Crash Course: World History

John Green:
Both Herods ultimately took their orders from the Romans, and they both show up on the list of rulers who are oppressive to the Jews, partly because there's never that much religious freedom in an empire. Unless you are, wait for it... the Mongols... or the Persians.

John Green:
Dear Ichthys, So check this out: In the first century when it was still super underground and hipster to be a Christian, you were a secret symbol of Christianity, used to kind of hide from the Romans. Ichthys, the Greek word for fish, was an acronym and it was a super clever way to talk about religion without anyone knowing that you were talking about it. But you'll never guess what happened - even in places where it's completely fine to talk about Christianity now and to use, you know, regular Christian symbols, like the cross, you have had a huge resurgence thanks to the plastic automobile decal industry. I mean seriously, Ichthys, I haven't seen a comeback like this since Jesus.