Oecumenius

But secondly, there is the blessing of Christ to us, who opened the second seal of the little scroll, and added to us the release of our shame, restoring to us the divine vision; He was tempted as the Lord and overcame the tempter so that He might show not only victory but also that the adversary was defeated. The adversary did not bite the heel of the rider nor trip up our steps (Ps. 140:4) according to God's commandments, but rather, falling backward and being sent away in servitude, and hearing from the Man whom he wrestled with long ago, even though God was in Him, He said, "Depart, Satan," (Matt. 4:10) and Satan went away in shame. And now, for the first time, the adversary knowing his own weakness, he who boasts of sitting above the clouds on his throne, will be made like the Most High, imagining himself according to what was described by Isaiah. (Isa. 14:13-14)

When it happened, a fiery red horse came out, led by one of the holy creatures; and to the one sitting on the horse it was given the power to take peace from the earth so that people would kill one another, and a great sword was given to him. The fiery red horse is a riddle [αἴνιγμα] of blood; therefore, a sword is given to the one seated upon it, by which to destroy and divide the unity of those on earth toward evil. They were united in their idolatry and so that they might kill one another; that is, to destroy each other through hostile contracts. For the Lord "did not come to bring peace upon the earth, but a sword; and to set a son against his father, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law," (Matt. 10:34-35) the new and godly against the ancient and condemned.

Thirdly, the mercy of Christ has opened the third seal for us, and has brought us, from having been condemned to rejection, to God and the Father. And this is his saving teaching, and the benefits through the divine signs; for these brought about the overthrow of the Devil; for through them we have come to know who is by nature and truly God, "so that we may not be infants, tossed about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14); and we honor those things which our hands have made, exchanging the corruptible demons for the glory of God. For the divine teaching of the Lord drew to itself, like yeast to flour, those who were learning, according to the voice of the Lord, and enjoying the miracles, which healed souls more than bodies.

When these things happened, a black horse came forth, and the one sitting on it had a pair of scales in his hand. The black horse symbolizes sadness and mourning, imposed by the divine teachings following the downfall of the Devil, and therefore, in Devil's mourning, it finds its own release [λῦσιν], corresponding to such extensive periods of time.

The scales are indeed a symbol of equality and justice. For "the one who judges righteousness sat upon the throne; he rebuked the nations of the demons, and the impious one," (Ps. 9:5-6) their leader, perished. Therefore, the scales is a symbol of the righteous judgment of the Lord, the scales that is upon us; it also signifies that we may speak boldly before Him: "You have established my judgment and my justice," (Ps. 9:5) so that the nations may know that we are men, and not subjected to the judgment of beasts, dragged by a "bridle and a strap," (Ps. 31:9) and pastured by destructive tyrants.

And he said, I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine." The word and the teaching, as a seed, is metaphorically expressed in the divine Scripture; for it is written according to Matthew: "The sower went out to sow" (Matt. 13:3); and again, the most favored of the servants said to their lord, "Lord, did you not sow good seed in the field? Where then do the weeds come from?" (Matt. 13:27) As for the seed, it is indeed grain, like the evangelical preaching which serves as proper nourishment for mature men, "who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Heb. 5:14)

What then is barley? According to the Law of Moses, it is the teaching, as the earliest form of grain, fully matured, and serving as nourishment appropriate for livestock, feeding the infant Israel.

Therefore, God speaks from among the four living creatures saying: "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius." Through this, a famine is foretold, along with a scarcity among the people of that time of both teaching and the Gospel from the Lord, as well as of the law, according to what is written: "I will give them neither hunger for bread nor thirst for water, but hunger for hearing the word of the Lord." (Amos 8:11)

Even if he says that those who despise every teaching and turning should suffer these and those things most of all, do not harm the oil and the wine; leave them alone and do not bring any punishment upon them; God says there is still mercy for them from me. Since there is hope for them, to be spiritually joyful in the divine proclamations of my Only Begotten; for this is "the wine that spiritually gladdens the heart of man." (Ps. 104:15)

Therefore, by continuing in their previous disobedience, he would wrong the mercy granted to them by God, as well as the joy that would be perceived [νοητὴν] through faith. And why do I say "perceived" only? For the teachings of the Lord possessed grace that was both perceptible and visible; and the prophet bears witness, saying, "Grace has been poured out upon your lips," (Ps. 44:32) addressing the Lord. Moreover, Josephus, the Jewish man, compelled by truth, writes concerning Him in his book Antiquities of the Jews the following: "At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if it is proper to call him a man; for he was a doer of extraordinary works, a teacher of people who accept the truth with pleasure; and he attracted many Jews and many from the Greek population.

This was the Christ. And He was shown to us as one of the first men, having been crucified by Pilate; those who first loved Him did not cease. For He appeared to them alive again on the third day, fulfilling what the divine prophets had spoken, these and countless other miracles concerning Him. Even now, the community [φῦλον] of those called Christians has not perished from this time onward."

It is the breaking of the fourth seal and the beginning of the release from the sin of Adam's transgression. For this release is the indicator of reconciliation with God. For if "our sins separate us from God", as Isaiah says (Isa. 59:2), then their removal brings us back into fellowship. But what is the remedy? The wounds of Christ, through which we have been freed (see 1 Peter 2:24; Isa. 53:5). For since we were condemned by the pleasure of tasting, we have been healed by its opposites. Opposite to pleasure are the wounds, which bear the painful sensation, all of which Christ endured on our behalf, through which we were led to the corruption of death, but He endured it through opposites: through obedience, disobedience (see Rom. 5:19); through painful submission, pleasure; through the brave placing of His hands upon the cross, which had rashly touched the forbidden tree.

Of which it is said to have occurred, by the command of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a pale horse; and the one sitting on it was named Death, and Hades followed with him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth. The pale horse is a symbol of wrath; for the bile is pale green, and so it is called by physicians.

Death and Hades were indeed sent forth spiritually to overthrow the deceitful demons and to exact justice for the destruction of humanity. However, since the saving work of Christ's passion had not yet been accomplished through the Revelation, by which He atoned all the sins committed against us, the complete destruction of the demons had not yet occurred; rather, only a quarter part had been destroyed.

This destruction is metaphorically called a slaughter and famine by those who long ago worshipped them; and death, the end of their tyranny, is brought about through death itself, and their annihilation by the beasts of the earth;

beasts of the earth being the passions of pride and vanity in the demons. Though these demons are earthly by nature, as they delight in the earthly passions that afflict those on earth, even though they have a spiritual nature, they are weakened and consumed as they are cast out from their dominion over humanity.

Therefore, the fifth salvation of the Lord was granted to humanity, which opened the fifth seal of the Lord and brought us liberation from sins and reconciliation with God. The bonds and wounds, by which the Lord was bound and brought before Pilate, and which He suffered from Pilate who had a half-hearted reverence (see Matt. 27), were therefore overcome. Regarding these matters, Isaiah spoke of the plagues, saying that when the Lord was asked by the divine angels, "What are these wounds in the midst of your hands?" He replied, "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my beloved." (Zech. 13:6) For these wounds healed our wounds, which we received when we were going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who bound us and wounded us, leaving us half dead, according to the parable of Luke. (Luke 10:30) But He has also loosened our bonds, the cords of sin by which we were bound; for the prophet says that "the cords of sinners were entangled around me." (Ps. 118:61) Therefore, the Devil, acting wickedly on his own accord, was unaware, and in the Lord's rebukes, he thrust the sword against himself and fell from his poorly established authority.

When this happened, since previously the saints who had testified in the old days had not yet experienced such things against Christ; although He was spat upon, struck, and slapped, these acts were done in secret, in the unlawful council of the high priests, with only the servants and those summoned to the council as witnesses, and they still remained silent, remembering no one but themselves; but when they saw the Lord bound, scourged publicly by Pilate, and before all the Jewish people, they then rose up together, and having become witnesses against their master, they also remembered themselves.

For he said, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had maintained. He said, I saw the souls of the martyrs who held the highest place; for they were above the heavenly altar. Then he also says by which martyrs, having been slain, he speaks on behalf of the devotion of the ancient word and of the church, or rather the synagogue, which they had. For not only do the martyrs die for themselves, but they make the benefit common; for their courage becomes an encouragement to the rest, and the knowledge of God was built up by the blood of the saints.

The breaking of the sixth seal accomplished the perfect completion of our salvation; it destroyed death; it restored life; it crowned the conqueror of mankind, triumphing with confidence according to what is written: "For the only-begotten ascended on high; he led captivity captive; he received gifts among men." (Ps. 68:18: Eph. 4:8)

What then is the sixth seal's opening? It is the cross of the Lord and His death, followed by the prayer of every intellectual and sensible creature, the resurrection and ascension, "which He inaugurated for us a new and living way," the return from death to life through the tearing of "the veil of His flesh" (Heb. 10:20); which benefited not only the living but also those who had gone before.

For the Lord also went and preached to those in Hades who had once disobeyed, according to the divine apostle Peter, (1 Peter 3:19-20) and saved those who believed there, as is also thought by Cyril.

Of which things having happened, a great earthquake occurred, he says, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree casting its unripe figs when shaken by a strong wind. The vision clearly depicts for us the signs that occurred on the cross: the earthquake and the shaking of the earth (Matt. 27:51), the darkening of the sun, and the entire transformation of the moon into blood.

Indeed, the whole [ὅλη] was added very precisely to the moon; for being nearly full and not divided, it showed the entire suffering on the day of the crucifixion through its entirety. It is customary for the enlightened part for such things to occur during lunar eclipses. And these things the prophet Joel also foretold would happen, saying, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes." (Joel 2:31)

And, he says, the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the powerful and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Kings again and great men, commanders and the rich and powerful, he calls wretched demons, as those who began to oppress the earth through violence and deceit; but slaves and free men, those who excel among the demons and are subject to them.

As for hiding themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and yet saying, "You will fall upon us and hide us," this is spoken figuratively; it hints at fugitives attempting to escape the punishment imposed on them by Christ. For if an invisible punishment and retribution were not inflicted upon them, what is the meaning of what was said by the prophet Isaiah concerning Christ's presence: "I have trodden the winepress alone, and among the nations there is no man with me; I have trampled them in my anger, and crushed them in my wrath, and their blood I have poured out upon the earth"? (Isa. 63:2-3) And what is the meaning of calling the God-hated [θεοστυγεῖς] demons by Matthew: "What have we to do with you, Son of God? Have you come to torment us?" (Matt. 8:29) But one might understand that these things spoken in the Revelation are not only the sufferings of demons, but also of the lawless Jews who crucified the Lord on the cross, who, being oppressed by the war against the Romans, became fugitives in the mountains and caves and the clefts of the earth, and were everywhere tormented by distress and anguish.

From here, the events that occurred to the Jews in the war against the Romans are clearly shown to the evangelist, which became a cause for them regarding the cross and the mockery against the Lord.

For the four angels who hold the four corners of the land of the Jews guarded so that none of the Jews worthy of death might escape, perhaps casting into them cowardice of flight or some difficulty or a longing for a foreign land and for their wives and loved ones, which is figuratively indicated by the holding of the four corners of Judea.

As for the control of the four winds, which means that neither on the earth nor at sea nor upon any tree should they blow, it signifies that no relief or interval could be found for them in war, nor any easing of their hardships, neither for those fighting on land nor for those engaged in naval battles. For many naval battles were fought during the time of Josephus, nor did those attending to agriculture and the care of plants escape this fate. For all were utterly overtaken by calamities: cities set on fire, land ravaged, and crops destroyed. Josephus thoroughly details all these events in his account of the siege of Jerusalem.

And he says that one hundred and forty thousand were sealed; for many were those who believed in Christ from among the Jews, who owed their salvation from the common destruction to this number. And those who spoke with Paul in Jerusalem bear witness: "Look, brother, how many myriads of Jews have believed." (Acts 21:20)

It was not only reasonable to spare the faithful but also those who, in ignorance and deception, cooperated with the crucifixion of the Lord, concerning whom He said: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34) Cyril, in his thirteenth book Against Julian, states that this prayer of the Lord is not found in the Gospels according to the pagans, but it is indeed present among us. And not only these individuals but also those who were not present at that time, or who were residing in Jerusalem, and therefore did not partake in the impious counsel of the accursed chief priests regarding the crucifixion, or even those who were present but did not share in the guilt of the pollution, for He blessed all under heaven, having opposed or rejected the godless council of the lawless; all of whom it was reasonable to be later sealed by the faith of Christ. For the angel would not have otherwise called them servants of God; of whom, when some were preserved, the rest, being evil, defected even to the Romans and were thoroughly corrupted, "becoming a spectacle to the world and to angels and men" (1 Cor. 4:9) in a different manner, and not as Paul spoke concerning the divine apostles. Of these, again Josephus is a witness, enumerating the greatest number, tens of thousands, due to the famine.

These things, which the discourse has narrated, have been demonstrated to the divine evangelist concerning those sealed from Israel by blood and therefore saved, and also those who have believed. But so that nothing may be lacking in his vision, the prophecy reveals to him the countless myriads of the nations, who after these things run to faith, being present both around the Lord and at the divine throne. For since the Lord is said to arrive at the second coming, which has not yet been announced in the vision, the saints are then "caught up in clouds" to meet the Savior, as the divine apostle has previously described them being caught up. (1 Thess. 4:17)

The vision also shows that they have attained the blessedness reserved for them. For what could be more worthy than to be with Christ and to behold the divine throne?

The countless myriads of the nations, therefore, who have received the faith of Christ and have attained the blessed end, have inherited the glorious place, standing before the Lord and His Father's throne, as was said before.

It is necessary for them to be clothed in white robes, a sign of the purity existing in their life.

The palm branches, being symbols of victory, are said to boast of the victory of Christ both over the invisible enemies and the visible ones.