This commentary provides an overview of patristic thought on the final book of the New Testament, Revelation (also known as the Apocalypse, which is basically a transliteration of the Greek word for "revelation" or "unveiling"). The book has the text (the translation is the Revised Standard Version) broken up into set of verses which are followed by a synopsis of the comments from the ancient Fathers of the Church (priests and bishops who were prominent theologians before AD 735). After the synopsis, texts from the Fathers, usually paragraphs of commentary, are given with citations for further research.
Revelation is a fascinating book that has had a lot of commentary down through the ages, even in our day. Decrypting the meaning of the metaphorical language can be tricky. Augustine, in commenting on how the text says, "the sea will be no more" (Rev. 21:1), admits, "as prophecy is prone to intermingle the literal and metaphorical and so veil its meaning, it may be that our present text, 'and the sea is no more,' John was speaking of the identical sea he spoke of earlier: 'And the sea gave up the dead that were in it.' For then, this world of ours, made restless and stormy by the lives of men (and, hence, figuratively, called the sea), will have passed away." (City of God, 20.16). Other Fathers of the Church speculate if it means the glassy sea early on in Revelation (Rev. 4:6), or if seas will be gone forever in the creation of a new heaven and a new earth (no new sea is mentioned!). Throughout the book, a lot of different meanings are found by a lot of different interpreters. It's odd to read about how the thousand year-reign of Jesus and the saints means a literal thousand years or a metaphorical long time, or the three and a half years (about a thousand days) that Jesus preached on earth before He died and rose again.
This compilation of commentaries gives the reader a lot to think about and provides a lot of historical perspective. It is quite enjoyable and occasionally mystifying reading.
Recommended, highly for those interested in the Book of Revelation.
SAMPLE TEXT:
On 3:20, Where Christ says He stands at the door and knocks...
Here the Lord reveals his own peaceful and humble nature. The devil with axe and hammer smashes the doors of those who do not receive him, as the prophet said [Ps 73:6], but the Lord even now in the Song of Songs [5:2] says to the bride, "Open to me, my sister, my bride." And should someone open to him, he will come in, but if not, he goes away. Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 3.14-22.
On 6:7, Where the Lamb opens the Fourth Seal (the Pale Horse ridden by Death)...
For Christ has paid in full for us all things through which we were brought down into the corruption of death. And he paid this debt in full through opposites--disobedience through obedience, pleasure through a painful submission, and the hands which lay hold of the forbidden tree through those hands which were valiantly stretched out upon the cross. Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 6.7
On 9:5, the scorpions from the fifth trumpet...
As a scorpion dispenses its poison from its tail, so the impiety of evil persons injures from their hind parts, when by threats and allurements it causes temporal things, which are behind, to be preferred to that which lies before, that is, to eternal blessings. Bede, Explanation of the Apocalypse 9.5
On 17:4, the Great Harlot who rides a red beast in her finest clothes...
Showy adornments and clothing and the allurements of beauty are not becoming in any except prostitutes and shameless women, and of none, almost, is the dress more costly than those whose modesty is cheap. Cyprian, The Dress of Virgins 12
Posts
