"And He says unto me, Thou must again prophesy to the peoples, and to the tongues, and to the nations, and to many kings." He says this, because when John said these things he was in the island of Patmos, condemned to the labour of the mines by Caesar Domitian. There, therefore, he saw the Apocalypse; and when grown old, he thought that he should at length receive his quittance by suffering, Domitian being killed, all his judgments were discharged. And John being dismissed from the mines, thus subsequently delivered the same Apocalypse which he had received from God. This, therefore, is what He says: Thou must again prophesy to all nations, because thou seest the crowds of Antichrist rise up; and against them other crowds shall stand, and they shall fall by the sword on the one side and on the other.
In the one angel he clearly shows the body of the church. Although he speaks of one, he shows many. “He says to me, ‘You must preach again.’ ” When did the church ever cease from its preaching, so that she should preach again what she had preached before? However, in the whole world [the church] is commanded to preach again among the peoples, tribes, tongues and in many regions what she had preached before. For there is one church diffused throughout the whole world, which she has filled with its preaching.
This passage indicates either that after the vision of the divine Revelation, that which was seen will not immediately receive its fulfillment, but that the saint must prophesy to those who read his Gospel and his Revelation until the consummation. Or the passage indicates that [John] would not yet taste death, but that at the end he would come to hinder the acceptance of the deceit of the antichrist.
And he said to me: You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations. He explains what the book eaten and the sweetness mixed with bitterness signify, namely, that, being freed from exile, he would preach the Gospel to the nations, sweet indeed with love, but bitter with the persecutions to be endured.
And he said to me: Thou must prophesy again to many peoples, and nations, and kings, and tongues. This is said to John specifically, and to preachers generally. They are ordered to prophesy, that is to preach, again, so as to proclaim again by their actions what they preach with their mouths.
And the voice that I heard from heaven, I heard it again, he says, speaking to me. What was it saying? “Take the little scroll from the angel.”
I took it, he says, and ate it, and it was sweet in my mouth, but after eating it was bitter in my stomach. Since the blessed evangelist both saw and heard the punishments imposed on the wicked, in order that it might be instilled by deed and not only by report that the sins of humankind were hated by God, being bitter and abominable, the teaching of the vision is this—for as he was a holy and chaste man he did not know this from experience—that in this way he might know that the wrath of God against the wicked was just. For the little scroll contained both the names and the transgressions of those who had sinned very grievously, as was said earlier.
Therefore, he was commanded to eat it, that as though by tasting and a kind of spiritual experience he might share through the vision in the bitterness of sins. And when he ate it he found that they were sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach after eating; for that is just like every sin. It is sweet while it is being performed, but bitter when accomplished. It thus provides grounds for punishment, and even in repentance it makes bitter those who have performed it. This was also just like the tree forbidden by God in paradise which all expound allegorically as sin, since it introduced the knowledge of good and evil, of good in the taste, but of evil after the experience.
He says, And he said to me, “You must again prophesy over many peoples and nations and kings,” just as if he were saying, “Since in a vision you have seen the consummation of the present age and God’s wrath against the wicked, do not now think that the day of consummation is actually present; there is a long time meanwhile for you to prophesy to many nations and kings.” So up till now blessed John has been prophesying by means of his gospel, his general epistles, and the present Revelation. For all that he has said and prophesied has been in the Spirit.
[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Revelation 10:11