XI The judges’ seats
We call “seats” what the Greeks
call “thrones”; the Greeks, in fact, call seats “thrones.” The saints, then,
for as much as they themselves are seats of God, according to what is written:
“the soul of the just is seat of wisdom” [see Wis 7], will nevertheless have
some seats upon which they will sit with Christ the judge, according to what
the same truth says: “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the
Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will
also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” [Matt 19:28].
XII Those who will sit with the Lord to
judge
It is clearer than day that all
the saints who have departed the world in a perfect way will judge the others,
sitting with the Lord. Therefore, what is read in the divine writings will then
be fulfilled: “The man of God is known in the city gates, taking his seat among
the elders of the land” [Prov 31:23].
XIII It is not to be believed that only the
twelve apostles will sit on the above-mentioned twelve seats, but the whole
number of perfect ones who will be subdivided by Christ into numbers of twelve
Concerning this, St. Augustine
thus says in his treatises: “in fact since the Lord has said that his disciples
will sit on twelve thrones, we ought not to suppose that only twelve men will
judge together with him. For with the number twelve is meant, in a certain
sense, the multitude of all those who will judge, since the two parts of the
number seven indicate the totality of a whole; these two parts, meaning three
and four, multiplied one with another, result in twelve, three times four, in
fact, and four times three makes twelve. Another meaning can be found in the
number twelve, which is toward this end. Otherwise, since we read that the
apostle Matthias was selected [see Acts 1:26] in place of Judas the traitor,
the apostle Paul [see 1 Cor 15:10], who worked more than all the others, would
not have a place to sit in judgment; and yet he clearly demonstrates that he
belongs to the number of the judges, together with the other saints, when he
says: ‘Do you not know that we are to judge angels?’ [1 Cor 6:3]. The same
observation regarding the number twelve is to be made with respect to those who
are to be judged. It was said: ‘judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ [Matt
19:28], but not for this will the tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, not
be judged by them; that is, they will judge only that people and not also the
other peoples. Since then it was said: ‘at the renewal of all things’ [Matt
19:28], without a doubt it was understood to mean the resurrection of the dead.
So then our flesh will be regenerated through incorruptibility, as our soul has
been regenerated through faith.” (Julian of Toledo, Prognosticum
Futuri Saeculi Book 3, in Julian of Toledo: Foreknowledge of the World to
Come (Prognosticum Futuri Saeculi) [trans. Tommaso Stancati; Ancient
Christian Writers 63; New York: Newman Press, 2010], 435-36)
