From this we learn that this [book] is called an Apocalypse, that is, revelation, which manifests those secrets which are hidden and unknown to the senses, and that unless [Christ] himself reveals them, he who perceives [the revelation] will not have the strength to understand what he sees.

When it is said to him, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, it is as though he said, This revelation is given from the Father to the Son, and then from the Son to us, his servants. By calling the saints the servants of Christ, he safeguards what is proper to his deity. For, to whom would men belong, unless to him who is the Maker and Creator of humankind? And who is the Creator of humankind and of all creation? No one other than the only begotten Word and Son of God! For, the present author says in the Gospel, All things were made through him.^[1] And why does he wish to add what must soon take place, although those events which will take place have not yet occurred, even though a considerable span of time has passed, more than five hundred years, since these words were spoken? Because to the eyes of the eternal and endless God all ages are regarded as nothing, for, as the prophet says, A thousand years in your sight, O Lord, are as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.^[2] For this reason, therefore, he added soon, not to indicate a measure of time which must pass before the fulfillment of what must happen, but to indicate the power and eternality of God. For to him who is, any passage of time, even should it be great and considerable, is something small when compared with that which is unending.

When the church had been established by the apostles, it was proper that it be revealed by what course [the church] was to be extended and was to be perfected at the end, so that the preachers of the faith might be strengthened against the adversaries of the world. As was his custom, John refers the glory of the Son to the Father and testifies that Jesus Christ received the revelation of this mystery from God.

He wishes to make clear that the reading does not accomplish the obedience of the commandments, nor does the hearing display the completion of an accomplished deed. Rather, that alone is perfection, when you perform with understanding what you read and what you hear. The time is short. For those who accomplish these things, he does not prolong the time of recompense, but he says that the giving of the divine reward is near.

What is the importance of the people of Asia that they alone deserve to receive the apostolic revelation? However, there is a mystery in the number and a sacrament in the name of the province. First, let us discuss the meaning of the number, because both the number six and the number seven are always used in the law with a mystical meaning: For God made heaven and earth in six days,^[1] and on the seventh day he rested from his works^[2] and on it, it says, they shall enter again into my rest.^[3] The number seven, therefore, signifies the period of the present life, so that the apostle is not merely writing to seven churches and to that world in which he was then present, but it is understood that he is giving these writings to all future ages, even to the consummation of the world. Therefore, he mentions the number in a most holy manner, and he names Asia, which means elevated or walking, indicating that celestial fatherland which we call the catholic church. For exalted by the Lord and always moving toward the things which are above, it is the church which advances by spiritual exercises and is always desirous of the things of heaven.

Asia means elevated, by which the human race is indicated. These seven churches and the lampstands are to be seriously considered because it is the sevenfold grace which is given by God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to us of the human race who have believed. For he himself promised to send to us the Spirit Paraclete from heaven, whom he also sent to the apostles who were seen to be in Asia, that is, in the prideful world, where he also gave the sevenfold grace to the seven churches, that is to us, through his servant John.

Although there are many churches in every place, he wrote to seven only. For through the number seven he indicates the mystery of the church which exists everywhere and that which corresponds to the present life in which there is a sevenfold period of days. And therefore he makes mention of seven angels and seven churches to which he says, Grace to you and peace from the tri-hypostatic^[1] deity. Through the phrase who is the Father is indicated, who spoke to Moses: I am Who I am.^[2] Through the phrase who was the Word is indicated, who was in the beginning with God. And through the phrase who is to come the Paraclete is indicated, who always visits the children of the church in holy baptism but will come more perfectly and more clearly in the age to come. It is possible to recognize in the seven spirits the seven angels who have received the governance of the churches. These are not numbered with the most divine and royal Trinity but are mentioned together with it as servants, even as the divine apostle says: I testify to you before God and the elect angels.^[3] These phrases may be understood also in another manner. The phrase who is and who was and who is to come may signify the Father, who encompasses in himself the beginning, the middle and the end of all things.

Here is that mystery of the number seven which is everywhere indicated. Here the seven spirits are introduced, which are one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, who is one in name, sevenfold in power, invisible and incorporeal, and whose form is impossible to comprehend. The great Isaiah revealed the number of its sevenfold powers when he wrote: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding—that through understanding and wisdom he might teach that he is the creator of all things—the Spirit of counsel and might—who conceived these things that he might create them—the Spirit of knowledge and piety—who governs the creation with piety by the exercise of his knowledge and whose purposes are always according to mercy—the Spirit of the fear of the Lord—by whose gift the fear of the Lord is manifested to rational creatures.^[1] This is itself the sacred character of the Spirit who is to be worshiped. It includes rather the ineffable praise, and does not indicate any form of nature.

The seven spirits are seven angels. However, they are not to be regarded as of equal honor or co-eternal with the Holy Trinity, by no means, but as true assistants and faithful servants. For the prophet says to God, All things are your servants,^[1] and among all things are included also the angels. And in another place he says concerning them, Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.^[2] And the apostle uses this manner of speaking in his first letter to Timothy: I urge you before God and Jesus Christ and the elect angels.^[3] And so when he says, which are before his throne, he is giving added witness to their order as servants and ministers, but in no way to any equality in honor.

Since earlier he had recalled that Word who, before the assumption of the flesh, was with the Father in glory, he of necessity adds the humanity of the assumed flesh when he says, And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. For through the humanity which he had assumed, he gave a faithful testimony to his divinity, and by his passion and blood he interceded for our sins and cleansed us from all unrighteousness. And so, for the sake of our frailty and weakness he brought a faithful witness to God the Father with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.^{[1] [2]} THE MARTYR IS WITNESS OF HIM WHO IS TRUE WITNESS. EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA^[1]: They did not proclaim themselves witnesses, nor did they allow us to address them by this name. If any one of us, in letter or conversation, spoke of them as witnesses, they rebuked him sharply. For they conceded cheerfully the appellation of Witness to Christ the faithful and true Witness,^[2] firstborn of the dead, and prince of the life of God. They reminded us of the witnesses who had already departed, and said, They are already witnesses whom Christ has deemed worthy to be taken up in their confession, having sealed their testimony by their departure. But we are lowly and humble confessors. ^[3]

Great, then, was the mercy of God the Father. He sent the creative Word, who, when he came to save us, put himself in our position, and in the same situation in which we lost life. He loosed the prison bonds, and his light appeared and dispelled the darkness in the prison, and he sanctified our birth and abolished death, loosing those same bonds by which we were held. He showed forth the resurrection, becoming himself the firstborn from the dead, and raised in himself prostrate man, being lifted up to the heights of heaven, at the right hand of the glory of the Father. Just as God had promised through the prophet, saying, I will raise up the tabernacle of David.^[1] This means that which is fallen, the body sprung from David. This was in truth accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ, in the triumph of our redemption, that he raise us in truth, setting us free to the Father. . . . as the firstborn of the dead, head and source also of the life unto God.

Although it was after us that he was made man for us and became our brother by likeness of body, still he is called and is the firstborn of us. Since all people were lost through the transgression of Adam, Christ’s flesh was saved first of all and was liberated, because it was the Word’s body. Henceforth also we, having become joined together with his body, are saved through it. For in his body the Lord becomes our guide to the kingdom of heaven and to his own Father, saying, I am the way^[1] and the door, and through me all must enter.^[2] Wherefore he is also said to be firstborn from the dead, not because he died before us, since we died first, but because he suffered death for us and abolished it, and therefore, as man, was the first to rise, raising his own body for our sakes. Therefore, since he has risen, we too shall rise from the dead from him and through him.

Paul also ascribes to him this phrase, saying, Who is the firstfruits, the firstborn from the dead.^[1] They call him the firstborn from the dead since he initiated the general resurrection and has renewed for us a new and living way (namely, the resurrection of the dead) through the veil, that is, through his flesh, as it is written.^[2] For all of those who rose again from the dead before the coming of the Lord were again handed over to death, for that was not the true resurrection but merely a reprieve from the time of death. Therefore, none of them is named the firstborn from the dead, but the Lord is indeed called this, since he is become the source and cause of the true resurrection and, as it were, has become a certain firstfruits of the resurrection of men, becoming such as they were and going forth as from a certain bridal chamber out of death unto life.

It can be understood that, for a special reason, the Lord was said to be firstborn, according to what John says in the Apocalypse about him. . . . And the apostle Paul says, Now those whom he has foreknown he has also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he himself should be the firstborn among many brothers.^[1] He is the firstborn among many brothers because to as many as received him he gave the power to become sons of God,^[2] of whom he is rightly named the firstborn because in dignity he came before all the sons of adoption, even those who in their birth preceded the time of his incarnation. Therefore, they can with the greatest truth bear witness with John, He who comes after us was before us.^[3] That is, He was born in the world after us, but by the merit of his virtue and kingdom he is rightfully called the firstborn of us all.

Since the King of kings and the celestial Priest united us to his own body by offering himself up for us, there is no one of the saints who is spiritually deprived of the office of the priesthood, since everyone is a member of the eternal Priest.

Hold most firmly and never doubt that the Word made flesh always has the same truly human flesh with which God the Word was born of the Virgin, with which he was crucified and died, with which he rose and ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God, with which he will come again to judge the living and the dead. For this reason, the apostles heard from the angels, He . . . will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven,^[1] and the blessed John says, Behold, he will come amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will see him.

I think that the divine Scripture figuratively calls the holy angels clouds because of their lightness and sublimity and movement in the air, as though it were saying, The Lord will come, being carried and attended by his holy angels. And the prophet speaks of him in this way: And he rode upon a cherub and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the wind.^[1] And he writes, every eye will see him, every one who pierced him. At his second and glorious coming, he will not come as though he were hiding in a corner. Nor will he come secretly as he did in his previous coming, when he visited the world in the flesh. The prophet showed that this coming would be hidden, when he said, He will come down as rain upon a fleece and as rain drops which fall upon the earth. He will rather come openly and visibly, so that he will be seen by every eye, even by those who are especially sinful and impious. And of these, those who maltreated or pierced him must be regarded as a class of their own. And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, namely, those peoples who have remained in unbelief and have not come to bend their neck to his saving yoke.

In the same way the Lord applied to himself two Greek letters, the first and the last, as figures of the beginning and the end which are united in himself. For just as Alpha continues on until it reaches Omega and Omega completes the cycle back again to Alpha, so he meant to show us that in him is found the course of all things from the beginning to the end and from the end back to the beginning. Every divine dispensation should end in him through whom it first began, that is, in the Word made flesh.^[1] Accordingly, it should also end in the same way in which it first began. So truly in Christ are all things recalled to their beginning. So the faith has turned away from circumcision back to the integrity of the flesh, as it was in the beginning. So, too, there is liberty now to eat any kind of food, with abstention from blood alone, as it was in the beginning.^[2] There is a unity of marriage, as it was in the beginning. There is a prohibition of divorce, which was not in the beginning.^[3] Finally, the whole man is called once more to paradise, where he was in the beginning.

The martyrdom of the blessed apostles has consecrated this day for us. It was by despising the world that they earned this renown throughout the whole world. Peter was the first of the apostles and Paul the last of the apostles. The first and the last were brought to one and the same day for martyrdom by the First and the Last, by Christ. In order to grasp what I’ve said, turn your minds to the Alpha and the Omega. The Lord himself said plainly in the Apocalypse, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first—before whom is nobody—the last—after whom is nobody;^[1] he precedes all things and sets a term to all things. Do you want to gaze upon him as the first? All things were made through him.^[2] Do you seek him as the last? For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified.^[3] In order for you to live at some time or other, you had him as your creator. In order for you to live always, you have him as your redeemer.

The Godhead of the Son is the Father’s. It is indivisible. Thus there is one God and none other but he. So, since they are one, and the Godhead itself one, the same things are said of the Son, which are said of the Father, except his being said to be Father. For instance, it is said that he is God: And the Word was God.^[1] It is said that he is Almighty, Thus says he who was and is and is to come, the Almighty.^[2] It is said that he is Lord, one Lord Jesus Christ.^[3] It is said that he is Light, I am the Light,^[4] that he wipes out sins, that you may know, he says, that the Son of man has power upon earth to forgive sins,^[5] and so with other attributes. For all things, says the Son himself, whatsoever the Father has, are mine; and again, And mine are yours.^[6]

The ecclesiastical writers have taught that at the time of Claudius Caesar, when that famine which the prophet Agabus had announced in the Acts of the Apostles^[1] would come in ten years time was at its height, that during that difficulty this same Caesar, impelled by his usual vanity, had instituted a persecution of the churches. It was during this time that he ordered John, the apostle of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to be transported into exile, and he was taken to the island of Patmos, and while there confirmed this writing. That he might present the trials of suffering which he was bearing at that time, he recalls that he was a participant in suffering, and then he adds the kingdom to the suffering of tribulation, and because of the kingdom to be received he further adds the patient endurance which he bore for the sake of Jesus.

History notes that John had been banished to this island by the emperor Domitian on account of the gospel, and that then he was, appropriately, allowed to penetrate the secrets of heaven while [at the same time] prohibited from leaving a small space of the earth.

He says that he was taken up in the spirit, that is, that he was raised up to the secret things of God, in order that he might see those things which he was to speak. Moreover, he says that he did not enter into the heights of heaven in a bodily manner, but that he entered in the spirit, recalling this word, No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended, namely the Son of man, who is in heaven.^[1] The holy apostle Paul also says that he was taken up, but in what way? He says, Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows.^[2] He writes that he had been taken up into ecstasy, in the spirit. But since the day of the Lord is mentioned in this passage, when he says that he had been taken up in the spirit, he is indicating that he had been cleansed of any work of a profane kind. For, on the Lord’s day the apostle could only devote himself to divine things and holy duties. . . . Concerning the preachers of the gospel, it is written, Cry aloud, do not cease, lift up your voice as a trumpet.^[3] And concerning the words behind me, the prophet said, And they shall hear a voice from behind of one teaching.^[4] Let all humanity be exalted to whatever degree of sanctity, in comparison to the holy acts of God and to the divine words, it can by no means ever stand as an equal before his presence and face. But our flesh, weighed down by a certain weakness, is instructed, as it were, from behind by the words of God. Therefore, in saying behind me he indicates the weakness of his human nature.

He mentions seven churches by the explicit use of their own names to which he has sent letters. He does this not because they are the only churches, or even the most important of the churches, but because what he says to one, he says to all. For it makes no difference whether one speaks to a cohort, in number only a few soldiers, or whether one speaks through it to the entire army. Whether in Asia or in the whole world, Paul taught that all of the seven churches which are named are one catholic [church].^[1] And therefore, that he might preserve this understanding, he did not exceed the number of seven churches, but he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Galatians, to the Philippians and to the Colossians. Later he wrote only to individual persons, lest he exceed the number of seven churches. . . . We read that this type was announced by the Holy Spirit through Isaiah [who spoke] of seven women who seized one man.^[2] However, this one man is Christ, who was not born of seed. And the seven women are churches who received their own bread and wear their own clothes but who ask that their reproach be taken away and that his name be invoked over them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, who nourishes to eternal life. It is their own because it has been promised to them through faith, and their own clothes refers to the promises which have been made to them and by which they wish to be covered, as Paul says: It is necessary that this corruptible be clothed with incorruption and that this mortal be clothed with immortality.^[3] And the words that their reproach be taken away refer to that first sin which is taken away in baptism when each person begins to be called a Christian, which is the meaning of the words your name will be invoked over us. In these seven churches, therefore, we are to think of the one church.

We have already said that he addressed one church which exists during the time of the whole world, that is, from that time when he spoke to the consummation of the world. Since he now mentions the names of these churches specifically, let us see what meanings they have. . . . There is a mighty mystery in the names which we will examine and discuss to the extent that God allows. Ephesus means my will or my plan. He wills that we know that the whole reality of our faith and the dignity of the catholic church is not to be ascribed to human merit, but they are the will of God and the disposition of the divine purpose. Smyrna means their song. And what else is the song of the perfect if not the celestial doctrine and the preaching of the gospel and the advance of the Christian religion, or the melodious confession of the catholic church? Pergamum means to him who divides their horns. This refers either to the insolence of the powers of the air, or to the arrogance of the heretics. And he teaches that the pride of the powers is always to be separated and divided from the congregation of the church, for the horns are either power or arrogance. He writes to Thyatira, that is enlightened. This signifies that, after the expulsion of heretical pride and after the defeat of temptations from the powers of the air, the holy church is deserving of the light of righteousness. Sardis means the beginning of beauty. The church is seized by the sun of righteousness and is illumined by the light of truth, so that she might have the beginning of beauty, the Lord Jesus Christ, and might always shine in perpetual light. Philadelphia means preserving devotion to the Lord. After possessing the sun of righteousness, after the illumination of holiness, after the comeliness of holy beauty, the church rightly is devoted to the Lord and preserves herself by an inviolable observation of devotion. Laodicea means either a tribe beloved of the Lord, or, as some would have it, a birth is expected. Both are meaningful, for she who has merited the beauty of faith and the sun of righteousness and knows that through faith the Lord cleaves to her, might also be a tribe whom the Lord loves, who is both loved by the Lord and preserved by the Lord. Furthermore, the church might well await her own birth, either the regeneration of baptism or the glory of the resurrection, whenever she preserves herself by humility and patience.

Neither Moses nor Elijah nor Ezekiel, who all had many celestial visions, saw God. Rather, what they did see were likenesses of the splendor of the Lord and prophecies of things to come. It is evident that the Father is indeed invisible, of whom also the Lord said, No man has seen God at any time.^[1] But his Word, as he himself willed it, and for the benefit of those who beheld, did show the Father’s brightness and explained his purposes, as also the Lord said, The only begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared [him].^[2] . . . John also, the Lord’s disciple, when seeing the priestly and glorious advent of his kingdom, says in the Apocalypse: I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And, being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in their midst One like the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and wrapped around the chest with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white, as white as wool, and as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if they were forged in a furnace. His voice [was] like the sound of waters. He had in his right hand seven stars. Out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. He looked like the sun shining at full strength. For in these words he sets forth something of the glory [which he has received] from his Father, as the head. He sets forth something of the priestly office, as in the case of the long garment reaching to the feet. And this was the reason why Moses vested the high priest after this fashion. Something also alludes to the end [of all things], as [where he speaks of] the fine brass being forged in the fire, which denotes the power of faith, and constant prayer, because of the consuming fire which is to come at the end of time.

He shows that the voice was not sensory when he says, I turned, not to hear but to see the voice. For spiritual hearing and spiritual seeing are the same thing.

Resting on three arms, a lampstand raises the body of a single shaft, and upon this shaft there is placed a lamp of light. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,^[1] says the apostle, from which the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love, according to the work and ability of each member.^[2] This is that branch of which it is said: There shall come forth a branch from the stump of Jesse.^[3] Upon this branch a light is placed, that is, the light of the catholic church is made ready, so that seized by the truth of his light, she might herself bring forth perpetual light, and marked by the manifestation of one faith, she might be exalted by the light of the divine majesty.

As he himself will explain a little later, the seven lampstands are the seven churches to which he is commanded to write. He calls them lampstands since they carry in themselves the illumination of the glory of Christ.^[1] He did not call them lamps but lampstands, for a lampstand itself does not possess the capacity to shine, but it bears that which is capable of illumination. Likewise, Christ mentally illuminates his churches. For just as the holy apostle exhorts those who have received the Faith, be as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life^[2]—for indeed the lamp does not in itself possess light, but it is receptive of that light which comes to it—so also here the Evangelist saw the churches as lampstands and not as lights. For it is said concerning Christ, You shine forth marvelously from the everlasting mountains,^[3] probably meaning the angelic powers; and again he says to the Father, Send out your light and your truth^[4]; and again, the light of your countenance, O Lord.^[5] And so, those who partake of the divine light are described on the one hand as lights and on the other hand as lampstands. He says that the lampstands are golden on account of the value and excellence of those made worthy to receive the divine light.

It says that in the midst of the golden lampstands there was one walking similar to a son of man. It says similar, because death had been destroyed. For when he had ascended into heaven, and when his body was united to the Spirit of glory which he received from the Father, henceforth he could be called as though Son of God and no longer as though son of man.

And I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man. He saw Christ who rather often desires to be called by this name. He who is the enclothed Christ is the seven lampstands themselves. Whether the seven lampstands or the seven stars, both refer to the church. . . . On account of the exalted nature of the divine discourse, on occasion the genus cannot be described clearly, because it is more easily seen than expressed. . . . So also in this passage, among the seven lampstands he is describing the church in the Son of man. For, the apostle says, the two shall become one flesh, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.^[1] As I said above, the genus is clarified through various species.^[2]

He calls him son of man who for our sakes humbled himself to the form of a servant, namely, Christ, who became fruit of the womb,^[1] as the holy psalmist says, that is, the womb of the unwedded and ever-virgin Mary. For since Mary is a human being and our sister, it is appropriate that God the Word, conceived virginally according to the flesh, is also called son of man. And he has spoken with precision, for he did not say son of man but like a son of man, since he is also God and Lord of all, the Emmanuel.

The words in priestly garment most clearly indicate the flesh, which was not corrupted by death and which possesses through his death an eternal priesthood. A golden girdle was tied to his breast. These words suggest that a vibrant knowledge and a pure spiritual understanding have been given to the churches.

In the law, John had a leather girdle because the Jews thought that to sin in act was the only sin. . . . In the Apocalypse of John, our Lord Jesus, who is seen in the middle of the seven lampstands, also wore a girdle, a golden girdle, not about his loins but about the breasts. The law is girdled about the loins, but Christ, that is, the gospel and the fortitude of the monks, binds not only wanton passion but also mind and heart. In the gospel, one is not even supposed to think anything evil; in the law, the fornicator is accused for judgment. . . . It is written, he says, in the law, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^[1] This is the leather girdle clinging about the loins. I say to you, anyone who even looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart. This is the golden girdle that is wrapped around the mind and heart.

The breasts of the Lord are the holy teaching of the law and the gospel. This girding is a sign of the passion, concerning which the Lord himself spoke to Peter: When you are old, another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish^[1] The golden girdle is his everlasting power, washed in the blood of the Lord’s passion. There is a variety of this girdle in the diversity of powers, yet there is one power behind the multitude of wonders. Another interpretation: The golden girdle is the chorus of the saints, tested as gold through fire. Another: The golden girdle around the chest is the fervent conscience and the pure spiritual understanding refined as though by fire, and so it was given to the churches.

He who is girded signifies Christ the Lord. By the two breasts understand the two Testaments which receive from the breast of our Lord and Savior as though from a perennial fountain and from which they nourish the Christian people unto eternal life. The golden girdle is a chorus or the multitude of saints. For just as the breast is bound by a girdle, so the multitude of the saints is bound to Christ, so that as the two Testaments encompass the two breasts they are nourished by them as by holy paps.

He was clothed with a long robe, as a high priest of those things above according to the order of Melchizedek.^[1] Moreover, he was girded with a golden girdle, not around the loins, as other men are to check desires (for the divine flesh is not accessible to these), but at the chest, around the breasts, so that the boundlessness of the divine wrath might be restrained by benevolence and that the truth might be revealed girding about the two Testaments which are the dominical breasts through which the faithful are nourished. It is a golden girdle to indicate its excellence and purity and genuineness.

By the whiteness on the head is shown his antiquity and immortality, and the source of his majesty, for the head of Christ is God.^[1]

The head of Christ is God,^[1] and he himself is white on account of the brightness of the purity of the Unbegotten and on account of the unmixed light of the Only Begotten and on account of the pure radiance of the Holy Spirit and the immaculate glory of his righteousness. And not without reason is he called white, because he is compared to white wool and to snow on account of his tenderness which he gives without ceasing to the sinners. As it is written: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; and though they are red as crimson, they shall become as wool.^[2]

His head, it says, and his hairs were like white wool, like snow, for the mystery in Christ was new at its appearance, although to be sure eternal according to good pleasure. The holy apostle has written concerning this: the mystery which was hidden from the ages and generations, which has now been revealed to his saints, to those whom he willed.^[1] Therefore, the whiteness of his head, which is compared with wool and with snow, represents the antiquity of the mystery, such as relates to the good pleasure of God.

The white hair is the multitude of those made white, that is, he is speaking of the neophytes who come forth from baptism. He speaks of wool because they are the sheep of Christ. He speaks of snow because just as snow falls freely from heaven, so also the grace of baptism comes apart from any preceding merits. For those who are baptized are Jerusalem, which each day comes down as though snow from heaven. That is, the church is said to descend from heaven because that grace is from heaven through which she is both freed from sins and joined to Christ, who is her eternal head and heavenly spouse. . . . The beast from the abyss is said to ascend, that is, an evil people is born from an evil people. For just as by descending humbly Jerusalem is exalted, so the beast, that is, that prideful people which arrogantly ascends, is cast down.

And his eyes, it says, were as a flame of fire. The flame indicates either his radiance, since Christ is indeed a light and calls himself this, saying, I am the light and the truth,^[1] or it represents his fearsomeness and the threat made against the seven churches to which the visions of the Revelations are being sent, since they are not perfectly following his laws.

His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace. He is speaking of the apostles, because refined through suffering they preached his word. For those through whom the proclamation is extended are properly called feet. And the prophet understood this beforehand in saying, Let us worship where his feet have stood,^[1] because where they as the first stood and established the church, namely, in Judea, there all the saints will come together and worship their God.^[2]

And the feet are also the foundations of the church. And they are like bronze incense, which, the medical people say, possesses a good smell when burned, and which is called by them masculine incense. There is another interpretation: since the bronze refers to the human nature and the incense refers to the divine nature, through these is indicated the sweet odor of the faith and the unconfusedness of the unity. Or another interpretation: the bronze shows the euphony of the proclamation, while the incense shows the conversion of the nations, from which the Bride is commanded to come.

The feet are the human nature which he possessed in himself which he assumed out of mercy for our salvation. For just as when copper ore is refined in a furnace there is no accretion or rusty buildup on the outside, so the most pure and perfect flesh of the assumed man, taken up by deity and remaining in deity, continues without any defect of human nature, without any guilt of the parent.

The phrase feet refined by fire refers to the church of the end time, which will be examined and tested by terrible afflictions. For indeed orichalcum is bronze, which is brought to a golden color by a very hot fire and added elements. Another translation, which renders with like burnished bronze of Lebanon, signifies that the church in Judea, in which Lebanon is a mountain, will be persecuted, especially at the end time. For even the temple is often referred to as Lebanon, for it is said to it, Open, O Lebanon, your gates, and let fire consume your cedars.^[1]

Thus, in a variety of ways, he adjusted the human race to an agreement with salvation. On this account also does John declare in the Apocalypse that his voice is as the sound of many waters. For the Spirit [of God] is truly [like] many waters, since the Father is both rich and great. And the Word, passing through all those [men], did liberally confer benefits upon his subjects, by drawing up in writing a law adapted and applicable to every class [among them].

And his voice was as the sound of many waters. This is an appropriate way of speaking. For how would his voice reach into all the earth and the proclamation concerning him into the corners of the world, unless it were audible, and not merely by virtue of the perceptible voice but by the power of the proclamation?

I think that he calls the holy angels stars because of the abundant brightness of Christ which they have in themselves. They are in his right hand, for they were found worthy of this most exalted status before God and, as it were, they rest upon the hand of God.

The phrase a sharp two-edged sword issued from his mouth shows that it is he himself who earlier gave to the whole world knowledge of the law through Moses but now gives the blessings of the gospel. And since by the same word every human race will be judged, whether of the Old or of the New Testament, he is called a sword. For a sword arms a soldier, a sword kills the enemy, and a sword punishes the deserter. And that he might show the apostles that he was announcing judgment, he said, I have not come to send peace, but a sword.^[1] And when he had fulfilled all the parables, he said to them, ‘Have you understood all this?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings of his treasury what is new and what is old,’^[2] by the new things meaning the words of the gospel, and by the old things meaning the law and the prophets. That these had come from his own mouth he told to Peter: Go to the sea and cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel—that is two denarii. Give that for me and for you.^[3] And David spoke in a similar way through the Spirit: Once has God spoken, twice have I heard this,^[4] meaning that the Lord once decreed from the beginning what was going to be unto the end. Therefore these things are the two Testaments which, according to an understanding of time, are called either two denarii, or new things and old things, or a sharp two-edged sword. And finally, since he himself is made judge by the Father, he wishes to show that people will be judged by the word of [his] preaching, and so he said, Do you think that I will judge you on the last day? The word which I have spoken to you, that will judge you on the last day.^[5]And Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in view of the antichrist: Whom the Lord will kill by the breath of his mouth.^[6] This is, therefore, the two-edged sword which issues from his mouth.

Let two-edged swords be in their hands. They who sing for joy upon their couches—this means the saints surely, perfect men—what else do they have? Let two-edged swords be in their hands. Two-edged swords—the swords of the saints are two-edged. We read in the Apocalypse of John—which, by the way, is read in the churches and is accepted, for it is not held among the Apocrypha but is included in the canonical writings—as I was saying, it is written there of the Lord Savior: Out of his mouth came forth a sharp two-edged sword. Mark well that these saints receive from the mouth of God the two-edged swords that they hold in their hands. The Lord, therefore, gives the sword from his mouth to his disciples. It is a two-edged sword, namely, the word of his teachings. It is a two-edged sword, historically and allegorically, the letter and the spirit. It is a two-edged sword that slays adversaries and at the same time defends his faithful. A two-edged sword—the sword has two heads. It speaks of the present and future world. Here below, it strikes down adversaries; above, it opens the kingdom of heaven.

Hold most firmly and never doubt that the same Holy Spirit, who is the one Spirit of the Father and the Son, proceeds from the Father and the Son. For the Son says, When the Spirit of Truth comes, who has proceeded from the Father,^[1] where he taught that the Spirit is his, because he is the Truth. That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, the prophetic and apostolic teaching shows us. So Isaiah says concerning the Son: He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.^[2] Concerning him the apostle also says, Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth.^[3] The one Son of God himself, showing who the Spirit of his mouth is, after his resurrection, breathing on his disciples, says, receive the Holy Spirit.^[4] From the mouth, indeed, of the Lord Jesus himself, says John in the Apocalypse, a sharp two-edged word came forth. The very Spirit of his mouth is the sword itself which comes forth from his mouth.

And from his mouth issued a sharp, two-edged sword. Therefore, the holy David said to the Lord: Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty One.^[1] For he did not yet at that time command to us the evangelical precepts, the transgression of which was destruction. Therefore, the place where the sword was put suggests the delay of punishment, for it was not prepared for slaughter. But now the sword comes forth from the mouth, the image showing that those who are disobedient to the evangelical commandments will have a threat to their souls to be cut into two by the sword, which the Lord indeed mentions in the Gospels.

The brightness of the sun was in his face. His face was his appearance by which he conversed with man face to face. For, although the glory of the sun is less than the glory of the Lord, yet because of the rising and setting [of the sun] and its rising again, the Scripture says that his face was like the glory of the sun, because he was born and suffered and rose again.

As he appeared to his disciples on the mountain, so will the Lord appear after the judgment to all the saints. For at the judgment the impious will see him whom they pierced. And this circumstance concerning the Son of man is true also of the church, with whom Christ himself was made one nature, since he gives to her the priestly honor and the power to judge that she also might shine as the sun in the kingdom of his Father.

Thoroughly terrified by fear of his weakness, insignificance and inferiority, he fell down, not falling only to some degree, but wholly giving himself over to the Lord in humility and faith. And, therefore, the Lord also felt compassion in view of this most pious devotion. He laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not.’ Here he both rewards faith and strengthens the faithful, who is terrified not by unbelief but by an awe-filled wonder, and he urges John not to fear.

The holy John would not have been strong enough to survive his astonishment had the saving right hand of the Son of God not touched him, which by the mere touch had accomplished so many wonderful things. And he said to me, I am the first and the last, which is as though he had said, I am he who for the salvation of you all sojourned among you in the flesh at the end of times, even though I am the First and the firstborn of all creation. How is it possible that anything evil transpire from my appearance? For if I who am living and am the wellspring of life became dead for you, and trampled death underfoot and lived again, how is it possible that you who are living become dead on account of me and my appearance? And if ‘I have the keys of death and of hades,’ so that I make dead and make alive those whom I wish, and that I will bring down to hades and bring up again, as it is written concerning me, and that, as the prophet says, escape from death belongs to me,^[1] I would not have sent my own worshipers and disciples to an untimely death.

The stars placed in the right hand of God are the souls of the saints, or, what is the same thing, the entire congregation of the blessed who have been and who will be until the consummation of the world. In a similar way, we have said that the seven lampstands are the one true church that has been established during the seven-day period of this world, which is founded by faith in the Trinity and which is made strong by the sacrament of the heavenly mystery.

But the path of those belonging to the church surrounds the whole world. It possesses the sure tradition from the apostles and allows us to see that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one and the same God the Father. All believe in the same dispensation regarding the incarnation of the Son of God. All are cognizant of the same gift of the Spirit. All are conversant with the same commandments. All preserve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution. And all expect the same advent of the Lord and await the same salvation of the complete man, that is, of the soul and body. Undoubtedly the preaching of the church is true and steadfast, in which one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout the whole world. For to her is entrusted the light of God. Therefore the wisdom of God, by means of which she saves all people, is declared in [its] going forth; it speaks faithfully in the streets, is preached on the tops of the walls, and speaks continually in the gates of the city.^[1] For the church preaches the truth everywhere, and she is the seven-branched candlestick that bears the light of Christ.

Assemble on the Lord’s Day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be pure. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid profaning your sacrifice [Mt 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord said, “Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations” [Mal 1:11, 14].

Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.

[T]herefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which our life has sprung up again by him and by his death.

But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.

Hence it is not possible that the [day of] rest after the Sabbath should have come into existence from the seventh [day] of our God. On the contrary, it is our Savior who, after the pattern of his own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of his death, and hence also of his Resurrection.

This sixth day [Friday] is called parasceve, that is to say, the preparation of the kingdom. For he perfected Adam, whom he made after his image and likeness. But for this reason he completed his works before he created angels and fashioned man, lest they should falsely assert that they had been his helpers. On this day also, on account of the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God, or a fast. On the seventh day he rested from all his works, and blessed it, and sanctified it. On the former day we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord’s Day we may go forth to our bread with thanksgiving. And let the parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews, which Christ himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, says by his prophets that “his soul hates” [Is 1:13–14]; which Sabbath he in his body abolished.

Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be Judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

And on the day of our Lord’s Resurrection, which is the Lord’s Day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God who made the universe by Jesus, and sent him to us, and condescended to let him suffer, and raised him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the Resurrection, on which we pray three times standing in memory of him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food?