註釋集 第 1 章

Those who cross over the perils of the sea encounter diverse mishaps. If the whirlwind of the winds is too violent, there is dread; if a gentler breeze ruffles the surface of the resting element, they fear ambushes. So it seems to me in this volume which you have sent, which seems to contain an explanation of Victorinus upon the Apocalypse. And it is both perilous, and open to the barkings of detractors, to pass judgment upon the little works of an excellent man. For both Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, of earlier date, and Nepos, a bishop in the regions of Egypt, held the same view concerning the reign of a thousand years as did Victorinus.

And because you have adjured me by letters, I was unwilling to delay, but lest I should spurn one who entreats, I forthwith turned over the books of the elders, and whatever I found in their commentaries concerning the reign of a thousand years I associated with the little works of Victorinus, removing therefrom those things which he himself understood according to the letter. From the beginning of the book up to the sign of the cross, the things that had been corrupted by the unskillfulness of the copyists we have corrected; from there to the end of the volume, know that things have been added. Now it is yours to discern and to confirm whatever pleases you. If life be our companion and the Lord grant health, our talent shall sweat for you above all in this volume, dearest Anatolius. CHAPTER I.

The beginning of the book promises blessedness to him who reads, to him who hears, and to him who keeps, so that, being zealous for the reading, he may thereupon learn the works, and may keep what is enjoined. «Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come.» Because together with the Father He made all things, He did not take His beginning from the Virgin. «He is to come»: namely, to judge. «From the seven spirits.» In Isaiah we read: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of God. These seven spirits are the gifts, namely, of the one Holy Spirit. «And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead.»

In the manhood He assumed He bore witness in the world, in which, having suffered, He loosed us from sin by His own blood, and, hell having been conquered, He first rose from the dead, and death shall no longer have dominion over Him; but, while He Himself reigns, the kingdom of the world has been destroyed. And He made us a kingdom and priests, that is, the whole Church of the faithful, as the apostle Peter says: a holy nation, a royal priesthood. «Behold, He comes with the clouds, and every people shall see Him.» He who at first came hidden in the manhood He assumed, after a little while shall come manifest in majesty and glory to judge. But as for what he says: «walking in the midst of the golden lampstands, like the Son of man,» he says «like» after death had been overcome.

When He had ascended into the heavens, this body of His being united with the Spirit of glory which He received from the Father, He can now be called as it were the Son of God, not as it were the Son of man. «Walking in the midst of the golden lampstands,» that is, in the midst of the Churches, as He said through Solomon: «I walk among the paths of the just.» Whose antiquity and immortality, the origin of His majesty, is shown in the «whiteness upon His head.» But the head of Christ is God. And in His countenance is «the brightness of the sun.» His face was the manifestation of Him, by which He spoke to men face to face. But the glory of the sun is less than the glory of the Lord, but on account of its rising and setting and rising again.

Because He was born and suffered and rose again, from this Scripture gave the likeness of His face to the glory of the sun. In the priestly garment, His flesh, which is not corrupted by death, and which has through His Passion an eternal priesthood, is most openly handed down. The golden girdle girded about His breast: a fused conscience and a pure spiritual sense was handed down to the Churches. By the two-edged sword flashing forth from His mouth, it is shown that He is the very one who both now has set forth to the whole world the good things of the Gospel, and formerly through Moses the knowledge of the Law. But because by the same Word He is to judge the whole human race, both of the Old and of the New Testament, therefore it is named a sword.

For the sword arms the soldier, the sword slays the enemy, the sword punishes the deserter. So that He might show to 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 things?» They said: «Yes.» He added: «Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder bringing forth from his treasure new things and old»: «new,» the words of the Gospel; «old,» those of the Law and the prophets. That these proceeded from His mouth He said to Peter: «Go to the sea and cast a hook, and the fish which first comes up, in its opened mouth you shall find a stater»—that is, two denarii—«give it for Me and for you.» And David likewise says through the Spirit:

«God has spoken once, these two things have I heard,» because the Lord decreed once from the beginning that which is to be until the end. These therefore are the two Testaments, which according to the capacity of the time are named either two denarii, or new things and old, or a two-edged sword. Finally, since He is Himself appointed judge by the Father, wishing to show that men shall be judged by the word of His preaching, He said: «Do you think that I shall judge you on the last day? The word which I have spoken to you, that shall judge in the last day.» And Paul, against the Antichrist, says to the Thessalonians: «whom the Lord shall slay with the spirit of His mouth.» This therefore is the two-edged sword proceeding from His mouth. «His voice was as the voice of many waters.»

The «many waters» are understood to be peoples, but also the gift of baptism, which He sent forth by His precept to be diffused through the apostles for the salvation of men. «His feet were like fine brass, as if fused in a furnace.» He means the apostles, because, being fused through suffering, they preached His word; for through those by whom preaching walks, they are rightly named feet. Whence the prophet anticipated it, saying: «Let us adore where His feet have stood,» because where they first stood and confirmed the Church, that is, Judea, there all the saints shall assemble and shall adore their God. «Seven stars in His right hand.» We have said that the Holy Spirit of sevenfold power was given into His power by the Father, as Peter cried out to the Jews:

«Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, He poured out the Spirit received from the Father, this which you have seen and heard.» But the Baptist also had anticipated the gift to his disciples, saying: «For He gives not the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.» These are the seven stars. But the seven Churches, which He calls by name by their own appellations, to which He also writes epistles, not because those alone are Churches or principal ones, but because what He says to one He says to all; for it makes no difference whether one speaks to a detachment, a number of few soldiers, or through it to the whole army. Finally, whether in Asia or in the whole world, Paul taught that all seven Churches and the seven named are one Catholic Church:

first indeed, that he himself might preserve it also, he did not exceed the number of seven Churches, but wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Galatians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterward he wrote to individual persons, lest he should exceed the number of seven Churches, and, contracting his preaching into a brief space, he said to Timothy: «that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God.» We read that this type was foretold by the Holy Spirit through Isaiah, concerning the seven women who laid hold of one man. But the one man is Christ, not born of seed.

The seven women are the churches, receiving their bread and clothed in their tunics, who ask that their reproach be taken away, so that His name may be invoked over them. By 'bread' is meant the Holy Spirit, who nourishes unto eternal life; 'their own' means that which is promised to them through believing. By 'their tunics,' that is, the things promised to them, with which they desire to be covered; whence Paul says: this frail nature must be clothed with incorruption, and this mortal with immortality. 'That their reproach be taken away': the reproach is the former sin, which is taken away in baptism, and one begins to be called a Christian man, which is: let Your name be invoked over us. In these seven churches, then, reckon that there is made one Church out of one.

According to the quality of faith and election, he wrote either to those who both labour in the world and toil by the frugality of their work, and are patient, and who—when they see certain men in the church to be squanderers and pestilent—bear with them lest a scattering occur (yet he admonishes them concerning the love in which their faith is lacking, that they should do penance); or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors and persevere in being faithful; or to those who, though humbly instructed in the faith, persevere bravely; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, by bringing unlawful sins into the church, teach others to commit them; or to those who are pliable in the church;

or to those who, being negligent, are Christians in name only; or he rebukes those who study the Scriptures and labour 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. In the first epistle indeed he says: I know your labour and your works and your patience—'I know that you both labour and work, and I see that you are patient: do not think that I tarry far from you'—and that you cannot bear evil men, and they call themselves apostles, you have found them liars, and you have patience for My name's sake. All these things look to praise, and no slight praise.

But such men, such a company, and such men of election must by all means be admonished, lest they be defrauded of the good things owed to them. He said he had a few things against them: 'You have abandoned,' he says, 'your former love: remember from where you have fallen.' He who falls, falls from a height; and therefore he says 'from where,' because by every means the works of love must be carried on to the very last, which is the chief commandment. And then, unless this be done, he threatened to move the lampstand from its place, that is, to scatter the people; but that he himself hates the works of the Nicolaitans, because he too held them in hatred: this looks to praise. ('The works of the Nicolaitans':)

Before that time, factious and pestilent men, the ministers of one named Nicolaus, had made for themselves a heresy, that food offered to idols might be exorcized so that it could be eaten, and that whoever had committed fornication might receive peace on the eighth day. Therefore he commends together those to whom he wrote, to whom—such great men—he promised the tree of life which is in the paradise of his God. The following epistle uncovers the following manner of life of another company and custom. And then he says: I know you, that you are both poor and labour, yet you are rich;

for He knows that riches are laid up with Himself for such men; and He knows the slander from the Jews, whom He denies to be Jews but a synagogue of Satan, since they are gathered by Antichrist; and to these He says that they should persevere unto death, and: he who shall persevere shall not be hurt by the second death, that is, 'he shall not be punished in hell.' The third company shows that the saints are men who are strong in faith and do not tremble at persecution. But because among them some are inclined to unlawful indulgences, He says: I will fight against them with the sword of My mouth, that is, 'I will declare what I have commanded and will compare what you have done.' For Balaam taught a doctrine, to cast a stumbling-block before the eyes of the children of Israel, namely to eat things offered to idols and to commit fornication:

this has long been known; for he gave this counsel to the king of the Moabites, and thus they caused the people to stumble. So too, He says, you also have among you those who hold a doctrine and, under the pretext of mercy, corrupt others. He who overcomes, He says, to him I will give of the hidden manna: ('the hidden manna') is immortality; the 'white stone' is adoption as a son of God; the 'new name' is the Christian name. The fourth company signifies the nobility of the faithful who labour daily and do ever greater works.

But there too He shows that there are men easy in granting unlawful peace and in heeding novel prophecies; and He rebukes and forewarns the rest, to whom it does not please that this be done, who recognize the wickednesses of the adversary, by what evils and wiles he seeks to bring dangers upon the head of the faithful. And therefore He says: I lay upon you no other burden (that is, 'I have not given you the observances of the law and burdens,' which is another burden)—that you may hold what you have, until I come. And he who overcomes, to him I will give power over the nations—that is, 'I will set him as a judge among the other saints'—and I will give him the morning star: namely, He promised the first resurrection.

For the morning star puts the night to flight and announces the light, that is, the beginning of the day. CHAPTER III. The fifth company, the election or manner of life of the saints, declares men who are negligent, doing in the world something other than what is fitting, empty in works, Christians in name only. And therefore He exhorts them, that if in any way, turning back from imperilling negligence, they may be able to be saved. Establish, He says, the things that were about to die; I do not find your work full before my God. For it is not enough for a tree to live and be green and bear no fruit: so neither is it enough to be called a Christian and to confess oneself and not to have the works of a Christian.

The sixth company, and the best manner of life of the election, the custom of the saints, is declared, namely of those who are humble in the world and unlettered in the Scriptures, yet hold the faith unmovably and are by no means drawn back from the faith, frightened by any mishap whatever. Therefore He says to them: I have set before you an open door, and He says: because you have kept the word of My patience—with such small strength—I also will keep you from the hour of temptation: so that men of this kind may know their glory, He does not permit them to be delivered into temptation. He who overcomes, He says, shall become a pillar in the temple of God: now a pillar is the ornament of a building, that is, he who shall persevere shall obtain so great a nobility in the Church.

This election also, the seventh company, declares men who are wealthy, believing while set in positions of dignity, yet believing as wealthy men, among whom the Scriptures are indeed handled in the bedchamber, but outwardly whether they are faithful is understood by no one—boastful, namely, and saying that they know all things, endowed with confidence in learning, but devoid of works. And therefore He says of them that they are neither cold nor hot, that is, 'neither unbelievers nor believers'; for to all men they are all things. And since he who is neither cold nor hot must needs be lukewarm, so as to cause nausea: and I will spew him, He says, out of My mouth. That nausea is hateful escapes no one: so also are men of this kind.

when they shall have been cast out. But because there is a time for penance, He says: I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that is, 'if in any way you can suffer something for the name of the Lord.' Anoint your eyes, He says, with eyesalve, that is, 'what you gladly come to know through the Scriptures, strive also to put into practice.' And since, if men of this kind should return from a great fall to a great penance, they can be useful not only to themselves but profit many, He promised them no slight reward, that is: to sit upon the throne of judgment. CHAPTER IV. An open door, he says, in heaven: John sees the preaching of the New Testament, and it is said to him: Come up here.

When it is shown to be open, it is manifest that it had previously been closed to men. But it was opened sufficiently and fully when Christ ascended in the body into the heavens to the Father. Now the voice which he had heard, since he says that it had spoken with him: without contradiction the stubborn are convicted that He is the very one who comes, the very one who spoke through the prophets. For John was of the circumcision, and all that people of the Old Testament had heard the preaching, and had been edified by that voice. For that voice, he says, which I had heard, that voice said to me: Come up here: that is, Jesus Christ.

Whom a little before he confesses that he saw, as it were a Son of Man, among the golden lampstands; and now thereupon he recalls the things that had been foretold in figures through the law, and through this Scripture he joins together all the earlier prophets and opens the Scriptures. And because, after our Lord had invited into heaven all who believe in His name, He at once poured out the Holy Spirit, who was to bear man up to heaven, he says: at once I was in the Spirit. And when the mind of the faithful is opened through the Holy Spirit, there is made manifest to them that which was also preached to those of old. Significantly the throne is set, which is the seat of judgment and of the king, upon which throne he says that he saw the likeness of jasper and sardius.

Because jasper is the colour of water and sardius of fire, thereby it was made manifest that these two testaments are set, until the consummation of the world, over the tribunal of God; of which two judgments one has already been consummated in the deluge by water, but the other shall be consummated by fire. Now the rainbow around the throne has a burning colour; and the rainbow is called a bow, concerning which God also spoke to Noah and his sons, that they should no longer fear an overflowing of water. I will set, He says, My bow in the clouds, that you may no longer fear water but fire. Now before the throne, as it were a sea of glass like crystal: it is the gift of baptism, which He pours out through His Son in the time of penance, before He brings in judgment; therefore before the throne, that is, 'before the judgment.'

But when he says: a sea of glass like crystal, he shows water that is clean, stable, not agitated by the wind, not flowing away as a river, but delivered as it were a gift of God, immovable. (The four living creatures) are the four Gospels. The first, he says, like a lion; the second like a calf; the third like a man; the fourth like a flying eagle: having six wings round about, eyes both within and without: and they do not cease to say, he says: (Holy, holy, holy) Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. The twenty-four elders, having twenty-four tribunals: they are the books of the prophets and of the law, bearing the testimonies of judgment. And the twenty-four fathers are the twelve apostles and the twelve patriarchs.

Now that the living creatures are of different countenance has this reason. The living creature like a lion is the Gospel according to John; for whereas all the evangelists preached Christ made man, he preached Him as God before He descended and took flesh, saying: the Word was God; and because he cried out like a roaring lion, his preaching bears the countenance of a lion. Matthew strives to declare to us the man, the lineage of Mary, whence Christ received flesh. Therefore, while he enumerates from Abraham to David and from David to Joseph, he spoke as it were concerning a man; and so his preaching received the figure of a man.

Luke also, while he enumerates from the priesthood of Zacharias, who offered a sacrifice for the people, and from the angel appearing to him, on account of the priesthood and the sacrifice that very writing bore the image of a calf. Mark, the interpreter of Peter, recorded and wrote down those things which Peter taught in his ministry, but not in order, and he begins with the word of prophecy foretold through Isaiah. They begin, then, by saying thus: John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God—this is the face of the lion; but Matthew: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham—this is the face of the man; but Luke thus: There was a priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron—this is the image of the calf;

Mark begins thus: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah; with the Spirit flying it was begun, and therefore it has also the figure of the flying eagle. But not only the prophetic Spirit, but also the very Word of God the Father Almighty, who is His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, shall bear these same images at the time of His coming to us. And when He had been preached as a lion and as a lion's whelp, for the salvation of men He was made man to vanquish death and to set all free; in that He offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father for us, He was called a calf; and in that, death being vanquished, He ascended into the heavens, spreading out His wings and protecting His people, He was named a flying eagle.

These preachings, therefore, although they are four, are nevertheless one preaching, because it proceeded from one mouth, just as the river in paradise was divided from one fountain into four parts. Now that these living creatures have eyes within and without: this shows 'the preaching of the New Testament,' the spiritual providence, which both inspects the secrets of the heart and sees the things to come, which are within and without. The wings are the testimonies of the books of the Old Testament, and therefore they are twenty-four, just so many in number as are the elders upon the tribunals.

But just as a living creature cannot fly unless it has wings, so neither does the preaching of the New Testament have faith unless it has, as testimony to the Old Testament, the testimonies foretold beforehand, by which it is lifted from the earth and flies. For always, that which was said beforehand to be future is afterward found to have come to pass; this is what makes faith indubitable. Yet again, the wings too, if they do not cleave to the living creatures, have nothing from which to draw life. For unless the things which the prophets had foretold had been consummated in Christ, their preaching would have been empty. This the Catholic Church holds—both foretold beforehand and afterward consummated—and deservedly it flies and is lifted from the earth, a living creature.

But the heretics, who do not make use of the prophetic testimony, have the living creatures present to them, yet they do not fly, because they are earthly. The Jews, however, who do not receive the preaching of the New Testament, have the wings present to them but they do not live, that is, they bring to men an empty prophesying, not to be heeded, not matching their deeds to their words. Now the books of the Old Testament that are received are twenty-four, which we have found in the epitomes of Theodore. But also the twenty-four, as we said, are the fathers and the apostles: they must judge their people. For when the apostles asked and said: We have left all these things and followed You; what shall we have? our Lord answered:

When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve tribunals, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But also concerning the fathers, that they shall judge: the patriarch Jacob says: and he himself shall judge his people among his brethren, as one tribe of Israel. Now that lightnings and voices and thunders go forth from the throne of God, and seven lamps: this signified the preachings and the promises from God, and the threats. For the lightnings signified the coming of the Lord, the voices the preachings of the New Testament, the thunders that the words are heavenly, but the lamps of burning fire the gift of the Holy Spirit, which, when the first man had lost it in the tree, was restored through the tree of the passion.

And when these things came to pass, he says that all the elders fell and worshipped the Lord, while the living creatures gave glory and honour: that is, when the Gospel, namely the action and the doctrine of the Lord, had fulfilled the word formerly foretold through them, worthily and deservedly they exulted, knowing that they had duly ministered the word of the Lord. And then, because He had come who alone was worthy to vanquish death and to take the crown of immortality, all, as many as held crowns for the glory of their own most excellent deeds, cast them down beneath His feet: that is, on account of the surpassing victory of Christ, they cast all their victories beneath His feet.

This Christ also supplied in the Gospel by saying—for when our Lord came last to Jerusalem about to suffer, and the people went out to meet Him, some strewed the way with branches of palms cut down, others laid their own tunics beneath—showing namely two peoples, one of the fathers and prophets, great men, who, whatever palms of their own victories they held against sins, cast them beneath Christ's feet. Now the palm signifies the same thing, since it is given to none but the victor. CHAPTER V. But that in the hand of Him who sat upon the tribunal there was a book written within, sealed with seven seals: by this is signified the Old Testament, which was given into the hand of our Lord, who received judgment from the Father.

A herald, he says, proclaimed aloud whether anyone were worthy to open the book and to loose its seals; and no one was found worthy, neither in heaven nor on earth nor beneath the earth. Now to open the testament is to suffer and to vanquish death for men. No one was found worthy to do this, neither among the angels in heaven nor among men on earth nor among the souls of the saints at rest, save only Christ the Son of God, whom he says he saw as a Lamb as it were slain, having horns to the number of seven. Of Him it had been foretold: whatever the law, in its various offerings and sacrifices, had pondered in Him, He Himself had to fulfil.

And because He Himself was the testator and had vanquished death, it was just that He Himself should be constituted heir by God, so that He might possess also the substance of him who dies, that is, human members. This Lion of the tribe of Judah, he says, has conquered—the Root of David. We read of the Lion of the tribe of Judah in Genesis, where the patriarch Jacob says: Judah, your brethren shall praise you; and you have lain down and risen up as a lion and as a lion's whelp. For to vanquish death He was called a lion; for suffering on behalf of men He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. He therefore opens and unseals the testament which He Himself had sealed.

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.

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;