Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

¹ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ² And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, ³ And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. ⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵ But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. ⁷ And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, ⁸ And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. ⁹ And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. ¹⁰ And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. ¹¹ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. ¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Revelation 20:1-3

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a chain in his hand. And he held the dragon, that old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed a little season." Those years wherein Satan is bound are in the first advent of Christ, even to the end of the age; and they are called a thousand, according to that mode of speaking, wherein a part is signified by the whole, just as is that passage, "the word which He commanded for a thousand generations," although they are not a thousand. Moreover that he says, "and he cast him into the abyss," he says this, because the devil, excluded from the hearts of believers, began to take possession of the wicked, in whose hearts, blinded day by day, he is shut up as if in a profound abyss. And he shut him up, says he, and put a seal upon him, that he should not deceive the nations until the thousand years should be finished. "He shut the door upon him," it is said, that is, he forbade and restrained his seducing those who belong to Christ. Moreover, he put a seal upon him, because it is hidden who belong to the side of the devil, and who to that of Christ. For we know not of those who seem to stand whether they shall not fall, and of those who are down it is uncertain whether they may rise. Moreover, that he says that he is bound and shut up, that he may not seduce the nations, the nations signify the Church, seeing that of them it itself is formed, and which being seduced, he previously held until, he says, the thousand years should be completed, that is, what is left of the sixth day, to wit, of the sixth age, which subsists for a thousand years; after this he must be loosed for a little season. The little season signifies three years and six months, in which with all his power the devil will avenge himself trader Antichrist against the Church. Finally, he says, after that the devil shall be loosed, and will seduce the nations in the whole world, and will entice war against the Church, the number of whose foes shall be as the sand of the sea.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:1

bottomless pit. this is meant the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the Church of God; (City of God 20.7)

[AD 560] Primasius of Hadrumetum on Revelation 20:1

We understand the angel coming down from heaven to be our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is called the angel of great counsel. He visited the region of those who are mortal, for as one who is stronger he wished to bind the strong one, so that he might make vessels of mercy out of those who had earlier been vessels of wrath. And he accomplished this through that work that he had promised before when he said, “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his wares, unless he first binds the strong man,” that is, the devil. The key of the bottomless pit is the depth of the divine judgments, for “the judgments of God are a great deep.” Indeed, to him alone is it known who from the mass of sinners are to be called out into the full number of the elect.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:1-2

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:1

We must entreat the Lord more earnestly here, lest we consent in error concerning the number of the thousand years or through our own excess nurture error. Rather, [let us entreat the Lord] that he who is called “Faithful” and “True” might keep our faith safe. The Lord himself said at the beginning of this book, “I am the first and the last, and the living one although I was dead; and I have the keys of death and of hades.” By the key it speaks of him who bears the office of ministry, so that he might open the pit of the abyss. The great chain is the unbreakable bond of the divine commandment. It is in his hand, which means that he exercises it by work and deed.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:1

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:1

an angel. An angel administers such a sentence,it says, in order to show that the devil is both weaker than thèse ministering powers in terms of power and that from the beginning in vain he boldly ruled over all.

Here he narrates the destruction of the devil which had taken place during the Master's passion, in which he who appeared to be strong, having bound us as his spoils, one stronger than he, Christ our God, redeemed us from his hands, condemning him to the abyss. This is shown by the demons calling upon him not to be cast into the abyss.(lk 8:31) chain. He (John) called the restraint of his evil activity chain for our clarification.

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:1

This passage expresses the destruction of the devil that occurred through the passion of our Lord. For through his passion the one who is stronger than [the devil], namely, Christ our God, bound him who seemed to be strong and freed us, who were his spoils, from his hands and condemned him by throwing him into the pit. This is shown by those demons who pleaded that he not send them into the pit. The demonstration that the devil is bound is the disappearance of idol worship, the destruction of pagan temples, the abandonment of the defilement of altars and the knowledge of the will of God throughout the world.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:1-3

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:1

And I saw an angel ... having the key to the abyss, etc. Recapitulating from the beginning, he more fully explains how he previously said: The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend from the abyss and go into destruction (Rev. 17). Therefore, the Lord, endowed with paternal power, descended in the flesh to wage war against the prince of the world, and, having bound him, to snatch away his vessels.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 945] Thietland of Einsiedeln on Revelation 20:1

chain. By this is the great quantity of his power represented.

[AD 945] Thietland of Einsiedeln on Revelation 20:1

key to the bottomless pit. this is because he has in his power the hearts of those whom he hardens, and of those whom he opens to believing. The bottomeless pit is the great number of the faithful peoples, because just as it is incomprehensible, so also is the great number of peoples.

[AD 945] Thietland of Einsiedeln on Revelation 20:1

an angel. That angel is the Lord Jesus Christ, an angel of great prudence, who decended from heaven through the mystery of the Incarnation.

[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 20:1-3

For this is what he goes on to say. Surely the Revelation is not telling us about the thousand years of the ungodly Greeks and the transmigration of souls and the water of Lethe and I do not know what nonsense and silly talk, when it says that the Devil will be bound for a thousand years and released again and deceive the nations? Forget about such worthless doctrines which are fitting for Greek crookedness!

What then does he say? The prophet tells us, “For a thousand years in your sight, Lord, are like yesterday which is past, and a watch in the night.” So, then, the thousand years are reckoned as one day in the eyes of God. The second epistle of blessed Peter says the same thing, when he writes, “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

So this is how it is: blessed Isaiah calls the whole incarnation of the Lord “a day,” saying, “In a time of favor I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.” Nor is this all: the psalmist, too, calls it a day and an early morning, saying somewhere, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” with the joy of our salvation; elsewhere he sings, “in the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will stand by you, and you will see me.” For our prayers have been deemed acceptable and worthy of the vision of God and the Father. They have become so by the intercession and atonement of the Lord. And again he says about Jerusalem, “God will help her in the early morning.”

The incarnation of the Lord has become the day and early morning, when “the sun of righteousness” (as Malachi calls him) shone upon us, and brought us “the light of knowledge.” Zechariah prophesied about this divine light, saying, “When the rising of the sun dawned upon us from on high, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” In accord with this the prophet also said, “The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us; bind the festal procession together with branches, up to the horns of the altar.” Since all this has already been explained, we must proceed to the matter in hand.

Since I have already said that a day is reckoned “as a thousand years” by God, and again that the earthly residence of the Lord has been called “a day,” he says this day is a thousand years, as though there is no distinction with God between one day and a thousand years.

It was in this period of the Lord’s incarnation that the Devil was bound, so that he was unable to oppose the savior’s divine miracles. This was why the destructive demons recognized these spiritual bonds and cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of the living God? Have you come to torment us before the time?” The Lord, too, when talking of stripping off the bonds, said, “Or how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.”

Since, as was said, we have considered the incarnation of the Lord and his earthly residence to be both one day and a thousand years, such a number being used indifferently in Holy Scripture in mystical fashion, see what the Revelation says: I saw another angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the bottomless pit and a chain, and he says, he seized the Devil and bound him and threw him into the pit.

As if in a sketch on a canvas, the evangelist perceives the spiritual actions of the Lord against the Devil. Since it was not possible for a human being such as John to see spiritual events, they are depicted for him in physical terms—an angel with a chain binding the Devil and throwing him into the bottomless pit. For this is how the book of Job, too, expressed in physical terms the Devil’s venture and God’s consent: it depicted the Devil begging God to give him [Job], and it depicted God as making a suitable response to his request and giving him Job, and then went on to write the story. So you will be right in thinking that I am now doing the same.

He says, That he should no longer deceive the nations, till the thousand years were ended: for the Lord’s sojourn on earth had to provide rather more succor and care so that the unclean demons might be prevented from exercising the same influence on human beings as they had in the time preceding the incarnation. He says,

After that he must be loosed for a little while. What sort of little while does he mean? That between the incarnation of the Lord and the end of the present age; for this is short, even if it may seem to be very long, when reckoned and compared with the past and the future. For if in the “last” hour, even in “the eleventh” hour, our Lord appeared in bodily form to us, according to the belief of Holy Scripture, the time until the end has rightly been called short, after which [the Devil] will be bound again with an eternal and endless bond.

But even now that he has been released, bind again, Lord, his wiles against us. For you are our king, and to you is due glory for ever. Amen.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:2

The Antichrist, rampant against mankind in the latter days, should be trampled down by Him (Jesus); and that He should bind “the dragon, that old serpent” and subject him to the power of man, who had been conquered so that all his might should be trodden down. (Against Heresies 3.23.7)

Source: Against Heresies Book III

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:2

-indicating that sin, which was set up and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death, should be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules

Source: Against Heresies Book III

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:2

This is the reason that he put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, with both of them maintaining the enmity: he, the sole of whose foot should be bitten, has power also to tread upon the enemy’s head; but the other bit, killed and impeded the steps of humanity until the seed came which was appointed to tread down his head. This was the seed who was born of Mary, of whom the prophet speaks, “You will tread upon the asp and the basilisk; you will trample down the lion and the dragon.” This means that sin, which was set up and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death, would be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules [over people]. The lion, that is, antichrist, who will be rampant against humankind in the latter days, will be trampled down by him. He shall bind “the dragon, that old serpent,” and subject him to the power of man, who had been conquered, so that all his might should be trodden down. Now Adam had been conquered, all life having been taken away from him. But the foe was conquered in his turn, and Adam received new life. The last enemy, death, is destroyed, which at the first had taken possession of humankind. Therefore, when man has been liberated, “what is written shall come to pass, Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” This could not be said with justice, if that man, over whom death did first obtain dominion, were not set free. For his salvation is death’s destruction. When therefore the Lord vivifies man, that is, Adam, death is at the same time destroyed.

Source: AGAINST HERESIES 3.23.7

[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 20:2

In the Revelation of John, again, the order of these times is spread out to view, which "the souls of the martyrs" are taught to wait for beneath the altar, whilst they earnestly pray to be avenged and judged: (taught, I say, to wait), in order that the world may first drink to the dregs the plagues that await it out of the vials of the angels, and that the city of fornication may receive from the ten kings its deserved doom, and that the beast Antichrist with his false prophet may wage war on the Church of God; and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while, the blessed prerogative of the first resurrection may be ordained from the thrones; and then again, after the consignment of him to the fire, that the judgment of the final and universal resurrection may be determined out of the books.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on Revelation 20:2-3

On this Caius the heretic objected : that Satan is bound here, according to that which is written, that Christ went up into the strong man's house and bound him, and spoiled his goods for us [St. Matth. xii. 29].

Hippolytus answered this and said : If the Devil has been bound, how does he deceive the faithful and persecute and plunder men ? And if you say that he has been bound as regards the faithful, how did he draw near against Christ, Him who aid no sin? according to the text, The Prince cometh and findeth no sin in me [St. John, xiv. 30 4]. And if then he has been bound, how did the Lord teach us to pray, that we should be delivered front the evil one [St. Matth. vi. 13] ? and why did he desire to tempt Simon and the Apostles [St. Luke, xxii. 31]? And how was one who had been bound able to sift and trouble the disciples [ib.]?

And truly for us the conflict is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world [Eph. vi. 12]. If he had been bound, he would not maintain the conflict, or catch away the word which was sown [St. Matth. xiii. 19], as is said in the Parable of the Seed. That He has bound the strong man; the meaning of it is this : that He has rebuked and cast scorn on those who did not come unto Him when He went against the Devil in order to purify them from his bondage and make them sons unto the Father.

And this is proved by what He said just after, that he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad [St. Matth. xii. 30]. Accordingly, in the end of times, the Devil is to be bound and to be flung into the bottomless pit, when the Lord comes ; even as Esaias hath said, that the wicked shall be taken away in order that he see not the glory of the Lord [Isai. xxvi. 10----LXX. (Syr. Hex.)].

And the number of the years is not the number of days, but it represents the space of one day, glorious and perfect; in which, when the King comes in glory with His slain, the creation is to shine : according to the text, The sun shall shine twofold [marg., |404 sevenfold; Isai. xxx. 26]; while the righteous eat with Him and drink of His vine. This is the day which the Lord hath made [Ps. cxviii. 24], which David spoke of.

Accordingly, when with the eye of the spirit John saw the glory of that day, he likened it to the space of a thousand years ; according to the saying, One day in the world of the righteous is as a thousand years [2 Pet. iii. 8 ?]. And by the number he shows that day to be perfect, for those that are faithful.

But as for what he has said, that after the thousand years he shall be loosed, and shall deceive the nations [Rev. xx. 7, 8], it is this: that justly he is to be loosed, and to be cast into the burning, and to be judged [ib. 10, 12] ; with those who from old time were gathered together with him, when he gathered the strangers of the kingdom, and Gog and Magog [ib. 8].'

Source: Dionysius Bar Salibi quoting Hippolytus on Revelation 20:2,3

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on Revelation 20:2

For as the times are noted from the foundation of the world, and reckoned from Adam, they set clearly before us the matter with which our inquiry deals. For the first appearance of our Lord in the flesh took place in Bethlehem, under Augustus, in the year 5500; and He suffered in the thirty-third year. And 6,000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day "on which God rested from all His works." For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they "shall reign with Christ," when He comes from heaven, as John says in his Apocalypse: for "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years." Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: "five are fallen; one is," that is, the sixth; "the other is not yet come."

In mentioning the "other," moreover, he specifies the seventh, in which there is rest. But some one may be ready to say, How will you prove to me that the Saviour was born in the year 5500? Learn that easily, O man; for the things that took place of old in the wilderness, under Moses, in the case of the tabernacle, were constituted types and emblems of spiritual mysteries, in order that, when the truth came in Christ in these last days, you might be able to perceive that these things were fulfilled. For He says to him, "And thou shalt make the ark of imperishable wood, and shalt overlay it with pure gold within and without; and thou shalt make the length of it two cubits and a half, and the breadth thereof one cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half the height; " which measures, when summed up together, make five cubits and a half, so that the 5500 years might be signified thereby.

At that time, then, the Saviour appeared and showed His own body to the world, (born) of the Virgin, who was the "ark overlaid with pure gold," with the Word within and the Holy Spirit without; so that the truth is demonstrated, and the "ark" made manifest. From the birth of Christ, then, we must reckon the 500 years that remain to make up the 6000, and thus the end shall be. And that the Saviour appeared in the world, bearing the imperishable ark, His own body, at a time which was the fifth and half, John declares: "Now it was the sixth hour," he says, intimating by that, one-half of the day. But a day with the Lord is 10000 years; and the half of that, therefore, is 500 years. For it was not meet that He should appear earlier, for the burden of the law still endured, nor yet when the sixth day was fulfilled (for the baptism is changed), but on the fifth and half, in order that in the remaining half time the gospel might be preached to the whole world, and that when the sixth day was completed He might end the present life.

Since, then, the Persians held the mastery for 330 years, and after them the Greeks, who were yet more glorious, held it for 300 years, of necessity the fourth beast, as being strong and mightier than all that were before it, will reign 500 years. When the times are fulfilled, and the ten horns spring from the beast in the last (times), then Antichrist will appear among them. When he makes war against the saints, and persecutes them, then may we expect the manifestation of the Lord from heaven.

Source: COMMENTARY ON DANIEL 2:4-5

[AD 325] Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius on Revelation 20:2

But He, when He shall have destroyed unrighteousness, and executed His great judgment, and shall have recalled to life the righteous, who have lived from the beginning, will be engaged among men a thousand years, and will rule them with most just command. Then they who shall be alive in their bodies shall not die, but during those thousand years shall produce an infinite multitude, and their offspring shall be holy, and beloved by God; but they who shall be raised from the dead shall preside over the living as judges...About the same time also the prince of the devils, who is the contriver of all evils, shall be bound with chains, and shall be imprisoned during the thousand years of the heavenly rule in which righteousness shall reign in the world, so that he may contrive no evil against the people of God. After His coming the righteous shall be collected from all the earth, and the judgment being completed, the sacred city shall be planted in the middle of the earth, in which God Himself the builder may dwell together with the righteous, bearing rule in it.

[AD 339] Eusebius of Caesarea on Revelation 20:2

St. Papias gives accounts which he says came to him through unwritten tradition...To these belong his statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth. I suppose he got these ideas through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not perceiving that the things said by them were spoken mystically in figures. For he appears to have been of very limited understanding, as one can see from his discourses. But it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man; as for instance Irenæus and any one else that may have proclaimed similar views. (Church History 3.39.13)

[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Revelation 20:2

The devil was hooked by the Lord, like a dragon, by the hook of the Cross; and was taken in a drag-net, and was bound like a fugitive slave, and his lips were perforated by a ring and a bracelet, and he is not permitted to devour any of the faithful. Now, like a wretched sparrow, he is made sport of by Christ; now he groans at his companions, being trodden like serpents and scorpions under the heels of Christians. (Life of Antony 24)

[AD 395] Gregory of Nyssa on Revelation 20:2

Do we promise the gluttony of the Millennium? Do we declare that the Jewish animal-sacrifices shall be restored? Do we lower men’s hopes again to the Jerusalem below, imagining its rebuilding with stones of a more brilliant material? (Letter 17)

[AD 403] Epiphanius of Salamis on Revelation 20:2

Now, as is evident, the thousand-year period is written about in the Revelation of John, and most people, including Origen, believe in the book. But most people, including the reverent, when they read the book, since they are familiar with spiritual realities and take the things that have a spiritual meaning in it in a spiritual way, believe indeed that they are true, but that their explanation lies deep beneath the surface of the text. For this is not the only passage whose meaning lies deep; there are many others.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:2

and bound him. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man (Matt. 12:29) — meaning by the strong man the devil, because he had power to take captive the human race; and meaning by his goods which he was to take, those who had been held by the devil in various sins and iniquities, but were to become believers in Himself. It was then for the binding of this strong one that the apostle saw here. bound him: But the binding of the devil is his being prevented from the exercise of his whole power to seduce men, either by violently forcing or fraudulently deceiving them into taking part with him. If he were during so long a period permitted to assail the weakness of men, very many persons, such as God would not wish to expose to such temptation, would have their faith overthrown, or would be prevented from believing; and that this might not happen, he is bound. For the Almighty does not absolutely seclude the saints from his temptation, but shelters only their inner man, where faith resides, that by outward temptation they may grow in grace. And He binds him that he may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice, hinder or destroy the faith of those countless weak persons, already believing or yet to believe, from whom the Church must be increased and completed;
Now the devil was thus bound not only when the Church began to be more and more widely extended among the nations beyond Judea, but is now and shall be bound till the end of the world, when he is to be loosed. Because even now men are, and doubtless to the end of the world shall be, converted to the faith from the unbelief in which he held them. (City of God 20.7)

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:2

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself said, “No one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man.” By “strong man” he means the devil, who was able to hold the human race in bondage. By his “goods” that Christ was to “plunder,” he means God’s future faithful ones whom the devil was keeping for himself because of their ungodliness and various sins. It was for the purpose of binding this strong man that John, in the Apocalypse, saw “an angel coming down from heaven … who bound [the ancient serpent] for a thousand years.” The angel, that is, checked and repressed his power to seduce and possess those destined to be set free.Now, the “thousand years” can, so far as I can see, be interpreted in one of two ways. One interpretation is that this event is to take place in the sixth and last millennium (the sixth “day”), the latter span of which is now passing, and that when John spoke of the last part of this millennium as a “thousand years” he was using, figuratively, the whole to indicate a part. (After this “sixth day” will come the “sabbath” that has no evening, namely, the endless repose of the blessed.)
The other interpretation makes the “thousand years” stand for all the years of the Christian era, a perfect number being used to indicate the “fullness of time.” For the number one thousand is the cube of ten. Ten times ten equals one hundred, which is already a square, but still a plane figure. To give it depth and make it a cube, one hundred is further multiplied by ten to make a thousand. Now it is true that the number one hundred is sometimes made to stand for “all.” Thus, the Lord promised to anyone leaving all things to follow him, “he shall receive a hundredfold.” … How much more properly, then, does the number one thousand stand for the whole, since it is the cube, whereas one hundred is only the square of ten? In the same way there is no better interpretation of the text, “he has remembered his covenant forever: the word that he commanded to a thousand generations,” than to take “a thousand” as meaning “all” generations.

Source: City of God 20.7

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:2

In Greek letters, one thousand is designated with an “alpha.” In the alpha we have the beginning, which is Christ; in the name [of Christ] we have the cross, which is our victory and the destruction of the evil enemy. Therefore, both by the cross of Christ and by the authority of the cross he bound the enemy of the world who deceived those who dwell upon the earth. For to that eternity no time is added, and the eternity of his time will be enclosed by no end, nor will there ever be an end to the number of years. And so by the sovereignty of the Lord through the power of the cross he bound him in the abyss.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:2

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Revelation 20:2

For by the number of a thousand he denoted not the quantity of time but the universality, with which the Church exercises dominion. Now the old serpent is bound with a chain and cast into the bottomless pit, because being tied up from the hearts of the good, while he is shut up in the minds of lost sinners, he rules over them with worse cruelty. (Morals 18.42)

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:2

Also the great Justin says that at the coming of Christ the devil will first learn that he is condemned to the abyss, that is, to the Gehenna of fire. It is, therefore, possible also to understand the sentence of Christ against the devil in the words just spoken. The seer says that the angel administers this sentence, thereby revealing that [the devil] is weaker in power than the ministering powers and showing the vanity of one who insolently opposes him who has rule over all things. For our understanding, he speaks of a “chain,” meaning the work of restraining [the devil’s] evil. It is in no way good to understand the “thousand years” as referring to a thousand years as such. For when David says “of the word that he commanded for a thousand generations,” we ought not to understand this to mean a hundred years times ten. Rather, David means many [generations] taken as a whole. So also in this case, we regard the number “thousand” to signify either many or that which is complete. If we take it to mean “many,” then it refers to the preaching of the gospel into all the world and the sowing of the seeds of piety in the world. [Or] should it mean “complete,” then it signifies that during this time, having been released from the life learned from the law, we have been called to the “perfect man,” to the measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ. Therefore, the “thousand years” are the time from the incarnation of the Lord until the arrival of the antichrist. Whether the matter is as we have interpreted it, or the thousand years are one hundred times ten, as some believe, or the thousand years are less than this, this is known to God alone, who knows how long his patience is beneficial to us, and he determines the continuance of the present life.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:1-3

[AD 690] Julian of Toledo on Revelation 20:2

The thousand years refers to when the church of God which, by the diffusion of its faith and works, is spread out as a kingdom of faith from the time of the Incarnation until the time of the coming judgment.

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:2

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, etc. The devil is interpreted as flowing downward. In Greek, he is called the accuser. Satan means adversary or transgressor. He is called a dragon because of the malice of harming; a serpent because of the cunning of deceiving; the devil because of his fall from his status; and Satan because of his obstinacy in opposing the Lord.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:2

And he bound him for a thousand years. That is, restraining and curbing his power from seducing those who were to be freed. If he were allowed to exercise his full power with force or deceit, he would deceive many of the weak in such a long time. He said a thousand years, meaning a part, that is, the remainder of the thousand years of the sixth day in which the Lord was born and suffered.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 945] Thietland of Einsiedeln on Revelation 20:2

old serpent. The Devil is rightly called serpent because he decieved the first man through the serpent, and also rightly called old on account of the antiquity of the time, because at the beginning of created things he was created by God.

[AD 1171] Jacob Bar-Salibi on Revelation 20:2

'On this Caius the heretic objected : that Satan is bound here, according to that which is written, that Christ went up into the strong man's house and bound him, and spoiled his goods for us [St. Matth. xii. 29].

Hippolytus answered this and said : If the Devil has been bound, how does he deceive the faithful and persecute and plunder men ? And if you say that he has been bound as regards the faithful, how did he draw near against Christ, Him who aid no sin? according to the text, The Prince cometh and findeth no sin in me [St. John, xiv. 30 4]. And if then he has been bound, how did the Lord teach us to pray, that we should be delivered front the evil one [St. Matth. vi. 13] ? and why did he desire to tempt Simon and the Apostles [St. Luke, xxii. 31]? And how was one who had been bound able to sift and trouble the disciples [ib.]?

And truly for us the conflict is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world [Eph. vi. 12]. If he had been bound, he would not maintain the conflict, or catch away the word which was sown [St. Matth. xiii. 19], as is said in the Parable of the Seed. That He has bound the strong man;5 the meaning of it is this : that He has rebuked and cast scorn on those who did not come unto Him when He went against the Devil in order to purify them from his bondage and make them sons unto the Father.

And this is proved by what He said just after, that he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad [St. Matth. xii. 30]. Accordingly, in the end of times, the Devil is to be bound and to be flung into the bottomless pit, when the Lord comes ; even as Esaias hath said, that the wicked shall be taken away in order that he see not the glory of the Lord [Isai. xxvi. 10----LXX. (Syr. Hex.)].5

And the number of the years is not the number of days, but it represents the space of one day, glorious and perfect; in which, when the King comes in glory with His slain, the creation is to shine : according to the text, The sun shall shine twofold [marg., sevenfold; Isai. xxx. 26]; while the righteous eat with Him and drink of His vine. This is the day which the Lord hath made [Ps. cxviii. 24], which David spoke of.

Accordingly, when with the eye of the spirit John saw the glory of that day, he likened it to the space of a thousand years ; according to the saying, One day in the world of the righteous is as a thousand years [2 Pet. iii. 8 ?]. And by the number he shows that day to be perfect, for those that are faithful.

But as for what he has said, that after the thousand years he shall be loosed, and shall deceive the nations [Rev. xx. 7, 8], it is this: that justly he is to be loosed, and to be cast into the burning, and to be judged [ib. 10, 12] ; with those who from old time were gathered together with him, when he gathered the strangers of the kingdom, and Gog and Magog [ib. 8].'

[AD 1198] Nerses of Lambron on Revelation 20:2

bound. Satan was then bound when he was mocked on the Cross, and mankind received authority from Christ to walk on that same serpent as on one bound, those whom he was unable to harm.

[AD 1274] Thomas Aquinas on Revelation 20:2

Certain heretics asserted that there will be a first resurrection of the dead that they may reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years; whence they were called "chiliasts" or "millenarians."

[AD 1298] Peter Olivi on Revelation 20:2

Moreover, if you begin the unloosing of Satan in connection with the time of the great Antichrist from the time when, under the fifth trumpet, the star falling from heaven took the key to the bottomless pit and opened it, then from Christ's resurrection to that time there are around one thousand years during which the saints reign with Christ.

[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 20:3

But if, on the other hand, there is to be an end of evil, when the chief thereof, the devil, shall "go away into the fire which God hath prepared for him and his angels" -having been first "cast into the bottomless pit; " when likewise "the manifestation of the children of God" shall have "delivered the creature" from evil, which had been "made subject to vanity; " when the cattle restored in the innocence and integrity of their nature shall be at peace with the beasts of the field, when also little children shall play with serpents; when the Father shall have put beneath the feet of His Son His enemies, as being the workers of evil,-if in this way an end is compatible with evil, it must follow of necessary that a beginning is also compatible with it; and Matter will turn out to have a beginning, by virtue of its having also an end.

Source: Against Hermogenes

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:3

set a seal upon him. that it was designed to keep it a secret who belonged to the devil's party and who did not. For in this world this is a secret, for we cannot tell whether even the man who seems to stand shall fall, or whether he who seems to lie shall rise again.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:3

no more suduce the nations. The devil, then, is bound and shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and which he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For it is not said that he should not seduce any man, but that he should not seduce the nations— meaning, no doubt, those among which the Church exists.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:3

The devil was cast into the “abyss,” taken in the sense of the countless number of godless people whose bitter hatred of God’s church comes from the abysmal depths of their hearts. The devil was cast into those hearts, not in the sense that he was not there before, but because in proportion as he has been more and more shut out from believing hearts, he has taken still deeper hold upon unbelievers. It is bad enough to be a stranger to God, but gratuitously to hate God’s servants is to have the devil’s hold take even deeper root.… The words “closed it over him” mean that the angel rendered him powerless to escape, that is, forbade him to go beyond bounds. The further verb, “sealed,” means, I think, that the angel wants no one to know the secret of who is on the devil’s side and who is not. For to be sure, this secret division is absolutely unknowable in this world of time, inasmuch as we have no certainty whether the one who is now upright is going to fall, and the one who is now lying flat is going to rise to righteousness. The nations or people freed from the devil’s seductions, in virtue of this restraining and disabling chaining and imprisonment, are those whom he used to lead astray and hold captive but who now belong to Christ. For God chose, before the world was made, to rescue these from the power of darkness and to transfer them into the kingdom of his beloved Son, as Paul says. With respect to others not predestined to eternal life, the devil continues to this very day to lead these people astray and to drag them down into eternal damnation, as every believer knows. And these assertions are not shaken by the fact that the devil often seduces those people, too, who have been reborn in Christ and walk in the ways of God. For “the Lord knows who are his.” Of these chosen ones the devil seduces no one to the point of eternal damnation. For the Lord’s knowledge of his elect is a divine knowledge and perfect knowledge, wholly unlike the knowledge a person has of his fellow man. Even at the moment of looking, a man can hardly see another man, since he does not see his heart, and he has no foresight at all of how anyone, including himself, is going to turn out in the future.

Source: City of God 20.7

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:3

When he is let loose at last, there will be little time left, since, as we read, he and his [followers] will rage with the fullness of strength only for three years and six months. Moreover, the people upon whom he will make war are to be such people as will be beyond overpowering by his open attacks or hidden ambush. If he were never set free, the full measure of his malevolent power would never be known, nor would the full measure of the holy city’s staunchness under fire be put to the test. Likewise, we would not have a full view of the good use to which almighty God puts the devil’s great wickedness. For example, [we would not see] how God allows him, even though driven from the saints’ inmost hearts which cling to God in faith, to tempt the saints somewhat so that they may profit by these external assaults. We would not see how God, further, has bound him in those who belong to his camp, to make it impossible for him to spill out and set to work such quantities of his evil power as would topple down countless weak souls destined to increase and fill the church. These include already believing people whose constancy the devil would smash, and people destined to believe whom he would frighten from the faith. At last, God will loose him to the end that all people may see how mighty a foe God’s city had overcome—all to the immense glory of its Liberator, Helper, Redeemer.… However, it may be asked whether, during the last three years and a half in which the unleashed devil will stage his all-out offensive, any one of these haters [of Christians] is to turn at last to the faith he formerly spurned? Think of the text: “How can anyone enter the strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?” How can these words remain true if the devil can be dispossessed just as well when he is loosed? The text seems to compel us to believe that the brief interval in question will witness no new conversions to Christianity, but that the devil will do battle only with those who are already Christians at the time of his unleashing—and, of course, any whom he may win over to his side will not have been numbered among the predestined sons of God.

Source: City of God 20.8

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Revelation 20:3

These thousand years are reckoned from the passion of Christ. During them it is not permitted to the devil to do whatever he wishes, for God does not permit his servants to be tempted beyond that which they are able to endure.

Source: EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:3, HOMILY 17

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:3

set a seal upon him. That is, placed upon it the bolt of the cross so that he might never regain his strength, nor any more seduce the nations, whom the resurrection will restore and make better.

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:3

“And sealed it over him,” that is, placed upon it the bolt of the cross so that he might never regain his strength, nor any more seduce the nations, whom the resurrection will restore and make better. Nonetheless, to this explanation the following seems in opposition. “Until the thousand years shall be ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.” However, one can understand this to mean to the extent that the will of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and his command allow. “For a little while,” that is, in a moment of time and by the power of the one who commands, [Satan] is dissolved into nothing and at the same time disappears. For if he is loosed so that he might be free, how then does he say, “I saw thrones?” This is similar to the most holy Daniel who speaks in the same sense as follows: “In that day your people shall be saved, every one whose [name] shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace, that they might eternally see.” For, how is he released from chains, if the resurrection is already celebrated and if the seats of judgment are seen?

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:3-4

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:3

After this, the antichrist will put the whole world into confusion, bearing in himself the activity of the evil one and pouring out upon humankind the wine of his venomous wickedness, since he knows that his torment is without end. Redeeming us from his works, the all-merciful God will save us from the punishment that has been “prepared for him and his angels,” and he will manifest those who partake of the eternal blessings that are being made ready for those who opposed him [antichrist] even to the shedding of blood. For it is proper to ascribe to him mercy for those who trusted him, and he is worthy of thanksgiving and worship from every holy power, together with the Father and the life-giving Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:1-3

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:3

And he threw him into the abyss. Into the hearts of the persecuting people. Not because the devil was not there before, but because, excluded from the believers, he began to possess the wicked more abundantly, who are not only alienated from God but also more bitterly hate those who serve God. The Lord also visibly showed this when He expelled him from humans into pigs.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:3

And he shut him up and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. He forbade and, as if with a royal seal, closed him off, so that he might not deceive the nations, but those destined for life, whom he previously seduced, might not be reconciled to God.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:3

After that, he must be released for a little while. Then he will be released, as Saint Augustine says, when there will also be a short time (for it is read that he will rage with all his might for three and a half years), and there will be those with whom he will wage war, who cannot be overcome by his great force and tricks. If he were never released, his malignant power would appear less, the faithful patience of the holy city would be less tested, and it would be less evident how God, the Almighty, has used his great evil so well.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:3

he must be loosed for a little while. This they (Peter Auriol and Alexander Minorita) explain with regards to the time of the Antichrist when the power of the Devil will be released to deceive the nations.

[AD 130] Papias of Hierapolis on Revelation 20:4-6

There will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and... the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth.

Source: Church History (Book III), Chapter 39, Section 12

[AD 165] Justin Martyr on Revelation 20:4-6

But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.

Source: Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 80, Section 2

[AD 165] Justin Martyr on Revelation 20:4

And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell

Source: Dialogue of Justin

[AD 258] Cyprian on Revelation 20:4

What hope and reward remains for the righteous and for martyrs after the conflicts and sufferings of this present time, The Holy Spirit shows and predicts by Solomon, saying: "And although in the sight of men they suffered torments, yet their hope is full of immortality. And having been troubled in a few things, they shall be in many happily ordered, because God has tried them, and has found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He hath tried them; and as whole burnt-offerings of sacrifice, He hath received them, and in its season there will be respect of them. They will shine and run about as sparks in a place set with reeds. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the peoples; and their Lord shall reign for ever." In the same also our vengeance is described, and the repentance of those who persecute and molest us is announced. "Then," saith he," shall the righteous stand in great constancy before such as have afflicted them, and who have taken away their labours; when they see it, they shall be troubled with a horrible fear: and they shall marvel at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, These are they whom we had sometime in derision and as a proverb of reproach. We fools counted their life madness, and their end to be without honour. How are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun hath not risen upon us. We have been wearied in the way of unrighteousness and perdition, and have walked through hard deserts, but have not known the way of the Lord. What hath pride profited us, or what hath the boasting of riches brought to us? All these things have passed away like a shadow." Likewise in the cxvth Psalm is shown the price and the reward of suffering: "Precious," it says, "in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. In the cxxvth Psalm also is expressed the sadness of the struggle, and the joy of the retribution: "They who sow," it says. "in tears, shall reap in joy. As they walked, they walked and wept, casting their seeds; but as they come again, they shall come in exultation, bearing their sheaves." And again, in the cxviiith Psalm: "Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who search His testimonies, and seek Him out with their whole heart." Moreover, the Lord in the Gospel, Himself the avenger of our persecution and the rewarder of our suffering, says: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And again: "Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and shall separate you, and shall expel you, and shall revile your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven." And once more: "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." Nor do the rewards of the divine promise attend those alone who are reproached and slain; but if the passion itself, be wanting to the faithful, while their faith has remained sound and unconquered, and having forsaken and contemned all his possessions, the Christian has shown that he is following Christ, even be also is honoured by Christ among the martyrs, as He Himself promises and says: "There is no man that leaveth house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but shall receive seven times as much in this present time, and in the world to come eternal life." In the Apocalypse also He says the same thing: "And I saw," saith he, "the souls of them that were slain for the name of Jesus and the word of God." And when he had placed those who were slain in the first place, he added, saying: "And whosoever had not worshipped the image of the beast, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hand; "all these he joins together, as seen by him at one time in the same place, and says, "And they lived and reigned with Christ." He says that all live and reign with Christ, not only who have been slain; but even whosoever, standing in firmness of the faith and in the fear of God, have not worshipped the image of the beast, and have not consented to his deadly and sacrilegious edicts.

Source: Treatise XI. Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus.

[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Revelation 20:4-6

Therefore they are not to be heard who assure themselves that there is to be an earthly reign of a thousand years; who think, that is to say, with the heretic Cerinthus. For the kingdom of Christ is now eternal in the saints, although the glory of the saints shall be manifested after the resurrection.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Revelation 20:4-5

"And I saw thrones, and them that sate upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were slain on account of the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his writing on their forehead or in their hand; and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years: the rest of them lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." There are two resurrections. But the first resurrection is now of the souls that are by the faith, which does not permit men to pass over to the second death. Of this resurrection the apostle says: "If ye have risen with Christ, seek those things which are above."

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

[AD 339] Eusebius of Caesarea on Revelation 20:4-6

To these belong his [Papias] statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth. I suppose he got these ideas through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not perceiving that the things said by them were spoken mystically in figures.

For he appears to have been of very limited understanding, as one can see from his discourses. But it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man; as for instance Irenæus and any one else that may have proclaimed similar views.

Source: Church History (Book III), Chapter 39, Sections 12-13

[AD 420] Jerome on Revelation 20:4-6

He [Papias] is said to have published a 'Second coming of Our Lord or Millennium'. Irenæus and Apollinaris and others who say that after the resurrection the Lord will reign in the flesh with the saints, follow him. Tertullian also in his work 'On the hope of the faithful', Victorinus of Petau and Lactantius follow this view.

Source: De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men)

[AD 420] Jerome on Revelation 20:4-6

[Daniel 7:17-18] "These four great beasts are the four kingdoms which shall arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High God shall take the kingdom." The four kingdoms of which we have spoken above were earthly in character. "For everything which is of the earth shall return to earth" (Ecclesiastes 3:20). But the saints shall never possess an earthly kingdom, but only a heavenly. Away, then, with the fable about a millennium! (Revelation 20:4-6)

"...And they shall possess the kingdom unto eternity, even forever and ever..." If this be taken to refer to the Maccabees, the advocate of this position should explain how the kingdom of the Maccabees is of a perpetual character.

Source: St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER SEVEN

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:4

image. seems to me to mean his simulation, to wit, in those men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. ; For they pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians, not from a true likeness but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and His most glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of His kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle says, Be not yoked with unbelievers? 2 Corinthians 6:14 For such do not worship, i.e., do not consent, are not subjected; neither do they receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by their profession, on their hand by their practice.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:4

And I saw the seats... For, after saying that the devil is bound a thousand years and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done in the Church in those days. It is not to be supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be produced than that which we have in the words, What ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 18:18 Whence the apostle says, What have I to do with judging them that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 1 Corinthians 5:12

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:4

that is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger to run to His baptism, that we might not pass from this life without it; nor to reconciliation, if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be severed from His body. For why are these things practised, if not because the faithful, even though dead, are His members? Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with Him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:4

During the “thousand years” when the devil is bound, the saints also reign for a “thousand years” and, doubtless, the two periods are identical and mean the span between Christ’s first and second coming. For not only in that future kingdom to which Christ referred in the words, “Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you,” but even now those saints reign with him in some authentic though vastly inferior fashion. To them he said, “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” … This, to be sure, is the period in which the scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven brings forth from his storeroom things new and old, as I mentioned above. So, too, the reapers are to gather up out of the church the weeds, which he allows to grow intermixed with the wheat up to the time of harvest.… This certainly cannot be the kingdom that is to be utterly without scandals. The kingdom from which scandals are gathered out, then, must be the church on earth.… The mixed kingdom must be the church, such as she exists in her temporal stage, while the unmixed kingdom is the church such as she will be when she is to contain no evildoer. Consequently the church, even in this world, here and now, is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Here and now Christ’s saints reign with him, although not in the way they are destined to reign hereafter; but the “weeds” do not reign with him, even now, though they grow along with the “wheat” in the church.… Those alone reign with Christ whose presence in his kingdom is such that they themselves are his kingdom.… Now it is of this militant stage of the kingdom, during which there is still war with our enemy, alternating victory over, and defeat before, our evil inclinations, that the Apocalypse speaks. The “thousand years” are to last until we come to that kingdom, free of the foe, where the saints reign in fullest peace.… After mentioning the devil’s chaining for a thousand years and his brief interval of freedom to follow, John sums up the activity of and in the church during the “thousand years”: “And I saw thrones, and men sat upon them and judgment was given to them.” Now there is no question of the last judgment in this verse. The thrones and the enthroned people are the prelates who govern the church here and now. And the judgment is best interpreted as the one contained in the words, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.”

Source: City of God 20.9

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:4

We are to understand as implied by the words that come further on that these souls of the martyrs “reigned with Christ a thousand years”—of course, not yet reunited with their bodies. For the souls of the faithful departed are not divorced from Christ’s kingdom, which is the temporal church. If they were, we should not be mindful of them at God’s altar in the communion of the body of Christ; nor would there be any point in hastening one’s baptism in time of danger, lest one die unbaptized; nor in seeking reconciliation, when one has been cut off from Christ’s body by a sinful conscience or by the church’s penitential discipline. Why do we go to all this trouble if the faithful departed are not still Christ’s members? We may be sure, then, that their souls reign with him, just as their bodies will in time to come, even while the thousand years are rolling on.… We conclude, therefore, that even now, in time, the church reigns with Christ both in its living and departed members. “For to this end Christ died,” says Paul, “and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” If John mentions only the souls of the martyrs, that is because they who have battled for the truth unto death reign in death with a special splendor. But as the part is here used for the whole, we know that the words apply to the remaining faithful who belong to the same church, which is Christ’s kingdom.

Source: City of God 20.9

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:4

This verse should be applied to both the living and the dead.… As to the identity of the beast in question, there is need of very careful study. Nevertheless, consistently with sound faith, one may take it to be the godless city as opposed to the city of God, men and women without faith as opposed to those who believe. The beast’s “image,” I think, is his deception as found, for example, in such people as profess the faith yet live like pagans. For they pretend to be what, in fact, they are not, and are called Christians, not because of full faith but of false face. The beast possesses, in addition to the openly avowed enemies of Christ’s name and of his glorious city, the “weeds” that are marked for uprooting from his kingdom, the church, at the end of the world. Those who do not follow the beast or his image are surely those who follow Paul’s admonition: “Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers.” Their not worshiping means their not agreeing with, their not becoming subjects to, unbelievers. Their not accepting his “mark” upon their “foreheads” and “hands” means that they refuse the stigma of false faith and bad morals. Such people, alive or dead, keep themselves aloof from such evils and so reign with Christ, even now, in a fashion befitting the passage of time, throughout this whole era indicated by the “thousand years.”

Source: City of God 20.9

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:4

The souls of all the martyrs and of all the Christian faithful who rise again and awaken from the dust of the earth shall reign, it says, with Christ for a thousand years. That is, they will reign by the sign of the cross and by the pre-eminence of the Lord’s passion.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:4

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:4

And I saw the seats. Already teaching thrones have been given to the holy apostles through whom the nations have been enlightened. They will be given, according to the divine promise also in the future for judging those who rejected the gospel preaching. And the souls of them.... they will judge the demons, until the consummation the present age, (the saints) being venerated by pious kings and faithful rulers, and manifesting God-given power against every bodily ailment and demonic activity.

Those liberated from them by Christ, according to the manner mentioned above, will co-reign until his second coming, afterwards enjoying these divine promises to an even greater degree.

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:4

Indeed, the teaching thrones had already been given to the holy apostles through whom the nations have been enlightened. However, thrones will also be given according to the purpose of God in the age to come for the condemnation of those who rejected the preaching of the gospel. As David said, “For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, as a testimony for Israel,” and again, “For there are set thrones for judgment.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:4

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:4

Judgment, that is, the authority to judge, was given to the rest of the saints, namely, to the martyrs who suffered for Christ and did not receive the mark of that spiritual beast, the devil, that is, the image of his apostasy. And as we can see, even to the present time they judge the demons by this authority, for they reign with Christ until the consummation of the present age and are honored by pious kings and faithful rulers and demonstrate their God-given power against every bodily weakness and demonic activity. It is clear that the devil, the antichrist and the false prophet share with one another both their deeds and their names, since each of them is called “beast,” and the dragon, clearly Satan, is shown with seven heads and ten horns with as many diadems. Moreover, the beast that comes up out of the sea, clearly the antichrist, appears in a similar form and testifies to the same will and activity for the destruction of those who have been deceived. Those who have been freed from this will reign with Christ in the manner just mentioned until his second coming, and after that they will enjoy more abundantly the promises of God.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:4

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:4

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, etc. He indicates what will be done during these thousand years in which the devil is bound. The Church, which will sit in Christ on the twelve thrones to judge, already sits, judging, as it has merited to hear from its King: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven (Matt. 16).

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:4

And the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, etc. It is understood what he will say later: They reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The Church, therefore, reigns with Christ among the living and the dead. For this reason, as the Apostle says, Christ died so that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead (Rom. 14). But he mentions only the souls of the martyrs because they particularly reign after death, having fought for the truth to the point of death. What follows:

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:4

And those who did not worship the beast, etc. We must understand this as referring to both the living and the dead, who, whether still living in this mortal flesh or having passed away, reign with Christ already now in a way appropriate to this time, throughout this entire interval signified by the number of a thousand years.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 20:4-8

The previous chapter had said that after the vision had once made mention of the Devil, in order to retain some continuity in the account, it went on to describe not only what the Devil will suffer at the end of the present age, but also his spiritual sufferings in the time of the Lord’s incarnation. The vision continues with this theme and describes in greater detail the Lord’s incarnate visit to us; this is now our present concern.

For he says, Then I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was committed to them: he sees in his vision the holy apostles “seated on twelve thrones” and “judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” according to the promise made to them. Although this will be more fully effected in the age to come, it has already happened in some way in the time of the incarnation. For those who put their trust in the Lord and so received a share in countless benefits condemned those who refused to hasten to the faith and so, though taught by the grace given to the apostles, did not attain the true worship of God, but rather devised a cross and death for him.

He says, And the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God: the verb I saw in the phrase “those seated upon thrones and judging the rest of mankind” is to be understood here, too. By those who had been beheaded he means those who had been killed with an axe. He is speaking figuratively about those who had put to death their own bodies because of their faith in Christ, and who endured very much because of it. For they expelled them from the synagogues, assaulted them with countless abuses, and plundered their personal possessions, when they put their faith entirely in Christ, as the wise apostle testifies. The Lord also spoke of them, “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

If you follow the sequence of the argument and subject every thought in obedience to Holy Scripture, you will understand that those who did not worship the beast and did not receive its mark or its image, are those who did not agree with the rest of the Jews in their plots against the Lord, and who refused to obey the propositions of the abominable and blasphemous Devil. For this is to worship him and his image. For by the word image he means the imprint of [the Devil’s] will in the hearts of the Jews. He also means that this mark includes both control and action. For the head, of which the forehead is a part, stands for control, and the hand stands for action.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years: as was said earlier, he again calls the Lord’s domicile on earth a thousand years, during which they were living their spiritual life, and reigning together with Christ, as they gave orders to demons, cured diseases, and worked countless miracles. For it is not simply by being present with Christ, the king of glory, that a person reigns together with him. So the prophet said of them, “When the Heavenly One gives the orders, kings will be covered with snow in Salmon.”

The rest of the dead did not come to life, he says, until the thousand years were ended: he calls dead those who have persisted in unbelief, about whom the Lord also said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” So the unbelievers did not come to the spiritual life until the time of the incarnation had ended, which is the thousand years; for they came to life only after this. How? By the coming and presence of the Holy Spirit. For by then most of the Jews had come to faith in Christ, who did not believe in him when he was physically dwelling and moving among them.

The event was most divinely ordered, beyond the hope of any human mind. For when the Son had been proclaimed and made known in the old covenant as well as by his incarnation and his countless divine signs and miracles, the Holy Spirit had not yet been clearly revealed to human beings. There was only a report about the Spirit in the old covenant, but there was no manifest and perceptible work of the kind which specially leads people to faith, as there was of the Son, even though the Spirit was being made known to those who had attained the depth of vision, because everything which has been done and effected has been accomplished by the Holy Trinity.

The Lord clearly proves this, saying somewhere, “The Father has told me what I am to say and what I am to speak,” and again, “I can do nothing on my own,” referring the events to the Trinity; and again in John, “The Son of man can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees his Father doing”; and elsewhere he asserts, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.”

But since, as I have said, there was no perceptible work of the Holy Spirit available to human beings, it was arranged that almost all people should receive faith in Christ by the coming and the power of the Paraclete and of God the Father, in order that it might be clear to everyone that the Spirit was of the same substance as the Father and the Son, and possessed of the same power.

Of course, in the whole period of the incarnation not more than “a hundred and twenty” are recorded as having been believers. This was the number reckoned by Acts of those assembled in the upper room. Even if the power of the teaching of Christ had reached many others, their faith was maintained by the coming of the Spirit.

So one might find that, just as when seed has been scattered the rain comes down and the sun shines upon all the seeds that up to this time have been hidden unnoticed in the earth, and then they spring up and become visible, because they were wholly stored up in the earth, so, too, the same thing happens at the coming of the Holy Spirit. All those in whom the teaching of the Lord had been sown sprang up into faith. So the Revelation accurately says that the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years had ended.

He says, This is the first resurrection, that is to say, which results from faith: the second will be the universal bodily resurrection. Therefore,

Blessed is the one who has a share in the first resurrection: for we shall all have a share in the second, whether we like it or not.

But he says that the second death will not have any power over those who share in the first resurrection, that is, the faithful. What sort of death is this? It is that quite clearly which results from sin and is followed by punishment. For just as he has spoken of the first and the second resurrection, so he speaks of the first and second death. The first one is the physical death, which separates the soul and the body, but the second death is the spiritual death, resulting from sin. The Lord said of this, “Do not fear those who kill the body; but rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”

The faithful, he says, shall be priests of God and of Christ: all the faithful were appointed priests of the evangelical word, about whom the prophet, striking the prophetic lyre, said, “You will make them rulers over the whole world.” And they shall reign with him for a thousand years, which are the years of the incarnation, as I have said more than once.

And when, he says, the thousand years are ended, that is, when the Lord has completed his course in the flesh and has gone back into heaven, the Devil will be set free from his spiritual bonds and will again deceive the nations. For it has already been said that the dwelling of the Lord with human beings nullified the activity of the Devil. But once the Lord has gone up into heaven, both the Devil himself will carry on his own customary activity, and human beings on earth in their usual way will follow their free will. In the face of the Devil’s attempts to deceive everybody, some obey him, while others who refuse to do so struggle against the evil one.

But perhaps someone will say, “Why in the world was the Devil, whose assault was restrained and held in check by the bodily presence of the Lord, again set free to deceive us upon earth? For would it not have been better for him to have been bound, and for human beings to continue undeceived?”

To such a one we should reply, “Why do you not rather say, ‘Why did the Devil come into being at all, or when he had been created and then transgressed, why was he not utterly destroyed, to prevent him getting access against human beings?’ And how, my good fellow, would the contestants have been trained without any opponent? And how would the might of athletes have been shown if there were no competitors?

For slothful human beings, giving way to their desires, go all awry when left to themselves without the presence and provocation of the Devil, whereas the people of God and noble contestants would be unfairly treated if they were not able publicly to display their courage in the face of their sufferings. So it turns out that whereas the slothful would have no benefit if Satan did not exist, the noble would suffer great unfairness. For Satan is a kind of trainer of human beings, providing an opportunity for the contestants to receive a crown of victory. For those who love sin, who in the absence of the Devil use their own laziness as a substitute for the Devil, have not been at all unfairly treated, as I have said. So in spite of himself he does good to some, and does no harm, or very little, to others.

But on account of you and me, ‘the slaves of sin,’ irresponsible and irresolute, in order that we might suffer little or no further harm from the activity of the Devil, you wanted patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, those who had persevered in their witness to Christ unto death and had kept loyalty with him, as well as confessors and pastors who had faithfully guided the churches, and the most steadfast ascetics, and every righteous person perfected in the faith of Christ, ‘of whom this world was not worthy’—you wanted them all to be deprived of glory. The noble contenders for virtue alleviate the penalty of those sinners who for quite a short time suffer harm. A single person who acts rightly is more honored by God than countless others who break faith.”

Both events have been effected in the best and most inspired way—the impious assaults of the Devil were checked during the bodily presence of the Lord, and after the Lord’s ascension into heaven the Devil was freed to test human beings. For if Satan had been allowed to display all his activity when the Lord was dwelling on earth, he would not have permitted people either to hear his divine teachings or to learn who it is who is naturally and truly God, or the nature of the holy worship due to him, or the difference between evil and goodness. He would also have prepared the cross for him before the time, even before he began his teaching. If this had happened, the incarnation of the Lord and such a wonderfully glorious mystery would have been incomplete, or rather useless.

But after those on earth had been taught these things while the Devil was in bondage, they were then able to use their own free will, and to continue the fight against the adversary on the basis of acknowledged and recognized ways both of evil and of good. For one who knows the good and that which is not so good is entirely free to choose either this or that. But one who does not know what he could do, is like a man wounded in a night battle who does not realize that he has been hit, and therefore does not recognize his own destruction. For the one who knows his adversaries has the opportunity to choose what he wishes, but there is no such opportunity for one who is ignorant. For God created human beings in the beginning with free will and controlled by their own reasoning powers.

But because they first needed to know good and evil, so that in this way there may be room for free will, see what Moses the divine lawgiver says in Deuteronomy to the disobedient people of the Israelites, “See, I have set before your eyes this day life and death, good and evil,” so that the choice may be freely made between both. Again he says in Exodus, “If you hearken attentively to my voice and do all that I say to you.” And what about Isaiah, who sets forth the same teaching near the beginning of his prophecy, saying in the person of God, “If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and do not listen to me, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this”?

So much then for this. After saying earlier that the Devil will come out to deceive the nations, he now identifies the nations and their leaders. He says, Gog and Magog gather them for war (Rv 20.8); the war is that against the saints.

For after completing the account of the saving incarnation, he has returned to the place from where he set out to explain those things to us. He started with the Devil and the Antichrist, and the defeat and punishment of the nations which collaborated with them.

So he is now going to supply what was earlier left unsaid.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse

[AD 1173] Richard of Saint Victor on Revelation 20:4

judgment was given. those who persevere in Divine contemplation, who read every day the book of wisdom, transcribe, so to speak, in their hearts whatever they grasp by their clear insight of the truth. What else are the hearts of those who judge, divinely instructed in all truth, but a codex of the law? the judges to open the books of their decree in the presence of those who are to be judged signifies that they open their hearts to the gaze of all those who are below them, and that they reveal their knowledge in whatever pertains to the judgment.

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Revelation 20:5-6

Jesus baptizes “in the Holy Spirit and in fire,” not the same person “in the Holy Spirit and in fire,” but the holy person “in the Holy Spirit,” while another person, after he has believed, after he has been deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit and after he has sinned again, Jesus washes in fire. So … it is not the same person who is baptized by Jesus in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Blessed, then, is the one who is baptized in the Holy Spirit and does not need the baptism by fire, but three times unhappy is that person who has need to be baptized in fire, though Jesus takes care of both of them. For “a shoot from the stump of Jesse will come forth, and a branch will grow out of the root,” a shoot for those who are punished, a branch for the righteous. So God is a consuming fire and God is light, a consuming fire to sinners, a light to the just and holy ones. And blessed is he “who shares in the first resurrection,” he who has kept the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Who is he who is saved in another resurrection? He who needs the baptism from fire, when he comes before that fire and the fire tests him, and when that fire finds wood, hay and stubble to burn.

Source: HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 2.3.1-3

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:5-6

Compare [John’s] other words: “The hour is coming, and now is here, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live”—implying that the rest of the dead (who do not hear) will “not come to life.” The added clause, “until the thousand years were finished,” means that during that time “the rest of the dead” did “not come to life” as they should by passing over from death to life. Therefore, in the day of the body’s resurrection, they will go forth from their tombs, not to life but to “judgment,” meaning that condemnation that is called the second death. Anyone at all who will have failed to “come to life” during this millennium, this whole era of the first resurrection, by not hearing “the voice of the Son of God” and by not passing from death to life will certainly, when the second and bodily resurrection comes, pass to the second death, body and soul together.

Source: City of God 20.9

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:5-6

Anyone who thus participates [in the first resurrection] is one who not only rises from the death of sin but also perseveres in his newfound life. “Over these,” says John, “the second death has no power.” Therefore, it has power over all the others of whom he said above: “The rest of the dead did not come to life till the thousand years were finished.” They may have lived long enough in their bodies, in the period John calls the “thousand years,” but they did not rise from the binding death of their ungodliness. If they had, they would have shared in the first resurrection and thus escaped the power of the second death.

Source: City of God 20.9

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:5-6

Whoever are not liberated from that mass of perdition (brought to pass through the first man) by the one Mediator between God and humankind, they will also rise again, each in his own flesh, but only that they may be punished together with the devil and his angels. Whether these people will rise again with all their faults and deformities, with their diseased and deformed members—is there any reason for us to labor such a question? For obviously the uncertainty about their bodily form and beauty need not weary us, since their damnation is certain and eternal. And let us not be moved to inquire how their body can be incorruptible if it can suffer—or corruptible if it cannot die. For there is no true life unless it be lived in happiness; no true incorruptibility save where health is unscathed by pain. But where an unhappy being is not allowed to die, then death itself, so to say, dies not; and where pain perpetually afflicts but never destroys, corruption goes on endlessly. This state is called, in the Scripture, “the second death.”

Source: Enchiridion 92

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:5

The rest of the dead. Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are the dead of whom the same lips say, Let the dead to bury their dead, Matthew 8:22— that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them that are dead in body. It is of these dead, then— the dead in ungodliness and wickedness— that He says, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. They that hear, that is, they who obey, believe, and persevere to the end. Here no difference is made between the good and the bad. For it is good for all men to hear His voice and live, by passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodliness. Of this death the Apostle Paul says, Therefore all are dead, and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Thus all, without one exception, were dead in sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of ignorance, or sins committed against knowledge;

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Revelation 20:5-6

[The first resurrection] is that by which we rise through baptism. As the apostle says, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things which are above.” And again he says, “living as [those who have been brought to life] from the dead.” For sin is death, as the apostle says, “when you were dead through trespasses and sins.” Therefore, just as the first death is in this life because of sin, so also the first resurrection is in this life through the remission of sins.

Source: EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:5, HOMILY 18

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:5-6

“Until the thousand years were ended,” that is, until such time as the sacrament of the faith and the mystery of the cross is perfected in them and that those who are beginning to flourish might appear in their eternal blessedness. “The rest of the dead did not come to life.” He did not say, “they did not arise again,” but that they did not come to life, because without joy and happiness, and without the reward of eternity, in their torments they shall be regarded as though dead. “This is the first resurrection.” That is to say, the happiness of the saints and their reward; for it is said to be the “first” because of its splendor and its preeminence.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:5

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:5-6

He indicates that those over whom the second death has power did not come to life. To be sure, they have been resurrected unto the second death, that is, they have been damned to the lake of fire, even as it is stated in the psalms: “As though living he swallows them as in anger.” Indeed, concerning those over whom the second death has no power, it says, “they shall be priests of God and they shall reign with him a thousand years.” All those who shall have been in the congregation of the saints, shall be called saints, and they shall be priests of Christ our God, and they shall reign with him in the strength of the cross and in the sovereignty of his might.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:6

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:5-6

From the holy Scriptures we are taught that there are two lives and two deaths. The first life, which is after the transgression of the commandment, is temporary and fleshly. The [second] life is eternal and is promised to the saints because of Christ’s obedience to the divine commandments. Likewise, there are two deaths. The first is that of the flesh and is temporary. The other is eternal and is the reward for sins. It occurs in the age to come; this is the Gehenna of fire. We also know a distinction among the dead. There are the accused, of whom Isaiah wrote, “The dead shall not see life.” These are those persons who by their deeds bring upon themselves both stench and death. There are … the praiseworthy, who in Christ put to death the deeds of the body and crucified themselves with Christ and died to the world. The dead who are rejected, who were not buried with Christ and did not rise with him through baptism but who remained in that death which comes through sins, they shall not live with him until the completion of the thousand years, that is, that perfect number that extends from his first appearance until his second, glorious appearance.… Having been born only from the earth and not from the Spirit, these return to the earth. Their death becomes the beginning of the punishment coming to them. However, those who have a portion in the first resurrection, that is, in the rising from thoughts that bring death and from dead works, these are blessed, for the second death, that is, the unending torment, shall have no power over them.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:5-6

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:5

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. Whoever, during this whole time when the first resurrection, that is, of souls, is happening, has not heard the voice of the Son of God and has passed from death to life, will surely pass, in the second resurrection, which is of the flesh, into the second death, that is, eternal torments, with that very flesh.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:5

This is the first resurrection. Indeed, by which we rise again through baptism, as the Apostle says: If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above (Col. 3). For just as the first death in this life is through sins, when the soul that sins shall die, so also the first resurrection in this life is through the forgiveness of sins.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:5

until the thousand years were finished. That is, the time of Christ; for they will rise with others at the end of the world to be punished simultaneously in body and spirit.

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:6

Again John also says the very same in the Apocalypse: "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection."

Source: Against Heresies Book V

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on Revelation 20:6

Moreover, concerning the resurrection and the kingdom of the saints, Daniel says, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, (and some to shame and everlasting contempt)." Esaias says, "The dead men shall arise, and they that are in their tombs shall awake; for the dew from thee is healing to them." The Lord says, "Many in that day shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." And the prophet says, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." And John says, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." For the second death is the lake of fire that burneth. And again the Lord says, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun shineth in his glory." And to the saints He will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But what saith He to the wicked? "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, which my Father hath prepared." And John says, "Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever maketh and loveth a lie; for your part is in the hell of fire." And in like manner also Esaias: "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me. And their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh."

Source: Hippolytus Dogmatical and Historical Fragments

[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Revelation 20:6

"Blessed and holy is he who has part in this resurrection: on them the second death shall have no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and they shall reign with Him a thousand years." I do not think the reign of a thousand years is eternal; or if it is thus to be thought of, they cease to reign when the thousand years are finished. But I will put forward what my capacity enables me to judge. The tenfold number signifies the decalogue, and the hundredfold sets forth the crown of virginity: for he who shall have kept the undertaking of virginity completely, and shall have faithfully fulfilled the precepts of the decalogue, and shall have destroyed the untrained nature or impure thoughts within the retirement of the heart, that they may not rule over him, this is the true priest of Christ, and accomplishing the millenary number thoroughly, is thought to reign with Christ; and truly in his case the devil is bound. But he who is entangled in the vices and the dogmas of heretics, in his case the devil is loosed. But that it says that when the thousand years are finished he is loosed, so the number of the perfect saints being completed, in whom there is the glory of virginity in body and mind, by the approaching advent of the kingdom of the hateful one, many, seduced by that love of earthly things, shall be overthrown, and together with him shall enter the lake of fire.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

[AD 311] Methodius of Olympus on Revelation 20:6

Such fruit it is necessary that we bring when we come to the judgment-seat of Christ, on the first day of the feast; for if we are without it we shall not be able to feast with God, nor to have part, according to John,

Source: Methodius Discourse IX. Tusiane

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:6

Here he is speaking not just of bishops and of presbyters (who are now priests in the church) but of all Christians. For just as we call all of them Christs by reason of their mystical chrism, we call them all priests insomuch as they are members of the one Priest. Peter speaks of them as a “chosen race, a royal priesthood.” Surely, too, this text implies, however briefly and incidentally, that Christ is God. The words “priests of God and Christ” mean priests of the Father and Son, even though it was in his servant form that Christ was both made Son of man and also ordained a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Source: City of God 20.10

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Revelation 20:6

The Spirit repeats what he had written before, that the church is going to reign a thousand years in this age until the end of the world. It is clear that no one ought doubt about the eternal rule when the saints rule even in this present age. For those are rightly said to reign who with God’s aid govern well both themselves and others in the temptations of the present world.

Source: EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:6, HOMILY 18

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:6

first resurrection. that is, in the rising out of deadening thoughts and mortifying actions, these are blessed.

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:6

[Those who have a portion of the first resurrection] shall serve as priests and shall reign with Christ, as we see, for the thousand years as they are interpreted by us, until Satan is loosed and deceives the nations. Not that these will then be deprived of the kingdom. Rather, they will possess it more certainly and more manifestly with the passing of temporal reality and the arrival of things eternal. For the time between the loosing of the devil and the verdict against him and his punishment in gehenna is short. So, that “they shall be priests of God and of Christ” ought to be regarded as the restoration of former things.… Therefore, since there are two deaths, it is necessary also to accept two resurrections. There is the first, physical death, given as a wage for human disobedience. The second death is eternal punishment. The first resurrection is the giving of life from dead works. The second resurrection is the transformation from the corruption of our bodies into incorruptibility.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:5-6

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:6

Blessed and holy is the one who preserves what he has been reborn into.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:6

But they shall be priests of God and of Christ. Another version reads, Priests of God and of Christ. However, this is not said only of bishops and priests, who are properly called priests in the Church, but just as we are all called Christians because of the mystical chrism, so we are all called priests because we are members of the one Priest. As the apostle Peter says: You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Pet. 2).

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:6

And they shall reign with Christ for a thousand years. The Spirit reported, when he wrote these things, that the Church would reign for a thousand years, that is, until the end of the world, from which there could be doubt. For it is clear about the perpetual kingdom.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:6

Supply the life of glory for their souls, which glorifies life is called the first resurrection. Indeed the second will be when they will rise in glorious bodies. Because these have salvation that they already posses in their souls and afterwards they will have this bodily;

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:7

And thus the reign of the saints with Christ shall last longer than the bonds and imprisonment of the devil, because they shall reign with their King the Son of God for these three years and a half during which the devil is no longer bound. So that we understand either that the thousand years of the reign of the saints does not terminate, though the imprisonment of the devil does,— so that both parties have their thousand years, that is, their complete time, yet each with a different actual duration approriate to itself, the kingdom of the saints being longer, the imprisonment of the devil shorter, — or at least that, as three years and six months is a very short time, it is not reckoned as either deducted from the whole time of Satan's imprisonment, or as added to the whole duration of the reign of the saints, as we have shown above in the sixteenth book regarding the round number of four hundred years, which were specified as four hundred, though actually somewhat more; and similar expressions are often found in the sacred writings, if one will mark them.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:7

For these nations which he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some part of the world, whether the Getæ; and Massagetæ;, as some conclude from the initial letters, or some other foreign nations not under the Roman government. For John marks that they are spread over the whole earth,

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:7

[We have here a difficulty] for we must inquire how it is that when the thousand years have ended, the enemy is given his freedom and the nations [continue to] live upon the earth within that infinity [which occurs after the end]. For indeed, after the resurrection, when the judgment of the living and the dead has been rendered, all things everlasting are given and those who reign with Christ, namely, the saints, will come with God’s aid to the eternal blessings, that is, to the very reality of eternality itself. Moreover, they will be rewarded with the contemplation of him who is the Beginning, and possessing the presence of a vision of such a majesty they will be established in its bliss. When the rewards of all the blessed have been consummated and perfected, and all things have been brought to the one headship of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him all things are held together, “Satan will be loosed from his prison.” Then the nether regions themselves will be freed from him, at the same time the author of darkness will be dissolved and disappear, “and go out,” into eternal perdition.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:7

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:7

It must be known that Ezekiel also prophesied that thèse nations will come in the end times with great power to fall upon the land of Israël and that their weapons are to be burnt for seven years through a great fire, which on the one hand, some of the interpreters took (to mean) the fall of the Assyrians with Sennacherib having occurred many years ago at the time of Hezekiah during the prophecy of Ezekiel (2Kgs 19:35), but on the other hand, some (interpret it as) the destruction of the nations attacking those who undertook to rebuild Jérusalem after her capture by the Babylonians,(Theodore) first Cyrus the Persian, and after him Darius having commanded so to the governors of Syria. And some see it as meaning the powers of Antiochus having been defeated by the Maccabees.

From the Hebrew language some interpret Gog as "one who gathers" or "gathering" and Magog "proud." Through the names is to be signified either the gathering of the nations or arrogance.

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:7

Some interpret the period of a thousand years to be the three and a half years from the baptism of Christ to his ascension into heaven, and they believe that after this the devil is to be loosed. Others say that after the completion of six thousand years the first resurrection of the dead will occur for the saints alone, so that on this very earth on which they endured suffering, they might enjoy temporal largess and glory for a thousand years, and that after this [period] the general resurrection will occur, which will be not only of the righteous but also of the sinners. It is unnecessary to say that the church receives nothing of this.Rather, we listen to the Lord when he says to the Sadducees that the righteous will be “as the angels in heaven.” We listen also to the apostle who says, “the kingdom of God is not food and drink.” And so we interpret the thousand-year period to be that of the preaching of the gospel.… It is not necessary to think of these thousand years in terms of a number. When it is said in the Song of Songs “everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver,” and again, “Solomon shall have a thousand and they who keep its fruit two hundred,” the precise number is not indicated, but the full and complete harvest. So also here, the harvest of faith in its entirety is meant, after which “the son of perdition, the man of lawlessness” will come “so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness,” as the apostle says. And the Lord said, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive.”

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:7-8

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:7

And when the thousand years are completed, etc. He said completed as part of a whole, for he will be released such that three years and six months of the last struggle will remain. But besides this trope, it is rightly said that the time is finished. For such small remnants are not to be counted, since seven hundred and as many years as God wills are called an hour by the apostle.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 945] Thietland of Einsiedeln on Revelation 20:7

For Gog is interpreted as 'covered', and Magog as 'uncovered'.

[AD 1274] Thomas Aquinas on Revelation 20:7

sand of the sea. And this is said as a figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:7

By Gog, which means ‘roof.’ Antichrist is understood, who will be the dwelling place of the Devil. By Magog, which means ‘from the roof,’ those who follow Antichrist are understood, as has been said more fully in Ez. 39.

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:7

the four quarters of the earth. that is, from all parts of the earth.

[AD 304] Victorinus of Pettau on Revelation 20:8-10

"And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the take of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."]This belongs to the last judgment. And after a little time the earth was made holy, as being at least that wherein lately had reposed the bodies of the virgins, when they shall enter upon an eternal kingdom with an immortal King, as they who are not only virgins in body, but, moreover, with equal inviolability have protected themselves, both in tongue and thought, from wickedness; and these, it shows, shall dwell in rejoicing for ever with the Lamb.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:8

This does not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,— and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by the breadth of the earth,— there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,— that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty, which is signified by the word camp.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:8

At that time the devil will have a single objective in his deception, namely, to bring on this battle, rather than deceive by the multifarious means of his previous malice. The expression “will go forth” means that his secret hatred will blaze out into open persecution. For this is to be the very last of all persecutions immediately preceding the very last of all judgments—a persecution that Holy church, the worldwide city of Christ, is to suffer at the hands of the worldwide city of the devil, in every place where the two cities will then extend. The peoples John calls Gog and Magog are not to be thought of as some definite barbarians dwelling in a certain part of the earth, such as the Getae and Massagetae (as some have imagined on account of the initial letters), or any other foreign tribes beyond the pale of the Roman Empire. John clearly indicates that they are to be everywhere in the world, “nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog.” Of these names I am told that, literally, Gog means “a roof” and Magog “from the roof.” Thus we may take the words to mean an “abode” and a “person issuing from this abode” and, therefore, “the peoples in whom the devil abides as in an abyss” and “the devil himself, lifting himself up and coming out of them.” They are the “roof,” and he is “from the roof.” If … we apply both names to the peoples (rather than the first to them, the second to the devil), then they are the “roof” because the ancient foe is now shut up and roofed over in them, and they will issue “from the roof” when their concealed hatred bursts forth and is revealed in the open.

Source: City of God 20.11

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:8

In this passage “to deceive” means to scatter or to spoil, that is, to drag the nations along with him into condemnation, namely, all the wicked whom he has deceived in every part of the earth. And he will cause those who have been gathered together with him in one single condemnation to be delivered over to eternal torments. For Gog means “roof” and Magog means “out of the covering” or “out from the roof.” Everyone whom he has brought out and led to the collapse of his own arrogance, or those whom he supported by the roof of his pride, or those who will be recognized as coming from the same cover and height of his arrogance, all these persons will be taken at the same time in one condemnation and by an eternal fire. When it says, “he will gather them for battle,” it describes as something future what is in the past, for in some manner this battle is the hostility that the wicked have toward good works. And since those who are wicked are many and numerous, he adds, “whose number is like the sand of the sea.”

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:7

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:8

Satan will be loosed from his prison and will deceive all nations and will entice Gog and Magog to war for the devastation of the world. Some believe that these two are the remote northern people of the Scythians, whom we call the Huns, and, as we see, are the most populous and warlike of any kingdom on earth and are kept from seizing the whole earth until the loosing of the devil by the hand of God alone.… Some interpret on the basis of the Hebrew language and render Gog as “one who gathers” or “that which is gathered” and Magog as “one who is exalted.” In this way, these names signify either the gathering of the nations or their exaltation. We should note that Ezekiel prophesied that these nations would come upon the earth with great power at the end of time, that Israel would fall and for a period of seven years would burn by their arms as though through a great fire. Some interpreters refer this to the fall of the Assyrians under Sennacherib at the time of Hezekiah, which happened a long time prior to the prophecy of Ezekiel. Others refer this to the destruction of the nations that attacked those coming to rebuild Jerusalem after the conquest by the Babylonians, when first Cyrus the Persian and then Darius ordered the governors of Syria to do this. Yet others refer to the forces of Antiochus, which were defeated by the Maccabees. However, it is clear that the arrival of these nations best suits the final times. First of all, it is nowhere written that the nation of the Scythians waged war against the Jews at that time, but only those nations round about them that envied their prosperity. Second, concerning Gog it is written, “He will be prepared from the days of old and will come at the end of time.” Third, in the present Revelation, which foretells future events, it is written that Gog and Magog will come toward the end of this age.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:7-8

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:8

And he will go out and deceive the nations, etc. Then he will deceive them to gather them for this battle. For even before, in the ways he could, he was deceiving through many and various evils. For it is said that he will go out: he will burst forth from the hidden places of his hatred into open persecution. Furthermore, Gog and Magog either signify the whole from a part or, according to the interpretation of their names, which are said to mean roof and from the roof, indicate hidden and open enemies. And they are the roof, because the enemy is now enclosed and ruled in them: and they will be from the roof when they erupt into open hatred.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 20:8-10

The blessed prophet Ezekiel also told us about Gog and Magog, describing the evil end of evil men. These will be some of the nations and their leaders at the end of the age, but they do not now exist, or they are some of the present nations called by other names in holy Scripture. So these will be allies of detested Satan in his fight against the slaves of Christ.

And they will surround the beloved city, that is, the church. But fire from heaven will destroy them all, and after the end has been reached, Satan, the origin of all the evil, together with the Devil and the Antichrist, will be thrown into the lake of fire, that is, Gehenna.

For the reader should recognize that the present Revelation has already told us of three [adversaries]: one was the dragon, the originator of the evil, shown in heaven; the second was the beast coming up out of the sea, which we considered to be second to Satan, but superior to the rest of the demons; and the third was the Antichrist, whom he also calls the false prophet. But it was said shortly before about the second one, the Devil, and the Antichrist, that the two of them were thrown into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. But now he is talking about Satan, or the Devil, whom earlier he called a serpent.

He says, And they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. So you who read this essay will know that we were quite right to consider the thousand years during which the Devil was bound and thrown into the bottomless pit and was then set free again, to refer to the incarnation of the Lord and his dwelling upon earth, in which the Devil’s activity was for a short time restricted. For now he has shown that the punishment of the Devil and of those deceived by him is not for a thousand years, but for ever and ever, and that there will be no release of the evil one.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse

[AD 1198] Nerses of Lambron on Revelation 20:8

Like wild beasts from their lairs, so these also will be released over the earth from their places through the Devil their general, so that they may destroy the camps of the saints-that is, the Church- which have been established in the four extremities of the world; unaware that not one angel but many are those that surround the fearers of God, as the Psalm says, “Camps of angels of the Lord surround his fearers and guard them.” Ps 33:8 Straightaway they will also lay hands on the holy city Jerusalem; whence the divine law was spread throughout the whole world by the apostles, and where too we have learned from the Apostle that Antichrist sits in the temple. 2Thess 2:4

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:8

the beloved city. That is Jerusalem, which will be inhabited at that time by Christians, as was said in Ez. 39.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:9

It is not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire; Matthew 25:41 for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. It is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is heaven, by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them, and this is from God; for it is by God's grace the saints become unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said, The zeal of Your house has consumed me, so in a bad sense it is said, Zeal has possessed the uninstructed people, and now fire shall consume the enemies. Isaiah 26:11 And now, that is to say, not the fire of the last judgment. ; Or if by this fire coming down out of heaven and consuming them, John meant that blow wherewith Christ in His coming is to strike those persecutors of the Church whom He shall then find alive upon earth, when He shall kill Antichrist with the breath of His mouth, ; but the last judgment is that which they shall suffer when the bodily resurrection has taken place.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:9-10

[That they encompassed the beloved city] obviously does not mean that they gathered or will gather in some one place where, we must suppose, the camp of the saints and the beloved city is to be. For, of course, this city is Christ’s church, which is spread over the whole world. Wherever his church will be (and it will be among all nations, “over the breadth of the earth”), there is to be the camp of the saints and the beloved city of God. There will she be, surrounded by all her enemies, intermingled with her as they are and will be in every people, girded with the appalling magnitude of that besetting, hemmed in, straitened and encompassed by the pressures of that mighty affliction; but never will [the church] give up her fighting spirit, her “camp,” as John says. [The fire from heaven] must not be taken to indicate that supreme punishment of the ungodly, which is to begin only with the words “Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire.” For it is then that the wicked are to be cast into fire rather than to have fire fall on them. John’s words, “fire from heaven,” can well be interpreted as symbolizing the staunchness of the saints, their refusal to give in and do the bidding of their raging enemies. For the heavens are called a “firmament,” and by its firmness the ungodly will be tormented by blazing zeal, because [they are] powerless to win over Christ’s holy ones to the camp of antichrist. This is the devouring fire, and it is said to come from God because it is by God’s grace that the saints are to be unconquerable, to the great torment of their foes.

Source: City of God 20.11-12

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:9-10

John goes on to state succinctly the full punishment that is to be meted out in the last judgment to the hostile city and its prince, the devil.… Why has the church been so intolerant with those who defend the view that, however greatly and however long the devil is to be punished, he can be promised ultimately that all will be purged or pardoned? Certainly it is not because so many of the church’s saints and biblical scholars have begrudged the devil and his angels a final cleansing and the beatitude of the kingdom of heaven. Nor is it because of any lack of feeling for so many and such high angels that must suffer such great and enduring pain. This is not a matter of feeling but of fact. The fact is that there is no way of waiving or weakening the words that the Lord has told us that he will pronounce in the last judgment: “Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.” In this way he showed plainly that it is an eternal fire in which the devil and his angels are to burn. Then we have the words of the Apocalypse: “and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” In the one text we have “everlasting,” in the other, “forever and ever.” These are words that have a single meaning in the divine Scripture, namely, of unending duration.

Source: City of God 20.14; 21.23

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Revelation 20:9-10

“And the devil and his people went up into the height of the earth,” that is, in the presumption of their arrogance, and “they surrounded the camp of the saints and the city of the beloved,” that is, the church. This refers to what was earlier said about those assembled at Armageddon. They cannot be gathered into one city from the four corners of the earth. Rather, in every corner [of the earth] each people will be gathered together for opposition to the holy city, that is, for persecution of the church. “And fire shall descend out of heaven from God,” that is, out of the church, “and consume them.” In this passage the fire may be interpreted in two ways. Either they will believe in Christ through the fire of the Holy Spirit, and they will be spiritually consumed by the church, that is, incorporated into the church, or they will be consumed by the fire of their own sins and will perish.

Source: EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:9, HOMILY 18

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:9-10

“And they ascended upon the height of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints.” Lifted up by their arrogance, the impious ascended into the heights, but their earthly arrogance holds them back. They are wise in nothing heavenly, nor do they fear the power of celestial greatness. “They surrounded the camp of the saints.” [This means that] they wished to exist in common with the saints, but of them the prophecy is fulfilled that says, “They shall return at evening and be hungry as a dog and go around about the city.” In the present passage he calls the city “beloved,” saying, “they shall surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city.”

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:8

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:9

fire coming down from heaven, either a visible fire as happened to the two commanders of fifty men in the présence of Elijah (2Kgs 1) or the coming of Christ in glory will destroy them by the breath of his mouth.

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:9-10

Just as fierce animals come out of their caves, so, it says, those led by the devil and the demons with him will come from their various locations and spread themselves out over the earth to ravage the camp of the saints, clearly meaning the church, which is established throughout the four corners of the world. But they do not know that it is not only a single angel but many angels who encamp round about them who fear God, as the psalm says. They will come to subdue the new Jerusalem, the beloved city, from which the divine law has gone into all the world through the apostles. Then, they say, the antichrist will seat himself in the temple of God. This refers either to the ancient temple of God among the Jews that was destroyed because of their audacity against Christ and which those Jews who hate God still expect to be rebuilt by him, or it refers to the true temple of God, namely, the catholic church. The antichrist will usurp for himself what does not belong to him and “proclaim himself to be God,” as the apostle says. Not long afterward, it says, fire comes down from heaven. This will be either a physical fire such as that which burned the two groups of fifty at the time of Elijah, or the passage refers to the glorious coming of Christ, who will slay them “by the breath of his mouth” and consume the aforementioned nations and their leader, the devil. Christ will hand them, along with the antichrist and the false prophet, over to the lake of fire, where they will be tormented forever and ever. Christ the Savior has taught us to pray that we enter not into temptation, and so, recognizing our weakness, let us do that earnestly, that we be saved from the trials of that which is prophesied.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:9-10

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:9

And they ascended over the breadth of the earth, etc. It is not meant that they came or will come to one place, as if the beloved city, that is, the Church, would be confined to one place. Rather, by the term breadth of the earth, it is intended to indicate that it will be persecuted among all nations and will not abandon its struggle, preferring to use the term camp.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:9

And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. This should not be considered the final punishment, but rather the fire of envy by which they will be tormented, the adversity stemming from the firmness of the saints. For heaven is the firmament. This is the fire that came out of the mouth of God's witnesses and devours their enemies. For on the last day, fire will not rain upon them, but the gathered and judged will be cast into the eternal fire, of which it is also said here:

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 1349] Nicholas of Lyra on Revelation 20:9

the beast. That is, those living in a bestial fashion.

[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 20:10

If sorrow, and mourning, and sighing, and death itself, assail us from the afflictions both of soul and body, how shall they be removed, except by the cessation of their causes, that is to say, the afflictions of flesh and soul? where will you find adversities in the presence of God? where, incursions of an enemy in the bosom of Christ? where, attacks of the devil in the face of the Holy Spirit?-now that the devil himself and his angels are "cast into the lake of fire." Where now is necessity, and what they call fortune or fate? What plague awaits the redeemed from death, after their eternal pardon? What wrath is there for the reconciled, after grace? What weakness, after their renewed strength? What risk and danger, after their salvation? That the raiment and shoes of the children of Israel remained unworn and fresh for the space of forty years; that in their very persons the exact point of convenience and propriety checked the rank growth of their nails and hair, so that any excess herein might not be attributed to indecency; that the fires of Babylon injured not either the mitres or the trousers of the three brethren, however foreign such dress might be to the Jews; that Jonah was swallowed by the monster of the deep, in whose belly whole ships were devoured, and after three days was vomited out again safe and sound; that Enoch and Elias, who even now, without experiencing a resurrection (because they have not even encountered death), are learning to the full what it is for the flesh to be exempted from all humiliation, and all loss, and all injury, and all disgrace-translated as they have been from this world, and from this very cause already candidates for everlasting life; -to what faith do these notable facts bear witness, if not to that which ought to inspire in us the belief that they are proofs and documents of our own future integrity and perfect resurrection? For, to borrow the apostle's phrase, these were "figures of ourselves; " and they are written that we may believe both that the Lord is more powerful than all natural laws about the body, and that He shows Himself the preserver of the flesh the more emphatically, in that He has preserved for it its very clothes and shoes.

Source: On the Resurrection of the Flesh

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:10

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, etc. That is, the devil will be cast into the eternal fire at the final judgment, where all whom he has led will also go, that is, the majority of the impious city. For the beast should be understood according to the context: sometimes it means the devil, sometimes the Antichrist, sometimes the very impious city. The name of the fire descending from heaven can also signify the sudden destruction of the wicked when the Lord comes and will slay the Antichrist with the breath of His mouth (2 Thess. 2). He explains more fully how, when Christ judges, the devil with his followers is cast into the fire.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:11

For after the times of the kingdom, he says, "I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, from whose face the earth fled away, and the heavens; and there was no more place for them."

Source: Against Heresies Book V

[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 20:11

It is enough for us, both that it is certain that all things were made by God and that there is no certainty whatever that they were made out of matter.… The belief that everything was made from nothing will be impressed upon us [also] by that ultimate dispensation of God that will bring back all things to nothing. For “the very heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll”; no, it shall come to nothing along with the earth itself, with which it was made in the beginning. “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” he says. “The first heaven and the first earth passed away,” “and there was found no place for them,” because, of course, that which comes to an end loses locality.

Source: AGAINST HERMOGENES 33-34

[AD 220] Tertullian on Revelation 20:11

"The first heaven and the first earth passed away," "and there was found no place for them," because, of course, that which comes to an end loses locality.

Source: Against Hermogenes

[AD 235] Hippolytus of Rome on Revelation 20:11

Then shall the righteous answer, astonished at the mighty and wondrous fact that He, whom the hosts of angels cannot look upon openly, addresses them as friends, and shall cry out to Him, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee? Master, when saw we Thee thirsty, and gave Thee drink? Thou Terrible One, when saw we Thee naked, and clothed Thee? Immortal, when saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Thou Friend of man, when saw we Thee sick or in prison, and came unto Thee? Thou art the ever-living One. Thou art without beginning, like the Father, and co-eternal with the Spirit. Thou art He who made all things out of nothing. Thou art the prince of the angels. Thou art He at whom the depths tremble. Thou art He who is covered with light as with a garment. Thou art He who made us, and fashioned us of earth. Thou art He who formed things invisible. From Thy presence the whole earth fleeth away, and how have we received hospitably Thy kingly power and lordship?

Source: Dubious Hippolytus Fragments

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:11

John picks up again the theme of the last judgment (which is to accompany the second and bodily resurrection of the dead) and describes the manner of its revelation to him.… Note that he does not say, “One who sat upon it, and from his face earth and heaven fled away,” because this “flight” had not yet taken place, that is, not before the judgment of the living and the dead. What he says is that he beheld One sitting on the throne “from whose face earth and heaven fled away”—not then but subsequently. The fact is that it will be after the judgment is completed that heaven and earth will end with the beginning of the new heaven and earth. For it will be by a transformation rather than by a wholesale destruction that this world of ours will pass away. This explains Paul’s words: “This world as we see it is passing away. I would have you free from care.” It is, to be sure, the visible appearance of the world that is destined to pass away, not its nature.

Source: City of God 20.14

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:11

The image of the “white throne” signifies the divine rest that God will establish among the saints, who are resplendant with virtues and among whom God will be enthroned. The flight of the earth and sky signifies their transformation from what they were into something better. And there will be found no longer any place for change. For if the creation was subjected to corruption because of us, as the apostle says, it will also be transformed with us into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, being made new into that which is more brilliant. [The creation] will not be subjected to complete annihilation, as we learn from Irenaeus, Antipater and other saints. For the blessed Irenaeus writes, “For neither is the substance nor the essence of the creation annihilated (for faithful and true is he who has established it), but the fashion of the world passes away, that is, those things among which transgression has occurred, since humankind has grown old in them. And therefore this fashion has been formed temporary, God foreknowing all things.” Similarly, the great Methodius comments as follows in On the Resurrection: “It is not satisfactory to say that the universe will be utterly destroyed, and sea and air and sky will be no longer. For the whole world will be deluged with fire from heaven and burned for the purpose of purification and renewal; it will not, however, come to complete ruin and corruption.” And a little later he says, “And Paul clearly testifies this, saying, ‘For the creation waits with eager longing for the manifestation of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but through him who subjected it in hope. Therefore, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay’ ” and so on. But before these saints the holy David sang to the Lord, saying, “You sent forth your Spirit, and they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” And Isaiah says, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come into mind; but they will find gladness and rejoicing in it.” Certainly in the superabundance of joy and in the greatness of their rewards they will forget the struggles and pains that they endured. In another place Isaiah says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, so shall your descendants and your name remain.” It follows, therefore, that the creation, which was made for our sake, receives with us a change for the better, not going into nonexistence, just as we do not go into nonexistence after our death.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:11

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:11

And I saw a great white throne, etc. He said he saw someone sitting on the throne from whose presence earth and heaven fled away. This signifies that, after the judgment, there will be no more heaven and earth as they are, because there will be a new heaven and a new earth, meaning a transformation of things, not their complete destruction. For the figure of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7); it does not say the substance. It is believed that the same substance will be changed for the better.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 20:11-12

He says a white throne, bright and flashing as with lightning. By the flight of heaven and earth the account symbolizes their change and transformation. For “the heavens will pass away with a loud noise,” according to blessed Peter and according to the prophet who says, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of your earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You will wrap them up like a cloth, and they will be changed,” presumably referring to their passing and destruction. What these sayings describe as their “change,” the Revelation called “flight,” so that no place was found for them. For where could they be found when they had been cast down in destruction? Although he has here spoken of their change, a little further on he says that they will be new.

He says, And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne: by great he means the righteous, calling them great not in virtue of their physical size, but because of the glory and brightness of their goodness, and by small he means the sinners as being worthless on account of their baseness and meanness.

And scrolls were opened. Also another little scroll was opened, which is the little scroll of life. The Lord says in the gospels that the way leading to destruction is broad and spacious, and many travel on it, while the way that leads to life is narrow and constricted, and there are few not only who walk along it but who even find it. This is why he saw many scrolls and a single scroll: the many are those in which all human beings are written, because of the multitude of those involved, but there is one scroll of life, in which are those chosen from the rest who are blameless in virtue and travel along the entire length of the steep and rugged path of virtue.

And all of those written in the scrolls, he says, were judged in accordance with their own individual works. In the beginning of the sixth chapter he mentioned another little scroll, too, which he called a miniature scroll. But now he talks of a scroll and a little scroll of life, so that there are three different scrolls. By a miniature scroll he means that in which are the exceedingly impious, as we considered there: the little scroll of life is that in which are the exceedingly righteous and just, and the scrolls are those which contain all human beings who are somehow midway between evil and goodness.

He is talking about the resurrection. For to say, And I saw the dead before the throne receiving their rewards and being judged according to their works, is to speak of the resurrection. For he saw the dead rise up and receive their just recompense, and he goes on to describe how the resurrection took place.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse

[AD 1963] CS Lewis on Revelation 20:11

Do not let us deceive ourselves. No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe can hide us from God; there is no copse, no forest, no jungle thick enough to provide cover. We read in Revelation of Him that sat on the throne ‘from whose face the earth and heaven fled away’. (9) It may happen to any of us at any moment, the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measure, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since that contact cannot be avoided for long, and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and great commandment.

Source: Dogma and the Universe, from God in the Dock

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:12

Moreover "he says, "the book of life was opened, and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works; and death and hell were sent into the lake of fire, the second death."

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:12

He says he saw scrolls opened, and another scroll, but he makes clear the character of the latter, “which is the book of each person’s life.” The first scrolls he mentions, then, must represent the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. These will be opened to show the commandments of God, and the other scroll [will] show how these commandments were kept or disobeyed by each and every person. As for this latter scroll, if one considers it materially, it surpasses all powers of thought for size and length. And if it contains the entire life record of all people, how much time would it take to read it? Are we to suppose that there will be an equal number of angels and people present in the judgment and that each person will hear his life record read out by an angel accredited to him for this task? In this supposition, there would not be one book for all but a book for each. Yet, the Apocalypse wants us to think of one book.… No, the book in question must symbolize some divine action in virtue of which each person will recall his deeds, good or bad, and review them mentally so that, without a moment’s delay, each one’s conscience will be either burdened or unburdened and thus, collectively and individually, all will be judged at the same moment. And because, in virtue of this divine illumination, each person will, so to speak, read the record of his deeds, God’s action is called a “book.”

Source: City of God 20.14

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:12

Who is free before God if not those who are declared to be by the power of him who judges the works of each one? God is said to have a book, which is not a physical book but a spiritual book, that is, the eternal memory in which the names of the elect are kept. And so the psalm says, “The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” “Also another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.” The Book of Life, and Life itself, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he shall be opened, that is, made manifest to every creature, when he will render to each according to his work. “And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.” “God has spoken once, and I have heard these two things,” it says. And what these two things are he makes clearer when he says, “The kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is the governor of the nations.” There he heard of the kingdom; here he has beheld the book. There he heard two things; here he has also seen another book. And what is contained in these two books he says there, “the power of God is also yours, O Lord, and mercy.” The power is in the judging and the mercy is in the giving of recompense. “And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.” And so he says there, “for you will recompense everyone according to his works.”

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:12

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:12

By the dead he means either all persons, since they experience the death of the body, or those who have died because of [their] transgressions. The “great and small” are either those who are older or younger, or more likely those who have done the works of death and will appropriately be punished for these acts. Or the great are the righteous and the small those sinners who are worthless because of the baseness of their soul. The books that are opened are indicative of the deeds and of the conscience of each person. There is but one book of Life in which the names of the saints are written.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:12

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:12

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. For when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His majesty, then all nations will be gathered before Him.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:12

And the books were opened, etc. Another version says: Which is the book of the life of each one. Therefore, the opened books are called the Testaments of God. For the world will be judged according to both Testaments. The book of life is the memory of each one’s deeds, not that He has a book of remembrance, but as the knower of all secrets.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:12

And the dead were judged from what was written in the books, etc. That is, they were judged according to the Testaments, based on what they did or did not do from them. The books can also be understood as the deeds of the righteous, by the comparison of which the wicked are condemned, as if in the opening of the books, they read the good that they themselves did not want to do.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 311] Methodius of Olympus on Revelation 20:13

Consider, he says, whether too the blessed John, when he says, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them"

Source: Methodius From the Discourse on the Resurrection

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:13

Who, now, are these dead people who were in the sea and whom the sea will give up? Surely we are not to think that because a person drowns, his soul does not go to hell, or that his body is preserved in the sea, or—what is still more absurd—that the sea keeps the good dead people and hell the bad ones. No one could entertain such a notion. Surely those are right who take the sea in this text to stand for this world of ours. To indicate, accordingly, that the living who Christ is to find on earth are to be judged along with the arisen dead, John termed the former dead, too. Such are the good “dead” to whom the words were addressed: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” The bad “dead” … are addressed in the verse: “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” There is another reason why living people can be called dead, namely, because they carry around bodies destined for death. This was Paul’s thought when he wrote, “The body, it is true, is dead by reason of sin, but the spirit is life by reason of justification”35—a text in which he shows that both life and death exist in a person living in his body, death in his body, life in the spirit.… The sea is said to “deliver up” its dead, because they are presented for judgment living, just as they are; whereas death and hell are said to “give back their dead,” because they are actually restored to life. And do not imagine that it would perhaps have been sufficient for John to say death or hell. He said both—death alone for the good people who, although they suffered death, did not go to hell; and hell for the evil people who, after death, suffer the pains of hell.

Source: City of God 20.15

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:13

Lest anyone say that those who have died at sea or have been drowned by water or have been eaten by beasts or have been destroyed by fire cannot be raised again, [it says therefore that] they gave up their dead. And since no one will escape the judgment of God, it adds, “and all were judged by what they had done.” Lest anyone should think that after the resurrection there follows a death of the body, an opinion that is profane to believe and even to mention, he adds [that death was sent into the lake of fire].

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:13

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:13

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, etc. This undoubtedly happened before the dead were judged. Therefore, he recapitulates what he had omitted and follows the order, saying:

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:13

And they were judged, each one according to their deeds. This signifies that bodies will be gathered from the earth and souls from their places. The good are designated by the name of death, which has only suffered the dissolution of the flesh, but not punishment. The wicked are designated by the name of hell. It can also be taken literally, that all bodies, even those that the waves have swallowed or beasts have devoured, will be resurrected. Tyconius explains it thus: "The nations that he will find alive here are the dead of the sea. And death and hell gave up their dead, these are the buried nations." When he had said: And they were judged, each one according to their works, he briefly added how death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. He refers to the devil and his followers, whom he had previously described as being followed by hell on the pale horse. He repeats what he had already said more clearly by anticipation: And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur. What he had added there more obscurely, he explains here more clearly, that both the beast and the false prophet were thrown into the lake of fire.

Source: Commentary on Revelation

[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 20:13-21:2

Those who do not believe in the resurrection of the body mock us and our teaching that these bodies of ours rise again from the dead, considering it to be not only implausible but absolutely impossible. They say that each of our earthly bodies consists of the four elements: fire, water, earth, air. When dispersed by death, our bodies go back to those things of which they originally consisted. For example, the fiery component in us proceeds to its corresponding element and becomes entirely fire, the watery component to water, and the other pair to their own particular elements.

“So when these have once been mixed up and combined with their own substances, how is it possible that what has been mixed together to form a compound be restored as bodies, as you profess, unless you were to say that things of one kind are raised to become things of another kind?”

In answer to these people one could quote the text of Holy Scripture, O people, “you are wrong, and you do not know the power of God,” by whose will the universe was brought into being, and whose decree is the only completed work, as was said earlier. For in what way is it easier to bring beings into existence from non-being than to separate them again once they have been brought into being and mixed either in themselves or with other beings, and to apportion to each its own characteristics?

For in fact we, too, effect this, when we often skillfully separate wine which has been mixed with water. The sun, too, draws off drinkable and sweet water from the sea by means of steams and vapors, but leaves alone that which is heavy, earthy, briny, and bitter. But above all it is God alone who is able to do whatever he wills.

Therefore, if God brought into being things which are not, why is it not easy for him to separate again what was completely mixed together with the elements simply by his own will, and to assign its own identity to each body, even if this proves impossible for human beings? For just as it is impossible for you and me to separate the illumination of fire from its burning, it is possible for God—for Scripture says, “The voice of the Lord, who cuts into two a flame of fire”—so it is impossible for you and me to separate what has been mixed together, but it is easily possible for God.

The present text of the Revelation now sets before us this amazing doctrine, saying, The sea gave up the dead in it from the sea. This is the element of water, signifying all that is made of water. So he means that what is made of water gave up all that was mixed in it from the watery nature of human bodies.

He says, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them. He calls the earth death since our bodies are dissolved in it, so that the blessed prophet by a periphrasis calls death “the dust of death,” saying, “He brought me down to the dust of death.” Accordingly, the earth also has given up all of our earthy substance in it.

In addition, Hades also gave up the dead in it, calling the air and fire Hades from their incorporeal and invisible [nature]. For air is invisible in its lightness, except when it becomes dense, and fire lurks invisibly in wood until it is kindled externally. But also the element of fire is ether, which is invisible to us when obscured by the covering of much air. Or perhaps he calls fire Hades because it destroys and disfigures those it attacks, so that many learned writers call it obscure.

So the resurrection takes place when each of the elements has rendered back all of the human composition they contained. After this, he says, They were all judged by what they had done.

He says, Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, that is, Death was destroyed, together with the formless and incorporeal existence of the souls in death, once the resurrection had taken place and each soul had received its own particular body. He has explained this in a somewhat figurative way and has symbolized their destruction by saying that Death and Hades had been thrown into the lake of fire. The prophet Hosea also writes this, saying, “O Death, where is your justice? O Hades, where is your sting?”

He says, The lake of fire is the second death; for it has been said earlier that the first death is physical death, the separation of the soul and body, but the second is spiritual death, the punishment and retribution due to those for whom sin is their mother.

But he also says that all who were born in their sins and who were not considered worthy to be written in the book of life have suffered the same. Do not be surprised that he said earlier that those who are “medium sinners” have been thrown into the lake of fire with the Devil and the Antichrist. For a different punishment is meant there, just as there is a different kind of fiery heat: one is a sort of continuous burning heat, the other is less so and mild, even though both are called fiery heat. You must understand me there, too, as meaning this.

He says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more: Peter says something like this in the second of his epistles, saying, “According to his promises we wait for new heavens and earth.” He does not mean that the heaven and the earth and the sea have been destroyed and have disappeared and that others have been created in their place, but that the present ones have thrown off their decay and have become new, as though they have taken off an old and squalid garment and the accompanying dirt. For everything is called new which was not formerly of such a kind, but has now become so. Then creation will be purified from all decay, which was imprinted on it by human transgression.

The divine apostle is a most trustworthy witness of these things when writing to the Romans about creation, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subject to futility, not of its own will, but on account of him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” But not only he, but the blessed prophet, too, sings about heaven and earth according to the testimony recently cited, “They will all wear out like a garment; you will wrap them up like a cloth, and they will be changed.”

He says, And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: by Jerusalem he symbolizes the blessed lot and dwelling of the saints. He called this figuratively Jerusalem both here and later, and he has fittingly adorned it with magnificence, so that from what is said about the perceptible Jerusalem we may turn our thoughts to the spiritual blessedness of the saints and their way of life.

Source: Commentary on the Apocalypse

[AD 345] Aphrahat the Persian Sage on Revelation 20:14

It is right for us to be afraid of the second death, that which is full of weeping and gnashing of teeth and of groanings and miseries, that which is situated in outer darkness. But blessed shall be the faithful and the righteous in that resurrection, in which they expect to be awakened and to receive the good promises made them. But as for the wicked who are not faithful, in the resurrection woe to them, because of that which is laid up for them! It would be better for them, according to the faith that they possess, were they not to rise. For the servant for whom his Lord is preparing stripes and bonds, while he is sleeping desires not to awake, for he knows that when the dawn shall have come and he shall awake, his Lord will scourge and bind him. But the good servant, to whom his Lord has promised gifts, looks expectantly for the time when dawn shall come and he shall receive presents from his Lord.

Source: DEMONSTRATIONS 8.19

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:14

In this verse, “hell and death” stand for the devil (together with the entirety of his followers) inasmuch as he is the author of death and of the torments of hell.

Source: City of God 20.15

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:14

There is also a total death for a person, a death of body and soul, namely, when a soul, abandoned by God, abandons the body. In this case, the soul has no life from God and the body no life from the soul. The consequence of such total death is the second death, so called on the authority of divine Revelation. This is the death that our Savior meant when he said, “Be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”Since this second death does not occur until soul and body are reunited, never to be separated again, you might wonder how the body is said to die by a death in which it is not deserted by the soul but rather is given a life by the soul to feel the torment it endures. For in a person’s last and everlasting punishment the soul is rightly said to be dead when its life from God is gone, but, since the body’s life depends on the soul, how can the body be said to be dead? If the body were dead, it could not feel the bodily torments that are to be felt after the resurrection. It is because life of every kind is good, and pain is evil, that we decline to say that that body lives, in which the soul is the cause, not of life, but of pain? The soul, then, lives by God when it lives well, for it cannot live well unless God is the cause of its good works. The body, however, takes its life from the soul when the soul is alive in the body, whether the soul is receiving any life from God or not.… It is true that when a person is finally damned, he does not lose sensation; nevertheless, because his feelings are not gentle enough to give pleasure nor soothing enough to be restful but are purifying to the point of pain, they can more properly be called death rather than life. The reason why this death of damnation is called a second death is that it comes after that first death, which is a divorce of two natures meant to be in union, whether God and the soul or the soul and the body. It can be said of the first death, the death of the body, that it is good for saints and bad for sinners, but of the second that is certainly good for no one and nonexistent for the saints.

Source: City of God 13.2

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:14

This is to show that since death has been overtaken no one will die again. Moreover, since the nether region has been condemned, hell will find no one further whom it might receive.

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:14

[AD 614] Andreas of Caesarea on Revelation 20:14

Death and hades are thrown into the lake of fire. This shows either that “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” or that the evil powers who are the friends of the death caused by sin and who have their abode in hades and escort their followers there will be condemned to this fire. For just as the inhabitants are encompassed in the term city, so also those worthy of death and hades are included in the terms death and hades. However, that fire has no destructive power over those who have been born of God and are exceptionally good. It is written, “God did not make death.” For this reason, this passage signifies that death and corruption shall be no more but that incorruptibility and immortality will reign. And it should not amaze if all who are not written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the lake of fire. For just as with the Father there are many mansions for those being saved, so also there are distinctions among the places and manners of punishment. Some punishments will be more harsh, some more endurable, which those not worthy to be in the Book of Life will suffer.

Source: COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:14-15

[AD 202] Irenaeus on Revelation 20:15

"And if any one "it is said, "was not found written in the book of life, he was sent into the lake of fire."

[AD 325] Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius on Revelation 20:15

When, however, the thousand years shall be completed, the world will be renewed by God, heaven will be folded up and the earth changed. And God will transform people into the likeness of angels, and they will be white and shining as snow, and they will always be in the sight of the Omnipotent and will sacrifice to their God and serve him forever. At the same time, there will take place that second and public resurrection of all, during which the unjust will be raised to everlasting sufferings. These are they who worshiped idols made by hands, who did not know or who denied the Lord and Father of the universe. But their master will be seized with his ministers and will be condemned to punishment, and together with him the whole band of the impious will be burned in perpetual fire forever in the sight of the angels and the just.

Source: EPITOME OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTES 7.26

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Revelation 20:15

The “Book of Life” is not for jogging God’s memory lest he forget. It is a figure of the predestination of those who are to receive eternal life. We are not to imagine that God does not know them and has to read in his books to find out who they are. On the contrary, the Book of Life is precisely his infallible prescience of those inscribed therein, whose very registration there means only that they are foreknown by him.

Source: City of God 20.15

[AD 533] Fulgentius of Ruspe on Revelation 20:15

[In evil persons] God begins his judgment with desertion and ends with anguish. For in this present time as well in which God deserts the evil ones who go away from him, he does not work in them what displeases him but works through them what pleases him. Afterwards, he is going to give them what they deserve from his justice.… Such people God has fitted for destruction as punishment that the just judge by his just predestination has decreed for the sinner.… Concupiscence, conceiving, has given birth to sin, but the mature sin has begotten death. The wicked, therefore, have not been predestined to the first death of the soul but have been predestined to the second, that is, to the pool of fire and sulphur. … He calls the second death that which follows from the sentence of the just judge, not that which went before in the evil concupiscence of the sinner.… Therefore, the first death of the soul, which a person inflicted on himself, is the cause of the second death. And the second death, which God has rendered to the person, is the punishment for the first death.

Source: LETTER TO MONIMUS 1.27.1-6

[AD 600] Apringius of Beja on Revelation 20:15

Whoever did not believe during life and did not open his mouth in confession of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be destroyed along with death and hell because he failed to receive life. Nevertheless, we do not confess that everyone will die or come to punishment. Rather, that will be fulfilled which we read in Daniel, “Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt, so that they might always behold.” And what shall they always behold, if not that they are tormented while others are glorified?

Source: TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20:15

[AD 735] Bede on Revelation 20:15

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life. That is, who was not judged by God to be alive. Hence, it seems more correct to say, as those who interpret the open books as the consciences of individuals and their revealed works. The book of life, however, is the foreknowledge of God (which cannot be mistaken) concerning those to whom eternal life will be given, in which they are written, that is, foreknown. Having finished the judgment by which he saw the wicked condemned, it remains for him to also speak of the good.

Source: Commentary on Revelation