Ammon Hillman - Ancient Greek

[BuAnn]

I searched within the forum and did not find discussion.
Is there a thought on this man among you?

 

[whitecoast]

I searched within the forum and did not find discussion.
Is there a thought on this man among you?

Hi BuAnn, would you be able to share a little about him? This is my first time hearing about him, and I’m sure for others it is also a first.

 

[Olivierlejardinier]

Hi BuAnn, would you be able to share a little about him? This is my first time hearing about him, and I’m sure for others it is also a first.

Here's what wikipedia brings us :

"David Charles Ammon Hillman is an American classicist, known for his re-interpreting of Christianity. He was a professor at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, before his firing after translating a production of Medea that the school's faculty found unsettling. In May 2024, he appeared on the Danny Jones Podcast, making his fringe views on Christianity, Ancient Greek and Roman pharmacy, and the life of Jesus more widely known. The podcast has since amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube.

Early life​

David Charles Ammon Hillman was born to Baptist parents in Tucson, Arizona. By the time Hillman was 17, he was teaching Sunday school and preaching at a mission, as well as studying Koine Greek and Latin. He completed an undergraduate degree in classics at the University of Arizona, and spent three months at the Dallas Theological Seminary. His exposure to classical authors such as Aristotle led him to becoming an apostate. He later pursued a master's degree in animal science, but abandoned it.

Hillman then went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning a master's degree in bacteriology, as well as a Ph.D. in classics with a specialization in Ancient Greek and Roman pharmacy. During this period, he spent a lot of time going over medical texts in Latin and Greek, coming across evidence that the Greeks knew about herbal concoctions such as opium, and that they used these substances recreationally."

And someone asked about him on reddit :

Honest question about Ammon Hillman​

Hello, Hellenists! Longish post incoming but I have some questions, if a couple of you wouldn’t mind weighing in. I’ve been doing some research on ancient near eastern religions as well as Greek culture and the syncretisms and such. I’m a Christian, but my worldview view is much different than the typical fundamentalist. I’ve always had an interest in learning about the different mysteries as well. No interest in initiation, I just like learning how cultures and religions were molded.

Anyway, in my various pursuits, I stumbled upon Ammon Hillman, and if you know anything about him, you know he has some From what I understand about the Dionysian mysteries, the initiation was an ecstatic union with the divine. A stripping away of conventional norms. We don’t need to go into deep detail, I assume if you’re practitioners, specifically of the mysteries, you’ll know about the history. Regarding Hillman’s claims about all the snake venom and “the purple” and particularly the involvement of children, do we have any historical claims for these things? I think pederasty wasn’t completely uncommon (although I don’t know to what extent; correct me if I’m wrong).

I just wanted to know, for any of those familiar with the mysteries, did the initiation rites go down like Ammon claims they did? If so, what are the sources? He mentions sources all the time, but from all the videos on him that I’ve watched, it seems like a lot of extrapolation and inserting his own interpretations to suit his own claims. And then projects the same activities on Jesus (again, I understand syncretism exists, but he arrogantly dismisses any notion that he might need to understand ancient Hebrew or the Hebrew culture for a more full picture of what was trying to be presented in the NT, despite the Greek influence).

What is the general consensus among Hellenists (if there is one) regarding Ammon’s line of thought? Also, I don’t read Greek, but is it possible the things he states “are in the sources” say what he says they say, but the words are used out of context to suit his needs, or that the words used in whatever sources he is using are intentionally mythicized or metaphorical? Any info is much appreciated!

Seems this book is at the root of the above questions :

The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization ​

 

[Lilou]

I came across this video on Rumble a couple days ago. It's titled "Shoulders of Giants" and he recommends five individuals that people should research. Dr. Ammon Hillman was one of them. In the video he talks about how many unique words there are in Hebrew - only 8000 words! compared to Greek, which has 150, 000 unique words. As a Greek linguist, Dr. Hillman studied all the ancient documents and came to some startling conclusions. Mainly there are no records of Moses, Abraham, or Joseph. That 'Pharmacia (ie drugs) was used to dumb down the people and allow the Hebrews to take control. He says the Hebrews were the pirates, pedophiles and human traffickers.

That's as far as I've got into researching Dr. Hillman. But he is certainly worth a deeper dive.