Canons of History

The canons of modern history differ significantly from those of ancient history. Both modern historians and ancient historians utilized various sources in order to construct a narrative account that was faithful to the event or series of events under consideration. However, unlike modern historians, ancient historians often favored oral sources over written ones. Written sources were utilized and incorporated into histories, but information obtained directly through person-to-person communication was considered more trustworthy that that obtained from a written source.

Standards of Documentation

Even though ancient historians, like modern historians, aspired to produce truthful accounts of past events, they did not operate with the concept of “facts” the way modern historians traditionally have – what constitutes being a faithful account of past events was measured by a different standard in antiquity that it is in modernity.The reasons for the difference between that way the ancient world and modern societies report and preserve their pasts are complex and difficult to explain, but at one reason was people in antiquity had few ways to record any given moment at the point it occurred.

There were no telephones, tape recorders, cameras, or video cameras. Neither were there photocopy machines, computers, or fax machines. And, since no such thing as journalism existed yet, people in antiquity did not typically take notes at important events. Thus, the gathering, retrieval, and cross-checking of data was an entirely different matter for ancient historians than it is for modern ones. For example, reporting who said what, when, and to whom would be a difficult thing to do accurately without the benefits of modern technology.

Greco-Roman Period

Historical writings of the Greco-Roman period often contain the text of lengthy speeches given by key figures at key moments. How did ancient historians know exactly what was said if they weren’t present (or even if they were)?

From Thucydides, the 5th century BCE Greek historian who wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War, we know that historians composed speeches themselves. There was no expectation to record the words spoken on a given occasion verbatim. Rather, the author needed to convey what the figure would have plausibly said under the circumstances. From oral traditions about what sort of person he or she was, as well as oral reports about the circumstances in which they found themselves, the ancient historian composed a speech for that person on that occasion.

Paul Was Not A Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle
Pamela Eisenbaum

Ancient Israel 

The Christian cultural stream has its source in the traditions of of ancient Israel whose cultural stream eventually gave rise to three broad traditions – rabbinical Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each claimed the patriarchs and Israelite prophets as part of their own tradition.

Even the pre-Christian Jewish stream was already much more multi-cultural in origin than the Holy Scriptures tend to imply. From the 6th century BCE onwards, it was influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism and Greek Hellenism. Much of these two lives on incognito in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic streams.

Influence of Zoroastrianism

From the influence of the Zoroastrian tradition have come such ideas as:

• the Last Judgment (preceded by a general resurrection)
• an after-life with rewards and punishments
• the concept of a personal Devil
• the writing of our life story in a heavenly book of life
• the naming of angels with specific functions

Birth of Christianity 

The influence of Jesus of Nazareth had the effect of adding such a fresh burst of vitality to the Jewish cultural stream that it caused part of it to break away and form a new stream, which we now commonly refer to as the Christian tradition. Christianity took with it the Jewish Scriptures, the monotheistic God, and the institution of the synagogue.

At the beginning of the Christian era, the Jewish tradition had no intention of giving birth to the Christian stream. The new Jewish sect known as “the Christians” was regarded as a heretical movement even though its key figure, Jesus of Nazareth, and his chief interpreter, Paul, were both solidly Jewish. In addition, a number of early Christians didn’t see their movement as the abandonment of the Jewish tradition, but as its fulfillment.

Christianity without God
Lloyd Geering