Commentary on Revelation & Paul 18 part 1/3

I. The title, the merit, the time, and the place are designated. II. The beginning of the book. III. The address, interpretation, and signification of the seven Churches are recorded. IV. Having begun the series of visions, he proceeds with the golden candlesticks and the rest. V. The quality of the angels of the seven Churches is set forth with praise and blame, with mention interposed of the twenty-four elders, the door being opened in heaven. VI. He says that from the throne go forth lightnings and thunders. VII. Concerning the seven lamps and the four living creatures full of eyes. CHAPTER ONE. 'The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to make openly known to His servants.'

It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which for this reason is said to have been given to Him by God the Father, since every work of the Father and the Son is proved to be inseparable—nay, even of the Holy Spirit, whose name he here frequently intimates—because even in the form of a servant the one and the same both receives from the Father and grants together with the Father the things 'which must shortly come to pass.' Every matter that is carried on in time has a beginning, a course, and an end.

Now after the rise of the Church, which had already been founded by the preaching of the apostles, it was fitting to reveal how it was to be more widely propagated, or even with what end it would be attended, so that the preachers of the truth, relying on the confidence of this knowledge, might unhesitatingly set upon their task—the few against the many, the unarmed against the armed, the humble against the proud, the weak against the noble, the living against those spiritually dead. Now it is said to be 'shortly' with God, however long anything is prolonged amid the brief delays of this life; to whom the prophet says (Psalm): 'For a thousand years before Your eyes are as yesterday which is past.' 'And He signified the things to be announced through His angel to His servant John, who preached the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, the things which he saw.'

By saying 'He signified,' he indicated something also of things to come and showed forth mysteries, and did not wish us to remain content with the surface of the letter, whom by the word 'signification' He made intent upon searching out the mysteries more deeply. And when he says 'to His servant John,' He willed to reveal to the whole Church in one, which He founded in unity. Therefore he says 'to make openly known to His servants,' not to one only out of many, but rather through one to all—just as Peter alone received the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew), by which power, nevertheless, the whole Church, being exalted, deserved to make use.

Rightly indeed he added that these things were shown to the disciple by Christ 'through His angel,' since it is ever clear that Christ appeared to mortals through an assumed creature, not through the essence of His divinity, both before the Incarnation and after the Ascension; and therefore he who had known Him as master in the manhood He assumed, bore witness to the invisible Word; and lest anyone should think that only the Word was to be understood, he again subjoined the name of Jesus Christ, which he is not ignorant pertains to the form of the manhood assumed. 'Blessed is he who reads and they who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written in it.'

By saying 'he who reads and they who hear,' he pointed out the person of teachers and of learners, so that by the zeal of reading he might remove sloth, and to those who keep the words he might pledge blessedness—to whom those things also which follow are fitting: 'and they keep the things which are written in it'; for to keep belongs to both, is suitable to both. For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Romans). 'Because the time is now at hand,' namely that the several things which are to be said may be fulfilled, since the increases of propagation now succeed for the Church already planted; about which, being about to speak, he thus premises: 'John, to the seven Churches which are in Asia.' That is, to one Church, sevenfold.

By the number seven the universality is often figured, because out of the first odd and even, that is, out of three and four, the whole universality is, as it were, composed from diverse elements; for the diversity of soul and body also embraces the very unity of this number. For to the soul three things pertain, to the body four. For it is said (Deuteronomy) that God is to be loved with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind; while of the body we have four qualities as its marks: hot and cold, dry and moist. Therefore it is also sung (Psalm): 'Seven times a day I have given praise to You.' Which elsewhere he expresses (Psalm), 'I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be ever in my mouth,' and Wisdom

'built herself a house, she hewed out seven pillars' (Proverbs), and the rest of the passages by which the Church is foretold as destined to possess the circle of the earth, which the same Christ received as one possession into His inheritance. 'I will give You,' He says, 'the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession' (Psalm). Hence it singularly obtains the name 'catholic,' because it alone possesses the whole world by hereditary dignity. These things John now hears, and, being redeemed, hopes by the salutation for everlasting salvation. 'Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.' Although, according to the Apostle (2 Corinthians), 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself,' or as He Himself testifies (John),

(John) 'He who sent Me is with Me,' on account of the unity of one and the same nature—yet this passage is here properly to be referred to the person of the Son. He 'is,' because He remains the same; He 'was,' because with the Father He created all things, He did not take His beginning from the Virgin; He 'is to come' to judge; 'and from the seven spirits which are in the sight of the throne of God.' On account of the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit, the sevenfold spiritual gift is so called (Isaiah), that is, of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and piety, and of the fear of the Lord. For the gifts of one Spirit are figuratively commended, when peace and grace are wished from the seven spirits to the devout, 'and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead.'

In the manhood He assumed He bore witness to the Father, the flesh preaching says (John): 'And I have made known to them Your name, and will make it known'; which, showing that it was formerly denied to the Jews, He says (Exodus): 'And My name Adonai I did not reveal to them.' For the Son being believed, the knowledge of the Father is likewise no less revealed; for He would not be called Son unless He had a Father, nor Father unless He had had a Son. And so the one is known by the preaching of the other, because the Father is truly approved in the Son, and the Son in the Father. For 'he who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him' (John). Hence also the same John says in his Epistle: 'He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in himself;'

'he who does not believe the Son makes Him a liar, because he does not believe in the testimony which God has testified concerning His Son' (1 John). 'And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,' who by His suffering also loosed us from sin by His own blood, who, rising again, is by right proclaimed the firstborn from the dead (Colossians), 'and made us a kingdom and priests to God and His Father,' just as Peter the apostle also says: 'a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a chosen generation' (1 Peter), and so on. 'Behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him.' For He who first came hidden to be judged, will come manifest to judge; He will be seen by the unbelieving in the flesh in which He willed to suffer, not in the divinity, which remained impassible and invisible.

For this reason he added, 'and they who pierced Him. And every land shall see Him.' All earthly men, or all the wicked in general, especially the Jews, who thought He was to be slain as the least of men, when they shall see Him such as they did not believe Him to be, shall bewail themselves with too-late repentance, and shall mourn at His coming. 'So, Amen': what God most surely knows to be future by revelation, interposing 'Amen,' he confirms as to come without doubt. 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty': through whom the ages were made, He is proclaimed to have failed at no time. Hence too He is taught to be Almighty.

'I, John, your brother and partaker in tribulation, and in the kingdom, and in patience in Christ Jesus, was on the island which is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.' That the things we have promised may be proved, he here intimated the place, the time, and the cause. These things—lest he should be thought deluded by a carnal phantasm—he testifies that he was 'in the Spirit' and saw. But those 'whose conversation is in heaven' (Philippians), and 'who live not to themselves, but to Him who died for all and rose again' (2 Corinthians), are to be believed ever to keep the Lord's day. 'And I heard behind me a great voice, like a trumpet, saying to me:'

'What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven Churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.' I think it suits the work undertaken if, though we cannot do all things, we may at least examine the certain names of the seven Churches—what they resound when interpreted in our own tongue—so that when sure indications have become plain to us from their title, the things which follow, being considered in the divine discourse, a fitting sense may be adapted to each of the persons or Churches mentioned. And first it must be done concerning Asia, in which, as in a world, these seven Churches are enumerated. For Asia is interpreted 'elation' (lifting up).

Therefore the whole Church, as though placed in the province of this world, being set in elation, is admonished, that, this same elation being cast off, it may draw near gentle, to be subjected to the mild yoke of Christ; or that what has already begun may make progress by an ampler cultivation of piety. Thus proud Saul is reproved, that he may be gained as humble, when the Lord rebuked Saul, and so far reduced Paul, as it were, to the little (paululum), that he who lately, as a ravening wolf, panted for prey among the disciples of Christ, might devoutly submit his neck also to Ananias (which is interpreted 'sheep'), and, destined to be a master, humble, might undergo the discipleship of the faith to be preached. Ephesus, accordingly, is said to be interpreted 'my will' or 'my counsel.'

Now we know that 'will' is frequently applied for charity, and 'counsel' for the correction of negligence. This, in fine, is what is lacking there, since both the things pleasing to the will, which soothe out of charity, are related, and the things to be amended are threateningly bound with a better counsel. Pergamum is said to be interpreted 'dividing their horns,' or 'cutting down the valleys in speech.' Further, since concerning its angel he showed two kinds of men—in the one holding fast the faith, but in the others holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans—not without cause he divides between the horns of the righteous and of sinners (which the same name resounds), unless it be that, as we read (Psalm), 'the horns of sinners may be broken, and the horns of the righteous exalted.' 'And cutting down the valley.'

The humility of confession had indeed to be distinguished by the name 'valley,' designated from the ruin of those who are said to be entangled in the doctrines of Satan. For it was fitting that the one should repent of mere negligence, and that the others should be reproached and stung for grave downfall. Sardis is interpreted 'the prince of beauty.' For in that Church he mentions the dignity of the elect, saying: 'They who have not defiled their garment shall walk with Me in white.' Philadelphia is interpreted 'saving him who cleaves to the Lord'; therefore to its angel such a discourse is directed, by which it may know both that it is loved and that it is to be guarded from the hour of temptation. Laodicea is said to be interpreted 'a tribe beloved of the Lord,' or 'they were in vomit.' There he shows what is bestowed there by the gift of divine charity:

and what, by the vice of human elation, may more justly be imputed to those who boasted that they were rich. In fine, the beloved Lord says (Revelation): 'Those whom I love, I rebuke and chastise,' but again he is reproved for lukewarmness, so that, the foulness of transgression being repelled, he may persevere beloved, to whom, when converted, He promises both fine gold tried in the fire and a white garment (Ibid.). But to those who there bear an impenitent heart, they themselves were 'in vomit,' to whom He also says: 'I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth,' so that word and deed may agree with the name. 'And I turned back and looked, that I might see the voice which spoke with me. And I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the candlesticks one like the Son of man.' That is, Christ, who willed rather often to be called by this name.

This Christ is clothed with these very seven candlesticks. Now whether seven candlesticks or seven stars, it is the Church. And rightly 'in the midst.' For 'all' (says Psalm) 'who are round about Him shall offer gifts.' Or as Ezekiel says, 'That the nations may know that I am in the midst of Israel.' But on account of figurative expressions, He tropically divides the cause—the genus into species—so that even in some species the genus alone is found expressed. For in certain places, on account of subtle minutiae and the height of the divine eloquence, the genus cannot clearly be shown, which can more easily be seen than expressed.

But He divides the genus into parts in this manner, that the ark of Noah is the Church, and the eight souls which are within the ark are the Church, since it is one thing; and the man Judah, and she who dwells in Jerusalem, and 'judge between My house and My vineyard,' when Jerusalem and those dwelling in it, and the vineyard of the Lord, are the Church. For thus He concluded, saying: 'For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel' (Isaiah). And in a great house, which is the Church, are 'vessels of gold and silver' (2 Timothy), when these same vessels are the house of God. And again, 'Depart from the midst of her, you who bear the vessels of the Lord,' when those who exist are themselves the vessels; and, 'Who shall dwell in the tabernacle of God? He who is innocent of hands and pure of heart' (Psalm),

when there is no other tabernacle of God on earth than the innocent and pure of heart. So too now, among the seven candlesticks, He distinguished the Church in the Son of man. 'For the two shall be,' says the Apostle (Ephesians), 'in one flesh: but I say, in Christ and in the Church.' And as was said above, in some species the genus is present in a part. Otherwise, He calls Him 'like the Son of man,' since, death being vanquished, He had ascended into heaven, the body of the Church being united, which He says is now the more deservedly seated in heavenly places—not yet in fact, but still in hope—as though the Son of man walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks. He says 'in the midst' of the Churches, just as He says also in Solomon: 'I will walk in the midst of the path of the righteous.'

Whose antiquity and immortality, the origin of His majesty, is shown by the whiteness in the head; He says He was 'clothed with a garment down to the feet' (poderes), He shows the priesthood. For according to Zechariah the poderes is a priestly vestment. For by the singular sacrifice of His own flesh Christ bore the priesthood, when, offering Himself to the Father upon the gibbet of the cross for us, He permitted Himself to be crucified. 'And He was girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.' By the breasts He signifies the two Testaments, as we read in the Song of Songs: 'Your two breasts are like two twin fawns that feed among the lilies,' and 'your breasts are like clusters of grapes.' Now in this species the genus can be seen, and be understood in the Testaments of the Churches, so that, as it were, the Testaments may take their comparison from that which they effect.

For the Testaments are not fed, but the Church is nourished through the Testaments. Now the species of this trope are found in the Scriptures, that the doer takes its name from what it does. The breasts, therefore, are the Testaments; the golden girdle is the choir of the saints, who cleave to and embrace the Testaments—or they signify Christ, whom they sing together—but also the charity by which they are knit to one another, keeping, as the Apostle says, 'the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' 'And His head and His hairs were white as white wool, or as snow.'

By the white hairs, exalted and shining with the virtues of righteousness, he means the multitude of the white-robed, whom grace has made whiter than snow, whom he signified by wool because of the sheep that are at the right hand, and by snow because of the innumerable throng of those made white and given to heaven; for they are that Jerusalem which daily descends from heaven, so that those still on pilgrimage sigh as they press on toward her. Or otherwise, by wool because of the holy robe that is fashioned from it, which is rightly understood to be without spot or wrinkle. 'His eyes were as a flame of fire.' By the eyes of the Church he sometimes means the commandments of God, sometimes the spiritual persons, as Solomon says (Prov. VI): 'The commandment is a lamp, and the law a light.'

And concerning spiritual persons the Lord says: 'You are the light of the world' (Matt. V). But that the commandments themselves are fire, he says thus: 'Your word is exceedingly fiery' (Ps. CXVIII); and of Joseph, 'The word of the Lord inflamed him.' Now the fire of the commandments both gives light to the faithful and inflicts burning upon the unbelieving. 'For a fire shall go before Him, and shall burn up His enemies round about.' 'His feet were like fine brass of Lebanon, as from a fiery furnace.' By the fiery feet he means the Church of the last time; for the feet are set as the lowest part of the body. For then the Church is foretold to be proved by the violence of tribulations (Dan. II);

as the stone cut from the mountain struck that statue upon its feet, that is, with its blow it crushed the whole body of the kingdoms of the world. But it struck at the feet for this reason, because it was in the last time. He compared it to fine brass on this account, because it is made from bronze, and when much fire and a compound are applied it is brought to a golden color. And 'of Lebanon,' because the elect: for it is interpreted 'a making white.' And because Lebanon is a mountain in Judea, where near the end of the world it signifies that the body of Christ is tested by persecutions, where also the Lord is believed to have suffered. 'And His voice as the voice of many waters.' By the voice He shows the Church preaching, to whom it is said: 'Cry aloud, cease not' (Isa. LVIII). Now the waters are the many peoples.

But also the gift of baptism, which He sent forth by command through the apostles unto salvation, is rightly understood. Hence the psalm: 'The Lord inhabits the flood' (Ps. XXVIII); and, 'The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of majesty has thundered' (ibid.); and the rest that support this sense. 'And He had in His right hand seven stars.' In the right hand of Christ is the spiritual Church; therefore 'the queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety' (Ps. XLIV), to whom as she stands He says: 'Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom' (Matt. XXV). These seven Churches are the seven stars, which He names by name, not because those alone are the Church:

or the chief ones, but because what He says to one He says to all, who are set in unity, according to the aforesaid form of understanding, by which we said that the universal whole is figured by the sevenfold number. 'And out of His mouth went a two-edged sword.' Therefore twice sharp, because the sword arms the soldier, slays the enemy, and punishes the deserter. Hence the Apostle says (Eph. VI): 'And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.' 'For every scribe instructed,' says the Lord (Matt. XIII), 'is like a householder who brings forth from his treasure things new and old,' namely the New Testament and the Old. From this twin testament, as from a twice-sharpened sword, the Church is now instructed, so that she who is destined for eternal goods may know how to use present ones well.

Girded with this sword, the Apostle says (2 Cor. VI): 'By the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.' 'And His face shone as the sun in its strength.' By His splendor he means the manifest presence in the flesh, by which He spoke to men face to face (Exod. XXXIII). Now the comparison with the sun is employed on account of a fitting signification: because of its rising and setting and rising again, since He was born and suffered and rose again. But the Lord also promises to His Church a likeness of the sun's glory to come, saying: 'Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of my Father' (Matt. XIII).

In comparison with this, the brightness of Christ the Head is to be understood as far more sublime, since He Himself is the brightness of the righteous, which after the resurrection He therefore hid from His disciples, lest they should be unable either to recognize or to bear Him. But this ought not to be recognized or called blindness, but a certain invisibility, which in Greek is more fitly named. Through this the army did not recognize Elisha (2 Kings VI), nor did the raging people recognize the door, though they saw everything besides it. Finally, on the mountain they were unable to endure a semblance of this glorification. 'And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.' John, who saw these things, bears the figure of the whole Church. But also the individual apostles and prophets, who say:

'For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.' The Church therefore is as one dead to the world before the Lord Christ. 'And He laid His right hand upon me.' Assuredly on account of the priesthood, by which we know that those set over the Church are ordained, or because the whole body is that of one priest, saying: 'Fear not, John, I am the first and the last.' The first, because all things were made through Him (John I); the last, because in Him all things are restored, 'and the living One, because I was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever.' The whole sum and hope of consolation is shown, when it is said to him who lies dead, 'Fear not,' as in the Gospel, 'Be of good cheer,' He says (John XVI), 'for I have overcome the world.' 'I am the living One who was dead.'

For the Head of the body truly promises a like hope of resurrection, whose precedence is the hope and the contest of the good. 'And I have the keys of death and of hell,' that is, of the devil and of his whole body, signifying him himself by the name of death; and 'of hell,' in which he reigns. All these do not escape the power of divine judgment, as it were a key. And to the Church He says: 'In me you have the keys of death, which received from me you rightly possess. You who are as one dead, because—though the Church still journeys as a pilgrim—the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of justification' (Rom. VIII). Yet she has received the power to loose and to bind in her God;

whether when she dispenses all things with commendable judgment, or when in those who receive, faith is hindered by no obstacle of unbelief. 'To whomever,' He says (John XX), 'you forgive sins, they shall be forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they shall be retained.' 'Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which must come to pass hereafter: the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and of the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches.' But the seven candlesticks also are the Churches. He said that the stars are the angels of the Churches, and the candlesticks the Churches: which things are to be diligently considered. For if there is one sevenfold Church, as it is described (Cant.

VI): 'My dove is one, my perfect one is one,' the angels also will not be seven. For if there are seven, only those which He specially named have angels, but the rest do not have them. Nor is it to be thought that in this place angels are assigned to individual men, which is incongruously supposed by some: but rather by the angels of the Churches are here to be understood the rulers of the people, who, presiding over the individual Churches, announce the word of life to all. For 'angel' is said to be interpreted 'messenger.' CHAPTER II. 'And to the angel of the Church of Ephesus write.' He set it here in the dative case, 'to the angel,' not in the genitive. As if he should say:

'Write to this angel of the Church,' so that he may seem to have spoken not so much of the angel and the Church separately, as of who the angel is that he wished to explain, making, that is, one person of the angel and the Church. For although by the dispensation of the mystery he is set before them, yet he is joined by the unity of the joined structure. For keeping this rule from the beginning, he would not have written to seven angels, but to seven Churches: 'John,' he says, 'to the seven Churches which are in Asia,' and the Lord whom he saw said, 'Write in a book the things which you have seen, and send them to the seven Churches.' Yet afterward He commands them to be written to the angels, so as to show that they are one. But even if He proclaims some things to the individual Churches in particular, it is taught that they generally suit the whole Church. For He does not say:

'What the Spirit says to the Church,' but 'to the Churches.' Signifying therefore the Church by the angel, he shows in it two parts, since he both praises and rebukes. But in what follows it is made manifest that he does not rebuke the same one whom he praises, just as the Lord in the Gospel (Luke XII; Matt. XXIV) called the whole body of those set over others one servant, both blessed and wicked, whom the Lord at His coming will Himself divide, and will appoint not the whole servant, but a part of him, he says, with the hypocrites. Beginning therefore to show the internal wars and the diverse works of the sevenfold Church, present and to come, He did not say, 'Write the things which are,' but, 'The things which must come to pass,' foretelling that until the end of the world the evil are mingled with the good in the Church:

which without doubt is to be embraced for the good, yet is not to be deserted because of the evil. 'To the angel of the Church of Ephesus write: These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand,' the same who holds you in His hand and rules and contains you by His own power, 'who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,' that is, in the midst of you. 'I know your works and labor and endurance, and that you cannot bear evil men, and you have tried those who say they are apostles and are not, and you have found them liars, and you have had patience, and have borne for my name's sake, and have not fainted.' 'You have tried them,' He says. They are not tried unless they are within. For those who are without, without any trial are manifestly without, nor is there need for them to be tried:

lest they be within who are outside—those who are recognized as schismatics not only by their fruits but also by their dwelling place. Now it is not a matter of praise that He said he could not bear the evil, but a sign of weakness; but the praise lies in this, that He said: 'You cannot, and yet you have endured weakness for my name's sake,' for distinguishing it from long-suffering, He does not say that this endures through human failure, but that it endures those things which of itself it could not, being supported for God's name by the strength of patience. To this end also it is said that he cannot bear the evil, so that he might not imitate those he has recognized; but to this end that he has endured, lest by deserting he himself be rendered alien from the bond of unity. For he is judged reprobate who, because of open evildoers, deserts also the hidden good.