Letters 199.18–199.39

But it is one thing to know something, another to conjecture it. For if six thousand years are to be reckoned as one day, why is one hour not rather its twenty-fourth part instead of its twelfth, that is, not five hundred but two hundred and fifty years? For a whole day, a whole circuit of the sun, is more truly so called not from east to west but from east to east, where, when the whole day is complete, that is, after twenty-four hours, it rises again. And on this reckoning, that last hour, counted from the time when John said it, is found to have already passed at least some seventy years ago, and the end of the age has not yet come. Add to this that, when church history is carefully examined, the apostle John is found to have died long before five thousand five hundred years from the beginning of the human race were completed. So it was not yet the last hour, if the twelfth part of six thousand years, that is, five hundred years, is reckoned as the span of one hour. Furthermore, if according to the Scriptures we take one day to be a thousand years, much more did the last hour of so long a day pass long ago: I do not say if it is reckoned as its twenty-fourth part, which is a little more than forty years, but even if as its twelfth, which has twice those years. Hence it is more fitting to believe that the apostle put “hour” for “time,” and how long that hour is we do not know, because it is not ours to know the times which the Father has put in his own power; although we know it to be the last, and we much more certainly than those who were before us, since the last hour of the day, or whatever it is, began.

But I do not understand at all why it seems to Your Reverence that the measures of the times cannot be grasped so as to define in which year the end will come, because, according to the Lord's promise, those days will be shortened. For if they are to be shortened in such a way that from more they become fewer, I ask: according to what truth would they have been more, if they were not shortened? For you think that the weeks of the holy Daniel refer not to the Lord's first coming, as has seemed to most, but rather to his second. Will they then be shortened so that there will be even one week fewer among them, and the prophecy will be false that took such care to define the number of the weeks that it even said that something was to be fulfilled in the half of a week? I would be surprised if Daniel's prophecy were destroyed by Christ's prophecy. Then, what would it mean for us to think that Daniel, or rather the angel from whom he was learning these things, did not know that the Lord would shorten those days, and erred in saying this, or knew it indeed but lied to the one he was teaching? If this is absurd, why do we not rather believe that Daniel prophesied that many weeks in accordance with the Lord's intention to shorten those days, if indeed that number of years refers to the Lord's second coming, which I do not know how it could be shown?

Finally, it would be said much more certainly and safely that the Lord's coming will be within seventy, or at most within a hundred, years, if these weeks foretell it. For there are four hundred and ninety years in seventy weeks; and from the Lord's birth to today about four hundred and twenty years are counted, and from his resurrection or ascension about three hundred and ninety, more or less. And so, if it is counted from when he was born, seventy remain; if from when he suffered, about a hundred remain, within which all of Daniel's weeks will be fulfilled, if they were prophesied of his last coming. So whoever says, “It will be within so many years,” says what is false only if it will be beyond them; but since the days will be shortened, they can be fewer, not more. So it is rightly said, “It will be within these years,” because, however much they are shortened, it will be true; for the shortening itself, if it is to be understood as making them fewer, does not allow the day of the Lord to come beyond those years, but more and more within them, the fewer they become. So this shortening does not upset the calculator who defines it in such a way as to say that the day of the Lord will come within so many years, but rather helps him, since the more the days are reduced in number, the more it will be within, and it cannot be beyond. And therefore what is defined in such a way as to say, “It will be within so many years,” will be true, even though it is not known in which year it will happen.

The whole question, then, is whether Daniel's weeks were fulfilled at the Lord's first coming, or prophesied the end of the age, or refer to both; for there have not been lacking those who held this too, saying that they were completed at the time of Christ's first coming and that the same number are to be completed again from then until the end of the age. For my part, I see that if the first coming did not fulfil them, the second must necessarily fulfil them, since that prophecy cannot be false. But if it was fulfilled at the time of the first coming, it does not compel us to understand that it will also be fulfilled at the end of the age. And so it is uncertain, even if it is true; and it should not be denied, but neither should it be presumed that it will happen. It remains, therefore, that whoever wishes to compel belief that this prophecy is to be fulfilled at the end of the age must strive as much as he can, and show, if he can, that it was not fulfilled at the Lord's first coming, against so many expositors of the divine words who show that it was fulfilled not only by the reckoning of the times but also by the events themselves, especially in what is written there, “And the Holy of Holies will be anointed,” or because in the same prophecy the Hebrew manuscripts say more explicitly, “Christ will be slain and will not be his,” that is, the city will not be his, since he was so estranged from the Jews, who for this reason did not believe he was their Savior and Redeemer, because they were able to kill him. For Christ is not to be anointed or slain at the end of the age, so that this prophecy of Daniel should be expected to be fulfilled then and believed not yet fulfilled.

But who denies that from the signs of the gospels and the prophets, which we see taking place, we ought to hope that the Lord's coming is near? For it becomes nearer and nearer every day. But by how long an interval it is drawing near, of this it was said, “It is not yours to know.” See when the apostle said, “For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand.” And look how many years have passed! And yet what he said is not false. How much more must it be said now that the Lord's coming is near, when so great an advance toward the end has been made! The apostle certainly says: “The Spirit expressly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith.” Those times of heretics, and of such people as he describes in the same passage, had certainly not yet come; but now they have come. And so in the last times we seem to be reminded of the end of the age even by them. And likewise elsewhere he says: “But know this, that in the last days savage times will come,” or, as other manuscripts have it, “perilous times”; and then, describing what they will be like, he says: “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, irreligious, without affection, slanderers, without self-control, savage, without kindness, traitors, reckless, blinded, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.” It would be remarkable if such men were ever lacking! And indeed, because there were such men even then, he adds and says: “And avoid these; for among them are those who make their way into houses.” He does not say “will make their way,” as though foretelling this too as future, as he had said above, “perilous times will come,” but he says, “make their way into houses and lead captive weak women”; he does not say “will lead” or “are going to lead,” but “already lead.”

Nor should it be thought that in this place he put present-tense words for future-tense words, since he was warning the man to whom he was writing to avoid them. And yet he did not say in vain, “In the last days perilous times will come,” and, showing from this that they would be perilous, foretell that there would be such men, except that they will be the more numerous and abound the more, the nearer we come to the end. We see, then, that such men abound now. But what if they will be more abundant after us, and most abundant of all when the end itself is just about to arrive, how far off it is being unknown? For the last days were spoken of even in the very first days of the apostles, when the Lord's ascension into heaven was recent, when on the day of Pentecost he sent the promised Holy Spirit, and some were amazed, marveling at those who spoke in languages they had not learned, while others mockingly said they were full of new wine. On that day Peter, speaking to those who were variously affected by this, said: “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day; but take note, for this is what was spoken by the prophet: ‘In the last days it shall be, says the Lord, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,’” and so on.

Already then, therefore, these were the last days; how much more now, even if as many days remain until the end as have passed from the Lord's ascension to this day, or whether somewhat less or more remains! This we certainly do not know, because it is not ours to know the times which the Father has put in his own power, although we do know that we are living in the last times, in the last days, in the last hour, as the apostles did, but much more those who were after them and before us, and much more we, and more than we those who will be after us, until it comes to those who will be, if one may say so, the last of the last, and to that very last of all, which the Lord wishes to be understood when he says, “And I will raise him up on the last day.” How far off this is cannot be grasped.

The signs foretold in the gospel according to Luke, as Your Holiness mentions, are the same as those in Matthew and in Mark. For these three relate what the Lord said when he was asked by his disciples when the things he had foretold about the overthrow of the temple would take place, and what the sign would be of his coming and of the consummation of the age. For they do not disagree in substance if one says something another omits or says it in another way; rather, compared with one another they help, so that the reader's understanding is guided. But to discuss them all now would take long. For in answer to their questions the Lord replied with the things that were to follow from that time on: whether about the destruction of Jerusalem, from which the occasion for the question itself arose; or about his coming through the Church, in which he does not cease to come until the end (for he is recognized as coming in his own, while his members are born every day; of this coming he says, “From now on you will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds,” of which clouds it was said through the prophet, “I will command my clouds not to rain on it”); or about the end itself, at which he will appear to judge the living and the dead.

Since, then, he speaks of signs that relate to these three, that is, to the destruction of that city, to his coming in his body, which is the Church, and to his coming in the head of the Church, which is himself, one must discern with careful consideration which of these signs is to be referred to which of these three, lest perhaps we think what belongs to the overthrow of Jerusalem should be referred to the end of the age, or, on the contrary, assert that what belongs to the end of the age belongs to the destruction of that city; or say that what belongs to his coming in his body, which is the Church, belongs to his last coming in his body that is the head of the Church; or again insist that what belongs to his last coming in his own person belongs to the coming that is through the Church. Among all these, some things are plain, but some are so obscure that it is either laborious to decide them or rash to define anything about them so long as they are not understood.

For who does not see that what was said belongs to that city: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near”? Again, who does not see that what was said belongs to the Lord's last coming: “When you see these things taking place, know that the kingdom of God is near”? But the saying, “Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days. But pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath; for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world, nor ever will be,” is so placed in Matthew and in Mark that it is uncertain whether it should be understood of the destruction of that city or of the end of the age. For this same passage reads thus in Mark: “But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days. Pray that these things may not happen in winter; for those days will be days of such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, nor ever will be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.” Matthew is not unlike. But Luke put this in such a way that it is plain that it belongs to the destruction of that city; for in him it reads thus: “But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days; for there will be great distress on the earth and wrath upon this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the nations are fulfilled.”

Matthew writes as follows about what led up to this: “So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his tunic. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days,” and so on. Mark, however, writes thus: “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house, nor enter to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garment. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days,” and the rest. But Luke, to show that the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel took place when Jerusalem was stormed, records these words of the Lord at the same point: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near.” So it is plain that the abomination of desolation of which those two evangelists spoke was set up there then. Then he too continues in a similar way: “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” And in place of what they said, “And let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house nor enter to take anything out of the house,” he said, “And let those who are inside it depart,” to show that the words set down by the other evangelists commanded haste in flight. And in place of what they set down, “And let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garment,” he says more plainly: “And let those who are in the country not enter it, for these are days of vengeance, so that all that is written may be fulfilled.” Then he too continues in a similar way, so that it is entirely plain that this passage of the gospel in all three concerns this very matter: “But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days,” and the rest belonging to it, which I have already mentioned above.

Luke, then, made clear what could have been uncertain: that what was said about the abomination of desolation, and what was said about the shortening of the days for the sake of the elect, refers not to the end of the age but to the storming of Jerusalem; because, even though he did not say these things himself, he said other things more plainly about this very event, and by them showed that these too belong to it. For we must not doubt that, when Jerusalem was overthrown, there were among that people God's elect, who from the circumcision had believed or were going to believe, chosen before the foundation of the world, for whose sake those days were to be shortened, so that the evils might become bearable. For some seem to me to have understood more fittingly that the evils themselves are signified by the word “days,” just as evil days are spoken of in other places of divine Scripture; for the days themselves are not evil, but the things that happen in them. So it is these that were said to be shortened, so that, by God's gift of endurance, they might be felt less, and thus what was great might become brief.

But whether that shortening of the days is to be understood in this way, or in that they would be reduced in number, or that they would be shortened by a swifter course of the sun (for there are some who think this too: that the days were said to be going to be shorter in the same way that the day was longer when Joshua son of Nun prayed), still the evangelist Luke taught that both this shortening of the days and the abomination of desolation, two things that he himself did not mention but Matthew and Mark did, belong to the overthrow of Jerusalem, by saying more plainly, along with them, other things about this same event which they set down more obscurely. For Josephus, who wrote the history of the Jews, says that such evils befell that people then that they seem scarcely credible. Hence it was not without reason said that such tribulation had not been from the beginning of creation, nor would be. But even if in the time of the Antichrist there will perhaps be such tribulation or greater, it must be understood as said of that people, that such tribulation will not again befall it; for if they are to be the first and foremost to receive the Antichrist, that people will then inflict tribulation rather than suffer it.

There is no reason, then, for us to think that the weeks of the prophet Daniel were either disturbed by the shortening of the days, or not yet completed at that time but to be completed at the end of the age. They were not, indeed, fulfilled before the Lord's passion; those who think so are most rightly refuted by your judgment, for you said: “If, then, this abomination had already been fulfilled, how does the Lord warn us and say, ‘When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)’?” By these words of Your Blessedness those are rightly corrected who say that it was fulfilled when the Lord was saying these things, or before his passion and resurrection. But those who say that it took place when Jerusalem was overthrown, as the evangelist Luke too most plainly testifies, must be given an answer by those who think these things will happen at or near the end of the age; although the abomination of desolation itself, because of the obscurity of the saying, could be understood by people in more than one way.

And what was said, “Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house, and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his tunic,” can more fittingly be understood spiritually, as something to be guarded against in all tribulations: that no one, overcome, should come down from spiritual height to a carnal life, or that one who had made progress, stretching forward to what lies ahead, should fall away and look back to what lies behind. If this must be guarded against in every tribulation, how much more ought it to have been commanded for that tribulation which was foretold to that city as such as had not been from the beginning nor would be; and if in that one, how much more in the one that will be the last for the whole world, that is, for the Church spread through the whole world! For Luke himself too relates that the Lord said something of this kind, not, indeed, when he was asked by his disciples about his coming, where Matthew and Mark recorded it, but in another place, where the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God would come: “In that hour,” he says, “let him who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not go down to take them; and likewise let him who is in the field not turn back.”

But we are now dealing with the weeks of Daniel for the sake of computing the times. If they were not completed around the time of the Lord's first coming and are to be completed at the end, who would believe that the apostles did not know this, or knew it indeed but were forbidden to teach it? And yet, if this is so, it is profitable for the nations not to know what the Lord forbade those to teach whom he wished to be the teachers of the nations. But if they have already been completed, because the Holy of Holies has already been anointed, Christ has already been slain so that the city should not be his, the sacrifice has already been taken away from that temple and the anointing taken away, then rightly the apostles, when they asked about the end, were answered: “It is not yours to know the times which the Father has put in his own power,” since the times that they could know through Daniel's prophecy did not relate to the end of the age, about which they had asked.

As for signs from sky and earth, have we seen greater ones than those who were before us? If the history of the nations is read, are not such great wonders found to have appeared from sky and earth that some of them are not even believed? But, to pass over many that would take long to recount, when have we seen two suns, which those who lived before the Lord came in the flesh recorded in writing as having been seen? When have we seen the sun so darkened as it was darkened when the light of the world hung on the wood? Unless perhaps we shall count among heavenly portents the eclipses of the sun and moon that astronomers are accustomed to record and predict; for we have seen the moon fail quite often at its full, and the sun more rarely, but still we have seen it fail at the end of the moon, in accordance with their calculation. That eclipse of the sun when Christ was crucified was not of that kind, and therefore it was truly marvelous and portentous. For it was the Passover of the Jews, which is celebrated only at the full moon; and according to the reckonings of the astrologers it is certain that the sun cannot be eclipsed when the moon is full, but only at the end of the moon, not always indeed, but never otherwise, when according to those reckonings it is eclipsed. What, then, has anyone ever remembered appearing from the sky, since the Lord foretold these things, like what appeared when he suffered? Therefore, if such things too are to appear (unless they are rather to be understood spiritually), they will appear when the end draws so near that they must appear.

But when has the earth not been crushed by wars at various intervals of time and place? For, to pass over things too ancient, under the emperor Gallienus, when barbarians were overrunning the Roman provinces everywhere, how many of our brothers who were then in the flesh do we suppose could have believed the end was near, since it happened long after the Lord's ascension! And so we do not know what these things will be like when the end is altogether near, if indeed they were not foretold in such a way that they should rather be understood in the Church. For there are two peoples and two kingdoms, namely one of Christ and the other of the devil, of which it could be said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”; and this has not ceased to happen since it was said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” See when this was said, and how many years have passed since then, and yet it was said most truly. For in the last days the Lord came through the Virgin, and this would not be called the last hour unless the kingdom of heaven were drawing near; and throughout that whole hour the things happen that the Lord foretold would happen as his kingdom drew near. But how great a span this hour extends over, if it was said to the apostles, “It is not yours to know,” how much more ought any man such as I am to recognize his own measure, so as not to think more highly than he ought to think!

“But our punishment,” you say, “compels us to confess that the end is already here, while what was foretold is being fulfilled: ‘Men withering from fear and expectation of what is coming upon the whole world.’ It is certain,” you say, “that no country and no place in our times is not afflicted or troubled, as it was said: ‘From fear and expectation of what is coming upon the whole world.’” If, then, these evils that the human race now suffers are sure signs that the Lord is about to come, what does the apostle mean when he says, “When they say, ‘Peace and security’”? For when the gospel had said, “Men withering from fear and expectation,” it at once added: “For the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty.”

Let us see, then, whether it is not perhaps better understood that the things foretold in those words are not being fulfilled now, but will rather come when there is such tribulation for the whole world that it concerns the Church, which will be afflicted throughout the whole world, not those who will afflict it. For they are the ones who will say, “Peace and security,” so that sudden destruction may come upon them and the Lord's coming may overtake them like a thief in the night, when, on the contrary, those who love the Lord's appearing will rejoice and exult. But now we see that these evils, which are believed to be the greatest and last, are common to both peoples and both kingdoms, that is, Christ's and the devil's; for the good and the wicked alike are afflicted by them, and there is no one who says “Peace and security” wherever they happen or are feared. Yet amid these evils self-indulgent banquets are still frequented everywhere, drunkenness boils over, greed runs riot, lewd songs resound, organs, flutes, lyres, harps, dice, many and various kinds of sounds and games. Is this withering from fear, or rather soaking in lust? But the sons of darkness will have and practice these things more abundantly when they say, “Peace and security.”

What of the sons of light themselves and sons of the day, who are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake them like a thief? Do they not still use this world as though not using it, because, although it was said many years ago in the times of the apostles, they still consider with devout concern what was said, “The time is short”? Is it not true that by most of them new vines are planted, building is done, things are bought and possessed, offices are still held, wives are married? I speak of those who, though waiting for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, do not abstain from fleshly marriage, but listen with most obedient love to the apostle when he instructs how wives ought to live with husbands, husbands with wives, children with parents, parents with children, slaves with masters, masters with slaves. Do not all these use this world in all these things? They plough, sail, buy, beget, serve as soldiers, govern. I think it will not be so when the signs foretold in the gospel come to pass: signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men withering from fear and expectation of what is coming upon the whole world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

For I think these things are better understood of the Church, lest the Lord Jesus should seem, as his second coming drew near, to have foretold as something great what used to happen to this world even before his first coming, and lest we be mocked by those who have read in the history of the nations of many and far greater things than these which we shudder at as the last and greatest of all. For the Church is the sun and moon and stars, to whom it was said, “Beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun.” By her our Joseph is worshiped in this world, as in Egypt, raised from the lowest place to the highest; for his mother certainly could not worship that Joseph, since she died before Jacob came to his son, so that the truth of that prophetic dream might be kept to be fulfilled in Christ the Lord. For when the sun is darkened and the moon does not give its light and the stars fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens are shaken, as this passage is recorded by the other two evangelists, the Church will not be seen. When the ungodly persecutors then rage beyond measure and, with fear removed, as though the world's prosperity smiled on them, say, “Peace and security,” then the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, because many who seemed to shine with grace will yield to the persecutors and fall, and even the strongest believers will be troubled. And it is said according to Matthew and Mark that this will happen after the tribulation of those days, not because these things will occur when that whole persecution is over, but because the tribulation will come first, so that the falling away of some will follow; and because this will happen throughout all those days, therefore it will happen after the tribulation of those days, but still within those same days.