 In 2013, a very strange relic was stolen from a monastery in Asia Minor. This relic was the arm of one of Christianity's church fathers. From what I can tell, the people who stole the arm have been apprehended. However, the arm seems to be still at large. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Also, a very special thank you to all of our patrons. If you would like to join our Patreon program, there is a link down in the description box below. Also, just a heads up, I have gotten some emails from people letting me know that they were unsubscribed to this channel. I am aware that this is a problem going on throughout all the different categories in the YouTube world. So if you realize you've been unsubscribed to the channel, just go ahead and hit that subscribe button again. It's just something weird with YouTube. And go ahead and ring the bell as well so you can be notified when new videos are posted. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta, my name is Bryce, and today we are going to be talking about the life and the death of Polycarp. But before we get into Polycarp, we are starting to experience censorship again on this platform. So some of the videos that I post will not have comments sections on them for now. They'll be disabled due to what is going on right now in the YouTube world. This is not something that I want to do. I like having discussions in the comments section, but sometimes things are commented under videos, and YouTube will hold the channel creator responsible for those comments and can then take down the channel. This is a bumpy ride we're on, and I do believe that this will pass. But for now, we are going to be disabling some of the comments on some of our videos that are maybe a little bit more dangerous. I know that a lot of you have been on this journey with us content creators, and so you probably understand where we're coming from. I do believe that the best is yet to come, and we just have to get over this hurdle before the new world can emerge for us. And once again, I do thank you for your patience and understanding as we move through this. So many of you may recognize the name Polycarp. He is a person that we have spoken about multiple times on the Dark Outpost in our Missing Gospel series that we do with David Zublik on Tuesday night. Polycarp was a church father. He was, ironically, one of the first people to be martyred outside of the people that were mentioned in the New Testament. Now, many of you will recognize Polycarp from the man Irenaeus. We have talked extensively about Irenaeus as he was a disciple who was a student of Polycarp who went up against the Gnostic Gospels hard. He even wrote like a five volume book calling all these Gnostic Gospels heresy. Now, if you listened last Tuesday to our episode with David Zublik where we started to look at the Pocrophon of John, I spoke about a professor from Princeton named Dr. Elaine Pagel. Now, Dr. Elaine Pagel brought up a really good point regarding Irenaeus. You see, Irenaeus had seen all this persecution happening with the early Christians, especially with his teacher, Polycarp. Polycarp is mostly known for his death, which we'll get to later on in the story. So Irenaeus had seen this persecution happen. He was always kind of in the line of fire. And it is her opinion that maybe he went up against these Gnostic Gospels so hardcore because he was scared. He wanted to try to unify the Christian faith so that the Christian faith would not be as persecuted as it had been. Now, even though I have a bit of a disdain for Irenaeus because he goes up against the Gnostic Gospels and I happen to really enjoy the Gnostic Gospels, I can give empathy to this theory that he could have been terrified for his life. He lived 2,000 years before me. And so I don't have any comprehension of what life was like for them during this time. And so I can step back a little bit and appreciate what Dr. Elaine Pagle is saying. But when it comes to Irenaeus, most of what we know about Polycarp comes from his writings. The only other information we really have on Polycarp comes from a letter that an eyewitness wrote regarding his death. Now, most of my research on Polycarp, what I could find, I got from this letter. Now, the reason why Polycarp is so important as a church father is because he was a student of the apostle John, as in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as in the Apocryphal of John. It is believed that Polycarp was born around 70 AD. He was born in Smyrna, which is now in modern-day Turkey. Now, there is a possibility that Polycarp also knew the apostle Philip, as Philip also went into Turkey into Hierapolis, where he eventually was martyred as well. But we do know from letters from what Irenaeus wrote about that Polycarp was a student of John. The thing about John, as in, again, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is that he was the longest living apostle. We know that most of Jesus' disciples and apostles met a very horrific death. We have talked about this in our Missing Gospel series with David Zublik. But John, it was like he just wouldn't die. One of the historians that I listened to when preparing for this episode said that Hierapolis thought that John was maybe divine by some people because he just wouldn't die. But we know he did eventually die. But while he was living, he had Polycarp as a student and it is believed that it was John who anointed Polycarp to be the Bishop of Smyrna. Now again, why Polycarp is so important is because he was a direct student of someone who was a direct disciple of Jesus. Polycarp is considered to be part of the second generation of Christianity. He, along with a few other characters, which we might get into later on in our studies, were responsible for spreading this new faith all over the Mediterranean. Now we also know that Polycarp was an important figure even when he was alive because we do have a letter written by Polycarp to the Philippians dated around 135 AD. We know that we have Paul's letter to the Philippians in our New Testament. And it's interesting that Polycarp also has a letter written to them as well. As I said, Polycarp was from the town of Smyrna in modern-day Turkey. At the time of his life, this area was ruled by Rome. It was considered Roman minor and Smyrna itself was one of the principal cities for the area for the Roman Empire. Now again, most of the information that I took about Polycarp came directly from a letter written regarding Polycarp's death. This was an eyewitness account and they believe this letter was written around 160 AD. Polycarp himself states that he was 86 years old when he was killed. 86 is a pretty old age by today's standards as well, so it's safe to say that Polycarp lived a very long life before he met his end. Now the letter about Polycarp's death is called the martyrdom of Polycarp. We don't actually know who wrote this letter, but we do know that this letter was then sent out to other churches in the area. At this time it was very dangerous to be a Christian. As I stated with Erinnisi's Polycarp student, there was a lot of persecution. And interestingly enough, people who were adapting to this new Christian faith, when they were arrested by the Roman government, they were charged with being atheists. I thought this was super, like my mind, I had no idea that that's what they were charged with. Back then being an atheist meant that you did not believe in the Roman gods, that you only believed in this one god. And so therefore, according to the Roman government, you yourself were an atheist. Now I know we've talked about this on the dark outpost, but I don't remember if we actually spoke about it on my channel or not. When we go back and look at the Council of Nicea that happened in the fourth century so long after Polycarp died, we know that Constantine and his bishops changed a lot of stuff, a lot of events that happened in the Christian faith. One of these events that was changed at the Council of Nicea was Jesus's conception. In a lot of the missing gospels, it is believed or it is stated actually, not believed but stated that Joseph was Jesus's father. That Jesus was purely 100% human as well as spiritually the son of God. This was very different and very important for the Christians because in pagan culture, the Roman gods were born of virgins. We see this with Horus, we see this with Ra, we even are told that some of the Caesars themselves, allegedly, were born of a virgin, giving them a God-like status that the citizens of Rome were supposed to worship. If you followed along with us on the dark outpost, you will remember how we spoke about the early Christians being very upset in the fourth century when Constantine turned Jesus's birth into that of a pagan deity. The early Christians believed that Joseph was Jesus's father and again in a lot of the missing gospels that were then banned from the Bible in the Council of Nicea do state by Jesus himself that Joseph was his father. His biological father on earth, just as Mary was his biological mother. And as I was studying the issues regarding polycarp, it kind of came up again because it was like they wanted the citizens of Smyrna all over Roman minor, Asia minor, Turkey today to worship Caesar as well. And of course, many of the early Christians refused to do so because they didn't serve the pagan or Roman gods. They served the God of Abraham, the Jewish God. They had adapted this new sect of Judaism called Christianity. Now, obviously a lot of these early church fathers were making waves all around the Mediterranean. They're teachers, they're disciples who came before them who were students of Jesus made waves as well. And of course, Jesus is too because Jesus got himself executed, which was prophecy according to the Old Testament because of the things that he was saying. So when these men were arrested, they were charged with being atheists. Well, when people in the town of Smyrna found out that polycarp himself was going to be arrested for being an atheist, for not believing in the Roman gods, his friends urged polycarp to get out of town. Now, again, polycarp was an 86 year old man. At first, polycarp did not want to leave his house in Smyrna, but eventually he agreed to go to one of his friends' houses outside of the city. Once the Romans figured out where polycarp was, they went to get him. And when Polycarp's friends found out that they knew where he was, they quickly moved polycarp to another house. Well, as soon as the Romans got to the first location where polycarp had been, they found two young boys that were a part of Polycarp's entourage and basically tortured them in order for them to tell them where polycarp had gone. When they finally got to the house where polycarp was hiding out, Polycarp was in prayer and he told his entourage to welcome the guards into his house. You see, Polycarp had a vision in prayer one night that he was going to be martyred. He had accepted his fate. After all, at this point in the timeline, many of the big Christians or new Christians had also met that fate. So as Polycarp welcomed the Roman soldiers in, he offered them food, served them dinner before they took him back into the town. Once he was in the town, the Roman officials did everything they could to try to get Polycarp to denounce his new fate and go back to serving Caesar and the Roman deities. Polycarp apparently was very, very calm during this very public interrogation with the officials. According to the eyewitness, him remaining calm during this interrogation really made the officials upset. And finally, he was officially charged with being an atheist and because he was an atheist, he received the death penalty. Now apparently, his whole execution, for lack of a better word, was a bit of a show itself. Polycarp asked the guards to not use the nails. They typically would, I'm trying to figure out what I can say because of YouTube, they typically would like place people on rods by using the nails. But Polycarp said no, that if it was his time to go, then God the Father would not allow him to leave. So all they did was tie Polycarp's wrists together behind his back. Now when they lit the fire for his death, the fire did something very strange. According to the eyewitness, the fire went around him. It's almost like he was kept safe in this dome. And the eyewitness wrote that it smelled sweet like frankincense and that it just appeared that Polycarp's son was getting a bit of a suntan. It was a golden look, it wasn't burning. Well because of the frustration that was happening in front of these Roman guards who were trying very desperately to get this new faith of Christianity to go away, they ended up having to like stab him to get him to eventually meet his end. Now once Polycarp was dead, the miracle that happened during the death process freaked out the Roman guards so much that they didn't actually want to hand his body over. They knew what had happened with Jesus of Nazareth when they handed his body over and apparently these people were saying it rose from this tomb and all of a sudden we have this new faith. They were afraid that by handing over Polycarp's body because of what happened in his death with the fire not touching him, that the same thing would happen. Polycarp himself would rise from the death and people would start worshiping Polycarp too just like they were worshiping this guy from Nazareth called Jesus. Now what the writer does say is that this is quite comical for him because it just means that the Romans don't truly understand this new Christian faith. You see Polycarp never said he was the son of God like Jesus did. Polycarp did not perform miracles like Jesus did and the act of his own death was more of a little God wink to the people watching than it was to grant this resurrection from Polycarp. But it does go to show you how much of a problem this new faith was for the Roman Empire. It does give you an idea about how quickly the people within the boundaries of the Roman Empire were starting to listen to this new faith. They were giving up the worship of the Roman gods and with that they were giving up the worship of Caesar. Because at the end of the day we know that with a lot of faiths since the beginning of time it really all comes down to money and power anyway. And if these new Christians didn't even fear death then how the hell were they going to be able to continue to control them? Now Polycarp is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Lutheran Churches I believe from my research. I grew up Presbyterian and we don't have saints in the Presbyterian Church. But with Polycarp as well as some other older saints there are relics that are left behind that many monasteries our churches will carry and a lot of these relics do tend to carry the folklore or legend that they help cure people. Well as I opened with allegedly one of Polycarp's arms was kept in a monastery. And in 2013 this arm was stolen and presumably sold on the black market. Now as I opened with I from my research can't tell if they've actually found the arm. They have apprehended the men who stole the arm. But as far as I know there's just a golden arm floating around out there on the black market that allegedly was Polycarp's arm. And I do hope that eventually the relic will be returned to the monastery for the world to see. I don't know if I believe that these relics do anything to help people call me a Protestant but I believe that that kind of comes between you and God anyway. But if we do have some of these leftover artifacts from a time that was so long from our own modern times it is important that people still have access to it. And regardless of how many years pass human beings are human beings and we can definitely empathize with what happened to Polycarp and many many others throughout the course of history. The good thing about the Christian faith especially back in those days when it was new and it was fresh is that death wasn't the end but the beginning. Thank you all for sitting through this quick little Friday video. I felt like it was important to look into Polycarp because he has come up a lot in our study of the missing or banned Gospels. And he did seem to do a lot of work to help spread the Christian faith although he is more famous for his death than maybe his life. Or maybe it was because his life was so powerful that it made his death even more legendary. Good news for all who have asked. I will be filming an episode later today with Janine and Tom. Again, hopefully I will have that episode up for you guys this evening. And then Monday we will be back to our regular Monday mystery episode. For those who are wondering about our banned and missing Gospels issues I did not drop the Apocryphon of John on Wednesday because it's going to take us a couple weeks to go through it on David's channel, The Dark Outpost. So hopefully we'll get through it this week on his show on Tuesday night. And if that's the case then that Cliff Notes version of the Apocryphon of John will air on Wednesday on this channel. If we don't get through it all this week then it will be aired next week. Also earlier this week I had another opportunity to go on Charlie Ward Show with Tom Numbers and that was always an incredible experience. Charlie is a very kind, kind man, very easy to talk to and Tom's a good mate of mine, a good friend of mine and he's also very kind and very easy to talk to. And so for those who are wondering about that episode I have placed it in my community tab for now just to kind of regulate with censorship. It's also on Tom's channel as well which a link to Tom's channel is in the description box below. And again there is also a link to David's platform, The Dark Outpost TV in the description box below as well if you would like to go over to that channel to watch our breakdown on The Gospels on Tuesday night. Again that channel is actually run by David and so we don't have the censorship issues that we have on this platform and possibly other platforms. As always I have gotten questions again about our opening song. Our opening song is performed by Josh McKay, a friend of mine, a friend of Todd's if you would like to purchase the full song because there is a full song you can follow the link down in the description box below to get the full song of what we use as our opening and closing song. And again thank you to Josh McKay for letting us use his work on this channel and thank you as always to Todd Roderick for helping me get this video out to you guys on this Friday. Also with Todd, something I forgot to mention earlier we have been doing Thursday night lives going over the raw material or the Law of One. As you know we did not do one this week because this week's been a little hectic and crazy but I'm trying to talk Todd into doing the live with me next week since he is way more versed in this material and therefore you guys can ask him some questions. I would probably have him do more of the talking and I would be the one watching the comments to get the questions for him but if you really have some questions you want him to answer you can always send them in to us at esotericatlanta.com that email address is also in the description box below. If you do have a question regarding the raw material that you want us to cover on the show please put in the subject line raw, RA or questions for raw so that we can see it. We get a lot of emails for those who have email that haven't responded yet I will be responding to you and I appreciate you reaching out. We just have a lot to go through. So if you have a question again make sure it's clear in the subject line so we can pull those questions for a potential live this upcoming Thursday. Alright guys, I hope that you have a wonderful Friday and a wonderful weekend. Lots of love to each of you and I will talk to you soon. Bye.