The text of the narration must accordingly be considered; for, having described the last combat and the manner of the Gentiles, he passed over the seventh angel, under whom the last persecution and the manifest coming of the Lord is hoped for, and he calls to mind the Church of the present time, so that, intimating this in diverse ways, when he recapitulated the things he had omitted, he might seem to narrate two ends. Let us therefore remember that, when he has carried the discourse through to the end, an end must be joined to the abridged order. For he did something out of the ordinary, in not concluding both narrations with one end. For he distinguished the preaching of the future peace, how strong it is, how conspicuous over land and sea. Chapter 10.
'And I saw,' he says, 'another strong angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.' The Lord Christ coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, that is, the Church, or clothed with the cloud of the flesh, which is elsewhere called (Revelation 21) the new bride coming down from heaven. Or, as Daniel says (chapter 7), the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven; 'and a rainbow was on his head' about the good, the promise of propitiation abiding, but also signifying those whom it befell before the Lord's coming to be adorned with martyrdom, as Abel and the rest. And well does he say the rainbow was on his head, which another translation called an 'iris' (Genesis 4),
by which the Church is described as girt about, as members thus sent forth in time, yet in such a way that they may be shown to cohere with the head. 'And his face was as the sun,' the Lord Jesus Christ being made manifest through the glory of the resurrection, of whom we read (Psalm 18): 'In the sun he hath set his tabernacle,' where, namely, he might shine forth. For in the face the manifestation of presence is designated, seeking which he said (Psalm 79): 'Show thy face, and we shall be saved.' 'His feet,' that is, the apostles, are set on fire by the utterances of God and by the Holy Spirit for preaching. 'Was not our heart,' he says (Luke 24), 'burning within us on the way, while he spoke and opened to us the Scriptures?' And pillars they are called on account of the firmness of the Church;
concerning these it is said through the prophet: 'I have established its pillars' (Psalm 74); and, 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth and preacheth peace!' (Isaiah 52); and the Apostle says, 'Who seemed to be pillars of the Church' (Galatians 2). 'And he had in his hand an open book, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth.' If in the sealed book above the deep secrets of the Old Testament are known to have lain hidden, more fittingly here in the open book of the New Testament the revealed grace is believed to have shone forth, so that the Apostle confidently said (2 Corinthians 3): 'But we, beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.'
Therefore assuredly his face too is said to have shone as the sun; and his right foot upon the sea, he is shown prudently to have set the stronger members to endure the assaults of persecution, as though the perils of the sea; but his left upon the earth, those who are not to be committed to greater dangers. For God does not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able, but will make also with the temptation a way out, that we may be able to bear it. Yet it is certain that his preaching is spread over land and sea. 'And he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth,' that is, being preached with fortitude and confidence through his servants, he prevailed; whence the prophet: 'And he set,' he says, 'the firm love of his strength.'
'And when he had cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.' On account of the known operation of the number seven, I think that by the seven thunders is signified the manifold adaptation of ecclesiastical preaching. Keeping this, the apostle Paul said to some (1 Corinthians 3): 'As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat.' But of others (Hebrews 5): 'Solid food is for the perfect'; but also of others (Titus 3): 'A heretical man, after the first and second admonition, avoid.' The Church, therefore, is said to proclaim by the accustomed offices of right preaching. 'And what the seven thunders uttered, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying: Seal the things which the seven thunders have uttered, and write them not.'
He is commanded not to describe openly as he had heard, but to temper the discreetly sealed things by adaptation, lest either they should lie open indiscriminately to all, or, being easily understood, should breed disdain. Therefore he says: 'Mark for thyself,' or, as another translation has: 'Seal them for thyself,' he says, 'and write them not,' so that by the seal he might indicate the allegory, not deny the nourishment of understanding. Deservedly also to Daniel it is said (Daniel 12): 'Seal the book, and shut up the words, until the appointed time; many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold,' that is, either to be deferred in time, or to be distributed according to the quality of those who receive. Hence the Lord (John 16): 'I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.'
'And the angel,' he says, 'whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein: that time shall now be no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared by his servants the prophets.' The trumpet of the seventh angel is the end of persecution and the coming of the Lord. Therefore the Apostle also says (1 Corinthians 15): 'At the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible.'
He therefore foretells concerning the future time of the Church, when the promised eternity of the heavenly good things shall have received her, so that she may no longer lie subject to the variety of times, but may enjoy a stable eternity of felicity. 'The mystery is finished,' he said, meaning that the promise is perfected, not that what is taken away is consummated. 'And I heard a voice from heaven again speaking with me: Go, and take the open book from the hand of the angel who standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.' The voice from heaven is the command of God, who inspires the heart of the Church, and bids her to receive those things which the Church, with the open book, has preached about the future peace. It also seems to us that this—to receive the open book from the hand of the angel—is to understand the truth of the Law and the prophets made manifest in Christ.
Therefore he says to take the book not sealed as above, but open. 'For Christ is the end of the Law unto justice to everyone that believeth.' Which Christ, that is, the Truth, then willed to be born of the earth, that is, of Mary, when justice looked down from heaven (Psalm 84). Therefore here I think it is said, 'I heard a voice from heaven speaking with me,' just as he himself says (John 8): 'I am the beginning, who also speak to you.' 'And I went to the angel, saying that he should give me the book.' The Church is pricked in conscience by divine inspiration to be thoroughly taught concerning this mystery. 'And he saith to me: Take and eat it up,' that is, store it in the inmost bowels, 'and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.'
That is, when you have received it, you shall be delighted with the sweetness of the divine utterance and the hope of the promised salvation, and with the pleasantness of divine justice, but you shall assuredly feel bitterness when you shall have begun to preach this both to the devout and to the undevout. For when the preaching of the divine judgment is heard, some indeed, converted for the better by the bitterness of penance, are changed, but others, being offended, are moreover hardened, and sharply direct their hatreds against the preachers. 'Reprove,' he says, 'a wise man, and he will love thee; correct a fool, and he will add to hate thee' (Proverbs 9). From both, however, the preacher takes bitterness, whether by the affection of compassion sharing tears with the penitent, or taking the torment of bitterness from their failing. Hence the Apostle says (Romans 9):
'That I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I myself wished to be anathema from Christ for my brethren.' This bitterness he now calls to mind. But if it is understood that sweetness is to be assigned from the devout, and bitterness from the undevout alone, I judge it to agree more fittingly. For the spiritual can say: 'How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth' (Psalm 118). 'And when I had received the little book from the hand of the angel,' he says, 'and when I had eaten it, straightway my belly was filled; and he saith to me: Thou must again prophesy to the people, and to nations and tongues and many kings.'
Just as Divine Scripture is wont often to bend the discourse from the genus to the species, but also consequently to embrace both, so now too a certain intention is indeed directed to John, whom it still behoved, being freed from exile, not only to bring this revelation into the knowledge of the Church of Christ, but also to preach the Gospel yet more loftily among peoples, among nations, among tongues and many kings. Nevertheless no one doubts that this voice agrees also with the whole Church, which ought never to desist from preaching. But this confidence of evangelizing, in the reed received after the likeness of a rod, he showed not without a reasonable signification—from that which it effects, that which is brought forth. For the Gospel is indeed written by the office of the reed;
but lest any emptiness should be thought to be in the reed, it is rightly said to be like a rod, in which, on account of the natural strength, solidity is designated, which is to be referred to the firmness of faith, or the untransgressable rule of stretched-out belief, in which also a measure is necessarily mentioned, on account of the varied distribution of graces, which the Apostle recalls, saying (Ephesians 4): 'To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ.' In this faith recognize also the brightness of wisdom in the gold, with the manifestation of the flesh received, which Christ deigned to bear in one person, just as John both merited to acknowledge it and took care to preach it.
But opportunely here the gift of graces is described as given to the members according to measure, so that it may specially be declared to have been given to the head, Christ, not according to measure, of whom in the same place John says (John 3): 'For God doth not give the Spirit by measure.' In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells (Colossians 2), no measure determines him. Chapter 11. 'He gave me,' he says, 'a golden reed like to a rod, saying: Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar of God, and them that adore therein.' 'Rise.' The affection of stirring up is enjoined upon John or the Church to be taken hold of, so that, disentangled from worldly hindrances, we may be more apt for the offices of eternal good things. 'Measure the temple, and the altar, and them that adore therein.'
He bids the Church, that is, the temple of God, to be spiritually formed by the aforesaid measure of divine gifts, especially at the altar, that is, in faith, without which it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11). But 'them that adore therein' he inculcated more expressly, because they are eager to adore the Lord in spirit and in truth, so that belief may shine forth in truth, and a commendable life in spirit. For the Father also, he says, seeks such to adore him, true adorers. Otherwise: by the altar he signifies the priests, by the temple the faithful. For many seem to adore only on the surface, and shall not be written in the book. Signifying this, there follows: 'But the altar which is outside the temple, measure it not. For all the glory of the king's daughter is within' (Psalm 44);
'because it is given to the Gentiles, and they shall tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.' The teaching of evil belief and the contagions of unwholesome custom in heretics, Jews and Gentiles are bidden to be cast out from without, since it is unworthy for such to hasten to the Holy of Holies. 'For what have I to do,' says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 5), 'to judge them that are without?' For all Jews, heretics and Gentiles, by assaulting the Church unceasingly in diverse ways, as it were trample it under foot. But the number of the months signifies not only the last persecution, but also designates the whole time of Christianity, on account of the six ages of the world and the seven days, by whose passing away and returning all time is unrolled.
For six times seven makes forty-two, but I think it is to be referred to both. 'And I will give,' he says, 'to my two martyrs, that they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.' What he had said, 'Thou must again prophesy,' this is, 'I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy.' For what John is, this the two witnesses are, that is, the Church preaching and prophesying by the two Testaments. Otherwise: the Truth attests that there are two kinds of martyrdom, one in disposition, the other in act. In disposition, known to God alone, it is borne in the heart, even if sometimes the time of suffering is by no means afforded. But in act it is also fulfilled publicly before men, when the opportunity of persecution arises.
For sometimes martyrdom seems to be wanting to the soul, sometimes in others the soul seems to be wanting to martyrdom. Hence blessed Cyprian says: 'The first title of victory is, being seized by the hands of the Gentiles, to confess the Lord: the second step to glory is, being withdrawn by a cautious retreat, to be preserved for the Lord. That is a public, this a private confession. The former conquers the judge of the world, the latter, content with God as his judge, preserves the integrity of his heart by a pure conscience.' This also is most clearly proved by the two sons of Zebedee, that James, slain by Herod, was dedicated to martyrdom by public confession; but his brother John the Evangelist (Acts 12) is crowned by a secret martyrdom before the Lord. For it is clear that the Lord had long before said to both:
'My cup indeed you shall drink' (Matthew 20), the one namely in act, the other in disposition. 'Clothed in sackcloth': in the humility of confession humility is shown. Accordingly, because he speaks not of things future, but of things present, saying: 'These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing in the sight of the Lord of the earth.' This can be taken of the Church, which is formed, illuminated by the light of the two Testaments. And, making mention of the two kinds of martyrdom, which are divinely bestowed in the diverse members of the armed. For the two candlesticks too are the Church, but he said 'two' according to the number of the Testaments, or because, gathered out of the circumcision and the uncircumcision, cohering to the cornerstone,
may stand together; so too, out of the seven candlesticks, if he should name one or more according to the places, it is the whole Church. 'And if any man would hurt them, fire shall come out of their mouths, and shall devour their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, so must he be slain.' That is, if anyone desires to hurt the Church, by the reciprocating judgment of that same injury he is condemned and consumed by fire, receiving this justly, which he strives to bring upon others unjustly. Or, in a good sense, by the prayers of the mouth of the Church he is spiritually consumed by fire, to be changed for the better, since, when error perishes, the man is saved, being converted from error. 'These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy.' 'They have,' he says, not 'they shall have,' as though now they have it not.
For all power having been given in heaven and in earth to the Son of man (Matthew 28), it can be understood also of his body, which is the Church, that it shuts heaven, when from it no fruitful blessing descends upon the barren earth, just as the Lord says of part of his vineyard (Isaiah 5): 'And I will command my clouds that they rain not upon it.' 'They have power over all the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they will.' They not only suspend the waters, but also make useless those which had descended, that is, to turn the waters into blood, on account of those who understand carnally the things which the Church hands over to be examined spiritually, and who, deservedly struck by the Church with a just anathema, die:
and whence to others spiritual life and progress accrue, thence they themselves incur the failing of death; for 'to be wise according to the flesh,' says the Apostle (Romans 8), 'is death.' Therefore the good odour of Christ, fragrant from the Church, to some is the odour of death unto death, to others the odour of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2). Hence also they are said to strike the earthly with plagues, when, having received the power of binding and loosing according to the diversities of merits and of sinners, they judge each one by a right sanction. 'And when they shall have finished their martyrdom, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them.'
Here it clearly appears that these things happen before the last persecution, when he says, 'while they shall have finished their martyrdom,' namely that which they maintain up to the revelation of the beast, which is to ascend out of the abyss, that is, out of the hiding-places of the wickedness of the heart of the Jews. For out of the tribe of Dan the Antichrist is handed down as about to be born. 'He shall overcome them,' he said, in those who shall have succumbed. 'And he shall kill' them, signifying those who for the name of Christ shall have been slain with praiseworthy patience. 'And their bodies shall lie in the streets of that great city, which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.' Another translation set down 'body.'
He said the 'body' of the two as one, sometimes in what follows 'bodies,' so that he might both preserve the number of the Testaments, and the two martyrdoms, and show the Church to be one body; he spoke not only of the slain, but also of the living. 'It shall be cast forth,' that is, despised, just as 'thou hast cast my words behind thee' (Psalm 49). 'In the midst,' that is, in the open, namely that Jerusalem which slew the prophets, according to the word of the Lord rebuking (Matthew 23), and stoned those sent to her, and deservedly merited to be reprobated, not restored. 'And they of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations shall see, and shall not suffer their bodies to be laid in sepulchres.'
When the bodies are prevented from being gathered together again in their proper places, the days of their memory are not permitted to be marked by the sacred solemnity of the living. Otherwise, the wishes of such are expressed, by which the ungodly strive to take away the Church of Christ from the world, as the psalm says (Psalm 108): 'And let there be no more remembrance of his name'; which, although they are not able to fulfil, yet they exert a harmful will. 'And they that dwell upon the earth,' he says, 'shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two tormented them that dwelt upon the earth.' It is no wonder if those who are wise in earthly things rejoice at the deaths of the just:
for besides the plagues by which the human race shall be reproved on account of the testament of God, the very sight of the just also weighs upon the unjust, just as it is written (Wisdom 2): 'He is grievous unto us even to behold'; not only does he weigh upon them, but also makes them pine away. Hence the psalm (Psalm 111): 'The sinner shall see, and shall be angry; he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away.' 'And after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet: and whosoever saw them, was greatly afraid.' By 'three days and a half' we can understand three years and six months, which in the last week the prophecy of Daniel too (Daniel 9) foretells to be at hand.
Using the manner of Scripture in speaking, in that we read said concerning the forty days in which the explorers went about the land of Canaan (Numbers 13) that years shall be reckoned for a day, so here conversely a day is to be recognized as put for a year. And lest from the uncertainty of our exposition an objection should arise, it behoves us principally to set down the words of the passage itself with a fitting exposition, if in any way we may be able to penetrate the hidden things of this passage; for when it speaks of the seventy weeks, it says thus (Daniel 9):
'That Jerusalem shall be built again, until Christ the leader there shall be sixty-two weeks, and after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain, and it shall no longer be his people who is about to deny him, and the people with the leader to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary' (ibid.). And after a little: 'He shall confirm,' he says, 'the covenant with many in one week, and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail, and in the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation.'
Although these things are referred to the first coming of Christ, in which they also obtain their fulfilment when accomplished, yet that which is after the division of the weeks, which he distributed by a more secret figure of the supernal inspiration, first mentioning seventy, afterward sixty-two, lastly one, which he also divides into two parts—that final week itself is not unfittingly adapted also to the end of the first coming of Christ, when the second is also begun. And that this may be more clearly discussed, I think it must necessarily be referred to both, with a fitting exposition.
For as to the fact that, after the seventy and sixty-two weeks, Christ at His coming is slain, and, rejecting those who slay Him—as it is said, that same nation is no longer His—and that He confirms a covenant with many for one week: since all the sayings and deeds of the Old Testament, which served as types of Christ's coming, have been fulfilled by the truth of His presence, who is the end of the law (Rom. 10), this is indeed rightly received. Yet I fittingly reckon that the understanding of this week pertains especially also to the final course of the world, since there I presently hear: 'And in the midst of the week the offering and sacrifice shall fail.' For in what follows he says (Dan. 9) that it is 'for a time, times, and half a time.' And when the scattering of the hand of the holy people shall be accomplished...
Perhaps all things pertaining to the holy people shall be fulfilled; and a little after: 'When,' he says, 'the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination set up unto desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days'—which number is spread over about the course of three years and six months—when especially those two kinds of martyrdom, which we set forth above as consisting in demeanor and in deed, are so strengthened in the half-week of Elijah's preaching that they can be cast down by no assault of the persecution soon to come; for as then the persecution shall be sharper, so in the soldiers of Christ, contending unconquered, a greater fortitude shall shine forth. For concerning them John too says: 'And I will give to my two martyrs, that they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.'
For although in the remaining three years and six months, before the violence of Antichrist, they may either withdraw as though dead by departing from their places, or, fittingly received into hiding-places, may not appear, in that, being divinely warned, they lie concealed: yet they are said to be so established, and, the contest of their battle being renewed, to be restored, that through the spirit of life they persevere standing upon their feet; when the final week shall confirm the covenant with many, whether by preaching or by persecution; but also, though some are slain when their martyrdom is consummated, and others put to flight, they are foretold to rise again for the frame of one body, in that, armed with one spirit and founded upon one faith, they spiritually depart; because 'if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it' (1 Cor. 12).
Therefore also the Lord says of John (Luke 1): 'In the spirit and power of Elijah'; or that other saying (Matt. 17), 'Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatsoever they would'—wishing John to be understood by this saying, of whose birth He had promised that he would go before as a forerunner in the spirit and power of Elijah, so that, by the grace of the same spirit and the form of one office, the one may more aptly be recognized as intimating the other person, namely Elijah for John, because as the one goes before in the first coming, so the other in the second. Here also 'the Lord Elijah,' He says (ibid.), 'shall come, and he himself shall restore all things.' For when He shall fulfill the promises, then He shall restore the things foreshadowed.
Then also 'He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week,' all which things are prophetically known to have been formerly set forth in the person of Elijah himself, when in the same interval of time—that is, three years and six months—he hid himself that it might not rain (1 Kings 17); and, by the divine nod, about to obtain rains again, he appeared; and, through the sacrifice which had been offered, reconciling to God the estranged hearts of the people of Israel, he won them back (1 Kings 18).
Nor do I think the mention here of that rain also to be in vain, save that from the preceding we should look for the truth to be rendered in future works—namely, in the other remaining three years and six months, Elijah being slain in the persecution of Antichrist while it rages—before he says that in the midst of the week the offering and sacrifice shall fail, which is now solemnly offered up in the Church, the savagery of Antichrist then prevailing. Finally, at his preaching the Jews shall believe in Christ, at whose rebuking they once deserved to be converted from idolatry.
Now it may be asked whether the resurrection of these ought to be fitted to the time of the three years and six months of Elijah's preaching, or to the remaining three years of the persecution of Antichrist, for which reason he premised: 'And their bodies He shall not suffer to be laid in sepulchers, and those dwelling on the earth shall rejoice over them,' and the rest which are either narrated by anticipation—since future things are written down as though past—or are perhaps for that reason woven together ambiguously, because both in the half-week of preaching and in the half-week of persecution such men shall not be lacking. 'And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and there were slain in the earthquake seven thousand men.'
By the earthquake he signifies persecution, either by way of recapitulation, or he announces that it was made more grievous by those seen more clearly who were already thought dead. For an hour is all time, and the number ten is perfect, and the number seven likewise. If it were not so, the whole would have to be understood from the part. For he says that the city, in part—namely in the part of the wicked—perished by collapse, so that even those may be understood of whom we read (1 John 2): 'They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us.' For there are two buildings, one upon the rock, the other upon the sand (Matt. 7); this latter he says has fallen. 'And the rest were sent into fear, and gave glory to the God of heaven and earth.'