Providential History
How Judeo-Christian historiography created a universal history with a providential plan
Judeo-Christian historiographers believed that history was universal in which God played an active role. They took on this task by creating a common origin, chronology, and a bridge that connected paganism and Christianity. The Bible spoke of this common origin of humankind, while chronologies connected a succession of kings and popes. The bridge of paganism and Christianity was composed of profane and sacred history. Judeo-Christian historiography strived to create a God of History.
The God of History
Historical writing that held to the notion of one God being an active participant in human history became known as Judeo-Christian historiography. It was influenced by a very ancient semi-nomadic group commonly known as Hebrews. The Hebrew people believed that their God (Yahweh) had delivered them out of slavery from Egypt. This act of God became the very foundation of the Hebrew identity. Every year they were required to celebrate this monumental event, the Exodus, as if it happened to them; no matter how many generations had passed.They strictly followed the tradition that was eventually depicted in the Hebrew Scriptures. This tradition can be found in Exodus 13 in which generation after generation, they were to explain, “This is because what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt”(13:8). This tradition continues to this day in the Jewish festival Seder Passover. Hebrews saw the Exodus as being more important than the belief in Creation. Thus the Hebrews saw their god as the God of History rather than the God of Nature (Butterfield, 86). The God of History was not just the creator of the world but was also an active participant in human relations. History was being unfolded while God had an ultimate goal in mind for his chosen people, the Hebrews. The notion of God working throughout their history continued to be the center of the Hebrew faith, until a Hellenistic Jew took on the task of making this Hebrew God of History a universal God of History.
Universal History: Josephus
The man that began to create a universal history was Josephus Flavius. He was born around 37 CE in Jerusalem to a priestly family. He was a well educated Jew that became a commander in the Great Revolt, that ultimately led to the destruction of the second Jewish temple in 70 CE. Josephus became a prisoner of Rome in 67 CE. While in prison, Josephus predicted that Vespasian would become the next Roman Emperor. Josephus’ prediction was fulfilled after Emperor Nero committed suicide in 68 CE and Vespasian became emperor in 69 CE. He remained in Rome after he was released from prison, and began his work as a historian to present Judaism favorably to the non-Jewish world.
In one of his major works, Jewish Antiquities, Josephus begins his development of a universal history. Josephus desired to create a universal history in order to make Judaism understandable to everyone including non-Jews. He begins with Creation, in which all humankind have a common origin. According to Josephus humankind was all united in the belief of one God and one history until the Tower of Babel narrative found in the Bible. This narrative tells the story of how the whole world once spoke the same language but after angering God by trying to build a tower to the heavens, God confused their language and dispersed them throughout the world. Josephus believed that it was this moment that led to competing histories. Greeks and Romans who had forgotten this universal beginning, created their own origin stories and thus their own history. Josephus combined the histories of other nations with biblical accounts and chronologies with the goal of creating universality (Kelley, 79). Josephus tried to create a common origin and universal history that was later adopted and expanded upon by early Christian historians. But it’s important to first explain the reasons Christians adopted this view of history.
Christian Historiography
Christianity began with the belief that a man named Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified just three days before. For Christians he was the long awaited Messiah in Judaism; he had come to redeem the world and proclaimed he would return again. This belief of Jesus returning a second time (parousia) prevented Christians from truly caring about the past. They attached themselves to the Hebrew Scriptures for two reasons.
- Jesus was Jewish and the Hebrew Scriptures were an integral part to his teachings.
- They saw prophecies in the Hebrew texts as being fulfilled through Jesus. They used prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures and the good news of Jesus in the Gospels to attract as many converts as possible before Jesus’ return.
When this imminent return had yet to occur, Christians began to see the Gospels as a historical subject and looked back to the past of their founding fathers; the letters of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. Their history was becoming central to them and became even more central under the rule of Constantine. Christians began to see history as a source of their identity. Christianity’s long endurance of persecution had finally reached its end when Constantine demanded religious tolerance of Christians in the Edict of Milan in 312 CE. Christians, though no longer dying for their faith, still found themselves having to defend their Christian foundation. People were accusing Christianity of only appealing to the ignorant and that it was a new innovation (Butterfield, 177). Christianity tried to combat this through creating a history of universalism, chronology, and building a bridge with paganism.
Chronology: Eusebius
The chronicler of Christianity was a man named Eusebius. There is little known about Eusebius’ early life but it is common belief that he was born around 275 CE. He became bishop of Caesarea, Palaestina, around 313 CE and his work Ecclesiastical History remains important for understanding Christian historiography. Eusebius firmly believed that the past was a preparation for Jesus. Jesus was the fulfillment of the past and gave it meaning. Eusebius attempted to show this by presenting history as a continuum by creating a chronology of successions. Eusebius used the succession of emperors and the philosophers of antiquity as well as apostolic succession in order to portray a universal history. Eusebius was more concerned with the pattern of history and how it fit with universality, rather than with the detail (Momigliano, 112). Eusebius’ history was a universal chronology with a providential plan - meaning that God was an active participant in history with an end goal in mind. For him, God was in control of the whole fabric of history that was interconnected with human free will (Chestnut, 60). Paganism’s ignorance of this Christian God working through human relations distorted the true meaning of history; but through the incarnation of Jesus, history had been fulfilled. God’s providential plan was becoming clearer and this clarity would increase through the work of a Christian convert, who took on the task of building a bridge between paganism and Christianity.
The Bridge between Paganism and Christianity: Augustine
A man named Augustine was the builder of the pagan and Christian bridge. Augustine was born to a Christian mother and Pagan father on November 13, 354 in Tagaste, Numidia (Souk Ahras, Algeria). Augustine was well educated and became a teacher of rhetoric in Milan in 384 CE. Augustine was a pagan until a conversion experience led him to become baptized into Christianity in 387, and eventually he became the bishop of Hippo (Annaba, Algeria) in 395 CE. Augustine connected paganism and Christianity in his belief that pagans lacked the knowledge of God working throughout history. He believed that it was not the pagan gods that made the Roman state successful but the one true God; wisdom was possible by believing in God (Kelley, 91). In Augustine’s own words, “Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that you may understand” (Augustine, 6). Augustine’s most important contribution to Christian historiography was the City of God.
Rome, for a short time, was under the rule of barbarians in 410 CE. Augustine wrote the City of God in response to charges that barbarians took over because Romans abandoned their gods for the Christian God. Augustine found himself having to defend the Christian faith and did this by attempting to present history in dualistic terms. He developed an idea of what he called profane history and sacred history. Profane history concerned secular affairs while sacred history, for Augustine, came from biblical narratives. Augustine used this idea of profane history to explain away the notion that Rome fell under barbarians because of the Christian God. Barbarians invaded Rome due to customs of war. Augustine still saw God as working throughout history but he also recognized the free will of men. To Augustine, God would bring good out of the mistakes made by human free will. This allowed him to view the pagan past as it was, with the belief that God had a plan working within these past histories. For Augustine, history had a beginning in the pagan past; a middle with the revelation of Jesus; and an end with the Second Comining of Christ. The city of man was symbolic of unbelief and the city of God was symbolic of faith. Within this work Augustine presents human history as predestined by God, with Jesus being the revelation of truth, and the Second Coming as being the end of humankind. Augustine built this bridge between paganism and Christianity by depicting profane history as being created by free will which is used by God to ultimately lead to the end of history.
Universal, Chronology, Providential
Judeo-Christian historiography presented a chronological, universal history with a providential plan. Judeo-Christian historians chose to bring biblical narratives to life within the history of humankind. They believed humans all have a common origin and as Josephus argued, humans separated after the Tower of Babel, and invented diverse histories. Christian historians argued that the Hebrew Bible and the past of Greeks and Romans were fulfilled when God became man. Through Jesus humans could gain full knowledge of the past. Therefore history was a continuum in which everything connected up to the present day of early Christian historians. Judeo-Christian historiography’s contribution of chronology and universality paved the way for future historiographies.
Works Cited
Butterfield, Herbert. The Origins of History. (London: Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1981.)
Chestnut, Glenn F. “Eusebius: Fate, Fortune, Free Will, and Nature”, The First Christian Histories, 33-64. (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1986.)
Hipponensis, Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 28-54 (c. 419); English Translation: John W Retig, “Fathers of the Church.”. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2002).
Kelley, Donald R. “The Education of the Human Race”, Faces of History 75-98. (London & New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.)
Momigliano, Arnaldo. “Pagan and Christian Historiography in the Fourth Century A.D.” Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography, 107-126. (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1977.)
Figure 1: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Figure 2: Courtesy of Wikipedia