Apocalypse. Millennium. Chiliasm and Chillegorism. Valeriy Sterkh

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Excerpt from «Against Marcion», book 3:

      Chapter 24. About the millennial Kingdom on earth

      1. «Certainly,» you say, «I expect from him what will be the evidence for the difference <between the two gods> – the divine kingdom of the eternal heavenly dominion. But your Christ promises to restore to the Jews their former status after returning them to the land, and then, after death – to comfort them in the realm of the dead, that is, in the bosom of Abraham» [compare Lk 16:22]. O, what a kind god if he should, after getting appeased, restore to us that which he took away in anger! Your god [i.e. the way you portray him] both smites and heals [compare Deut 32:39; Job 5:18], causes calamities and creates the world [compare Is 45:7]! O god who is merciful even to the dead!

      2. <I will comment> on the bosom of Abraham in due course. As for the restoration of Judea (which the Jews expect to happen exactly as it is described, deceived as they are by the names of places and countries), it would take a long time to investigate the manner in which the allegorical interpretation, spiritual by its outward appearance and fruit, refers to Christ and the Church. It is a subject for another book which we entitled «The Hope of the Faithful» [«De spe fidelium» is one of Tertullian’s lost works]. Besides, it would be unnecessary now because we are concerned with the heavenly promise, not the earthly one.

      3. After all, we confess that we have been promised [the millennial] Kingdom on earth, but <it will come> before <our ascent to> heaven, and it will be a different Kingdom <than the one that the Jews are looking for> because it is found in the city of Jerusalem which is not made by hands and which the Apostle calls «our mother from above» [compare Gal 4:26]. And after <our> resurrection, it will be brought [Croymann’s conjecture. In the manuscript, this word refers to Jerusalem] from heaven to earth for a thousand years [compare Rev 20:6]. And by saying that our country, that is, our citizenship, is in heaven [compare Php 3:20], he, naturally, connects it with a certain heavenly city.

      4. Ezekiel also knew about this city [compare Ezek 48:30—35], and the Apostle John saw [compare Rev 21:2, 9—14] and confirmed the word of the new prophecy which abides with our faith so as to predict that the earthly copy of this city, <shown> to us before its revelation, would become a sign. In recent times, it happened during the Eastern expedition. After all, even pagan accounts contain stories about a city floating around above Judea for forty days every morning. The apparition would gradually dissipate with the light of day, and in other cases it disappeared immediately.

      5. We say that this city was prepared by God for the saints who will dwell in it after their resurrection. They will be strengthened with every kind of abundance, which is, certainly, of a spiritual nature – to compensate for everything we have denied or left behind in this present age, for, after all, it is only just and fair for God to ensure that His servants are overjoyed where they were persecuted for his name. This is the meaning of the Kingdom <under heaven> [Croymann’s conjecture. In the manuscript: «heavenly»].

      6. After the thousand-year Kingdom, during which the resurrection of the saints will be completed as they rise from the dead at different times according to the merits of each, and after the destruction of the world and the judgment of fire [Et mundi destructione et iudicii conflagratione commissa, demutati in atomo in angelicam substantiam <…> transferemur in caeleste regnum. Compare: Et istas ego receperim causas, <…> et illam quae in conflagratione nostris placet hoc quoque transferendam puto (Sen. Nat. Quaest, III, 29,2)], we shall change in the twinkling of an eye [compare 1 Cor 15:52: ev atomo] to an angelic state, being clothed with incorruptibility <as described by the Apostle> [compare 1 Cor 15:52—53]. And we shall be taken up to the Kingdom of Heaven which is now being re-evaluated <in such a way> as if it had not been foretold by the Creator and as if it would, consequently, prove that Christ had belonged to another god, who, allegedly, was the first and only one to have revealed it.

      7. Know now that this <Kingdom> was foretold by the Creator and must be considered as <staying> with the Creator. What do you think: when the seed of Abraham, after receiving the first promise that they would become as countless as the sand on the seashore, received also their calling of becoming like unto the stars [compare Gen 22:17], isn’t this a sign of both earthly and heavenly blessings? When Isaac, blessing his son Jacob, says: «Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth» [compare Gen 27:28] – are these not examples of both of these mercies?

      8. One should finally consider the structure of the blessing itself. Indeed, with respect to Jacob who is a symbol of a later and a better people, that is, of our people, the first promise is the promise of the heavenly dew and the second one of the earthly abundance. For we are first invited to enjoy the heavenly blessings after we have rejected the world, and thus we subsequently prove that we have been predestined to inherit also the earth. And your Gospel [i.e. the Gospel of Luke distorted by the Marcionites] also testifies: «Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and this will be added to you as well» [see Lk 12:31].

      9. However, he first gives to Esau [Croymann’s conjecture. In the manuscript: «he first promises»] the blessing of the earth and then adds to it the heavenly things by saying: «Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above» [see Gen 27:39]. In Esau, the Jews, who are firstborn by nature yet inferior to others in love, having been satiated through the Law with earthly blessings, are redirected towards heavenly blessings through the Gospel by faith. But when Jacob sees in a dream a staircase spanning the earth and heaven, and angels ascending and descending, and the Lord standing on it [compare Gen 28:12—13], will it be reckless to interpret it as pointing to the right way to heaven [Tertullian refutes Marcion who claimed that, according to Jewish beliefs, the dead remain in hell] through which some ascend, others descend, [Croymann assumes a lacuna here: «and since the Lord is standing above, both are done by the Lord’s decree»] as determined by the Lord’s decree?

      10. Why did he, after waking up [compare Gen 28:16] and getting terrified at this place, immediately start interpreting his dream? Having said: «How dreadful is this place!» he adds: «This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven» [compare Gen 28:17]. For he beheld Christ the Lord who is the Temple of God [see Jn 2:19—21] and the gate [see Jn 10:7], <the Lord> through whom we go to heaven. And, of course, he would not have mentioned the gates of heaven if the Creator had made it impossible to go to heaven. But the gates are open, and there is a <road> [Croymann’s insert] leading <there>, already paved by Christ, of whom Amos <says>: «He who prepares His ascension into heaven» [see Am 9:6]. Naturally, He prepared it not just for Himself but also for His own who will remain with Him.

      11. For he says: «You shall be clothed in them like in a bride’s adornment» [see Is 49:18]. Thus the Spirit marvels at those who strive to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because of that ascension, saying: «They fly like unto kites [Neither the Septuagint СКАЧАТЬ