Commentaries 1 part 2/6

Knowing this, Moses the lawgiver also, that it had to be sealed and concealed until the coming of His passion, veiled his face and thus spoke to the people, showing that the words of the preaching were veiled until the coming of the time of Christ. For when he had also read the law itself to the people, having taken unwashed wool and the blood of a calf and water, he sprinkled all the people, saying: this is the blood of the testament, concerning which the Lord has given commandment to you. One ought therefore to observe, as a diligent man, that the whole preaching coheres into one. For it does not suffice that it be called a law, since it is also named a testament. No law is called a testament, nor is a testament named anything else than what dying men make;

and whatever they have testified within is sealed up until the day of the death of the testator. But because He vanquished death and forestalled the office of the executioner, He was said to be as it were slain. Therefore it is rightly now unsealed through the slain Lamb, who, as a lion, broke death and fulfilled the things that had been foretold of Him (and set man free), that is, the flesh from death; and He received possession of the substance of him who dies, that is, of human members. And just as through one body all men had come under the debt of death, so through one body all who believe shall rise again unto eternal life.

Now therefore the face of Moses is covered, now also it is revealed; and therefore the Apocalypse is called a revelation; now his book is unsealed; now the offerings of sacrifices are understood; now the priesthoods and the commandments of Christ and the building of the house and the testimonies are openly understood. The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures, having harps and bowls, singing a new song: (the preaching of the Old Testament joined with the New shows the Christian people singing a new song), that is, of those publicly bringing forth their confession.

It is new that the Son of God becomes man; new also that the same is delivered up to death by men; new that He rises on the third day; new that He ascends with the body into the heavens; new that remission of sins is given to men; new that men are sealed with the Holy Spirit; new that He receives a priesthood of supplication and awaits a kingdom of immeasurable promise. For the harp stretched upon wood signified the body of Christ joined to the passion (that is, the flesh of Christ); but the bowl signified the confession and the propagation of the new priesthood. Of many angels: nay rather, of all. Of the whole election rendering thanksgiving to our Lord for the deliverance of men from the disaster of death. CHAPTER VI.

The unsealing of the seals, as we said, is the opening of the things preached in the Old Testament and the foreannouncement of things to come in the last time; and although the prophetic Scripture speaks of them through individual seals, nevertheless, when all the seals are opened together, the preaching has its proper order. For when, at the opening of the first seal, he says that he saw a white horse and a crowned horseman holding a bow—for this came to pass in the first—after our Lord ascended into the heavens, He opened all things and sent forth the Holy Spirit, whose words, through the preachers, would press like arrows to the heart of men and overcome unbelief. Now the crown is the one promised to the preachers upon the head through the Holy Spirit. The other three horses:

the Lord, showing famine, wars, and pestilence in the Gospel, clearly signifies things foretold; and therefore he says: one of the living creatures, because all four are one. Now 'Come and see': 'Come' is said to him who is invited to faith, and 'See' is said to him who did not see. Therefore the white horse is the word of preaching with the Holy Spirit sent into the world; for the Lord says: this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world of the earth for a testimony to all nations, and then the end shall come. But the black horse signifies famine; for the Lord says: and there shall be famines in places. Now properly the word extends itself unto Antichrist, that is, the times when there shall be a great famine, and when men shall be hurt.

The red horse, and he who sat upon it having a sword: these are the wars which it signifies will come, as we read in the Gospel: for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be a great earthquake. This is the red horse. But the pale horse, and he who sat upon it had the name Death. These same things also, among other calamities, the Lord had foretold: pestilences and mortalities to come. For when he says: and hell follows him, that is, to express the devouring of many ungodly souls. This is the pale horse. But that he saw the souls of the slain under the altar, that is, under the earth.

For both heaven and earth are called 'altar,' just as the law, picturing in figure the face of the truth, had made two altars, one of gold within and one of bronze without. But we understand the altar to be called heaven by our Lord, who bears us witness; for He says: when you offer your gift at the altar—surely our gifts are the prayers which we ought to perform—and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave there your gift: surely prayers ascend to heaven. As therefore the golden altar, which was the inner one, is understood as heaven—for the priest also entered the temple once a year, he who had the commandment of Christ, to the golden altar;

it signified that the Holy Spirit was to do this, that is, that what was suffered was done once for all—so also the bronze altar is understood as the earth, beneath which is hell, a region removed from the punishments and the fires, the rest of the saints, in which indeed the just are seen and heard by the ungodly, but neither can these pass over to those. He, then, who sees all things, willed us to know that so many—that is, the souls of the slain—await the vindication of their blood, that is, of His own body, from those dwelling upon the earth. But because in the last time both the perpetual reward of the saints and the damnation of the ungodly is to come, it is said 'to await'; and for the solace of His body they received, he says, white robes, that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Concerning Victorinus's edition, as regards chapter VI, let those things be compared which we have noted at page 76, 2. Of Jerome's recension, chapter VI, section 8, which is represented on the opposite page, lines 6–9, drawn from the commentaries of Tyconius, is extant in Pseudo-Augustine's homily on the Apocalypse VI (in Migne XXXV 2427, 2428, twice), in Primasius (Migne LXVIII 854), and in Beatus, page 357. CHAPTER VII. Now the angel descending from the rising of the sun: he means Elijah the prophet, who is to anticipate the times of Antichrist for the restoring of the churches and for establishing them against the intolerable persecution. These things we read in the opening of the book, both of the Old Testament and of the new preaching; for the Lord says through Malachi:

Behold, I send you Elijah the Tishbite, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of man to his neighbour, that is, to Christ through penance; 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children': according to the time of the calling, to recall the Jews to the faith of the people that follows. And therefore he shows also that a number from the Jews will believe, and from the Gentiles a great multitude. CHAPTER VIII. That the prayers of the church are sent from heaven by the angel, and are received, and against it wrath is poured out, and the kingdom of Antichrist is darkened through the holy angels, we read also in the Gospel; for He says: pray, that you enter not into temptation.

For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning nor from the origin of the world; and unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh upon the earth would be saved. These seven great archangels, then, He will send to smite the kingdom of Antichrist. For the Lord Himself also said in the Gospel: then the Son of Man shall send His messengers, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of heaven to its ends. And he says before: then there shall be peace in the land, when seven shepherds and eight bites of men shall rise up in it, and they shall hunt out Asshur—that is, Antichrist—into the pit of Nimrod: into the damnation of the devil. And Ecclesiastes likewise said: when the keepers of the house shall be moved. But the Lord Himself says thus:

When the labourers had come to Him and said to Him: Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? whence then are there tares there? He answered them: an enemy has done this. They said: do you wish that we go and root it up? He says to them: no, let both grow until the harvest, and in the time, He says, I will tell the reapers to gather the tares and cast them into the fire, but to store the wheat in the barns. These reapers and labourers the Apocalypse here shows to be the archangels. Now the 'trumpet' is the word of power; and although he repeats it through the 'bowls,' it is not as though he says it has been done, but because once it has been decreed for them that what is to come upon them should happen, therefore it is said twice.

Whatever, therefore, he said too briefly in the trumpets, that he said more fully in the bowls. Nor is the order of the things said to be regarded, since the sevenfold Holy Spirit, when he has run through to the very last point of time and to its end, returns again to the same times and supplies what he had said too sparingly. Nor is order to be sought in the Apocalypse, but understanding is to be sought; for there is also a pseudo-prophecy. There are, then, things written in the trumpets and in the bowls: either the disasters of the plagues sent upon the world, or the madness of Antichrist himself, or the disparaging of the peoples, or the difference among the plagues, or the hope in the kingdom of the saints, or the ruin of the cities, or the ruin of Babylon, that is, of the Roman city. 'An eagle flying through the midst of heaven':

By this the Holy Spirit is signified, testifying in the two prophets that the great wrath of the plagues is at hand: that if in any way, although it be the last time, anyone may yet be able to be saved. CHAPTER X. 'For a mighty angel, whom he says descended from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow over his head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as a pillar of fire, and having in his hand an open book, and he set his feet upon the sea and the land' — this signifies our Lord, as we explained above concerning 'his face as the sun,' that is, concerning the resurrection; and over his head the rainbow is the judgment which has been made or is to be made. But the open book is the Apocalypse which John received.

His feet — we also said above — are the apostles welded together; for that both the sea and the land are trodden underfoot by him signifies that all things are placed beneath his feet. He calls him an angel, that is, the messenger of the almighty Father; for he is called the messenger of great counsel. 'He cried with a loud voice': the loud voice is heavenly, to announce to men the words of the almighty God, since after repentance is shut off there is afterward no hope to come. 'Seven thunders uttered their voices': the Spirit of sevenfold power, having testified through the prophets all things to come, bore witness in the world by that voice.

But because he says that he was about to write down how great were the things the thunders had spoken — that is, whatever in the Old Testament had been obscurely foretold — he is forbidden to write, but to seek it out and to leave it. For because he was an apostle, it was not fitting that the grace of a subsequent rank should be conferred upon a man of the first rank, since the time is now near. For the apostles overcame unbelief by virtues, signs, portents, and mighty deeds. After them, the churches now being confirmed in faith, the solace of the prophetic scriptures was given to be interpreted, and these interpreters he called prophets. For the apostle says: 'And he set in the church first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers,' and the rest. And in another place he says:

'Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.' And he says: 'Every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head.' But when he says, 'Let two or three prophets speak, let the others judge,' he does not speak of catholic prophecy that is unheard and unknown, but of what has already been proclaimed; let them judge, however, whether the interpretation agrees with the testimonies of the prophetic utterance. It is clear therefore that this was not necessary for John, armed with a higher power, since the body of Christ is the Church adorned with its members, and ought to answer each in its own place. But to take the little book and to eat it signifies to commit to memory the revelation that was shown.

That it is sweet in the mouth is because preaching is most sweet, both for the one speaking and for those who hear, but most bitter for the one preaching and for those who persevere in the commandments through sufferings. 'It is necessary,' he says, 'to preach again,' that is, to prophesy, 'among peoples, tongues, and nations': this is because, when John saw this, he was on the island of Patmos, condemned to the mines by Caesar Domitian. There, then, John is seen to have written the Apocalypse; and when he supposed himself, now an old man, able to be received up after his passion, Domitian having been slain, all his judgments were annulled, and John was released from the mines, and so afterward he delivered this same Apocalypse which he had received from the Lord. This is: 'it is necessary to prophesy again.' CHAPTER XI.

That he received a reed like a rod, to measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it, signifies the power which, once released, he afterward exercised for the churches. For he afterward also wrote the Gospel. For when Valentinus and Cerinthus and Ebion and the rest of the school (of Satan) were scattered throughout the world, the bishops from the neighboring cities came together to him and compelled him to write down his testimony concerning the Lord. But the measure of faith is the commandment of our Lord: to confess the Father almighty, as we have learned.

And his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, begotten spiritually before the foundation of the world with the Father, made man, and, death being conquered, received up into the heavens with his body by the Father, the holy Lord and the pledge of immortality — this one foretold through the prophets, this one written of through the Law, this one made by the hand of God and through the Word of the almighty Father, and the Founder of the whole world. This is the reed and the measure of faith: that no one should worship at the holy altar except him who confesses these things, namely the Lord and his Christ. 'But the inner court cast out.' The court is called an open space, an empty area between the walls. He commanded such unnecessary persons to be cast out of the Church.

'Because it is given,' he says, 'to be trodden by the nations' — that is, that men of this kind are trodden underfoot either by the nations or together with the nations. Then he returns to the ruin and destruction of the last time and says: 'And they shall tread the holy city forty-two months. And I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy, clothed in sackcloth, a thousand two hundred and sixty days' — that is, three years and six months; the thousand two hundred and sixty days make forty-two months. So their preaching is for three years and six months, and the kingdom of Antichrist for just as long. But that fire goes out of the mouth of those prophets against their adversaries signifies the power of the word. All the plagues that are to come from the angels shall be sent at their voice.

Many think that with Elijah there is Elisha or Moses, but both of these are dead. The death of Jeremiah, however, is not found. In all respects our ancients have handed down that he is Jeremiah; for the very word that came to him bears witness, saying: 'Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you, and I set you as a prophet among the nations.' But he was not a prophet among the nations, and therefore, by both divine declarations, it is necessary that what was promised be also fulfilled, namely that he should be a prophet among the nations. These he called the two olive trees and the two lampstands; therefore he gave warning that, if reading in another place you did not understand, here you might understand; for it is written in Zechariah, one of the twelve prophets.

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, which stand in the sight of the Lord of the earth, that is, in paradise. These, then, must be slain by Antichrist after many plagues fixed upon the world; this is he whom he says ascended, the beast, out of the abyss. But that he is to ascend out of the abyss, many testimonies must be gathered for us in this chapter. For Isaiah says: 'Behold, Assur is a cypress on Mount Lebanon.' 'Assur': pressing down; 'cypress': lofty, branching, that is, a great people; 'on Mount Lebanon': in the kingdom of kingdoms; 'fair in its shoots': that is, strong in armies. 'The water,' he says, 'nourished it': that is, the many thousands of men that shall be subject to him. 'The abyss increased it': it belched forth the same.

For Ezekiel speaks in almost the same words. And that he was in the kingdom of kingdoms and was among the Caesars, Paul also testified. For he says to the Thessalonians: 'Only he who now holds, until he be taken out of the way; and then shall appear that one whose coming is according to the working of Satan with signs and lies.' And, that they might know that he was to come — he who was then the prince — he added: 'The mystery of iniquity is already at work,' that is, the iniquity that he is to do he works in secret; but he is raised up not by his own power nor by his father's, but by the command of God. Why then did Paul say: 'For this cause, because they did not receive the love of God, God sends them a spirit of error,'

'that all may be deceived by the lie who have not been persuaded by the truth.' Isaiah says: 'For them awaiting the light, darkness arose.' That these prophets are slain by this same one, the Apocalypse makes manifest, and that they rise again on the fourth day, lest anyone be found equal to God. But that Jerusalem is called Sodom and Egypt, the conduct of the persecuting people has brought about. Diligently, then, and with the utmost care, one must follow the prophetic proclamation and understand it, since the Holy Spirit preaches scatteringly, and sets things out of order, and runs ahead up to the last time.

Again he repeats the earlier times, and what he is to do once, he shows as though it had been done several times — and unless you understand that it is said several times, not that it is to happen several times, you fall into great darkness. The interpretation, therefore, of the following utterances will rest on this: that not the order of reading but of reasoning be understood. 'That the temple of God which is in heaven was opened': this is the appearing of our Lord. The temple of God is his own Son, as he himself says: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up'; and when the Jews said, 'It was built in forty-six years,' the evangelist says, 'But he was speaking of the temple of his body.' 'The ark of the covenant':

the preaching of the Gospel and the pardon of sins, and all the things whatsoever that came with him — he says that this appeared. CHAPTER XII. 'But the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, having a crown of twelve stars, in travail in her pains': this is the ancient Church of the fathers and prophets and saints and apostles, because it had the groanings and torments of its longing, until it came to pass that from her own people, according to her own flesh, the one long ago promised should be born. 'Clothed with the sun': this signifies the hope of resurrection and the promise of glory. 'The moon,' however: the falling of the holy bodies through the debt of death, which can never fail to occur. For just as life is diminished for men,

so also it shall be increased; nor is the hope of those who sleep wholly extinguished, as some suppose, but they shall have light in the darkness like the moon. 'A crown of twelve stars': it signifies the crown of the fathers according to fleshly birth, from whom the Spirit was to take flesh. 'But the red dragon standing and waiting, that when the woman had borne her son he might devour him': this is the devil — that apostate angel, namely, who supposed that he could bring about the destruction of all men equally through death. But that one who was not born of seed owed nothing to death; for which reason he could not devour him, that is, consign him to death. For indeed he had approached to tempt him as a man; but when he found that he was not the one he supposed, 'he departed from him,' he says, 'until a time.'

This one, he says, was caught up to the throne of God. We read this in the Acts of the Apostles, how, while speaking with the disciples, he was caught up into the heavens. And that this same one shall drive all the nations with a rod of iron: 'the rod of iron' is the sword; for all the nations shall stand under the engine of Antichrist against the saints; by the sword, he says, both shall fall. But that he said it was of a red color, that is, scarlet, the fruit of his work gave it such a color; for from the beginning he was a murderer, and oppressed the whole human race everywhere, not so much by the debt of death as through various calamities. 'Seven heads': the seven Roman kings, from among whom is also Antichrist, as we shall say in the earlier part. 'Ten horns': the ten kings in the last time;

these same ones we shall treat more fully there. 'But that the woman flew into the wilderness by the help of the wings of a great eagle' — namely of the two prophets — : this is the whole catholic Church, in which in the last time a hundred and forty-four thousand are to believe under Elijah the prophet. But he will find a twofold people there at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Christ himself also says in the Gospel: 'Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,' that is, as many as have been gathered in Judea, let them go to that place which they have prepared, that they may be nourished there for three years and six months from the face of the devil. 'The wings of the great eagle': these are the two prophets, Elijah and the prophet who will be with him. 'But the water which the serpent sent out of his mouth':

this signifies that an army follows him at his command. But that the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the water: this makes manifest the vengeance upon the persecutors. Although, therefore, he signifies her as being in travail, and afterward, the birth being accomplished, shows her fleeing, these things did not happen at one time. For as to Christ being born, we know that times intervened; but as to her fleeing from the face of the serpent, this has not yet come to pass. Then he says: 'There was a battle in heaven: Michael and his messengers fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his messengers, and no place was found for him in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, he fell to the earth.' This is the beginning of the coming of Antichrist.

Yet first Elijah must preach, and there must be times of peace, and so afterward, the three years and six months of Elijah's preaching being completed, Antichrist is cast down from heaven, where he had the power of ascending up to that time, and all the apostate angels likewise. Thus Antichrist is raised up from hell; this Paul the apostle also says: 'unless first there come the man of sin, the son of perdition, the adversary, who shall exalt himself above all that is called God or is worshiped.' But that he says the tail of the dragon drew down a third part of the stars, this is taken in two ways. Many, however, suppose this: that he can seduce a third part of believing men;

but what ought to be more truly understood is of the angels subject to him, while he was still prince, when 'he was descending from his estate.' Therefore (as) we said above, the Apocalypse says: 'He stood upon the sand of the sea.' CHAPTERS XIII and XVII. 'And I saw a beast ascending out of the sea, like a leopard': this signifies the kingdom of that time, the kingdom of Antichrist, mingled with a variety of nations and peoples. 'His feet as the feet of a bear,' a strong and most foul beast; but its feet he called its leaders. 'His mouth as the mouths of lions,' that is, armed with dripping blood. For its mouth is its command and its tongue, which shall proceed to nothing else but to the shedding of blood.

'Seven heads': the seven mountains upon which the woman sits, that is, the Roman city; 'and there are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, and another has not yet come; and when he comes, he will remain a short time. And the beast which you saw is of the seven, and is the eighth.' It must be understood, then, at what time the Apocalypse is written, since at that time Domitian was Caesar. But before him had been his brother Titus, and Vespasian their father, Otho, Vitellius, and Galba. These are the 'five who have fallen.' 'One is,' he says, under whom the Apocalypse is said to have been written, namely Domitian. 'Another has not yet come': he means Nerva, who, 'when he comes, will remain a short time'; for he did not complete two years. 'And the beast which you saw,' he says, 'is of the seven':

because before these kings Nero reigned. 'And it is the eighth,' he says — that is, that one when he shall come, counting in the eighth place. And because in him the consummation shall come about, he added: 'and goes into perdition.' For the ten kings shall have received royal power; when that one shall move from the east, they shall be sent from the city of Rome with their armies. These he calls the 'ten horns' and the 'ten diadems.' And Daniel shows: three shall be plucked up from the former ones, that is, three chief leaders shall be slain by Antichrist; the other seven shall give him 'glory and honor and throne and power,' of whom he says: 'These shall hate the harlot' — meaning the city — 'and her flesh shall be burned with fire.'

'But one of the heads slain unto death, and the stroke of its death was healed': he means Nero. For it is established that, when the cavalry sent by the senate pursued him, he cut his own throat. This one, then, God shall raise up and send as a king worthy of the worthy ones — for the Jews and for the persecutors of Christ — and shall send such a Christ as the persecutors and the Jews deserved. And because he is to bring another name, he is also to institute another manner of life, so that they may receive this same one as though he were Christ. For Daniel says: 'He shall not know the desire of women' — though he himself be most foul — 'and he shall know no god of his fathers.' For he shall not be able to seduce the people to circumcision unless he be an avenger of the law.

Finally, he shall compel the saints to nothing else but to receive circumcision, if he can seduce any. Thus at last he shall make himself believed, so that he may be called Christ by them. But that he rises again from hell, we have also said above in the words of Isaiah: 'The water,' he says, 'nourished it, and the abyss increased it.' Yet, though he come with a changed name, the Holy Spirit says: 'His number is six hundred and sixty-six'; and to the Greek letter this number shall be completed. For it is the number of a man, and his number is thus reckoned from the Greek letters — for in many names the number six hundred and sixty-six is found — for as far as concerns the Greek letter, he shall complete this number.