The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Joachim Restores Historical View

1. AUGUSTINE AND THE CHURCH’S SOVEREIGNTY

As mentioned, Joachim’s writings constitute a definite turning point. A new era begins with him, not only in prophetic interpretation, but in a much wider sense—in the whole religious and philosophical outlook of Europe. To evaluate Joachim correctly, one must understand the medieval Catholic philosophy of life and of history, a philosophy that was formulated by Augustine, and that exerted a controlling influence over the centuries following. Augustine, of course, had lived in the atmosphere of the declining Roman paganism, with its many cults and theories of life. At the same time the still young Christianity was struggling to find the satisfactory formulas for expressing its own set of beliefs. It was defining its aims, rejecting false claims, and setting up barriers to protect itself from the onrush of detrimental foreign ideas and isms which ever sought entrance into the church under the garb of respectability. PFF1 690.5

Augustine, having himself gone through that welter of divergent philosophies, realized at the time of his conversion that the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the central theme and cardinal doctrine of Christianity. The life and sacrifice of Christ, not as a mere historical event but as a metaphysical reality, meant to him that it stands outside of any historical continuity. History, and even the entire cosmic world process, loses its significance, he felt, because faith deals in the ultimate with’ the salvation of the individual and the life beyond. The life problem of each individual is, as it were, put vertically between heaven and hell, not horizontally between past, present, and future. The individual’s acceptance of Christ, and his partaking of the grace offered by Christ, are alone important, and nothing else. That naturally leads to the idea that it is completely irrelevant to consider what will happen in history, as in fact, nothing essentially new can happen, because this truth salvation through Christ—is the last and final revelation before the ushering in of eternity. PFF1 691.1

It is easy to understand how this intriguing concept, even if not originally intended to be so, laid a sure foundation for the church, giving her finality and sovereignty. She, as avowed steward and guardian over Christ’s work and sacrifice, must, as a matter of course, become the sole arbiter in all transitory matters. There can be no higher authority than the church, for she alone deals with eternal values, and the only fact that matters-the salvation of the soul. This was the philosophical position of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and is to the present time. PFF1 691.2

Such premises being granted, this position was practically unassailable. It is no wonder, therefore, that all historical Considerations in prophetic interpretation became nearly extinct. The time element no longer mattered. And this fundamental proposition, which Augustine had laid down, was not challenged until the coming of Joachim, who was destined to become the counterpole to Augustine. PFF1 692.1

2. JOACHIM’S AGES OF FATHER, SON, AND SPIRIT

Joachim, working on his Concordia, had, according to his own claim, a divine illumination during one Easter night, which gave him a new insight into many connections and relationships of the divine plan with humanity, which formerly were dim. Joachim conceived the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—as the great pattern for all that was, and is, and ever will be on this earth. To him the whole history of mankind must be considered under this guiding principle. There exists, therefore, an age of the Father, an age of the Son, and an age of the Holy Spirit. Each age has its initial period and its period of maturity. The period of maturity of one age is, to a certain degree, the initial period of the following age. Thus the ages merge into one another without any sudden break, and the historical continuity is preserved. ²⁰ PFF1 692.2

History thus becomes an essential part and plays an important role in Joachim’s concept of the progressive development of revelation. ‘’his is an idea which appeared, in its beginnings, in Anselm of Havelberg. Although there is no direct, evidence that Joachim derived this idea from Anselm, it is entirely possible that he was acquainted with the latter’s work. PFF1 692.3

Joachim’s exegesis, says Grundmann, is based on the same method that his predecessors used for moral and dogmatical purposes, but is distinguished by its essentially prophetic basis, and is amazingly imaginative and original. His allegorical treatment interprets everything in terms of his historical theory. Buonaiuti says Joachim’s allegorism merely applied traditional principles of patristic exegesis, but his “boundless exegetical virtuosity” leads “to a highly original and personal teaching.” PFF1 693.1

“The symbolistic orgy in which Joachim indulges becomes a kind of rite of initiation to a new, solemn, triumphal epiphany of the new gospel. Hence, Joachim’s works must not be considered or studied as if they contained an ordinate exposition and an organic justification of a system, but rather as the passionate appeal of a preacher of conversion.” ²¹ PFF1 693.2

Joachim’s theory of three ages has similarity to the divisions of “before the law,” “under the law,” and “under grace.” But it is not the same, and should not be confused therewith. According to Joachim, the age dominated by the Father was still a carnal period of this world’s history. At the sale time, however, it was a period preparatory to the revelation of spiritual things. The age dominated by the Son was partly carnal and partly spiritual, but the coming age was already fore shadowed. This would be the age of the Holy Spirit, which he expected to begin around his own time. In this era the full revelation of spiritual things would become a reality, and each individual would have a part in it, sharing in it directly and freely, without need of intercessors. The Spirit of God would be the guiding principle in the affairs of men. PFF1 693.3

“For there was one time in which man lived according to the flesh, that is, up to Christ, [a time] whose beginning was made in Adam; another in which they lived between both, that is, between the flesh and the spirit, namely up to the present time, whose beginning was made from Elisha the prophet or Uzziah the king of Judah; another in which they live according to the spirit, up to the end of the world, whose beginning was from the days of the blessed Benedict. PFF1 693.4

“And so the fructification or [peculiar qualities] of the first time, or as we say better, of the first state, [was] from Abraham even to Zacharias the father of John the Baptist, the beginning from Adam. The fructification of the second state from Zacharias up to the 42nd generation, the beginning from Uzziah or from the days of Asa under whom Elisha was called by Elijah the prophet. The fructification of the third state from that generation which was the 22nd from Saint Benedict up to the consummation of the age, the beginning from Saint Benedict.” ²² PFF1 694.1

He assigns these three ages not only to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, ²³ but also particularly to three “orders” of men with the third a period of monasticism: PFF1 694.2

“The very changes of times and works attest three states of the world. It is permitted to call this whole present time one; so the three are orders of the elect .... And of those orders indeed the first is that of the married, the second of the clerics, the third of the monks. The order of the married was begun from Adam; it began to fructify from Abraham. The order of the clerics was begun from Uzziah; ... it fructified, however, from Christ who is the true King and Priest. The order of the monks according to a certain proper form, since the Holy Spirit is its author, exhibited the perfect authority of the blessed; it began from the blessed Benedict ... whose fructification is in the times of the end.” ²⁴ PFF1 694.3

As Christ preached the first gospel, so Joachim conceived of himself and others as announcing the final gospel. ²⁵ Joachim’s theory of earth’s history was of three ages: The first age ‘was that of the Old Testament; the second, that of the New Testament; and the third would be that of the eternal gospel—with no new book, but with a gospel proceeding from the Old and New Testaments, only read with purer and clearer eyes.” ²⁶ PFF1 694.4

Psalmody would help them find in their Bibles the everlasting gospel, guided by the Spirit. As the second age was the age of faith, so the third should be the age of love-despite calamities and bloodshed. Only the elect would survive. ²⁷ The concept is rather remarkable from any point of view. It may well be noted that there was greater freedom of expression then than later, particularly from the time of the Council of Trent forward, and Joachim wrote far more freely, of course,, in Calabria than he could have done at the University of Paris. ²⁸ PFF1 694.5

3. SHIFTED ACCENT TO GOD IN HISTORY

Moreover, by shifting the accent to God’s revelation in history Joachim raised history to a supreme place of importance. He himself began to look into the past in order to find the confirmation for his hypothesis. And in his profound studies in the Bible he saw the key to this historical problem in the figures given as “forty-two months,’’ or “1260 days.” These, he saw, were the God-given time limits, and contained the holy Numbers 3 and 7. They should therefore be considered as basic for all important computations. Hence, each age encompasses forty-two generations, each having an initial period and a period of maturity. The twenty-one generations of the initial period and the forty-two of the first age are of unknown length; the forty-two generations of the second age, at thirty years each, are 1260 years. PFF1 695.1

4. JOACHIM’S SCHEME OF THE AGES

This is what his scheme for the world’s history looks like; PFF1 695.2

The first period of the second age does not quite fit with the time involved, which shows that it is not the exact number of years which are important in his reckoning, but that he takes the generation as a unit. Furthermore, he was not out to compute the exact time of the end, but was interested in finding the order and the dynamic of all that happens between the beginning of the world and its end. Therefore, having established the parallelism of structure between the first two periods, it might well be assumed that the third age would have a similar development. ³⁰ PFF1 696.1

The grand plan of God in history thus being established, it was easy to subdivide the different ages and to establish similarities. Here again a tabulation will illustrate his concepts. PFF1 696.2

As can be seen, historical events and historical personalities again become of importance, and history now finds a place in the interpretation of the figures of the Apocalypse. This is truly a radical turning away from the old Tichonius tradition, and is clearly the establishment of a historical method of interpretation. Here also—and this is important—Papal Rome is mentioned for the first time as the “new Babylon,” and that on the basis of a methodical study of the Bible. It is not simply flung as a derogatory epithet against an adversary, but is a genuine interpretation of prophecy. PFF1 696.3

5. THE EVANGELICAL IDEAL OF THE THIRD AGE

We may well ask: In what way did Joachim conceive the third age (that of the Holy Spirit) would be fulfilled? In what way would it differ from the previous age of the Son? PFF1 697.1

The second age covers the era of the medieval church, with the hierarchy and its world claims. It was an era when spiritual and carnal things were still interwoven. The church, according to Joachim, had never been wholly pure and spiritual, arid was not even expected to be so during this second age, for it was “between the flesh and the spirit.” ³² The church needed ceremonies and sacraments, arid therefore Joachim fulfilled all his obligations with meticulous care. He was careful to submit his writings for the approval of the pope, to avoid the accusation of schism. PFF1 697.2

But the third age would be a new age. This new era would set in, supported by a new, monastic, purely evangelical society, which would raise life to a new spiritual basis. Not a clerical society, not bishops and cardinals who fight for worldly gains, but a new monastic order would dominate life in this period, which would have as its sole aim the imitatio Christi. A new form of life and a new society would spring up. Joachim’s call was not so much, “Repent, turn back to the old sources,” but to change and become new, reach the higher goal. Oportet mutari vitam, quia mutari necesse est statum mundi. (It is fitting that the life be changed, since it is necessary that the state of the world be changed.) ³³ PFF1 697.3

This conception, of the progressive development of revelation was, of course,’ diametrically opposed to the old Augustinian concept, and rocked the church to its foundations. Joachim saw definitely where this new conception would lead, and he shrank from its consequences. So he couched his phrases most carefully, in order to remove the sting of offense. But in spite of his extreme care, and in spite of his acceptance of the church in its current form as fulfilling its rightful place during the second era, this concept disclaimed the finality of the church, with her clergy and hierarchy and the sacraments necessarily administered by human means, because in this spiritual era, soon to come, a better, more advanced, really spiritual form of worship had to supersede the then-present forms. ³⁴ PFF1 697.4

Actually Joachim saw no conflict between this idea and his loyalty to the papal church, for he expected the new spiritual church to be welcomed by the pope, just as the child Jesus was embraced by Simeon in the temple. ³⁵ But when the implications of his doctrine came to be carried by his successors toward their logical conclusions, the two main pillars of the church were badly shaken. The later Joachimites were moved to speak bitterly of the hierarchy, which fell short, of their standards and which persecuted them for their ideals. PFF1 698.1

Benz’s treatment of Joachim is summarized by La Piana: PFF1 698.2

“The problem of the Church, the Sacraments, and the Papacy in the new dispensation, destined to disappear because the ordo spiritualis would take their place, is the truly revolutionary doctrine of Joachim. For, by prophesying the imminent coming of an age of pure evangelic morals, he provided his contemporaries with a kind of standard by which they could judge and criticize the papal Church. Furthermore, he gave to the monastic orders the right to consider themselves as the bearers of the spiritual Church, to affirm their independence from the Church of the Pope, hay, to consider it as the anti-Christ. In other words, the attitude toward the Church of the later Joachites, was contained in germ in Joachim’s own teaching.” ³⁶ PFF1 698.3

La Piana qualifies this with the observation that antisac and antipapal currents were older than Joachimism, and that Joachim taught unquestioning obedience to the ecclesiastical authorities, and refers to the fact that Joachim expected papal approval for the new order. PFF1 698.4

Joachim assigned a place of importance to monastic reform in the preparation for the new spiritual economy. ³⁷ In this he showed his Cistercian background, for he was “the faithful interpreter and the bold herald of that social and religious palingenesis which the Cistercian rule introduced into Latin Catholicism of the late Middle Ages.” ³⁸ PFF1 699.1

Troubled by the laxness which had already crept in among the Cistercians, he founded his own Florensian order to restore the full original austerity. Buonaiuti observes that Joachim’s dream of “liberty from worldly cares,” to be perfected only in the great Sabbath, was the contemplative but active and constructive spirit of the Cistercian tradition. That movement liberated large rural masses from feudal bondage, gave them a work reclaiming the land, and gave to the work a spiritual value. Bernard was too occupied by manifold ecclesiastical and political activities. But Joachim was “the great interpreter of the revolution contained in germ in the Cistercian rule.” He “found in the monastic libertas the ideal state of man in the coming age of the Spirit.” ³⁹ PFF1 699.2

The future twofold order, lay and clerical, which Joachim expected would “live by rule, not indeed, according to the form of monastic perfection, but according to the institution of the Christian faith,” ⁴⁰ would enjoy the vision of peace and rule the earth, ⁴¹ for it was “the people of the saints of the most High” (Daniel 7:27) to whom was to be given the blessed vision of peace and the dominion from sea to sea. ⁴² PFF1 699.3

We might sum up Joachim’s influence on later times under three heads: the historical element, the spiritual-evangelical element, and the chronological element. We have seen how Joachim’s three ages placed the emphasis on history. His thirdage concept was also to influence later movements, such as the Franciscans, ⁴³ and even to some extent the antisacerdotal heresies, by its ideal of the spiritual life and the imitation of Christ. Attention must be called here to the chronological element in Joachim’s historical interpretation, particularly his 1260-year period, which paved the way for the application of the year-day principle to the longer time periods of prophecy. PFF1 699.4

6. APPLIES YEAR-DAY PRINCIPLE TO THE SYMBOLIC TIME PROPHECY

Under Joachim an epochal advance was made in the symbolic—time aspect of prophetic interpretation. Heretofore, for thirteen centuries the seventy weeks had been recognized generally as weeks of years. But the first thousand years of the Christian Era did not produce any further applications of the principle, among Christian writers, save one or two glimpses of the “ten days” of Revelation 2:10 as ten years of persecution, and the three and a half days of Revelation 11 as three and a half years. But now Joachim for the first time applied the year-day principle to the 1260-day prophecy. PFF1 700.1

Time was required for the development of the later conception of the setting of that time period. Thirty-five year after Joachim’s death Eberhard was to point out the Papacy as the fulfillment, historically, of the prophesied specifications of Daniel’s Little Horn symbol. This had no connection with Joachim’s interpretation. But eventually the growing identification of papal Rome as the predicted apostasy, under the terms Antichrist, Babylon, Beast, Man of Sin, and Mystery of Iniquity, resulted in the application of the 1260 years as, the era of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the papal Little Horn. This conception of the Little Horn, soon to come, gave the clue to the time placement of the 1260 years as developed in Reformation times and afterward. PFF1 700.2

Joachim provided the basis for the historical method of interpretation of the time relationships of prophetic symbols, as applied to both nations and churches when he extended to this period the Biblical principle of a day for a year, which had in the early centuries been applied only to the seventy weeks. ‘To the early expositors, who expected the end soon, or within a few centuries, all time perspectives pertaining to last things were foreshortened, for they could not conceive of the world’s lasting long enough to cover time prophecies of such length as 1260 years. Joachim himself never extended the year-day principle to the 2300-day prophecy, probably for the similar reason that he expected the end of the age sooner. ⁴⁴ But only three years after his death, as we shall see, an anonymous work attributed mistakenly to him makes the number 2300 refer to twenty-three centuries, and within a relatively few years more, other writers applied the year-day principle to the 1290, 1335, and 2300 days as well. Thus the principle which he enunciated was later employed by the leading Protestant expounders of prophecy, though he had made an application of its meaning and chronological placement which they, of course, rejected. PFF1 700.3

Let us now turn from the general survey of Joachim’s contributions to consider some of his specific prophetic interpretations. PFF1 701.1