啟示錄註 第 1 章 第 5/14 段

And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea and the trees, saying:

Do not harm the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.

And I heard the number of those sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.

And then he proceeds to say, from each tribe, twelve thousand were sealed:

From this the evangelist clearly shows what befell the Jews in the war against the Romans, which came upon them on account of the cross and their outrage against the Lord.

For the four angels who held the four corners of the land of the Jews stood guard so that none of the Jews deserving to die might escape — perhaps instilling in them cowardice regarding flight, or certain difficulties, or an untimely longing for their homeland, their wives, and their dearest ones; which things are signified figuratively through the holding fast of the four corners of Judea.

And indeed, the holding fast of the four winds, so that they should not blow either upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree, signifies that no relief at all was found for them in the war, nor any comfort from their misfortunes — neither for those fighting on land, nor for those fighting at sea (for according to Josephus they fought many sea-battles), nor indeed for those devoted to farming and the care of plants;

for evils utterly overtook them all: cities being burned, the land being ravaged, plants being cut down — all of which Josephus recounts precisely in his history of the capture of Jerusalem.

to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying:

Do not harm anything, he says, until the servants of our God are sealed.

That the divine angel comes from the rising of the sun, and not from the setting and the west, hints at good tidings and a promise of good things.

And indeed, concerning this seal now spoken of, the prophet also, foreseeing it in the Spirit, said:

The light of your countenance, O Lord, has been marked upon us as a sign.

He rightly, then, commands that no one be harmed until those of the Jews worthy to be saved have been sealed, so that the righteous might not suffer along with the sinners any of the unwanted things.

And they sealed, he says, a hundred and forty-four thousand:

For those from the Jews who believed in Christ were many, indeed beyond number, and to them salvation from the common utter destruction was owed; and those who spoke to Paul when he came to Jerusalem bear witness:

You see, brother, how many tens of thousands there are among the Jews who have believed? And it was fitting that not only the faithful should escape, but also those who, in ignorance and deception, had cooperated in the crucifixion of the Lord, concerning whom he said:

For they do not know what they do — although Cyril, in the thirteenth book Against Julian, says that this prayer of the Lord is not found in the Gospels, yet among us it is so stated — and he means not only these, but also those who were not even present at that time, or who were residing in Jerusalem and therefore had not participated in the unholy counsel of the accursed high priests concerning the cross, or even those who were present but had not been implicated in the defilement, even though he himself blessed all that is under heaven — an outcome turning out contrary to what the god-hating council of the lawless had wished.

It is fitting that all these were later sealed with the faith of Christ;

for otherwise the angel would not have called them servants of God:

These, having been saved by flight and by deserting to the Romans, the rest — being evil — perished evilly, becoming a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, but in a different sense, and not as Paul spoke concerning the divine apostles.

Of these, again, Josephus is witness, enumerating very many tens of thousands who perished by famine.

And the equal number of those sealed and believing from each tribe

hints at the equal-honored zeal and the like-mindedness of the faith, even though from this tribe more, and from another fewer, were saved and believed in Christ, who was dishonored by the Jews, but is worshiped by us and by all supra-mundane creation now and always and unto the ages of ages.

Amen. [Book Five.] These things, then, which the discourse has related, have been shown to the divine evangelist concerning those sealed out of the blood of Israel, and thereby saved, and then also having believed.

But so that nothing might be seen as lacking to him, the revelation also shows him the countless myriads of the nations, who afterward ran to the faith, being around the Lord and standing beside the divine throne.

For since, in the vision's prior announcement, it is written that the Lord is about to come, very soon, in the second coming, and the saints at that time are caught up in the clouds to meet the Savior, according to the divine apostle — the vision shows them as already caught up, and as having attained the blessedness laid up for them.

For what could be more blessed than to have been deemed worthy to be with Christ and to behold the divine throne? See what he says:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great crowd, which no one was able to number, out of every nation and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands:

and they cry out with a loud voice, saying:

Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne.

And the saints, of the elders, stand around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures:

and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped our God unto the ages of ages.

These who are clothed in the white robes — who are they, and whence have they come? And I said to him, "My lord, you know."

These are they who come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple;

and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.

They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more; neither shall the sun fall upon them, nor any heat:

for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them, and will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

The countless myriads of the nations, then, who received the faith of Christ and attained the blessed portion, obtained by lot the glorious place, standing before the Lord and his paternal throne, as was said before.

And their being clothed in white robes is evidence of the purity of their life.

And the palm branches, being a symbol of victory, indicate that they exult in the victory of Christ over both the intelligible enemies and the sensible ones.

Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb — confessing that salvation is with them, because they preserved the sealed servants of God from the utter destruction of the world.

When this thanksgiving had taken place, the ministering ranks in heaven, together with the elders, responded "Amen," adding their own assent to what had been said.

Then the divine angels also offer their own praise to God, honoring him with seven honors, which, as was said before, hints at the unceasing character of the angels' doxology;

for the number seven is perfect.

And that one of the elders asks the evangelist who are these from the nations, clothed in the white robes, was not a sign of ignorance, but of prompting him to learn the things concerning them.

Therefore he also says: These are they who come out of the great tribulation:

For the righteous had not a small, but indeed a very great struggle, in the dominion of the Antichrist.

And they washed, he says, their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb:

And yet it would have been consistent for robes dyed in blood to turn out crimson rather than white;

how then have they become white? Because baptism, performed into the death of the Lord, as seems best to the most wise Paul, being a cleansing of all filth arising from sin, renders those baptized in it white and pure;

but also the partaking of the life-giving blood of Christ grants this;

for the Lord says that his own blood is poured out concerning many and on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.

These, then, serve God forever;

and God tabernacles among them

One of the saints said that God's tabernacling is this: that his unceasing remembrance abides continually in the souls of the saints;

Reasonably, then, God tabernacles [among them],

day and night they serve him

they shall no longer hunger, nor thirst any longer; for formerly those from the nations passed through every trial;

but now they shall be satiated with untold good things.

nor, he says, shall the sun fall upon them

In certain places of the divine Scripture, the sun is spoken of tropologically as trial;

in one place the prophet says, 'By day the sun shall not scorch you, nor the moon by night,' while in another the evangelist writes that, 'when the sun had risen it scorched the seeds that had sprung up on the rocky ground,' interpreting the sun as trial.

He says, then, in the present passage, that trial shall no longer wrong them henceforth;

for they have been deemed worthy to be shepherded by Christ, and to be nourished at the waters of life.

And God, he says, shall wipe away every tear from their eyes;

for to those who have thus lived and contended, no tear of unprofitable grief is owed, nor weeping and gnashing of teeth, but everything good and surpassing nature.

And when he opened the seventh [seal], there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

And seven trumpets were given to them.

Perhaps one of the very circumspect [readers] might mock what has been said, and might say the following to me:

'What are you doing, sir? Have you rather forgotten what was said in the preface of the present Apocalypse? For it was also said, "the first voice which I heard, as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying: Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things";'

'yet you have become for us an expositor not of things that are to be, but of things that have already happened, narrating the Lord's birth, the temptation, the teachings and the divine signs, the blows and the bonds and the scourgings before Pilate, the cross and the death, and the resurrection and the ascent, or rather the return, into the heavens?' To this I would reply:

'Indeed, friend, you have also heard some of the things that are to be, when we expounded the righteous from the nations, together with Israel, as being around the divine throne, and existing together with the Lord;

'and you shall hear even now, in the opening of the seventh seal.'

For the divine word spoken to the evangelist, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things,' did not exclude his seeing also some of the things that had happened before, but along with those things it also revealed to him the things that were to come.

The opening of the seventh seal has wrought for us the most perfect glory;

for no longer, as before, is it the remission of sins and the turning of us to God and of God to us, but the untold good things:

namely, to be styled sons of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, brothers and friends and children of Christ, and to reign together with him and be glorified together, and the things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard;

and the good things which have not arisen in the heart of man.

But what is the opening of the seventh seal? The second coming of the Lord, and the recompense of good things.

For even if some of those who have sinned are handed over to punishment, yet the aim of Christ and the purpose of his incarnation is that all should become heirs of his kingdom.

The seventh seal, then, having been opened, there was, he says, silence for about half an hour, as though the King of creation were indeed about to come, and every angelic and supra-mundane power was struck with awe at the excess of the glory of him who was arriving, and for this reason fell silent.

Then also, he says, seven trumpets were given to the seven angels, that they might sound them, as when a king draws near.

And with these same trumpets they were also about to awaken the dead;

for indeed the apostle, wise in divine matters, writing to the Thessalonians, says in his first epistle that the Lord himself shall descend with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God;

for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.

And an angel came, he says, and stood at the altar, having a golden censer;

and much incense was given to him, that he might offer it, with the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel, before God.

And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast it upon the earth;

and there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.

By 'censer' he means the altar, as being that which receives frankincense;

and when Christ appears, the prayers of the saints are brought to him by the angels who protect us, as a kind of firstfruits and precious offering; these are by nature fragrant, but become more fragrant through the cooperation of the holy angels.

Wherefore it is said that much incense was given to him.

And it was clearly given by God to the angels, that they should protect mankind and make their prayers well-pleasing.

And having received it, they impart fragrance to the prayers of the saints.

And the smoke of the incense, he says, went up with the prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel.

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Perhaps one of the angels cast some of this divine fire upon Mount Sinai, and there were thunders, and voices, and trumpets, and lightnings, and the mountain smoked when God came upon it.

Just as, then, the thunders and the terrors went forth beforehand at that time, so also now these things have gone forth beforehand as a prelude to the glorious coming of the Lord.

Then also the angels sounded the trumpets, signifying the presence of God;

for indeed at that time also the trumpets sounded loudly.

And there came hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast upon the earth;

and a third of the earth was burnt up.

Since the righteous have been deemed worthy of the blessed portion — as I have said at the end of the exposition of the sixth seal, inasmuch as they are also caught up beforehand, before the coming of the Lord, in clouds, into the air, so that they may meet the Lord as he comes, according to the apostle's testimony which I set forth there — the vision now proceeds further to the end of the rest of mankind, and to the punishment of sinners.

And since utter destruction is about to take place, it is necessarily the case that there will also be various modes of death, and of the recompense of the impious;

the greater part of which shall come about through fire, for the divine apostle, writing his first epistle to the Corinthians, said that that day is to be revealed in fire.

For if there are many dwelling-places of rest, as the Lord says, [there are] also various places of punishment.

And these same trumpets, which bring death upon those on the earth, these also, after this, raise up the dead.

What, then, does he mean when he says that, at the first angel's trumpet, hail and fire burnt up a third of the things on the earth? If one supposes this shall come to pass even in a literal, perceptible sense, he will not fail of the correct account;

and if one reckons it to have been spoken figuratively, he too will say nothing absurd, the discourse calling by 'fire' the anguish and the deep-seated

pain of the sinners, as they see the saints caught up in clouds to meet the Lord, while they themselves have remained on the earth, dishonored and deemed worthy of no account.

For the discourse figuratively represents the sinners as burning trees and grass, on account of their folly, and the insensibility and wood-like quality of the soul, and its fitness for burning.

And the second angel, he says, sounded the trumpet;

and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea;

and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures in the sea, which have life, died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

says the divine apostle, writing to the Romans:

'that creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but on account of him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.'

But when shall it be set free? When there shall be, according to his promises, new heavens and a new earth, as Peter announces to us, writing his second epistle.

And since the earth is being transformed, that it may be freed from corruption and become new, it is necessarily the case that the sea also should undergo this;

but how could it too be purified, except by a purifying fire? Wherefore fire, falling into it, changed it into blood, and killed a third of the creatures in it.

This, then, according to the letter and the literal sense; but if you understand 'sea' according to anagogy and the laws of tropology, [it signifies] the present life, on account of the tossing that is in it and its manifold distraction;

But fish and ships signify the men entangled in salty and bitter sins, who will waste away in grief over their useless remorse for the life they have lived.

And the third angel sounded his trumpet:

And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of the waters.

And the name of the star is called Wormwood.

And a third of the waters became wormwood, and many of the men died from the waters, because they had been made bitter.

Naomi, who of old was so called because of the great grief over her children and her other misfortunes, was surnamed 'bitter.'

Bitterness, then, is a token of the remaining extraordinary events.

being embittered, because, although such good things had been prepared for men, we ourselves exchanged the things to come for the things present.

This, I think, is what he means by the falling of the star: a certain wrath of God that made the waters bitter.

He calls men "waters" figuratively, according to what was said by the prophet, "from the voices of many waters:"

"Wonderful are the risings of the sea." And again: "The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voice;"

"the rivers shall lift up their poundings."

These things, then, may be taken as tropology (figurative interpretation).

But that these things, and such things, should also happen literally at that time is not to be rejected.

And the fourth angel sounded his trumpet:

And a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of the stars should be darkened, and the day should not shine for a third of it, and the night likewise.

And I saw, and heard one eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth," because of the remaining voices of the trumpet of the three other angels who are about to sound.

We have been taught by Joel the prophet that the sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

as though all these things were also going to happen on that [day].

And Peter also said, in the second of his epistles:

"The day of the Lord," he says, "will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements, being set ablaze, will be dissolved."

But the Lord himself also, in Matthew, in the hundred and ninth chapter, says: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven."

These things we are now also taught, through the Apocalypse, will come to pass at the consummation of the present age.

But what does it mean that not all the things on earth, and the sea, and the rivers, and moreover also the elements in the heavens, undergo the aforesaid sufferings, but only a third of them? This too is a precise demonstration of God's love for mankind, who, by striking the elements only in part and not entirely, calls to repentance the men who were then being afflicted;

but if they do not turn, he then brings total destruction upon them.

Something like this the prophet also says: "He made a path for his wrath; he did not spare their souls from death."

For that the wrath of God should advance partially, and, as it were, along a road, step by step, is [the act of one] opening a door of repentance, calling men to remorse through fear of the things that are happening.

But when this [advance toward repentance] did not proceed on their part, "he did not spare their souls from death."

As for the eagle in mid-heaven, scowling at the calamities of those on earth, you are to understand it as a certain divine angel sympathizing with the affliction of mankind.

And the fifth angel sounded his trumpet:

And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and to it was given the key of the pit of the abyss;

and smoke went up out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace burning, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke.

Locusts came out onto the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And it was said to them that they should not harm the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads.

Up until now, the vision has related to us in what manner and with what plagues the things on earth and in heaven, and mankind together with them, are being consummated, or rather, are being transformed.

But now, as though the consummation had already taken place and the resurrection had already been raised up, it relates the punishments against sinners.

"I saw," he says, "a star fallen from heaven to the earth" — calling an angel of God a "star" because of its brightness, [an angel] who had come down to earth.

For on it the judgment of sinners will take place — a certain place which one of the holy prophets named "the Valley of Jehoshaphat."

"And to it," he says, "was given the key of the pit of the abyss."

By "the pit of the abyss" he means Gehenna.

Therefore also smoke went up out of the pit, evidently because a very great fire lurks in the pit.

And the smoke signifies not only the fire, but also the darkness:

It was said by the prophet, "the voice of the Lord divides the flame of fire" — this is interpreted by the saints to mean that the illuminating quality will be cut off from the fire of Gehenna, and only the burning quality will remain in it, together with darkness;

"And the sun and the air," he says, "were darkened by the smoke of the pit:"

not that these elements themselves were darkened, but that those who were cast into the pit, being filled with darkness because of their punishment, have the air and the sun invisible to them.

For thus one of the holy prophets also said:

"The sun will be darkened at noon" — expounding the calamities of the Jews, the sun not having been darkened, but those in the affliction having suffered this and not seeing the sun;

for the magnitude of calamities is wont to fill one with dizzy darkness.

"And out of the smoke," he says, "locusts came forth onto the earth."

I think he calls "locusts" the worms, concerning whom Isaiah says:

"Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched" — perhaps calling by the name "worm" the gnawing of the soul, and the unrelenting, creeping anguish.

"And to them," he says, "was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power."

And it was said to them that they should not harm the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads, the earth having become new through this transformation.

For it has been said somewhere concerning it: "You shall send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth."

It was no longer fitting for anything that adorns the earth to be struck, neither tree nor any of the growing things, but only mankind:

and, among mankind, only those who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads.

For of mankind, those who are altogether holy and pure have received the place spoken of before, being forever with Christ, and beholding the divine throne.

But those who are less holy, yet nevertheless baptized, and bearing the sign of Christ on their foreheads, and not utterly given over to despair, nor having defiled themselves and their baptism to the depths through the impropriety of their deeds, but being, as it were, in a middle state between virtue and vice, remain on the earth, yet unpunished.

For if this were not so, how [could it be that] it was said by the Lord to him who had managed well the minas entrusted to him, "Be thou having authority over ten cities"?

and to another, "over five cities"? — since those who are to be governed are of lesser [merit], and yet those governed are altogether unpunished.

For who would choose to govern people who are being punished and who unrelentingly gnash their teeth, and who weep inconsolably — I do not speak of the saints, but not even of ordinary men, yet still compassionate ones — unless he himself were also going to suffer things like those being punished, on account of the incurable state concerning them? But the third portion of mankind is handed over to punishment, being sinners and impious, and not having received the faith of Christ.

Therefore it is said that men were struck:

those who are not sealed with the seal of God.

"And it was given to them," he says, "that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented for five months;"

"and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it strikes a man."

"And in those days men will seek death, and will not find it; and they will desire to die, and death will flee from them."

Is it perhaps from this that some of the fathers accepted the [doctrine of] restoration, saying that sinners are punished up to a certain point, but after this no longer, as having been purified by the punishment? But what is one to do, when a greater number of other fathers, on the one hand, and approved scriptures, on the other, say that the punishments of those then being punished are eternal? What, then, might one say, or how might one adjudicate between the two positions? One must blend the opinions of both.

But I say this as a kind of exercise, and not as an assertion:

For I myself adhere to the doctrine of the Church, which holds that the punishments in the age to come are eternal, since the Lord also said this in the Gospel according to Matthew, saying, "And these shall go away into eternal punishment."

And Isaiah [says]: "Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched."

For exercise, then, this must be said, passing through a middle path in each part: that until a certain time — which the present Apocalypse, employing a certain mystical number, called 'five months' — sinners will be punished most severely, as though a scorpion had struck them;

but after this, more mildly — yet we shall by no means be wholly outside of punishment — and to such a degree as to seek death and not find it.

For what necessity would there be to seek death for those who are not punished at all? 'And death flees from them,' he says, for they endure everlastingly together with their punishment.

'And the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war, and upon their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as those of lions;'