ACC ~ Revelation 17 v15 - 18

ROME MAY BE RAVAGED. OECUMENIUS: It says that the waters on which the harlot sits are the peoples and nations, clearly those over which the city exercises its rule. But how will these kings lay waste to Rome, for we see that the Revelation depicts it so? Perhaps it will be the object of warfare among the kings, as a queen who is both strong and populous and the recipient of tribute. Thus, in the war for it, it will be necessary that it, lying open as the prize of victory, suffer terribly at the hands of all, being ravaged by fire and made desolate. “For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose.” Through God’s allowance of these things, those who oppose it and desire to capture it follow along. And he causes them to be of one mind and to give their royal power to the beast, just as they agreed to be handed over to the antichrist as subjects, as we explained above. “Until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” They will become subject to the beast, it says, until the punishment of the antichrist overtakes him and all the words spoken by God through the prophets against him receive their fulfillment. And wishing to indicate even more clearly what will befall the city, the passage continues, “The woman is the great city which has dominion over all.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.15-18.

THE DEVIL IS AN INSTRUMENT OF GOD’S VENGEANCE. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: Since the angel explained these things clearly, a more detailed explanation of them is superfluous. It is remarkable to me how the devil is both enemy and avenger. For he will work through the ten horns, who are guided by him, to oppose that lover of good and virtue, Christ our God, and to lay waste that populous city that has abandoned the divine laws and become servant to his pleasures, and like a bloodthirsty beast they will glut themselves on its blood. He will regard its conflagration as an occasion for rejoicing and the mutilation of human flesh as proper food, and he who always rejoices in duplicity will grant harmony to those ten apostate horns. That which continues makes very clear that the woman who was seen is the great city that exercises power over the kings of the earth, and the sufferings of that power that is ruling during those times is prophesied. From these trials the beneficent God will redeem us and enlist us in the heavenly city, namely, in the Jerusalem above. In this city “he will be everything to everyone,” as the apostle says, “when he shall destroy every rule,” clearly every apostate rule, “and every authority and power.” In addition, he will recline with and serve those who have served him here faithfully and wisely, that is, he will give them the enjoyment of the eternal blessings that have been “prepared from the foundation of the world.”Of this bliss may also we be found worthy in Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of our souls, with whom be glory and power to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.15-18.

IN THE EUCHARISTIC CHALICE THE NATIONS ARE UNITED TO CHRIST. CYPRIAN: Christ, who teaches and shows that the people of the Gentiles were coming into that place that the Jews had lost and that we were arriving afterward through the merit of faith, made wine from water, that is, he showed that the people of the Gentiles rather would resort together and come to the nuptials of Christ and of his church when the Jews were leaving. For the divine Scripture declares in the Apocalypse that the waters signify the peoples, saying, “The waters that you saw on which that harlot sits are peoples and crowds and nations of the heathen and tongues.” We perceive that this is actually also contained in the sacrament of the chalice. For because Christ, who bore our sins, also bore us all, we see that people are signified in the water, but in the wine the blood of Christ is shown. But when water is mixed with wine in the chalice, the people are united to Christ, and the multitude of the believers is bound and joined to him in whom they believe. This association and mingling of water and wine are so mixed in the chalice of the Lord that the mixture cannot mutually be separated. Whence nothing can separate the church, that is, the multitude established faithfully and firmly in the church, persevering in that which it has believed, from Christ as long as it clings and remains in undivided love. But thus, in the consecrating of the chalice of the Lord, water alone cannot be offered, nor can wine alone. For if anyone offers wine alone, the blood of Christ begins to be without us. If, in truth, the water is alone, the people begin to be without Christ. But when both are mixed and, in the union, are joined to each other and mingled together, then the spiritual and heavenly sacrament is completed. LETTER 63.12-13.

ARROGANT AND DISSOLUTE PERSONS. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: The harlot is the life of luxury that is lived by plunder and pleasures. It says that they would hate the harlot, for dissolute persons who are also proud, lustful and arrogant not only persecute the saints, but they also hold themselves in hatred. And in another way do those hate themselves in whom the word of Scripture is fulfilled, “Those who love iniquity hate their own soul.” “And they will make her desolate and naked.” Through the wrath of God and his just judgment by which they are abandoned by him, they themselves will make the world a desert, since they have been given over to it and use it unrighteously. “And they will devour her flesh.” This is so, because as the apostle says, “They will bite and eat one another.”EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.16, HOMILY 15.

IN THE HEARTS OF THE IMPIOUS. PRIMASIUS: What the apostle said, “God gave them up to a base mind to do what they ought not,” that is also now said. For God has placed in their hearts to do that which is pleasing to him. Righteousness is pleasing to God, through which we know that retribution is visited upon the impious. Moreover, [it is according to God’s will] that they who have given their kingdom to the beast pay their just penalties with the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled, which, to be sure, consist of justice and mercy. For “all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.17.

THE WOMAN SHARES FULLY IN CORRUPTION. PRIMASIUS: This woman is the very one who was given over to the corruptions of flesh and blood and who had prospered through the power of the earthly kingdom. And since she consists of those very kings over whom she is said to reign according to her habit, [the text] has divided the very same one into parts, as though separating a genus into its species, so that the words of the Lord will be fulfilled in the woman, in the city, in the kings, on the kings and on [the woman], when he redeems his own by his mercy and by his justice condemns the insolent. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 17.18.

THE GODLESSNESS OF THE WICKED. BEDE: Later, when the seer is commanded to behold the wife of the Lamb, he sees the holy city coming down from heaven, and he says concerning her, “The kings of the earth carried their glory into her.” For in the world there are two cities, one that arises from the abyss and the other that comes down from heaven. And so now he compares the same ungodliness, which he had described in the form of a harlot made naked and burned up, with the ruins of a deserted city. EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 17.18.