TRV
Bede
Late Patristic · AD 500–800
6,271 passages across 45 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Revelation
20 of 640-
Revelation 7:10
And they cried out with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. With a loud voice, that is, with great devotion and unceasing praise, they profess that the Father and the Son reign on the throne, that is, in the Church, with the Holy Spirit likewise reigning together. For it is said: To the One sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb (Apocalypse V), as it is said in the Gospel: That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John XVII). It is understood: That they may know the one true God.
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Revelation 7:11
And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the living creatures. In all the angels he showed the persons of the great multitude worshipping the Lord. He says, All who are around him shall offer gifts (Psalm LXXV).
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Revelation 7:11
And they fell before the throne on their faces, etc. Neither the multitude, nor the living creatures, nor the elders are mentioned in this place as worshipping, but only the angels. For they are the multitude, they are the living creatures and the elders. Although it can also be understood of those angelic spirits, of whom it is said, rejoicing in the salvation of the Gentiles: Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people, and let all the angels of God worship him (Romans XV).
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Revelation 7:12
Blessing and glory and wisdom, etc. The Church offers to the Lord a sevenfold praise of virtues, which it confesses to have received from him in each of its members.
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Revelation 7:13
And one of the elders said to me: Who are these who are clothed in white robes, and where did they come from? etc. He asks this to teach.
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Revelation 7:14
Martyrs wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, while as for their members, which “seem to the eyes of the ignorant” [to be] defiled by the squalor of their pains, they instead have made [these members] clean of all contagion by their blood which is poured forth for Christ. In addition, they have rendered [their members] worthy of the blessed light of immortality, which is [the meaning of] their having made their washed robes white in the blood of the Lamb.
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Revelation 7:14
And he said to me: These are those who have come out of great tribulation. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts XIV). But who does not know that the tribulation of the Antichrist will be greater than the others?
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Revelation 7:14
And they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. He does not speak only of the martyrs. For they are washed in their own blood. But the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses the whole Church from all sin (II Corinthians VII), therefore they are before the throne of God. For they are deemed worthy to stand in the service of God there, who here amid adversities are faithful confessors of his name.
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Revelation 7:15
And they serve him day and night in his temple. Speaking in our manner, he signifies eternity.
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Revelation 7:15
To be continuously present at the praises of God is not a laborious servitude but a servitude that is pleasant and desirable. “Day and night,” indeed, do not exclusively signify the vicissitude of time, but typologically [they signify] its perpetuity.
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Revelation 7:15
And he who sits on the throne will dwell over them. The throne of God is the saints, upon whom and in whom God dwells forever.
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Revelation 7:16
They will neither hunger nor thirst anymore. This is what the Lord himself promised: "I am," he says, "the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John VI). For blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matthew V).
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Revelation 7:16
Neither shall the sun strike them, nor any scorching heat. "We have passed," he says, "through fire and water, and you have brought us to a place of refreshment" (Psalm LXV).
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Revelation 7:17
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Having attained the fullness of immortal joys, all sorrow will be entirely consigned to oblivion. For blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. But the vision of this robed multitude can also be understood of the present time, where we are saved by hope, and what we do not see we wait for with patience.
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Revelation 7:17
And he will lead them to the fountains of living waters. Surely to the fellowship of the saints, who are the fountains of heavenly doctrine. It can also signify the vision of God himself, in whom are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As David says: "As the deer longs for the fountains of water, so my soul longs for you, O God" (Psalm XLI).
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Revelation 7:17
For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them. He says that the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, who had previously said that the Lamb received the book from the one seated on the throne, teaching that the Church has one throne with the Father and the Son, in which through faith one dwells, the whole Trinity, God.
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Revelation 8:1
And when he had opened the seventh seal, etc. After the destruction of the Antichrist, a brief rest is believed to come in the Church, about which Daniel predicted thus: "Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days" (Daniel XII). Which blessed Jerome explains thus: "Blessed," he says, "is he who, after the Antichrist is killed, awaits beyond the one thousand two hundred and ninety days, that is, three and a half years, forty-five days, during which the Lord and Savior is to come in his majesty." But why there is a silence of forty-five days after the killing of the Antichrist is known to divine knowledge. Unless we might say: the delay of the kingdom of the saints is a test of patience. Note that in the sixth seal he sees the greatest pressures on the Church, in the seventh he sees rest, because the Lord, crucified on the sixth day, rested on the Sabbath, waiting for the time of resurrection. Thus far about the opening of the sealed book and the six seals. Now he recapitulates from the beginning, intending to speak the same things differently.
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Revelation 8:2
And I saw seven angels standing before God, etc. The Church, often commended by the number seven, is devoted to the duty of preaching, the first trumpet signifying the common destruction of the impious by fire and hail; the second, the devil expelled from the Church, more fervently inflaming the sea of the world; the third, heretics falling away from the Church, corrupting the rivers of the Holy Scripture; the fourth, the downfall of false brethren in the obscuration of the stars; the fifth, the greater infestation of heretics preceding the time of the Antichrist; the sixth, the open war of the Antichrist and his followers against the Church, and, by recapitulation from the coming of the Lord, the insertion of the destruction of the same adversary; the seventh, the day of judgment, when the Lord will render the reward to His own and will destroy those who have corrupted the earth.
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Revelation 8:3
And there was given unto him much incense, etc. From the prayers of the saints he offered the incense. For to them the Church entrusted its prayers, saying: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight" (Psalm 140). It is said that he received from the prayers of the saints and offered it, because through him the prayers of all can sweetly reach God.
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Revelation 8:3
And he stood before the altar, having a golden censer. Clearly, he appeared in the sight of the Church, having become the censer, from which God received the odor of sweetness, and was propitiated towards the world. Another Edition has "Upon the altar," which means that He offered His golden censer, that is, His immaculate body conceived by the Holy Spirit, upon the altar of the cross to the Father for us.