Hippolytus: 500 years from Christ’s birth to the end
interpretation
On: the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come
Source quotation · Hippolytus, fragments on Daniel: the interpretation of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, sections 3–7; S. D. F. Salmond translation, Ante-Nicene Fathers V (1886), pp. 178–179.
3. As these things, then, are destined to come to pass, and as the toes of the image turn out to be democracies, and the ten horns of the beast are distributed among ten kings, let us look at what is before us more carefully, and scan it, as it were, with open eye. The "golden head of the image" is identical with the "lioness," by which the Babylonians were represented. "The golden shoulders and the arms of silver" are the same with the "bear," by which the Persians and Medes are meant. "The belly and thighs of brass" are the "leopard," by which the Greeks who ruled from Alexander onwards are intended. The "legs of iron" are the "dreadful and terrible beast," by which the Romans who hold the empire now are meant. The "toes of clay and iron" are the "ten horns" which are to be. The "one other little horn springing up in their midst" is the "antichrist." The stone that "smites the image and breaks it in pieces," and that filled the whole earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven and brings judgment on the world.
4. But that we may not leave our subject at this point undemonstrated, we are obliged to discuss the matter of the times, of which a man should not speak hastily, because they are a light to him. For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world, and reckoned from Adam, they set clearly before us the matter with which our inquiry deals. For the first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500; and He suffered in the thirty-third year. And 6,000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day "on which God rested from all His works." For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they "shall reign with Christ," when He comes from heaven, as John says in his Apocalypse: for "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years." Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: "five are fallen; one is," that is, the sixth; "the other is not yet come."
5. In mentioning the "other," moreover, he specifies the seventh, in which there is rest. But some one may be ready to say, How will you prove to me that the Saviour was born in the year 5500? Learn that easily, O man; for the things that took place of old in the wilderness, under Moses, in the case of the tabernacle, were constituted types and emblems of spiritual mysteries, in order that, when the truth came in Christ in these last days, you might be able to perceive that these things were fulfilled. For He says to him, "And thou shalt make the ark of imperishable wood, and shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without; and thou shalt make the length of it two cubits and a half, and the breadth thereof one cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half the height;" which measures, when summed up together, make five cubits and a half, so that the 5500 years might be signified thereby.
6. At that time, then, the Saviour appeared and showed His own body to the world, (born) of the Virgin, who was the "ark overlaid with pure gold," with the Word within and the Holy Spirit without; so that the truth is demonstrated, and the "ark" made manifest. From the birth of Christ, then, we must reckon the 500 years that remain to make up the 6000, and thus the end shall be. And that the Saviour appeared in the world, bearing the imperishable ark, His own body, at a time which was the fifth and half, John declares: "Now it was the sixth hour," he says, intimating by that, one-half of the day. But a day with the Lord is 1000 years; and the half of that, therefore, is 500 years. For it was not meet that He should appear earlier, for the burden of the law still endured, nor yet when the sixth day was fulfilled (for the baptism is changed), but on the fifth and half, in order that in the remaining half time the gospel might be preached to the whole world, and that when the sixth day was completed He might end the present life.
7. Since, then, the Persians held the mastery for 330 years, and after them the Greeks, who were yet more glorious, held it for 300 years, of necessity the fourth beast, as being strong and mightier than all that were before it, will reign 500 years. When the times are fulfilled, and the ten horns spring from the beast in the last (times), then Antichrist will appear among them. When he makes war against the saints, and persecutes them, then may we expect the manifestation of the Lord from heaven.
Commentary on Daniel (fragments) · Hippolytus, fragments on Daniel, II: “The interpretation by Hippolytus, (bishop) of Rome, of the visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, taken in conjunction”, sections 3–7, translated by S. D. F. Salmond, Ante-Nicene Fathers V (Buffalo: Christian Literature, 1886), pp. 178–179. CCEL plain-text transcription retrieved 30 September 2026; footnote markers and editorial apparatus omitted; whitespace normalized; paragraphs follow the numbered sections. Collated word by word with the Internet Archive antenicenefather05robeuoft text layer of the printed volume: no substantive differences.
Source reuse and transcription
Public-domain 1886 English translation. Print witness: https://archive.org/details/antenicenefather05robeuoft/page/178/mode/2up.
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3. As these things, then, are destined to come to pass, and as the toes of the image turn out to be democracies, and the ten horns of the beast are distributed among ten kings, let us look at what is before us more carefully, and scan it, as it were, with open eye. The "golden head of the image" is identical with the "lioness," by which the Babylonians were represented. "The golden shoulders and the arms of silver" are the same with the "bear," by which the Persians and Medes are meant. "The belly and thighs of brass" are the "leopard," by which the Greeks who ruled from Alexander onwards are intended. The "legs of iron" are the "dreadful and terrible beast," by which the Romans who hold the empire now are meant. The "toes of clay and iron" are the "ten horns" which are to be. The "one other little horn springing up in their midst" is the "antichrist." The stone that "smites the image and breaks it in pieces," and that filled the whole earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven and brings judgment on the world.
4. But that we may not leave our subject at this point undemonstrated, we are obliged to discuss the matter of the times, of which a man should not speak hastily, because they are a light to him. For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world, and reckoned from Adam, they set clearly before us the matter with which our inquiry deals. For the first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500; and He suffered in the thirty-third year. And 6,000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day "on which God rested from all His works." For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they "shall reign with Christ," when He comes from heaven, as John says in his Apocalypse: for "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years." Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: "five are fallen; one is," that is, the sixth; "the other is not yet come."
5. In mentioning the "other," moreover, he specifies the seventh, in which there is rest. But some one may be ready to say, How will you prove to me that the Saviour was born in the year 5500? Learn that easily, O man; for the things that took place of old in the wilderness, under Moses, in the case of the tabernacle, were constituted types and emblems of spiritual mysteries, in order that, when the truth came in Christ in these last days, you might be able to perceive that these things were fulfilled. For He says to him, "And thou shalt make the ark of imperishable wood, and shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without; and thou shalt make the length of it two cubits and a half, and the breadth thereof one cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half the height;" which measures, when summed up together, make five cubits and a half, so that the 5500 years might be signified thereby.
6. At that time, then, the Saviour appeared and showed His own body to the world, (born) of the Virgin, who was the "ark overlaid with pure gold," with the Word within and the Holy Spirit without; so that the truth is demonstrated, and the "ark" made manifest. From the birth of Christ, then, we must reckon the 500 years that remain to make up the 6000, and thus the end shall be. And that the Saviour appeared in the world, bearing the imperishable ark, His own body, at a time which was the fifth and half, John declares: "Now it was the sixth hour," he says, intimating by that, one-half of the day. But a day with the Lord is 1000 years; and the half of that, therefore, is 500 years. For it was not meet that He should appear earlier, for the burden of the law still endured, nor yet when the sixth day was fulfilled (for the baptism is changed), but on the fifth and half, in order that in the remaining half time the gospel might be preached to the whole world, and that when the sixth day was completed He might end the present life.
7. Since, then, the Persians held the mastery for 330 years, and after them the Greeks, who were yet more glorious, held it for 300 years, of necessity the fourth beast, as being strong and mightier than all that were before it, will reign 500 years. When the times are fulfilled, and the ten horns spring from the beast in the last (times), then Antichrist will appear among them. When he makes war against the saints, and persecutes them, then may we expect the manifestation of the Lord from heaven.
Jurieu: the Antichristian empire falls between 1710 and 1715
interpretation
On: they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour
Linked by verbal allusion. Jurieu writes that the ten kingdoms “took their power with the Beast”, echoing Revelation 17:12–13 without citing it in the excerpt.
Source quotation · Pierre Jurieu, The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies (English translation, London, 1687), title page and Part 2, Chap. V
Proving, that the Papacy is the Antichristian Kingdom; and that that Kingdom is not far from its Ruin. That the present Persecution may end in Three years and half, after which the Destruction of Antichrist shall begin; which shall be Finisht in the beginning of the next Age: and then the Kingdom of Christ shall come upon Earth.
[…]
CHAP. V.
That we must look for the point of the birth of Antichristianism in the fifth Age. It must end about the year 1710, or 1715.
[…] Then therefore from the wrecks of the Roman Empire were formed. 1. The Kingdom of the Britains in Britanny. 2. Of the Saxons. 3. Of the Franks. 4. Of the Burgundians in the Gauls. 5. Of the Visigoths in the South of Gaul and in Spain. 6. Of the Sueves in Gallicia and Portugal. 7. Of the Vandals, first in Spain, and then in Africa. 8. Of the Allemans in Germany. 9. Of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia. 10. Of the Greeks in the East. They took their power with the Beast, that is to say, with Antichristianism; therefore Antichristianism received its birth and power with the ten Kings. That is its Epocha, or Date.
According to which, we shall place the future fall of the Antichristian Empire in the beginning of the 18th Age. I believe it would be very difficult, to set down precisely the very year. For God doth not so exactly observe Chronology in his Prophecies. A few years more or less, signify nothing. However one may say, that according to all appearance, it must happen between 1710, and 1715.
The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies · Pierre Jurieu, The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies, or the Approaching Deliverance of the Church, anonymous English translation “from the New French Edition” (London, 1687): title page; Part 2, Chap. V heading (p. 48) and p. 54 (Internet Archive accomplishmentof00juri, Princeton Theological Seminary Library copy, leaves n4, n371, n377). Title-page statement, chapter heading, and the two paragraphs on p. 54 from “Then therefore from the wrecks” to “between 1710, and 1715.”; intervening text omitted and marked […]. Superscript “th” in “18th” lowered. Long s (ſ) rendered s; ligatures expanded; roman and italic type not distinguished; line-end hyphenation joined; spacing normalized (one space after punctuation, paragraph breaks as blank lines); running heads, catchwords, signatures, marginal notes and reference asterisks omitted; spelling, capitalization, u/v and i/j usage and punctuation otherwise as printed; omissions inside the selection marked […]. Transcribed from the Internet Archive page images and checked against the item's OCR text layer.
Source reuse and transcription
Pierre Jurieu’s French text (1686) and this anonymous 1687 English translation are public domain. Historical printed text, public domain (published before 1929). The historical wording is reproduced.
Community response to this revision: 0
Published revision history
2026-10-01T14:02:23+00:00
Proving, that the Papacy is the Antichristian Kingdom; and that that Kingdom is not far from its Ruin. That the present Persecution may end in Three years and half, after which the Destruction of Antichrist shall begin; which shall be Finisht in the beginning of the next Age: and then the Kingdom of Christ shall come upon Earth.
[…]
CHAP. V.
That we must look for the point of the birth of Antichristianism in the fifth Age. It must end about the year 1710, or 1715.
[…] Then therefore from the wrecks of the Roman Empire were formed. 1. The Kingdom of the Britains in Britanny. 2. Of the Saxons. 3. Of the Franks. 4. Of the Burgundians in the Gauls. 5. Of the Visigoths in the South of Gaul and in Spain. 6. Of the Sueves in Gallicia and Portugal. 7. Of the Vandals, first in Spain, and then in Africa. 8. Of the Allemans in Germany. 9. Of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia. 10. Of the Greeks in the East. They took their power with the Beast, that is to say, with Antichristianism; therefore Antichristianism received its birth and power with the ten Kings. That is its Epocha, or Date.
According to which, we shall place the future fall of the Antichristian Empire in the beginning of the 18th Age. I believe it would be very difficult, to set down precisely the very year. For God doth not so exactly observe Chronology in his Prophecies. A few years more or less, signify nothing. However one may say, that according to all appearance, it must happen between 1710, and 1715.