History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Canticles, the Apocalypse, a book Against all Heresies, "et

multa alia." Several poems are also credited to him, but without good reason.

1584

585

1. The fragment on the Creation of the World is a series of notes on the account of creation,

probably a part of the commentary on Genesis mentioned by Jerome. The days are taken liberally.

The creation of angels and archangels preceded the creation of man, as light was made before the

sky and the earth. The seven days typify seven millennia; the seventh is the millennial sabbath,

when Christ will reign on earth with his elect. It is the same chiliastic notion which we found in

the Epistle of Barnabas, with the same opposition to Jewish sabbatarianism. Victorinus compares

the seven days with the seven eyes of the Lord (Zech. 4:10), the seven heavens (comp. Ps. 33:6),

the seven spirits that dwelt in Christ (Isa. 11:2, 3), and the seven stages of his humanity: his nativity,

infancy, boyhood, youth, young-manhood, mature age, death. This is a fair specimen of these

allegorical plays of a pious imagination.

2. The scholia on the Apocalypse of John are not without interest for the history of the

interpretation of this mysterious book.

1585

586

 But they are not free from later interpolations of the

fifth or sixth century. The author assigns the Apocalypse to the reign of Domitian (herein agreeing

with Irenaeus), and combines the historical and allegorical methods of interpretation. He also regards

the visions in part as synchronous rather than successive. He comments only on the more difficult

passages.

1586

587

 We select the most striking points.

The woman in ch. 12 is the ancient church of the prophets and apostles; the dragon is the

devil. The woman sitting on the seven hills (in ch. 17), is the city of Rome. The beast from the

abyss is the Roman empire; Domitian is counted as the sixth, Nerva as the seventh, and Nero revived

as the eighth Roman King.

1587

588

 The number 666 (13:18) means in Greek Teitan

1588

589

 (this is

the explanation preferred by Irenaeus), in Latin Diclux. Both names signify Antichrist, according

to the numerical value of the Greek and Roman letters. But Diclux has this meaning by contrast,

for Antichrist, "although he is cut off from the supernal light, yet transforms himself into an angel

of light, daring to call himself light."

1589

590

 To this curious explanation is added, evidently by a

much later hand, an application of the mystic number to the Vandal king Genseric (

          

) who in

the fifth century laid waste the Catholic church of North Africa and sacked the city of Rome.

1584

Carmina de Jesu Christo Deo et homine; Lignum Vitae; also the hymns DeCruce or De Paschate, in Tertullian’s and

Cyprian’s works. Routh, III. 483, denies the genuineness; so also Lumper in Migne V. 294.

1585

Comp. Lüke, Einleitung in die Offen b. Joh, pp. 972-982 (2nd ed.); and Bleek, Vorlesungen über die Apok., p. 34 sq. Lücke

and Bleek agree in regarding this commentary as a work of Victorinus, but with later interpolations. Bleek assumes that it was

originally more pronounced in its chiliasm.

1586

As Cassiodorus remarks: "Difficillima quaedam loca breviter tractavit.’;

1587

This explanation of 17:10, 11 rests on the expectation of the return of Nero as Antichrist, and was afterwards justly abandoned

by Andreas and Arethas, but has been revived again, though with a different counting of the emperors, by the modern champions

of the Nero-hypothesis. See the discussion in vol. I, 864 sqq.

1588

T=300; E="5"; I=10; T=300: A=l; N=50; in all 666. Dropping the final n, we get Teita=616, which was the other reading

in 13:18, mentioned by Irenaeus. Titus was the destroyer of Jerusalem, but in unconconsious fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy;

he was no persecutor of the church, and was one of the best among the Roman emperors.

1589

D=500; I="1"; C=100; L=50; V=5; X=10; in all=666. "Id est quod Graece sonat 

τειτάν id quod Latine dicitur diclux, quo

nomine per antiphrasin expresso intelligimus antichrstum, qui cum a luce superna abscissus sit et ea privatus, transfigurat tamen

se in angelum lucis audens sese dicere lucem. Item invenimus in quodom codice, Graeco 

ἄντεμος . " The last name is perhaps

a corruption for 

Ἄντειμος, which occurs on coins of Moesia for a ruling dynasty, or may be meant for a designation of character:

honori contrarius. See Migne, V. 339, and Lücke, p. 978.

536

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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The exposition of ch. 20:1–6 is not so strongly chiliastic, as the corresponding passage in

the Commentary on Genesis, and hence some have denied the identity of authorship. The first

resurrection is explained spiritually with reference to Col. 3:1, and the author leaves it optional to

understand the thousand years as endless or as limited. Then he goes on to allegorize about the

numbers: ten signifies the decalogue, and hundred the crown of virginity; for he who keeps the

vow of virginity completely, and fulfils the precepts of the decalogue, and destroys the impure

thoughts within the retirement of his own heart, is the true priest of Christ, and reigns with him;

and "truly in his case the devil is bound." At the close of the notes on ch. 22, the author rejects the

crude and sensual chiliasm of the heretic Cerinthus. "For the kingdom of Christ," he says, "is now

eternal in the saints, although the glory of the saints shall be manifested after the resurrection."

1590

591

This looks like a later addition, and intimates the change which Constantine’s reign produced in

the mind of the church as regards the millennium. Henceforth it was dated from the incarnation of

Christ.

1591

592

§ 204. Eusebius, Lactantius, Hosius.

On Eusebius see vol. III. 871–879—Add to Lit. the exhaustive article of Bp. Lightfoot in Smith

and Wace, II. (1880), p. 308–348; Dr. Salmon, on the Chron. of Eus. ibid. 354–355; and Semisch

in Herzog2 IV. 390–398.

On Lactantius see vol. III. 955–959.—Add to Lit. Ebert: 

Gesch. der christl. lat. Lit.

 I. (1874), p. 70–86;

and his art. in Herzog2 VIII. 364–366; and E. S. Ffoulkes in Smith and Wace III. 613–617.

On Hosius, see § 55 p. 179 sqq.; and vol. III. 627, 635, 636.—Add to Lit. P. Bonif. Gams (R.C.):

Kirchengesch. v. Spanien,

 Regensb. 1862 sqq, , Bd II. 137–309 (the greater part of the second vol. is

given to Hosius); W. Möller in Herzog2 VI. 326–328; and T. D. C. Morse in Smith and Wace

III. 162–174.

At the close of our period we meet with three representative divines, in close connection

with the first Christian emperor who effected the politico-ecclesiastical revolution known as the

union of church and state. Their public life and labors belong to the next period, but must at least

be briefly foreshadowed here.

Eusebius, the historian, Lactantius, the rhetorician, and Hosius, the statesman, form the

connecting links between the ante-Nicene and Nicene ages; their long lives—two died octogenarians,

Hosius a centenarian—are almost equally divided between the two; and they reflect the lights and

shades of both.

1592

593

Eusebius was bishop of Caesarea and a man of extensive and useful learning,

and a liberal theologian; Lactantius, a professor of eloquence in Nicomedia, and a man of elegant

culture; Hosius, bishop of Cordova and a man of counsel and action.

1593

594

 They thus respectively

1590

"Nam regnum Christi nunc est sempiternum in sanctis, cum fuerit gloria post resurrectionem manifestata sanctorum."

(Migne V. 344.)

1591

Comp. § 188, p. 612 sqq.

1592

Eusebius died a.d. 340; Lactantius between 320 and 330; Hosius between 357 and 360.

1593

Hosius left no literary work. The only document we have from his pen is his letter to the Arian Emperor Constantius,

preserved by Athanasius (Hist. Arian. 44). See Gains, l.c. II. 215 sqq. It begins with this noble sentence: "I was a confessor of

the faith long before your grandfather Maximian persecuted the church. If you persecute me, I am ready to suffer all rather than

537

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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