Chapter 20
[Revelation 20:1] -- And I saw an angel ... having the key to the abyss, etc. Recapitulating from the beginning, he more fully explains how he previously said: The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend from the abyss and go into destruction (Rev. 17). Therefore, the Lord, endowed with paternal power, descended in the flesh to wage war against the prince of the world, and, having bound him, to snatch away his vessels.
[Revelation 20:2] -- And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, etc. The devil is interpreted as flowing downward. In Greek, he is called the accuser. Satan means adversary or transgressor. He is called a dragon because of the malice of harming; a serpent because of the cunning of deceiving; the devil because of his fall from his status; and Satan because of his obstinacy in opposing the Lord.
[Revelation 20:2] -- And he bound him for a thousand years. That is, restraining and curbing his power from seducing those who were to be freed. If he were allowed to exercise his full power with force or deceit, he would deceive many of the weak in such a long time. He said a thousand years, meaning a part, that is, the remainder of the thousand years of the sixth day in which the Lord was born and suffered.
[Revelation 20:3] -- And he threw him into the abyss. Into the hearts of the persecuting people. Not because the devil was not there before, but because, excluded from the believers, he began to possess the wicked more abundantly, who are not only alienated from God but also more bitterly hate those who serve God. The Lord also visibly showed this when He expelled him from humans into pigs.
[Revelation 20:3] -- And he shut him up and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. He forbade and, as if with a royal seal, closed him off, so that he might not deceive the nations, but those destined for life, whom he previously seduced, might not be reconciled to God.
[Revelation 20:3] -- After that, he must be released for a little while. Then he will be released, as Saint Augustine says, when there will also be a short time (for it is read that he will rage with all his might for three and a half years), and there will be those with whom he will wage war, who cannot be overcome by his great force and tricks. If he were never released, his malignant power would appear less, the faithful patience of the holy city would be less tested, and it would be less evident how God, the Almighty, has used his great evil so well.
[Revelation 20:4] -- And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, etc. He indicates what will be done during these thousand years in which the devil is bound. The Church, which will sit in Christ on the twelve thrones to judge, already sits, judging, as it has merited to hear from its King: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven (Matt. 16).
[Revelation 20:4] -- And the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, etc. It is understood what he will say later: They reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The Church, therefore, reigns with Christ among the living and the dead. For this reason, as the Apostle says, Christ died so that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead (Rom. 14). But he mentions only the souls of the martyrs because they particularly reign after death, having fought for the truth to the point of death. What follows:
[Revelation 20:4] -- And those who did not worship the beast, etc. We must understand this as referring to both the living and the dead, who, whether still living in this mortal flesh or having passed away, reign with Christ already now in a way appropriate to this time, throughout this entire interval signified by the number of a thousand years.
[Revelation 20:5] -- The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. Whoever, during this whole time when the first resurrection, that is, of souls, is happening, has not heard the voice of the Son of God and has passed from death to life, will surely pass, in the second resurrection, which is of the flesh, into the second death, that is, eternal torments, with that very flesh.
[Revelation 20:5] -- This is the first resurrection. Indeed, by which we rise again through baptism, as the Apostle says: If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above (Col. 3). For just as the first death in this life is through sins, when the soul that sins shall die, so also the first resurrection in this life is through the forgiveness of sins.
[Revelation 20:6] -- Blessed and holy is the one who preserves what he has been reborn into.
[Revelation 20:6] -- But they shall be priests of God and of Christ. Another version reads, Priests of God and of Christ. However, this is not said only of bishops and priests, who are properly called priests in the Church, but just as we are all called Christians because of the mystical chrism, so we are all called priests because we are members of the one Priest. As the apostle Peter says: You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Pet. 2).
[Revelation 20:6] -- And they shall reign with Christ for a thousand years. The Spirit reported, when he wrote these things, that the Church would reign for a thousand years, that is, until the end of the world, from which there could be doubt. For it is clear about the perpetual kingdom.
[Revelation 20:7] -- And when the thousand years are completed, etc. He said completed as part of a whole, for he will be released such that three years and six months of the last struggle will remain. But besides this trope, it is rightly said that the time is finished. For such small remnants are not to be counted, since seven hundred and as many years as God wills are called an hour by the apostle.
[Revelation 20:8] -- And he will go out and deceive the nations, etc. Then he will deceive them to gather them for this battle. For even before, in the ways he could, he was deceiving through many and various evils. For it is said that he will go out: he will burst forth from the hidden places of his hatred into open persecution. Furthermore, Gog and Magog either signify the whole from a part or, according to the interpretation of their names, which are said to mean roof and from the roof, indicate hidden and open enemies. And they are the roof, because the enemy is now enclosed and ruled in them: and they will be from the roof when they erupt into open hatred.
[Revelation 20:9] -- And they ascended over the breadth of the earth, etc. It is not meant that they came or will come to one place, as if the beloved city, that is, the Church, would be confined to one place. Rather, by the term breadth of the earth, it is intended to indicate that it will be persecuted among all nations and will not abandon its struggle, preferring to use the term camp.
[Revelation 20:9] -- And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. This should not be considered the final punishment, but rather the fire of envy by which they will be tormented, the adversity stemming from the firmness of the saints. For heaven is the firmament. This is the fire that came out of the mouth of God's witnesses and devours their enemies. For on the last day, fire will not rain upon them, but the gathered and judged will be cast into the eternal fire, of which it is also said here:
[Revelation 20:10] -- And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, etc. That is, the devil will be cast into the eternal fire at the final judgment, where all whom he has led will also go, that is, the majority of the impious city. For the beast should be understood according to the context: sometimes it means the devil, sometimes the Antichrist, sometimes the very impious city. The name of the fire descending from heaven can also signify the sudden destruction of the wicked when the Lord comes and will slay the Antichrist with the breath of His mouth (2 Thess. 2). He explains more fully how, when Christ judges, the devil with his followers is cast into the fire.
[Revelation 20:11] -- And I saw a great white throne, etc. He said he saw someone sitting on the throne from whose presence earth and heaven fled away. This signifies that, after the judgment, there will be no more heaven and earth as they are, because there will be a new heaven and a new earth, meaning a transformation of things, not their complete destruction. For the figure of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7); it does not say the substance. It is believed that the same substance will be changed for the better.
[Revelation 20:12] -- And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. For when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His majesty, then all nations will be gathered before Him.
[Revelation 20:12] -- And the books were opened, etc. Another version says: Which is the book of the life of each one. Therefore, the opened books are called the Testaments of God. For the world will be judged according to both Testaments. The book of life is the memory of each one’s deeds, not that He has a book of remembrance, but as the knower of all secrets.
[Revelation 20:12] -- And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, etc. That is, they were judged according to the Testaments, based on what they did or did not do from them. The books can also be understood as the deeds of the righteous, by the comparison of which the wicked are condemned, as if in the opening of the books, they read the good that they themselves did not want to do.
[Revelation 20:13] -- And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, etc. This undoubtedly happened before the dead were judged. Therefore, he recapitulates what he had omitted and follows the order, saying:
[Revelation 20:13] -- And they were judged, each one according to their deeds. This signifies that bodies will be gathered from the earth and souls from their places. The good are designated by the name of death, which has only suffered the dissolution of the flesh, but not punishment. The wicked are designated by the name of hell. It can also be taken literally, that all bodies, even those that the waves have swallowed or beasts have devoured, will be resurrected. Tyconius explains it thus: "The nations that he will find alive here are the dead of the sea. And death and hell gave up their dead, these are the buried nations." When he had said: And they were judged, each one according to their works, he briefly added how death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. He refers to the devil and his followers, whom he had previously described as being followed by hell on the pale horse. He repeats what he had already said more clearly by anticipation: And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur. What he had added there more obscurely, he explains here more clearly, that both the beast and the false prophet were thrown into the lake of fire.
[Revelation 20:15] -- And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life. That is, who was not judged by God to be alive. Hence, it seems more correct to say, as those who interpret the open books as the consciences of individuals and their revealed works. The book of life, however, is the foreknowledge of God (which cannot be mistaken) concerning those to whom eternal life will be given, in which they are written, that is, foreknown. Having finished the judgment by which he saw the wicked condemned, it remains for him to also speak of the good.