The "Barbaricum" was the barbarian area outside the Roman Empire. The barbari, barbarians, were still living in mythological, not yet in historical, time.
In SM Stirling's Emberverse, the loss of technology returns society to mythological time. The heroic killing of a bear, a biographical event for an individual, becomes a mythological event for his society.
I think that Christianity occupies the crossroads between the cyclical, seasonal time of agricultural societies and the linear, historical time of urban civilizations. Thus, the dying and rising god is no longer a recurrent myth but a unique event and his cross symbolizes eternal-temporal intersection.
Whatever happened in Jerusalem, the Time Patrol must preserve the history of the bifurcation between Judaism and Christianity:
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And what makes Christianity unique, besides its supernatural beliefs, as recorded in the NT, was precisely because Christ became Incarnate in historical times. Not only the Apostles but non-Christian writers like Flavius Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and Suetonius all wrote about Christianity less than a century after the Passion.
Ad astra! Sean
Tho' there are no -contemporary- accounts. Not least because Romans just weren't that interested in internal Jewish squabbles, and found Jewish religion passing strange to begin with.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, altho Henri Daniel-Rops, in his book JESUS AND HIS TIMES, speculated Pontius Pilate may have sent a report to Rome about the Christ affair, if only to cover his rear end because of his troubles with the Sanhedrin. Even if that was the case Pilate's report has not survived.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: a lot hasn't survived -- the Romans weren't equipped to make multiple copies easily. It's surprising how well their system worked given the limitations of their information systems.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, copying books, reports, letters, etc., by hand was so frustratingly slow.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: also, papyrus was much more expensive than paper.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Since paper was not known then parchment/vellum would be a better analogy--and that was even more expensive. And reserved for the most valued books.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Yes -- in LEST DARKNESS FALLS, Martin Padway buys up parchment for his newspaper... and then discovers that he bought up all the surplus parchment in central Italy and can't get more.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
An ironic and amusing predicament to be in--another reason for rereading that classic by De Camp.
Ad astra! Sean
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