In his tireless pursuit of victory, Alexander the Great conquered Greek city-states, overpowered the Persian Empire, and founded his own empire that spanned 3 continents. It was around 2 million square miles. After Alexander died, his empire was carved up. One thing they shared was a determination to spread their Greek identity in the lands they ruled.
Ptolemy I Soter, Alexander’s cousin, took power over Egypt and ruled for almost forty years from the city of Alexandria. He wanted to make his mark on the world. Well, one of the main things we associate with Greeks is philosophy and discovery, right? That reputation was well established by the 4th century B.C.E. So, what better way to claim your place on the world stage than to make your city the nexus of the world’s wisdom? What better way to keep hold of conquered lands than to add their knowledge to your own?
The first two rulers of Egypt, Ptolemy I & Ptolemy II, created… a library. Not just any library: part of a complex of buildings that could easily be called the first university. Like I said before, they wanted to know anything that anybody else knew, so the Ptolemies offered generous salaries to the smartest people they could find to make them scholars and teachers. They sent messengers out to buy books – whatever they could get their hands on. And when ships docked at the harbor, they were ransacked for any reading material. It was confiscated, copied, and the library would keep the original, giving the copy back to the owner.
This has to be as close to an ideal situation that an academic can find. A seemingly endless library, guaranteed funding, room and board, and colleagues in every field you can think of. The discoveries, inventions, and creations that came out of Alexandria were incredible: geometry, trigonometry, organizing by alphabetical order, a lighthouse that all lighthouses are based on to this day, geography, maps with latitude and longitude. Eratosthenes was able to calculate the circumference of the earth to within 50 miles. Aristarchus of Samos suggested that the Earth went around the sun and not the other way around. He had that theory 1,800 years before Copernicus! Medical science advanced by leaps and bounds because they learned about human anatomy through dissections. Heron of Alexandria invented a steam-powered engine, a hydraulic lifting device, a windmill, and a vending machine… for holy water. It’s even where the first Greek translation of the Old Testament was created. That’s the scripture that Jesus read!
When humans set out to create, we can do incredible things. These discoveries and ideas transformed just about every aspect of life in the Hellenistic era. Their success came because there were resources to support their work, people willing to commit their days to learning and attempting something new, and a culture that acknowledged the importance of wisdom. But no matter how cosmopolitan the city was; no matter how open they were to people who came from other countries, other tribes; it wasn’t really freedom. Peoples were conquered, forced to learn to speak Greek and bend to their culture and values. Tax money went to fund discoveries that often wouldn’t benefit everybody. Books were stolen – heck, they even tried to make it illegal to export papyrus. (Side note: this is why parchment was invented. Not so fast, Alexandria!) They believed wisdom should be theirs; maybe theirs alone. Creating meant collecting, keeping, and killing.
When God began to create, it didn’t look like this. Order and chaos were set in balance; God’s own breath and image filled each human creature; power in creation was tamed; wisdom infused joy in everything that is; worlds within worlds came into being and we were encouraged to explore, to make, to mess up, to try again. God creates life and chooses us to do what’s right.
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The world Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies worked to create was ambitious, to say the least. But it was also formed in Alexander’s image; in the Greek’s image without too much regard for others. They grasped at God’s glory to show their own greatness, but ultimately, their power fell.
In the Kingdom of God, heaven and earth in one, all of the hopes of discovery, invention, and possibility live on. They’re not subject to the whims of the wealthy or violent control or ancient prejudices. We will be able to create within God’s love and without sin. We will be able to heal with the purest medicine and without fear. We will be able to help one another and care for one another without ego, without loss. We’re not going to be sitting on our duffs on puffy white clouds in this new creation. We will live all the lives we always wondered about, worshiping God with every breath we take. Maybe the thing is just to ask ourselves: why not start now?
Resources:
-https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/world-alexander
-https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy-I-Soter
– https://bf8a5e1a33a742dbf53d-b7fc343b035089221e9161ed56b050fa.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/Great_Library_Digest_VOL_90_0512.pdf
– https://www.mediterranean-cruise-ports-easy.com/library-of-alexandria.html
