Revelation 15:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Everywhere the number seven is taken up. This indicates that the unrighteous deeds boldly committed during the seven days of our life will be restrained by seven plagues and seven angels.

Under the image of the glassy sea, the future life and the glorification of the saints are shown.

"And I saw," he says, "seven angels having seven plagues." He says seven, meaning the multitude of punishments prepared for sinners, through which the wrath of God will be finally carried out.

The seven angels are the Church, filled with sevenfold grace. "Having seven plagues" means that in them the wrath of God is contained.

John calls the plagues the last because the wrath of God always strikes a stubborn people with seven plagues, that is, with their complete number. This is often repeated in Leviticus: "I will strike you," He says, "sevenfold" (Lev. 26:24).

These will be the last plagues, when the Church comes out from their midst.

"The glassy sea," says St. Andrew of Caesarea, "signifies those being saved at the end of the world, and the purity and brightness of the future state of the saints.

As for its being mingled with fire, the Apostle has written: 'The fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is' (1 Cor 3:13). It does not harm the pure and undefiled.

For it produces two different effects: one burns sinners, and the other illumines the righteous, as Basil the Great understood."