so as to make them fewer, does not allow the day of the Lord to come beyond them, but rather more and more within them, the fewer they become. Therefore this shortening does not throw off the calculator who has defined it in this way, so as to say that within so many years the day of the Lord will come, but rather helps him, since, the more the days are reduced to fewness, the more it will be within, and it cannot be beyond. And therefore it will be true, that which is so defined as to say: 'It will be within so many years,' although it be not known in what year it will come to pass. Accordingly, the whole question is whether Daniel's weeks were fulfilled at the Lord's first coming, or whether they prophesied the end of the age, or whether they pertain to both;
for there have not been lacking those who understood even this, saying that they were fulfilled at the time of Christ's first coming, and that thence, on up to the end of the age, just as many are again to be fulfilled. Indeed I see that, if the first coming did not fulfill them, it is necessary that the second fulfill them, since that prophecy cannot be false. But if it was fulfilled at the time of the first coming, it does not compel us to understand that it will also be fulfilled concerning the end of the age. And through this it is uncertain, even if it is true; and it is indeed not to be denied, but neither is it to be presumed, that this is to be. It remains therefore that whoever wishes to compel belief that this prophecy is to be fulfilled at the end of the age must contend,
as much as he can, and show, if he can, that it was not fulfilled at the Lord's first coming, against so many expositors of the divine oracles who demonstrate that it was fulfilled not only by the computation of the times but also by the very facts, especially because it is there written: 'And the Holy of Holies shall be anointed'; or on account of what in the same prophecy the Hebrew manuscripts have more expressly: 'The Christ shall be slain, and it shall not be his' — that is, it shall not be of his city, since he was thus alienated from the Jews, who for that reason did not believe him to be their Savior and Redeemer, because they were able to slay him. For Christ is not to be anointed or slain at the end of the age, that this prophecy of Daniel should then be awaited as to be fulfilled and not yet believed to be fulfilled.
But as to the fact that, from the evangelical and prophetic signs which we perceive coming to pass, we ought to hope that the coming of the Lord is near — who denies it? For daily indeed it becomes more and more close. But by how great an interval it draws near, this, it has been said, is not for you to know. See when the apostle said: 'For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed; the night is far spent, but the day has drawn near.' And behold how many years have passed! Yet what he said is not false. How much more now must it be said that the coming of the Lord draws near, when so great an approach toward the end has been made! The apostle certainly says: 'The Spirit manifestly declares that in the last times certain ones will depart from the faith.'
Those very times of the heretics, that is — and of such men as he describes in the same discourse — did not yet exist, but they have now come. And through this we seem, even by means of these very men, to be admonished concerning the end of the age in the last times. And likewise elsewhere he says: 'But know this, that in the last days grievous times' — or, as other manuscripts have it, 'perilous times' — 'will be at hand'; then, expressing what sort they will be: 'For men will be,' he says, 'lovers of self, lovers of money, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, wicked, irreligious, without natural affection, slanderers, incontinent, savage, without kindness, traitors, insolent, blinded, lovers of pleasures more than of God, having a form of piety but denying the power of it.' It is a wonder if such men have ever been lacking. Finally, because they existed even then, he adds and says: 'And these avoid; for of these are they who penetrate houses.' He does not say 'they will penetrate,' as though here too foretelling something future, as he had said above: 'Perilous times will be at hand,' but he says: 'They penetrate houses and lead captive silly women';
he does not say 'they will lead' or 'they are about to lead,' but 'they now lead.' Nor is he to be thought in this place to have put verbs of the present tense in place of verbs of the future tense, since indeed he was admonishing that such men be avoided by the one to whom he writes. Nor yet did he say in vain: 'In the last days perilous times will be at hand,' and, from this showing them to be perilous in the future, he foretold that such men would exist — except that they will be so much the more numerous and will the more abound, the more the approach to the end is made. We see therefore that such men now abound. But what if they will be more abounding after us, and altogether most abounding, when the very end will now, now be at hand — which, how long it will be away, is unknown?
For the last days were spoken of even in those first days of the apostles, when the Lord's ascension into heaven was recent, when on the day of Pentecost he sent the promised Holy Spirit, and some were amazed, marveling at those who spoke in tongues they had not learned, while others, mocking, said they were full of new wine. On which day Peter, speaking to those who were variously moved by this matter, said: 'For these are not, as you suppose, drunk, since it is the third hour of the day; but attend, for this is what was spoken through the prophet: It shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh,' and the rest. Even then, therefore, they were the last days;
how much more now, even if only so much of the days has remained until the end as has passed from the Lord's ascension to this day, or whether something less or more remains! — which assuredly we do not know, because it is not for us to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power; although we nevertheless know that we are living in the last times, in the last days, in the last hour, as the apostles did, but much more so; and those who were after them, before us, more so; and we much more so; and more than we, those who will be after us, until it comes to those who will be, if it may be so said, the last of the last, and to that very absolutely last one whom the Lord wishes to be understood where he says: 'And I will raise him up on the last day.'
How far off that is cannot be grasped. The signs which in the Gospel were foretold as to come, as your holiness recalls, according to Luke, are the same according to Matthew and according to Mark. For these three narrate what the Lord said when he was asked by his disciples when those things would come to pass which he had foretold concerning the overthrow of the temple, and what would be the sign of his coming and of the consummation of the age. For they do not disagree in substance if one says something which another passes over or says in another way; rather, when compared with one another, they help, so that the understanding of the reader may be guided. But it would now be too long to discuss all of them. For to those asking, the Lord answered those things which from that time onward were going to follow,
whether concerning the destruction of Jerusalem — whence the occasion of the question itself arose — or concerning his coming through the Church, in which he does not cease to come until the end (for in his own people he is recognized as coming, while his members are daily being born), concerning which coming he says: 'From henceforth you shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds' — of which clouds it was said through the prophet: 'I will command my clouds that they rain not upon it' — or concerning the very end, in which he will appear to judge the living and the dead.
Since therefore he speaks of signs which pertain to these three things — that is, to the destruction of that city, to his coming in his body which is the Church, and to his coming in the Head of the Church which is himself — it must be discerned with diligent consideration which of these signs is to be referred to which of these three, lest perhaps we suppose that what pertains to the overthrow of Jerusalem is to be referred to the end of the age, or, on the contrary, we affirm that what pertains to the end of the age pertains to the overthrow of that city; or that what pertains to his coming in his body which is the Church, we say pertains to his last coming in his body which is the Head of the Church; or again, that what pertains to his last coming through himself, we assert pertains to that coming which is through the Church.
In all of which there are certain things manifest, but certain things so obscure that it is either laborious to distinguish them, or rash — as long as they are not understood — to define anything about them. For who does not see that it pertains to that city, which was said: 'But when you shall see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near'? Likewise, who does not see that it pertains to the last coming of the Lord, which was said: 'When you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near'? But that which was said: 'Woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days; but pray that your flight be not in winter or on the Sabbath;
for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world nor ever shall be' — this is so placed according to Matthew and according to Mark that it is uncertain whether it ought to be understood of the destruction of that city or of the end of the age. For this very thing is read thus in Mark: 'But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days; pray that they come not in winter; for those days will be days of such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, nor ever shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he shortened the days.' Not dissimilarly does Matthew also. But Luke has so placed this that it appears to pertain to the destruction of that city;
for it is read thus in him: 'But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath upon this people; and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the nations, until the times of the nations be fulfilled.' But as to how it came to this point, Matthew writes thus: 'When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place — let him who reads understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything from his house, and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his tunic. But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days,' and the rest. Mark, however, thus:
'But when you shall see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not — let him who reads understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let him who is on the housetop not come down into the house, nor go in to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garment. But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days,' and the rest. But Luke, in order that it might be shown that the abomination of desolation which was foretold by Daniel then came to pass when Jerusalem was taken, in the same place recalls these words of the Lord: 'But when you shall see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near.'
It appears, then, that the abomination of desolation, of which those two evangelists spoke, was set there at that time. Finally, this one too similarly goes on: 'Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.' And in place of what those said: 'And let him who is on the housetop not come down into the house, nor go in to take anything out of the house,' this one said: 'And let those who are in the midst of it depart' — so that by those words set down in the other evangelists the haste of flight might be shown to have been enjoined. And in place of what those set down: 'And let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garment,' this one says more openly: 'And let those who are in the surrounding regions not enter into it, for these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.'
Then this one too similarly goes on, so that it is altogether manifest that this passage of the Gospel of all three is about this very matter: 'But woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck in those days,' and the rest pertaining to this, which I have already recalled above. Luke, therefore, made plain what could be uncertain: that it pertains not to the end of the age but to the storming of Jerusalem — that which was said concerning the abomination of desolation, and that which was said concerning the shortening of the days for the sake of the elect; because, even though he himself did not say these things, he nevertheless said more openly the rest concerning this very matter, whereby he showed that these too pertain to it.
For we ought not to doubt that, when Jerusalem was overthrown, there were in that people elect of God who had believed out of the circumcision, or who were yet to believe—elect before the foundation of the world—for whose sake those days were shortened, that the evils might become bearable. For some seem to me to have understood more fittingly that by the name of 'days' the evils themselves were signified, just as in other places of divine Scripture 'evil days' are spoken of; for the days themselves are not evil, but the things that are done in them. These, then, are said to be shortened, so that, by God's granting endurance, they might be felt the less, and thus what were great things might become brief.
But whether that shortening of the days is to be understood in this manner, or as their being reduced to fewer in number, or as their being shortened by a swifter course of the sun—for there are not lacking those who even think this, namely that the days were foretold to be shorter in just the way that the day was longer when Joshua son of Nun prayed—nevertheless the evangelist Luke taught that both this shortening of the days and the abomination of desolation (two things which he himself did not mention, but which Matthew and Mark did mention) pertain to the overthrow of Jerusalem, saying along with these matters other things more openly concerning this same subject, which those two set down more obscurely. For Josephus, who wrote the Jewish history, says that such evils then befell that people that they seem scarcely credible.
Whence it was not without cause said that such tribulation neither had been from the beginning of creation nor should be. But even if in the time of Antichrist there shall perhaps be such tribulation or greater, it is to be understood as said concerning that people: that such shall not again befall it; for if they are to receive Antichrist first and chiefly, then that same people will be causing tribulation rather than suffering it. There is therefore no reason why we should think that the weeks of the prophet Daniel were either thrown into confusion because of the shortening of the days, or that even in that time they were not yet completed, but are to be completed at the end of the age: for they were not fulfilled before the Lord's passion. And those who think so are most rightly refuted by your judgment, since you said:
'If therefore this abomination had already been completed, how does the Lord admonish and say: When you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let him that reads understand?' By these words of your Blessedness those men are deservedly to be corrected who say that it, when the Lord spoke these things, or before his passion and resurrection, had already been completed. But as for those who say—as also the evangelist Luke most plainly testifies—that it then took place when Jerusalem was overthrown, they who suppose that these things are to come at the end of the age or near the end ought to see what may be answered to them;
although the abomination of desolation itself, on account of the obscurity of the saying, could be understood by men in more than one way. And what was said: He that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house, and he that is in the field, let him not return to take his coat—can be more suitably understood spiritually, that in all tribulations this is to be sung: let no one, overcome, come down from spiritual loftiness to a carnal life; or let not him who had advanced, stretching himself out to the things before, by failing look back to the things behind. And if in every tribulation, how much more in that one ought caution to have been enjoined.
which was foretold as going to be such upon that city as had not been from the beginning nor should be; and if in that city, how much more in that which is to be the last thing for the whole world, that is, in the Church spread throughout the whole world! For Luke himself indeed—not when the Lord was asked by his disciples concerning his coming, where Matthew and Mark recorded this, but in another place, where the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God would come—related that he said something of this kind: In that hour, he says, let him who shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, not come down to take them; and he that is in the field, likewise, let him not return back.
But now, on account of the reckoning of times, the matter concerns Daniel's weeks; and if these were not completed around the times of the Lord's first coming and are to be completed at the end, who would believe that the apostles were ignorant of this, or indeed knew it but were forbidden to teach it? And yet, if this be so, then it is to the profit of the nations that they do not know what the Lord forbade to be taught by those whom he willed to be the teachers of the nations. But if they have already been completed—since the Holy of Holies has already been anointed, Christ has already been slain so that he should have no city, the sacrifice has already been taken away from that temple, the anointing taken away—then deservedly it was answered to the apostles asking about the end:
It is not for you to know the times which the Father has put in his own power—since the times which they could know through Daniel's prophecy did not pertain to the end of the age, concerning which they had asked. But as for signs from heaven and earth, have we indeed seen greater ones than those who were before us? Is it not the case that, if the history of the nations be read, so many marvels are found to have appeared from heaven and earth that some are even not believed? But, to pass over many things which it would be tedious to pursue, when have we seen two suns, which those who then lived, before the Lord had come in the flesh, committed to writing as having been seen? When have we seen the sun so darkened as it was darkened, when the light of the world hung upon the tree?
unless perhaps we are to number among the heavenly prodigies those eclipses of sun and moon which the reckoners of the stars are accustomed to note down and to predict, because we have more often seen the moon at its full, but the sun more rarely, yet still we have seen it, fail at the end of the moon according to their reckoning. That eclipse of the sun was not of such a kind, when Christ was crucified, and therefore it was truly marvelous and portentous. For it was the Passover of the Jews, which is celebrated only at the full of the moon; but according to the numbers of the astrologers it is certain that the sun, when the moon is full, cannot fail, but only when it is the end of the moon—not indeed always, but at other times never—when it fails according to those numbers.
What such thing, then, does anyone ever remember to have appeared from heaven, since the Lord foretold those things, such as appeared when he suffered? Wherefore, if even such things shall appear—if they are not rather to be understood spiritually—then they shall appear when the end so draws near that they ought to appear. But as for wars, through the diverse intervals of times and places, when has the earth not been ground down? For, to pass over things too ancient, under the emperor Gallienus, when barbarism was overrunning the Roman provinces on every side, how many of our brethren, who were then in the flesh, do we suppose could have believed the end to be near, since it happened long after the Lord's ascension!
And through this we are ignorant even of what sort these things shall be when the end is altogether at hand, if indeed these things have not been foretold in such a way that they ought rather to be understood in the Church. For there are two peoples and two kingdoms—one, namely, of Christ, the other of the devil—concerning which it could be said: Nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; which has not ceased to happen ever since it was said: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And consider when this was said, and how many years have passed since then, and yet it was most truly said.
For in the last days the Lord came through a virgin; nor would this hour be called the last unless the kingdom of heaven were drawing near, throughout which whole hour there are being done the things which the Lord foretold would come to pass as his kingdom drew near. But over how great a span this hour is stretched out—if it was said to the apostles: It is not for you to know—how much more ought any man, such as I am, to acknowledge his own measure, lest he be wise more than it behoves to be wise! But you say: 'Our own punishment compels us to confess that the end is already at hand, while there is being fulfilled what was foretold: Men withering away for fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the whole world.'
'It is certain,' you say, 'that in our times no country, no place is not afflicted or troubled, as it was said: For fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the whole world. If therefore these evils, which the human race now suffers, are sure signs that the Lord is now about to come, what is it that the Apostle says: When they shall say, Peace and safety? For when the Gospel had said: Men withering away for fear and expectation, it immediately added: For the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty.'
Let us therefore see whether perhaps it may be better understood that not merely are those things being fulfilled which were foretold in those words, but that they are rather to come then, when the tribulation shall be upon the whole world in such a way that it may pertain to the Church, which shall be afflicted throughout the whole world—not to those who shall afflict it. For those very men shall be the ones to say: Peace and safety, so that sudden destruction may come upon them, and the Lord's coming may seize them like a thief in the night, when on the contrary those shall rejoice and exult who love his manifestation. But now these evils, which are believed to be as it were the highest and last, we see to be common to both peoples and both kingdoms, namely both Christ's and the devil's;
for by these both good and bad are afflicted alike, nor is there anyone to say: Peace and safety, wherever such things befall, or are feared lest they befall. Yet in the midst of these evils, still everywhere are frequented luxurious banquets, drunkenness seethes, avarice runs riot, wanton songs blare, organs, flutes, lyres, citharas, dice, and many and varied kinds of sounds and games. Is this to wither away for fear, or rather to be sodden for lust? But these things the children of darkness shall have and practise more abundantly, when they shall say: Peace and safety. What of the very children of light and children of the day, who are not in darkness, that that day should seize them as a thief?
Do they not still use this world as though not using it, since, even though it was said many years ago in the times of the apostles, they nevertheless with pious solicitude ponder what was said: The time is short? Is it not the case that by the greatest part of them there is still planting, building, buying, possessing, that honors are still borne, wives taken? I speak of those who, awaiting their Lord, when he shall come from the wedding, nevertheless do not abstain from carnal marriages, but with most obedient charity hear the Apostle enjoining how wives ought to live with husbands, husbands with wives, children with parents, parents with children, servants with masters, masters with servants. Do not all these, in all these things, use this world?
They plow, they sail, they buy, they beget, they serve as soldiers, they administer offices. I think that things will not be so, when those shall come which were foretold in the Gospel: signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and the waves, men withering away for fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the whole world; for the powers of the heavens shall be moved. These things indeed I judge to be better understood in the Church, lest the Lord Jesus, as his second coming drew near, should seem to have foretold as great those things which were wont to befall this world even before his first coming, and lest we be mocked by those who have read of these things, which we dread as it were the last and greatest of all, as more numerous and much greater in the history of the nations.
For the Church is the sun and moon and stars, to which it was said: Fair as the moon, chosen as the sun. By her our Joseph is adored in this world, as it were in Egypt, exalted from the most lowly estate: for that Joseph his mother assuredly could not adore, since she died before Jacob had come to his son, so that the truth of that prophetic dream might be reserved to be fulfilled in Christ the Lord. For when the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken—as this passage is recorded by the other two evangelists—the Church shall not appear; while the impious persecutors then rage beyond measure, and, with fear removed, as though the felicity of the world were smiling upon them, say:
Peace and safety—then the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, since many who seemed to shine with grace shall yield to the persecutors and shall fall, and indeed the strongest of the faithful shall be shaken. But according to Matthew and Mark this is said to be about to happen after the tribulation of those days, not because these things shall befall when that whole persecution is finished, but because the tribulation shall go before, so that the falling away of certain ones shall follow; and because throughout all those days it shall so come to pass, therefore it is said to be after the tribulation of those days, yet nevertheless it shall come to pass in those same days. What therefore was said according to Luke:
And upon the earth distress of nations—by 'nations' he wished to be understood not those belonging to the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations shall be blessed, but the nations which shall stand at the left hand when all nations shall be gathered before the Judge of the living and the dead. For both parts shall be in all nations: one which oppresses, the other which is oppressed; one which says: Peace and safety, the other in which the sun is darkened and the moon gives not her light, and from which the stars fall, and in which the powers of the heavens are moved. And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. This I see can be taken in two ways: either as coming in the Church as in a cloud, just as even now he does not cease to come, according to that which he says: