We respond.
Ninth, Revelation 14[:3–4]: The virgins follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
§ 101. (IX) The ninth witness is taken from Rev. 14:3–4, where the virgins have this special reward: “No one could say that song except the 144,000. These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, and they follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”
We respond. (1) Not only celibates wear the name of Christ and of the heavenly Father written on their forehead, since all the servants of God are sealed in this way (Rev. 7:3). Not only the celibates of the earth are bought, but all the devout are purchased with an expensive price (1 Cor. 6:20). Not only the celibates but also devout married people will eventually stand in God’s sight before the throne of the Lamb. Therefore the song will be shared not only by the virgins but also by all the elect.
(2) The title “virgins” is metaphorical. According to the custom of Scripture, this expression denotes the truly devout whose conscience is not stained with idolatrous teaching, with impious worship, nor with sins against conscience, but who keep their faith in Christ chaste as they refrain from the adulterous embraces of the devil, the world, and the flesh. It is in this sense that the church of Israel is always called a virgin (Isa. 37:22; 47:1; Jer. 18:13; Amos 5:2). The kingdom of heaven is compared to virgins (Matt. 25:1). The apostle says, “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). And in this very chapter (Rev. 14:8), those who have fornicated spiritually with the whore of Babylon are contrasted to the virgins. It is in this way that Christ calls the scribes and Pharisees an “adulterous generation” (Matt 12:39), an expression used throughout the prophets.
(3) If, in this passage, the word “virgins” means the celibate, it would follow that all those who live in the married estate are defiled by women, for the law of opposites [lex oppositionis] demands this. “These are they who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.” But this is expressly denied as regards marriage in Heb. 13:4: “Marriage is honorable, and the bed, undefiled.”
** Bellarmine (De monach., bk. 2, ch. 6): “Calvin says that we call the marriage that God instituted ‘defilement.’ That is a lie; for we call what God instituted a ‘sacrament’ and ‘a great sacrament,’ as does Paul [Eph. 5:32], not ‘defilement.’ It is concupiscence and the disobedience of our members, something which God has not instituted and without which, nevertheless, marriage is not consummated, which we call defilement and a sickness. It is not sin, but it is born of sin.” **
(4) As Chemnitz says (Loci, part 2, p. 507), we will not argue if along with Augustine and the other ancients anyone wanted to assign this passage to the prerogative of the gift of virginity, provided that this not be done by insulting marriage and the merit of eternal life not be fabricated from it.
Bellarmine counters this explanation of ours as follows: “The virgins were very few in comparison with that number of the saints, which could not be numbered (Rev. 7[:9]). Therefore they must be understood to be celibates.”
We respond.
** Note that in Revelation 7 the same number is used to signify the entire church. **
The definite number is used for an indefinite number in Scripture’s usual way of speaking. We shall cite the words of Fransciscus Lambertus, who comments on this passage (in his treatise De sacro conjugio, pos. 5) as follows:
However, the aforementioned [virgins] must be understood [rightly]: we know, first of all, that Revelation is filled with mysteries. The things which are at last spoken of just these are surely to be understood about all believers. They have only this in particular: that they alone sing the great song and that they have not defiled themselves with women. But who has the special knowledge of who these people are? For they are known to God alone and to those to whom He deigns to reveal them. Moreover, the song is undoubtedly a praise of Christ. The better they sing it and, while there is need, the more perfectly they sing it, the more do they understand the glory of Christ. Therefore when all the faithful at the right time declare the glory of Christ just as they received it, they are singing the new song. But if this is the way it is, does anything unique appear to have been given to the aforementioned? Therefore what will be the new song? Surely it will be whatever is outstanding and new with respect to the others. While the Holy Spirit works in them, they sing and declare Christ’s words better than the rest and with their heart. For these are the 144,000 in whom the Holy Spirit expresses the image of Christ more fully. That is, they imitate Christ better than the others; they have reached a fuller knowledge of Him; and, as a result, they tell His marvelous deeds with greater authority. They also have this gift from God: that they do not defile themselves with women, for they are “virgins.” To be a virgin is not to be defiled with the other sex. But a person is defiled not only by an external act but also with the wicked lust of his mind, as Christ teaches (Matt. 5[:27–28]). But not all who desire to procreate or who serve such procreation are defiled, but only those who desire it or do it contrary to God’s command. Otherwise the marriage bed would never be undefiled. Undoubtedly very many married people have been undefiled, whose bed had been made unstained by the Spirit of God, etc. Finally, though very many have not defiled their marriage bed, nevertheless it is at times defiled. For God gives to some people that they never desire anything other than that which befits the honor of marriage. Their marriage bed is always undefiled. But the bed of the rest is not at all undefiled, even though they are married. Furthermore, He also gives to some the gift of perpetual virginity so that they never live in lust for the other sex. We believe that these 144,000 are like that. We also do not deny that they are understood to be those who have never violated the chastity of marriage.
Those are the words of Lambertus, about which we permit the reader free judgment. In the Roman Church they read this Gospel pericope on the Festival of the Innocent Children who were killed by Herod,3 since those who follow the Lamb are called “the firstfruits for God and for the Lamb” [Rev. 14:4].