Commentary on the Apocalypse 1 part 3/14

'Since, then, you have kept my word with patience, I too will keep you from the hour of evil trial.'

He means the persecution against the Christians that occurred under the emperor Domitian, who was the second persecutor after Nero, as Eusebius relates both in the Ecclesiastical History and in the Chronicle Canon;

under whom also the divinely-inspired evangelist was condemned to dwell on Patmos, a small and desolate island.

'I am coming quickly,' he says, 'to come to your aid.'

'Hold fast what you have, so that no one may take your crown.'

And what is he to hold fast? Clearly the genuine love toward the Lord, in which, having contended to the end, he will possess the crown of life.

For the prizes of victory belong to those who endure;

'And the one who conquers the trials,' he says, 'I will make him rejoice continually in the contemplation of God;'

for this is what it means to become a pillar of the divine temple.

For indeed a pillar could never, for any good, depart from the place in which it is fixed. 'And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the city of the heavenly Jerusalem, and my new name.'

Through all these he lays bare the enjoyment of God, the dwelling amid good things, and the blessedness which they will possess in the age to come. By 'new name' he means that which has not yet anywhere been heard, which the saints will obtain when they reign together with Christ, being named friends and brothers and servants.

And indeed the new name surpasses even these.

For these names have been recorded in the divine Scripture and have come to the hearing of men;

but the new name is altogether unnameable.

And that he says 'my God' does not belong to one who disdains the measures of his self-emptying, nor the lowliness of humanity.

For if he had disdained it, who would have compelled him to be united to flesh according to hypostasis, and thus to work out our salvation? To him be the glory unto the ages of ages.

Book Three. To the six cities he decreed to send what he decreed to be sent — concerning which I have gone through in the second book — namely, to the church in Ephesus, and Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira, and those in Sardis, and Philadelphia;

but now, what must be written to this one also is the following:

'And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:'

'These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God:'

'I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.'

'I would that you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,'

'I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.'

'because you say, \u201cI am rich, and have become rich, and have need of nothing,\u201d and you do not know that you are the wretched and pitiable one, and blind, and naked, and poor.'

'I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;'

'and eye-salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.'

'As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline;'

'be zealous, therefore, and repent.'

'Behold, I stand at the door and knock;'

'…my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.'

'To him who conquers I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered, and sat down with my Father on his throne.'

'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

This is equivalent to 'these things says the True One,' which has been explained above;

for in him it is 'yes,' and none of the things said about him is 'no.'

and 'the faithful witness' has been spoken of above.

Now it is redundancy (verbosity) to go through the same things twice.

'The beginning of the creation of God,' he says.

Perhaps the Christ-fighting workshop of the Arians might pounce upon what has been said, on the ground that through these words the Son is being written of as a creature.

But let us not give heed to their unholy words.

One must consider whether something of this kind also lies elsewhere in Scripture, so that one may judge like things by like.

The wise apostle, writing to the Colossians, says concerning the Son, 'who is the firstfruit,'

'the firstborn of all creation' — not, however, 'first-created.'

'From the womb, before the morning star, I begot you' — not, however, 'I created you.'

'And before all the hills he begets me.'

For 'the Lord created me the beginning of his ways' is to be understood of the intellectually ensouled body of the Lord, which Gregory, among the saints, has taken it to mean in his discourse On the Son.

But 'he begets' refers to his divinity.

Since, then, all have taught as dogma begetting, and not creation, with regard to the only-begotten Word and Son, what does the phrase here, 'the beginning of the creation of God,' intend? Nothing other than 'the ruler of the creation of God,' that is, the one who holds rule over all things.

For since the Father has made all things through the Son, fittingly the maker and craftsman of all things — he who brought all things from non-being into being — rules over the things that have come into being through him.

'I know your works,' he says, 'that you are neither cold nor hot.'

'Hot' is the one who is fervent (boiling) in the Spirit;

for the divine apostle says, 'being fervent in the Spirit.'

but 'cold' is the one deprived of the Holy Spirit's operation and visitation.

And he calls 'lukewarm' the one who has received a share of the Holy Spirit through baptism, but has quenched the gift through indolence and care for temporal things.

And this too is a divine command: 'Do not quench the Spirit.'

'I would that you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm...'

'Would that,' he says, 'you were either hot, set ablaze by the operation of the Spirit, or altogether cold and wholly without share of the grace of the Spirit and unbaptized' — but not lukewarm.

For the one who has the intelligible fire of the Spirit is numbered among the full-grown, having his faculties trained for the discernment of good and evil, and he is spiritual;

but the one who has not yet received the grace of the Spirit, while remaining in hope of one day receiving it, is not numbered among those given up for lost.

But the lukewarm one, besides not being fervent [now], has also been deprived, along with it, of [the benefit of] his having once been baptized and become fervent.

'I am about,' he says, 'to vomit you out of my mouth.'

He fittingly employed the metaphor of the lukewarm;

for everything lukewarm, as the sons of physicians say, producing a moist looseness, provokes the one who partakes of it to vomiting;

whence also they give lukewarm water to those who have difficulty vomiting, to drink up, thereby calling them forth to vomit.

And he means: 'I am about to make you cast out from my intimacy.'

But what is the cause of such a condition? 'You hope,' he says, 'in the uncertainty of riches,' and you have choked the gift as though among thorns, not heeding him who says, 'If riches flow in, do not set your heart on them.' And by 'riches' he means earthly and temporal riches.

'you do not know that you are poor and naked' — namely, with respect to the spiritual and abiding [riches].

'I counsel you, therefore, to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich.'

And as to what gold refined by fire is with respect to the spiritual fire, the prophet teaches, saying, 'the words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, purified sevenfold in the earth,' thereby signifying the evangelical proclamation.

This, therefore, he asks of me — that which is able to make you wise and to bring you into kinship with God.

you shall be purified in soul and body.

for this is the new and white garments.

'and eyesalve,' he says, 'to anoint your eyes, that you may see.'

Against some of those who are dim-sighted concerning the intelligible light of the Lord, a reproachful saying of Jeremiah says:

'Behold, your eyes are not right, nor is your heart.'

For this reason he is counseled to undergo the repentance that is fit to remedy such blindness, just as also the unfruitful fig tree [was counseled to undergo] the application of dung and a more lowly treatment.

'As many as I love,' he says, 'I rebuke and discipline.'

O the surpassing greatness of the love of Christ!

For though these are such as the discourse has described, he professes to love them; wherefore he both rebukes and disciplines them, [exhorting them] to be zealous for better works, and to repent of what they have sinned.

'Behold,' he says, 'I stand at the door and knock.'

'If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.'

The Lord displays his own gentleness and peaceableness.

For the devil, with axe and chisel, breaks down the doors of those who do not receive him, according to the voice of the prophet;

but the Lord, both here and in the Song of Songs, says to the bride, 'Open to me, my sister, my bride.'

And if anyone opens to him, he enters.

And the supper with the Lord alludes to the partaking of the holy mysteries.

'To him who overcomes,' he says, 'the enemy, I will grant to sit with me on my throne' — that is, he shall reign together with me.

for it has been said by the most wise Paul, 'if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.'

'as I also,' he says, 'have overcome, and reign together with my Father.'

For the Lord has also said in the Gospels:

'Take courage, I have overcome the world.'

'And after these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven;'

'and the first voice which I heard, as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.'

'Immediately I was in the Spirit;'

'and behold, a throne stood in heaven, and one seated on the throne, in appearance like an emerald.'

Not because there is some door in heaven that is at times shut and at times opened, but it appeared thus to the evangelist so that he might see the things above the heavens.

For when any door is opened, what is within is necessarily seen.

'And I heard a voice,' he says, 'which, sounding like a trumpet, said this to me:'

'Come up here,' he says, 'that you may see the things that are about to be.'

And having ascended in the Spirit — for the ascent was neither bodily nor perceptible by the senses — 'I see,' he says, 'a throne, and God, and a spirit upon it like jasper and sardius stone.'

God is not like these things — far from it! — nor like anything perceptible by the senses, nor at all like a body, he who is invisible, incorporeal, and without shape; and it is his invisibility that the Seraphim signify by covering their own faces with their wings.

And God, speaking [in oracle] to Moses also, said:

'No one shall see my face and live.'

But the evangelist himself also, as in a categorical statement, says:

'No one has ever seen God.'

Therefore God did not appear as resembling anything; rather, from the operations of God his vision was depicted in the revelation.

This precious stone is a kind of emerald-like and greenish stone, resembling the venom of an asp, from which indeed it also received its name.

The sardius, however, is another precious stone, fiery-gleaming and blood-red.

The jasper hints to us at God's life-sustaining and provisioning quality, since indeed all nourishment—of men, of four-footed beasts, of birds, and of creeping animals—has its beginning, and as it were its cause, starting from greenery.

'making grass to grow for the cattle, and greenery for the service of men, that he may bring forth bread from the earth;'

'and wine gladdens the heart of man, that he may make his face shine with oil.'

And again, in the account of the making of the world, God says:

'Let the earth bring forth vegetation of grass;'

'seed-bearing according to its kind'

The jasper, then, discloses these things.

But the sardius depicts the fearsomeness of God:

For Moses the hierophant says, 'our God is a consuming fire'; but the prophet also cries out to him:

'You are fearsome, and who shall withstand you before your face?' In accord with this the wise apostle writes:

'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.'

For since the unmixed goodness of God is out of accord with those who love sin and are scornful—not leading them to repentance but to license for wrongdoing—fittingly God has, together with the good and the beneficent, the fearsome also depicted in himself.

Hence Paul, knowing that the disposition of those under instruction needed goads, and not gentleness, writing to the Corinthians alone, said:

'What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?' But one of the saints also proclaimed beforehand, saying: 'Gehenna does not terrify you;'

'the kingdom does not entice you;'

'we are speaking to a heart of stone.'

Thus it was recognized that the fearsome and the astonishing was needful for those under instruction.

But the sardius is not first with God:

for his nature is itself good, loving toward mankind, and gentle, and he wishes to be our father rather than our master.

But toward the fearsome and the punitive, we, if it is lawful to say so, do violence to him; and, having often let go the gentleness that is according to his nature, he is led to a severity contrary to nature.

'And a rainbow,' it says, 'round about his throne, in appearance like an emerald.'

The sensible rainbow, which divine scripture calls the 'bow of God,' arises from the reflection of sunlight when it is intercepted and refracted in the thickness of a cloud, and it takes on a varied, all-manner color.

But that intelligible rainbow, which encircles the divine throne, was of a single color:

and this itself also signifies beforehand all the holy and ministering spirits around God; wherefore he has called it a rainbow, even though it is in fact of a single color, so that from the varied colors of the rainbow we might understand the many ranks and distinctions of the divine angels.

yet it touched all with a single color:

for they are all alike beneficent and bear the likeness of their own master, the emerald-colored hue testifying to the provisioning quality in them also, just as the jasper testifies it for God.

And let it not be a stumbling block to any of the readers:

why is it that the holy incorporeal orders around God are likened to the more precious stone, the emerald, while God himself is likened to the less precious ones, jasper and sardius? For the present discourse is not about the preciousness of the things seen, but about what is signified by their color.

For if one should meanly seek out preciousness, there would exist nothing at all to which God could be likened—†or that too someone might find fault with†:

namely, that the Lord is likened to a stone:

for Isaiah says concerning the Lord, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone';

and the prophet also speaks concerning him: 'the stone which the builders rejected.'

And the mountains are allegorized as the evil ranks of the demons:

for the same David said that mountains are removed:

'into the hearts of the seas, and the mountains were troubled by his might'—of these, as regards magnitude, one cannot even find anything that surpasses it.

'Round about the throne,' it says, 'twenty-four thrones;'

'and upon the twenty-four thrones, twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and upon their heads golden crowns.'

'and from the throne go forth lightnings, voices, and thunders; and seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God;'

'and before the throne a sea of glass, like crystal.'

Who the twenty-four elders sitting on the thrones are, only God, the knower of hidden things, would know;

and whomever he himself might reveal it to. But as far as my own conjecture goes, it was Abel, and Enoch, and Noah;

Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob;

Joshua the son of Nun, and Samuel;

David, Elijah, and Elisha;

the twelve minor prophets, reckoned under the figure of one;

James the son of Joseph, and Stephen, the martyrs of the new covenant.

One might also say Peter and Paul, and James the brother of John, whom Herod killed with the sword, and the rest of the choir of the holy apostles—were it not that they had a promise from the Lord to sit, not now but in the regeneration, upon twelve thrones, evidently other thrones than those just mentioned;

for thus the Lord said to them in the Gospel according to Matthew:

'Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of God sits on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'

And the white garments are a token of the purity of their life.

And the crowns signify the conquering of the passions and the intelligible enemies.

And the going forth from the throne of lightnings and voices of thunders again hints at the fearsomeness of God.

For the divine beauty has its delight not in some diffuseness and pleasure of enjoyment, but in that which is fearsome together with wonder.

And knowing this, the prophet said:

'Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling.'

'And seven,' it says, 'lamps of fire, burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God;'

[this hints] that there are seven rulers among the angels—

so Clement says in the sixth book of the Stromateis, perhaps having been guided by this passage to say these things—'the seven spirits, like lamps of fire.'

For it is said somewhere concerning angels:

'Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire'—divine scripture hinting at these, concerning whom the present discourse speaks. And 'before the throne,' it says, 'was a sea of glass, like crystal.'

The vision of the sea signifies the multitude;

and the glass and the crystal signify purity,

unmixed with any stain, indicating the purity of the holy fathers around God, who are indeed a sea as regards their multitude:

'for a thousand thousands stood before him,' says Daniel, 'and ten thousand times ten thousand ministered to him.'

and being so many, they are all pure, resembling glass and crystal.

'And around the throne and in the midst of the throne, four living creatures full of eyes, in front and behind.'

'And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature was like a calf, and the third living creature had a face as a man, and the fourth living creature was like an eagle flying.'

'And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings apiece, round about;'

and within they are full of eyes;

and they have no rest day and night, saying:

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who is, and who was, and who is to come.

It cannot be said that these holy living creatures are the same as those of which the prophet Ezekiel was deemed worthy to see the vision.

For each of those had four faces and eight wings, and dragged along certain wheels which were called "gelgel", even though those too were full of eyes just like these.

But here, each has one face, even though different, and six wings.

And those were the Cherubim—for so they are called by Ezekiel—but these, as I think, are the Seraphim, shown to the divinely-inspired Isaiah, even though Isaiah made no mention at all of whether they had any faces, but only that with their wings they covered their own faces;

nor a multitude of eyes, but only that they had six wings.

But it is good to explain what these things shown to the evangelist signified in riddles. There was a certain error among some of the Jews: that God provides for the holy orders in heaven and dwells only with them, but withdraws from and neglects those upon earth, on account of the transgression in Adam.

For this reason they also said, in Isaiah:

"Why is it that we fasted, and you did not know it? We humbled our souls, and you did not pay attention?" And this error came upon them from a certain scriptural saying: "Lord, in heaven is your mercy, and your truth reaches to the clouds."

as though divine providence disdained to proceed any further down on account of the sins upon earth. The vision therefore shows the evangelist that the providence of God extends through all things, caring for those in the heavens and also reaching those upon earth.

And this is what the four holy living creatures around the divine throne hint at.

For since every perceptible and earthly body is mixed together from the four elements—fire, earth, air, water—

each of the living creatures signifies one of these: the lion signifies fire, on account of the animal's heat and spiritedness;

and the calf signifies earth, because the calf's labor is concerned with the earth;

and man signifies air, for man is a heavenly and lofty plant on account of the subtlety of his mind;

and they are seen around the throne of God, since those signified by the living creatures—that is, those upon earth—have been deemed worthy of care and providence.

And their being full of many eyes indicates God's oversight over all things concerning them.

"And they have no rest day and night:"

This does not mean that they live a painful and toilsome life, unable to rest because of their labor and the necessity imposed upon them, but that they never cease glorifying God and delighting in the melody addressed to him.

And their saying "holy" seven times hints at doing so many times and unceasingly.

For "seven" is handed down by divine Scripture to mean "many";

as in "the barren woman has borne seven, and she who was abundant in children has grown weak," and "the seven eyes of the Lord that look upon all the earth," and "seven times the righteous man is delivered from troubles."

"Who is," it says, "and who was, and who is to come."

Through these words the holy and venerable Trinity is signified, as has been said before.

But it is no worse to say it again now; for the divine apostle declared that writing the same things is not tiresome for me, but is safe for those who read them.

"The One who is" is the name given to the Father by Moses.

For he says to him, "I am the One who is."

"Who was" is said concerning the Son by this very evangelist, who says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

And he calls the Holy Spirit "the One who is to come," for it is ever coming upon souls worthy to receive it.

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanksgiving to him who sits upon the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before him who sits upon the throne, and will worship him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

"You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power;"

"for you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created."

Together with the holy living creatures, he says, the elders give glory to God;

and the casting of the crowns before God signifies this:

the crown is a symbol of victory and kingship.

Casting them, then, before the throne of God, they attribute the true and real kingship, and the victory over all things, to God who is over all, saying:

"To you, Master, is owed glory above all things;"

"for you brought all things from non-being into being, and by your will you gave subsistence to what previously did not exist."

"And I saw on the right hand of him who sat upon the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals."

"And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice:"

"Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?" And no one in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the scroll or to look at it.

"And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll, nor to look at it;"

"And one of the elders says to me:"

"Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, to open its seven seals."

"And I saw, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as though slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."

"And it came, and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne."

Divine Scripture relates to us a certain book of God, in which all men are found written, perhaps figuratively calling our remembrance before God a book—except that the prophet also names it a scroll, saying: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance;"

"and in your book all shall be written."

And the most wise Moses, propitiating for Israel who had sinned, and weeping before God, and crying out:

"And now, if you will forgive them their sin, forgive it;"

"but if not, blot me out of your book which you have written."

This is the book that the divine evangelist sees written within and on the back.

And within would be those of Israel, written as God-fearing under the guidance of the Law;

and the scroll was in the right hand of God—

these, as I think, are the ways of the saints, of those who lived rightly in the old covenant.

And the scroll was closed and sealed with seven seals.

The number seven, being a perfect number, signifies that the scroll was closed and sealed most securely.

But what does the scroll's being closed mean? That no one was deemed worthy of the sight of God, except a very few.

For how could that which was closed be beheld, on account of the transgression in Adam? But it was the majority, who were in sins, that caused the scroll to remain closed.

For there were some without number, rather than the very few who were pleasing to God, †to be opened†;

this, and also the fact †that† all boldness of speech toward God on the part of those written within was, in common, blocked up—since "all have turned aside, together they have become worthless," according to the prophet;

For even if a few, easily numbered, lived rightly in the old covenant, yet, being men, they did not become sufficient to restore, for all mankind, the boldness of speech that was being lost through sin.

Whence, knowing this, the prophet cried out to God:

"In the morning you shall hear the voice of my supplication; in the morning I will stand before you, and you will watch over me"—calling the appearance of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, who dissolved the gloom of ignorance, the noetic morning;

since in this morning mankind would acquire boldness of speech;

so that, praying, they would also be heard, and would be deemed worthy of regard, since Christ had removed the sin that walled us off from God.

But before his coming upon mankind, every mouth was stopped, and the whole world was accountable to God, according to what is written.

The lack of boldness, then, of those written in the book, as has been said, is signified by the book's being closed and sealed.

'I saw,' he says, 'a mighty angel proclaiming:'

'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?' 'No one,' O most divine angel, one might say to him, 'but only God who became man, who took away sin, and tore up the handwriting that was against us, and by his own obedience healed our disobedience.'

Book Four. 'And no one,' he says, 'was able, in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, to open the scroll.'

For not even an angel accomplished these things for us, as Isaiah says:

'Not an envoy, nor an angel, but he himself saved them, because he loved them:'

'nor any living man, nor indeed any of the dead'

'A brother does not redeem; man does not redeem,' as it is written somewhere

And why, he says, do I speak of opening the scroll, when not even one of men was able even to look upon it? For how could anyone, of those filled with the mist of sin, have gazed before the divine throne, on which the scroll lay? And the unworthiness of all became for me a cause of weeping.

But one of the elders comforted me, pointing out the one who would open it:

'Behold, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so as to open the scroll and its seven seals.'

He, it says, who conquered our conqueror, the Devil — this one opened the scroll and the seals.

And who was the lion from the tribe of Judah? Certainly Christ, concerning whom the patriarch Jacob said:

'Having lain down, he slept as a lion, and as a lion's cub;'

'Who shall rouse him?' And that the Lord arose according to the flesh from Judah, the divine apostle bears witness, saying, for it is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ arose from Judah:

One might wonder why he did not call him a rod from the root of Jesse, nor a flower sprung up from the root, as Isaiah said, but the root of David.