LUP_Wallis_Bede_Revel_02_Comm

LUP_Wallis_Bede_Revel_02_Comm

BEDE

COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

/218/ The Poem of Bede the Priest

When John, thrust out, an exile, from the world of men, Is banned from the sight of his native soil,

He, the beloved [disciple], praising the Lord of Heaven, Enters the King's court, and rejoices to be

In company with the choirs of the High-Enthroned.

Turning his sacred eyes to the world that lay beneath, He saw wave-wandering wheels2 everywhere adrift,

And Babel and Jerusalem warring in their mingled camps, Hither and thither by turns taking to arms or to flight.

But the white-robed soldier who follows the gentle Lamb, Will win with his Leader the heavenly kingdom;

The scaly Serpent, on the other hand, will drown His cohorts in Tartarus by fire, famine, plague. /219/

This conflict's form, its passion, its array, The strategy, the soldiery, the weapons and the prizes,

I longed to tell: so, wandering where the men of old had sown, I plucked from the sacred fields some shoots – but few,

Lest excess spoil the banqueters' appetite, Or forbid the weaker guest from partaking.

So if my dishes are to your taste, Give praise to God, who reigns beyond the stars.

And should they not, let him who embraces friendly feelings, Correcting my song, erase it with merciless pumice.

1 In most MSS, the poem precedes the preface, except in MSS of the β family, where the inverse is the case. On the authenticity of the poem, see Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, pp.

166–169.

2 Gryson points to the allusion to Neptune's chariot, e.g. in Virgil, Aeneid 1.147, 156 (Bede ed. Introduction, p. 168).

Preface /221/ Here begins the preface of Bede the priest.

The Revelation of St John, in which God has deigned to reveal in words and symbolic imagery [figuris] the wars and inward conflagrations of his Church,1 seems to me, brother Eusebius, to be divided into seven sections [periochae].

In the first [section], after a lengthy preface2 which describes the suffering of the Lord and his subsequent glory in order to strengthen the faith of the weak,3 the Church beholds one clothed in the likeness of the Son of Man.

Calling to mind those events which happened or are to happen to the seven Churches in Asia in particular,4 [the Son of Man] describes the sorrows and triumphs of the whole Church at large.5 In the sixth place, he promises that the Jews will in due time be subject to the Church, and also that a time of trial will befall the whole world, and that he will quickly come. He places 'lukewarm'

Laodicea, however, in the seventh place. And when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?6

In the second section, following the description of the four animals and the twenty-four elders at the throne of God, [John] sees the Lamb, /223/ when the seven seals of the sealed book have been opened, reveal the coming conflicts and victories of the Church. According to the custom of this book, he maintains a sequence up to the number six, and then passing over the seventh, he recapitulates, and concludes the two narratives, as if following in order, with the seventh. But this recapitulation must be understood in context, for sometimes he recapitulates from the origin of the suffering, sometimes

1 This phrase may echo Tyconius's lost work De bello intestino, mentioned in the biographical notice by Gennadius, Liber de viris inlustribus, ed. E.C. Richardson, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 14, 1A (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1898), p. 68: see

Vercruysse, 'Bède lecteur de Tyconius', p. 20.

2 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum I (see Appendix).

3 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum II (see Appendix).

4 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum IV (see Appendix).

5 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum II (see Appendix).

6 Luke 18:8.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

from the mid-point, and sometimes only from the final assault or not much before. Nonetheless he keeps to this rule of recapitulating after the sixth

[point].7

The third section describes various events in the Church using the image [sub specie] of the seven angels blowing trumpets.

The fourth [section] reveals the struggles and victories of the Church in the image [sub figura] of the woman who gives birth and the dragon who pursues her, and considers the rewards due to both combatants. Here the statements and deeds of the seven angels are recounted, though not exactly as above. For by mystic insight he preserves this number [seven] in almost every instance, since it was not John's habit – and this applies to the Gospel and Epistles too

– to speak in a lukewarm and cursory fashion.

In the fifth section, he pours the seven last plagues over the earth by the agency of the seven angels.

In the sixth, he shows the damnation of the great whore, that is, of the impious city, and in the seventh, the adornment of the bride of the Lamb, that is, holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

Also, I have thought to record in summary form the seven rules8of Tyconius, the most learned man of his people, /225/ by which the studious are greatly assisted in understanding Scripture.9 The first of these concerns the Lord and his Body: when it moves from the head to the body or from the body to the head, it nonetheless does not depart from one and the same person.

Speaking of one and the same person, it says, 'He has set a crown upon me as a bridegroom, and adorned me with ornaments as a bride', and nonetheless whichever of the two refers to the head and whichever to the body, that is, to Christ or to his Church, is to be understood of both in every instance.10

The second concerns the two-fold [bipartitum] body of the Lord, or as St Augustine prefers to say, the true and feigned body of the Lord.11 For the Church says, 'I am dusky and beautiful, as the tabernacle of Kedar and as the tent of Solomon'. She does not say 'I was dusky and I am beautiful', but she says that she is both, because of the communion of the sacraments, and because of the temporal mixture of good fish and bad within one net. For the 7 'According … sixth [point]': cf. Primasius 6.299-307; Beatus 4.3.42-44; probably ultimately from Tyconius.

8 Augustine, DDC 3.42 (102.5).

9 Augustine, DDC 3.43 (103.46-47).

10 Augustine DDC 3.44 (104.6-11); ultimately from Tyconius Lib. reg. (1-8). The Biblical quotation is from Isa. 61:10 (Vetus latina).

11 Cf. Augustine DDC 3.45 (104.1-5, 7-8).

preface tabernacle of Kedar refers to Ishmael, and he is not to be an heir with the son of the free woman.12

The third is 'of promises and the law', which in another fashion can be called 'of the spirit and the letter', or 'of grace and the law'. To St Augustine this seems a great question rather than a rule to be applied to the solution of questions. For this is what the Pelagians, /227/ by failing to understand, fabricated or enlarged into their heresy.13

The fourth is 'of species and genus'. Species is a part; genus is the whole of which it is a part, just as any city is part of a whole province, and any province of the whole world.14 Ordinary people understand these terms in this sense, so that even the uneducated grasp what in any given imperial edict applies generally, and what specifically. This happens also with respect to men, so that things which were said about Solomon are excessive when applied to his particular case, but they make sense when they are related to Christ and his

Church, of which [He] is a part. The species is not always exceeded [by the genus]. Often things of this sort are said which apply to [the species] as well, or perhaps apply to it in the most obvious way. But the attention of the reader should keep careful watch when [Scripture] passes over from species to genus while it is still, apparently, speaking of the species.15

[Tyconius] puts forth a fifth rule, which he calls 'of times'. It seems to me that it can also be called 'of numbers'. He says that this has force either through the figure of speech called synecdoche or through 'legitimate numbers'. The figure of synecdoche is either the whole [standing] for the part or the part for the whole. Even that question concerning Christ's resurrection is solved by this mode of expression:16 /229/ for unless a part of the final day on which he suffered be taken for the whole day (that is joined to the previous night), and unless the night in whose last part he rose be taken as a whole day

(that is, joined to the dawning Sunday), there cannot be the three days and three nights in which it was predicted he would lie in the heart of the earth.

12 Augustine DDC 3.45 (105.12-20); ultimately from Tyconius Lib. reg. (8-11). 'I am dusky

…': Song of Sol. 1:4; 'good fish and bad': Matt.13:47-48; 'for he is not to be an heir …': Gal.

4:30, cf. Gen. 21:10.

13 Augustine DDC 3.46 (105.1-2, 4-7); ultimately Tyconius Lib. reg. (11-13).

14 Cf. Augustine DDC 3.47 (106.1-5, 8-10, 16).

15 Augustine DDC 3.47-48 (107.19-28); ultimately Tyconius Lib. reg. (31-54).

16 Augustine DDC 3.50 (110.1-6; 111.15-17). In DTR 5, Bede explains that Christ's resurrection took place 'after three days' by synecdoche, counting part of Good Friday and part of Easter Sunday for the whole. In ch. 11 he again invokes synecdoche to explain how two lunar months from Passover to Pentecost could be counted as fifty days, though they only total forty-nine.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[Tyconius] calls 'legitimate numbers' those which divine Scripture commends especially highly, like seven or ten or twelve, by which is designated a great extent of time, or the whole of time, or the perfection of something, just as 'seven times a day will I praise thee' means nothing other than 'his praise shall always be in my mouth'. They have just as much force when multiplied by ten like seventy or seven hundred – hence the seventy years of Jeremiah can be taken spiritually as the whole of time in which the Church is amongst foreigners – or when multiplied by themselves, as ten times 10 is 100, or 12 times 12 is 144, by which number the totality of the saints in signified in the book of Revelation.17

Tyconius calls the sixth rule 'recapitulation'. Certain things are expressed in Scripture as if they follow one another in the order of time, or they are narrated according to the continuity of events, even though the narrative is implicitly recalling prior events which were omitted. For example, it says in Genesis,18 'These are the sons of Noah in their tribes and tongues. By these were the isles of the gentiles divided over the land' and immediately thereafter

'For the whole earth was of one tongue and speech'.19 It seems to say that there was one tongue for all, just as there was when [the sons of Noah] were dispersed, when on the contrary it implicitly adds, by way of recapitulation, how the tongues [of the sons of Noah] were divided.20 /231/

The seventh rule concerns the Devil and his body. Sometimes something is said of the Devil which should not be taken to apply to the Devil himself, but rather to his body,21 just as the Lord, explaining the wiles and powers of this same enemy to blessed Job, said amongst other things, Will he make many supplications to you, or speak soft words to you.22 For nowhere can one read that the Devil will do penance, but his body, which is condemned, in the end will say, Lord, Lord, open to us.23

17 Augustine DDC 3.50-51 (110.1-2, 111.15-35); ultimately Tyconius Lib. reg. (55-66).

'in the heart of the earth': Matt. 12:40; 'seven times a day': Ps. 118(119):164; 'His praise':

Ps. 33:2(34:1); 'hence the seventy years of Jeremiah': Jer. 25:11; 'the totality of the saints':

Rev. 7:4. The whole 'for unless …heart of the earth': substantially repeated by Bede in DTR 5

(289.129–290.134), tr. Wallis, p. 23.

18 Augustine DDC 3.52 (111.1–112.6); ultimately Tyconius Lib. reg. (66-70).

19 Gen. 10:32 and 11.1, quoted in Augustine DDC 3.53 (113.32-35).

20 Augustine DDC 3.53 (113.37-40, 44-47).

21 Augustine DDC 3.55 (114.1-2, 9-10); ultimately Tyconius Lib. reg. (70-85).

22 Job 40:22 (41.3).

23 Matt. 25:11, Luke 13:25. This and the preceding quotation occur together in Gregory's discussion of Leviathan in Mor. 33.27 (1697.1-2, 7-10): Vercruysse, 'Bède lecteur de

Tyconius', p. 21.

preface Whoever carefully investigates these things will find that these rules do not apply to the Apocalypse (that is, the revelation of St John) alone; rather, [they are valid] also for the whole of canonical Scripture, particularly prophetic

Scripture. Tyconius had a vivid understanding of [Revelation], and explained it in a truthful and sufficiently catholic fashion, aside from those passages in which, driven to defend the schism of his own party (that is, the Donatists), he deplored the persecutions which they bore as heretics at the hand of the devout emperor Valentinian, when their churches and people, their houses and possessions were confiscated by the Catholics and their priests driven into exile.24

Calling it martyrdom, [Tyconius] boasted that these things had been predicted in Revelation.25 We have followed the meaning of that author of this work, but have omitted for the sake of brevity some peripheral things which he put in.

Being a clever man and one who (as it was said of him) /233/ flowered as a rose amongst thorns,26 many things seemed to him obvious and not worthy of inquiry; these we have taken care to add, as far as we are able, from material handed down from our teachers, or from recollecting what we have read, or even from the resources of our own understanding. For we have it from the commandments that we should repay to the Lord the talent which we have received, with interest.27 Although it has pleased us to divide the aforementioned work, for the sake of relieving the mind, into three short books – for in some inexplicable way the attention of the reader is refreshed by the end of a book just as the toil of a wayfarer by an inn, as St Augustine says28 – nonetheless so that those who seek may more readily find, it will be seen that the same unbroken order of chapters [capitulorum intemerata series] ought to be preserved throughout, in accordance with the way in which I previously distinguished them in the chapter-headings which are prefaced [praepositis

24 Bede's statement that the Donatists were persecuted as heretics 'under the emperor

Valentinian' is curious. Tyconius died before 400, and the only emperor named Valentinian who took measures against the Donatists was Valentinian I (r. 364–375). However, the Donatists were not declared heretics until 405. Vercruysse ('Bède lecteur de Tyconius', p. 23) speculates that Bede may have encountered this reference to Valentinian in Tyconius's commentary on Revelation, though it is not in any of the surviving fragments. Bede does not repeat this information in either of his chronicles.

25 Bede is repeating the report in Augustine, Contra Gaudentium 1.27.30-31, ed. M.

Petschenig, CSEL 53 (1910), pp. 228–230.

26 Bede seems to have invented this metaphor for Tyconius, possibly in response to Primasius, pref. (2.18-21): Vercruysse, 'Bède lecteur de Tyconius', pp. 22–23; see Introduction, p. 18.

27 Matt. 25:27.

28 Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum 1.53, ed. K.-D. Daur, CCSL 49 (Turnhout:

Brepols, 1985), 86.1543-1544; cf. Bede, In Lucam 1 (99.3173-3174).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

brevibus] to the book [of the commentary] itself.29 Aware as I am of the sloth of our race (that is, the English), which not long ago, in fact in the time of Pope Gregory the blessed, received the seed of faith, and has cultivated it rather lukewarmly, as far as reading is concerned, I decided not only to throw light on what [the text] says, but also to compress its meaning. For plain brevity usually makes a greater impression on the memory than wordy disputation. Beloved brother, I wish you well, and may you deign always to remember your Bede.

Here ends the preface.

29 See Introduction, pp. 61–66.

/235/

HERE BEGINS BOOK ONE OF THE TREATISE OF BEDE

THE PRIEST ON REVELATION

I1 [1:1] The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to make known to his servants … To strengthen those who preached the faith against their adversaries in the world, it was needful to reveal to them either by what path the Church founded by the disciples was to be spread abroad, or how it shall be perfected in the end.2

John testifies that Jesus Christ received the revelation of this mystery from God, referring (as is his custom) the glory of the Son to the Father. the things which must shortly come to pass; …

That is, which are to happen to the Church in the present time. and signified, … He framed this same revelation in dark and difficult language, for if it were obvious to everyone, it might be despised.3 sending by his angel … An angel in the form [figura] of Christ was seen by John, as will appear more plainly in what follows.4 /237/ to his servant John.

In order that he might publish them before all his servants through John, who deserved above all others to perceive these things since he was favoured

1 These Roman numerals represent Bede's capitula lectionum, the text of which is translated in the Appendix; see introduction, pp. 61–66.

2 Primasius 1.6-13. Adams's edition divides Primasius's commentary into chapters corresponding to the modern chapters of Revelation, with line numbers commencing afresh at each chapter. References in this translation, as in Gryson's edition, therefore refer to the chapter of Revelation, followed by the line number.

3 Bede reiterates this statement in his commentary on 10:4 below. This is a traditional commonplace applied to poetry, oracles, parables etc. in both classical and Christian writings.

However, it indicates that Bede saw the message of Revelation as essentially unambiguous; its presentation, however, was deliberately arresting and mysterious.

4 Cf. Primasius 1.26-29.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

with exceptional chastity.5

[1:2] Who has given testimony to the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatsoever things he has seen.

Lest you have doubts concerning the person of John, he is the one who bore witness to the eternal Word of God, and him incarnate, whom he had seen, saying, we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only-begotten of the Father.6

[1:3] Blessed is he that reads and hears the words of this prophecy, and so forth [and keeps those things which are written in it: for the time is at hand].

Therefore he who teaches and those who listen are blessed, because for those who keep the word of God, eternal glory follows on a brief time of toil.7

II [1:4] John to the seven churches which are in Asia: … Through these seven churches, he writes to the whole Church. For an entirety is usually designated by the number seven,8 since the totality of time of this world-age [saeculum] unfolds in seven days.9

5 Bede accepts that the John who wrote Revelation is the Apostle and evangelist. However, the fact that John was chosen to witness the revelation is usually attributed to Christ's particular love for John, and not to John's chastity: see Primasius 6.11-17, 7.31-33, and prologues to Revelation in Sparks, pp. 407–409. That John's merit was exceptional chastity may reflect

Bede's monastic perspective, but it found reinforcement in patristic authors such as Arator, De actibus apostolorum 1.624-625, ed. A.P. McKinlay, CSEL 72 (1951), p. 50, whom Bede quotes in his Act. Ap. 8.14 (37.7-8; tr. Martin, pp. 79–80: 'Peter frequently made John his companion because a virgin is pleasing to the Church'). See also DTR 66 [s.a. 4049] (499.1092-4; tr.

Wallis, p. 200) re: John's chastity as defence against torture by boiling oil (taken from Jerome's

Adversus Jovinianum 1.26). See also Bede's Hom. 1.8 (52.6-8), 1.4 (25.173; 27.219) and 1.18

(129.38-39).

6 John 1:14.

7 Cf. Primasius 1.34-37.

8 Primasius 1.44-45.

9 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum IV (see Appendix). This is a unique allusion in the Commentary to the notion of the world-week, an idea which Bede will exploit more fully in DTR ch. 10 and the prologue to ch. 66. On its roots in Patristic literature, see Luneau, L'Histoire du salut chez les Pères de l'Église, part 4, and Hildegard L.C. Tristram, Sex aetates mundi.

De Weltzeitalter bei den Angelsachsen und den Iren. Untersuchungen und Texte (Heidelberg:

Winter, 1985), p. 23.

BOOK ONE Grace be unto you and peace, from him that is and that was and that is to come; and from the seven spirits, and so forth [which are before his throne …].

He wishes the devout grace and peace from God the eternal Father, and from the sevenfold Spirit.

[1:5] and from Jesus Christ [who is the faithful witness …], who bore witness to the Father in the manhood he assumed.10 He names the Son third, of whom he was going to say much. He names him last, who himself is first and last,11 /239/ for he has already named him in the Father, saying, who is to come.

… the first begotten of the dead12 and the prince of the kings of the earth, [who has loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.] This is what the Apostle Paul says: We see Jesus because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour.13 And elsewhere, describing the shame of the Cross, he says, For which cause God also has exalted him and has given him a name which is above all names.14

[1:6] And has made us a kingdom and priests to God and his Father. [To him be glory and empire for ever and ever.

Amen.] Because the King of kings15 and heavenly Priest has united us to his body by offering himself for us, no saint lacks the office of priest in the spiritual sense, for he is a member of the eternal Priest.16

[1:7] Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him; … He who first came hidden, and subject to judgement, shall then come openly

10 Primasius 1.72-74; the ultimate source is Victorinus/Jerome 1.2 (19.5-6).

11 Rev. 1:11.

12 Cf. what Bede says on this subject of Christ's status as 'firstborn' in his Hom. 1.5 (trans.

Martin and Hurst, pp. 48–49).

13 Heb. 2:9.

14 Phil. 2:9.

15 Cf. 1 Tim. 6:15.

16 Irish Anonymous, Commentarius in Epistolas Catholicas Scotti Anonymi, ed. R.E.

McNally, Scriptores Hiberniae Minores 1, CCSL 108B (Turnhout: Brepols, 1973), 31.126127 (re: 1 Pet. 2.5). On this theme of the Christ's priesthood and the priesthood of the Church in Bede's exegesis, see Congar, Ecclésiologie du haut moyen âge, p. 109, n. 213.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

to judge.17 He brings these things to mind in order to strengthen the Church – now set upon by foes, but then destined to reign with Christ – to bear her sufferings. and they also that pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of him … Seeing the powerful judge in that form in which they accounted him as nothing, they shall bewail themselves in belated penance.18

Even so. Amen.

By adding 'amen' he confirms without doubt that what he knows is going to be through God's most certain revelation, will come to pass.19

[1:8] I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, sayS the Lord God … The beginning, whom none precedes; the end, whom none succeeds in rule.20

/241/ who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

He had said this very thing concerning the Father. For the Father both came, and is to come in the Son.

III [1:9] I, John, your brother and your partner in tribulation [and in the kingdom and patience in Jesus Christ …]

He intimates the person, place, time and reason of the vision which he testifies to have seen in the Spirit, lest anyone think that he had been beguiled by a fleshly apparition.21 was on the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.

It is a known historical fact that John was exiled to this island for the sake 17 Primasius 1.90-91; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 1.1 (19.13-15).

18 Primasius 1.94-97. Primasius singles out the Jews, but Bede suppresses this detail.

19 Primasius 1.98-99.

20 Primasius 3.128-129.

21 Primasius 1.109-110, 113-114.

BOOK ONE of the Gospel by the emperor Domitian.22 It was fitting that when he was forbidden to go beyond a circumscribed confine of the earth, it was vouchsafed to him to penetrate the secret things of heaven.23

[1:10] I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day … He indicates as well a fitting time for his spiritual vision. For Scripture is accustomed to express the attendant circumstances [terminos causarum … statutos] – often things like the place, or the [state of] the body or [the quality of ] the atmosphere, and the time as well. The angels visited Abraham at noon, and Sodom at nightfall. In the afternoon, Adam trembled with fear at the voice of the Lord, as he walked about [the Garden of Eden].24 And at night Solomon received the wisdom he was not destined to keep.25 and heard behind me a great voice, [as of a trumpet.]

First he is warned by means of the voice to turn his attention to the vision.

[1:11] [Saying,26] What you see, write in a book and senD it unto the seven churches /243/ which are in Asia; to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

The Church of Christ was not only in these places at this time, but all fulness is comprised in the number seven.27 Asia, which means 'rise', stands for the 22 Primasius prol. 18–21 (not in Gryson's appartus), cf. Jerome, Chronicon, ed. Rudolf

Helm, Eusebius Werke 7.1, Die Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 24 (Leipzig: J.C.

Hinrichs, 1913) 192.1-4; De viris illustribus 9.6, ed. A. Ceresa-Gastaldo, Gli uomini illustri.

De viris illustribus (Florence: Nardini, 1988), p. 94. This is recorded by Bede in DT 22 (ed.

Jones 608.12), and DTR c. 66 [s.a. 4049] (ed. Jones, 498.1088–499.1089; tr. Wallis, p. 200).

See also Bede's Hom. 1.9 (63.125–64.134) and 2.21 (340.209–341-216).

23 Primasius 1.23-25. These sentiments are echoed in Bede's prefatory poem: see above, p. 99.

24 Gen. 3:8.

25 Bede is paraphrasing Gregory, Mor. 2.2 (59.3-7, 32-36). The Biblical references are to Gen. 18:1, 19:1 and 3:8; 3 Kings/1 Kings 3:5.

26 Some Greek MSS of Revelation repeat at this point the phrase I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and this reading has been carried forward into the Authorized

Version. Neither the Vetus Latina nor the Vulgate contains it (cf. Sparks, p. 424). However, in his exegesis of 21:6, Bede reproduces Primasius's statement that 21:6 is the third time that the phrase appears in the text of Revelation, which would only make sense if Primasius were using a version of the text which contained this addition to v.11. It is, of course, repeated in 22:13, but this comes after 21:6. It is not, curiously, in Primasius's own citation of 1:11 (1.117-119).

27 Cf. Tyconius 1.11 (109) and compare to Lib. reg. 5 (59.24). Echoed in Caesarius 216,1-2,

Beatus 1.5.64.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

proud haughtiness of the world, in which the Church wanders as a stranger, and as is the way with the divine mystery, the genus is included within the species. For the apostle Paul also writes to seven Churches, though not the same [seven] as John does. 28 Although these seven places symbolize the whole sevenfold Church, nonetheless what he rebukes or praises29 was done in these [churches] specifically.30

[1:12] [And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And, being turned,] I saw seven golden candlesticks;

Here he describes beautifully the aspect of the Church, as it shows forth the light of divine love in the blaze of a chaste bosom, according to what the Lord said: Let your loins be girt and your lamps burning.31 He designates its inner and outer perfection through the two parts of the number seven, when each and every person in her, being constituted of the four qualities of the body, loves the Lord God with all his heart and with all his soul.32

[1:13] And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like to the Son of man, … He says that he is 'like the Son of Man', because after overcoming death,

[the Son of Man] ascended into heaven.33 For we indeed have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we know him in this way no longer.34 Well does he say 'in the midst',/245/ for he says, All you that are round about him shall bring presents.35

28 The etymology of Asia is from Primasius 1.126, but Bede's interpretation departs from Primasius. Paul's letters were addressed to the churches of Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus,

Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica, so there is, in fact, some overlap with John's seven churches, namely Ephesus. Victorinus/Jerome 1.7 (29.4-10) names Paul's seven churches, but does not observe that they are different from John's.

29 Primasius 2.156–58; cf. Caesarius 216.4. Ultimately from Tyconius 1.23 (118): cf. Lib. reg. 2 (11.2-3), and parallel passage in Beatus 2.3.2. Simultaneous praise and rebuke is Tyconius's diagnostic sign for passages referring to the ecclesia bipartita.

30 Cf. Primasius 1.11-13.

31 Luke 12:35.

32 Matt. 22:37, Mark 12:30 or Luke 10:27. Quoted by Primasius (1.44-51), from whom Bede paraphrased his identification of the number seven with the Church, as the sum of the numbers for body (4) and soul (3). This theme is taken up again by Bede in Exp. Act. 15.22–16.25.

33 Primasius 1.201-202; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 1.2 (19.19-20).

34 2 Cor. 5:16.

35 Primasius 1.180-181, quoting Ps. 75:12 (76:11). The association of this Psalm verse with the Magi is reflected in a twelfth-century seven-branched candlestick, now in Milan, which represents the Magi in the central knop. George Henderson argues for the influence of Bede's Commentary, but of course the inspiration could have come from Primasius: Bede and the Visual Arts, p. 20.

BOOK ONE clothed with a garment down to the feet … [vestitum podere] The poderis, which is called tunica talaris in Latin, is a priestly garment.

It shows Christ's priesthood, by which he offers himself as a victim to the Father upon the altar of the cross for our sake.36 and girt about the breast with a golden girdle.

The breasts he mentions here are the two testaments from which he instructs the body of the saints bound to himself. The golden girdle is the chorus of the saints, clinging to the Lord with harmonious love, and embracing the testaments, preserving, as the Apostle says, 'the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace'.37

[1:14] His head and his hairs were white, as white wool and as snow, … The whiteness shows the antiquity and immortality of majesty in the head,38 to whom all excellent men cling like hairs; they shine like wool because of the sheep who shall be at his right hand,39and like snow because of the numberless throng of those washed white, and of the elect who come forth from heaven.40 and his eyes were as a flame of fire.

Preachers41 are the eyes of the Lord, who with spiritual fire give light to the faithful, and to the unbelievers, a conflagration.42

[1:15] And his feet like fine brass, as in a burning furnace; … The blazing feet stand for the Church of the final times [nouissimi temporis],

36 Primasius 1.208-211.

37 Primasius 1.212-213, 220-223, cf. Victorinus/Jerome 1.4 (23.4-6), and quoting Eph. 4:3.

The phrase 'from which he feeds the body of the saints' is found in Caesarius 211.14. The convergence of these sources, as well as the emphasis on the unity of the Church, points to Tyconius.

On the feminine imagery of the breasts, see Holder, 'The Feminine Christ in Bede's Biblical

Commentaries', p. 110. Bede alludes to this passage and its feminine imagery in his In Cantica canticorum 1, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL 119B (Turnhout: Brepols, 1983), 191.70–192.82, to demonstrate the figural quality of the text.

38 Primasius 1.207-208; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 1.2 (21.4-5).

39 Primasius 1.226-227; cf. Caesarius 211.19-22.

40 Primasius 1.228-229; from Victorinus/Jerome 1.2 (21.8-10). Cf. Caesarius 211.19-20.

41 (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 201.84-85; cf. Kelly, 'The Venerable Bede', p. 404.

Note that Primasius interprets the eyes as the commandments of God.

42 Primasius 1.237-238; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 1.2 (21.11-12).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

which is to be tested and proved by violent afflictions. 'Brass' /247/ is bronze brought to a golden colour by much fire and refining.43 Another translation, which says that they are 'like the brass of Lebanon', signifies that the Church, particularly in the final times, will be persecuted in Judaea, of which Lebanon is a mountain.44 For the temple is often called 'Lebanon', of which it is said, Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars.45 and his voice was as the sound of many waters.

The voice of confession and preaching and praise resounds not only in Judaea, but amongst many peoples.46

[1:16] And he had in his right hand seven stars … At the right hand of Christ is the spiritual Church. 'The queen,' he says,

'stood at your right hand in gilded clothing.' To him who stands at his right hand he says, 'Come, blessed of my Father, and possess the kingdom.'47

And from his mouth came out a sharp two-edged sword … He, judging all things visible and invisible, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell-fire.48

And his face was as the sun shining in his power.

After the Judgement, the Lord shall appear to all the saints in the same way that he appeared to the disciples on the mountain. The wicked shall look upon him whom they have pierced.49 But the full array of the Son of Man

43 Primasius 1.240-242, 245-247. Ultimately from Tyconius 1.5 (107), and paralleled in Caesarius 212.5-9, 11-12.

44 The 'other translation' is the one used by Primasius 1.240, and represents the version used by Tyconius 1.5 (107): cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 182. Bede's exegesis follows

Primasius 1.247-250; cf. Beatus 1.4.75-76; Caesarius 212.5-10; Victorinus/Jerome 1.5 (25.17-18).

45 Paraphrasing Jerome, In Is. 10.11 (1142.30-33); the Biblical quotation is from Zech. 11:1.

46 Primasius 1.252-253; it is broadly paralleled in Caesarius 212.21-22, Beatus pr. 4.23, and may originate in Victorinus/Jerome 1.5 (25.17-18).

47 Primasius 1.257-260, quoting Ps. 44(45):9 and Matt. 25:34. The phrase 'the spiritual church' is also found in this context in Caesarius 213.2-3, Beatus 1.4.88, and is ultimately from Tyconius 1.7 (108). For a related exegesis of Ps. 44:9, identifying the queen as the spiritual

Jerusalem, see Augustine, DCD 17.16 (581.37-65).

48 Luke 12:5.

49 uidebunt in quem pupunxerunt: John 19:37; cf. Zech. 12:9 (Vulgate): aspicient ad me quem confixerunt. It may be compared to Bede's discussion of the Transfiguration in In Lucam 3

(1525-1530) and In Marcum 3 (42-46). The exegesis of this verse echoes Augustine, DCD 22.19

(839.48-53), but this source is not mentioned by Gryson.

BOOK ONE refers in this case to the Church, with which Christ is made one nature, and which shares his priestly honour /249/ and power to judge, so that it shines like the sun in the Father's kingdom.50

[1:17] And when I had seen him, I fell at his feet [as though dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying …]

Like a man he trembles at the spiritual vision, but human fear is driven out by the tender mercy of the Lord.

[Fear not.] I am the First and the Last.

First, because 'all things were made in him'; last, because all things are restored in him.51

[1:18] [And alive, and was dead; and, behold, I am living for ever and ever] and have the keys of death and hell.

Not only, he says, have I overcome death by my resurrection, but I have dominion over death itself. He shares this as well with the Church by breathing onto it the Holy Spirit, saying, Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.52

[1:19] Write therefore the things which you have seen; and which are; and which must take place hereafter.

That which you alone saw, show to everyone: that is, the various labours of the Church, and the wicked mixed up with the good in her until the end of the world.53

[1:20] [The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks;] the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; [and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.] That is, [the seven stars are] the rulers of the Churches.54 For as Zechariah says, the priest is the angel of the Lord of hosts.55

50 Matt. 13:43; this verse is quoted by Primasius 1.278-279. The ultimate source is Tyconius

1.8 (108-109): cf. Caesarius 214.8-10, Beatus 1.4.116.

51 Primasius 1.296-297, quoting John 1:3.

52 The quotation from John 20:23 is found in Tyconius 1.10 (109); cf. Primasius 1.312-313;

Caesarius 215.10-11.

53 Primasius 2.22, from Tyconius 1.11 (113); cf. Beatus 1.5.71-73.

54 Primasius 1.324-325. The ultimate source is Tyconius 1.11 (113): cf. Caesarius 215.12-14.

55 The quotation is actually from Mal. 2:7; cf. Zech. 12:8.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

IV [2:1] and to the angel of the church of Ephesus write: … He rebukes a part of this Church, and praises a part, in accordance with the significance of its name.56 For Ephesus means 'a great falling away', and also 'my will is in her'.57 /251/ These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, … That is, he has you in his hand, and by his power he rules and holds you.58 who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks:

Who, passing in your midst,59 examines the hearts and reins60 of every one.

[2:2] I know your works and your labour and your patience and so forth [and how you cannot bear them that are evil; and you have tried them who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; [2.3] And you have patience and have endured for my name and have not fainted.] I see you, he says, zealously doing good works, and patiently bearing the intolerable injuries of the wicked – you who, diligently examining the words and deeds of the pseudo-apostles, have not been willing to yield to them on any point.

[2:4] But I have this against you, because you have left your first charity and so forth. [[2:5] Be mindful therefore from whence you are fallen; and do penance and do the first works.

Or else I come to you and will move your candlestick out of its place, unless you do penance. [2:6] But this you have, that you hate the deeds

56 Tyconius 1.11 (113); the closest parallel is Caesarius 216.2-4; cf. Primasius 2.13-15; Beatus

1.5.65.

57 Bede's first etymology (lapsus magnus) is based on the resemblance between the name

'Ephesus' and the Greek word ephesis ('throwing, hurling'). The second interpretation is from Primasius 1.135-136, which draws on Jerome, Lib. int. (160.17): see Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, pp. 170–171.

58 Primasius 2.25-26; cf. almost identical wording in Caesarius 216.16-17. The ultimate source is Tyconius 1.12 (113).

59 Tyconius 1.12 (113), Primasius 2.27 and Caesarius 216.18. The phrasing is typically

Tyconian: cf. Bright, Book of Rules, pp. 49–51.

60 Cf. Ps. 7:9(10), 26(25):2; Rev. 2:23.

BOOK ONE of the Nicolaites, which I also hate.] Indeed, in the persons of some, you have abandoned the love you started with, and unless these people recover it, I shall deprive them of the reward of light which I promised. But in some matters you have hated the example of the perverse, namely in idolatry and fornication. For these are the deeds of the Nicolaites, as shall be shown in what follows. 61

[2:7] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: … He shows that what he writes to each of the Churches, he is saying to all.62

For not only the Church of Ephesus was to be removed from its place if it did not repent, nor is the seat of Satan at Pergamum isolated, /253/ and not everywhere. The rest as well applies both to the individual [churches] and to the Church as a whole.63

To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.

Christ is the tree of life, from whom holy souls are nourished in the celestial paradise by vision, and in the body they have now, by the Church. 64

[2:8] And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

… He advises this church concerning the persecution they have to bear, and this agrees with its name. For Smyrna means 'myrrh',65 which symbolizes the mortification of the flesh.

These things says the First and the Last, who was dead and is alive:

Who both created everything, and restored everything by his dying – a fitting preface for one who is about to counsel patience.66

[2:9] I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich; … 61 Primasius 2.61-62; cf. Beatus 2.1.55.

62 Primasius 2.11-12, 2.62-63, and ultimately Tyconius 1.11 (112). Cf. Caesarius 216.1415; Beatus 1.5.61.

63 Tyconius 1.11 (112); cf. Beatus 1.5.62.

64 Cf. Primasius 2.67-70.

65 Gregory, Homeliae in Evangelia 10.6, ed. R. Étaix, CCSL 141 (Turnhout: Brepols,

1999), 70.119; see also Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 171.

66 ' …a fitting preface …' is a Bedan formula: cf. In Sam. 2 (2450).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

For blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.67 In a short line of poetry, Fortunatus expresses this beautifully: The poor man in his dire straits rules by owning God.68

[And you are blasphemed by those] that say they are Jews and are not, [but are the synagogue of Satan.]

They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him.69 For 'Jew' is a noun designating religion. Hence the Apostle: 'He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter'.70

[2:10] [Fear none of those things which you shall suffer.] Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried; … These statements apply to the whole Church, against which the Devil always exercises implacable hatred.71 /255/ and you shall have tribulation ten days.

This signifies the whole period of time in which the commandments of the Decalogue are necessary.72 For as long as you follow the light of the divine word you must endure the prison of your hostile foe. Some think that [the ten days] signify ten persecutions of the heathen, from the emperor Nero to Diocletian.73

67 Matt. 5:3. Alluded to by Tyconius 1.18 (116), Primasius 2.73-74, Caesarius 216.31 and Beatus 2.2.3 (who quoted the verse from Matthew directly).

68 Venantius Fortunatus, Carmen 8.3, ed. F. Leo, Venantii … Fortunati … opera poetica, MGH

AA 4.1 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 189.296.

69 Titus 1:15.

70 Primasius 2.80-82, quoting Rom. 2:29. Ultimately from Tyconius 1.19 (117); cf. Beatus

2.2.7-9.

71 Primasius 2.90-92.

72 Primasius 2.93-94. Cf. Caesarius 217.2 (for the phrase 'whole period of time') and Beatus

2.2.93; ultimately from Tyconius 1.21 (118). This is a good example of Tyconius's concept of 'legitimate numbers': cf. Lib. reg. 5 (60.6-10); Bonner, Saint Bede, p. 21.

73 Bede is referring to Orosius, Historiarum adversus paganos libri VII 7.27, ed. C. Zangenmeister, CSEL 5 (1882), pp. 496.4–499.6, who launched the idea that the persecutions formed a series of exactly ten: Nero (7.7.10), Domitian (7.10.1.5), Trajan (7.12.3-4), Marcus Aurelius

(7.15.4), Severus (7.17.4), Maximian (7.19.1), Decius (7.21.2), Valerian (7.23.3), Aurelian

(7.23.6) and Diocletian (7.25.13). It is also found in the chronicles of Sulpicius Severus (Chron.

2.33.4), where the tenth persecution is Antichrist's. An alternative schema lists six persecutions: see Irshai, 'Dating the Eschaton', p. 144 and V. Grümel, 'Du nombre des persecutions paiennes dans les anciennes chroniques', Revue des études augustiniennes 2 (1956): 59–66. Augustine

BOOK ONE Be faithful unto death; and I will give you the crown of life.

In exhorting perseverance in the faith unto death, he shows what the 'ten days' lead to.

[2:11] [He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches:] He that shall overcome shall not be hurt by the second death.

He that shall have remained faithful unto the death of the body will not fear the eternal death of the soul.74

[2:12] And to the angel of PergamuM write: … Pergamum means 'dividing their horns', which by its judgement distinguished between the virtue of the faithful and the perfidy of the Nicolaites, so that the horns of the sinners might be broken in pieces, and the horns of the just exalted.75

HE sayS These things, who has the sharp two-edged sword:

It is appropriate that he put his power of judgement first – he who was the victors' prize, and who was to mete out punishment to the wrongdoers.

[2:13] I know where you dwell, where the seat of Satan is. And you hold fast my name and have not denied my faith; … tartly rejects the notion in DCD 18.52, pointing out that persecutions antedated Nero, and were continued after Diocletian's reign, notably by Julian the Apostate, Arian emperors such as Valens, and the Arian kings of the Goths. Bede seems not to have been aware of, or receptive to, Augustine's critique, since he repeats the notion of the ten persecutions in HE 1.6. Beatus (2.2.83-84) takes up the idea of the ten persecutions, but compares them to the plagues of Egypt, and avoids linking them to the ten days in this verse. By historicizing the persecutions, Bede and the tradition he is following avoids any implication that these represent present or future persecutors. But see his exegesis of 17:12 below.

74 Bede's interpretation of the double death as the death of the body and the death of the soul is difficult to trace. Both Augustine (in DCD 13.2) and Gregory (Dialogi 4.3, 4.45) regard the second death as something which encompassed the whole man, body and soul, while the soul can die even in this mortal life. The source of Bede's interpretation might be the chapterheading of DCD 13.2 ('The Death of the Soul and the Death of the Body'), though it is also possible that he extrapolated the idea from Tyconius, who on the evidence of Gennadius was the author of the doctrine of the double resurrection which Augustine developed in DCD 20.6-7:

De viris inlustribus 18, ed. E.H. Richardson, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 14.1 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1896), p. 69.

75 Primasius 2.151-7, incorporating quotation from Psalm 74(75).11(10).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

I indeed approve your patience, for while you tarry amongst the reprobate, who are the devil's throne,76 you have worshipped me not only in the name by which you are called Christian, but in uncompromised faith during a time of bloody persecution. /257/ But I disapprove of the fact that I see teachers in your midst who lead [you] astray. even in those days when Antipas my faithful witness was slain among you, [where Satan dwells.]

Some think this [Antipas] was a martyr who suffered at Pergamum;77 others, that this is Christ the Lord, who even now is slain by the unbelievers, insofar as it is possible for them to do so.78

[2:14] [But I have against you a few things; because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel,] to eat, and to commit fornication; These are the two main things for which all carnal people strive, whose god is their belly, and their glory in confusion. But every wicked deed is idolatry, and spiritual fornication.79

[2:15] So you also have them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaites.

The Nicolaites take their name from the deacon Nicolas, who (Clement relates) was rebuked for being jealous of his very lovely wife. He replied that whoever wanted her could have her for his wife, and on these grounds unbelievers taught that the apostles allowed everyone to have promiscuous and communal relations with women. For they say that the Nicolaites preached some fanciful and well-nigh pagan things concerning the origin of the universe, and that they did not avoid as food what is offered as sacrifice.80

76 Primasius 2.154-155, ultimately from Tyconius 1.22 (118): cf. Caesarius 217.7-8; Beatus

2.3.1.

77 Tertullian, Scorpiace c. 12.7, ed. A. Reifferscheid and G. Wissowa, CCSL 2 (1954),

1093.12-13; cf. Cassiodorus, Complexiones, ed. Roger Gryson, Commentaria minora in Apocalypsin Johannis, CCSL 107 (2003), 5.11-14.

78 The second opinion corresponds to Primasius 2.160-161; it is a good illustration of Tyconius's first rule.

79 Primasius 2.166-167, 169, except for the embedded quotation from Phil. 2:19 (whose god is their belly, and their glory in confusion). Ultimately from Tyconius 1.23 (118); cf. Beatus 2.3.8-9.

80 Augustine, De haeresibus 5, ed. R. Vander Plaetse and C. Beukers, CC 46 (1969), pp.

291.1–292.10. Augustine is drawing on Rufinus's trans. of Eusebius, HE 3.29.1-4 (261-3); ultimately the information comes from Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.4.25. Cf. Bede's

Act. Ap. 12.2 and Retractatio on 1.23.

BOOK ONE [2:16] [In like manner, do penance. If not, I will come to you quickly and will fight against you with the sword of my mouth. [2:17] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches:] To him who overcomes will I give the hidden manna; …

He who scorns the allurements of the flesh when he is lured by hypocritical persuasion will justly be filled with the sweetness of the invisible bread which comes down from heaven.81 /259/ and I will give him a white stone; … That is, a body now rendered white by baptism,82 and then refulgent with the glory of incorruptibility. and on the stone, a new name written, … So that we should be called, and shall be, the sons of God.83 which no one knows but he who receives it.

Because he who says that he knows God and does not keep his commandments, is a liar.84 A hypocrite does not taste how sweet the Lord is.85

[2:18] And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write: … Thyatira means 'sacrificial victim',86 for the saints present their bodies as a living sacrifice.87

These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, … Later on he shows who the eyes of flame are, saying, I am he that searches the reins and hearts. And I will give to every one of you according to your works.88

81 John 6:33; quoted by Primasius 2.178. The ultimate source is Tyconius 1.25 (119); cf.

Beatus 2.3.42.

82 Tyconius 1.26 (119); cf. Caesarius 217.13-14; Beatus 2.3.63. Primasius 2.197-198, on the other hand, depends on Victorinus/Jerome here.

83 1 John 3:1; cf. Primasius 2.192.

84 1 John 2:4, quoted by Tyconius 1.26 (119); cf. Primasius 2.202-203; Beatus 2.3.75.

85 Psalm 33:9(34.8). The reference to hypocrites is from Tyconius 1.26 (119): cf. Primasius

2.199-200, Beatus 2.3.69.

86 The interpretation is a play on the Greek word thuetos ('something offered as a sacrifice'). Bede did not draw this information from either Primasius or Jerome. It may have come from a Canterbury Greek–Latin glossary (Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, 171-72). On the larger problem of Biblical glossaries in Bede's milieu, see O. Szerwiniack, 'Des recueils d'interprétations des noms hébreux chez les Irlandais et le wisigoth Théodulf', Scriptorium

48 (1994): 187–258.

87 Rom. 12:1.

88 Rev. 2:23.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and his feet like fine brass … And by this he shows that the last works of this Church shall be more than the former.89

[[2:19] I know your works and your faith and your charity and your ministry and your patience and your latter works, which are more than the former.] [2:20] But I have against you a few things, because you suffer the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach … Indeed, you are praiseworthy for your faith and work, but you are blameworthy in this: that you do not confront and accuse as they deserve the synagogue of the pseudo-apostle, which makes itself out to be Christian.90 /261/ The name Jezebel, which means 'flow of blood',91 is fitting for heretics.92 It was particularly applied to a woman in the above-mentioned church who taught notorious villainies. She is the symbol of the whole Jezebel throughout the world,93 whom [the Spirit] threatens with open vengeance. and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Under the name of Christ, she expressly preached idolatry and spiritual fornication. For how could she, who called herself a prophetess in the Church, openly teach the worship of idols?94

[[2:21] And I gave her time that she might repent; and she did not repent of her fornication.] [2:22] Behold, I will throw her onto a bed; [and they that commit adultery with her shall be in very great tribulation, unless they repent their deeds.]

By the righteous judgement of God, she who prostrated wretched men on the couch of lust is cast onto a bed of eternal punishment.

[2:23] And I will [throw]95 her children into death; … He calls this woman's followers and her works 'children'. He threatens

89 Rev. 2:19.

90 Tyconius 1.27 (121): cf. Tur. fr. 12; Caesarius 217.22; Beatus 2.4.17.

91 Jerome, Lib. int. 160.20.

92 Cf. Caesarius 217.21-23.

93 Primasius 2.229-232, ultimately from Tyconius 1.27 (120): cf. Tyconius (Tur. fr). 1. A good illustration of Tyconius's idea of the 'mystery of iniquity'.

94 Tyconius 1.27 (121): cf. Tyconius (Tur. fr.) 13-14 and Beatus 2.4.45-46. More condensed in Primasius 2.260-261.

95 This word is omitted in virtually all witnesses: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

BOOK ONE them, not with the passing death of the body, but with the eternal death of the soul.96 and all the churches shall know that I am he that searches the reins and hearts. [And I will give to every one of you according to your works.] In the reins,97 he indicates desires; in the heart, thoughts. What we do and what we say can be known to people; but what takes place in the soul, and what we desire to attain by it, is known to [God] alone98 who perceives what each one thinks, and what each one finds desirable. But how is it logical that he who punishes fornication and idolatry, which are manifest crimes, is said /263/ to know hidden [crimes], unless this is what even the least of sins is called?99 He says, You have destroyed all them that go a-whoring from you.100 Likewise the apostle John, who had heard this, says when discussing false brothers, Little children, keep yourself from idols.101

[2:24] And i say to the rest of you who are at Thyatira:

… Just as he urges penance and threatens punishment upon the wicked, so also he encourages the devout to be patient with eternal rewards.

[Who do not hold this teaching and] who have not known the depths of Satan, [as they say:] Indeed, they never gave their assent by any kind of agreement.102 Thus those who work iniquity do not know God, though they preach him. Likewise God, though he knows everyone, does not know the workers of iniquity.103

96 Primasius 3.274-276. Ultimately from Tyconius 1.28 (122); cf. Tyconius (Tur. fr.) 22,

Beatus 2.4.61.

97 The archaic word 'reins' literally means 'kidneys' or more broadly, 'loins', but in Biblical language refers to the seat of the affections or passions.

98 Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 7.9, ed. E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, CCSL 39

(Turnhout: Brepols, 1961), 43.42-45.

99 Bede's exegesis resembles slightly Tyconius's (Tur. fr. 20) and Primasius 2.283-289.

100 Ps. 72(73):27. Primasius cites this Psalm in his explanation of Rev. 2:14 (2.169-170) and 2:21 (2.260).

101 Tyconius 1.27 (121), Tur. fr. 15, citing 1 John 5:21; cf. Beatus 2.4.48.

102 Primasius 2.295-296. Ultimately from Tyconius 1.30 (123); cf. Tur. fr. 29; Caesarius

217.24-25; Beatus 2.4.65.

103 Tyconius 1.30 (123); cf. Tur. fr. 31; paralleled by Beatus 2.4.66 and (more concisely)

Primasius 2.296-298.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[2:25] I will not put upon you any other burden. but what you have, hold fast till I come.

I will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that which you are able [to bear].104

Or else, Beware of false prophets.105 For I do not give you a new teaching, but what you have received, preserve it to the end.

[2:26] AND HE THAT SHALL OVERCOME falsehood AND KEEP my commandments [to the end], shall be granted a just reward.

I WILL GIVE HIM POWER OVER THE NATIONS.

The Church has this power in Christ as the body in the head. In him, according to the Apostle, God 'has given us all things'.106 /265/

[2:27] And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and as the vessel of a potter they shall be broken;

He rules the meek with inflexible justice, that they might produce more fruit.

He destroys the arrogant107 so that they either perish for ever, or else earthly desires in them are dashed to pieces, and the dirty doings of the old man, and whatever is of sinful clay, are reduced and ground under.108

[2:28] [As I have received from my Father.] And I will give him the morning star. [[2:29 [He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches:] Christ is the morning star109 who, when the night of this world is past, promises and flings open to the saints the eternal light of life.

104 1 Cor. 10:13. The last half of the verse is quoted by Tyconius 1.31 (123); cf. Tur. fr. 35,

Caesarius 217.25-26, Beatus 2.4.73.

105 Matt. 7:15.

106 Primasius 2.306-307, 309-310, quoting Rom. 8:32; cf. almost identical wording in Caesarius 218.2-3. The common source is Tyconius 1.32; cf. Tur. fr. 37, 39.

107 Primasius 2. 310-311; Gryson suggests that the ultimate source may be Tyconius, as there is a parallel concept in Caesarius 218.4-5, though there is no echo in the Turin Fragments or Beatus.

108 Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 2.8 (5.2-5). The 'old man' here refers to the 'old

Adam' or unregenerate human being.

109 Tyconius 1.33 (123); cf. Tur. fr. 40; Lib. reg. 7 (71.28-29). Paralleled in Primasius 2.31215, and echoed more distantly by Beatus 2.4.79. Bonner (Saint Bede, pp. 9–10) relates the idea of the darkness of the world and the breaking dawn of eternal life to Bede's account of the vision of the dying nun of Barking in HE 4.6. This entire sentence, in a different translation, was chosen for the splendid modern inscription by George Pace and Frank Roper over the tomb of Bede in the Galilee of Durham Cathedral.

BOOK ONE [3:1] And to the angel of the church of Sardis write:

… He takes to task this angel, that is, the priest who is less than diligent in correcting evil. But he praises [the Church] as having some who walk in white garments, and this agrees with the name of Sardis, which is a precious stone.110

[These things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars:] I know your works, that you have the name of being alive; and you are dead. [[3:2] Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain, which are ready to die.]

It seems to you that you are alive, but if you are not vigilant to correct the wicked, you will be reckoned as already amongst the dead.

For I find not your works perfect before my God.

Although he seems to be blameless before men, the works of a leader111 are not perfect before God if he does not exert himself to stir up others.

[3:3] [Have in mind therefore in what manner you have received and heard; and preserve it and do penance. If then you do not keep watch,] I will come to you as a thief; [and you shall not know at what hour I will come to you.] Just as in the Gospel parable, so also here he admonishes us to keep watch by means of the analogy of bewaring a thief.112 /267/

[3:4] But you have a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; [and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy.] He did not say 'a few' but a few names. For he calls his own sheep by name,113 who knew Moses by name,114 and who writes the names of the saints in heaven.115

110 Cf. Rev. 21:10. Primasius, however, provides a different etymology (3.161), corresponding to Jerome, Lib. int. 160.4.

111 rector, i.e. a ruler, and particularly a ruler of the Church, a cleric holding office; sometimes synonymous with 'a bishop': see Robert A. Markus, 'Gregory the Great's rector and his Genesis', Grégoire le Grand, ed. Jacques Fontaine, Robert Gillet and Stan Pellistrandi

(Paris: C.N.R.S., 1986), pp. 137–146.

112 Cf. Matt. 24:42-44, Luke 12:39-40.

113 John 10:3.

114 Cf. Exod. 3:4, 33:12, 17.

115 Cf. Luke 10:20.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[3:5] He that shall conquer shall thus be clothed in white garments, [and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life; and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. [3:6] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.] He invites everyone to imitate those116 who have kept unspotted the silken robe of baptism.117

[3:7] And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write: … Philadelphia means 'brotherly love',118 to which [Church] the doors of the kingdom are open, and the promise given that it shall be beloved of the Lord.

These things says the Holy One and the True One, who has the key of David, … That is, royal power, either because Christ was born of David's line or because the prophecy of David is revealed in Christ's dispensation.119 he who opens and no man shuts, shuts and no man opens:

The secrets of the divine law are revealed to the faithful by the power of Christ alone, and they are closed to unbelievers.120

[3:8] [I know your works.] Behold, I have placed before you a door opened, which no man can shut; … The doors of divine knowledge, which Christ opens to his Church, are never shut by anyone's force or effort.121 because you have a modicum of power, and have kept my word [and have not denied my name.] He shows why the Church deserves these gifts: /269/ because it trusts, not in 116 Tyconius 1.36 (124); cf. Tur. fr. 52, paralleled in Primasius 3.33-34 and Beatus 2.5.76.

117 olosericam baptismi: Caesarius, Sermones 167.4 and 206.2, ed. G. Morin, 2nd ed.,

CCSL 104 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1953), pp. 685, 826.

118 This is not the etymology proposed by Primasius 3.163-164, and it is not found in Jerome,

Lib. int. It is, of course, a direct translation from the Greek: Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 171.

119 Primasius 3.32-34. Glossing 'key of David' as 'royal power' comes from Tyconius 1.37

(125), cf. Tur. fr. 58; see parallels in Caesarius 218.15 and Beatus 2.6.4.

120 Primasius 3.38-39; based (distantly) on Tyconius 1.37 (125): cf. Tur. fr. 60-61 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

121 Primasius 3.42-45.

BOOK ONE its own powers, but in the grace of Christ the king.122 What is praised here, is God's protection and the devotion of the Church, that the gate of victory may be opened by a modicum of faith, and that a modicum of strength may be invigorated by faith.123

[3:9] Behold, I will bring out of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, [but lie.

Behold, I will make them come and adore at your feet. And they shall know that I have loved you.] He promises this to the whole Church then, for as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, it was not only in Philadelphia that [members] of the synagogue of the Jews [came to] believe.124

[3:10] Because you have kept the word of my patience, I will also keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come [upon the world, to try those that dwell upon the earth.]

Because you have followed my example in bearing adversity, I shall in return preserve you from the blows to come – not that you will not be tried, but that you will not be overcome by adversity. And although the Church is always tried by adversity, nonetheless this can signify the hour of trial and the humiliation of the Jews in the time of Antichrist.125 In what follows, that which is in the sixth place designates the final persecution, and this is the case here with the sixth angel. In this persecution it is believed that some

Jews will wickedly deceive and be deceived, but others, by the exhortation of Elijah the great prophet, shall come to understand the law spiritually, and after being incorporated as members of the Church, will mightily overcome the enemy.126

122 Primasius 3.49-50. Bede substitutes 'grace' for Primasius's 'powers of Christ the king', a nice Augustinian touch, which may reflect Bede's concerns about Pelagianism.

123 Tyconius 1.39 (125): cf. Tur. fr. 64, with parallels in Caesarius 218.21-22 and Beatus

2.6.32.

124 Tyconius 1.40 (125), with parallels in Tur. fr. 65, Beatus 2.6.74, alluding to Acts 17:1-4;

18:4, 7-8, 24-28. Cf. Primasius 3.55-59, who also links this passage to the final conversion of the Jews at the end of time.

125 Primasius 3.68-72. Bede edits out Primasius's reference to 'internal and external conflict'

(intestino externoque conflictu), an echo of Tyconius's ecclesiology.

126 On the importance for Bede of the conversion of the Jews, see Introduction, pp. 79–80.

The preaching of Elijah alludes to Mal. 4:5, and is one of the main sources for the identification of the two witnesses of Rev. 11 with Enoch and Elijah. In his exegesis of 11:13, Bede identifies the two witnesses as Enoch and Elijah (as he would later in DTR), but he does not indicate that their activity is primarily directed to converting the Jews. At this stage of his thinking, Bede seems to have envisioned the conversion of the Jews as taking place through some intervention

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[3:11] Behold, I COME quickly; hold fast what you have, that no man may take your crown.

Lest you grow faint in withstanding, I shall swiftly help you127 lest perchance you should fail and another take from you your promised reward. Thus /271/ it is impossible that the number of the saints, which is fixed by God, should be diminished by the villainy of the burgeoning tares.128 But if the crown be carried off by another, the place of him who lost what he once held is not left empty.129

[3:12] He who shall conquer, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go out no more.

He who has overcome adversity for my sake, glorious in the temple of the Church, shall fear no further blow of adversity. These pillars – that is, holy men130 – protect the Church at the present time by supporting it; then, they shall adorn it by their eminence,131 like the two [pillars] in the doorway of the temple of Solomon.132

And I will write upon him the name of my God, … Because we are called sons of God by adoption.133 and the name of the city of my God, the new Jeru salem, [which comes down from heaven from my God …]

He will be in fellowship with the unity of the Church, generated into new life by heavenly grace.134 of Elijah not recorded in Revelation, but linked to the persecution of Antichrist: see also Augustine, DCD 20.29, where Elijah alone converts Jews. In his later exegesis, he would always pair

Elijah with Enoch: Darby, Bede and the End of Time, pp. 109–121.

127 On Bede's replacement of uenio ('come') with auxiliabor ('will help'), see Intro duction, p. 74.

128 Tyconius 1.42 (127); cf. Tur. fr. 82, paralleled by Beatus 2.6.97, and echoed by Primasius

3.78-79.

129 Tyconius 1.42 (126); cf. Tur. fr. 78, Beatus 2.6.93; more distantly, Primasius 3.79-81.

130 (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 203.6-7; cf. Kelly, 'The Venerable Bede', p. 403.

131 Primasius 3.90-92; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 3.2 (43.3-4).

132 Cf. 3 Kings (1 Kings) 7:21; 2 Chron. 3:17. This passage should be compared to Bede's much later work, De tem. 2 (ed. Hurst, 198.263–207.603); trans. Connolly, pp. 74–84) where

Bede likens the pillars before the door of Solomon's Temple to the teachers of the Church.

133 Primasius 3.100, alluding to Gal. 4:5.

134 The sense, if not the exact wording, comes from Tyconius 1.44 (127): cf. Tur. fr. 92;

Caesarius 218.24-25; Beatus 2.6.103.

BOOK ONE and my new name. [[3:13] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.] This is the name of Christian – not that it is new to the Son of God, who possessed this glory before the world was made, but it is new to the Son of Man who was dead, and who rose from the dead, and who sits at the right hand of God.135

[3:14] And to the angel of the church in Laodicea, write: … Laodicea means 'tribe beloved of the Lord' or 'they were in vomit'.136 For there were people there to whom it could be said, I will spew you out of my mouth and to some, Those whom I love, I rebuke and chastise.137 In Greek it means 'righteous people.'138 /273/ These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God:

'Amen' means 'truly' or 'faithfully'. Christ therefore, who in the essence of his divinity is truth, declares that he himself was made the beginning of the creation of God through the mystery of the Incarnation,139 that he might thereby strengthen the Church to bear its sufferings.

[3:15] I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot and so forth. [Would that you were cold or hot! [3:16] But because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to spew you out of my mouth.] You are neither fervent in faith, nor totally unfaithful.140 For were you even now unfaithful, there would yet remain a hope of converting you. But now, because you do not do the Lord's will, which you know, I shall expel you from the bowels of my Church.141

135 Tyconius 1.44 (127-128), cf. Tur. fr. 94-95, and quoting John 17:6. The passage is closely paralleled by Primasius 3.105-109 and Beatus 2.6.104-106.

136 Primasius 3.66-67; cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 160.23. Like the name of Ephesus, this double etymology bespeaks the 'bipartite' nature of the Church. A Tyconian origin is therefore possible.

137 Cf. Primasius 3.170, 174, quoting Rev. 3:16 and 3:19.

138 This etymology is not recorded in Jerome, Lib. int. or any other traceable source. Once again, it translates the Greek: Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 180.

139 Primasius 3.115-117, 121-123; cf. Bede, In Lucam 1 (1216-1218). On the meaning of 'Amen', see Jerome, Lib. int. 159.10.

140 Cf. Primasius 3.143-144. It is interesting that Bede does not reproduce Primasius's biting social commentary on this verse. Primasius blames spiritual tepidity on the complacency of the wealthy on the one hand (cf. 3:17), and on the resentful attitude of the poor on the other.

141 Tyconius 1.45 (128); cf. Tur. fr. 100, Beatus 2.7.3 and 2.7.7-8.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[3:17] Because you say: I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing; and so forth [and you know not that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. [3:18] I counsel you to buy from me gold, tried in the fire, that you may be made rich and may be clothed in white garments; and that the shame of your nakedness may not be visible. And anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see.] Content with faith alone, you lay claim to the riches of righteousness in vain.

But if you wish truly to be rich, set everything else aside and purchase the fervour of charity, tried by the flame of oppression,142 and anoint the eyes of your mind, not with the antimony of deceptive ostentation143 but with the salve of divine knowledge. To anoint the eyes with salve is to win an understanding of Holy Scripture by performing good works.144 /275/

[3:19] those that I love, I rebuke and chastise.

Do not refuse to suffer adversity, for this is the distinctive sign that you are loved by God.

Be zealous [aemulare] therefore, and do penance.

He shows that there were people worthy to be emulated [aemulandi] and followed.145

[3:20] Behold, I stand at the door and knock and so forth.

[If anyone shall hear my voice and open the door for me, I will come in to him and will sup with him; and he with me.]

With the right hand of exhortation I knock upon the door of your heart: if you open willingly, you will be held worthy to have me live with you and to be co-heir [with me].146

[3:21] To him who shall conquer, i will grant to sit with me on my throne; … He calls him who sits down with him a partaker of his power and judge142 Tyconius 1.45 (128); cf. Tur. fr. 103, Primasius 3.157, Beatus 2.7.24.

143 Based on Tyconius 1.46 (128); cf. Tur. fr. 105, Primasius 3.168-169. Stibium (antimony) was the principal ingredient in many cosmetics for the eyes, as well as in medical preparations: cf. Pliny HN 33.34.102-104.

144 Cf. Primasius 3.150-152, drawing on Victorinus/Jerome 3.3 (45.2-3).

145 Tyconius 1.47 (129); cf. Tur. fr. 107, Primasius 3.171-173, Beatus 2.7.25.

146 Cf. Primasius 3.174-180 (not in Gryson's apparatus). The concept of the believer as 'co-heir' with Christ is from Rom. 8:17. See also Bede's treatment of this passage in Hom. 1.21

(151.112-125; trans. Martin and Hurst, p. 209).

BOOK ONE ment.147 Who has made us to sit down together, he says, in the heavenly places, through Jesus Christ.148 as I also have conquered, and sat down with my

Father on his throne.

Our triumphant Lord sat down with his Father on his throne, because after the conflict of the Passion, after the victory of the Resurrection, he showed even more clearly to everyone that he was equal in power to the Father.149

Note that in the case of each of the Churches, the Lord first displays his power, and then rehearses what is praiseworthy or blameworthy in the Church, with admonition intermixed. Finally he pays out the reward due to each side, which we can understand as both happening in the present, and to come in the future. And when he adds: [3.22] He who has an ear, let him hear [what the Spirit says to the churches], it is doubtless appropriate to understand the ears of the heart, which obey his commandments.150 /277/

V [4:1] After these things, I looked; and, behold, a door was opened in heaven.

After having described the works of the Church, and what it will be like in the future, he recapitulates from the birth of Christ, saying the same things in a different fashion.151 In this book, he narrates the entire era of the Church under various symbolic images [figuris].152 Behold, he says, a door was opened in heaven. Appropriately, he to whom it was promised that he would see celestial mysteries sees the heavenly gate as he is about to ascend. Or else the door is Christ: he who believes that [Christ] was born and suffered, scales heaven, that is, the height of the Church, and (as he says) beholds things of spiritual power to come.153

147 Primasius 3.180-181, based on Tyconius 1.49: cf. Tur. fr. 110, Beatus 2.7.29.

148 Eph. 6:2.

149 Gregory, Mor. 26.53 (1307.34-37).

150 Primasius 3.186-187.

151 Primasius 3.189-191, based on Tyconius (cf. Tur. fr. 114, echoed in Beatus T. 3).

152 Tyconius 2.1 (129); cf. Tur. fr. 116, replicated almost verbatim in Primasius 4.5-6 and Beatus 3.1.3. The Tur. fr. break off here and pick up again at Rev. 7:16.

153 Tyconius 2.2 (129-130); cf. Primasius 4.6-9, Beatus 3.1.3-4. The word 'height' (altitudinem) however is found only in Caesarius 219.5-6, 10-12.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[And the first voice which I heard, speaking with me like a trumpet, said: Come up here and I will show you the things which take place after this.][4:2] And immediately I was in the spirit.

And the first voice which I heard is the same as the earlier voice that had said, What you see, write in a book.154

And, behold, a throne set in heaven, and one seated upon the throne.

The Lord inhabits the Church, placed in its heavenly abode.155 Pope Gregory interprets the throne of God in the vision of Micaiah as the angelic powers.

He who presides over their minds on high, disposes all things below.156

[4:3] And he who sat there looked like jasper and sard.

The colour of jasper signifies water; that of sard, fire. We know that judgement is to be attended by these two [elements].157 For as in the days of Noah, so shall also shall the coming of the Son of Man be.158

And Around the throne, a rainbow that looked like an emerald.

The rainbow, /279/ which occurs when the sun shines upon clouds, and was first produced after the Flood as a sign of propitiation, means that the Church will be protected by the intercession of the saints whom the Lord illumines.159 It is appropriate to compare them to the emerald, a stone of an intense green colour,160 for the more perfect the faith with which they await an inheritance which shall not fade away, the more mightily they protect others by their prayer.

[4:4] And round the throne were twenty-four seats; and upon the thrones, sat twenty-four elders, …

154 Rev. 1:11.

155 Cf. Primasius 4.8-10.

156 Gregory, Mor. 2.20 (83.75-77): cf. In Ez. 1.7.20 (111.399–112.405); for the vision of Micaiah, see 3 Kings (1 Kings) 22:19.

157 Primasius 4.32-33, ultimately from Victorinus/Jerome 4.2 (47.16-20); cf. Caesarius

219.15-18, Beatus 3.2.10. Bede compares jasper to water in his exegesis of Rev. 21:19, below.

158 Matt. 24:37.

159 Primasius 4.35-40; cf. Bede, DNR 31 (220.2-221.4) for an explanation of the physical phenomenon of the rainbow, and Bede, In Gen. 2 (135.2243-2244) for its religious significance.

160 Isidore, Etym. 16.7.1. Compare to the opening sentence of Bede's comments on the emerald in Rev. 21:19, below.

BOOK ONE The Church, which he saw seated on one throne because of the community of faith, he now sees on twenty-four seats, being generated through both testaments by the patriarchs and prophets;161 and it is seated because of its judicial dignity in Christ.162 For all the members shall sit and pass judgement, but in and through one Head. For how can the saints sit in judgement,

[if they are] standing at the right hand of the Judge? 163 The twenty-four elders can also be understood as those who accomplish the perfection of their work (which the number six commemorates) in the radiant preaching of the Gospel. For four times six makes twenty-four.164 clothed in white garments, and on their heads, crowns of gold.

That is, clothed with good works, seeking heavenly joys by mindfulness of the everlasting Mind; for often the word 'head' is used to mean 'mind'.165

[4:5] And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning, and voices, and claps of thunder. /281/

This is what Mark says: And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by signs following.166

And before the throne there were seven lamps burning, which are the seven Spirits of God.

He calls the one Spirit sevenfold, for there is one Spirit;167 but to be sevenfold is perfection and plenitude.168 The water of baptism aptly follows on the commemoration of the Holy Spirit, for in it, it is believed, the Spirit is received.169

[4.6] And before the throne, as it were a sea of glass, like crystal; … Baptism is compared to glass, because of faith in the truth, in which nothing

161 This sentence fuses elements of Primasius 4.47-48 and Victorinus/Jerome 4.4 (51.6-7).

162 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum V (see Appendix).

163 Tyconius 2.5 (131); cf. Primasius 4.55-57, Beatus 3.2.29-30, and alluding to Matt. 19:28,

Luke 22:30.

164 Primasius 4.58-60, based on Augustine, DCD 11.30 (350.5-6).

165 Cf. Gregory, In Ez. 1.7.10 (89.217); Mor. 3.49 (146.18-19) and 12.64 (668.8-9).

166 Mark 16:20; quoted by Primasius 4.63-65.

167 Eph. 4:4.

168 Cf. Augustine, DCD 11.31 (350.2 and 351 24-27).

169 Primasius 4.75-78. The ultimate source may be Tyconius: cf. echoes in Caesarius 220.3 and Beatus 3.2.42.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

is seen on the outside which differs from that which is on the inside.170 Also, the grace of baptism is symbolized by crystal, which is made from water which is turned into ice and then into a precious stone.171 and in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.

The light of the Gospel fills all the parts of the throne of God – that is, of the Church – with the knowledge of things past and to come.172

[4:7] And the first living creature like a lion; and so forth [and the second living creature like a calf; and the third living creature having the face, as it were, of a man; and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.] These animals are interpreted in many ways.173 St Augustine, following the order of this book, says that Matthew is to be understood in the lion, for he rehearses the genealogy of royal dignity in Christ, who has prevailed as a lion of the tribe of Judah.174 For Judah is a lion's cub.175 And in [Matthew's gospel] he is feared by a king as a king, and is adored by the Magi.176 [In Matthew's gospel] the king settles accounts with his servants,177 /283/ the king makes a marriage feast for his son,178 and in the end, the king separates the sheep from the goats.179 Luke is symbolized by the calf, the great offering under the Law. For not only does he begin with the Temple and its sacrifices, but he ends like this: And they were continually in the temple, praising and giving thanks to God.180 The face of the man symbolizes Mark who, saying nothing of the Lord's royal or priestly power, simply tells the deeds of Christ as a man.181 The eagle is John, who with great insight perceived the birth of 170 Primasius 4.81-83.

171 Cf. Isidore, Etym. 16.13.1, who drew this explanation from Pliny, HN 37.9.23 (180).

172 Caesarius 220.9; Beatus 3.3.19-21, and (more loosely) Primasius 4.139-146 (this last not in Gryson's apparatus). The ultimate source (at least for the idea of knowledge of past and future) is Tyconius 2.8 (132).

173 Cf. Primasius 4.161-162.

174 Rev. 5:5.

175 Gen. 49:9, quoted by Primasius 4.174.

176 Cf. Matt. 2.1-19. The king by whom Christ was feared was Herod.

177 Matt. 18:23.

178 Matt. 22:2

179 Matt. 25:31 sqq.

180 Luke 24:53.

181 'These animals …as a man': Augustine, Tractatus in Iohannem 36.5 (327.10-35): cf. De consensu evangelistarum 1.6 (9-10). Gryson cites the first only. Bede probably encountered this material in Primasius 4.166-199, because he reproduced the quotation from Gen. 49:9 (see above,

BOOK ONE the Word as a risen sun.182 The animals signify both the Evangelists and the Church as a whole, whose fortitude is shown in the lion, sacrifice in the calf, humility in the man, and sublimity in the flying eagle.183

[4:8] And each of them had six wings; … By the perfection of their teaching they raise the Church to the heights. The number six is called perfect because it is the first which is the sum of its factors: 1 (which is 1/6 of 6), 2 (which is 1/3) and 3 (which is 1/2) make up 6.184 Another way: the six wings of the four animals, which are twentyfour, suggest the total number of books in the Old Testament, on which the authority of the Gospels rests, and by which their truth is proved.185 and full of eyes round about and within.

Before God and man, Holy Church pays careful heed to itself. The Psalmist observes her inner eyes when he says, All the glory of the king's daughter is within, and her outer ones /285/ when he adds, in golden borders, clothed round about with many colours.186 Another way [of interpreting this passage is]: whether you attend to the letter or seek the allegory, you will always find light from the Gospel. Another translation has it full of eyes in front and behind.187 For the light of the Gospel shines into the riddles of the Law, and pours out the radiance of new grace to the world.188 n. 175) found in Primasius but not in Augustine. However, he then consulted the original text of De consensu evangelistarum, from which he culled other details, such as the reference to Herod and the Magi. This assignment of the living creatures to the evangelists differs from the conventional one, in that Mark is usually represented as the lion and Matthew as the man. Bede refers to the criticism he incurred over this passage in the prologue to In Lucam, prol. 7.123–10.214. See

Introduction, p. 26.

182 Primasius 4.171-172.

183 Primasius 4.173-178, 188-191, ultimately from Tyconius 2.10 (133): cf. Caesarius

220.9-16, Beatus 3.3.22-27.

184 Cf. Augustine, DCD 11.30 (350.5-9), Gregory, Mor. 35.42 (1802.151-156, Isidore, Etym.

3.5.11 or Liber numerorum 7.28, ed. Jean-Yves Guillaumin (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2005), pp.

35–37; cf. Bede, DTR 8. The perfection of the number six is alluded to very briefly by Primasius

4.58-59. Gryson suggests that the ultimate source might be Tyconius because there is a parallel in Beatus 4.5.3, but admits that this is something of a patristic commonplace.

185 Primasius 4.229-234; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 4.4 (51.4-6). There are, of course, many more than 24 books in the Old Testament, but Victorinus/Jerome specifies that this is the total number of the books of the Law (5) and the Prophets (19, including Apocrypha).

186 Based on Gregory, Mor. 19.20 (971.50-59), including embedded quotation from Psalm

44:14-15 (45:13–14).

187 The source of this 'other translation' is Primasius 4.224-225, who cites the received text of the Vulgate as an alia translatio.

188 Cf. Primasius 4.234-235.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

And they rest not day and night saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, [who was, and is, and is to come].

Throughout all time the holy animals testify to the sole dominion of the Godhead, the omnipotence and eternity of the holy Trinity, with the eternal praise of the intellectual creation which abides in heaven.189

[[4:9] And, whenever those living creatures gave glory and honour and blessing to him who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,]

[4:10] The twenty-four elders fell down before the one sitting on the throne, and adored … When the animals are shouting out their praise – that is, when the Evangelists preach the dispensation of Christ – the whole Church, priests and people (for this is symbolized by the double twelve), at once fall on their face, and adore him who lives for ever and ever.190 and cast their crowns before the throne, [saying: [4:11]

You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power; because you have created all things, and because of your will they existed, and were created.] Ascribing to God what power and dignity they possess,191 for he made everything out of nothing. /287/

VI [5:1] And I saw in the right hand of him who sat upon the throne a book, written on the inside and on the outside, … This vision shows the mysteries of Holy Scripture, made plain to us by the incarnation of the Lord; its harmonious unity contains the Old Testament on the outside, so to speak, and the New [Testament] within.192 sealed with seven seals.

That is, either covered by the whole fullness of hidden mysteries,193 or written by the disposition of the sevenfold Spirit.

189 Primasius 4.241-242. Bede uses the example of this verse to illustrate the Biblical use of 'rest' as a synonym of 'cease' in In Gen. 1 (34.1027-1032); trans. Kendall, p. 98.

190 Primasius 4.249-254.

191 Primasius 4.260-261. Ultimately from Tyconius 2.13 (133); cf. Caesarius 221.13-14.

192 Tyconius 2.15 (133); cf. Primasius 5.4-6, Caesarius 221.23-24.

193 Primasius 5.19-20; ultimately from Tyconius 2.16 (133); cf. Caesarius 221.25, Beatus

3.4.92.

BOOK ONE [5:2] And I heard194 a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?

He refers to preaching the law.195 For many just men and prophets desired to see what the apostles saw,196 and as Peter says, Concerning this salvation, the prophets have enquired and diligently searched.197 In Isaiah, this is the book which cannot be opened for the literate or the illiterate, though even there, its opening is proclaimed in this way: And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book.198 Ezekiel also speaks of it: And I looked, and behold, a hand was extended towards me in which was a book rolled up; and he spread it before me: and it was written within and without. Thereupon he adds what

John passes over in silence, namely, what was written in the book, saying, and there were written in it lamentations and canticles and woe.199 For the whole sequence of the Old and New Testament warns that penance should be done for sins, the kingdom of heaven should be sought, and the wailing of hell escaped. /289/ [5:3] And no one was able, neither in heaven nor on earth nor under the earth, to open the book, …

No angel, no righteous man, not even one who is released from the body of the flesh could uncover or investigate the mystery of the divine law, nor to look into it – that is, contemplate the splendour of grace of the New

Testament. Similarly, the children of Israel could not look upon the face of him who bore the Old Testament, which contains the New.200

[5:4] And I wept much, [because no one was found worthy to open the book, nor to see it.] He mourns, knowing well the common misery of human kind.

[5:5] And one of the elders said to me: Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, [the root of David,] has prevailed [to open the book and to break its the seven seals.]

194 audivi in the MSS of the Commentary; the received text of the Vulgate reads vidi;

Sparks, p. 455.

195 Cf. Primasius 5.486.

196 Matt. 13:17.

197 1 Pet. 1:10.

198 Isa. 29:11-12, 18.

199 Ezek. 2:9-10.

200 Tyconius 2.18 (134), including allusion to Exod. 34:29-35: cf. Caesarius 222.10-11,

Primasius 5.498-514, Beatus 3.4.98; cf. 2 Cor. 3:13.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

He is forbidden to weep because that which for a long time lay under a mystery is now fulfilled in Christ's passion, for when the spirit left him the veil of the temple was rent.201 To him is it said, Judah is a lion's whelp; to the prey, my son, you are gone up.202 He goes on to describe how and where the Lion of Judah conquered.203

[5:6] And I saw in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders, a Lamb standing, as though slain, … The same Lord who became a lamb by his innocent death, also became a lion in mightily overcoming death.204 Tyconius says that the Lamb is the Church, which has received all power in Christ.205 having seven horns and seven eyes; [which are the seven

Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.] The sevenfold Spirit /291/ in Christ is compared to horns, because of the eminence of his gifts, and to eyes, because of the illumination of grace.206

[5:7] And he came and took the book from the right hand of him who sat upon the throne.

The Son of Man is said to have taken the book from the right hand of God, that is, the dispensation of the Incarnation given from the Father and from himself, in that he is God, for they both, together with the Holy Spirit, sit upon the throne. For Christ, who in [his] humanity is the lamb, is in his

201 Cf. Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45.

202 Gen. 49:9; quoted in Primasius 5.524-526.

203 Tyconius 2.21 (134), cf. Beatus 3.4.102.

204 Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 108. 26 (CCSL 40, p. 1599.25-29). Cf. Primasius

5.526-527; Bede, Capitula lectionum VI (see Appendix).

205 Tyconius 2.22 (135); cf. Primasius 5.538-540, 543-545, Caesarius 222.20-21, and Beatus

3.4.105-106. It is noteworthy that here, and in the following verses, Bede does not seem particularly emphatic that the Lamb is a figura of Christ. Celia Chazelle argues that during the early decades of the eighth century, Wearmouth-Jarrow was watching closely developments in Rome, where Pope Sergius I (687–701) had rejected the Quinisext Council in Trullo, notably its canon

82, which ordered images of Christ to be substituted for his symbol, the Lamb: 'Christ and the Vision of God', p. 99. Sergius even introduced the Agnus Dei into the Roman Mass, an innovation reflected on the outermost fringes of Northumbria on the Ruthwell Cross: see Éamonn Ó

Carragáin, 'The Necessary Distance: Imitatio Romae and the Ruthwell Cross', Northumbria's

Golden Age, pp. 191–192. Bede's monastery was without doubt alert to all these developments, but this specific issue seems to have left no trace on Bede's treatment of the figure of the Lamb.

206 Primasius 5.548-549, 562-563.

BOOK ONE divinity the right hand of God.207

[5:8] And, when he had opened the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each of them having harps and golden vials [full of fragrant substances; which are the prayers of saints.208] Although the Lord showed that all the proclamations of both Testaments are fulfilled by his Passion, the Church, giving thanks, also offers itself in suffering, so that as the Apostle says, it might fill up those sufferings that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in his flesh. The harps, in which the chords are held by wood, signify bodies ready for death; the vials, hearts spread wide by the breadth of charity.209

[5:9] And they sang a new song, saying: you are worthy, O Lord, to take the book and to open its seals; [because you were slain …] They celebrate the mysteries [sacramenta] of the New Testament fulfilled in Christ,210 praising that same dispensation which they confess belongs to Christ alone.211 /293/ and have redeemed us to God in your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation; [[5:10]

And have made us a kingdom and priests unto our God; and we shall reign on earth.] Here the elders and the living creatures are more plainly proclaimed to be the Church212 which is redeemed by Christ's blood and gathered together from the nations. He even shows in what heaven they are, saying: 213 And they shall reign on the earth.

[5:11] And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living

207 Primasius 5.574-579. Ultimately from Tyconius 2.24 (135); cf. Caesarius 222.25-30 and Beatus 3.4.113.

208 Bede refers to this section of v. 8 in his Hom. 2.10 (247.22-30; trans. Martin and Hurst, p. 89), comparing the Elders to the women bearing spices to the tomb on Easter morning.

209 Primasius 5.587-592 quoting Col. 1:24.; cf. Caesarius 223.7-8; Beatus 3.4.118. The ultimate source is Victorinus/Jerome 5.3 (67.11-13).

210 Caesarius 223.3-7. Gryson argues that Tyconius 2.25 (136) is the ultimate source.

211 Primasius 5.628-630.

212 Primasius 5.630-631. Ultimately from Tyconius 2.25 (136); cf. Beatus 3.4.121.

213 Tyconius 2.25 (136); cf. Primasius 5.632-633, Beatus 3.4.121.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

creatures and the elders [and they numbered thousands of thousands], Countless thousands of peoples, pouring into the Church, praise God, to whom all power in heaven and earth is given.214 For if the sons of God are called 'just', why not the angels as well? However, the celestial army could also celebrate by rejoicing in our redemption.215 Pope St Gregory explains it thus, saying, the voice of the angels is the very wonderment of inward contemplation in the praise of the Creator.216

[[5:12 Saying with a loud voice: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and godhead and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. [5:13] And I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them, saying: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever.][5:14] And the four living creatures said: Amen. And the four and twenty ancients fell down and adored him that liveth for ever and ever.

While the peoples praise God in the Church, the teachers affirm the same thing, and to set an example, worship the Lord together [with them].

VII [6:1] And I saw that the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals; /295/ … First the seals are broken and then the book is opened: he has reversed the usual order for a specific reason.217 For the Lord, suffering and rising again, showed that he was the end of the Law. Ascending into heaven, he strengthened the Church by bestowing on it a more secret mystery in sending the Holy Spirit. 218 Therefore he opened the book then, and he breaks its seals now. In the first seal is seen the glory of the primitive Church; in the next three, the threefold war waged against her;219 in the fifth, the glory of those who triumph in this war; in the sixth, those things which are to come in the 214 Matt. 5:18.

215 Primasius 5.646-650. Ultimately from Tyconius 2.26 (136); cf. Caesarius 223.11, Beatus

3.4.123.

216 Gregory, Mor. 2.7.10 (65.53-54).

217 Primasius 5.490-491.

218 Cf. Primasius 5.492-498.

219 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum VII (see Appendix); cf. below, Bede's exegesis of Rev. 7:1.

BOOK ONE time of Antichrist; and briefly recapitulating what was said before, in the seventh he discerns the beginning of the eternal rest.220 and I heard one of the four living creatures Saying,

[with a voice like thunder,]: Come and see.

We also are summoned by the great voices of the Gospel to behold the glory of the Church.221

[6:2] And I saw; and, behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him had a bow, and a crown given to him: and he went forth as a conqueror to conquer.

The Lord rules over the Church,222 which is washed whiter than snow by grace,223 and bearing the weapons of spiritual doctrine against the wicked, he receives in his followers a crown as victor.224 Of him it is said, he received gifts in men.225 In these [men], even though he governs from heaven,226 he was persecuted by Saul.227

220 On the Tyconian character of this summary, see Steinhauser, The Apocalypse Commentary of Tyconius, p. 129. Bede understands the vision of the Seven Seals as referring to the whole history of the Church throughout the Sixth Age, but only pins the first, sixth and seventh to precise periods; the others symbolize recurring or generic events: see R.W. Southern, 'Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing: 3. History as Prophecy', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 22 (1972): 164–165. This historical reading was introduced by Bede into the exegetical tradition: see Robert E. Lerner, 'The Medieval Return to the Thousand-Year

Sabbath', The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, pp. 54–55. It would be made more explicit and distinct in the twelfth century, and would be incorporated into the Glossa ordinaria: Robert E.

Lerner, 'Refreshment of the Saints: The Time after Antichrist as a Station for Earthly Progress in Medieval Thought', Traditio 32 (1976): 116. See also n. 347 re: exegesis of Rev. 8:1 below.

For a useful introduction to the tradition of exegesis of the Seven Seals, see Francis C. Gumerlock, The Seven Seals of the Apocalypse: Medieval Texts in Translation (Kalamazoo: Western

Michigan University Press, 2008).

221 Gryson's apparatus refers to Primasius 6.56-57, but Primasius interprets the animal as the church itself, not the Gospel.

222 Bede picks up these themes again in De tab. 1 (15.414-417): 'Surely the white horse is the church. The rider who was commanding it is the Lord. He had a bow because he was coming to make war against the powers of the air; and a crown of victory was given to him because in dying he overthrew the reign of death' (trans. Holder, p. 14). The word-play linking arcus ('bow') and archa ('ark') is noted by Holder (p. 14, n. 2) and by William C. Weinrich,

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Vol. 12: Revelation, p. 83.

223 Cf. Primasius 6.62-64, quoting Ps. 50:9 (51.7). The ultimate source is Tyconius 2.32

(137); cf. Caesarius 223.27–224.1.

224 The sense of this passage matches Primasius 5.579-581.

225 Ps. 67:19 (68:18).

226 caelo praesidens: Gregory, In Ez. 2.5.11 (284.295-296). Bede seems to have liked this turn of phrase, for he repeats it in his In Prov. 1 (279).

227 I.e. Paul, prior to his conversion: Acts 8:1-3, 9:1.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[6:3] [And when he had opened the second seal,] I heard the second living creature say: Come and see.

He is bidden to pay close attention to the opposing horseman /297/ so that he may receive from this foreknowledge a warning of the Church's adversity, just as he took joy in her prosperity.228

[6:4] And there went out another horse, one that was red.

Against the victorious and conquering Church a red horse went forth, that is, a sinister people, bloodied by the Devil who rides upon it. Nonetheless, we read in Zechariah that the Lord's horse is red; but that one is red with his own blood, while this one [is red] with another's.229

And he that sat upon was given leave to take peace from the earth, [and that men should kill one another; …]

That is, [take away earth's] own [peace], for the Church received the eternal peace which Christ left her.230 and a great sword was given to him.

…against those whom he makes either apostates from the faith, or martyrs.

Concerning this it was said to blessed Job, he who made [Behemoth], he will apply his sword,231 that is, so that this wicked one shall not try the saints as much as he would wish, or so that the vengeance of his fury should be turned back on himself.

[6:5] [And, when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: Come and see.] And, behold, a black horse.

And he who sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand. [[6.6] And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying:] The black horse is the troop of false brothers, who hold the scales of correct profession [of the faith], but who harm their companions by the works of 228 Primasius 6.71-75.

229 Tyconius 2.33 (138), referring to Zech. 1:8; cf. Caesarius 224.15-18, Primasius 6.78-81,

Beatus 4.1.5-7. The phrase populus sinister is characteristic of Tyconius (Gryson, 'Fragments inédits', p. 201).

230 Caesarius 224.19-21; cf. John 14:27. Gryson's apparatus indicates that the source is actually Tyconius 2.33, but there are no parallels in other witnesses, e.g. Beatus.

231 Job 40:19. Bede likens the rider on the red horse, i.e. the Devil, to Behemoth. On the identification of Behemoth as a type of Antichrist, see Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle

Ages, pp. 117–118.

BOOK ONE darkness. For when it is said in the midst of the animals, /299/ Do not harm, he who does the harm is shown to be there.232 Concerning the approach of this horse, the Apostle says, Combats without, fears within.233

Two pounds [bilibris] of wheat for a penny, and thrice two pounds of barley for a penny; and do not harm the wine and the oil.

Beware, he says, lest by your bad example you scandalize your brother for whom Christ has died,234 and who bears the insignia of the holy blood and chrism.235 For both those who are perfect with respect to their merits and also the very least – indeed, everyone in the Church who is imbued with the faith of the holy Trinity – all are redeemed by the same perfect price of the Lord's blood.236 The perfection of faith and works is appropriately expressed by a double measure [bilibris], and not just by a [single] measure, for both of these [i.e. faith and works] are rooted in two-fold charity.

[[6:7] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying: Come and see.] [6:8] And, behold, a pale horse; and he who sat upon him, his name was

Death. And hell followed him; … Worthy to be ridden by Death, heretics237 who dress themselves up238 as Catholics carry off in their train the host of those who are lost. The Devil and his ministers are called Death and Hell by metonymy,239 because they are the cause of death and hell for many. Or it can be simply taken that there

[in hell], eternal punishment follows those who here are spiritually dead.

232 Tyconius 2.34 (138); cf. Bud. fr. IIrb21-IIva11 (198), Caesarius 226.4-6, 11-16; less fully in Beatus 4.1.13-14. 'Do not harm …': Rev. 6:6.

233 2 Cor. 7:5.

234 1 Cor. 8:11.

235 Tyconius 2.34 (138-139): cf. Bud. fr. Ira1-2 (197), Caesarius 226.15-16, Primasius

6.114, Beatus 4.1.15. The word chrismatis is found in Caesarius but not the other sources, including the Budapest fragments of Tyconius.

236 Tyconius 2.34 (138-139); cf. Bud. fr. Irb8-10 (197, 206); cf. Caesarius 225.8-9, 226.1618, Primasius 6.91-92, 95-99. Cf. 1 Cor. 6:20, 1 Pet. 1:18.

237 The identification of the pale horse with heretics may come from Tyconius; cf. Beatus, pr. 4.8.

238 palliunt; a word-play on pallidus ('pale').

239 Bede defines metonymy in De schematibus et tropis 2.4 (155.53-62) as transnominatio, or substitution of an attribute for the proper name of the thing. In this case, the consequences of the Devil's activity, death and hell, stand for the Devil himself.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and power was given to him over all the four parts of the earth, [to kill with sword, with famine, with death and with the beasts of the earth.] Lo, the madness of Arius, which originated in Alexandria, reached all the way to the Gaulish sea [ad Gallicum usque peruenit oceanum],240 pursuing the faithful not only with a famine of God's word, but also with a physical sword, /301/ in bestial fashion. The other version reads a fourth part because the three evil horses, trusting in their rider the Devil, kick against the fourth horseman, who belongs to the Church.241

[6:9] [And when he had opened the fifth seal,] I saw under the altar the souls of those who were slain for the word of God [and for the testimony which they bore.]

He who had said that the Church would be afflicted in many ways in this present age, would also speak of the glory of souls after the suffering of their bodies.242 He says, 'I saw them under the altar', that is, in the secret place of eternal praise. A golden altar, placed within,243 close to the ark of the Lord's body, does not offer to God flesh and blood like the outer [altar], but the incense of praise alone. And they who now present their bodies a living sacrifice244 will then, when the bonds of the flesh are broken, sacrifice to him the sacrifice of praise.245 Or else this could be a hyperbaton, so that he did not see them under the altar, but rather they were killed under the altar, that is, beneath their witness to the Name of Christ. As it is said of the Maccabees, they fell under the testimony of God.246

240 Cf. HE 1.8, where Bede remarks that Arianism came from across the Ocean and infected the island of Britain. See Introduction, pp. 55–57.

241 Tyconius 2.37 (140), cf. Bud. fr. IIra13-20 (198); i.e. the North African Vetus Latina text, also cited by Primasius 6.122-139; Caesarius 226.21-23.

242 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum VII (see Appendix).

243 Primasius 6.187 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

244 Rom. 12:1.

245 Ps. 115(116):16-17. Bede is referring to the two altars of the Tabernacle and the Temple. The outer altar was where sacrifice was offered (Exod. 17:1, cf. De tab. 2.11; De tem. 2.17.6), while the first of two inner altars, closer to the Ark in the Holy of Holies, was for incense (Exod. 30:1-6, cf. De tab. 3.11; 3 Kings/1 Kings 7:48, cf. De tem. 2.22.1). A third altar, the altar of testimony, stood within the Holy of Holies, behind the Ark.

246 Tyconius 2.36 (142), cf. Bud. fr. IIIva9-vb16 (199-200). The phrase 'to the name of Christ' is taken from the parallel passage in Primasius 6.176-179. Bede quotes Tyconius's and not Primasius's version of 2 Macc. 7:36; cf. Gryson, 'Fragments inédits', p. 223. On hyperbaton, cf. Bede, De schematibus et tropis 2.10 (158.107–161.172). Bede defines hyperbaton as 'a modification which disturbs word order', and presents several subtypes. The subtype referred

BOOK ONE [6:10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying: … The great clamour of souls is their great desire for what they know the Lord wishes to do. 247 Nor is it fitting to believe that they would want anything contrary to God's will, since their desires depend on His will.248

How long, O Lord, Holy and True, will you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?

They do not /303/ pray thus out of hatred for their enemies, for whom they interceded in this world, but out of love for justice – and in this they are in agreement with the Judge whom they stand close to. They pray for the day of judgement, in which the reign of sin shall be destroyed, and the resurrection of the bodies of the dead take place. We likewise in this present time, though we are commanded to pray for our enemies, say when we pray to the Lord, Your kingdom come.249

[6:11] And white robes were given to each and every one of them … The souls of the saints, rejoicing in their blessed immortality, have each of them one robe already. But according to Isaiah they shall, in their resurrected bodies, possess a double portion in their land.250 and it was said to them that they should rest for a while until their fellow servants and their brethren [, who are to be slain like them,] should be filled up.

The longing for the resurrection is not denied, but it is postponed in order to augment [the number of] the brethren who are destined to be gathered in.251 For the white robes can symbolize the happiness of these souls, when by virtue of the Lord's revelation, they know both that the wicked will be damned in the end, and also that many will join their number through martyrdom, up to the end of the age. Filled with inner charity, and content with this solace, they prefer to postpone their joy for the time being, in order to make up the number of the brethren.252 to here is hysteriologia, or simple change of word order. He would have the sentence read:

'I saw the souls slain beneath the altar for the word of God'. See also exegesis of Rev. 13:8.

247 Cf. Gregory, Mor. 2.11 (66.74-89).

248 Primasius 6.210-212.

249 This entire passage is based on Primasius 6.195-199, quoting Matt. 6:8.

250 Isa. 61:7; cf. Gregory, Mor. praef. 20 (23.11-12), and 35.25 (1789.31–1790.39).

251 Gregory, Mor. 2.11 (190.3-5).

252 Primasius 6.204-208; cf. Augustine, DCD 10.21 (294.1–295.10). Bede restates this idea in his Hom. 2.12 (263.116-121; trans. Martin and Hurst, v. 111, p. 112); cf. Gregory, Dialogi 4.26.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

VIII [6:12] And I saw when he had opened the sixth seal; and, behold, there was a great earthquake, …

In the revelation of the sixth seal is announced the final persecution,253 and that the world will be struck by darkness and fear, just as it was when the Lord was crucified on the sixth day [of the week]. /305/ and the sun became black [as sackcloth of hair; …]

It is as if the power of Christ were hidden, or [his] teaching temporarily obscured, or veiled in order to protect it when the ministers of Antichrist are permitted to attack the servants of Christ.254 and the whole moon became as blood.

More than ever, the Church pours out its blood for Christ. He says 'whole' because the final earthquake will be throughout the world, while before that, as it is written [there will be earthquakes] in [many particular] places.255

[6:13] And the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree sheds its unripe fruit when it is shaken by a great wind.

Those who outwardly appear to shine as celestial beings in the Church, will be proven to be earthly when they are shaken by the wind of that final persecution. Their works are appropriately compared to the plump but unripe, useless, and fallen fruit of the fig tree.256

[6:14] And the heaven vanished like a book that is rolled up; … Just as a book when it is rolled up contains secrets within, but nothing is visible on the outside, so the Church at that time, known to its own people alone, will prudently avoid persecution by withdrawing, so that, hidden away, it will not be seen by those without.257

253 The ultimate source is Tyconius 2.37 (142), cf. Bud. fr. IIIvb13-14 (200), who in turn draws on Victorinus/Jerome 6.5 (77.5). There are parallels in Primasius 6.214-215; Caesarius

227.8; Beatus 4.3.1.

254 Primasius 6.223-225.

255 Tyconius 2.37 (142); cf. Caesarius 227.12-13, Beatus 4.3.4 (which includes embedded quotation from Matt. 24:7).

256 Tyconius 2.38: cf. Caesarius 227.18-20; Primasius 6.241-244; Beatus 4.3.10.

257 Primasius 6.249-256; cf. Caesarius 225.25-27 and 227.21-23; Beatus 4.3.11. Ultimately from Tyconius 2.39 (142).

BOOK ONE and every mountain and the islands were moved out of their places.

Referring to the members of the Church by the diverse nature of their functions and powers, he prophesies that no one will be exempt from this whirlwind.258 Rather, there will be a dissimilarity of movement: the good are warned to flee, while the bad must yield by complying.259

[6:15] And the kings of the earth, and the princes and tribunes, [and the rich and strong and every bondman and every freeman …] We take 'the kings' to be men of power, /307/ but he wants them to be understood as drawn from every class and condition. And besides, who will be kings then, save the persecutor alone?260

… hid themselves in the caves and rocks of moun tains; [6:16] And they say to the mountains and the rocks: Fall upon us … At that time, when all those who are weaker seek to be strengthened by the example of those who are most eminent in the Church, to be fortified by their advice, to be protected by their admonitions and to be sheltered by their prayers, they beseech them to fall upon them for compassion's sake, as if they were mountains. For the high hills are a refuge for the harts, and the rock for the hedgehogs.261 and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; So that when he comes, he shall find us not worthy of condemnation, but steadfast in our faith,262 with our sins covered up by the intercession of the saints and the mercy of God.263

[6:17] [For the great day of their wrath is come.] And who shall be able to stand?

He who even now will have bestirred himself to keep watch constantly, to stand fast in the faith, and to act manfully. For if you refer this earthquake

258 Primasius 6.269-271.

259 Tyconius 2.40 (143): cf. Caesarius 227.24-28; Primasius 6.261-266; Beatus 4.3.14-15.

260 Tyconius 2.41 (143): cf. Caesarius 227.30-32; Primasius 6.267-270; Beatus 4.3.18.

261 Primasius 6.280-285, including quotation from Ps. 103(104):18.

262 Primasius 6.298-299.

263 Tyconius 2.43 (143): cf. Beatus 4.3.23.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

literally to the day of judgement, it is not to be wondered that the kings and princes of this world in their terror seek refuge in the mountains of the saints, as we read happened already in the case of the rich man clad in purple and Lazarus the poor man.264

IX [7:1] After these things, I saw four angels standing265 on the four corners of the earth, … That is, the four principal kingdoms of the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.266 Just as he saw, in connection with the seals mentioned earlier, the joy of the victorious souls after the threefold struggle of the Church, so now /309/ he will show the reign of Antichrist through images [exemplis]. [Antichrist's] victory will follow that of the kingdoms of the world which precede it, and which have now yielded to the rule of Christ's Church.267 For strong cases must needs be supported by even stronger arguments. holding the four winds of the earth, so that they

[i.e. the winds] might not blow upon the earth or the sea or on any tree.

264 Cf. Luke 16:23-31. The parallel with Caesarius 228.4-5 (and consequent origin in Tyconius) adduced by Gryson in his apparatus for this verse seems strained.

265 The received Vulgate reading is stantes but Bede's text reads stare: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

266 It is noteworthy that Bede does not follow Primasius here, who identifies the four kingdoms as those of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians and Romans. Jerome identifies the four kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (In Dan.1.2.31-35 [794.389-401]) and Daniel's vision of the four beasts rising from the sea (2.7.2-7 [838.439–843.579]) as referring to the Babylonians, Medes/Persians, Macedonians and Romans (cf. Bede's exegesis of Rev. 13:2 below), but Augustine in DCD 20.23 (742.43) changes the sequence to the one Bede follows here.

The only change introduced by Bede is to alter Augustine's 'Macedonians' to 'Greeks' (cf. his change of 'Macedonian' to 'Greek' month names in DTR ch. 14: see C.W. Jones, 'Polemius

Silvius, Bede, and the Names of the Months', Speculum 9 (1934): 52). Bede's treatment of this passage is interesting, because unlike any of his sources, it can be construed to mean that the Roman Empire has ended, and been replaced by the Church. Since Antichrist has not appeared, this is puzzling. Again, in the exegesis of 7:3, Bede alludes to the vision of Daniel, as cited by Primasius, but does not reproduce Primasius's discussion relating the vision to the four worldempires. Possibly the de facto disappearance of the Roman Empire in the West allowed or obliged Bede to read the 'kingdoms of this world' in a more generic and less historical sense.

267 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum IX (see Appendix); cf. Augustine, DCD 20.23 (742.4250).

BOOK ONE Somehow stifling everything by his power, he allowed nothing to breathe on its own. 'Earth' signifies the various regions, 'the seas' the islands, and 'trees' the diverse quality and condition of men. The four angels may be understood in another way as identical to the four winds, following the prophecy of Daniel, who says, 'Behold the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea.'268

[7:2] And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God.

[This is] the Lord, born in the flesh, who is an angel of great counsel,269 the messenger of the Father's will, the day-spring from on high, [which] has visited us,270 carrying the banner of the cross, with which he seals the foreheads of those who belong to him.

And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, [to whom power was given to hurt the earth and the sea,]

The loud voice of the Lord is lofty preaching: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.271

[7:3] [Saying:] Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, … Since our Lord suffered, not only is the enemy's rule crushed, but so also

/311/ the rulership of this world, as we see with our eyes, and as we read concerning the statue which the stone from the mountain split.272 until we sign the servants of our God on their foreheads.

The rule [imperium] of the Gentiles is broken so that the face of the saints may be freely inscribed with the sign of the faith that [the Gentiles] resist.

For this sign of the cross stands for the kingdom of our Lord, extended everywhere.273 As the old couplet goes:

268 Primasius 7.5-6,15-16, 9-12, quoting Dan. 7:2-3, probably via Tyconius 2.44 (146), as the same verse is cited in this context by Beatus 4.4.1, 4.

269 Cf. Isa. 9:6, quoted by Primasius 7.20.

270 Luke 1:78.

271 Primasius 7.25-26, 30-31, incorporating quotation from Matt. 3:2. However, Primasius does not identify the voice as the Lord's.

272 Cf. Primasius 7.34-35, alluding to Dan. 2:34, 45. The opening phrase, however, is from Tyconius 2.47 (147); cf. Beatus 4.4.14.

273 The scribes of Erfurt, Stadtund Regionalbibliothek CA 4o 96 (Gryson's MS P, no. 30 in his inventory), St Gall Stiftsbibliothek 259 (Gryson's MS A, no. 86), and Stuttgart, Württem-

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

Look at the earth, divided into four distinct parts:

Thus you see that the sign of faith contains all things.274

Nor is it fortuitous that the Tetragrammaton, the Name of the Lord, is written on the forehead of the priest,275 because this is the sign on the forehead of the faithful, of which the Psalm for the winepresses sings: O Lord our Lord, how admirable is your name in the whole earth, etc., up to the point where he says that you may destroy the enemy and the defender.276

[7:4] And I heard the number of those who were signed. A hundred and forty-four thousand were signed, from every tribe of the sons of Israel.

In this finite number is signified the innumerable multitude of the whole Church,277 sprung from the patriarchs whether by fleshly descent, or by imitating [their] faith. For if you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham.278 This twelve, multiplied by twelve, refers to the increase of perfection, and is brought to a climax in a thousand, /313/ which is the number ten squared and cubed,279 signifying the steadfast life of the Church.

For this reason [the Church] is often symbolized by the number twelve, because it dwells throughout the fourfold sphere [of the world] in the faith of the holy Trinity.280 For three times four is ten-plus-two [decus dipondius].281

Twelve apostles were elected to preach this faith to the world, symbolizing in this number the mystery of their work.282 bergische Landesbibliothek HB VII 41 (Gryson's MS S, no. 91), added in the margin beside this passage a cross with the four cardinal directions at the end of the arms.

274 No literary source for this distich has been traced. Gryson speculates that it may be from an inscription, perhaps on a monumental cross. Bede could have copied it himself, or found the poem in an anthology of inscriptions and epitaphs (Bede ed. Introduction, p. 165).

275 Exod. 28:36. Cf. Bede's De tab. 3 (114.819-823, trans. Holder, p. 131) where Bede interprets the four letters of the Tetragrammaton as an allusion to both the cross inscribed on the foreheads of the baptised, and the mark on the foreheads of the faithful in Rev. 14:1 and 22:3-4.

276 Ps. 8:1(2), 3.

277 Primasius 7.54-55. Ultimately from Tyconius 2.48 (148); cf. Beatus 4.5.1.

278 Gal. 3:29.

279 Cf. Augustine, DCD 20.7 (710.65-67).

280 Cf. Primasius 7.54-58; Caesarius 273.23-26 (re: Rev. 21:13) for the reference to the orbis. See also Bede, In Lucam 2 (1270-1277); In Marcum 1 (1278-1281); De tab. 3 (112.752755); De tem. 2 (210.715-725).

281 Primasius 7.55-56.

282 The allusion to the apostles and preaching is Bede's very characteristic addition, and replaces Primasius's correspondence between the number 12 and the proportions of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

BOOK ONE [7:5] from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand signed and so forth. [Of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand signed. [7:6] Of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand signed. [7:7] Of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand signed. [7:8] Of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand signed.]283

He begins, appropriately, with Judah, for our Lord sprang from this tribe ,284 and he passes over Dan, from which [tribe] it is said Antichrist is to be born.285 As it is written, Let Dan be a snake in the path, an adder in the path that bites the horse's heels, that his rider may fall backwards.286 For he has chosen to describe the virtues of the Church according to the meaning of the names [of the patriarchs], not [according to] the sequence of earthly generations287 – the Church which hastens from present confession and praise to the right hand of eternal life. This is what the names of Judah, who is first, and Benjamin, who is placed last, /315/ mean. Therefore Judah, which means 'confession' or 'praise',288 is placed first, because no one attains the pinnacle of good works without confession. And unless we renounce evil deeds through confession, we shall not be instructed in righteous ones.289

The second is Reuben, which means 'seeing the son'.290 The Psalmist attests that 'sons' signifies 'works'; enumerating the blessings of the saintly man, he says (amongst other things), Your sons are as olive plants, and later, And 283 Some early MSS do not truncate the lemma as shown here, e.g. Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek HB VII 41 (Gryson's MS S, no. 91 in his inventory), Karlsruhe,

Badische Landesbibliothek Aug. CLIII (Gryson's MS G, no. 41), and Durham A IV 28

(Gryson's MS D, no. 23). Karlsruhe also flags the patriarchs by numerals in the margin, after the manner of the embedded chapter numbers for the Seven Churches. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 12284 (Gryson no. 76) expands on this by numbering and briefly labelling the patriarchs and the etymologies of their names in the margin, e.g. 'I. IVDAS CONFESSIO VEL

LAVS', 'SECVNDVS RVBEN VIDENS FILIVM', etc.

284 Cf. Primasius 7.72-75; (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 211.14-15.

285 Cf. Primasius 11.90; with parallel in (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 211.17-18. This was a patristic commonplace: e.g. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 5.30.2. See Introduction, p. 80.

286 Gen. 49:17.

287 Cf. Primasius 7.75-78.

288 Primasius 7.83-84.

289 Primasius 7.119-121; cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 160.3.

290 Primasius 7.85-86; cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 160.3.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

may you see your sons' sons.291 It is not that he who fears the Lord cannot be blessed unless he generate sons and bring up grandchildren, since a better reward awaits faithful virgins; rather, by 'sons' [Scripture] means 'works' and by 'sons' sons' the fruits of these works, that is, an eternal reward.

Therefore Reuben comes after Judah; that is, the perfection of action follows after the beginning of divine confession and praise.292

But because we must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God,293 after Reuben comes Gad, which means 'temptation' or 'girded'.294

After the beginning of good works, a man must be tested by greater temptations, and girded for sterner warfare, so that the fortitude of his faith can be tested. As Solomon says, Son, when you come to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation. And again the Psalmist: You have girded me with strength for battle.295 And because we count them blessed who have endured,296 after Gad is placed Asher, that is, 'blessed', and the sequence is quite appropriate. Blessed is the man that endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life.297 /317/ Because they are not anxious, being secure in the sure promise of this blessedness, but rather rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,298 they sing with the Psalmist, In tribulation you have enlarged me,299 and again, I have run the way of your commandments, when you did enlarge my heart. And exulting with the mother of holy Samuel, they say,

My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I have rejoiced in your salvation. That is why Naphtali follows, for it means 'breadth'.300

But Manasseh follows him, which means 'forgetting' or 'necessity'.301 By the mystery of this name we are admonished that, schooled by the anguish of these present temptations, and forgetting what is past, we should (according to the Apostle) so strain302 towards those things which lie ahead that we shall confine our care of the body strictly to what is necessary for the human

291 Ps. 127(128):3, 6.

292 Cf. Primasius 7.250-252.

293 Acts 14:21, quoted in Primasius 7.255-256, 258-259.

294 Primasius 7.192-193; cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 160.19.

295 Primasius 7.261-263, 265-267, quoting Ecclus. 2:1 and Ps. 17:40 (18:39).

296 James 5:11.

297 Primasius 7.267-268, 271, quoting James 1:12.

298 Rom. 12:12.

299 Ps. 4:2 (4:1).

300 Primasius 7.276-277, quoting Ps. 118(119):32. However, the reference to 1 Kings/1

Sam. 2:1 seems to be an original touch by Bede.

301 Primasius 7.284; for the first etymology, see Jerome, Lib. int. 160.26.

302 Primasius 7.278-279, quoting Phil. 3:13.

BOOK ONE condition, and make no provision for the flesh in its desires.303 Sighing for better things, the Psalmist prays for this: Deliver me from my necessities.304

He places Simeon next,305 that is, 'he heard of sorrow',306 or 'the name of a dwelling place', so that by the nature of this name he might teach more plainly both what is to be possessed here, and what it would be well to anticipate later. The joy of a heavenly dwelling place will be given to those whose souls are saddened here with fruitful penance. To them it is said,

'your sorrow shall be turned into joy'.307

Then Levi, which means 'added on', is listed. By this we understand either those who purchase eternal goods with temporal ones – as Solomon

/319/ says, 'The ransom of a man's life are his riches'308 – or those who, following God's counsel, 'receive a hundredfold in this life, with tribulation, but in the world to come, life everlasting'.309 This scripture applies to them: 'He that increases knowledge increases sorrow'.310 For the bitterness of tribulation was added even for blessed Job, so that reward might be given more abundantly to one who had been tested. So, not inappropriately,

Issachar, which means 'it is a reward', follows him in due sequence.311 For as the Apostle says, 'The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us'.312 Battle is waged more effectively where one can hope for a sure reward. God works and accomplishes this in the 'habitation of strength', which is what Zebulon means, when 'power is made perfect in infirmity'.313 [God does this] so that the body, which its enemies imagine to be infirm, and through whose matter they labour to introduce the soul's destruction, is proved by God's strengthening action to be invincible, and a happy increase follows.

The name of Joseph indicates this, which designates the 'gifts of grace which will be added on'. You could understand it to refer to the double return of talents as interest on spiritual commodities, or you may take it

303 Primasius 7.280-281, quoting Rom. 13:14.

304 Primasius 7.288, quoting Ps. 24(25):17.

305 From this point until 'vesture of gold', Bede is quoting verbatim from Primasius 7.288322. All Biblical references in the notes below are included in this quotation.

306 Cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 160.5-6.

307 John 16:20.

308 Prov. 13:8.

309 Cf. Matt. 19:29, Mark 10:30.

310 Eccles. 1:18.

311 Cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 160.2.

312 Rom. 8:18.

313 2 Cor. 12:9.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

as those things offered up to God the redeemer by the devoted piety of the faithful. /321/ And now, so that you may understand that both the sequence and the translation of the names show that all these, positioned here in a meaningful way, will be at the right hand of Christ the eternal king in the coming judgement, Benjamin, which means 'son of the right hand',314 is put in the final place, as I said previously. As he is at the end of the sequence, so also when death, the last enemy is destroyed,315 the bliss of an eternal inheritance shall be given to the elect. Either each of the faithful shall be rightfully called 'son of the right hand', or the whole community of the Church, of whom we sing, 'The queen stands at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety.'316

Thus twelve thousand from each tribe are signed, because howsoever faithful individuals advance in virtue, it is always necessary for them to be strengthened by the faith of the fathers, and educated by their example.317

Because the number twelve denotes the number of the patriarchs and apostles, beyond doubt it often refers to the teachers as well, and often to the condition [formam] of the whole Church. For those who are praiseworthy in confession like Judah; or who are outstanding in the fruit of works like

Reuben; or like Gad are mighty in battling temptation; or like Asher rejoice in victory in conflict; or who are 'enlarged' to the generous works of mercy like Naphtali; or like Manasseh are unconcerned with what is past; or like

Simeon are sad in this vale of tears (as it were) but ever rejoicing in the name of the heavenly dwelling /323/ and sighing for Jerusalem; or who like Levi rejoice in the promises of this life and the life to come, grounded in the eternal good, with temporal goods in addition; or like Issachar are strengthened by the contemplation of future reward; or who like Zebulon lay down their souls for Christ; or like Joseph are always eager for the increase of their spiritual substance and who offer something extra above and beyond what God commands – either virginity, or the greatness of their abilities; or who like Benjamin wait with unflagging devotion for the right hand of eternal bliss 318 – it is appropriate that each of these in their profession, according to the rule of the fathers who have gone before, be signed with the number twelve, and that the perfect beauty of the Church to the sum of one hundred and forty-four thousand be collected, so to speak, from the merits of each individual.

314 Cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 159.14-15.

315 Cf. 1 Cor. 15:26.

316 Ps. 44(45):9.

317 Virtually the same phrase is found in Bede, In Gen. 2 (138.2365–139.2367).

318 Primasius 7.349-363.

BOOK ONE X [7:9] After this, I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, … After the recapitulation, which it inserted by way of example, [Scripture] returns to the order [of the narrative],319 and proclaims the glory of those who shall vanquish the evil of the final persecution.320 And because this follows – from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, [standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, …] – it can be understood also in this way: after enumerating the tribes of Israel, to whom the Gospel was first preached, he wishes to mention the salvation of the gentiles as well.321 clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands.

By the robes, he indicates baptism, and by the palms, the triumph of the Cross, and that these /325/ people have overcome the world in Christ.

However, the robes could also signify the radiance bestowed by the Holy Spirit.322

[7:10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.

With a great voice – that is, with mighty devotion and ceaseless praise – they proclaim that the Father reigns together with the Son upon the throne.

Nonetheless, he reigns together with the Holy Spirit. For thus it says, 'To him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb', as it is said in the Gospel,

'That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you 319 Primasius 11.222-224.

320 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum X (see Appendix).

321 Cf. Primasius 7.451-454.

322 Primasius 7.459-462. Bede approaches the exegesis of 7:9 in a much more exultant strain in Hom. 1.10: 'For now they stand before God's throne, crowned, who once lay, worn down by pain, before the thrones of earthly judges. They stand in the sight of the Lamb, and for no cause can they be separated from contemplating his glory there, since here they could not be separated from his love through punishments. They shine in white robes and have palms in their hands, who possess the rewards for their works; while they get back their bodies, glorified through resurrection, which for the Lord's sake they suffered to be scorched by flames, torn to pieces by beasts, worn out by scourges, broken by falls from high places, scraped by hoofs and completely destroyed by every form of punishment'. (71.128–72.13; trans. Martin and Hurst, pp. 100–101).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

have sent'. What is understood, is that they may know the one, true God.323

[7:11] And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the [four]324 living creatures.

By all the angels he designates the great multitude of people adoring the Lord. You that are round about him, bring presents.325

And they fell before the throne on their faces and adored God.

He does not mention that the multitude, or the animals, or the elders adored, but only the angels, for they are the multitude, the animals and the elders.326

However, in these angelic spirits can be understood what is said concerning those who rejoice in the salvation of the nations: Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people, and let all the angels of God worship him.327

[7:12] [Saying: Amen.] Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and strength to our God, [for ever and ever. Amen.] The Church offers God the sevenfold /327/ praise of power, which she confesses to have received from him in each of her members.328

[7:13] And one of the elders [answered and]329 said to me: who are These who are clothed in white robes? And whence have they come?

He asks [this question] in order to instruct.330

323 Primasius 7.479-485, quoting John 17:3. The ultimate source is Tyconius 2.49; Cf.

Caesarius 228.28-29 and Beatus 4.6.50. Here again, in Hom. 1.10, Bede shifts the focus to the triumph of the martyrs: 'With a loud voice [the martyrs] sing of salvation from God, since they recall with great thanksgiving that they have triumphed, not by their own virtue but by his help, in the struggle with the tribulations assailing them' (72.139-142, trans. Martin and Hurst, p. 101).

324 The word quattuor is omitted in all manuscript witnesses: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

325 Cf. Primasius 7.495-498, including quotation from Ps. 75:12 (76:11).

326 Tyconius 2.49 (149); cf. Primasius 7.502-504, Beatus 4.6.67-68.

327 A fusion of Rom. 15:10 and Heb. 1:6; also quoted by Primasius 7.506-507.

328 Primasius 7.509-513.

329 The received text of the Vulgate reads respondit unus de senioribus dicens: Bede's text reads unus de senioribus dicit: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

330 Summarizing Tyconius 2.51 (150): cf. Caesarius 228.30-32; Primasius 7.540-542;

(ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 212.24-25; Beatus 4.6.69.

BOOK ONE [7:14] [And I said unto him: My lord, you know. And he said to me:] These are they who came out of great tribulation,

… We must enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations.331 But who does not know that the tribulation of Antichrist will be greater than the others?332 and have washed their robes [and have made them white] in the blood of the Lamb.

He does not say this of martyrs only, for they are washed in their own blood.

But the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses the whole Church from every stain.333

[7:15] Therefore they are before the throne of God; … For they are held worthy to stand in God's ministry who are faithful confessors of His name here, in the midst of adversities. and they serve him day and night in his temple; …

Using our conventional manner of speaking, [Scripture] signifies eternity.334 and he who sits upon the throne shall dwell over them.

331 Acts 14:21, quoted by Primasius 7.546-547.

332 Bede's identification of the 'great persecution' with the persecution of Antichrist is his own addition. Later he will cite this verse in expounding the episode of the slaughter of the eighty-five priests by Doeg the Edomite in In Sam. 3 (3070-3074); Doeg is likened to Antichrist in Cassiodorus's exegesis of Ps. 51(52) in Expositio Psalmorum, ed. M. Adriaen, CCSL 97

(Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), 472.15-16, a work well known to Bede: Darby, Bede and the End of Time, pp. 180–181.

333 Tyconius 2.51 (150): cf. Caesarius 229.2-5; Beatus 4.6.70. Once again, in Hom. 1.10,

Bede applies this passage to the martyrs, rather than to the Church: 'Martyrs wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, while as for their members, which "seem to the eyes of the ignorant"

(Wisdom 3.2) [to be] defiled by the squalor of their pains, they instead have made [these members] clean of all contagion by their blood which is poured forth for Christ. In addition, they have rendered [their members] worthy of the blessed light of immortality, which is [the meaning of] their having made their washed robes white in the blood of the Lamb' (72.145-150, trans. Martin and Hurst, p. 102).

334 Cf. Hom. 1.10: 'To be continuously present at the praises of God is not a laborious servitude but a servitude that is pleasant and desirable. "Day and night", indeed, do not exclusively signify the vicissitude of time, but typologically [they signify] its perpetuity'. (72.151-154, trans.

Martin and Hurst, p. 102). The phrase more nostro loquens appears in Bede's Hom. 1.2 (12.192).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

The throne of God is the saints, over whom and in whom God for ever dwells.335

[7:16] They shall hunger or thirst no more; … This is what God himself has promised: I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.336

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill.337 neither shall the sun strike them, nor any heat.

We have passed through fire and water, he says, and you have brought us out into a [place of] refreshment.338 /329/

[7:17] For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall guide them … He says that the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, where before339 he said that the Lamb sitting on the throne took the book, teaching that the Church is the one throne of the Father and the Son, in which through faith the whole

Trinity, one God, dwells.340 and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life, … [That is,] to the company of the saints, who are the fountains of heavenly doctrine. This can also signify the vision of God, in whom are hidden the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge.341 As David said, Just as the hart pants after the fountains of water, so my soul pants after you, O God.342 and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

When the fullness of immortal joys has been attained, all sorrow will at once be banished into oblivion.343 For blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.344 But this vision of the multitude in their robes can be

335 Tyconius 2.52 (150): cf. Caesarius 229.7, 231.24-25; Beatus 4.6.71.

336 Tyconius 2.53 (150), including quotation from John 6:35; cf. Primasius 7.575-576,

Beatus 4.6.71.

337 Matt. 5:6.

338 Ps. 65:12 (66:11).

339 Rev. 5:6.

340 Primasius 7.585-589.

341 Col. 2:3.

342 Ps. 41:2 (42:1).

343 Primasius 7.598-600.

344 Matt. 5:5.

BOOK ONE understood to refer even to the present time, when we are saved in hope,345 and hoping for what we do not see, we wait in patience.

[8:1] And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

It is believed that after the destruction of Antichrist there will be a period of rest (requies aliquantula) in the Church, which Daniel prophesies as follows: Blessed is he who waits, and comes to a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.346 St Jerome comments: He says, blessed is he who, after Antichrist has been killed, waits forty-five days over and above the one thousand two hundred and ninety days (that is, three and one-half years). At this time our Lord and Saviour shall appear in his /331/ majesty. Why there should be a silence of forty-five days after Antichrist's death is known to God alone, unless perhaps we might say that the postponing of the Kingdom is a test of the patience of the saints.347 Note that he perceives the greatest struggles of the Church in the sixth seal, and in the seventh, rest; because the Lord, crucified on the sixth day of the week, rested on the Sabbath, awaiting the time of his resurrection.348 So much for the opening of the closed book

345 Rom. 8:24.

346 Dan. 12:12.

347 In Dan. 4.12.12 (943.671–944.677). Cf. Bede, DTR 69 (539.53-58; trans. Wallis, p.

243); Bede, Capitula lectionum X (see Appendix). Bede is referring here to what would later come to be called 'the refreshment of the saints': for a full discussion, see Lerner, 'Refreshment of the Saints', esp. pp. 103–105. In each of the sequences of sevens in Revelation (seals, trumpets etc.) Bede interprets the sixth item as referring to the time of tribulation under Antichrist, and the seventh to the eternal rest of the saints. Only in the case of the seventh seal does he intrude the concept of the 'test of the patience of the saints' (sanctorum patientiae probatio) as a temporal hiatus between the death of Antichrist and the Last Judgement. Bede's use of Jerome's commentary on Daniel to expound this verse is innovative, and draws on the venerable identification of Antichrist with the 'abomination of desolation' of Dan. 12:11. There the prophet states that from the time the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1290 days. In the next verse (quoted by Bede through Jerome) Daniel declares that those who can persevere to 1335 days are blessed. The difference is 45 days, which, here at least, Jerome and Bede seem to take literally. Bede will revisit and develop the theme of this 45-day hiatus in DTR ch. 69 and in De eo quod Isaias ait, PL 94, 708; trans. Arthur G. Holder, Bede: A Biblical

Miscellany (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999), pp. 49–50. However, DTR adds a qualification: the prophecy of the 45 days does not imply that anyone could count forward from the death of Antichrist to determine when the day of judgement will arrive. This backtracking reflects Bede's post-Plegwin aversion to calculation; cf. Darby, Bede and the End of Time, pp.

121–123. By contrast, Tyconius 2.58 (152; (Tur. fr. 128; cf. Beatus 4.7.1), Primasius 8.2-3, and Caesarius 229.14-15 interpret the half-hour silence as the beginning of eternal rest.

348 Cf. Gregory, In Ez. 2.4.2 (258.43-45); Augustine, DCD 22.30 (866.138-145). This interpretation seems to offset the temporal character of the 'refreshment of the saints' described

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and the six seals. But now he recapitulates from the beginning,349 saying the same thing in another way.

HERE ENDS THE FIRST BOOK.

by Jerome. Bede was willing to read the meaning of 'seven' and 'sabbath' in a number of ways: cf. De schematibus et tropis 2.12 lines 254-7: '"Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was translated from the earth". This trope prefigures the sabbath of the blessedness to come, which is reserved in the end of time (in fine) for the elect after [they have accomplished] the good works of this world which is completed in six ages' (trans. Kendall, p. 205).

349 Tyconius 2.58 (152); cf. Tur. fr. 130, Beatus 4.7.2 and 5.1.1.

/333/

HERE BEGINS THE SECOND BOOK

XI [8:2] And I saw seven angels standing in the presence of God; and seven trumpets were given to them.

The Church, which is often designated by the number seven, is dedicated to the duty of preaching.350 Its first trumpet signifies the general destruction of the wicked by fire and hail; the second, [signifies] the Devil who, expelled from the Church, burns more fiercely in the sea of this world;351 the third, the heretics who lapse from the Church and corrupt the streams of Holy Scripture; the fourth, the fall of the false brethren, [symbolized] by the darkening of the stars; the fifth, a greater infestation of heretics, heralding the time of Antichrist; the sixth, the overt war of Antichrist and his followers against the Church, and (through an inserted recapitulation from the coming of the Lord) the destruction of this adversary; the seventh, the Day of Judgement, in which the Lord will reward his own, and exterminate those who corrupted the earth.

[8:3] And another angel came … He does not say Afterward he came, but stating that the angels have received trumpets,352 he goes back to explain how they received them. For although the Church preached before the coming of the Lord, it did not do so everywhere,353 until it was strengthened by his Spirit. /335/ and stood before the altar, having a golden censer

… He appeared before the face of the Church, having himself been made a censer, from which God accepted a sweet fragrance, and became better

350 Primasius 8.2-5; cf. Tyconius, Tur. fr. 131 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

351 This phrase is found in Tyconius, Tur. fr. 160, but is also favoured by Augustine, DCD

20.15 (725.5-6). Neither is cited in Gryson's apparatus. The second trumpet is referred to in these terms in Bede's Capitula lectionum XII (see Appendix); see also Bede's exegesis of 8:8,

8:11 and 8:12 below.

352 Primasius 8.13.

353 Tyconius 3.2 (152); cf. Tur. fr. 133-134, Primasius 8.9-17.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

disposed towards the world.354 The other version reads upon the altar [super aram], for upon the altar of the cross he offered to the Father for our sake his own golden censer, that is, his immaculate body, conceived by the Holy

Spirit.355 and there was given to him much incense, so that he might offer from the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar that is before the throne [of God].

He offered incense from the prayers of the saints. For the Church delegated her prayers to him,356 saying Let my prayer be directed as incense before your sight.357 He is said to have taken the prayers of the saints, and [also] to have offered them, because through him the prayers of all may come with a delectable savour to the Lord.358

[8:4] And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended before god from the hand of the angel.

Through Christ our Lord, who offers himself as a fragrant sacrifice, the heartfelt compunction of the saints was made acceptable. This compunction is born of an inward fire, and like smoke, is wont to provoke tears.359

[8:5] And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar … Well does he introduce a censer, filled with fire, 'for God does not give the spirit by measure'. We know that properly speaking this was fulfilled in the humanity of Christ, /337/ 'for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead corporeally'.360 and cast it on the earth; … As the Lord says in the Gospel, 'I am come to cast fire on the earth'.361

354 An amalgam of Tyconius 3.3 (153) (cf. Tur. fr. 138-139) and Primasius 8.20-23; cf.

Caesarius 229.20-23, Beatus 5.1.5.

355 The variant reading super aram is from Tyconius 3.4 (153); cf. Tur. fr. 138; Primasius reads altarium or altare. Cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 180.

356 Tyconius 3.4 (153), cf. Tur. fr. 140-141; cf. Beatus 5.1.6.

357 Ps. 140(141):2.

358 Primasius 8.24-26.

359 Gregory, In Ez. 2.10.22 (396.583-585); Bede repeats this phrase in Act. Ap. 2.3 (22.218220).

360 Primasius 8.33-36, quoting John 3:34 and Col. 2:9.

361 Primasius 8.39-40, quoting Luke 12:49.

BOOK two and there were thunders and voices and flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

He moved the earth by the thunder of a heavenly threat, and by the voice of exhortation, and by the lightning of miracles, while some attacked him, and some followed him. These say He is a good man, but the others, No, he seduces the people.362

[8:6] And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound the trumpet.

The Church, set afire by the sevenfold Spirit, prepared herself with confidence to preach,363 that it might overthrow the glory of the world, like the walls of Jericho, with heavenly trumpets. For that seven-day circling [of the walls of Jericho] intimates the totality of the time of the Church.364

XII [8:7] And the first angel sounded the trumpet: … The proclamation of the plagues is appropriately compared to a trumpet, the signal for battle. Lift up your voice, he says, like a trumpet and show my people their wicked doings.365 And elsewhere, Let there be a trumpet in your throat, like an eagle upon the house of the Lord;366 that is, proclaim with a loud voice that Nebuchadnezzar is to come to destroy the Temple.

AND THERE FOLLOWED HAIL AND FIRE, MINGLED WITH

BLOOD /339/ AND IT WAS CAST UPON THE EARTH; …

That bloody deeds deserve the punishment of Gehenna is conveyed by the voice of preachers who say, Let them pass from snow waters to excessive heat.367 By the word blood we may also understand the spiritual death of the soul. Tyconius explains this verse as follows: 'God's wrath was stirred up, that the death of many might ensue'.368

362 John 7:12.

363 Primasius 8.73-75, based on Tyconius 3.8 (154); cf. Tur. fr. 148, Caesarius 230.1-2,

232.1-2; Beatus T. 8.6.

364 Josh. 6:1-20.

365 Tyconius 3.1 (152); cf. Tur. fr. 131, quoting the first half of Isa. 58:1 (Bede fills out the remainder of the quotation). Cf. Caesarius 229.17-18; Primasius 8.4-6; Beatus pr. 4.23.

366 Hos. 8:1.

367 Job 24:19. On hell as a place of alternating fire and ice, see Bede's account of the vision of Dryhthelm in HE 5.12 (ed. Colgrave and Mynors, pp. 488–498).

368 Tyconius 3.9 (154); cf. Caesarius 230.3-4, Beatus T. 8.7 and pr 4.24.Tur. fr. 150 conveys the same idea but in quite different wording.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and a third of the earth was burnt up; and a third of the trees were burnt up; … The life of good men is firmly established in those who teach, and those who listen. Blessed is he who reads, he says, and hears the words of this prophecy.369 Now the third part of the wicked is missing from both of these.

Therefore good earth, bringing forth fruit in patience,370 receives a blessing from God.371 But bad [earth] generates thorns and thistles to be burnt in the fire.372 Likewise the Father, as a husbandman, cultivates the tree which bears fruit,373 but cuts down the barren one, and gives it as fuel to the fire.374 and all green grass was burnt up.

All flesh is grass, which now grown fat with the softness of luxury, loses the flower of its beauty under the blazing sun of judgement.375 And as the Lord said, Today it is in the field, and tomorrow it is cast into the oven.376 In this context, Tyconius speaks of the third part as follows. He calls the enemies within a third part. Again, whoever /341/ is outside the Church is called a third part,377 and the Church is a third, who fights against this double evil.378

[8:8] [And the second angel sounded the trumpet;] and it was as if a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood;

With the increase of the Christian religion, the Devil, bloated with pride and blazing in the fire of his fury, was cast into the sea of this world.379 As the Lord said, If you were to say to this mountain, Be taken up and be cast into 369 Rev. 1:3.

370 Luke 8:15.

371 Heb. 7:6.

372 Matt. 13:30.

373 Luke 13:6-9.

374 Matt. 7:19.

375 Primasius 8.82-84, including quotation from Isa. 40:6. Based on Tyconius 3.10 (154), cf. Tur. fr. 152 (but note that the word sun is not found in Primasius, nor is the Isaiah quotation in the Tur. fr.). Parallels are found in Caesarius 230.7-8; Beatus 5.2.6.

376 Matt. 6:30.

377 Tyconius 3.10 (154) contains a rather different reading, identifying one third with pagans, one third with the 'mixed body' of good and bad, and one third with the Church.

Primasius 8.84-90 says that the Church is one part, the mixed body of good and evil is the second third, and the heretics and pagans are the third; Tur. fr. 152-154 also designate the third third as heretics. Beatus 5.2.1 specifies (1) the Church, (2) the false brethren, (3) 'infidels'.

378 Primasius 8.88-89.

379 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 160; cf. Caesarius 230.11, Primasius 8.103-104, Beatus 5.3.1, and (more distantly) (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 213.19–214.20.

BOOK two the sea, it shall be done.380 Not that he was not there before; but when he was cast out of the Church, he started to rage more fiercely against his own followers, inflicting spiritual death upon them in the arrogance of fleshly wisdom, for to know according to the flesh is death.381 Flesh and blood did not teach the apostles, but the Father who is in heaven.382 For they guided the ship of faith upon that sea, which offered itself as a path on which the feet of the Lord might walk.383

[8:9] And a third part of those [creatures]384 in the sea which haVE SOULS died; He said who 'have souls', in order to show that the living were spiritually dead. As the Apostle says of the wanton widow, 'She is dead while she lives'.385 and a third part of the ships were destroyed.

The other version reads and they damaged a third part of the ships [et tertiam partem nauium corruperunt],386 which signifies that the third which was dead slays another third, that is, that which follows after it by its evil tradition, and by counterfeiting futile doctrine.387

[8:10] [And the third angel sounded the trumpet;] and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch; and it fell on a third of the rivers, and on the fountains /343/ of waters; [8.11] And the name of the star is called

Wormwood; [and a third part of the waters became wormwood;] … The heretics, whom the apostle Jude calls 'stars of seduction' falling from the heights of the Church,388 strive to pollute the fountains of Holy Scrip380 Matt. 21:21, Mark 11:23.

381 Rom. 8:6, quoted in this context by Primasius 8.107; cf. Augustine, DCD 20.21

(738.92), which includes an allusion to the 'second [spiritual] death'. The phrase 'arrogance of prudence' (fastu prudentiae) is from Gregory, Regula pastoralis 3.11, ed. B. Judic, F. Rommel and C. Morel, Sources chrétiennes 381–382 (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1992), p. 320, lines 97–98.

382 Matt. 16:17.

383 Gregory, Homeliae in Evangelia 10.2 (66.26–67.27), alluding to Matt. 14:22-33.

384 An omission peculiar to Bede: see Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

385 A blending of Primasius 8.114-116 (quoting 1 Tim. 5:6), and Tyconius 3.13 (155), cf.

Tur. fr. 161, Caesarius 230.12-13, Beatus 5.3.4.

386 The 'other version' is from Tyconius 3.14 (155): cf. Caesarius 230.13-14; Beatus T. 8.9.

See Sparks p. 478 and Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 180.

387 A fusion of Primasius 8.116-118 and Tyconius 3.14 (155): cf. Tur. fr. 162, Caesarius

230.13-14, Beatus 5.3.5.

388 Primasius 8.123-126, quoting Jude 13 in the African Vetus Latina version. The Vulgate

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

ture by the flame of their wickedness.389 They dare not only to falsify the sense, but often the words as well. They deserve the name of wormwood, the smallest drop of which can render what is very sweet bitter.390 and many men died from the waters, [because they were made bitter.] As the Apostle says, Many shall follow their lusts: because of whom the way of truth shall be derided.391 But for the people of God, every spring of water is drinkable, as Moses teaches.392

[8:12] [And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet:] and a third of the sun was smitten, and a third of the moon, and a third part of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened; … The beauty of the Church, shining like the stars, is often clouded by false brethren, who whether [influenced by] this world's prosperity, or its adversity, cause her to shine less brightly by their defection.393 and a third of the day did not shine, and the night likewise.

The other version reads as follows: that a third part of the day might appear, and of the night likewise [et diei tertia pars appareret et noctis similiter].394

That is, it was smitten so that a third part of the day and a third part of the night might appear to belong either to Christ or to the Devil. It was smitten for this reason, I say (that is, given over to its own desires): so that it may be revealed in its own time by its excessive and insolent misdeeds.395 /345/ reads stella errantia ('wandering stars' or planets): cf. Bede, Cath. Ep. 339.175–340.205, trans.

Hurst, p. 248. Note that Bede, unlike Primasius, specifically identifies the 'stars of seduction' as heretics: cf. Kelly, 'The Venerable Bede', pp. 397–98.

389 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 167.

390 Primasius 8.132-133.

391 2 Pet. 2:2.

392 Bede is alluding to the bitter waters of Marah, which the Israelites could not drink until

Moses sweetened them by casting a tree into the spring: Exod. 15:23-25.

393 Cf. Primasius 8.144-147, 151-152.

394 Tyconius's text (3.17, p. 155): the lemma of the Turin Fragments of Tyconius (170) is virtually identical (et tertia pars diei appareat et noctis similiter): see Gryson, Bede ed.

Introduction, p. 180. The 'other version' appears in Beatus T. 8.12, and in the Book of Armagh, ed. J. Gwynn (Dublin: Hodges & Figgis, 1913): see Sparks, p. 479. The text of Primasius (see following note) implies that this is his reading, even though his lemma is different.

395 Primasius 8.172-174, 176-178, based on Tyconius 3.17 (156): cf. Tur. fr. 173-174;

Caesarius 230.26–231.1; Beatus 5.5.4-5.

BOOK two [8:13] And I beheld, and heard the voice of an eagle flying through the midst of heaven, [saying with a loud voice]: Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, … The voice of this eagle soars every day through the mouth of eminent teachers in the Church, when they preach the wickedness of the heretics, the ferocity of Antichrist, and the Day of Judgement which with all severity is to come to those who love the earth396 – saying, In the last days shall come dangerous times, for men shall be lovers of themselves,397 and later on, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith,398 and elsewhere, then shall the man of sin be revealed …who opposes and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped,399 and again, The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and security; then shall sudden destruction come upon them.400 because of the remaining voices of the three angels,

[who are yet to sound the trumpet.] The trumpets of the angels do not bring the plagues into the world, but rather, each of them proclaims those that are coming, or shall come, in its own time.

XIII [9:1] [And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet:] and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth; and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit. [9:2]

And he opened the bottomless pit; … [This is] the flame of the heretics, to which he had referred briefly; [now] he explains with what tinder it has increased. The ancient foe, whom the Lord beheld as lightning falling from heaven,401 opened the hearts of his followers

396 Based on Tyconius 3.18 (156): cf. Tur. fr. 177, Caesarius 231.3-6, 232.22-26, Primasius

8.183-185, 189-191. It is noteworthy that for Bede, these three elements – heresy, the persecutions of Antichrist, and the Judgement – constitute the core of the apocalyptic terrors of the Last Days. Neither Tyconius nor Primasius specifies these things. That this is Bede's personal exegetical signature is borne out by the exegesis of the following verses.

397 2 Tim. 3:1-2.

398 2 Tim. 3:8.

399 2 Thess. 2:8, 4.

400 1 Thess. 5:2-3.

401 Luke 10:18.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

by his blasphemous teaching, and taught402 them to seek the heights like smoke, and speak wickedness against the Most High. /347/ and the smoke of the pit arose, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit.

The prophecy of the great furnace – that is, the final persecution – burns with heretical madness403 not only the weaker brethren who, like the air, touch the confines of both earth and heaven,404 but also strives to obscure the light of the loftier ones, though it is incapable of extinguishing it. For if it were possible, even the elect shall be deceived.405

[9:3] And from the smoke of the pit locusts came out upon the earth; … Just as the saints are the body of Christ, and members of one another,406 so the members of the flesh of the dragon bind themselves to one another,407 and are born from one another, and the smoke of heretical blindness generates from his mouth the harmful pride of the depraved.408 These, though buffeted by the wind of elation, do not spurn the earthly realms. For the smoke from which they are spawned, though it aspires to the heavens, always subsides.409 and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

The heretics are likened to hostile powers,410 seemingly harmless to look at, but carrying poison in their tails.411

402 Based on Tyconius 3.20 (156), but the reference to 'blasphemy' is found only in Tur. fr. 181-184; cf. Caesarius 233.1-8, 236.6-12.

403 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 188-189; cf. Primasius 9.51-53; Beatus 5.6.10. Only Bede qualifies the 'madness' as 'heretical'.

404 Bede understands the atmosphere to extend from the surface of the earth itself to the orbit of the Moon, which is the lower boundary of the heavens: see DNR 25 (216-217).

405 Matt. 25:24.

406 1 Cor. 12:27.

407 Cf. Ambrose, Explanatio Psalmorum XII, ed. M. Petschenig, 2nd edn ed. Michaela

Zelzer, CSEL 64 (1999), 153.14-18; Gregory Mor. 34.8 (1738.1–1739.25).

408 Primasius 9.14, 34-35, 51; the locusts are also identified with heretics by (ps.-)Jerome,

Commemoratorium 214.5-6; cf. Kelly, 'The Venerable Bede', p. 403.

409 Primasius 9.28-30.

410 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 191. Note that as in the 'wormwood' verse above, Bede adds the reference to the heretics.

411 Possibly from Tyconius, as there is a parallel in Beatus 5.6.14. However, Gryson does not record this in his critical edition of Tyconius (p. 157).

BOOK two [9:4] And they were commanded not to hurt the grass of the earth nor any green thing [nor any tree; …]

He shows that the locusts are men,412 sent not against grass, but against men.413 In this context, we take grass literally.414 but only the men who have not the sign of God on their foreheads.

These men are said to have the sign of God upon their foreheads, who have obtained it as they deserve.415 The angel who carried from the east the sign of the living God reckoned their number to be inviolable and fixed. /349/ Here

[the author] wishes to use that kind of figure of speech according to which it is said no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost,416 that is, truly and perfectly.

[9:5] And it was allowed to them that they should not kill them; but that they should torture them for five months; … Though the heretics may be permitted temporarily to harass good men with the support of the secular powers, nonetheless, as the Lord says, they are not able to kill the soul.417 By five months he signifies the time of this age, because of the five senses which we use in this life.418 The other version reads six months, 419 which is congruent with the same meaning, because of the six ages of the world.

412 Tyconius 3.23 (157); cf. Beatus 5.6.18.

413 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 193.

414 Bede is alluding to his exposition of Rev. 8:7, where 'grass' is a symbol for human beings.

415 Primasius 9.60-61.

416 1 Cor. 12:3, quoted in this context by Primasius 9.61-62.

417 Matt. 10:28. Note again Bede's preoccupation with heretics.

418 Cf. Primasius 9.114. The allusion to the five senses also appears in (ps.-)Jerome,

Commemoratorium 215.7-8. Tyconius 3.25 (158; cf. Tur. fr. 201), following his principle of interchangeable temporal units, says that the five months are actually five years. It is interesting that Bede, normally so interested in the Tyconian approach to interpreting time-references in the Bible, did not follow him here. This may have been deliberate, given his policy against attempts to pin down a precise time-table for the future. Hence he generalizes the five months into 'the time of this age', symbolized by the number five, which denotes the five senses.

419 Primasius does not quote this section of Rev. 9:5 in his lemma, but he does state that the 'other translations' read 'five months', and that whether one reads 'five months' or 'six months', the meaning is substantially 'this present life' (9.113-116). Unlike Bede, Primasius identifies the 'six ages' with the six ages of human life, not the ages of the world. Bede possibly found this alternative reading appealing because of the symbolic link to the sixth age of the world as the age of the martyrs: cf. the interpretation he offers of the stone carnelian in the exegesis of 21:19-20, below.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and their torture was like the torture of a scor pion when he stings a man.

As the scorpion pours out venom from its tail, so the impiety of the wicked wounds from the hind parts when it drives people by threats and allurements to prefer temporal goods, which are behind, to what is ahead, namely eternal goods.420 The brood of vipers hands this scorpion to its offspring, in defiance of the Gospel parable.421

[9:6] And in those days men shall seek death and shall not find it. [And they shall desire to die; and death shall fly from them.] They shall wish to end their wretched life by a swift death. As Cyprian complained was the case in the persection unleashed by Decius, Permission was not granted for those who wished to die to be slain.422

[9:7] And the appearance of the locusts was like that of horses arrayed for battle; … That is, like the final persecutors; in the last /351/ battle, which is about to be described in the angel who follows, he said that horses fight.423 Or else [it is meant] literally: just as horses act in battle not on their own initiative, but by the power of their riders, so the teachers of evil attack the Church at the instigation of a devilish spirit. and on their heads there were something like crowns resembling gold; … The twenty-four elders, who are the Church, have crowns of gold. These, however, [have crowns] resembling gold,424 fabricating false triumphs for themselves from a hollow victory.425 and their faces were like the faces of men. [9:8] And 420 Primasius 9.85-88.

421 Cf. Matt. 3:7. The 'parable' is from Luke 11:11-12: 'And to which of you, if he ask his father for bread, will [his father] give him a stone? … Or if he should ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?' Cf. Primasius 9.90-92.

422 Jerome, Vita Pauli (Life of Paul) 2 (PL 23.19A), quoting (with some modification)

Cyprian of Carthage; cf. Cyprian, Letter 56.2.2, in Correspondence, ed. Bayard, 2nd edn (Paris:

Les Belles Lettres, 1961–62), p. 153.

423 Tyconius 3.29 (158); cf. Beatus 5.7.1.

424 Tyconius 3.30 (158); cf. Tur. fr. 214, Caesarius 233.29-31, 236.26-27, Beatus pr. 4.36,

5.7.4-5, and more loosely, Primasius 9.128-131.

425 Cf. Primasius 9.126-127.

BOOK two they had hair like the hair of women; and their teeth were like those of lions. [9:9] And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; …

In the human face, he denotes the pretence of reason;426 in the hair of women, unstable and womanish ways;427 in the teeth of lions, wont both to mangle and to carry an innate stench, the ferocity of their mind and the fame of their evil teaching; in their breastplates of iron, hearts stubbornly set against the truth.428 These, having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power of it,429 come in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.430 and the noise of their wings was like the noise of chariots and of many horses running to battle.

That these powers should so increase into an army is more to be feared than explained. First the smoke goes up. Then it brings forth locusts, which are compared first to scorpions, and then to horses and lions. /353/ Their power would suffice even if they did not come armed with breastplates. Now they are said to be on the wing, and like war-chariots.

[9:10] And they had tails like those of scorpions; [and there were stings in their tails; …] Just as a scorpion approaches softly, but strikes with its tail, so the sly wickedness of evil people seems mild-mannered and harmless on the surface, but when it secretly destroys, it brings death hidden, as it were, in its train.431 and their power was to hurt men for six432 months.

Again, he alludes to this life, where falsehood can prevail either to snare worthless people, or to torment, for a time, spiritual people.433

426 Gryson in his apparatus argues that the source is Tyconius, as there is a parallel in Beatus pr. 4.3 and 5.7.6-7. However, he does not accept this passage into his critical edition of Tyconius.

427 Tyconius 3.31 (158-159): cf. Tur. fr. 218; Caesarius 233.32–234.2, 236.27-29; Primasius 9.136-137; Beatus pr. 4.37, 5.7.11.

428 Primasius 9.145-152.

429 2 Tim. 3:5.

430 Matt. 7:15.

431 Gregory, In Ez. 1.9.21 (134.431-432; 135.436-439).

432 The Vulgate reads 'five months', but this is the reading found in MSS; cf. Sparks p. 484,

Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183, and Bede's exegesis of Rev. 9:5.

433 Primasius 9.172-174.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

And they had over them [9:11] a king, the angel of the bottomless pit [(whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon, in Latin Exterminans)].

By a judgement just, though hidden, God all-beneficent allowed a suitable angel to rule over such people.434

[9:12] One woe is past; and, behold, two woes are yet to come.

Because he has proclaimed that three woes shall come, he observes that one of these has already come in the form of heretical deception. Two, however, remain. These will fall upon the perverse in the time of Antichrist, and on the Day of Judgement.435

XIV [9:13] And the sixth angel sounded the trumpet; and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before the eyes of God. [9:14] Saying to the sixth angel, [who had the trumpet:] …

The sixth angel stands for those who preach the final conflict, who, with the Gospel serving as a reminder, strip bare the lies /355/ of Antichrist.436 For the horns of the golden altar are the Gospels which stand over the Church. release the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates.

He shows the extent to which the ancient enemy and his followers shall persecute the Church at the end of the world, who, being secreted in the hearts of the wicked since the time of the Lord's passion, is restrained by divine power from doing all the harm he might wish. For the Euphrates, which is the river of Babylon, stands for the power of the worldly kingdom and the waves of persecutors.437 This is the great mountain which he predicts will be cast into the sea, blazing with fire.

434 Primasius 9.178-179.

435 Bede reiterates his specific interpretation of the three woes as heresy, Antichrist, and Judgement: see n. 396 above.

436 Tyconius 3.37 (159): cf. Caesarius 234.9; Primasius 9.188-189; Beatus pr. 4.42. Only

Beatus 5.8.1 mentions Antichrist.

437 Primasius 9.199-203, 220. For the sentence beginning For the Euphrates, the ultimate source is Tyconius 3.38 (160): cf. Tur. fr. 241-242; Caesarius 234.17-19, 237.4-6; Beatus 5.8.2, 9.

BOOK two [9:15] And the four angels were released, … As is the manner of prophesy, which speaks of what will happen to us, he himself sees these things take place in the spirit. He said that there were four angels, because this persecution will rage in the four parts of the world.

These are they whom [John] saw previously, standing on the four corners of the earth, and for the sake of the servants of God who were to be sealed, they were forbidden to harm the earth and the sea.438 who were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to kill one third of mankind.

The evil spirits who hunger for the death of men at every single moment of the hours and the seasons, but who themselves are destined to be lost, are then permitted to rage more freely against the Church, and rightly so, in order that she might be tested.439 What do you imagine they will do when they are released, who do so much harm now, when they are bound?440

[9:16] And the number of the army of the horsemen was twenty thousand times ten thousand. [And I heard their number.] This number denotes the grievous duplicity of the depraved army. /357/

Another translation, which reads two thousand thousands, shows this more readily, for in the Gospel parable this number stood in opposition to a king who had ten thousand [men]. In the same way, the duplicity of the wicked resists the simple faith of Christ,441 to whom thousands of thousands minister, and before whom ten thousand times a hundred thousand stand.442

[9:17] And thus I saw the horses in the vision. And they who sat on them had breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of sulphur. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; … The evil spirits443 are bound up in the same punishments as those whose hearts they dominate. For we read that those who adore the Beast shall be tortured in fire and sulphur, and the smoke of their torments shall ascend

438 Rev. 7:1-3.

439 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XIV (see Appendix).

440 Cf. Augustine, DCD 20.8 (713.54-57).

441 Primasius 9.251-253, alluding to Luke 14:31. The 'other translation' is identified by Primasius (9.246) as the one used by Tyconius 3.40 (161); cf. Tur. fr. 251. See Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 181.

442 Dan. 7:10.

443 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 257.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

for ever and ever.444 Notice that in referring to the plague of locusts, he did not say that he saw horsemen, but only horses. For here the enormous scope of the persecutions shows the overt presence of the power which opposes them.445 Finally, there are lions' heads here, and there a human face, but only the teeth of a beast. For often the heretics put on a show of humanity, but those who bring on the final conflict shall exact in the form of punishments what they commend by words and signs. and from their mouths fire and smoke and sulphur issued out. [[9:18] And by these three plagues was slain one third of mankind, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the sulphur, which issued out of their mouths.] He shows that he used the word 'hyacinth' instead of 'smoke'. These things do not /359/ visibly come out of their mouths, but by their wicked preaching they bring forth punishment for themselves and for their listeners.446 'Therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of you, to devour you: and I will make you like ashes upon the earth in the sight of all that see you'.447

[9:19] For the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails.

This means: in speech and in office.448 For the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail,449 who so to speak covers a hidden and unclean part450 by the babbling of his flattering tongue, telling the wicked man, 'You are good'.451

For their tails are like serpents and have heads; and with them they do harm.

False teachers of the old serpent who deceived man, like those supported by the patronage of princes, do more harm than if they persuaded by word alone.452 [Scripture] says: He sits in ambush with the rich in private places.453

444 Rev. 14:11; cf. Tyconius, Tur. fr. 257, 267, Primasius 9.291-294; cf. Beatus 5.9.1-4.

445 'Notice that …which opposes it': cf. Tyconius, Tur. fr. 263-264.

446 A fusion of Tyconius 3.44 (162; cf. Tur. fr. 266) and Primasius 9.303-304.

447 Ezek. 28:18.

448 Tyconius 3.46 (162): cf. Tur. fr. 271, Primasius 9.308-309, Beatus 5.9.6.

449 Isa. 9:15, quoted in Tyconius, Tur. fr. 227.

450 See exegesis of Rev. 12:4 below.

451 Cf. Prov. 24:24.

452 Primasius 9.311-312, 316-317. The ultimate source is Tyconius 3.47 (162): cf. Tur. fr.

273; Caesarius 235.3-5, 237.15-17; Beatus 5.9.7.

453 Ps. 9b(10):8.

BOOK two [9:20] And the rest of mankind, who were not slain by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, and so forth [that they should not worship demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;] Since he has already described the false Christians and heretics, now, in order that he might define the whole body of the devil, he also makes mention of the error of the heathen. They have derived no profit from not having been slain in these plagues, since it is evident that they still persist in their heathen wickedness. For not even in that persecution shall the heathen be forced to give their assent to what was described above, but they shall die in their unbelief.454

[9:21] Neither did they repent of their murders, nor their sorceries [nor their fornication, nor their thefts].

They add base behaviour to impious religion. /361/ Having described the ferocity of Antichrist, he recapitulates, as is his wont, the beginning of Christ's birth and the glory of the Church, in order to show [Antichrist's] ruin.455

XV [10:1] And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; … The Lord, the angel of great counsel,456 descends from heaven, clothed in the cloud of the flesh.457 Thus Isaiah says: Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud, and will enter into Egypt.458 and a rainbow was over his head, … The promise of propitiation abides around the righteous.459

454 Tyconius 3.48 (162-163): cf. Tur. fr. 274, 276, and for the final sentence, 278, Beatus

5.9.7-9 and 16, and Primasius 9.318.

455 Based on Tyconius 3.49 (163); cf. Tur. fr. 280-281, Primasius 9.327-330, Beatus 5.9.17.

None of these sources refers specifically to Antichrist, however. This passage echoes Capitula lectionum XV (see Appendix).

456 Isa. 9:6; see following note.

457 Primasius 10.3-4; cf. Tyconius 3.50, and Tur. fr. 284. Primasius and Tyconius interpret the cloud of flesh as the Church. Bede seems to have consulted Victorinus/Jerome 10.1 (89.18–91.1) at this point, as the reference to the angel 'of great counsel' is found there and not in Primasius.

458 Isa. 19:1.

459 Primasius 10.7; from Tyconius 3.51 (163): cf. Tur. fr. 288; Caesarius 235.12; Beatus

5.10.2.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

In the glowing face of the Lord – that is, his renown made manifest by the glory of the resurrection – 'the feet of him upon the mountains that brings good tidings and that preaches peace' are illumined by the fire of the Holy

Spirit and made as firm as a pillar. For James and Cephas [i.e Peter] and John were seen as pillars of the Church.460

[10:2] And he had in his hand a little book, open; … This is the book mentioned above, long closed by its cover, which the Lord's grace has finally opened so that, according to the Prophet, even the deaf might hear the word.461 The comparison of his face to the sun is apt, for now he holds the book open.462 and he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the earth.

The preaching of the Christian faith spreads over land and sea. But in an allegorical sense, the stronger members are deployed in situations of greater danger, /363/ and the others in situations they can cope with. For God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability.463

[10:3] [And he cried with a loud voice like a lion roaring.] And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

When the Lord preaches with power, the Church also, filled with sevenfold grace, lifts up its voice in preaching.464 'The lion shall roar: Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken: Who shall not prophecy?' 465 Indeed, the seven thunders are the same as the seven trumpets already discussed.466

460 Primasius 10.12-13, 17-20, 22-23, including paraphrase of Isa. 52:7 ('the feet of him … preaches peace' – however, Bede has filled out the quotation), and quotation from Gal. 2:9 in the last sentence, which Bede enlarges by adding the names of the three disciples; in so doing he extends the meaning of the 'glowing face of the Lord' to allude to the Transfiguration, which these three witnessed: cf. Matt. 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36. Cf. Victorinus/Jerome 10.1

(89.12-13), which also relates the 'glowing face of the Lord' to the Resurrection.

461 Isa. 29:18.

462 Tyconius 3.53 (164): cf. Tur. fr. 293, Beatus 5.10.4, and more distantly Primasius 10.2527, 30-31.

463 A fusion of Tyconius 3.54 (cf. Tur. fr. 295-296) and Primasius 10.31-35, 37-38. The final sentence: 1 Cor. 10:13, quoted by Primasius 10.35.

464 Tyconius 3.55 (164); cf. Tur. fr. 298, Caesarius 235.21, Primasius 10.41-43, Beatus

5.10.11.

465 Amos 3:8.

466 I.e. in Rev. 8:2. From Tyconius 3.55, cf. Caesarius 235.22 and Beatus 5.10.11. The

BOOK two [10:4] And when the seven thunders [had]467 uttered their voices, I was about to write; … For he had heard before, What you see, write in a book.468

[and I heard a voice from heaven saying to me:] Seal up the things which the seven thunders have spoken; and do not write them.

Do not reveal the mysteries of the Christian faith indiscriminately to every one, lest they be cheapened, nor shut them off from the prudent, lest they be completely hidden. This is why he hears later on, Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book. Both are comprised in a short verse from Daniel, to whom an angel said, Shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time appointed.469

[10:5] And the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven; [10:6]

And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever … The angel swears by him who lives forever and ever, while Christ, coming in the name of the Father, confirms his statements in immutable truth. He says,

Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.470

/365/ 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:

He who stands both on land and on sea, and holds up his hand to heaven, appropriately swears by the Creator of heaven, earth and sea.

That time shall be no longer; notion that the repeated sevens in John's vision are in fact reiterations of the same content goes back to Victorinus: see Introduction, pp. 9–10.

467 Bede's text reads locuta sunt; the received text of the Vulgate reads locuta fuissent: cf.

Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

468 Rev. 1:11.

469 The entire passage is from Tyconius 3.56 (164-165): cf. Tur. fr. 302-305, 307, including embedded quotations from Rev. 22:10 and Dan. 12:4. The latter quotation also appears in Primasius 10.56-57. However, Bede and Primasius quote the Vulgate version of this text, not the translation used by Tyconius. Parallel passages are found in Caesarius 235.24-26; Primasius

10.51-53, 55-57; Beatus 5.10.13-14, 18.

470 Matt. 24:35.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

As the Psalm says, the time of the wicked shall endure forever,471 but the changeable variety of the times 472 of this world will cease at the last trumpet.

'For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise again incorruptible and their inheritance shall be forever'.473

[10:7] [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, as he has declared by his servants the prophets.

The mystery which we now preach shall then be consummated, when the wicked go into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life everlasting.474

XVI [10:8] 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 stands on the sea and on the earth.] The Lord lays open the mysteries of the age to come, saying The kingdom of heaven is at hand,475 and the Church likewise is admonished to take up this same book of preaching,476 albeit these words might apply to John himself, in that he was to return to preaching after his exile.477

[10:9] And I went to the angel, telling him that he should give me the book.

Let him who desires to receive the sacraments of teaching approach the Lord.478 /367/ 471 Cf. Ps. 80(81):16, quoted in the context of this verse by Gregory, Mor. 4.5 (166.116118).

472 Primasius 10.70.

473 Bede expands 1 Cor. 15:52 by adding a phrase from Ps. 36(37):18. Primasius 10.67-68 quotes only the Corinthians passage; cf. Tyconius, Tur. fr. 309; Caesarius 236.5; Beatus 5.10.24.

474 Matt. 25:46; cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XVIII (see Appendix).

475 Matt. 4:17, 10:7.

476 Tyconius 3.59 (165), cf. Tur. fr. 313; Caesarius 238.7-8; Primasius 10.75-77.

477 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XVI (see Appendix). Primasius 1.31-33 describes how

John was released after the death of Domitian and thereafter wrote his Gospel.

478 The substance of this passage is echoed in Primasius 10.86-87; Tyconius, Tur. fr. 315;

Caesarius 238.9-10; Beatus 5.10.27.

BOOK two And he saYs479 to me: Take the book and eat it up; … That is: put it in your bowels, and write in on the breadth of your heart.480 and it shall make your belly bitter; but in your mouth it shall be sweet as honey. [[10:10] And I took the book from the hand of the angel and ate it up; and in my mouth, it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it my belly was bitter.]

When you have taken it up, you will be pleased by the sweetness of the divine utterance, but you will feel bitterness when you begin to preach and to put into action what you understand,481 or so this should be understood in accordance with Ezekiel, who when he had devoured this book, added, and I went away in bitterness in the indignation of my spirit.482

[10:11] And he said unto me: you must prophesy again to many nations and peoples and tongues and kings.

He explains what the book which he has eaten, and the sweetness mingled with bitterness, signify: namely, that after his return from exile he should preach to the nations483 a Gospel which was indeed sweet with love, but made bitter by the persecutions he would have to bear.

XVII [11:1] And there was given to me a reed, like a rod.

In the reed, he receives the office of writing the Gospel. It is not superfluous with futile elegance,484 but is like the sceptre of justice, the sceptre of the kingdom of God.485 For it describes Christ's eternal kingdom.

[And it was said to me:] Arise, and measure the temple of God and the altar … Arise, he said, not because John heard these things sitting down,486 but 479 dicit is the reading of Bede's lemma; the standard Vulgate reading is dixit, 'he said'.

480 Tyconius 3.59 (165): the closest parallel in Beatus 5.10.27, but cf. Tur. fr. 317; Caesarius

238.11-12, Primasius 10.87-88. The final phrase ('write …heart') is from Prov. 7:3 in the Vetus

Latina translation: cf. Bede, In Prov. 1 (5-6).

481 Tyconius 3.59 (165): cf. Tur. fr. 319, Caesarius 238.13-15.

482 Ezek. 3:14.

483 'after his return …nations': Primasius 10.110-114; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 10.3 (93.1395.3).

484 Primasius 10.116-120, 126; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 11.1 (95.7-10).

485 Ps. 44:7 (45:6); Heb. 1:8.

486 Tyconius 3.61 (166): cf. Tur. fr. 325; Caesarius 238.23-24; Beatus 5.10.39.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

because /369/ the hearts of all are roused by this word to measure the text of the Gospel and its deeds. For there they find how far each has made progress, and the extent to which they are in agreement with the divine rule.487 and them that worship therein.

Because not all who are seen worshiping therein actually do so,488 like the one who shall confess me.489 Then he orders that a part should not be measured, saying:490

[11:2] But cast out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure; because it is given to the Gentiles; … Those who are joined to the Church in name, and who do not approach the altar or the Holy of Holies,491 are thrust out of the rule of the Gospel and keep company with the Gentiles. All the glory of the king's daughter is within.492 and they shall trample the holy city under foot for forty-two months; Not only are they driven out of the Church, but in an alliance with the gentiles they attack the Church itself for three and a half years.493 Nor do they oppress her only at that time – that is, in the time of Antichrist – for every body of wicked men belongs to him as it were to its rightful head, and in them, even now, the mystery of iniquity is carried out.494

487 The final sentence of this exegesis, as well as the exegesis of 11:2, brings in a theme dear to Bede: the congruity of measurement, especially as applied to time and to architecture, and 'rule', meaning a regular law of life, and in particular a monastic rule. The word-play of regula and regulariter is pervasive in DTR, and also in the HE, especially in the letter of Ceolfrith to King Necthan of the Picts in 5.21.

488 Tyconius 3.61 (166); cf. Caesarius 238.25-27 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

489 Luke 12:8.

490 Tyconius 3.62 (166); cf. Tur. fr. 326 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

491 Primasius 11.13, 15, 18-19; the ultimate source is Tyconius 3.62 (166), cf. Tur. fr.

328-329; Beatus 5.10.42.

492 Ps. 44:14 (45:13), quoted in this context by Primasius 11.15.

493 Cf. Primasius 11.17-20.

494 2 Thess. 2:7. For this entire sentence, Gryson cites a parallel in Primasius 11.21-25, but Primasius is in fact saying something different from Bede. Primasius speaks of an alliance of Jews, heretics and gentiles, but more importantly, he expressly denies that the number of months refers to the final persecution; it is, rather, a trope for the whole span of Christian history. Bede regards the time period as referring to both the whole of Christian history and the time of Antichrist.

BOOK two [11.3] And I will grant to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, … Lest the ferocity of the wicked should terrify his audience, he shows the Church, joined together from two peoples,495 glowing with virtues through grace. Ever looking towards her Head, /371/ which is Christ, she, teaching in the flesh, will prophesy for three and a half years, it is said, for the months contained in three and a half years make 1,260 days (that is, 30 [days] times

42 [months]). Daniel however writes that the abomination of desolation would be raised up for 1,290 days.496 clothed in sackcloth.

That is: in a state of penance. As the prophet says, But as for me, when they were troublesome to me, I was clothed with haircloth.497

[11:4] These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks that stand before the Lord of the earth.

The Church, illumined by the light of the two testaments,498 always attends upon the commands of the Lord.499 For the prophet Zechariah saw a single seven-branched candlestick, and these two olive trees (that is, testaments) pouring oil into the candelabrum. This is the Church with her unfailing oil, which causes her to shine as a light to the world.500

[11:5] And if any man would harm them, fire shall come out of their mouths, and shall devour their enemies; [and if any man would harm them, in this manner must he be slain.] If anyone harm the Church, he is condemned by retributive justice to the very same punishment which he has inflicted, and is consumed by fire.501 For all that take the sword shall perish by the sword.502 Hence the Babylonian fire,

495 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XVII (see Appendix).

496 Dan. 12:11; Jerome, In Dan. 4.12.7 (941.630-632) computes 1,290 days as three and a half years, and Bede seems to agree with this in his exegesis of Rev. 8:1 and 11:13.

497 Tyconius 3.65 (167) quoting Ps. 34(35):13; cf. Tur. fr. 338-339, Caesarius 239.7-8;

Beatus 5.11.7.

498 Primasius 11.53-54; the ultimate source is Tyconius 3.66 (167), cf. Tur. fr. 344;

Caesarius 239.11-12; Beatus 5.11.8.

499 Cf. Tyconius, Tur. fr. 346.

500 Tyconius 3.66 (167): cf. Tur. fr. 346-347, Beatus 5.11.10. The allusion is to Zech. 4:2-3.

501 Primasius 11.62-63; based on Tyconius 3.67 (168): cf. Tur. fr. 351 and Caesarius 239.20.

502 Matt. 26:52.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

directed against the children of God, /373/ consumed the agents of wickedness themselves.503 Or else he is to be consumed in a good fire through the prayers of the mouth of the Church, and transformed into something better.504 He says, You shall heap coals of fire upon his head.505

[11:6] These men have power to shut the sky, so that it does not rain in the days of their prophecy; …

In Christ all power is given to the Church in heaven and earth by the keys of binding and loosing which have been committed to it.506 But heaven is closed spiritually so that it does not rain, lest blessing from the Church fall upon the sterile earth. As the Lord says507concerning his vine, And I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.508 and power over the waters, to turn them into blood

[and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.] Not only do they hold the waters back, but they make what did come down useless, which is what it means to turn water into blood. 509 For the goodly perfume of Christ, wafting from the Church, is to some the odour of death, leading to death, and to others the odour of life, leading to life.510

[11:7] And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the abyss shall make war against them … He plainly indicates that all these things will take place before the final persecution when he says, When they shall have finished their testimony – at least the [testimony] which they shall declare up until the revelation of the Beast 511 who will come forth from the hearts of the wicked.512 It is not that 503 The allusion is to the story of the three young men in the fiery furnace: Dan. 3, and esp. v. 22.

504 Primasius 11.64-65; based on Tyconius 3.67: cf. Tur. fr. 351; Caesarius 239.20-22;

Beatus 5.11.14.

505 Rom. 12:20.

506 Tyconius 3.68 (168) quoting from Matt. 28:18 and paraphrasing Matt. 16:19; cf. Tur. fr. 356, Primasius 11.68-70. Bede, however, has expanded the latter quotation from Matthew.

507 Tyconius 3.68 (168): cf. Tur. fr. 357-358; Caesarius 239.25-27.

508 The quotation from Isa. 5:6 came through Tyconius 3.68 (168); cf. Beatus 5.11.17-19;

Primasius 11.72-73; Caesarius 239.27.

509 Primasius 11.75-76, based on Tyconius 3.68 (168): cf. Tur. fr. 358-359; Beatus 5.11.19.

510 Primasius 11.81-82, quoting 2 Cor. 2:15-16.

511 Tyconius 3.69 (169); cf. Tur. fr. 364-365; Caesarius 239.28-31; Primasius 11.87-89.

512 Cf. Augustine, DCD 20.8 (714.72-75). Contrast to Primasius 11.90-91, who says that the Beast will emerge from the heart of the Jews (ex latebris nequitiae cordis Judaeorum).

BOOK two [the two witnesses] do not then strive valiantly to resist the enemy, but that the Church will then be believed to be destitute of the grace of power, /375/ while her foe will flash before them with signs of falsehood.513 As the Lord says, And want goes before his face.514 and shall overcome them and kill them.

He shall overcome in those who shall succumb, and kill in those who shall be destroyed in praiseworthy patience for the sake of Christ's name.515 Or if he spiritually overcomes and slays, we must accept that this refers to a segment of the witnesses. As [we read] in the Gospel, Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death.516 The evangelist Luke implies that this was said concerning a segment, saying And some of you they will put to death.517

[11:8] And their bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city … If they have persecuted me, he says, they will also persecute you.518 It is no wonder that the city of the wicked, which did not fear to crucify the Lord, should likewise mock his servants, even if they are dead. The history of the Church519 relates that such things have often happened. which in a spiritual sense is called Sodom and Egypt;

[where their Lord also was crucified.] That is: 'silent' and 'gloomy',520 having neither the light of faith nor the voice of confession. For, with the heart, we believe to [our] justification; but with the mouth, confession is made, to [our] salvation.521 In token of spiritual

513 2 Thess. 2:9.

514 Job 41:13 (41:22). Cf. Gregory, Mor. 34.33 (1757.4-5).

515 Spliced from Primasius 11.92-94 and Tyconius 3.70 (169); cf. Tur. fr. 367-369;

Caesarius 239.31-32; Beatus 5.12.1-2.

516 Matt. 24:9.

517 Luke 21:16.

518 John 15:20.

519 historia ecclesiastica: Bede may be thinking of some specific passages in Eusebius/

Rufinus's Historia ecclesiastica, but the reference does not permit identification. It is at once too vague, in that it could, if taken loosely, be applicable to any persecution, and too precise, since it seems to point to exposure of the dead bodies of martyrs.

520 On the etymology of Sodom, cf. Jerome, Lib. int. 142.4, 151.21, 160.6 (Bede seems to have extrapolated this meaning from Jerome: see Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 170); on Egypt, ibid. 143.28-29,151.14, 156.25.

521 Rom. 10:10.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

punishment, these regions were visibly smitten by plagues, namely [Sodom by] devouring fire and [Egypt by] water which has turned to blood.522

[11:9] And [they] of the peoples of the tribes and peoples and tongues and nations shall look upon their bodies [for three days and a half; …]

He does not say the peoples and tribes shall see, but many of the peoples523 who jeer at the saints, while others believe. /377/ and they shall not allow their bodies to be laid in sepulchres.

He spoke of their intention and their assault. They cannot have their wish, there should be no remembrance of them in the Church. As it is said, 'For you yourselves do not enter in and those that are going in, you do not allow to enter', and when they enter, they attack them. For they will evidently bring this to pass upon the bodies of the living and the dead, not allowing the living to gather to celebrate in their memory, nor the dead to be named in memory, nor the bodies of these witnesses to the memory of God to be buried.524

[11:10] And those who dwell upon the earth will rejoice over them and make merry; [and will send gifts to one another, …] Whenever the righteous are afflicted, the unrighteous make merry and feast.525

In the same way, the poor man is ruined while the wicked lords it over him.526 because these two prophets tormented them [that dwelt upon the earth].

The very sight of the just irks the unjust because of the plagues with which humankind is tormented for the sake of God's testimonies. As they themselves say, 'He is a source of grief to us, even to behold.'527

522 Destruction of Sodom by fire: Gen. 19:24-25; plague of blood in Egypt: Exod. 7:17-25.

523 Tyconius, Tur. fr. 390, but Bede's partitive construction is original: see Mackay

'Sources and Style', p. 56.

524 Tyconius 3.74 (170), quoting Matt. 23:13: cf. Tur. fr. 385-387; Caesarius 240.10-13;

Beatus 5.12.10-12; Primasius 11.105-110.

525 Tyconius 3.75 (170): cf. Tur. fr. 389, Caesarius 240.16-17 and Beatus 5.12.13. An allusion to Ps. 67:4 (68:3).

526 Ps. 9b(10):2.

527 Tyconius 3.76 (170-171): cf. Tur. fr. 392; Caesarius 240.17-20; Primasius 11.113-116;

Beatus 5.12.15. The embedded quotation is from Wisd. of Sol. 2:15.

BOOK two [11:11] And after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them; and they stood up on their feet; … Up until now the angel has told of the future, and now he introduces as an accomplished fact what he hears will happen:528 that when the kingdom of Antichrist has been overthrown, the saints have risen in glory. and great fear fell on those who saw them.

He said this concerning all the living, for the just who survive will also tremble at the resurrection of those that sleep.529 /379/

[11:12] [And they heard a loud voice from heaven, saying to them: Come up hither.] And they went up to heaven in a cloud; …

This is what the Apostle said: We shall be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.530 and their enemies saw them.

Henceforth he distinguishes the unjust from those whom he said were collectively afraid.531

[11:13] And at that hour a great earthquake occurred; and a tenth of the city fell. And seven thousand

[names of]532 men were slain in the earthquake; … When the terror of judgement takes hold, the whole city of the Devil, built upon sand, will collapse together with those who constructed it. Both the number ten and the number seven are perfect. Even if this were not so, the whole would be understood from the part.533 and the rest were thrown into fear … 528 Tyconius 3.77 (171): cf. Tur. fr. 396; Caesarius 240.24-25; Beatus 5.13.1; (more loosely) Primasius 11.205.

529 Tyconius (Tur. fr.) 403; Beatus pr. 4.98, and 5.13.10.

530 Tyconius 3.78 (171), cf. Tur. fr. 398; Caesarius 240.28-29, all quoting 1 Thess. 4:16.

However, unlike Bede, these sources omit the phrase 'in the air'. On Bede's effort to integrate elements of the end-times narrative found outside Revelation, see Introduction, p. 82.

531 Tyconius 3.79 (171): cf. Tur. fr. 405; cf. Beatus pr. 4.98, 5.13.11.

532 An omission from the Vulgate text particular to Bede: see Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

533 Tyconius 3.81 (172): cf. Tur. fr. 411-412; Caesarius 241.12-16; Primasius 11.213-219;

Beatus 5.13.13. The reference to the structure built on sand comes from Matt. 7:26-27. The final sentence is a good illustration of Tyconius's Rule 5: see Introduction, p. 71.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

'Who among men will boast that he has a chaste heart',534 when 'the powers of heaven shall be moved'?535 and gave glory to the God of heaven.

These are built upon a rock who, while others collapse in the earthquake, glorify the Lord in their stability with an upright confession. The just man shall rejoice when he sees the punishment of the wicked.536 Some interpret the two prophets as Enoch and Elijah, who, preaching for three and a half years, strengthen the hearts of the faithful against the perfidy of Antichrist which is soon to follow, and when they have been killed, his anger will rage for just this length of time.537 And when the struggle is again taken up,538 he will be overcome by the saints who, hidden safely away, were thought to be as good as dead; because they are united in one body, they will be said to rise again as prophets.539 When they who were thought dead are seen, and the persecution intensified540 /381/ many of those who are believed to be worthy either in the number seven or the number ten will be slain. As Daniel says,

And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation,541 and in what follows, And from the time when …the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. This number extends over the 534 Prov. 20:9.

535 Matt. 24:29.

536 A fusion of Tyconius 3.82 (172; cf. Tur. fr. 416-417) quoting Ps. 57:11 (58:10), and Primasius 11.220-222; cf. Caesarius 241.17-21 and Beatus 5.13.15.

537 Gryson (p. 378) notes that no direct source for this identification of the two prophets with Enoch and Elijah has been found. 'Some interpret ... hearts of the faithful' is, however, found verbatim in a 6th-century tract from Vivarium entitled De duobus testibus, surviving in a unique copy in Vatican Library Reg. lat. 2077, fols. 78r-v. Cf. Troncarelli, 'Il consolato dell'antichristo', pp. 567–592. A critical edition of this text is being prepared by Dr Luciana

Cuppo Csaki as part of her forthcoming edition and translation of Cassiodorus' Complexiones in Apocalypsi for the Library of Early Christianity (Catholic University of America Press). I owe this information to a personal communication from Dr Cuppo Csaki, to whom I extend very sincere thanks. The tradition is nonetheless an ancient one, going back to Hippolytus, De antichristo 47 and Tertullian, De anima 50: see R.J. Bauckham, 'The Martyrdom of Enoch and Elijah: Jewish or Christian', Journal of Biblical Literature 95 (1976): 447–458. The italicized words 'when … rage' are from Primasius 11.195-198.

538 Primasius 11.169-170.

539 Primasius 11.174.

540 Primasius 11.210-212.

541 Dan. 9:27, quoted in this context by Primasius 11.185-186.

BOOK two course of three years and six months.542 Finally, Elijah once destroyed his adversaries with fire, and from his hiding place held back the rains for three and a half years, and eventually, when the false prophets had been slain, converted Israel to God through the sacrifice which was consumed.543 So much for the recapitulation.

[11:14] The second woe is past; and behold, the third woe will come quickly.

The second woe does not refer to the recapitulation, but to the battle of the horses, which the trumpet of the sixth angel had incited. For the eagle predicted three woes from the sound of the three trumpets to come. But he did not say so then, lest what belongs to the seventh angel, and to the end, be thought to follow immediately upon the third.544

XVIII [11:15] And the seventh angel sounded the trumpet: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of this world is become /383/ that of the Lord God545 and of his Christ; [and he shall reign for ever and ever. Amen.] The previous six trumpets, which are likened to the ages of this world, announced the varying courses of the Church's wars. But the seventh, announcing the eternal sabbath, indicates the victory and the supreme rule of the true king.546

[11:16] And the twenty-four elders [who sit on their thrones in the sight of God fell on their faces and] worshipped God, saying:

[11:17] We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, … 542 Primasius 11.157-159, including quotation from Dan. 12:11. Compare to Bede's comment on Rev. 11:3 above.

543 Primasius 11.186-191; the reference is to 3 Kings (1 Kings) 18:30-45.

544 Condensing Tyconius 3.83 (172-173): cf. Tur. fr. 420-422; Primasius 11.222-235;

Beatus pr. 4.103-105, 5.13.17-20.

545 The received text of the Vulgate reads nostri domini; Bede's text reads domini Dei: cf.

Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

546 This is the only passage in the Commentary where Bede seems to refer to the six worldages, but it is ambiguous, in that he equates the saeculi praesentis aetates to the history of the Church, i.e. the Sixth Age. See also exegesis of 8:6. The seals also represent the divisions of the Sixth Age; hence the import of this statement is difficult to discern.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

Behold, he says, the third woe shall come in the voice of the seventh angel.

And when [the angel] had sounded, [John] said that only the Church was praising God and giving thanks. Hence we understand that the reward of the good is nothing other than the woe of the evil.547 who is and who was [and who is to come]; because you have taken your great power, and have reigned.

[11.18] And the nations were angry; and your wrath came; … Indeed, you have reigned from everlasting, despite the rebellion of the wicked, but now shall their rage perish, crushed by you, their judge.548 'The Lord has reigned, let the people be angry'.549 and the time for the dead to be judged and your servants given their reward and so forth [the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, little and great; …]

He conforms to the sequence of the Gospel narrative: first all the nations shall be gathered550 before the Judge, then those who are on the right hand shall be established in many mansions551 in the kingdom of the Father.

But the wicked, when they have been expelled from the boundaries of the kingdom, shall be tortured in the flames of malediction. and for the destruction of those who have cor rupted the earth.

This is the final woe.552 So much for the seven angels sounding trumpets.

/385/ Now he recapitulates from the birth of the Lord, and will say the same things in a different and fuller fashion.553

547 Primasius 11.256-259, based on Tyconius 3.84 (173): cf. Tur. fr. 428-429; Beatus

5.14.2-3.

548 Arator, De actibus apostolorum 2.661 (114).

549 Ps. 98(99):1.

550 Matt. 25:32.

551 John 14:2. See Introduction, p. 82.

552 Tyconius 3.84 (173); cf. Beatus pr. 4.110, 5.14.4.

553 Primasius 11.263-264. The ultimate source is Tyconius 4.1 (173): cf. Beatus pr. 4.111,

5.14.4.

BOOK two XIX [11:19] And the temple of God was opened in heaven; and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple;

The temple of the Lord, when it stood on earth, once covered the ark of the covenant draped in a mystic veil. But with the veil of the old Temple and the dividing wall rent by the blood of the Lord, the ark of his Incarnation is now revealed to the whole world in the Church, the temple of the living

God, whose conversation is in heaven. For just as the heavenly manna [was stored] in [a vessel of] pure gold, so is [Christ's] divinity in his holy body.554 and there were lightnings and voices and an earthquake and great hail.

All of these are powers of flashing, and proclamation, and of the wars of the Church. He had said that these things also happened in the description of the proclamation of the seven angels from the Lord's coming, when he stood upon the altar, but in general terms, from beginning to end. Then he described each in turn, and how it would come about. So also now, that the temple of God might be opened and that battles might ensue, he says:555

[12:1] And a great sign appeared in heaven: … [This is a sign] that now also appears in the Church, that God came into being from man.556 a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, … The Church, girded with the light of Christ, treads upon temporal glory.557

'In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, until /387/ the moon be taken away (or slain)'. That is, the abundance of peace will wax to the point where it removes all the mutability of mortality, when 'death the last enemy shall be destroyed'.558 Or else it is because this same Church in 554 Primasius 11.275, 265-66, including embedded quotation from Phil. 3:20. Cf. Tyconius,

Tur. fr. 431.

555 Tyconius 4.4 (174): cf. Tur. fr. 438-439; Primasius 11.302-305; Caesarius 241.26-27;

Beatus 6.1.3-4. 'When he stood upon the altar' alludes to Rev. 8:3.

556 Tyconius 4.5: cf. Tur. fr. 441; Primasius 12.1-4; Beatus pr. 5.1, 6.2.1.

557 Primasius 12.9-11; the identification of the Woman with the Church is from Tyconius

4.6 (174), cf. Tur. fr. 444.

558 Augustine, Epistola 55, ed. A. Goldbacher, CSEL 34.2 (1898), 180.16-20, incorporating quotations from Ps. 71(72):7 ('In his days … slain') and 1 Cor. 15:26 ('death … destroyed').

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

part rejoices in Christ, the Sun, in heaven, and in part is on pilgrimage559 in the body, apart from the Lord.560 One can here understand his statement His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.561 and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

The head of the Church is adorned with the number of the twelve apostles.

Or else you should understand what is designated by the word 'head' to be Christ, or the first beginning of this same new-born Church. You have set on his head a crown of precious stones.562

[12:2] And being with child, she cried out, travailing in birth, … Spiritually, the Church both brings those with whom she travails to birth, and does not cease to travail in birth with those already born. As she herself says, My little children, with whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you.563 and was in pain to be delivered.

As the Lord says in the Gospel, A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow, because her hour is come; but, when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish because of her joy.564 To explain this to his disciples, he adds, So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice.565 /389/

[12:3] [And there was seen another sign in heaven.] And behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns

[and seven diadems on his heads;] The Devil, bloody in his fury against the Church, is armed with the might of an earthly kingdom.566 For in the seven heads he names [the Devil's] kings,

559 Primasius 12.15-16. It is interesting that Bede barely alludes to Primasius's alternative interpretation of the Woman as the Virgin Mary, which is Primasius's occasion to indulge in a lengthy enumeration of heresies concerning the Incarnation: Matter, 'Exegesis of the Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages', p. 32, 'The Apocalypse in Early Medieval Exegesis', p. 44.

560 2 Cor. 5:6.

561 Song of Sol. 8:3.

562 Primasius 12.27-29, quoting Ps. 20(21):4, and based on Tyconius 4.7 (175): cf. Tur. fr. 449.

563 Primasius 12.31-34, quoting Gal. 4:19.

564 John 16:21.

565 John 16:22.

566 A fusion of Primasius 12.35 and Tyconius 4.9; cf. Tur. fr. 452-453, Caesarius 242.4-5,

Beatus 6.2.9. Primasius's wording is closest to Bede's, but Primasius, unlike the other sources

BOOK two and in the ten horns, all kingdoms.567

[12:4] And with his tail he dragged down a third of the stars in heaven and cast them to the earth.

He shows the strength and malice of the enemy – the enemy whom the Church, with the Lord's help, defeats – who has hurled down a countless number of angels or men by cunning deceit, as if with his tail.568 For the tail is a hidden part, an unclean part,569 covering the unclean parts with a veil lest they be seen. Tyconius in his usual fashion interprets the third part of the stars which fall as false brethren; the second third is the Church, and the third third is enemies without.570

And the dragon stood before the woman [who was ready to be delivered],571 that he might devour her son when she had given birth.

The Devil lies in ambush for the Church, striving to snuff out the faith of Christ in the hearts of believers, so that the one whom she engenders by her instruction, he can as lord (so to speak) kill.572 His symbolic meaning

[figura] is displayed in the trickster Herod who, like the enemies within, pretends that he wishes to adore the Lord, in order that he may destroy him.573

[12:5] And she brought forth a man-child, The Church continually gives birth to Christ, despite the dragon's attack.

He said that the victor over the Devil who had conquered the woman, was a man-child.574 For what son is not a man-child? named here, does not identify the dragon with the Devil, an idea ultimately traceable to Victorinus/Jerome 12.2 (109.2).

567 Tyconius 4.10 (175): cf. Tur. fr. 456-457; Caesarius 242.6-8; Primasius 12.37-38;

Beatus 6.2.12-13.

568 Tyconius 4.11 (175): cf. Caesarius 242.11-13; Primasius 12.43-45; Beatus 6.2.17. The identification of the stars with angels or men goes back to Victorinus/Jerome 13/17.1 (117.3-7).

569 See above, exegesis of Rev. 9:19.

570 Tyconius 4.11 (175-176). In Tur. fr. 456, by contrast, the stars which are cast down by the dragon's tail are 'simple folk who joined with him (i.e. the Devil)' and the third part are the Jews and their leaders. There is a parallel passage in Beatus 6.2.22-24.

571 An omission peculiar to Bede: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

572 Primasius 12.47-51; the ultimate source is Tyconius 4.12 (176), cf. Tur. fr. 463;

Caesarius 242.16-18; Beatus 6.2.26-27.

573 Tyconius 4.12 (176): cf. Tur. fr. 464-466; Beatus 6.2.28-30.

574 Tyconius 4.13 (177): cf. Tur. fr. 476-477 and Caesarius 242.18-20; Beatus pr. 5.9-10.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

who was to rule all the nations with an iron rod; … He rules the good with unbending justice, and smashes the evil.575 This was also promised above to the Church: I will give him power over the nations.

/391/ And he shall rule them with a rod of iron.576 For the Church, too, every day begets the Church, which rules the world in Christ. and her child was taken up to God and to his throne.

Thus Christ, born spiritually in the mind of those who hear, cannot be apprehended by wickedness, for he reigns with the Father in heaven, and has raised us up together and has made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Jesus Christ.577

[12:6] And the woman fled into the wilderness, … The Church, living in hope of eternal things, rejoices in her pilgrimage through this present desert, having received the power of treading on serpents and scorpions and over every power of the red dragon, like the Israelite people who, fed with heavenly bread in the wilderness, overcame the fiery serpents at the sight of the brazen serpent.578 where she had A PLACE prepared by God, …

She says: Be unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me.579 that there they should feed her for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

In this number of days, which makes three and a half years, is encompassed the whole age of Christendom [christianitatis tempora], because Christ, whose body it is, preached for that long in the flesh.580

575 Primasius 12.61-63.

576 Tyconius 4.14 (177): cf. Tur. fr. 479; Beatus 6.2.32-33, including embedded quotation of Rev. 2:26-27.

577 Tyconius 4.15: cf. Tur. fr. 481; Primasius 12.66-69, including quotation from Eph. 2:6.

578 Primasius 12.81-89; cf. Tyconius 4.15 (177), Tur. fr. 486; Caesarius 242.21-25; Beatus

6.2.37. The allusion to treading down serpents and scorpions is from Luke 10:19; the account of the brazen serpent from Num. 21:4-9. The Turin Fragments of Tyconius's commentary break off here.

579 Ps. 30:3 (31:2); Bede's text reads locum refugii ('place of refuge') rather than the Vulgate domum refugii ('house of refuge'). The phrase locum refugii occurs in this context in Primasius 12.96. Bede may have been influenced by Tyconius's Biblical text here; alternatively, he might have recognized the allusion in Primasius, and expanded his reference.

580 Primasius 12.101-103. The number 3½ would seem to be a Tyconian 'legitimate number'; see Introduction, pp. 70–71.

BOOK two XX [12:7] And there was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, …

Heaven represents the Church, in which (he says) Michael and his angels fight against the Devil; for by God's will he does battle for the pilgrim

Church by praying and by rendering aid. /393/ Daniel says that in the last and worst conflict, he will come to the succour of the Church,581 and therefore people think that Antichrist will be killed by him. Therefore they are called his angels, and in the same way, they are also our angels. The Lord says, Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father – [the angels], that is, of those who are citizens.582 and the dragon fought, and his angels.

The angels of Satan are to be understood not only as beings similar to him in nature and will, but also as men netted in his snares.583

[12:8] And they did not prevail; … That is, for all time. nor was there a place for them any more in heaven.

That is, amongst holy men, who are now themselves made into a heaven by his expulsion, and who, as believers, receive him no more who was once expelled.584

[12:9] And that great dragon was thrown down, [that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. And he was thrown down] to the earth; [and his angels were cast out with him.] Having been expelled from the spiritual [realms], the old enemy is bound more tightly to the earthly. This is what it is to be hurled out of heaven, and 581 Primasius 12.107, 111-114, 118-120; cf. Dan. 12.1. The identification of heaven with the Church is Tyconian: cf. Caesarius 242.25, Beatus 6.2.41. Note, however, that in his later work De eo quod Isaias ait (PL 94.707; trans. Holder, p. 47) Bede reiterates the idea that Michael will slay Antichrist and names Gregory the Great as his authority, i.e. Homeliae in Evangelia 34.9 (307.199-212). In his exegesis of Rev. 20:9 below, Bede proposes an alternative scenario, where Christ kills Antichrist.

582 Primasius 12.124-127, quoting Matt. 18:10. Cf. Augustine, DCD 22.29 (857.31-37).

583 Primasius 12.130-133.

584 Tyconius 4.17 (179); cf. Caesarius 242.32-34 (see also 243.25-29), Beatus pr. 5.14,

6.2.44.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

cast down to earth. To him it is said, Earth shall you eat all the days of your life.585 On this earth, he is crushed by the feet of the saints, as it is written:

You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk.586

[12:10] [And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying:] Now the salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ are come; … He shows plainly in what heaven these things take place. For we know that salvation is accomplished in the Church by the victory of Christ. Because of this, He said, All power is given to me in heaven and in /395/ earth – not the power which he himself always had, but [the power which] he began to have in the Church, as the head in its members, from the moment he himself so desired.587 because the accuser of our brethren is cast out,588

… The angels rejoice in the salvation of their brethren, that is, of those who will be citizens in the future, though now they are on pilgrimage.589 who accused them before the sight of our God day and night.

He censures them with using prosperity amiss, and with lacking patience in adversity.590

[12:11] [And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of the testimony;] and they loved not their lives unto death.

They who have overcome such an adversary through the blood of Christ rightly despise their lives for Christ's sake.

[12:12] Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you that dwell therein.

585 Primasius 12.148-150, quoting Gen. 3:14. Tyconius 4.18 (179) interpreted 'earth' as earthly and carnal men: cf. Caesarius 243.2-5, 23-25, and Beatus 6.2.46. This is not reflected by Bede, and yet Bede's phrase 'cast out' (expulsus) is found in Tyconius.

586 Tyconius 4.18 (179), including quotation from Ps. 90(91):13; cf. Beatus 6.2.47.

587 Primasius 12.152-153, 157-160. The phrase 'take place' (fiant) in the first sentence is found in Tyconius 4.19 (179); cf. Caesarius 243.7.

588 The received text of the Vulgate reads proiectus, but Bede reads abiectus: cf. Gryson,

Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

589 Primasius 12.164-165.

590 Gregory, Mor. 2.15 (69.17-19).

BOOK two Here we should understand the inhabitants of heaven as both angels and holy men. And it is fitting that both should rejoice in the Lord, since men associate with angels, and angels do service to human substance in Christ.591

Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil is come down unto you in great wrath, [knowing that he has only a short time.] He taught that as the redeemed can look forward to joy, so those doomed to perish can anticipate sorrow.592 Great woe threatens those whom that most fell foe takes hold of in his fury.

[12:13] And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman [who given birth to the man-child].

The Devil attacks the Church with tortuous cunning, and the more his is cast down, the more he persecutes.593 /397/ [12:14] And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the desert [to her place,] … The Church, borne up by the two Testaments, and wary of the chaotic venom of this world, daily seeks the solitude594 of a quiet and meek spirit595 in the disposition of her mind. Thus she sings for joy, Lo, I went far off, flying away: and I abode in the wilderness.596 It makes no difference that there [i.e. in the Psalms], [the Church] asks for the wings of a dove,597 but here receives the wings of an eagle. For just as the Church is symbolized by the former in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so is she symbolized by the latter because of her high flight and sublime keenness of sight, with which she sees God in purity of heart – she whose youth is renewed like the eagle's.598

591 Primasius 12.180-183.

592 Primasius 12.185-186.

593 An interweaving of Primasius 12.195-197 and Tyconius 4.20 (180); cf. Caesarius

244.1-2 and Beatus 6.2.59. 'The devil …cunning' is from Primasius; the remainder of the sentence from Tyconius, though Primasius conveys the same idea in similar words.

594 Primasius 12.199-203, 204-206. The equation of the Testaments with wings is probably from Tyconius 4.21 (180): cf. Caesarius 244.6-7; Beatus 6.2.61.

595 1 Pet. 3:4.

596 Psalm 54:8 (55.7), quoted in this context by Primasius 12.205-206. The remainder of the exegesis of this verse is loosely based on Primasius 207-214.

597 Cf. Ps. 54:7 (55:6).

598 Ps. 102(103):5.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, [away from the face of the serpent.]

The whole age of the Church is designated, comprised in the abovementioned number of days.599 For a time signifies a year, times two years, and half a time six months.600

[12:15] And the serpent sent water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the river.

The water stands for the violence of the persecutors. Hence it is said, perhaps the waters had swallowed us up.601 So the Church, not only borne up by the word of God but driven by the force of persecutions, makes haste to flee the world.

[12:16] [And the earth helped the woman;] and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river [which the dragon sent out of his mouth.] This earth is the holy flesh of the Lord, which ([Scripture] teaches) swallowing up the death which it received, and overcoming it for a time, swallows us as well. /399/ It can also be interpreted as the Church, by the prayers and admonitions of whose mouth the snares of the Enemy are avoided.602

[12:17] And the dragon was angry at the woman; and went to make war with the rest of her seed, …

When he saw that the persecutions, which the mouth of the holy earth diverted, could not be continued,603 he armed himself for his pursuit all the more with the mystery of evil, that he might plot without respite. who keep the commandments of God, and who have the testimony of Jesus [Christ].

599 Primasius 12.217-218, echoing Tyconius 4.21 (180), cf. Beatus 6.2.62, who explicitly states that this time period extends to the end of the world (ad finem mundi). It is interesting to note that Bede avoids this phrase.

600 Cf. Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.25 (849.730-739); Augustine, DCD 20.23 (742.50-52); Isidore,

De natura rerum 7.1, ed. Jacques Fontaine (Paris: Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, 1960),

199.7-10.

601 Primasius 12.224-227, quoting Ps. 123 (124):4. The ultimate source is Tyconius 4.22

(180): cf. Caesarius 244.12; Beatus 6.2.63.

602 Primasius 12.229-234, 236-239. The ultimate source is Tyconius 4.22 (180-181): cf.

Caesarius 244.13-16; Beatus 6.2.64.

603 Tyconius 4.23: cf. Caesarius 244.25-27; Beatus 6.2.72; Primasius 12.243.

BOOK two To keep the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus Christ is to fight with the dragon and to challenge him to battle. Thanks be to God, who foils the raging dragon's attempt. For lo! he who exerted every effort to destroy the Lord born in the flesh, is frustrated by the resurrection. Labouring thereafter to undermine the confidence of the apostles' teaching, he strove to carry off the woman – that is, the whole Church – from the sphere of human affairs. But as his indiscriminate attacks have been in vain, he now turns against each of the ages of the faithful.604 Hence what follows:

[12:18] And he stood upon the sand of the sea.

That is, this same enemy stirs up conspiracies and wars upon the multitude of people605 which the wind drives from the face of the earth606 – that [multitude], no doubt, which is wont to swallow the deceits of the enemy.

XXI [13:1] And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, … Depending on the place, the beast has different meanings.607 Here, then, it signifies the body of the Devil, born from the race of the ungodly.608 For indeed, this is the sea which above is understood as the abyss.609 Hence the dragon is called the king /401/ of all that is in the waters, and his heads, according to David, are crushed in the sea.610 having seven heads and ten horns; and ten diadems upon his horns, … Here he shows the seven heads are identical with the ten horns. For he had said that the dragon wore seven diadems on seven heads,611 and now he says that the beast had ten diadems on ten horns. But 'seven' and 'ten' are the same thing, as in He shall receive sevenfold in this world, and according to another evangelist, a hundred-fold.612

604 Bede, Capitula lectionum XX (see Appendix).

605 Tyconius 4.24 (181): cf. Beatus 6.2.72; Caesarius 244.28 specifies 'the multitude of the heretics'.

606 Ps. 1:4.

607 Tyconius 4.25 (181); cf. Primasius 13.5-7 and (more loosely) Beatus 6.3.15-16.

608 Tyconius 4.25 (181): cf. Caesarius 244.30-245.1; Primasius 13.7-8; Beatus 6.3.17.

609 Tyconius 4.25 (181): cf. Beatus 6.3.1, Primasius 13.2-3. 'Above' refers to Rev. 11:7.

610 Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.2-3 (838.450-452), quoting Ps. 73(74):6.

611 Rev. 12:3.

612 Luke 18:30. The text of this passage usually reads 'much more' (multo plura), but some MSS read 'sevenfold'. The 'other evangelist' is either Mark (10:30) or Matthew (19:29).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and upon his heads, names of blasphemy.

For they say that their kings are gods after they are dead, and so to speak translated into heaven amongst the other gods, and even on earth they are called 'Augusti', which is a name of godhead, or so they hold. In another place,

[John] says that the whole beast itself is full of the names of blasphemy.613

[13:2] And the beast which I saw was like to a leopard; and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.

He is compared to a leopard, because of the diversity of peoples; to a bear, because of his malice and madness; and to a lion, because of the power of his body, and the pride of his tongue.614 In Daniel, we read that the kingdom of the Chaldaeans is likened to a lioness, that of the Persians to a bear, and that of the Macedonians to a leopard.615

And the dragon gave him his own strength [and great power].

Thus the Apostle, speaking of the Devil's body, says: Whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders to them that perish.616 /403/ [13:3] And I saw one of his heads as it were slain [to death];617 and his deadly wound was healed.

In imitation of our true Head, Antichrist, who belongs to the heads of the earthly kingdom, dares to present himself as having risen from the dead, in order that he might be taken for Christ, who really did this.618 The fallacy of this fabrication is said to have been foreshadowed in Simon Magus.619

613 Based on Tyconius 4.26 (182): cf. Beatus 6.3.18-19. The singling out of the title augustus as blasphemous is Bede's own addition, and refers to Roman emperors, who were deified after death. 'Another place': Rev. 7:3.

614 Tyconius 4.27 (182): cf. Caesarius 245.2-4; Beatus 6.3.20; Primasius 13.18-20.

615 Dan. 7:3-6; cf. Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.4 (838.464–839.469) and 2.7.6 (841.533–842.537).

616 Primasius 13.21-23, quoting 2 Thess. 2:9-10 (a verse which is faintly echoed in Beatus

6.3.22).

617 An omission peculiar to Bede: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

618 Primasius 13.25-27, 33-35. Very loosely based on Tyconius 4.29 (182); cf. Caesarius

245.11-13 and Beatus 6.3.23-24. The feigned death and resurrection of Antichrist is part of his legendary 'biography'.

619 Cf. Acts 8:9-24. This notion of Antichrist as a trickster and fabricator of bogus miracles led to the identification of Simon Magus – the false opposite number of Simon Peter, and who tried to replicate Peter's miracles by purchasing his spiritual power – as one of the types of Antichrist. Bede comments only briefly on the episode of Simon Magus in his Act. Ap. (36-37;

BOOK two And the whole world followed IT [i.e. the Beast] in wonderment.620

[Scripture] presents the genus in place of the species, saying that the Beast is worshipped, since worldly men will worship that counterfeit head under the guise of the Head who was truly slain, and now lives.621

[13:4] And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave power to the beast.

They say they worship God, who gave power to Christ.622

And they worshipped the beast, saying: Who is like to the beast? [And who is able to fight against him?]

These men say: Who is like Christ, and who can defeat him?623

[13:5] And a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies was given to him; … Who is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped.624 and power was given unto him to act for fortytwo months. [13:6] And he opened his mouth to utter blasphemies towards God, … Before the three and a half years, he does not blaspheme openly, but in the mystery of iniquity which will be revealed when separation [discessio] is made and the man of sin revealed, he will be disclosed.625 Then will he say,

I am Christ,626 but now it is /405/ Lo, here is Christ, or there.627 But 'towards

God' [ad Deum] means 'against God'. to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, [and those who dwell in heaven.] The wicked man, usurping for himself the dignity of the name of God, will also dare to call the Church his own. trans. Martin, pp. 79–80), and does not identify him there with Antichrist.

620 The Vulgate reads bestiam; Bede eam: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

621 Cf. Rev. 5:6, 5:9. The source is Tyconius 4.29 (182): cf. Primasius 13.36-39 and Beatus

6.3.27-28.

622 Tyconius 4.29 (182): cf. Beatus 6.3.30.

623 Tyconius 4.29 (182): cf. Beatus 6.3.34.

624 2 Thess. 2:4.

625 Tyconius 4.30 (183): cf. Beatus 6.3.38-39, quoting 2 Thess. 2:3.

626 Matt. 24:5.

627 Matt. 24:23.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[13:7] And it was given to him to make war with the saints, and to conquer them. [And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation.]

A part standing for the whole that can be overcome,628 since even the elect, if this be possible, will be shaken by the violence of the times.629 This is also a condemnation of the Jews who accepted a lie, and did not believe in the truth.630

[13:8] And all that dwell upon the earth worshipped him … All, he said; but dwellers upon the earth.631 For they that depart from you shall be written in the earth.632 whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb … It is right that those who serve the author of death not be written in the book of life, and that those who are deluded by the fraudulent death of the Beast should lack the companionship of the Lamb who has taken away the sin of the world633 – the Lamb, it says, which was slain from the beginning of the world.

A lamb, as Peter says, unspotted and undefiled, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last times.634 Another version says the lamb signed from the foundation of the world.635 This can be understood by hyperbaton636 – that the names of the saints are written from the beginning in the book of life. /407/ [13:9] If any one has an ear, let him hear.

628 Tyconius 4.32 (183): cf. Primasius 13.82; Caesarius 246.1; Beatus 6.3.47.

629 An allusion to Matt. 24:24, quoted in this context by Primasius 13.66-67.

630 Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.25 (849.735-736).

631 Tyconius 4.33 (183): cf. Caesarius 246.4; Beatus 6.3.48.

632 Jer. 7:13, quoted in this context by Primasius 13.93.

633 John 1:29.

634 1 Pet. 1:19-20.

635 The 'other version' is from Tyconius 4.35 (183), cf. Caesarius 246.7 and Beatus T. 13.9

(472); Sparks, p. 512; Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 181.

636 Cf. Bede's exegesis of Rev. 6:9 above. In De schematibus et tropis 2.10, he defines several kinds of hyperbaton, all of which involve a transposition or rupture of expected word order (158.107 sqq.). The idea here is that the verb signed implies that the phrase from the beginning of the world applies not only to the Lamb, but to the inscription of the names of the saints in his book.

BOOK two Whenever Scripture interjects this statement, it is asking the reader to be attentive in the face of the obscurity of the subject. Lest the fact that the reign of the great devil will be a momentary one be left in doubt, [John] anticipates human thoughts, saying:637

[13:10] He that shall lead into captivity goes into captivity; … That is, the Devil, and the Beast who seems to capture the nations in his nets, will swiftly be taken captive along with his followers.638 he that shall kill with the sword must be killed with the sword.

Then the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth and destroy in the brightness of his coming 639 him who now pursues the Church with carnal or even spiritual death.

Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

He had promised to kill the murderer, but since no one is crowned save the one who has striven lawfully,640 what is required now is courage, now a stout breast. Having described the Beast in general terms first in his hypocritical and then in his open blasphemy, [John] describes him in his chieftains alone, once again first hypocritically, and then openly.641

XXII [13:11] And I saw another beast rising up out of the earth; … [John] calls it 'another' because of what it does; otherwise, it is the same one. For as Daniel bears witness, the sea is in this case the earth:642 when he saw the four beasts rise up from the sea,643 the angel said to him, These four beasts are four kingdoms which shall arise out of the earth.644 /409/

637 Primasius 13.94-99; the opening phrase is echoed in Beatus 6.3.52.

638 Primasius 13.99-101 .

639 2 Thess. 2:8, quoted in this context by Primasius 13.108-109.

640 2 Tim. 2:5.

641 Tyconius 4.37 (184): cf. Beatus 6.3.55.

642 Tyconius 4.38 (184): cf. Caesarius 246.12; Beatus pr. 5.19, 6.4.1-2.

643 Dan. 7:3.

644 Dan. 7:17; 'when he saw …out of the earth' closely paralleled in Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.3

(834.453-456).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and he had two horns, like a lamb; and he spoke as a dragon.

He displays the horns of a lamb where he secretly implants the venom of a dragon.645 For in his hypocritical sanctity – sanctity which the Lord truly possessed – he pretends to possess a special wisdom and life.646 The Lord says of this Beast, Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.647

[13:12] And he executed all the power of the first beast [in his presence].

The wretched disciples follow their master in all things.648

And he made the earth and those dwelling in it worship the first beast, … He displays the power of seduction, to subject to himself both the body and the soul which dwells within it.649 whose mortal wound was healed.

That is, who pretended to have vanquished death by rising to life. For the Scripture did not say that he was killed, but that he appeared to be killed, as it was said of the Jews, and they did not go into the praetorium, that they might not be defiled. For the evangelist does not affirm that these most defiled people could be defiled if they entered the praetorium, or that the Jews who were guilty of such great crimes were really afraid of defilement, but he related what they pretended, as if he were affirming it.650

[13:13] And he performed mighty wonders, so that he even made fire to come down from heaven upon the earth [in the sight of men].

He exhibits the miracle of fire – the greatest of all, as it were – so that as the Lord gave his disciples the gift of [true] powers when the Holy Spirit came from heaven in fire, [the beast] might also deceive his own [disciples]

645 Tyconius 4.39 (184); cf. Caesarius 246.14-16; Primasius 13.116-119; Beatus 6.4.13.

646 Gregory, Mor. 33.59 (1724.17-19).

647 Matt. 7:15; quoted by Tyconius 4.39; cf. Beatus 6.4.14. Bede's overall exegesis agrees with Primasius 13.116-119 (the two horns of the Lamb are the two Testaments, which the Dragon appropriates; hence this is a symbol of hypocrisy).

648 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXII (see Appendix).

649 Primasius 13.147-148.

650 Tyconius 4.41 (186), including the embedded quotation from John 18:28; cf. Beatus

6.4.63-65.

BOOK two with a lying cheat, in what was apparently a comparable divine gift.651 /411/

[13:14] And deceived those that dwell on the earth because of the signs which he was allowed to do [in the presence of the beast;] … For as it is said, his coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders.652 Because they are called 'signs' and 'lying wonders', there is frequent speculation as to whether he will deceive mortal senses by phantasms, so that what he does not actually do, will appear to happen, or whether, if these are true wonders, they will deceive those who believe that these things can only happen by divine power, and who are unaware of the power of the devil,653 who carried off the family of Job, with his vast herds, not by an apparition, but by a real fire and whirlwind.654

Whether they be called lying signs in one sense or in the other, this much is beyond doubt: that trial will appear greater than all others, when the devout martyr subjects his body to torture, only to have his torturer do miracles before his eyes.655 saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make the image of the beast which had the sword-wound and lived.

That is, to be like him, and thus to make an image of him. As another version says, as if he had a wound from a sword and lived.656 That is, by this falsehood they will say that they died together with Christ, and rose together with him, as if he would also set himself up as both God and mediator between himself and his followers. For unlike our Lord Jesus Christ, he has not another [i.e. God] between whom and his followers he might be a mediator.657

[13:15] And he was allowed to give breath [spiritum] 651 Cf. Primasius 13.188-193. A somewhat similar idea is expressed by Beatus 6.4.66, 71, so the ultimate source may be Tyconius.

652 2 Thess. 2:9, quoted in this context by Augustine, DCD 20.19 (732.95-98).

653 Augustine, DCD 20.19 (733.100-105).

654 Augustine, DCD 20.19 (733.107-110).

655 Gregory, Mor. 32.24 (1648.70-72).

656 Sicut habet plagam de gladio et vixit. Vulgate: quae habet plagam gladii, et vixit.

Sparks (p. 515) identifies the 'other version' as Primasius (13.152-157), who reads quae habet plagam factam de gladio et vixit, with some MSS omitting factam. The ultimate source is

Tyconius 4.42 (186); cf. Beatus 6.4.54-55: Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 181.

657 'as if …mediator': cf. Primasius 13.155-157.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

to the image of the beast; … That is, he will pretend to give the spirit of truth to the very people who carry out this falsehood by making themselves an image of the beast.658 /413/ and [it was allowed] that the image of the beast should speak, … Not only would he delude the mob of wretched creatures by a spirit counterfeited through fire, but he will also make it in such as way that it will be able to teach others. and that he should cause whoever will not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

Not that image whose manufacture they provoke, but rather the one which they have made the people resemble.659 Therefore he causes the image of the beast to adore the image of the beast – that is, the people to adore the invention of the devil.660

[13:16] And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, [freemen and bondmen,] … Not all without exception – [all] the pagans, for instance – but those who pertain to this mystery.661 to have a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads; This mark is the mystery [mysterium] of iniquity which the hypocrites accept under the appellation of Christ in what they do and in what they profess.662

[13:17] And that no man might buy or sell … By mentioning buying and selling, [Scripture] taught that even as the Church has transmitted a pledge [symbolum] for what is good, one that is to profit our salvation, so also these people, for what is evil, constrain themselves by such a limitation that permission is given neither to buy nor to sell, just as merchants transported on the same ship are bound by one common sign.663

658 Tyconius 4.43 (186-187): cf. Beatus 6.4.70.

659 Tyconius 4.43 (186): cf. Beatus 6.4.74.

660 Tyconius 4.43 (187): cf. Caesarius 246.25-27; Beatus 6.4.76.

661 'but …mystery': Tyconius 4.44 (187); cf. Beatus 6.2.78.

662 Tyconius 4.44 (187): cf. Caesarius 246.28-30, 247.13-15; Primasius 13.238-239;

Beatus 6.4.78-80; Augustine, DCD 20.9 (718.108-110). The phrase 'mystery of iniquity' is from 2 Thess. 2:7. In this verse and the one below, the word mysterium is used in a sense which is close to 'sacrament'.

663 Primasius 13.241-246.

BOOK two unless he has the mark of the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

That is, who share is his deceit. /415/ For the mark [character], that is, the letter [nota] is both the name of the beast and the number of his name.664

[13:18] [Here is wisdom. He that has understanding, let him compute the number of the beast.] For it is the number of a man; lest we think, as some do, that he is a devil or demon. Rather, he is a human being in whom Satan will take up his habitation totally and corporeally.665

For he is the man of sin, the son of perdition.666 and his number is six hundred AND sixty-six.

The Greeks say that this number is found in the word 'Titan', that is, 'giant', as follows: T is 300, E is 5, I is 10, T is 300, A is one, N is 50.667 And it is thought that Antichrist is going to appropriate this name for himself, as it were excelling all in power, and will give himself out as being the one of whom it is written that he has rejoiced as a giant to run the way. His going is from the end of heaven. 668 Primasius offers another name which makes up the same number: /417/ A=1, N=50, T= 300, E= 5, M= 40, O=70, S= 200, which means 'contrary to honour'. But so does the word A=1, P=100, N=50,

O=70, Y=400, M=40, E=5, that is, 'I deny'.669 Through this is insinuated 664 Tyconius 4.45 (187): cf. Primasius 13.249-251; Beatus 6.4.95.

665 Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.8 (844.601-604).

666 2 Thess. 2:3; quoted in this context by Primasius 13.231.

667 Victorinus/Jerome 13/17.3 (124.1-7); cf. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 5.30.1-3, ed. A.

Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, Source chrétiennes 264 (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1979), of which a paraphrase is interpolated into the M recension of Victorinus/Jerome. The Insular dossier of interpretations of the number of the Beast known as De monogramma composed in the first half of the eighth century also reproduces this explanation from Victorinus/Jerome: ed.

Gryson, Commentaria minora 151.55-62. 'Titan' proved to be a very influential reading of the number of the beast; beginning with the illustrated Beatus manuscripts, Antichrist would often be depicted as a giant: McGinn, Antichrist, pp. 106–107.The technique deployed here for decoding the name, gematria, is based on the fact that in the Hebrew and Greek alphabets, letters double as numerals. Thus A=1, B=2 and so forth. The system was well known to Bede, and is demonstrated in DTR 1. The letters here are Greek majuscules: hence C= sigma, P=rho.

668 Ps. 18.6-7 (19.6-7).

669 Primasius 13.265-270, 275-280; cf. Victorinus/Jerome 13/17.3 (123.7-8, 125.18); De monogramma 152-153. This is the only time in the Commentary that Bede mentions Primasius by name. The two alternative names can be rendered as antemos and arnoume (i.e. arneomai).

Antemos does not correspond to any identifiable Greek word, and may be a personal name, i.e,

Anthemius. This was the name of two prominent political figures in late Antiquity: Anthemius the praetorian prefect under Theodosius II, and his grandson, augustus of the western Empire

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

both the nature of Antichrist's character and the harshness of his deeds.670

But a more laborious explanation is required to explain why671 one so greedy for adulation would wish himself to be recognised in such a designation

[character]. Another [explanation]: who does not know that the number six, in which the world was made, signifies the completion of an action?672 Either by itself or multiplied by ten or one hundred, it demonstrates the thirtyfold or sixty-fold or hundred-fold fruit673 of this same perfection. For every year, a weight of gold was brought to Solomon of six hundred and sixty-six talents.674 What in fact is a gift rightfully owed to the true king, this tyrant and seducer will presume to exact for himself. /419/

XXIII [14:1] And I beheld, and lo, The Lamb stood upon mount zion, … That is, the Lord Jesus was standing as an example of strength and a bulwark of protection before his Church as it struggled beneath the burden of battles.

After having shown the Body confounded by the power of the dragon and branded by the hot iron, [Scripture] shows the Church rejoicing in its splendour and number, lest you fear that the Body of the Lamb has succumbed to the fury of the Beast.675 Notice that the Beast stands on the sand of the sea,676 and the Lamb on Mount Zion. from 467 to 472. The fact that Anthemius Augustus was descended from a family closely related to that of Julian the Apostate may have tainted his reputation amongst Christians, and his grandfather's prominent position under Theodosius II could hardly have endeared him to the Donatists, but Anthemius himself seems to have done nothing to merit identification with the Beast. He failed in his primary mission of preventing Vandal expansion in the western Mediterranean – the Vandals captured Sicily during his reign – but this seems a slender reason for defamation. In fact, Primasius's lame attempt to extract a Greek word out of antemos suggests that no one, even at the time, could understand the antemos solution.

670 Primasius 13.285-287.

671 Sed operosa expositione indiget quomodo: Bede liked this turn of phrase, and re-used it in In Gen. 4 (204.357; trans. Kendall, p. 282).

672 Cf. Augustine, DCD 11.30 (350.1-12), De trinitate 4.4, ed. W.J. Mountain and F.

Glorie, CCSL 35 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1967), 169.3 sqq.; Bede, DTR ch. 8 (300.10-17; tr. Wallis, p. 32) and 39 (402.26–403.43; tr. Wallis, pp. 108–109).

673 Matt. 13:8, 23.

674 3 Kings (1 Kings) 10:14-15, and 2 Chron. 9:13. Bonner draws attention to the apparent originality of this final explanation of the number of the Beast: Saint Bede, p. 13.

675 Primasius 14.3-7.

676 Rev. 12:18.

BOOK two and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, … This finite number should be understood as an infinite number, and one that, by signifying a hidden mystery,677 is appropriate to a virgin band that loves

God with all its heart and all its soul and all its mind,678 and appropriate to their body as well, which consists of the four qualities, and that is consecrated to him in integrity. For three times three is nine and four fours are sixteen, and sixteen times nine is 144. This is so that when such a perfect multitude of those who in this fleshly life are deservedly placed on Mount

Sion with the Lamb is seen, there might be no doubt about the rest of the members of the Church.679 having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.

When he says that 'God' and 'Christ' are written on the foreheads of the Church, [John] shows what the mark on the forehead of the Beast is imitating.680 /421/

[14:2] And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters [and like the sound of great thunder.]

The great voice of the saints is the great devotion of charity,681 which [John] says that he heard from heaven, although he says that those who uttered the voice stood on Mount Sion in order to show that Mount Sion means nothing other than the Church. [This is the Church] which, to overcome the distress of afflictions, and emboldened by the sublime joy of contemplation, celebrates the battles of her King at once with praise and with emulation. For this, in truth, is to sing to the Lamb who stands [on Mount Sion].

And the sound which I heard was like the sound of harpers, harping on their harps.

Although all the saints who crucify the flesh with its vices and desires682 are the harpers of God and praise him with the psaltery and harp,683 how much

677 Primasius 14.12-13.

678 Matt. 22:37.

679 'and in their body …members of the Church': Primasius 14.13-18.

680 Tyconius 4.47 (188): cf. Caesarius 248.3-5; Beatus 6.8.1.

681 This is a particularly Bedan theme. It reappears in DT 1 (182.1416-1419), and In Marcum 4 (854-855, 857-858).

682 Gal. 5:24.

683 Ps. 150.3.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

more so are they who by the privilege of angelic chastity684 make themselves entire holocausts to God, and who deny themselves utterly and taking up their cross, follow685 the Lamb wherever he goes.686

[14:3] And they sung as it were a new song, before the throne, [and before the four living creatures, and the elders;] …

The old song was Blessed is he who has his seed in Zion and has his household in Jerusalem.687 The new one is Rejoice you who are barren, who have not borne.688And again he says, The Lord says, I will give to the eunuchs in my house and within my walls, a place and a name better than sons and daughters.689 /423/ and no man could utter the song except those one hundred and forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth.

In this special sense, to sing the song to the Lamb is to rejoice with him forever, more than all the faithful, and particularly in the incorruptibility of the flesh. The other elect can nonetheless hear the song, though they cannot sing it, because they rejoice out of charity for the high estate of these people, even though they cannot attain their reward.690

[14:4] [These are they who were not defiled with women;] for they 684 The life of 'angelic chastity' is another theme dear to Bede: cf. In Sam. 4 (1048-1049);

In Lucam 5 (1187-1188).

685 Matt. 16:24, Mark 8.34.

686 Rev. 14:4.

687 Isa. 31:9.

688 Isa. 54:1; Gal. 4:27.

689 Isa. 56:5; quoted in this context by Primasius 14.142-143.

690 Gregory, Regula pastoralis 3.28, ed. B. Judic, F. Rommel and C. Morel, Sources chrétiennes 382 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1992) 464.99-104. Bede will reiterate this concept of reciprocity within the hierarchy of the blessed in De tab. 1 (32.1079-1090): 'The elect are doubtless imbued with one true faith, even if their merits differ in rank; for they will come to one light of eternal truth in heaven, even though those who endeavour to cleave to Christ higher up in this life will enjoy a closer vision of him in that life. Accordingly, it is said of certain ones on account of the merit of their great virtue, "These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes"; just before, it is said of others, as if of the nearby branches on the lampstand, "And they were singing a new song, as it were, before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders". By this it is shown that all the saints throughout the streets of the heavenly city sing a new song of gladness to God, but those who in this life transcended the common life of the faithful by the special privilege of sacred virginity are there raised up into a special position above the others in the joy of song' (trans. Holder, p. 35). Bede likewise dilates on Rev. 14:4 in his homily on Benedict Biscop, Hom. 1.13 (92.141-148) trans. Hurst, vol. 1, pp. 130–131.

BOOK two are virgins. These follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

In his admonition to virgins, Augustine explains this beautifully: Persevere, sons and daughters of the holy God, men and women, celibate and unwed; persevere steadily to the end. Praise the Lord all the more sweetly, as you think on him more fully. Hope more joyfully in him whom you serve more earnestly. Love more ardently him whom you please more attentively. With loins girded and lamps lit, wait for the Lord's coming from the wedding. You shall bring a new song to the wedding of the Lamb, which you will sing upon your harps, such as none but you will be able to sing. For in the Apocalypse, one who was beloved of the Lamb saw you, above all the others. He was wont to recline upon [the Lamb's] bosom, and he saw you, a hundred and forty-four saintly harpers of unstained virginity in body and inviolate truth in heart. You follow the Lamb, because undoubtedly the flesh of the Lamb is virgin. You follow him in virginity of heart and flesh wherever he goes. What is to follow save to imitate? For 'Christ /425/ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps'.691

These were purchased from among men as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.

From that holy and immaculate flock of the Church, they are chosen by the Holy Spirit as purer and holier victims on the merits of their will, whom the Apostle, having no commandment of the Lord concerning them,692 urges to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God.693

[14:5] And in their mouth no lie was found; [for they are spotless before the throne of God.] Virgins are joined to the divine company not by virtue of their chastity alone, but only if they lead a life unblemished by any sin. Tyconius interprets this vision not with respect to virgins specifically, but with reference to the whole Church generally, whom the Apostle espoused to one husband, to present as a chaste virgin to Christ, concluding thus: He did not say there

691 Augustine, De sancta virginitate 27, ed. J. Zycha, CSEL 41 (1900) 263.7–264.19, slightly condensed; the quotation at the end is from 1 Pet. 2:21, and the phrase 'loins girded … bridal' alludes to Luke 12:35. The reference to John reclining on the Lord's bosom is from John

13:25. This passage is quoted verbatim but without acknowledgement by Primasius 14.7-88,

98-103; Bede probably took it from this source, but recognized and supplied the ascription to Augustine: see Mackay, 'Augustine and Gregory', p. 400.

692 1 Cor. 7:25.

693 Rom. 12:1.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

was no lie in their mouth, but that none was found. As the Apostle says, And such some of you were. But you are washed. And the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him in the day when he shall turn from his wickedness, and he will be able to be a virgin, and guile shall not be found in his mouth.694

For [the Scripture] calls the chaste and modest 'virgins'.

XXIV [14:6] And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the eternal gospel, …

Now that [John] has described the shifting and changeable warfare waged against the dragon by the Church, on pilgrimage in the world, it remains to dispense to both armies the recompense each deserves, and to show either what punishments await the evil, or what rewards await the good. /427/

Therefore the preacher, running through the midst of the Church, carries the Gospel of the eternal kingdom.695 to preach to those who sit upon the earth …

It is fitting that those who are borne aloft by celestial flight should also lift up earthly minds from the seat of their sluggishness by preaching. and upon every nation and tribe and tongue and people; And this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, he says, and then shall the consummation come.696

[14:7] [Saying with a loud voice:] Fear the Lord and give him honour, because the hour of his judgEment is come;

[and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters.] He says, You who fear God, the maker of the world, and not the temporal tyranny of the Beast: look forward all the more to your salvation, the more swiftly your reward awaits you – a reward which will remain changeless for eternity.

694 Tyconius 4.49 (188) including embedded quotations from 2 Cor. 11:2, 1 Cor. 6:11 and Ezek. 33:12. Cf. Caesarius 248.9-12, 16-17 and Beatus 6.8.8-9, 11-12. Note that Primasius reads the passage differently (14.25-31): the 'virgins' should include not only those who are literally virgins, but also the legitimately married, since the patriarchs and prophets were married men.

695 Tyconius 5.2 (189): cf. Caesarius 248.21; Beatus 7.1.1; Primasius 14.153-154.

696 Matt. 24:14, quoted in this context by Primasius 14.166-167.

BOOK two [14:8] [And another angel followed, saying:] Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen; … He says that the ruined city of the devil is already fallen. [This may be] either in accordance with the manner of Scripture which is wont to place in the past what it knows will inevitably be fulfilled [in the future]; or else that the proud, when they are puffed up by the Devil, are cast down by the Lord; as the Psalmist says, when they were lifted up you have cast them down.697 which made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

The city of the wicked, gathered from all the nations, makes these nations (that is, its own members) drunk with the wine of error.698 But the city of the Lord, tending the vineyard of Sorek,699 does not wish to be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery,700 lest it lose the promised wages of life.701

[14:9] [And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice:] If any one will have worshipped the beast and his image … That is, the devil, and the head which was, as it were, slain.702 /429/ and receive the mark on his forehead or on his hand, When he says on his forehead or on his hand, he means that the devil marks some by an abominable profession, and some by deeds alone.703

[14:10] He also shall drink the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with pure wine in the cup of his wrath; … When [the Scripture] says that he shall 'also' drink, it indicates that there

697 Primasius 14.175-183, quoting Ps. 72(73):18. Based on Tyconius 5.3 (189); cf.

Caesarius 249.2-3 and Beatus 7.1.8.

698 Primasius 14.184-197; based on Tyconius 5.4 (190); cf. Beatus 7.1.11-12. However, the phrase 'of the wicked' is not in Primasius or Tyconius, but is paralleled in Caesarius 249.4-6.

699 'Sorek' means 'wine' or 'vine'; cf. Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Genesim, on Gen. 49:11, ed. Paul de Lagarde, CCSL 72 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1959), 53.14–54.18. It also occurs in Isa. 5:2 (where the word is actually transcribed in the Septuagint), and Jer. 2:21. Bede

(or his source) is probably thinking of the 'Song of the Vineyard' in Isa. 5.

700 Eph. 5:18.

701 Matt. 20:2.

702 Tyconius 5.5 (190), alluding to Rev. 13:3. Cf. Beatus 7.1.14.

703 Augustine, DCD 20.9 (718.109-110): not in Gryson's apparatus. See also Bede's exegesis of Rev. 13:16.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

is another person as well who will have drunk; this is so as not to exclude the one who, although he does not mix openly with the gentiles, nonetheless worships the same Beast under the name of Christ.704 For it is with justice that they who proffer the cup of fornication should be laid low by the cup of the Lord's wrath – not, as Jeremiah says, that they may vomit705 forth the malice of their heart and so be purged, but that they may perish as the damned in an eternal death of stupefaction. and shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels, [and in the sight of the Lamb.

[14:11] And the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever; …] The saints who reign with God can always see the punishment of the wicked, so that in giving greater thanks to him who delivered them, they might sing the mercies of the Lord forever. For the sight of the anguish of the wicked does not sadden those who are of one mind with the just Judge, just as the sight of Lazarus in repose was not able to refresh the rich man buried in flames.706 nor have they rest day nor night, Those who have worshipped the beast and his image, … They say that a lion will spare a prostrate man,707 but this beast, more ferocious than a lion, inflicts greater punishments the more he is adored.

/431/ and whoever received the mark of his name.

St Augustine interprets the Beast as the impious city, and his image as his simulation – that is, Christians in feigned appearance – and the mark as the sign of guilt which, he says, is worshipped, is subordinated to him, and assents to him.708

[14:12] Here is the patience of the saints [who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.]

Though the Beast vent his rage, temporal suffering shall not sadden the 704 Tyconius 5.5 (190): cf. Beatus 7.1.15-16.

705 Jer. 25:27.

706 Cf. Gregory, Hom. in Ev. 2.40.7-8 (404.268-269, 405.294-297); quoted by Bede, In Lucam 5 (370-382).

707 Cf. Isidore, Etym. 12.2.6: reference not noted by Gryson.

708 Augustine, DCD 20.9 (718. 95-108). Notice the Augustinian concept of the 'simulated body', contrasting with Tyconius's 'bipartite body'; see Introduction, p. 69.

BOOK two saints, for it will be rewarded with eternal beatitude when the tables are turned and they see their persecutors, who lorded it over them for a while, suffering eternal punishment with the Beast.

[14:13] And I heard a voice from heaven, saying: Write:

… Lovely is the harmony of those who now make proclamation.709 For look! this one proclaims that the kingdom of the Lord is come, and that one that the city of the Devil is fallen; another announces the flames of the ungodly, and another the repose of the blessed, who both sends forth his voice from heaven, and pronounces it worthy to be committed in writing to everlasting memory. For the righteous rejoice because their names are written in heaven;710 but the wicked are erased from the book of the living.711

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

I thank you, Jesus, who bless in heaven those who meet their death on earth in you. How much more [do you bless] those who lay down their happy souls in you, and for the sake of your faith?

From now and henceforth, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their deeds follow them.

Just as he had said that the ungodly would never have rest, even so, by contrast, he teaches that the faithful, /433/ sustained by their previous labours,712 rest from now on, that is, from the time of death. For when he has given his beloved sleep, this is the inheritance of the Lord.713 But because of the cold, the sluggard would not plough: he shall therefore beg in summer, and nothing shall be given to him.714

XXV [14:14] And I saw, and behold, a white cloud and upon the cloud one sitting like the Son of man, …

Now that the voice of the heralds has sounded forth, it remains to show the 709 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXIV (see Appendix).

710 Luke 10:20.

711 Rev. 3:5.

712 Primasius 14.220-222.

713 Ps. 126(127):2-3.

714 Prov. 20:4.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

person of the Judge himself715 who, coming to judgement, veils the glory of his divinity in a cloud of flesh, so that the wicked may look on him whom they pierced.716 having a crown of gold on his head … [The Scripture] described what this crown is like above, in the vesture of the woman – and on her head a crown of twelve stars717 – although it can also signify the victory of him who reigns. and a sharp sickle in his hand.

That is, the judicial sentence of separation718 which can in no way be avoided.

Indeed, we are included within it, no matter where we try to escape. For whatever is cut down by a sickle, falls inside it [i.e. inside its compass].719

[14:15] And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat upon the cloud: … The angels who, as we read in the Gospel, are the reapers720 of the earth and who are all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation,721 and they weigh the several merits of the Church, and relate them daily to the Lord. put in your sickle and reap, because the hour to reap has come; /435/ for the harvest of the earth is ripe. [14:16] [And he who sat on the cloud put his sickle into the earth; and the earth was reaped.] Behold, they say, with iniquity abounding the charity of many grew cold,722 and with the heat of evils pressing down upon it, the harvest of the world has now almost ceased to be verdant. Therefore, lest the grain which is now ripe should fail, shorten those days for the sake of the elect;723 consign the straw and tares to the flames, and the heavenly fruit to granaries of bliss.724

715 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXV (see Appendix).

716 John 19:37; cf. Rev. 1:7.

717 Rev. 12:1.

718 Primasius 14.242-243.

719 Gregory, Mor. 33.21 (1691.23-27).

720 Primasius 14.248-249, referring to Matt. 13:39.

721 Heb. 1:14.

722 Matt. 24:12.

723 Matt. 24:22.

724 Cf. Matt. 13:24-43.

BOOK two [14:17] And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

If Christ was seen in the white cloud as the reaper, who is the vintager but he?725 – an elegant repetition because of the two-fold fruit of the Church.

For he who sowed good seed in his field also planted a vineyard in a fruitful place, but both plantations degenerated for want of care from their custodians.726

[14:18] And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire. And he cried with a loud voice [to him who had the sharp sickle,] …

As Jerome says, the function of angels is two-fold. There are some who distribute rewards to the good, and others who preside over specific torments.727 As it is said, He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flaming fire.728 The two angels who proclaim that the harvest is dry and the vineyard ripe can be understood as the prayers of the Church, which with a great voice – that is, with great desire – daily implores that the kingdom of God may come, saying: put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, … Like the harvest, the vintage is in part earthly, in part heavenly. The ripeness of both is a sign of the end of the world-age [saeculum]. /437/ because its grapes are ripe.

That is, its sins are come to an end, although ripeness can also be said to refer to the perfection of the good. For as Pope St Gregory says, Although the end of the world comes in its own time, nevertheless it will be made known when it overtakes certain perverse people, because they will be crushed in its ruins, as they deserve.729

[14:19] And the angel put his sharp sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth …

He who has the sickle for harvesting, also has one for the vintage. For the 725 Tyconius 5.17 (192): cf. Caesarius 249.12-14; Beatus 7.2.17-18.

726 An allusion to the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matt. 13:24-30, and to the 'Song of the Vineyard' in Isa. 5:1 sqq. Bede here expresses what would become his lifelong concern with the consequences of the negligence of the clergy.

727 Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.10 (846.656-658).

728 Ps. 103(104):4; cf. Heb. 1:7.

729 Gregory, Hom. in Ev. 35.2 (323.62-64).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

judgement is one, and will be carried out at a single time. But in harvest and vintage he shows the beginning and the end of the same affliction.730 and threw it into the great VAt or wine press731 of the wrath of God; [14:20] And the vat was trodden outside the city; … If this harvest and vintage pertain only to the evil, the wine press signifies punishment. But if to the good as well, the treading of the wine press and the threshing sledges on the floor crush what is useless, and test what is useful.

As the Apostle says, precious metal is proved in the fire, but wood and straw and hay are consumed.732 Both these events take place outside the heavenly

Jerusalem.733 The wine press of wrath is designated by that type of locution by which it is said, The Lord delivered him in the evil day.734 and blood came out of the wine press as high as the horses' bridles, … Vengeance went forth, even against the rulers of the people. For in the final conflict the vengeance of the blood shed by the saints went forth even against the devil and his angels. As it is written, You have sinned in blood, and the blood pursues you.735 The horses were discussed above. /439/ for one thousand six hundred stadia.

That is, through all four parts of the world. The quaternity is squared, just as the four four-sided faces and the wheels. Four times four hundred is one thousand six hundred.736 Tyconius interprets the harvester and the vintager as the Church, glowing after the flames of the persecutions, and holding the power to bind and loose. [He says that] the angels proclaim the supreme government [imperium] of the Lord from temple or altar, not aloud, but 730 Tyconius 5.17 (192): cf. Primasius 14.269-273; Beatus 7.2.16-17.

731 lacum siue torcular: the latter reading is the one generally accepted.

732 The overall idea is from Primasius 14.282-283, but the quotation from 1 Cor. 3:12-13 is original with Bede.

733 Cf. Tyconius 5.19 (193); Primasius 14.280-281; Caesarius 249.20; Beatus 7.2.21. None of these authors, however, identifies the city explicitly as the heavenly Jerusalem; instead, they allegorize it as the Church.

734 Ps. 40(41):1.

735 Tyconius 5.20 (193), including quotation from Ezek. 35:6: cf. Caesarius 249.23-25;

Primasius 14.285-288, 290-291; Beatus 7.2.35-36.

736 The ultimate source is Tyconius 5.21 (194), drawing on Victorinus/Jerome 14.4

(135.15-137.2): cf. parallel passages in Caesarius 249.25-27, Primasius 14.291-294, The 'foursided faces and the wheels' refers to the vision of Ezek. 10:9-14.

BOOK two by the suggestion of the Holy Spirit who works within [the Lord's] body, teaching that now is the time for the wicked to be anathematized. And he has power over fire – the fire, that is, which went out of the mouth of the witnesses737 and consumed their enemies.738 So much for the conflict of the Church, and the ultimate end of both battles.

HERE ENDS THE SECOND BOOK.

737 Bede is weaving together Tyconius 5.9 (191), 5.17 (192), 5.12 (191), and 5:15 (192); cf.

Beatus 7.2.1-2, 18, 8-9, 13. ' …holding the power to bind and loose': cf. Matt. 18:18.

738 Cf. Rev. 11:5.

/441/

HERE BEGINS THE THIRD BOOK

XXVI

[15:1] AND I SAW ANOTHER SIGN IN HEAVEN, GREAT AND

WONDERFUL …

Returning to the sequence, and preparing to rehearse the same plagues of the final persecution, [John] wished to make his audience attentive by saying 'a sign …great and wonderful'.739

SEVEN ANGELS …

That is, the Church,740 filled with sevenfold grace.

HAVING THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES; FOR IN THEM THE

WRATH OF GOD IS FINISHED.

He called these the 'last' because the wrath of God always strikes insolent people with seven plagues, that is, utterly, as is often found in Leviticus: 'I will strike you with seven plagues', he says. These final things will come to pass when the Church goes out from its midst.741

[15:2] AND I SAW SOMETHING LIKE A SEA OF GLASS MINGLED

WITH FIRE; …

That is, the pellucid fountain of baptism, consecrated by the fire of the Holy Spirit, or else reddened by martyrdom, referring to the quality of fire.742

AND THOSE WHO HAD OVERCOME THE BEAST AND HIS

IMAGE, [and the number of his name,] STANDING BESIDE THE

SEA OF GLASS …

Those who conquer the deceptions of the Beast are consequently seen 739 Primasius 15.2-4; the concept of repeating the narrative of the final persecution derives from Victorinus/Jerome 15 (137.4).

740 Tyconius 5.22 (194): cf. Caesarius 250.4; Primasius 15.5; Beatus 7.3.1.

741 Ultimately from Victorinus/Jerome 15 (137.6-8), but mediated through Tyconius 5.22

(194), including quotation from Lev. 26:24: cf. parallels in Caesarius 250.5-8 and Beatus 7.3.23.

742 Tyconius 5.23 (194); cf. Primasius 15.7-9; Caesarius 250.8-9; Beatus 7.3.5.

BOOK tHREE

standing over a fiery baptism,743 zealous (according to the Apostle) to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.744 /443/

HAVING THE HARPS OF GOD; [15:3] AND SINGING THE SONG

OF MOSES THE SERVANT OF GOD, AND THE SONG OF THE

LAMB, … That is, bearing the hearts of those who give praise, dedicated to God,745 and melodious with the truth of both Testaments. Or else, having flesh stretched out upon the wood of suffering, in which is signified not only the sound of the voice, but the accomplishment of a good deed.746

[saying:] GREAT AND WONDERFUL ARE YOUR DEEDS, O LORD

GOD ALMIGHTY. JUST AND TRUE ARE YOUR WAYS, O KING OF

THE AGES and the rest. [[15.4] Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and magnify your name? For you alone are holy; for all nations shall come and shall worship in your sight, because your judgements are manifest.]

This song is found in both Testaments,747 where the Lord, both true and merciful, is hymned as the judge worthy to be worshipped for all time.748

XXVII He repeats what he has already set forth, saying:749

[15:5] AND AFTER THESE THINGS, I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD,

THE TEMPLE OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY IN

HEAVEN WAS OPENED.

The vision corresponds to the song, for in order that the Lord might be adored by all the nations, that temple of the secrets of God, once shut up within the ramparts of a single city, now starts to be opened up in a spiritual manner to the whole world.

743 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXVI (see Appendix). The phrase 'standing over'

(superstare) echoes the lemma's stantes supra (mare vitreum), which can best be rendered into English as 'standing beside'.

744 Jude 3.

745 Tyconius 5.24 (194): cf. Caesarius 250.11; Primasius 15.19. The word 'hearts' – corda

– puns with chorda, the string of an instrument like a harp.

746 Primasius 15.19-21.

747 Tyconius 5.24 (194): cf. Caesarius 250.14; Primasius 15.33-34; Beatus 7.3.16. The song of the saints in Revelation echoes the Song of Moses, Deut. 32:4.

748 An allusion to Ps. 24(25):10, quoted by Primasius 15.35.

749 Tyconius 5.25 (195): cf. Caesarius 250.15; Beatus 7.3.16, referring to Rev. 11:19.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[15:6] AND THE SEVEN ANGELS CAME OUT OF THE TEMPLE,

HAVING THE SEVEN PLAGUES …

This is what Mark says: But they, going forth, preached everywhere.750

CLOTHED WITH CLEAN AND WHITE STONE …751

The Apostle says: For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.752 For he is the chief corner-stone, the chosen.753 Or if you understand the singular number to stand for the plural, it signifies the various ornaments of the virtues.754 /445/ Another version reads white linen, indicating mortification755 of the flesh in those who teach, as it is written: But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection; lest perchance when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.756

AND GIRDED ABOUT THE BREAST WITH GOLDEN GIRDLES.

He who wishes to preach mighty things should not only mortify the body but also bind his breast with the gold of wisdom.757 Or at least, to bind their breasts with golden girdles is to restrain all motions of mutable thought by the bond of love for God alone.758

[15:7] AND ONE OF THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES GAVE TO

THE SEVEN ANGELS SEVEN GOLDEN VIALS, FULL OF THE

WRATH OF GOD, WHO LIVES [for ever and ever].

These are the vials which, along with the incense, the living creatures and the elders bear; they are the Church, and so also the seven angels.759 These same vials are said to contain both the sweetness of supplication and the 750 Mark 16:20 (previously cited in exegesis of Rev. 4:5); cf. (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 222.5-6, where the seven angels are also linked to preaching; Kelly, 'The Venerable

Bede', pp. 403–404.

751 Bede's text reads linteamen candidum, which is not the reading of Primasius (lintea) or of Tyconius, insofar as the latter is reflected in Caesarius and Beatus (linum). Gryson notes that linteamen occurs in the branch of the Vetus Latina represented by the Codex Gigas (Stockholm,

Kunglingabiblioteket A 148), traces of which must have infiltrated some manuscript of the Vulgate available to Bede: Bede ed. Introduction, pp. 182–183.

752 Gal. 3:27.

753 1 Pet. 2:6.

754 uaria uirtutum ornamenta: Bede seems to have borrowed this phrase from Jerome, In.

Is. 7.51 (868.40-41); he re-uses it in his In Prov. 3 (383-384).

755 Primasius 15.61.

756 1 Cor. 9:27.

757 Primasius 15.65.

758 Gregory, Mor. 34.26 (1752.20-22).

759 Tyconius 5.27 (195): cf. Caesarius 250.24-26; Beatus 7.4.12.

BOOK tHREE

wrath of punishment. For they are poured out by the saints for the sake of the coming of the kingdom of God, at which time it is foretold that the judgements of God, no longer hidden like the abyss but open like vials, while bearing salvation for the just, will carry destruction for the ungodly. As the Apostle says: 'For we are the aroma of Christ to God, in those that are saved and in those who perish'.760

[15:8] AND THE TEMPLE WAS FILLED WITH SMOKE FROM HIS

MAJESTY761 AND FROM HIS POWER; …

The Church, preparing to preach to the nations, first warms herself with the fire of charity, /447/ and emits the smoke of pious confession,762 giving thanks to God for his unspeakable gift.763

AND NO ONE WAS ABLE TO ENTER INTO THE TEMPLE UNTIL

THE SEVEN PLAGUES OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WERE ENDED.

No one can be incorporated into the members of the Church764 save one who learns from preachers by listening to the mysteries of the faith, that Jesus is established by God as the judge of the living and the dead.765 If you interpret the smoke as the hidden secrets of God's judgement,766 these things remain closed and impenetrable to mortals until, when the plagues of this present age are over, the Lord shall come. He will both shed light upon the hidden things of darkness,767 and show how beneficial the coming of Antichrist is, either for testing the faith of the Church, or for blinding the Jews who did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.768

[16:1] [And I heard a great voice from out the temple saying to the seven

angels:] GO AND POUR OUT THE SEVEN VIALS OF THE WRATH

OF GOD ON THE EARTH.

760 Primasius 15.74-80, quoting 2 Cor. 2:15. Bede adds 'to God' to Primasius's citation, in accordance with the Vulgate.

761 The Vulgate reads 'majesty of God'; Bede 'his majesty': cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

762 Primasius 15.93. However, Bede departs from Primasius's interpretation, which does not mention the Church, and focuses on the confession of sinners.

763 2 Cor. 9:15.

764 'Incorporated into the members of the Church (ecclesiae membris incorporari)' is a phrase which Bede will use often: e.g. In Sam. 2 (2264 and 2291-2292); In Ez. 2 (924); In Marcum 1 (1000); In Lucam 2 (128.1100); Cath. Ep. on 1 Peter 5.5 (257.59).

765 Acts 10:42.

766 Primasius 15.85-87.

767 1 Cor. 4:5.

768 2 Thess. 2:10.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

Power is given to the Church to pass judgement on those destined for damnation, and mercifully to give absolution to the converted.769 Indeed, all the angels are commanded to pour out …upon the earth, but worldly men are designated by different words because of the variety of sins, so that the plenitude of punishment as well as of preaching770 and vindication might be perceived in the number seven.

[16:2] AND THE FIRST WENT AND POURED OUT HIS VIAL ON

THE EARTH: …

Preachers pour out the vials of the wrath of God in two ways – when they impose by spiritual judgement the punishment of the ungodly upon the impious themselves (as Peter says to Simon: Keep your money to yourself, to perish with you771), /449/ and when by preaching they show [the ungodly] to Holy Church. As the same man said: Whose judgement has not ceased from of old; and their perdition does not slumber.772 It can be understood a third way: any sinner who has heard the preaching of truth is smitten with the greater wound of contradiction. The Lord says of such people: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.773

AND A SEVERE AND EVIL WOUND BEFELL THE MEN WHO

HAD THE MARK OF THE BEAST; [and those who worshipped his image.] Those who, forsaking the Lord, worship the devil shall spiritually perish by the terrible wound of this same impiety.774

[16:3] AND THE SECOND ANGEL POURED HIS VIAL INTO THE

SEA; AND IT BECAME BLOOD, LIKE THAT OF A DEAD MAN;

AND EVERY LIVING SOUL DIED IN THE SEA.

Those who not only are signed with the mark of Antichrist, but who also assail the steadfastness of the servants of Christ by waves of bitter persecution, will now be punished by spiritual vengeance, which [John] calls blood.

And those who boasted that they are alive, are proved to have served the 769 Primasius 16.3-6; possibly from Tyconius 5.29 (196), cf. Beatus pr. 5.43.

770 Kelly, 'The Venerable Bede', p. 403 cites (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium, 222.5-6 as the source of this passage, but the parallels are rather tenuous: the angels and the vials are simply identified with preachers and preaching.

771 Acts 8:20.

772 2 Pet. 2:3.

773 John 15:22.

774 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXVII (see Appendix).

BOOK tHREE

author of death.775

[16:4] AND THE THIRD POURED HIS VIAL INTO THE RIVERS

AND FOUNTAINS OF WATERS: AND THEY BECAME BLOOD.

And those also who pretend to offer sweet things [to drink] in order to pour their poison into the imprudent, will be punished with the fitting vengeance of an everlasting plague.

[16:5] AND I HEARD THE ANGEL OF THE WATERS SAYING: YOU

ARE JUST, O LORD, WHO IS, AND WHO WAS, THE HOLY ONE,

BECAUSE YOU HAVE JUDGED THESE THINGS. [16:6] For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink; for they deserve it.] In the angel of the waters, he refers to all the angels of the peoples,776 who sound the divine praises in inward agreement777 in that he, in avenging the blood of his servants, has caused their murderers to drink to their death.

/451/

[16:7] AND I HEARD ANOTHER FROM THE ALTAR, SAYING:778

YEA, O LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, YOUR JUDGEMENTS ARE

TRUE AND JUST.

What the angels are, here also is the one who from the altar gives thanks to God779 – the inner devotion of the saints or angels or men who are set over the people to teach them.

[16:8] AND THE FOURTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL ON

THE SUN: AND IT WAS ALLOWED TO AFFLICT MEN WITH

HEAT AND FIRE.

The persecutors of the Church who try to dry up the seed of the word of God like the blazing sun,780 are to be burned in the fire of hell to come.781

Or if you interpret the sun as the splendour of the wise,782 it is not the angel

775 'are proved to have served the author of death': Bede re-used this phrase in In Prov.

2 (92).

776 Tyconius 5.31 (197): cf. Caesarius 251.19-20; Primasius 16.85; Beatus 8.3.24.

777 Primasius 16.86.

778 The Vulgate reads altare dicens, but Bede alterum dicentem ab altari: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

779 Tyconius 5.32 (197): cf. Beatus 8.3.28. In Beatus, it is the altar itself, identified as the Church, which gives thanks: see preceding note.

780 An allusion to Matt. 13:6.

781 Tyconius 5.34 (197): Caesarius 251.23; Beatus 8.4.2. Primasius (16.108-109) explicitly rejects this interpretation.

782 Gregory, Mor. 34.25 (1750.30-32).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

who drowns the sun but the sun itself which is allowed to afflict men with heat and fire. For when wise men, overcome with affliction, are touched by the error of evil doing, some weak folk, persuaded by their example, are scorched by temporal desires.783 Nonetheless, as we said, the heat can be understood as the fact that the devil's body is tormented without remedy by the steadfastness of the saints, and provoked to blasphemy.784 The prophet says: Wrath took hold of the people who lacked understanding, and now fire consumes the enemies.785 He expressly says 'and now', evidently making an exception for the fire of the Last Judgement.

[16:9] AND MEN WERE SCORCHED WITH THE GREAT HEAT,

[and they blasphemed the name of God, who had power over these plagues: nor did they repent, to give him glory.]

For the time being, and to the degree that he is permitted to do so, the devil makes his followers radiant. The Holy Spirit describes this radiance and happiness as plagues and sorrows.786 For we read above787 that the devil's army slew men /453/ by fire, smoke and brimstone. He did not slay them openly, but doomed those who complied with him to these punishments.788

[16:10] AND THE FIFTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL ON

THE THRONE OF THE BEAST: AND HIS KINGDOM BECAME

DARK … The throne of the Beast, that is, his kingdom (as it were, [his] judicial power), is darkened by the false happiness of this plague, that is, by earthly felicity,789 and is made a stranger to the light. As the Psalm says: When they were lifted up, you cast them down.790 For he did not say 'after they were lifted up'.

AND THEY GNAWED THEIR TONGUES IN PAIN.

Just as the righteous man will eat the fruits of his labours,791 so the wicked 783 Gregory, Mor. 34.25 (1750.33–1751.35).

784 Primasius 16.13-14.

785 Isa. 26:11; quoted by Primasius 16.129-130 in the Vetus Latina translation.

786 Tyconius 5.34 (197): cf. Caesarius 251.23-26; Beatus 8.4.4.

787 Rev. 9:18.

788 Tyconius 5.34 (197): cf. Beatus 8.4.2-3.

789 Most of this passage is from Primasius 16.132-134, but the phrase of this plague is found only in Caesarius 252.2. Steinhauser, The Apocalypse Commentary of Tyconius, p. 129, claims that the entire exegesis of 16:10 is a collection of short quotations from Tyconius;

Gryson's apparatus names only Primasius.

790 Ps. 72(73):18.

791 Ps. 127(128):1-2.

BOOK tHREE

man, exposed to the punishment that befits his blasphemy, is sated, as it were, with his own tongue. Therefore they did themselves harm, blaspheming because of the anger of God; pierced by [God's anger], they counted it joy.792

[16:11] AND THEY BLASPHEMED THE GOD OF HEAVEN,

BECAUSE OF THEIR PAINS AND WOUNDS; [and did not repent their works.] [John] did not refer to their hardness, but to the just indignation of God who sent this type of plague, in which they shall not recollect [their sins]. For who, when he is afflicted in body, does not feel the hand of God, 793 as Antiochus did?794 For he said that 'they blasphemed' – not openly, but by revelling in sin.

XXVIII

[16:12] AND THE SIXTH ANGEL POURED OUT HIS VIAL INTO

THAT GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES, AND DRIED UP ITS WATER,

TO PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE KINGS FROM THE RISING OF

THE SUN.

While the people perish,795 the wealth of Babylon, in which there is nothing living, nothing green, nothing not fit for the fire, /455/ will remain.796 This is what [the Scripture] said earlier: The harvest of the earth is dried,797 and the holy kings make haste to meet the Sun of Righteousness.798 Another [interpretation]: just as while the wicked man is proud, the poor is set on fire,799 so the wise man gains greater insight while the pestilent is scourged.800

[Scripture] recapitulates briefly from the beginning, in its usual way, passing over the seventh angel.801

792 Tyconius 5.37 (198): cf. Caesarius 252.3-4; Beatus 8.5.2-4.

793 Tyconius 5.35 (198): cf. Caesarius 251.28-30; Beatus 8.4.6-7.

794 As recounted in 2 Macc. 9. On Antiochus as a type of Antichrist, see Emmerson,

Antichrist in the Middle Ages, pp. 24–25. Tyconius was also interested in the Maccabees as types of Christian martyrdom: cf. Bede's exegesis of Rev. 6:9.

795 The identification of the river Euphrates with the people is from Tyconius 5.38 (198): cf. Caesarius 252.6-7; Beatus 8.6.1.

796 'in which …fire': cf. Primasius 16.148-150.

797 Tyconius 5.38 (198), referring to Rev. 14:15: cf. Beatus 8.6.1-2; Primasius 16.148-153.

798 Tyconius 5.39 (198): cf. Caesarius 252.9-10; Beatus 8.6.3. The phrase 'Sun of Righteousness' is original with Bede, and comes from Mal. 4:2; it is traditionally seen as a prophecy and title of Christ.

799 Ps. 9b:2 (10:2).

800 Prov. 19:25.

801 Tyconius 5.40 (198): cf. Caesarius 252.13-14; Beatus 8.6.3.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[16:13] AND I SAW COMING FROM THE MOUTH OF THE

DRAGON, AND FROM THE MOUTH OF THE BEAST, AND FROM

THE MOUTH OF THE FALSE PROPHET, THREE UNCLEAN

SPIRITS LIKE FROGS.

The spirit of the Devil and of Antichrist and of the chieftains of his body, which is described as threefold, standing for a number of parts in one body,802 is compared with frogs – creatures horrifying for their habitat, their appearance, and their nasty clamour.803 Though they seem to inhabit bodies of water, they nonetheless wallow in mud and filth. Hypocrites who promise the water of life to their followers, lie dead in the filth which believers leave behind in the water [i.e. of baptism].804 Thus Pharaoh, who dared to follow the people into baptism in order to kill them, was slain himself.805

[16:14] FOR THEY ARE THE SPIRITS OF DEMONS, WORKING

SIGNS; … Thus it is to be believed that these men will work signs, just like the magicians of Pharaoh. It is not without purpose that [John] calls them to mind by mentioning frogs, but rather to proclaim that the ministers of Satan will also then work similar signs. For the [Egyptian] magicians were allowed to prevail with their spells up until the sign of the [plague of] frogs.806

AND THEY GO FORTH TO THE KINGS OF THE WHOLE EARTH,

TO GATHER THEM /457/ FOR BATTLE ON THE GREAT DAY OF

ALMIGHTY GOD.

Just as those kings for whom a way from the east is opened when the Euphrates is dried up807 are holy, so also the wicked are called 'kings of the earth';808 they are not gathered into one place from the whole world, but each nation afflicts the saints in its own land.809 The great day of the Lord means the whole time from the Lord's passion. It can also be taken as the day of judgement,810 when

802 Tyconius 5.41 (198); cf. Caesarius 252.16-19; Beatus 8.7.3-4; Primasius 16.162-168.

803 Primasius 16.172-173; cf. Caesarius 252.20-21 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

804 Tyconius 5.42 (199): cf. Caesarius 252.21-25; Beatus 8.7.6-7.

805 Tyconius 5.42 (199): cf. Beatus 8.7.8. On the comparison of the Exodus to baptism, see 1 Cor. 10:2.

806 Primasius 16.197-202. The allusion is to Exod. 8:1-7; the plague of frogs was the last miracle performed by Aaron which the Egyptian magicians were capable of duplicating.

807 Rev. 16:12.

808 Based on Tyconius 5.43 (199); cf. Beatus 8.7.9.

809 Tyconius 5.43 (199): cf. Primasius 16.203-205; Beatus 8.7.13.

810 Tyconius 5.43 (199): cf. Caesarius 253.10-13; Primasius 16.206-207, 209-211; Beatus

8.7.14.

BOOK tHREE

the Devil's army, gathered throughout the whole time of this present life, will advance to meet the Lord, the King, that it might be utterly defeated.

[16:15] BEHOLD, I COME LIKE A THIEF.

The other version reads, more appropriately: on the great day of Almighty God. Behold, it comes like a thief.811

BLESSED IS HE WHO WATCHES AND GUARDS HIS GARMENTS,

LEST HE GO NAKED, AND THEY SEE HIS SHAME.

Blessed are they …whose sins are covered,812 who conceal the baseness of their wicked life before the eyes of the just at the judgement with a veil of subsequent good deeds.813 And in the Gospel, the Lord commands his servants to keep watch through the metaphor of the thief, against whom a guard should be mounted.814

[16:16] AND HE SHALL GATHER THEM TOGETHER AT THE

PLACE WHICH IN HEBREW IS CALLED ARMAGEDDON.

Elsewhere he describes this place, saying: He gathered them together to battle … and compassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, that is, the Church.815 On the other hand, the place of the wicked, the Devil, can also be understood. With the tumour of his usurped /459/ godhead swollen up in the man of perdition, [the Devil] will rejoice to recover his earlier ambuscades – those, that is, which God formerly forbade him. For Armageddon means 'a rising together into what was before', or 'round-top mountain'.816

[16:17] AND THE SEVENTH ANGEL POURED HIS VIAL INTO

THE AIR; AND A LOUD VOICE CAME OUT OF THE TEMPLE

FROM THE THRONE, SAYING: IT IS DONE.

Just as previously the blood of vengeance was poured forth up to horses' bridles,817 that is, upon the unclean spirits, so here, since the final vengeance has been poured forth upon the same airy powers, it is said that It is done, that is, the end is here,818 when (as the Apostle says) the enemy, death, shall

811 'Behold, it comes as a thief': Tyconius's reading, 5.43-44 (199-201). It is preserved in Beatus 8.7.30: Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 181.

812 Ps. 31(32):1.

813 Gregory, Mor. 2.81 (108.4–109.6).

814 Matt. 24:43, Luke 12:39.

815 Tyconius 5.44 (201): cf. Caesarius 255.22-23; Primasius 16.220-222; Beatus 8.7.33-34.

The embedded quotation is Rev. 20:7-8.

816 Jerome, Lib. int. 159.11-13.

817 Rev. 14:20.

818 Cf. Tyconius 4.45 (201); Beatus 8.8.1.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

be destroyed last.819 Hitherto, the final persecution is described as plagues, all of which Tyconius understands in the opposite sense. It is an incurable plague, he says, and a great wrath, to receive the power to sin, particularly against the saints, and not yet to be destroyed by the greater violence of God.820 For the increase of the happiness of the wicked is their death, just as on the other hand the torment and humiliation of the Church is its glory. At that time, the wicked people in its entirety will not be injured by any bodily plague, as if it had received complete power to vent its rage.821 For scourging the wicked and restraining their rage would not serve the purpose of filling up the number of sinners, or consummating the wrath [of God].822 [John] recapitulates from the same persecution, describing the ruin of the wicked city.823 /461/ XXIX

[16:18] AND THERE WERE FLASHES OF LIGHTNING, AND

VOICES, AND CLAPS OF THUNDER; AND THERE WAS A GREAT

EARTHQUAKE, SUCH AS NEVER HAD BEEN SINCE THERE

WERE MEN [upon the earth, so great an earthquake,.] When at the end of the age there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world,824 the greatest signs will likewise appear. But whether they will appear from the side of the good or from the side of the wicked or from both sides together, like [the signs] done before Pharaoh by Moses and the magicians, is not adequately explained here.825

[16:19] AND THE GREAT CITY WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE

PARTS; … The godless city launches a three-fold war against the Church of Christ: the Gentiles and Jews besiege her in open battle, the heretics by treacherous

819 1 Cor. 15:26.

820 Tyconius 5.31 (197); cf. Caesarius 251.14-16; Beatus pr. 5.47 and 8.3.5.

821 Tyconius 5.30 (196); cf. Beatus pr. 5.44 and 8.1.28.

822 Tyconius 5.30 (196); cf. Beatus 8.1.29. Bede elides the notion of 'plague' and 'scourging' because the Latin word plaga covers both concepts.

823 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXIX (see Appendix). The idea is from Tyconius 5.45

(201): cf. Caesarius 253.20-21; Primasius 16.225; Beatus 8.8.2.

824 Tyconius 5.46 (202): cf. Beatus 8.8.2, quoting Matt. 24:21.

825 Primasius 16.227-231; the contest of Aaron (not Moses) and the Egyptian magicians is recounted in Exod. 7.

BOOK tHREE

defection, and the false brethren by evil example.826 This was represented above by the three evil horses, the red one, the black one, and the pale one.827

AND THE CITIES OF THE NATIONS FELL; …

That is, all the strength and confidence of the nations.828 For the merriment of the wicked is great ruin, and the joy of the sinner, perdition.

AND GREAT BABYLON CAME TO GOD'S REMEMBRANCE, TO

GIVE HER THE CUP OF THE WINE OF THE INDIGNATION OF

HIS WRATH.

Babylon falls, or drinks the wrath of God, when it receives power against Jerusalem, particularly at the end of time. For this reason, [the Scripture] said that she had fallen in the earthquake which she had made for the Church.829 If you would refer this to the day of judgement, the wicked man who now says in his heart: God has forgotten830 shall then come to God's remembrance. /463/

[16:20] AND EVERY ISLAND FLED AWAY; AND THE MOUNTAINS

WERE NOT FOUND.

The Church, which because of the eminence of its steadfastness [stabilitatis] is compared with islands and mountains,831 prudently hides from the waves

[fluctibus] of her persecutors.832

[16:21] AND GREAT HAIL, [AS HEAVY] AS A TALENT, CAME

826 Cf. Primasius 16.226-231. This identification of the three parts of the 'godless city' as (a) gentiles (i.e. pagans) and Jews, (b) heretics, and (c) false brethren marks an important departure from Tyconius 5.46, which divides the city, which represents all humanity, into (a) pagans, (b) the 'abomination of desolation' and (c) the Church. Caesarius 253.23-26 divides the city into (a) gentiles, (b) heretics and false Catholics and (c) the true Church. For Beatus

8.8.4, the three parts are (a) gentiles (b) the Abomination of Desolation, and (c) the Church.

Bede's tendency to draw a hard boundary between the two cities, rather than emphasize the corpus permixtum, is well illustrated here, particularly as the adjective 'godless' (impia) is his own addition: the sources (including Primasius) simply repeat the adjective 'great' found in the text of Revelation.

827 Rev. 6:4-8.

828 Primasius 16.240.

829 Tyconius 5.47 (202): cf. Beatus 8.8.10; Caesarius 254.8-9; Primasius 16.253-254.

830 Ps. 9b(10):11.

831 Primasius 16.245-246.

832 Throughout his life, Bede would return to this contrast between stability on the one hand, and 'waves' on the other: e.g. in the closing words of DTR, 'And so our little book concerning the fleeting and wave-tossed [fluctiuagus] course of time comes to a fitting end in eternal stability and stable eternity' (trans. Wallis, p. 249).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

DOWN FROM HEAVEN ON MEN; …

The hail of God's wrath is compared to a talent, being at once heavy in weight, and by a just sentence, inflicted on each according to the diversity of his sins.833 And all the plagues of Egypt symbolized spiritual plagues.834

AND MEN BLASPHEMED GOD BECAUSE OF THE PLAGUE OF

HAIL [because it was exceedingly great.] Because some sins are the cause of sin, others a punishment for sin, and others are both. As Isaiah says: Behold, you are angry, and we have sinned.

In this case, to blaspheme God is to acknowledge sin and the punishment of sin.835

XXX [17:1] [And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and spoke with me, saying:] COME, AND I WILL SHOW YOU THE

CONDEMNATION OF THE GREAT HARLOT WHO SITS UPON

MANY WATERS;

The multitude of the lost, which, having abandoned the Creator, lies down to debauch itself with demons,836 is depicted as seated on the waters, that is, in the discord of the peoples.837 On the other hand, the multitude of the believers had but one heart, and one soul.838 The Apostle has espoused them to one husband, to present them as a chaste virgin to Christ.839 /465/

[17:2] WITH WHOM THE KINGS OF THE EARTH HAVE COM

MITTED FORNICATION; AND THEY WHO INHABIT THE

EARTH HAVE BEEN MADE DRUNK WITH THE WINE OF HER

PROSTITUTION.

The whole takes precedence over the parts. For the kings and they who inhabit the earth are those who, in their pride, seek worldly things.840 They are debauched by the enticement of the world, and the lust for vice, and they are made drunk by the madness of their mind.

833 Primasius 16.261-262, based loosely on Tyconius 5.48 (203); cf. more distant parallels in Caesarius 254.11, Beatus 8.8.13.

834 Tyconius 5.48 (203): cf. Beatus 8.8.16; Caesarius 254.12.

835 Primasius 16.264-269, quoting Isa. 64:5.

836 Primasius 17.7, 11-12.

837 The basic idea comes from Tyconius 6.1 (203): cf. Primasius 17.14; Beatus 9.1.4.

838 Acts 4:32.

839 2 Cor. 11:2.

840 Primasius 17.15.

BOOK tHREE

[17:3] AND HE TOOK ME AWAY IN THE SPIRIT TO THE DESERT

… The desert stands for the absence of the Godhead, whose presence is paradise.841

AND I SAW A WOMAN SITTING UPON A SCARLET BEAST FULL

OF BLASPHEMOUS NAMES …

The devil, gory in his godlessness,842 puffed up with blasphemies, arrogant, extols the corruption of the wicked in the pride of presumption.843

HAVING SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS.

That is, having the kings and kingdoms of this world,844 whose glory he showed to the Lord on the mountain.845 For the number seven, and often the number ten (as we said above),846 indicates universality.

[17:4] AND THE WOMAN WAS CLOTHED IN PURPLE AND

SCARLET, …

In purple is shown the guise of a feigned rule; in scarlet the bloody robe of impiety.847

AND COVERED WITH GOLD AND PRECIOUS STONES AND

PEARLS … That is, with all the allurements of simulated truth. He shows what lies beneath his beauty, saying:848 having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abominationS [and the filth of her fornication.]

The golden cup full of filthiness is hypocrisy, because hypocrites appear to men as righteous on the outside, but on the inside they are full /467/ of every kind of filth. For the beast lurking beneath the raiment of the whore is like poison in gold.849

[17:5] And on her forehead was written a name, A 841 Primasius 17.20-21.

842 Primasius 17.29.

843 Primasius 17.24-25.

844 Tyconius 6.4 (204): cf. Caesarius 256.23-24; Beatus 9.2.5.

845 Matt. 4:8, Luke 4:5.

846 See Bede's exegesis of Rev. 12:3; cf. Primasius 17.47-48.

847 Primasius 17.112-113.

848 Tyconius 6.5-6 (204): cf. Caesarius 256.26-27; Primasius 17.114-117; Beatus 9.2.6-7.

849 Tyconius 6.6 (204): cf. Caesarius 256.29-30; Primasius 17.118-120; Beatus 9.2.7.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

mystery: Babylon the great, mother of fornications and abominations of the earth.

On her very face, this corruption shows herself to be the nurturer of vices; but because only a prudent reasoning mind can discern this, especially when she is so gorgeously dressed, her name is shown to be a mystery.

[17:6] And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ….

The hostile body is one, within and without; although it appears in separate places, nonetheless it works together in unity of spirit. Thus the descendants of the wicked are accused of having stoned Zechariah, although they themselves did not do it.850

XXXI [And when I saw her, I marvelled with great wonderment.] [17:7] And the angel said to me, and so forth, up to [i.e. omitting Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast which carries her, which has seven heads and ten horns.] [17:8] The beast that YOU saw was, and is not, and shall RISE OUT OF the bottomless pit and go to destruction; [and the inhabitants on the earth (whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) shall marvel to see the beast that was, and is not.] That is, the devil once ruled the world. When the Lord was crucified, he was cast out. But at the end of the age, released from the pen of his prison, he will perish forever by the spirit of the mouth of the Lord.851 Tyconius interprets the beast /469/ as the whole body of the Devil, which will be filled up in the course of time by generations past and to come852 – notably because he shows the woman sitting on the beast, whom he had promised to show sitting upon many waters,853 that is, upon the people.

850 Tyconius 6.7 (204-205). The final sentence refers to Matt. 23:35 and Luke 11:51. Cf.

Caesarius 257.5, 7-8, 11-12; Beatus 9.2.10-11, 13.

851 2 Thess. 2:8.

852 Primasius 17.131-136, based on Tyconius 6.8 (205); cf. Caesarius 257.15-19, 258.1114; Beatus 9.2.21. Bede's wording follows Primasius's, but Primasius does not identify the source as Tyconius, which indicates that Bede independently identified Tyconius as the ultimate source. This is an illustration of Tyconius's Rule 7 (see introduction, pp. 71–72).

853 Rev. 17:1, cf. 17:15.

BOOK tHREE

[17:9] [And here is the understanding that has wisdom:] the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitS; and they are seven kings.

The heads of the beast, [the Scripture] says, are the kings of the world, who are compared to lofty mountains because of the swelling of their pride.

Wanton impiety reposes upon them, so that they can both crush with force and beguile with fraud.854

[17:10] Five are fallen, one is, and the other HAs not yet come; … Since he has already described in the number seven the plenitude of worldly empire, whose final part – [the reign] of Antichrist – has not yet come,

[Scripture] witnesses that five kings have gone before, the sixth is present, and the seventh is to come.855 and when he HAs come, he must remain a short time.

Because the Lord sees that we are both proud and weak, those singularly evil days which he brought to pass, he says, will be mercifully shortened. To be sure, this is so that he can both terrify pride by the harshness of the time, and comfort weakness by its brevity.856

[17:11] And the beast which was and is not, HE is the eighth, and ALSO is of the seven; and HE goES to destruction.

Antichrist, who is to rule at the end of the age, because of the unity of this body of the wicked whose head he is, belongs to the number of the kingdoms of the world. But because of his exceptional power of evil, he has his own place in the sequence.857 /471/ 854 Primasius 17.168-169.

855 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXXI (see Appendix). Bede's exegesis of this passage finds no parallel in his sources. He links the number seven to 'the plenitude of worldly empire'

(plenitudinem mundani …imperii), which detaches it from any reference to actual historical or political entities.

856 Gregory, Mor. 32.23 (1647.45-48), referring to Matt. 24:22.

857 Antichrist is both the seventh in the sequence of kings (see previous verse) and also the eighth, which Bede interprets to mean that Antichrist is both contained within the historical totality of worldly rulers (since he is the mystical head of the body of the wicked), and a distinct individual, with his own place in the sequence. This double identity of Antichrist as both allegory and prophecy is a constant feature of the Antichrist legend and Antichrist theology.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[17:12] And the ten horns that YOU saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, … The kingdoms of the world have not yet demonstrated their full power to persecute the Church. Although they now have dominion over most people, nevertheless the power of their insane arrogance will be all the more acute when they will have also deceived many by signs.858 Some interpret the ten kings as coming in the future, when the final persecution draws near, to divide the world among themselves, according to the prophecy of Daniel, who said of the fourth beast,859 It had ten horns, and, behold, another little horn sprung out of the midst of them: and three of the first horns were plucked up at its presence.860 [They say that] Antichrist, born in Babylon, will conquer the kings of Egypt, Africa and Ethiopia, and when he has killed them, seven other kings will bow their neck to the victor.861 Others say that Antichrist is in the eleventh position to symbolize his prevarication. For they designate eleven as a transgression of the perfection of ten.862 but WHO WILL receive power as kings FOR one hour after the beast.

He said 'as [if they were] kings',863 because those who set themselves up against the reign of Christ, reign as in a dream.864

[17:13] These have one design; and they shall HAND OVER their strength and power to the beast.

That is, by common consent they fight with all the force of their will for the Devil,865 for this is what it is to receive a kingdom after the beast, by 858 Primasius 17.206-209.

859 Cf. Primasius 17.35-37.

860 Dan. 7:7-8.

861 Antichrist's birth in Babylon, defeat of the king of Egypt and dominion over Africa and Ethiopia: Jerome, In Dan. 2.7.7-8 (844.592-600); 4.11.25-26 (918.99-104) and 27-28a

(919.117-118); 4.11.40-41 (929.347-352). See also above, n. 73 (re Bede's commentary on 2:10). This feature of Antichrist's 'biography' was widely known: for example, Lactantius, in Divine Institutes 7, claims that these ten tyrants would take power after the fall of Rome: Daley,

'Apocalypticism in Early Christian Theology', pp. 232–233.

862 Cf. Isidore, Liber numerorum 12.61 (PL 83, 191); Augustine, DCD 15.20 (485.122125); Sermo 51.34 (PL 38.353); De consensu evangelistarum 2.13 (94.14-15); Quaestiones de Exodo 108, ed. J. Fraipont, CCSL 33 (1958) 122.1821-1822. However, neither Isidore nor Augustine specifically relates the number 11 to Antichrist.

863 Tanquam reges, which denotes simulation; cf. Caesarius's version of the text (258.24), which reads quasi reges.

864 Tyconius 6.14 (207): cf. Beatus 9.2.83; Caesarius 258.24-26.

865 A fusion of Primasius 17.211-213 and Tyconius 6.15 (208); cf. Beatus 9.2.86-87.

BOOK tHREE

imitating the Devil in opposition to Christ.

[17:14] TheY WIll fight AGAINST the Lamb. And the Lamb WIll CONQUER them, [because he is Lord of lords, and King of kings;] Lest /473/ human weakness should fear the ferocity of the old enemy,

[Scripture] shows how the seven-headed beast, armed with the horns of a secular kingdom, is defeated by the triumphant Christ. Showing that [the Lamb] triumphs in his followers, he adds: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Rightly does he emphasize 'chosen', for 'many are called, but few are chosen'.866

[17:15] And he said to me: The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples and nations and tongues.] [17:16] And the ten horns which you saw [on the beast], these will hate the harlot … The glory of the world, which now they grasp with wanton love, they shall then begin to detest with a terrible hatred, when they see themselves condemned in the end by the victorious Lamb. It can be understood another way: that among the proud there are always contentions, or, that everyone that loves iniquity hates his own soul.867 and they will make her desolate and naked …

For these men, through the wrath of God, make the world into a desert when they abandon themselves to it and use it unrighteously.868 and will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

They shall burn her, stripped of her accustomed luxuries, in the fire of hell.869

[17:17] For God has put it into their hearts to do what pleases him, … [John] says that God, a just judge and strong,870 and one to whom justice is always pleasing, permits such things to be carried out by the wicked as 866 Tyconius 6.16 (208), quoting Matt. 20:16: cf. Primasius 17.216-219; Caesarius 259.8-9;

Beatus 9.3.2-3.

867 Prov. 13:10 and Ps. 10:6 (11:5), quoted by Primasius 17.227-230, following Tyconius

6.17 (208); cf. Caesarius 259.13-17 and Beatus 9.3.4 who quote Ps. 10:6 only.

868 Tyconius 6.20 (208); cf. Caesarius 259.18-20.

869 Tyconius 6.19 (208): cf. Beatus 9.3.6.

870 Ps. 7:12.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

punishment for their earlier sins;871 for their sake he could rightly bring the whole world to an end, as happened in the case of Sodom and the Flood, as the Gospel attests.872 that they give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled. /475/ That is, that they should obey the Devil, until the Scriptures are fulfilled in which God said the earth would be laid waste by a fourth kingdom, as we read in Daniel: The fourth [beast] shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be greater than all the kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth, overturn it and break it in pieces.873

[17:18] And the woman which you saw is that great city which has royal authority over the kings of the earth.

Thus later, when bidden to look upon the bride of the Lamb, [John] saw the holy city coming down out of heaven.874 When he describes it, he says: and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honour into it.875 For there are two cities in the world, one taking its origin from the abyss, the other from heaven.876 Hence that same wickedness which he had described in the form of the harlot who was stripped and burnt, he now compares to the ruins of a deserted city.877

XXXII [18:1] And after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lit up with his glory.

This angel, powerful and lighting up the whole earth, can be understood as both the incarnate Lord himself,878 and the teachers of the Church. These

871 Primasius 17.242-244.

872 Matt. 10:15, 24:38-39; Luke 17:26-30.

873 Tyconius 6.20 (208-209): cf. Beatus 9.3.8-9, and more briefly Caesarius 259.25-27. The embedded quotation is from Dan. 7:23.

874 Rev. 21:9-10 875 Rev. 21:24.

876 Tyconius 6.21 (209). Neither Primasius nor Caesarius refers to the 'two cities' concept in this context. Beatus 9.3.10-12 situates the origins of the two cities in God and the Devil, not heaven and hell.

877 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXXII (see Appendix).

878 Gryson claims that the identification of the angel as the incarnate Lord is from Tyconius,

BOOK tHREE

men, imbued with heavenly light, proclaim the fall of the world, saying The kingdom of heaven is at hand.879

[18:2] [And he cried out with a loud voice, saying:] Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen; and is become the dwelling place of demons and the lair of every unclean spirit, [and the lair of every unclean and hateful bird;

[18.3] For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, …]

[Scripture] says: Do not be afraid, O Jerusalem, of the power of the earthly city, which spiritually falls through the very thing by which it oppressed you,

/477/ in the vexation caused by its depraved citizens. Isaiah also describes Babylon as inhabited by unclean monsters.880 This is nothing other than the city of the Devil which receives every unclean spirit, and in which abides every impurity in the world.881 and the merchants of the earth have become rich with the power of her delights.

They are said to be rich in sins who in a doleful commerce trade their own souls for temporal gain.882 For abundance of luxury makes them poor rather than rich.883

[18:4] [And I heard another voice from heaven, saying:] Go out from her, my people; lest you be partakers of her sins, [and lest you receive her plagues. [18:5] For her sins have reached to heaven; and the Lord has remembered her iniquities.]

As Isaiah says: Go out of the midst of her. Touch no unclean thing. Be clean, you that carry the vessels of the Lord.884 Having pronounced the ruin of Babylon, he introduces a departure [discessionem] which is [itself] the ruin of Babylon. For after Lot has departed from Sodom, it will be utterly destroyed.885 citing a parallel in Beatus 10.1.2. However, this is not incorporated into his edition of Tyconius.

879 Matt. 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; cf. Mark 1:15.

880 Isa. 13:21-23.

881 Tyconius 6.22 (209): cf. Caesarius 260.6-8; Beatus 10.1.4.

882 Primasius 18.49-50 and Tyconius 6.24 (209); cf. Caesarius 260.26; Beatus 10.1.5.

883 Tyconius 6.24 (209): cf. Caesarius 260.26-27; Beatus 10.1.5.

884 Isa. 52:11; quoted by Tyconius 6.25 (210): cf. Caesarius 261.5-7; Beatus 10.1.7; Primasius (18.60) quotes only part of this verse, but does not say that it is from Isaiah.

885 Cf. Tyconius, Lib. reg. 7 (84.31-85.4), referring to Gen. 19:15-28.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[18:6] Render to her as she herself rendered to you; … For plagues visible and invisible go forth from the Church into the world.886 and double for double, according to her deeds.

[In the cup in which she mixed, mix double for her. [18:7] Give to her torment and sorrow in proportion as she has glorified herself, and lived in delights; …] So that she who enjoyed temporal delights may agonize in eternal torments.887 because she says in her heart: I sit a queen and am no widow; and sorrow I shall not see. [18:8] so shall her plagues come in a single day, [death and mourning and famine; and she shall be burned with fire: for God who is mighty shall judge her.] Because she delighted with present luxuries, she would not take heed of future vengeance, and so she will in a brief space of time be punished by misfortune both carnal and spiritual.888 On the other hand, the citizens of the heavenly homeland, who hold up /479/ Jerusalem as the beginning of their joy, do not wish to sing the song of the Lord in a strange land,889 that is, to receive in the present the joy which belongs to a future age.

[18:9] And the kings of the earth who committed fornication [and lived with her in delights,] will weep and bewail themselves over her, … The mourning of the kings and merchants and sailors of Babylon can be understood in two ways. It could either [mean] that on the day of judgement, when all the glory of the world has perished, only penance for their past life will remain to those wicked men who say: What has pride profited us?

Or what advantage has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow.890 Or [it could mean] that in the present, when abundance of things comes to an end and the downfall of the various nations draws nigh, the opportunity for those carnal delights which crowd in to satisfy the desires of the depraved will be taken away.891

886 Tyconius 6.26 (210): cf. Caesarius 262.5-6 and Beatus 10.1.19.

887 Primasius 18.74-75.

888 Tyconius 6.27 (210): cf. Caesarius 262.11-12; Beatus 10.1.20.

889 Ps. 136(137):6, 4.

890 Wisd. of Sol. 5:8-9.

891 Primasius 18.110-112.

BOOK tHREE

when they see the smoke of her burning.

That is, the sign of ruin, since smoke precedes fire. For what is the disorientation and dismay of the world but the smoke of hell, which is close at hand?892

[18:10] Standing far off for fear of her torments, … Standing afar off not in body, but in mind, when each fears for himself what he sees others suffering through calumnies and through power.893 saying: Alas! alas! that great city, Babylon, that mighty city; for in a single hour your judgEment is come.

The Spirit pronounces the name of the city, and they bemoan that the world has received its punishment in such a short time, and that every enterprise has ceased, and has been cast down.894 /481/

[18:11] And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her; for no one will buy their merchandise any more; and so forth. [[18.12] Merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen and purple, and silk and scarlet, and all citron wood, and all vessels of ivory, and all vessels of precious stone and brass and iron and marble; [18.13]

And cinnamon, and spices, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. [18.14] And the fruits of the desire of your soul are gone from you; and all fat and goodly things are lost to you; and they shall never be found again.]

They mourn the loss of all the pomp of the world, and of those things which are either sweet to the bodily senses, or designed for external purposes.

The various kinds of metals refer to sight, the perfumes to smell, unguents to touch, wine, wheat and oil to taste. When he refers to beasts and slaves, it should be understood that the other things which aid human nature will perish.895 This happens in two ways, as I said: either these things perish with the dying world,896 or the wretches who survive those who have left the joys

892 Tyconius 6.29 (211): cf. Beatus 10.1.22; and, more freely, Primasius 18. 115-117.

893 Tyconius 6.30 (211): cf. Caesarius 262.28-263.2; Beatus 10.1.23; more loosely in Primasius 18.114-115.

894 Tyconius 6.31 (211): cf. Caesarius 263.3-5; Beatus 10.1.24.

895 'They mourn …perish': cf. Primasius 18.109, 125-132.

896 Tyconius 6.32 (211): cf. Beatus 10.1.26.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

of the world through death mourn as if over the ruins of their city. These are said to watch from afar, for fear of a similar punishment.897

[18:15] [The merchants of these things,] who were made rich, will stand far off from her, [for fear of her torments, weeping and mourning, [18.16] And saying: Alas! alas! that great city, …]

Whenever the Spirit mentions those made rich by [Babylon], he signifies the wealth of transgressions.898 Later, when the voice is that of the unrighteous, saying: Alas! alas! that great city, in which all were made rich who had ships at sea,899 material abundance is to be understood. For they imagine they are made rich by the shrewdness of their own devising. which was clothed with fine linen and purple and scarlet [and was covered with gold and precious stones and pearls.

[18:17] For in a single hour, such great riches are laid waste.] Is the city clothed with linen and purple, and not men? Therefore it is they who lament their lot when they are spoiled of the abovementioned things.900

/483/ And every shipmaster [and all that sail into the lake] and mariners, [and those who work in the sea] stood far off,

[18:18] [And cried out,] seeing the place of her burning … Could all who sail upon the sea be present to see the burning of the city?

Rather, he says that all the husbandmen and artisans of the world fear for themselves, seeing the ruin of their hope.901 saying: What city is like this great city?

That is, it is not possible for the world to be restored to its original condition.902

[18:19] And they threw dust on their heads … That is, reproaching the faces of their princes. They were seduced by them, and they perished.903 Or else: accusing the madness of their heart (which is the principal part of a man) with a repentance which comes too late.

897 Primasius 18.112-115.

898 Caesarius 263.8-9.

899 Rev. 18:19.

900 Tyconius 6.34 (212): cf. Caesarius 263.10-12; Beatus 10.1.30.

901 Tyconius 6.35 (212): cf. Caesarius 263.14-17; Beatus 10.1.32.

902 Tyconius 6.36 (212): cf. Beatus 10.1.33.

903 Primasius 18.142-143. Gryson's apparatus claims that this interpretation is based on Tyconius, as the idea is picked up in Beatus 10.1.34; however, it is not reflected in his critical edition of Tyconius.

BOOK tHREE

[and cried, weeping and mourning, saying: Alas! alas! that great city, where all who had ships at sea were made rich because of her money;] for in a single hour she is made desolate.

Notice that each and every one of these mourners bewails not only the loss of riches, but also the swift and unexpected ruin of the deceitful world.904

[18:20] Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets; … Just as our Lord in the Gospel added in his prophecy of the ruin of the world: But, when you see these things come to pass, look up and lift up your heads,905 that is, let your hearts rejoice. for God has judged your judgEment on her.

This is, that judgement which the souls of the saints asked for with a mighty cry: How long, O Lord, Holy and True, will you not judge and avenge our blood.906 /485/ XXXIII [18:21] And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying:

With such violence as this will Babylon be thrown down … Or as the other version says: Thus with violence shall Babylon be cast out,907 THAT GREAT CITY [and shall be found no more]. Because of the weight of sinners and their error, the city of this world is compared to a restless [instabili] millstone.908 For the wicked walk about in a circle.909

904 repentinam improuisamque deflere ruinam saeculi fallentis. A similar phrase is used by Bede in relation to Noah's Flood, which he explicitly compares to the abrupt and unexpected advent of the Last Judgement: per inundationem diluuii repentinam improuisa nouissimi examinis hora designatur ('the unexpected hour of the Last Judgement is signified by the sudden inundation of the flood'): Bede, In Gen. 2 (102.1062-1063), trans. Kendall, p. 172; In Cant. Cant. 4 (324.333-334).

905 Luke 21:28.

906 Rev. 6:10.

907 Tyconius's text Sic impetu deicietur Babylon … (6.38, p. 212) is the 'other version': cf. Caesarius (266.5), Beatus pr. 5.83. See Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 181, and Sparks, p. 577.

908 Cf. Primasius 18.186-187.

909 Ps. 11:9 (12:8), quoted by Caesarius 266.5-8 (reference not included in Gryson's apparatus).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

For this reason it is drowned in the waves of retribution, for its citizens submerged Jerusalem with waves of infidelity when, seated by the rivers of Babylon, they lamented their absence from the heavenly Sion.910 For the Lord says that those who cause others to fall will suffer like punishment.911

To be sure, the Church is also likened to a stone, but one which is stable and firm, and which defies the onslaught of storms.912 The millstone can also be understood as the grinding [contritio] of punishments. For as St Ignatius is reported to have said when he was about to be martyred: I am God's wheat, to be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may be made pure bread.913

[18:22] And the sound of harpers and musicians, and of those that play the pipe and the trumpet will be heard in her no more; … From amongst the five senses [mentioned above in 18:11], he had exempted sound. Now he says that it will be removed from the world along with the others. It is as if he were to say: What is fair to the sight, harmonious to hearing, smooth to the touch, sweet to smell and delectable to taste, shall pass away from this world.914 and no craftsman of any craft whatsoever will be found in you any more /487/; and the rest [and the sound of the mill shall be heard in you no more; [18:23] And the light of the lamp will shine in you no more; and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard in you no more …] All these things, he says, which pertain to the ease or enjoyment of human life are taken from the wicked.915 And he adds why, saying:

For your merchants were the great men of the earth; … For you received good things in your lifetime.916

910 Ps. 136(137):1.

911 Matt. 18:6, quoted in this context by Primasius 18.174-175.

912 Matt. 7:24-25. On the juxtaposition of 'stability' and 'waves', see above, n. 834.

913 Eusebius/Rufinus, Historia ecclesiastica 3.36.12 (279), quoting from Ignatius, Ad

Romanos 4.1 (130.5-6); Bonner, Saint Bede, p. 10, n.70. The same quotation is found in Jerome,

De uiris illustribus 16.9 (108).

914 Primasius 18.190-194; cf. the exegesis of v. 14 above.

915 Based on Tyconius 6.38 (213): cf. Caesarius 266.11-12; Beatus 10.2.2.

916 Tyconius 6.39 (213), quoting Luke 16:25: cf. Caesarius 266.12-13; Beatus 10.2.2-3;

Primasius 18.201-202. Primasius is not included in Gryson's apparatus, but does appear in the apparatus of his edition of Tyconius.

BOOK tHREE

[for the nations have all been deceived by your sorceries.][18:24] And in her was SLAIN917 the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Did not the same city kill the apostles, which also killed the prophets and all the saints? But this is the city which Cain founded with his brother's blood and called by the name of his son Enoch, that is, [by the name] of all his posterity. For seven generations of Cain are recorded.918 Into the fabric of this city is poured 'all the just blood that has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel, the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias', that is

[the blood] of the people and of the priest.919

[19:1] And after these things, I heard as it were the loud voice of great trumpets920 in heaven, saying:

Alleluia. Salvation and glory and power to our God.

Now the Church says these things in a partial way; but then, when the separation [discessio] shall have been carried out, and when she shall have been openly vindicated, she will do so perfectly.921

[19:2] [For true and just are his judgements, who has judged the great harlot,] who corrupted the earth with her prostitution, and has revenged the blood of his servants at her hands.

He notes two deeds of the harlot: her corruption with those who are evil and her persecution of those who are good. /489/ In my view, these two encompass all the transgressions of the wicked.

[19:3] And again they said: Alleluia … The Church praises the Lord with unfailing love for his judgements. For Alleluia means 'Praise the Lord'.922 Indeed, the Psalms whose opening

917 The Vulgate reads inventus ('found'), but Bede reads interfectus ('slain'): cf. Gryson,

Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

918 Cf. Gen. 4:18-22.

919 Tyconius 6.39 (213): cf. Caesarius 266.16-19, 21-23; Beatus 10.2.4, 7-8; and (more distantly) Primasius 19.6-12, including the quotation from Matt. 23:35 in the final sentence. On Cain's foundation of the first city, see Gen. 4:17. Cf. Augustine, DCD 15.1, 5, 8, 20; Tyconius,

Lib. reg. 4 (42.5-9).

920 The received text of the Vulgate reads turbarum ('multitudes') rather than tubarum

('trumpets'), as do some manuscripts of Bede's commentary. Gryson's lemma chooses tubarum as this is the reading conveyed by the most authoritative codices, those in his families δ and α.

921 Tyconius 6.40 (214): cf. Caesarius 268.19-20; Beatus 10.3.2.

922 Primasius 19.13-14.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

words are Praise the Lord begin with Alleluia in Hebrew.923

And her smoke ascends for ever and ever.

He said ascends, not will ascend. For Babylon always falls into perdition, and even now is burning in part, even as Jerusalem passes over into paradise, as the Lord showed in [the parable of] the rich man and the poor man.924

[19:4] And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God

[who sits upon the throne …] The Church worships the Lord not only with her lips, but with the sweetness of supreme devotion. saying: Amen. Alleluia.

Though these words can be translated (as I said, they refer to faith or truth or the praise of the Lord), nonetheless the authority of the primordial language is retained out of reverence for its holiness. For the Church continues to sing

Alleluia on Sundays, and during the entire period of fifty days [following Easter] because of the hope of the resurrection, which is to be in the praise of the Lord.925

[19:5] And a voice came from the throne, saying: Give praise to our God, all you his servants; and you who fear him, small and great.

When he orders that this be done, and records that it was done, [the Spirit] indicates that the praise of his chosen servants has won approval.926 He says little and /491/ great, for poverty of natural ability does not disadvantage the person whose heart and tongue are full of the praise of God.

[19:6] And I heard as it were the voice of great trumpets,927 and as the sound of many waters, and as 923 Cf. Jerome, In Psalmos homeliae 56, ed. G. Morin, CCSL 78 (Turnhout: Brepols,

1958), 329.5-7.

924 Tyconius 6.41 (214): cf. Caesarius 268.28-32; more distantly Primasius 19.18-20.

However, the allusion to the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16.19-31) is only in Primasius.

925 The substance of this passage comes from Isidore, De officiis 1.13.1-2, ed. Christopher

Lawson, CCSL 113 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1989), 15.10-13, cf. Etym. 6.19.20. The interpretation of 'amen' echoes Primasius 19.22, where the word is translated 'true, faithfully'. However the reference to the fifty days following Easter is Bede's, and reflects his interest in Easter as a symbol of eternity (cf. DTR 64, 71).

926 Primasius 19.24-26.

927 See n. 920 above.

BOOK tHREE

the sound of great thunders, saying: Alleluia: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, has reigned.

The great voice of the singers is the great devotion of the heart which rejoices in the manifold repetition of praise, both for the downfall of the wicked, and for the eternal glory of the Lord and of those who belong to him.928

[19:7] [Let us be glad and rejoice] and give him glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, … The wedding of the Lamb is when the Church shall be united with her Lord in the nuptial chamber of the heavenly kingdom. and his wife has made herself ready.

By consistently attending to the works of righteousness she has shown herself worthy of the spiritual banquet and the everlasting kingdom.929 This can be understood in the light of the parable in the Gospel which tells of the virgins who rose up to trim their lamps when the bridegroom approached930

– that is, to reckon up their good deeds, by which they hope to attain eternal happiness.

[19:8] And it was granted to her that she should clothe herself with fine linen, glittering and white: [for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.]

It is granted to her to be clothed in her own deeds.931 On the other hand, the wicked, who according to Isaiah have woven the webs of spiders, will not be covered by their works. For their works are unprofitable works.932

[19:9] And he said to me, Write: Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb …

He says that they are summoned not to a noon-tide meal [prandium] but to supper [cenam], /493/ because a supper is indeed a banquet at the end of the day. Therefore those who arrive at the refreshment of heavenly contemplation when the time of this present life is done are straightaway called to the supper of the Lamb.933

928 See exegesis of Rev. 7:10 and 14:2 above.

929 Primasius 19.51-53.

930 Matt. 25:6-7.

931 Caesarius 269.6.

932 Isa. 59:5-6.

933 Gregory, Hom. in Ev. 24.6 (202.152-155). On Bede's sensitivity to the distinction between prandium and coena, see Alban Gautier, 'La table de Bède', Bède le Vénérable entre tradition et postérité, p. 211.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[And he said to me:] These words of God are true.

That is, what he has proclaimed will be in the future, will surely come to pass.

[19:10] [And I fell at his feet, to worship him. And he said to me:] See that you do not do it. I am a fellow-servant of you and of your brethren … Earlier on he had said: I am the first and the last. Thus he shows that the angel was sent as the symbol of the Lord and the Church. For at the end he also says: I, Jesus, have sent my angel, to testify to you these things in the churches.934 who have the testimony of Jesus … After the Lord Jesus lifted up into heaven the human nature which he had taken on, the angel feared to be worshipped by a human being, for he worshipped the God-Man as one higher than himself. We read that this was done by men before the Lord's Incarnation, and in no wise forbidden by angels.935

[Worship God.] For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

For whatever the spirit of prophecy said, is the testimony of Jesus, to whom the Law and the prophets bear witness.936 Therefore he says, Do not worship me in place of God, since I myself have come to give testimony of his powers. So much for the ruin of Babylon. From here on, [John] speaks of the coming glory of Jerusalem.937

934 Tyconius 6.44 (214-215): cf. Beatus 10.3.10, and more freely Primasius 19.63-70. The two embedded quotations are from Rev. 1:17 and 22:16.

935 For example, Abraham prostrated himself before the three angels at the oak of Mamre

(Gen. 19:1) and Gideon offered a sacrifice to the angel of the Lord (Judg. 6:18-23). Bede drew this idea from Gregory, Hom. in Ev. 8.2 (56.51-55, 57-58); it is also alluded to in Mor. 27.29

(1352.30-45).

936 Cf. Primasius 19.71-73.

937 Bede seems to suggest here that the sequence of recapitulations from the Incarnation and Passion has come to an end, but see exegesis of 19:13 below. This projection of the Rider into the scenario of the end-times is unusual in the exegetic tradition: see Christe, 'De l'absence ou des lacunes', p. 822.

BOOK tHREE

XXXIV [19:11] And I saw heaven opened; and, behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it was called faithful and true; … /495/ The Lord who is the way, and the truth, and the life,938 and to whom it is said by the prophet for you have done wonderful things, your designs of old are faithful. Amen,939 takes his seat upon a white – that is, immaculate – body in order to put down the powers of the air. and with justice does he judge and fight.

He judges as the king of ages. He fights, because he contends as he suffers continually in his members.940

[19:12] His eyes were like a flame of fire, … Sometimes he calls the commandments941 the eyes of the Lord, and sometimes he calls the Spirit [by this term]. He says: Lord, your word is a lamp to my feet,942 and of the Spirit, I am come to cast fire upon the earth.943 and on his head were many diadems; … In him in whom 'we shall do mightily', the multitude of the saints is said to have the ornament of a crown.944 and he had a name written, which no one knows but himself.

'But himself', [the Spirit] says, because in him is the whole Church.945 For the perfect knowledge of the word of God is manifested in those who deserve to be 'the body of Christ, and its members'.946 In the same vein, the Lord said: No man ascends into heaven, but he that descends from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.947

938 John 14:6.

939 Isa. 25:1.

940 Primasius 19.90-91; 'king of ages' refers to Rev. 15:2.

941 Caesarius 220.8.

942 Ps. 118(119):105.

943 Luke 12:49.

944 Primasius 19.93-95, quoting Ps. 57(58):14.

945 Caesarius 264.13-14.

946 Primasius 19.96-97, quoting 1 Cor. 12:27.

947 John 3:13.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[19:13] And he was clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood … The clothing of Christ should be understood in context. Here it seems to indicate the work of the Passion itself:948 just as his incorrupt birth is designated by the white horse, so his innocent death949 is designated by the bloody vesture. /497/ And his name was called: The Word of God.

Because the same one who appeared at the appointed time as a man destined to suffer, was in the beginning with God.950 For he is called 'the Word' because nothing in the substance of his nature is visible or corporeal, or else because through him the Father made all things.951 As he said earlier, perfect knowledge of his nature belongs to himself alone, and to the Father. For the peace of God surpasses all understanding.952 That peace by which God himself made peace with himself surpasses every creaturely intelligence, whether of man or angel. For of his wisdom there is no number.953 When it is said he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal it,954 – that is, he knows the Son and the Father – it refers to the creaturely mode [of knowledge].

[19:14] And the armies that are in heaven followed him on white horses, … That is, the Church imitated him in white bodies,955 and rightly takes the designation of an army because of the intensity of the conflict. clothed in fine linen, white [and] clean.

He explained above that this is the justification of the saints, according to what the Psalm says: Let your priests be clothed with justice.956

[19:15] And from his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, 948 Cf. Primasius 19.145-146.

949 mors innoxia, a phrase repeated with reference to Christ in Bede's In Lucam 6 (966-967) and with reference to John the Baptist in Hymn 10.4.1, ed. D. Hurst, CCSL 122.3-4, p. 431.

950 John 1:2.

951 Isidore, Liber differentiarum 2.7.18, ed. María Adelaida Andrés Sanz, CCSL 111A

(Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), 16.10-13.

952 Phil. 4:7.

953 Ps. 146:5.

954 Matt. 11:27.

955 Tyconius 7.4 (215): cf. Caesarius 264.17-18 and 267.4-6; Beatus 11.1.5; Primasius

19.166-167.

956 Tyconius 7.5 (215) and 6.43 (214), quoting Ps. 131(132):9 with reference to Rev. 19:8;

Caesarius 269.7 and 271.32-33, Primasius 19.164 (this last not in Gryson's apparatus).

BOOK tHREE

[with which to strike the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron; …] As Isaiah says: He has made my mouth like a sharp sword;957 and the Apostle: and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God).958 and he treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of Almighty God.

He also treads it now, until such time as he shall tread it outside the city.959

/499/ [19:16] And he has on his garment and on his thigh a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This is the name which none of the proud knows.960 It is written on the tables of the Church's heart, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living

God.961 The thigh represents the posterity of seed.962 Hence Abraham, lest his progeny be mingled with a foreign race, used his thigh as a third testimony between himself and his servant.963 Concerning this the Apostle said, as if raising up seed for his dead brother: For in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I have begotten you.964 It can also be understood in this way: the Church by serving reigns in Christ, and is lord over lords.965 This same name is written on [his] vesture, for by the mystery of his birth and the work of his passion, the kingdom and the majesty are revealed to us. In what follows [the Spirit] explains what the king's vesture and army signify: namely, the struggle of the final conflict and the glory of the reign which will follow it.

[19:17] And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, … That is, preaching in the Church,966 which the more it is oppressed, the more brightly it shines, and the more freely it thunders forth.

957 Isa. 49:2.

958 Eph. 6:17.

959 Tyconius 7.6 (215): Caesarius 264.23-26, 267.10-12; Beatus 11.1.9; alluding to Rev.

14:20.

960 Tyconius 7.7 (216): cf. Caesarius 265.1-2; Beatus 11.1.12.

961 2 Cor. 3:3, quoted by Primasius 19.197-198.

962 Primasius 19.188, based on Tyconius 7.7 (216); cf. Caesarius 265.2-4.

963 Tyconius 7.7 (216), alluding to Gen. 24:2-3; cf. Caesarius 265.4-6.

964 Primasius 19.191-196 (not in Gryson's apparatus), quoting 1 Cor. 4:15, and alluding to the institution of levirate marriage ('raising up seed for his dead brother') described in Gen.

38:8, Deut. 25:5, Matt. 22:24, Mark 12:19, Luke 20:28.

965 Caesarius 265.2-3 (not in Gryson's apparatus).

966 Tyconius 7.8 (216): cf. Caesarius 265.7; Beatus 11.2.1; Primasius 19.202.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

saying to all the birds that flew in the midst of heaven: … He calls the saints 'birds', who live in the life of heaven: 'Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together'. Reducing them to a single body, he had called them an eagle flying in the midst of heaven.967 /501/ Come, gather together at the great supper of God;

[19:18] That you may eat the flesh of kings, and so forth [and the flesh of tribunes, and the flesh of mighty men,]

Come, he says, you that hunger and thirst after justice, to the banquet of the kingdom to come, where, when the raging of the proud has been suppressed, you shall be satisfied with the light of divine justice.968 and the flesh of horses and of those that sit on them, [of all freemen and bondmen, and of small and great.]

These, I think, are those horsemen whom he had described at the opening of the seals as issuing forth against the white horse of the Lord.969

[19:19] And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war and so forth [with him who sat upon the horse, and with his army. [19:20]

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, who worked signs before him by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image. …]

He explains how that supper of God was prepared for: namely, that the Devil assailed the church, but was defeated.970

These two were thrown alive into the pool of fire burning with sulphur. [19:21] And the rest were slain with the sword of him who sits upon the horse, [that proceeds out of his mouth; …] This seems to signify the Devil and Antichrist.971 For inasmuch as they

967 Tyconius 7.8 (216): Caesarius 265.10-12; Beatus 11.2.1 and pr. 5.90, referring to Rev.

8:13. Cf. Primasius 19.206-209. However, the embedded quotation from Matt. 24:28 ('Wheresoever …gathered together') is Bede's addition.

968 Primasius 19.241-243, 248-249. Primasius alludes to Matt. 5:6, which Bede quotes directly.

969 Rev. 6:1-8.

970 Cf. Bede, Capitula lectionum XXXIV (see Appendix).

971 Primasius 19.226-227.

BOOK tHREE

deserve greater punishment than do other men or demons, so much is it worse to be burned alive in sulphurous flames than to be slaughtered instantly, by the blow of a sword, as those who are destined to die. Unless perhaps it signifies that God's turning against them happened first: But he who does not believe is already judged;972 or else you should understand the one called the false prophet to be either Antichrist or the heretics. For no mortals sin more grievously than do the heretics who deny Christ after they have known Him. /503/ and all the birds were glutted with their flesh.

If now the just man will rejoice when he sees vengeance973 fall upon the wicked, how much more will he do so then, when in the presence of the Judge himself, [the just] shall be made one spirit with [the Judge].974 But the birds can also be understood as unclean spirits, who gorge themselves on the ruin of their own kind.975 Tyconius explains this supper as follows:

At all times, the Church eats the flesh of her enemies when she is eaten by them, for she will be satisfied at the resurrection, having her revenge upon their carnal work.976

XXXV [20:1] And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

Recapitulating from the beginning977 [Scripture] explains more fully what it said before: The beast which you saw, was and is not, and shall rise out of the bottomless pit and go to destruction.978 Thus the Lord, endowed with his Father's power, descended into the flesh to wage war upon the prince of this world, and after binding him, to plunder his goods.979

972 John 3:18.

973 Ps. 57:11 (58:10).

974 1 Cor. 6:17.

975 'But the birds …kind': cf. Primasius 19.250-253.

976 Tyconius 7.12 (217); cf. Beatus pr. 5.91; 11.3.12 and further echoes in pr. 5.86 and 11.2.2.

977 Tyconius 7.13 (218): cf. Beatus pr. 5.91.

978 Rev. 17:8.

979 Based on Tyconius 7.15 (218), including the allusion to Matt. 12:29; cf. Caesarius

263.22-23, 25, 27-264.2; Beatus 11.4.5; Primasius 20.4-8.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[20:2] And he seized the dragon, that old serpent, who is the devil and Satan, … 'Devil' [Diabolus] means flowing downwards.980 But in Greek it means

'accuser', and Satan means 'adversary' or 'one who conspires to harm'.981

Therefore he is called 'dragon' because of his malice in inflicting harm;982 'serpent' because of his craftiness in deception; 'Satan' because of his stubbornness in opposition to the Lord. and bound him for a thousand years.

That is, he held him in check, restraining his power to seduce the men who were destined to be liberated.983 /505/ For were he able to exercise this in full, by force or fraud, he could, over such a long period of time, deceive many who were weak.984 When he says 'a thousand years', he means a part, that is, the remainder of thousand years of the sixth day in which the Lord was born and suffered.985

[20:3] And he threw him into the bottomless pit, … Indeed, into the hearts of the persecuting people. Not that the devil was not there before, but because he was cut off from the believers, he began to take possession of the wicked to an even greater degree. Not only are they alienated from God, but they hate the servants of God even more heartily.986

The Lord showed this visibly when he drove [the devil] out of men and into pigs.987 and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, [until the thousand years were ended …] He forbade him, and utterly shut him up, as if with a royal seal, lest he deceive the nations, but [John means] those [nations] which had been

980 Jerome, Lib. int. 160.16.

981 From Isidore, Etym. 8.11.18-19.

982 Gregory, Mor. 33.30 (1699.14), 33.31 (1700.29-30).

983 Bede is quoting Primasius 20.14-16, who is turn is quoting, with slight adaptations,

Augustine, DCD 20.7 (710.54-55). From this point until Rev. 21:5, Primasius quotes directly

(without ascription) or paraphrases from DCD 20.7.

984 Cf. Primasius 20.74-79, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.7 (710.54-55).

985 Tyconius 7.15 (218): cf. Beatus 11.4.11; Caesarius 265.25-27; Primasius 20.21-24, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.7 (710.55-63).

986 Primasius 20.35-38, who is quoting (without ascription) Augustine, DCD 20.7 (710.81711.88).

987 Tyconius 7.16 (18); cf. Caesarius 264.3-5, alluding to the miracle of the Gadarene swine in Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39.

BOOK tHREE

destined for life, and which [the devil] seduced before, preventing them from being reconciled to God.988 after that, he must be loosed for a short time.

As St Augustine says: But the devil will be loosed when the ['short time'] comes. For we read that he and his angels will rage with their whole strength for three years and six months. Yet those against whom he is to make war will be men of such a kind that they cannot be conquered by his great onset and all his wiles. But if he had never been loosed his malign power would have been less plainly apparent, and the endurance of the Holy City would have been less thoroughly proved in its great faithfulness. In short, the good use to which the Almighty puts even the devil's great wickedness would have been less clearly perceived.989 /507/ [20:4] And I saw thrones; and they sat upon them; and judgEment was given unto them; … He shows what is to happen in these thousand years in which the devil is bound.990 For the Church, which will sit with Christ upon twelve thrones to pass judgement, sits already and judges991 – she who deserved to hear from her King: 'Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven'.992 and the souls of those who were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, …

This implies what will be said hereafter: They reigned with Christ a thousand years. Therefore the Church reigns with Christ among the living and the dead. As the Apostle says, 'For to this end Christ died and rose again; that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.' But he mentions only the souls of the martyrs, because this reign after death pertains particularly to those who fought to the death for truth. And this, in fact, is what follows:993

988 Tyconius 7.17 (218): cf. Caesarius 265.20-22; Beatus 11.4.8. Primasius 20.53-55 is paraphrasing Augustine, DCD 20.7 (711.96-103).

989 Primasius 20.79-86 quoting (without ascription) Augustine, DCD 20.8 (713.37-44).

Bede clearly recognized the quotation, and supplied the name of the author. The translation is by Dyson, p. 984.

990 Primasius 20.92-96.

991 Tyconius 7.19 (219): cf. Beatus 11.5.1.

992 Primasius 20.99-101, based on Augustine, DCD 20.9 (717.56-65), and quoting Matt.

16:19.

993 Primasius 20.104-105, 112-117, 119, citing Augustine, DCD 20.9 (717.69, 84-718.94), and quoting Rom. 14:9.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and who had not worshipped the beast or his image, [nor received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands;] and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

We should take this to refer to the living and the dead alike,994 who either living up to this point in mortal flesh, or dead, reign in Christ even now in a manner appropriate to this [present] time, through the whole interval signified by the number of one thousand years.995

[20:5] The rest of the dead did not live, until the thousand years were ended.

Whoever have not heard the voice of the Son of God, and passed over from death to life during this entire period of time in which the first resurrection takes place (that is, the resurrection of souls), shall surely pass with that same flesh to the second death – namely, everlasting torments – in the second resurrection, /509/ which is [the resurrection] of the flesh.996

This is (he says) the first resurrection.

[Namely, the resurrection] by which we rise through baptism, as the Apostle says: If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above. Just as the first death in this life is in consequence of sin, when the soul that sins shall itself die, so the first resurrection in this life is through the remission of sins.997

[20:6] Blessed and holy is he that has a share in the first resurrection.

That is, [blessed is he] who will have preserved the state of being born again.998

[Against these, the second death has no power;] but they shall be saints of God and Christ; … The other version has priests of God and of Christ.999 This refers not only to 994 Primasius 20.121, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.9 (718.94), who in turn is quoting

Tyconius 7.19 (219).

995 Primasius 20.136-139, still quoting verbatim from Augustine, DCD 20.9 (718.111114).

996 Primasius 20.147-150, still quoting verbatim from Augustine, DCD 20.9 (718.123–

719.127).

997 Tyconius 7.20 (220), quoting Col. 3:2 and Ezek. 18:4, 20; cf. Caesarius 269.14-20;

Beatus 11.5.14; Augustine, DCD 20.10 (719.6 sqq.) and 20.6 (707.21-36).

998 Tyconius 7.21 (220): cf. Caesarius 269.21, 272.7; Beatus 11.5.15.

999 This is actually the standard Vulgate reading, which Primasius uses. Bede's preferred

BOOK tHREE

bishops and presbyters, who are properly called priests within the Church, but just as we are all called christs [i.e. anointed ones] because of the mystic unction, so we are all priests, in that we are members of one priest. The apostle Peter speaks of these people: 'A holy nation, a royal priesthood'.1000 and shall reign with christ a thousand years.

When the Spirit wrote this, he related that the Church would reign a thousand years, that is, until the end of the world. How could there be any doubt about this? For it plainly refers to a perpetual kingdom.1001

[20:7] And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison … He said they were 'ended', taking the part for the whole. For [Satan] will be set free in such a way that there will remain three years and six months of final conflict. But apart from this figure of speech, the time is correctly said to be 'finished'. For such minute remnants do not deserve to be counted,1002 since /511/ seven hundred years and however many God might wish, are called 'an hour' by the Apostle. and he will go forth, and deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog; and shall gather them together for battle, [whose number is like the sand of the sea.]

Then shall he deceive them, that he might assemble them for this battle.

Prior to this, he seduced them through many and various evils, by such means as he could. However, 'he shall go forth' means he shall burst into open persecution from the lairs of hatred.1003 Gog and Magog either signify the whole by the part,1004 or else indicate hidden and overt enemies by reading follows the Greek original more closely; cf. Sparks, p. 571; Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 183.

1000 Augustine, DCD 20.10 (719.24–720.29), including embedded quotation from 1 Pet.

2:9. Cf. Primasius 20.162-165. Here Bede is quoting from DCD, not Primasius, who omits the phrase who are properly called priests within the Church. Bede's wording of 1 Pet. 2:9 also follows Augustine rather than Primasius: Mackay, 'Augustine and Gregory', p. 401. The notion that the priestly office is extended to all believers is echoed in Bede's De tem. 2 (194.80-94): cf. Bonner, 'Bede: Scholar and Spiritual Teacher', p. 366.

1001 Tyconius 7.22 (220): cf. Caesarius 269.24-27, 272.7-11; Beatus 11.5.18-19.

1002 Tyconius 7.23 (220): cf. Caesarius 269.30-270.1; Beatus 11.6.1-2. Cf. Augustine,

DCD 20.13 (722.21-723.68), cited by Primasius 20.240-243.

1003 Primasius 20.169-172, quoting verbatim Augustine, DCD 20.11 (720.4-7).

1004 Tyconius 7.24; cf. Caesarius 272.14 (220).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

the interpretation of their names, which mean 'roof' and 'down from the roof'.1005 For these are 'a roof' because in them, the enemy is now closed over and covered, and they will be 'down from the roof' when they have broken out into open hatred.1006

[20:8] And they came up upon the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.

They are not said to have come, or to be going to come, to one place, as if the beloved city – that is, the Church – was to be besieged in any particular location. [The Spirit] preferred to intimate in the phrase 'breadth of the earth' that the Church would at that time be persecuted in all the nations, and by the word 'camp', that her warfare will not cease.1007

[20:9] And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them; One ought not to think that this is the final punishment; rather, it is the fire of envy by which the adversary of the saints is tormented by their steadfastness [firmitate]. For heaven is called 'the firmament'.1008 This is the fire that issued forth from the mouth of God's witnesses and devoured their enemies.

For at the last /513/ day, he will not rain fire upon them, but when they are gathered in front of him and judged, He will send them into eternal fire, of which he now speaks.1009 and the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the pool of fire and sulphur, where both the beast

[20:10] And the false prophet [will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.] That is, at the final judgement, the devil will be cast into eternal fire, where those which he dispatched in advance – that is, the majority of the godless city – are also to be found. The beast is to be taken according to context either as the devil or Antichrist or the godless city itself.1010 It could be that 1005 Primasius 20.176-178, quoting verbatim Augustine, DCD 20.11 (720.19-20).

1006 Primasius 20.183-185, quoting verbatim Augustine, DCD 20.11 (720.25-721.28). The etymology of Gog and Magog is also found in Jerome, In Ez. 11 (526.1509-1510) and Lib. int. 160.19, 27-28.

1007 Primasius 20.187-196, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.11 (721.30-41).

1008 Primasius 20.197-200; cf. Augustine, DCD 20.12 (721.1-7).

1009 Tyconius 7.25 (221): cf. Beatus 11.7.1-2.

1010 Primasius 20.249, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.14 (723.7).

BOOK tHREE

the sudden destruction of the wicked is designated by the fire descending from heaven,1011 when the Lord at his advent shall slay Antichrist with the spirit of His mouth.1012 He explains more fully how the devil, together with his followers, will be cast into the fire by Christ the Judge.1013

XXXVI [20:11] And I saw a great white throne and he who sat upon it, from whose face earth and heaven fled away; [and no place was found for them.]

[John] said that he saw one sitting on a throne, from whose face heaven and earth fled away. When the judgement is over, heaven and earth will cease to be, and a new heaven and earth will come into existence through the transformation of things, and not by their complete destruction. 'For the form

[figura] of this world passes away'; he does not say 'and the substance'.1014

For [heaven and earth], it is believed, are to be changed into something better. /515/ [20:12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne … For when the Son of Man shall sit upon the seat of his majesty, then all the nations shall be gathered together before him.1015

And books were opened. and another book was opened, which is the book of life … The other version has which is the life of every one.1016 Therefore he says that the open books are the testaments of God, for the world will be judged according to both Testaments. He calls the memory of our deeds 'the book

1011 Cf. Bede In Gen. 4 (226.1146-1147) where Bede compares the destruction of Sodom to this fiery lake, and quotes Rev. 21:8.

1012 2 Thess. 2:8. Bede repeats the claim that Christ will slay Antichrist (rather than the archangel Michael, as in Rev. 12:7) in In Gen. 1 (39.1212-17). Cf. Darby, Bede and the End of Time, pp. 120–121.

1013 'It could be …Christ the Judge': cf. Augustine, DCD 20.12 (721.15-21).

1014 Primasius 20.252-258, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.14 (724.17-24); For the form of this world passes away is taken from 1 Cor. 7:31. The new heaven and earth: Rev. 21:1.

1015 Matt. 25:32.

1016 qui est uitae uniuscuiusque: this addition is found in later north African recensions of the Vetus Latina, e.g. Tyconius 7.27 (221); Sparks, p. 574; Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 192.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

of the life of every one', not that he, who knows what is hidden, would have a book in order to remember.1017

And the dead were judged by the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

That is, they were to be judged out of the [two] Testaments according to what in them they had done or not done.1018 The books can be understood as the deeds of the righteous, in comparison with which the reprobate are condemned, as if they read, when the books are opened, about the good which they themselves chose not to do.1019

[20:13] And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and hell gave up their dead [that were in them] … Beyond any doubt, this took place before the dead were judged. Therefore [Scripture] recapitulated what it left out, and continues in sequence, saying:1020

And they were judged, each according to his deeds.

This signifies that bodies were gathered together from the earth, and souls from their several places. The good [souls are designated] by the word death, for they endure only the dissolution of the flesh, and not punishment in addition, while the evil souls [are designated] by the word hell.1021

It can also be understood literally to mean that all the bodies which wave has engulfed /517/ or monstrous beast devoured will be raised up again.

Tyconius explains it this way: The nations whom he shall find here alive, are the dead from the sea. 'And death and hell gave up their dead': these are the nations who are buried.1022 And when he said they were judged, every one according to their works, he shortly thereafter added how.1023

1017 Tyconius 7.27 (221-222): cf. Caesarius 270.24-27, 272.23-26 and, more remotely,

Beatus 12.1.4; Augustine, DCD 20.14 (724.33-35). Note that Bede says the world will be judged according to the two Testaments; in Tyconius, it is the Church which is judged.

1018 Tyconius 7.28 (222): cf. Caesarius 270.29-30; Beatus 12.1.7; Primasius 20.261-264, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.14 (724.43-47).

1019 Gregory, Mor. 24.16 (1199.65-68).

1020 Primasius 20.276-278; cf. Augustine, DCD 20.15 (725.53-56).

1021 Cf. Primasius 20.280-281, 288-293; cf. Augustine, DCD 20.15 (725.1-28).

1022 Tyconius 7.29 (222): cf. Beatus 12.1.11-12 and Caesarius 270.31–271.1. Both of these latter sources quote this passage without naming Tyconius: Vercruysse, 'Bède lecteur de Tyconius', p. 26.

1023 Bonner, Saint Bede, p. 11, claims that Bede is rejecting Tyconius's spiritual reading

BOOK tHREE

[20:14] And death and hell were sent into the pool of fire. [This is the second death.] He speaks of the devil and his followers, whom hell followed, seated, as was said above, on a pale horse.1024 For [John] repeats what he had already said, presenting it more clearly. 'And the devil, who seduced them, was thrown into the pool of fire and sulphur': here he states more plainly what there he had added in a somewhat obscure manner as concerning the beast and the false prophet as well.1025

[20:15] And whoever was not found written in the book of life [was sent into the pool of fire].

That is, whoever is not judged by God to be alive.1026 In my opinion, therefore, they speak more correctly who interpret the abovementioned books as the consciences of each individual, and their deeds made manifest. For the book of life is the infallible foreknowledge of God concerning those to whom eternal life will be given. They are written in it – that is, they are known in advance. With the judgement in which he saw the wicked condemned complete, there remains for [John] to speak concerning the good as well.1027

[21:1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone; …

What he has already said by way of anticipation – that he saw one seated upon a throne from whose face heaven and earth fled away (namely, when the ungodly were judged) – shall take place in this order. /519/ Then 'the form of this world will pass away' in a conflagration of heavenly fires, so that when heaven and earth have been changed into something better, the congruent quality of this double transformation may harmonize with the incorruptibility and immortality of the bodies of the saints. For then he says: and the sea is now no more.

Whether dried up by that extreme heat, or likewise changed into something better, I cannot readily say. For we read of a new heaven and a new earth to come, but not of a new sea. Unless perhaps – for prophetic rhetoric is wont of this verse and defending its literal meaning. However, Bede seems to regard Tyconius's interpretation as a legitimate complement to the literal meaning.

1024 Rev. 6:8; cf. Caesarius 271.2-3.

1025 Primasius 20.304-307, who is quoting Augustine, DCD 20.15 (726.40-45), alluding to Rev. 20:9-10.

1026 Cf. Caesarius 271.4-5; 272.33-34.

1027 Primasius 20.310-314, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.15-16 (726.44-2).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

to intermingle metaphors with direct speech – he signified by the word 'sea' the stormy life of this world, which then shall cease.1028

[21:2] And [I, John, saw] the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, … This city is said to 'come down out of heaven', for the grace with which God fashioned her is heavenly.1029 prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

But there is another Jerusalem, adorned not for her husband, but for an adulterer.1030

[21:3] [And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:] Behold the tabernacle of God with men; and he will dwell with them. [And they shall be his people; and God himself with them will be their God.] God himself will be the reward of eternal beatitude for the elect, which they will possess forever, because they are possessed by him.1031

[21.4] And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; … By God's gift, there shall appear such great and exalted radiance in this city, that no vestiges of old age will remain when heavenly incorruption shall raise bodies on high1032 and contemplation of the eternal King shall feed minds. /521/ and death shall be no more; nor will mourning, or crying, or sorrow be any more; for the former things are passed away. [[21.5] And he who sat upon the throne said: Behold, I make all things new.] Earlier on, he said that death had been thrown into the pool of fire.1033 Now

1028 The entire exegesis of v.1 is verbatim from Primasius 21.2-9, 11-19; cf. Augustine,

DCD 20.16 (726.7–727.34). The phrase 'The form of this world will pass away' is from 1 Cor.

7:31; cf. Bede's exegesis of Rev. 20:11.

1029 Primasius 21.26-28, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.17 (727.8-10). Cf. Bede, Act. Ap.

10.11 (46.28-29) which also associates the descent of the new Jerusalem with grace.

1030 No source or analogue has been discovered for this passage. It has overtones of Old

Testament prophetic denunciation of the sins of Jerusalem, but what Bede might have intended by it is obscure.

1031 Primasius 21.59-61.

1032 Primasius 21.33-36, quoting Augustine, DCD 20.17 (727.14-19).

1033 Rev. 20:14.

BOOK tHREE

the same statement can be taken to mean that when the holy city has been glorified in the final judgement, sorrow, weeping and mortality shall remain only in hell.

And he [who sat upon the throne] said to me: Write. For these words are most trustworthy and true. [21.6]

And he said to me: It is done … It behoves us to believe these things, not to explain them, particularly as [the Spirit] says that 'it is done' – in the past – so that nothing should remain to cause doubts concerning the future.1034

I am Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end. … Just as he testified this of himself at the beginning of the book, so it was necessary to repeat it here for the third time, that it might be believed that 'before me there was no god formed: and after me there shall be none', as Isaiah says.1035 And because this statement pertains to the end of the world, it can be understood that the one who consummates the world-age [saeculum] is the one who is called [its] Creator.

To him that thirsts I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely. [[21.7] He that will conquer will possess these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.]

He now sprinkles those believers who are on the road [with water] from this fountain, which in the home-land he will freely offer to those who overcome, that they may slake themselves. Both are freely given, for 'the grace of God is life everlasting1036in Jesus Christ our Lord'. 'And of his fullness we all have received; and grace for grace.'1037

[21:8] But the fearful and unbelieving, and the accursed and so forth [and murderers, and fornicators and sorcerers, and idolaters …] In order to caution us, [the Spirit] always mingles stern words with soothing ones. In the same way /523/ Psalm 144, while it intimates the grace of God's compassion, suddenly invokes his rigorous judgement, saying: The 1034 Primasius 21.44-46.

1035 Primasius 21.46-49, including quotation from Isa. 43:10. Christ identifies himself as Alpha and Omega in Rev. 1:8 and (in some versions of the text) 1:11; cf. 22:13. See n. 26 above.

1036 Primasius 21.50-51, 53-54, incorporating the beginning of a quotation from Rom.

6:23, which Bede completes.

1037 John 1:16; quoted in Primasius 21.87-88.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

Lord keeps all them that love him: but all the wicked he will destroy.1038 He associates cowards with those who doubt, because he who lacks confidence in the victor's prize, fears to engage in the peril of the contest. and all liars, their lot will be in the pool burning with fire [and sulphur, which is the second death.]

He shows that there are many kinds of lying, but the most dangerous and detestable kind is the one which sins against religion. He spoke of this above: they say they are Jews and are not. But they lie: for they are the synagogue of Satan.1039

XXXVII [21:9] And there came one of the seven angels who had the vials full of the seven last plagues, and spoke with me, [saying: …] The same preachers who inflict the seven-fold (that is, universal) plague on the wicked, also show future joys to the Church.1040

Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

He calls the Church bride and wife, for while she remains immaculate, she continually begets spiritual sons for God. Or else because being now betrothed to God, she shall then be led forth to her everlasting nuptials.1041

/525/ [21:10] And he took me up in the spirit to a great and high mountain; and he showed me the holy city

Jerusalem, … After the ruin of Babylon, the holy city which is the bride of the Lamb is seen established upon a mountain. For the stone which was cut out of a mountain without hands shattered the image of worldly glory, and it grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth.1042

1038 Ps. 144(145):20.

1039 Rev. 2:9. Bede reiterates these remarks about the many forms of lying in In Prov. 1

(55.105-110), drawing on Augustine De mendacio, and specifically accusing Donatists and Arians of lying 'against religion'.

1040 Compare to the exegesis of Rev. 15:1 and 16:1-2 above.

1041 On this passage as an illustration of Bede's attraction to the theme of the Church as both chaste bride and mother, see Congar, L'Ecclésiologie du haut moyen âge, pp. 80–81.

1042 Dan. 2:34-35.

BOOK tHREE

coming down out of heaven from God, [21.11] Having the glory of God … Then shall she appear to be even more beautiful, when, through the Spirit by which her Bridegroom is believed to have been conceived and generated, she shall fully deserve to carry the heavenly image.1043

And its light was like a precious stone, … The precious stone is Christ,1044 who said: And the glory which you have given me, I have given to them.1045 like jasper stone, even as crystal.

Like jasper, because of the radiance of her virtues; like crystal, because of the inner purity of her mind, and her unfeigned faith.1046

[21:12] And it had a great, high wall, … That is, an unassailable firmness of faith, hope and love.1047 The Lord can be understood as the great wall that protects the Church everywhere, of which Isaiah spoke: a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein1048 – that is, the protection of the Lord and the intercession of the saints who by teaching make a path for him into the hearts of the faithful.1049 having twelve gates, … These gates are the apostles who by their writings or their labour first opened the gate of the Church to the nations.1050 /527/ and at the gates, twelve angels … The teachers [doctores]: that is, those who follow the footsteps of the 1043 Primasius 21.88-90; on Christ's conception by the Spirit, cf. Matt. 1:18, Luke 1:35. '

…heavenly image': 1 Cor. 15:49.

1044 Tyconius 7.35 (223): cf. Caesarius 273.16-17; Beatus 12.2.31; (ps.-)Jerome,

Commemoratorium 226.16-17.

1045 John 17:22.

1046 1 Tim. 1:5.

1047 This would seem to be original with Bede, but cf. (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium

226.17-18, which interprets the wall as faith.

1048 'This can also be …therein': cf. Primasius 21.102-103, 105-108, who also quotes

Isa. 26:1.

1049 The prominent role Bede accords to teachers here and elsewhere seems to express his sense of the distinctive character of his own gifts, and of the value of teachers within the larger mission of the Church; see below, n. 1058.

1050 Primasius 21.112-114.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

apostles in the mystery of faith and the word.1051 and names were written, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

This signifies the memory of the ancient fathers that is grafted onto the hearts of preachers. Hence the High Priest, when he is about to enter the tabernacle, is commanded to bear a memorial of the fathers upon his breastplate.1052

[21:13] On the east, three gates; on the north, three gates; on the south, three gates; and on the west, three gates.

I think that this description of the gates, so ingenious, intends to show the mystery of the number twelve, in which is symbolized either the Apostles as a whole, or the perfection of the Church, for through her the faith of the Holy Trinity is proclaimed to the four-cornered world. 1053

[21:14] And the wall of the city had twelve foundations; and on them, the twelve names of the twelve apostles and of the Lamb.

The gates are the same as the 'foundations', and the city is the same as the 'the wall'.1054 The patriarchs can also be designated by the word foundations, who contain within themselves (that is, in allegorical fashion) the names of the apostles.1055 The city was founded by these men, although it is through the apostles, as if through gates, that it is opened more widely to the nations who are destined to believe. It should be noted that when foundations appears in the plural, it signifies the teachers or the virtues of 1051 Bede's allusion to the doctores …apostolorum uestigia …sequentes in his exegesis of the final part of this verse is echoed in his description of his own scholarly programme as 'following in the footsteps of the Fathers' in many of his later works: see Introduction, pp. 4,

41, 85.

1052 Exod. 28:29. Cf. De tab. 3 (108.598–109.633, esp. the reference to the 'memory of the fathers' at line 601).

1053 Tyconius 7.37 (224): cf. Caesarius 273.23-26, 276.29–277.1; Beatus 12.2.50.

1054 Caesarius 273.28-29.

1055 Whether Bede means this in general terms, or is alluding to some specific interpretation of the names of the patriarchs which would connect them to the names of the apostles, is not clear. He may have had in mind an alignment of the Patriarchs, Apostles and stones such as is found, for example, in the diagram illustrating the Book of Armagh (Dublin Trinity College

MS 52, fol. 170r), reproduced in Jennifer O'Reilly, 'The Library of Scripture: Views from Vivarium and Wearmouth-Jarrow', New Offerings, Ancient Treasures: Studies in Medieval Art for George Henderson, ed. Paul Binski and William Noel (Stroud: Sutton, 2001), p. 32, fig. 8.

BOOK tHREE

the Church; but in the singular it means the Lord, who is the foundation of foundations.1056

[21:15] And he who spoke with me had a measure made from a reed /529/ of gold [to measure the city and its gates and the wall.] Christ who is 'the wisdom of God', reaching 'from end to end mightily and sweetly ordering all things' measures the holy city. Because he constitutes 'all things in measure, and number, and weight', he distributes gifts of spiritual graces to each of the faithful.1057 It can also be taken to mean the teachers [doctores] of the Church, frail in body but celestial in mind, who scrutinize with acuity the merits of each person.1058

[21:16] And the city lies foursquare; [and its length is as great as its breadth …] The city is said to 'lie foursquare', and to be set out, in its dimensions, equal on every side, for it is not allowed to be marked by any inequality. For according to the Apostle, to be perfect is to be wise, to possess peace, and that is truly what it is to stand on a four-square solidity.1059

And he measured the city with the reed for twelve [thousand] stadia; … That is, he gazed upon the Church, made perfect in [its] faith and deeds, or else he made her to be so. For the perfection of the four principal virtues, raised up by the faith of the Holy Trinity, makes up the dignity of the Church,

1056 The phrase 'foundation of foundations' is found in both Gregory Mor. 28.13 (1406.35) and Augustine Enarrationes in Psalmos 86.3.19, ed. E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, CCSL 39

(Turnhout: Brepols, 1961), p. 1200; not included in Gryson's apparatus. It is repeated below in the discussion of the amethyst in Rev. 21.20. Cf. Primasius 21.143-146, 291.168-175. See also

Bede's In Lucam 2 (2035-2040), where the plural 'foundations' signifies the doctores and the singular 'foundation' Christ, the 'teacher of teachers and foundation of foundations'.

1057 Primasius 21.192-198, quoting 1 Cor. 1:24, Wisd. of Sol. 8:1 and 11:21(20). On Bede's interest in the figure of Wisdom, see Holder, 'The Feminine Christ in Bede's Biblical Commentaries', p. 110 and passim. Holder comments that the identification of Christ with Wisdom, which was with God before Creation (Prov. 8:22), was often invoked against the Arians, who demoted

Christ to the status of a creature. On the afterlife of this Christological-sapiential exegesis in the medieval iconography of Revelation, see Yves Christe, 'La cité de la Sagesse', Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 31 (1988): 29–35 and figs 1–14.

1058 Tyconius 7.39 (224): cf. Caesarius 273.30–274.1, 277.1-2; Beatus 12.2.53. However,

Bede adds his own details, namely that the verse refers specifically to doctores, and that their function is to scrutinize the merits of individuals.

1059 Primasius 21.201-204, alluding to 2 Cor. 13:11

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

as in the number twelve.1060 and its length and height and breadth are equal.

This is that solidity of unconquered truth by which the Church, supported from below by the length of faith, the breadth of charity and the height of hope, is not suffered to be 'carried about with every wind of doctrine'.1061 The perfect stability of the Church would not exist if one of these were missing.

[21:17] And he measured its wall, a hundred AND fortyfour /531/ cubits, … This sum contains the square of the number twelve, for twelve times twelve makes 144,1062 signifying that stable perfection of the holy city itself. the measure of men or OF a MaN,1063 which is [the measure] of an angel.

For the Church is made up of men who are collected together, and raised on high by the promises of Christ, she hopes for equality with the angels.1064

On the literal level, [John] signified that the angel appeared to him in the shape of a man.

[21:18] And its wall was constructed of jasper-stone; … This is what the apostle Peter urges: Be also built up as living stones, a spiritual house.1065 but the city itself pure gold, like clear glass.

The Church is portrayed as gold – she who is often described as adorned with golden candlesticks and vials for the sake of the worship of wisdom.1066

1060 The notion of twelve as the 'product' of faith and works will resurface in Bede's In Ez. 2 (443-448). Bede may have had in mind Gregory's identification of the four corners of the house of Job's sons with the cardinal virtues: Mor. 2.49 (105.12-17).

1061 Primasius 21.213-215, quoting Eph. 4:14. However, Bede embeds the interpretation of the dimensions as faith, hope and charity, which he apparently took from Rufinus's translation of Origen's In Genesim, 2.6, ed. W. A. Baehrens, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 29 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1920), 37.13-17.

1062 Cf. Primasius 21.215-217.

1063 The phrase 'or of men' is an insertion peculiar to Bede: cf. Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, p. 184.

1064 Primasius 21.219-221.

1065 Primasius 21.231-232, quoting 1 Pet. 2:5.

1066 Primasius 21.237-239. Tyconius 7.40 (224; cf. Caesarius 274.4-6, 277.3-4) interprets the candlestick and vials as the Church's faith.

BOOK tHREE

Glass refers to faith in the truth, because what is seen without is the same as what is within, and there is nothing counterfeited or concealed in the saints of the Church.1067 It can also refer to that time when the thoughts of each shall be openly declared to the other.1068

[21:19] And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone.

The different names of the stones indicate either the type or the order or the diversity of virtues by which the whole of the heavenly Jerusalem is built up.1069 For it is difficult for individuals to flower with all the virtues.

Indeed /533/ Isaiah, when he describes the adornment of that same city, says: Behold, I will lay your stones in order and will lay your foundations with sapphires.1070 And immediately, as if by way of explanation, he adds:

All your children shall be taught of the Lord.1071

The first foundation was jasper; …1072 There are many kinds of jasper. One is green and looks as if it were painted with flowers. The other is like emerald, but of an opaque colour, and people believe that all sorts of apparitions can be put to flight with it. Another glitters like snow or the foam of ocean waves mixed with blood, as it were.1073 Thus jasper indicates the greenness of faith that never withers,

1067 Tyconius 7.40 (223): cf. Caesarius 274.6-8, and, more freely, Primasius 21.243-244.

1068 Primasius 21.244-246; cf. Mark 4:22, Luke 8:17.

1069 Based on Tyconius 7.41 (224-225); cf. Primasius 21.268-272; Caesarius 274.13-15

(not in Gryson's apparatus, but cited in his apparatus to Tyconius).

1070 Isa. 54:11, quoted by Primasius 21.253-254.

1071 Isa. 54:13, quoted by Primasius 21.256-258.

1072 Bede's lapidary of the celestial city is an allegorical interpretation of the properties and origins of each of the twelve stones. No source or cognate for the allegory as a whole has been traced. As for the properties, the parallel passages from Solinus and Isidore given below do not account for all the elements of Bede's lore. Gryson rejects the arguments of Peter

Kitson that Bede used one or more Latin versions of Epiphanius's De duodecim gemmis: see

Peter Kitson, 'Lapidary Traditions in Anglo-Saxon England: Part 1, the background; the Old

English Lapidary', Anglo-Saxon England 7 (1978): 21. He nonetheless agrees with Kitson that there is probably some influence from glossaries. The names of the gemstones in Revelation were not familiar to an Anglo-Saxon audience, and hence they feature in early Latin–Latin and Latin–English glossaries: Kitson, 'Lapidary Traditions, Part 1', pp. 28–29 and 35 sqq. The bottom stratum of these glossaries was a compilation of glossae collectae composed in the last quarter of the seventh century, probably in Canterbury. The Irish De XII lapidibus also presents suggestive parallels: Gryson, Bede ed. Introduction, pp. 173–177.

1073 Jerome, In Is. 15.7 (1560.168-172). The phrase 'of a dense colour' is from Isidore,

Etym. 16.7.8.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

imbued with the sacrament of the Lord's Passion by the waters of baptism, and furnished in those who make progress by their merits for all the flowers of the spiritual graces. For whoever has this [faith] drives off groundless fears, [for] as blessed Peter the apostle warns, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour; resist him, steadfast in the faith. And he can say with the bride: My beloved is white and ruddy.1074 Hence it is fitting that here the fabric of the wall be made from this stone, and also that the bulwarks of the same city are furnished and adorned with it, according to Isaiah.1075 the second, sapphire; … Moses explained the colour along with the symbolic meaning of this stone,

/535/ for in his description of the appearance of God he said: under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven, when clear.1076

Ezekiel also says that the place in which the throne of God stands looks like a sapphire,1077and that the glory of the Lord resides in this colour, which bears a likeness to the supercelestial realm. Even so, he who is like this can say with the Apostle: But our conversation is in heaven.1078 [The sapphire] when it is struck by the sun, emits from itself a blazing flash.1079 For the mind of the saints, ever intent on heavenly things and daily renewed by the rays of the divine light, pursues eternal things with greater contrition and ardour, so to speak, and persuades others to seek after [them]. Now the fact that [sapphire] is said to be found in the Red Sea,1080 signifies that the minds of mortal men are sublimely raised on high by the Lord's passion and through the washing of holy baptism to the heavenly things they should anticipate. the third, a carchedonius …1081 1074 'For whoever …ruddy': Jerome, In Is. 15.7 (1561.178-179), altering Jerome's Vetus

Latina of Song of Sol. 5:10 to the Vulgate reading. Bede, however, intrudes the quotation from 1 Pet. 5:8.

1075 Isa. 54:12.

1076 Exod. 24:10

1077 Jerome, In Is. 15.7 (1560.159-162) referring to Ezek. 1:26.

1078 Phil. 3:20.

1079 De XII lap. 306, ed. Bayless and Lapidge, p. 166.

1080 Ibid. However, in DNR 42, Bede quotes Isidore's information that gemstones found in the Red Sea are red: see trans. by Kendall and Wallis, p. 96 and n. 212. Bede may not have noticed this discrepancy, or not seen it as a contradiction. Some ancient lapidary traditions, such as Damigeron, state that rubies or carbuncles are extracted from sapphires: E. Abel, Orphei

Lithica (Berlin: S. Calvary, 1881), pp. 174–175.

1081 Bede's lemma uses this word instead of the one found in the mainstream recension of

BOOK tHREE

Carchedonius shines with a sort of pale light, like the flame of a lamp;1082 it sparkles in the open air, but not indoors.1083 It points to those who, upheld by heavenly desire, nevertheless evade the notice of men and perform their fasting, almsgiving and prayers in secret.1084 But when they are bidden to appear in public in the service of doctrine or in some other matter that will benefit the saints, then /537/ they display the glory they bear within. [This stone] resists being carved, and is said to attract straws to itself if it is struck by the sun's rays, or warmed by being rubbed with the fingers.1085 This aptly corresponds to those people who refuse to allow anything to conquer their fortitude, but who associate those who are more frail with the light and warmth which they have by right. It is said of one of these: He was a burning and a shining light1086 – burning, that is, with love; shining in speech. They always replenish the light of their virtues with the oil of inward charity, lest it fail. The fact that chalcedony comes from the region of the Nasamones,1087 a province of Ethiopia, indicates that these people, under the burning fervour of love, are nonetheless counted unworthy, their lowly reputation being like a black skin. the fourth, an emerald.

The emerald is of a green so deep that it surpasses all verdant plants, leaves, and jewels, tinting green the air that reflects it round about. It also improves green wine and oil, as its nature permits. There are many types, but the more noble ones are Scythian; the Bactrian ones occupy the second rank, and the Egyptian, the third.1088 It thus signifies the souls who are ever flourishing in faith: the more they are tested by the hostility of the world (which the cold of Scythia symbolizes), the more they strive both to grasp in their mind the inheritance that cannot fade, /539/ reserved in heaven,1089 and to disseminate it to their neighbours by preaching. By the chalice of the Lord's passion and the fulness of inner charity bestowed by the Holy Spirit, they advance in the Vulgate, calceldonius ('chalcedony'). Carchedonius is a genuine Latin word, but calcedonius appears only in the Vulgate.

1082 Probably from an Anglo-Saxon lapidary glossary, related to the glossaries of the Epinal-Erfurt-Corpus-Leiden type; see Kitson, 'Lapidary Traditions, Part 1', pp. 36 and 43.

1083 De XII lap. 311, ed. Bayless and Lapidge, p. 166.

1084 Cf. Matt. 6:1-6.

1085 Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium 52.59-60, ed. Theodor Mommsen (Berlin:

Weidmann, 1895), p. 194.

1086 John 5:35.

1087 Isidore, Etym. 16.14.5.

1088 Isidore, Etym. 16.7.1-2.

1089 1 Pet. 1:4.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

their contempt of the world. The native earth of these stones matches them in a most delightfully fitting manner. It is rich land, but uninhabitable. For though it abounds with gold and gems, it is occupied by gryphons – birds of great ferocity,1090 or rather, wild flying beasts [ferae]. For they are quadrupeds with bodies like those of lions, but the head and wings of eagles.1091

The Arimaspi, who are remarkable for the single eye which they bear in the middle of their forehead,1092 fight with them to carry off these stones.1093

The greed of both the wild beasts who seize them and the Aramaspi who guard them is amazing.1094 The Psalmist drew nigh to this land abounding in the treasures of virtues, when he said: Lo, I went far off, flying away: and I abode in the wilderness;1095 that is, I have removed myself, fleeing the wanton spirits of this world. In this [land] he came upon beasts who opposed him, when he prayed, saying: Let deceitful lips be made dumb which speak iniquity against the just, with pride and abuse.1096 In this as well, he shows that he has found desirable treasures, since he follows this up in loving admiration with: O how great is the multitude of your sweetness,

O Lord, which you have hidden for them that fear you1097 and so forth, to the end of the psalm. Against winged creatures like these, panting to drag the seed of the divine word away from us, /541/ all the saints keep watch by heavenly desire with undivided attention – with the single eye of wonder, as it were – in order that they may be able to discover and unearth the jewel of faith and of the other virtues.1098 For the higher the virtue, the fewer are they who cultivate it, and the more dire the persecution they suffer at the hands of unclean spirits. These, like gryphons, earthly in their baseness of their deserts, but flying on high in their arrogant spirit, contend with ceaseless effort for spiritual riches – not to be able to possess them for their own

1090 Solinus 15.22, ed. Mommsen, p. 86.

1091 Cf. Isidore, Etym. 12.2.17.

1092 Cf. Pliny, HN 7.2.10. Bede may well have had access to Pliny's Book 7 through the florilegium that furnished many of his references to the early books of HN, though the only quotation from Book 7 found elsewhere in his oeuvre (DTR 37) is mediated through Augustine.

1093 Solinus 15.23, ed. Mommsen, p. 86.

1094 Pliny, HN 7.2.11; Pliny however says that it is the gryphons which guard the stones, and the Arimaspi that seize them.

1095 Ps. 54:8 (55:7).

1096 Ps. 30:19 (31:18).

1097 Ps. 30:20 (31:19).

1098 Bede seems to be fusing two allusions: to the parable of the treasure buried in the field, and to the parable of the merchant and the 'pearl of great price' (Matt. 13:44-45). Cf.

Bede, In Prov. 2 (10-14).

BOOK tHREE

use, but so that they can take them away from human beings. And because such exalted faith has been made known to the world through the Gospel, the emerald is fittingly placed in the fourth rank, because of the four books of the Gospel.

[21:20] The fifth, sardonyx; … This stone, deriving its white colour from the onyx and its red from the sardius, receives from both the name of sardonyx.1099 There are numerous varieties. One looks like red earth.1100 Another seems pied, like blood gleaming through a human finger-nail.1101 Another contains three colours: black on the bottom, white in the middle, and red on the top.1102 This stone may be compared to people who are ruddy in the passion of their body, white in the purity of their spirit, but contemptible to themselves in the humility of their minds, protesting with the Apostle that though /543/ our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.1103 And again: For I am not conscious to myself of anything. Yet am I not hereby justified.1104 And likewise the Psalmist: Although a man walk in the image of God – that is, in virtue of mind – yet shall he be disquieted in vain,1105 that is, by the infirmity of the flesh. Suffering also abides in the infirmity of the body, for those who kill the body cannot kill the soul,1106 and humility derives from the fragility of that body, as it is said: Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?1107 The sardonyx is appropriately inserted into the fifth foundation, for it is certain that our body is supported by the five senses. the sixth, sardius; … The sardius, which is the colour of blood throughout,1108 signifies the glory of the martyrs, of which it is said: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.1109 Appropriately, it is in the sixth place, since our Lord was both incarnate in the sixth age of the world, and crucified for the salvation of the whole world on the sixth day.

1099 Isidore, Etym. 16.8.4.

1100 Gregory, Mor. 18.75 (939.9-10).

1101 Isidore, Etym. 16.8.3.

1102 Isidore, Etym. 16.8.4.

1103 2 Cor. 4:16.

1104 1 Cor. 4:4.

1105 Ps. 38(39):7.

1106 Cf. Luke 12:4-5.

1107 Rom. 7:24.

1108 Anglo-Saxon lapidary glosses: see Kitson, 'Lapidary Traditions, Part 1', p. 36.

1109 Ps. 115(116):15.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

the seventh, chrysolite; … The stone chrysolite shines like gold, and has fiery sparks.1110 Its appearance symbolizes those who shine in the understanding of true and supernal wisdom, and who pour forth words of exhortation to their neighbour, or even signs of power, like sparks of fire. Arator says of them:

Love inhabits their mind and ardour warms their speech.1111

Because this happens only through the gift of spiritual grace, /545/ chrysolite is most appropriately in the seventh foundation. The grace of the Holy Spirit is often symbolized by the number seven, of whom it was said above: and from the seven spirits which are before his throne.1112 The fact that one can find a certain variety of this stone which is green and blue also agrees with this interpretation. Hence the Hebrews call it tharsis because it resembles the colour of the sea.1113 Greenness, indeed, refers to the integrity of faith, which is called the beginning of wisdom; and water [refers] allegorically to the Holy Spirit, as the Lord testifies, who says: He that believes in me, as the Scripture says: out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in him.1114 the eighth, beryl; … Beryl is like looking closely at water which has been struck by a ray of the sun, and which reflects back a beautiful red colour.1115 But it will not sparkle unless it is has been shaped into a hexagonal form by polishing;1116 its brightness is intensified by the reflection of the angles. It signifies men who are wise indeed in their natural endowments, but who shine even more with the light of supernal grace.1117 Solomon is our witness that water can

1110 Anglo-Saxon lapidary glosses: see Kitson, 'Lapidary Traditions, Part 1', p. 36.

1111 Arator, De actibus apostolorum 1.147 (19).

1112 Rev. 1:4.

1113 Cf. numerous passages in the works of Jerome, e.g. Commentariolus in Psalmos 47

(210.4-7); Epistolae 37.2 (287.13-288.4); In Dan. 3.10.6a (891.672-4); In Is. 1.63 (210.29-31).

Isidore, Etym. 16.15.2 also mentions the comparison to the colour of the sea.

1114 John 7:38-39.

1115 This anomalous fusion of red and green may be a clue that Bede had access to a translation of the second part of Epiphanius's De XII gemmis. In the first part, Epiphanius says that beryl is green, but in part 2, it is likened to Joseph's bloody coat; see Kitson, 'Lapidary

Traditions, Part 2', p. 83. Gryson doubts that Bede knew Epiphanius (Bede ed. Introduction, p.

175), but provides no alternative source.

1116 Isidore, Etym. 16.7.5; cf. De XII lap. 313, ed. Bayliss and Lapidge, p. 166.

1117 Kitson ('Lapidary Traditions, Part 2', pp. 83–84) again points to the second part of Epiphanius's De XII gemmis as Bede's source. Gryson rejects Kitson's arguments, but offers no alternative source. The final phrase re-appears in Bede, In Sam. 3 (993).

BOOK tHREE

signify depth of meaning; he says: Words from the mouth of a man are as deep water.1118 But neither human nor even divine wisdom arrives at perfect splendour unless the fulfilment of works be added to it. For the perfection of action is often designated in the number six, particularly because the creation of the world was completed in this number. /547/ The fact that it is said to scorch the hand of anyone who holds it,1119 makes it evident beyond doubt that whoever joins himself to a holy man is made anew in the fire of his good conduct. the ninth, a topaz; …1120 The topaz is a stone which is all the more expensive because it is hard to find. It is said to come in two colours, one of purest gold, the other shining with ethereal brightness – rosy richness and modest purity. It is close to the chrysoprase stone in size and colour. It glows especially bright when it is struck by a ray of the sun; it surpasses the precious radiance of all gems, and its sight provokes in a singular fashion the longing delight of the eyes. If you wish to polish it, you make it dull; if you leave it to its own nature, it shines.

Kings themselves regard it as an object of wonder, so think nothing amongst their treasures to be its equal. The supremely lovely quality of its nature is rightly compared to the beauty of the contemplative life. Holy kings, whose heart is in the hand of God,1121 justly prefer this to all the riches of good works and all the gems of virtue. Turning the keenness and attention of their pure mind towards it with the greatest intensity, /549/ they grasp more ardently in spirit the sweetness of the heavenly life, the more frequently they are struck by the splendour of supernal grace.1122 Therefore holy men have a golden colour from the flame of inward charity, and an ethereal colour

1118 Prov. 18:4.

1119 De XII lap. 313, ed. Bayless and Lapidge, p. 166.

1120 Cf. Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum 118.127 (1115-1116).

1121 Prov. 21:1.

1122 Bede's commendation of the contemplative life to kings, above every other virtue, may be compared to his account of Anglo-Saxon kings who renounced their thrones to embrace the monastic life or to go on pilgrimage to Rome (e.g. Sebbi in HE 4.11, Caedwalla in 5.7, Cenred in 5.13). Clare Stancliffe points out that this phenomenon of kings voluntarily abandoning their rule for the sake of the religious life is found almost exclusively in England, at least among the Germanic kingdoms. The practice is Irish in origin, and antedates and postdates the English manifestation. Stancliffe sees major differences between areas of Europe where conversion was carried out by indigenous clergy, who viewed Christian kingship in a positive light, and areas where conversion was carried out by monks, and came packaged in specifically monastic values: 'Kings who Opted Out', Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society, ed.

Patrick Wormald (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), pp. 154–176.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

from the contemplation of supernal sweetness. Often they are damaged by the turmoil of this present age, as if by the rasping of a file. It is not easy for the mind at one and the same time to be anxious for worldly affairs, tribulations, cares and sorrows, and to contemplate those joys of the heavenly life, at ease and in a tranquil frame of mind. Rather [the mind] proclaims with groans, My eye is troubled through indignation: I have grown old amongst all my enemies.1123 [Topaz] is said to be found on an island of the Thebaid called Topazion, from whence it derives its name.1124 This can be interpreted in two ways: those regions of the Egyptians abound particularly in flocks of monks; and whoever shall dwell in the vicinity of the Sun of justice1125 shall surely be coloured with the glow of ethereal light. And it is lovely that this stone is positioned where it is, for just as the perfection of the active life is in the eighth rank, so the perfection of speculative sweetness is in the ninth

– either because nine orders of angels, whose life it resembles, are found in Holy Scripture, or because it is one step removed from the /551/ denarius of eternal beatitude, if I may so express it (that is, from death). Sighing with this supreme desire, the prophet said: Therefore I have loved your commandments above gold and the topaz1126 – that is, I was delighted in the surpassingly sweet love of your commandments, above all the fame of deeds which win approval, and above every height of contemplative joy which is possible in this world. The first and greatest of these is You shall love the Lord your

God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind,1127 which most certainly cannot be fully accomplished save on the summit of the heavenly kingdom. the tenth, a chrysoprase; … Chrysoprase is green mixed with gold, taking on a sort of purple radiance with gold flecks scattered throughout. It comes from India.1128 It signifies those who deserve the verdure of the eternal fatherland by of the brightness of perfect charity, and who display it before others in the purple light of their martyrdom. These people, when they prefer eternal glory (for they despise this present life), follow the example of their Lord who appeared in 1123 Ps. 6:8(7).

1124 Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum 118.127 (1116.2352-2354).

1125 Mal. 4:2.

1126 Ps. 118(119):127.

1127 Matt. 22:38, 37.

1128 Isidore, Etym. 16.7.7; cf. Anglo-Saxon lapidary glosses (Kitson, 'Lapidary Traditions,

Part 1', p. 37). The detail concerning the 'purple radiance' comes from De XII lap. 312 (ed.

Bayless and Lapidge, p. 166).

BOOK tHREE

the flesh, and they display the brightness of their merits as though in India – that is, near the rising sun. And because /553/ they earnestly look forward to shining as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,1129 and to reigning together with their King, with whom they now suffer, they are rightly placed in the tenth position. The denarius with which the servants in the Lord's vineyard are rewarded1130 symbolizes the image of the eternal King which will be received when the Decalogue is fulfilled in every respect by the perfect love of God and neighbour – which cannot happen in the ninth stage.1131 the eleventh, a jacinth; … The jacinth is found in Ethiopia, and has a blue colour. The best [kind] is not transparent, nor dulled by density, but glows in a perfect mixture of both, and exhibits a softly purified lustre. It does not shine uniformly, but changes with the appearance of the sky. Under a calm sky it is bright and attractive; under a cloudy one, it grows dim and fades before the eyes.1132 It designates those souls which are forever consecrated to heavenly contemplation, and who approximate in some degree the angelic way of life, to the extent that this is permitted to mortals. They are bidden to keep their heart with every protection of discretion,1133 lest having had some experience of the sublimity of understanding they dare to seek what is too high for them and search into things above their ability1134 for it is the glory of the Lord to conceal the word,1135 that is, to philosophize concerning God or Christ the man with caution. [They are also to keep their heart] lest they fall back again through sloth to the frail beginnings of faith,1136 and the first rudiments of God's word.1137 But rather, let them advance along the King's highway, protected by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,1138 /555/ and changing their face with the heavens by suitably observing the time, let them say to those who look upon them: For, whether we be transported in 1129 Matt. 13:43.

1130 Matt. 20:1-16.

1131 Cf. Matt. 22:37-40.

1132 A fusion of Isidore, Etym. 16.9.3 with Solinus 30.32-33 (Mommsen, p. 136). The phrase 'bears a softly purified lustre' (et purificatum suauiter florem trahit) seems to be a misreading of Solinus's et purpurae fucatum suauiter florem trahit – 'and bears a lustre softly tinged with purple' (cf. Isidore: sed ex utroque temperamento lucet purpuraque refulgens).

1133 Cf. Prov. 4:23.

1134 Ecclus. 3:22.

1135 Prov. 25:2.

1136 Cf. Gal. 4:9.

1137 Heb. 5:12.

1138 2 Cor. 6:7; Num. 20:17, 21:22.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

mind, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for you.1139 Like the jacinth covered by a cloud [such a person] says: You are not constrained by us; but in your own bowels you are constrained.1140 And again: For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ; and him crucified.1141

Like [a jacinth] seen in a clear light, he says: Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect.1142 the twelfth, an amethyst.

The amethyst is purple with a violet colour intermixed, and something like the glow of a rose, gently emitting small flames. But as well, it has something in its purple which is not altogether fiery, but glows red, like wine.1143 The beauty of purple, then, signifies the state of the heavenly kingdom, while the rose and violet is the humble modesty of the saints and their precious death.

That is to say, their minds were raised up, first and foremost, to the highest things, even when to outward view they seemed to suffer despondency with patience, for in the midst of their trials they always remembered the Lord's promise: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.1144 These people spread the flame of charity not only amongst themselves, but even to their persecutors, /557/ imploring on bended knee:

Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.1145 And in the cup of suffering that must be drunk, they are instead made drunk by the perpetual recollection of that wine that cheers the heart of man,1146 and which the Lord has promised that he shall drink anew with his disciples in the kingdom of his Father.1147

In jasper, then, is the greenness of faith; in sapphire, the loftiness of celestial hope. In chalcedony the flame of interior charity is symbolized; in emerald, the bold confession of that same faith amidst adversities; in sardonyx, the humility of the saints amidst their virtues. In sardius is expressed the blood of the martyrs, worthy of reverence; in chrysolite, to be sure, spiritual preaching accompanied by miracles; in beryl, the perfect working of 1139 2 Cor. 5:13.

1140 2 Cor. 6:12.

1141 1 Cor. 2:2.

1142 1 Cor. 2:6.

1143 Isidore, Etym. 16.9.1. On this passage in connection to Bede's understanding of varieties of the colour purple, see Henderson, Vision and Image in Early Christian England, p. 130.

1144 Luke 12:32.

1145 Acts 7:59.

1146 Ps. 103(104):15.

1147 Matt. 26:29.

BOOK tHREE

preachers. In topaz, their ardent contemplation is demonstrated; then in chrysoprase, both the labour and the reward of the holy martyrs; in jacinth, the heavenly exaltation of the teachers [doctores] to things on high, and their humble descent to the human level for the sake of the weak. In amethyst is designated the continual memory of the heavenly kingdom in the spirit of the humble.

Each of these precious stones is assigned to a specific foundation; for although all the perfect ones on whom the city of our God is founded and adorned upon his holy mountain shine with the light of spiritual grace, [yet] to one by the Spirit is given the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, to another, faith in the same Spirit, and so on.1148 Its craftsman and builder is God,1149 who is the foundation of foundations,1150 and who has deigned to be made a high priest for our sake so that the sacrifice of his own blood /559/ might both cleanse and consecrate the ramparts of that city, that he might possess everything the Father has as his own. Hence it was commanded that these same stones should be upon the breast of the high priest, and that these should be inscribed with the names of the patriarchs, so that it might be revealed through a supremely beautiful symbol that all of the spiritual gifts which each of the saints receives singly and individually were also perfectly complete in the man Christ Jesus, the mediator between God and man.1151

Perhaps I may seem to have discussed the precious stones at greater length than was suitable for this summary style of commentary [commaticum interpretandi genus]. However, it was necessary carefully to explain their natures and native lands, and then more subtly to investigate their symbolic meaning, but also to follow their sequence and number. Considering the depth of this subject, it would seem to me that I have said very little, and that in a brief and condensed way. As a suppliant I beseech the reader to give thanks to God if he sees that I have travelled along the right path. But should he detect that it has turned out other than as I wished, let him pray with me that God may forgive my error.1152 But enough of this: let us look at what remains.

1148 Based on Tyconius 7.41 (225); cf. Caesarius 274.13-16 and 277.5-7. Bede fleshes out

Tyconius's allusion to 1 Cor. 12:8-9.

1149 Heb. 11:10.

1150 See exegesis on Rev. 21:14 above.

1151 1 Tim. 2:5.

1152 Bede's apology contains some echoes of the closing sentences of Augustine's DCD

22.30 (866.149-152).

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[21:21] And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, one for each [gate]; [and every several gate was of one single pearl …]

All the glory of the Head is referred to the body. And as the true light, which enlightens every man1153 has granted to his saints that they might be the light of the world,1154 so also, even though he is the pearl of great price which /561/ the wise merchant purchased, having sold all that he had, he nevertheless compares his followers to the brightness of pearls.1155

And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

He fashions the streets out of the same metals with which he had just said the city was adorned; for many live a more relaxed or lower way of life girded with the highest virtues within the Church, and they shine with purity of mind and with the radiance of [their] works.1156

[21:22] And I saw no temple in it; for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.

He says: Although I said that the city was constructed of stones, nonetheless I did not mean that the resting place of the saints is within a material building. For God himself is their sole light, and house, and rest.1157

[21:23] And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it; … Because the Church is not governed by the light or the elements of the world; rather, she is led through the darkness of the world by Christ the eternal Sun.1158 for the glory of God has illuminated it, [and the Lamb is its lamp.] In our homeland, we will rejoice in that very light by which we are led as we march along the way. Instructed by this same [light], we [now] distinguish between good and evil; then, beatified by him, we shall see only what is good.1159

1153 John 1:9.

1154 Matt. 5:14.

1155 Matt. 13:45; cf. Primasius 21.273-276.

1156 Cf. Primasius 21.277-283, 287-288, 291-292.

1157 Cf. Primasius 21.296-297, 299-303.

1158 Caesarius 274.24-26; cf. 277.13-15.

1159 Primasius 21.321-323.

BOOK tHREE

[21:24] And the nations shall walk by its light; … He signifies that one and the same Lamb is now a way for pilgrims, and will then be the life of citizens.1160 and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honour into it.

Here he calls spiritual men 'kings',1161 who confer all the riches of their virtues upon the Church in praises. /563/

[21:25] And its gates shall not be shut by day; for there will be no night there.

He relates that the light of the Lamb is perpetual, indeed, that he himself will serve as an everlasting lamp in that city, when night-time is abolished.

That the gates will not be shut is a sign of total security. There it is no longer said: 'Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation', but rather 'Be still and see that I am God'.1162

[21:26] And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

Because it is to be gathered together from all the nations.1163

[21:27] There shall not enter into it any thing that is defiled, [or that practices abomination or lies; but only they who are written in the book of life of the Lamb.]

He describes the Church of that time, when the good shall reign alone with Christ, the wicked having been separated from their midst.1164 But even now, no impure person or liar is within the Church, nor does one who hates her behold the light of the city of God, for darkness has blinded his eyes.

[22:1] And he showed me the river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb [through the middle of its street,]

In the river of life flowing through the midst of the city, the celebration of baptism is no longer signified; rather, the fruit of that sacrament is now

1160 Primasius 21.325-326.

1161 Primasius 21.328.

1162 Primasius 21.331-332, 336-339, quoting Matt. 26:41 (cf. Mark 14:38, Luke 22:46) and Ps. 45(46):11.

1163 Primasius 21.342-343.

1164 Primasius 21.345-347.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

revealed. For the Church now 'sows in the spirit' that it then may 'reap life everlasting' from the spirit.1165

[22:2] and on both sides of the river was the tree of life, … The tree of life is seen on either side of the fountain of life. For [the tree] imbues the saints with celestial fruit, whether you interpret it as the glory of the holy Cross,1166 or as the Lord Christ;1167 who was already revealed before his baptism /565/ in the Old Testament,1168 and who now is manifested through the mystery of baptism, For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.1169 Indeed, this tree which John described in the golden Jerusalem is the same one which Moses described as flowering in Paradise.1170 Solomon said it was a tree of life to them who lay hold on her.1171 I believe that this river was prefigured by the Jordan, on the far side of which Moses opened the precepts of salvation to the peoples, and within which Jesus opened the promised land. bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month; … By twelve months, he implies the entire span of life1172 – meaning, of course, that [life] of which it is said: And your years shall not fail.1173 And again:

And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath;1174 where the face of the Lord is present, there is eternal health, and the eternal food of life. It can also be understood in a straightforward way [to mean] that the Cross of Christ bears fruit through the teaching of the twelve apostles.1175 and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

If the fruit is taken to be the reward of blessed immortality, then the leaves are correctly understood as the perpetual song which turns out to be health

1165 Primasius 22.2-7, incorporating quotation from Gal. 6:8.

1166 Cf. Caesarius 275.15-18.

1167 Cf. exegesis of Rev. 2:7 above.

1168 Cf. (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 227.3.

1169 Acts 4:12.

1170 Gen. 2:9.

1171 Prov. 3:18.

1172 Primasius 22.14-15.

1173 Ps. 101(102):28.

1174 Isa. 66:23.

1175 (ps.-)Jerome, Commemoratorium 227.4; cf. Kelly, 'The Venerable Bede', p. 404.

BOOK tHREE

for those who sing in their already joyous destiny.1176 For the true cure of the nations is there, their complete redemption and their everlasting bliss.

[[22:.3] And there shall be nothing accursed any more; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.]

[22: 4] And they will see his face; … The vision of God is reserved for us as the reward of faith,1177 which Philip knew was the supreme good when he said: Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.1178 For it was necessary /567/ to teach with diligence that the saints will see and possess in reality what the living believe by faith.1179 and his name will be on their foreheads.

The steadfast confession of the holy Name now, in the midst of enemies, shall then redound to the glory of the victors in the [heavenly] homeland.

[22:5] And night will be no more; and they will not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will enlighten them; [and they shall reign for ever and ever.] The frailty of bodies shall need neither the rest [provided by] night, nor the light of fire when 'God will be all in all', who is 'the true light' and the eternal repose of the saints. If you apply an allegorical interpretation to these words, then neither the exhortation of the prophets nor the proclamation of the law – which now is said to be a lamp is a dark place – is necessary; for when all things are fulfilled, the perfected promise is attained in the contemplation of God.1180

XXXVIII [22:6] And he said to me: These words are most trustworthy and true; … He did not suspect John of lack of trust; rather, he was commending the truth of the vision to the whole Church, in which he knew there would be people small [in faith].1181

1176 Primasius 22.40-44.

1177 Primasius 22.77, quoting (with acknowledgement) Augustine, DCD 20.29 (857.41).

Bede normally names Augustine if Primasius does.

1178 John 14:8.

1179 Primasius 22.95-97.

1180 Primasius 22.99-108, including quotations from 1 Cor. 15:28 and John 1:9.

1181 Primasius 22.109-111.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

and the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel … He says: have no doubts concerning the person of the one who delivers the warning. For God himself, who is wont to imbue the spirits of prophets with heavenly vision, sent me to show you in advance the things which shall be. to show his servants the things which must shortly be done.

As I said, he taught that he had foreseen things which benefit everyone in general.1182 /569/ [22:7] [And behold, I come quickly.] Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. [22.8] And I, John, am he who has heard and seen these things.

What is meant is: I am blessed. For the blessed Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, interpreted these verses when he refuted the error of certain heresies that had arisen on account of this little book, and he transferred the meaning of this same prophecy, purged of every obscurity of carnal understanding, to the eternal and celestial promises.1183

[And after I had heard and seen,] I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. [[22.9] And he said to me: See that you do not do this;]

Either [John] did a second time what he had done once, and which being forbidden to do, he dared not repeat,1184 or else he is admitting that in a state of extreme bewilderment on account of the vision, he desired once again to adore [the angel].1185 for I am a fellow-servant with you and your breth ren the prophets [and those who keep the words of the prophecy of this book. Worship God.] Notice how frequently John is called a 'prophet' and this book a 'prophecy'.

For there is much in this book which accorded with the prophets not only in 1182 Primasius 22.113.

1183 Rufinus's Latin translation of Eusebius, HE 7.25.6 (693.11-17); cf. Jerome, In Is.

740-741. Bede is referring to Dionysius's attack on the millenarian heresy of Cerinthus.

Dionysius would have been a figure of interest for Bede because of his involvement in early

Paschal controversies, some of which are discussed by Eusebius/Rufinus immediately before the passage referred to here. See also Introduction, pp. 43–51.

1184 Cf. Rev. 19:10.

1185 Primasius 22.127-129.

BOOK tHREE

meaning, but also in words. How many verses from Isaiah, Zechariah, and the other prophets you can find here!

[22:10] [And he says to me:] do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand.

As the judgement which is to come is drawing near, it is necessary that the divine precepts, judgements and promises be revealed. By observing them, the meek shall obtain their reward; by neglecting them, the defiant shall incur punishment.1186 /571/ [22:11] He who harms, let him continue to harm; and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; [and he who is just, let him be justified still; and he who is holy, let him be sanctified still.] Here he shows the hidden, but righteous, judgements of God, by which evil men are allowed to go on to even worse [crimes]1187 – that is, to reach the ultimate iniquity so that a just judgement may result.1188 It is similar to this:

Either make the tree good and its fruit good; or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil.1189

[[22:12] Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his deeds.] [22:13] I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

By Alpha he indicates the godhead of the Word, and by Omega the humanity he assumed – a beginning without an end. This is attested by frequent repetition in this book, either to convey at frequent intervals the divinity and humanity of the single Christ, or else to prove that the whole Trinity is of a single nature, which is expressed through the prophet: 'Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none'.1190

[22:14] [Blessed are those that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb;] that they may have a right to the tree of life, … 1186 Primasius 22.142-144.

1187 Primasius 22.134-136. The slippery slope from lesser sins into greater ones is illustrated by the reference to Rev. 22:11 in Bede's Hom. 2.23 (351.74-86l, trans. Hurst, p. 232), where he discusses Herod's progress from incest with Herodias to the murder of John the Baptist.

1188 Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 7.9 (42.8-9).

1189 Matt. 12:33.

1190 Primasius 22.151-155, 157-158, quoting Isa. 43:10.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

He promises a reward worthy of white robes, that is, of an immaculate life, namely that it may come to gaze upon the Lord who is eternal life.1191

Blessed are the pure of heart; for they shall see God.1192 and may enter by the gates into the city.

They who keep the commandments of the Lord who says I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved; and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures – those /573/ pastures, to be sure, which are also promised here, namely of the tree of life – without doubt enter the Church by the doors. These are evidently the doors of righteousness, which the Psalmist asked to be opened for him.1193 But he that climbs up another way is a thief and a robber.1194 On the subject of these people, he adds here:

[22:15] outside are dogs and sorcerers, and the unchaste, and so forth [and murderers, and servers of idols, and every one who loves and makes a lie.] For all the savage ferocity of shameless men assaults the Church from the outside; but when the master of the house shall be gone in, and, with his saints having gone in to the marriage feast with him, shall have shut the door, then they will begin to stand outside and knock at the door.1195

[22:16] [I, Jesus, have sent my angel, to testify to you in the churches.] I am the root and offspring of David, … Here he expressed the two-fold nature of his person, for he who was David's maker according to his godhead, was made from the seed of David according to the flesh.1196 In the Gospel, the Lord put this question to the Jews, namely, how Christ can be the son of David when David in spirit calls him his Lord.1197 the bright and morning star.

Who, by appearing alive after the night of his passion, showed to the ages by word and example the light of resurrection and life. It was said to blessed

Job concerning him: Can you bring forth the day-star at its time?1198

1191 Cf. Primasius 22.217-219.

1192 Matt. 5:8.

1193 I am the door …: John 10:9. Open to me the gates of justice: Ps. 117(118):19. Both are quoted in this context by Primasius 22.231-232.

1194 John 10:1.

1195 Luke 13:25.

1196 Rom. 1:3.

1197 Matt. 22:42-45.

1198 Gregory, Mor. 29.75 (1487.1-2, 10-14), quoting Job 38:32.

BOOK tHREE

[22:17] And the Spirit and the bride say: Come … The Head and the body of the Church together exhort all the members to faith.1199 /575/ And let him who hears say: Come … Whoever has perceived the inner light of faith or charity in his mind, let him summon others to this [light].

[And he who is thirsty, let him come.] And he that wiLL, let him take the water of life, freely.

By saying, 'And he that will, let him take' he refers to free will in such a way that grace might immediately be proclaimed in what follows – 'the water of life, freely' – evidently without pre-existing merits.1200 For even to will is the gift of God.

[22:18] [For I testify to every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book:] If any one shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues written in this book.

[[22.19] And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his share of the book of life, and of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book.]

He says this because of those who falsify, and not because of those who in a straightforward manner explain what they understand1201 without mutilating the prophecy in any way.

[22:20] He that gives testimony of these things says:

Surely, I come quickly … Christ himself 'gives testimony' who announces to the Church that he is coming. The Church devoutly answers, after the fashion of the Canticle of Canticles, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus christ, which every day she cries out, praying: 'Your kingdom come'. And in the Psalm: I will sing, and I will understand in the unspotted way, when you shall come to me.1202 /577/

1199 Based on Tyconius 7.57 (228); cf. Caesarius 276.12, Primasius 22.248.

1200 Primasius 22.253-258.

1201 Tyconius 7.58 (228): cf. Caesarius 276.18-19; Beatus 12.5.33-34.

1202 Primasius 22.275-279, including quotation from Matt. 6:10, and part of the verse from Ps. 100(101):1-2. Note that Bede quotes the Psalm verse in full, and, unlike Primasius, identifies its source. The allusion to the Song of Solomon refers to the summons of the lover to the beloved, e.g. in 2:10, 5:1, 7:11. On Bede's treatment of this passage, see Introduction, p. 74.

BEDE: COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

[22:21] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Let the Pelagians go forth, trusting in their own virtue, and deprive themselves of the grace of God.1203 But when the Apostle Paul seeks help and says Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 1204 let John, mindful of his name,1205 answer and say: The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord.1206

And lest the Donatists flatter themselves that they alone have the gift of God,1207 let them hear how, when he commends the grace of God in his final farewell, so to speak,1208 he adds: be with you all. Amen.

And now that this labour, so great and so perilous, has come to an end, I humbly and sincerely implore those who consider this little work of mine to be worth reading or copying, that they will also remember to commend the author to the Lord, for I have not laboured for myself alone, but for them as well.1209 May I be rewarded by the offerings and prayers of those who have reaped the fruits of my efforts, and by their merits, may I see and taste of the Tree of Life, whose fragrance and whose good report I have, in some small measure, diffused upon them. Amen.

HERE ENDS, WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD, BOOK THREE OF THE

COMMENTARY ON THE REVELATION OF ST JOHN BY BEDE, THE

SERVANT OF CHRIST.

1203 Cf. Augustine, Contra adversarium legis et prophetarum 2.37 (127.1209-1211). The opening words Eant Pelagii echo a locution frequently found in Augustine and Gregory: see examples in Gryson's apparatus, p. 576.

1204 Rom. 7:24.

1205 John means 'grace (i.e. gift) of God'; see Jerome, Lib. int. 146.16-17, 155.19-20.

1206 Cf. Rom. 7:25.

1207 Augustine, De praedestinatione sanctorum ad Prosperum et Hilarianum 30, PL 44.

982.

1208 uale ultimum, a phrase borrowed from Gregory, Homeliae in Evangelia 37.9 (357.261262).

1209 Ecclus. 24:47(34), or 33:18(17).

↑ Back to top