Excerpt from the Introduction to the Commentary on the Apocalypse of St. John by Francisco Ribera

The Chain of Transmission: From Ribera to Modern Dispensationalism

Link One: Ribera to Lacunza

Critics have long claimed that Manuel Lacunza (a Chilean Jesuit who wrote La Venida del Mesías en Gloria y Majestad under the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra) never cited Ribera, suggesting independent development of futurist ideas. This assertion collapses under examination of the complete text of Lacunza’s work. While Edward Irving’s English translation (The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty) covered only two volumes, Lacunza wrote three volumes in Spanish. In the untranslated third volume, Lacunza/Ben-Ezra says “I know that many things have been written on the same subject and with the same meaning, both by the ancient Fathers and by other interpreters, whether scattered here and there or in full commentaries, and most exactly of all by the very learned Ribera. But how many difficulties are in them,…”*, explicitly referencing Ribera. This citation confirms Lacunza’s direct engagement with Ribera’s commentary, establishing the first link in the chain of transmission.

* La Venida del Mesías en Gloria y Majestad: Tomo Tecera. Ch. IX, 151.

Link Two: Lacunza/Ben-Ezra and Irving to Darby

Scottish Presbyterian minister Edward Irving (1792-1834) discovered Lacunza’s work and translated the first two volumes into English as The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty (1827). Irving’s translation, complete with his own extensive “Preliminary Discourse,” introduced Lacunza’s futurist eschatology—and by extension, Ribera’s—to British audiences.

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), the founder of the Plymouth Brethren and architect of dispensationalism, engaged directly with Irving’s translation of Lacunza/Ben-Ezra. In his work Reflections Upon the Prophetic Inquiry and The Views Advanced In It, Darby writes: “Again, in the translator’s preliminary discourse to Ben-Ezra, we have (p. 55), ‘There is no condemnation’…”* This demonstrates that Darby not only knew of Irving’s translation but studied and engaged with it.

* The Collected Writings of J. N. Darby, Prophetic No. 1, Volume 2: Reflections Upon the Prophetic Inquiry and The Views Advanced In It.

Link Three: Darby to Brookes

The transmission of Darby’s dispensational futurism to American evangelicalism occurred primarily through Dr. James H. Brookes (1830-1897), pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church (later Washington Avenue and Compton Street Presbyterian Church) in St. Louis and editor of The Truth magazine. H.A. Ironside documents the connection: “Dr. James H. Brookes, in whose church Mr. Darby held two weeks’ meeting while in St. Louis in the 70’s, considered him one of the greatest Bible scholars of his generation”*. Brookes became the leading American advocate of dispensational eschatology, organizing prophetic conferences and mentoring a generation of Bible teachers in Darby’s interpretive method.

* Ironside, A Historical Sketch of the Brethren Movement, Chapter Eight: “The Montreal Division”.

Link Four: Brookes to Scofield

The final and perhaps most consequential link in this chain connected Brookes to Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921), whose Scofield Reference Bible (1909) would standardize dispensational futurism for millions of readers. Arno C. Gaebelein, editor for the Scofield Reference Bible, documents this mentorship in his authoritative history: “But the most important event after his conversion was his early acquaintance with the outstanding Bible teacher of that day, Dr. James H. Brookes… At the feet of this choice servant of Christ, Scofield took his place. Here he learned what he could not have learned in any of the theological seminaries of that time. Being instructed by Dr. Brookes in Bible study, he soon mastered, with his fine analytical mind, the ABC’s of the right division of the Word of God, which he later embodied in a small brochure, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. From Dr. Brookes’ instructions he became acquainted with the high points of sacred prophecy relating to the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God.”*

* Gaebelein, The History of the Scofield Reference Bible, Pg. 22.

The Significance of the Chain

This documented transmission—Ribera to Lacunza to Irving to Darby to Brookes to Scofield—establishes beyond reasonable dispute that modern dispensational futurism traces its interpretive lineage directly to Francisco Ribera’s Counter-Reformation commentary. Each link in the chain represents not merely coincidental similarity but demonstrable influence through direct contact, citation, or mentorship. The futurist eschatology that now dominates what is known as “Evangelical Christianity” in the West, is not the rediscovery of apostolic teaching but the Protestant adaptation of a Jesuit interpretive strategy originally designed to defend the Papacy against Biblical critique.