Maurice's Timeline - An Extra Book In the New Testament

[vorkosigan]

Point Of Departure

Eastern Mediterranean , late 2nd century AD

His name doesn’t really matter, and is sadly lost to history anyway. He was a priest, and surely needed Lord Jesus tonight. At the urging of his fellow Christians in Antioch he’d taken passage on a ship to Alexandria and they were perhaps only a couple of hours away from the city. But the Captain said he’d never seen such a storm as this one and that they should all pray to the divine Neptunus.

“Nay” , he replied , ” I have faith in the true Lord” and made the sign of the Fish with his finger on the dusty deck. And he opened his hands outwards, palms up and prayed....

“... he was on that ship that survived the storm last night , thanks be given, and he asks, Father , if he can speak at our next service, he has brought some prayers from Antioch called the Odes of Solomon that he would like to offer to the congregation...”





----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prof Julian Thomas

King’s Court

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Hullbridge, Essex

University of Fambridge- Department of History - 2009-2010

Course H107 – WORLD HISTORY AS SEEN THROUGH BOOKS – A brief overview for students.

Gentlemen, this is the third year in which I have provided this course of lectures, and I am once again indebted to Prof Davide Deseranto (from the Department of New World Languages), Drs James Edwards and Matthew Francois (from the Department of History) Prof Peter Tate (from the Department of European Languages) and Prof Paul Trafford (from the Department of Religious Studies) for their invaluable advice, suggestions and tutorial assistance.

This course is available to those reading history, English or French literature, most language degrees, politics, and religious studies. For anyone reading geography who wishes to take this course , there are timetabling issues – please contact my secretary, Mr Donaldson. Students at St Osyth’s College are most welcome to attend, and separate tutorial arrangements can be made for them.

Lectures will be held each Monday and Wednesday at 10:30 am, with tutorials at 2:00 pm on either Thursdays or Fridays. Please see your departmental noticeboards for exact details.


For recommended reading I merely suggest that you purchase a copy of each book that is included in the course. For anyone who is short of funds, the Holy Bible, Holy Koran and the Holy Avesta are available from the appropriate university chaplains , and there are secondhand copies of most of the books available in local shops for a few sous.

[vorkosigan]

Lectures 1 and 2 – the Holy Bible

Obviously the Bible has a central place in world culture. Its adequate study obviously requires a whole degree course. In these first two lectures we will merely take a glancing look at three aspects :

The Bible is actually a collection of many books – from Genesis and Exodus at the start of the Old Testament to the Odes of Solomon and the Book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament. How did these books become ‘canon’?

The most frequent languages for using the Bible today are probably French, Hindi, Greek, English, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Visigoth, Polish, Khazar and the various German and Italian dialects. What were the broad historical events that led to these results?

It is also read today in more than 1000 other languages. Would this have happened without the Paris and Constantinople policies of encouraging multiplicities of languages? How would those policies have worked without the Bible as a “first book’ for translation and alphabet-creation?

[vorkosigan]

Lecture 3 – the Holy Avesta

The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism. Like the Bible, many of its texts are more than two thousand years old, and are collected in their ‘canon’ in the early centuries AD. (In fact as redacted under the Sassanian emperor Shapur II (309-379) ). Unlike the Bible, its use is still mainly in the Avestan language. In this lecture we will consider how Persia’s place in the world – and particularly its relations with Constantinople and India - has been influenced by its religion and thus, indirectly, by these texts.



As an additional issue we will consider why some native New World peoples nearly spurned Christianity for Zoroastrianism.

[vorkosigan]

Lecture 4 – the Strategikon

Here we have a change in pace , concentrating on a book apparently written by one man, Imperial Emperor Maurice I (539-622). The Strategikon was a manual of war, and records the method used by Constantinople against such foes as the Avars (who have long since disappeared from the world stage) and the Franks (who definitely haven’t!). It is praised in military circles as the most sophisticated work on combined arms theory written before the Eastern War.

In this lecture we will consider whether the book was actually written by the emperor himself, and why other conflicts in the past centuries did not yield similar texts? Is it because the world has generally been a more peaceful place than 1400 years ago?

[vorkosigan]

ODE 17 OF THE ODES OF SOLOMON


1 I was crowned by my God: my crown is living:

2 And I was justified in my Lord: my incorruptible salvation is He. 3 I was loosed from vanity, and I was not condemned: 4 The choking bonds were cut off by her hands: I received the face and the fashion of a new person: and I walked in it and was saved; 5 And the thought of truth led me on. And I walked after it and did not wander: 6 And all. that have seen me were amazed: and I was regarded by them as a strange person: 7 And He who knew and brought me up is the Most High in all His perfection. And He glorified me by His kindness, and raised my thoughts to the height of His truth. 8 And from thence He gave me the way of His precepts and I opened the doors that were closed,.

9 And brake in pieces the bars of iron: but my iron melted and dissolved before me; 10 Nothing appeared closed to me: because I was the door of everything. 11 And I went over all my bond men to loose them; that I might not leave any man bound or binding: 12 And I imparted my knowledge without grudging: and my prayer was in my love: 13 And I sowed my fruits in hearts, and transformed them into myself: and they received my blessing and lived; 14 And they were gathered to me and were saved; because they were to me as my own members and I was their head. Glory to thee our head the Lord Messiah. Hallelujah.

[vorkosigan]

“Maurice I had to continue the war against the ancient Persian enemy. In 586, his troops defeated the Persians at the battle of Dara. Despite a serious mutiny in 588, they sustained conflict against the Persians for two more years, until Prince Khosrau IIBahram Chobin in 590 overthrew King Hormizd IV. Bahram Chobin then claimed the throne himself and defeated Khosrau II, who subsequently fled to the Byzantine court. Despite fierce objections from the Senate Maurice I lent an army of 35,000 men for Khosrau II to regain his throne, and in 591 the combined Roman-Persian army defeated Bahram Chobin's forces near Ganzak.

Maurice I finally brought the war to a triumphant conclusion by means of a new accession of Khosrau II and the defeat of Bahram Chobin. As agreed upon, Khosrau II married Maurice's eldest daughter Miriam and had heirs. Khosrau II further rewarded the empire by ceding parts of Mesopotamia, Armenia and Georgia.

Maurice's treaty with his new brother-in-law brought a new status-quo to the east territorially, enlarged to an extent never before achieved in six centuries , and much cheaper to defend during this new perpetual peace - millions of solidi were saved by the remission of tribute to the Persians alone. This combination of military strategy and statesmanship had established the security of the empire, and this gave Maurice I the opportunity to turn his attention towards unexpected ideas in governance and Christian teachings.


-Encyclopedia of European History, Woodstock University Press, 1990 edition



First significant diversion to the timeline:


Constantinple 602 AD

His name was Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus, known to posterity as Emperor Maurice I , and he was feeling like an old man. He had achieved so much – that so-valuable peace with the Persians was gained by an act of goodwill, and he thought it could be maintained for as long as their two respective dynasties continued, and mutual self-interest might help there. But he really was indeed getting old . It might be two years, it might be twenty years, but some day he would meet the Almighty and he was still feeling unnerved by the text he had read the month before.

“I was crowned by my God..... And He glorified me by His kindness,” Flavius could hardly avoid the feeling that the words were aimed directly at his own self. Who else is crowned? And what else was there in those words? “And I went over all my bond men to loose them; that I might not leave any man bound or binding: And I imparted my knowledge without grudging”.

He didn’t know exactly what that meant, despite some long discussions he had had with his priests. But as it was clear as the blue sky to him that it was against slavery. That would be something he would have to think about very deeply. That was not something he could deal with in one day.

And if it was Divinely intended for him to help the slaves of the empire, what about his own soldiers? He had been planning to leave them wintering beyond the Danube, despite their complaints. Now that really was something he could do something about.

He sent for a secretary.

“Prepare a letter instructing the army to come south for the winter. The Avars may have a little peace.


And tomorrow morning we sit down and start work on a book to follow on from the Strategikon".

[vorkosigan]

Lectures 5 and 6 - The Autokratorikon

This was the second of Emperor Maurice's great books - the one that set out how an emperor should be appointed, and how he should then rule.

In lecture 5 we will examine how Maurice proposed dividing the empire into four unequal pieces. Rather than an heir to the throne suddenly being catapulted into power, he would begin as a Prince ruling the smallest division of the empire - Illyiricum. From there he would move and become the ruling prince of Italy, then after that of North Africa. Only after perhaps three decades experience would he then become overall Emperor.

Although it faced numerous crises, Maurice's system worked well enough, and for that reason alone the Autokratikon is a historically important book. However in the later half of the book Maurice set out his views that a good Christian ruler could not have slavery within his realm.

Slavery may seem today as belonging to the age of paganism, gladiators and togas, but it still persisted well into Christian times. In lecture 6 we will see how Maurice based his arguments on scripture - notably from the Odes of Soloman. We will look at how the level of religious fervour at this time allowed the Christian doctrine to win over the slave-owning classes so that slavery was permanently abolished in most of Christian Europe by AD 680 and in all of it by AD 750.

[MerryPrankster]

Is the Odes of Solomon a real book from OTL history that did not get included in the canon, or is it something you invented for the purpose of the TL?

[vorkosigan]

Originally Posted by MerryPrankster

Is the Odes of Solomon a real book from OTL history that did not get included in the canon, or is it something you invented for the purpose of the TL?

Good question. thank you.

The Odes of Solomon are real in OTL, and the extract is a real quote. Maurice wrote the Strategikon (or is at least credited with it) ; the second book is not in OTL.

There's an article on the Odes of Solomon in Wikipedia (with some good links) and I think you can buy them on Amazon!

Bearing in mind all the spritual fervour in the Byzantine empire over something like icons, I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if there was something in the Bible that encouraged an able Byzantine emperor to treat his soldiers a bit more carefully and to declare slavery as unchristian.

[Strategos' Risk]

Intriguing POD and innovative AH format, I wholeheartedly support this!

[vorkosigan]

Thanks for the encouragement.

Maurice's more considerate treatment of his soldiers means he isn't overthrown (as in OTL); Byzantium is in much better shape to face Islam.

Next two books will be the Koran and the Visigothic Code, after that I'm not sure...

[Incognitia]

Good work! It seems somewhat ASB to eradicate slavery in the 600's, but if you can justify it then good on you; better for everyone that way.

An intriguing start, and I look forward to seeing it continue.

[Basileus Giorgios]

Excellent work, do continue please.

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Your biggest problem is the criteria for selecting books of the New Testament.

They had to be 'written by an apostle' and be 'the Word of God'. The latter can be finessed, the first, not so much.

The apostolic authorship of certain books in the OTL is now considered rather dubious, but the claims were accepted at the time. Is there ANY way to make that claim seriously for 'Odes of Solomon'?

If you have totally different criteria for the selection of canon, you're going to have a VERY different New Testament, not just 1 or 2 books =/-.

[vorkosigan]

Originally Posted by Dathi THorfinnsson

Your biggest problem is the criteria for selecting books of the New Testament.

They had to be 'written by an apostle' and be 'the Word of God'. The latter can be finessed, the first, not so much.

The apostolic authorship of certain books in the OTL is now considered rather dubious, but the claims were accepted at the time. Is there ANY way to make that claim seriously for 'Odes of Solomon'?

If you have totally different criteria for the selection of canon, you're going to have a VERY different New Testament, not just 1 or 2 books =/-.

It's a good question; I will try to provide an explanation at some stage.....

[vorkosigan]

The Cafe Antarctique, Fambridge, England 2009

The "Antarctique" was Sam's favourite student cafe. A little pricier than most, but it served the best coffee, and he loved their bacon-topped pork pies.

As he sat near the window, the autumnal sunshine matched his mood. He'd been apprehensive about his first term at University; doing well at school didn't automatically mean he'd do well here. But he was getting good marks on his essays, especially on Professor Thomas' course, and felt he was shrugging off some of his boyhood shyness. Even so, making friends here wasn't easy.

Glancing out of the window he gave an involuntary smile. Two young ladies he'd seen at Prof Thomas' lectures were passing by. They halted for a moment and the blonde one (he'd overheard someone once calling her Catherine ) said something to the dark-haired Welsh one (he didn't know her name). They were both wearing fashionable woollen coats and their pretty faces were beneath the kind of cloche hats favoured by female students. After a moment's further hesitation they came inside.

The cafe was crowded; the two ladies looked in his direction and walked towards him.

"Excuse me" said the blonde one "Would you mind if we joined you?"

He was alone at a table with four chairs; it was respectable establishment and in broad daylight. He could hardly refuse.

"By all means , please sit down"

The two young ladies held out their hands. The blonde spoke first.

"We have of course seen you in the lecture theatre - my name is Catherine Lancaster and this is my friend Carys Lewis. Having discovered we have the same initials, we have stuck together and face every discouragement here together."

Sam shook each of their hands.

"Sam Winterbottom. I'm sorry to hear you are feeling discouraged. Is University life not meeting your expectations?"

As Catherine and Carys ordered coffee and fish pie, they gave Sam a doleful account of how they had found their first few weeks here. Their college accomodation was inconveniently placed at the edge of town; their tutors regarded them as frivolous females ; the St Osyth college library wasn't the equal of any of the other, male colleges ; they felt awkward about asking questions in the lectures ;their studies were suffering and they were getting mediocre marks for their essays.

"Forgive me for asking Miss Lancaster, I'm surprised you didn't try one of the other universities. Why not Woodstock? After all, it has four women's colleges, I believe - Fambridge only has St Osyth's"

Catherine made a face.

"I have spent my life IN Woodstock, Mr Winterbottom. My father is a lecturer in medicine there. If I had applied to one of the delightful ladies' colleges of Oxfordshire I would have been seen not merely as a frivolous female , but as a frivolous University hanger-on. As my parents would not let me attend London lest I become a Freethinker or Bohemian or have a Love Child, nor Brigstowe, lest I elope with a Mohawk or Mohican, I chose this place."

"And what about yourself, Miss Lewis?"

"I won a scholarship here, Mr Winterbottom. It was the best option for me"

Sam was enjoying the rare, almost unique treat of having two attractive ladies conversing with him. And not only were they attractive, they were each impressive in their own way. Catherine seemed forthright and determined, whilst Carys must be very bright indeed to win a scholarship when English was probably her second language.

The conversation turned to their studies. Carys bemoaned the outcome of one of her essays.

"All Dr Edwards wrote at the bottom was C+ and something like " You have not grasped how the Biblical Canon was established" . She muttered a couple of words in Welsh and added "I am the first member of my family to go to University. I am expected to do well. I am not happy about this Mr Winterbottom."

Catherine smiled at him

"You are not afraid to ask questions of Professor Thomas, even though I think you often know the answers already. I am sure that Carys and I would benefit from discussing the lectures with you afterwards. Do you think it possible to meet with you here after the next lecture tomorrow for a cup of coffee and a chat?"

Sam was ready to say yes before she had finished her question.

[vorkosigan]

Lecture 7 - The Koran

In this lecture we reflect on the founding of the fourth noble monotheistic faith - Islam. Followers of Islam believe that the Koran was revealed to the prophet Mohammed over a period of approximately twenty-three years from 610 AD.

We will consider the remarkable military success of the Arab generals under Abu Bakr and Umar, who , though faced by two powerful and allied empires in Constantinople and Persia, nevertheless won a series of brilliant defensive victories which established the independence of the Calpihate of Arabia.

We will also briefly consider how small numbers of Muslims have emigrated to different parts of the world and provided physicians and scholars out of all proportion to their actual mumbers.

[TimeJockey]

Oh, this one is fascinating! I look forward to more, especially the means of having the Odes admitted to the NT.

[vorkosigan]

Originally Posted by TimeJockey

Oh, this one is fascinating! I look forward to more, especially the means of having the Odes admitted to the NT.

If we try to look objectively at our own time line, it seems a little surprising that the Book of Revelations was included in the NT -it's so different from all the other books, however it was considered to be authored by John and was given apostolic status.... perhaps in Maurice's TL it became accepted that the Odes Of Solomon - which have some parallels with Johannine theology - came from the same author....

Plausible?

[Boto von Ageduch]

Interesting idea. Consider me subscribed.

Originally Posted by vorkosigan

The Odes of Solomon are real in OTL, and the extract is a real quote.

Is it the collection of four chants which I might know under the name "Psalms of Salomon"?
Which today are considered as originating from a Pharisee sphere?
(I remember a verse along the lines "the sinner falls, and curses himself ... the righteous man falls, and rises again")

Originally Posted by Dathi THorfinnsson

Your biggest problem is the criteria for selecting books of the New Testament.

They had to be 'written by an apostle' and be 'the Word of God'.

Originally Posted by vorkosigan

If we try to look objectively at our own time line, it seems a little surprising that the Book of Revelations was included in the NT

There is a difference between what later generations dared to use as a vindication, and the (largely obscure) process of canon forming itself.

Most likely the New Testament consists exactly of those books which were read most frequently in service in the majority of communities.
Intriguingly, this selection seemed to converge in distant and largely independent cities! Otherwise, the notion 'canon' would be much more problematic or even non-existent ...
Using a piece of scripture in service implies its acceptance as "Word of God" to some extent, even if not in so many words and without theological nitpicking.


Moreover, many Biblical books are attributed not to Apostles, but to disciples of Apostles.
And to be honest, to imagine that Hebrews was written by Paul seems a faint excuse for having it in ...



This having been said, there is little reason why Christian communities should deem that book(let) so precious. It is plausible that many chanted these Psalms in service - but to be treated like other New-Testament books there should by some reference to Jesus Christ - in a more direct way than in, say, the canonical Psalms ...

Originally Posted by vorkosigan

Bearing in mind all the spritual fervour in the Byzantine empire over something like icons, I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if there was something in the Bible that encouraged an able Byzantine emperor to treat his soldiers a bit more carefully and to declare slavery as unchristian.

Hm, I wonder what a few additional scripture verses saying something similar to dozens of others would move ...