ACC ~ Revelation 20 v11 - 15

OVERVIEW:

With the appearance of Christ the rest that God will establish among the saints is revealed (ANDREW OF CAESAREA). God will be enthroned among them with a radiant rule reflected in the splendor of their virtue. At that time the corruption under which the heavens and the earth had been subjected will be cast off (OECUMENIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA), and they will be changed into something better by way of a transformation, not by destruction into nonexistence (AUGUSTINE, OECUMENIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA). This final transformation of the world proves that it was originally created by God from nothing (TERTULLIAN).

At that time also, all people will be judged according to the commandments of God written in the Old and New Testaments (AUGUSTINE, BEDE). All persons, whether old or young, righteous or sinner (OECUMENIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA), will be judged when Christ, who is the Book of Life, renders to each according to his deeds (APRINGIUS). The book that shall be opened is not a physical book but a spiritual book (AUGUSTINE, APRINGIUS). Perhaps we should think of this book as the conscience of each person who by divine illumination “reads” the record of his or her deeds (AUGUSTINE). Perhaps the book is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is merciful in the giving of recompense (APRINGIUS). Certainly in the single Book of Life only a few will be inscribed, for only few walk on the narrow way that leads to life (OECUMENIUS).

Those whose bodies were drowned in the sea or otherwise dissolved into the elements will be raised bodily to face their judgment (APRINGIUS, OECUMENIUS). This will not be too difficult for God, for he is able to do as he wishes, and originally he brought all bodies into existence from nonexistence (OECUMENIUS). All the dead, therefore, will be given up for judgment, those who are dead because of the separation of body and soul (BEDE) as well as those who are “dead” because their bodies are destined to eternal death in view of their death-bearing sins (AUGUSTINE, ANDREW OF CAESAREA, BEDE).

In the final judgment the devil and all the friends of death will be condemned to everlasting torment (AUGUSTINE, ANDREW OF CAESAREA). With them all who are worthy of death and of hades will be cast into the second death (OECUMENIUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA). For such persons it would be better were they not to rise at all. For in the second death there is nothing but misery and groaning in outer darkness (APHRAHAT). There the life of the soul, which comes from God, is gone while the soul, united with the body, enables the body to feel the torment it endures. That “life” apart from God that is given over to perpetual pain is more properly called death than life (AUGUSTINE). With an infallible foreknowledge God knows who will be condemned to this life of eternal death (AUGUSTINE, BEDE). For already in the present time God begins his judgment by deserting evil persons and leaving them in their sins (FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE). Such persons, neither believing in life nor confessing with their mouths, shall be destroyed in hell (APRINGIUS). With their evil thoughts and deeds made known to all (BEDE), the condemned will forever be punished in the sight of the angels and the just (LACTANTIUS). Yet even in the lake of fire there will be a distinction of punishments (OECUMENIUS).

20:11 | Earth and Sky Fled

HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL COME TO NOTHING. TERTULLIAN: 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. AGAINST HERMOGENES 33-34.

THE VISIBLE APPEARANCE OF THE WORLD WILL PASS AWAY. AUGUSTINE: 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. CITY OF GOD 20.14.

THE CORRUPTION OF THE HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL BE CAST OFF. OECUMENIUS: By the words white throne he speaks of a throne that is bright and radiant. By the figure of the flight of the heaven and the earth, the passage indicates their change and transformation. For if “the heavens will pass away with a loud noise,” as the holy Peter says, and as the prophet who says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you did lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands; they shall perish, but you remain, and they all shall grow old as a garment, and as a vesture you shall fold them, and they shall be changed,” then certainly the Revelation speaks of their passing away and their destruction, which signify their change, as a “flight,” since no place was found for them. For where would one find that corruption that had been cast off? Therefore, in the present passage he speaks of their change, while a little further on he says that they shall become new. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.11-12.

THE CREATION WILL RECEIVE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: 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. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.11.

20:12 | The Book of Life

EACH PERSON WILL MENTALLY REVIEW HIS OR HER DEEDS. AUGUSTINE: 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.” CITY OF GOD 20.14.

THE LORD JESUS WILL BE MADE MANIFEST. APRINGIUS OF BEJA: 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.” TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.12.

THOSE WHO HAVE WALKED IN VIRTUE ARE IN THE BOOK OF LIFE. OECUMENIUS: By great he speaks of the just, not because they are great by any physical measurement but because of their glory and the brightness of their virtue. By small he means the sinners, since they have become as nothing through their baseness and worthlessness. “And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.” In the Gospels, the Lord says that the way that leads to destruction is broad and wide and that many walk on it, but that the way that leads to life is narrow and cramped and that not only are there few who are walking on it, but few who even find it. For this reason he saw many books and one book. There are many books because all of humankind is inscribed in them, and there is a great number in them. There is but one Book of Life, because in it are inscribed those who are the elect, that is, those blameless in virtue, who have trodden every rugged and steep path of virtue. Everyone in the books, it says, were judged deservedly according to their works. [Earlier] mention was also made of another book, which was called a “little scroll.” But now he speaks of a “book,” even a “scroll of life,” as if there were three different ones. He speaks of a “little scroll” in which are listed the most impious according to the thoughts there asserted. He also speaks of the “Book of Life” in which are listed the most pious and righteous. And finally he speaks of “books” in which all those are listed who are, as it were, in between evil and virtue. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.11-12.

THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE SINNERS WILL BE JUDGED. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: 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. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.12.

THE WICKED WILL READ OF THE GOOD THEY CHOSE NOT TO DO. BEDE: “The dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.” This means that they were judged from the [two] Testaments according to what they had done and what they had not done. It is possible also to understand these books to refer to the deeds of the righteous. For in comparison with these the wicked are damned, since in the opening of these books they read of that good that they did not choose to do. EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 20.12.

20:13 | All Were Judged

THOSE DESTINED TO DEATH ARE DEAD EVEN WHILE THEY ARE ALIVE. AUGUSTINE: 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”—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. CITY OF GOD 20.15.

NO FURTHER DEATH OF THE BODY AFTER THE RESURRECTION. APRINGIUS OF BEJA: 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]. TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.13.

GOD IS ABLE TO RESTORE TO US OUR BODIES. OECUMENIUS: Those who do not believe in the resurrection of the body smile at us and at our teaching, which asserts that these very bodies are to rise again, as though this were not only difficult but altogether impossible. They say moreover that every earthly body consists of the four elements of fire, water, earth, air, and that upon death bodies return to those elements from which they were constituted in the first place. So that which is of fire in us returns to that which is naturally and wholly fire; that which is of water returns to water, and the other two return to what belongs to them. “Since these elements,” [they may argue], “have been mixed and compounded with their own substances, how is it possible that that which has become one simple, indistinguishable substance by mixture be restored as bodies, as you [Christians] say, unless you would say that different bodies are arising instead of the other [previous] ones?” To such persons one might quote the holy Scripture, “You are wrong, O people, because you do not know the power of God,” by whose will all things received their being, since for him only to will a work is for it to be accomplished. For what is easier, to bring substances out of nothing, or, having once brought them forth and mixing them either with themselves or with other things, again to dissemble them and assign to each what is its own? Furthermore, even we are often successful by a certain technique in separating wine that has been mixed with water. Moreover, even the sun draws up through the mists and vapors what is fresh and sweet from the sea, while it leaves that which is heavy, earthy, salty and bitter. But the primary consideration is this, that God alone is able to do whatever he wishes. If, therefore, God has brought that which had no existence into existence, how is it not easier for him to separate again what had been mixed completely with the elements simply by willing to do so and to assign to each body what belongs to it, even though for humans this would be impossible? It is impossible for you and for me to divide the brilliance of fire from its heat, yet this is possible with God—for it says, “There is a voice of the Lord who divides flames of fire.” In the same way it is impossible for you and me to separate what has been mixed together, while for God it is easy and readily done. The present passage of the Revelation now offers to us this marvelous doctrine [of the resurrection of the body], saying, “The sea gave up the dead in it” from the sea. This concerns the element of water. Signifying every watery substance, it says that the watery substance gave up everything that had been mixed with it from what was of water in human bodies. “And death and hades,” it says, “gave up the dead in them.” By death it means the earth, since our bodies had decayed in it. And so the holy prophet also speaks periphrastically of death as the “dust of death,” saying, “He has brought me down into the dust of death.” And so the earth gave up everything in it which had been earthy in our [bodies]. In addition, hades gave up the dead in it. By hades it speaks of air and fire, for they are formless and invisible. For to be sure, because it is so fine, air is invisible, unless it becomes dense, and fire that smolders in wood is invisible, unless it burst into flame. Moreover, that element of fire, the ether, is invisible to us because it is obscured by the interposition of much air. And too, by hades he speaks of fire because of the destruction and formlessness it reeks upon that which it touches. And so many sayings name it “Unknown.” Therefore, when each element has given back whatever was mixed with it of the human being, the resurrection is accomplished. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.13-21.2.

DEATH AND HADES GIVE UP OUR BODIES AND SOULS. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: It says that each body is returned to those elements from which it was constituted and given up, whether it had been given over to the earth or to the sea. Death and hades are not ensouled living creatures, as some have written. Rather, death is the separation of the soul and the body, and hades is that place that is to us formless and unseen and that receives the souls that travel there. Those souls are “dead” that carry death-bearing deeds. As a wise man said, “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.13.

GOOD AND WICKED SOULS WILL BE UNITED WITH THEIR BODIES. BEDE: He indicates that the bodies and the souls are to be brought together, the bodies from the earth and the souls from their own locations. By death he indicates those good souls who endured only the separation of the flesh but would not suffer punishment, while by hades he indicates the wicked souls. It is also possible to interpret this literally to mean that all bodies that the waves of the sea carried away or that the beasts had devoured would be resurrected. Tyconius interpreted the passage this way: “Those nations that he shall find here still living are the dead of the sea; while ‘death and hades gave up their dead’ refers to the nations that are dead and buried.” EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 20.13.

20:14 | The Lake of Fire, the Second Death

IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR THE WICKED WERE THEY NOT TO RISE. APHRAHAT: 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. DEMONSTRATIONS 8.19.

THE DEVIL WILL BE SENT TO THE LAKE OF FIRE. AUGUSTINE: 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. CITY OF GOD 20.15.

TOTAL DEATH. AUGUSTINE: 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. CITY OF GOD 13.2.

NO ONE WHO DIES WILL DIE AGAIN. APRINGIUS OF BEJA: 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. TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.14.

THE SECOND DEATH HAS SIN AS ITS CAUSE. OECUMENIUS: Once the resurrection has happened and each soul has received its own body, death, namely, the formless, disembodied life of souls in death is destroyed. [The passage] describes this in a figurative manner and speaks of their destruction symbolically when it says that death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The prophet Hosea also speaks similarly, saying, “Where is your penalty, O death? Where, O hades, is your sting?” “This is,” it says, “the second death, the lake of fire.” In previous passages it spoke of physical death, that is, the separation of the soul and the body as the first death, while the second death was the spiritual death, punishment and torment, which has sin as its cause. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.13-21.2.

THE EVIL POWERS WILL BE CONDEMNED. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: 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. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.14-15.

20:15 | Names Not Written in the Book of Life

THE IMPIOUS WILL BE BURNED. LACTANTIUS: 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. EPITOME OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTES 7.26.

GOD HAS AN INFALLIBLE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF THE ELECT. AUGUSTINE: 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. CITY OF GOD 20.15.

CONCUPISCENCE GIVES BIRTH TO SIN; MATURE SIN BEGETS DEATH. FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE: [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. LETTER TO MONIMUS 1.27.1-6.

WHOEVER HAS NOT CONFESSED THE LORD. APRINGIUS OF BEJA: 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? TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.15.

THERE IS A DISTINCTION OF PUNISHMENTS IN THE LAKE OF FIRE. OECUMENIUS: All those who remained in sins and were not accounted worthy to be in the Book of Life suffered the same fate. Do not marvel that it says that even those who had sinned moderately were thrown into the lake of fire together with the devil and the antichrist. For even there, there is a distinction of punishments. Just as in a fire there is a part that is continuously very hot and a part that is not so hot and is somewhat temperate, yet every part is called fire, so you might, as I do, consider this also to be like that. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.13-21.2.

THE THOUGHTS AND DEEDS OF EACH PERSON ARE MADE KNOWN. BEDE: [The passage] is speaking of those who are not judged by God to be living. For this reason, it seems to me that those are correct who say that the open books above are the thoughts and deeds of each person that have been made known. However, the Book of Life is the foreknowledge of God, which cannot fail concerning those to whom eternal life will be given. They are written in this book, that is, they have been foreknown [by God]. EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 20.15.