Exposition of the Apocalypse
Overview
The Exposition of the Apocalypse by Tyconius of Carthage (fl. 380) was pivotal in the history of interpretation of the Book of Revelation. While expositors of the second and third centuries viewed the Apocalypse of John, or Book of Revelation, as mainly about the time of Antichrist and the end of the world, in the late fourth century Tyconius interpreted John’s visions as figurative of the struggles facing the Church throughout the entire period between the Incarnation and the Second Coming of Christ. Tyconius’s “ecclesiastical” reading of the Apocalypse was highly regarded by early medieval commentators like Caesarius of Arles, Primasius of Hadrumetum, Bede, and Beatus of Liebana, who often quoted from Tyconius’s Exposition in their own Apocalypse commentaries. Unfortunately no complete manuscript of the Exposition by Tyconius has survived. A number of recent scholars, however, believed that a large portion of his Exposition could be reconstructed from citations of it in the aforementioned early medieval writers; and this task was undertaken by Monsignor Roger Gryson. Gryson’s edition, a reconstruction of the Expositio Apocalypseos of Tyconius, was published in 2011 in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina. The present translation of that reconstructed text, with introduction and notes, exhibits Tyconius’s unique non-apocalyptic approach to the Book of Revelation. It also shows that throughout the Exposition Tyconius made use of interpretive rules that he had laid out in an earlier work on hermeneutics, the Book of Rules, strongly suggesting that Tyconius wrote his Exposition as a companion to his Book of Rules. Thus, the Exposition served as an exemplar of how those rules would apply to interpretation of even the most intriguing of biblical texts, the Apocalypse.
Top Highlights
“The Apocalypse is the revelation of the church’s internal and external spiritual warfare” (Page 16)
“Since this part belongs to the devil, the battle between the church and the devil takes place both from without” (Page 18)
“First, recapitulation occurs when eschatological references to time, such as ‘then,’ ‘in that hour,’ ‘on that day,’ and ‘at that time,’ also have reference to the present time. The future hour is continually recapitulated in the time leading up to the last day.45 Second, recapitulation occurs when there are similarities between the events of the present and events described in Scripture, whether past or future.” (Pages 13–14)
“While Tyconius calls on the reader to apply the logic (ratio) of the mystic rules, that logic cannot be properly grasped without suffering (passio). Persecution purifies, and the pure in heart will see God (see Mt 5:8).” (Page 23)
“Although he may belong to the church, until it is divided,109 nevertheless he lost his own salvation and all the light of the candlestick.” (Page 41)
- Title: Exposition of the Apocalypse
- Author: Tyconius of Carthage
- Series: The Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 134
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Era: era:nicene
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible. N.T. Revelation › Commentaries--Early works to 1800
- ISBNs: 9780813229560, 0813229561
- Resource ID: LLS:EXPAPOCALYPSE
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:41:23Z