CHAPTER 10
Moreover, John, the divine narrator in the present discourse, recounts the events that occurred when the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, which I have not yet fully explained all at once, since the fifth discourse is so long, I therefore did not reveal it in full. But what else does he write that has happened?
Revelation 10:1-4 And I saw a strong angel descending from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head; his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little open scroll. And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the land, and cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he cried out, the seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have spoken, and do not write it down. ”
Therefore, those who, while still alive, having heard or even seen the punishments inflicted upon the wrongdoers, did not repent, but remained wicked as previously stated, John says that I saw an angel descending from heaven , bringing images of punishments.
He says that his vision and form were as follows: he was , clothed with a cloud . The cloud symbolizes the eternal and invisible nature of the holy angels; for the cloud is a symbol of the unseen. The prophet, indicating the invisible nature of God, describes “clouds and thick darkness are round about him.” (Ps. 97:2)
And a rainbow was upon his head ; as if the head and the foremost among the good angels were saying, it is brightness; for angels are beings of light. (2 Cor. 11:14)
And his face is said to be like the sun ; and this too is an appearance of pure brightness. But the rainbow is the brightness of a created nature, signifying virtue; therefore, the brightness of the rainbow is not uniform, but varied, indicating all the virtues of the angels. The sun , indeed, signifies their natural brilliance by a gleaming light. Therefore, it was surrounded by a rainbow , for virtues are around us; but its face resembled the sun, for in us all natural excellence is present in abundance.
And his feet were like pillars of fire . The fire signifies the punishment that he came to bring upon the impious. And he is said to have held in his hand a tiny open scroll [βιβλιδάριον] 1 . Daniel, recalling such small scrolls [βιβλίων], says: “before him sat a judge, and scrolls [βίβλοι] were opened.” (Dan. 7:10) The tiny scroll [βιβλιδάριον] was one in which were recorded the names and the multitude of the very impious who were to be punished. Therefore, it was also diminutively called a "tiny scroll" [βιβλιδάριον], since it is a kind of scroll [βίβλου]. Both terms have been used in the Holy Scripture, in which the names of all men are written, according to what was previously stated by me. The term "tiny scroll" [βιβλιδάριον] refers to the record containing the names of the exceedingly impious. For the worshippers of idols were not so numerous, nor marked by murders and poisonings and other afflictions that would serve to fill an entire scroll small [βιβλίον] with the diseases they caused.
And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the land . This was a sign both of the greatness of the saints and a sign that those who have sinned on the earth as well as those in the sea, such as shipwrecked individuals or others who have committed evil deeds, would bear the consequences of punishment.
And he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars . And it is said that the holy angel of wrath was symbolically represented as having roared like a lion, signifying the judgment against the impious.
And when he said, "he cried out," the seven thunders uttered their voices . The seven thunders refer to the seven ministering spirits whose memory has been mentioned earlier; therefore, it is placed after the article. He says, " the seven thunders ," referring to those seven spirits to which the reference pertains. What then is the meaning of the seven spirits crying out? It is that they also fully correspond with the punishments inflicted upon sinners, offering a grateful hymn of praise to God, acknowledging that all things have been done justly. At the same time, the one who cried out clarified the various forms of punishments.
He says that he was about to write what was spoken to the seven spirits. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders have spoken, and do not write it down ." The act of sealing, in one sense, involved impressing the memory firmly upon your mind; but the prohibition against writing it down was a matter of divine economy, for which God knows the reason. Perhaps the punishments that are glorified are actually lighter, and worthy of the goodness of the one who punishes, making them shameful to humans.
What do Gregory 2 the Divine and Evagrius 3 , the great authority on Gnostic matters, say about these things? Gregory asserts that “the punishment surrounding Adam is an act of generosity, for therefore I believe God punishes.” And in another context, “neither mercy is indiscriminate nor is judgment merciless.” Evagrius, however, declares that “the more recent and worldly thinkers should be forgotten regarding the superior discourse on judgment; for they do not understand the suffering of the rational soul condemned to ignorance 4 .”
Revelation 10:5-7 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by the living one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, that there will be no more delay. But in the days of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound the trumpet , the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he declared to his servants the prophets. 5
According to the form of omission, it is stated: for it says that when the seventh angel is about to sound the trumpet , all the punishment against the impious will be fulfilled , being both various and many. However, it does not say that this will happen when he sounds the trumpet in the vision, since the other events have not yet occurred at that time, but rather when he sounds the trumpet at the appropriate time.
When this occurs, he says that the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he declared to his servants the prophets . For the prophets foretold up until the judgment and the recompense of the good and the wicked, but not after that. Therefore, when the seventh angel sounds, the mystery will be completed, and every prophetic announcement will come to an end.
Revelation 10:8-11 And I heard a voice from heaven again, speaking with me and saying, “Go, take the little scroll [βιβλίον] that is open in the hand of the angel who stands upon the sea and upon the land.” And I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little scroll.” And he said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the tiny scroll [βιβλιδάριον] from the hand of the angel and ate it; and it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And he said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning peoples, nations, languages, and many kings. ”
And I heard a voice from heaven again, speaking . What did it say? Go, take the little scroll [βιβλίον] that is open in the hand of the angel . When I took it, he said, I ate it, and it was sweet in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter . Since the divine evangelist both saw and heard the punishments inflicted upon the impious, so that they might be disciplined through deeds and not by hearing alone, and so that the lawlessness of men, which is both bitter and detestable before God, might be recognized as repulsive, he teaches this through vision. For he did not know this from experience, being a holy man and a virgin 6 , and through this he came to understand that the wrath of God against the impious is just.
The little scroll [βιβλίον] contained both the names and the sins of those who had greatly erred, as previously stated 7 . It was therefore commanded to eat this, so that, through a certain taste and intellectual experience, the bitterness of the sins might be realized through a vision.
And having eaten, he found them sweet to the mouth , but bitter to the stomach after consumption; for such is every sin. It is sweet in its operation, but bitter in its outcome. For it becomes the cause of punishment, and also, through repentance, it embitters those who have committed it. Such was also the tree forbidden by God in Paradise, which all interpret as leading to sin, producing knowledge of both good and evil (Gen. 2-3); sweet indeed in taste, but evil after experience.
And he says to me, “ You must prophesy again concerning peoples, nations, languages, and many kings ,” as if he said: because you have already seen in a vision both the end of the present age and the wrath against the ungodly, do not consider the day of the end to be present in deed; there is a long time in between, during which you must also prophesy to many nations and kings . Therefore, until now, the divine John prophesies through the Gospel, through his Catholic Epistles, and through the present Revelation; for everything has been spoken and foretold to him in the Spirit.
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Translator’s notes for chapter 10.
1. In this passage, the usage of three variations of the Greek words for scroll is used by Oecumenius βιβλιδάριον, βιβλίων (plural for Βιβλίον), and βίβλοι (plural for Βίβλος). In Ancient Greek, these three terms are etymologically linked through a series of diminutives, where each successive word traditionally refers to a smaller or more specific version of a "book." Βίβλος, originally, this referred to the inner bark of the papyrus plant (the material used for writing). It evolved to mean a complete "book" or "record," often implying a significant or formal work. In the Septuagint and New Testament, it is used for major records like the "Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1:1) or the "Book of Psalms" (Luke 20:42). Βιβλίον, is a diminutive of βίβλος, meaning "little book" or "scroll". Over time, it became the standard word for "book" in general, losing much of its "smallness" nuance in everyday speech. It is used for legal documents, such as a "bill of divorce" (Matthew 19:7), or for specific scrolls, like the one Jesus unrolled in the synagogue (Luke 4:17). Βιβλιδάριον is a double-diminutive, literally meaning an "extra-small book" or a "booklet". This term is rare and specifically emphasizes the small size of the object. It appears famously in Revelation 10:2, describing a "little scroll" held by an angel, distinguishing it from larger prophetic books.
2. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orationes 38.12 and 45.8.
3. Evagrius Ponticus, Gnostica 36.
4. Gregory of Nazianzus and Evagrius Ponticus were influential 4th-century Christian thinkers who had a significant teacher-student relationship in Constantinople, where Evagrius served Gregory as a deacon, deeply absorbing his theology, especially concerning the mind, soul, and spiritual struggles, influencing Evagrius's own ascetic and mystical writings on prayer, demons, and the eight "evil thoughts," bridging Cappadocian theology with desert monasticism for Eastern and Western traditions.
5. Not all Oecumenius manuscripts have “the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he declared to his servants the prophets.” As a matter of fact, it is omitted by the oldest manuscript, therefore omitted in the primary critical text.
6. While the Bible does not explicitly state the marital status of most apostles, long-standing Christian tradition and early ecclesiastical writings maintain that John the Apostle remained a virgin throughout his life. Early Church Fathers such as St. Augustine and St. Jerome frequently referred to John’s lifelong virginity. Jerome, in particular, argued that John’s "virginal purity" was the reason Jesus favored him as the "beloved disciple" and entrusted the Virgin Mary to his care at the Crucifixion. Early non-canonical "lists" of apostles, such as those found in some Christian apocrypha, explicitly categorize John and his brother James as having remained virgins, while noting that other apostles like Peter and Philip were married. A common theological argument is that Jesus chose John to look after Mary because they shared the same state of virginity.
7. See his comments on Rev. 10:2