By Fr. Anthony Perkins
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St. Luke 8:5-15. In today's homily, Fr. Anthony speaks about how a marriage should function in an Orthodox context and how that translates to our life in the Church. Enjoy the show!
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Here's the homily I planned on giving before I called an audible.
Homily Notes: Tending the Garden of our Souls St. Luke 8:5-15: The Gospel of the Sower
“Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride? Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride? Have you rejected Satan and all his works and all his pomp and all his pride?”
“Have you accepted Christ? Have you accepted Christ? Have you accepted Christ?”
Our affirmation of these questions before our baptism, the sacramental participation that followed, and the fact that we are here today means that we are Christians. We have rejected the way of the world – which is ruled by Satan – and have become part of the New Humanity that is preparing to inherit the New World; a world that is uncorrupted by Satan and the sins of the Old Humanity.
To move away from eschatological and theological terms into the beautiful metaphors Christ gave us in today’s parable: the seed of perfection (Christ Himself!) has been planted in our souls.
A seed is a miraculous thing; it contains all the information needed for the growing of a perfect plant. The DNA is all there. A wheat seed has everything needed to grow up to be a perfect stalk of wheat. More amazingly, a small acorn can grow into an enormous tree. The seed of Christ that has been planted in our souls is jut like that: we have been given everything we need – all the information – to grow into perfect men and women, into saints, into little Christ’s… to grow into the kind of peaceful, loving, and productive humans we were conceived and born to become. The perfect seed is within our souls.
But is that enough? We have all planted many seeds in our lifetime. Good seeds. Good soil. And yet we know that if we are not careful, we will still end up with a terrible harvest of weeds and brambles.
Why? How does this happen?
We live in a world that is full of loose spores. The winds are full of the world’s little seeds. They, too, carry all the potential of full growth within themselves. At some point, some of these spores are bound to find their way into our gardens … and into the soil of our souls.
The corruption of our gardens may begin through inattention – a lack of what we call “nepsis” – but that doesn’t explain why we end up with a bumper crop of thistles and thorns, leaving the seed we originally planted weak or even completely dead. How did it happen? It certainly wasn’t the seed. And it wasn’t just that we weren’t paying attention – we always notice when something has changed in our gardens and in our lives.
It happened because we didn’t bother with the difficult work of weeding.
Weeding is such a judgmental term – it assumes a discernment that we have all but forgotten. It requires, for instance, the realization, that Church on Sunday is more important than sports or sleeping in; that Feast Days are even more worthy ways to spend vacation days than trips to the beach; that spending a few minutes in prayer is worth the sacrifice of a few minutes of facebook or television; and that chastity is better in every respect than the transitory joy of serial monogamy, pornography, and adultery.
New gardeners can’t tell a beautiful weed from beanstalk; they need to learn. We also need to learn. We need to realize
1. That there are such things as weeds;
2. That they are dangerous threats to our souls, our families, and our communities; and
3. That it is our responsibility as human beings (God’s imagers on this earth; the New Humans!) to pull them out.
Terrible and noxious things have made their way into our souls. We don’t like to call them weeds because some of them are pretty and it sounds so judgmental. But as Christ says, you know a plant by its fruit;vand the plants of this world may look nice for a while, but their fruit is death and damnation (see Luke 6:44).
The Tree of the Cross is the plant that rises from the well-tended garden of the Christian soul, and its fruit is eternal life.
Fr. Anthony speaks about discernment, the perils of pride in the priesthood, and CS Lewis’ The Abolition of Man.
Revelation, Session Four Christ the Savior, Anderson SC Fr. Anthony Perkins
Sources:
The translation of the Apocalypse is from the Orthodox Study Bible.
Lawrence R. Farley, The Apocalypse of St. John: A Revelation of Love and Power, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2011),
Bishop Averky, The Epistles and the Apocalypse (Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, Volume III. (Holy Trinity Seminary Press, 2018).
Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse, ed. David G. Hunter, trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, vol. 123, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011).
Jack Norman Sparks, The Orthodox Study Bible: Notes (Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1712.
Venerable Bede, The Explanation of the Apocalypse, trans. Edward Marshall (Oxford: James Parker and Co., 1878).
William C. Weinrich, ed., Revelation, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005).
Review
Introduction and Blessing
1:1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John.
2. Who bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. [speaking of the Gospel of St. John]
3. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Greeting to the Seven Churches
4. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
5. and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
6. and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever. Amen. (OSB)
7. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
New Material
8. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord (God), who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Andrew of Caesarea. Christ is shown here both as God and as the Ruler of all things, both beginningless and at the same time endless, existing now and existing before and having no end, since he is coeternal with the Father, and on account of this he will render to each one the wages of deeds done. Ps 62(61):12; Prv 24:12; Wis 16:14; Rom 2:6; 1 Cor 5:10
St. Bede. Who is. He had said this same thing of the Father, for God the Father came, as He also is to come, in the Son.
St. Augustine. The Lord himself said plainly in the Apocalypse, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first”—before whom is nobody—“the last”—after whom is nobody; he precedes all things and sets a term to all things. Do you want to gaze upon him as the first? “All things were made through him.”49 Do you seek him as the last? “For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified.” In order for you to live at some time or other, you had him as your creator. In order for you to live always, you have him as your redeemer.
9. I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
OSB. Patmos: A small rocky island 40 miles off the western coast of modern Turkey, fifty miles south of Ephesus, to which the Romans exiled criminals. John’s preaching must have been considered a seditious threat to the public interest if he was indeed a prisoner there.
Logos. According to a tradition preserved by Irenaeus, Eusebius, Jerome and others, John, the author of Revelation, was exiled there in the 14th year of the reign of Domitian and subsequently released to Ephesus under Nerva (96 ad).
St. Andrew of Caesarea. “Inasmuch as your brother,” he says, “being also a co-participant in the tribulations on account of Christ, I naturally have acquired trustworthiness among you. Being condemned to live on the island of Patmos on account of the witness of Jesus, I will announce to you the mysteries seen by me on it.”
10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
OSB. In the Spirit may mean John received the revelation in a visionary ecstasy (see Ezk 3:12 - Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.), but more probably that he was in the worship (“in Spirit and in truth”) of the Lord. The Lord’s Day is the earliest reference to the Christian name for Sunday. The Didache and St. Ignatius of Antioch show this name was used very early for the day when Christians gathered to celebrate the Resurrection in the Holy Eucharist. As a fulfillment of the first day of the week of the old creation, Sunday becomes the “eighth day,” the “first day of the new creation.” The term “eighth day” is seen in 2En 33:1 (“On the eighth day I likewise appointed, so that the 8th day might be the 1st, the first-created of my week, and that it should revolve in the revolution of 7000; ⟨|so that the 8000|⟩ might be in the beginning of a time not reckoned and unending, neither years, nor months, nor weeks, nor days, nor hours ⟨like the first day of the week, so also that the eighth day of the week might return continually”⟩. and inaugurates the first day of the timeless age to come. The loud voice, as of a trumpet is a traditional, eschatological, apocalyptic introduction describing an appearance of the Lord (see Ex 19:16, 19; Mt 24:31; 1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:16).
Andrew of Caesarea. Having been possessed by the Holy Spirit and having a spiritual ear on the Lord’s day, also would have been honored by him on account of the resurrection, he heard a voice that seemed like a trumpet because of the loud sound—“the sound of their voice went out to all the earth”—declaring the beginninglessness and endlessness of God signified by the Alpha and Omega. By it he was commanded to send out his visions to the seven churches, because of the aforementioned number seven applying to the Sabbath period of the future age. For this reason also the great Irenaeus had written that the seven heavens and seven angels leading the rest of them had been created by God first.
11. saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.” And, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.
OSB. The glorified Christ introduces himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, thus identifying Himself with God the Father (v. 8; 22:13). His position amidst the seven lampstands signifies His presence in the Church (see Mt 5:14)
St. Bede. Seven Churches. The Church of Christ was not at the time in these places alone, but all fulness is comprised in the number seven. Asia, which is interpreted elevation, denotes the proud exaltation of the world in which the Church is sojourning, and, as is the method of the divine mystery, the genus is contained in the species. For the Apostle Paul also writes to seven churches, but not to the same as St. John. And although these seven churches are a sevenfold figure of the whole Church, still the things which he blames, or praises, came to pass in them one by one.
Apringius of Beja (Latin Father of the 6th Century). Ephesus means “my will” or “my plan.” He wills that we know that the whole reality of our faith and the dignity of the catholic church is not to be ascribed to human merit, but they are the will of God and the disposition of the divine purpose. Smyrna means “their song.” And what else is the song of the perfect if not the celestial doctrine and the preaching of the gospel and the advance of the Christian religion, or the melodious confession of the catholic church? Pergamum means “to him who divides their horns.” This refers either to the insolence of the powers of the air, or to the arrogance of the heretics. And he teaches that the pride of the powers is always to be separated and divided from the congregation of the church, for the horns are either power or arrogance. He writes to Thyatira, that is “enlightened.” This signifies that, after the expulsion of heretical pride and after the defeat of temptations from the powers of the air, the holy church is deserving of the light of righteousness. Sardis means the “beginning of beauty.” The church is seized by the sun of righteousness and is illumined by the light of truth, so that she might have the beginning of beauty, the Lord Jesus Christ, and might always shine in perpetual light. Philadelphia means “preserving devotion to the Lord.” After possessing the sun of righteousness, after the illumination of holiness, after the comeliness of holy beauty, the church rightly is devoted to the Lord and preserves herself by an inviolable observation of devotion. Laodicea means either “a tribe beloved of the Lord,” or, as some would have it, “a birth is expected.” Both are meaningful, for she who has merited the beauty of faith and the sun of righteousness and knows that through faith the Lord cleaves to her, might also be a tribe whom the Lord loves, who is both loved by the Lord and preserved by the Lord. Furthermore, the church might well await her own birth, either the regeneration of baptism or the glory of the resurrection, whenever she preserves herself by humility and patience.
Pulpit Commentary (BibleHub). [This] is just the order in which St. John would visit the Churches in making an apostolic circuit as metropolitan. With the exception of what is told us in these chapters, the history of the Churches of Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis in the apostolic or sub-apostolic age is quite unknown.
12-13. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
St. Bede. Here the figure of the Church is beautifully represented, as holding forth the light of divine love in the brightness of a chaste breast, according to that which the Lord saith, “Let your loins be girt, and your lamps burning.” And he denotes its perfection within and without by the two parts of the number seven; and the individual members of it, consisting of the four qualities of the body, “love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength.” 13. Son of Man. He means that he is like the Son of man when He had overcome death, and had ascended into heaven. For “Although we knew Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we Him no more.” And it is well said, “in the midst,” for “All,” he saysl, “who are round about Him shall offer gifts.” garment. “Poderis,” which is called in Latin, “tunica talaris,” and is a sacerdotal vestment, shews the priesthood of Christ, by which He offered Himself for us, as a victim to the Father, upon the altar of the cross. girdle. By the “paps” he here means the two Testaments, with which He feeds the body of the saints in communion with Himself. For the golden girdle is the choir of saints, which cleaves to the Lord in harmonious love, and embraces the Testaments, “keeping,” as the Apostle says, “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Andrew of Caesarea. That the voice was not sensory he signifies saying, I turned, not to hear it, but to see the voice, for spiritual hearing and seeing are the same. I turned, he says, and I saw seven lampstands—which he understood as representing the churches—and in their midst Christ, resembling a man—because he is also God and not a mere man—clothed in a long garment as a high priest of the things above, “according to the order of Melchizedek.” A golden belt was wrapped around him, not on the hip as other men in the era of hedonisms—the divine flesh is inaccessible to these —but on the chest by the breasts also how the boundless and righteous divine anger is restrained by love for humankind. The truth is shown in the girding of the Master’s breasts, that is, the two Testaments, through which the faithful are nourished. The belt is gold on account of honor, purity, and genuineness.
St. Jerome. In the law, John had a leather girdle because the Jews thought that to sin in act was the only sin.… In the Apocalypse of John, our Lord Jesus, who is seen in the middle of the seven lampstands, also wore a girdle, a golden girdle, not about his loins but about the breasts. The law is girdled about the loins, but Christ, that is, the gospel and the fortitude of the monks, binds not only wanton passion but also mind and heart. In the gospel, one is not even supposed to think anything evil; in the law, the fornicator is accused for judgment.… “It is written,” he says, “in the law, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ” This is the leather girdle clinging about the loins. “I say to you, anyone who even looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This is the golden girdle that is wrapped around the mind and heart.
OSB. One like the Son of Man recalls Daniel’s messianic figure (Dan 7:13—repeated by Stephen at his martyrdom, Acts 7:56). Christ called Himself Son of Man (see especially Mt 24:30ff.), for He is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. Additional parallels may be seen in both the Old and New Testaments (Dan 10:6; Mt 17:2; Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12). We also see Him vested in high-priestly garments (see Ex 28:4; 29:5; Lv 16:4; WSol 18:24; Zec 3:4, 5). The gold with which He is girded is both royal (1Mc 10:89) and priestly.
14-16. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. [17a. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.]
OSB. Further, Christ is here described as God, His hair (v. 14) being that of Daniel’s vision of God as the “Ancient of Days” (7:9; see also 1En 46:1). His eyes signify knowledge; His feet (v. 15), permanence and stability; His voice, authority or teaching; His right hand (v. 16), power; His two-edged sword, complete discernment. This imagery continues throughout Revelation to affirm the preexistence and eternal divinity of the Son of Man (see also Jn 1:1–18). Thus, in Christ man (v. 14) and God (vv. 15, 16) are united. 1:15 Dan 2:31–44 indicates this mysterious metal foundation not only provides stability but has the ability to forcibly crush all opposition as well. These images are contrasted with the feet of clay found in Dan 2:33, 43: the kingdoms of this world are not permanent, nor ultimately triumphant. 1:16 The Lord holds the stars that represent the seven churches (1:20), and hence, the Church. For Christ is Lord of the Church. In His just judgment, the sword He wields is the Word of God, which cuts effortlessly to the very marrow and heart of humanity (see 2:16; 18:15; Is 11:4; 49:2; WSol 18:15; Eph 6:17; 2Th 2:9; Heb 4:12). The brilliance of His face recalls the Uncreated Light John saw radiating from the Savior at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.
St. Bede. 14. white. The antiquity and eternity of majesty are represented by whiteness on the head, to which all the chief ones adhere, as hairs, who, because of the sheep which are to be on the right hand are white, like wool, and because of the innumerable multitude of the white-robed and the elect, who come forth from heaven, are glistering like snow.
eyes. The eyes of the Lord are preachers, who, with spiritual fire, bring light to the faithful, and to the unbelieving a consuming flame. 15. feet. By the “fiery feet” he means the Church of the last time, which is to be searched and proved by severe afflictions. For orichalcum is brass, which, by much fire and various ingredients, is brought to the colour of gold. Another translation, which renders it, “like orichalcum of Lebanon,” signifies that in Judæa, of which Lebanon is a mountain, the Church will be persecuted, and especially at the last. The temple also frequently received the name of Lebanon, as there is said to ito, “Open, O Lebanon, thy gates, and let the fire devour thy cedars.” voice. The voice of confession, and preaching, and praise does not resound in Judæa alone, but among many peoples. 16. right hand. In the right hand of Christ is the spiritual Church. “On Thy right hand,” he says, “stood the queen in a vesture of gold.” And as it stands on His right hand, He saithq, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom.” mouth. He, the Judge of all things visible and invisible, “after He has killed, has power to cast into hell fire.”
countenance. Such as the Lord appeared on the Mount, will He appear after the judgment to all the saints, for at the judgment the ungodly will behold Him Whom they pierced. But all this appearance of the Son of Man belongs also to the Church, for He Himself was made the Christ in the same nature with it, and He gives to it a sacerdotal dignity and a judicial power, and to “shine as the sun in the kingdom of His Father.”
Andrew of Caesarea. 1:14. His head and his hair were white as white wool, as snow, and his eyes as a flame of fire.
For even though he is recent amidst us, nonetheless he is ancient; rather, he is before time. His white hair is a symbol of this. And his eyes are as a flame of fire, on the one hand, illuminating those who are holy and, on the other hand, burning the sacrilegious.
1:15a. And his feet were like glowing brass, red-hot as in a furnace. [21]
The divine Gregory also understood that the feet meant the divine condescension through the flesh. For his feet by treading on the divinity achieved our salvation. The feet are also the foundations of the Church, like glowing brass, which physicians say is a sweet-smelling incense, which they call masculine incense. Or otherwise: On the one hand, meaning the human nature by the glowing brass, and on the other hand the divine nature by the incense, through both of which is also shown the sweetness of the faith and the unconfused union . Or the fine brass signifies the beautiful melody of the gospel proclamation, and the incense is the return of the nations by which the bride is summoned.33 And the feet of Christ are also the apostles, who have been tested by fire in the furnace of trials in imitation of their Teacher.35
1:15b. And his voice like the sound of many waters.
Naturally. His voice is in common with that of the Spirit, from which “rivers of living water flowed from the belly” of the faithful, and it made a penetrating sound over all the earth.
1:16. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and coming out from his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword, and his appearance as the sun shines in its power. [22]
Further down he says that the seven stars are the seven angels of the churches. The sharp, double-edged sword means his decision against the wicked, “sharper than any two-edged sword,” or the sword of the Spirit circumcising our inner man.38 Like the sun his face shines, not in a splendor to the senses, but to the intellect. For he is the “sun of righteousness,” shining with his own power and authority, not like the sensory sun, which as a created object by God-given power and divine command.
2 Corinthians 4: 6-15. What is the light that God brought into the world? What did it do for the world? For mankind? The light is both the revelation itself and the very thing that grants the ability for it to be revealed. The revelation itself is the logic, beauty, and love that is the world’s foundation and driving law. And it must be admitted that such an underlying order is necessary for revelation: nothing intelligible can be revealed and understood if it has no logic or meaning. Chaos cannot be revealed, only endured: there is no sense to it. But in addition to creating the thing that would be revealed, God was also allowing for the possibility of its revelation: light was given so that man might see logic, beauty, and love and through this to know his Creator. Enjoy the show!
In this lecture, Fr Anthony further explores the role of beauty in music and iconography especially as it relates to the culture or "spirit" of a people. He reviews the following articles:
https://orthodoxartsjournal.org/the-idea-of-canonicity-in-orthodox-liturgical-art/ https://orthodoxartsjournal.org/the-recovery-of-the-arts/ Enjoy the show!Revelation, Session Three Christ the Savior, Anderson SC Fr. Anthony Perkins
We also went over: https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/tremors_of_doub
Sources:
The translation of the Apocalypse is from the Orthodox Study Bible.
Lawrence R. Farley, The Apocalypse of St. John: A Revelation of Love and Power, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2011),
Bishop Averky, The Epistles and the Apocalypse (Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, Volume III. (Holy Trinity Seminary Press, 2018).
Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse, ed. David G. Hunter, trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, vol. 123, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011).
Jack Norman Sparks, The Orthodox Study Bible: Notes (Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1712.
Venerable Bede, The Explanation of the Apocalypse, trans. Edward Marshall (Oxford: James Parker and Co., 1878).
William C. Weinrich, ed., Revelation, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005).
Correction from Last Week
Revelation was removed from active use because it was being used to support the Marcionists, not the Gnostics [or Montanism as I said in the class!]. Lord have mercy, my brain is too small!
Review of Last Week
1:1-3. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John. Who bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
New Stuff
1:4 - 6. (4) John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, (5) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, (6) and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever. Amen. (OSB)
Orthodox Study Bible Notes
1:4 Church tradition maintains St. John dwelt and was bishop in Ephesus, in an area where the seven churches were located along a major roadway. The number seven signifies fullness, suggesting the entire Church is also in view.
The doxology is Trinitarian, involving the Father (vv. 4, 6), the Spirit (v. 4), and the Son (vv. 5, 6). This initial greeting (lit., “the Existing, the Was, and the Coming”) may express the Father, the one who is (Ex 3:14); the Son, who was (Jn 1:1); and the Holy Spirit, who is to come (Acts 2) at Pentecost and shall always be present. Or it may denote the character of the Holy One, who is eternally present and exercises lordship throughout history (see Heb 13:8 – Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow). God reveals the meaning of the present in light of the past and the age to come. This title may be a paraphrase of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (“I Am”), of Ex 3:14.
Seven is the number of fullness or completion. The seven Spirits of God most likely refers to the Holy Spirit and His several gifts, as this phrase is included in the blessing with the Father and the Son. Alternately the term could refer to the seven archangels who, according to Jewish tradition, stand before the throne of God (Tb 12:15; see also 1En 20:1–8; 90:21, 22; TLev 8:2; “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.”).
1:5 Jesus Christ is presented as the Risen Savior, Lord of all (see Zec 12:10), giving hope to the early Christians that the Church will not always be dominated by a cruel state. Instead of washed, many Greek texts read “freed.” The term witness (Gr. martys), used only here and in 3:14 in the entire NT, refers to Christ, the authentic witness of all divine revelation; all that God has revealed is summed up in His life, witness, Passion, Resurrection, and exaltation. He has inaugurated the new age, for He is firstborn from the dead in His humanity and has achieved a universal sovereignty by His death, Resurrection, and revelation of His Kingdom for the world’s salvation.
1:6 Those joined to the body of Christ in baptism comprise the messianic royal priesthood promised of old (see Ex 19:5, 6; Is 61:6; 1Pt 2:9; and the Anaphora of the Liturgy of St. Basil). This priestly ministry is to offer the world back to God in a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving—eucharistically—as in the Orthodox Church’s Divine Liturgy. The universe itself thus becomes hallowed, transfigured, and sacramental. Amen is Semitic. It signifies ratification: an acknowledgment of something trustworthy.
From Fr. Lawrence Farley
John sends this message to the seven churches in Asia who were under his pastoral care. By choosing but seven of these churches, John widens the intended audience, for seven is also the number symbolic of perfection. Thus the Revelation is intended not only to the seven churches of Asia, but also for the perfect totality of all God’s churches.
In calling God Him who is and was and who is coming, John describes God the Father as the One who is sovereign over time and history and therefore over all the historical events that touch us. God sits enthroned as Lord of the present, the past, and the future, and therefore there is nothing in the past, present, or future that can ever hurt us. God is the Lord of time and of all our days.
The message not only comes from the hand of God, it also comes from the entire heavenly court. All in heaven offer the Church on earth this word of encouragement and triumph. The seven spirits before His throne are the seven archangels (see 5:6, “the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth,” and 8:2, the “seven angels who stand before God”). (In chapter 20 of the Book of Enoch, these angels are listed as Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel, and Remiel.) Once again, the number seven is symbolic, an image for all the archangels who stand closest to God’s throne and hear His counsel. In saying that this message comes from the seven spirits before His throne, John means that this message comes directly from the Throne itself, with secrets not given to the world at large.
Later liturgical usage, in which reference to the Father and the Son was always followed by reference to the Holy Spirit, has misled some interpreters into seeing this reference to the seven spirits as a reference to the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the Book of Revelation, He is referred to simply as “the Spirit” (e.g. 2:7; 14:13; 22:17), always in the singular and never as “seven spirits” or as a “sevenfold” Spirit. These seven spirits stand before God’s throne; that is, they are portrayed as waiting upon God as a part of His heavenly court. It is inconceivable that the Divine Spirit, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son, could be portrayed as such a servant. Indeed, the other references to the Spirit in the Apocalypse carry the suggestion of His sovereignty and authority.
The message also comes from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness (Gr. martus; compare our English “martyr”). Christ bore faithful witness before Pilate to the Truth, even at the cost of His Life (1 Tim. 6:13); John stresses this so that we may imitate His faithfulness. The Lord does not call us to walk in any place where He has not gone before.
Jesus is further described as the firstborn of the dead. In using this Jewish concept of the firstborn (in which the firstborn son is the main heir), John shows that Jesus Christ is the heir of the whole age to come; the entire coming Kingdom belongs to Him. His faithfulness unto death resulted in His victory and His inheriting all the world. Our faithfulness unto death will result in our sharing that victory. Death has no terrors for Jesus Christ, and so it need have none for us.
Thus Christ is also the ruler of the kings of the earth. Caesar may think he has no superior or master, but Jesus, the humble carpenter crucified under the governor Pontius Pilate, is the true Master of the Roman Empire and indeed of the whole cosmos. The Christians of St. John’s day, haunted by a sense of their own powerlessness and humility, were thus made to see their true dignity and power.
The Church is described as those whom the Lord loves and therefore continues to protect and care for (the present tense is used to denote Christ’s ongoing care), and as those who were loosed from their sins by His Blood. This is an important theme in the Apocalypse. The Cross of Christ was seen by secular Rome as His defeat and proof of how pathetic and deluded the Christians were—that they would worship a crucified man. But for John, the Cross is proof of the power of God that defeats all other powers. The Lord Himself said of the Cross, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). For St. John, our faith in Christ and His Cross also “overcomes the world” (1 John 5:5). Thus the Apocalypse speaks not only of us “making our robes white” in His Blood (7:14) but also of us overcoming Satan “by the Blood of the Lamb” (12:11). The Christians are not to be ashamed of Christ’s Cross, for through His Blood they overcome death, Satan, and the whole world.
In describing the Christians as a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, John asserts the privileges of the Christians in the face of the pride of Rome. The Roman powers may think the Christians are but poor, uneducated, and powerless, to be utterly disdained. John knows them to be God’s own Kingdom, one destined to outlast all the kingdoms of the earth, and to be priests to God Himself, with access to His awe-inspiring Presence. Priests had status and honor in the Roman secular world, and St. John says this is the true status of the Christians before God.
Bishop Averky
1:4. The number seven is usually taken as an expression of fullness. St John addresses here only the seven churches with which he, as one who lived in Ephesus, was in especially close and frequent contact. But in these seven he addresses, at the same time, the Christian Church as a whole.
Grace to you and peace from the Tri-Hypostatical Divinity. The phrase ‘which is’ signifies the Father, Who said to Moses: I am He that Is (Exod 3:14). The expression ‘which was’ signifies the Word, Who was in the beginning with God (John 1:2). The phrase ‘which is to come’ indicates the Comforter, Who always descends upon the Church’s children in holy baptism and in all fullness is to descend in the future age (Acts 2). (St. Andrew of Caeserea, Commentary on the Apocalypse, chapter 1).
By these “seven Spirits,” it is most natural to understand the seven chief angels who are spoken of in Tobit 12:15. St Andrew of Caesarea, however, understands them to be the angels who govern the seven churches. Other commentaries, on the other hand, understand by by this expression the Holy Spirit Himself, Who manifests Himself in seven chief gifts: the spirit of the fear of God, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of might, the spirit of light, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of the Lord or the spirit of piety, and inspiration in the highest degree (compare Isa 11: 1-3; “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;.”)
1:5. The Lord Jesus Christ is called here “the faithful witness” in the sense that He has witnessed His Divinity and the truth of His teaching before men by His death on the Cross.
“As Life and Resurrection, He is the first-born from the dead (Col 1:18, I Cor 15:20), and those over whom He rules will not see death, as did those who died and rose before, but will live eternally. He is ‘prince of kings,’ and Lord of lords (1 Tim 6:15), equal in might to the Father and one in Essence with Him” (St Andrew, chapter 1).
1:5-6. “Kings and priest” are to be understood here not in the strict meaning, of course, but in the sense in which God has promised this to His chosen people through the prophets (Exod 19:6); that is, He has made us, true believers, to be the best, the holiest people, which is the same thing that a priest and king are with relation to the rest of mankind.
Venerable Bede.
4. seven. By these seven churches he writes to every church, for universality is wont to be denoted by the number seven, in that all the time of this age is evolved from seven days.
Grace. Grace he desires for us, and peace from God, the eternal Father, and from the sevenfold Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, Who gave testimony to the Father in His Incarnation. He names the Son in the third place, as he was to speak further of Him. He names Him also the last in order, as He is the first and the last; for He had already named Him in the Father by saying, “Who was to come.”
5. the first-begotten. This is the same that the Apostle says, “We have seen Jesus Christ for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour.” And in another place, in setting forth the reproach of the cross, he added, “Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave Him the Name which is above every name.”
6. priests. Because the King of kings and heavenly Priest united us unto His own body by offering Himself for us, there is not one of the saints who has not spiritually the office of priesthood, in that he is a member of the eternal Priest
7. cometh. He Who was concealed, when at the first He came to be judged, will be manifested at the time when He shall come to judge. He mentions this, that the Church which is now oppressed by enemies, but is then to reign with Christ, may be strengthened for the endurance of sufferings.
pierced. When they see Him as a Judge with power, in the same form in which they pierced Him as the least of all, they will mourn for themselves with a repentance that is too late.
Amen. By interposing an Amen, he confirms that without doubt that will happen, which, by the revelation of God, he knows most surely is to come to pass.
Gregory of Caesarea.
1:4. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from the One who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne.
Due to the existence of many churches in many places, he sent to only seven, mystically meaning by this number the churches everywhere, also corresponding to the present-day life, in which the seventh period of days is taking place. For this reason also he mentions seven angels and seven churches, to whom he says, Grace to you and peace from the Tri-hypostatic Divinity. For by the who is the Father is signified, who said to Moses, “I am He who is,” and by the who was the Logos, “who was in the beginning with God,” and by the who is to come the Paraclete, who always enlightens the children of the Church through holy Baptism, more completely and more strongly in the future. It is possible to understand the seven spirits as the seven angels who were appointed to govern the churches, not counting them equal to the most divine and royal Trinity, but mentioned along with it as servants, just as the divine Apostle said, “I call upon you in the presence of God and the chosen angels.” By the same token, this may be understood differently: the One who is, and who was, and who is to come, meaning the Father, who contains in himself the beginning, middle, and end of all that exists, and the seven spirits the activities of the Life-giving Spirit, following Christ God, who became man for our sake. For in many places each divine Person is indifferently placed and arranged by the Apostle. For this he says here:
1:5a. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
He is the one who witnessed to Pontius Pilate, faithful to his words in all things, the firstborn of the dead as life and resurrection, for those whom he governs will no more see death, like those who were dead before and rose, but will live eternally. Ruler of the kings, as “King of kings and Lord of lords,” equal in power with the Father and consubstantial. Elsewhere, ruler of the kings of the earth is also said earthly desires. If, according to the Blessed [15] Gregory, this usage of he who is, who was, and who is to come, the ruler of all refers to Christ, then it is not unreasonable that words similar to those which will be said shortly after refer to him, to which also the ruler of all is attached and without the repetition or introduction of another person. For here the addition of and from Jesus Christ appears to confirm the understanding we have presented. For it would be unnecessary if he were talking about the only Logos of God and the person of the Son to add immediately and from Jesus Christ in order to show him as distinct from the other one, the expressions that befit God equally honor and are appropriate to each of the divine Persons, and are common to the three, except for their distinctive properties, that is to say, the relationships , as said by Gregory the Theologian, and except for the Incarnation of the Logos. also clear from the things from which we learn, that in the Gospel the thrice-holy hymn of the Seraphim16 is said about the Son, in the speech of Paul in the Acts about the Holy Spirit, and then about the Father, in the offering of the awesome mysteries, to whom we are accustomed to say this prayer,19 as the blessed Epiphanios says in his homily On the Holy Spirit. these things to show that our own understanding does not contradict the patristic voices, and also, with God’s help, we continue.
1:5b–6. To the One who loved us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us kings and priests to God and his Father. Glory and dominion to him to the ages of ages. Amen.
The glory belongs to him, it says, who freed us through love from the bondage of death, and washed the stains of sin through the outpouring of his life-giving blood and water. And he has made us “a royal priesthood” so that we may offer, instead of irrational sacrifices, “rational worship”22 as a living sacrifice to the Father.
In today's homily, Fr. Anthony reflects on our tendency to fear. He encourages us to remember that we are safe, and to not be anxious about anything but our sin. Enjoy the show!
St. Luke 5:1-11. In today's homily, Fr Anthony stresses the importance of building in God's name. Using marriage as an example, he speaks on how we must strive to have Christ as the foundation for all we do; and we must build marriages that produce joy, not just endure to the end. He reminds us that we should never think we could build anything worthwhile without Christ. Enjoy the show!
In this lecture, Fr Anthony reviews Nobel Prize Winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn's acceptance speech. He shares how this concept of beauty fits into the Orthodox world and briefly touches on how today's culture has undermined the traditional values rooted in beauty, truth and goodness. Enjoy the show!
Revelation, Session Two Christ the Savior, Anderson SC Fr. Anthony Perkins
Sources:
The translation of the Apocalypse is from the Orthodox Study Bible.
Lawrence R. Farley, The Apocalypse of St. John: A Revelation of Love and Power, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2011),
Bishop Averky, The Epistles and the Apocalypse (Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, Volume III. (Holy Trinity Seminary Press, 2018).
Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse, ed. David G. Hunter, trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, vol. 123, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011).
Venerable Bede, The Explanation of the Apocalypse, trans. Edward Marshall (Oxford: James Parker and Co., 1878).
William C. Weinrich, ed., Revelation, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005).
Correction from Last Week
Revelation was removed from active use because it was being used to support the Marcionists, not the Gnostics [or Montanism as I said in the class!].
The Orthodox Study Bible; “[I]n the second and third centuries Revelation was widely twisted and sensationally misinterpreted, and the erroneous teachings brought troublesome confusion to Christians – a trend that continues to this day.”
Review of Last Week
The Church wants us to be aware of the Last Judgement but from WITHIN the sacraments and the “good defense” God gives us through them.
Authorship and Dating of the Work
The author was St. John the Theologian
St. John’s disciple Papias of Hierapolis, St. Justin the Martyr (lived in Ephesus), St. Irenaeus (disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna who was a disciple of St. John), St. Hippolytus (disciple of St. Irenaeus), St. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen were early leaders of the Church who knew and witnessed to this.
The work itself (see 1:2; also exile on Patmos).
The date of the work is AD 95/96
St. Irenaeus; Against Heresies (5.30.3)
Purpose of the Work
To show things that must shortly come to pass (1:1).
Pastoral protection and encouragement to the early Church against state persecution and (internal) heresy.
Apokalypsis means uncovering of something that has been hidden.
Style and Interpretation of the Work
Apocalyptic Literature. A “visceral” (Fr. Lawrence) and heavily symbolic genre. It is meant to be prophetic in every sense of the word.
“It is a human work. But it is also an apostolic work, and as an apostle, John tells the truth, striving to convey to us the substance and power of what the Lord revealed to him for our sake.” (Fr. Lawrence)
What are we to make of the diverse interpretations offered by saints?
Not to be taken literally in the modern sense; “Thus, for example, a literalistic understanding of the images of this book has given occasion, and even now continues to give occasion, for the false teaching of “Chiliasm” – the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.” (Bishop Averky)
Bishop Averky says four main categories of interpretation (and calls for a combination):
Visions and symbols of the “last times” (end of the world, the anti-christ, second coming)
Description of the historical pagan Roman persecutions against the Church in the first century.
Look for realization of the prophecies in recent history.
Allegorical and moral meaning.
The Orthodox Study Bible: “Faithfulness in tribulation” is the main theme, with subthemes of
Divine Judgment of human wickedness and
The symbolic presentation of most major New Testament teachings concerning eschatology, the study of the last things.
1:1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John.
Andrew of Caesarea. “An apocalypse is the manifestation of hidden mysteries when the intellect is illuminated either through divine dreams or according to waking visions from divine enlightenment. To be given to Christ, it says, making this statement about him especially with respect to his human , since in the Gospel he above all others dwelt on the sublime and things that befit God. And here, the magnitude of the divinity of Christ is shown through the attending angel, and through the name of the teaching servants, for “all things are his servants.” The must come to pass soon means that some of the predictions concerning them are to come to pass immediately thereafter and the things regarding the end are not to be delayed, because “one thousand years” to God is “like yesterday’s day, which is reckoned as having elapsed.”
St. Bede. The revelation of Jesus Christ.
The progress with which the Church that had been founded by the Apostles was to be extended, or the end with which it was to be perfected, had need to be revealed, in order to strengthen the preachers of the faith against the opposition of the world. And John, in his own manner, refers the glory of the Son to the Father, and testifies that Jesus Christ has received from God.
shortly. That is, which are to happen to the Church in the present time.
signified. He wrapped up this revelation in mystical words, that it might not be manifested to all, and become lightly esteemed.
angel. For an angel appeared to John in the form of Christ, as will be seen more clearly in that which follows.
John. That through John He might lay open to all His servants the things which he, by the privilege of a peculiar chastity, obtained above all others to behold.
Oecumenius: When it is said to him, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him,” it is as though he said, “This revelation is given from the Father to the Son, and then from the Son to us,” his servants. By calling the saints the “servants” of Christ, he safeguards what is proper to his deity. For, to whom would men belong, unless to him who is the Maker and Creator of humankind? And who is the Creator of human-kind and of all creation? No one other than the only begotten Word and Son of God! For, the present author says in the Gospel, “All things were made through him.” And why does he wish to add “what must soon take place,” although those events which will take place have not yet occurred, even though a considerable span of time has passed, more than five hundred years, since these words were spoken? Because to the eyes of the eternal and endless God all ages are regarded as nothing, for, as the prophet says, “A thousand years in your sight, O Lord, are as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.”3 For this reason, therefore, he added “soon,” not to indicate a measure of time which must pass before the fulfillment of what must happen, but to indicate the power and eternality of God. For to him who is, any passage of time, even should it be great and considerable, is something small when compared with that which is unending
1:2. Who bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
OSB: Testimony of Jesus refers to a witness concerning Jesus; not the testimony of Christ Himself.
Andrew of Caesarea. “Christ,” he says, “declared these things to me through an angel, as a master to a household servant, as I had borne witness to my confession to him,” of which, on the basis of the visions to bear witness and, in view of the return of those who hear, to preach both the things which are and which escape human understanding and the things which will occur in the future, for, prophetically, he had seen them both. And clear from what he says: those things which are and those which must come to pass. These are descriptions both of the present time and of the future.
St. Bede; testimony. That thou mayest not doubt of the person of John, he is the same who gave testimony to the eternal Word of God incarnate, according as he saw, saying, “Whose glory we saw, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.”
1:3. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Andrew of Caesarea. He blesses those who read and hear through the actions, for the present time is near, through which it is possible to acquire the blessing, and to all the work is laid open. As the Lord says, “Work [13] while it is day.” And elsewhere, the time is near, the time of the distribution of prizes, on account of the brevity of the present life in comparison to the future.
St. Bede. Blessed. Teachers and hearers are therefore blessed, because they who keep the Word of God find that a short time of labour is followed by everlasting joys.
Averky; “The book of the Apocalypse has, consequently, not only a prophetic but also a moral significance. The meaning of these words is as follows: blessed is he who, reading this book, will prepare himself by his life and deeds of piety for eternity, for the translation to eternity is near for each of us.
Fr. Lawrence. Seven beatitudes (blessings) are pronounced upon (Fr. Lawrence):
1:3 “the one who reads and the ones who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written in it”
14:13 the martyrs “who die in the Lord from now on”
16:15 “the one who keeps alert,” faithfully awaiting the Lord’s Coming
19:9 “those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb”
20:6 the martyrs who have “a part in the first resurrection”
22:7 all who “keep the words of the prophecy of this book”
22:14 all those in the martyric Church, “those who wash their robes, so that they may have their right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.”
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