Homilia de quinque aetatibus mundi

The same author's ninth homily on Noah and his sons. Your love must know that God, having divided the course of this life into five generations, I mean not sinful generations but portions. For having divided the course of the world into five portions, he assigned to each portion its own father. The first portion and order was from Adam to Noah, and of that earlier portion Adam was the founder and leader. When the flood came and destroyed the world, Noah became the second father of the world by division and order. Then when there came not only a confusion of waters, but also of many evils, and the deeds of tower-building were dared, and they were plunged from true knowledge of God into impiety, and a second flood came, drowning souls, God again circumscribes the second generation, not destroying but dividing. And having circumscribed the second, he introduces the third, having given Abraham as its beginning. Then again, when the generation from Abraham went down into Egypt and there again fell into impiety, circumscribing that third order, he gives another beginning, establishing Moses as its fourth father. Finally, of all, he gives as father according to the flesh our Lord Jesus, concerning whom also the prophet said: "Wonderful counselor, mighty God, ruler, prince of peace, father of the coming age." You have, then, as father of the first generation Adam, second Noah, third father Abraham, fourth Moses, fifth the Savior Christ according to the flesh. Each division, therefore, had its own aspect, its own order, its own canons, its own laws.

And just as the turnings of the year have a distinct condition, and each has been allotted its own law—one is the appearance of spring, another of summer, of autumn, another of winter, yet all are under a single administration—so also these five divisions, usefully divided by God, each received its own founder, while He who brings all things that have occurred at different times together into one harmony. Each of these who came to be and were called founders was also deemed worthy to be a prophet. For it was not possible for one to rule a generation of men without having something more than human. For the Savior came, the true prophet of the world, the light-bearer, the first and last and middle, the one before the ages and with all, the foundation of all and the cornerstone. This one who is truly a prophet came. Truly, then, let Christ alone be called prophet, who foretold all things. Not by receiving from another, but by knowing from himself, the Old Testament called him a prophet. For Moses said, "The Lord will raise up a prophet for you like me; you will listen to him." But he also calls himself a prophet in the flesh: "Nevertheless, today and tomorrow I will refrain from going to Jerusalem." You have five prophets as founders of the divisions. In accordance with this same idea, the Savior said, "The kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins, of whom five were wise and five foolish." He compares the five divisions to ten virgins. For each generation had one prudent virgin and one foolish, that is, one faithful order and one unfaithful. Again, the Savior compares these five divisions in another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. The morning of the world is the fashioning of Adam. For to God every age is as a single day. Do you see the first division? He went out at the third hour seeking those around Noah, he went out at the sixth hour seeking those around Abraham, he went out at the ninth hour seeking those around Moses, he went out at the eleventh hour seeking the advent of the Savior.