Commentaries 1 part 3/6

For it is interpreted 'Teitan,' whom the gentiles call the Sun and Phoebus, and it is reckoned in Greek thus: tau three hundred, e (short) five, iota ten, tau three hundred, alpha one, nu fifty, which led together make six hundred and sixty-six. And if you wish to turn this name into Latin, it will be 'Diclux': for D signifies five hundred, I one, C a hundred, L fifty, V five, X ten, which when reckoned likewise make six hundred and sixty-six. For that which Teitan sounds in Greek, if you wish to render it interpreted, in Latin is Diclux, by which name, expressed through antiphrasis, we understand Antichrist; for although he be deprived and cut off from the supernal light, yet he transfigures himself into an angel of light, daring to call himself light. 'Another great beast out of the earth': the false prophet,

who is to do signs and portents and lies before him in the sight of men; whom he says has horns like a lamb — that is, the appearance as of a just man — speaking like a dragon: full of the malice of the devil. For this one shall do, in the sight of men, that the dead seem to rise — for even the magicians do these things in the sight of men through the apostate angels — and he shall also do this, that a golden image of Antichrist be set up in the temple at Jerusalem, and that an apostate angel enter there; and thereafter it shall render voices and oracles. He shall also bring it about that slaves and free receive a mark on their foreheads or on the right hand — the number of his name — that no one may buy or sell unless he have the mark.

But concerning this overthrow of men, this contempt of God and this execration, Daniel had spoken before: 'And he shall set up,' he says, 'in his temple, between the sea-mountain and the two seas,' that is, at Jerusalem; 'and a golden image,' as King Nebuchadnezzar had made, this one shall then set up. The Lord, recalling this, says to all the churches concerning the last times: 'When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, where it ought not — let him who reads understand.' 'Abomination' is said when God is provoked, because idols are worshiped; 'desolation,' however, because unstable men are overthrown, seduced from salvation by false signs and portents. CHAPTERS XIV and XVII.

'But an angel flying through the midst of heaven,' whom he says he saw, we have also treated above as being the same Elijah, who anticipates the kingdom of Antichrist. But another angel following signifies that same prophet, the companion of his preaching. But because, as we have said, by 'concerted counsel' his leaders are to storm this great city, Babylon, he has testified to its ruin. For he says: 'Come, I will show you the condemnation of the harlot who sits upon many waters.' 'And I saw,' he says, 'a woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus Christ.'

For all the sufferings of the saints have always been brought to fulfillment by the decree of that senate, and, the indulgence now being granted, that very city itself has issued its decree against the preaching of the faith among all the nations. But that the woman sits upon the rose-colored beast, the doer of murders, this bears the image of the devil. There too are these 'heads,' of which we have made mention and which we have treated. This one indeed he calls 'Babylon' in the Apocalypse and in Isaiah, on account of the diffusion of the peoples; but Ezekiel named it 'Tyre.' Finally, if you compare what is said of Tyre and what Isaiah and the Apocalypse said of Babylon, you will find them all to be one. But that he says, 'Send the sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine,' he speaks of the nations that are to perish at the coming of the Lord;

and indeed he here shows that thing under several forms, but once for all at the coming of the Lord: the consummation of the kingdom of Antichrist and the opening up of the kingdom of the saints. CHAPTER XIX. 'But the white horse and him who sits upon it' — this shows our Lord coming with a heavenly army to reign, at whose coming all the nations shall be gathered and shall fall by the sword. But the others, those who were more noble, shall be kept in servitude to the saints; and even these must, in the last time, the kingdom of the saints being consummated, before the judgment, the devil being again let loose, be slain. Concerning all these things the prophets sing in like manner. CHAPTER XX.

But that the scarlet devil and all his apostate angels are shut up in the Tartarus of Gehenna at the coming of the Lord, let no one be ignorant, and that after a thousand years they are released on account of the nations that have served Antichrist, so that they alone may perish, because they so deserved; then that the catholic judgment takes place. Therefore he says: 'And the dead lived,' he says — those 'written in the book of life' — 'and reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection: over this one the second death has no power.' Concerning this resurrection he says:

'And I saw a lamb standing, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand,' that is, standing with Christ, namely those who in the last time are to believe from among the Jews through the preaching of Elijah, whom the Spirit testifies to be of virgin body not only in body but also in tongue. For this reason he above mentioned that the twenty-four elders said: 'We give thanks to you, Lord God, who have reigned; and the nations were angry.' In this same first resurrection both the future and beautiful city is set forth by this scripture. This first resurrection Paul too spoke of thus to the Macedonian church: 'For this we say to you,' he says, 'in the word of God, that the Lord himself, about to raise up, shall descend from heaven with the trumpet of God;'

'and the dead in Christ shall stand first, then we who are alive shall together be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord (in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord).' We have heard a 'trumpet' spoken of; it must be observed: in another place the apostle names another trumpet. For he says to the Corinthians: 'At the last trumpet the dead shall rise — they shall become immortal — and we shall be changed.' The dead indeed he said shall rise immortal to endure punishments, but that we shall be changed and covered with glory is plain. Where, then, we have heard of a 'last trumpet,' we ought to understand also a first; and these are the two resurrections.

All those, therefore, who have not anticipated to rise in the first resurrection and to reign with Christ over the world — over all the nations — shall rise at the last trumpet after a thousand years, that is, in the last resurrection, among the impious and sinners and committers of various kinds. Rightly he added, saying: 'Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection (anastasis): over this one the second death has no power.' But the second death is the chastisement in hell. CHAPTER XXI. In the kingdom, then, and in the first resurrection, the holy city is set forth, which he says shall descend from heaven foursquare, encompassed with the variety and preciousness and color and kind of stones, like to pure — that is, transparent — gold.

'Its street,' he says, 'is paved with crystal'; a river of life flowing through the midst, and fountains of the water of life; the tree of life round about, bearing different fruits through the several months; the light of the sun is not there, because of a more eminent glory. 'For the lamb,' he says — that is, God — 'is its light.' Its gates, indeed, of single pearls, three on every side, not shut, but open. The scripture shows that much reckoning is brought there of the gifts of the kings, of the regions and nations that are to serve: concerning the subjection of the last ones, of which we have treated, he speaks. But the 'city' is not understood as we know it; for we can suppose nothing further, without a guide, than what we have heard and seen.

For the rest, the whole region of the eastern provinces promised to the patriarch Abraham is called the 'city.' 'Look,' he says, 'in heaven, from the place where you now stand' — that is, from the great river Euphrates to the river of Egypt — 'all the land which you behold, I will give it to you and to your seed.' Then the Holy Spirit says: 'He shall have dominion from sea to sea' — that is, from the Red Sea to the sea of Arabia, and from the sea of the north to the sea of Phoenicia — and to the ends of the earth: these are the parts of Greater Syria. It is plain, then, that all these provinces are made equal and cleansed at the coming of the Lord, and, with the brightness 'descending from heaven like a cloud' overflowing with the light of the sun's brightness, are covered round about from above.

For through Isaiah the Holy Spirit thus testified: 'As the smoke of light into a burning fire, it shall be covered with all glory'; and in another place he says: 'Be enlightened, O Jerusalem; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For the sun shall not give you light by day, nor the moon by night; for the Lord your God shall be to you an everlasting light.' And David says: 'And there shall be a firmament in the earth upon the tops of the mountains, and its fruit shall be exalted above Lebanon, and they shall flourish out of the city like the grass of the earth.'

But Daniel said that a stone cut without hands struck the statue having four things in it — that is, gold and silver, bronze and iron, and at the last clay — and that this same stone, after it had reduced the statue to dust, became a great mountain, filling the whole earth; and he himself interpreted the dream to the king and said: 'You,' he says, 'are the golden head, and your nation. There shall arise,' he says, 'another kingdom humbler than you, and a third kingdom, which shall have dominion over the whole earth. But the fourth kingdom shall be hardest and strongest, like iron, which subdues all things and cuts down every tree. And in the last time,' he says, 'men shall be mingled together like clay mixed with iron, and they shall not be in concord nor agreeing.'

'And in those times the Lord God shall raise up another kingdom, which,' he says, 'the saints of the most high God shall receive — the kingdom. And this kingdom no other nation shall search out; for God shall strike and search out all the kingdoms of the earth, and this one shall remain forever.' Of this kingdom Paul too made mention to the Corinthians, saying: 'He must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet.' In this kingdom the saints shall say: 'I have exulted,' as we have heard. In the same kingdom he shall find those keeping the faith whole, whom he says stood upon the sea of glass, having harps and bowls — that is, those who stood firmly upon their baptism and held their confession in their mouth, who shall there exult. In this kingdom he promised to his servants, saying:

'Whoever shall have left father or mother or brother and sister for the sake of my name shall receive a reward multiplied a hundredfold, both now and in the future shall possess eternal life.' In this kingdom, those who have been defrauded of their goods for the name of the Lord, and the many who have even been put to death by every kind of crime and in prisons — but before the coming of the Lord the holy prophets were stoned, slain, and sawn asunder — 'shall receive their consolation,' that is, crowns and heavenly riches. In this kingdom the Lord has promised that he will repay them for the years 'which the locust and the cankerworm and the corruption devoured.' In this kingdom the whole creation will be preserved, and at the command of God it will pour forth the good things laid up within it.

Here the saints shall receive 'gold for bronze, and silver for iron, and precious stones.' In this place 'he shall transfer to them the riches of the sea and the strength of the nations.' In this kingdom 'the priests of the Lord shall be called the ministers of God,' just as elsewhere they are called sacrilegious. In this kingdom 'they shall drink wine and be anointed with ointment and be delivered into gladness.' Of this kingdom the Lord made mention before he suffered, saying to the apostles: 'I will not drink of the fruit of this vine henceforth, until I drink it new with you in the kingdom to come.' This is what is 'multiplied a hundredfold,' that is, ten thousand times unto things greater and better. For when it says that 'stones differing in kind and color' shall be displayed, it says this concerning men;

but it also signifies the most precious variety of faith in each individual man. And it shows that the gates, the pearls, are the apostles. 'They shall not be shut,' it says: grace was given through them, and that same grace is never shut. In this place they shall see 'face to face,' and one shall not require the other. As for the names, both of the fathers and of the apostles, being both on the foundations and over the gates: we have already treated of the twenty-four elders, and of those who shall reign in this kingdom, who themselves shall judge the world. CHAPTER I. [The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things which must shortly come to pass.

Blessed are they who read and who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things that are written therein.] The beginning of the book promises blessedness to him who reads, hears, and keeps, so that he who is diligent in reading may thereby learn good works and keep the precepts. 'Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is to come.' He 'is': because he endures; he 'was': because he made all things together with the Father, and did not take his beginning from the Virgin; he 'is to come': namely, to judge. (And from the seven Spirits who are before his throne.) By the sevenfold Spirit. In Isaiah we read: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and of fortitude, of knowledge and of piety, the Spirit of the fear of God. These seven Spirits are, of course, the gifts of the one Holy Spirit.

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead. In the manhood which he assumed he bore witness in the world, in which by suffering he loosed us from sin by his own blood, and, hell being vanquished, he was the first to rise from the dead, and death shall no longer have dominion over him; but, while he reigns, the kingdom of the world is destroyed. And he made us a kingdom and priests (to God and his Father), that is, the whole Church of the faithful, just as the apostle Peter says: 'a holy nation, a royal priesthood.' Behold, he comes with the clouds, and all peoples shall see him. He who first came hidden in the manhood he assumed will, after a little while, come manifest in majesty and glory to judge. But as for what he says:

[And being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man.] He says 'like unto the Son of Man,' after death had been conquered, when he had ascended into the heavens, this body too having been united with the Spirit of his glory, the power which he received from the Father, as a Son of Man walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks. By 'in the midst' he means the churches, as he says in Solomon: 'I will walk among the paths of the just.' His antiquity and immortality is the origin of his majesty. In the head whiteness is shown; but the head of Christ is God. [And his head and his hairs were white as white wool (and as snow): in the head whiteness is shown.

But the head of Christ is God] and in the white hairs is a multitude of those clothed in white, like wool because of the sheep, like snow because of the innumerable throng of those clad in white who are given from heaven. 'His eyes were as a flame of fire.' They are the precepts of God, which to believers minister light, but to unbelievers a burning. 'And in his face his brightness was as the sun.' When he said 'his brightness,' it was his appearing, by which he spoke to men face to face. But the glory of the sun is less than the glory of the Lord; yet because of its rising and setting and rising again — because he was born and suffered and rose again — Scripture from this gave a likeness, that his face was the glory of the sun.

[Clothed with a garment reaching to the feet.] In the garment reaching to the feet, that is, the priestly garment, is the flesh which was not corrupted by death and which through his passion has been most plainly handed over the priesthood. [And he was girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.] The two breasts are the two Testaments, and the girdle is the choir of the saints, like gold tried by fire. Otherwise: 'Girded at the breast with a golden girdle': a fused conscience and a pure spiritual sense was thus handed over to the churches. [And out of his mouth went forth a sword sharp on both sides.] By the twice-sharpened sword flashing out of his mouth it is shown that he is the very one who now has brought forth to the whole world the good things of the Gospel, and earlier, through Moses, the knowledge of the Law.

But because by that same word he is to vindicate the whole human race, both of the Old and of the New Testament, therefore it is recorded as twice sharpened. For the sword arms the soldier, the sword slays the enemy, the sword punishes the deserter. And to show the apostles that he was announcing judgment, he said: 'I came not to send peace but a sword.' And after he had finished the parables, he said to them: 'Have you understood all these things?' And they said: 'Yea.' And he added: 'Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of God is like a householder who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.' The new: the words of the Gospel; the old: those of the Law and the prophets. And that these things had proceeded from his mouth he says also to Peter:

'Go to the sea and cast a hook, and the fish that first comes up, when you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater' — that is, two denarii — 'give it for me and for you.' And David likewise said through the Spirit: 'God has spoken once, these two things have I heard,' because the Lord decreed once from the beginning what is to be in the future even to the end. Finally, since he himself is appointed judge by the Father, wishing to show that men shall be judged by the word of his preaching, he said: 'Do you suppose that I shall judge you in the last day? But the word which I have spoken to you, that shall judge you in the last day.' And Paul, against Antichrist, says to the Thessalonians: 'whom the Lord will slay with the spirit of his mouth.' (And Isaiah:

'He shall slay the wicked,' he says, 'with the breath of his lips.') This, then, is the twice-sharpened sword proceeding out of his mouth. 'His voice was as the voice of many waters.' The many waters are understood to be the peoples, but also the gift of baptism, which he sent forth by his precept to be spread abroad through the apostles for the salvation of men. 'His feet were like fine brass, as if molten in a furnace.' He means the apostles, who, refined through sufferings, preached his word; for since the preaching walked through them, they are rightly named the feet. Whence the prophet anticipated this, saying: 'We have worshipped where his feet stood,' because where they first stood and established the Church — that is, in Judea — there all the saints are to assemble and to worship their Lord.

[And he had in his right hand seven stars.] 'Seven stars in his right hand': he said this because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold power was given into his authority by the Father, as Peter cried out to the Jews: 'Being exalted by the right hand of God, having received from the Father the Spirit, he poured forth this which you see and hear.' And John the Baptist had already anticipated this to his disciples, saying: 'For God gives not the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.' These are the seven stars. The seven churches, which he calls by name with their proper titles, and to which he also writes epistles — not because these alone are churches or chief among them, but because what he says to one he says to all;

for there is no difference, just as one might prefer a detachment of a few soldiers to a greater number, yet speak to the whole army. Finally, whether in Asia or in the whole world, Paul taught that all the churches are seven, and that, named in groups of seven, they are one Catholic Church: first indeed, so as to keep this rule himself, he too did not exceed the number of seven churches, but wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterward he wrote to individual persons, lest he should exceed the measure of seven churches, and, briefly summing up his preaching, he said to Timothy: 'that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the Church of the living God.'

We read that this type was foretold by the Holy Spirit through Isaiah, concerning seven women who took hold of one man. But the one man is Christ, born not of seed. The seven women are the churches, taking their own bread and clad in their own tunics, who ask that their reproach be taken away, that the name of the Lord may be invoked upon them — the 'bread': the Holy Spirit, who nourishes unto eternal life; 'their own': promised to them through faith, so that 'their own tunics,' that is, those promised to them, with which they desire to be clothed, of which Paul says: 'this frailty must be clothed with the inviolable, and this mortal must be clothed with immortality'; 'that their reproach be taken away':

the reproach is the former sin which is taken away in baptism, and a man begins to be called Christian, which is: 'let your name be invoked upon us.' In these seven churches, then, you may consider that out of one church seven are made. And according to the quality of faith and election, he wrote either to those who both labor in the world and live off the frugality of their labors and are patient, and who, when they see certain men in the church who are dispensers and pestilent, bear with them lest a scattering occur — yet he admonishes them concerning the love in which their faith is lacking, that they may do penance —; or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors and persevere in being faithful;

or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, commit unlawful sins in the church and by doing them show them to others; or to those who are lax in the church; or to those who are Christians in name only, being negligent; or to those who, humbly instructed in the faith, persevere bravely; or he rebukes those who study the Scriptures and labor to know the mysteries of the preaching, yet are unwilling to do the work of God, that is, mercy and love. To all he proclaims penance, to all he announces judgment. CHAPTER II. And in the first epistle indeed he says: 'I know your labor and your works and your patience' — 'I know that you labor and work, I see that you are patient: do not think that I tarry far from you' —.

'And because you cannot bear those who are evil, and those who say they are apostles, you have found them liars and you have patience for my name's sake.' All these things belong to praise, and to no slight praise. But such men, and such a company, and such men of election, must in every way be admonished, lest, these goods being granted to them, they be defrauded. He said he had a few things against them: 'You have forsaken,' he says, 'your former love: remember whence you have fallen.' He who falls, falls from on high; therefore he said 'whence,' since in every way the works of love must be exercised even to the very last, which is the chief commandment. Finally, unless this be done, he threatened to move the candlestick out of its place, that is, to scatter the people.

[Yet you have this also, those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.] But that he hated the works of the Nicolaitans, which he himself also hated: this belongs to praise. Now the 'works of the Nicolaitans': there were at that time false and pestilent men who, under the name of Nicolaus the minister, had made for themselves a heresy, that what had been offered to idols might be exorcised and could be eaten, and that whoever had committed fornication might receive peace on the eighth day. Therefore he commends those to whom he writes, to whom — such great men — he promised the tree which is in the paradise of his God. The following epistle uncovers the following manner of life of another company and custom. Finally he says: 'I know that you are both poor and labor, yet you are rich';

for he knows that with himself riches are laid up for such men, and the slander from the Jews, whom he denies to be Jews but rather of the synagogue of Satan, since they are gathered by Antichrist; to whom he says, [be faithful unto death,] that they may persevere in being faithful unto death, and: 'he who perseveres shall not be hurt by the second death,' that is, 'he shall not be chastised in hell.' The third company shows that there are saintly men, who are strong in faith and do not quail at persecution. But because even among them there are those who are inclined to unlawful indulgences, he says: 'I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth, (you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat and to commit fornication:

so you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, but I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.)' That is, 'I will declare what I have commanded, and I will compare what you have done.' For Balaam taught Balac the doctrine of casting a stumbling-block before the eyes of the children of Israel, to eat things offered to idols and to commit fornication: it has long been known; for he gave this counsel to the king of the Moabites, and they scandalized the people. 'So,' he says, 'you have among you such men holding such a doctrine, and under the pretext of mercy you corrupt others. To him who overcomes,' he says, 'I will give of the hidden manna [and I will give him a white stone]': the 'hidden manna' is immortality, the 'white gem' is adoption as a son of God, the 'new name' written on the stone is 'Christian.'

The fourth company signifies the nobility of the faithful who work daily and do greater works. But he shows that there too are men prone to grant unlawful indulgences and to give heed to new prophecies, and he rebukes them and forewarns the rest to whom this is not pleasing, who recognize the wickedness of the adversary, by what evils and deceits he seeks to bring perils upon the heads of the faithful; and therefore he says: 'I lay upon you no other burden' — that is, 'I have not given you the observances and burdens of the Law,' which is another burden — 'that you may hold what you have, until I come,' he says. 'And he who overcomes, I will give him power over the nations' — that is, 'I will appoint him a judge among the other saints' — 'and I will give him the morning star';

namely, he has promised in return the first resurrection. For the morning star puts the night to flight and announces the light, that is, the beginning of day. CHAPTER III. The fifth company, that is, the gathering or manner of life of the saints, declares men who are negligent and doing in the world something other than what is fitting, empty in works, Christians in name only. And therefore he exhorts them, in case in any way, returning from their negligence and being in peril, they may yet be saved: (and therefore he says:) [be watchful, he says, and strengthen the things that remain.] 'Establish,' he says, 'the things which were about to die; for I do not find your works full before my God.' For it is not enough for a tree to live and be green and not bear fruit: