From the
Winchester Bible, showing the seven ages within the opening letter "I" of the book of
Genesis. This image is the final age, the
Last Judgement. For images of the other six ages see External links below.
The
Six Ages of the World is a
Christian historical
periodization outline first written about by
Saint Augustine circa 400 AD. It is based along Christian religious events, from the birth of
Adam to the events of
Revelation. The six ages of history, with each age lasting approximately a 1000 years, were widely believed and in use throughout the
Middle Ages, and until the
Enlightenment, the writing of history was mostly the filling out of all or some part of this outline.
The outline accounts for Seven Ages, just as there are seven days of the week, with the Seventh Age being eternal rest after the
Final Judgement and
End Times, just as the seventh day of the week is reserved for rest. It was normally called the Six Ages of the World because they were the ages of the world, of history, while the Seventh Age was not of this world and lasting forever.
Six Ages
The Six Ages are best described in the words of Saint Augustine, found in
De catechizandis rudibus (
On the catechizing of the uninstructed), Chapter 22:
- The First Age: "The first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was the first man that was made, down to Noah, who constructed the ark at the time of the flood."
- The Second Age: "..extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations.."
- The Third Age: "For the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king."
- The Fourth Age: "The fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia."
- The Fifth Age: "The fifth from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ."
- The Sixth Age: "With His [Jesus Christ's] coming the sixth age has entered on its process."
Theory
Saint Augustine taught that there are six ages of the world in his
De catechizandis rudibus (
On the Catechising of the Uninstructed). Since 321 AD, when
Constantine legalized Christianity, former pagan worshipers needed a way to learn about Christianity and Augustine used his Catechetical document as a way to communicate and educate people about Christianity.
Augustine was not the first to conceive of the Six Ages, which had its roots in the Jewish tradition, but he was the first to write about it with authority.
The theory originates from a passage in
II Peter:
"But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (II Peter 3:8) From this it was taken to mean that mankind would live through six 1,000 year periods (or "days"), with the seventh being eternity in heaven.
Christian scholars believed it was possible to determine how long man had been alive, starting with Adam, by counting forward how long each generation had lived up to the time of
Jesus, based on the ages recorded in the Bible. While the exact age of the earth was a matter of biblical interpretive debate, it was generally agreed man was somewhere in the last and final thousand years, the Sixth Age, and the final
Seventh Age could happen at any time. The world was seen as an old place, and the future would be much shorter than the past; a common image was of the world growing old.
While Augustine was the first to write of the Six Ages with authority, early Christians prior to Augustine found no end of evidence in the Jewish traditions of the
Old Testament, and initially set the date for the
End of the World at the year 500.
Hippolytus wrote that when carefully examined, the measurements of the
Ark of the Covenant added up to five and one-half
cubits, meaning five and half thousand years. Since Jesus had been born in the "sixth hour", or halfway through a day (or, five hundred years into an Age), and since five kingdoms (five thousand years) had already fallen according to Revelations, plus the half day of Jesus (the body of Jesus replacing the Ark of the Jews), it meant that five-thousand five-hundred years had already passed when Jesus was born, and another 500 years would mark the end of the world. An alternative scheme had set the date to the year 202, but when this date passed without event, people expected the end in the year 500. By the 3rd century Christians no longer believed the End would occur in their lifetime, as was so common among the earliest Christians, the End had slipped over the horizon, for the moment.
The Ages reflect the seven days of creation, of which the last day is the rest of the
Sabbath, illustrating the human journey to find eternal rest with God, a common Christian narrative.
However, given the symbolism of Sunday as not just the first but also the "Eighth Day" of the Resurrection, some have suggested splitting the period from Abraham to David into two periods divided at Moses. This would mean that the Babylonian Captivity would correspond to Friday (a day with penitential connotations) the Church Age would be the Sabbath of History, since no new Revelation is given, and the New and Eternal Age after the Second Coming would be the "Eighth Day," not the seventh, the New and Everlasting Sunday, not Saturday.
See also
