1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
The angel also, as he goes forth on a white horse, conquering and to conquer, receives a crown of victory; and another is adorned with an encircling rainbow (as it were in its fair colours)-a celestial meadow.
"I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand an open book: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth." He signifies that that mighty angel who, he says, descended from heaven, clothed with a cloud, is our Lord, as we have above narrated.
"His face was as it were the sun." That is, with respect to the resurrection.
"Upon his head was a rainbow." He points to the judgment which is executed by Him, of shall be.
"An open book." A revelation of works in the future judgment, or the Apocalypse which John received.
"His feet," as we have said above, are the apostles. For that both things in sea and land are trodden under foot by Him, signifies that all things are placed under His feet. Moreover, he calls Him an angel, that is, a messenger, to wit, of the Father; for He is called the Messenger of great counsel. He says also that He cried with a loud voice. The great voice is to tell the words of the Omnipotent God of heaven to men, and to bear witness that after penitence is closed there will be no hope subsequently.
In this angel the person of our Savior is indicated. On his body he wears the church as though she were a cloud. For the church was constituted in the body of Christ and is often described in diverse manners. At times we read of her as a cloud, as a robe, as the sun, as the moon and as clothes white as snow. And even the saints are compared with clouds, as we read in the prophet Isaiah, “These are they who will fly as the clouds.” To be sure, the cloud with which he is clothed is his body, which was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The “rainbow over his head” indicates the promise and the perseverance of his church. “His face was like the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.” There is here a great and marvelous plan, so that at the beginning of this book he might show the fire of the last persecution and afterward might indicate the future brightness of the saints as a fire. For at first he spoke of “his feet as refined in a furnace,” and afterward he describes his face “as the shining in full strength.” That he might show how great is the brightness of the church, he now mentions the face before the feet, which are refined, and afterward compares his feet with pillars of fire.
He sees the Lord Christ coming down from heaven dressed in a cloud, which is the church. Or, he is clothed by the cloud of his flesh, which is elsewhere said to be a new bride who descends from heaven, or as Daniel says, the Son of man has come on the clouds of the heavens. The arc above his head represents the promise of propitiation, which remains among those who are good, but it signifies also those who will be decorated with martyrdom before the advent of the Lord, as Abel and others.… And his face was as the sun, since the Lord Jesus Christ was made manifest through the glory of the resurrection, of which we read, “In the sun he has set his tabernacle,” that is, where he is revealed so that he might no longer be hidden. For by his face is indicated the revelation of the present, which the prophet awaited and said, “Show your face, and we shall be saved.” His feet are the apostles who were enflamed by the words of God and by the Holy Spirit and were sent out to preach. As it says, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road and opened to us the Scriptures?” They are called “pillars” on account of the stability of the church, and of them the prophet said, “I have strengthened its pillars,” and “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet which announce and declare peace.” Finally, the apostle said, “Who [Peter, James, John] were reputed to be pillars of the church.”
The cloud, the rainbow and the light like the sun show how we are to understand this holy angel. For through these [symbols] the manifold character of its virtues and the brightness of the angelic nature and understanding is revealed.
And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. The Lord, the angel of great counsel, descended from heaven, clothed with the cloud of flesh. As Isaiah also says: Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and will come to Egypt (Isaiah XIX), and a rainbow was upon his head. Around the good, the promise of propitiation remains.
And his face was like the sun, etc. With the face of the Lord shining, that is, his knowledge manifested through the glory of the resurrection, his feet are prepared to evangelize and proclaim peace on the mountains (Romans X), illuminated by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and established like pillars. For James, Cephas, and John seemed to be pillars of the Church.
And I heard another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. It is right for him to be called an angel, because he appeared to men as the new messenger of eternal life, about whom we read, angel of great counsel; and to be called strong, because it is demonstrated that he overcame the aerial powers when he died, whence this: the Lord mighty in battle. [Ps. 23:8] When he says another, it does not mean that he is actually talking about something different, but it is the habit of recapitulation: he saw another angel because he repeated another vision. The angel appeared clothed with a cloud because it was clothed in the flesh that the Lord was seen among men, and his descent from heaven was precisely his adoption of the flesh. And a rainbow was on his head. The head of Christ, as the apostle says, is the divinity itself. [1 Cor. 11:3] By the rainbow is symbolized the reconciliation of the world that was achieved by the plan of the Word incarnate; its mystery was explained earlier. Note also that, having described the last struggle, and passing over the seventh seal, with which both the end of the consummation and the Lord's coming are expected to take place, he comes back to the beginning of Christ's incarnation, which has just been spoken about, and describes his preaching. Once this narration is finished, he comes back to the things he had left aside for a while. Let us however remember that when he has brought this narration to its end, the end needs to be joined to the broken order; for the passage where it is said, in the following, The second woe is past, [Rev. 11:14] implicitly refers to the one where, in the end of the previous book, we spoke of the destruction of the wicked horses and Gentiles. Note also that he behaves in an unusual manner in this narration, and delimits both narrations not with one end, but with two, because he distinguishes the interrupted order and the recapitulation separately, as will become apparent a bit later. And his face was as the sun. The angel's face is Christ's incarnation, by means of which he became known to mortals, and concerning which the Psalmist says, Shew us thy face, and we shall be saved. [Ps. 79:4] This face is not compared to the sun because of its brightness, in which it is incomparably greater than the sun, but because, like the sun, it had a rising in being born, a setting in dying, and again a rising in being resurrected; whence Solomon, The sun riseth, and goeth down, etc. [Eccles. 1:5] The face may also be understood to mean the saints. And his foot as a pillar of fire. The angel's feet are the preachers, thanks to whom God's wisdom incarnate has, so to speak, walked through the whole world. It is fitting for them to be compared to a pillar and to fire because they both bear the Church's edifice, which is laid upon them, and, kindled by the Holy Spirit, set the hearts of their listeners on fire to the love of God by their preaching.
So, therefore, all those who are still living and who have heard or even beheld the punishments of sinners, and have not repented but remained in their wickedness, as was said earlier, he says against these, I saw an angel who had come down from heaven, bearing different forms of punishments.
He says that the look of him and his appearance was like this: He was wrapped in a cloud. The cloud symbolizes the incorporeality and invisibility of the holy angels, for the cloud is a type of what cannot be seen. For the prophet, indicating clearly the invisibility of God, says, “Clouds and darkness are round about him.”
And there is a rainbow over his head, just as if he were saying that the sum and excellence of the angels’ good qualities is their brilliance. For they are angels of light.
He says, And his face was like the sun. And this is the proof of their original pure brilliance. But the rainbow has a created brilliance, indicating the brilliance that comes from the angelic virtues. So the brilliance of the rainbow is not of a single form, but is variegated, indicating all the virtues of angels. The sun symbolizes their sparkling nature. Wherefore he was wrapped in the rainbow, for their virtues are wrapped around us. But his face was like the sun, for among us the sun is a wholly natural boon.
And his feet were like pillars of fire. The fire indicates the retribution which he came to bring upon the impious.
He says, He had in his hand a miniature open scroll. Daniel mentioned such little scrolls, saying, “The court sat in judgment before him, and the scrolls were opened.” It was the miniature scroll in which were written both the names and the iniquities of the exceedingly impious who were to be punished. Wherefore he spoke of the miniature scroll, using a diminutive, since a scroll, or little scroll—for both descriptions occur in Holy Scripture—is that in which the names of all human beings have been written, as I have already said—but the miniature scroll is that in which are the names of the exceedingly impious. For those who worshiped images and were guilty of murder and witchcraft and were sick with the other evils that he recounted are unlikely to be numerous enough to fill a whole little scroll.
He says, And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land: this indicates the huge size of the holy ones; but it also shows that he was bringing retribution both to those who had sinned on land and to those on the sea, such as pirates or those who had harmed others at sea.
And he called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring: that the holy angel should roar like lions is a symbol of his wrath against the impious.
He says, And when he called out, the seven thunders made their own voices heard. By the seven thunders he means the seven ministering spirits, which have been mentioned earlier. That is why the definite article is used. He means that the seven thunders are analogous to those seven spirits.
What does the cry of the seven spirits mean? It means that they give their entire support to the punishment of the sinners, offering a thanksgiving hymn to God, because he has done everything justly. At the same time also as they cried out, they disclosed the different forms of punishment.
He says, I was about to write what was said by the seven spirits. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down. For seal means, “Have the recollection engraved in your mind,” but being prevented from committing it to writing implies a purpose the reason for which is known to God. Perhaps the punishments were lighter than those normally considered appropriate and reflect the goodness of the one inflicting the penalty, and so tended to make them contemptible for people.
What do blessed Gregory and all-knowledgeable Evagrius say about these things? The former says, “The retribution” for Adam and his kind “is compassion for humankind; for this is how I believe God punishes.” And in another place he says, “Neither is mercy without judgment, nor is judgment without mercy.” Evagrius says, “The deeper account of judgment may well escape the notice of the youth and the worldly; for they do not know” distress, “since their rational soul has been condemned to ignorance.”
[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 10:1