The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Survey of Teachings on the Apocalypse

Having considered certain of Olivi’s specific interpretations condemned by the church, it will be profitable to summarize some of the other points. PFF1 772.1

1. CHURCHES, SEALS, TRUMPETS ARE SEVEN PERIODS

Olivi, like Joachim, believed that he was living near the end of the fifth of seven periods of the church’s history. These he saw symbolized by the seven churches, the seven seals (depicting the early hardships, pagan persecutions, the Arians, the hypocrites, etc.), and the seven trumpets (the sevenfold preaching in these successive states of the church). ²² PFF1 772.2

2. Two INTERPRETATIONS OF 1260 DAYS

In Revelation 11 he sees the Two Witnesses as Enoch and Elijah preaching three and one-half years, during the period of Antichrist (42 months, or 1260 days). ²³ But in Revelation 12 he does not make the period of the woman’s flight the same short period. The woman, who brings forth the man-child, Christ, is specifically the virgin Mary, but in general the church. ²⁴ The 1260 days here, equal to 42 months of 30 days each, are compared—after Joachim—to the time from Abraham to Christ; using 42 months of 30 years each, we have 1260 years. “A day is taken for a year. Thus Ezekiel 4:6.” Here he mentions also the 70 weeks as years. ²⁵ As already mentioned he expected the 1260 years to end in three years from the date of writing. ²⁶ PFF1 772.3

3. YEAR-DAV PRINCIPLE APPLIED TO 1290 AND 1335

Olivi may have first, if not practically simultaneously with Villanova, applied the year-day principle to the 1290 and 1335 days. ²⁷ It would be interesting to know whether he and Villanova had any contact on this subject before 1297. As it is, without further information we can only wonder who had the idea first. Olivi’s interpretation of both the symbolism and the dating of the period differs considerably from Villanova’s. PFF1 772.4

“From the time when the continual sacrifice was taken away and the continual abomination of desolation was placed among the nations are 1290 days. Blessed, however, is he who looks to and arrives at the 1335 days. And yet a little while before he [Daniel] had said that the end of these wonders of the vision evidently would be permitted in a time, times, and half a time, that is, after 3 1/2 years, which without minute details make 1260 days but with minute details make 1277 or 1278 with the bissextile day. ²⁸ By saying this those numbers of Daniel can be said to be taken first indeed from the destruction of the synagogue and its continual sacrifice in the holy death of Christ, or from the flight of the church from Judea or from her legalism, and from the abominable desolation... And this means the time of the church from the death of Christ, or the aforesaid flight of the church, up to the great Antichrist, concerning whom that vision of Daniel about the end attempts something further, and truly up to the blessed silence after the death of Antichrist and the full conversion of Israel and of the whole world upon the opening of the 7th seal. ²⁹ PFF1 773.1

He explains further that the 1260 and 1290 days are the same three-and-one-half-year period counted in two ways; if the difference between the shorter reckoning and the fuller computation (by a 365-day year) is reckoned as a full 50-day month added to the 1260 days, the result will be 1290 days. There fore, he says, some teach that the 1290 years are the time from Christ’s death to Antichrist. PFF1 773.2

“This, however, to one noticing the various beginnings to the various endings of these numbers, is not ever certain unless it is precisely proved that this number, just as it ends in Antichrist, precisely begins from the death of Christ. This, however, or its opposite the ... evidence will prove in its own time.” ³⁰ PFF1 773.3

From this we see that Olivi takes the 1290 years as merely a variation of the 1260 years, both symbolized by 42 months, or three and one-half years. But the 1335 years extend beyond the ending of the shorter period at the time of Antichrist, and reach to the seventh period. All three periods are calculated on the year-day basis. PFF1 773.4

“The addition, indeed, of 45 days, that is, of years, which with the above number makes 1335, seems to extend to the Jubilee of peace, that is of grace, the seventh state. And John says blessed is he who about the last things reaches the evening with faith and hope. For John promised: Blessed is he who ‘looks to’ [this time], in order that it might not be believed that he is blessed who without hope and love arrives at the end of those days or years.” ³¹ PFF1 774.1

In addition to this year-day interpretation Olivi is willing to admit a literal application to the three and one-half years of Antichrist’s persecution, allowing either 1290 or 1260 days’ duration, depending on the mode of computation: PFF1 774.2

“Second, the aforesaid numbers can be begun from the beginning of the persecution of Antichrist which is to last three years and a half, in which perhaps will be 1260 days in one way, and in another way 1290. Certain ones, on the other hand, by comparing those numbers with the numbers of the Apocalypse probably think that those three years and a half will have various beginnings and various endings for the blinding of the wicked and for the stronger trial and the raising up of the elect. Just as also the years of the preaching of Christ are begun by one from the preaching of John, by another, however, from the baptism of Christ, and by another from the imprisonment of John.” ³² PFF1 774.3

4. THE Two BEASTS, SECULAR RULERS AND FALSE CHRIS TIANS

After this side excursion into the numbers of Daniel, Olivi returns to Revelation 13. The first beast, rising from the sea of infidel or pagan nations, is “the bestial crowd and sect,” “the beast Judaic and pagan and Arian or heretical,” through whom the dragon, Satan, operates. ³³ The second beast is not from the sea of unbelief but from the land of Christianity; his head is the false prophet, a king belonging to the beast. ³⁴ PFF1 774.4

The beast from the sea represents the kings of the nations; but the second beast, the wicked rectors of false Christians. ³⁵ Other points of this chapter have been discussed under the censured articles, and similarly enough has been given there on the subject of the woman of Revelation 17 and 18. ³⁶ PFF1 774.5

5. THREE DATINGS FOR THE BINDING OF SATAN

After the condemnation of the Harlot, the Beast, and the false prophet comes condemnation of the dragon—the binding of Satan arid the rule of the saints for a thousand years with Christ. Then follow his loosing at the end of the world to tempt the world and to persecute the saints, and finally the condemnation of evil. ³⁷ PFF1 775.1

In the Sabbath of peace after the death of Antichrist “the power of the devil who disturbs the world and the church will be bound much more than in former times, and finally ... the final judgment and the renewal of the earth, about the end of things, and the city of God about the consummation.” ³⁸ PFF1 775.2

But the binding of Satan, which opens the millennium, is reckoned from three different starting points: PFF1 775.3

“It is referred to three times: first the death and resurrection of Christ, when Christ bound his power in order that he might not be able to detain the holy fathers any longer in the underworld limbo nor shut up other saints there when they died, and that he might not be able to hinder the conversion of the nations to the Lord as he had done formerly from the beginning of idolatry to Christ. PFF1 775.4

“Second, it is clear that it refers to the time of the expulsion of. idolatry from the world under the time of Constantine; for from then he was not able to seduce the nations to worshiping demons and idols as he had done before. PFF1 775.5

“Third, it is referred to the time of the death of Antichrist in the seventh state, in which he will be bound that he might not be able to seduce the world arid to tempt the church as he had done in the other six states of the church.” ³⁹ PFF1 775.6

Some say, he adds, that this binding of Satan in the time of Sylvester and Constantine agrees with the 1260 years of the woman in the wilderness, or the church among the Gentiles, or with the 1290 days, and ends the thousand years about 1300; but they do not end the period with the final Gog and Magog. And much less do they know whether the seventh state, from the death of Antichrist to the last Gog, is literally a thousand years. ⁴⁰ PFF1 775.7

6. THEORY OF 6000 YEARS AND “DE SEMINE” CITED

Leaving that question, he mentions the tradition of 4000 years from Adam to Christ and the Jewish idea of 6000 years, according to which 700 years are left. Here he cites “Joachim” for the De Semine alphabetical system—22 Hebrew letters representing centuries B.C., followed by 23 Latin letters which extend from the founding of Rome to the end of the age. ⁴¹ PFF1 776.1

“Up to the evening and the morning, 2300 days, and the sanctuary will be cleansed, for by taking a day for a year there are 23 centuries of years.” ⁴² PFF1 776.2

But he changes the interpretation slightly. By omitting the last two letters, y and z, which are Greek, he runs the 1260 years from the ascension of Christ to the letter x, the cruciform letter which points to the crucifixion of the church under Antichrist in the fourteenth century. ⁴³ PFF1 776.3

7. SHIFTS 2300 YEARS TO BEGIN WITH ANTIOCHUS

The 2300 he takes as both days and years; as literal days in the period of Antiochus’ treading Jerusalem underfoot and as years from the same time—two centuries before Christ, and 15 centuries before Olivi’s own time—to the evening of the age, still 700 years in the future. ⁴⁴ PFF1 776.4

Thus we see that Olivi adopts the year-day principle for the 2300 days, but he places the period differently from either De Semine or Villanova. By beginning it in the second century B.C. he extends it many centuries farther than they did. But he ends the 1260 years, and possibly the thousand years, in 1300. This, then, is another insistent voice stressing the year-day principle and applying it to the longer time periods. PFF1 776.5