andrew of caesarea and the apocalypse in the ancient church of the ...

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the Sabbath on which God rested. This interprétation arose as early as the Epistle of
Barnabas and was influenced by the scripture verse which states that a thousand years is like
a day to God. 45
If a day is like a thousand years, then six days of création meant the earth
would last for six thousand years. Irenaeus and Hippolytus, both among Andrew's important
sources, held this belief.
"For in as many days as this world was made, in so many
thousand years shall it be concluded...in six days created things were completed; it is
évident, therefore, that they will corne to an end at the sixth thousandth year." 847
the earth did not end in the 6,000 th
But when
year, Church writers began to modify the model, keeping
the concept of "six" but rather than representing literal one thousand year periods, the "six"
was identified with âges or historical epochs. Augustine seems to hâve adopted this view. He
wrote that the day of judgment:
will be the seventh day, just as if the first day in the whole era from the time
of Adam to Noe; the second, from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham
to David, as the Gospel of Matthew divides it; the fourth, from David to the
Transmigration into Babylon; the fifth, from the Transmigration to the coming
of our Lord Jésus Christ. The sixth day, therefore, begins with the coming of
the Lord, and we are living in that sixth day. Hence, just as in Genesis, [we
read that] man was fashioned in the image of God on the sixth day, so in our
time, as if on the sixth day of the entire era, we are born again in baptism so
that we may receive the image of our Creator. But, when that sixth day will
hâve passed, rest will corne after the judgment, and the holy and just ones of
God will celebrate their Sabbath. 848
845 Ps. 90:4.
846 Castagno concluded that the différences between the commentaries of Oikoumenios and Andrew were
largely due to their views of history and prophecy and that they aligned themselves with the exegetical
principles and perspectives of key ecclesiastical figures. Andrew follows Methodios' view of prophecy and is
in Une with the interpretive tradition of Irenaeus and Hippolytus. Oikoumenios, however, was largely
influenced by Eusebius' view of history and Origen's exegesis. "I Commenti," 304, 306. She believed that
Oikoumenios' exegesis was even influenced by Eusebius' reluctance to confront issues of the end times {Ibid,
384) and his rejection of the eschatological interprétation of Scripture in favor of a historical one. Ibid, 388.
Castagno points to Eusebius' historicized interprétation of Daniel's period of seventy weeks as an interprétation
which inspired Oikoumenios' perspective. Ibid, 385-6.
847 Irenaeus, Hères. 5.28.3, in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, trans. and eds. Alexander
Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers of the Church séries, vol. I (Grand Rapids: Wm B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted 1989), 557.
848 Serm. 259.2. Augustine Sermons on the Liturgical Season, trans. Mary Sarah Muldowney, éd. Joseph
Deferrari, Fathers of the Church séries, vol. 38 (New York: The Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959), 370. See
also Augustine, Question 57.3. Augustine: Eighty Three Différent Questions, trans. David Mosher, éd.
Hermigild Dressler Fathers of the Church séries, vol. 70 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America
Press, 1977), 105.