Commentary on the Apocalypse 1 part 7/14

and he calls 'the abyss' the life of men, which is bitter with sins, and briny, and unsettled by the buffeting of the spirits of wickedness.

For the accursed one will not arise from some other substance, but from human and our own nature;

for he will be a man, whose coming is according to the working of Satan, as has just been said.

This beast, then, he says, will kill the two witnesses, and will cast their corpses unburied in the streets of Jerusalem,

for in it he will reign as king of the Jews, whom, having deceived, he will have serving and obeying him in all things, just as the Lord says in John:

'I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me;'

'—in his own name, that one you will receive.'

As for Jerusalem, he calls it Sodom spiritually, not literally, because of the licentiousness and false-glory of that time, and Egypt, as one that enslaved and wronged the servants of Christ, just as that Egypt did Israel—where also, he says, their Lord, that is, the Lord of the two witnesses, was crucified.

And those from every tribe who have been deceived by the Antichrist, seeing the slaying of the witnesses, will rejoice over them, as though their own king had conquered.

And the sending of gifts to one another is a token of joy and gladness.

'Because,' he says, 'these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth'—no perceptible torment;

but by reproaching their sins, and refuting them, and exposing their deceit, they tormented them in an intellectual manner.

'And after three days and a half, a breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon those who beheld them;'

'and they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them:'

'Come up here.' And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.

'And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand persons were killed in the earthquake, and the rest, being terrified, gave glory to the God of heaven.'

'The second woe is past;'

'behold, the third woe is coming quickly.'

Since all these things are plain, and are destined to occur perceptibly at that time, it would be a lack of taste to dwell at length upon what has already been acknowledged.

'And the seventh angel sounded;'

'and there were great voices in heaven, saying:'

'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.'

'And the twenty-four elders, who sit before God upon their thrones, fell upon their faces and worshiped God, saying:'

'We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, that you have taken your great power and have reigned;'

'and the nations were angered, and your wrath came, and the time for the nations to be judged, and to give the reward to your servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear your name, both small and great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.'

'And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple;'

'and there were lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and great hail.'

As though in a digression, the vision, having narrated the matters concerning the two witnesses, that is, the prophets, and having gone through everything concerning them, now returns to the matter set before it and to the point from which it had departed;

and it had departed from the topic of the future recompense of the saints, and the fact that those from the nations are more numerous than Israel, and that those who pleased God in the new covenant surpass those in the old.

And he says, when the seventh angel had sounded, there were voices in heaven saying that the kingdom of the world had become the kingdom of God and of his Christ.

God indeed reigns always, and neither began nor will he ever cease reigning over heaven and earth and the things in them, both visible and intelligible, but without beginning and without end he is the master and lord of all things.

But since men also came to be called kings

upon the earth, and in a certain manner God had them as co-reigning with him, when the earthly kingdom of men is dissolved at the consummation of the present age, God alone will reign.

Therefore it is said that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of God and of his Christ, since the men reigning on the earth and the demons exercising tyranny have been dissolved and have ceased.

When this voice had occurred, the elders, he says, worshiped God, themselves also offering their own thanksgiving, saying, 'We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was.'

And 'who is' befits being said of the Holy Trinity, and so does 'who was'—even though 'who is' is said most especially concerning the Father;

but concerning the Son it is 'was' that is especially said—for indeed he too is always existing, since wherever there is the Father, there is also the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So that the thanksgiving of the elders is offered up to the Holy Trinity.

'Because,' he says, 'you have taken your great power from those on earth, and your kingdom which you gave to them, and now you alone reign;'

and since the earthly kingdom is being destroyed, fittingly 'the nations were angered,' as being deposed from their dominion—calling 'nations' both the ranks of the demons and of the unbelieving men.

'And your wrath came,' he says, 'and the lot of the nations to be judged, and to give the reward to your servants the prophets and to the saints;'

'Having long shown much patience toward them,' he says, 'since they profited nothing from your kindness, now'—that is, on the day of judgment—'you have brought your wrath against them,' and there has come and is present what has been allotted and is owed to the nations.

And what was this? This was the being judged, and the giving of recompense to the saints who had suffered evil at their hands, and the destruction, by the retribution of punishment, of those who corrupted the earth, and who, as it were, defiled it with their own sins.

'And,' he says, 'the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple.'

When these things, he says, had been spoken, the hidden good things, and besides these certain new mysteries, were revealed to the saints;

for this is what the opening of the ark of the covenant signifies.

For that there are good things in the age to come, hidden from present-day men, is made clear by him who says, 'Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and have not entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him.'

And again, the Lord shows that there are certain mysteries and another knowledge unknown to people now, by saying: 'I will not drink from now on of the fruit of this vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father.'

The saints were deemed worthy of these things, but for sinners there came lightnings and voices and thunders and earthquakes and great hail, which is the third woe — through things known to us, the discourse hints at the punishments to come upon the impious, and the terrors from God.

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;

and being with child, she cries out, being in labor and in agony to give birth.

The vision wishes to describe to us more completely the matters concerning the Antichrist, of whom it has made brief mention in what precedes.

But since the Lord's incarnation — which made the world its own and subjected it, for on account of this the Antichrist will be roused — became the occasion for this one to arise and be put forward by Satan, so that he might in turn make the world fall away from Christ and persuade it, by a reversal, to desert to Satan; and since, again, the beginning of the Lord's incarnation was his conception and birth according to the flesh, the vision, bringing what it is about to narrate into a certain order and sequence, has made the beginning of its narrative from Christ's conception according to the flesh, and paints for us the Theotokos.

For what does it say? 'And a sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun;'

'and the moon under her feet'? It speaks concerning the mother of our Savior, as has been said.

And fittingly the vision depicts her in heaven and not on earth, as one pure in soul and body, as equal to the angels, as a citizen of heaven, as she who contained and made flesh the God who rests in heaven — for he says, 'Heaven is my throne' — and as having nothing in common with the earth and the evils in it, but as wholly exalted, wholly worthy of heaven, even though she was of our own human nature and substance.

For the Virgin is consubstantial with us;

for let the unholy dogma of Eutyches, which monstrously proclaims the Virgin to be of a different substance from us, together with his other doctrines of Docetism, be banished somewhere outside the divine courts.

'into light' — meaning by 'the sun' our Savior Christ, the sun of righteousness, or indeed the evangelical proclamation.

when this, he says, was exalted and increased, the moon — that is, the law of Moses — stood still and no longer received increase;

for after the manifestation of Christ it no longer gained proselytes from among the nations as before, but rather it suffered diminution and decrease.

Understand, then, something of this sort here too: that the holy Virgin is covered by the intelligible sun;

for thus the prophet also calls the Lord, saying concerning Israel: 'fire fell upon them and they did not see the sun;'

but the moon, that is, the priestly service according to the law and the commonwealth according to the law, having been brought low and having become far less than itself, is under her feet, overcome by the brightness of the gospel.

He rightly named the things in the law 'moon,' since they too were illumined by the sun, that is, by Christ, just as the sensible moon is illumined by the sensible sun.

But with regard to what is signified, it would have been more consistent to say not that the woman was clothed with the sun, but that the woman had clothed the sun contained in her womb;

but in order to show, even in the vision, that the Lord, while being carried in the womb, was already the covering of his own mother and of all creation, it said that he had clothed the woman.

The divine angel also said something similar to the holy Virgin:

'The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.'

for 'to overshadow,' 'to cover,' and 'to have clothed' are, in force, the same thing.

'And on her head,' it says, 'a crown of twelve stars.'

for the Virgin is crowned with the twelve apostles, being proclaimed together as they proclaim Christ.

'And being with child,' it says, 'she cries out, being in labor and in agony to give birth;'

and yet Isaiah says concerning her: 'Before she who was in labor gave birth, and before the pain of labor came, she escaped and bore a male child;'

And Gregory, in the thirteenth homily of his Interpretation of the Song of Songs, says concerning the Lord: 'whose conception remains without union, and whose childbirth is unstained.'

If, then, according to so great a prophet and according to the teacher of the Church, the Virgin escaped the pain of labor, how is it that here she cries out, being in labor and in agony to give birth? What has been said is not a contradiction — far from it;

for there could be nothing contrary in the one and the same who spoke through both; rather, the 'she cries out' and 'is in agony' here you are to understand in this way:

until the divine angel told Joseph concerning her that what was being carried in the womb was of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin was, as is likely, in distress, blushing before her betrothed, and reckoning lest perhaps he might suspect that she was in labor from a secret union;

this distress and grief, according to the laws of figurative speech, it called 'crying out' and 'torment,' and this is not surprising;

for indeed to the divinely-inspired Moses too, when he was interceding with God in his mind and was distressed — for he saw Israel in the wilderness, surrounded by the sea and by enemies — it was said by God, 'Why do you cry out to me?' Thus also now the vision calls the Virgin's grievous disposition of mind and heart a 'crying out.'

But you who dissolved the distress of your immaculate handmaid and mother according to the flesh — my Lady, the holy Theotokos — by your ineffable birth, dissolve also my sins;

for to you belongs the glory forever, amen. Book Seven: having completed in part the contemplation concerning our common Lady, the holy ever-virgin and Theotokos Mary, hands down to us another vision, saying:

'And another sign appeared in heaven:'

'and behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems; and his tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven, and cast them to the earth.'

'And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.'

'And she gave birth to a male son, who is to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron;'

'and her child was caught up to God and to his throne.'

'And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there they might nourish her for one thousand two hundred sixty days.'

It has been said in what preceded, that the vision, wishing to narrate more fully the matters concerning the Antichrist, makes its beginning the conception and birth of the Lord, on whose account that destroyer has also been put forward by the common enemy and foe of all, so that he might again enslave those gathered by the Lord. So also now it must be said that the vision, wishing to narrate the matters concerning the Antichrist, makes, prior to the beginning already mentioned — I mean the birth of the Lord — another, earlier beginning: that concerning Satan, how he was cast down from heaven (although it states this more clearly in the vision that follows, adding that he also plotted against the Lord), so that, the beginning having been laid down as it were like a foundation, it might build upon it the remaining narratives concerning the Antichrist and the deeds done by him.

These things having thus been narrated beforehand, we must now move on to the examination of the words of the text.

'And another sign appeared,' it says, 'in heaven' — as though the text were slapping the originator of evil, Satan, with the fact that, being heavenly, through pride he has become one who crawls on the ground;

it shows him beforehand in heaven, so that the apostate might know from what state into what state he has fallen.

'And behold,' it says, 'a great fiery red dragon.'

It calls Satan a 'dragon' on account of his crookedness;

for Isaiah too calls him thus,

speaking against the dragon, the crooked serpent:

and he is called 'fiery red' on account of his bloodthirstiness and wrathfulness.

'having seven heads and ten horns;'

'and on his heads seven diadems.'

Nor was the prophet unaware that he is many-headed;

therefore he says to God:

'You broke the heads of the dragon;'

'You gave him as food to the peoples, the Ethiopians.'

They say he is many-headed, since the number seven signifies 'many,' as has often been said, in that he devises many principles and schemes of methods against men, by which he enslaves them; for the diadem is a symbol of tyranny.

The ten horns hint at his greatest power.

for the number ten is perfect, and the horn is a sign of power.

for it is said also, 'and my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn.'

As for how he is powerful, it is possible for one who reads the book of Job to know.

'And with his tail,' it says, 'he sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.'

for he cast down together with himself a very great portion of the angels, having persuaded them to fall away together from God, and made those who were heavenly into earthly beings, and turned into darkness those who were bright like stars.

And 'with the tail' signifies, as it were, by his last and hindmost transgressions;

for he himself first conceived madness and apostasy, and having sufficiently nurtured it in the pride of his mind, he thus proceeded also to corrupt the rest.

'And the dragon,' it says, 'stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.'

From the events concerning the Lord, knowing that the one who would destroy his dominion was going to be born, he watched carefully so that, when the Virgin gave birth, he might destroy what was born.

Therefore he did not neglect this, but roused Herod to destroy the child — the male and manly one, who had nothing effeminate or weak about him.

for 'before the child knows to call father or mother,' Isaiah proclaims good news to us: 'he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians.'

And who is this male child who was born? Reveal it to us more clearly, O John — the one who, it says, is to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron.

You have declared to us openly, O inspired one, our savior and lord, Jesus Christ;

For to him it has been promised by his own Father: 'Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession;'

'You will shepherd them with a rod of iron; you will shatter them like a potter's vessel.'

'And her child,' he says, 'was caught up to God and to his throne.'

The venomous dragon lay in ambush, and incited Herod to slay the children in Bethlehem, as though he would surely find the Lord among them;

but the child, by the providence of the Father, escaped the plot;

into Egypt, since Herod was about to seek the life of the child.

'And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred and sixty days.'

Was the child, then, saved from the plot of the dragon, while the woman was given over to destruction? Not at all; rather, she too was saved by the flight into Egypt, which was a desert place and free from Herod's plot.

'And there,' he says, 'she dwelt and was nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days,' which add up to three and a half years, lacking a little.

For probably the Theotokos spent that much time in Egypt, until the death of Herod, after which an angel's oracle drew them back again to Judea.

'And war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels warring with the dragon,'

'and the dragon warred, and his angels.'

'And they did not prevail, nor was a place found for him any longer in heaven.'

'And the great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil,'

'and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.'

As if by continual ascent from the beginning already stated, the vision now conceives of an earlier beginning, of which it had also made partial mention before, being about to relate to us the things concerning the Antichrist;

for the first beginning of the things concerning them is the fall of Satan from heaven,

concerning which the Lord also says, 'I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.'

What, then, does it mean that 'war arose in heaven'? Divine Scripture means that Satan stiffened his neck against God, that is, raised against him a hard and arrogant neck, and contrived apostasy.

But God, since he is by nature good and patient of evil, was longsuffering toward him;

but the divine angels, not enduring the insolence shown toward their own master, thrust him out from their fellowship.

This is now what it means, that Michael — and he is one of the great princes among the angels — warred against Satan and those under him.

But Satan did not prevail in the war waged against him;

'nor,' it says, 'was a place of refuge, or indeed of dwelling, found for him in heaven,' and he was cast down to earth — either suffering this in a sensible manner, or because, being stripped of his angelic and heavenly rank, he was cast down into an earthly mind.

Then, as if avenging himself on God for his fall, since it was not possible to harm God himself, he harms God's servants, mankind, and deceives them and tries to make them apostatize from God, thinking that in this way he is harming that same master.

'And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ, have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night."'

'And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.'

'Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.'

'Woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has only a short time.'

The holy angels, therefore, indicating their own joy which they had at the overthrow of Satan, sing a victory song to God, saying, as it says, 'Now the salvation and the kingdom have come, and the power of God has shone forth, and the authority of his Christ,' since he is almighty;

for, he says, 'by its cooperation we have conquered the enemy.'

'and the accuser of our brothers has gone away from us, he who accused them before our God day and night.'

O the modesty of the holy angels!

How they are imitators of their own master!

They call human beings their own brothers.

And what is remarkable in this? Since the common master himself did not disdain to call them this, saying, 'I will declare your name to my brothers;'

'in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.'

But what do they say concerning Satan? 'He has gone away.'

There is no longer any place for him to stand before God and accuse mankind,

as though unconquerable, so as even to dare against God.

But they conquered by making use, as fellow-worker and helper, of the precious blood of Christ, and of the word of the testimony for him, which they preferred above their own lives.

These things having come to pass, 'rejoice,' it says, 'all you angels of God,' having been delivered from the bitter neighborhood of Satan.

'Woe,' it says, 'to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has only a short time.'

And someone might say: if it was going to go badly for the earth and the sea because of the descent of Satan...

why did he come down? Because for those who are sober and have their hope in God, it has proven not only not harmful, but even beneficial, exercising them as a trainer does, and through trials making them more approved, and tempering them like iron.

But he harms the sluggish and the degenerate, who, even without the one provoking them being present, would perhaps of themselves have become evil by nature, their passions having turned that way.

In saying 'Woe to the earth and the sea,' they do not mean this, 'Woe to the people who inhabit the earth and sail the sea,' but rather those who are earth and ash, according to what is written, and earthly in disposition; and further, those who are tossed like a strait, carried about and unstable in mind.

For it is against these that the common enemy campaigns, enslaving the weak, who willingly submit to his tyranny.

'knowing,' it says, 'that he has only a short time.'

For the time from the devil's fall until his judgment and recompense is short, when compared to the unending ages.

For this reason also the patriarch Jacob, though he was living in his hundred and thirtieth year, said, when questioned by Pharaoh, 'Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life.'

'And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child.'

'And to the woman were given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, to her place, where she is nourished there for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.'

'And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water like a river, that he might make her carried away by the river.'

'And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth.'

'And the dragon was angered at the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.'

The present passage is a recapitulation of what has been said;

for it does not mean this, that after the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he immediately pursued the woman; but rather, when the dragon saw himself amid the evils in which he now was, and that he had fallen from angelic rank, he became exceedingly bitter against mankind, and pursued the woman who had borne the savior of mankind, in order to destroy her.

But he pursued the woman since he knew that the one born of her was too strong to be caught, being envious toward mankind of the salvation from the Lord, and unable to bear so great a reversal, that whereas he himself had been cast down from the heavens, human beings from the earth should ascend to heaven through virtue.

'And to the woman,' he says, 'were given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, to her place, where she is nourished there for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.'

'But,' he says, 'neither did the woman fall under the hand of Satan, but she fled into the wilderness.'

And this is Egypt, according to what was said before.

Now the prophet sought wings like a dove's, that flying away he might rest in the wilderness;

but to the all-pure Virgin more powerful wings have been given, those, it says, of the great eagle.

By the wings of the eagle he means the visitation of the divinely-inspired angel, who urged Joseph to take the child and his mother and flee into Egypt; by this visitation, as though by the wings of an eagle, they reached Egypt.

Next, in due sequence, it narrates the cross of the Lord and his death.

'And,' he says, 'the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water like a river, that he might make her carried away by the river;'

Divine Scripture allegorizes trial as a river, saying in one place, through Jonah, 'You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and rivers encompassed me;'

'and [the rivers] did not overthrow the house that was founded on the rock.'

He calls, then, the river the trial that came upon the Passion of the Lord

so that through this, he says, he might drown the virgin;

And truly, as far as concerned him and the excess of pain, the dragon was able to fulfill his purpose

For what does Simeon say to her? 'And a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed'

But the earth, he says, helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth after the woman

The earth's swallowing of the river signifies its receiving the trial within itself, that is, the Lord having been put to death

But it did not help in this, but in giving the Lord back again;

For he came back to life on the third day, having trampled down death, since it was not possible for him to be held by it, being the Author of life, according to the divinely-inspired Peter

So that the construction may be thus: 'And the earth helped the woman' is to be read as a complete sentence;

Then, as if by way of a question: 'But in what manner did it help?' It swallowed the river—that is, having received within itself the Lord who was plotted against, it gave him back again, and in this it helped

As, then, the dragon had failed also in his second plot, what does he do next to those called sons and brothers of the Lord, that is, the faithful? For he persecuted these, he says, since they are of the seed of the woman;