Part II, Chapter 1, 2

This account of things agrees best with history when duly corrected. For²⁹ Justin and³⁰ Irenaeus say that Simon Magus came to Rome in the reign of Claudius and performed juggling tricks there. Pseudo-Clemens adds that he tried to fly there, but broke his neck through the prayers of Peter. Hence³¹ Eusebius, or rather his interpolator Jerome, recorded that Peter came to Rome in the second year of Claudius; but³² Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, Philastrius, Sulpitius, Prosper, Maximus Taurinensis, and Hegesippus the younger, place this victory of Peter in the time of Nero. The older tradition, indeed, was that Peter came to Rome in the days of this emperor, as may be seen in³³ Lactantius. Chrysostom³⁴ tells us that the Apostles remained long in Judea, and that then, being driven out by the Jews, they went to the Gentiles. This dispersion was in the first year of the Jewish war, when the Jews, as Josephus tells us, began to be tumultuous and violent everywhere. For all agree that the Apostles were dispersed into several regions at once; and Origen has set down the time,³⁵ telling us that at the beginning of the Judaic war the Apostles and disciples of our Lord were scattered into all nations: Thomas into Parthia, Andrew into Scythia, John into Asia, and Peter first into Asia, where he preached to the dispersion, and from there into Italy.³⁶ Dionysius Corinthius says that Peter went from Asia through Corinth to Rome, and all antiquity agrees that Peter and Paul were martyred there at the end of Nero's reign. Mark went with Timothy to Rome, 2 Tim. iv. 11. Colos. iv. 10. Sylvanus was Paul's assistant; and by the companions of Peter mentioned in his first Epistle we may know that he wrote from Rome; and the ancients generally agree that in this Epistle he meant Rome by Babylon. His second Epistle was written to the same dispersed strangers as the first, 2 Pet. iii. 1. and in it he says that Paul had written to them of the same things, and also in his other Epistles, ver. 15, 16. Now, as there is no Epistle of Paul to these strangers besides that to the Hebrews, so in this Epistle, chap. x. 11, 12. we find at full length all those things which Peter had been speaking of, and to which he refers here; in particular the passing away of the old heavens and earth, and the establishing of an inheritance that cannot be moved, with an exhortation to grace, because God, to the wicked, is a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 25, 26, 28, 29.

Having established the time at which the Apocalypse was written, I need not say much about its authenticity, since it was held in such esteem in the early ages that many tried to imitate it, feigning Apocalypses under the Apostles' names; and the Apostles themselves, as I have just shown, studied it and used its phrases, by which means the style of the Epistle to the Hebrews became more mystical than that of Paul's other Epistles, and the style of John's Gospel more figurative and majestic than that of the other Gospels. I do not find that Christ was called the word of God in any book of the New Testament written before the Apocalypse; and I am therefore of the opinion that this language was taken from this Prophecy, as were also many other phrases in this Gospel, such as those of Christ's being the light which enlightens the world, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the bridegroom, he who testifies, he who came down from heaven, the Son of God, etc. Justin Martyr, who became a Christian within thirty years after John's death, writes expressly that a certain man among the Christians, whose name was John, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ, in the Revelation that was shown to him, prophesied that those who believed in Christ should live a thousand years at Jerusalem. And a few lines before he says: "But I, and as many as are Christians, right in all things in their opinions, believe both that there shall be a resurrection of the flesh, and a thousand years of life at Jerusalem, built, adorned, and enlarged." Which is the same as saying that all true Christians in that early age received this Prophecy: for in all ages, as many as believed the thousand years received the Apocalypse as the foundation of their opinion; and I do not know of a single instance to the contrary. Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, a man of the Apostolic age and one of John's own disciples, not only taught the doctrine of the thousand years, but also³⁷ affirmed the Apocalypse to be written by divine inspiration. Melito, who flourished next after Justin,³⁸ wrote a commentary on this Prophecy; and he, being Bishop of Sardis, one of the seven Churches, could neither be ignorant of their tradition about it, nor impose upon them. Irenaeus, who was contemporary with Melito, wrote much about it, and said that the number 666 was in all the ancient and approved copies, and that he had it confirmed to him also by those who had seen John face to face, meaning no doubt his master Polycarp among them. At the same time³⁹ Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, affirmed it, and so did Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen soon after; and their contemporary Hippolytus the Martyr, Metropolitan of the Arabians,⁴⁰ wrote a commentary on it. All these were ancient men, flourishing within a hundred and twenty years after John's death, and of the greatest note in the Churches of those times. Soon after, Victorinus Pictaviensis wrote another commentary on it; and he lived in the time of Diocletian. This may surely suffice to show how the Apocalypse was received and studied in the early ages: and I do not indeed find any other book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early as this. The Prophecy said: "Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of this Prophecy, and keep what is written in it." This animated the first Christians to study it so much, until its difficulty made them relax, and comment more upon the other books of the New Testament. This was the state of the Apocalypse, until the misunderstanding of the thousand years brought a prejudice against it: and Dionysius of Alexandria, noting how it abounded with barbarisms, that is, with Hebraisms, promoted that prejudice so far as to cause many Greeks in the fourth century to doubt the book. But while the Latins, and a great part of the Greeks, always retained the Apocalypse, and the rest doubted only out of prejudice, this is no argument against its authority.

This Prophecy is called the Revelation, with respect to the scripture of truth, which Daniel⁴¹ was commanded to shut up and seal, until the time of the end. Daniel sealed it until the time of the end; and until that time comes, the Lamb is opening the seals: and afterwards the two Witnesses prophesy out of it a long time in sackcloth, before they ascend to heaven in a cloud. All which is the same as saying that these Prophecies of Daniel and John should not be understood until the time of the end: but then some should prophesy out of them in an afflicted and mournful state for a long time, and then only darkly, so as to convert only a few. But at the very end, the Prophecy should be interpreted far enough to convince many. "Then," says Daniel, "many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase." For the Gospel must be preached in all nations before the great tribulation and the end of the world. The palm-bearing multitude, which comes out of this great tribulation, cannot be innumerable out of all nations, unless they are made so by the preaching of the Gospel before it comes. There must be a stone cut out of a mountain without hands, before it can fall upon the toes of the Image, and become a great mountain and fill the earth. An Angel must fly through the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach to all nations, before Babylon falls, and the Son of man reaps his harvest. The two Prophets must ascend to heaven in a cloud, before the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ. It is therefore a part of this Prophecy that it should not be understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the Prophecy that it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of opening these things, is now approaching, as by the great successes of recent Interpreters it seems to be, we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the Gospel is approaching, it is to us and our posterity that those words mainly belong:⁴² "In the time of the end the wise will understand, but none of the wicked will understand."⁴³ "Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of this Prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it."

The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God intended to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to satisfy men's curiosity by enabling them to foresee things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, might then be made manifest to the world by it. For the event of things predicted many ages before will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by providence. For as the few and obscure Prophecies concerning Christ's first coming were for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted; so the many and clear Prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ's second coming are not only for predicting, but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom in which dwells righteousness. The event will prove the Apocalypse; and this Prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old Prophets, and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it. For he who would understand the old Prophets must begin with this; but the time has not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution predicted in them has not yet come to pass. "In the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he begins to sound, the mystery of God will be finished, as he has declared to his servants the Prophets: and then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign forever," Apoc. x. 7. xi. 15. There is already so much of the Prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study may see sufficient instances of God's providence: but then the signal revolutions predicted by all the holy Prophets will at once both turn men's eyes to consider the predictions, and plainly interpret them. Until then we must content ourselves with interpreting what has already been fulfilled.

Among the Interpreters of the last age there is scarcely one of note who has not made some discovery worth knowing; and from this I seem to gather that God is about to open these mysteries. The success of others led me to consider the matter; and if I have done anything that may be useful to later writers, I have achieved my purpose.

Notes to Chap. I.

1 Demonstration of the Gospel, book 3.

2 See Pamelius in his notes on Tertullian, On Prescriptions, no. 215; and Jerome, book 1 against Jovinian, chapter 14. Erasmus's edition.

3 Arethas, chapters 18 and 19.

4 Church History, book 3, chapter 23.

5 Chrysostom, To Theodore the Fallen.

6 Jerome, on the Epistle to the Galatians, book 3, chapter 6.

7 In Eusebius, Church History, book 3, chapter 28. Valesius's edition.

8 Epiphanius, Heresies 28.

9 Jerome, Against Lucifer.

10 1 Pet. i. 7, 13. iv. 13. & v. 1.

11 Apoc. xiii. 8.

12 Apoc. xxi.

13 Apoc. i. 6. & v. 10.

14 Apoc. xx. 6.

15 Apoc. xx. 4, 12.

16 Apoc. xvii.

17 Dan. viii. 15, 16, 27. & xii. 8, 9.

18 The Greek word "aselgeias," in many of the best manuscripts.

19 Apoc. xiii. 7, 12.

20 Apoc. xiii. 1, 5, 6.

21 Apoc. xviii. 12, 13.

22 Apoc. xix. 20.

23 Apoc. xxi. 3, 4.

24 Apoc. ix. 21. and xvii. 2.

25 Apoc. xiii. 6.

26 Apoc. xviii. 3, 7, 9.

27 The Greek word "moichalidos."

28 Apoc. ii. 14.

29 Apology to Antoninus Pius.

30 Heresies, book 1, chapter 20. See also Tertullian, Apology, chapter 13.

31 Eusebius, Chronicle.

32 Cyril, Catechetical Lecture 6; Philastrius, On Heresies, chapter 30; Sulpitius, History, book 2; Prosper, On the Promises of Half the Time, chapter 13; Maximus, Sermon 5 on the Feast of the Apostles; Hegesippus, book 2, chapter 2.

33 Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 2.

34 Homily 70 on Matthew, chapter 22.

35 In Eusebius, Church History, book 2, chapter 25.

36 Eusebius, History, book 2, chapter 25.

37 Arethas in the Preface to his commentary on the Apocalypse.

38 Eusebius, History, book 4, chapter 26. Jerome.

39 Eusebius, History, book 4, chapter 24.

40 Jerome.

41 Dan. x. 21. xii. 4, 9.

42 Dan. xii. 4, 10.

43 Apoc. i. 3.

This account fits the history best once it is corrected.²⁹ Justin and³⁰ Irenaeus say that Simon Magus came to Rome in the reign of Claudius and did his juggling tricks there. Pseudo-Clemens adds that he tried to fly there, but broke his neck through Peter's prayers. So³¹ Eusebius, or rather his interpolator Jerom, recorded that Peter came to Rome in the second year of Claudius. But³² Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, Philastrius, Sulpitius, Prosper, Maximus Taurinensis, and Hegesippus junior place this victory of Peter in the time of Nero. The older tradition was that Peter came to Rome in the days of this emperor, as³³ Lactantius shows.³⁴ Chrysostom tells us that the Apostles stayed in Judea a long time, and that after the Jews drove them out they went to the Gentiles. This scattering began in the first year of the Jewish war, when the Jews, as Josephus tells us, started riots and turns of violence everywhere. All agree that the Apostles were scattered into several regions at once, and Origen fixes the time,³⁵ telling us that at the beginning of the Jewish war the Apostles and disciples of our Lord were scattered into all nations: Thomas into Parthia, Andrew into Scythia, John into Asia, and Peter first into Asia, where he preached to the scattered people, and then into Italy.³⁶ Dionysius Corinthius says that Peter went from Asia by way of Corinth to Rome, and all antiquity agrees that Peter and Paul were martyred there at the end of Nero's reign. Mark went with Timothy to Rome, 2 Tim. iv. 11. Colos. iv. 10. Sylvanus was Paul's assistant. From the companions of Peter named in his first Epistle we can tell that he wrote from Rome, and the ancients generally agree that in this Epistle he meant Rome when he wrote Babylon. His second Epistle went to the same scattered strangers as the first, 2 Pet. iii. 1. In it he says that Paul had written to them about the same things, and also in his other Epistles, ver. 15, 16. Paul wrote no Epistle to these strangers except the one to the Hebrews, and in that Epistle, chap. x. 11, 12, we find at length everything Peter had been speaking of and refers to here: the passing away of the old heavens and earth, the establishment of an unmovable inheritance, and the call to grace, because God is a consuming fire to the wicked, Heb. xii. 25, 26, 28, 29.

Now that I have settled when the Apocalypse was written, I need say little about its truth. It was so highly regarded in the early ages that many tried to copy it, writing fake Apocalypses under the names of the Apostles. The Apostles themselves, as I have just shown, studied it and used its phrases. Because of that, the Epistle to the Hebrews became more mystical in style than Paul's other Epistles, and John's Gospel became more figurative and majestic than the other Gospels. I do not think Christ was called the word of God in any book of the New Testament written before the Apocalypse, so I believe that language was taken from this Prophecy. Many other phrases in this Gospel came from it too, such as Christ being the light which enlightens the world, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the bridegroom, he who testifies, he who came down from heaven, the Son of God, and so on. Justin Martyr became a Christian within thirty years after John's death. He states plainly that a certain man among the Christians, named John, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ, prophesied in the Revelation shown to him that those who believed in Christ would live a thousand years at Jerusalem. A few lines earlier he writes: "But I, and as many as are Christians, who are right in all their opinions, believe both that there will be a resurrection of the flesh and a thousand years of life in a Jerusalem built, adorned and enlarged." That amounts to saying that all true Christians in that early age received this Prophecy. In every age, everyone who believed the thousand years received the Apocalypse as the foundation of that belief, and I do not know a single exception. Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, a man of the Apostolic age and one of John's own disciples, not only taught the doctrine of the thousand years but also³⁷ affirmed that the Apocalypse was written by divine inspiration. Melito, who came right after Justin,³⁸ wrote a commentary on this Prophecy. He was Bishop of Sardis, one of the seven Churches, so he could neither be ignorant of their tradition about it nor deceive them. Irenaeus, a contemporary of Melito, wrote a great deal about it. He said the number 666 was in all the ancient and approved copies, and that people who had seen John face to face also confirmed it for him, meaning no doubt his master Polycarp among them. At the same time³⁹ Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, affirmed it, and so did Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen soon after. Their contemporary Hippolytus the Martyr, Metropolitan of the Arabians,⁴⁰ wrote a commentary on it. All these were early men, living within a hundred and twenty years after John's death, and they were the most noted figures in the Churches of those times. Soon after, Victorinus Pictaviensis wrote another commentary on it, and he lived in the time of Dioclesian. This is surely enough to show how the Apocalypse was received and studied in the first ages. I know of no other book of the New Testament that is so strongly attested, or commented on so early, as this one. The Prophecy said: "Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of this Prophecy and keep what is written in it." This is what drove the first Christians to study it so hard, until its difficulty made them ease off and comment more on the other books of the New Testament. That was the state of the Apocalypse until the thousand years was misunderstood and a prejudice turned against it. Dionysius of Alexandria noted how full it is of barbarisms, that is, Hebraisms, and he did much to spread that prejudice, so that many Greeks in the fourth century came to doubt the book. But the Latins, and a large part of the Greeks, always kept the Apocalypse, and the rest doubted only out of prejudice, so that does nothing to weaken its authority.

This Prophecy is called the Revelation in relation to the scripture of truth that Daniel⁴¹ was commanded to shut up and seal until the time of the end. Daniel sealed it until the time of the end, and until that time comes the Lamb is opening the seals. After that, the two Witnesses prophesy out of it for a long time in sackcloth before they ascend to heaven in a cloud. All of this means that these Prophecies of Daniel and John would not be understood until the time of the end. Some would then prophesy from them in an afflicted and mournful state for a long time, and only in a dark way, so that they would convert few. But in the very end, the Prophecy would be interpreted far enough to convince many. Then, Daniel says, many will run back and forth, and knowledge will increase. The Gospel must be preached in all nations before the great tribulation and the end of the world. The crowd with palm branches coming out of this great tribulation cannot be a countless number from all nations unless the preaching of the Gospel before it arrives makes them so. A stone must be cut out of a mountain without hands before it can fall on the toes of the Image, become a great mountain, and fill the earth. An Angel must fly through the middle of heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach to all nations before Babylon falls and the Son of man reaps his harvest. The two Prophets must ascend to heaven in a cloud before the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Christ. So part of this Prophecy is that it would not be understood before the last age of the world, and that actually supports the credit of the Prophecy, since it is not yet understood. But if the last age, the age of opening these things, is now approaching, as the great success of recent interpreters seems to show, we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the Gospel is approaching, then those words mainly belong to us and our posterity:⁴² "In the time of the end the wise will understand, but none of the wicked will understand."⁴³ "Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things which are written in it."

The folly of interpreters has been to predict times and events from this Prophecy, as if God meant to make them prophets. By this rashness they not only exposed themselves but also brought the Prophecy into contempt. God's plan was very different. He gave this Prophecy and the Prophecies of the Old Testament not to feed men's curiosity by letting them foresee things, but so that after they were fulfilled they could be read by what happened, and his own Providence, not the interpreters, would then be shown to the world. For the outcome of things predicted many ages before will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by providence. The few and obscure Prophecies about Christ's first coming were there to set up the Christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted. The many and clear Prophecies about the things to be done at Christ's second coming are not only for predicting but also for bringing about the recovery and re-establishment of long-lost truth, and for setting up a kingdom where righteousness dwells. The outcome will prove the Apocalypse, and this Prophecy, once proved and understood, will open the old Prophets; and together they will make the true religion known and establish it. Anyone who wants to understand the old Prophets must start with this one, but the time has not yet come to understand them perfectly, because the main change predicted in them has not yet happened. In the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he begins to sound, the mystery of God will be finished, as he has declared to his servants the Prophets; and then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign forever, Apoc. x. 7. xi. 15. So much of the Prophecy is already fulfilled that anyone who takes the trouble to study it can see clear instances of God's providence. But then the striking revolutions predicted by all the holy Prophets will at once turn people's eyes onto the predictions and plainly interpret them. Until then we must make do with interpreting what has already been fulfilled.

Among the interpreters of the last age there is hardly one of note who has not made some discovery worth knowing, and from that I gather that God is about to open these mysteries. The success of others led me to study the question. If I have done anything that may be useful to later writers, I have achieved my purpose.

Notes to Chap. I.

1 Dem. Evang. l. 3.

2 Vid. Pamelium in notis ad Tertull. de Præscriptionbus, n. 215 & Hieron l. 1. contra Jovinianum, c. 14. Edit.Erasmi.

3 Areth. c. 18, 19.

4 Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 23.

5 Chrysost. ad Theodorum lapsum.

6 Hieron. in Epist. ad Gal. l. 3. c. 6.

7 Apud Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 28. Edit. Valesii.

8 Epiphan. Hæres. 28.

9 Hieron. adv. Lucif.

10 1 Pet. i. 7, 13. iv. 13. & v. 1.

11 Apoc. xiii. 8.

12 Apoc. xxi.

13 Apoc. i. 6. & v. 10.

14 Apoc. xx. 6.

15 Apoc. xx. 4, 12.

16 Apoc. xvii.

17 Dan. viii. 15, 16, 27. & xii. 8, 9.

18 The Greek word "aselgeias" in many of the best manuscripts.

19 Apoc. xiii. 7, 12.

20 Apoc. xiii. 1, 5, 6.

21 Apoc. xviii. 12, 13.

22 Apoc. xix. 20.

23 Apoc. xxi. 3, 4.

24 Apoc. ix. 21. and xvii. 2.

25 Apoc. xiii. 6.

26 Apoc. xviii. 3, 7, 9.

27 The Greek word "moichalidos".

28 Apoc. ii. 14.

29 Apol. ad Antonin. Pium.

30 Hæres. l. 1. c. 20. Vide etiam Tertullianum, Apol. c. 13.

31 Euseb. Chron.

32 Cyril Catech. 6. Philastr. de hæres. cap. 30. Sulp. Hist. l. 2. Prosper de promiss. dimid. temp. cap. 13. Maximus serm. 5. in Natal. Apost. Hegesip. l. 2. c. 2.

33 Lactant de mortib. Persec. c. 2.

34 Hom. 70. in Matt. c. 22.

35 Apud Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 25.

36 Euseb. Hist. l. 2. c. 25.

37 Arethas in Proæm. comment. in Apoc.

38 Euseb. Hist. l. 4. cap. 26. Hieron.

39 Euseb. Hist. l. 4. c. 24.

40 Hieron.

41 Dan. x. 21. xii. 4, 9.

42 Dan. xii. 4, 10.

43 Apoc. i. 3.