The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1
II. Victorinus—Earliest Systematic Commentary on Apocalypse
VICTORINUS (d. 303 or 304), bishop of Pettau in Upper Pannonia, near modern Vienna, was probably of Greek extraction, and formerly an orator and rhetorician by profession. Born on the confines of the Eastern and Western empires, he was better acquainted with Greek than with Latin. Victorinus composed commentaries on certain Old Testament books, and on Matthew and Revelation. All his works have disappeared save extracts from his commentaries on Genesis and the Apocalypse. Author of the earliest continuous or consecutive commentary on the Apocalypse now extant, he died a martyr under Diocletian, about 304. His scholia, or explanatory remarks, on Revelation are mentioned specifically by Jerome, who thought them more remarkable for content than for literary style. 20 PFF1 337.1
Jerome classifies Victorinus as a millenarian. 21 His writings, together with those of Sulpicius Severus, were suppressed by Damasus 1, and because of their millenarianism were ranked with the Apocrypha by Pope Gelasius 22 Although there has been considerable discussion by scholars over Victorinus’ treatise on the Apocalypse, the work as a whole is recognized as genuine, with the exception of chapter 20 on the millennium. Schaff and others recognize that this antimillenarian conclusion is the evident interpolation of a later hand. 23 PFF1 337.2
1. ENTIRE APOCALYPSE REPRODUCIBLE FROM FATHERS
That the Apocalypse was the subject of extensive and constant study by the early church is evident from the significant fact that practically the entire book is reproducible from the Christian writers of the first three centuries. 24 This is significant, together with this earliest systematic commentary on the Apocalypse, in showing the attitude of the Christian church thereon. PFF1 337.3
2. FIRST To ESTABLISH PRINCIPLE OF REPETITION
Victorinus was apparently the first to establish the fundamental principle of repetition—that the Apocalypse is not to be regarded as one continuous and progressive line o f prophecy, but rather that it returns and repeats. 25 Going on to the end, it then goes back, and again traverses the ages to the last times to cover some paralleling but different approach—thus to fill in, the gaps, and to add facts or details—not previously presented. PFF1 338.1
Victorinus’ early interpretation of the Apocalypse was inevitably colored by the times in which he lived. He was unable to anticipate a long course of future history lying concealed in symbol. As to others of his day, the scope was foreshortened in his view to a relatively brief space, for he did not and could not perceive the centuries to elapse ere the Christian Era should run its course. He did not sense the great apostasy of the church which was to extend for more than a thousand years—and not as yet more than begun—or the glorious revival of truth and reformation from error destined to follow at its close. To have interpreted the prophetic “days” as years at so early a period in the church was, of coarse, inconceivable. Their prophetic meaning in historical fulfillment dawned only during the Middle Ages, as will be noted later. PFF1 338.2
3. THE SECOND ADVENT THE CONTINUING THEME
Turning now to this remarkable third-century commentary, we find Victorinus, commenting on Revelation 1:7, specifically declaring that Christ, who came the first time in humiliation, will return shortly in majesty and glory—the theme of the second advent recurring as an underlying strain. PFF1 338.3
“‘Behold, He shall come with clouds, and every eye shall see Him.’] For He who at first came hidden in the manhood that He had undertaken, shall after a little while come to judgment manifest in majesty and glory.” 26 PFF1 338.4
4. SEVEN SEALS SPANS FIRST AND SECOND ADVENTS
Although Victorinus writes in general terms of the typical seven churches as representing seven classes of Christians throughout the church universal, 27 he explains the seven seals of chapters 6 and 8 as constituting a prophetic foreview of the spread of the gospel following the first advent, and the wars, famines, pestilences, and persecutions of the church, which he looks for in connection with the second coming of Christ 28 and the end of the world. The crowned rider seated upon the white horse, going forth, “conquering, and to conquer,” is interpreted as prophetic: of Christ’s church going forth on its victorious mission, the triumph of Christianity over paganism. PFF1 339.1
“After the Lord ascended into heaven and opened all things, He sent the Holy Spirit, whose words the preachers sent forth as arrows reaching to the human heart, that they might overcome unbelief. And the crown on the head is promised to the preachers by the Holy Spirit .... Therefore the white horse is the word of preaching with the Holy Spirit sent into the world. For the Lord says, ‘This Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world for a testimony to all nations, and then shall come the end. 29 PFF1 339.2
This is Victorinus’ starting point, and the key to his treatise on the entire Apocalypse—the progress of the gospel after Christ’s ascension, symbolized by the first horseman. PFF1 339.3
5. BLACK HORSE—FAMINE UNDER ANTICHRIST
The red horse is explained as “coming wars,” predicted as salient events preceding the end. The black horse, Victorinus avers, signifies “famines” in the time of the Antichrist. PFF1 339.4
“The black horse signifies famine, for the Lord says, `There shall be famines in divers places;’ but the word is specially extended to the times of Antichrist, when there shall be a great famine, and when all shall be injured. Moreover, the balance in the hand is the examining scales, wherein He might show forth the merits of every individual.” 30 PFF1 339.5
The pale horse meant “coming destructions.” The fifth seal, with the slain saints as the souls under the altar, points to the time when the “reward of the saints” and the “condemnation of the wicked” comes, for which men are to “wait.” PFF1 340.1
6. STRANGE INTERPRETATION FOR CELESTIAL SIGNS
In the sixth seal was a great earthquake, which Victorinus interpreted as “that very last persecution.” The sun becoming as sackcloth he ingeniously construed as the beclouding of doctrine. The moon as blood represented persecution; the falling of the stars typified the saints who were “troubled for Christ’s sake,” and the heaven being rolled away was a symbol of the church being “taken away.” He believed the removal of mountains and islands from their places to indicate that the good will be removed to avoid the persecution 31 Thus we are brought to the great consummation. PFF1 340.2
7. ANGELS SMITE ANTICHRIST’S KINGDOM, GATHER ELECT
In chapter 7, explaining the angel with the seal, Victorinus declares this to symbolize Elias the prophet as the “precursor of the times of Antichrist,” predicted in both Old and New Testaments. Next he refers to the kingdom of Antichrist, then the shortening of the days in Mark 13:20, and finally the sending of angels as reapers to smite the kingdom of Antichrist and deliver the saints 32 PFF1 340.3
8. PROPHETIC LINES REPEATED THROUGHOUT APOCALYPSE
It is in connection with the trumpets and vials that Victorinus fully establishes the important principle o f repetition in the Apocalypse—the carrying through of one line of prophecy to the end, then returning retrogressively to trace again essentially the same course for further development, emphasis, and certainty—paralleling in general, and terminating together at the time of the great consummation at the advent. PFF1 340.4
“We must not regard the order of what is said, because frequently the Holy Spirit, when He has traversed even to the end of the last times, returns again to the same times, and fills up what He had before failed to say. Nor must we look for order in the Apocalypse; but we must follow the meaning of those things which are prophesied. Therefore in the trumpets and phials is signified either the desolation of the plagues that are sent upon the earth, or the madness of Antichrist himself, or the cutting off of the peoples, or the diversity of the plagues, or the hope in the kingdom of the saints, or the ruin of states, or the great overthrow of Babylon, that is, the Roman state.” 33 PFF1 341.1
9. SEVENTH SEAL INTRODUCES EVERLASTING REST
The silence of the seventh seal Victorinus clearly declares to be the prelude to the “everlasting rest,” and the flying angel the warning of the imminent “wrath of plagues” of the “last times.” Thus we are again carried through to the end. PFF1 341.2
“‘And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.’] Whereby is signified the beginning of everlasting rest; but it is described as partial, because the silence being interrupted, he repeats it in order. For if the silence had continued, here would be an end of his narrative.” 34 PFF1 341.3
10. LITERAL TIME FOR PERIOD OF WITNESSES AND ANTICHRIST
The period of prophesying for the two witnesses in sackcloth, in chapter 11, Victorinus makes literal time, for the year-day principle of symbolic time had not yet been perceived. So, he contends, the two witnesses preach three and a half literal years, and then Antichrist’s kingdom follows for a like period—or a total of seven years, just before the “last time.” 35 PFF1 341.4
11. LOOKED FOR A ROMAN ANTICHRIST
The beast that “ascendeth from the abyss,” Victorinus says, was “in the kingdom of kingdoms, that is, of the Romans,” and “he was among the Caesars.” PFF1 341.5
“[He was] in the kingdom of kingdoms, that is, of the Romans. Moreover, that he says he was beautiful in offshoots, he says he was strong in armies. The water, he says, shall nourish him, that is, the many thousands of men which were subjected to him; and the abyss increased him, that is, belched him forth. For even Isaiah speaks almost in the same words; moreover, that he was in the kingdom of the Romans, and that he was among the Caesars. The Apostle Paul also bears witness, for he says to the Thessalonians: ‘Let him who now restraineth restrain, until he be taken out of the way; and then shall appear that Wicked One, even he whose coming is after the working of Satan, with signs and lying wonders.’ And that they might know that he should come who then was the prince, he added: `He already endeavours after the secret of mischief.”’ 36 PFF1 341.6
In commenting on verse 8 of chapter 11, Victorinus explains that “the Spirit from the Father” when “He has gone forward to the last times, ... again repeats the former ones .... What he will do once for all, He sometimes sets forth as if it were done .... Not the order of the reading, but the order of the discourse, must be understood.” 37 PFF1 342.1
12. SUN-CLOTHED WOMAN SYMBOL OF THE CHURCH
The symbolic “woman” of Revelation 12 is declared to be the church bringing forth Christ 38 PFF1 342.2
13. ANTICHRIST SPRINGS FROM ROMAN DIVISIONS
The great red dragon with seven heads is Rome, from which is to spring Antichrist in the last times, amid the ten horns. PFF1 342.3
“His seven heads were the seen kings of the Romans, of whom also is Antichrist, as we have said above. ‘And ten horns.’] He says that the ten kings in the latest times are the same as these, as we shall more fully set forth there. 39 PFF1 342.4
14. 144,000 ALIVE AT SECOND ADVENT
The third part of the “stars” are the angels that fell. The flight of the woman (church) to the wilderness, and the aid from the eagle’s wings, finally results in 144,000 believers—Christians, not Jews alive at the second advent, who are protected from the devil for the three and a half years. The Antichrist springs from the battle in heaven, and the expulsion and his earthly domination follow the three and half years of Elijah’s preaching. 40 PFF1 342.5
15. ANTICHRIST—BEAST AND NUMBER 666
Of the leopard beast of Revelation 13, Victorinus says, “This signifies the kingdom of that time of Antichrist.” 41 The 666 of verse 18 is first reckoned by the Greek gematria, suggesting teitan and antemos, the letters of each of which comprise the equivalent number. Then turning to Latin, lie suggests the “antiphrase DICLUX,” as standing for Antichrist.” 42 The second beast, the false prophet, erects a golden image of Antichrist in the temple at Jerusalem. 43 PFF1 343.1
16. SECOND ADVENT FOLLOWS ANGELS’ MESSAGE
The first and second angels of Revelation 14, Victorinus believes, are the predicted Elias and Jeremiah, 44 witnessing before the second advent and end of the world, ushering in the eternal kingdom. No mention is made of the third angel, and consequently there is no suggestion as to his identity. PFF1 343.2
17. BABYLON Is SEVEN-HILLED ROME
Then after the seven plagues for “the last time,” in Revelation 15, Babylon in Revelation 17 is identified as Rome seated upon her “seven hills,” drunk with the blood of martyrs. PFF1 343.3
“This is called Babylon also in the Apocalypse, on account of confusion; and in Isaiah also; and Ezekiel called it Sodom. In fine, if you compare what is said against Sodom, and what Isaiah says against Babylon, and what the Apocalypse says, you will find that they are all one. PFF1 343.4
“`The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman sitteth.] That is, the city of Rome.” 45 PFF1 343.5
The seven heads of the seven-hilled Rome are believed, in their immediate application with reference to the writing of the Apocalypse, to represent seven emperors, the sixth being Domitian, 46 with the eighth who is “of the seven,” as Nero. PFF1 343.6
18. DANIEL’S VISION COUNTERPART OF JOHN’s
Then the ten horns of Daniel 7 are identified with those of the Apocalypse, with the three kings of Daniel killed by the Antichrist 47 PFF1 343.7
19. ASSEMBLED NATIONS JUDGED AT ADVENT
Chapter 19 represents all nations assembled to judgment at the coming of the Lord. 48 PFF1 344.1
20. LATER INTERPOLATION IN Revelation 20
Into the comments upon the thousand years of Revelation 20, a contradictory, revolutionary principle of interpretation is injected, that is boldly carried to its ultimate development under Tichonius and Augustine—destined to affect profoundly the life of the church, the course of prophetic interpretation, and the related fate of the advent hope, as will be noted hereafter. But this is obviously a later interpolation, as scholars agree, possibly injected by Jerome. 49 In this we are told that the thousand years comprehend the period of Satan’s binding, and extend from the first advent of Christ to the end of the age 50 PFF1 344.2
This is so obviously the later “Augustinian theory” that this statement will not be pursued further. The spiritual resurrection hinted at by Origen likewise makes its appearance, the interpolation contending that the first resurrection is spiritual—that of the soul by faith, rising with Christ to seek the things from above. 51 PFF1 344.3
There is but scanty literature among the churches of Asia Minor in the third century, but these men were aggressive. The influence of Origen, as has been noted, did not become dominant through all Asia Minor. Methodius especially distinguished himself through antagonism to Origen’s writings. The Montanists also occupied much of his time and attention. There was much opposition to the pretensions of their new prophets. But we must now turn to the next. PFF1 344.4
Picture 1: RUINS AT DIOCLETIAN’S HOME CITY
Ruins of the great amphitheater at Salona, Dalmatia, where diocletian lived after his abdication. Christians were possibly martyred here under Diocletian in the worst of pagan Rome’s persecutions.
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