16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
The seven candlesticks are the seven churches that he was commanded to write. He called them candlesticks as they produce the enlightening of the glory of Christ. He did not call them candles, but candlesticks. The candlesticks cannot not be enlightened all by themselves, for it possess what it needs to be able to enlighten. Christ enlightens His churches spiritually. Just as the holy apostle counsels those who have received the faith, “shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.(Phil. 2:15-15)” Indeed, the star does not have light on its own but is able to get light from something else, just like the evangelist saw the churches as candlesticks and not just candles. For it says about Christ, “For it is you who gives light marvelously from everlasting mountains. (Ps. 75:3)”
For concerning Christ it is said, “You shine gloriously from the everlasting mountains”—perhaps meaning angelic powers—and, again, addressing the Father, “Send out your light and your truth,” and again, “the light of your face, Lord.” So those who share in the divine light are described in one place as stars and in another as lampstands.
He calls the lampstands golden on account of the honor and transcendence of those thought worthy of receiving the beam of divine light.
And in the midst of the seven lampstands, he says, one like a son of man: for since the Lord himself promises to dwell in the souls of those who have received him and to walk in their midst, how could he not have been seen in the midst of the lampstands?
He calls Christ son of man as one who for us humbled himself as far as “taking the form of a slave,” who became “the fruit of the womb,” according to the divine hymn, the womb of Mary, unwed and ever-virgin. Since Mary was a human being and our sister, naturally he who is born from her without seed as a human being is called God the Word and the son of man. He has carefully called him not a son of man, but one like a son of man; but he who is Emmanuel is also God and Lord of the universe.
The vision shows his varied appearance by his operations and powers, as it depicts his form. First he clothes him with a priestly dress, for the long robe and girdle are a priestly dress. He was addressed by God and the Father, “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedek,” but the apostle, too, calls Christ “the high priest and apostle of our confession,”49 as being in the priestly service and leading us to make our confession of faith in him and the Father and the Spirit.
He puts a golden girdle around him, whereas the priests according to the [Mosaic] Law had a girdle of embroidered cloth. The difference between slaves and a master had to be pointed out, that is, the difference between the shadow of the law and the truth shown by the new girdle.
His head, he says, and his hair were like white wool and like snow: for God’s secret purpose in Christ is new in its appearance, but it is before all ages in its intention. For the blessed apostle has written about it as “the secret purpose which has been kept hidden in all past ages and from generations, which has now been revealed to those of his holy people whom he wished.” Therefore, the age-old intention of the purpose revealed in God’s good pleasure is represented by the hoariness of the head and its comparison with wool and snow.
He says, and his eyes were like a flame of fire: this either means that the flame of fire has the form of light—since Christ both is light and calls himself light, saying “I am the light and the truth”—or it exposes the danger and the threat against the seven churches to whom the facts of the Revelation are passed on, in that they were not fully following his laws.
And his feet, he says, were like burnished bronze: he refers to the bronze mined on Mount Lebanon as being pure even in itself and as rendered even purer when it has been refined in a furnace and cleansed of its slight impurity. In this way the steadfastness and constancy, as well as the brightness and glory, of faith in Christ is signified when it has come to assurance. For the apostle calls Christ “a rock,” and Isaiah calls him “a precious stone” in the foundations “of Sion.”
Else he means that the burnished bronze is the copper-colored frankincense which medical men are accustomed to call male. This is fragrant when burnt; for the fiery furnace represents the symbol of the burn ing of incense, which is the foundation of the preaching of the gospel—for the feet are the foundation of the rest of the body, which is Christ. For he is fragrant, and with spiritual fragrance he gives charm to the things in heaven and the things on earth.
Paul, too, calls Christ “a foundation” in writing the first epistle to the Corinthians, saying, “Like a wise master-builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. Let each one take care how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
That Christ is spiritually sweet-smelling, the bride in the Song of Songs who has experienced his sweet scent bears witness. In one place she says, “and the fragrance of your oils is above all spices,” and in another, “your name is oil emptied out,” and the Lord himself also describes himself as sweet-smelling in the words to the bride, saying, “I am a flower of the field, a lily of the valleys.” What then? Did not Paul, too, after becoming sweet-smelling from his communion with Christ, say, “for we are the fragrance of Christ”; and again, to us “he reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of him”?
And his voice, he says, was like the sound of many waters, and reasonably so; for how could his voice have come to all the earth and his gospel to the ends of the world, unless it had been clearly heard, not as a perceived loud sound, but by the power of the preaching?
And he had, he says, in his right hand seven stars: he himself goes on to interpret these stars, saying they were the angels of the seven churches, about whom blessed Gregory spoke at the coming of the bishops: “with reference to the presiding angels, I believe that each is a guardian of each church, as John teaches in the Revelation.” I think that he calls the holy angels stars on account of the abundant light of Christ, which is in them.
They are in his right hand. They have been thought worthy of the most honorable position by God’s side, and, as it were, they rest in the hand of God.
And from his mouth, he says, there was issuing a sharp twoedged sword: blessed David says to the Lord, “Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one.” For he had not then commanded us to keep the laws of the gospel, to transgress which was destruction. Therefore the actual position of the thigh indicated the postponement of punishment; for it was not the most suitable position for killing.
But now the sword issues from his mouth, the metaphor symbolizing that those who disobey the injunctions of the gospel will be in mortal danger of being cut in two by the sword. This is made clear by what the Lord says in the gospels. The apostle, too, said, “For the word of God is living and active and keener than a two-edged sword,” that is to say, holding out a threat against the disobedient. So this is described by John as sharp, which is the same as what Paul calls “very keen.”
His face, he says, was like the sun shining in full strength. Deservedly like the sun, for the Lord is the sun of righteousness according to the prophet Malachi. But lest you should think that the light of the countenance of Christ, which “gives light to everyone, coming into the world,” was a manifest body giving perceptible light, he added by his power, just as if he were saying: “The light of Christ is to be spiritually perceived, ‘operating in power,’ not a physical appearance, but giving light to the eyes of the soul.”
Who will ply the sword without practising the contraries to lenity and justice; that is, guile, and asperity, and injustice, proper (of course) to the business of battles? See we, then, whether that which has another action be not another sword,-that is, the Divine word of God, doubly sharpened with the two Testaments of the ancient law and the new law; sharpened by the equity of its own wisdom; rendering to each one according to his own action.
Now the Apostle John, in the Apocalypse, describes a sword which proceeded from the mouth of God as "a doubly sharp, two-edged one." This may be understood to be the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel-sharpened with wisdom, hostile to the devil, arming us against the spiritual enemies of all wickedness and concupiscence, and cutting us off from the dearest objects for the sake of God's holy name.
"And in His face was brightness as the sun." That which He called brightness was the appearance of that in which He spoke to men face to face. But the glory of the sun is less than the glory of the Lord. Doubtless on account of its rising and setting, and rising again, that He was born and suffered and rose again, therefore the Scripture gave this similitude, likening His face to the glory of the sun...
"And out of His mouth was issuing a sharp two-edged sword." By the twice-sharpened sword going forth out of His mouth is shown, that it is He Himself who has both now declared the word of the Gospel, and previously by Moses declared the knowledge of the law to the whole world. But because from the same word, as well of the New as of the Old Testament, He will assert Himself upon the whole human race, therefore He is spoken of as two-edged. For the sword arms the soldier, the sword slays the enemy, the sword punishes the deserter. And that He might show to the apostles that He was announcing judgment, He says: "I came not to send peace, but a sword." And after He had completed His parables, He says to them: "Have ye understood all these things? And they said, We have. And He added, Therefore is every scribe instructed in the kingdom of God like unto a man that is a father of a family, bringing forth from his treasure things new and old," -the new, the evangelical words of the apostles; the old, the precepts of the law and the prophets: and He testified that these proceeded out of His mouth. Moreover, He also says to Peter: "Go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that shall first come up; and having opened its mouth, thou shalt find a stater (that is, two denarii), and thou shalt give it for me and for thee." And similarly David says by the Spirit: "God spake once, twice I have heard the same." Because God once decreed from the beginning what shall be even to the end. Finally, as He Himself is the Judge appointed by the Father. on account of His assumption of humanity, wishing to show that men shall be judged by the word that He had declared, He says: "Think ye that I will judge you at the last day? Nay, but the word," says He, "which I have spoken unto you, that shall judge you in the last day." And Paul, speaking of Antichrist to the Thessalonians, says: "Whom the Lord Jesus will slay by the breath of His mouth." And Isaiah says: "By the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked." This, therefore, is the two-edged sword issuing out of His mouth...
"And He had in His right hand seven stars." He said that in His right hand He had seven stars, because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold agency was given into His power by the Father. As Peter exclaimed to the Jews: "Being at the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this Spirit received from the Father, which ye both see and hear." Moreover, John the Baptist had also anticipated this, by saying to his disciples: "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father," says he, "loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands." Those seven stars are the seven churches, which he names in his addresses by name, old calls them to whom he wrote epistles. Not that they are themselves the only, or even the principal churches; but what he says to one, he says to all. For they are in no respect different, that on that ground any one should prefer them to the larger number of similar small ones. In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches. And abridging in a short space his announcement, he thus says to Timothy: "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the Church of the living God." We read also that this typical number is announced by the Holy Spirit by the month of Isaiah: "Of seven women which took hold of one man." The one man is Christ, not born of seed; but the seven women are seven churches, receiving His bread, and clothed with his apparel, who ask that their reproach should be taken away, only that His name should be called upon them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, which nourishes to eternal life, promised to them, that is, by faith. And His garments wherewith they desire to be clothed are the glory of immortality, of which Paul the apostle says: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on mortality." Moreover, they ask that their reproach may be taken away-that is, that they may be cleansed from their sins: for the reproach is the original sin which is taken away in baptism, and they begin to be called Christian men, which is, "Let thy name be called upon us." Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election. Whether writing to them who labour in the world, and live of the frugality of their labours, and are patient, and when they see certain men in the Church wasters, and pernicious, they hear them, lest there should become dissension, he yet admonishes them by love, that in what respects their faith is deficient they should repent; or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors, that they should continue faithful; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, do unlawful sins in the Church, and make them manifest to be done by others; or to those that are at ease in the Church; or to those who are negligent, and Christians only in name; or to those who are meekly instructed, that they may bravely persevere in faith; or to those who study the Scriptures, and labour to know the mysteries of their announcement, and are unwilling to do God's work that is mercy and love: to all he urges penitence, to all he declares judgment.
“Let two-edged swords be in their hands.” They who sing for joy upon their couches—this means the saints surely, perfect men—what else do they have? “Let two-edged swords be in their hands.” “Two-edged swords”—the swords of the saints are two-edged. We read in the Apocalypse of John—which, by the way, is read in the churches and is accepted, for it is not held among the Apocrypha but is included in the canonical writings—as I was saying, it is written there of the Lord Savior: “Out of his mouth came forth a sharp two-edged sword.” Mark well that these saints receive from the mouth of God the two-edged swords that they hold in their hands. The Lord, therefore, gives the sword from his mouth to his disciples. It is a two-edged sword, namely, the word of his teachings. It is a two-edged sword, historically and allegorically, the letter and the spirit. It is a two-edged sword that slays adversaries and at the same time defends his faithful. “A two-edged sword”—the sword has two heads. It speaks of the present and future world. Here below, it strikes down adversaries; above, it opens the kingdom of heaven.
Hold most firmly and never doubt that the same Holy Spirit, who is the one Spirit of the Father and the Son, proceeds from the Father and the Son. For the Son says, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, who has proceeded from the Father,” where he taught that the Spirit is his, because he is the Truth. That the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, the prophetic and apostolic teaching shows us. So Isaiah says concerning the Son: “He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” Concerning him the apostle also says, “Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth.” The one Son of God himself, showing who the Spirit of his mouth is, after his resurrection, breathing on his disciples, says, “receive the Holy Spirit.” “From the mouth,” indeed, of the Lord Jesus himself, says John in the Apocalypse, “a sharp two-edged word came forth.” The very Spirit of his mouth is the sword itself which comes forth from his mouth.
And he had in his right hand seven stars. In the right hand of Christ is the spiritual Church. "The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing" (Psalm XLIV). To whom standing on His right, He says: "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom" (Matt. XXV).
And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. Who judging visible and invisible things, after He has slain, has the power to cast into the hell of fire.
And his face was as the sun shining in its strength. As he appeared to the disciples on the mountain, so will the Lord appear to all the saints after the judgment. For the impious will see in the judgment him whom they pierced (John XIX). However, this entire appearance of the Son of Man also applies to the Church, with whom Christ has become one in nature, granting it the honor of priestly and judicial power, and that it may shine like the sun in the kingdom of his Father (Matt. XIII).
[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 1:12-16
For concerning Christ it is said, “You shine gloriously from the everlasting mountains”—perhaps meaning angelic powers—and, again, addressing the Father, “Send out your light and your truth,” and again, “the light of your face, Lord.” So those who share in the divine light are described in one place as stars and in another as lampstands.
He calls the lampstands golden on account of the honor and transcendence of those thought worthy of receiving the beam of divine light.
And in the midst of the seven lampstands, he says, one like a son of man: for since the Lord himself promises to dwell in the souls of those who have received him and to walk in their midst, how could he not have been seen in the midst of the lampstands?
He calls Christ son of man as one who for us humbled himself as far as “taking the form of a slave,” who became “the fruit of the womb,” according to the divine hymn, the womb of Mary, unwed and ever-virgin. Since Mary was a human being and our sister, naturally he who is born from her without seed as a human being is called God the Word and the son of man. He has carefully called him not a son of man, but one like a son of man; but he who is Emmanuel is also God and Lord of the universe.
The vision shows his varied appearance by his operations and powers, as it depicts his form. First he clothes him with a priestly dress, for the long robe and girdle are a priestly dress. He was addressed by God and the Father, “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedek,” but the apostle, too, calls Christ “the high priest and apostle of our confession,”49 as being in the priestly service and leading us to make our confession of faith in him and the Father and the Spirit.
He puts a golden girdle around him, whereas the priests according to the [Mosaic] Law had a girdle of embroidered cloth. The difference between slaves and a master had to be pointed out, that is, the difference between the shadow of the law and the truth shown by the new girdle.
His head, he says, and his hair were like white wool and like snow: for God’s secret purpose in Christ is new in its appearance, but it is before all ages in its intention. For the blessed apostle has written about it as “the secret purpose which has been kept hidden in all past ages and from generations, which has now been revealed to those of his holy people whom he wished.” Therefore, the age-old intention of the purpose revealed in God’s good pleasure is represented by the hoariness of the head and its comparison with wool and snow.
He says, and his eyes were like a flame of fire: this either means that the flame of fire has the form of light—since Christ both is light and calls himself light, saying “I am the light and the truth”—or it exposes the danger and the threat against the seven churches to whom the facts of the Revelation are passed on, in that they were not fully following his laws.
And his feet, he says, were like burnished bronze: he refers to the bronze mined on Mount Lebanon as being pure even in itself and as rendered even purer when it has been refined in a furnace and cleansed of its slight impurity. In this way the steadfastness and constancy, as well as the brightness and glory, of faith in Christ is signified when it has come to assurance. For the apostle calls Christ “a rock,” and Isaiah calls him “a precious stone” in the foundations “of Sion.”
Else he means that the burnished bronze is the copper-colored frankincense which medical men are accustomed to call male. This is fragrant when burnt; for the fiery furnace represents the symbol of the burn ing of incense, which is the foundation of the preaching of the gospel—for the feet are the foundation of the rest of the body, which is Christ. For he is fragrant, and with spiritual fragrance he gives charm to the things in heaven and the things on earth.
Paul, too, calls Christ “a foundation” in writing the first epistle to the Corinthians, saying, “Like a wise master-builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. Let each one take care how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
That Christ is spiritually sweet-smelling, the bride in the Song of Songs who has experienced his sweet scent bears witness. In one place she says, “and the fragrance of your oils is above all spices,” and in another, “your name is oil emptied out,” and the Lord himself also describes himself as sweet-smelling in the words to the bride, saying, “I am a flower of the field, a lily of the valleys.” What then? Did not Paul, too, after becoming sweet-smelling from his communion with Christ, say, “for we are the fragrance of Christ”; and again, to us “he reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of him”?
And his voice, he says, was like the sound of many waters, and reasonably so; for how could his voice have come to all the earth and his gospel to the ends of the world, unless it had been clearly heard, not as a perceived loud sound, but by the power of the preaching?
And he had, he says, in his right hand seven stars: he himself goes on to interpret these stars, saying they were the angels of the seven churches, about whom blessed Gregory spoke at the coming of the bishops: “with reference to the presiding angels, I believe that each is a guardian of each church, as John teaches in the Revelation.” I think that he calls the holy angels stars on account of the abundant light of Christ, which is in them.
They are in his right hand. They have been thought worthy of the most honorable position by God’s side, and, as it were, they rest in the hand of God.
And from his mouth, he says, there was issuing a sharp twoedged sword: blessed David says to the Lord, “Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one.” For he had not then commanded us to keep the laws of the gospel, to transgress which was destruction. Therefore the actual position of the thigh indicated the postponement of punishment; for it was not the most suitable position for killing.
But now the sword issues from his mouth, the metaphor symbolizing that those who disobey the injunctions of the gospel will be in mortal danger of being cut in two by the sword. This is made clear by what the Lord says in the gospels. The apostle, too, said, “For the word of God is living and active and keener than a two-edged sword,” that is to say, holding out a threat against the disobedient. So this is described by John as sharp, which is the same as what Paul calls “very keen.”
His face, he says, was like the sun shining in full strength. Deservedly like the sun, for the Lord is the sun of righteousness according to the prophet Malachi. But lest you should think that the light of the countenance of Christ, which “gives light to everyone, coming into the world,” was a manifest body giving perceptible light, he added by his power, just as if he were saying: “The light of Christ is to be spiritually perceived, ‘operating in power,’ not a physical appearance, but giving light to the eyes of the soul.”