CHAPTER 22
Revelation 22:1-5 And he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of its square; and on this side of the river and on that were trees of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, each month yielding its fruit; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads; and night shall be no more, and they will have no need of the light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will illuminate them, and they will reign for ever and ever. Amen .
And he showed me , he says, a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the city's square . The river of life would be the abundant and rich gifts of Christ, which are continually poured out to the saints, as it were borne and flowing to them like a river. And of the river he says that on this side and on that side there was a tree of life bearing fruit each month. The Lord calls the tree of life, according to what is written by the Proverbs writer concerning wisdom; he says “the tree of life is for all who hold fast to it.” (Prov. 3:18) But Paul handed over to us “Christ as God's power and God's wisdom.” (1 Cor. 1:24) And he says that not only do the saints possess the riches of Christ's gifts, but they also have and share in him dwelling within them; which is the head of the highest blessedness. But the tree of life is continuous, Christ, and unceasingly brings to completion fruits and gifts to the saints, as if to overtake zeal with zeal and lest they ever be deprived of divine flow.
And he says the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations . Leaves of life are the patriarchs attached to Christ and holding him, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs and confessors, and those who in due times officiate at the gospel and pastors of the church, and every righteous soul; who even now heal souls, and to the saints will be an addition of good things.
And he says there will be no more curse . For although the anathemas now may flee vehemently, nevertheless we are comforted in them, with myriad excuses sprouting up in us in knowledge and indeed in ignorance; but then the saints will be free from every stain of the soul, just as they are from physical stain.
And he says that in the city will be the kingdom of God . For this is the throne . And he says the saints will serve him with worship not burdensome, but with spiritual pleasure and joy. And this will come from seeing his face ; for he says they shall see his face ; and they will see, insofar as is attainable by human nature, even his name upon their foreheads . The present passage plainly signifies the unceasing remembrance and communion of God. For as God is ever present and inscribed upon them, so he will always be with the saints. And it is clear, and from what Paul said: “and we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:17)
Oecumenius commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:17
"we shall always be with the Lord." Then he also states the crown of blessedness, to be with Christ always.
But he says there is no night , in order that the saints may not need the sun or lamp-light for illumination , the divine light making their illumination uninterrupted. And the saints will reign , evidently for ever and ever . And these things indeed the most wise Daniel testifies, saying also: “The saints of the Most High will receive and possess the kingdom, and they will rule in it forever and ever.” (Dan. 7:18)
Revelation 22:6-9 And he said to me: “These words are faithful and true, and the Lord of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed are those who keep the words of the prophecy of this book.” And John heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he says: “See that you do not do that; I am your fellow servant and of your brothers the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book, worship God.”
These words , he says, are faithful , that is, true . And the Lord is the spirit of the prophets . He says “ spirits of prophets ” to mean the prophetic gifts, according to what was said to the most wise Paul. And “the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets,” (1 Cor. 14:32) and to the divine prophet Isaiah: “Because of your fear, O Lord, we conceived in the womb and we travailed; and we bore the spirit of your salvation, which you made upon the earth.” (Isa. 26:18)
Oecumenius commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:32
“And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets.” He says “the spirits of prophets,” meaning the spiritual gift itself. Then lest anyone say, And how can I keep silent? for the very inspiring Holy Spirit compels one to speak even against his will, Not so, he says. For the gift is subordinated to the prophet, that is, in him it is both to speak and to be silent.
He says to show his servants the things which must shortly take place . For through John and his writings all things that were shown to him have been learned. And he rightly said “ shortly ,” for every time is short, as was said before, even if some appear to be especially great, when compared with the coming unending ages.
For this reason he also brought it on: “ Behold, I come quickly .” Blessed are those who keep these things of this prophecy . For those who keep them take pains not to fall under the punishments foretold in it through a God‑beloved life.
And when he says I heard and saw , I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel . These things are interpreted in those that have arrived, when we also have demonstrated that the doctrines of the atheistic Greeks about their national leaders have nothing in common with the purest doctrines of the church.
Revelation 22:10-14 And he said to me: do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the unjust continue to do injustice still, and the filthy be filthy still, and the righteous continue to do righteousness still, and the holy be holy still. Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every one according as his work shall be. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city .
Do not seal , he says, these words , that is, do not keep them to yourself, nor lock them away and guard them in the treasury of your mind, but reveal them to all.
For he says the time is near . He speaks something like this: the time until their fulfillment is not very long, as before. But do not think it necessary that they be heard now; for it is not personal, as if their omission were unnecessary. For what need is there of exhortation to those who are from now tried by evils or by goods? For it is by deeds, not by untimely words, that those learning by action are instructed. But what does he mean by saying the time is near , neither long to come nor already present?
He says, let the unjust continue to do injustice still, and the filthy be filthy still . He does not command or order that they be unjust or be filthy , but says this: a little more time is still allowed to men; therefore let each one act as he pleases, and use his own free will as he wishes, whether for evil or for good. Therefore he further enjoins the righteous to continue to do righteousness, and the holy be holy still .
Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every one according as his work shall be . " I come ," says the Lord, in the second coming, bringing with me what each must be repaid, whether good or evil.
I am , he says, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end . These things have been sufficiently said above; therefore now pass on.
Blessed , he says, are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life . By robes he means the bodies. Blessed therefore are those who live well and cleanse themselves from every filth of sin; for those who so live will have authority to recline upon the tree of life and to rest upon it, the Lord is the tree of life , as was said before.
And they may enter the city through the gates . And through the gates , that is, through the apostolic dogmas and teachings, they become partakers of the conduct and blessedness of the saints.
Revelation 22:15-19 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, sent my angel to testify to you about these things to the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star. And the Spirit 1 and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life as a gift. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book .
Outside are the dogs , he says. It is customary in the divine writing to call dogs those who associate with others because of their shamelessness and uncleanness. For Moses also says in Deuteronomy, the law of the advocator 2 : “You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God for any vow of yours.” (Deut. 23:18) And since such persons are like dogs in their shamelessness, one of the philosophers outside also testifies, saying likewise: “Flee from every murder and the beds of a woman’s adultery;” 3 and oaths of the blessed and shameless couches of youths. Therefore the dogs are outside the holy city and the conduct with the righteous, these and those. For what fellowship have they with the righteous of God?
And everyone who loves and practices falsehood, he says will be outside. Falsehood is everything contrary to nature; for since virtue is according to nature, because the Maker originally implanted in our nature the seed of virtue, wickedness is contrary to nature. Just as in bodies health is according to nature and disease contrary to nature, and sight and hearing are according to nature while blindness and deafness are contrary to nature, so in souls virtue is according to nature and wickedness contrary to nature; for health is parallel to virtue, and disease to wickedness. And in this respect wickedness is falsehood , because it often pretends to be virtue; for boldness is fashioned to appear as courage, wickedness as prudence, sloth as temperance, and baseness as justice. For all these are vices assuming the guise of virtue, and so he casts out of the divine precincts those who practice the falsehood of wickedness.
I, Jesus , he says, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things to the churches . He says that to bear witness is not to do so in secret or in a private whisper, but before the congregations everywhere, so that no one, pretending ignorance, might be wicked through willing misconduct.
He says that I am the root and the offspring of David , although with regard to what appears it would be more accurate to say, I am the shoot sprung from the root of David. But now, on the contrary, he has called himself the root of David , and not only root but also offspring , as has been said above. Root indeed and cause of all things, among which is David , insofar as God is what he is understood to be; and offspring truly of David and having sprung from him according to the flesh, insofar as man is what he is understood to be. As to his being himself, for it is not tedious for me to say the same things often, and it is safe for those who encounter them, as the divine apostle in some of his discourses says. (see Philip. 3:1) Therefore since “Emmanuel” exists in both deity and humanity fully possessing each of the natures according to their proper principle, unconfused, unchangeably, indivisibly, incomprehensibly, and after the ineffable union we are persuaded that there is one person and one hypostasis and one operation, even if the distinction of the natures be not ignored, from which we say the ineffable union has been accomplished, not the natural property according to quality 4 , as in the discourses of our inspired father Cyril 5 .
The star , he says, is the morning ; either he means the sun, since the sun is also called the sun of righteousness in Malachi, (Mal. 4:2) and moreover “fire fell upon them” that sang to the prophet, that is, upon the chief priests of the Jews and they “did not see the sun,” (Ps. 57:9) namely the sun of righteousness Christ, or he means the morning star. For this is also called to Peter 6 in the Second Epistle, saying, “until the day approaches and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19)
Oecumenius commentary on 2 Peter 1:19
Therefore, as day approaches (I speak of the presence of things), you will have the Morning Star rising in your hearts: that is, the knowledge of Christ, or his presence and coming foretold by the prophets, illuminating your hearts like true light.
And he says the Spirit , that is, the prophetic spirit, and the bride , the universal and the church everywhere, say Come . For we have been commanded to seek the second coming of the Lord, but also to place it in prayer; for he who says, “Your kingdom come,” (Matt. 6:10) asks of God the kingdom of Christ, which is the kingdom of the Father and of the Spirit.
And let the one who hears say, Come . And everyone, he says, hearing the words present, and you, John, make prayer for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. He says this, urging all to works and practices of righteousness; for no one, not having righteousness firmly established in himself, would make prayer for the coming of Christ, in which he will be demanded an account of the words in which he lived.
And he who thirsts , he says, let him come ; let him who wills take the free gift of the water of life ; and in how long the time will come of my presence, says the Lord, to the fountain of life, to the practice of virtue affix your mouth. “And all of you who have no money, come, buy, and drink without money and without price.” (Isa. 55:1) Isaiah admonishes us, prophesying the same things beforehand to the Lord.
And it has also been said in the passages that one receives the gift of virtue’s reward after enduring sweats and toils, since “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us, (Rom. 8:18) according to the words of Paul the most wise.
Oecumenius commentary on Romans 8:18
So that we may not be thought more careless about the whole of grace, it even requires what is denied us. For if, he says, we share in the sufferings, we shall also share in the good things. "The sufferings of the present time in view of the future glory." He indicates the briefness of the sufferings by "the present time." Then he shows the whole character of grace, since God conquers contrary powers, and that we are not strong enough to deserve to undergo or to attain anything of that future exchange. "To be revealed to us." Well said, "to be revealed." For it exists even now, but it is hidden.
I testify , he says, to everyone who hears these present words ; that is, I bear witness not to add anything, lest he bring upon himself the blows spoken here, nor to take away , so that the portion of the tree of life and of the inscribed holy city be not removed; both of which are contained in this little book . Then the evangelist makes his own account credible and reverent; see what he has added:
Revelation 22:20a He who bear witness to these things, yes, I come quickly .
Which Paul made when he said, “for I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure has come” (2 Tim. 4:6); this he himself now says also, he who teaches these things, I say and bear witness in them, and so I am from now at the ends of the present life, that the word may be left in suspicion by no one.
Oecumenius commentary on 2 Timothy 4:6
The meaning of "being am poured out" is, as it were, that I break the war against all. Neither fighting nor being fought against, for I am perfected. of my departure. For departure means death, either because of the departing from the earth from which we were taken; or towards the Creator Christ.
For who would choose among those who happen to be, if not then John so great, to devise words as from God, insofar as he was not yet about to undergo common death, and to depart into the hands of God more obviously than those who were formerly still living? I therefore write these things, saying alone to the one who calls me Christ regarding my departure, Yes: I come quickly .
Revelation 22:20b Amen. Come, Lord Jesus .
Since in the cases that have occurred the prophetic Spirit said to him, and the hearer says, “Tell the Lord, ‘ Come ,’” obeying the things revealed to him, he says, “ Amen: Come, Lord Jesus ”; therefore he used to say, “Yes, Master Christ, hasten for us your salvation and your second coming.”
Revelation 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen .
For the profane have already been shut out from the conduct of the holy and from entrance into the spiritual Jerusalem. But how could the grace of Christ our God come upon those who have been proclaimed? Make us partakers of it, Christ, through your goodness alone; for it befits you to be glorified now and ever and unto the ages. Amen.
Some, speaking boldly and ignorantly and stirring up tongues, say that this divine Revelation was not composed by John himself the glorious evangelist and theologian; so they listen to this tradition as if at the fringe. I think this not from ignorance nor from the Revelation, but from simplicity alone, if I may speak boldly, and from fondness for earthly things and their efforts, fearful of the abrupt and undeniable conclusions. For when the divine and holy fathers testify openly, who can resist these things or of reaching in any way such a mind as to say that these things are not so? Even the great Basil, in his writings Against Eunomius 7 , making a refutation of his impious blasphemies and delusions, concerning which the divine theologian recalled in his fourth discourse, in which the difficulties and their solutions are taken from the God‑breathed Scriptures about the controversies concerning the Son through the New and Old Testaments, begins therefore: If the Son is God by nature, and the Father is God by nature, the Son is not another God and the Father another, but similar. And elsewhere: When Moses cried concerning the Son, “He who is,” sent me (Ex. 3:14); but of the evangelist John: “In the beginning was the Word,” (Jn. 1:1) and not once was it “was,” but a fourth time, and again elsewhere “He who is” from God (Jn. 8:47), and “He who is in the arms of the Father,” (Jn. 1:18) and in other places: “He who is in heaven,” (Jn. 3:13) and in the Revelation: “He who is, and he who was, and he who is to come.” (Rev. 1:8) And he did not send away, but afterward again took up the witness of Paul. If then this Revelation were composed by some other John, as the folly of many holds, Basil the great would also have written the discourses from the Revelation under the name of the one who wrote it; but first setting forth the matters of Moses, then those of the apostle and theologian, and as he did those of the apostle Paul, he needed no other to bear witness to these. And these things are from the undeniable statements of the great and holy Basil.
But the great Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, defending himself before the presence of the one hundred and fifty bishops 8 , whom they call the Collection, plainly indeed wrote: “Until when will you inherit my holy mountain?” and other things: “for I am persuaded that others will rule other churches,” as John teaches me through the Revelation 9 . But Eusebius Pamphilus 10 , in his third discourse of the Ecclesiastical History said therefore: as for those things concerning the Jews, they were among these, and other things: in this passage the apostle and evangelist John is held to be still living, and that for the sake of his testimony to the divine word he was condemned to dwell on the island of Patmos by Domitian son of Vespasian. Writing, indeed, Irenaeus concerning the vote called against the Antichrist in the so-called Revelation of John, in these exact words in the fifth book Against Heresies says these things about John: “If it seems obvious in the present time that his name is being proclaimed, by him would be proclaimed even that of one who has seen the Revelation.” 11
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Translator’s notes for chapter 22.
1. “And the Spirit and the bride say.” The oldest Oecumenius manuscript omits “the Spirit” but it is in Oecumenius manuscripts 203 and 240, as well in the comments below by Oecumenius.
2. “advocator” [ἱεροφάντης] Literally a teacher of religious rites and ceremonies, a high-priest, hierophant.
3. Unknown source.
4. This passage reflects a high-level, sophisticated Chalcedonian Christology, drawing on the terminology of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and subsequent, often Miaphysite-leaning clarifications (such as those from St. Cyril of Alexandria or the Council of Constantinople II) that sought to articulate the union of divine and human natures without compromising either.
5. Cyril of Alexandria Letter 39.6
6. Oecumenius, in his commentary on 1 Peter 1:19 says…”Therefore, as day approaches (I speak of the presence of things), you will have the Morning Star rising in your hearts : that is, the knowledge of Christ, or his presence and coming foretold by the prophets, illuminating your hearts like true light.
7. Against Eunomius 4
8. At the Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381.
9. Gregory of Nazianzus Oration 42:8-9
10. Eusebius, Church History 3.1.1.
11. Eusebius, Church History 3.18.1-3; See Irenaeus Against Heresies 5.30.3
INDEX OF EXCERPTS
Preface
2 Timothy 3:16
1 Corinthians 2:13