Origin Story #4 of 5

Thoughts on David Christian’s Origin Story: A Big History of Everything

Census were vital;

        the chief collector of revenue

        was to record the total number of villages

And classify them by their wealth,

        and the amount of grain, animals, money and labor they supplied,

        as well as the number of soldiers. (Origin Story, p. 224)

King David said to Joab and the army commanders with him,

"Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba

and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are."
David was conscience-stricken after he had taken the census, and he said to the LORD,

“Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant.

        For I have done a very foolish thing" (1Chron 21).

Both origin stories, the one without god and the one with God, keep dancing about with one another. Both tell of light exploding into the darkness, both speak about forming order out of chaos, both affirm that humans are a peculiar species, both tell of a Garden of Eden, both tell of how paradise has been lost, both tell how the earth has settled down allowing for “seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter” (Gn 8-9), both tell how this settled climate has led to the toils of farming, both tell how language and knowledge and farming leads to “cities and towers” with oppressive hierarchies seeking “to make a name for themselves” (Gn 11), and both will end with some hope of redemption (I’ll save that redemptive part for one last Origin Story post. My children are getting tired of all this.).

Modern science’s story of “the big history of everything,” tells how humans formed “mega-empires” that now threaten our planet. How did that happen? It has to do with our present long Goldilocks era from the last Ice Age to the present. When the ice melted and the oceans filled, about 10,000 years ago, warmer climates settle in bringing “exceptional climatic stability.” In the early years of our Goldilocks era, “Gardens of Eden” formed in “the Fertile Crescent, on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.” In these “Gardens of Eden” life was good as folks lived off simple gardens, fruit trees and some foraging. It was “ecological paradise”.  But then something bad happens. Paradise is lost with the appearance of farming with all its toil: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” (Gn 3).

Language, intelligence and big farming resulted in big cities and mega-empires: Egypt (always Egypt), Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Europe and the West. Through census taking empires raise armies and revenue, and kept their subjects in their proper place according castes, linage, and social status. “The increase of the fields are taken by the king” (Ecc 5:8). It’s what kings do. It’s Big History’s “Threshold #7”: the transition from foraging to the cultivation of vast agricultural wealth and the empires that control such assists. The disruptive nature of census taking serves as a public demonstration of the wealth and power of kings and their kingdoms.

This power and intimidation of census taking leads us to yet another dance between these two origin stories. During King David’s reign, when Israel for a few brief years stood toe to toe with the kings and kingdoms of this world, he ordered a census of all Israel. It’s just what kings do. However, “this command was evil in the sight of God.” Modern science’s origin story agrees. Big empires and big census are not good. Yet, unlike other kings, David repents: “I have sinned greatly by doing this” (1Chron 21).

Our Gospel Story begins with one of those census ordered by the Roman Emperor Augustus. About two thousand and some years ago, Caesar Augustus order a census of the “entire Roman world.” In order to get a good count and make sure everyone was in their proper place, Caesar “ordered everyone to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up to Bethlehem to register with Mary, who was expecting a child. While they were there, …she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2). In the midst of Caesar’s power and intimidation, something different happened in an obscure little town on the eastern fringe of the Empire. Who could have guessed?