!? St. Nilus 'Prophecy' (allegedly 4th century)
HOAX / FORGERY / from the 19th century concerning a different St. Nilus from the 17th century, and not the St. Nilus of the 4th century. This very suspicious 'prophetic text' was condemned by the Orthodox in 1912.
On the Internet there is a 'prophecy ' circulating about the troubled days that come before the Antichrist
that is attributed to St. Nilus of the '4th Century', i.e. St. Nilus of Mt Sinai, according to versions of the texts. This
'prophecy' lists the amoral times that will precede the Antichrist,
and proceeds to give details that appear very accurate in describing the
20th century, however, this prophecy is an obvious hoax, or, at the most, a very suspect text dating from 1906 to 1912 that shows signs of textual corruption by modern day additions, therefore, the text it just not believable. The Orthodox Wiki Site says: "It is clear that it was either not written by St. Nilus or that it has
been altered in translation. With the advent of the Internet, the work
has taken on the status of urban legend."
Also, Orthodox sites have noted prophecies attributed to the text have the Antichrist appearing in 1950, to 1999, to 2012, all of which have failed, showing it to be a fake text. Furthermore, the Orthodox Wiki site lists this text as a
hoax and gives various details showing it to be a hoax.
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Why this is not a prophecy of St. Nilus of Mt. Sinai of the "4th Century"
*) No known early century source document
for this text has yet surfaced. Odd for a document that should be
about 1,500 years old. Sign of a forgery, similar to the 'St. Odile
Prophecy' hoax.
*) The 'prophecy'
is supposedly written by a saint named Nilus, either the 4th
century St. Nilus the Ascetic, (mid 400s AD) or St. Nilus of Sinai
(d. 430 AD) – which means both of the saints were 5th
century saints, NOT 4th century saints =
error in the details. Sloppy dating, which is the sign of a erroneous attribution or a fake.
*) The claim that the 'prophecy'
is from the 4th century is also problematic, as in the 4th century it
was not yet the practise of Christians to date from the birth of
Christ, a practise introduced only in the 6th century by Dionysius
Exiguus ("the Short"), a Roman monk. In the 4th century,
dating was still calculated from the Creation, the founding of Rome,
from the accession of the current emperor, or from the time of
Diocletian according to the Indiction. Even after its introduction by
Dionysius, it did not come into general use in the West until the 8th
century. Since St. Nilus was an Eastern Christian, Eastern Christians
waited even longer to use the Nativity as a dating point. Most
Orthodox Christians began the practise only after the fall of
Constantinople, while the Church of Russia introduced it only with
the time of Tsar Peter the Great (16th/17th c.). Term '4th
-century' is therefore anachronistic – suggests latter day editing.
*) The texts claims to be making prophecies regarding either
the 19th or 20th centuries, but with rather laughable blunders regarding internal
consistency in the text. The earliest versions of the 'prophecy' read
"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 19th century,"
which is contradictory, since starting with the year 1901, the
20th century began, you cannot go backwards into the 19th
century again. So, the earliest known versions of the text
shows a glaring error in something as simple as getting the centuries
straight. Additionally, with several different versions
circulating, especially with variances in this key opening phrase,
it would seem that the text has been altered, so one cannot be sure
about the period it supposedly is addressing.
*) The
alleged prophecy says the time of evil and the times preceding the
Antichrist started in the 1900s and would proceed until the MIDDLE of the 20th
century, which equals 1900 up until 1950 – and no Antichrist has
appeared. Currently as this article is being written, (2019 AD)
we're two decades into the 21st
century, circa 70 years, and no
Antichrist. Prophecy hasn't come to pass. Failed prophecies equals a fake.
*) Some versions of the test say the 'original text' of the prophecy was in Greek. But the text contains modern wording
with relatively newly coined words that an early Eastern Christian would not know or use and therefore suggests it is a latter-day product. In the supposed "original" Greek versions,
the "prophesy" uses the word "homophilia" (the
adjective of "homosexual"), but the words "homophilo"
and "homophilia" (the noun and adjective of "homosexual")
were not coined in Greece until after AD 1896.
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*) Who made the Prophecy Then?
Considering the various 19th and 20th-century language anachronisms in the text, the prophecy has been traced to the fake 'prophecies' of a different St. Nilus, St. Nilus the Myrrgusher of Mt. Athos, (d. 1651) who allegedly appeared to a monk name Theophanes from 1813 to 1819 named Theo and gave a whole mass of prophecies, which was then published by another monk named Iakovos from the Iveron Monestary in 1906.
Therefore, this accounts for the
late 19th century style writing; it is possible Iakovos added quite a bit as we have language in the 'Nilus prophecy' that post-dates Theophanes: too much may have been added.
Not to mention the Greek Orthodox consider it a forgery, if not an
outright demonically inspired text.
The text has been condemned by the Orthodox of Mt Athos in 1912 as a demonic delusion of Theophanes. (Theophanes admitted he was possessed after all!) The 'red flag' they noted was Theophanes wrote St. Nilus 'appeared to him in another form' --the saint should appear as himself if it was a real saint, what could be meant by 'another form'? The Orthodox have also noted the voluminous books from which the prophecy originates contradicts many orthodox teachings, and as mentioned, has failed prophecies regarding the appearance of the Antichrist, who should have appeared in 2012 according to the texts! (Source, click here.)
So, the Orthodox have good reason to condemn this prophecy, the text is unreliable, and, failed prophecies are a major red flag.
Therefore, this prophecy is an obvious hoax
/ forgery – and is not included in the Timeline.
