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Matthew 26:64 is NOT a "Preterist Time Indicator" Pointing to AD70 "In short, the usage of "Apo Arti" in Matthew 26:64 [Apo ("from" - Strongs 575) and Arti ("now on" - Strong's 737)] is highly suggestive of the themes that have been previously offered at this blog ; that is, a series of revelatory recognitions of the power and glory of Jesus Christ's dominance by friend and foe alike. Though the typically pret-friendly Weymouth translation would like to make Jesus say "later on, you will see.." this is not really honest. I would rather say that it was simply a mistake, but I find it impossible to believe that neither Richard Francis Weymouth ("If this belief ever obtains general acceptance the earlier date of the Apocalypse will also be regarded as fully established. For it will then be seen that the book describes beforehand events which took place in 70 A.D.") nor Earnest Hampden-Cook (co-editor and author of "The Christ Has Come") were aware of how important (ironically) a futurist spin on this passage is to uphold their Preterist assumptions. However, not only is there no sense of futurity in this very emphatic Greek phrase, but rather we see quite the opposite.


"It has been usual to say that the Spanish Jesuit Alcasar, in his Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalpysi (1614), was the founder of the Præterist School."

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EARLY CHURCH

Andreas
Arethas Caesarea
Aphrahat
St. Athanasius
Augustine
Barnabus
Pseudo-Baruch
Venerable Bede
Chrysostom
Pseudo-Chrysostom
Clement Alexandria
Clement of Rome
Pseudo-Clementines
Cyprian
Ephraem
Epiphanes
Eusebius
Gregory
Hegesippus
Hippolytus
Ignatius
Irenaeus
James
Jerome
King Jesus
Apostle John
Lactantius
Luke
Mark
Justin Martyr
Mathetes
Matthew
Melito of Sardis
Oecumenius
Origen
Apostle Paul
Apostle Peter
"Solomon"
Sulpicius Severus
Tertullian
Victorinus

HISTORICAL PRETERISM
(Minor Fulfillment of Matt. 24/25 or Revelation in Past)

Joseph Addison
Oswald T. Allis
Karl Auberlen
Thomas Aquinas
Augustine
Albert Barnes
Karl Barth
G.K. Beale
Beasley-Murray
John Bengel
John A. Broadus

David Brown
"Haddington Brown"
F.F. Bruce

John Calvin
B.H. Carroll
Vern Crisler
Philip Doddridge
Isaak Dorner
Dutch Annotators
Alfred Edersheim
Jonathan Edwards

Patrick Fairbairn
James Farquharson
A.R. Fausset
Robert Fleming
Geneva Bible
John Gill
W.B. Godbey
Ezra Gould
Steve Gregg
Hank Hanegraaff
Hengstenberg
Matthew Henry
G.A. Henty
George Holford
William Hurte
J, F, and Brown
B.W. Johnson
Dr. Jortin
Benjamin Keach
K.F. Keil
Henry Kett
Johann Lange

Nathaniel Lardner
Jean Le Clerc
Peter Leithart
Jack P. Lewis
Abiel Livermore
John Locke
Martin Luther

Dave MacPherson
James MacDonald
James MacKnight
Philip Mauro
Thomas Manton
Heinrich Meyer
J.D. Michaelis
Johann Neander
Sir Isaac Newton
Thomas Newton
Stafford North
Dr. John Owen
 Blaise Pascal
William W. Patton
Arthur Pink

Maurus Rabanus
St. Remigius

Anne Rice
J.C. Robertson
Edward Robinson
Andrew Sandlin
Johann Schabalie
Philip Schaff
Thomas Scott
C.J. Seraiah
Daniel Smith
C.H. Spurgeon

Rudolph E. Stier
A.H. Strong
St. Symeon
Theophylact
Friedrich Tholuck
James Ussher
Wm Warburton
Benjamin Warfield

Noah Webster
John Wesley
B.F. Westcott
Weymouth
William Whiston
N.T. Wright

John Wycliffe

MODERN PRETERISTS
(Major Fulfillment of Matt. 24/25 or Revelation in Past)

Firmin Abauzit
Jay Adams
Luis Alcazar
Beausobre, L'Enfant
John L. Bray
David Brewster
Alexander Brown
Dr. John Brown
Newcombe Cappe
Adam Clarke

Henry Cowles
Ephraim Currier
Gary DeMar
P.S. Desprez
Johann Eichorn
F.W. Farrar
Kenneth Gentry
Hugo Grotius
Henry Hammond
Hampden-Cook
J.G. Herder
Timothy Kenrick
J. Marcellus Kik
Samuel Lee
Peter Leithart
John Lightfoot
F.D. Maurice
Marion Morris
Ovid Need, Jr
Wm. Newcombe
N.A. Nisbett
Gary North
J.H. Noyes
Randall Otto
Zachary Pearce
Bileby Porteus
Ernst Renan
R.C. Sproul
Moses Stuart
Milton S. Terry
Robert Townley
William Urmy
Cornelius Vanderwaal
Foy Wallace
Israel P. Warren
Chas Wellbeloved
J.J. Wetstein
Daniel Whitby

FUTURISTS
(Virtually No Fulfillment of Matt. 24/25 & Revelation in 1st C. - Types Only ; Also Included are "Higher Critics" Not Associated With Any Particular Eschatology)

Henry Alford
G.C. Berkower
Alan Patrick Boyd
John Bradford
Wm. Burkitt
George Caird
Conybeare/ Howson
John N. Darby
C.H. Dodd
E.B. Elliott
Jerry Falwell
J.P. Green Sr.
Murray Harris
Thomas Ice

Benjamin Jowett
John N.D. Kelly

Hal Lindsey
John MacArthur
Robert Mounce

Eduard Reuss

J.A.T. Robinson
D.S. Russell
George Sandison
C.I. Scofield
Dr. John Smith

Norman Snaith
"Televangelists"
Thomas Torrance
Jack/Rex VanImpe
John Walvoord

Quakers : George Fox | Margaret Fell (Fox) | Isaac Penington


PRETERIST UNIVERSALISM | PRETERIST-IDEALISM

Luis Alcazar
( Ludovicus ab Alcasar )
 (1554-1613)

 Spanish Jesuit of Seville | Earliest Known Modern Preterist | "Le savant jésuite" Bossuet

Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi

Belluga interacts with him in (Latin) Commentary on Apocalypse, Zechariah and Daniel

A comprehensive commentary on the Book of Revelation by the Jesuit theologian Ludovicus ab Alcasar (1554-1613) who dedicated the work to Pope Pius V. In a curious introductory letter to the reader however, (by a censor?) Father Antonius Padilla is described as having greatly stimulated and furthered the edition of this commentary, and thus being de facto the dedicatee. After a series of introductory essays and a detailed synopsis follows the commentary, book by book, verse by verse. A concluding chapter on biblical weights and measures closes the work. A Lyon edition followed in 1618. A supplementary volume discussing in more detail those passages from Hiob, the Psalter, Canticles and Prophets quoted or alluded to in Revelation was published only in 1631. See De Backer-Sommervogel I 145-146 who incorrectly mention only 20 engravings.

Together with Ribeira, Alcasar is said to have introduced into the study of Revelation the scientific historical method, approaching the work from the viewpoint of the author and seeking the clue to his writings in the events of his time. In so many words Alcasar states in his dedication to Pope Pius V that Revelation was not only about the destruction of Jerusalem, but also about heathenish Rome; and what became increasingly clear to subsequent commentators like Grotius, Clericus, and others, that Rome and not Jerusalem was the object of attack in Revelation, is already foreshadowed in the very fine engravings after Don Juan de Jauregui: they show angels and monsters, but two of them have a bird's-eye view of a town not dissimilar to Rome. See R. H. Charles in Enc. Brit.11 23:213.


Vestigatio Arcani Sensus in Apocalypsi

  •  Made the seals the early expansion of apostolic Christianity

  • God’s longsuffering, warnings, and punishments were allotted to the Jews

  • The trumpets were judgments on fallen Judaism

  • The two witnesses - the doctrine and holy lives of the Christians

  • After the persecutions Christianity would arise with new glory and convert many Jews

  • Revelation was the apostolic church, bringing forth the Roman church

  • The first beast of Revelation 13 declared to be the persecuting arrogance of pagan Rome - the second beast, its carnal wisdom

  • Revelation 17, the mystical meaning of idolatrous ancient Rome

  • Revelation 18, its conversion to the Catholic faith

    (LeRoy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic faith of Our Fathers, The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation, volume 2, excerpts from pages 464-532)

Note 7, Chapter 1, Verse 7 (pp. 199-202) :

"This signification of clouds has in it such force, that even if Christ should not come to Judgment in a material cloud, it might nevertheless be truly and beautifully said that He would come in clouds, according to the language of Sacred Scripture.  Not that I would deny that there would be true material clouds at the Day of Judgment ; for I have no mind to innovation in what pertains to teaching : I only mean to assert, that so beautiful and apt is the symbolical signification of clouds, that although there should be no clouds properly so called (viz. no material clouds), Christ might nevertheless most truly and significantly be then said to come in the clouds of heaven.  And this I wish to say rather, in order that it might be noted, that in the symbol of the clouds there is latent a much greater and more excellent mystery than any one might think, who considered only the grammatical sense of the Word -- a sense to which I see that some persons are too much addicted."

"Behold, the Apocalypse sets before us the Advent of Christ in the clouds of the preaching of the Gospel, by means of which God pours down His heavenly shower, that is, the spirit of peace and of prayer."  (Clissold's Translation)


15th (Decimaquinta) Preliminary Note (pp. 56-57) :

"I say a profound philosophy teaches, that in the Creation of things it was the intention of the Artificer and Builder, that in those objects of Creation which come within the reach of our vision, men might also be in possession of wonderful symbols and hieroglyphics, serving to point out to them mystically such lessons as would most highly concern them, viz., true instruction in faith and morals.

Origen, after pursuing the subject in a beautiful train of reasoning, concludes at last with the following words, 'Therefore may all things be referred upward from the visible to the invisible, from the corporeal to the incorporeal, from the manifest to the hidden ; so that the objects of the world may be understood to be created by divine Wisdom according to such a divine dispensation, as from visible things, by means of the things and exemplars themselves, teaches us the invisible, and transfers us from earthly things to those which are of heaven.'  Thus far Origen ; who doubts not that, in the creation of things corporeal, it was the principal design of the divine Artificer that they should be symbols and traces, as it were, of the mysteries of our faith.  Therefore the merely natural office proper to every particular thing, in virtue of which it ministers to other bodies, and in which the philosophy of Aristotle rests, by no means satisfies the infinite Wisdom of God, and His especial providence in the salvation of souls ; nor indeed His own wonderful counsel whereby He hath determined to raise us from the corporeal to the incorporeal.  It is probable, therefore, that the omnipotence of God, when He had the power of making infinite species of souls, plants, and stones, selected and created out of the infinite things which he had in his power, such as were the more apt to signify the mysteries of our salvation, and a conformably moral instruction.  And this was accomplished in such a manner, that the universal mechanism of things created should maintain a most beautiful harmony with the wonderful counsel of God in the salvation of men ; and that things corporeal should subserve to the representation of those which are spiritual." (Clissold's Translation)

 

LATIN EXCERPTS FROM VESTIGATIO IN APOCALYPSI

 

No li putare, optime Lector, existimasse Luisium nostrum, licere sibi ad Apocalyptici vestibulionamentum per accomodationem huc trensferre, quod non erat eo respectu isaiae reuelatum. Sed potius sic habeto, propterea hic appositam fuisse eius visionis imaginem, quia persuasum habet luisius, spiritus sancti mentem in reuelatione illa Isaiae facta non fuisse aliam, quam ut extaret in veteri Scriptura insigne vaticinium de caelesti apocalypsi, quae aioanne erat spectanda, ac de ipsius apocalypseos argumento praecipuo. Res sane magna, si certa : ac de certitudine a te ipso ferendum est iudicium, perlecto capitis decimi septimi commentario, ubi res in disputationem veniet. Tunc vero, si tibi fueritsatisfactum ; fortasse fateberid, nihil grandius optari potuisse ad Apocalypseos propylaeum exornandum ; nihil aptius cogitari, quam tanti suisse apud Deum reuelationem hanc ionnai faciendam, ut augustissimo prognostico, & antiquissima praerogatiua eam singulariter honorare, & praenunciare decreuerit in ipso Isaiae libro, designatis speculatore & argumento : idque in literali nobilissimi vaticinii sunsu : qua ratione de ullo alio noui testimenti libro negat Luisim se peculiarem reperisse prophetiam." (p. 14)

 

"Arias vero in sua illa spirituali accommodatione, dum Apocalypseos bella vult intra unius hominis pectus includere; non video, qua ratione possit in bello illo spiritali, quod itra unius hominis pectus geritur, distinguere duo veluti bella, quorum primum respondeat bello Ierosolymae corruere; alterius vero, universam Babylonem conflagrare: atque his succedre mille annorum pacem ; ac demum Antichristi bellum.  Etenim, licet mysticum duarum urbium praelium in hominis pectore pie meditari, subtile sit inventum, nec improbandum ; ceterum ille trium bellorum ordo ad mysticum hoc bellum transferri non potest.  Nec contendit Arias omnia per ordinem ad subtilissimam illam normam redigere.  Posse vero multa non ordinatim, sed promiscue, at absque filo accommodari, non inficior.  Quin imo existimo, si Arias suam illam applicatione in litterali sensu stabiliret, multa praeterea illum ingeniose pro votis aptare potuisse.  Nam in perfidae Ierosolymae bello adversus Dei Ecclesiam poterat contemplari, quam acriter Deo conentur obsistere ii, qui semel fuerant illuminati et gustaverant donum caeleste, et verbum Dei, et prolapsi sunt, ad Hebraecos 6.4.  Quorum ex numero vix decima tandem pars, id est, perpauci sese illi submittent.  In bello etiam Romae ethnicae adversus Ecclesiam gesto, idoneus sese dabat sermo de eorum de corum repugnantia" (Vestigatio, Lyons, 1618, p. 19)

"Mathematicae autem artis peritis evidens est, si sol & luna coniuncti uterque sint, & luna ab inferiori loco et uno latere respiciatur; utramque lunae cuspidem, sive acumen deorsum conversa videri" ("Painters usually show the [crescent] moon upside down at the feet of this woman. But it is obvious to learned mathematicians, if the moon and the sun face each other, both points of the moon have to point downward. Thus the woman will stand on a convex instead of a concave surface."  (Vestigatio, Antwerp, 1614, 453: I cite the translation in Reeves, chap. 4.)

 

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

Abbas Amanat
"The exegete who set much of the agenda for the Catholic interpretation of the Apocalypse in the seventeenth century was the Jesuit, Luis Alcasar (1554-1612), whose Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi first appeared posthumously in Antwerp in 1614 and was immediately recognized as one of the most 'modern' interpretations of John's mysterious revelation.   Alcasar broke with earlier Jesuits in stressing a preterite and historical reading that held that everything in the Apocalypse, with the exception of the last three chapters, had been fulfilled in the early centuries of the Church.  Although he noted that a number of early commentators had taught that Apocalypse 20 referred to the refrigerium sanctorum after Antichrist, Alcasar had no sympathy for this view.  He also launched an attack on Joachim of Fiore, saying 'He who will may hold the Abbot Joachim to be a prophet of God, but not I." (Imagining the End: visions of apocalypse from the ancient Middle East to modern America, p. 165)

Isbon Beckwith
"He finds in the book no prediction of world history beyond the time of Constantine, when the Millennium began." (The Apocalypse of John, p. 332)

Jacques Bossuet
"Le savant jésuite Louis d'Alcasar, qui a fait un grand commentaire sur l'Apocalypse, où Grotius a pris beaucoup de ses idées, la fait voir parfaitement accomplie jusqu'au xxe chapitre, et y trouve les deux témoins sans parler d'Elie ni d'Enoch.

"XV. Qu'il peut y avoir plusieurs sens dans l'Ecriture, et en particulier dans l'Apocalypse.

A cela il faut ajouter ce que dit le même Alcasar avec tous les théologiens, qu'une interprétation même littérale de Y Apocalypse ou des autres prophéties, peut très-bien compatir avec les autres. " (Oeuvres complètes, 378)

Thomas Kelly Cheyne
"Conspicuous above all is the Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi of Ludovicus ab Alcazar.  That writer was the first to carry out consistently the idea that the Apocalypse in its earlier part is directed against Judaism, and in its second against Paganism, so that in chaps. 12 f. we read of the first persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire, and in ch. 19 of the final conversion of that Empire.  He thus presents us with the first serious attempt to arrive at a historical and psychological understanding of the book.   The idea worked out by Alcazar had already been expressed by Hentenius in the preface to his edition of Arethas (OEcumenii Commentar, ed. Morelius et Hentenius 2), and by Salmeron (Opera, 12, Cologne, 1614. 'In sacram Jo. Apoc. praeludia'). " (Encyclopedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary Political and Religious History, p. 200)

F.W. Farrar
"It has been usual to say that the Spanish Jesuit Alcasar.. was the founder of the Præterist School.. But to me it seems that the founder of the Præterist School is none other than St. John himself." (The Early Days of Christianity - PRÆTERIST INTERPRETATION | FALL OF JERUSALEM | APOCALYPSE)

James E. Force
"Ludovicus ab Alcazar was even more disturbing.   For his Vestigatio arcani sensus in Apocalypsi (1614) he used methods normally associated with the "Higher Criticism" of the nineteenth century.  He applied the first half of the Apocalypse to the Jewish Revolt and the second half to early Roman persecution of Christians.   While he owed his chronological order to Lyra, he dropped ecclesiastical history and eschatology.   The whole book concerned events long ago and no longer served a prophetic function.  He supported his argument with the first complete survey of Apocalypse criticism, from antiquity to the present, and Bousset still used Alcazar to date many medieval works.   In the North his followers were Grotius, Hammond and Bousset.  Newton cites approvingly his reading of the wilderness where the woman hides, but attacks Alcazar's approach, saying that those who apply Apocalypse to the Apostolic Age must explain why their interpretations were not expressed then. (Because Alcazar, like Ribera, does use patristic sources, Newton's criticism loses much of its force)." (Newton and Religion, p. 208)

Timothy James
"A Spanish Jesuit of Seville named, Luis De Alcazar (1554-1613) invested forty years of his life to this study which culminated in his 900 page commentary, "Vestigatio Arcani Sensus in Apocalypsi (Investigation of the Hidden Sense of the Apocalypse). In this work which was published posthumously in 1614, Alcazar made a new attempt irrespective of both Catholic and Protestant views to interpret the Apocalypse through the use of critical-historical methods. He concluded that the Apocalypse describes the two-fold war of the Church in the first century; one with the Jewish synagogue, and the other with paganism, which resulted in victory over both adversaries. Frrom makes an interesting note regarding Alcazar:

Alcazar was fully aware that he contradicted certain of the fathers, differed from the Futurists Ribera and Viegas, and was in conflict with Malvenda. While approving of the concept of spiritual resurrection held by Augustine, he contended against his view of the binding of Satan, as well as that of Ribera and Viegas. (Froom, LeRoy Edwin. The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, 3 vols. (Wash. D.C.: Review and Herald, 1948), vol 2, p.509) (Preterist Eschatology in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries)

Robert H. Mounce
"Alcasar was a thoroughgoing “preterist.” (The Book of Revelation, p. 26)

Moses Stuart
"Near the commencement of the seventeenth century (1614), the Spanish Jesuit Ludovicus ab Alcasar published his Vestigatio arcani Sensus in Apocalypsi, a performance distinguished by one remarkable feature, which was then new. He declared the Apocalypse to be a continuous and connected work, making regular advancement from beginning to end, as parts of one general plan in the mind of the writer. In conformity with this he brought out a result which has been of great importance to succeeding commentators. Rev. v-vi, he thinks, applies to the Jewish enemies of the Christian Church; xi-xix to heathen Rome and carnal and worldly powers, xx-xxii to the final conquests to be made by the church, and also to its rest, and its ultimate glorification. This view of the contents of the book had been merely hinted at before, by Hentenius, in the Preface to his Latin version of Arethas, Par. 1547. 8vo; and by Salmeron in his Preludia in Apoc. But no one had ever developed this idea fully, and endeavoured to illustrate and enforce it, in such a way as Alcasar ... Although he puts the time of composing the Apocalypse down to the exile of John under Domitian, yet he still applies ch. v-xi to the Jews, and of course regards the book as partly embracing the past.

"It might be expected, that a commentary that thus freed the Romish church from the assaults of the Protestants, would be popular among the advocates of the papacy. Alcasar met, of course, with general approbation and reception among the Romish community. "'(Stuart, Moses, "Commentary on the Apocalypse", Allen, Morrill and Wardell, Andover, 1845, Volume 1, p. 464.)


Books Available in Sardinia and Piemontisi and Cordoba, Argentina

1613: Ludouici ab Alcasar Hispalensis, and Societate Iesu… *In eas Veteris Testaments partes, quas respicit Apocalypsis. Books quinque. Cum opusculo de malis medicis. - Prodeunt nunc primum. … - Lugduni: sumptibus Iacobi & Andreae Prost, 1631. - 12! , 312, 28! p. ; 2º. ((It marks not controlled (Aquila and snakes: In virtute ET fortune) on the front. - Segn.: a6A-2D62E8. - Front. printed in red and black.

1618: Rev. patris mysterious Ludouici ab Alcasar Hispalensis, and Societate Iesu… *Vestigatio sensus in Apocalypsi. Cum opusculo de sacris ponderibus ac mensuris. - Antuerpiae: apud Ioannem Keerbergium, 1614 (Antuerpiae: typis Gerardi WolschatI, & Henrici AertsI, 1614)

1614: Rev. Patris Ludovici ab Alcasar Hispalensis… *Vestigatio mysterious sensus in Apocalypsi. Cum opusculo de sacris ponderibus ac mensuris. - Antuerpiæ: apud heredes Martini Nutij, 1619. - [20], 960, 82, [74] p. : ill. calcogr. ; fol. ((Vignetta on the front. (Iustissima virtus pietas homini). - Text on two columns.
 


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