Commentary on the Apocalypse 1 part 4/14

He says this, showing that according to his humanity he was a rod that sprouted from the root of Jesse and of David, but according to his divinity, he himself is the root — not only of David, but of all sensible and intelligible creation — being the cause of all things, as has also been said before.

'And I saw,' he says, 'in the midst of all those around the throne of God, a Lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth:'

And he came and took — that is, the scroll — from the right hand of him who sat upon the throne.

He called him a lamb because of his innocence and his providing nature.

For just as the lamb, by its yearly yield of wool, is provident, so also the Lord opens his hand and fills every living thing with good pleasure.

In this way prophecy also calls him, saying through Isaiah: 'He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent:'

'I,' he says, 'was like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed; I did not know it.'

But the Lamb was not slain, but as if slain.

For Christ came back to life, having trampled down death, and having despoiled Hades of the souls held captive by it:

so that Christ's death was not, in truth, death at all, but was as it were death, because of the brevity of the resurrection.

And since the Lord, after the resurrection, still bore the marks of death — the imprint of the nails, his life-giving body dyed red with blood — according to Isaiah, speaking in the person of the holy angels, who says:

'Why are your garments red, and your raiment as one who treads in the winepress, full, trodden down?' For this reason he was as if slain in the vision of the sight.

The seven horns bear witness to his great strength, insofar as the number seven, being a perfect number, signifies abundance, as has also been said before:

And the horns are a symbol of power, according to the prophet who says:

'And I will break all the horns of sinners, and the horn of the righteous shall be exalted:'

and Habakkuk: 'Horns are in his hands' — they are his.

And as for the seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth, Isaiah interprets for us, saying: 'And the spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness:'

'the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him.'

These spirits — that is, spiritual gifts — have indeed been sent from God to every man, but no one received them so as to come to rest upon him, the gifts having, so to speak, all but grown weary in their circuit to all, until they rested upon Christ.

And what was happening was beyond speech and thought.

For the very spirits which he himself, as God, sent from above, these same he himself, as man, received below, since he was both the one and the other.

To him belongs glory forever and ever, amen. [Book Four] Therefore, since all beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth were at a loss to open the scroll, or even to look upon it as had been seen before, Christ alone, the Son of God, who for our sake became as we are and remained what he was, took the scroll.

And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints:

And they sing a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and purchased us for God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and made them kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign upon the earth.'

And I saw, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and their number was myriads of myriads, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wisdom and riches and might and honor and glory and blessing.'

When the Lord took the scroll, all worshipped, having foreknown the salvation which he was about to accomplish for men, and the punishment for the unclean demons. And the elders' having harps signifies the harmonious and melodious quality of their confession to God, according to what is written:

'Sing praises to our God, sing praises.'

And the incense hints at the offering from all the nations:

For Malachi says, in the person of God, to disobedient Israel:

'I do not accept sacrifice from your hands, because from the rising of the sun to its setting my name has been glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered in my name, and a pure sacrifice.'

proclaiming beforehand through these words the faith of the nations and their bringing of gifts.

being sung — a song not previously offered before he became flesh.

And what was the song? 'You are worthy,' it says, 'to accomplish this salvation for mankind, you who were slain for us and by your blood acquired many out from under heaven.'

And he spoke with great precision when he said, 'out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'

For he did not acquire all, for many died in unbelief, but from all the nations, those worthy of salvation.

The prophet also said something similar:

'Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall †inherit† among all the nations' — not, indeed, all the nations.

'And made them kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign upon the earth.'

Now you can indeed understand this also according to the letter, for both kings and those who preside over the churches are faithful servants of Christ:

But you can also understand 'kings' as those who master their passions, and are not mastered by them:

and 'priests' as those who present their own bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, according to what is written.

And not only, it says, the elders, but also the incorporeal powers of the angels sang a hymn of victory to Christ.

And Daniel also proclaimed beforehand this very number of theirs now mentioned:

And the song of the angels offers seven distinct honors to Christ, showing through the seven that it is fitting for Christ to be crowned with countless doxologies.

And every creature that is in heaven and on earth and on the sea, and all that is in them:

I heard them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb:

'Blessing and honor and glory and might be to him forever and ever.'

And the four living creatures say, 'Amen':

And the elders fell down and worshipped.

The present words signify the doxology offered, in harmony, by all creation, both heavenly and earthly, to God the Father and to the Word who became man and was made flesh — the Holy Spirit, of course, being glorified together with them as well.

And when, he says, I saw that the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and we heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, 'Come.'

'And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering, and to conquer.'

And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, 'Come.'

And another horse went out, fiery red, and to him who sat on it it was given to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another, and a great sword was given to him.

And the scroll's being closed and sealed signifies the lack of free speech of the men written in it, and that their mouths were stopped from every plea of self-defense before God, according to what has been said before.

Therefore the gradual removal of the seals one by one signifies the little-by-little recovery of the boldness and intimacy toward God which the Only-begotten procured for us by becoming man, correcting our transgressions by his own right actions.

One must know that the loosing of each seal indicates one of the things wrought by the Lord for our salvation, and of the deeds done by him against our spiritual enemies; for the Lord's providence toward us is the overthrow of their dominion.

But let none of those who are about to read this wonder that it occurs before the Only-begotten became man;

for the works and deeds prior to his advent among us are shown to the divinely-inspired evangelist by means of vision.

Nevertheless, in the Apocalypse a Lamb was seen as having been slain.

For the things seen by the prophets are wont to have a pre-announcement of the things that are going to be.

Thus a man wrestled with Jacob, the type of Christ;

Thus Isaiah saw the prophetess conceive in the womb and bear a son, whose name was called, 'Make haste to the spoils, hasten to the plunder.'

Thus Daniel saw the Son of Man, the still-unfleshed God, the Word, coming to the Ancient of Days.

To recover for us the intimacy with God that had been lost, and to change our lack of confidence into confidence — this is what the Lord's bodily birth has accomplished, having sanctified our childbearing, so that we may no longer be conceived in transgressions nor carried in the womb in sins by our mothers, but may have the sanctified birth that is from Christ, who blessed human childbearing through his own birth.

And a witness of such generosity toward mankind is the divine apostle, writing: 'since your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.'

So when the first seal was loosed, 'I saw,' he says, 'someone on a white horse, being summoned to come forth from those spiritual holy living creatures, having a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.'

The white horse is a symbol of the gospel-proclamation, as of a benefaction about to be wrought for mankind.

And the crown signifies power and victory.

And he went forth bringing the crown to Christ, since Christ had begun to conquer the devil who had enslaved our race.

'And he went out,' he says, 'that the one who conquers might conquer.'

And Christ was the one conquering, that he might conquer completely, and the rider brought to him the crown, the symbol of victory.

And the second benefaction of Christ toward us, which loosed the second seal of the book, went on to loose our shame, and to bring back to us the divine watchful care;

by the Lord being tempted and overcoming the tempter, so that the accursed one might know himself to be not only a conqueror as before, but now also defeated;

no longer biting the heel of the rider, nor tripping up our steps toward God, but instead falling backward and being sent away like a slave, and hearing from the man with whom he had grappled — though God was in him — 'Get behind me, Satan,' and departing in shame, now for the first time knowing his own weakness — he who had boasted of setting his throne above the clouds, and imagined that he would be like the Most High, according to Isaiah's personification.

When this had come to pass, a fiery-red horse went out, urged forward by one of the holy living creatures;

'And to him who sat on the horse,' he says, 'authority was given to take peace from the earth, that they should slay one another;'

'and a great sword was given to him.'

The fiery-red horse is an emblem of blood;

Wherefore also a sword has been given to the one sitting upon it, so that he might divide and cut apart the concord of those on earth that inclines toward evil.

And their concord was toward idolatry; and, he says, 'that they should slay one another;'

that is, that they should do away with their mutual pacts for evil.

'For the Lord did not come to cast peace upon the earth, but a sword;'

'and to set a son against his father, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;'

The new and God-fearing set against the old and condemned.

'And when,' he says, 'he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying,'

'And I saw, and behold, a black horse;'

'and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand.'

'And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying,'

'and three choinikes of barley for a denarius;'

'and do not harm the oil and the wine.'

'And when,' he says, 'he opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying,'

'I saw, and behold, a pale horse; and he who sat upon it, his name was Death, and Hades followed with him; and authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with death and by the wild beasts of the earth.'

The third act of mercy of Christ toward us loosed the third seal, and brought us — who had been condemned to estrangement — near to God the Father.

And this is his saving teaching, and the benefactions wrought through his divine signs;

for these brought about the increase of the devil's overthrow;

for through them we came to know who is by nature and truly God, so that we might not be infants, tossed by every wind of doctrine;

and might not worship those things which our own hands made — the destructive demons — having bartered away the glory of God.

When these things had come to pass, a black horse went out, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand.

The black horse is indicative of dejection and mourning, since the overthrow of the devil was intensified by the divine instructions, and therefore he mourns his own undoing — the dominion that had resisted for so long a time.

And the balance is an emblem of equality and justice.

'For he who judges righteousness has sat upon the throne;'

'He rebuked the nations of the demons, and the ungodly one, their ruler, perished;'

The balance, then, is a symbol of the just judgment of the Lord, which is on our behalf;

so that we too may say to him with boldness,

'You have wrought my judgment and my justice' — so that we, the nations, may know that we are human beings, and not be dragged about like cattle by bit and muzzle, and driven off by destructive tyrants.

'And I heard,' he says, 'a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying,'

'A choinix of wheat for a denarius, and three choinikes of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.'

The word and the teaching is figuratively represented as seed by the divine Scripture;

for it is written in Matthew:

'A sower went out to sow.'

And again, the most devoted of the servants say to their lord:

'Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? Whence then does it have tares?' And of the seed, the one part is wheat, such as the gospel proclamation, being food befitting men who are mature;

and who have their senses trained for the discernment of good and evil.

And what is barley? The teaching according to the Law of Moses — more fitting than wheat for that time, and ripened, a coarse fodder-like food, nourishing infant Israel.

Therefore God, speaking as an oracle in the midst of the four living creatures, says:

'A choinix of wheat for a denarius, and three choinikes of barley for a denarius.'

By these things he hints that there was, among the people of that time, a famine and scarcity of teaching, both the gospel teaching from the Lord, and the teaching of the Law, according to what is written:

'I will give them not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.'

'Even if,' he says, 'those who despise all teaching and conversion ought especially to suffer this and that, do not harm the oil and the wine;'

'Let them be, and bring upon them no punishment;'

'There is still mercy for them from me,' says God.

'since there is hope for them to be gladdened spiritually by the divine proclamations of my Only-begotten;'

'for these things are the wine that gladdens the heart of man spiritually.'

Therefore, one who exacts vengeance for their former disobedience would harm the mercy that is to come to them from God, and the spiritual joy that is to come through faith.

And why do I speak of the intelligible grace alone? For the teachings of the Lord also possessed a perceptible grace;

And witness to this is the prophet, who says to the Lord, "Grace is poured out upon your lips"; and Josephus, a Jewish man yet compelled by the truth, writing about him in the book of the Antiquities of Israel, says the following:

At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man;

for he was a doer of paradoxical works, a teacher of men who receive the truth with pleasure;

and he drew to himself many Jews, and many from the Greek nation.

and when Pilate, upon the indictment of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at first did not cease;

for he appeared to them on the third day, alive again, the divine prophets having spoken these things and countless other wonders concerning him,

and even to this day the race of Christians, named after him, has not died out.

The loosing of the fourth seal, and the beginning of the loosing of the remaining seals, of the sin arising from Adam's transgression;

for the loosing of this sin is evidently a reconciliation to God;

for if our sins separate us from God, as Isaiah says, the removal of these sins brings us near to him;

But what is the loosing? The blows given to Christ, through which we were set free;

for since we were condemned by the pleasure of taste, we were healed by the opposite things;

healing disobedience through obedience, pleasure through a painful undertaking, and, through the hands courageously stretched out on the cross, the hands that rashly touched the forbidden tree;

And when this had happened, he says, at the summons of the fourth of the living creatures, there came a pale-green horse, and the one sitting upon it, his name was Death;

and Hades follows with him;

and authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth;

The pale-green horse is a symbol of wrath;

for bile is greenish, and is so called by physicians;

Death and Hades, in an intelligible sense, were sent forth to destroy the accursed demons, and to exact justice for the destruction of mankind;

but since, at the time of the vision's narrative, the saving passion of Christ had not yet taken place, through which he paid in full all the sins on our behalf, the destruction of the demons was not yet complete, but only a fourth part for the time being;

which destruction he figuratively calls "slaughter" and "famine" of those who formerly worshiped them;

and "death," thereby unveiling the end of their tyranny through the word death, and "destruction by the wild beasts of the earth," calling the passions of pride and vainglory among the demons "wild beasts of the earth";

which passions, since they are earthly in that they delight in the passions that crawl upon the earth, even though they were allotted a bodiless nature, smoulder and consume them, casting them out from their dominion over mankind.

And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the church which they held;

and they cried out with a loud voice, saying:

"How long, O Master, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" And to each of them was given a white robe, and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while longer, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who were about to be killed as they themselves had been, should be completed in number.

The fifth salvation of the Lord, then, bestowed upon the race of men, which loosed the fifth seal of the Lord and procured for us beforehand the loosing of sins and reconciliation to God, are the bonds and the blows by which the Lord, having been bound, was brought before Pilate, and which he suffered from Pilate, who was half-reverent;

Concerning these wounds Isaiah spoke, representing the Lord as being asked by the divine angels:

"What are these wounds between your hands?" they said;

"Wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my beloved."

For these healed our wounds, with which we were wounded, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and falling among robbers, who, having bound us and wounded us, left us half-dead, according to the parable of Luke.

But he has also loosed our bonds, the ropes of sin, by which we were tightly bound;

for the prophet says, "the ropes of sinners were wrapped around me."

So then, the devil, in acting wickedly, unknowingly worked against himself, thrusting the sword into himself in his drunken outrages against the Lord, and falling from the dominion he had wrongly established.

When this had happened, since previously the saints who had borne witness under the old covenant, these things not yet having been done against Christ — for even though he was spat upon and struck and buffeted, these things were done in secret, in the unlawful council of the chief priests, with only the attendants and those summoned to the council as witnesses — they were still quiet, mindful of nothing concerning themselves;

but when they saw the Lord bound,

and scourged by Pilate publicly, before the whole assembly of the Jews, then they rose up together, and, as unbearable things had happened against their own Master, they also remembered their own situation;

for it says, "I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the church which they held";

I saw, he says, the souls of the martyrs occupying the highest place;

for they were above the supracelestial altar.

Then he also states what kind of martyrs — those, he says, who were slain for the pious doctrine of the old covenant and for the church, that is, the synagogue, which they held.

For the martyrs do not die only for themselves, but they make the benefit common;

by the blood of the saints the knowledge of God was built up.

And they cried out, he says, with a loud voice, saying:

"How long, O Master, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" — Not against men, but against the demons who linger among earthly things, did they make their plea;

for it was not consistent with the love of the saints to rise up against their own kindred, but rather against those who incite men toward their own destruction.

Having said these things, they first receive white robes;

and this was a riddle of their having been cleansed by their own blood, and having put off all defilement;

then they hear, "Rest yet a little while longer, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who are about to be killed as they themselves were, should be fulfilled in number."

For it was not just that those equal to them in courage should be hindered from the crowns of martyrdom, the demons who trained them being destroyed before their time.

And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and a great earthquake occurred, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casting its unripe figs, shaken by a great wind, and the heaven was split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved from their places;

and the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the commanders of thousands, and the rich, and the strong, and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains;

and they say to the mountains and the rocks:

"Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" The loosing of the sixth seal accomplished our most complete salvation;

it stripped the crown from the conqueror of men, triumphing openly, according to what is written:

for the Only-begotten ascended on high;

he led captivity captive;

he received gifts among men.

But what is the loosing of the sixth seal? The cross of the Lord and his death, which were followed by the resurrection and ascension longed for by all intelligible and perceptible creation, inaugurating for us a new and living way, the return from death to life through the veil of his flesh;

which benefited not only the living, but also those who had departed before.

For the Lord went and preached also to those in Hades who had once been disobedient, according to the divine apostle Peter, and he saved even there those who believed, as also seems right to Cyril.

When these things had happened, "a great earthquake occurred," it says, "and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casting its unripe figs, shaken by a great wind";

Clearly the vision describes for us the signs that occurred at the cross: the earthquake and the shaking of the earth, the darkness of the sun, and the transformation of the whole moon into blood.

And he added very precisely, concerning the moon, the word "whole";

for being full and not half, it was, nearly on the day of the cross, throughout its whole disc that it received the affliction;

for it is customary for such things to happen to the illuminated part during lunar eclipses.

And the prophet Joel also foretold that these things would happen, saying, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes."

As for the stars falling from heaven, perhaps this also happened in a perceptible sense;

but if not, then the word hints that the heavenly light ceased, and that everything was darkened.

And the heaven departed as a scroll that is rolled up.

By "heaven" he means the heavenly powers of the angels, who themselves also were thrown into confusion, unable to bear the outrage done to their Master, as though darting here and there,

darting about like a scroll being unrolled and disturbed.

And every mountain, he says, and island were moved out of their places.

He calls these the ranks of demons, according to what is written concerning them:

and mountains being removed into the hearts of the seas.

And again he calls them islands, inasmuch as they are lifted up and exalted by the vainglorious futility of their mind amid the unstable and briny distractions of this present life.

And the kings of the earth, he says, and the great ones and the commanders of thousands and the rich and the mighty, and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the mountains and the rocks:

Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Again, by kings and great ones, commanders of thousands and rich and mighty, he means the guilty demons, as having ruled over those on earth through deceit and guile;

and by slaves and free men, those among the demons who are preeminent and those who are subordinate.

Now their hiding themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and indeed also saying, "Fall on us and hide us," is spoken figuratively;

but it hints that they attempt to become fugitives from the punishment brought upon them by Christ. For if some invisible chastisement and punishment were not brought upon them, what is the meaning of what was said by the prophet Isaiah in the person of Christ:

I have trodden the winepress all alone, and of the nations there is no man with me; and I trod them down in my wrath, and I crushed them in my anger, and I brought their blood down to the earth:

And what too of the God-hating demons saying, according to Matthew:

What have we to do with you, Son of God? Have you come to torment us? One might understand that these things said in the Apocalypse are not only the sufferings of demons, but also of the lawless Jews who fixed the cross upon the Lord — who, being oppressed by the war against the Romans, became fugitives in the mountains and caves and the holes of the earth, and were constrained on every side by want and by anguish.

After this, he says, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind might blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree.