Commentary on the Apocalypse 1.1–5.3

The beginning of the book promises blessedness to the one who reads, hears, and keeps, so that, applying himself to the reading, he may learn from it what to do and keep what it commands. “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.” He was, because with the Father he made all things; he did not take his beginning from the Virgin. “Is to come”: that is, to judge. “And from the seven spirits.” We read in Isaiah: “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and strength, of knowledge and godliness, the Spirit of the fear of God.” These seven spirits are the gifts of the one Holy Spirit. “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead.” In the humanity he assumed he bore witness in the world; in it he suffered and freed us from sin by his blood, and, having conquered the underworld, he was the first to rise from the dead; and death will no longer have dominion over him, but with him reigning 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 all peoples will see him.” He who first came hidden in the humanity he assumed will shortly come openly in majesty and glory to judge.

As for his saying, “walking in the midst of the golden lampstands, one like a son of man,” he says “like” because it was after death had been conquered. When he had ascended into heaven, with this body too united with the spirit of glory which he received from the Father, he can now be called as it were Son of God, not as it were 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 in the paths of the righteous.” His antiquity and immortality, the source of his majesty, is shown by the whiteness of his head. For the head of Christ is God.

“And in his face the brightness of the sun.” His face was that appearance of his in which he spoke with men face to face. The glory of the sun is less than the glory of the Lord; but because of its rising and setting and rising again — because he was born, suffered, and rose again — Scripture for that reason likened his face to the glory of the sun.

By the priestly garment it is most plainly declared that his flesh was not corrupted by death and that through his passion it holds an eternal priesthood. “Girded at the breast with a golden sash”: … a pure spiritual understanding has been handed down to the churches. By the two-edged sword flashing from his mouth it is shown that he is the one who has now brought to the whole world the good things of the gospel, and earlier, through Moses, the knowledge of the law. But because by the same word he will judge the whole human race, of both the Old and the New Testament, it is called a sword. For a sword arms the soldier, a sword kills the enemy, a sword punishes the deserter. To show the apostles that he was announcing judgment, he said: “I have not come to send peace but a sword.” And after he had finished the parables he said to them: “Have you understood all these things?” They said: “Yes.” He added: “Therefore every scribe learned in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” New: the words of the gospel; old: those of the law and the prophets. That these came forth from his mouth he says to Peter: “Go to the sea and cast a hook, and when you open the mouth of the first fish that comes up you will 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 I have heard,” because the Lord decreed once from the beginning what is to be until the end. These, then, are the two testaments, which according to the capacity of the time are called either two denarii, or new and old, or a two-edged sword. Finally, since he himself has been appointed judge by the Father, wishing to show that men will be judged by the word of the preaching, he says: “Do you think that I will judge you on the last day? The word that I have spoken to you, that will judge on the last day.” And Paul, writing to the Thessalonians against the Antichrist, says: “whom the Lord will kill with the spirit of his mouth.” This, then, is the two-edged sword proceeding from his mouth.

“His voice like the sound of many waters.” The many waters are understood to be peoples, but also the gift of baptism, which he sent out by his command through the apostles to be spread abroad for the salvation of men. “His feet like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace.” He means the apostles, because, refined through suffering, they preached his word; for those through whom the preaching travels are rightly called feet. Hence the prophet anticipated it, saying: “Let us worship where his feet have stood”; because where they first stood and established the church, that is, in Judea, there all the saints will gather and worship 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 exalted, then, by the right hand of God, he received the Spirit from the Father and poured it out, this which you have seen and heard.” But the Baptist too had anticipated the gift, saying to his disciples: “For he does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” These are the seven stars.

As for the seven churches, which he calls by name and to which he also writes letters: not because they are the only churches, or the chief ones, but because what he says to one he says to all. For it makes no difference whether one speaks to a detachment, a small number of soldiers, or through it to the whole army. Indeed, whether in Asia or in the whole world, Paul taught that all seven churches, and the seven that are named, are one catholic church. First, to keep the figure himself, he did not go beyond the number of seven churches, but wrote to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the Thessalonians, the Galatians, the Philippians, and the Colossians; afterward he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches; and, drawing his preaching together in brief, he says to Timothy: “that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” We read that this figure was proclaimed by the Holy Spirit through Isaiah in the seven women who took hold of one man. The one man is Christ, not born of seed. The seven women are the churches, taking their own bread and covered with their own garments, who ask that their reproach be taken away and that his name be called upon them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, who nourishes to eternal life; “their own”: promised to them through belief; their garments: that is, those promised to them, with which they long to be covered; as Paul says: “this frailty must put on incorruption and this mortal put on immortality.” “Take away their reproach”: the reproach is the original sin, which is taken away in baptism, and a person begins to be called a Christian, which is: “let your name be called upon us.” In these seven churches, then, understand the one church.

According to the quality of their faith and election, he writes either to those who labor in the world, work thriftily with their own labor, and are patient, and who, when they see certain wasteful and pestilent people in the church, bear with them so that there may be no scattering — yet he warns them about love, in which faith is lacking, that they should repent; or to those who live in cruel places among persecutors and persevere in being faithful; or to those who, humbly instructed in the faith, persevere bravely; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, bring forbidden sins into the church and teach others to commit them; (or to those in the church who are easygoing; or to those who are negligent and Christians in name only;) or he rebukes those who study the Scriptures and labor to learn the hidden meanings of the preaching but will not do the work of God, that is, mercy and love. To all he proclaims repentance, to all he announces judgment.

In the first letter he says: “I know your labor and your works and your patience” — I know that you labor, and I see that you work and are patient: do not think that I am far away from you — “and that you cannot bear evil men, and those who say they are apostles, you have found them to be liars, and you have patience for my name's sake.” All this looks to praise, and no small praise. But such men, such a class, and people of such election must by all means be warned, so that they may not be cheated of the good things due to them. He said he had a few things against them: “You have abandoned your first love,” he says; “remember from where you have fallen.” One who falls falls from a height; and so he says “from where,” because the works of love, which is the chief commandment, must be practiced in every way to the very end. Finally, unless this is done, he threatened to move the lampstand from its place, that is, to scatter the people. That they hate the works of the Nicolaitans, since he too hated them: this looks to praise. (The works of the Nicolaitans: before that time, factious and pestilent men, in the name of the deacon Nicolaus, had made a heresy for themselves: that food offered to idols should be exorcised so that it could be eaten, and that whoever had committed sexual immorality should receive the peace on the eighth day.) Therefore he praises those to whom he wrote, and to such great men he promised the tree of life which is in the paradise of his God.

The next letter reveals the next way of life, of another class and habit. He says: “I know that you are poor and labor, but you are rich”; for he knows that riches are stored up with him for such people; and he speaks of the slander from the Jews, whom he denies to be Jews, calling them a synagogue of Satan, since they are gathered by the Antichrist. He tells them to persevere until death, and: “whoever perseveres will not be harmed by the second death,” that is, will not be punished in hell.

The third class of saints shows men who are strong in faith and do not fear persecution. But because some among them are inclined to forbidden permissions, he says: “I will fight with them with the sword of my mouth,” that is, I will say what I commanded and set it beside what you have done. For the teaching of Balaam, who taught putting a stumbling block before the eyes of the children of Israel, to eat food offered to idols and to commit sexual immorality, has long been known; for he gave this advice to the king of the Moabites, and so they made the people stumble. “So,” he says, “you too have among you those who hold the teaching,” and under the pretext of mercy you corrupt others. “To him who conquers,” he says, “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 “Christian.”

The fourth class signifies the nobility of the faithful who work daily and do ever greater works. But there too he shows that there are easygoing people, ready to grant forbidden peace and to heed new prophecies; he rebukes them and forewarns the others, who are not pleased that this happens and who know the wickedness of the adversary, the evils and tricks by which he seeks to bring dangers on the heads of the faithful. And so he says: “I do not lay on you another burden” (that is, I have not given you the observances and burdens of the law, which is “another burden”) “only hold fast what you have until I come.” “And to him who conquers I will give authority over the nations” — that is, I will make him a judge among the other saints — “and I will give him the morning star”; that is, 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.

The fifth class, the election or way of life of the saints, shows negligent people, doing in the world other than they ought, empty of works, Christians in name only. And so he exhorts them, if somehow, turning back from a perilous negligence, they may be saved. “Strengthen,” he says, “the things that were about to die; I do not find your work complete 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 one and not have the works of a Christian.

The sixth class, the best way of life of the elect, shows the habit of the saints, namely of those who are humble in the world and unlearned in the Scriptures, who hold the faith immovably and are not frightened back from the faith by any mischance at all. 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 too will keep you from the hour of trial,” so that such people may know their glory; nor does he allow them to be handed over to trial. “He who conquers,” he says, “will become a pillar in the temple of God”: a pillar is the ornament of a building; that is, whoever perseveres will attain such nobility in the church.

This election too, the seventh class, shows wealthy people, believers placed in positions of rank, but believing as the wealthy do: in their private rooms the Scriptures are indeed discussed, but outside no one can tell whether they are believers at all — boasting and claiming to know everything, endowed with confidence in their learning, but empty of works. And so he says to them that they are neither cold nor hot, that is, neither unbelievers nor faithful; for they are all things to all. And since one who is neither cold nor hot must be lukewarm, so as to cause nausea: “and I will vomit him,” he says, “out of my mouth.” That nausea is hateful is hidden from no one; so too are such people, once they have been cast out. But because it is a time for repentance, he says: “I counsel you to buy from me refined gold,” that is, if somehow you can suffer something for the Lord's name. “Anoint your eyes with salve,” he says, that is, try also to do what you gladly learn through the Scriptures. And because, if such people return from a great fall to great repentance, they can be useful not only to themselves but profit many, he promised them no small reward, namely: to sit on the throne of judgment.

“A door opened,” 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 open, it is plain that it had been closed to men before. It was fully and completely opened when Christ ascended with his body into heaven to the Father. As for the voice he had heard, since he says it spoke with him, the stubborn are refuted beyond contradiction: he who came is the same who spoke through the prophets. For John was of the circumcision, and that whole people had heard the preaching of the Old Testament and been built up by that voice. “For that voice which I had heard,” he says, “said to me: Come up here”; that is, Jesus Christ, whom a little before he confesses he had seen as a son of man among the golden lampstands. And now from here he recalls what had been foretold in figures through the law, and through this Scripture he joins all the earlier prophets and opens up the Scriptures. And because, after our Lord invited into heaven all who believe in his name, he at once poured out the Holy Spirit, who is to carry man to heaven, John says: “At once I was in the Spirit.” And when the mind of the faithful is opened by the Holy Spirit, what was preached to those before them too is made plain to them.

Significantly a throne is set, which is the seat of judgment and of the king; above the throne he says he saw the likeness of jasper and sardius. Since jasper is the color of water and sardius of fire, it was shown from this that these two testaments are set over God's tribunal until the end of the world; of these two judgments one has already been accomplished by water in the flood, and the other will be accomplished by fire. The rainbow around the throne has a fiery color; “iris” is the word for a bow, about which God spoke to Noah and his sons, that they should no longer fear a flooding of water: “I will set my bow in the clouds,” so that you may no longer fear water, but fire. Before the throne was as it were a sea of glass like crystal: this is the gift of baptism, which he pours out through his Son in the time of repentance, before he brings on the judgment; therefore “before the throne,” that is, before the judgment. And when he says “a sea of glass like crystal,” he shows pure water, still, not stirred by wind, not flowing away like a river, but given immovable, as a gift of God.

(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 each all around, eyes within and without; and they do not cease to say,” he says, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty.” “Twenty-four elders having twenty-four thrones”: these are the books of the prophets and of the law, which bear the testimonies of the judgment. But the twenty-four fathers are also the twelve apostles and the twelve patriarchs. That the living creatures have different faces has this reason.

The living creature like a lion is the Gospel according to John: for while all the evangelists proclaimed Christ made man, he proclaimed him God before he came down and took flesh, saying: “The Word was God”; and because he cried out like a roaring lion, his preaching bears the face of a lion. Matthew strives to tell us the lineage of Mary, from whom Christ took flesh. So, while he enumerates from Abraham to David and from David to Joseph, he has spoken as of a man; therefore his preaching received the likeness of a man. Luke too, since he tells of the priesthood of Zechariah offering sacrifice for the people and of the angel appearing to him, because of the priesthood and the sacrifice his writing bore the image of the calf. Mark, the interpreter of Peter, wrote down from memory what Peter taught in his ministry, but not in order, and he begins with the word of prophecy foretold through Isaiah. So they begin 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; Matthew, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of God, son of David, son of Abraham” — this is the face of the man; Luke thus: “There was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah, 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”: it began with the Spirit flying toward us, and therefore it has the likeness of a flying eagle. And not only the prophetic Spirit, but the very Word of God the Father almighty, who is his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, bears these same images in the time of his coming to us. Though he was proclaimed as a lion and as a lion's whelp, for the salvation of men he became man to conquer death and set all free; because he offered himself as a sacrifice to God the Father for us, he was called a calf; and because, having conquered death, he ascended into heaven, spreading out his wings and protecting his people, he was named a flying eagle. So these proclamations, though they are four, are yet one proclamation, because it came forth from one mouth, as the river in paradise was divided from one source into four parts.

That those living creatures have eyes within and without shows (the preaching of the New Testament,) the spiritual foresight which both looks into the secrets of the heart and sees what is to come, the things within and without. The wings are the testimonies of the books of the Old Testament, and therefore they are twenty-four in number, as many as the elders on the thrones. For just as a living creature cannot fly unless it has wings, so neither does the preaching of the New Testament gain belief unless it has the testimonies foretold by the Old Testament, by which it is lifted from the earth and flies. For what is always found to have happened afterward, when it was said beforehand that it would happen, is what produces unquestionable faith. Yet again, wings, if they do not cling to living creatures, have nothing from which to draw life. For unless what the prophets had foretold had been fulfilled in Christ, their preaching would have been empty. The catholic church holds both what was proclaimed before and what was fulfilled afterward, and rightly flies and is lifted from the earth, a living creature. The heretics, who do not use the prophetic testimony, have living creatures, but they do not fly, because they are earthly. The Jews, who do not accept the preaching of the New Testament, (have wings, but they do not live; that is,) they bring to people an empty prophecy not worth hearing, not comparing the deeds with the words. The books of the Old Testament that are received are twenty-four, which we find in the epitomes of Theodorus. But also, as we said, the twenty-four fathers and apostles are to judge their people. For when the apostles asked, saying, “We have left all these things and followed you; what will we have?” our Lord answered: “When the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you too will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And concerning the fathers, that they will judge, the patriarch Jacob says: “And he will judge his people among his brothers as one tribe of Israel.”

That lightnings and voices and thunders go out from the throne of God, and seven torches, signified proclamations and promises and threats from God. For the lightnings signified the coming of the Lord; the voices, the proclamations of the New Testament; the thunders, that the words are heavenly; and the torches of burning fire, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which the first man lost by a tree and which was restored through the tree of the passion.

And when these things (were happening), (he says that) all the elders fell down and worshiped the Lord, when the living creatures gave glory and honor: that is, when the gospel, namely the Lord's action and teaching, had fulfilled the word foretold before through them, they rightly and deservedly rejoiced, knowing that they had duly ministered the word of the Lord. Then, because he had come who would conquer death and who alone was worthy to take the crown of immortality, all who had crowns for the glory of their excellent deeds cast them beneath his feet; that is, because of Christ's surpassing victory, all victories are beneath his feet. This Christ also fulfilled in the Gospel: for when our Lord, about to suffer, came to Jerusalem for the last time and the people went out to meet him, some cut palm branches and strewed them on the road, others spread their garments beneath him, showing, namely, two peoples: one of the fathers and prophets, great men, who cast beneath Christ's feet whatever palms of their victories over sins they had. And the palm means the same thing, since it is given only to a victor.

That in the hand of him who sits on the throne there is a book written within, sealed with seven seals: this signifies the Old Testament, which was given into the hand of our Lord, who received judgment from the Father. “A herald,” he says, “proclaimed whether anyone was worthy to open the book and loose its seals, and no one was found worthy, neither in heaven nor on earth nor under the earth.” To open the testament is to suffer and to conquer 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, except Christ alone, the Son of God, whom he says he saw as a lamb as though slain, having seven horns. It had been proclaimed of him: whatever the law had rehearsed concerning him through various offerings and sacrifices, he had to fulfill. And because he himself was the testator and had conquered death, it was just that he be appointed heir by God, so that he might possess the property of the one dying, that is, the human members. He says that he, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered.

The lion of the tribe of Judah we read of in Genesis, where the patriarch Jacob says: “Judah, your brothers praise you; you slept and rose up as a lion and as a lion's whelp.” For he is called a lion for conquering death, and for suffering for men he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He it is, then, who opens and unseals the testament which he himself had sealed. Moses the lawgiver, knowing this too, that it had to be sealed and hidden until the coming of his passion, veiled his face and so spoke to the people, showing that the words of the preaching were veiled until the coming of Christ's time. For when he had read the law itself to the people, he took wool in the grease, the blood of a calf, and water, and sprinkled the whole people, saying: “This is the blood of the testament which the Lord has commanded for you.” The careful reader must note, then, that the whole preaching holds together as one. For it is not enough that it is called law; it is also named testament. No law is called a testament, nor is anything else named a testament except what those about to die make; and whatever they have attested within is sealed until the day of the testator's death. But because he conquered death and anticipated the executioner's office, he is called “as though slain.” Therefore it is rightly now unsealed by the slain Lamb, who like a lion has broken death and fulfilled what had been foretold of him (and has set man free), that is, the flesh from death, and has taken possession of the property of the one dying, that is, of the human members; (and) as through one body all men had come under the debt of death, so through one body all believers will rise to eternal life. Now, then, the face of Moses is uncovered, now it is also unveiled, and therefore the Apocalypse is called Revelation; now his book is unsealed, now the offerings of the sacrifices are understood, now the priesthoods and Christ's commandments and the building of the temple 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 who publicly declare their confession. It is new that the Son of God became man; new that he was handed over to death by men; new that he rose on the third day; new that he ascended with his body into heaven; new that forgiveness of sins is given to men; new that men are sealed with the Holy Spirit; new to receive a priesthood of supplication and to await a kingdom of boundless promise. For the harp, with its strings stretched on wood, signified the body of Christ joined to the passion; the bowl, the confession and the offspring of the new priesthood. “Of many angels”: rather, of all; of the whole elect, giving thanks to our Lord for the deliverance of men from the ruin of death.