On the Duration of the World

In these promises, then, the brethren rejoice enough that we should carry out with greater diligence what we have determined. For concerning this matter very many have written, not in agreement, but variously; so that the reader's mind, remaining in doubt, cannot know what is more true. I shall do as you wish, as I myself have promised, the Lord, that is, God Christ, showing the way. Wherefore I shall pursue skillfully and diligently every part and rule of the years; so that the exposition itself may seem, to readers as they proceed, like a pleasant path, level and smooth. After the varied compositions of past writers indeed (especially of those already held in prejudged opinion), to say anything is impious or proud; but I shall say it; for it is necessary, reason compelling; although I believe it is not proud if at a later time something better concerning the law be set forth by anyone.

This also the holy apostle Paul, taking counsel for peace, attests and says: But if a better thing be revealed to another sitting by, let the first hold his peace. And indeed the apostle said this concerning any dispute of the law: concerning which matter, whoever shall have thought in whatever way, provided he thought rightly, may the better be admitted. Now the question turns on the whole number of the years; where no one can put an imperfect number in place of the perfect number, nor can one exceed the perfect number itself; and it is not true to assert what is less, nor what is more, than the perfect number. Let us therefore now come to the matter, and relate everything in its order, and let it be understood at what point I wish to pursue this reckoning, or have fully stated it.

When, therefore, this world was established by God the Creator, and he saw all things appear at his command out of nothing, in due time the heaven with its ornaments, that is, the sun, and the moon, and the stars, shining with light for the changes and signs of the seasons; the earth full of greenness with the perfection of all seeds, having flowers of diverse colors by divine painting; the seas enclosed by the confines of shores and mountains, lest they overstep, as though beset by a certain rampart, having from thence also brought forth first, motion in themselves and every living soul.

After this perfection of the world, therefore, it pleased Almighty God to establish man, whom, above the other animals, Almighty God willed to be something; for the others he created by his command and word; this one he fashioned with his sacred hands, whom he set free and made lord over all his works: those, that they might be ruled by this one; this one, that as a wise, rational, and shrewd living being he might govern himself in the world.

From his time, then, and that of those following, we show (running through) the generations of all, down to our own age; how many years there are since this world in which we live was made; but which, according to the evangelic word, is now set at its end: holding that the origin of this world was from the eighth day before the Kalends of April, whereon it began and was made, as we have already set forth by reasoning in the Paschal book; and we have related that the world was five days without man, and that on the sixth day it was formed and made alive by the breath of God.

From the birth of the first-formed man, Adam, that is, to the flood made in the days of Noah, there are 2257 years, which are thus faithfully confirmed through each generation. Adam in his 230th year begot Seth. Seth in his 205th begot Enos. Enos in his 190th year begot Cainan. Cainan in his 170th year begot Malaleel. Malaleel in his 165th year begot Jared. Jared in his 162nd year begot Enoch. Enoch in his 165th year begot Methuselah. Methuselah in his 182nd year begot Lamech. Here the first years of Methuselah, which the error of copyists produced, no one has seen, no one has examined, no one has corrected by diligent inquiry: that he lived 167 years and begot Lamech; that afterward he lived 811 years—which cannot be true, because it is shown that 811 exceeds even the flood by 14 years. For no one escaped the flood, no one, save those in the ark, passed beyond it living.

Therefore Methuselah lived to his 182nd year and thus begot Lamech; and after this he lived 787 years, for thus the true faith of the divine Scripture shows, which related that Methuselah both lived and died before the flood.

Lamech in his 188th year begot Noah; for in Noah's six-hundredth year the flood was made and completed. From the time of the flood, moreover, to the 60th year of Abraham, in which he set out from his own land on his pilgrimage, there are 1012 years. Thus, in order, the second generations are shown, from Shem, the son of Noah. But because 78 years of Shem were completed at the consummation of the flood, 2 years, namely, are necessary for the reckoning of the sum which we have set down after the flood: for Shem himself, two years after the flood, was 100 years old, and thus begot Arphaxad; which years the writers of this reckoning did not put into the number of years, since they by no means foresaw them. Therefore, after the flood, Shem lived 2 years and begot Arphaxad. Arphaxad in his 135th year begot Salah. Salah in his 130th year begot Eber. Eber in his 134th year begot Peleg. Peleg in his 130th year begot Reu. Reu in his 132nd year begot Serug.

Serug in his 150th year begot Nahor. Nahor in his 79th year begot Terah. Terah, moreover, in his 70th year begot Abram. Abram in his 70th year departed from his own land (as we have said) into Haran. From the pilgrimage of Abraham to the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness, there are 450 years. Thus these things are henceforth declared by us more certainly.

Abraham journeyed as a pilgrim for 30 years and received the son of promise, Isaac: who, when he had desired to hear the word of the Lord, as to when his seed might inherit the land of Canaan; a sacrifice being prepared, the Lord spoke to him at evening, concluding and at the same time signifying that his seed would yet be pilgrims in the land of Canaan and in servitude to the Egyptians for 400 years, as the divine Scripture testifies in the book of Genesis to Abraham himself: Knowing thou shalt know how thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them into bondage, and afflict them 400 years. And the nation whom they shall serve I will judge. And therefore the most wise lawgiver Moses, God our author guiding him, following this, says: And the habitation of the children of Israel, whereby they dwelt in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, they and their fathers, was 430 years.

This the disputers of the years, not attending to it well enough, have vainly recorded, that the children of Israel were in Egypt only 350 years, and not the full 430. For, as more fully so also more correctly, we show, by running through their generations, that 450 years were completed through the seed of Abraham, from the birth of Isaac to their departure from Egypt (not in the land of Egypt alone, but also in the land of Canaan). Isaac in his 60th year begot Jacob. Jacob, when he was 130 years old, entered into Egypt with his sons and grandsons and all his offspring, among whom grandsons was Kohath, son of Levi, who is the grandfather of Moses: therefore Amram was born in Egypt. Amram begot Moses; in his 80th year the same Moses went out of Egypt with the children of Israel, and by this reckoning, in the land of Canaan, from the birth of Isaac to Jacob's entry into Egypt, they dwelt 140 years, and in Egypt they completed 210 years.

This is enough for the clarification of these years, concerning which very many who had spoken on the subject were in doubt.

And therefore from the making of the world to the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, there are 3,646 years. In the wilderness they were 40 years; then, after the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun, through the channel of the Jordan, with dry foot, brought the peoples across into the land of promise; and, divinity favoring them, subduing fierce nations, he judged as a just man. Under the Judges, moreover, there were among them times of captivity, from Joshua the son of Nun to Samuel the prophet, who anointed Saul as king, for 561 years. But that our sum also may be found wholly gathered together, and that it may be recognized by the Gentiles that the apostle Paul rightly set it down in the Acts of the Apostles: that thus, the land of Canaan having been divided among our fathers by Joshua the son of Nun, the Lord God gave them judges for 450 years, down to Samuel the prophet.

For the apostle Paul, doing otherwise in the Acts of the Apostles, and persuading something else, named not the times of captivity as well, but only those times in which they had judges and were dominant: And he gave them judges, he says. For in captivity, having been handed over for their sins, they did not have judges of their own, but were oppressed by foreigners. Nor could the apostle Paul himself go against the faith of the Scripture of the book of Judges, if he had wished to run through the full quantity of the times. He named judges as given by God to the people, wishing to intimate the faith of the Lord Christ; for down to David he addressed the people, that he might relate that Christ had come from his seed: in whom, believing (if they would), he preached that they would obtain the remission of sins.

Finally, these times of the judges are shown thus: Joshua the son of Nun judged with the elders for 30 years. After this, sinning, they were handed over to Chusanrasathaim, king of Mesopotamia, for eight years: and the Lord raised up for them, for help, Gothoniel: who, having slain Cufarsamoth, judged Israel for 50 years. After him, sinning, they served Eglon king of Moab for 18 years. Aoth killed Eglon, and Aoth judged for 80 years. When he had died, the people sinned, and served Jabin king of the Chananites for 20 years. Against whom the Lord raised up Debora, and when Jabin had been slain, she judged for 40 years. Sinning again, they were handed over to the Midianites for 7 years. Against these arose Gedeon, and he judged the people for 40 years. After him, his son judged for 3 years. After him, Tola judged for 22 years. When Tola had died, Jahir was chosen by the people, and he himself judged the people for 22 years.

After his passing, the people sinned, and were handed over to the Ammonites for 18 years; and crying out to the Lord from their affliction, he raised up for them Jepte, who judged for 6 years. And Sebon judged for 7 years. Then the people sinned, and were handed over to the foreigners for 40 years. Turning again to the Lord, he raised up for them Samson, who, having conquered the foreigners, judged for 20 years. When he had died, Semergar judged for 1 year. After him the people were at peace, and had no ruler; but each one did what pleased him, and they were their own judges for 30 years.

When these years had passed, then Heli the priest judged for 20 years. To him succeeded Samuel, likewise himself a priest of God; and he judged for 40 years, until he anointed Saul king. All the years, then, as we have said, amount to 561. For as to those who suppose that the Apostle related something different concerning these years, let them note more carefully that those who wrote out the history of the years did not observe that, once the times of the Judges alone are set apart (as the Apostle did), without the years of the captivity, the years are 411. The total years, then, from the making of the world up to Samuel who anointed Saul king are 4300. Thereafter the Kings held sway for 514 years, from Saul up to Sedecias; whose eyes Nabuchodonosor put out, and killed him in the mill-house. Thus then the years of the Kings are verified.

Saul reigned 40 years, David reigned 40 years and 3 months, Solomon 40 years, Roboam 17 years, Abia 3 years, Asa 41 years, Josaphat 25 years, Joram 8 years, Ochozias 1 year, Godolias 6 years, Joas 40 years, Amasias 29 years, Ozias 52 years, Joatham 17 years, Achaz 15 years, Ezechias 29 years, Manasses 55 years, Amos 2 years, Josias 31 years, Joachaz 3 months, Joachim 11 years, Joachim 3 months and 20 days, Sedechias 11 years. The years of the Kings, then, as we have said, are 514.

From the making of the world, that is, up to Sedechias, when Jerusalem was overthrown and the people carried off into Babylon, the years are 4814. After the eleventh year of Sedechias, then, Jerusalem having been overthrown by king Nabuchodonosor, the Jewish people were carried into the captivity of Babylon. Which captivity lasted 70 years: which years, how they were completed, will be shown more clearly than daylight when we come from here to the weeks of Daniel; so that these weeks, from what time and where they were fulfilled, may be most carefully proven.

For Daniel, in his tenth vision, when he had been wholly intent in prayer to God, with anxious mind hanging in suspense, wishing to know whether the state of Jerusalem and its people, after the Babylonian captivity, would suffer no further evil from enemies; there appeared to him an angel of God saying: Daniel, I have now come forth to show you understanding; for a command has gone out from the Lord, and I have come to show you: for you are a man greatly beloved. Consider then the command, and understand the vision; Seventy weeks are cut off for your people and for the city of Jerusalem.

The angel therefore sets forth to Daniel both the sum in seventy weeks, and again divides them in their own order, when and how they are to be fulfilled. And concerning the same the angel continues thus, saying: To blot out the things they have received, and to finish sins, and to entreat away injustices, and to abolish transgressions, and to devise everlasting equity, and that vision and prophecy be sealed up, and that the Holy of Holies be anointed: and be still and understand concerning the coming forth of the Saints, or the command to answer and to build the city of Jerusalem, up to Christ the leader, seven weeks: which weeks are 49 years: which years belong to the body of the 70 years of the captivity of Jerusalem.

For in the first year of king Darius, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, who also slew king Balthazar, Daniel saw the vision: and it was the 21st year of the captivity of Jerusalem; for Nabuchodonosor lived 18 years after he had made captive Sedechias and Jerusalem; and his son Balthazar reigned 3 years, in the third of which he was slain, and Darius took up the kingdom. In whose first year, Daniel is told by the angel about the seventy weeks: of which, when he divided them, seven weeks were first named by that same angel: which (as has been said) are forty-nine years, which are joined to the 21 years of the captivity, when Daniel saw the vision; and they make up seventy years, which were completed in Babylon, so that the vision and prophecy of Jeremias might be fulfilled.

After these years Cyrus king of the Persians commands the peoples to go to Jerusalem in the first year of his reign; so that Jerusalem might be built, and the Holy of Holies anointed, which was the most sacred thing in the Temple of God.

The peoples, then, return from Babylon, having with them as leader Zorobabel, of whom mention was made by the angel to Daniel; up to Christ the leader, seven weeks. For every king of the people of God, in the divine law, was called Christ. For Zacharias the prophet too, speaking to the people of him as the king to come, says thus: The hands of Zorobabel founded this house, and his hands shall finish it, and you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you; for who has despised you in the days of small things? And they shall rejoice in you, and shall see in the hand of Zorobabel the tin stone: which today emperors seem to carry, as it were the people, in the right hand. The angel repeats, and tells Daniel of the 62 weeks of the Lord, that is, in which, the temple and the city of Jerusalem having been restored, they served the Lord with their offerings.

These 62 weeks are 434 years, which years were completed in the times of the Machabees, in the 141st year of the kingdom of the Greeks. For at that time Antiochus reigned over the Greeks with a proud mind.

And although this order of years of the divine law suffices of itself, from the establishment of the world; yet, that we may seem to satisfy the mind of the reader, running also through the kings of the Persians, we show from the histories of public records that from Cyrus the 62 weeks were fulfilled by this time of the Machabees. For Cyrus reigned over the Persians 30 years, Artaxerxes reigned 9 years, Argus reigned 9 months, Darius reigned 36 years, the second Artaxerxes reigned 19 years and 2 months, Socidanus 7 months, Xerxes the elder son reigned 20 years, Artaxerxes reigned 72 years, Artabus reigned 7 months, Darius Nothus reigned 29 years, Olus reigned 22 years, Arser reigned 17 years, Darius reigned 6 years. This last one Alexander the Great of Macedon slew; from whose time the history of the Machabees stands, ready to give answer.

It runs through the years of the Greeks by divine narration. The whole sum of the years of the kings of the Persians comes then to 263, and from Alexander of Macedon up to the times of Antiochus, that is, up to the 141st year of the kingdom of the Greeks, the 62 weeks were completed (as we have said), that is, 434 years.

After 62 weeks (says the angel) the anointing and the Holy place shall be destroyed. Therefore after the 7 and 62 weeks, one week remains, which makes 7 years, for the conclusion of the sum of 70 weeks. In this week, namely, the wickedness of the nations grew up, just as had already been said by the angel; so that even in the middle of that same week, by Antiochus king of the Greeks, the sacrifice was taken away from the holy place: and the Holy Place itself was defiled by a feminine disgrace, and the abomination of desolation was set up upon the altar, and a statue of Jupiter, whom they call Olympius, was placed there. This same Antiochus too, bearing in his perverse mind the image of Antichrist, tried to make one people and one sacrilegious nation under his own rule.

For he even granted to apostate men to build a gymnasium, that is, a school, in Jerusalem: and where Almighty God had ordered a temple to be set up for himself only for prayer to him and for holy sacrifices to be offered to him, he desired to defile it with spectacles of idols.

When, then, the 7 and 62 weeks had been completed, in that first week (as has been said above) he decreed for the nation of the Jews that the books of the law be burned, that sacrifice be made to idols, and that unclean food be eaten; and this lasted up to the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, in the 148th year of the kingdom of the Greeks: in which year all the 70 weeks are completed, which, running through them, the angel marked out to Daniel, concerning the troubling of the city of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the people; concerning which matter Daniel himself also, longing before the Lord, inquired.

From here up to the 174th year of the kingdom of the Greeks, at which time Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who was a consul of the Romans, gave letters concerning alliance and friendship to Simon the brother of Judas Machabeus; the years number 26. For from that consulship, reckoning the yearly consuls, we find that, up to the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, up to the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 179 years were completed: and thus from the making of the world up to the passion of Christ our Savior, the years are 5530. Accordingly, for the conclusion of six thousand years, 470 years remain due. For it is necessary that, just as the children of Israel, from the promise made by the Lord God to Abraham, received the land after 470 years of promise; so also we Christians, after just so many years, shall have the first resurrection. For the Jewish people bear our figure in all things: in whom the ends of the ages met together.

Therefore it is necessary that 470 years be completed from the passion of the Lord Christ, so that the sum of six thousand years be concluded. When the thousand and seventh year begins, those believing with true faith shall be freed from the world; for then shall be the first resurrection of all the Saints.

Of the 470 years indeed from the passion of the Lord, in the consulship of Caesarius and Atticus, on the ninth day before the kalends of April, 369 years have passed. There remain, then, 101 years for the 6000 years to be completed, which 6000 years shall not be completed unless first, near the end, ten kings shall have come forth into the world; and shall have taken from the midst of the world the daughter of Babylon which now holds sway. Against these there shall suddenly come forth one powerful over them, who in the Apocalypse is named the Dragon; and he shall gain mastery over the ten kings; and of them he shall destroy some, others shall remain under his dominion: Then shall be revealed that wicked one, the son of perdition, who is lifted up against all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that sitting in the temple of God he shows himself as if he were God. This one shall be the Antichrist proper.

To him that most powerful Dragon, to whom the ten kings yielded, shall hand over his strength and power, and all mortals shall marvel. And the times of Antichrist shall be (which times must needs be mortal) such as when Antiochus tried under his own reign to make one people in apostasy; to whom (because there was not time) such things did not befall as Antichrist shall attempt to accomplish. When he shall come, he shall come to the destruction of the unfaithful: whose time shall be grievous and unspeakable; whom the Lord Christ alone shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and shall bring to nought by the presence of his coming.

Antichrist therefore having been overcome and slain, when the sum of six thousand years is completed, there will be a resurrection of all the saints, the world still surviving; while a thousand years also run their course, in which that ancient dragon, the devil and satan, bound in the abyss, will be set apart lest he seduce anyone, until the three years are completed; which three years will be reckoned to those who will remain under the sign of Antichrist, and all these will marry and be given in marriage, and will die: upon these also those plagues described in the Apocalypse will come, and thereafter this world is cut down in parts. For to the Saints of God, in the resurrection there will be one day; and this day of the Saints will be prolonged into light for as long as, for the impious living in the world with punishment, a thousand years are counted.

This is the seventh day; and the eternal and true sabbath, of which this temporal sabbath written in the law of Moses holds the image and figure. For as it was said to the Jewish people: Six days do the works of the world; but on the seventh day, which is called the sabbath, rest from your works: so for all the saints who are from the beginning of the world, and now believe in Christ with true faith; when, that is, the six days (that is, six thousand years) have passed, in which there was labor and torment for them; the seventh day comes, and the true sabbath.

Wherefore the Lord Christ forewarned every soul in the Gospel to believe in him beforehand, before the time comes when both eternal punishment must be rendered to the impious, and good reward to the saints according to the merits of each: Pray, he says, that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath. After the thousand and seventh year, Satan will be released from his prison, and will go out to seduce the nations Gog and Magog; and gathering them to the camps of the Saints as if to fight: and fire will descend from heaven, and all men will be consumed: and then there will be a second resurrection for all flesh; and all will be judged by the just judgment of God, because they did not believe, but pleased themselves in their own righteousnesses.

And after this, this heaven and this earth will be taken away; and that city which is described in the Apocalypse, prepared, will descend from heaven with the riches of God, in which the just will dwell: and there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and both will remain in perpetuity: the impious in eternal burning; but the just with God in life eternal. Amen.