Chapter X.
(Vers. 1.)
(Verse 1.) And I saw another mighty angel descending from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow on his head. Because previously it had narrated the adversities of the Church, which it had suffered from heretics and pagans; now it remains to tell of its prosperity, how it grew amid persecutions. For it is known that the Church grew in persecutions, and the more it was oppressed, the more it was strengthened and increased: just as we read in the scriptures about the children of Israel, who were oppressed by the Egyptians and multiplied more and more. The mighty angel designates our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the Psalmist says: The Lord is mighty and powerful, the Lord mighty in battle (Psalm 24:8). He is said to descend from heaven clothed in a cloud; because our Lord, coming into the world, assumed the flesh which is designated by the cloud; so that by assuming human flesh, he could conform himself to the people whom he came to redeem. His mercy is designated by the cloud, as we said above; but his divinity is understood in this place by his head. He had a halo on his head, because his divinity had assumed such great mercy before his incarnation, that he was not unwilling to become a man for mankind, and to be condemned to the worst death in the end. And his face was like the sun. Often the Lord is represented through the sun; because the sun surpasses all visible creatures in its splendor and beauty: but what creature can be compared to its creator? Indeed, invisible things are often demonstrated through visible figures. Therefore, in the heart of the elect, Christ is the sun whom they never cease to behold through hope, and they believe that they will come to behold His beauty. And His feet are like a column of fire. We can understand the Church as a column of fire; either because it shines brightly with the Holy Spirit, or because it continually burns with the love of God and neighbor. But by the two feet, we should understand the two peoples. Therefore, one column is made from the two feet; because from the two peoples, namely the Jews and the gentiles, the one Church of God is built. We can also understand two Testaments through two feet, as we will demonstrate more fully in the following. It does not disagree with the previous sense, in that the old Testament was given to the Jews, but the new Testament was specifically given to the Gentiles.
(Vers. 2.)
(Verse 2.) And he had in his hand an open book. This Book is described as having been sealed with seven seals above; but we have already said something about its opening, with the Lord's permission. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to be holding an open book in his hand; because he himself opened the meaning of the divine Scriptures to the teachers of the Church. And he set his right foot on the sea, but his left foot on the land. By the right foot, as we have said, the New Testament is signified; but by the left foot, the Old is designated. But we can understand that the people of the nations are like a sea because of the depth of their ignorance and error. But the land that is cultivated to produce fruit represents the Jews who were cultivated by the discipline of the Law, and they produced fruit when they fulfilled the legal precepts, even though it was only in a carnal way. Therefore, the Lord placed his right foot on the sea, when he specifically gave the doctrine of the Gospel to the Gentiles, which he also spoke of to the Jews, saying: It was necessary for the word of God to be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). He placed his left foot on the ground when he specifically delivered the Law to the Jews. But let no one be moved by the fact that he mentioned the later things before the earlier ones, and the earlier ones afterwards; because this often happens in divine Scriptures. To prove this, let us offer only one example. In Psalm 105 (verse 17), when he said, 'The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the congregation of Abiram. And fire broke out in their assembly; the flame consumed the sinners,' he goes back and says, 'And they made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image.' Therefore, rightly enough, the new Testament is represented by the right foot, and the old by the left; because the old Testament was a shadow of the new Testament.
(Vers. 3.)
(Verse 3.) And he cried out, like a lion roars. Christ cried out through the law, but not like a lion roars; because only the voice of his was heard in the house of Israel: he cried out later through the Gospel, like a lion roars; because his voice sounded throughout the whole world. And when he cried out, seven thunderclaps spoke his voice. Through the seven thunderclaps we can understand seven virtues. Christ cried out through the Law, but the seven thunderclaps did not sound: he cried out through the Gospel, and the seven thunderclaps spoke his voice. For those to whom the Law said: 'Cursed is he who does not leave his seed in Israel,' and for whom it was permissible to have multiple wives and concubines, the thunderbolt of chastity had not yet sounded. Similarly, those to whom the Law said: 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' and whoever inflicts a blemish shall be compelled to endure the same (Exodus 21:24); they had not yet heard the thunderbolt of patience. And those who had not yet fully heard the thunderbolt of charity, to whom the Law said: 'Love your friend, and hate your enemy' (Matthew 5:43). Likewise, we must understand the other virtues. Therefore, seven thunders spoke; when through the teaching of the Gospel, the excellence of virtues began to be shown.
(Vers. 4.)
(Verse 4) And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down. The voice from heaven is the voice of the Church: to write, however, is to preach; for just as a writer writes with ink on a scroll, so that readers may be trained, so too does every teacher write the words of God, by preaching them, planting them in the hearts of the listeners. So why, then, was it forbidden to write down the seven thunders, which sounded from heaven? We can find this prohibition in the Acts of the Apostles and in the letters of Paul. For at the beginning of the preaching of the faith, the holy preachers, seeing the weakness of the people who were coming to the faith, did not dare to commit to them the more severe precepts of Christ; lest, being terrified by the harshness of the precepts, they would not dare to approach the receiving of the faith of Christ, as the Apostle Paul wrote to his disciples, saying: I have given you milk to drink as to little ones in Christ, not food; for you were not yet able to bear it, neither indeed are you now able: for you are yet carnal (I Cor. III, 2). But the apostles who were in Jerusalem commanded those who believed from the Gentiles, saying: It has pleased the Holy Spirit and us to impose no burden on you other than to abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Therefore, the voice came from heaven to John, that he should not write the seven thunders, because the apostles, who are represented by heaven, commanded this to the first preachers, so that those who newly come to the faith would not be compelled to suddenly ascend to the high level of virtues, until they were strengthened in faith and able to proceed to the practice of virtues.
(Vers. 5, 6, 7.)
(Verse 5, 6, 7.) And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be no more time: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. When we swear, we desire that what we speak be firm. Therefore, to say that the Lord has sworn is fitting; for it cannot be that what God speaks becomes void, as he himself says in the Gospel: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Luke 21:33). Therefore, since Christ swore by the living one forever, and by him who made all creatures, he swore by himself: For all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made (John 1:3). However, he swore not by certain words, binding himself; but by saying those things which were about to come. But through the seventh angel, preachers are designated, who are in the end of the future world, about whom we will speak in the following. Therefore, Christ swore that in the days of the seventh angel the mystery of God, which he preached through his prophets, will be consummated; because he predicted that then the end will come, when the number of all the elect will be complete.
(Vers. 8.)
(Verse 8) And the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, 'Go, and take the book from the hand of the angel standing upon the sea and upon the earth.' The voice spoke for the first time, when it was said to him from heaven: 'Seal up those things which the seven thunders spoke, and do not write them.' Therefore, he heard the same voice speaking to him again; for it was the voice of the same Holy Spirit, of which this one is also. By John in this place, we should understand all the apostles. Therefore, the divine voice spoke to John, that he should go to the angel and receive from him the book; for the grace of the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles, that, leaving everything behind, they should follow Christ; that they should receive the teaching of the Gospel from him.
(Vers. 9, 10.)
(Verses 9, 10.) And I went to the angel, asking him to give me the book. The apostles went to Christ, to be instructed by him in the doctrine of divine Scriptures. And he said to me: Take it, and devour it, and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. And when I had devoured it, my stomach became bitter. By the mouth in which tastes are distinguished, we can understand the hearts of the apostles; but by the stomach, in which all impurities of the body dwell, we should understand the memory of sins. Therefore, while the book was being devoured, as it is said to have been sweet as honey; because divine Scripture, while it is being meditated upon in the mind, promises eternal life to those who keep God's commandments, it becomes sweet as honey in the heart: but when it leads the mind from higher things to lower things, that is, from contemplating the heavenly country to seeing its own sins, and it reveals the punishment that the wicked will suffer for their sins, what was previously sweet in the revelation of heavenly glory becomes bitter in the revelation of sins. We can also understand this about John, who before he wrote the Gospel, was exiled to Patmos: but because in his absence heretics had invaded the Church of God, after his return from exile he was compelled to write the Gospel to destroy their blasphemies. Therefore, the divine voice commanded John to go to the angel and receive from him the book; because the Holy Spirit, by inspiring John, urged him to go to Christ not with bodily steps, but with the steps of the mind, to consider his divine power and equality with the Father, so that he could write a book about his divinity that would be salutary for all the faithful. John devoured the book, from which he fully received the knowledge of the Gospel that he later wrote. As the book was being devoured, it exhibited the sweetness of honey to his mouth; for the divine Scripture, the more it is meditated upon in the heart, the more it presents a salutary sweetness to the mind. However, through the belly, in which food corrupts, we can understand this mortal flesh. Therefore, the book that was sweet in the mouth generated bitterness in the stomach; for holy men, the more they are devoted to the meditation of divine Scriptures, and the sweeter their meditation becomes in the mind, the greater bitterness they exhibit to their own flesh, afflicting it indeed with fasting, watching, abstinence, and other tortures, by which the flesh is weakened.
(Vers. 11.)
(Verse 11) And he said to me: You must prophesy again to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings. It is predicted to him that he will return from exile to preach. But since the holy Fathers teach that after his return from exile he preached only in Ephesus and its neighboring places, and there he died and was buried; how is it said that he prophesied to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings? But he prophesied, that is, he proclaimed through his Gospel, which he afterward wrote to all nations, and in many languages, and to many kings; for it is dispersed throughout all nations, and through his meditation all the peoples of the earth, and many kings, are profiting.