The Length of Scripture 1 Sacred History and the Creation

Abstract

Abstract Just as Christian history was illustrated in the portals of Notre Dame de Paris by sculptures of the biblical patriarchs, early church Fathers, and medieval saints, medieval Christians saw themselves in the context of an ongoing narrative that began in Genesis and would culminate in the Apocalypse. In viewing Abraham garbed as a medieval knight on the walls of a cathedral, they could figuratively see themselves in the narratives of Scripture. Relics, crusades, pilgrimages, and narratives of pilgrimages helped to establish a sense of an immediate connection be-tween medieval Europe and the stories of ancient Israel and the early church. These narratives, the length of Scripture, provided a discrete set of historical experiences that defined the world (past, present, and future), human spiritual growth, and beliefs about angels. It was possible indeed to see in the history of Israel and its encounters with celestial spirits the story of the “restoration of the whole human race.” Thus a late-eleventh-century pilgrims’ chant asking Christ to send an angel to lead them characteristically employs images from several biblical stories of angels guiding humans.