Indiculus de adventu Enoch et Eliae adque Antichristi

[Translated by Kenneth Baxter Wolf and the students of his “Medieval Latin Translation” seminar, Fall 2020: Kimi Adler, Tommy Burke, Collins, Gillian Hart, Madison Hesse, Desmond Mantle, and Catherine Phillips. Based on the edition in Juan Gil, Corpus scriptorum mozarabicorum (Madrid: CSIC, 1973), I: 126-133]

This text,1 probably written in the early ninth century, was compiled from a variety of sources available to its anonymous Iberian Christian author, including Victorinus of Pettau’s Commentary on Revelation (c. 260), ’s Commentary on Daniel (407), Gregory’s Moralia in (578-95), and especially Beatus of Liébana’s Commentary on Revelation (776; revised in 784). Like the work of Beatus, the only other Iberian commentary on Revelation produced in Spain after 711, the Indiculus de adventu makes no mention of Muhammad or Islam or of the new reality of the Andalusi Christian church.

Here begins the Indication of the Advent of Enoch and and , set forth from two books, that is, from Daniel and the Revelation of John, by St. .2

1. At the end of this world that which the Lord formerly said through the prophet will be fulfilled, when he said: “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers,”3 that is, so that the Jews might, in the end, recognize what the prophets sang4 concerning Christ and be baptized; and at that time the Jews will know their “fathers,” the prophets, and the hearts of the fathers will be turned to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, and men to their neighbor, that is, to his Christ. And at that time those 144,000 virgins5 from the Jews, from the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, those whom John in the records as having been signed [signatos] will be about to believe.6 May no one think that John considers these signed ones as the children whom Herod decapitated for the sake of Christ;7 the latter were from the tribe of Judah and of Benjamin, while the former were from [all] twelve tribes of the sons of Israel: “Of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were signed: Of the tribe of Ruben, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Aser, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Nephthali, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand signed: Of the

1 The text survives in two codices: Escorial R.II.18 (ninth century) and Córdoba, Biblioteca del archivo capitular de la catedral, 123 (tenth/eleventh century). This translation is based on the edition in Gil CSM 1:125-133. For a detailed study of the sources used by the author, see: Gaelle Bosseman, “Circulation et usages de l’exégèse dans la péninsule Ibérique au IXe siècle: Étude des sources de l’Indiculus de adventu Enoch et Eliae adque Antichristi.” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, 49-1 (2019), 41-60. 2 The Latin is “…a beato Iheronimo expositum.” The use of this form of exponere (“to put out” or “to set forth”) is ambiguous, perhaps deliberately so, as a statement of authorship. It was not uncommon to attribute new works to old authorities with an eye to legitimacy. Jerome was famous for his Commentary on Daniel, which is one of the sources for this work. Jerome did not produce a commentary on Revelation, though he did edit one produced in the third century by Victorinus of Pettau (c. 260), the first extant commentary on this book of the Bible. Jerome expurgated Victorinus’ text (398) with an eye to ridding it of its millennialist tendencies. This has led some to attribute the work to Jerome. Gaelle Bosseman, “Circulation et usages de l’exégèse dans la péninsule Ibérique au IXe siècle,” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, 49-1 (2019), 44. 3 4:5-6. 4 The verb is actually canuerunt, which is a preterite form of cānēre, meaning “to be white.” This makes no sense, but canere with a short “e” means “to sing,” and it is easy to imagine the author making a mistake and using the wrong preterite form for a verb that looks so much like cānēre. 5 Revelation 14:4: “These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” 6 Revelation 7:4. 7 A reference to Herod’s “slaughter of the innocents,” as reported in Matthew 2:16-18. tribe of , twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Zabulon, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand signed: Of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand signed.”8 Truly all the 144,000 will be virgins “and in their mouth there will be found no lie,”9 because not only will they faithfully confess Christ the Lord, but they will also be crowned in martyrdom on behalf of that one. If so many virgins from among the Jews are about to believe, how many do you think will not be virgins? Truly there will be as many from the Jews as from the Gentiles, as St. John reported in the same book, saying: “After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of every tribe and nation, and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.”10 The Jews in Jerusalem will be ready to believe the preaching of Elijah and Enoch in three years and six months,11 and when those three years and six months have passed, Satan will be released from his prison and he will enter into that man, that son of perdition, who is said to be Antichrist, the devil himself, who said: “I will set my habitation from the north, and I will be like the most High.”12 He is the very prince of the demons, for he will have the power and strength to operate through that most evil man, a kind of power that he never had from the time when he was cast from the kingdoms of heaven, and he will subjugate to his judgment without any hope of retraction all whom he will find in pursuit of the carnal life. For Antichrist himself was begotten as pure man; and then he will come first to Jerusalem where Enoch and Elijah are and Antichrist will kill them and their bodies will lie on the street of the city for three and a half days. And on the fourth day their spirit enters into them, lest they be found similar to Christ,13 and they will ascend in a cloud up into the air.

2. Now it should be said what the Antichrist may do after these things. For Antichrist is not able to deceive the people except through the pretense of sanctity. Even though he is most impure and sordid, he will pretend that he will be a and not a lover of women, and he will exhibit abstinence. Nor will he be a lover of money, and he will claim only the law of . After that the Jews will be about to believe, so that they who did not wish to receive Christ the Son of God might deserve to have a Christ like this one. He will not otherwise be able to seduce the circumcised people unless he be a claimant of the law; he could not obtain a kingdom otherwise, because royal honor was not owed to him by the order of his birth, to him, “who has to arise from a small nation,”14 that is, from the people of the Jews, from the tribe of Dan,15 son of , who was born to a concubine named Balla (Bilhah),16 and who also among the twelve tribes of his brothers did not receive his inheritance in the promised land, but set up camp to the north; in fact he said that: “I will set my habitation from the north, and I will be like the Most High.” For while it may be said with regard to all his brothers that they were each signed in the amount the 12,000, it is said

8 Revelation 7:5-8. 9 Revelation 14:4-5: “These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were purchased from among men, the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb: And in their mouth there was found no lie; for they are without spot before the throne of God.” 10 Revelation 7:9. 11 Based on Daniel 7:25 and 12:7: “a time, times, and half a time.” 12 Based on 14:13-14: “And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.” 13 Dissimilar to Christ in the sense that he rose from the dead on the third day. 14 Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, 7:24 (Archer 131): qui consurgere habet de modica gente, id est, de populo Judaeorum. Daniel does not mention the tribe of Dan. 15 and Hippolytus believed that the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan, based on 8:16: “the snorting of his horses was heard from Dan.” 16 Genesis 30:1-6. in Revelation that Dan alone was excluded from them, so that it does not say: “Of the tribe of Dan, twelve thousand [were] signed,” because it was ascribed in the twelfth number to Manasseh, the son of Joseph, whence in the blessings of the sons of Jacob, [Dan] was called “snake” by his father. So his father Jacob said with regard to him: “Let Dan be a snake (coluber) in the way, a horned viper (cerastes) in the path, that bites the horse's heels that his rider may fall backward.”17 The horse is understood to be the world, but the snake (coluber) and the horned viper (cerastes) are Antichrist. The cerastes is a small, horned serpent (serpens); cerata in Greek means “horns.”18 Where this serpent goes, he does not make a “way” but a “path,” because the “way that leads to heaven” is “strait” and “narrow.”19 The “horn” is understood to be “power.” Truly this snake (coluber, i.e., cerastes) is big and where it goes it makes a wide and broad “way.” Antichrist is the horned viper (cerastes) because he will dominate those who walk the “wide and broad way that leads to destruction,”20 that is, [the way] of this world. But this one is truly [also] a horned viper because he will try to deceive those who follow the strait and narrow way, that is, the monks, by simulating religion, and he will oppress those whom he shall not be able to deceive with the horns of power. All of the riches that Antichrist shall have, he will give to the deceived ones, so that those whom he will not be able to deceive by force, he will deceive with gifts. Whence in Psalm 9 it is written with regard to him: “He lies in hidden places like a lion in his den. He lies in ambush that he may catch the poor man; to catch the poor man while he draws him” into his acquaintance and “in his net he will bring him down, he will crouch and fall, when he shall have power over the poor.”21 The son of perdition will reveal such humility of sanctity to the point that he will deceive the servants of God. If he were only a lion, that is, strong and terrifying, the servants of God would clearly flee. And if he were only lying in hidden places, that is, a simulator of sanctity, many would speak against [him] and they would not be killed. But with [these] two evils [together], this is bad, in that he who shall speak against him may be killed, because through this he will deceive the people because he is a claimant of the law and a simulator of sanctity. “And he shall be so lowly and despised that kingly honor is not be granted him, and through treachery and deception he shall obtain rule, and the military forces of the people of the Romans shall be overwhelmed [by him] and crushed. And he will do this because he will pretend that he is the leader of the covenant, that is, the Testament of [the law and] God.”22

“Therefore let us hear what all the ecclesiastical writings have handed down. At the end of the world, when the Roman empire is to be destroyed, there shall be ten kings who will divide the Roman world among themselves. Then a petty king shall arise” that is, Antichrist, “who will overcome three of the ten kings, that is, the king of Egypt, the king of [North] Africa, and the king of Ethiopia, just as in Mauritania, as we will say more clearly in our later discussion. Once the three kings have been slain, the seven others will bow their necks. Let us not think him to be, in accordance with a certain opinion, that Antichrist is either the devil or some demon, but rather a begotten man, in whom the whole Satan will be about to inhabit in bodily form, ‘and a mouth speaking great things.’23 For this is the man of sin, the son of perdition,

17 Genesis 49:17. 18 κέρατα (kerata) does mean “horns.” 19 Matthew 7:14: “How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” 20 Matthew 7:13: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat.” 21 Psalm 9:30-31. 22 Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 11.21. The translation here reflects the actual wording in Jerome: et tam humilis erit atque despectus, ut ei non detur honor regius, et per insidias et fraudulentiam obtineat principatum, et brachia pugnantis populi Romani expugnentur ab eo, et conterantur: et hoc faciet quia simulabit se ducem esse foederis, hoc est, Legis et Testamenti Dei. 23 Revelation 13:5. such that “he might sit in the temple of God’ and make himself like God,”24 and order himself to be adored, and he will make it so that both slaves and freemen, paupers and rich men, men and women receive “the symbols (caracteres) on their right hands or on their foreheads, so “that he will not be able to buy or sell unless he shall have this symbol:” 25 And he will make an idol like the one Nebuchadnezzar made26 and order it to be adored, so that no one may be able to buy or sell even a morsel of bread unless he shall have first adored the idol, so that by virtue of this method, it might be known who belong to him; and so that Satan may enter inside the same idol and send out voices from it and speak, and Antichrist “shall enter into the strongest and richest cities, and he shall do what his fathers and his fathers’ fathers did not do. For until Antichrist none of the Jews shall rule over the whole world. Behold he shall form a design against the firmest resolves and shall do everything for a time, for as long as God’s will shall have permitted [him] to do these things”27 with regard to all these matters. Concerning Antichrist is it said: he is about to come from the people of the Jews and from Babylon, and he shall restore the Temple of Jerusalem and all the ceremony of old [law], that is, with circumcision and the observance of the sabbath, and he will command them by all means to hold the law of Moses, and he shall make signs (signa) in the sight of men such that the dead might seem to rise, and he will make fire descend from the sky into the sight of men, just as magicians do. Antichrist, who is about to be born, will make fire descend from the sky. At this time, the three kings having been killed, Antichrist is adored by the other seven kings and worshipped as God.

3. How might Antichrist be recognized when he begins to rule? He received power “over every tribe and language and nation, and all that dwell upon the earth will adore him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, which was slain from the beginning of the world. If any man have ears for hearing, let him hear: for he that leads into captivity, goes into captivity; he that kills with the sword, will be killed by the sword.”28 He will establish “that the earth and those that dwell in it adore the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. And he will do great signs, so that he shall make also fire to come down from heaven unto the earth in the presence of men, and will seduce the inhabitants of earth, on account of the signs, which were permitted to him to do in the sight of the beast.”29 And this one will order the inhabitants of the land to make the image of the beast that Nebuchadnezzar made. “And it was given him to give life to the images of the beast, and that the image of the beast should speak like a man; and he shall cause, that whosoever will not adore the image of the beast, should be slain. And then he shall make

24 The last bit is based on II Thessalonians 2:4. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 7.8 (Archer, 77): Ergo dicamus quod omnes scriptores ecclesiastici tradiderunt: in consummatione mundi, quando regnum destruendum est Romanorum, decem futuros reges, qui orbem Romanum inter se dividant, et undecimum surrecturum esse regem parvulum, qui tres reges de decem regibus superaturus sit, id est, Aegyptiorum regem, et Africae et Aethiopiae, sicut in consequentibus manifestius dicemus. Quibus interfectis, etiam septem alii reges victori colla submittent. Et ecce, ait, oculi quasi oculi hominis erant in cornu isto. Ne eum putemus juxta quorumdam opinionem, vel diabolum esse, vel daemonem; sed unum de hominibus, in quo totus satanas habitaturus sit corporaliter. Et os loquens ingentia. Est enim homo peccati, filius perditionis, ita ut in templo Dei sedere audeat, faciens se quasi Deum. 25 “And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand, or on their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16-17. 26 Daniel 3:1-18. 27 Jerome, Commentary on Daniel 11.21 (Archer, 131). Et ingredietur urbes ditissimas, et faciet quae non fecerunt patres ejus, et patres patrum illius. Nullus enim Judaeorum absque Antichristo in toto umquam orbe regnavit. Et contra firmissimas cogitationes sanctorum inibit consilium, facietque universa usque ad tempus: donec eum Dei voluntas facere ista permiserit. 28 Based on Revelation 13:7-8. 29 Revelation 13:12-14. all, both little and great, slaves and lords, poor and rich, receive characters [caracteres] in their right hand, or on their foreheads, because no man will be able to buy or sell, but he that shall have the mark [notitia], or the name of the beast. Here is the mark [notitia] and the wisdom. He that has understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For the number of the beast is the number of his name. And his number is six hundred sixty-[six].”30 Accordingly our Lord Jesus Christ, admonishing his church, says: “Pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.”31 When the time of Antichrist shall come and the church shall be persecuted by him, the will be pursued into solitude. When Antichrist shall come, he will proclaim the former law, that is, the law of Moses, and circumcision. Every kind of people is to be compelled to attend to the observances of the Jewish law. But the chosen, who at that time are not about to believe in Antichrist, will flee from the persecution and will die in the wilderness, just as it is clearly declared in that book of Revelation. Therefore the Savior warns that we are to pray that, in the yoke of our persecution, that very flight not be in winter or on the sabbath.32 If we will be hunted down [fuerit inquisitio nostra] in the winter, so that we might be captured by the persecutors, the human fragility of the body will not be able to sustain it. Whenever you might want to approach men, avoiding the harshness of the cold, you will be caught immediately. Such will be the decree of Antichrist in all the world that he who does not have the sign on the forehead or on the right hand may be caught, as he is presented to this one. But the saints, who at that time will seek out hidden places, places of solitude in the mountains and the forests, will not be accessible to any man lest they be seized. And thus it says: “It is to be prayed by us lest our flight be made in the winter and the bitterness of the winds,” lest they are seized and captured by men in the times of that one and presented to the Antichrist. It says “sabbath” because there will be such an observance of the Law that, if anyone shall find you walking on the sabbath, they will offer you, a prevaricator of the law and a transgressor of the precepts, as a victim to Antichrist. Indeed we said that Antichrist will command that the Jewish law be venerated by all men. While Antichrist himself may be an enemy of religion, he will at that time be a defender of the law. The prophet speaks rightly about him: “that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the defender.”33 But if you return to the spiritual understanding, which says: “pray that your flight may not be made in winter or on the sabbath,” it says “winter” because your faith is not to grow cold so that you turn to paganism (gentilitas), just as our Savior says: “that in those days the faith of many has to grow cold, with an abundance of iniquity and the ceasing of charity.”34 And it says “sabbath,” lest you consent to a cooling faith in [the form of] Judaism, if you honor the sabbath by order of the Antichrist. He is called Antichrist because he is to come against Christ; not as the simple understand it, that is, that he called Antichrist because he is to come before our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, that after him Christ will come. Not so, for “anti” in Greek means “contra” in Latin. He will pretend that he is Christ, when [in fact] he will come and will fight and will be opposed to the sacraments of Christ, so that he may dissolve the gospel of truth, so that he may not accept anything but the law of Moses and call the people forth to circumcision, “finally calling the saints not for sake of worshipping the idols, but for the sake of performing circumcision. Therefore he will be able to seduce them, just as later he will make those known to him to be seduced and deceived and subject to him, to the point that he will be called Christ by them;” and he will bestow many gifts on the deceived saints and he will divide the land with his army. And that which we said above: those whom he shall not be able to overcome by terror, he will subjugate by alluring them with gifts; and he will make such a sign on the right

30 Revelation 13:15-18. Actually, the Indiculus has it as DCLXII, which is 662. 31 Matthew 24:20. 32 Based on Revelation 24:20. 33 Psalm 8:3: “Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.” 34 Based on Matthew 24:12: “And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.” check hand, that no one will be able to buy or sell unless he has the symbol; and he will establish his temple between the seas on that famous mountain in holy Jerusalem; there he will place a gold image just as Nebuchadnezzar did, and he will make it so it is permitted to kill anyone who does not adore it. Considering this, the Lord, admonishing his church with regard to these most dangerous and recent times, says: “When you shall see the contempt, which was spoken by Daniel the prophet, he who has ears, let him understand.”35 It is called “contempt” when Jesus is exasperated and is denied to be God and idols are worshipped instead of him and the teachings of heretics are introduced in the churches. But it is destruction when unstable and carnal men, seduced by signs and portents, oppose the true faith. Thus what the devil himself said was said prophetically: “I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north, and I will be like the most High.”36 When the heretical priests lay claim to their heresies publicly, the devil will preside over the mountains of the covenant. This very prince of demons and heretics is the mountain of the covenant, on which the devil will preside; the sides or the mountains are those whom he shall receive into his faith. Therefore he says these things: “I will sit in the sides of the north,” that is, not only will I sit among heretics, but also among those whom he shall have deceived by his preaching. “But that Antichrist is he who denies Christ, [saying] that he is not God.”37

35 Based on Matthew 24:15: “When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.” 36 Isaiah 14:13-14: “I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.” 37 I John 2:22: “Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son.”