeback between march 21st 1843 and march 21st 1844 The substantial number of people who followed William Miller, just like the Jews who had followed Moses of Crete, gave away or sold off all their possessions as they thought the end was near. And of course, when Jesus failed to appear, many were left destitute and without any financial support.
William Miller had managed to gain large support and the lack of the second coming led to what was called the, quote, great disappointment, unquote, in America. Anyway, I hope the story of the new Moses was interesting. And if you did like the video, it would really help the channel if you could hit the like and subscribe buttons. And I'll see you in the next video, hopefully.