Apocalypse. Millennium. Chiliasm and Chillegorism. Valeriy Sterkh

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 nor the Vulgate mention kites. The Septuagint: „Who are these that fly (petantai) like unto clouds and like unto pigeons with their young (sun neossois)?“ Compare Job 5:7: "<…>, but the kite chicks (neossoi) fly (petontai) to high places». The original: «as the sparks fly upward»], like clouds and like young doves fly to Me [see Is 60:8], that is, simply like doves. After all, according to the Apostle, we will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord [see 1 Thess 4:17], that is, the Son of Man [compare Dan 7:13] who treads on the clouds and about whom Daniel testifies. So we will always be with the Lord [compare 2 Col 5:8] as long as <He is present> on earth and in heaven, summoning as witnesses even the elements for the sake of the ungrateful in both Covenants [Lit.: «promises»]: «Listen, o heaven, and give ear, o earth» [see Is 1:2].

      12. And even if Scripture did not reach out to me this hand of heavenly hope time and time again, I would still have waited for this promise <from heaven> for I already have the earthly grace. I would have expected something from heaven, from God who is the Lord of both heaven and earth. So, I would have believed that Christ who had promised to give us the heavenly things belonged to Him who had also promised us earthly blessings – who had made the lesser the proof of the greater, and who had left the proclamation of this unprecedented Kingdom, if you will, to Christ alone, so that the earthly glory would be proclaimed through servants, and the heavenly glory through the Lord Himself [Croymann’s conjecture. In the manuscript: «from God»].

      13. But you argue that Christ is different based on the fact that He is proclaiming a new Kingdom. First, give me an example of the grace of <your god> so that I would have no reason to doubt the reliability of such a great promise in which I have put my trust. For I have been taught to be cautious. First of all, of course, you should prove that the one who, allegedly, promises to us heavenly things actually possesses some sort of heaven. For now you are inviting us to dinner but do not show us the house; you are speaking of a Kingdom but you do not show the royal palace. How does [Croymann’s conjecture. In the manuscript: «Does your Christ promise a heavenly kingdom without possessing any heaven because (literally: how) he represented mankind without putting on flesh?»] your Christ promise a heavenly Kingdom without possessing any heaven? How did He represent mankind without putting on our flesh? Oh, there is a ghost in everything! Oh, what a [Croymann’s conjecture. In the manuscript: «the great (promise)»] deceit with regard to the promise!

      St. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – 235)

      Fragment from «Heads against Gaius»

      (The text is quoted by Dionysius Barsalibi «Commentary on the Apocalypse» [Ms. Rich. 7185, f. 9v-10r]):

      And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and sealed the bottomless pit upon him, in order that he should not deceive the nations till the thousand years should be fulfilled: after that, he must be loosed a little season (Rev 20:2—3).

      On this Gaius the heretic objected: