c. 1600
Martin Luther and a limit of about 1600
Record disputed Historical record is disputed End TimesBiblical NumerologyEarly and Medieval
Quick facts
- Predicted date
- c. 1600
- Who predicted it
- Martin Luther
- When announced
- 1541
- Reasoning
- World-age chronology, adjusted for the shortening of days.
- What happened
- The year 1600 passed. Luther had died in 1546, so he did not witness the date.
- Historical status
- Record disputed. Historians disagree on what was actually claimed, by whom, or how widely it was believed.
- Outcome label
- Historical record is disputed
- Editorial certainty
- Low: thin or conflicting sources
- Editorial review
- Pending. This entry has not yet been checked line by line against its sources. Treat details as provisional.
Prediction
What did Martin Luther predict?
Luther is often reported to have said the world would not last beyond about 1600. Exactly how he phrased this, and how firmly, is disputed.
Interpretation by the author
Why did they believe it?
Luther accepted a tradition, attributed to a prophecy of Elijah, that the world would last six thousand years in total. His own chronology of 1541, the Supputatio annorum mundi, placed him late in that span.
He also read Matthew 24:22, "for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened", as permitting the final period to be shorter than the count implied.
Scripture as used by the author
Biblical basis cited
Matthew 24:22 and the six-thousand-year tradition. Luther was also cautious in places, citing Matthew 24:36 against anyone who claimed to know the day.
Method
How the date was calculated
World-age chronology, adjusted for the shortening of days.
Historical record
Historical context
Luther lived through the early decades of the Reformation, plague, Turkish advances in Europe and bitter conflict with the papacy, all of which he sometimes read as signs of the last days.
Historical record
What happened when the date passed?
The year 1600 passed. Luther had died in 1546, so he did not witness the date.
Historical record
What happened afterward
Later Lutheran theologians continued to debate how to read the signs of the times, and in general many Protestant writers of the following century set their own near dates. Luther's remarks are an early case of a major figure combining an expectation of nearness with a warning against precise dating.
Scripture
Passages cited
-
Matthew 24:22 (KJV)
"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
Excerpts are from the King James Version (public domain). Listing a verse here does not mean this site agrees with how the author used it.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- Martin Luther. Supputatio annorum mundi. 1541. Primary source Luther's chronology of world history. The exact passages on the end should be checked against the Weimar edition of his works.
- Martin Luther. Table Talk (Tischreden). recorded 1530s to 1540s. Primary source Recorded conversations. Their wording was preserved by listeners and is less reliable than his published works.
Found an error or a better source? Send a correction. See also the methodology.