Liver model, used by priests to predict the future. Assyria, 18th century BC Now in the British Museum

"What could be called more divine than the power of foreknowing and foretelling the future?"
[Celsus, quoted by Origen, Against Celsus, 4.96]

Was Christianity new?  Was Christianity unique? 
Lets talk about prophecy.

Pagan prophets predicted the future -- correctly. You know this if you've heard of the famous oracle at Delphi. You probably also know that our word "auspicious" comes from "auspices", the Roman religious ritual where priests told the future by reading the livers of sacrificed animals. (Sheesh. Have you noticed how often other peoples' beliefs are crazy stupid?)

Why so many Pagan prophecy-miracles? Pagan faith was stronger than ours.
Like the Pagans we see prophesy as supernatural. The difference is, we see the supernatural as rare; the Pagans? everywhere they looked they saw the supernatural. Pagan supernatural powers guided everything, all the time. Our God cares, maybe, but He's got physics to move the sun. Pagan Gods moved the sun across the sky, physically moved it every day. Pagan faith saw the supernatural in the moving sun; in where lightning hit, and when; in the paths birds flew; in doors banging, lights shining and chariots running in the clouds.

By the way Fate
Ancient civilization also had the notion of Fate: some stuff was gonna happen and there wasn't squat you could about it. Gods sometimes knew what was fated to happen. They'd pass what they knew along to their prophets, the prophets would pass it along to you. Even the Gods were subject to fate sometimes. And there were different kinds of fate. It's a big subject.

What was going to happen next was nothing more that what the Pagan Gods planned to do next, so of course the Pagan Gods and their prophets knew the future.

One good thing about Pagan Gods was they didn't mind letting on what they knew about the future. So, like Pagan miracles generally, Pagan prophecy-miracles number in the tens of thousands. You run out of patience before you run out of prophecy miracles. So here at POCM, I've included enough to give you a sense of how central prophecy was to Paganism. Need more? Just pick up Herodotus, Livy, Josephus, or any other ancient historian. They're chock-a-block with prophecy-miracles. Guaranteed.

So strong was the Pagans' faith, they institutionalized prophecy-miracles with professional prophesy-readers -- guys with training and text-books, guys you'd consult like you consult a doctor. Ask a question, the prophecy-guy would find it on his list, apply his divine-seer skills, and foretell your future for you. Very comforting.

How do we know this? We have the prophecy books they used. > >

Professor Lee describes:
"[I]n addition to a numbered list of nearly one hundred questions, the oracular expert would have had at his disposal a set of numbered answers and a mathematical formula for selecting, in an apparently baffling and mysterious manner, an appropriate answer." [Lee, A.D. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), section 1.10, pages 28]

Questions to an oracle:
"72 Shall I receive the wages?
73 Am I to remain where I am going?
74 Am I to be sold?
75 Am I to receive help from my friend?
76 Has it been granted to me to make a contract with another?
77 Am I to be restored to my position
78 Am I to receive leave?
79 Shall I receive the money?
80 Is the one who is abroad alive?
81 Am I to profit from the business transaction?
….
90 Am I to be divorced from my wife?
91 Have I been poisoned?"
[ Papyrus Oxyrhynchus, # 1477 -- which you can find in: Lee, A.D. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), section 1.10, pages 28 - 30]

The Christian Sybil

You knew there was a Christian Sybil, right?

Sibyls = prophetesseseszz One good thing about Pagan Gods was they didn't mind letting on what they knew about the future. You could get a forecast by consulting a Sibyl. (Why "Sibyls"? Because it was easier than "prophetesseseszz." The ancients didn't have spill chuckers.)

Here's the second century Christian writer Justin Martyr describing a Pagan Sybil at work >>

A Sybil was a woman, a prophetess who spoke God's words for Him. There were lots of Sibyls in lots of places. A God would move the Sibyl to speak, someone would quick write down what she said and later on folks would consult her words (in Rome they kept them in them the "Sybilline Books" -- you'll someday run across that term in the ancient texts) for help foretelling the future.

[T]he ancient Sibyl, who by some kind of potent inspiration teaches you, through her oracular predictions, truths which seem to be much akin to the teaching of the prophets. She ... uttered her oracular sayings in a city called Cumae ... And they who had heard it from their fathers as part of their country's tradition, told us that it was here she used to publish her oracles. ... [T]hey said that she washed, and having put on her robe again, retires into the inmost chamber of the basilica, which is still a part of the one stone; and sitting in the middle of the chamber on a high rostrum and throne, thus proclaims her oracles.

You'd figure the place a Sibyl worked would be a Sibylarium, but it wasn't. It was an oracle. The predictions she gave were also oracles. Sometimes the Sybil was called an oracle. It was fun to say "oracle," so they used it whenever they could. Try it yourself: Oracle, oracle, oracle. See?

Pagans had lots of oracles,
and the oracles prophesied correctly >>

Celsus goes on to say of us: "They [Christians] set no value on the oracles of the Pythian priestess, of the priests of Dodona, of Clarus, of Branchidae, of Jupiter Ammon, and of a multitude of others; although under their guidance we may say that colonies were sent forth, and the whole world peopled.
[Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4]

Pythagoras
Chances are you think of Pythagoras as the s.o.b. who invented that geometry thingy. Pythagoras was also a guru who founded a philosophy-religion, gathered disciples, performed miracles and made prophecies.

Pythagoras had the power of God in him. How do we know this? His prophecies always came true, that's how. >>

'Cause I'm sure you're dying to know, here's the Pythagorean's theology about how prophecy worked >>

Apollonius of Tyana
was a religious teacher who lived in the first century AD, traveled widely teaching goodness, performed miracles (raising the dead was one), and gathered disciples. After he died he was worshiped as a God.

Apollonius had the power of prophecy >>
(as did Socrates and Anaxagoras)

For the circumstance that Apollonius foresaw and foreknew so many things does not in the least justify us in imputing to him this kind of wisdom [black magic]; we might as well accuse Socrates of the same, because, thanks to his familiar spirit, he knew things beforehand, and we might also accuse Anaxagoras because of the many things he foretold.
[Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 1.2 (217 AD), -- which you can find in: Conybeare, F. C.. Philostratus I: The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Books I - V (Loeb Classical Library #16) (2000), pg. 7 - 9]

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others and Pythagoras and his disciples and the godman Apollonius of Tyana and Socrates and Anaxagoras foretold the future first.

Are you seeing the pattern here?

They saw that what both the fearful and the hopeful needed and wanted the most was knowledge of the future, that this was the reason Delphi and Delos and Carus and Didyma had ages ago become rich and famous; men ... were forever coming to these shrines and asking to know the future, and, in payment, the sacrificed whole hecatombs and donated ingots of gold. After turning this discovery over in their minds and pondering it, the partners laid plans to set up an oracle, a seat of prophecy.
[Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD), -- which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 272]

Amphilochus, you see, after his father Amphiaraus' death and disappearance in Thebes, had been banished from his home town; he make his way to Cilicia and there came out of it all very nicely by going into oracle making himself, and foretelling the future for the Cilicians at a charge of 75 cents per prediction.

[Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD), -- which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 278]

"Amphiaraus had been a seer during his lifetime. After a mysterious death (Zeus clove the ground in front of his chariot and he was swallowed up), he continued prophesying from a famous shrine in central Greece. The son's oracle was located in the town of Mallus."]
[Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 299]

Pretty soon Alexander was even sending agents into neighboring lands to spread the word about his oracle among various people. These men advertised that he offered general prophecy, recovery of runaway slaves, detection of thieves and bandits, discovery of buried treasure, healing of the sick, and, on occasion, raising of the dead. The result was a stampede from all sides plus sacrifices and offerings.
[Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD), -- which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 23]

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others and Pythagoras and his disciples and the godman Apollonius of Tyana and Socrates and Anaxagoras and the priests at Delos and Dymma, and Amphilochus and Amphiarus and Glycon's prophet Alexander foretold the future first.

Be not, O Greeks, so very hostilely disposed towards the Barbarians, nor look with ill will on their opinions. For which of your institutions has not been derived from the Barbarians? The most eminent of the Telmessians invented the art of divining by dreams; the Carians, that of prognosticating by the stars; the Phrygians and the most ancient Isaurians, augury by the flight of birds; the Cyprians, the art of inspecting victims.
[Tatian, Address to the Greeks, 1 (2d century AD)]

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others and Pythagoras and his disciples and the godman Apollonius of Tyana and Socrates and Anaxagoras and the priests at Delos and Dymma, and Amphilochus and Amphiarus and Glycon's prophet Alexander and the nation of the Greeks, and the nation of the Telmessians, and the nation of the Carians and the nation fo the Phyrgians, and the nation of the Isaurians and the nation of the Cyprians foretold the future first.

Are you seeing the pattern here? Prophecies made and prophecies fulfilled were basic to Paganism.

I promised we'd run out of patience before we ran out of prophecies. And so we have.

Augery Liver-reading
Oh yeah, the Pagan priests could also foretell the future by reading the livers of animals sacrificed to the Gods.

Pagan priests learned how to read livers by consulting model livers like this one >>

Jews too
Judasim

"the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their [the Jews] future desolation."[Josephus, Jewish War, ,6.5.288] He goes on:

"Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year." [6.5.289]

And in the Temple, "at the ninth hour of the night of the night a great light shone round the altar....This light seemed to be a good sign to the naive, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend the events that followed." [6.5.291- 293]

And, "also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple." [6.5.292]

"Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner temple. ..was seen to be opened of its own accord. This also the vulgar thought a happy prodigy...but the men of learning understood it."[6.5.293 - 295]

And, "...chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds. [6.5.298 - 299]

And "Jesus, son of Ananus...came to that feast whereon.. everyone makes tabernacles to God in the temple...and began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house." [6.5.300- 301]

In the next place, miracles were performed in all countries, or at least in many of them, as Celsus himself admits, instancing the case of AEsculapius, who conferred benefits on many, and who foretold future events to entire cities, which were dedicated to him, such as Tricca, and Epidaurus, and Cos, and Pergamus...
[Origen, Against Celsus, 3.3]

Celsus goes on to say of us: "They [Christians] set no value on the oracles of the Pythian priestess, of the priests of Dodona, of Clarus, of Branchidae, of Jupiter Ammon, and of a multitude of others; although under their guidance we may say that colonies were sent forth, and the whole world peopled.
[Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4]

[the Christian father Origen replies]
But let it be granted that the responses delivered by the Pythian and other oracles were not the utterances of false men who pretended to a divine inspiration; and let us see if, after all, we cannot convince any sincere inquirers that there is no necessity to attribute these oracular responses to any divinities, but that, on the other hand, they may be traced to wicked demons...
[Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4]

44.7 Discord arose in the city and the emperor [Maxentius] was upbraided for abdicating responsibility….. 44.8 Disconcerted by this cry, he curried away and, summoning some senators, he ordered the Sibylline books to be consulted. In them was found the statement that on that day the enemy of Rome would perish.
[Lactantius, On the Death of the Persecutors, 44.7-8 (early fourth century), which you can find in: Lee, A.D.. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), pg. 82]

In pagan times the oracles and predictions ascribed to the sibyls were carefully collected and jealously guarded in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and were consulted only in times of grave crises. Because of the vogue enjoyed by these heathen oracles and because of the influence they had in shaping the religious views of the period, the Hellenistic Jews in Alexandria, during the second century B.C. composed verses in the same form, attributing them to the sibyls, and circulated them among the pagans as a means of diffusing Judaistic doctrines and teaching. This custom was continued down into Christian times, and was borrowed by some Christians so that in the second or third century, a new class of oracles emanating from Christian sources came into being. Hence the Sibylline Oracles can be classed as Pagan, Jewish, or Christian.
[Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), Sybelline Oracles]

Livy describes the

Sibylline Oracles is the name given to certain collections of supposed prophecies, emanating from the sibyls or divinely inspired seeresses, which were widely circulated in antiquity

In pagan times the oracles and predictions ascribed to the sibyls were carefully collected and jealously guarded in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and were consulted only in times of grave crises.

[29.10]… Hannibal [general of the invading army] had gone into winter quarters [in Italy]…
Owing to the unusual number of showers of stones which had fallen during the year, an inspection had been made of the Sibylline Books, and some oracular verses had been discovered which announced that whenever a foreign foe should carry war into Italy he could be driven out and conquered if the Mater Idaea were brought from Pessinus to Rome. The ... deputation who had taken the gift to Delphi reported on their return that when they sacrificed to the Pythian Apollo the indications presented by the victims were entirely favorable, and further, that the response of the oracle was to the effect that a far grander victory was awaiting Rome than the one from whose spoils they had brought the gift to Delphi...

[29.11] ... Accordingly, they decided to send a mission to him [ king Atalus, who controlled the Great Mother goddess (a meteor?)]......He then handed over to them the sacred stone which the natives declared to be "the Mother of the Gods," and bade them carry it to Rome. . .

P. Scipio was ordered to go to Ostia [Rome's port], accompanied by all the matrons, to meet the goddess... The matrons, each taking their turn in bearing the sacred image, carried the goddess into the temple of Victory on the Palatine.

[Livy, History of Rome, 29.10 & 14 (1st century AD)]

94. Since we are upon this subject, it may not be improper to give an account of the omens, before and at his birth, as well as afterwards, which gave hopes of his future greatness, and the good fortune that constantly attended him. A part of the wall of Velletri having in former times been struck with thunder, the response of the soothsayers was, that a native of that town would some time or other arrive at supreme power; relying on which prediction, the Velletrians both then, and several times afterwards, made war upon the Roman people, to their own ruin. At last it appeared by the event, that the omen had portended the elevation of Augustus.