Revelation 16:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Perhaps men will be scorched by the heat of the perceptible sun, when God the Lover of mankind restrains those who disobey Him with bit and bridle (Ps 31:9), in order to turn them to repentance.

Yet those who have reached the depth of evil will be directed by their evil will and reason not toward conversion, but toward blasphemy.

But perhaps the sun also signifies the course of the day, during which those deserving punishment will be burned by the heat of temptations. Through afflictions they may come to hate their cause, which is sin.

Yet the senseless, not acknowledging their fall into sin, will sharpen their tongue against God. So even now some, oppressed by afflictions from barbarians, accuse divine grace because it has permitted our race to fall into such calamities.

It is not difficult to interpret this according to the laws of rhetoric. For the sun scorching men may perhaps be drought, or confusion, or the need of those abandoned in war.

Being in distress, they experience the necessity of turning to God, who can help them and free them from the sorrows they endure. Yet they blasphemed and did not repent.

Certainly plagues are needed for this purpose: after they did not recognize the Master in the benefactions of God, they might recognize Him in punishments.

It was given not to the sun, but to the angel who poured out the bowl upon the sun.

This fire should not be understood as the fire of Gehenna. There there will no longer be any place for blasphemy, when every attempt at repentance will be fruitless for the condemned.

The law cites the words they will speak: “What profit has pride brought us, and what has wealth with vanity given us?” (Wis 5:8).

Therefore I think that the fire and heat here should be understood in this sense: the body of the devil is continually tormented by the steadfastness of the saints. Stirred up by this heat, it strives toward blasphemy.

Perhaps for this reason John says “upon the sun,” that is, upon the sun of righteousness, as though using “sun” in the instrumental sense: by the sun.

The persecutors of the Church, blazing like the sun and striving to dry up the seed of the word of God, will themselves in the future burn in the fire of Gehenna.

Or, if the sun is understood as the radiance of wisdom, it was not given to the angel to pour out the bowl upon the sun. Rather, it was given to the sun itself to scorch men with fire and heat.

For when wise men, yielding under torments, err by doing evil, the weak follow their example and are inflamed with temporal passions.

Heat may also be understood as that by which the steadfastness of the saints torments the body of the devil and provokes it to blasphemy.

Perhaps at the coming of the antichrist, men will also be burned by the perceptible scorching of the sun, so that they may turn to repentance.

Perhaps the sun signifies the course of the day in which those worthy of punishment will be scorched by the heat of temptations. St. Andrew says this is "so that, by dwelling in afflictions, they may hate their cause: sin."

But sinners, instead of recognizing their sins, will sharpen their tongue in blasphemy against God.