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 Judeo-Christian historical periodization outline first written about with authority by Saint Augustine around the year 400. It is based along Christian religious events, from the birth of Adam to the events of Revelation. The six ages of history was 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 two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... Image:Michelangelo - Fresco of the Last Judgment. ... Judeo-Christian (also spelled Judaeo-Christian) is a term used to describe the body of concepts and values which are thought to be held in common by Christianity and Judaism, and typically considered a fundamental basis for Western legal codes and moral values. ... Periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide historical time into discrete named blocks. ... St. ... Events First invasion of Italy by Alaric (probable date). ... God creates Adam, by Michelangelo. ... For information on the last book of the New Testament see the entry on the Book of Revelation. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... For the concept in mysticism, philosophy and psychology, see Enlightenment (concept) For the Hindu religious concept of enlightenment, see moksha For the Buddhist religious concept, see Bodhi, Satori For the Yoga concept of enlightenment, see Yogic Enlightenment For the period in European history, The Age of Enlightenment For the corresponding...

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 eternal. Image:Michelangelo - Fresco of the Last Judgment. ... The Last Judgement - Fresco in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo The end times are, in one version of Christian eschatology and in Islam, a time of tribulation that will precede the Second Coming of Jesus. ...

Six Ages

The Six Ages are best described in the words of Saint Augustine.

1. 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."
2. The Second Age: "..extends from that period on to Abraham, who was called the father indeed of all nations.."
3. The Third Age: "For the third age extends from Abraham on to David the king."
4. The Fourth Age: "The fourth from David on to that captivity whereby the people of God passed over into Babylonia."
5. The Fifth Age: "The fifth from that transmigration down to the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ."
6. The Sixth Age: "With His [Jesus Christ's] coming the sixth age has entered on its process."

God creates Adam, by Michelangelo. ... Noah or Nóach (Rest, Standard Hebrew נוֹחַ Nóaḥ, Tiberian Hebrew נֹחַ Nōªḥ; Arabic نوح Nūḥ), son of Lamech and the grandson of Methuselah, built an ark to save his family and a selection of the worlds animals from the Deluge, the global flood. ... Michelangelo Buonarroti In the Hebrew Bibles account (Gen. ... Abraham (אַבְרָהָם Father/Leader of many, Standard Hebrew Avraham, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAḇrāhām; Arabic ابراهيم Ibrāhīm) is the patriarch of Judaism, recognized by Christianity, and a very important prophet in Islam. ... Michelangelos David. ... // Overview The term Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, is the name generally given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

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, 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. Events Publication of the first blue law by Constantine I of the Roman Empire: trade is forbidden on Sundays; agriculture is allowed The Roman Catholic church is allowed to hold property Births Deaths Categories: 321 ... Constantine. ...

Augustine was not the first to conceive of the Six Ages, it has roots in the Jewish tradition, but he was the first to write about it with authority.

The theory originates from a passage in the Bible: Parts of this article contradict each other. ...

"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, the future would be much shorter than the past, a common image was of the world growing old. This 11th-century portrait is one of many images of Jesus in which a halo with a cross is used. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

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 earlist Christians, the End had slipped over the horizon, for the moment.¹ The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible) constitutes the first major part of the Bible according to Christianity. ... Many religious faiths teach that the end of the world will occur at some point in the future. ... Events Possible date for the Battle of Mons Badonicus: Romano-British and Celts defeat an Anglo-Saxon army that may have been led by the bretwalda Aelle of Sussex (approximate date; suggested dates range from 490 to 510) Note: This battle may have influenced the legend of King Arthur. ... Hippolytus, was a writer of the early Church. ... A late 19th-century artists conception of the Ark of the Covenant, employing a Renaissance cassone for the Ark and cherubim as latter-day Christian angels The Ark of the Covenant (in Hebrew: aron habrit) is described in the Hebrew Bible as a sacred container built at the command... Cubit is the name for any one of many units of measure used by various ancient peoples, based on the distance between the tip of the middle finger and the elbow on an average person or a similar forearm-based measurement. ... Events Roman law bans female gladiators Deaths Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (martyred) Perpetua (martyred) Felicitas (martyred) Yuan Shao, Chinese warlord Categories: 202 ... // Events The Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east. ...

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. In both Judaism and Christianity, the Sabbath (Hebrew Shabbat) is a religious day of rest that occurs on the seventh day of the week, Saturday. ...

Notes

• Note 1: Robin Lane Fox, pp. 266-267

References

• Robin Lane Fox (1986). Pagans and Christians, ISBN 0394554957

External links

• Winchester Bible image of the Ages of the World, illustrated within the opening letter "I" of the book of Genesis.
• Image: Six Ages of the World from the British Library. Dated last quarter of the 14th century.
• Saint Augustine: On the Catechising of the Uninstructed Chapter 22. "Of the Six Ages of the World"