Vieira's Eschatological Sources
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Universidade de Lisboa: Repositório.UL Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras Departamento de História Historical Interpretations of “Fifth Empire” - Dynamics of Periodization from Daniel to António Vieira, S.J. - Maria Ana Travassos Valdez DOCTORATE IN ANCIENT HISTORY 2008 Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras Departamento de História Historical Interpretations of “Fifth Empire” - Dynamics of Periodization from Daniel to António Vieira, S.J. - Maria Ana Travassos Valdez Doctoral Dissertation in Ancient History, supervised by: Prof. Doctor José Augusto Ramos and Prof. Doctor John J. Collins 2008 Table of Contents Table of Figures.....................................................................................................................3 Resumo...................................................................................................................................4 Summary ................................................................................................................................7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................8 Introduction .........................................................................................................................11 1) The Role of History in Christian Thought....................................................................... 14 a) The “End of Time”........................................................................................................................ 17 b) Historical Periodization: the concepts.......................................................................................... 20 2) The Present Study .............................................................................................................. 25 a) The Purpose................................................................................................................................... 25 b) The Sources ................................................................................................................................... 27 i) The Historical Context.............................................................................................................. 27 ii) António Vieira, S.J. and the Clavis Prophetarum .................................................................... 37 c) The Problem .................................................................................................................................. 40 d) The Approach ................................................................................................................................ 42 3) The History of the Research.............................................................................................. 46 Part 1 - The Biblical Sources ..............................................................................................50 The Main Biblical Themes ......................................................................................................... 51 1) The Four Empires .............................................................................................................. 51 a) Daniel ....................................................................................................................................... 51 b) Hesiod’s influence in Daniel .................................................................................................... 65 2) The Seventy Weeks ............................................................................................................ 69 a) Enoch, one of the sources behind Daniel ................................................................................. 69 i) The Apocalypse of Weeks ................................................................................................... 72 b) Daniel and Jeremiah’s prophecy of the 70 years ..................................................................... 75 3) The Millennium .................................................................................................................. 82 a) Paul and the two “aeons” ........................................................................................................ 82 i) 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 ........................................................................................................ 83 ii) 2 Cor 3:7-18......................................................................................................................... 85 b) The Book of Revelation............................................................................................................. 93 i) Revelation 20-22.................................................................................................................. 94 ii) The Millennium ................................................................................................................... 96 iii) The Eschatological Opponent............................................................................................ 101 iv) Final Judgment (20:11-15)................................................................................................. 106 v) The New Jerusalem (21:1-22:5)......................................................................................... 110 c) Ages and/or periods of history in Revelation?........................................................................ 114 1 Part 2 - The Exegetical Tradition .....................................................................................120 1) Flavius Josephus............................................................................................................... 125 2) Hippolytus and the 6000-year chronology ..................................................................... 137 3) St. Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel.............................................................................. 150 a) The Four Empires........................................................................................................................ 152 b) The Seventy Weeks....................................................................................................................... 159 4) St. Augustine’s Two Cities............................................................................................... 167 a) Rome, or the new Babylon........................................................................................................... 173 b) Jerusalem: the City of God.......................................................................................................... 178 5) Joachim of Fiore: From the ‘status’ to the ‘Last Emperor’......................................... 186 a) Joachim’s ‘Aetates’ and ‘Status’................................................................................................. 188 b) The “Last Emperor” myth........................................................................................................... 198 Part 3 – António Vieira, S.J. and the “Clavis Prophetarum”..........................................210 1) The Eschatology in António Vieira’s Previous Works.................................................. 211 a) Esperanças de Portugal – Hopes of Portugal (1659).................................................................. 217 b) História do Futuro – History of the Future................................................................................. 230 2) “Clavis Prophetarum” or “De Regno Christi in Terris Consummato” ...................... 251 a) The content and the background of this work.............................................................................. 251 b) The edited Book III of the ‘Clavis Prophetarum’ ........................................................................ 257 3) The ‘Fifth Empire’ ........................................................................................................... 269 a) The nature of the Kingdom.......................................................................................................... 272 b) When and where? ........................................................................................................................ 277 4) Universal Evangelization, Toleration, and Ecumenism?.............................................. 291 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................298 Index...................................................................................................................................305 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................310 2 Table of Figures Figure 1 – Comparative Chronologies _____________________________________________________ 123 Figure 2 – The Three Status, CCC Ms. 255A, f. 7 v. ___________________________________________ 194 Figure 3 – The Alpha and the Omega, CCC Ms. 255A, f. 8 r.____________________________________ 195 Figure 4 – The Tree and the Three Ages, CCC Ms. 255A, f. 12 v. ________________________________ 196 Figure 5 – Identification of the Antichrist ___________________________________________________ 288 Figure 6 – The year of the Antichrist ______________________________________________________ 288 3 Resumo O principal objectivo deste estudo é a verificação de como uma teoria construída