A Millennial Interpretation of the Unfolding of History*

Consider the possibility:

The first chapter in Genesis is a brief outline or synopsis of the unfolding history of  humanity through six 1000 year stages ("days").

Support:

  • Biblical dating traces the "Beginning" back about 6000 years. Jewish reckoning of Biblical time holds that is has been 5760 years since creation (current year on the Jewish calendar).
  • In religious circles it is sometimes noted that "1000 years is as one day for God."
  • Even if we look to history, archaeology and sociology, we can see that civilization and recorded history of humanity does not go back much more than 5500 years or so (to 3500 BCE).
First stage of human history:
Humanity (i.e., civilization, not the species Homo Sapiens) is "born" - represented by the creation of Adam ("mankind"). This "Adamic" stage lasts about 1000 years (Adam lived 930 years: Gen 5:5). Adam would be the "prophet" of this first stage of humanity. Adam also represents light (initial enlightenment?) since that is what God created "on the first day" (Gen 1:3)

Second stage of human history:
The age of Noah, the flood and "Noachide" religion. This stage lasts about another 1000 years (Noah lived 950 years: Gen. 9:29). Noah is the prophet for this age of humanity representing division between heaven and earth (spiritual and physical realms of reality/existence), between that which is above and below the waters [of the flood?] (Gen. 1:6) (between the righteous - Noah - and the unrighteous). Another division that took place during this stage was that the "nations were divided in the earth after the flood" (Gen 10:32).

Third stage of human history:
The age of the Hebrews beginning with Abraham and taking us through almost another 1000 years up to the climatic period of Moses and the Exodus. Abraham is the prophet for this age. On the third day God created dry land and raised up plant life (Gen. 1:9-12). God's covenant with Abraham also involved land (the "Promised Land"): "unto thy seed will I give this land" (Gen 12:7). cf. Gen 1:12: "and the earth [Abraham?] brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind." Abraham and the Hebrew religion (not to be confused with Judaism which comes with Moses in the next stage) represents (as do plants) earth and the "first fruits" or "seeds" of spiritual life.

Fourth stage of human history:
Between 3000 - 2000 years ago (including the very significant 6th century BCE when philosophy and religion worldwide is making major changes and developments from Greece through India into China). This period begins with Moses, the prophet for this age, and the giving of religious Law to the Hebrew people. This, then, is the age of the Jewish religion. It takes us through the time of the great Hebrew kings in the Holy Land and through the downfall of this monarchy with the 6th century Babylonian exile and ensuing centuries of occupation and foreign dominion over the Jews.

On the fourth day of God created the stars, moon and sun "for signs and for seasons" (Gen. 1:14). This age of the great prophets of Judaism brings signs and revelations (light upon earth - Gen. 1:17) and laws and holy day seasonal celebrations which guide the Jewish people in this age. Moses thus represents greater enlightenment as Adam represented initial enlightenment.

Fifth stage of human history:
Covers the period from Jesus and the great period of the Roman Empire. Jesus is the prophet for this age of Christianity. On the fifth day God created animals of the sea and sky (Gen. 1:20): fish, birds, amphibians(?). Thus Jesus represents more advanced spiritual life as these animals are an advancement of life over the plants created on the third day. The spiritual life represented by Jesus is seen as advanced over the spiritual life represented by Abraham. Abraham represents a tribal, limited and ethnic spirituality. Jesus universalizes this spirituality (Christianity is a universal rather than ethnic religion, unlike Judaism).

Sixth stage of human history:
The current stage which begins with the great split in Christendom between the Eastern and Western churches (1054 C.E.) and the period of the great Christian Scholastics (philosopher-theologians e.g., Anselm and Aquinas). This period continues through the European Renaissance and enlightenment and on into the modern industrial and electronic age - from the Age of the Church to the Age of Science.

On the sixth day God created mammals (land animals) (Gen. 1:24-26) culminating with the creation of human beings "in the image of God" (Gen. 1:27). Modern man is so able to control the forces of nature through science and technology as to be God-like. The later half of this sixth age (since the Renaissance) could be seen as the "secular age".

Seventh stage of human history:
We are on the verge of a new millennium if not in a few years then in a few hundred (about 250 years to go according to the Jewish calendar). By then we will be fully God realized having come out of the secular age into a new spiritual age: the "New Age" ("Age of Aquarius").

Part two:

Each 1000 year period would seem to begin on a high note and spiral downward to the "worst of times". Of course this depends on one's perspective. Depending on which side of the events one is on, one could see it as beginning on a low note and spiraling upward.:

  • The Age of Adam (stage 1) begins in Eden and ends in banishment.
  • The Age of Noah (stage 2) sees the Great Flood (which can be seen as either a good thing [since it eliminates evil] or a bad thing [since it is destruction]) halfway through and ends with the Tower of Babel fiasco.
  • The Age of Abraham and the Hebrews (stage 3) begins in freedom and ends in slavery (bad for Hebrews, Good for Egypt)
  • The Age of Moses and the Jews (stage 4) begins with escape from slavery, reception of the Law (which can be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing) and the Land, carries through several hundred years of the Hebrew Monarchy (good for Hebrews, bad for other people who lived in the land) and then turns downward with the Babylonian Exile and rule under foreign powers (Persians, Greeks, Romans) (bad for Jews, good for powers in rule).
  • The Age of Jesus and the Christians (stage 5) begins during the great hey day of the Roman Empire (bad for Christians, good for Romans) which then falls as Christianity rises to power and sends Europe into the "Dark Ages."
  • The Age of the Roman Catholic Church (stage 6): the high age of Medieval Europe, European unity under Church rule (good or bad?) and great Christian philosophers makes an about face in the 16th century under the Protestant Reformation (bad for Catholic, good for Protestants) and nation-state secular rule (bad for The Church, good for kings and modern politics) into 19th and 20th century atheism and science (good for science, bad for religion)
  • So what will the new Spiritual Age be like?:
A modern spirituality free from authoritarian control of both science and traditional religion?
OR...
the end/death of humanity: a "day of rest" - Gen. 2:2) - RIP (rest in peace - spiritual peace?)?

LES - 1999

* A more extensive evaluation of this theory would examine how/if this division of human history relates to the history of humanity in the East.

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