Revelation of John 1 · The Lantern

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to make known to his servants, concerning what must shortly take place, and which he sent and revealed by his angel to his servant John,

And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place.

Revelation is the revealing of hidden mysteries when the intellect is enlightened by either divine dreams or by visions from divine enlightenment while awake. things which must shortly come to pass.

which must shortly come to pass That is, the trials of the Church which must come to pass quickly, because this proceeds from the divine command which is not able to be altered. This is for the testing of the faithful and to expand of their glory. sending by His angel Jesus appearing in this way.

who testified to the message of God and to the testimony to Jesus Christ, omitting nothing of what he had seen.

Who bore witness to the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus, etc. Lest you doubt the person of John, it is he who bore witness to the eternal Word of God and the same incarnate, as he saw, saying: We have seen his glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father (John 1).

Who hath given testimony to the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, what things soever he hath seen. John gave testimony then, and now the Church does, whose symbol he was bearing when he saw this Apocalypse.

Who has given testimony to the word of God In the beginning of his gospel about his eternal Godhead saying, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (Jn. 1:1)"; that is about to his incarnation, saying, "And the Word was made flesh, etc.(Jn. 1:14)" Therefore, he adds: And the testimony of Jesus Christ, That is, concerning Jesus Christ.

Blessed is the one who reads, and blessed are they who listen to, the words of this prophecy, and lay to heart what is here written; for the time is near.

From John, to the seven churches which are in Roman Asia. Blessing and peace be yours from him who is, and who was, and who will be, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne,

"Grace unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." He is, because He endures continually; He was, because with the Father He made all things, and has at this time taken a beginning from the Virgin; He is to come, because assuredly He will come to judgment.

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.

This "7" is understood as the Church established in the world. St. Gregory says in Homily 25, "Because in 7 days all time is comprehended; the number 7 is a proper figure for the whole. Grace unto you In the present life. And peace in the future, for there the humanity will be completely tamed. From Him who is That is, from the eternal God.

and from Jesus Christ, ‘the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, and the Ruler of all the kings of the earth.’ To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his own blood —

And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, "instead of fathers, children have been born unto thee." For the Lord, having been born "the First-begotten of the dead," and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die.

Having previously written about the incorporeal Word of God, and having spoken about Him as "He who was"; now John speaks about His incarnation, saying, "and from Jesus Christ," not dividing Him into two, but testifying both this and that about Him, that He is both the Word of the Father and that He was incarnate.

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness Of the glory of the Father and majesty, as is clear in the Gospel. the first begotten That is, the first among those rising from the dead, although before Him Lazarus and many others were brought back to life. Nevertheless, this was mortal life, which is more properly called death than life, as St.

and he made us ‘a kingdom of priests in the service of God,’ his Father! — to Him be ascribed glory and dominion for ever. Amen.

Are not even we laics priests? It is written: "A kingdom also, and priests to His God and Father, hath He made us." It is the authority of the Church, and the honour which has acquired sanctity through the joint session of the Order, which has established the difference between the Order and the laity.

QUESTION: What is meant by And hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God and his Father? ANSWER: Seeing that the King of kings and heavenly Priest united us to his body by sacrificing himself for us, there is no one among the saints who does not spiritually have the office of a priest, since each of them is a member of the highest and eternal Priest.

made us a kingdom. That is, to be written as citizens of the kingdom of Heaven.

‘He is coming among the clouds!’ Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; ‘and all the nations of the earth will mourn over him.’ So will it be. Amen.

Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. But often shall ye come together, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be not made perfect in the last time.

His coming upon "the clouds of heaven," and the Lord Himself said concerning Himself in the Gospel according to Mark as follows: "And the powers in heaven will be shaken; and then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." (Mark 13:25-26) For as I suppose it was written concerning His ascension into heaven on the day of the Ascension in the A…

they also that pierced him. That the Jews, who crucified Him by word of the soldiers by hand and Pilate by judging.

‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord, the God who is, and who was, and who will be, the Almighty.

I, John, who am your brother, and who share with you in the suffering and kingship and endurance of Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos, for the sake of the message of God and the testimony to Jesus.

This other author, on the contrary, did not even deem it sufficient to name himself once, and then to proceed with his narrative; but he takes up his name again, and says: "I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Chris…

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 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.

I John, your brother and your partner in tribulation, and in the kingdom, and patience in Christ Jesus, was in the island, which is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus. In this place John represents both his own person specifically and that of the Church generally.

I fell into a trance on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like the blast of a trumpet.

It said — ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicaea.’

I turned to see what voice it was that spoke to me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lamps,

and in the midst of the lamps one ‘like a man, in a robe reaching to his feet,’ and with a golden girdle across his breast.

And, behold, six men were coming toward the way of the high gate which was looking toward the north, and each one's double-axe of dispersion was in his hand: and one man in the midst of them, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and a girdle of sapphire about his loins: and they entered, and took their stand close to the brazen altar.

"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.

These Centers are the "seven golden lamp-stands," and Christ "in the midst of the seven lamp-stands," which are the seven illuminations of wisdom, that is, the metaphysical, the natural, the mathematical, the logical, the ethical, the political, and the theological. These are the "seven eyes" of the Lamb, and the seven days that followed upon the first light.

‘The hair of his head was as white as wool, as white as snow; his eyes were like flaming fire;

"And His head and His hairs were white as it were white wool, and as it were snow." On the head the whiteness is shown; "but the head of Christ is God." in the white hairs is the multitude of abbots6 like to wool, in respect of simple sheep; to snow, in respect of the innumerable crowd of candidates taught from heaven.

The head of Christ is God, 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 his head and his hairs were white, as white wool, and as snow. Christ's head is God the Father; whence the apostle: The head of Christ is God; [1 Cor. 11:3] whose eternity is represented, according to the habit of human speech, by the whiteness of the head. Allegorically, the head of the Church is its Redeemer, according to this: The head of man is Christ.

and his feet were like brass’ as when molten in a furnace; ‘his voice was like the sound of many streams,’

Thus it was, too, that God formed man at the first, because of His munificence; but chose the patriarchs for the sake of their salvation; and prepared a people beforehand, teaching the headstrong to follow God; and raised up prophets upon earth, accustoming man to bear His Spirit [within him], and to hold communion with God: He Himself, indeed, having need of nothing, but grant…

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…

And his feet like unto fine brass, as in a burning furnace. The fabrication of fine brass is said to be as follows: copper is thrown into a furnace, a violent fire is applied to it, a certain medicine is also thrown into it all, and the copper as a result both gains a greater solidity and turns into the brightness of gold: whence it is appropriate for the feet like unto fine br…

in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like ‘the sun in the fulness of its power.’

Who will ply the sword without practising the contraries to lenity and justice; that is, guile, and asperity, and injustice, proper (of course) to the business of battles?

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," where he taught that the Spirit is his, because he is the Truth.

And he had in his right hand seven stars. By the seven stars, as the same angel explains below, angels are meant; not however those spirits of the heavenly fatherland, in whom nothing reprehensible can be found, but preachers of the Church, about whom it is said, The angels of peace shall weep bitterly. [Is.

And, when I saw him, I fell at his feet like one dead. He laid his hand on me and said — ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

It is customary for the holy prophets to see a vision and be struck with awe, revealing human weakness; and how much the divine surpasses the human and excels it with incomparable differences. This we also know from Joshua the son of Nave, when he saw the chief commander of the Lord's army (Jos. 1:9), and Daniel the man of desires in the visions that appeared to him. (Dan.

Fear not; I am the first and the last. The first, because all things were made through him. The last, because all things are restored in him.

And when I had seen him, I fell at his feet as dead. In this passage John signifies Christ's limbs, and the angel signifies Christ specifically. Therefore John falls as dead at the angel's feet because the Church follows Christ's footprints to die to the world.

the Everliving. I died, and I am alive for ever and ever. And I hold the keys of the Grave and of the place of the dead.

Therefore write of what you have seen and of what is happening now and of what is about to take place —

the mystic meaning of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamps. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamps are the seven churches.

Now all these [heretics] are of much later date than the bishops to whom the apostles committed the Churches; which fact I have in the third book taken all pains to demonstrate.

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.

Because the truth to the belief of which we are bound by faith, and which sacred Scripture principally treats, is not just any truth, but divine truth, either as it is in its own nature or as it is in the assumed nature — for in the knowledge of this truth consists both the reward of the fatherland and the merit of the way —: hence it is that the articles of faith, which are th…

Revelation of John1