7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord comes. [Matthew 24:42] But often shall you come together, seeking the things which are befitting to your souls: for the whole time of your faith will not profit you, if you be not made perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; [Matthew 24:11-12] for when lawlessness increases, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, [Matthew 24:10] and then shall appear the world-deceiver as the Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. Then shall the creation of men come into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish; but they that endure in their faith shall be saved from under the curse itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first, the sign of an outspreading in heaven; then the sign of the sound of the trumpet; and the third, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it is said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.
And I know that He was possessed of a body not only in His being born and crucified, but I also know that He was so after His resurrection, and believe that He is so now. When, for instance, He came to those who were with Peter, He said to them, "Lay hold, handle Me, and see that I am not an incorporeal spirit." "For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." And He says to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger into the print of the nails, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; " and immediately they believed that He was Christ. Wherefore Thomas also says to Him, "My Lord, and my God." And on this account also did they despise death, for it were too little to say, indignities and stripes. Nor was this all; but also after He had shown Himself to them, that He had risen indeed, and not in appearance only, He both ate and drank with them during forty entire days. And thus was He, with the flesh, received up in their sight unto Him that sent Him, being with that same flesh to come again, accompanied by glory and power. For, say the [holy] oracles, "This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go unto heaven." But if they say that He will come at the end of the world without a body, how shall those "see Him that pierced Him," and when they recognise Him, "mourn for themselves? " For incorporeal beings have neither form nor figure, nor the aspect of an animal possessed of shape, because their nature is in itself simple.
And then shall they "learn to know Him whom they pierced, and shall beat their breasts tribe by tribe; " of course because in days bygone they did not know Him when conditionedin the humility of human estate.
That, however, which we have reserved for a concluding argument, will now stand as a plea for all, and for the apostle himself, who in very deed would have to be charged with extreme indiscretion, if he had so abruptly, as some will have it, and as they say, blindfold, and so indiscriminately, and so unconditionally, excluded from the kingdom of God, and indeed from the court of heaven itself, all flesh and blood whatsoever; since Jesus is still sitting there at the right hand of the Father, man, yet God-the last Adam, yet the primary Word-flesh and blood, yet purer than ours-who "shall descend in like manner as He ascended into heaven" the same both in substance and form, as the angels affirmed, so as even to be recognised by those who pierced Him. Designated, as He is, "the Mediator between God and man," He keeps in His own self the deposit of the flesh which has been committed to Him by both parties-the pledge and security of its entire perfection.
For they affirm that without those letters truth cannot be found; nay more, that in those letters the whole plenitude and perfection of truth is comprised; for this was why Christ said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." In fact, they say that Jesus Christ descended, that is, that the dove came down on Jesus; and, since the dove is styled by the Greek name peristera/-(peristera), it has in itself this number DCCCI.
"Behold, He shall come with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." For He who at first came hidden in the manhood that He had undertaken, shall after a little while come to judgment manifest in majesty and glory. And what saith He?
shall bewail. But when the wicked shall see the Judge, He will not seem good to them; because they will not rejoice in their heart to see Him, Trinity 1.13.31
Hold most firmly and never doubt that the Word made flesh always has the same truly human flesh with which God the Word was born of the Virgin, with which he was crucified and died, with which he rose and ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God, with which he will come again to judge the living and the dead. For this reason, the apostles heard from the angels, “He … will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven,” and the blessed John says, “Behold, he will come amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will see him.”
he comes with the clouds. Either the bodiless powers are implied by the clouds, or those clouds which covered him on Mount Tabor with his holy disciples.
Behold, he comes with the clouds, etc. He who first came hidden to be judged will then come manifest to judge. He mentions this to strengthen the Church to endure sufferings, now oppressed by enemies, but then to reign with Christ.
And those who pierced him, etc. Seeing him in the same form as a powerful judge in which they judged him as insignificant, they will lament themselves in late repentance.
He cometh with the clouds: The Lord spoke of this concerning Himself in the Gospel of Mark, saying, “And the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers that are in heaven, shall be moved. 26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with great power and glory.(Mk. 13:25-26)” Just as it is written in Acts, when He was ascending up into the heavens on the day of the ascension, “and a cloud received him out of their sight,(1:9) so He will come again with a cloud. I believe that the Holy Scriptures call the holy angels clouds because of their lightness and being lifted high and walking on air, as though John is saying, “the Lord will come riding on the angels of God as his spearmen.” For this is how the prophets spoke of Him saying, “And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.(Ps. 17:11)”
and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him: For His glorious second coming will not be pushed aside, nor secretly, as the first time when visited the world in the flesh. The prophet clearly told us beforehand about His first coming, saying, “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth.(Ps. 71:6)” But the second coming will be visible so that every eye will see, even the sinful and ungodly, among whom must be divided as those who drunkenly beat Him or pierced Him.
And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of him: Those are who continued on in disbelief and did not yield under His saving yoke. But the words because of him you shall understand to mean to His appearance and coming. And then to add to the assurance that this will happen he adds, Even so, Amen, as saying accurately and positively that these things will happen. For as among the Greek “Even so” points out approval to what will happen, so does “Amen” among the Hebrews.
even so. Amen. this is the adverb of affirmation in Latin and similarly Amen in Hebrew, and by means of this double affirmation it is implied that truth is not retractable.
[AD 100] Didache on Revelation 1:7