Source library
Read source passages and their interpretations here, or browse the full bibliography for additional works.
395 works with text on Rainbow Watch
Abbo of Fleury
Abbo of Fleury’s defence addressed to the French kings Hugh and Robert. In it he recalls opposing a Paris sermon that placed Antichrist at the completion of a thousand years.
Text available here
Abbo of Fleury on end-of-world preaching →
Patrologia Latina 139 (Paris: Migne)
PL 139, cols. 471–472
Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore’s Book of the Concord of the New and Old Testaments, first printed at Venice in 1519. It matches generations of the Old and New Testaments and counts forty-two generations of thirty years from Christ, which it equates with the forty-two months, the 1260 days and the “time and times and half a time”.
Text available here
Joachim of Fiore: forty-two generations of thirty years, the 1260 days · commentary →
Joachim of Fiore: forty-two generations of thirty years, the 1260 days · commentary →
Joachim of Fiore, Liber concordie novi ac veteris Testamenti (Venice: Simon de Luere, 1519), book V, chapter 118, fol. 134r, right column (Internet Archive ita-bnc-mag-00002895-001, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze copy, leaf n281), from “Namque vt supra scripsimus” to “generationes 42e.” Abbreviations expanded (vsq; vsque, vo vero, generatões generationes, Tironian et, ꝓ pro, q̃drag quadrag, ꝯm secundum, cẽtum centum, q̃ꝫuis quamuis, ꝗ qui, tpis temporis); the printed “quadragitadue” and the superscript of “42e” kept; u/v and i/j usage, capitals, virgules (/) and punctuation as printed; spacing normalized. English translation new (Rainbow Watch, 2026). Transcribed from the Internet Archive page image.
Book V, chapter 118, fol. 134r
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; unsigned institutional book
Watch Tower Society book of 1966 on the liberation of human creation. Its first chapter dates man’s creation to 4026 B.C.E. and the end of six thousand years of human history to the fall of 1975, followed by a chart of dates from creation to 7000 A.M.
Text available here
Life Everlasting: six thousand years end in 1975 · commentary →
Life Everlasting—in Freedom of the Sons of God (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, International Bible Students Association; copyright 1966 by Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania), first edition, chapter 1 “Why Human Creation Will Yet Be Set Free”: paragraph 41 complete (pp. 28–29), the first sentence of paragraph 42 (p. 29) and paragraph 43 complete (p. 30); the rest of paragraph 42 (Psalm 90 and the six days) is omitted and marked […]. Internet Archive item watchtowerbooks, file 1966_Life_Everlasting_in_Freedom_of_the_Sons_of_God, leaves 29–31, page images inspected; copyright page leaf 3; chart of significant dates p. 35 (leaf 36). Paragraph numbers, footnote markers, footnotes and study questions omitted; line-end hyphenation joined; whitespace normalized.
Chapter 1, pp. 28–30, paragraphs 41–43; chart p. 35
Isaac Abravanel
Isaac Abravanel’s commentary on Daniel, completed at Monopoli in [5]257 (1496) and printed at Ferrara in 1551. In its twelfth Ma‘yan he reads the scroll of Sanhedrin 97b as naming 5291 for the end of the wonders.
Text available here
Abravanel in Ma‘yenei ha-Yeshu‘ah: the scroll’s year is 5291, the end of the wonders · commentary →
Abravanel in Ma‘yenei ha-Yeshu‘ah: the scroll’s year is 5291, the end of the wonders · commentary →
Isaac Abravanel, Ma‘yenei ha-Yeshu‘ah, commentary on Daniel ([Ferrara: Samuel], 1551 [5311]), Ma‘yan 12, Tamar 1, fol. 123r (קכג), from “אמר רב אחא שלא אמר רב נחמן” to “עד סוף האלף”. Transcribed from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek copy (MDZ bsb10151078, image 48; the scroll as Abravanel quotes it on image 49, fol. 122v; colophon on image 15). Abbreviation strokes and numeral marks rendered with geresh (׳) and gershayim (״); the printer’s dots between clauses rendered ·; line breaks joined. The printed “יהית” (for יהיה) and “רב נחמן” (for Rav Ḥanan bar Taḥlifa of the Talmud) are kept as printed. New Rainbow Watch translation (2026), AI-assisted, placed before the Hebrew; quoted sayings are translated from Abravanel’s Hebrew.
Ma‘yan 12, Tamar 1, fol. 123r
General Islam
Yahya ibn Ziyad al-Farra
Al-Farrāʾ records readings associated with Ubayy and Ibn ʿAbbās, including remembrance, knowledge and sign, and calls their meanings close.
Text available here
Al-Farrāʾ compares the readings · commentary →
Arabic HTML transcription hosted by Quran-tafsir.net.
Quran 43:61, commentary entry
Traditional Vyasa attribution; Kisari Mohan Ganguli English translator
Markandeya's end-yuga sequence introduces Kalki at Sambhala and restored Krita age; not identical to later Puranas.
Text available here
Bhagavadgītā 4: appearing age after age →
Telang explains divine birth · commentary →
Ganguli historical English
Vana Parva sectionCLXXXIX, pp390–391
Benjamin Creme
Explains why the advertised 1982 announcement did not occur: Creme retrospectively characterizes the announcement as a conditional plan dependent on media response. Includes a dispute over reading Bailey as postponing the return until 2025.
Text available here
The Day of Declaration planned for May 1982 →
The disputed 2025 reading · commentary →
Creme’s explanation for the delay · commentary →
Online English edition identified by URL; precise limits stated in inspection note
Printed pp.38–43, especially December 1985 Q&A pp.39–40; PDF pp.44–49
Canonical Buddhist sutra;84000 translation team attribution pending
Ratnacchatra predicts that the monk Drdhamati will retain the name Maitreya through rebirths and become Buddha Maitreya; previous-life naming narrative distinct from DN26 future-world description.
Text available here
How Maitreya received his name →
Dharmachakra Translation Committee; first2021, v1.0.18(2025), PDF generated2025-01-27
Toh198 paragraphs1.121-1.125, one-based PDF37; imprint and introduction
Traditional attribution; historical authorship not established here
Malachi is a prophetic book of the Hebrew Bible. Its closing verses announce Elijah’s coming before the Day of the Lord and the reconciliation of parents and children.
Text available here
JPS1917; Mechon-Mamre electronic English; Hebrew verse numbering
3:19–24 in host Hebrew numbering
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society; unsigned article
Watchtower article of 15 April 1967 arguing for a literal thousand-year reign. It states that six thousand years of human existence end in the latter half of 1975.
Text available here
The Watchtower in 1967: six thousand years end in the latter half of 1975 · commentary →
The Watchtower, 15 April 1967, unsigned article “Mankind’s Millennium Under God’s Kingdom—Why Literally So,” pp. 229–237, paragraph 25 (p. 236), two sentences from “According to a more recent calculation” through “it is approaching.” Watchtower Online Library transcription (w67 4/15), retrieved 1 October 2026. HTML removed.
The Watchtower, p. 236, paragraph 25
Traditional narration attributed to Mārkaṇḍeya; composite Sanskrit work
The goddess promises recurring incarnations to overcome future oppressors, relieve deprivation and protect the world; the larger work also explains cyclic dissolution.
Text available here
The goddess promises to return →
F. E. Pargiter translation, 1904, Wisdom Library transcription. Canto numbering belongs to this edition.
Canto XCI, closing speech of the goddess; Canto XLVI, cosmic dissolution and age calculations
Isaac Abravanel
Isaac Abravanel’s collection of biblical prophecies of the redemption, arranged by “heralds” from Balaam to the later prophets. In the herald of Isaiah he reads Isaiah 52:7 as the Saturn–Jupiter conjunctions and dates the salvation of the LORD to the conjunction of [5]282 (1521–22).
Text available here
Abravanel: the conjunction of [5]282 brings the salvation of the LORD · commentary →
Salonica: Gedalyah, 1526 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek copy, MDZ bsb10140137)
Herald of Isaiah, prophecy on Isaiah 51:1–52:12; MDZ image 120
Matthew Henry; concise abridgment editor unidentified on inspected page · Joseph Hill · William Tong
Applies the discourse to Jerusalem and final judgment, and interprets the gathering of the elect in relation to Christ’s return.
Text available here
Joseph Hill on God’s time · commentary →
Why the promised coming waits · commentary →
William Tong reads New Jerusalem as the perfected church · commentary →
Henry identifies the rebuilt house with Christ’s church · commentary →
Henry reads the shaking of nations as Christ’s coming · commentary →
Peace through conversion, fulfilled in heaven · commentary →
Bible Hub concise English witness, also labelled Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on its verse page; abridgment and print provenance require verification before quotation import.
Concise commentary on Matthew 24:4–28 and 24:29–41
Complete commentary, posthumous continuation by Joseph Hill. Sacred Texts HTML transcription; full expositions headed 2 Peter 3:8 and 3:9 (the latter includes verse10). Transcription inspected.
2 Peter 3:8; complete exposition headed3:9, including3:10
Complete commentary, posthumous continuation by William Tong. Sacred Texts HTML transcription; Revelation 21 introduction and exposition I–II. Transcription inspected.
Revelation 21, introduction and opening exposition through II
Abraham bar Ḥiyya; Adolf Poznański and Julius Guttmann, editors
Abraham bar Ḥiyya’s treatise on the redemption, combining biblical, rabbinic and astrological reckonings. Its second gate counts Daniel’s 1,290 and 1,335 days as years from the destruction and reaches the Hebrew years 5118 and 5163.
Text available here
Abraham bar Ḥiyya: Daniel’s days end in 5118 and 5163 · commentary →
Abraham bar Ḥiyya: Daniel’s days end in 5118 and 5163 · commentary →
Berlin: Mekize Nirdamim, 1924
Second gate, p. 46
Heinrich Gresbeck; ed. C. A. Cornelius
Heinrich Gresbeck’s Low German eyewitness account of the Anabaptist kingdom and siege of Münster, 1534–1535, edited by C. A. Cornelius in 1853.
Text available here
Gresbeck: deliverance at Easter →
Carl Adolf Cornelius (ed.), Berichte der Augenzeugen über das Münsterische Wiedertäuferreich (Die Geschichtsquellen des Bisthums Münster, 2; Münster: Theissing, 1853), Internet Archive berichtederaugen00corn. Gresbeck’s report, pp. 120–122 (leaves n221–n223), from “Nu heft Stutenbernt” to “so howet my den kop af.” The print reads “steryen” (for sterven) and is retained. Low German (Westphalian) text as printed by Cornelius. German-style low and high quotation marks as printed. Spacing normalized; line-end hyphenation joined. Transcribed from the page images.
pp. 120–122
Anonymous Middle Persian sage/wisdom dialogue; E.W.West translator
Wisdom enables defeat of Ahriman and Soshyant's resurrection work; salvation is embedded in ethical cosmology.
Text available here
Wisdom and the renewal of the world →
West on wisdom and creation · commentary →
Does renewal occupy all nine thousand years? · commentary →
Related background: the guardians and the plant of resurrection · commentary →
West’s notes to the chapter on cosmic guardians · commentary →
West historical English; Peterson web edition
Chapter57.1–16; references to future saviors elsewhere
Joseph Jacobs; Moses Buttenwieser
Offers an early twentieth-century account of earthly and heavenly messianic concepts and a collective interpretation of Daniel 7.
Text available here
The ideal king in Isaiah · commentary →
Jewish Encyclopedia online transcription of 1901–1906 edition
Rise of popular belief; Development of Conception
Traditional attribution; historical authorship not established here
Nations approach Zion, weapons transformed to farming tools and secure life under vine and fig tree.
Text available here
Swords into plowshares in Micah →
JPS1917; Mechon-Mamre electronic English; Hebrew verse numbering
4:1–5
J. F. Rutherford
J. F. Rutherford’s 1920 book for the International Bible Students Association. It argued that 1925 would bring the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the prophets and the beginning of an earthly restoration.
Text available here
Rutherford’s 1925 expectation →
J. F. Rutherford, Millions Now Living Will Never Die! (Brooklyn: International Bible Students Association, copyright 1920), sections “The Jubilee” and “Earthly Rulers,” pp. 87–90, complete. Internet Archive scan millionsnowlivin00ruth (Library of Congress copy), page images inspected (leaves 94–97). Section headings kept as separate lines; line-end hyphenation joined; spaced hyphens in scripture references kept as printed; the print readings “atonemont” and “life up a sword” are retained; whitespace normalized.
pp. 87–90
Joseph Smith discourse; meeting minutes copied by Warren Cowdery
These minutes record a February 1835 meeting and associated blessings, including Joseph Smith’s statement about fifty-six years. The featured surviving copy was written later by Warren Cowdery.
Text available here
Joseph Smith’s fifty-six-year prediction →
Joseph Smith Papers transcript of archival retained copy or minute book
Minute Book 1, p. 147; opening meeting report
William H. Harrison
William H. Harrison’s examination, published early in 1881, of the Mother Shipton books in the British Museum Library. He finds the couplet dating the world’s end to 1881 absent from the earliest records and attributes it to Charles Hindley.
Text available here
Harrison in 1881: the couplet is absent from the earliest records · commentary →
William H. Harrison, Mother Shipton Investigated: The Result of Critical Examination in the British Museum Library, of the Literature Relating to the Yorkshire Sibyl (London: W. H. Harrison, 1881). Internet Archive scan mothershiptonin00harrgoog (Google digitization), page images inspected: pp. 42–43, from “The three earliest records” through “by Mr. Charles Hindley.”. The couplet is kept as two printed lines; line-end hyphenation joined; whitespace normalized.
pp. 42–43
‘Abd-ul-Qádir Badáóní; translated by W. H. Lowe
Badauni’s Persian history of Muslim rule in India, critical of Akbar’s religious policy; volume II reports millennial and Mahdist claims at Akbar’s court.
Text available here
Badauni on the Mahdi and the years 989 and 990 →
‘Abd-ul-Qádir Badáóní, Muntakhab-ut-Tawáríkh, translated from the original Persian by W. H. Lowe, vol. II (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Baptist Mission Press, 1884), p. 295 (Internet Archive 11540762bsb, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek copy, leaf n304), from “In this year low and mean fellows” to “the dignity of something else.” Lowe’s footnote markers omitted (note 1 on Sharíf: “Of Ámul, see above p. 252.”; note 2: “Of God.”); his reference to the Persian text “(P. 287)” retained. Diacritics as printed. Spacing normalized.
vol. II, p. 295
Various correspondents and the editors
London weekly of questions and answers for antiquaries, founded in 1849. In 1872 a correspondent asked about a “Mother Shipton” rhyme dating the world’s end to 1881; in 1873 the editors reported Charles Hindley’s admission that he had fabricated it.
Text available here
The “Mother Shipton” 1881 rhyme →
Notes and Queries reports Charles Hindley’s admission that he fabricated the rhyme · commentary →
Notes and Queries, 4th series, vol. X (London), 7 December 1872, pp. 450–451, query “Mother Shipton’s Prophecy” signed Simeon Rayner, complete. Internet Archive periodical scan sim_notes-and-queries_1872-12-07_10_258, page images inspected. Verse lines kept as printed lines; small capitals (“Ancient Prediction,” “Simeon Rayner”) rendered in title case; spaces before semicolons and question marks closed; “that ’s” printed with a thin space, rendered “that’s”; whitespace normalized.
4th ser. X, pp. 450–451; XI, p. 355
Albert Barnes
Requires an early application of the cosmic imagery while allowing a more complete fulfillment farther in the future.
Text available here
Barnes reads the darkened heavens as calamity · commentary →
Bible Hub English transcription of Barnes’ Notes; print impression unspecified.
Matthew 24:28–30, especially verse 29