Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
John sees an angel clothed with a cloud, standing with His right foot on the sea and His left on the earth, swearing that there shall be no more time: presently the seven thunders re-echo and resound together. Secondly, in verse 8, he is commanded by the angel to take an open book, and having taken it he devours it, which in his mouth he finds sweet and like honey, but in his belly bitter.
There are therefore four points to be noted in this chapter: first, the image of the mighty angel, who plants one foot on the earth, the other on the sea; second, the seven thunders; third, the angel's oath that there shall be no more time; fourth, the book given to John, becoming sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly.
Vulgate Text: Apocalypse 10:1-11
1. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. 2. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth. 3. And he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Seal up the things which the seven thunders have spoken; and write them not. 5. And the angel, whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, 6. And he swore by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things which are therein; and the earth, and the things which are in it; and the sea, and the things which are therein: That time shall be no longer. 7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared by his servants the prophets. 8. And I heard a voice from heaven again speaking to me, and saying: Go, and take the book that is open, from the hand of the angel who standeth upon the sea, and upon the earth. 9. And I went to the angel, saying unto him, that he should give me the book. And he said to me: Take the book, and eat it up: and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey. 10. And I took the book from the hand of the angel, and ate it up: and it was in my mouth, sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. 11. And he said to me: Thou must prophesy again to many nations, and peoples, and tongues, and kings.
Introduction: Alcazar on Chapter X and the Sixth Trumpet
Alcazar notes that all these things from chapter X up to verse 15 of chapter XI pertain in some way to the sixth trumpet and the plague of the seventh seal. For just as after the fifth plague John said in chapter IX, verse 12: "One woe is past;" so in chapter XI, verse 14, he says: "The second woe is past," that is, the sixth plague of the sixth seal has already been completed; "and behold the third woe will come quickly," namely the seventh and last plague, which is explained in the same place at verse 15. This is partly true, but not universally, as will be evident at the beginning of the following chapter.
Again, Alcazar, by the consequence of his explanation, considers that just as the sixth plague encompassed the angers and furies of the Jews, so in this chapter is signified that horrible storm of persecution, and as it were fury, which the Jews stirred up against the Church, was the beginning of the true and solid felicity of the Gentiles: for to this end God directed these things, that He might turn the persecutions of the Church into her felicity and glory, namely, that, the Jews being abandoned, He might transfer the faith, the Church, and salvation to the Gentiles; and this is understood when it is said: "The mystery of God shall be finished." But these things look toward the last times. They are therefore inserted here, so that men who then will not wish to repent, though warned by God through the Angels with so many plagues of the six trumpets, may be more vehemently rebuked, constrained, and pressed: whence the Angel swears: "That time shall be no longer."
Verse 1: And I Saw Another Mighty Angel Coming Down from Heaven, Clothed with a Cloud, and a Rainbow on His Head, and His Face Was as the Sun, and His Feet as Pillars of Fire.
First, Primasius, Bede, Richard, and many others take this Angel to be Christ, who descended from heaven in the Incarnation. He bears the rainbow because He is the ambassador of peace. He commands the earth and the sea: hence He sets one foot on the earth, the other on the sea, as if He were possessor and lord. His right foot is mercy, His left is justice. "For all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth." He has the book open, because He revealed the mystery of grace and salvation. He roars like a lion, because He announces the punishments of hell to the wicked, and He swears that after the day of judgment there shall be no more time. After His voice the seven thunders spoke, that is, all the Apostles preached throughout the whole world, who equally, like James and John, were Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder.
Alcazar adds to this: The mighty Angel, he says, is Christ, who as it were the Angel of great counsel, through the Apostles announces to the world the most lofty counsel of God, namely, that the diminution, want, and unhappiness of the Jewish people would be the felicity, riches, and increase of the Gentiles: for to the Gentiles He announces and brings peace and salvation. Therefore He is clothed with the cloud of Gospel preaching, since He speaks through His ministers, and pours into men the rain of heavenly doctrine; hence also He has the rainbow on His head, for the rainbow is the symbol of peace and reconciliation. His face, radiating as the sun, signifies the desire with which He burned to diffuse the light of the Gospel throughout the whole world, and by this means to promise the greatest glory to the Church. He has feet as pillars of fire, both because as a giant He has huge and as it were column-like feet. "For He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way," Psalm XVIII, 8; and because He came to bring the fire of charity to earth, and to kindle it there. He alludes to Canticles ch. V, verse 15: "His legs are pillars of marble;" and to verse 13, ch. I of the Apocalypse, where it is said: "His feet like to fine brass, as in a burning furnace."
Second, Aureolus understands by this mighty Angel the Emperor Justin, who succeeded Anastasius and ordered Arianism to be exterminated. Hence he is clothed with the cloud of grace and the rainbow of the Church's peace. His face is as the sun, because of the splendor of the faith; his feet as pillars of fire, because of the equity of justice. He has the open book, that is, the letters which he sent concerning the Catholic faith to all dwelling on land, sea, and islands. Then the seven thunders, that is, all the Doctors of the Church, gave a voice of praise to God. Yet John is forbidden to write these voices, because while king Theodoric was still living, the Orthodox did not dare to praise God publicly and to celebrate the Son as homoousios with the Father.
Again, the same Aureolus understands by this Angel the Emperor Justinian, who was the nephew of Justin and began to reign in the year of the Lord 527. He has the book, that is, the Code of Law, which through his jurists (for he himself was illiterate, as Suidas says, and entirely unlettered, so that he did not know how to read) he ordered to be written and arranged. This was sweet in his mouth, but descending into the belly was bitter, because Justinian at the end of his life through Arthemius, Patriarch of Constantinople, became a Eutychian; on which account he embittered and afflicted Popes Silverius and Agapetus, and Patriarch Mennas, who resisted his heresy. Whence Agapetus reproached him to his face, and said: "I came to Justinian the most Christian Emperor, expecting to come: but now I have found a Diocletian."
But all these things, as I have often said, look to the time, not of Christ's incarnation, nor of Justin or Justinian, but of the consummation of the world.
Therefore literally and genuinely Andreas of Caesarea, Ribera, and Viegas understand by the Angel, not Christ, but an Angel properly so called, and a good one, namely a blessed and glorious one (who however is a type and ambassador of Christ). He is clothed with a cloud, because a cloud is the covering and symbol of glory and heavenly things, and, as Aretas says on chapter XI, in a cloud there is a certain obscurity with some splendor, which is produced by the refraction of the sun's ray. So also divine things are neither wholly uncertain to us, nor wholly "manifestly displayed, but as it were the illumination of pure light is manifested through obscurity." For the same reason His face shines as the sun, both because the countenance of the Blessed is glorious, and because He announces glad tidings to the wicked, if they will repent of their sins. Again, the cloud signifies the ignorance, darkness, and perplexity in which men will be enveloped at the end of the world. He bears the rainbow, because He invites men to peace and reconciliation with God, if they will correct their morals and amend their life: if not, He roars like a lion, and shows columnar and fiery feet, that is, wrath and fury, which like a strong pillar are powerful for inflicting plagues upon the wicked. By these feet, therefore, is signified the power of Christ to trample down His enemies, namely the wicked, and to burn them with fire. He puts one foot upon the earth, and the other upon the sea, to show that nothing on land, nothing on sea, can escape this avenging hand of God, and the sentence of Christ, and His just vengeance.
Mighty, because He announces and accomplishes mighty things: hence He has feet as pillars of fire, He roars like a lion, and stirs up thunders. For He swears "that time shall be no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be finished." Ribera holds that this Angel is the same as the one who in chapter V announced to John that the Lamb would unseal the book: for each is called mighty.
Clothed with a cloud, because He announces the divine and hidden counsels of God concerning the end of time and the world. Moreover He was clothed with the cloud not on the face: for this shone as the sun; but beneath in the other members. So Horace, book I, ode 2: "Nube candentes humeros amictus / Augur Apollo." ("The augur Apollo, with shoulders shining covered with a cloud.") And Virgil, in book I of the Aeneid, depicts Aeneas as wrapped in a cloud by his mother, the goddess Venus: "At Venus obscuro gradientes aere saepsit, / Et multo nebulae circum dea fudit amictu, / Cernere ne quis eos, neu quis contingere posset." ("But Venus surrounded them as they walked with dark air, and the goddess poured around them a thick mantle of mist, lest anyone might see them, or anyone might touch them.") But further on, describing Aeneas' approach to Dido: "Scindit se nubes, et in aethera purgat apertum; / Restitit Aeneas, claraque in luce refulsit, / Os humerosque Deo similis." ("The cloud parts asunder, and clears into the open sky; / Aeneas stood firm, and shone forth in the bright light, / Like a god in face and shoulders.")
Verse 2: And He Had in His Hand a Little Book Open.
For "libellum" the Greek has βιβλαρίδιον, or, as others read, βιβλαρίδιον; for from βίβλος is derived first the diminutive βιβλίον, second βιβλάριον, third βιβλαρίδιον, fourth βιβλαρίδιον: just as from the Latin liber is diminished libellus, and from that libellulus and libelluculus: by this third or fourth diminutive, therefore, is signified that this book was rather minute and small. Moreover, this little book is the same as the one mentioned in chapter V, verse 1, which had been sealed with seven seals, all of which have now been almost unsealed by the Lamb; whence now the book is opened and, opened, is offered in verse 9 to St. John to be read and described. Hereafter, then — namely after the seventh trumpet, of which in the following chapter, verse 18 — St. John will describe the things which were written in this book, namely the times of Antichrist, and the punishments of him and his followers.
And He set His right foot upon the sea, and His left upon the earth, because the right foot is stronger, says Ribera; but the sea has more need of such a foot than the land: for the sea by its nature is mobile, unstable, fluid, restless, and stormy, signifying that in those who lie more hidden and are more remote, and surrounded by the encompassing of the sea as by a rampart, so that they appear inaccessible, namely in those who dwell on islands, Christ will show His dominion, His strength, and His vengeance more, through plagues and torments to be inflicted upon them.
Another reason, but a mystical one, is given by Ambrose, Rupert, Richard, Viegas, and Alcazar, namely that this Angel, that is Christ, having left the land, was passing to the sea. The approach or entry into the sea is made with the right foot. They reckon, in fact, that literally the earth signifies the Jews, and the sea the Gentiles — as if to say: Christ, having left the Jews, passed on to the Gentiles, says Alcazar; or, as Ambrose and others say: Christ sent preachers to both Jews and Gentiles; for of these the feet of Christ are the symbol.
Moreover the Jews are called earth, because they were earthly, gaping wholly after the goods of the earth: but the Gentiles are called sea, on account of, first, their multitude and variety; second, their levity, inconstancy, depth of errors and vices; third, their perturbation, confusion, tumults, wars, and quarrels; fourth, because in the sea life is lived by plunder, and great fish devour the small, just as pirates plunder everything; so the Gentiles also lived; fifth, the sea denotes the savage tempest by which the ship of the Church was to be tossed in the persecutions of the Gentiles: for these are aptly represented by the fury of the sea. Moreover, the feet of Christ, not submerged in the waters of the sea, but firmly standing upon them, signify that the preaching of the Gospel is not to be overwhelmed in the storms and persecutions of the seething sea, but rather is to remain solid and firm in them. As a symbol of this thing, Christ walked with firm step upon the seething sea, Mark VI, 48. Lastly, the burning feet of Christ signify the wondrous efficacy of Christ, namely that, as naphtha makes the very waters burn and become fiery, so Christ by the fire of the Holy Spirit will set ablaze the waters of the Gentile world, as Isaiah foretold in chapter LXIV, verse 2: "The waters shall burn with fire."
Verse 3: And He Cried with a Loud Voice, as When a Lion Roareth,
when furious it is borne against and rushes upon prey or an enemy. For "rugit" the Greek has μυκᾶται, that is "it lows"; but the Greeks do not seem to distinguish between ὠρύομαι and μυκάομαι, as the Latins distinguish between "mugit" and "rugit." Whence it is plain that He cried out that horrible and final torments were threatening the wicked; therefore He swears the same in verse 6: "That time shall be no longer;" and, with Him crying out and roaring, the thunders sound and answer with equal crash. Note that all these things are not real, nor will they really come to pass: not that the Angel will really descend clothed with a cloud, nor will set one foot on the earth, the other on the sea, nor will cry out or swear, That there shall be no more time; but symbolically through a vision all these things were presented to the imagination and mind of St. John: for he seemed to himself to see the Angel placing his feet thus, and to hear him crying out and roaring, so that by all these things he might understand and write the plagues that would befall the world at its end: for these he himself here describes and proclaims. Again, to signify that the Angel will proclaim the same things at the end of the world through His preachers and Prophets: for it is not necessary to say that the Angel will himself in person proclaim these very things.
And when He had cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. These voices, as it were an echo, answer the cry of the Angel. This is therefore a heptaphonic echo, or one of seven voices, such as Pliny describes in book XXXVI, chapter XV, where the same voice repercussed was returned seven times. Perhaps it alludes to Psalm XXIX, which celebrates the magnificence of God from the fact that He is High-Thundering and stirs up dreadful and powerful thunders, whence in it the voice of the Lord (which is nothing other than thunder) is repeated seven times. So Alcazar. Moreover these thundering voices and these vocal thunders signify the greatness of the calamities to come at the end of the world; therefore these voices were articulate: for St. John understood them, and wished to write them down once understood. As, then, on Sinai, Exodus XIX, the Angel, with thundering but articulate voice, proclaimed and promulgated to the Hebrews the law of the Decalogue: so these thunders articulately and vocally announced the plagues looming over the world. Wherefore these articulate thunders are not real, nor will they really exist at the end of the world; but they were shown to John only by vision, just as the Angel crying and swearing, so that through them He might represent the dreadful lightnings and thunders, which in truth will be very many at the end of the world, even though they will not be articulate, in order to portend and as it were initiate the most extreme and most grievous plagues of the world. In the Revelations of St. Bridget, book VI, chapter X, it is reported that she, when asked what the seven thunders signified which John asserts he heard in chapter X of the Apocalypse, answered that by divine revelation she had learned that those seven thunders are threats directed from heaven against the persecutors of the Church.
Verse 4: Seal Up the Things Which the Seven Thunders Have Spoken, and Write Them Not.
"Seal up," Greek σφράγισον, that is, seal them, as things to be hidden, namely in your mind, and there preserve them stored away: but do not write them and disclose them, lest men who would read them not believe them, or be utterly stricken in mind and despair; or because, as Aretas says, for the same or a similar cause, the knowledge of these things is more usefully reserved for the last times. From this passage Ribera, n. 15, v, gathers and conjectures that St. John received much more than what he wrote. For what is written from this place to the end of the book is little; but he himself saw a copious book written inside and outside, ch. V, 1. Perhaps also in it he learned which of the Bishops and holy men in the Churches would yield to Antichrist, and with what punishments they would be smitten: so that he rightly said in verse 10: "And when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter."
Verse 5: And the Angel, etc., Lifted Up His Hand to Heaven.
First, as one swearing with raised hand. For we lift our hand in an oath in order that, with finger pointed toward heaven, we may designate and invoke God as a witness of our words and of the truth, and as the avenger of perjury. Second, as one threatening the sharp wrath of God, unless men repent. Third, by this sign as it were arousing his hearers to attention to the greatest matter most to be noted, which He is about to say concerning the brevity of most precious time, and its loss or gain.
Verse 6: And He Swore by Him That Liveth,
saying אל חי el chai, that is, the Lord lives, that is, I swear by the living Lord, or by the life of the Lord God. Note here the gravity and weight of the oath, on account of the weight of the matter which the Angel confirms by this oath, namely the value of time now to be ended. For He adds: "Who created heaven, and the things which are therein; and the earth, and the things which are in it; and the sea, and the things which are in it." For He swears that these too are to be ended together with time. For the Saints, when they swear, are accustomed to attribute to God those epithets which suit the matter they confirm by oath. Mystically, Alcazar says: The Angel, he says, calls upon God as witness — God who founded the new heaven of the Christian Church, who founded the earth of the Synagogue, who founded the sea of the Gentile world. Moreover, allusion is made here to Daniel XII, 7, where similarly Daniel saw an Angel very like this one: "And I heard," he says, "a man clothed in linen, who stood upon the waters of the river, when he had lifted up his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and had sworn by Him that liveth for ever, that for a time, and times, and half a time," that is, three and a half years, the monarchy and persecution of Antichrist will last. Note here that fittingly the Angel both here and in Daniel XII swears by the eternity of God: for this dominates all times, fixes their law and measure, and establishes and defines their beginning and end. For God is eternal, who, as Boethius says, "Tempus ab aevo / Ire jubet, stabilisque manens dat cuncta moveri." ("He bids time go forth from eternity, and remaining stable, gives all things motion.") For this reason God is here called "He that liveth for ever and ever," and by Daniel (to whom John here alludes) ch. IV, verse 31, "Living for ever;" where the Syriac translates, "living of the ages;" and elsewhere, "giant of the ages": about which phrase I have said more on Isaiah LVII, 15.
Because (that) time shall be no longer. The Syriac: he swore, etc., that it shall not be so any longer; the Arabic: he swore, etc., that there will be no time in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he begins to sound the trumpet. He alludes to Daniel VIII, 19: "For the time has its end," at least verbally. For those words in Daniel have another sense, as I have said there. Now Alcazar expounds, as if to say: The time of the Jews and of the Synagogue will now be ended, and the time of the Gentiles and the Church will begin. For he himself thinks that the matter here is about the reprobation of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, and that this is that great mystery which is said soon to be consummated.
But I say that here we are dealing with the end of the world and of time, as if to say: The end of the world is at hand; in a short time, time — that is, the motion of the heavens, of the sun and the moon, and consequently time properly so called, which, as Aristotle says, is the number, that is the measure, of the motion of the first mobile, and which the motions of the sun and moon discriminate and distinguish — will be no longer; but in place of time there will succeed as it were a certain eternal age, but corporeal (for it will be the measure of heaven, earth, and other bodies), like the age of the Angels. Hence consequently on the earth there will be no motion or time, nor sublunar life: and thirdly there will be no time, that is, no space, for repenting, for meriting, and for procuring one's salvation. Note: The Angel said these things before He gave John the book to be eaten, that is, before He should disclose to him the things to come under Antichrist; for these were contained in the book, as if to say: At any moment now the time of Antichrist is at hand, and consequently the time of the end of the world and of time, which will soon follow, is at hand. For the kingdom and time of Antichrist will be short, namely three and a half years.
Morally, note here that the time of the present life is most precious, and therefore the greatest account of it is to be taken, and each of its moments is to be most usefully invested and spent. For first, this time is short, and like a shadow, a bird, a ship, and an arrow, it flies past, as is said in Wisdom V, verse 9. And Psalm CI: "My days are vanished like smoke;" what is briefer, what more evanescent, than smoke? And Psalm LXXXIX, 9: "Our years shall be considered as a spider." The Hebrew literally has: "Our years are consumed like a thought," which, as Thales said, runs by most swiftly. St. Jerome admirably instructs Eustochium, saying: "Let us love Christ, and let us always seek His embraces, and every difficult thing will easily be seen, we shall consider all things short which are long; and wounded by His dart, at every moment we shall say: Woe is me, because my pilgrimage is prolonged." St. Jerome writes of St. Marcella to her daughter Principia: "Thus," he says, "she passed her age and lived, as one who always believed she was about to die. So she clothed herself with garments as one who remembered the tomb, mindful of the Satirist: 'Live mindful of death, the hour flees; this very thing I speak, is from there.' And: 'Always remember the day of death; and you will never sin'; and she would praise that saying of Plato, who said that philosophy is the meditation of death." Therefore one must die daily, that going to sleep we may say cheerfully and joyfully: "Vixi, et quem dederas cursum, Deus alme, peregi." ("I have lived, and the course which Thou hadst given, kind God, I have completed.") "Therefore every day must be so ordered, as if it brought up the rear, and consumed and completed life," says Seneca, epistle 12. Whence Simonides, when asked how much time he had lived, answered: "A scant time, but many years." So Stobaeus, sermon 98.
Second, because time, when it has passed, is irrevocable. For, as Catullus says, epigram 3: "Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, / Nox est perpetuo una dormienda." ("For us, when once the brief light has set, there is one perpetual night to be slept.") And Heraclitus: "We do not step into the same river twice." And Lamachus: "In battle (in life, which is warfare) it is not permitted to err twice." For the first error is deadly and incorrigible. Therefore prudently St. Ambrose on Psalm I: "Just as," he says, "one sleeping in a ship is carried to the port: so you sleep, but your time" does not sleep, but "walks on," and sleeping you go on to death. Rise then, you who sleep, walk, ascend and fly to heaven. And the Wise Man, Eccles. ch. IX, 10: "Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening." The ancients, in order to represent the swiftness of time and its irrevocable flight, painted time as a swift youth, winged, holding a scythe in his hand, with which he reaps all things; standing on a chariot which was drawn by two extremely swift horses, like eagles, so that it seemed not so much to run as to fly.
Third, because on this brief time, and as it were on a moment, depends our whole eternity, which is without end and unbounded. Again, because at any instant of time the infinite glory of eternity can be acquired and increased to an immense degree. Stirred by this thought, the Psalmist sang in Psalm CXVIII, verse 148: "My eyes have prevented thee in the morning, that I might meditate thy words." And the Wise Man, Proverbs ch. VI, verse 6, seriously warns and commands: "Go," he says, "to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom: which, although she has no captain, nor master, nor prince, provides her food for herself in summer, and gathers in harvest what she may eat." Whence St. Gregory Nazianzen said the present life is a marketplace, in which everyone has the opportunity to buy and acquire whatever he wishes; but once it has passed, nothing more can be bought or acquired by anyone. In Italy I saw the epitaph of a wise man, which he ordered to be carved on his tomb, and it is this: "Inveni portum; spes et fortuna, valete. / Nil mihi vobiscum: ludite nunc alios." ("I have found the harbor; hope and fortune, farewell. / I have nothing to do with you: now play your tricks on others.") But another's: "Cogitat sapiens, qualis, non quanta sit vita. / Id ago, ut mihi instar totius vitæ sit dies, / Ut moriens vivam, vivo ut moriturus." ("The wise man considers what kind of life, not how long, his life is. / I act so that one day may be to me as a whole life, / That dying I may live, I live as one about to die.") Truly Seneca, epistle 118: "Nature has not," he says, "given us time so kind and generous that we should be free to lose any of it; and see how much is lost even by the most diligent. From one his own ill health has taken away time, from another the affairs of his family, another necessary business has occupied, another public affairs. Sleep divides life with us. From this time so narrow, so swift, and bearing us away, what does it profit to send the greater part of it into vanity?"
Fourth, because this time is in our power and choice; for it has been given to us by God for working well, for procuring and increasing salvation, glory, and eternal crowns. Therefore He will demand of each one the most exact account of it. Hence the Apostle warns in Ephes. V, 16: "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." And to Galat. VI, 9: "And in doing good, let us not fail; for in due time we shall reap." See what I have noted on these passages, as also on 1 Cor. VII, 29 and following. Sophronius reports in the Spiritual Meadow, ch. LIX, of Blessed Thalileus, that he was always weeping; when asked the cause, he said: "This time has been granted to us for penance, and much will be required of us, if we have neglected it."
Verse 9: Take the Book, and Devour It.
For "book" the Greek has βιβλαρίδιον, that is little book, which Alcazar takes as the catalogue of the few Jews who believed in Christ and were saved. Whence Isaiah likewise calls it a consummation, or shortened word. For he says in chapter X, verse 22: "An abridged consummation shall overflow with justice: for the Lord shall make a consummation and an abridgment in the midst of the earth," that is, as the Apostle explains in Rom. XI: "Their diminution is the riches of the Gentiles." This open book was handed to John, that is, the understanding of this mystery was unsealed for John. But above I have shown that this book or little book is the Apocalypse. The sense therefore is, q.d. Take, O John, this revelation of the Apocalypse concerning things to come at the end of the world under Antichrist, and "devour" it, that is, eagerly drink in and examine the whole of it, and store it all up in the mind and the belly of memory, so that you may ruminate on it and weigh it part by part. For the intellect is as it were the mouth of the soul, the teeth are the searchings and scrutinies of the truth, by which the truth is laid open and known, and then it is conveyed and stored in the belly, that is in the chamber of memory. Furthermore, the book which in chapter V, verse 1, He called βιβλίον, here He calls in the diminutive βιβλαρίδιον, because in chapter V, this book sealed with seven huge seals seemed enormous; but here, with these opened and unsealed, it appeared smaller by about half.
Verse 10: And It Was in My Mouth Sweet as Honey: and When I Had Devoured It, My Belly Was Made Bitter
(Arabic: was made bitter). He alludes to the nature of honey, which when eaten is converted into yellow bile, and tears at and embitters the stomach. For, as the Poet says: "Sweet things turn themselves into bile." Now "sweet," that is sweet (in masculine form), namely the book: for it broadly refers to τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ λαδύκη, which is neuter. The sense is, q.d. This Apocalypse, that is the revelation and forewarning of things to come under Antichrist, which I received from Christ through the Angel in the mouth, that is at first appearance and first taste, was sweet to me, and was feeding and delighting my mind, because it was a marvellous, new, hidden and divine knowledge and prophecy; but when I began to ruminate on the calamities and the multitude of the reprobate, perhaps also on the fall and ruin of many Saints in the persecution of Antichrist, which were contained in this book and this revelation, my belly was made bitter, that is, deep within my soul and mind I grieved and groaned. So Arethas. He alludes to Ezek. III, 1, where a similar book is given to Ezekiel by God, which was a type of this one; for it was at first like honey, afterwards like gall.
Note here: The word of God is like pills, which on the outside are gilded or sugared, and are swallowed with sweetness; but when they dissolve in the belly, on account of the aloes, myrrh, and other bitter things which they contain, they make the belly bitter, and as it were tear it apart with cramps: in like manner, tropologically, the word of God, says St. Thomas, is sweet to reason, but bitter to sensuality. Mystically, St. Augustine in Quaestiones on the New and Old Testaments, Question LXXII, vol. IV: This book, he says, is Holy Scripture, which is sweet in the mouth, that is to the orthodox and holy, who because they are of an undivided profession, are signified by the mouth. "But to those who by heretical wickedness live or feel carnally, on account of which they are signified by the belly, it is bitter: for it shall accuse them on the day of God's judgment."
Verse 11: And He Said to Me: Thou Must Prophesy Again to Nations, and Peoples, and Tongues, and Many Kings.
In Greek ἐπὶ καὶ, that is, over the nations, concerning the nations, peoples, etc. Now first, some have been led from this passage into the opinion that St. John was not yet dead, but is preserved in life, and shall come with Elijah and Enoch, to contend with Antichrist. So Hippolytus the Martyr, book On the Consummation of the World; Dorotheus, in his Synopsis; Simeon Metaphrastes, in the Life of St. John; Catharinus, in his opusculum on this matter, and at length Salmeron, vol. XI, treatise 32. Andreas and Arethas here favour this, and St. Ambrose, book VII on Luke; Damascene, oration On the Transfiguration, Theophylact and Euthymius on Matt. XX, 23. But it is certain that St. John is dead, as St. Jerome, Augustine, Eusebius from Polycrates teach, and the ancients commonly, indeed the Council of Ephesus and the whole Church, which keeps the feast day of St. John, as one dead and reigning in heaven with Christ, on December 27. See what is said in the proem.
Secondly, Primasius, Bede, Ansbertus, and Viegas explain: "Thou must again preach," q.d. Thou must write the Gospel after the Apocalypse: for he wrote it after this.
Thirdly, others, q.d. You now live as an exile in Patmos and in silence, but soon you shall be set free, and shall return into Asia, that you may again preach Christ's Gospel to the Asians.
Fourthly, Alcazar, q.d. Hitherto thou hast prophesied and preached the reprobation of the Jews, thou must prophesy again, that is, in order to announce the calling and election of the Gentiles. For Alcazar judges that John does this from chapter XII to the end.
Fifthly, because after this time we shall have no other time in which to correct and make up for the error and negligence committed in the former. Think how many millions of men are in hell, who neglected this time, and now "the Phrygians grow wise too late," and would wish to suffer all the torments of the world and of gehenna for a thousand years, indeed for a thousand million years, if through all these they could obtain even a single instant of time for repentance. Indeed Seneca too, in his book On the Brevity of Life, teaches from this point that the greatest madness of all men is that whereas in other things they are misers, in lavishing time they are liberal, and he adds: "What then is the cause? You live as if you were always going to live, your frailty never occurs to you; you fear all things as mortals, you covet all things as immortals. You shall hear most men saying: At the fiftieth year I shall withdraw into leisure. And whom do you take as a pledge of longer life? Are you not ashamed to keep yourself for the remnants of life? How late is it to begin to live, when one must cease! all life long must be the learning to live. Time is sought as if it were nothing, given as if it were nothing. The most precious thing of all is squandered. Age shall go on as it began, and shall neither call back its course nor restrain it; it shall give no warning of its swiftness, it shall glide silently. You are occupied, life hastens. Death meanwhile shall be at hand, for which whether you will or no you must be at leisure. Therefore one must contend with the swiftness of time and with the swiftness of its use: as from a rushing torrent, and one which shall not always run, one must drink quickly."
Sixthly, because God shall shortly take this time from us, and shall transfer us into eternity. Prudently Climacus, in step 6, gives this admonition to each: "It is not," he says, "possible to pass the present day piously, unless we judge it to be the last of our whole life. He is approved who awaits death every hour; but he is truly holy who desires it every hour." St. Hilarion, says St. Jerome in his Life, "exhorted each to pass beyond the figure of this world, and that the true life is that which is purchased by the inconvenience of the present life." This for 98 years St. Paul the first Hermit assiduously meditated upon, who therefore when St. Anthony came to him said: "Behold, the one whom thou hast sought with such great labour: with limbs rotting from old age, an unkempt grey hair covers him: behold, thou seest a man soon to be dust. But because the time of my falling asleep draws near, and what I always desired, to be dissolved and to be with Christ, the course completed there remains for me a crown of justice; thou hast been sent by the Lord to cover my little body with earth, indeed to render earth to earth." Wherefore Anthony, returning to his own, deservedly said of Paul: "Woe is me a sinner! because I bear falsely the name of a monk; I have seen Elijah, I have seen John in the desert, and truly I have seen Paul in paradise."
I speak the truth: The sense is, q.d. Thou must, O John, prophesy again, that is, foretell other heavier evils and punishments to be inflicted upon the world than those which are contained in the seven seals of the sealed book, and which thou hast hitherto known by prophecy, and described in prophesying. Those heavier evils, however, are those which, with the seven seals now opened, thou hast read in their book itself which was previously sealed and is now open, and they are those things which, concerning Elijah, Enoch, Antichrist, Gog and Magog, etc., are recounted from chapter eleven to the end of the Apocalypse. For since John has so laboriously hitherto explained and described the mysteries contained under the seven seals of the sealed book, without which the book could not be opened and read, as he said in chapter V, it is plainly credible that he also described the mysteries contained in the book itself, as he himself sufficiently signifies here. For the seals were unsealed for this purpose, that the book itself might be read. From this point on John makes no mention of the description of the book, but of visions; therefore the visions which are recounted in chapter eleven and following are those things which were described in the book which he himself saw and read, and which, having there been seen and read, he describes and recounts in this book of his Apocalypse. Whence the Arabic translates: It is necessary for thee also to prophesy over the nations, or against the nations. So also the Syriac.
You will say: St. John in chapter XI and following makes no mention of any book, nor of any description and reading of it, but only says that he saw those symbols which he recounts. I reply: John first read those things described in the book, then those same things now read he saw also as symbols set before the eyes of his mind and imagination. For after the reading there came the vision of these same things, that he might know what, and how, and how correctly or openly he ought to write those things which he had read most clearly described in the book. For likewise he also called the mysteries contained in the seven seals visions, and asserted that he had hitherto seen them; especially since among the Prophets vision, reading, and hearing are the same thing, and only signify a revelation and spiritual knowledge of the mind, as I have shown in Canon I on the Prophets. All these things are confirmed from what is said about the trumpet and blast of the seventh Angel in this chapter, verse 7: "But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be consummated." Therefore those things which are recounted at length in chapter XI and the following eleven do not pertain to the seventh trumpet of the seventh Angel; but that trumpet must be placed after these chapters, because in it all things shall be consummated. Whence it follows that those things which are written in chapter XI and following to the end of the book were contained and described in that very sealed book: for they are not contained in the seals, therefore they are in the book itself. So Ribera, who demonstrates this at length here. The Anglo-Calvinist plainly errs here, when he asserts that in the Apocalypse only the seals of the book, but not the book itself, are explained; as if John had inspected and read the cover of the book and not the book itself, when from chapter V it is clear that he asked and obtained that, with the seals as it were covers loosed, the book itself might be read.
To Nations, and Peoples, and Tongues. That is, thou shalt prophesy to the nations of the whole world; for the Apocalypse is written for these. Again, to the nations which shall follow Antichrist, and shall persecute the Christians dispersed throughout the world, who therefore shall likewise be of various nations and tongues. To "many kings" also thou shalt prophesy, because thou shalt foretell that all the kings of the earth shall lose their kingdoms, and shall come under the yoke of Antichrist, who therefore shall all together with him be slain by Christ on one day. So God says to Jeremiah in chapter I, verse 5: "I have made thee a prophet unto the Gentiles," to which there is here an allusion: for Jeremiah was a type of St. John.
Verse 7: But in the Days of the Voice of the Seventh Angel, When He Shall Begin to Sound the Trumpet (Next Chapter, Verse 15), the Mystery of God Shall Be Consummated,
the mystery, namely, of the glorification of Elijah and Enoch, and shortly after of the other Saints, and on the contrary of the punishment of the enemies of Elijah and Enoch, and shortly after of all the wicked. For when Elijah and Enoch ascend into heaven, it shall be consummated, that is, it shall begin to be consummated, and shortly after the mystery of the consummation of the world, of the final judgment, of the glorification of the Saints, of the damnation of the reprobate, and of blessed and miserable eternity, shall be perfectly consummated. For Christ, the Apostles and the Prophets evangelized this; and to the upright and holy this is the Gospel, that is, a happy and joyful message: although to the wicked and reprobate it is sad and unhappy.