Commentary on the Apocalypse 1 part 12/14

'the Son of Man can do nothing of himself, unless he sees his Father doing [it]';

and in another place affirming: 'But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God...'

However, since there was, as has been said, no perceptible work of the Holy Spirit among men, it was arranged that nearly all men should receive faith in Christ through the visitation and power of the Paraclete, and of God the Father, so that his consubstantiality and equal power with the Father and the Son might become manifest to all.

Indeed, throughout the whole time of the incarnation, no more than one hundred twenty are recorded as having believed;

for the Acts number that many as having been gathered together in the upper room.

Even though the power of Christ's teaching had reached many, yet faith itself was reserved for the very presence of the Spirit.

Hence one might find that, just as when seed has been sown, when rain comes and the sun shines, all the seeds that had until then been hidden and lay concealed in the earth, then sprouting up, become clearly manifest that they had been lying in the earth all along — so it happened also at the visitation of the Holy Spirit:

all those in whom the Lord's teaching had been sown sprang up unto faith;

Wherefore it is said more precisely by the Apocalypse: "the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished."

"This," he says, "is the first resurrection" — evidently that of faith.

For the second will be the universal resurrection of bodies.

Blessed, therefore, is he who has a part in the first resurrection.

For in the second all of us will partake, even unwillingly.

But upon those who share in the first resurrection, that is, the faithful, he says, the second death will have no power.

Which [death]? This is evidently that of sin, and of the punishment [belonging] to that [time].

For just as he spoke of a first and a second resurrection, so also of a first and a second death.

And the first is the sensible [death], which consists in the separation of soul and body, while the second is the intelligible [death], that of sin, concerning which the Lord also said: "Do not fear those who kill the body."

"But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna."

"And the faithful," he says, "will be priests of God and of Christ."

For all the faithful have been shown to be ministering priests of the evangelical word, concerning whom the prophet also, striking up the prophetic lyre, said: "You will make them rulers over all the earth."

"And they will reign with him a thousand years" — [meaning] those [years] of the incarnation, as has often been said.

"And when," he says, "the thousand years are finished—"

That is, when the Lord, having fulfilled the dispensation in the flesh, ascends into the heavens, the devil will be released from his intelligible bonds, and will again lead the nations astray.

The devil's activity was curbed by the Lord's converse among men.

But when the Lord has ascended into the heavens, the devil himself will work his own accustomed [works], and the men on earth will make use of their free will, just as they [formerly] used it.

For the devil attempts to lead all astray.

But some are persuaded, while others, by not being persuaded, overcome the evil one.

And why then, the devil — though restrained and checked from his own impulse during the Lord's bodily presence — was again let loose against us, to lead astray those on earth? For was it not better that he remain bound, and that men remain unled-astray? To this one must say:

Why do you not rather ask, from the beginning, why the devil came to be at all, or, having come to be and transgressed, why he was not utterly annihilated, so that no access against men should be given to him? And how, O friend, would the contestants have been trained if no one wrestled against them? And how would the strength of the athletes have been shown, there being no antagonist? For the slothful among men, and those overcome by pleasures, even when the devil is not present nor provoking them, are base of their own accord.

But the men of God, the noble contestants, would have been wronged, not being able to make public their courage against the passions.

So that it would come about both that the slothful gain nothing from Satan's not existing, and that the diligent are wronged in the greatest degree.

For Satan is, in a certain manner, a trainer of men, providing an occasion for crowns to those who contend.

For those who love sin, who, even when the devil is not present, use their own sloth in place of the devil, are not wronged at all, as has been said.

So that he unwillingly benefits some, while he wrongs others not at all, or very little.

But you would wish, for the sake of me and you — the slaves of sin, the slack and the fallen — that, so we might not be wronged even a little, or not at all, by the devil's activity, the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, and those who remained steadfast even unto blood in the testimony of Christ and kept genuine loyalty to him, and further the confessors and those who governed the churches well as shepherds, and the most steadfast ascetics, and every righteous man made perfect in the faith of Christ — of whom this world is not worthy — should be deprived of glory.

So that the noble contestants of virtue compensate for the loss of the sinners who are wronged only to a very small degree.

For one man who does right is to be preferred by God over ten thousand who transgress.

Both things, then, have been done most excellently and most divinely: both that, during the Lord's presence, the unholy impulses of the devil were checked, and that, after the ascent into heaven, he was released for the testing of men.

For if Satan had been permitted to display the whole of his activity while the Lord was living among men on earth, he would not have allowed men even to become hearers of his divine teaching, nor to learn who is, by nature and in truth, God, and what reverent worship is due to him, and what vice is, and what virtue is.

But he would even have prepared the cross for him before the [proper] time, before he began his teaching.

Had this happened, the Lord's incarnation — so great and so admirable a mystery — would have been incomplete, or rather unprofitable.

But after those on earth had been taught these things through the binding of the devil, they were then let go, to make use of their own free will and to engage in the struggle against the adversary, along paths of vice and of virtue now acknowledged and known.

For he who knows the good, and that which is not such, altogether chooses either the one or the other by self-prompted impulses.

But he who is ignorant — what indeed would he do? — being wounded as in a battle by night, and not even perceiving that he has been struck, does not even know his own destruction.

For in the case of him who has knowledge of the opposites, there is room for free will to choose what he wishes, but in the case of him who is ignorant, there is no room [for it].

But God from the beginning made man free-willed, and governed by self-determining reasonings.

[He said] to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy: "Behold, I have set before your eyes this day life and death, good and evil," so that from the two he should altogether choose that which is [to be] chosen.

And again the same [God], in Exodus: "If you will indeed hear my voice," he says, "and do all that I shall tell you—"

And what of Isaiah too, who sets forth the same doctrine near the beginning of his prophecy, saying in the person of God: "If you are willing and hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land—"

"But if you are not willing, nor hear me, the sword shall devour you—"

"for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things."

And since he said in what preceded that the devil would go out to deceive the nations, now he says which nations, and under whose leadership.

"Gog," he says, "and Magog" — to gather them together for war.

And the war is against the saints.

For having completed the account concerning the saving incarnation, he has again returned to the point from which he departed when he narrated those things to us.

And he had departed from [the account] concerning the devil and the antichrist.

And [from the account] of the defeat and punishment of the nations that joined together with them.

Now, then, I fill up what was previously said incompletely.

He joins [them] to the rest of the nations that fought together with the antichrist.

"And he went out to deceive all the nations in the four corners of the earth—"

"with whom," he says, "also Gog and Magog" — to gather them together for war, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

"And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city—"

"and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them—"

"and the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever."

Concerning these, Gog and Magog, the divinely-inspired prophet Ezekiel also has handed down [an account], relating in detail how the wicked will perish wickedly.

And these will be certain nations, and leaders of nations, around the time of the consummation.

For now they do not exist, or [rather] they are certain of the nations now existing, called by other names by the divine Scripture.

These, then, will fight together with the God-hating Satan against the servants of Christ.

And they will surround the beloved city, that is, the church.

But fire, borne from heaven, will destroy them all, and, the consummation then having taken place, together with the devil and the antichrist, the arch-evil Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, that is, Gehenna.

Let the reader know that the present Apocalypse has, in what precedes, presented to us three [figures]:

one, the arch-evil dragon shown in heaven; second, the beast rising from the sea, which we understood to be second to Satan, but preeminent over the rest of the demons; and third, the antichrist, whom he also calls the false prophet.

But concerning the second devil [i.e., the beast] and the antichrist, it was said a little before that the two of them were cast into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone.

But now he speaks concerning Satan, or rather the devil, whom in what preceded he named the dragon.

"And they will be tormented," he says, "day and night, forever and ever."

You who have engaged with this work have therefore come to know that we understood, very precisely, the thousand years — during which the devil, having been bound, was cast into the abyss and again released — to be the incarnation of the Lord and his sojourn on earth, during which his activity was for a short time rendered ineffective.

For behold, he has now shown that the punishment, both of him and of those deceived by him, is not a thousand years, with a release from evil thereafter, but rather [it lasts] forever and ever.

"And I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them."

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened;

And another book was opened, which is the book of life;

and the dead were judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works

He speaks of a white throne, meaning the bright and flashing one

the text hints at the alteration and transformation of heaven and earth

For the heavens will pass away with a rushing sound, according to the divinely-inspired Peter and according to the prophet, who says: 'In the beginning you founded the earth, O Lord, and the heavens are the works of your hands;'

'they will perish, but you remain;'

'and they will all grow old like a garment, and like a mantle you will roll them up, and they will be changed' — fittingly, [he speaks of] the passing away and the destruction

which signify their alteration; the Apocalypse called it 'flight,' in that no place was found for them;

For where indeed could the corruption which they cast off be found? Now, then, he has spoken of their alteration, but going on a little further he says that they will also be new

'And I saw,' he says, 'the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne'

By 'the great' he means the righteous, calling them great not by bodily stature, but by the glory and splendor of virtue; and by 'the small,' the sinners, as worthless on account of their lowliness and meanness

'And another book was opened, which is the book of life'

The Lord says in the Gospels that the road leading to destruction is broad and spacious, and that many travel on it;

but the road leading to life is narrow and hard-pressed, and few are they, not only who walk on it, but even who find it

For this reason he saw many books and one;

many, in which all people are written on account of the multitude of those entered, but one of life, in which are those chosen out from the rest, as it were blameless in virtue and traveling the whole rough and steep road of virtue

'And each one,' he says, 'of those in the books was judged worthily according to his own deeds'

At the beginning of the sixth book he also mentions another book, which he calls a 'little book'

but now, a book and the book of life, so that there are three distinctions;

the little book, he says, in which are the exceedingly impious, according to what was understood there;

the book of life, in which are the exceedingly pious and righteous;

and the books, in which are all people who happen to stand in a certain middle place between wickedness and virtue — having thus spoken of the matters concerning the resurrection;

For to say 'and I saw the dead before the throne receiving back and being judged according to their works' is to speak of the resurrection

for he saw the dead, having risen, receiving back their recompense, and thereafter he further recounts in what manner the resurrection took place;

'The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to their works'

'And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire'

'And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire'

'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth;'

'for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more'

'And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband'

As many as disbelieve the resurrection of bodies smile scornfully at us and at our doctrine which says that these same bodies rise again, as though this were not only difficult, but altogether impossible

And they say that each of the bodies on earth is composed of the four elements — fire, water, earth, air;

and that the bodies dissolved by death return into those [elements] out of which they were originally composed

for instance, the fiery element in us [returns] into its kindred and universal fire;

and the watery [returns] into water;

and the other pair [likewise returns] to their own kin

These, then, having been mixed together and confounded with their kindred substances, how is it possible for that which has become indistinguishable through commingling to be restored again to each of the bodies, as you claim, unless you should say that different [elements] rise up in place of other different ones? To such people one might say the word of the divine Scripture:

'You are mistaken, O men, not knowing the power of God' — by whose will all things were brought into being, whose mere willing is an accomplished work, as has also been said before

[Is it beyond his power] to bring substances into being, or, once brought into being and confounded either with themselves or with others, to separate them again and assign to each its own [portion]? For even this last thing we ourselves accomplish, often separating by some art the wine that has been mixed with water

Indeed, even the sun draws up from the sea, through vapors and exhalations, the potable and sweet part, while it leaves behind the heavy, earthy, salty, and bitter part

But that first [act] belongs to God alone, who is able to do all things whatsoever he wills

If, then, God brought into being the things that were not, how is it not easy for him, by mere willing, to separate again the things that have been mixed together with the elements as a whole, and to assign to each body its own [portion], even if this happens to be impossible for men? For just as it is impossible for you and me to sever the illuminating power of fire from its burning power, yet possible for God — for it is said, 'the voice of the Lord divides the flame of fire' — so too, what is impossible for you and me to unmix is easy and effortless for God

This wondrous doctrine the present text of the Apocalypse now sets before us, saying, 'the sea gave up the dead that were in it' — from the sea

and by 'the element,' namely this [sea] of water, he signified the whole moist substance

'The moist substance,' he says, 'therefore gave up' as much of the watery [element] of human bodies as had been mixed within it

'And death,' he says, 'and Hades gave up the dead that were in them'

calling the earth 'death,' because our bodies are dissolved in it;

hence the divinely-inspired prophet too, by way of periphrasis, calls death 'the dust of death,' saying, 'and you have brought me down into the dust of death'

The earth, then, has likewise given up all of our earthy part that was in it

In addition to these, Hades too has given up the dead that were in it, calling 'Hades' the air and the fire, on account of their being formless and invisible

For indeed the air, on account of its fineness, is invisible, unless it should be thickened

and fire, while it lurks within materials, is likewise invisible, unless it be summoned forth out of them to the exterior

Moreover, even the element of fire, the aether, is invisible to us, being obscured by the interposition of the dense air

Or else he calls fire 'Hades' because it produces disappearance and formlessness in whatever it comes upon;

hence also many of the learned call it 'unseen'

Each of the elements, then, having given back as much of the human compound as was in them, the resurrection was brought about

and this having taken place, 'each,' he says, 'was judged according to their works'

'And death and Hades,' he says, 'were thrown into the lake of fire;'

that is, death was abolished, and [with it] the formless and bodiless mode of existence of souls in death, since the resurrection has now once for all taken place and each soul has received back its own body;

and having explained this in a more figurative manner, and having hinted at their destruction, he said that death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire

The prophet Hosea does this as well, saying, 'O death, where is your penalty? O Hades, where is your sting?' This, he says, is the second death — the lake of fire;

for it has also been said before that the first death is the sensible one, the separation of soul and body, while the second is the intelligible one, the chastisement and punishment, which has sin as its mother

But also, he says, as many as have lived in sins and have not been deemed worthy of being written in the [book of] life have suffered the same things

But if he has said that even sinners who are in a middling condition have been cast into the lake of fire together with the Devil and the Antichrist — for this he has said earlier — do not be astonished;

for even there, punishment differs in degree, just as with fever;

one is a burning and continuous fever, another is lesser and mild, even though all are called 'fevers' — in this way you should understand matters there too

'And I saw,' he says, 'new heavens and a new earth;'

'for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more'

Peter says something similar to this in the second of his epistles, saying, 'but according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth'

...not that others have come into being in their place, but that the ones now existing [the heavens and the earth] have cast off their corruption and become new, having stripped off, like an old and filthy garment, the filth that was in them.

For everything is called new which previously was not such, but has now become so.

Then creation will become pure of all the corruption which it contracted through the transgression of men.

And the most trustworthy witness of these things is the divine apostle, writing to the Romans and saying the following concerning creation: 'For the earnest expectation of creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God.'

'For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself also will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.'

And not only he, but also the divinely-inspired prophet, singing concerning heaven and earth, according to the testimony just now cited, [says]:

'And they will all grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed.'

And [John] says: 'I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.'

Through Jerusalem he hints at the blessed lot and dwelling-place of the saints, which, having called it Jerusalem figuratively both here and in what follows, he has adorned magnificently and fittingly, so that from the things spoken in a sensible manner we might direct our mind to the intelligible blessedness and manner of life of the saints.

'And I heard a great voice from heaven, saying:'

'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will tabernacle with them, and they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them, their God, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will no longer be;'

'neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any longer.'

'And he who sat on the throne said:'

'Write, for these words are faithful and true.'

Did I not say correctly earlier that the vision figuratively calls the lot of the saints and their dwelling there the 'intelligible Jerusalem'? Behold, now it has revealed the riddle, saying: 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will tabernacle with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them, their God.'

The apostle, making this clearer, said: 'Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air;'

'and so we will always be with the Lord.'

And he will wipe away, [John] says, every tear from their eyes.

And similar to this the prophet Isaiah said, declaring: 'Death, having prevailed, has swallowed up,' and again: 'God has taken away every tear from every face.'

For if, according to the divine apostle, in that blessed Life of the Saints pain and grief and sighing have fled away, what tear will there be left, once these have fled? 'The former things,' he says, 'have passed away.'

'The suffering of the saints,' he says, 'has come to an end.'

Now the recompenses for their labors are being given.

'Behold,' he says, 'I make all things new.'

For if heaven and earth and sea are new, and moreover men also, and the things of their joy and glory are new, not interrupted by tears or mournings or dishonors, then all things will be new.

'Do not suppose, O John,' he says, 'that because of the excess of their greatness, the things spoken and shown to you contain any fantasy or falsehood;'

'all things are faithful and true;'

'I am the Alpha and the Omega.'

'I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.'

'He who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to me.'

'But for the rest, both the unbelieving and the abominable, and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all the false;'

'their part is in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'

What has come to pass? These things, that is, the things spoken, and nothing false is upon them.

He has put 'have come to pass' in place of 'will come to pass.'

'I am,' he says, 'the Alpha and the Omega.'

Let us, following in his footsteps, take up again what we said before.

'The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end' signifies the beginninglessness and endlessness of God;

for since nothing in this life is without beginning, he used the beginning and end which are found among us in place of [expressing] 'without beginning' and 'without end.'

'I,' he says, 'will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.'

The Lord says in the Gospels: 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.'

To the one, then, who thirsts with such a thirst, I will give life freely.

And how did he say 'freely,' when the saints attain the life to come only after countless sweats [labors]? Why then does he say he gives it freely? He says this, signifying that no man could ever bring anything equal in worth to the goods of that time, however much he might toil; this too the apostle, making clear, said:

'For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.'

'He who conquers,' he says, both the passions and the evil beast the Devil, will inherit these things.

But for the cowardly and the unbelieving, and this sort and that sort, there will be a portion in the lake of fire.

He calls 'cowardly' those who are weak for every good work because of voluntary wretchedness.

And to all, he says, the false.

He did not say 'to liars' but 'to the false,' that is, to those who do things contrary to nature and falsify the natural beauty of virtue into spurious and distorted masks of vice.

And that that fire will be the second death has also been stated in what has preceded.

'And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and he spoke with me, saying:'

'Come, I will show you the wife of the Lamb.'

'And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God;'

'her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;'

'having a great and high wall, having fifteen gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel;'

'on the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates;'

'and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names, of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.'

'And there came,' he says, 'one of the seven angels' — which seven? Those concerning whom much has been said earlier.

'Come,' he says, 'I will show you the wife of the Lamb.'

He wishes to show the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, which he also calls the heavenly Jerusalem;

concerning which Paul, writing to the Hebrews, said: 'For you have not come to a mountain that could be touched and that burned with fire, and to darkness and gloom and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them;'

'for they could not bear what was commanded:'

'even if a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned;'

'and so terrible was the sight that [Moses] said, "I am full of fear and trembling";'

'but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels in festal gathering;'

'and to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all.'

Through the gathering of all the saints into one, that is, the church, and through the heavenly Jerusalem, the discourse depicts the blessedness of the saints, and their life which will be in God and with God, as has been said, adorning it in a bodily and grand manner, while raising our mind up to intelligible glory and splendor.

'And he carried me away,' he says, 'in the Spirit to a high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.'

For never without spiritual grace could a human mind be raised up so as to come into full comprehension of the glory of the saints.

And fittingly [is the mountain likened to] the church, and as it were, the life and manner of living of the righteous;

for both here and there it was a great and high mountain;