Book of Rules 5–6

The measure of times in the Scriptures is frequently mystical, by the trope synecdoche, or in numbers, which are set down in many ways and are to be understood according to the place. Synecdoche is either the whole from the part or the part from the whole. By this trope Israel served four hundred years in Egypt. For God says to Abraham: “Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not its own, and they will rule over them and afflict them four hundred years.” But the Scripture of Exodus says that they were four hundred and thirty years in Egypt. Did they not serve all the time? We must ask, then, from what time; and this is easy to find. For Scripture says that the people did not serve until after the death of Joseph and of all his brothers and of all that generation. “The sons of Israel grew and multiplied, and … and prevailed, and the land multiplied them. But another king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph, and said to his nation: Behold, the nation of the sons of Israel is a great multitude and stronger than we. Come, then, let us circumvent them.” If the people began to serve after the death of Joseph, and from the four hundred and thirty years in which they stayed in Egypt we subtract the eighty years of Joseph’s rule (for he ruled from thirty years of age to a hundred and ten), the years of Israel’s slavery that remain will be three hundred and forty, which God called four hundred. If Israel served the whole time of its sojourning, it is more than God said; if from the death of Joseph, according to the faith of holy Scripture, it is less. So it is plain that the hundred is the part for the whole. For after three hundred years, a part of the rest is a hundred years; therefore he said four hundred years. So too in every sum of time: as, for instance, after nine days, or after nine months, the first day of the tenth month is the tenth; as it is written: “In my mother’s womb I was formed as flesh, ten months curdled in blood.” And as in the first part of any time there is the time, so in the last hour the whole day may be: the remainder of a thousand years is a thousand years. Six days are the age of the world, that is, six thousand years. In the remainder of the sixth day, that is, of the thousand years, the Lord was born, suffered, and rose. Likewise the remainder of the thousand years is called the thousand years of the first resurrection. For as the remainder of the sixth day of the week, that is, three hours, is a whole day, one of the three of the Lord’s burial, so the remainder of the greater sixth day, in which the church rose, is a whole day, a thousand years. For by this trope the three days and three nights stand. The twenty-four hours of night and day are one time, and nights are not added to days except for a definite reason. Otherwise we speak of days alone, as the Apostle is said to have stayed with Peter fifteen days. Was there need to say, so many days and nights? For so it is written: “Evening and morning, one day.” But if night and day are one time, the last hour of the day holds both the whole day and the night that has passed; likewise the last hour of the night holds the whole day and the night to come. For an hour is a part of both times. The hour in which the Lord was buried is a part of the sixth day of the week with its night that had passed; and the hour of the night in which he rose is part of the day that was at hand. Otherwise, if neither in the present day is the past night, nor in the present night the day of the morrow, the Lord rose not by day but by night, since the day is from the rising of the sun, as it is written: “The greater light for the beginning of the day.” But the Lord rose before sunrise. For Mark says, “as the sun was rising”: not risen, but rising, that is, going toward its rising; and Luke, “at dawn.” But so that there should be no doubt about this expression, other evangelists testify openly that it was night. For Matthew says that the women came to the tomb by night and saw the Lord; and John, “while it was still dark.” But if the Lord rose before the sun, that is, before the beginning of the day, that night was part of the dawning day. This also fits the works of God, that the day is not darkened into night, but the night grows light into day. For the night itself is illuminated and becomes day: which is a figure of the things that were done in Christ. For God is he who said: “Light shines out of darkness in our hearts”; who illuminated the darkness, as it is written: “Your darkness will be as noonday.” And: “The night has passed, but the day has drawn near; let us walk decently as in the day.” For first is what is carnal, then what is spiritual. So the first and the last day are a part for the whole. Only the middle one was full, from evening to evening, according to the condition and the command, as he says to Moses: “From evening to evening you shall keep the day of the sabbaths.” But some say that we must count from the day, because the Lord said three days and nights, not three nights and days. But this is destroyed without long reasoning. For if the beginning of the burial is from the day, the end is in the night; but if it ended in the day, it began from the night. For if a day closes both ends, there will be one day more. They say besides that the past night cannot be in the day, nor the future day in the night; that three days and nights must be assigned separately, counting the first day, on which he was crucified; another, of the three hours restored; the third, of the Sabbath; the Lord’s day will be the fourth. But those who avoid this trap agree that we must count from the night, but say that the nights must be separated from the days, saying that the first night was in the three hours of the untimely darkness, the second the Sabbath night, the third the night of the dawning Lord’s day. The nights, indeed, are as it were three, but the days two: the first in the three hours after the darkness, the second the Sabbath. For one who proposes separate days cannot say that in the night in which he rose there was the day to come. But if he agrees to this, he must agree that in the remainder of the day of the sixth day of the week there was the past night. And if they were untimely darkness, yet the three hours of light were of the same day, and did not lose their order so as not to be part of their day and night. I pass over that the three hours of darkness could not be a night, because they were outside the order of God’s creation. For whatever is a sign does not disturb the rational course of the elements. For it is not because the sun and moon stood still in the days of Joshua, and in those of Hezekiah the sun alone went back, that anything of the course between sun and moon was cut short or taken away, or added to day or night, and a new reckoning of the times or of the new moon began from then, which God established in the sun and moon, to be for times, days, and years, as it is written in Genesis. Much more on that day was nothing disturbed, to which three hours of darkness were not added so as to make fifteen. For if we call the sun darkened and shown again a day, what name, what order do we give to that very day which is said to have been between the sixth day and the Sabbath, unless the Sabbath was twice and that week had eight days? Certainly, if the dispute can hardly be settled by reason, we prove in brief that the three hours of darkness do not belong to the Lord’s burial, because he was still alive. For he could not be in the heart of the earth except from the time he died and was buried, which happened in the three hours of the sixth day, before the twelfth hour. For after sunset the Jews were not allowed to bury, since the pure supper was the beginning of the Sabbath, as John says. There, then, because of the pure supper of the Jews, since the tomb was near, they laid Jesus. But days are put before nights in dignity, not in the order of their beginning; as all the firstborn are males, as it is said: “He begot sons and daughters, and died.” This would be against the law of nature, that all those had begotten males first. But for us the whole time is day. All things are new; the figures have passed. Among the legitimate numbers are seven, ten, and twelve. And the number is the same when it is multiplied, as seventy or seven hundred, or so many times by itself, as seven times seven or ten times ten. But they signify either perfection, or the whole from the part, or a simple sum. Perfection, as the seven spirits, the seven churches; or as he says: “Seven times a day I will praise you”; or: “He will receive seven times as much in this age.” Likewise ten, as another evangelist says: “He will receive a hundred times as much in this age.” And Daniel encompassed by the number ten the innumerable multitude of the angels and of heaven, or of the church, saying: “A thousand thousands appeared to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood round him.” And David: “The chariots of God,” he says, “are ten thousand times as many.” And of all time David says: “for a thousand ages.” Likewise by twelve it is said of the whole church: the hundred and forty-four thousand, and the twelve tribes, all the nations; as: “You will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.” The whole from the part: since the whole time is defined by legitimate numbers, as in the Apocalypse: “You will have affliction ten days,” when it means to the end. And that the seventy years in Babylon are the same time it is out of place to prove now. Besides the legitimate numbers, Scripture has frequently shortened any time into any number; as the time mentioned above is called an hour, when the Apostle says: “It is the last hour.” And a day, as: “Behold, now is the day of salvation.” And a year to be proclaimed, as through Isaiah: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” For not only that year was acceptable in which the Lord preached, but this too in which he preaches, as it is said: “In an acceptable time I have heard you”; and the Apostle interprets: “Behold, now is the acceptable time.” Finally he joined the end of this year, that is, of the judgment, saying: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution.” And David: “You will bless,” he says, “the crown of the year of your goodness.” Sometimes an hour, a day, and months are a year, as in the Apocalypse: “Prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year,” which is three and a half years. In the same place, months for years: “It was given to it to destroy men for five months.” Sometimes a day by the number ten is a hundred days, as in the Apocalypse: “A thousand two hundred and sixty days”: for a thousand two hundred and sixty times a hundred are a hundred and twenty-six thousand days, which are three hundred and fifty years, with months of thirty days. In the same place one month by the number ten is a hundred months, as: “They will trample the holy city for forty-two months.” For forty-two times a hundred are four thousand two hundred months, which are three hundred and fifty years. A time is either a year or a hundred years, as “a time, and times, and half a time,” which is either three and a half years or three hundred and fifty. Likewise one day is sometimes a hundred years, as is written of the church: “To lie in the city where their Lord too was crucified,” and “after three days and a half.” And: “The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” For he himself rose on the third day. A generation too is sometimes a hundred years, as the Lord says to Abraham: “In the fourth generation they will return here.” But in Exodus, it is said not of the time of slavery but of the whole sojourning: “In the fifth generation the people went up out of Egypt,” that is, after four hundred and fifty years. Likewise a generation is sometimes ten years, as Jeremiah says: “You will be in Babylon for seven generations.” That three is the same number as ten is found more fully in the Gospel. For Matthew says that the master’s property was entrusted to three servants, but Luke to ten; and he reduces the ten to three when he too says that the account was required of three. Sometimes one day is a thousand years, as it is written: “On the day you taste of the tree, you will surely die.” And the first seven days are seven thousand years. “In six days God worked, and rested from all his works on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it.” But the Lord says: “My Father is working until now.” For as he worked this world in six days, so he works the spiritual world, which is the church, through six thousand years, to cease on the seventh day, which he blessed and made for ever. That is why the Lord, among his other commandments, commanded nothing more often than that we should observe and love the day of the sabbaths. And whoever does the commandments of God loves the Sabbath of God, that is, the seventh day of eternal rest. Therefore God exhorts the people not to enter the gates of Jerusalem with a burden on the Sabbath day, and threatens the gates and those who go in and out by them, as he commands Jeremiah, saying: “Go, stand in the gates of the sons of your people, by which the kings of Judah go in and out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Guard your souls, and do not carry burdens on the Sabbath day, and do not go out by the gates of Jerusalem, and do not carry burdens out of your houses on the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers; and they did not hear with their ears, but hardened their necks more than their fathers, so as not to hear me or receive discipline. And if you hear me, says the Lord, so as not to bring burdens through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, so as not to do any of your work, and to sanctify the Sabbath day, then kings and princes will enter by the gates of this city, sitting on the throne of David, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah who dwell in Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited for ever; and they will come from the cities of Judah, and from the cities round Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the land toward the south, bringing whole burnt offerings and incense and manna and frankincense, bringing praise into the house of the Lord. But if you do not hear me, so as to sanctify the Sabbath day and not to carry burdens nor enter by the gates of Jerusalem, I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will consume the houses of Jerusalem and will not be quenched.” It would have been enough to command briefly not to work on the Sabbath. Why: “Do not bring burdens through the gates of Jerusalem”? Or, if it was needed, he might have named a kind of work, that is, “Do not bring in through the gates.” For no one brought burdens into the city over the walls and roofs. Jerusalem is twofold, and its gates are twofold. Through the gates of hell one goes out of holy Jerusalem, and through the same one enters the accursed one. But those who enter through the gates enter the eternal Jerusalem, like kings in chariots and on horses, sitting on the throne of David, as through Isaiah: “The sons of sons from all the nations will bring a gift to God with horses and chariots, in the splendour of many, with canopies, into the holy city.” The gate of the holy city Jerusalem is Christ and his vicars, the keepers of the law, though they kill the prophets and stone those sent to them. The gate of the devil is the devil and his vicars, the false apostles, transgressors of the law, hiding the keys of the kingdom of heaven by a lofty sense. These are the gates which do not prevail over the church, which is founded upon the rock. For “the foundation of God stands,” as it is written: “God knows who are his.” But if anyone enters through the commandments of those who sit on the seat of Moses, he enters through Christ. For the commandments are his; he takes off the burden of his sins, and without him he does not enter into the rest of the Sabbath. But if anyone enters not through the commandments but through the deeds of those who sit on the seat of Moses, he is a son of hell even more than they. And while all are at rest who gathered before the Sabbath, he will be found with his burden on the Sabbath day, in which there is no manna to gather …. Because they will not hear the voice of the Son of God crying in the church and saying: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” These are the thieves who enter their Jerusalem not through the true door but through their own gates. And God will kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem, and it will burn its ways and will not be quenched. For the fire that burned the gates of the specific Jerusalem has been quenched. But the Apostle says that the Sabbath and the other commandments of the law are a figure of what is to come, thus: “Let no one, then, judge you in food and drink, or in respect of a festival day or new moon or sabbaths, which is a shadow of what is to come.” In many places different events of one time, described separately in the species, have made two times, as if following one another in order; but in the genus both events are in one time. So the fourteen years under Joseph, of plenty and of barrenness, are only seven years, that is, the whole time of the Lord’s passion, as a figure of which Joseph became lord of Egypt when he was thirty years old. So those that are for us seven years of plenty and fullness are the same as the other seven of barrenness and famine. For in this time the Lord threatens the rich with famine, but promises fullness to the poor. He promises that these goods and evils of a double time will be in one time. The Scripture of Exodus testifies that Israel was plainly free of all the plagues of Egypt, and had light during the three days of darkness: which is now done spiritually, as God afterwards threatened the same Pharaoh, saying: “I will put darkness upon your land.” Sometimes he divides one time into many parts, each of which is the whole time. So the year in which Noah was in the ark is divided into all the numbers. Whenever times are mentioned, however, the number four specially means the time from the Lord’s passion to the end. And it is four whenever it is either full or, after the third, a part of the fourth, as three hundred and forty, or three and a half. The others (for they are to be understood according to the places) are signs, not plain definitions. So the forty days of the flood are the whole time. For these are the forty years in Egypt and the forty years in the desert, and the forty days of fasting of the Lord and of Moses and of the church, in which the church fasts in the church, that is, abstains from the pleasures of the dead. The same forty days in which the church eats and drinks with the Lord after the resurrection are the forty years in which the church was eating and drinking under Solomon, in profound peace on every side, though the twofold Solomon oppressed them, as the same church says: “One father oppressed us.” For forty days the water stood at its height, and for as many it decreased, so that by these the decrease of the water too might be completed in the tenth month, that is, in a perfect time. But in the genus it is not so, that at one time it prevails and then decreases. For at the time when it grows strong carnally, at the same time it decreases spiritually, so that its very exaltation is its decrease, until the time is completed. So the world reigning is put under the feet of the church of the Son of Man. So the forty days in which he paid off the sins of Judah, and Israel’s hundred and forty-nine, are one and the same. And in the seventh month the ark rested: the same time. And the water decreased until the tenth month: the same time. He went out of the ark in the twelfth month. This is the year of freedom, the acceptable year of the Lord; when it is completed, the church will be shown to have passed through the flood of the world. Each part of this year is the same year: as if he said he went out of the ark on the fortieth day, or in the seventh or tenth month.

Recapitulations are these parts from the beginning to the end: as from Adam to Enoch, that is, to the translation of the church, are seven generations, which is the whole time. Again, from Adam to Noah, that is, to the restoration, ten generations, which is the whole time; and from Noah to Abraham ten generations. For the hundred years in which the ark was built are the whole time in which the church is built, and in that time, while all perish in the flood, it is steered. This we leave to the wise to investigate more fully, the way having been given. For lest the abundance of Scripture be interpreted, we did not think we should pursue each point and remove what might perhaps hinder this understanding, hastening elsewhere. Among the rules by which the Spirit has sealed the law, so that the way of light might be guarded, he keeps no small seal by recapitulation, with such subtlety that it seems a continuation of the narrative rather than a recapitulation. For sometimes he recapitulates thus: “Then,” “in that hour,” “on that day,” “at that time”; as the Lord speaks in the Gospel, saying: “On the day when Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire from heaven and destroyed them all. So it will be on the day of the Son of Man, when he is revealed. In that hour, let him who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them; and likewise let him who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife.” Is it in that hour when the Lord is revealed at his coming that one ought not to turn back to what is his and remember Lot’s wife, and not before he is revealed? But the Lord commanded these things to be observed in the hour in which he will be revealed, not only so that, by hiding the truth, he might make it more welcome to those who seek, but also to show that that whole time is a day or an hour. So he commanded these things to be observed in the same hour, that is, time, but before he is revealed. In the same hour, indeed, but in what part of the hour is recognized by reason. Sometimes, however, they are not recapitulations of this kind, but likenesses of what is to come, as the Lord says: “When you see what was spoken through the prophet Daniel, then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains.” And he brings in the end. But what Daniel said is happening in Africa, and the end is not at the same time. But since, though not under that title, yet it is to come; therefore he said “then,” that is, when it has happened likewise throughout the world: which is the departure and the revelation of the man of sin. By this kind of speech the Spirit says in the Psalms: “When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became as those consoled. Then our mouth was filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation. Then they will say among the nations: The Lord has done great things with them. The Lord has done great things with us; we have become glad.” But in saying, “When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, then they said among the nations”: now he will turn it back, he says; then they will say among the nations. For we are the nations whose captivity he turns back. As a figure of them, we have the time, saying: “The Lord has done great things with them; the Lord has done great things with us.” So from the likeness he made his time and ours one and joined them, saying: “Then they will say among the nations,” that is, when he has done likewise to the nations. Nor do I think I should pass over the fact that the Spirit wished something to be understood without mysteries or allegory. In John: “Many false prophets have gone out into this world. By this know the Spirit of God: every spirit that dissolves Jesus and denies that he has come in the flesh is not from God, but this is of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he is coming, and now he is present in this world.” Does everyone who does not deny that Jesus has come in the flesh have the Spirit of God? But that this denial is in deed, not in word, and that each one must be understood not by his profession but by his fruits, he subtly warns throughout the whole letter, in which he wrote of nothing but good and bad fruits, by the same kind of speech, as he says: “By this we know him, if we keep his commandments. But he who says, I have known him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar.” Did he say that one who does not know God is to be understood as a brother by profession, and not by works? “And he who says that he loves God and hates his brother is a liar.” For if, as he says, he loves God, let him show it by works: let him cling to God, let him love God in his brother. If he believes Christ incarnate, let him stop hating the members of Christ. If he believes the Word made flesh, why does he persecute in the flesh the Word made flesh? Why does he persecute the Word in the flesh? Since the Lord said, “As long as you did it to one of the least of my brothers who believe in me, you did it to me,” let him not work evil in the flesh of Christ, that is, in his servants, since the Lord and the church are one flesh. And if he believes that the man is in that flesh, why does he not love him, or, what is crueller, why does he hate him? as it is written: “He who does not love his brother remains in death”; and: “He who hates his brother is a murderer.” Did he say that there is any other greater and clearer sign for recognizing the Antichrist than this, that he who denies him in the flesh also hates his brother? And what he says, “Whoever denies Christ in the flesh is not from God,” is like: “No one can say Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit”; though many say “Lord Jesus,” as he himself testifies: “Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.” But in this place the Apostle said that no one can say Lord Jesus Christ except in the Holy Spirit according to conscience, according to the inner man, not according to profession alone, to show that those who say “Lord Jesus” have nothing less than those who are exalted with kinds of gifts; but that everyone who has believed the Lord Jesus, and has shown by works that he has believed, possesses one and the same Spirit. “No one,” he says, “can say Lord Jesus except in the Holy Spirit. But there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.” To dissolve Jesus is not to do what one confesses that Jesus did, as the same Lord says: “Whoever dissolves one of the least of these commandments and so teaches men will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” And what “dissolves” means he discloses from what follows, saying: “But whoever does and so teaches.” That this denial, then, belongs to works and not to the voice, the apostle Paul also confirms, saying: “They profess to know the Lord, but deny him by their deeds.” And again: “Having the form of godliness, but denying its power.” In this sense he says that certain brothers preach Christ not in voice but in heart without holiness; for in voice they preach in a holy way. Indeed he agrees with their preaching and commands it to be heard, saying: “What does it matter, whether in pretext or in truth, Christ is proclaimed?” For the Antichrist preaches the Lord Christ not from desire but as a pretext. Tending elsewhere, he enters through the name of Christ, so as to pave his way, so as under the name of Christ to obey his belly, and to put on these things (it is shameful to say) the name of holiness and simplicity, asserting that the works of bedchambers, with signs and wonders, are Christ. These the Apostle warns us to avoid with wholesome caution, saying: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”