The Bible is silent on most of Jesus’ years before he began his ministry. Many theories, including more than a few strange ones, have been floated about the “missing years.” These include travels to just about everywhere in the world. Some apocryphal accounts claim to have details of his childhood, though they date long after his time (Anne Rice did conjure up an interesting novel that was in part based on these stories). One of the more plausible legends has Jesus visiting Britain with his “uncle” Joseph of Arimathea. Local legends claim Jesus was there, but the debate centers around how old those legends are and if they were created to attract pilgrims. Nevertheless, it is an interesting possibility. See Glyn S. Lewis’ book for more (even he wanders into some strange speculations at times).
Disasters: Could you Survive?
Ancient history is full of disaster accounts: Floods, comets, volcanoes. Cities wiped out. Earth seemed much more chaotic back in the day. Have we simply been lucky or just have been in a dry spell? Check out these possibilities: California Superstorm, Poison Clouds From Space and America’s Potentially Most Dangerous Earthquake Zone.
Maybe being prepared for something other than the next snow storm is not such a bad idea? Would today’s pampered, unprepared people survive “biblical” disasters? Or are you going to wait for the government to come save you? Perhaps you could take control of your own future: Ready.gov & Prepare.org.
Lost Worlds
Even here in the 21st Century, we are still finding lost or forgotten worlds. It’s amazing that these giant cave systems have survived countless ages of geologic activity. Funny, though, how many lack any significant remains of human activity. On the other hand, there are legends like those in South America that claim there are many hundreds of miles of subterranean tunnels once used by the Incas to hide from their enemies and stockpile gold.
Did the Chinese Beat Columbus?
A few years back the book 1421 created a bit of a controversy in that it suggested the Chinese had discovered North America before Columbus. While people were arguing over the book’s details, others asked a simple question. Is it so hard to believe that an advanced empire with established seafaring skills couldn’t end up in the Americas? Many came out and supported the theory with their own evidences. It was almost like a taboo subject that scholars secretly pondered until 1421 changed things. Still, most don’t think it’s a slam-dunk case for Chinese visitors. Is it simply the resistance to new ideas? Or is the evidence not strong enough? In either case, another fascinating book on the subject is The Island of Seven Cities. It puts forth the case for a Chinese settlement in Canada. Perhaps there was.
Lost in the Jungle
British explorer Percy Fawcett was one of the last of the era that inspired Hollywood’s swashbucklers like Indiana Jones. Fawcett also became one of the 20th Century’s most famous disappearances when he vanished into the Amazon jungle in 1925. He was searching for a lost city he named “City of Z.” Perhaps the fabled El Dorado, a lost Inca stronghold or an outpost of Atlantis refugees. He seemed to think he knew where it was. Eighty-five years later, the details of his demise are still unclear. The book The Lost City of Z has brought back this forgotten explorer back to life for modern readers. Exploration Fawcett is a reprint of Fawcett’s own journals from his adventures in South America up until his final trek. These are fascinating windows into the lost era of explorations and the wild and dangerous southern continent of those days.
2012, Just Another Year
It’s like Y2K all over again. People are making a fortune writing and talking about 2012. The movie 2012 was entertaining, if not largely implausible. Really, are you going to escape an exploding supervolcano? Or you can breeze through Apocalypse 2012 which is an amusing book that looks into all of the cataclysms we are overdue for and those who peddle end time theories. In any case, this whole “the world is going to end in 2012” started with the Mayan calendar.
The ancient Mayan calendar resets itself at the end of 2012. Technically it is known as the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar and once it reaches the end of the latest 144,000 day period on December 20, 2012, it will reset to zero.
Then what?
Well, nothing. The Mayans didn’t claim the world was going to end.
Sounds like another Y2K bust. On the other hand, humanity hasn’t faced a civilization-wide disaster in some time. Maybe not in 2012, but we have been living scott-free for quite awhile now. The more we study ancient legends and the geology of the planet the more signs of global catastrophe we find. The last Ice Age and the Neolithic era of humanity may have ended because of an impact event (see Cycles of Cosmic Catastrophes). There’s a lot of debate about that one, but many ancient accounts seem to be referring to some major disaster.
In fact, there seems to have been more than one. The end of the Bronze Age may have been hastened by a similar event that ignited volcanoes around the globe and civil unrest. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is about when the events of the Exodus are dated (see The Miracles of Exodus). A global crisis would explain why the mighty Egyptians half-heartedly pursued the Hebrews and let them go to begin with. There’s also a biblical reference to Sea Peoples showing up about this time doing the invasion thing. Displaced from some destroyed land perhaps?
Maybe instead of worrying about 2012, people should be looking to the past to see how mankind made it through such disasters, how they shaped us and what we can learn.
Afterall, when we have localized disasters like hurricanes, floods and oil spills, we have nothing but chaos and confusion. What would we do if something really big happened?
The Aztec Christmas Flower
The Poinsettia was introduced from Mexico in the early 1800s by Joel Roberts Poinsett. Franciscan friars had been using them in their Christmas decorations. The star-shaped leaf of the plant was said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem. The red leaves (yes, they are leaves) represented the blood of Jesus. Legends had arisen of a young girl involved with miracles occurring with the plant. Long before that the Aztecs had used them to make dyes and medication. They also used them in their human-sacrifice rituals, the leaves being a reminder of those who were sacrificed. Interesting to ponder that this symbol of Christmas was once part of such a terrible tradition from long centuries ago. Though, ironically, we still make the blood association. The plant’s supposed poison qualities, however, are a myth (doesn’t mean it’s edible, however).
Religion Came First
Believers of the Bible have long argued religion or belief in God existed from the beginning as the Bible would indicate. Others have theorized religion came later after man developed civilization. Why would they think this? Mostly it would seem because they don’t want to believe the Bible. Archaeological finds in Turkey are challenging such unfounded theories:
This theory reverses a standard chronology of human origins, in which primitive man went through a “Neolithic revolution” 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. In the old model, shepherds and farmers appeared first, and then created pottery, villages, cities, specialized labor, kings, writing, art, and—somewhere on the way to the airplane—organized religion. As far back as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, thinkers have argued that the social compact of cities came first, and only then the “high” religions with their great temples, a paradigm still taught in American high schools.
Religion now appears so early in civilized life—earlier than civilized life, if Schmidt is correct—that some think it may be less a product of culture than a cause of it, less a revelation than a genetic inheritance. The archaeologist Jacques Cauvin once posited that “the beginning of the gods was the beginning of agriculture,” and Göbekli may prove his case.
Lost Civilizations Under Persian Gulf
In the news are discoveries of civilizations that lived in areas now flooded by the Persian Gulf. This interesting for a number of reasons. One, finds in this region continue to show people were sophisticated early on. People didn’t start out dumb or animal-like. Two, past discoveries of settlements and dead rivers under the Persian Gulf have given rise to the possible location of the Garden of Eden. Others have seen the flooding of the Gulf as the source of the Noah and other flood accounts. But the flooding of the Gulf doesn’t seem catastrophic enough to be the source of those writings. We will take a look at a later date at some of those and draw out the history. For now consider that there were many millienia of history before scrolls, books and other records. We have only scratched the surface.
Christmas Past
Most people don’t realize that during Christmas they are surrounded by symbols that reach back into history. Take the Christmas tree, for example.
Centuries ago, Vikings and other peoples brought the evergreen into the house to bring life to the long winter. Today, we bring it in at the beginning of winter where it freshens the house before we are trapped inside until spring.
The tradition would be adapted by Christians, using the living tree to show the birth of Christ. Often topped with a star or angel and at times equated with the Tree of Life. Many traditions arose, from originally hanging it upside down, to Martin Luther supposedly coming up with lighting the true. But Christmas trees didn’t really catch on in America until the mid 1800s.
Some still don’t like the idea that it was once used by pagan cultures. However, the standard by which ex-pagan symbols are good and which are not is not always consistent. Many forms of crosses were used in various cultures (some like the Celtic cross were absorbed) and the Easter bunny had some mystical origins. What it once was doesn’t mean it is that now (the genetic fallacy for you logic buffs). Old signs and practices were occasionally appropriated, assuming they could be redefined in a way that could be used. In other words, some old tradition of launching people over a cliff wouldn’t fit in.
At this point the Christmas tree has become a fully Christmas tradition. Though many people who aren’t Christians still put up one as not to miss out on the gift-giving. Just want the perks of the religion and not the religion. Kind of like if Christians celebrated Hanukkah just to get more gifts.
So think about that as you gaze at your tree. There stands something that reaches back into centuries of traditions among thousands of people in many cultures. A piece of history, a message from the past, right in your living room.
[For more Christmas history, check out Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas.]
Darrick Dean 