AlmanacThe Occident

First-Century Occident

The world into which Michael was born — Master Universe Almanac, Part IV

Topical Lists compiled from the revelation. Click item for quote, click link for context.

Occident Civilization in the Times of Jesus

A threefold unifying and co-ordinating influence

Listed from

“Nothing like the civilization of the times of Jesus has been seen in the Occident before or since those days.”

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Five strata

The book’s list ·

1.The aristocracy — the upper classes with money and official power, the privileged and ruling groups.
2.The business groups — the merchant princes and the bankers, the traders, the big importers and exporters, the international merchants.
3.The small middle class — although this group was indeed small, it was very influential and provided the moral backbone of the early Christian church, which encouraged these groups to continue in their various crafts and trades. Among the Jews many of the Pharisees belonged to this class of tradesmen.
4.The free proletariat — this group had little or no social standing. Though proud of their freedom, they were placed at great disadvantage because they were forced to compete with slave labor.
5.The slaves — half the population of the Roman state were slaves; many were superior individuals and quickly made their way up among the free proletariat and even among the tradesmen.

Reference

First-century schools of philosophy

The book’s list ·

1.The Epicurean — this school of thought was dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. The better Epicureans were not given to sensual excesses. At least this doctrine helped to deliver the Romans from a more deadly form of fatalism; it taught that men could do something to improve their terrestrial status. It did effectually combat ignorant superstition.
2.The Stoic — stoicism was the superior philosophy of the better classes. The Stoics believed that a controlling Reason-Fate dominated all nature. They taught that the soul of man was divine, imprisoned in the evil body of physical nature. Stoicism ascended to a sublime morality, ideals never since transcended by any purely human system of philosophy. While the Stoics professed to be the “offspring of God,” they failed to know him and therefore failed to find him.
3.The Cynic — although the Cynics traced their philosophy to Diogenes of Athens, they derived much of their doctrine from the remnants of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek. In the fields and in the market places they continually preached their doctrine that “man could save himself if he would.” These wandering Cynic preachers did much to prepare the spiritually hungry populace for the later Christian missionaries.
4.The Skeptic — skepticism asserted that knowledge was fallacious, and that conviction and assurance were impossible. It was a purely negative attitude and never became widespread.

“The gentile world was then dominated by four great philosophies, all more or less derived from the earlier Platonism of the Greeks.”

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Religions of the Occident

The book’s list ·

1.The pagan cults — a combination of Hellenic and Latin mythology, patriotism, and tradition.
2.Emperor worship — this deification of man as the symbol of the state was very seriously resented by the Jews and the early Christians and led directly to the bitter persecutions of both churches by the Roman government.
3.Astrology — this pseudo science of Babylon developed into a religion throughout the Greco-Roman Empire. Even in the twentieth century man has not been fully delivered from this superstitious belief.
4.The mystery religions — upon such a spiritually hungry world a flood of mystery cults had broken, new and strange religions from the Levant, which had enamored the common people and had promised them individual salvation. They did much to prepare the way for the rapid spread of the vastly superior Christian teachings.

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Seven stages of a child's life

The book’s list ·

1.The newborn child, the first to the eighth day.
2.The suckling child.
3.The weaned child.
4.The period of dependence on the mother, lasting up to the end of the fifth year.
5.The beginning independence of the child and, with sons, the father assuming responsibility for their education. ^[1]
6.The adolescent youths and maidens.
7.The young men and the young women.

^[1] “…on August 21, 2 BC, Mary formally turned [Jesus] over to Joseph for further instruction.”

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