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.