Two Thousand Years Ago: The World at the Time of Jesus

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2004 by Sinitiere, Phillip Luke

Two Thousand Years Ago: The World at the Time of Jesus. By Charles A. Frazee. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, viii 248, $24.00.

Mention the world of Jesus, and one typically thinks of Palestine, Jerusalem, or maybe even Greco-Roman culture. Rarely, therefore, do people or events outside of the greater Mediterranean region come to mind as one thinks of Jesus in a first-century context. Charles Frazee, in Two Thousand Years Ago, roundly challenges such a view and takes an innovative and engaging look at global events during the early Christian period. In essence, Frazee broadly asks, "What else went on in the world during Christ's lifetime?" Frazee also interestingly considers the response of other cultures, had Christ's life and teaching emerged outside of a Greco-Roman and Jewish context.

Predictably, Frazee begins by offering a thorough overview of the Mediterranean region including virtually all of North Africa. These chapters are factual yet concise and set the social, political, and religious contexts from which Christianity sprang and within which it grew and flourished. Frazee then covers greater Europe and considers the life and livelihood of the Britons, Celts, Germans, and Slavs, to name but a few.

Frazee next discusses the various groups who resided in sub-Saharan Africa and artfully plumbs the depth of the Kushites, for instance, an industrious people who communicated with Caesar Augustus and later formed the foundation of Ethiopian society and culture. Frazee innovatively suggests that had Christ lived in sub-Saharan Africa, the Christian message might have remained an oral tradition confined essentially to "local" disciples.

Frazee also spends several chapters detailing the politics and cultures of greater Asia, noting, for instance, the remarkable sophistication of Chinese culture, the archaeological voices of ancient Korea, and the ancient and industrious Japanese laboring masses. Frazee moves from Asia to the complicated structure of ancient Indian society, from the political and economic remnants of Alexander the Great's travels in the fourth century HC to the Kushans, Keralas, Cholas, and the Pandvas, diverse peoples who inhabited first-century India.

After short but lucid chapters on the Arctic, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, Frazee devotes considerable attention to the complex people of ancient North, Central, and South America. Frazee deftly reminds the reader that, unlike many cultures, knowledge about and study of inhabitants from the first-century Americas comes primarily from the painstaking and careful work of archaeologists.

Frazee's unique approach faithfully accomplishes what it sets out to do: present a broad overview of world history during Christ's lifetime. This approach places Christ in a new world, as it were, one that fits nicely into contemporary discussions of global history. In addition, numerous annotated pictures of cultural artifacts enhance Frazee's commendably readable narrative. For example, one notices "familiar" artifacts like Roman coins or the terra cotta army of Qin Shi Huangdi. One is also equally enriched by images of an Eskimo shaman's mask and African head sculptures. Adding further texture, Frazee includes short "further facts" and "daily life" readings. For instance, Frazee offers the "further fact" that "the Ainu [Japanese] were one of the few ancient peoples to believe that humans could legitimately argue with the gods, and even deprive a god of its status if it caused humans undue harm for no apparent reason" (p. 143). In a "daily life" selection, Frazee observes that in the first century BC julius Caesar published the Acta Diurna, roughly the equivalent of a daily newspaper. Finally, Frazee further unlocks the mysteries of the past by including a unique selection of primary source quotes, including the legend of Issa (Jesus) visiting ancient Buddhist monks in India (as told by a nineteenth-century Russian physician who visited India) and a Polynesian creation story (as recorded by nineteenth-century British author Sir George Gray).

While Two Thousand Years Ago is eminently useful for undergraduates (or even an advanced college preparatory setting), the keen reader is surprised at Frazee's slim introduction, the disappointing omission of a concluding chapter, and the stark absence of a bibliography. But then again the primary audience for Two Thousand Years Ago is not the seasoned scholar. These modest critiques aside, Frazee is bold to ask "What if?" questions that situate Jesus in non-Mediterranean cultures of the first century and thereby suggest provocative multicultural comparisons and carefully open up a new field of historiographical inquiry.

Those interested in both early Christianity and global history hope Frazee considers writing an enhanced scholarly version of Two Thousand Years Ago, drawing on his authoritative knowledge of world history and straddling the disciplines of archaeology, linguistics, political science, ethnography, economics, geography, art, anthropology, history, demography, and biblical studies.