Letters 198.1–199.17

To my longing and expectation, our holy fellow presbyter Cornutus brought the letter of Your Blessedness, which gladdened me, because you were good enough to keep a kind remembrance of us; you also briefly indicated to me in passing, in the words of your own holy mind, your view on the things I had asked about. And you added some of the works of the holy fellow presbyter Jerome, so that I might satisfy my question by reading his work on the holy Scriptures. And since you were good enough to ask of us that we should make known by letter to Your most sincere Charity what we thought about these questions, I have written below on the matters about which I read the writings, as far as the small understanding of my mediocrity could perceive or understand.

Since all things are done by the will and power of God almighty, the Creator of all creation, both the things that have been done and also those that are to come are known through the voices of the holy prophets, who, before the things that were to come took place, spoke to men by the divine will. Hence it is quite astonishing if God decreed that the things he wished to be foretold could not reach human understanding at all, according to the saying the Lord spoke to the blessed apostles: “No one can know the times which the Father has put in his own power.” First, because in the most ancient books of the churches it is not written “no one can,” but it is written: “It is not yours to know the times or moments which the Father has put in his own power”; and the sense of this saying is rightly completed by the following words, when he says: “But you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth.” So he wished the apostles to be understood as witnesses not of the consummation of the world but of his name and resurrection.

For the Lord himself gives warning about knowing the times: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household, to give them food in due time? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, finds so doing!” Christ's household is fed by the word of preaching, and that servant is found faithful who in due time supplies the necessary food to believers waiting for the Lord. For the wicked servant is rebuked thus: “But if that wicked servant says, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ his master will come on a day he does not know and at an hour he is unaware of,” and so on. Again he reproves them for not recognizing the time, saying: “Hypocrites, you know how to judge the face of the sky; why do you not recognize this time?” Again the apostle: “In the last times perilous times will come,” and so on. Again the apostle: “But concerning the times and moments we have no need to write to you; for you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will appear to them, like the pains of a woman in labor, and they will not escape.” Again the apostle: “Do you not remember that when I was with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of iniquity is already at work; only let him who now restrains restrain until he is taken out of the way, and then that wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth.” Again the Lord in the gospel rebukes the Jews: “And you, if you had known the time of your visitation, perhaps you would have remained; but now it is hidden from your eyes.” And the Lord preaches thus to the Jews: “Repent, the times are fulfilled; believe in the gospel.” And to the Jews he rightly said that they were fulfilled, because their times came to an end thirty-five or forty years after his preaching. And in Daniel: “Until the beast was slain and perished and its body was given to be burned, and the dominion of the other beasts was taken away, and length of life was given to them until a time,” which is said in Greek chronos and kairos. And it continues: “Behold, one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.” The mystery of the beast and of the taking away of the other beasts is plain to those who understand the Scriptures.

Second, that the Lord's coming is to be loved and awaited. For there is great blessedness for those who love his coming, as the blessed apostle Paul bears witness: “For the rest,” he says, “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to those who love the Lord's coming.” And the Lord in the gospel: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Again the prophet: “For behold, darkness and gloom will cover the earth, over the nations; but upon you the Lord will appear, and his majesty will be seen upon you.” Again the prophet: “But those who wait for the Lord will exult in strength; they will put forth wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not hunger.” And many such things are found that relate to the blessedness of those who love the Lord's coming.

That no one can gather the measures of the times is plain. The gospel indeed says: “Of the day and hour no one knows,” and I, for the incapacity of my understanding, say that neither the day nor the month nor the year of his coming can be known; but it befits me, seeing and believing the signs that belong to his coming, both to wait for it and to give this food in return to believers, so that while waiting they may love the coming of him who said: “When you see all these things, know that he is near, at the doors.” The signs of the gospels and the prophets, then, which have been fulfilled in us, show that the Lord's coming is at hand. For it is in vain that those who inquire, or those who make false accusations, seek to comprehend the days and years in a calculation, since it is written: “And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” It is certain that a time which is to be shortened by the Lord, who established the times, admits of no calculation; but that the coming has drawn near, we have seen from some of the signs of his coming that have happened, which have been fulfilled. And again he says: “When these things begin to take place, you will breathe again and lift up your heads, for your redemption will draw near.” What signs he said were to be seen is plain in the gospel of Saint Luke: “And Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” This has happened, and no one doubts that it is happening. And it continues: “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, and on earth distress of nations.” What we suffer, punishment compels us to acknowledge, even if our will perhaps does not care: for it is plain that at one time signs in the sky are seen and distress of nations on earth is endured by men. And it continues: “Men withering from fear and expectation of what is coming upon the whole world.” It is certain that no country and no place in our times is not afflicted or humbled, as it was said: “From fear and expectation of what is coming upon the whole world”; and all the signs that the gospel above shows to its readers have for the most part been fulfilled.

As to the saying, “And this gospel will be preached in the whole world, and then the end will come”: first, the Lord's own promise was that his apostles would become witnesses of his name and resurrection in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth; and the apostle teaches on this authority: “But I say, have they not heard? Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” Again: “Because of the hope that is laid up for you, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it is also in the whole world bearing fruit and growing.” But the faith begun by the apostles among the nations had many persecutors, so that, held back, it grew strong more slowly, so that this might be fulfilled: “But before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you and deliver you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake,” so that what was written might be fulfilled: “And you will be rebuilt quickly by those who destroyed you.” For from the time when, by God's will, the most clement Christian emperors came into being, whereas the faith had grown gradually through the ages because of persecution, once kings had become Christian the gospel of Christ penetrated everywhere in a short time.

As for the exposition of the blessed Daniel concerning the weeks, although our holy fellow presbyter Jerome set out how the teachers of the churches had handed it down, the reader … For if that most learned man himself, our fellow presbyter, says that it is dangerous to judge the opinions of the teachers of the churches and to prefer one to another, how much less can the reader do what the teacher hesitated to do! But we believe what the Lord said, that heaven and earth will pass away, but not one iota or one stroke will pass from the law until all things come to pass. How then the mystery of the weeks was fulfilled up to the birth and passion of Christ, I wonder, since the prophet spoke of the half of the week, saying: “In the half of the week my sacrifice and supplication will be taken away, and there will be the abomination of desolations at the sacrifice.” 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 him who reads understand)”? I, for my part, so as not to slight the request of Your Blessedness, have written these things to Your Charity as I understood them. Be good enough to instruct and gladden us more fully by writing back with the word of your grace.

I have received the letter of Your Reverence, in which you exhort us most wholesomely that the coming of our Savior be loved and longed for. You do this as a good servant of the same householder, eager for your Lord's gain and wishing to have very many companions in the love with which you yourself are especially and constantly kindled. Keeping in view, then, what you mentioned from the apostle, that he said the Lord would give the crown of righteousness not only to him but also to all who love his appearing, we live rightly and conduct ourselves in this world as pilgrims when our heart stretches itself out, making progress, in this love, whether he whose appearing is loved with faithful love and longed for with devout affection comes sooner or later than is thought. For that servant who says, “My master is delaying,” and beats his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, certainly does not love his appearing; for his mind is evident from his conduct. The good Teacher took care to express that conduct, though briefly, namely pride and self-indulgence, precisely so that what he said, “My master is delaying,” should not be thought to be said out of longing for his master, the longing with which he burned who said: “My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” For in saying, “When shall I come?” he showed that he bore the delay with impatience, because even what comes quickly in time seems slow to longing. But how is his coming slow, or how is it far off, when the apostles themselves, at the time when they were still in the flesh, said, “It is the last hour,” although they had heard from the Lord, “It is not yours to know the times”? So they did not know what we also do not know (I speak as far as I am concerned, and of those who share this ignorance with me); and yet those to whom it was said, “It is not yours to know the times which the Father has put in his own power,” loved his appearing, and gave their fellow servants food in due time, and did not beat them by lording it over them, nor did they live self-indulgently with the lovers of the world, saying, “My master is delaying.”

Ignorance of the times, then, is one thing; corruption of conduct and love of vices is another. For the apostle Paul too, when he said, “Do not be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by word or by letter as if from us, as though the day of the Lord were at hand,” certainly did not want them to believe those who thought the Lord's coming was already near; and yet he did not want them, like that servant, to say, “My master is delaying his coming,” and to hand themselves over to pride and self-indulgence to be ruined. Rather, while he did not want them to listen to false rumors about the last day being near, he still wanted them to be ready and to wait for their Lord's coming with loins girded and lamps burning. To them he says: “But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” But the one who says, “My master is delaying his coming,” so as to beat his fellow servants and feast with drunkards, is not of the light but of darkness, and therefore that day will overtake him like a thief. And each one ought to fear this also with regard to the last day of his own life; for in whatever state his own last day finds each person, in that state the last day of the world will overtake him, since as each one dies on that day, so will he be judged on the other.

To this belongs what is written in the gospel according to Mark: “Watch, therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning, lest, coming suddenly, he find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch.” To whom does he say “to all,” if not to his chosen and beloved ones who belong to his body, which is the Church? So he did not say it only to those to whom he was speaking as they heard him then, but also to those who came after them and before us, and to ourselves, and to those who will be after us until his last coming. But will that day find all of them in this life? Or will anyone say that what he says, “Watch, lest, coming suddenly, he find you asleep,” applies also to the dead? Why then does he say to all what would apply only to those who will be alive then, unless because it applies to all in the way I have said? For that day will come to each one when the day comes for him to depart from here in the state in which he is to be judged on that day. And for this reason every Christian ought to watch, lest the Lord's coming find him unprepared. But that day will find unprepared the one whom the last day of this life of his has found unprepared. For it was certainly plain at least to the apostles that the Lord would not come in their times, while they lived here in the flesh; and yet who would doubt that they watched above all and kept what he said to all, so that he might not come suddenly and find them unprepared?

I do not yet understand, of course, how one should take what Your Holiness wrote, that the Lord said to the apostles, “It is not yours to know the times or moments which the Father has put in his own power,” for this reason, that he went on to add: “But you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth.” You explain this sense of Scripture by saying: “So he wished the apostles to be understood as witnesses not of the consummation of the world but of his name and resurrection.” He did not say, “It is not yours to preach the times,” but, “It is not yours to know.” But if you wish what he said, “It is not yours to know,” to be understood as if he said, “It is not yours to make known,” that is, “It is not yours to teach this,” which of us would dare to teach, or presume to know, what God, that great Teacher, did not teach even those disciples by whom he was questioned face to face, and what those teachers, so holy and so great, were not able to teach the Church?

Or will it be answered that it was not the apostles but the prophets who taught these things? For you said this, and it is true, that “the things that are to come are known through the voices of the holy prophets, who,” you say, “before the things that were to come took place, spoke to men by the divine will.” But if Your Reverence says it is “quite astonishing if God decreed that the things he wished to be foretold could not reach human understanding at all,” how much more astonishing is it if the apostles were forbidden either to know or to teach the things the prophets spoke to men! And how could the prophets who taught these times in question not have been understood by the apostles, if they are understood by us? Or if the apostles understood them when they prophesied that measure of time, how would they not teach what they understood, when through their preaching the prophets themselves also became known, who taught them these things in their books? And therefore through the same writings through which they themselves had learned these things, others too could learn them among those nations to which the apostles commended the prophetic authority. Why then was it said to them, “It is not yours to know” (or, if that is how it must be understood, “It is not yours to teach”) “the times which the Father has put in his own power,” since they were in fact teaching them, in that the men in whose writings they would be learned were becoming known through them? Hence it is more credible that God did not refuse to have known what he refused to have preached, but refused to have preached what he saw would not be profitably known.

“Why then,” you say, “does the Lord himself give warning about knowing the times, where he says, ‘Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household, to give them food in due time?’” and so on. On the contrary, he gives warning not that the good servant should know the end of the times, but that he should be watchful in good works at all times, because he does not know the end of the times. He does not warn us to attain, beyond the apostles, the times which the Father has put in his own power; rather he warns us, since we do not know when the Lord is coming, to imitate the apostles in preparation of heart, of which I have already spoken enough above. And he reproves the Jews for not recognizing the time, saying, “Hypocrites, you can judge the face of the sky,” and so on, because they did not recognize the time he already wished to be recognized, that is, the time of his first coming, so that they might believe in him and so wish to await his second coming watchfully, whenever it should be. For whoever has not recognized the Lord's first coming will not be able to prepare himself for the second by believing in him and watching faithfully, so that it may not overtake him like a thief in the darkness, whether he comes later or sooner than is hoped.

The apostle Paul also says, as you remind me: “In the last times perilous times will come,” and so on. But does he therefore teach the times which the Father has put in his own power? Or does anyone therefore know how long or short those very times are which must be admitted to be the last? For we ought to consider how long ago it was said: “Little children, it is the last hour.”

Again you mention that the same apostle said: “But concerning the times and moments we have no need to write to you; for you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will appear to them, like the pains of a woman in labor, and they will not escape.” Here too he did not say after how much time this would come, but how it would come; that is, not how short or long the age will be, but that, however long the interval and span of time may be, this final evil will not come upon them until they say, “Peace and security.” By these words the apostle seems to have removed either the hope or the fear of this last day from this time of ours; for we do not see the very lovers of this world, upon whom sudden destruction will appear, already saying, “Peace and security.”

What it is enough to know, the apostle himself shows clearly enough when he says: “Concerning the times and moments we have no need to write to you,” or, as other manuscripts have it, “You have no need to have anything written to you.” And he did not go on to add, “For you yourselves know accurately how much time remains,” but he said: “For you yourselves know accurately that the hour of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” This, then, is what one needs to know: that those who do not wish to be overtaken by that hour as by a thief in the night should take care to be sons of light and to watch with a prepared heart. For if, to guard against this evil (that is, lest the hour of the Lord find one unprepared, like a thief), it were necessary to know the spans of the times, the apostle would not say that there was no need for him to write this; rather, like a most provident teacher, he would judge that it ought to be written to them. But in fact he showed that they had no need of this, since it was enough for them to know that the hour of the Lord would come like a thief upon the unprepared and the sleeping, and by knowing this to be themselves watchful and ready, however long afterward it might come. And he kept to his own measure, so that, though an apostle, he did not presume to teach others what he knew the Lord had said to the apostles: “It is not yours to know.”

You also cite what the same apostle said: “Do you not remember that when I was with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of iniquity is already at work; only let him who now restrains restrain until he is taken out of the way, and then that wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth.” I wish you had not merely cited these apostolic words but had also been good enough to explain them; they are indeed so obscure and spoken so mystically, but even so it is plain that he said nothing about fixed times and disclosed no interval or span of them. For he says, “so that he may be revealed in his own time,” and did not say after how much time this would happen. Then he added: “For the mystery of iniquity is already at work.” However this mystery of iniquity may be understood, one person taking it one way and another another, how long it will be at work is hidden. Nor did the apostle state it, as a man belonging to the number of those to whom it was said, “It is not yours to know the times”; for although he was not yet among them when this was said to them, we do not doubt that he too belongs to their college and fellowship.

Likewise what follows, “Only let him who now restrains restrain until he is taken out of the way, and then that wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth,” teaches us that the Antichrist will be manifest, since he seems to have touched on him with a somewhat clearer indication as the one to be slain by the breath of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ; but after how much time this will be, he did not say even obscurely. For who it is that now restrains, or what he restrains, or what is meant by his saying, “until he is taken out of the way,” anyone may exert himself to understand or in some degree to conjecture, since he reads it written in one way or another; but how long he restrains, and after how great spans of time he is taken out of the way, is here passed over in complete silence.

Again, you say, the Lord in the gospel rebukes the Jews, saying: “And you, if you had known the time of your visitation, perhaps you would have remained; but now it is hidden from your eyes.” But this concerns the time of the Lord's first coming, not his second, which is the question now. For it was of his second coming that he said, “It is not yours to know the times,” not of his first; for it was about the coming they were hoping for that the disciples asked him, not about the one they were already seeing. For if the Jews had recognized his first coming, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory, and so they could have remained and not been overthrown. And as to what he says to them, “Repent, the times are fulfilled; believe in the gospel,” you yourself have affirmed that it was said of the times of the Jews, which were to pass away a few years later, and which we now know have passed away, namely with the overthrow of the city in which their kingdom had been established.

Accordingly, as to what Your Venerableness cited from Daniel about the beast that was slain and the dominion of the other beasts, and between these about the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, you said it was plain to those who understand the Scripture. But if you are good enough to explain how these things bear on knowing the span of time after which the Savior's coming will take place, in such a way that they are found plain without any ambiguity, I too will confess, with great thanksgiving, that what the Lord said, “It is not yours to know the times,” was said only to the apostles, not to their successors, who were to know them.

The Lord's coming, then, is to be loved and awaited, as you exhort us in a holy way, saying that there is great blessedness for those who love his coming, and bringing forward the testimony of the apostle, whose words you cite thus: “For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to those who love the Lord's coming.” For then, as you recall from the gospel, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father”; and there is what the prophet says: “For behold, gloom and darkness will cover the earth, over the nations; but upon you the Lord will appear, and his majesty will be seen upon you”; and likewise what is written: “But those who wait for the Lord will exult in strength; they will put forth wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not hunger.”

This you say most devoutly and most truly, commending the blessedness of those who love the Lord's coming. But those too to whom the apostle said, “Do not be quickly shaken in mind, as though the day of the Lord were at hand,” certainly loved the Lord's coming, and the teacher of the Gentiles, in saying this, was not breaking them away from that love, with which he wanted them to be set on fire. And for this reason he did not want them to believe those from whom they heard that the day of the Lord was at hand, lest perhaps, when the time had passed at which they had believed he would come and they saw that he had not come, they should think that the other things too were falsely promised them and despair of the very reward of faith. So it is not the one who asserts that the Lord's coming is near who loves it, nor the one who asserts that it is not near, but rather the one who awaits it, whether it be near or far, with sincerity of faith, firmness of hope, and ardor of love. For if the Lord is loved the more, the more he is believed and preached to be coming soon, then those who said his coming was already at hand loved him more than those whom the apostle forbade to believe them, or than the apostle himself, who certainly did not believe it.

But if my weakness is not burdensome to Your Holiness, I ask you not to mind explaining more clearly how you said that no one can gather the measures of the times, lest perhaps I too should think what Your Charity thinks, and each of us should vainly wait to be instructed by the other. For after you had said this, you then added: “The gospel indeed says, ‘Of the day and hour no one knows,’ and I,” you say, “for the incapacity of my understanding, say that neither the month nor the year of his coming can be known.” For this seems to sound as though it cannot be known in which year he will come, but it can be known in which week of years or in which decade, as though it could be said and defined as within this or that seven years, or within this or that ten years. But if not even this can be grasped, I ask whether the time of his coming can at least be defined in such a way that we say he will come within, for example, these fifty or a hundred years, or any number of years, greater or smaller, but that we do not know in which of them. If you have already grasped this, it is a great thing that you have been able to grasp. And that is precisely what I ask you kindly to share with us, bringing forward suitable proofs by which you were able to search it out. But if you do not presume to have grasped even this, you think what I think.

For that these are the last times, all of us who believe the signs that we read the Lord foretold see from the many signs of things that are appearing. But even a period of a thousand years, if its end were the end of the age, could as a whole be called the last time, or even the last day, because it is written, “A thousand years in your eyes are as one day,” so that whatever was done during those thousand years would be said to be done in the last time or on the last day. For I say again what must often be said in this matter: let us consider how many years ago the blessed John the evangelist said, “It is the last hour.” For if we had lived then, on hearing this, when would we have believed that so many years would pass afterward, and would we not rather have hoped that the Lord would come while John himself was still in the body? For he did not say, “It is the last time,” or “the last year,” or “month,” or “day,” but, “It is the last hour.” And see how long that hour is! And yet he did not lie; but he certainly must be understood to have put “hour” for “time.” Some take this in such a way that they set six thousand years as one day and divide it into twelve parts, as it were hours, so that the last hour seems to contain the final five hundred years; and during those years, they say, John was already speaking when he said it was the last hour.