ACC ~ Revelation 6 v7 - 8

OVERVIEW:

Through the beatings that Christ endured we are brought closer to God. Condemned by our disobedience, pleasure and quest for sin, we are freed by the obedience and pains of Jesus (OECUMENIUS). However, in the Gentiles, false brothers, heretics and schismatics the devil still possesses his portion of the world (TYCONIUS). Through these, the devil makes war upon the church in body and soul (TYCONIUS, CAESARIUS OF ARLES). Yet the perfect number of the elect will be preserved throughout these attacks (TYCONIUS). God will vindicate his pious, and by his wrath he will devour the souls of the impious should they not repent (VICTORINUS, ANDREW OF CAESAREA). Moreover, God will send death and destruction upon the evil demons, who are responsible for the destruction of humankind (OECUMENIUS). Such destruction will certainly be the fate of heretics, like Arius, who bear death within themselves and lead the spiritually dead to eternal punishment (BEDE). The pestilences arising from the war between the pious and the impious are, indeed, already within the experience of humankind, as we can read in the histories (ANDREW OF CAESAREA).

6:7 | The Lamb Opened the Fourth Seal

CHRIST REVEALS OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD. OECUMENIUS: The loosing of the fourth and of the remaining seals is the beginning of the loosing of sin that was brought about by the transgression of Adam. For the loosing of this seal reveals our friendship with God. For if, as Isaiah says, “our sins have made us separated from God,” the removal of sins brings us close [to God]. And what is this loosing of the seal? It is the lashes that Christ received and through which we have been freed. For since we were condemned by the pleasure of taste, we have been healed through the opposites. Lashes are the opposite of pleasure, for they give a painful sensation. For Christ has paid in full for us all things through which we were brought down into the corruption of death. And he paid this debt in full through opposites—disobedience through obedience, pleasure through a painful submission, and the hands which lay hold of the forbidden tree through those hands which were valiantly stretched out upon the cross. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 6.5-8.

THE DIVINE WRATH. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: The soaring flight and the swiftness upon its prey of the fourth living creature, namely, the eagle, suggests those plagues that come from above, from the divine wrath for the vindication of the pious and for the punishment of the impious, unless these should turn from their sins through improvement. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 6.7.

6:8 | A Pale Horse and Its Rider

THE SOULS OF THE IMPIOUS. VICTORINUS OF PETOVIUM: “And there was a pale horse, and he who sat upon it had the name of death.” The Lord had foretold of these very things, along with other catastrophes. For when he said, “And hell follows him,” he was speaking of the devouring of the souls of many of the impious. This is the pale horse. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 6.3.

THE ELECT WILL BE PRESERVED. TYCONIUS: There are two parts in the world, that which belongs to God and that of the devil. That which belongs to the devil is further divided into three parts, which are both within and outside [the church]. These are the Gentiles, false brothers and those separated by open error or schism. And these three parts are those that war against the one. This one is said to consist of three fourths, either because it believes in the threefold unity or because it is distinguished into orders by the goodly variation of three vocations, that of the virgins, of the widows and of the married. He says that now power is given in these three fourths. He speaks of the church which is one, and because the threefold vocation relates to one head, it consists from the three fourths in the stability of a square. As it says, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone.” He foretells that the church will be placed into stress by the attacks of evil people, from the Gentiles, from false brothers and by heretical depravity. And this is also to be recognized in the number of the messengers, that the very same good would oppose three evil enemies—the red horse with the sword, the second, black horse with the balance, and the third, pale horse with the sign of death, for the sword signifies war, the black horse famine and the pale horse death. And since he mentions the plagues one by one, he foretells all the future outbreaks of plagues by enumerating them in or through the third, the names of the beasts being added. We may remain undecided whether the speech is literal or figurative. For a visible sword is commonly used against the body, while a spiritual sword is used against the soul. Similarly concerning famine, it can mean here either a famine of the Word of God or a famine that affects the body. And likewise concerning death, it can here mean either eternal death that affects souls or that temporal death that concerns bodies. Nonetheless, it is clear that the fourth good part, which is opposed by the three evils, is made to struggle in time by all of these visible persecutions. For those who are called according to the purpose of the will of God shall remain in the perfect number of the elect, especially those whom he wills to be preserved by the inviolate sacraments of the wine and oil. For when he said, “Do not harm the wine and oil,” he was indicating the price of redemption in the wine and the anointing of baptism in the oil. Indeed, the Lord clearly said in the Gospel, “Father, those whom you have given to me, I have guarded, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 6.8.

DEMONS WILL BE DEVOURED BY THEIR OWN PASSIONS. OECUMENIUS: When this happened, at the summons of the fourth holy creature a pale horse came out and its rider’s name was Death, and hades followed him. And there was given to them authority over a fourth of the earth. The pale horse is symbolic of wrath, for pale is the color of gall and is so named by physicians. Death and hades were sent to wage spiritual warfare against the wicked demons and to exact vengeance for the destruction of humankind. But since, according to the logic of the vision, the salvific passion of Christ through which he paid for all our sins had not yet happened, the complete destruction of the demons had not yet been effected, but at that time only a fourth part. And this destruction he figuratively calls a “slaughter” and a “famine” brought on those who long ago worshiped them, and “death,” revealing the end of their tyranny through death, and “destruction” by the beasts of the earth. For he calls the passions of arrogance and vainglory among the demons “beasts of the earth,” which, as they are cast out of their dominion over people, consume and devour them, since they are earthly and as it were revel in the muddied passions of the earth, although they had received incorporeal natures. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 6:5-8.

WAR, FAMINE AND PESTILENCE. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: In the pale horse we perceive evil people who never cease to incite persecutions. And these three horses are one, who came out after the white horse and against it. And they have as their rider the devil, who is death. And so, the three horses are interpreted to be war, famine, and pestilence. For in the Gospel, the Lord foretold of these things, and they have already occurred, and as the day of judgment draws nearer will occur even more. EXPOSITION ON THE APOCALYPSE 6.8, HOMILY 5.

FAMINE AND PESTILENCE IN HUMAN HISTORY. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: This sequence of events has happened before and reflects also contemporary occurrences. For as Eusebius says in the eighth chapter of the ninth book of his Ecclesiastical History, at the height of the persecution, when Maximinus was Roman emperor, both famine and pestilence along with other things fell upon them, so that such an innumerable multitude perished that they could not be buried. At that time indeed the Christians zealously undertook the task of burying the dead and by their love of humanity led those who had been deceived to the recognition of the truth. Moreover, the Armenians resisted the Romans, he says, so that many were killed with the sword and the bodies of the dead were eaten by dogs. Finally, those left alive began to kill the dogs, fearing that they themselves might die and that the living would become their tombs. For it was not impossible that even wild animals shared the same meal with dogs on account of the abundance of food. We know that even in our own times similar things have happened. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 6.8.

HERETICS ARE THE CAUSE OF DEATH TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW THEM. BEDE: This image is of the heretics who clothe themselves as though they were Catholics but are worthy to have death abide within them and who draw the army of the lost after themselves. For the devil and his ministers are, by metonymy, called “death” and “hell,” since they are for many the cause of death and of hell. The passage may simply be interpreted to mean that eternal punishments there [in hell] follow those who are here spiritually dead. “And there was given to him power over the four parts of the earth.” Behold the insanity of Arius, which arose in Alexandria and extended itself even to the Gallic ocean, pursuing the pious not only by a dearth of the word of God but also, as though by beasts, with the physical sword. EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 6.8.