Letter 197: Augustine tells Hesychius not to calculate the end from Daniel's weeks.

To the Most Blessed Hesychius: Augustine. Now that Cornutus, your son and our fellow presbyter, is returning to Your Holiness, through whom I received the letter with which Your Veneration deigned to visit my smallness, I finally pay back a reply and the duty of returning your greeting. I commend myself very much to your prayers, which are most acceptable to the Lord, Most Blessed brother. As for the prophetic sayings, so often foretold, about which you wanted me to write something, it seemed better to me to send to Your Blessedness the explanations of those words by the very learned man holy Jerome, excerpted from his works, in case perhaps you do not have them. But if you already had them, and they did not satisfy your inquiry, please do not find it burdensome to write back to me what you think about them and how you yourself understand those prophetic oracles. For I think that the passage about Daniel's weeks should chiefly be understood according to the time that has already passed. Concerning the Savior's coming that is expected at the end, I do not dare count the times, and I do not think any prophet has fixed in advance a number of years about this matter. Rather, the stronger word is what the Lord himself says: "No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power." When he says in another place, "But of that day and hour no one knows," some take this to mean that they can calculate the times, while no one knows only the exact day and hour. I pass over the way the Scriptures often use day or hour also for a stretch of time. Still, ignorance of the times is stated with perfect clarity. When the disciples questioned the Lord about this, he said, "No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power." He did not say "the day" or "the hour," but "the times," which are not normally understood, like a day or an hour, as a very brief interval, especially if we look at the Greek wording from which we know that book was translated into our language, although Latin could not express it fully. In Greek two words stand there which our translators call "times," though they have an important difference between them. One means seasons or opportunities, not simply intervals that roll past, but the moments felt in affairs as suitable or unsuitable, like harvest, vintage, heat, cold, peace, war, and similar things. The other means the actual spans of time. The apostles certainly did not ask as though they wanted to know one final day or hour, that is, a tiny part of a day. They asked whether the suitable time had already come when the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Then they heard, "No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power," that is, the appointed opportunities. Even if this were said in Latin as "times or opportunities," the meaning would still not be fully expressed, because whether the times are suitable or unsuitable, that Greek word is used. Therefore to calculate periods of time in order to know when the end of this age or the coming of the Lord will be seems to me nothing other than wanting to know what he said no one can know. The opportunity of that time, however, will certainly not come before the Gospel is preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. The Savior's sentence is read very plainly about this: "This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." What does "then it will come" mean except "it will not come before then"? How long after that it will come is uncertain to us; but that it will not come before then we must not doubt. If servants of God were to undertake the labor of traveling through the world and gathering, as far as they could, what nations remain where the Gospel has not yet been preached, from that we might somehow notice how far this time is from the end of the age. But if, because of certain inaccessible and inhospitable places, it is not believed possible for servants of God to travel the world and report faithfully how many and how great the nations still are without Christ's Gospel, then still less do I think Scripture can contain how much time will remain until the end, since in Scripture we read, "No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power." Therefore, even if it had already been announced to us with complete certainty that the Gospel was being preached among all nations, we still could not say how much time remained until the end. We could only say, with good reason, that it was drawing nearer and nearer. Unless perhaps someone answers that the Gospel was preached with such speed among Roman peoples and very many barbarian peoples, and some were converted to Christ's faith not gradually but suddenly, that it is not incredible that within a few years, if not within the lifetime of us who have already grown old, then surely within the lives of young people who will reach old age, all the remaining nations might be filled with the Gospel. But if it happens that way, it can be proved more easily by experience when it has happened than found by reading before it happens. The opinion of a certain man compelled me to say this, one whom the presbyter Jerome also marks for rashness, because he dared to explain Daniel's weeks about Christ's future coming rather than his past coming. But if, because of the greater merits of your holy and humble heart, the Lord has revealed or will reveal something better to you, please be kind enough to share it with us. Receive this reply of mine as coming from a man who would certainly rather possess knowledge than ignorance about the matters you asked me, but because I have not yet been able to do so, I choose rather to confess cautious ignorance than to profess false knowledge.

EPISTOLA 197 Scripta a. 419 exeunte vel 420 ineunte. A. Hesychio, Salonitano episcopo, de Danielis hebdomadis et de novissimis temporibus docens eas referri ad primum Christi adventum (n. 1 et 5), supremumque diem futurum non esse antequam omnibus gentibus praedicetur Evangelium (nn. 2-4). DOMINO BEATISSIMO HESYCHIO, AUGUSTINUS. Danielis hebdomadae de praeterito Christi adventu intelligendae. 1. Ad Sanctitatem tuam filio tuo compresbytero nostro remeante Cornuto, per quem litteras tuae Venerationis accepi, quibus exiguitatem meam visitare dignatus es, tandem rescripta persolvo, et debitum resalutationis obsequium, multum me commendans acceptissimis Domino precibus tuis, domine beatissime frater. De propheticis autem dictis saepe praedictis, de quibus voluisti ut aliquid scriberem, melius mihi visum est sancti Hieronymi hominis doctissimi expositiones eorumdem verborum (ne illas forte non habeas) de opusculis eius excerptas dirigere Beatitudini tuae. Si autem iam eas habebas, nec inquisitioni tuae satisfaciebant, quid de his sentias, peto mihi rescribere non graveris; et quemadmodum ipse eadem prophetica oracula intellegas. Ego enim maxime illud de Hebdomadibus Danielis secundum tempus quod iam transactum est, intellegendum puto: nam de Salvatoris adventu, qui exspectatur in fine, tempora dinumerare non audeo; nec aliquem prophetam de hac re numerum annorum existimo praefiniisse, sed illud potius praevalere, quod ipse Dominus ait: Nemo potest cognoscere tempora, quae Pater posuit in sua potestate 1. Mundi finis omnibus ignotus. 2. Quod enim in alio loco ait: De die autem illa et hora nemo scit 2, sunt qui sic accipiunt, ut putent se posse computare tempora; diem vero tantummodo ipsum et horam neminem scire: ubi omitto dicere quemadmodum soleant Scripturae diem vel horam etiam pro tempore ponere. Sed certe illud de ignorantia temporum apertissime dictum est. Nam cum hinc Dominus interrogatus esset a discipulis suis: Nemo, inquit, potest cognoscere tempora, quae Pater posuit in sua potestate 3. Non enim dixit: "Diem", vel, "Horam", sed, tempora; quae in brevi spatio non solent diei, sicut dies vel hora, maxime si graecum intueamur eloquium, ex qua lingua in nostram eumdem librum, ubi hoc scriptum est, scimus esse translatum; quamvis latine satis exprimi non potuerit. Ibi enim graece legitur, . Nostri autem utrumque hoc verbum tempora appellant, sive , sive , cum habeant haec duo inter se non neglegendam differentiam. quippe appellant Graeci tempora quidem, non tamen quae in spatiorum voluminibus transeunt, sed quae in rebus ad aliquid opportunis vel importunis sentiuntur; sicut messis, vindemia, calor, frigus, pax, bellum, et si qua similia: autem ipsa spatia temporum vocant. Tempora et opportunitates. 3. Et hoc certe ipsi Apostoli non ita quaesierunt, quasi unum novissimum diem vel horam, id est exiguam diei partem scire voluissent; sed utrum iam esset opportunum tempus quo regnum repraesentaretur Israel. Tunc audierunt: Nemo potest cognoscere tempora, quae Pater posuit in sua potestate, id est : quod si latine diceretur, tempora aut opportunitates, nec sic quod dictum est, esset expressum; quia sive opportuna, sive importuna sint tempora, dicuntur. Tempora ergo computare, hoc est, , ut sciamus quando sit finis huius saeculi vel adventus Domini, nihil mihi aliud videtur, quam scire velle quod ipse ait scire neminem posse. Mundi finis post omnibus nuntiatum Evangelium. 4. Opportunitas vero illius temporis profecto non erit antequam praedicetur Evangelium in universo orbe in testimonium omnibus gentibus. Apertissima enim de hac re legitur sententia Salvatoris dicentis: Et praedicabitur hoc Evangelium regni in universo orbe in testimonium omnibus gentibus, et tunc veniet finis 4. Tunc veniet, quid est, nisi "ante non veniet"? Quanto post ergo veniat, incertum nobis est; ante tamen non esse venturum dubitare utique non debemus. Si ergo susciperent hunc laborem servi Dei, ut, peragrato orbe terrarum, quantum possent colligerent quid remanet gentium ubi nondum est Evangelium praedicatum, hinc advertere utcumque possemus quantum hoc tempus longe sit a fine saeculi. Quod si propter quaedam loca inaccessibilia et inhospita fieri posse non creditur, ut a servis Dei peragretur orbis, et quot quantaeque sint adhuc gentes sine Christi Evangelio, fideliter renuntietur; multo minus existimo in Scripturis posse comprehendi, quanta usque ad finem futura sint tempora, quandoquidem in eis legimus: Nemo potest cognoscere tempora, quae Pater posuit in sua potestate 5. Unde si iam nobis certissime nuntiatum fuisset in omnibus gentibus Evangelium praedicari, nec sic possemus dicere quantum temporis remaneret usque ad finem; sed magis magisque iam propinquare merito diceremus. Nisi quis forte respondeat, tanta celeritate praedicato Evangelio Romanas gentes et plerasque barbaras occupatas, atque ita nonnullas non paulatim, sed subito ad fidem Christi fuisse conversas, ut non sit incredibile paucis annis, etsi non vitae nostrae qui iam senuimus, certe iuvenum qui venturi sunt ad senectam, universas omnino residuas gentes Evangelio posse compleri. Sed si ita erit, facilius, cum factum fuerit, probari experiendo, quam legendo, antequam fiat, inveniri potest. Cauta ignorantia melior quam falsa scientia. 5. Hoc me compulit dicere cuiusdam opinio, quem presbyter quoque Hieronymus temeritatis notat 6, quod ausus fuerit Danielis Hebdomadas de adventu Christi futuro, non de praeterito exponere. Si quid autem pro meritis potioribus, sanctae humilitati cordis tui Dominus melius revelavit sive revelaverit, peto nobiscum communicare digneris, et haec nostra rescripta sic accipere, tamquam hominis, qui mallem quidem eorum quae a me inquisisti, habere scientiam quam ignorantiam; sed quia id nondum potui, magis eligo cautam ignorantiam confiteri, quam falsam scientiam profiteri.