The Self-perception of Justinian

Justinian’s self-perception: Lawyer, Emperor, Chief of Staffs, Ecumenical Agent, Police for the Papacy, Theologian, Builder of 37 churches, caesaro-papist. 

Justinian saw himself as sacred as he said on the 6th November 529 “For what is greater or more sacred than the Imperial Majesty.” 

He actually wanted to come to the aspect of himself as the only

correct interpretation of the law and its ultimate center and concluded with others “We hold that every interpretation of the laws by the Emperor, whether in answer to requests made to him, or whether given in judgment, or in any other way whatsoever, shall be considered valid, and free from all ambiguity; for if, by the present enactment, the Emperor alone can make laws, it should also be the province of the Imperial Dignity alone to interpret them”.

On the 18th of 530, Justinian wrote that the ultimate power of the Romans is not the army but God Almighty.

About his Code Justinian said on completion of it “We have given thanks to Almighty God who has offered us the opportunity to fortunately carry on war, as well as to enjoy an honorable peace, and to formulate a most excellent system of laws, not only for the use of the present age but for that of those which shall come hereafter,and with pious mind, We have offered this work for the benefit of man.”

This Code was intended by Justinian to unify his whole empire ecumenically and ecclesiastically under the Catholic Church with the Papacy as primary authority. 

He saw himself as the great unifier or religious civilization architect. His relation with the papacy and the papacy with him is well illustrated in the letter of Justinian to Pope Johannes and vice versa. 

The Code is actually a law with discriminating biting teeth. 

It provided a definition for church in a monotone only. 

Any other color was not accepted and condemned, and in fact, discriminated against and even persecuted or killed. 

Justinian created the glove that was to become the backbone of the Middle Ages Catholic Churches Holy Roman Empire and the persecutions that happened during this period can all be tract back to this legal system that Justinian installed throughout his empire.

Abstract

The year 538 A.D. became the turning point in the history of the Roman Empire since so many aspects on political, administrative and economical levels were already switched off that when Justinian declared himself to be a theologian from this year and no longer a soldier, he crossed the barrier of his mandate between what is purely civil obligation and what is religious obligation, similarly to Constantine before, and entered in competition with the papal function and this role is evidence of Justinian’s ongoing caesaro-papism. 

 

The quest for unification of the empire by unification of the church, the fever for church-building projects with his wife

Theodora, the persecution of enemies of the church and heretics, his disdain with the Sabbath although his second name was Sabbatini, his support for suppressing any eschatological fever in line with the church fathers and Oecumenius and yet trying to build the ‘Kingdom of God’ on earth, all this indicate the problem 538 was for the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. 

 

Archaeological and historical original sources of Justinian and contemporaries of popes, biographer of Justinian and a commentator on Revelation (Oecumenius) are very revealing of these times and the shift or transition of what belonged to the Roman Empire handed over since 538 A.D. to the church and the papal function. 

 

The Code of Justinian was a persecuting instrument. 

 

Justinian upheld the supremacy of the papacy. 

--He permitted through the Council of Orleans actions to be done on Sunday that Constantine prohibited like travel and preparation of food and cleaning the house. 

--In Novellae CXLIV Justinian instituted a Seventh-day Sabbath persecution. 

--He changed the times and laws ad hoc as his Novellae XLVI and coins of 538 A.D. (XII year) indicate. 

--Private gatherings were persecuted. 

--He had church-manual laws. Justinian studied Systematic Theology on the nature of Christ and wrote homiletical rules for preachers. 

--He gave text- critical advice to Jews and condemned their doctrinal deviations. 

 

This theological hobby of the ruler of the once mighty Roman Empire was to be taken over by a more theological competent power that would eventually lead to papal-caesarism until the unsettling of this new aggrandizing paradigm in 1798 by Napoleon. 

 

The prophetic embedding of the 1260 days as “years” prophecies in both Daniel 7 and Revelation 12 definitely started in 538 A.D. contrary to W. Spicer’s (1918) suggestion of 533 or 538 as two alternative dates or any other dates suggested by other scholars in the history of interpretation in historicism. 

 

It is also not just a case of history of interpretation hermeneutics but data solidly supported by archaeology, iconography and original historical sources that coincides with the parameters provided by exegesis of the rest of the Books of Daniel and Revelation added with the exegesis of the detail of the passages under consideration. 

 

A necessary ingredient for the historical researcher remains to be the faith that God 

can predict the future and He did 

and that the data as well as the prophecies 

of the Biblical Text are evidence of that.