500-430 B.C. - Confucius, Buddha and the Greeks

Feature photo: Erechtheum in the Acropolis, Athens

 

500 B.C.

The Mayan Civilization’s cities now possess monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco facades; The Mayans don’t call themselves "the Mayans," and, at this point in time, don't have a sense of common identity or political unity (today their descendants are collectively called Mayan and number about 6 million individuals and speak more than 28 surviving Mayan languages), the Mayans view the world as hostile and governed by unpredictable deities (Wikipedia)

In east Africa, they are already producing steel (History of the World, Map by Map, pg. 47)

In India, the Vedas (religious texts that inform the religion of Hinduism) are completed around this year; They were started about 1500 B.C. (worldhistory.org

Heracleitus of Ephesus (now in modern-day Turkey) sets forth the tenet that nature or the universe is controlled by the logos, the Word or reason, which is Truth and synonymous with the godhead; This tenet will become the basis for Stoic philosophy (The Druids, pg. 170)

The Celts have developed a new art form, La Tène (after a site in Switzerland); It is much less restrained than its predecessor, and is a kind of baroque development, all curves and spirals and luxuriant plant and animal outgrowths; At this time too, the Celts are beginning to come under the notice of Classical authors: Herodotos, writing in the mid-400's, will describe the Keltoi as tall (by Mediterranean standards) and with light skin and eyes, boastful and vainglorious but demonic in battle, childlike and ostentatious but hospitable, fond of hunting and feasting and music and poetry and glittering jewelry and bright colors (Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Introduction)

 

499 B.C.

Ancient India begins (5th to 4th centuries) 

Gautama Buddha is born (somewhere in the 5th or 4th centuries)

 

495 B.C.

Pythagoras, the Ionian Greek philosopher and founder of Pythagoreanism, dies

 

486 B.C.

RULERS & ROYALTY: Darius I dies and Xerxes I (Ahaseurus in the Bible, book of Esther) becomes ruler of the Persian Achaemenid Empire

 

 

 

484 B.C.  

Herodotus, the Greek historian, is born in Halicarnassus, Caria, Asia Minor, Persian Empire (modern day Turkey) he becomes the author of The Histories, which is a detailed record of his inquiry on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars

 

480 B.C.   

The Battle of Salamis

 

479 B.C.   

Confucius is thought to have died in China in this year

  

475 B.C.

Confucius’ “selected sayings” in the book Analects (or Lunyu) is believed to have been compiled between now and 221 B.C.; Analects is a collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher and his contemporaries 

 

474 B.C.

Around this year, the Celts defeat the Etruscans near Ticino and are in total control of the plains of northern Italy (The Druids, pg. 26)

 

470 B.C. 

Socrates is born in Greece

 

465 B.C.

RULERS & ROYALTY: Xerxes I dies and Artaxerxes I becomes the ruler of the Persian Achaemenid Empire

 

460 B.C.  

Hippocrates the “Father of Medicine” is born in Cos, Greece

 

458 B.C. 

Second return to Jerusalem under Ezra (Ezra 7:1)

 

447 B.C.  

Construction starts on the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena (during the height of the Athenian Empire), Paul visits there later and “looked carefully at their objects of worship” and then spoke to them using the alter to the “Unknown God” as a starting point

 

445 B.C.   

March 14, King Artexerxes of Persia, after speaking with Nehemiah, issues decree for Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their city (Neh. 2:1), this starts the prophetic clock for when Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (April 6th 32 AD), third return to Jerusalem under Nehemiah and Jerusalem’s city wall is rebuilt

 

430 B.C.

Herodotus writes his book, The Histories, which is considered the founding work of history of Western literature,

“It is possible, he wrote, that there were islands called the Cassiterides (meaning ‘tin islands’ [Britain]), but ‘I have never been able to get an assurance from an eyewitness that there is any sea on the further side of Europe.’ Nevertheless, he acknowledged, ‘tin and amber do certainly come to us from the ends of the earth’, and there is surely some echo here of a trading route linking Herodotus’ world with the far west, for the Baltic was a source of amber and Cornwall did indeed, suggests the evidence, export tin. But for Herodotus, these were fanciful travellers’ tales, to be doubtfully bracketed with what he describes next—a race of one-eyed men inhabiting the far north, who obtain gold by stealing it from griffins.”

(Under Another Sky pg. 8)

Malachi writes his book and then 400 years (approx.) of silence—or Intertestmental Period begins,

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

(Malachi 4: 5-6)

The angel of the Lord quotes part of this verse to Zechariah in the temple when he comes to tell him that his wife will be having a baby named John, (Luke 1:17)
see also Malachi 3:1 “See I will send my messenger who will prepare the way for me.”