Tag: History

Byzantine Travel Journal: Day 1 (Istanbul)

Thanks to the genius of modern of travel, we boarded a plane in the USA and after 18 hours of travel, including two stops to change planes we were arriving halfway around the world in Istanbul, Turkey f/k/a Constantinople f/k/a Byzantium. And as amazing at it would have been to Constantine, Theodosius or Justinian to know the future would provide such speedy travel, I suspect 1,000 years from now our descendants will look back and consider primitive the notion of cramming 300 people into a tin can with wings and adding thrust to move it through the air from place to another.

On the drive from the Istanbul airport to our hotel we got our first up-close look at Istanbul. I’d seen pictures on the Internet before arriving and had a pretty good idea of what to expect, but I was still surprised it wasn’t more advanced like modern cities in the West. Granted, we drove through the old city and haven’t spent much time in the modern part, but still I thought I’d find a more prosperous-looking 21st century city than the one we saw.

Perhaps my surprise is a result of the contrast between modern Istanbul and the awe-inspiring picture of Constantinople various authors have helped paint in my mind, a city that caused visitors a thousand years ago to say things like,“We knew not whether we were on heaven or earth” and “…on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty,” and “we only know that God dwells there among men.” When it was the heart of Christendom, a city devoted to King Jesus, a city whose rulers were sometimes criticized for loving theology more than governing, it was a city of unimaginable prosperity, learning and cultural leadership. But we are just on our first day, and we will see more tomorrow.

Today was a day to get acclimated, get some rest and get ready for our first day of touring tomorrow. We did have a nice dinner while enjoying a view of the Bosphorus (see picture shot with my iPhone 4), probably not too far from where Darius I had a pontoon bridge constructed and crossed 2,500 years and crossed in pursuit of the Scythians.  Darius’s son, Xerxes (see Esther), would later repeat the feat in 480 B.C. much further south at Hellespont, beyond the Sea of Marmara, where he crossed on his way to fight Leonidas and the 300 at Thermopylae.  These waters, separating the East from the West,  have been a pivotal venue in history.

Until tomorrow…  GS

Kingdom Hero: Vladimir I Of Kiev

Courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/ly-ly

Vladimir Sviatoslavovich was born in 958 A.D. near Pskov, a city in Northwest Russia, about 12 miles east of the Estonian border.  As the son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev, a warrior prince of Kieven Rus, Vladimir was the 10th century Rus equivalent of royalty.  By the time Vladimir ascended to power he was a committed pagan, boasting multiple wives and eight hundred concubines.  Yes, eight hundred, which probably makes him second only to Wilt Chamberlain.

Vladimir erected many pagan statues and shrines and in 983 A.D. , after a military victory, decided to show his gratitude to his pagan deity benefactors by way of a human sacrifice.  A young Christian named Loann was chosen, and when Loann’s father Fyodor protested and preached Christianity to Vladimir and his army, the multitude was so incensed they rushed on Fyodor and killed him and Loann.  Fyodor and Loann would later come to be considered the first Christian martyrs in Russia.

The whole incident with Fyodor and Loann left a lasting impression on Vladimir, who, whether driven by his guilty conscience, a desire for truth, or responding to the beckoning of the Holy Spirit we do not know, in 987 A.D. sent out representatives to those nations around him to inquire about their religions.  They inquired of the Jews, Muslims and Catholics, but Vladimir was not inspired by what he found until his representatives returned from Constantinople and a visit to Hagia Sophia and reported the following:

“We knew not whether we were on heaven or earth.  For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss to describe it.  We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations.  For we cannot forget that beauty.”

In 988 A.D., Vladimir converted to Christianity.  He then began removing pagan monuments and building churches throughout his kingdom. Although there were Christians in Rus before Vladimir’s conversion, he is rightly credited with paving the way for the kingdom of God to take root in what would become Russia, and for that, the GOTK blog grants him the appellation of kingdom hero. GS

The Most Valuable Book In The World

The Bible is certainly the most valuable book in the kingdom of God.  It’s the law book of the kingdom, the King’s revelation of Himself and a guidebook for living.  And if we were to do a poll of the citizens of the kingdom of God, I suspect we would have near unanimity on this point.  But even non-Christians have to admit the Bible is the most valuable book in the world.  Not just any Bible but the Gutenberg Bible.

Johannes Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz in 1398.  He later moved to Strasbourg.  At the time, books were only owned by the wealthy because they were very expensive.  Books had to be copied by hand, and it would take a monk, for example, a year to copy one Bible.  You can imagine then the relative cost of purchasing it or any other book.  Gutenberg’s dream was to produce a machine that would enable him to produce books much faster and cheaper so common people could afford to buy and read books.

Gutenberg experimented with different ideas, ultimately settling upon the idea of using moveable metal letters that could be set up in a page format, inked, pressed to paper or vellum to mass produce a page, and then rearranged to print a different page.  This was a big leap from hand-copying or using a single carved wooden block to create a page of type.

In 1455, Gutenberg printed a full Latin Bible, about 180 copies, some in paper and some in vellum.  The world would never be then same.  The printing press made the Protestant Reformation possible because it made the word of God accessible to the common man, not just the wealthy and the clergy.  The printing press is the reason you can read your Bible in the privacy of your home before going to work rather than waiting to have a priest or pastor read it to you on Sunday morning. The printing press aided the expansion of the kingdom of God like no other invention in history.

Now here’s the rest of the story.  Gutenberg had borrowed money from a wealthy attorney named Fust to finance his printing press business.  When Fust suspected Gutenberg was using the money for something other than his business, he sued, won and received as part of the judgment Gutenberg’s Bible printing workshop and half of all the printed Bibles, leaving Gutenberg essentially bankrupt.  Sounds like Fust was a pretty good lawyer.

Today, there are 21 complete Gutenberg Bibles still in existence.  The estimated value of a Gutenberg Bible on the open market is $25-$35 million, making it the most valuable book in the world.  What’s ironic is that Gutenberg set out to create a Bible affordable to the common man, and in so doing he created the most expensive book in the history of mankind.  GS

What I’m Reading For Byzantium Trip

AVVKY3UA4DWD

In a few weeks I leave for a trip to Byzantium.  Of course it’s not called that anymore.  It’s current handle is Istanbul, and as was discussed in a recent blog post, it was heart of Christendom for 1,123 years.

We will begin with 3 days in Istanbul, along with one day in Cappadocia, before starting a Black Sea cruise that includes a stop in Ephesus before ending in Athens.

I’ve wanted to do this trip for years, and in preparation for it (and the blogging I plan on doing during the trip) I’ve been reading about the Byzantine Empire.  Here’s what I’ve recently read and/or am current reading in preparation for the trip:

  1. A Short History of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich
  2. The Secret History, Procopius
  3. Justinian’s Flea, William Rosen
  4. Istanbul: The Imperial City, John Freely
  5. The Later Roman Empire, Ammianus Marcellinus
  6. Theodosius: The Empire At Bay, Stephen Williams & Gerard Friell
  7. Constantine and Eusebius, Timothy D. Barnes
  8. The Alexiad, Anna Komnene

For those looking for a good introduction to the Byzantine Empire, I strongly recommend Norwich’s book.  It’s well-written and tells the fascinating story of Christianity’s first experiment in empire in a way both engaging and interesting.  This book is actually an abridged version of Norwich’s three volume treatise on Byzantium.

As the kingdom of God expands and Christians are elevated to positions of authority they will be foolish not to learn from the curriculum provided us by the past.  The Byzantine Empire provides a rich course.  GS

The First Christian Empire

It began on Monday May 11, 330, when it was officially founded by Constantine the Great, and it ended on Tuesday May 29, 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II breached its walls and conquered its capital.  Its one thousand one hundred twenty three years are a study in Christian government and empire.  I am referring to the Byzantine Empire.

Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 A.D. marks the victory of Christianity over Roman paganism.  Constantine then faced a question unique in history up to that point, “What does it mean to be a Christian ruler and a Christian empire?” The eighty-seven Byzantine rulers who would occupy the Byzantine throne after him over the next millennium would grapple with the same question.  If we were to judge them solely by the longevity of the empire they stewarded, we would have to conclude they did well.  But there is more to commend the Byzantines than mere longevity.

John Julius Norwich writes, “The Byzantines were…a deeply religious society in which illiteracy–at least among the middle and upper classes–was virtually unknown, and in which one Emperor after another was renowned for his scholarship; a society which alone preserved much of the heritage of the Greek and Latin antiquity, during these dark centuries in the West when the lights of learning were almost extinguished; a society, finally, which produced the astonishing phenomenon of Byzantine art.”

Notwithstanding the glories of the Byzantine Empire, ultimately the kingdom of God is not defined or delimited by earthly empire, and, therefore, Constantinople’s sacking in 1453, while a historical tragedy did not impede the advance of the kingdom of God.  In fact, as I have suggested in another post, Kingdom History: 1453-1455, the fall of Constantinople may have been necessary in God’s larger plan for the advance of the kingdom of God.  GS