Some of the fathers of the Church speak of Christ and the saints reigning on earth for a thousand years, once six thousand years of history have passed; some others speak of the antichrist as due to arrive after six thousand years. Is there any way to reconcile this?
The Roman martyrology gives 5199BC as the date of creation. As I have mentioned before, Venerable Mary of Agreda says that the Blessed Virgin Mary told her that this date is correct. On the other hand, calculations of the date of Adam based on taking the genealogies of the bible at face-value yield a date of somewhere around 3950-4000BC. Is there any way to reconcile these?
We are given no indication by Holy Scripture of how long Adam remained unfallen. We are likewise not told anything about the nature of the ‘sleep’ into which God casts Adam before the creation of Eve, although the Septuagint calls it an ‘ecstasy’ (ἐπέβαλεν ὁ θεὸς ἔκστασιν ἐπὶ τὸν Αδαμ*.)
Presumably Adam’s life before the Fall was a contemplative life of an exalted kind. St Ambrose says in his commentary on St Luke’s gospel, chapter 10, that he enjoyed an untroubled beatitude (inoffensa beatitudine perfruebatur). Presumably, too, the more closely one is united to the eternal God, the less sense one has of time passing. Could it be that Adam, or both of our first parents, were rapt by God before the Fall into ecstasies that coincided with the passing of hundreds of years in the outside world, somewhat as an angel can stay fixed on the same thought for an indefinite period of time? If so, that would explain why the martyrology mentions a higher number of years than the bible, the latter reckoning Adam’s age only from the day on which he began to be a mortal man.
In this case, it would be possible to reckon ‘six thousand years’ from two different starting points, thus reaching two different ending points.
It is very striking, as I have also mentioned before, that exactly six thousand years after the date of creation found on the martyrology, the first holy Roman emperor was crowned by the pope, inaugurating a line that lasted a thousand years. We, or those who immediately follow us, will see what happens when the six thousand years based on a simple reading of the biblical genealogies have certainly finished.
* I don’t know why gaps appear in the Greek when one copies and pastes.
August 23, 2020 at 5:37 am
This is a very interesting idea.
I too have thought something similar but when I broached it with a priest, he told me we weren’t allowed to think it because the Church hasn’t given us permission to do so.
Have you heard of this prohibition?
August 23, 2020 at 5:06 pm
Possibly he could have had this in mind (which is not contrary to anything in the post, though):
Decree of the Holy Office, July 21, 1944
“In recent times on several occasions this Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office has been asked what must be thought of the system of mitigated Millenarianism, which teaches, for example, that Christ the Lord before the final judgment, whether or not preceded by the resurrection of the many just, will come visibly to rule over this world. The answer is: The system of mitigated Millenarianism cannot be taught safely.”
Or possibly this command given by the 5th Lateran Council to preachers, session 11:
“They are in no way to presume to preach or declare a fixed time for future evils, the coming of antichrist or the precise day of judgment; for Truth says, it is not for us to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
August 24, 2020 at 6:25 am
Thank you for your kind reply.
Apologies for not being more clear. I meant to say that the Rev Father said “we are not allowed to wonder what it was like before the Fall.” It was then he said the Church hasn’t given permission to do so.
As Father has since died I wasn’t able to ask where he found the prohibition so am still left in the dark here.
August 24, 2020 at 9:36 pm
I can’t think what he would have been referring to. St Thomas Aquinas talks about it a fair amount. See here, and the following questions:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170817032819/http://dhspriory.org/thomas/summa/FP/FP094.html#FPQ94OUTP1
August 25, 2020 at 12:52 am
Thank you for your time. It’s much appreciated.
August 25, 2020 at 12:39 am
Well, I think that answers my question.
Thank you for your time!
September 13, 2020 at 8:19 pm
What are the sources of the Roman martyrology? Could we say that the date of creation stems from the teaching of Christ and/or the Apostles? We should also think the same, I believe, about the claims of the Church Fathers as their knowledge originates with the Apostolic Fathers who were in turn pupils of the Apostles?
But then, the early Christians seem to have believed in an early coming of Christ and that the Final Judgment is nigh. How come that the Apostles wouldn’t correct the early Christians in these misguided expectations?
I am genuinely confused about this. Thank you for any help.