Eskat’ologiuri šexedulebebi dzveli kartuli da bizant’iuri c’q’aroebis mixedvit („Mešwde dari“ – dausrulebeli gansveneba, tu „mdzapri gansacdeli“?) [La concezione escatologica secondo le fonti antico-georgiane e bizantine (la «settima era»: quies futura o grande tribolazione?)]

In medieval writings eschatology may be considered to be a teaching on the essence of time. To ascertain the events to be expected at the end of the world the Church Fathers mainly used two literary sources: the apocalyptic or so-called millenaristic teaching, current among the Christian Judeans of Asia Minor and the theory of numbers, stemming from Greek literature. Ioane Sabanisdze developed a harmonious world view system in connection with eschatological conceptions. He calls his own period the seventh heaven and looks for eschatological-prophetic signs of the New Testament in his contemporary epoch. Unlike many other Christian writers, Ioane Sabanisdze, taking into consideration the specificity of his own epoch and relying on patristic writings, conceptualises eschatology in a novel way, thereby ridding himself of the influence of millennarism, on the one hand, and consistently defining the symbolic meaning of six, seven and eight, on the other. He gives an absolutely novel interpretation of the lack of evening of the seventh millennium and – because of the lack of evening, and on the basis of the concept of the New Testament – he calls it shortened time, taking it for the end of history after which – at the dawn of the eight day – eternal Kingdom of Heaven begins. The hagiographer's specific conception is reflected in the peculiarity of the formula he used to date the martyrdom of Abo. Thus, medieval writers viewed the history of mankind as a finite phenomenon that will end in the same way as it began. In working out an eschatological chronology they rely on various literary and cultural sources. This, as well as the difference between systems of individual thought, accounts for the differing solutions of many concrete questions in their eschatological teaching.