Apocalypse

New Books on Eschatology & the Theology of Grace in Christian History

January 1, 2018 by Frank Leave a Comment

Happy New Year! In this post I want to inform our readers of some new books on eschatology and the theology of grace in early and medieval Christian history. On eschatology, they are:

T.C. Schmidt, transl., Hippolytus of Rome: Commentary on Daniel and ‘Chronicon’ (Georgias Press, 2017).

Peter of John Olivi, Commentary on the Apocalypse. Translation, Notes, and Introduction by Warren Lewis (Franciscan Institute Publications, 2017). This is a large commentary written in the year 1298.

On the theology of grace, most of which relate to the ninth-century controversy over divine predestination, are the following books:

Matthew Bryan Gillis, Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Rachel Stone and Charles West, eds., Hincmar of Rheims: Life and Work (Manchester University Press, 2015).

Jared G. Wielfaert, Prudentius of Troyes (d. 861) and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 2015). Available from ProQuest.

Guido Stucco, The Doctrine of Predestination in Catholic Scholasticism (2017).

Also, the following articles on the Gottschalk controversy may be of interest:

Brian Matz, “Augustine in the Predestination Controversy of the Ninth Century, Part 1: The Double Predestinarians Gottschalk of Orbais and Ratramnus of Corbie,” Augustinian Studies 46:2 (2015):155-184.

Jenny Smith, “As if Augustine Had Said: Textual Interpretation and Augustinian Ambiguity in a Medieval Debate on Predestination,” Past Imperfect 19 (2016)

Jenny Smith, “The Rebellious Monk Gottschalk of Orbais: Defining Heresy in a Medieval Debate on Predestination.” Both of Ms. Smith’s articles can be found on line.

Happy reading and wishing all of our readers a blessed 2018.

Frank

Tyconius, Exposition of the Apocalypse

June 20, 2017 by Frank Leave a Comment

My English translation of Tyconius’s Exposition of the Apocalypse has been published. It is in Volume 134 of the Fathers of the Church series. I hope you get a copy and enjoy reading his explanations of the Book of Revelation.

Tyconius wrote this Exposition about 380 AD. It is useful in many ways. He interpreted John’s visions to make them relevant for the church of all times, similar to modern “idealist” interpretations. He also believed that some passages in Revelation were symbolic of the future persecution of Antichrist, the Second Coming, and the Last Judgment.

He believed that the Book of Revelation is recapitulatory, rather than visions of events that reflect chronological order. On some familiar passages and themes, Tyconius saw the 144,000 as a symbol of the whole church. Likewise, the two witnesses are symbolic of the church prophesying in both testaments. Those sitting on thrones and reigning for a thousand years represent the present reign of the saints; and the first resurrection “is in this life through forgiveness of sins.”

The introduction and notes to the translation of Tyconius were written by David Charles Robinson of Toronto.

For a review of our book in Augustinian Studies 50:2 (2019), click here.

To order Tyconius of Carthage, Exposition of the Apocalypse from Amazon, click here.

I leave you with an encouragement from a Syriac commentator: “Let us spiritually refresh ourselves in the Apocalypse of the Son of God which is very dear and wonderful.”

Chromatius of Aquileia on John 21:22 and Rev 10:11

December 31, 2015 by Frank Leave a Comment

An essay entitled “Chromatius of Aquileia on John 21:22 and Rev 10:11 against a Legend about the Apostle John” by Francis X. Gumerlock was recently published as Chapter Two in The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters: Short Studies and an Annotated Bibliography, Ian Boxall and Richard Tresley, eds. (New York: Rowan & Littlefield, 2016).

In early Christianity there was a legend that the apostle John never died, but was alive in Paradise with Enoch and Elijah. It continued that when the Antichrist comes upon the world scene, John will return to earth and preach again. Believers in this legend used John 21:22 and Rev 10:11 for support. This essay shows how Chromatius (d. 408) interpreted these passages of Scripture to show that John really died and that he prophesied again (Rev 10:11) after his release from the island of Patmos, by returning to Ephesus and writing the Gospel of John. The essay provides the first English translation of Chromatius’ Sermon 21 and also a translation of a preface to the Book of Revelation from the sixth century.

Other chapters in the book are about John of Patmos in Christian history, the reception of the Book of Revelation, Tyconius’ exegesis, and the Book of Revelation in visual art. Half of the book is an extensive bibliography of commentaries that were written on the Apocalypse up to the year 1700.

Besides Boxall, Tresley, and myself, other contributors include Christopher Rowland, Sean Michael Ryan, and Natasha O’Hear.

For those interested in the Book of Revelation, its reception and interpretation in Christian history, commentaries on Revelation, Tyconius, and visual representations of the Apocalypse, I trust you will find The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters to be a great read and a useful resource. To purchase a copy from Amazon, click here.

I Will Show Wonders in Heaven

August 5, 2014 by Frank Leave a Comment

NEW ARTICLES: Under the sidebar “Published Articles by the Author” are two new articles. The first is “I Will Show Wonders in the Heaven Above” published in Trinity Journal. It examines the eschatology of an eighteenth century Baptist community in Pennsylvania, called Ephrata, and how they viewed certain comets, which had appeared at that time, as signals of end time events.

The second is “Arnobius the Younger against the Predestined One” published recently in Augustinian Studies. Arnobius had many negative things to say in his Psalms commentary and Praedestinatus about a certain person whom he called pejoratively “predestined one.” This article makes a case that his predestinarian opponent was the defender of Saint Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, who resided in Rome at the same time as Arnobius.

NEW CONFERENCE PAPERS: Four new conference papers were posted recently on this website. These include papers on the theology of grace of Prosper of Aquitaine, the interpretation of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 & 14, an 8th century predestination controversy in Spain, and an early Christological heresy called Nestorianism.

FORTHCOMING is my review IN Augustinian Studies of the first English translation of Fulgentius of Ruspe’s “On the Truth of Predestination” in the Fathers of the Church series.

CURRENT PROJECTS: On the Latin to English translation of Tyconius’ Exposition of the Apocalypse, I have finished the translation, and am going over it one more time. David Robinson is working on the introduction and footnotes. I have also finished translations of the Apocalypse commentary in the Reference Bible, another by pseudo-Jerome, and one by Theodulph of Orleans, all from around 650-810 AD. I am going over them one more time, and then I need to write the introduction, before sending it to publication.

Revelation and the First Century

February 13, 2013 by Frank Leave a Comment

I am happy to announce the publication of my latest book entitled Revelation and the First Century: Preterist Interpretations of the Apocalypse in Ancient Christianity.

The Book of Revelation is a fascinating book filled with wonder, mystery, and triumph. In its visions one sees references to the coming of Antichrist, the last persecution, the last battle, the Second Coming of Christ and the general resurrection accompanying it, the Last Judgment, and everlasting life.

Many people today, however, believe that its visions contain prophecies about historical events that were going to take place shortly, that is, in the first century of Christian history. Those who oppose such a lens for interpreting the visions of the Apocalypse say that this “preterist” view of Revelation is a relatively recent phenomenon not found in early Christianity. Revelation and the First Century challenges that idea by showing that many writers in ancient and medieval Christianity indeed saw references to first century historical persons and events in John’s visions.

For example, some interpreted the “hour of testing” in Rev 3:10 as a time of trial that happened immediately after the death of the emperor Nero. Others saw in the four horsemen of the Apocalypse a description of the deeds of early Roman emperors. Some interpreted the 144,000 sealed in Rev 7 as a picture of Jewish believers in the first century. Others expressed the opinion that Nero was the beast of Rev 13, and that some of the prophecies of the Book of Revelation were fulfilled in the Roman-Judean war of 68-70 AD.

Revelation and the First Century provides citations in English translation from dozens of early commentaries showing just how they often interpreted the visions of the Apocalypse in light of first century historical events.

View the Table of Contents, PDF

To read a review by Jack Kettler, click here.

For those interested in ancient biblical interpretation, the Book of Revelation, eschatology, ancient history, and ecclesiastical history, I trust the book will be an interesting read and a valuable resource.

To order from the publisher, click here.

To order from Amazon, click here.

More Ancient Apocalypse Commentaries in Translation

February 2, 2011 by Frank Leave a Comment

Below are some announcements of ancient commentaries on the Apocalypse in English translation that either have been published recently or are scheduled to appear soon.

Nerses of Lambron. Commentary on the Revelation of Saint John. Translation of the Armenian Text, Notes, and Introduction by Robert W. Thomson (Leuven: Peeters, 2007). Nerses, archbishop of Tarsus, wrote this commentary in 1180 AD in the Armenian language. It is an adaptation of the Apocalypse commentary on Andrew of Caesarea from the seventh century. Thomson’s translated text is excellent reading. A full review of it by me appears in the May 2011 issue of Kerux journal. Click here to read my review of Nerses of Lambron-Commentary on the Revelation of St. John.)

An English translation of the aforementioned Greek commentary on Revelation composed by Andrew of Caesarea in Cappadocia, from 609-614 AD, appeared in Part 2 of the 2008 doctoral dissertation of Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou at the Universite Laval in Quebec entitled “Andrew of Caesarea and the Apocalypse in the Ancient Church of the East.” It is available for free download at www.revelation-resources.com. Constantinou’s translation of the commentary is scheduled to appear soon in the Fathers of the Church series from Catholic University of America Press. Another English translation of Andrew’s commentary completed by Dr. William Weinrich is scheduled for publication in InterVarsity’s new series Ancient Christian Texts.

The Turin fragments of Tyconius of Carthage’s lost Apocalypse commentary are translated in an excellent dissertation completed in 2010 by David Charles Robinson at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto entitled “The Mystic Rules of Scripture: Tyconius of Carthage’s Keys and Windows to the Apocalypse.”

An English translation of the massive Commentary on the Apocalypse of Peter John Olivi, composed in 1297, is scheduled for release this summer by Franciscan Institute Publications.

The Apocalypse commentaries of Victorinus, Apringius, Caesarius of Arles, and Bede, translated by William Weinrich, are projected for publication in a volume of the Ancient Christian Texts series by InterVarsity.

Bede’s Apocalypse commentary from the early middle ages was translated into English by Edward Marshall in the 1800s in England and for years it was difficult to obtain in the States because so few libraries carried it. But it has now been reprinted in paperback and is available for purchase at www.fledby.com or www.whitcoulls.co.nz. The commentary is also available in electronic version on line at www.apocalyptic-theories.com and at the medieval sourcebook webpage at www.fordham.edu. Besides the aforementioned translation of Bede’s Apocalypse commentary by Weinrich, a new translation by Faith Wallis of McGill University is scheduled to appear in the Translated Texts for Historians series published by Liverpool University Press.

Two other items not related to Apocalypse commentaries, but that may be of interest to our readers:

Steven Cartwright’s English translation of Peter Abelard’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is scheduled for release this April in the Mediaeval Continuation Series of Fathers of the Church from Catholic University of America Press. Abelard wrote the commentary in the mid 1130s.

Probably the most comprehensive book on Gottschalk of Orbais in English is the 2009 dissertation of Matthew Bryan Gillis entitled “Gottschalk of Orbais: A Study of Power and Spirituality in a Ninth-Century Life.” I read it last summer. It was one of those books you never want to be over. Gottschalk’s views on predestination sparked a heated controversy in Europe in the mid-ninth century. Most American doctoral dissertations can be purchased from proquest.com.

I would encourage institutional libraries, those who wish to learn more about how the Scriptures have been interpreted throughout Christian history, those interested in the Book of Revelation, and those who work with medieval texts, to add the aforementioned titles to their stacks as they become available.

Have a great day.
Frank