Revelation 18 calls on the Lord to pay back the harlot city for all that she has done, and elaborates by asking the Lord to return her “double for her all her sins” (18:6). Restitution, it seems, is double restitution. What is the double restitution and why? Apparently, the harlot city . . . . Continue Reading »
Revelation 22:14 provides a brief ordo salutis : “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” (Note: There’s a textual variant here; the Majority Text has “blessed are those who keep . . . . Continue Reading »
In her contribution to Last Things: Death and the Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (The Middle Ages Series) , Anna Harrison concludes that “Bernard [of Clairvaux’s] conception of community among the saints in heaven is limited” (204). She elaborates: “Although he does talk . . . . Continue Reading »
There are stones, and then there are stones, says Tyconius ( The Book of Rules ). In Ezekiel, the king of Tyre is surrounded by precious stones, but “these words pertain both to the devil and to man. For these twelves tones as well as gold and silver and all treasures, a assigned to the . . . . Continue Reading »
Oecumenius ( Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , 75) turns to more recent history to interpret the seven mountains-heads-kings of the beast of Revelation 17. The seven kings are not in order; rather they refer to the seven persecuting emperors of Rome: Nero, Domitian, . . . . Continue Reading »
The wounded and healed head of the beast (Revelation 13:1-3) represents, according to Oecumenius ( Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , 58-9 ), “the death-bearing wound that the devil received on one of its heads . . . because of the reverent worship of Israel.” . . . . Continue Reading »
In his commentary on Revelation (in Greek Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , Oecumenius interprets the millennium as the period between Christ’s incarnation and His ascension. During “the time of the incarnation of the Lord, the devil was bound and was not able to . . . . Continue Reading »
Apringius ( Latin Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , 43) follows a common tradition in interpreting the scroll in Revelation 5 as the Old Testament, once sealed and concealed and now revealed by the Lamb. On this interpretation, the seals of the book represent moments in the . . . . Continue Reading »
Apringius Latin Commentaries on Revelation (Ancient Christian Texts) , 25-6) offers a fascinating numerological interpretation of Jesus’ declaration that He is Alpha and Omega. The numerical value of Omega is 800, and so is the Greek word peristera , “dove.” Alpha adds a 1 to . . . . Continue Reading »
From Irenaeus on, the vast majority of patristic and medieval commentators have claimed that Revelation was written during the reign of Domitian in the mid-90s AD. There have been a few dissidents, the most famous of which was Epiphanius of Salamis (fifth century), who may reflect an independent . . . . Continue Reading »
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