ACC ~ Revelation 12 v6

THE LOVELY PLACE OF VIRTUE. METHODIUS: Now the woman who brings forth and has brought forth, the masculine Word in the heart of the faithful, and who passed, undefiled and uninjured by the wrath of the beast, into the wilderness, is, as we have explained, our mother the church. And the wilderness into which she comes and where she is nourished for “a thousand two hundred and sixty days,” is truly desolate and unfruitful of evil, barren of corruption, and difficult for many to reach and pass through. But this same wilderness is fruitful and abounding in pasture, blooming, full of wisdom and productive of life is easy for the holy to reach. This is the most lovely, beautifully wooded and well-watered dwelling of Virtue. Here the south wind awakes, and the north wind blows, and the spices flow. … And the thousand two hundred and sixty days that we are staying here, O virgins, signify the accurate and perfect understanding concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, in which our mother grows and rejoices and exults throughout this time until the restitution of the new age, when, coming into the assembly in the heavens, she will no longer contemplate the I AM through the means of human knowledge, but will clearly behold entering in together with Christ. For a thousand, consisting of a hundred multiplied by ten, embraces a full and perfect number, and is a symbol of the Father himself, who made the universe by himself, and rules all things for himself. Two hundred embraces two perfect numbers united together and is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, since he is the author of our knowledge of the Son and the Father. And the number sixty has the number six multiplied by ten and is a symbol of Christ, because the number six proceeding from unity is composed of its proper parts, so that nothing in it is wanting or redundant, and is complete when resolved into its parts. Thus it is necessary that the number six, when it is divided into even parts by even parts, should again make up the same quantity from its separated segments. For, first, if divided equally, it makes three; then, if divided into three parts, it makes two; and again, if divided by six, it makes one, and is again collected into itself. For when divided into twice three, and three times two, and six times one, when the three and the two and the one are put together, they complete the six again. But everything is of necessity perfect that neither needs anything else in order to complete it, nor has anything left over. … Thus six refers to the Son of God, who came from the “fullness of the Godhead” into a human life. For having “emptied himself and taken upon him the form of a slave,”he was restored again to his former perfection and dignity. For he being humbled and apparently degraded was restored again from his humiliation and degradation to his former completeness and greatness, having never been diminished from his essential perfection. … The church, then, coming into this wilderness, a place barren of evils, is nourished, flying on the heavenward wings of virginity, which the Word called the “wings of the great eagle,” having conquered the serpent and driven away from her full moon the wintry clouds. SYMPOSIUM 8.11-12.

THE CHURCH WALKS AMONG EVERY POWER OF SATAN. TYCONIUS: “The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God where she might be nourished.” … It says “into the wilderness,” for in the apostles the church has received authority to walk among scorpions, serpents and every power of Satan. The Lord said to the apostles, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.” As a figure of the whole church, the people of Israel were fed and led in the desert among the serpents of this world. “All these things happened as a figure for us upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”Furthermore, as a figure of the church sings and says, “[Those] whom he has redeemed from the hands of their enemies he has gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea. They wandered in the desert and dry places.” To be sure, he is describing Israel in the wilderness, for she was not gathered from those places mentioned but from the stock of Abraham, who was in Mesopotamia. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12.6.

MARY WAS SAVED FROM THE PLOT OF HEROD. OECUMENIUS: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they might nourish her for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” And so was the child saved from the plot of the dragon but the woman given over to destruction? Indeed not. But she too was saved by the flight into Egypt, which is a desert, and there was free from the plot of Herod. And there she was hid away and was nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which equals three and a half years, more or less. Thus, for some such length of time the mother of God remained in Egypt, until the death of Herod, after which another message from an angel brought them to Judea. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12.3-6.

THE CHURCH TRAMPLES THE IMPIOUS AND HAUGHTY. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: We understand the wilderness to be this world where Christ feeds and leads the church unto the end. In this world the church herself tramples under foot through the help of Christ haughty and impious persons as though they were scorpions and vipers and all the power of Satan. EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 12.6, HOMILY 9.

MONKS AND HERMITS FLEE TO THE DESERT. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: When the devil through the antichrist in whom he works arrays himself for battle against the church, those in the church who are elect and preeminent will spit upon the tumults of life and the desires of the world and flee into that desert devoid of every evil, that life which bears every virtue, as Methodius says, and these escape the assaults of people and demons who war against them. It is likely that the physical desert will also save those who flee from the plot of the apostate to the mountains and caves and holes in the earth, as was recently the case with the witnesses, for in the three and a half years are reckoned the 1,260 days during which the apostasy will rage. During this time the great judge will not think to tempt us beyond what we are able to bear, but freeing us will present to us a strong mind free from any weakness against the onslaughts upon it. And so we, fighting against the principalities and powers of darkness, may be decorated with the crown of righteousness and receive the rewards of victory. For to him who through those who are weak puts to flight the mighty principalities of the air, it is proper to ascribe victory and might, together with the Father and the life-giving Spirit forever and ever. Amen. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 12.6.

A WAR IN HEAVEN REVELATION 12:7-12

OVERVIEW: When Satan exalted himself against God and made plans to bring others into his rebellion, Michael and the other angels banished him from their ranks. Intolerant of his arrogance and insolent pride, the angels threw him from heaven (OECUMENIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA). When Satan later warred against Christ, the angels served Christ and rendered him assistance after the temptation (ANDREW OF CAESAREA). Also now Satan continues to war against the church, which is protected by Michael, the helper of God. But Satan is again thrown out of heaven when the faithful renounce him and no longer do his will (PRIMASIUS). At the end of time too the dragon and all his apostate angels will be thrown out of heaven (VICTORINUS). Deprived of his heavenly rank, Satan departs from spiritual realities and sinks down to an earthly mind (OECUMENIUS, PRIMASIUS). After the coming of Christ, Satan increased his blasphemy and slanders even the virtues and all who love them (ANDREW OF CAESAREA). And so cast out of the virtuous saints, he enters those who love and hope in earthly things (CAESARIUS OF ARLES).

At the banishment of Satan the angels sing a hymn of triumph, for the accuser has departed from the saints and has been conquered by them (OECUMENIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA). They conquered the dragon by the efficacious and precious blood of Christ and now are called “brothers” by the angels, even as they are by Christ (OECUMENIUS). The victory of Christ grants authority to the church which in Peter received the keys of binding and loosing. And the angels rejoice in divine grace and judgment, for in the redeemed they behold God’s mercy and goodness, while in the lost they see his equity and judgment (PRIMASIUS). To be sure, when Satan was cast down to earth, many suffered harm. However, for the sober and wise, trials and temptations serve as a gymnastics instructor who through exercise makes them to become approved and hardened as iron. The slothful and weak, by contrast, are unstable of mind and fall to the tyranny of Satan (OECUMENIUS). For such as these the angels grieve and lament, for they imitate God in his mercy (PRIMASIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA).

Rev