Spoke 7: The Biblewheel and The 7th Century - Heraclius The Hero

Spoke 7: The Biblewheel and The 7th Century
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Heraclius the Hero


Someone had previously pointed out that my voice in the videos was not high enough compared to the background music. I thought I had solved that issue by reuploading. But when I reviewed the video it seems like I missed certain places. So I reuploaded it. (Updated June 2, 2020)

Comparing Romans 7  with the 7th Century

Romans 7 - Listen 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to [her] husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of [her] husband. 3 So then if, while [her] husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? [Is] the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin [was] dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which [was ordained] to life, I found [to be] unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me]. 12 Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [it is] good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Heraclius reminds me of Gideon, who brought a victory but might also have been the cause of God's anger and his downfall because he married his niece. Although Gideon wasn't known for incest he did have a concubine, by whom he had a son named Abimelech. However his cause in Israel's fall was that he led Israel back into idolatry.

Another man, which Heraclius reminds me is Samson. Heraclius means a hero, like Hercules. Samson's name means perhaps sun-like. Samson's downfall wasn't because of incest either but it was a woman who betrayed him.

However the 7th commandment is not to commit adultery.

However there was a man, Othniel, Caleb's younger brother who took Caleb's daughter to wife. Now, does that mean that Othniel was his literal brother? or was he a distant cousin, counted as a brother? I'm not sure.

But the Battle of Yarmouk was the first time Byzantines were defeated by the Arabs. And whereas the men Gideon won a great victory by a few men against a huge army of the Midianites, who came from, perhaps the Arabian peninsula, the Arabs of the 7th century were few who defeated Heraclius' mighty army.


Romans 7 shows the desire in man to do good but evil is also present. And just as Heraclius accused Phocas the previous king and called him wretch found himself to be a wretch after he married his niece and the people despised him:



Heraclius

Heraclius (Latin: Flavius Heracles Augustus; Greek: Φλάβιος Ἡράκλειος, translit. Flavios Iraklios; c. 575 – February 11, 641) was the Emperor of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire from 610 to 641.^{[A 1]}

He was responsible for introducing Greek as the Eastern Roman Empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.

Heraclius's reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus but Constantinople was protected by impenetrable walls and a strong navy, and Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after, he initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh. The Persian king Khosrau II was overthrown and executed by his son Kavadh II, who soon sued for a peace treaty, agreeing to withdraw from all occupied territory. This way peaceful relations were restored to the two deeply strained empires.

Heraclius soon experienced a new event, the Muslim conquests. Emerging from the Arabian Peninsula, the Muslims quickly conquered the Sasanian Empire. In 634 the Muslims marched into Roman Syria, defeating Heraclius's brother Theodore. Within a short period of time, the Arabs conquered Mesopotamia, Armenia and Egypt.

Heraclius entered diplomatic relations with the Croats and Serbs in the Balkans. He tried to repair the schism in the Christian church in regard to the Monophysites, by promoting a compromise doctrine called Monothelitism. The Church of the East (commonly called Nestorian) was also involved in the process.^[4]Eventually this project of unity was rejected by all sides of the dispute.

Revolt against Phocas and accession

Gold solidus of Heraclius and his father in consular robes, struck during their revolt against Phocas

In 608, Heraclius the Elder renounced his loyalty to the Emperor Phocas, who had overthrown Maurice six years earlier. The rebels issued coins showing both Heraclii dressed as consuls, though neither of them explicitly claimed the imperial title at this time.^[8] Heraclius's younger cousin Nicetas launched an overland invasion of Egypt; by 609, he had defeated Phocas's general Bonosus and secured the province. Meanwhile, the younger Heraclius sailed eastward with another force via Sicily and Cyprus.^[8]

As he approached Constantinople, he made contact with prominent leaders and planned an attack to overthrow aristocrats in the city, and soon arranged a ceremony where he was crowned and acclaimed as Emperor. When he reached the capital, the Excubitors, an elite Imperial Guard unit led by Phocas's son-in-law Priscus, deserted to Heraclius, and he entered the city without serious resistance. When Heraclius captured Phocas, he asked him "Is this how you have ruled, wretch?" Phocas's reply—"And will you rule better?"—so enraged Heraclius that he beheaded Phocas on the spot.^[9] He later had the genitalia removed from the body because Phocas had raped the wife of Photius, a powerful politician in the city.^[10]

On October 5, 610, Heraclius was crowned for a second time, this time in the Chapel of St. Stephen within the Great Palace; at the same time he married Fabia, who took the name Eudokia. After her death in 612, he married his niece Martina in 613; this second marriage was considered incestuousand was very unpopular.^[11] In the reign of Heraclius's two sons, the divisive Martina was to become the center of power and political intrigue. Despite widespread hatred for Martina in Constantinople, Heraclius took her on campaigns with him and refused attempts by Patriarch Sergius to prevent and later dissolve the marriage.^[11]

...

War against the Arabs

Main articles: Arab–Byzantine wars and List of battles of Muhammad

Arab-Byzantine troop movement from September 635 to just before the event of the Battle of Yarmouk

In 629, the Islamic Prophet Muhammad had recently succeeded in unifying all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. Those tribes had previously been too divided to pose a serious military challenge to the Byzantines or the Persians. Now unified and animated by their new conversion to Islam, they comprised one of the most powerful states in the region.^[42] The first conflict between the Byzantines and Muslims was the Battle of Mu'tah in September 629. A small Muslim skirmishing force attacked the province of Arabia in response to their ambassador's murder at the hands of the Ghassanid Roman governor, but were repulsed. Because the engagement was a Byzantine victory, there was no apparent reason to make changes to the military configuration of the region.^[43] Also, the Byzantines had little preceding battlefield experience with the Arabs, and even less with zealous soldiers united by a prophet.^[44] Even the Strategicon of Maurice, a manual of war praised for the variety of enemies it covers, does not mention warfare against Arabs at any length.^[44]

The following year the Muslims launched an offensive into the Arabah south of Lake Tiberias, taking Al Karak. Other raids penetrated into the Negev reaching as far as Gaza.^[45] The Battle of Yarmouk in 636 resulted in a crushing defeat for the larger Byzantine army; within three years, the Levant had been lost again. By the time of Heraclius's death in Constantinople, on February 11, 641, most of Egypt had fallen as well.^[46]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclius