| Keywords |
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| ID |
5758 |
| Text |
De civitate Dei (413 - 427) Augustine of Hippo |
| Quotation |
De Gog et Magog, quos ad persequendam ecclesiam dei solutus prope finem saeculi diabolus incitabit.
Et cum finiti fuerint, inquit, mille anni, soluetur satanas de custodia sua, et exibit ad seducendas nationes, quae sunt in quattuor angulis terrae, Gog et Magog, et trahet eos in bellum, quorum numerus est ut harena maris. ad hoc ergo tunc seducet, ut in hoc bellum trahat. nam et antea modis quibus poterat per mala multa et uaria seducebat. exibit autem dictum est in apertam persecutionem de latebris erumpet odiorum. haec enim erit nouissima persecutio, nouissimo inminente iudicio, quam sancta ecclesia toto terrarum orbe patietur, uniuersa scilicet ciuitas Christi ab uniuersa diaboli ciuitate, quantacumque erit utraque super terram. gentes quippe istae, quas appellat Gog et Magog, non sic sunt accipiendae, tamquam sint aliqui in aliqua parte terrarum barbari constituti, siue quos quidam suspicantur Getas et Massagetas propter litteras horum nominum primas, siue aliquos alios alienigenas et a Romano iure seiunctos. toto namque orbe terrarum significati sunt isti esse, cum dictum est nationes quae sunt in quattuor angulis terrae, easque subiecit esse Gog et Magog. quorum interpretationem nominum esse comperimus Gog tectum, Magog de tecto; tamquam domus et ipse qui procedit de domo. gentes ergo sunt, in quibus diabolum uelut in abysso superius intellegebamus inclusum, et ipse de illis quodammodo sese efferens et procedens; ut illae sint tectum, ipse de tecto. si autem utrumque referamus ad gentes, non unum horum ad illas, alterum ad diabolum: et tectum ipsae sunt, quia in eis nunc includitur et quodammodo tegitur inimicus antiquus; et de tecto ipsae erunt, quando in apertum odium de operto erupturae sunt. quod uero ait: et adscenderunt supra terrae latitudinem et cinxerunt castra sanctorum et dilectam ciuitatem, non utique ad unum locum uenisse uel uenturi esse significati sunt, quasi uno aliquo loco futura sint castra sanctorum et dilecta ciuitas, cum haec non sit nisi Christi ecclesia toto terrarum orbe diffusa; ac per hoc ubicumque tunc erit, quae in omnibus gentibus erit, quod significatum est nomine latitudinis terrae, ibi erunt castra sanctorum, ibi erit dilecta deo ciuitas eius, ibi ab omnibus inimicis suis, quia et ipsi in omnibus cum illa gentibus erunt, persecutionis illius inmanitate cingetur, hoc est, in angustias tribulationis artabitur urgebitur concludetur; nec militiam suam deseret, quae uocabulo est appellata castrorum |
| Translation |
And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed from his prison, and shall go out to seduce the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall draw them to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea." This then, is his purpose in seducing them, to draw them to this battle. For even before this he was wont to use as many and various seductions as he could continue. And the words "he shall go out" mean, he shall burst forth from lurking hatred into open persecution. For this persecution, occurring while the final judgment is imminent, shall be the last which shall be endured by the holy Church throughout the world, the whole city of Christ being assailed by the whole city of the devil, as each exists on earth. For these nations which he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some part of the world, whether the Getae and Massagetae, as some conclude from the initial letters, or some other foreign nations not under the Roman government. For John marks that they are spread over the whole earth, when he says, "The nations which are in the four corners of the earth," and he added that these are Gog and Magog. The meaning of these names we find to be, Gog, "a roof," Magog, "from a roof,"--a house, as it were, and he who comes out of the house. They are therefore the nations in which we found that the devil was shut up as in an abyss, and the devil himself coming out from them and going forth, so that they are the roof, he from the roof. Or if we refer both words to the nations, not one to them and one to the devil, then they are both the roof, because in them the old enemy is at present shut up, and as it were roofed in; and they shall be from the roof when they break forth from concealed to open hatred. The words, "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city," do not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,--and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by "the breadth of the earth,"--there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,--that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty, which is signified by the word "camp." |
| Quotation source |
Augustinus, De civitate Dei, XX, cap. 11, trans. Schaft, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, p. 432 |
| Temporal Coverage |
413 - 427 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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