Revelation 10:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He says, "You must prophesy again," that is, proclaim concerning peoples and tribes and tongues. This means the following. When John received the revelation, he was on the island of Patmos, condemned by Caesar Domitian to labor in the mines. There John likely wrote the Apocalypse. When, already in old age, he thought that after suffering he could receive blessedness, it happened that after Domitian was killed all sentences were annulled. John was released from the mines. Later he handed down precisely the revelation he had received from the Lord. This is what the words mean: "You must prophesy again."

This indicates that all that was foretold will not be fulfilled immediately after the vision of the divine Revelation, but through the Gospel. The blessed one must foretell to those who read this revelation the things to come until the end of the world. Or it signifies that he will not taste death, but at the end will appear again to oppose the deception of the antichrist.

"You must prophesy again concerning peoples and tribes and many kings." It is as though he said: after seeing in vision the fulfillment of the present age and the wrath against sinners, do not imagine that the day of completion has truly arrived. For much time remains before this, so that you may prophesy to many tribes and kings. Therefore, even to this day, the divine John prophesies through the Gospel, through his Catholic Epistles, and through this Revelation. For everything spoken and prophesied by him is in the Spirit.

Here John says that the book he ate was both sweet and bitter. This apparently means that, after returning from exile, he would go forth to preach the Gospel to the nations. This would be sweet because of love, but bitter because of the persecutions he would have to endure.

When the prophet Ezekiel was called by the Lord to be a prophet, he too had to eat a scroll of a book. In his mouth this scroll was sweet as honey, yet it contained lamentation, mourning, and woe (cf. Ezek 2:8-10; 3:1-3).

In the same way, when Saint John was sent to prophesy, he had to eat the scroll of a book, which is the prophetic word. Every word of the Lord is sweet food for souls enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is true manna.

But when this word proclaims a grievous judgment upon men, such food causes sorrow, pain, and bitterness in the belly. For what holy man, loving all his fellow men, would not feel grief on learning that great woe awaits them?

Yet this bitterness is necessary for the salvation of the brethren, because, when proclaimed in due time, it can lead them to repentance.

At the voice from heaven, the Apostle approached the Angel, took the little book from His hands, and ate it. It was sweet as honey in his mouth, but bitter in his belly.

According to the interpretation of St. Andrew, the little book in the hands of the Angel, Who announced in the seven thunderous sounds the punishments awaiting wicked men on sea and land, contained the names and deeds of these unhappy ones.

The knowledge of the future was sweet, that is, pleasant to the Apostle. Yet at the same time his heart was bitter "because of compassion for those who must suffer the punishments sent down according to the divine determination."