ACC ~ Revelation 20 v13

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.

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