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.

Prophsies were like other miracles. Paganism had plenty of them, the early Christains believed in the Pagan miracles (though they often attributed them to Pagan demons). Early Christianity also had plenty of spirit filled prophets of it's own.

Both Christians and Pagans understood their prophesies with the same—Pagan—ideas.

Jews too
Judaism

"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]

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]

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, because of the two tyrants I mentioned, hope and fear, 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]

So Alexander gave out oracles and made prophecies, using a great deal of resourcefulness and combining guesswork with inventiveness.
[pg. 272]

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.

If, then, the Pythian priestess is beside herself when she prophesies, what spirit must that be which fills her mind and clouds her judgment with darkness, unless it be of the same order with those demons which many Christians cast out of persons possessed with them? And this, we may observe, they do without the use of any curious arts of magic, or incantations, but merely by prayer and simple adjurations which the plainest person can use.
[Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4]

Moreover, if it is believed not only among Christians and Jews, but also by many others among the Greeks and Barbarians, that the human soul lives and subsists after its separation from the body; and if reason supports the idea that pure souls which are not weighed down with sin as with a weight of lead ascend on high to the region of purer and more ethereal bodies, leaving here below their grosser bodies along with their impurities; whereas souls that are polluted and dragged down to the earth by their sins, so that they are unable even to breathe upwards, wander hither and thither, at some times about sepulchres, where they appear as the apparitions of shadowy spirits, at others among other objects on the ground;--if this is so, what are we to think of those spirits that are attached for entire ages, as I may say, to particular dwellings and places, whether by a sort of magical force or by their own natural wickedness? Are we not compelled by reason to set down as evil such spirits as employ the power of prophesying—a power in itself neither good nor bad—for the purpose of deceiving men, and thus turn them away from God, and from the purity of His service?
[Origen, Against Celsus, 7.5]

For let even necromancy, and the divinations you practise by immaculate children, and the evoking of departed human souls, and those who are called among the magi, Dream-senders and Assistant-spirits (Familiars), and all that is done by those who are skilled in such matters--let these persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation; and those who are seized and cast about by the spirits of the dead, whom all call daemoniacs or madmen; and what you repute as oracles, both of Amphilochus, Dodana, Pytho, and as many other such as exist; and the opinions of your authors, Empedocles and Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates, and the pit of Homer, and the descent of Ulysses to inspect these things, and all that has been uttered of a like kind. Such favour as you grant to these, grant also to us, who not less but more firmly than they believe in God; since we expect to receive again our own bodies, though they be dead and cast into the earth, for we maintain that with God nothing is impossible.
[Justin Martyr, First Apology, 18]

4.92 In my [Origen's] opinion, however, it is certain wicked demons, and, so to speak, of the race of Titans or Giants, who have been guilty of impiety towards the true God, and towards the angels in heaven, and who have fallen from it, and who haunt the denser parts of bodies, and frequent unclean places upon earth, and who, possessing some power of distinguishing future events, because they are without bodies of earthly material, engage in an employment of this kind, and desiring to lead the human race away from the true God, secretly enter the bodies of the more rapacious and savage and wicked of animals, and stir them up to do whatever they choose, and at whatever time they choose: either turning the fancies of these animals to make flights and movements of various kinds, in order that men may be caught by the divining power that is in the irrational animals, and neglect to seek after the God who contains all things; or to search after the pure worship of God, but allow their reasoning powers to grovel on the earth, and amongst birds and serpents, and even foxes and wolves. For it has been observed by those who are skilled in such matters, that the clearest prognostications are obtained from animals of this kind; because the demons cannot act so effectively in the milder sort of animals as they can in these, in consequence of the similarity between them in point of wickedness; and yet it is not wickedness, but something like wickedness, which exist in these animals.
[Origen, Against Celsus, 4.92]

But, to use the very words of Celsus, let it be granted that "the sun, moon, and stars do foretell rain, and heat, and clouds, and thunders," why, then, if they really do foretell such great things, ought we not rather to do homage to God, whose servant they are in uttering these predictions, and show reverence to Him rather than His prophets? Let them predict, then, the approach of lightnings, and fruits, and all manner of productions, and let all such things be under their administration; yet we shall not on that account worship those who themselves offer worship, as we do not worship even Moses, and those prophets who came from God after him, and who predicted better things than rain, and heat, and clouds, and thunders, and lightnings, and fruits, and all sorts of productions visible to the senses. Nay, even if sun, and moon, and stars were able to prophesy better things than rain, not even then shall we worship them, but the Father of the prophecies which are in them, and the Word of God, their minister. But grant that they are His heralds, and truly messengers of heaven, why, even then ought we not to worship the God whom they only proclaim and announce, rather than those who are the heralds and messengers?
[Origen, Against Celsus, 5.7]

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 Asclepius, 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), Sibylline Oracles]

However, let us see what he [the Pagan Celsus] considers the most perfect kind of prophecy among these nations. "There are many [Christians]," He says, "who, although of no name, with the greatest facility and on the slightest occasion, whether within or without temples, assume the motions and gestures of inspired persons; while others do it in cities or among armies, for the purpose of attracting attention and exciting surprise. These are accustomed to say, each for himself, 'I am God; I am the Son of God; or, I am the Divine Spirit; I have come because the world is perishing, and you, O men, are perishing for your iniquities. But I wish to save you, and you shall see me returning again with heavenly power. Blessed is He who now does me homage. On all the rest I will send down eternal fire, both on cities and on countries. And those who know not the punishments which await. them shall repent and grieve in vain; while those who are faithful to me I will preserve eternally.'" Then He goes on to say: "To these promises are added strange, fanatical, and quite unintelligible words, of which no rational person can find the meaning: for so dark are they, as to have no meaning at all; but they give occasion to every fool or impostor to apply them to suit his own purposes."
[Origen, Against Celsus, 7.9]

in the period after the emperor Alexander [Severus (193 - 211 AD)]... There were numerous frequent earthquakes… some towns were even swallowed up by cracks opening in the ground and taken down to the depths. ….
Suddenly a woman came to the fore who presented herself as a prophetess experiencing states of ecstasy and acted as through filled with the Holy Spirit. But she was so overwhelmed by the onset of the leading daemons that for a long time she seduced and deceived the brethren…. that evil spirit [in the woman], being able to foresee that an earthquake was about to happen, sometimes pretended that it was going to bring about what it saw would happen anyway….
He also made the woman go barefoot in the freezing snow in the harsh winter, without her being troubled or harmed in any way by the outing….
[S]uddenly there appeared before him an exorcist, a man of proven character…. By subtle deceit, the daemon had even foretold shortly beforehand that an unbelieving assailant would come against him.
[ Cyprian, Cyprian's letters, Letter 75.10,—which you can find in: Lee, A.D.. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), section 2.10, page 48 - 49]

And while he [Polycarp] was praying he fell into a trance three days before his arrest, and he saw his pillow being consumed by fire. And he turned and said to those who were with him: "It is necessary that I be burned alive."
[The Martyrdom of Polycarp, 5.2—which you can find in: Holmes, Michael. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (1999), pg. 231]

44.5 Constantine was enjoined in a dream to mark the heavenly symbol of God on the shields of his men and so to engage in battle. He did as commanded, and marked Christ on the shields in the form of a letter X placed sideways with the top bent around.
[Lactantius, On the Death of the Persecutors, 44.5 (early fourth century),—which you can find in: Lee, A.D. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), pg. 82]

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. >>

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 of 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.

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 "Sibylline 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.