Revelation 20:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

From the Church the reapers will gather those tares which He allowed to grow together with the wheat.

Explaining this, He says: "The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of this age: the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes of stumbling" (Mt 13:39-41).

Will they gather them out of that Kingdom in which there are no causes of stumbling? Clearly, they will gather them out of this Kingdom, which here is the Church.

He also says: "Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:19).

He places both in the Kingdom of heaven: the one who does not do in practice the commandments he teaches, for to break means not to keep and not to do in practice, and the one who does them and so teaches.

But He calls the first least and the second great.

Continuing, He adds: "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:20).

That is, unless it is greater than the righteousness of those who break what they teach.

For elsewhere He says of the scribes and Pharisees, "They say and do not do" (Mt 23:3).

Thus, unless your righteousness exceeds theirs in the sense that you do not break, but do in practice what you teach, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Therefore that Kingdom of heaven must be understood in one sense when both are shown in it, the first least and the latter great.

Where both kinds of men exist, the Church is such as it is now. Where only the latter kind will exist, the Church is such as it will be when there is no evil in it.

Therefore even now the Church is the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of heaven.

For this reason His saints reign with Him even now, though otherwise than they will reign then. The tares do not reign with Him, though they grow in the Church together with the wheat.

Those reign with Him who do what the Apostle says: "If you were raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col 3:1-2).

Of such people he says elsewhere: "Our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3:20).

In short, those reign with Him who belong to His Kingdom in such a way that they themselves constitute His Kingdom.

But how do those constitute Christ's Kingdom who, to say nothing of others, are in it until all scandals are gathered out of it at the end of the age, and yet seek their own, not the things of Christ?

Concerning this militant Kingdom, in which there is still struggle with the enemy and battle against the vices, and sometimes even command over humbled vices until the perfect peace of the Kingdom is reached, the book mentioned above speaks as follows.

There will be a reign there without an enemy. It also speaks about this first resurrection, which is taking place now.

After saying that the devil is bound for a thousand years and afterward will be released for a short time, and after briefly mentioning what the Church will do during those thousand years, or what will be done in her, the book says: "And I saw thrones, and those seated on them, and judgment was given to them" (Rev 20:4).

This is not said of the Last Judgment. We must understand the thrones of presiding authorities and those very authorities by whom the Church is now governed.

By the judgment that was given, nothing better can be understood than what was said: "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Mt 18:18).

For this reason the Apostle also says: "What have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside whom you judge?" (1 Cor 5:12).

"And the souls," it continues, "of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God" (Rev 20:4).

Here we must supply what it will say afterward: that they reign with Jesus for a thousand years.

The souls meant are the souls of martyrs, who have not yet received their bodies back.

For the souls of the pious departed are not separated from the Church, which even now is the Kingdom of Christ.

Otherwise their memory would not be celebrated in the communion of the body of Christ.

Nor would it be of any benefit, in danger of life, to have recourse to His baptism, if someone happened to be separated from the same body by repentance or by a bad conscience.

Why are all these things done, except because even the dead are His members?

Therefore, although they are not yet with their bodies, their souls already reign with Him while these thousand years pass.

For this reason we read in the same book, in another place: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, and their works follow them" (Rev 14:13).

Therefore at the present time the Church reigns with Christ for the first time in the persons of the living and the dead.

"For Christ died and rose and lived again for this purpose," as the Apostle says, "that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Rom 14:9).

Only the souls of the martyrs are mentioned because, among the dead, those especially reign who fought for the truth even unto death.

But, understanding the whole from the part, we also understand by them the others who have died and belong to the Church, which is the Kingdom of Christ.

The following words, "who did not worship the beast or his image, and did not receive the mark on their foreheads or on their hands" (Rev 20:9), must be understood as said together of the living and the dead.

The beast mentioned here may be the subject of a separate inquiry. Yet it does not contradict the right faith to understand by it the impious city itself and the people of unbelievers, hostile to the faithful people and the city of God.

By its image, in my opinion, is meant its deceit in those people who seem to profess the faith, but live as unbelievers.

For they present themselves as something they are not in reality. They are called not by the true form, but by the false likeness of a Christian.

To this same beast belong not only the open enemies of the name of Christ and of His most glorious city, but also the tares that must be gathered out of His Kingdom, that is, the Church, at the end of the age.

Who are these who have not worshiped either the beast or his image, if not those who fulfill the words of the Apostle: "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Cor 6:14)?

They do not worship him, that is, they do not sympathize with him or submit to him.

They do not receive the mark, that is, the brand of crime: on the forehead, for confession; on the hand, for deeds.

Being strangers to this evil, whether still living in this mortal flesh or already dead, they already reign with Christ even now, in a certain way suited to the present time, throughout the whole period signified by the number one thousand years.

"But the rest of the dead," it says, "did not live" (Rev 20:5).

For now is the hour when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear live (Jn 5:25). But the rest of them do not live.

The addition, "until the thousand years were ended," must be understood to mean that they did not live at the time when they ought to have lived, by passing from death to life.

Therefore, when the day comes on which the resurrection of bodies will take place, they will come out of the graves not unto life, but unto judgment.

That is, they will come out unto condemnation, which is called the second death.

For whoever has not lived until the thousand years are ended, that is, whoever throughout that whole period when the first resurrection takes place has not heard the voice of the Son of God and passed from death to life. Will in the second resurrection, which will be the resurrection of the flesh, finally pass with that flesh into the second death.

It then says: "This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection" (Rev 20:5-6).

That is, blessed and holy is the one who participates in it.

The one who participates in it is he who has not only returned to life from the death that consists in sins, but has also remained steadfast in the life to which he returned.

"Over these," it says, "the second death has no power."

Therefore it has this power over the others, of whom it says above, "But the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were ended."

For however long each of them lived in the body during the whole interval called a thousand years, none of them returned to life from the death in which impiety held him.

If he had thus come to life, he would have become a participant in the first resurrection, and the second death would have had no power over him.

New heavens and a new earth are promised to us (Is 65:17). Will the risen saints have nothing greater? Paul said that what is "becoming obsolete and growing old is near destruction" (Heb 8:13). Will the promises given to the righteous be abolished if they too make use of what is temporary?

The Master did not speak of a twofold end of the world, as though after a thousand years there would again be an end. John in Revelation did not speak of a temporary use of God's fruits, but showed that enjoyment of them will be eternal.

How then do some think that, after the thousand years have passed, there will again be an end of the earthly condition? This is not true. Rather, in agreement with John, David, and in agreement with Moses, John speaks of trees whose leaves bring healing and whose fruits bring eternal life.

Is not the noetic and spiritual paradise, then, the place of eternal enjoyment? Such a paradise will have no end. In it everything abides unshaken.

Thus the new heavens will be stretched out in incorruption, and the new earth will be mingled with eternity and blessedness. Moses also says in a riddle that God planted there the tree of eternal life. David and John said that "its leaf shall not fall" (Ps 1:3; Rev 22:2).

Therefore the blessedness of the saints will not last a thousand years. If John in Revelation spoke of everything figuratively and in riddles, then the thousand years also are spoken of in a riddle.

But you ask me to explain the thousand years. I too will ask you to explain the lampstand (Rev 2:1), the "white stone" (Rev 2:17), the lukewarm drink and the spewing out (Rev 3:16), and everything John presented in riddles when writing to the seven churches.

If you ask me about the thousand-year first resurrection, then I too will ask you for the horse (Rev 6:8), the pale angel, and the spiritual living creature called Apsinoos (Rev 8:11), bitter by nature like wormwood.

Give me the "seven bowls" (Rev 16:1), and take from me the thousand years. Prove that the woman signifies the city (Rev 21:9-10), and I will present you proof concerning the thousand years.

Explain to me how the woman who rises by herself (Rev 12:14) becomes Jerusalem, and properly is not a woman, and I will give you an explanation of the thousand years. Does a city give birth (Rev 12:2)? Does the woman who gave birth become Jerusalem?

Is the "man of lawlessness" (2 Thess 2:3) the beast (Rev 13:1)? Are ten heads joined together on the beast so that they may reign (Rev 13:1)?

Is the eighth from the seven, and yet not eighth in number, because the heads are seven, but three heads have been destroyed (Rev 17:11)? Is the name of the beast inexplicable and as unnameable as the name of God? Let it not be so.

Did the one who spoke of the "number" of the name not know the name of the beast (Rev 13:18)? First the syllables became known to him, and only then did he divide the name into letters. First he pronounced the name within himself, and then, adding the letters, he gave the number, that is, that the letters compose six hundred sixty-six.

So too, by the thousand years he understood in a riddle the immeasurability of eternal life. For if "one day before the Lord is as a thousand years" (2 Pet 3:8), who can calculate how many days are in a thousand years? Who can determine the thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads of so many days?

Thus, because of the infinite number of years in these days, and of days in these thousands of years, he designated the rest of the saints after the resurrection as a thousand years.

"And I saw," he says, "the souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God." Having thus placed first those torn apart, that is, slain, he then added: "who had not worshiped the beast or his image. And had not received the mark on their forehead or on their hand." After joining all those seen in one and the same place, he notes: "They lived and reigned with Christ." John says that all live and reign with Christ, not only those who were slain. He also means all who, remaining firm in their faith and fear of God, did not worship the image of the beast and did not carry out his destructive and sacrilegious commands.

They are honored by pious kings and princes, and they reveal the power given them by God against demonic action and bodily infirmities. The devil, the antichrist, and the false prophet share names and actions with one another, for each is called a beast. Therefore Satan, or the serpent, is depicted as having seven heads and ten horns with ten crowns. The antichrist, or the beast rising from the sea, appears clothed in the same way. The false prophet reveals one power, mind, will, and activity with him for the destruction of those deceived. Those who escape this destruction will reign with Christ in the manner already indicated until His second coming. Then they will receive still greater divine promises. And to the rest of the holy martyrs, who suffered for Christ and rejected the mark of the spiritual beast or the image of his apostasy, judgment will be given. That is, authority to judge will be given to them. By this authority, as we know, they even now judge demons. They are glorified with Christ until the end of the present age. They are honored by pious kings and princes, and they reveal God-given power against every bodily infirmity in general and against demonic action. That the devil, the antichrist, and the false prophet share both actions and names is clear from the fact that each of them is called a beast. As the serpent, or Satan, appears with seven heads and ten horns and the same number of crowns, so the beast rising from the sea, that is, the antichrist, appears clothed in the same way. The false prophet also reveals one will, activity, power, and mind with them for the destruction of those deceived. Those delivered from this destruction will reign with Christ in the manner foretold until His second coming. After it, they will receive still more of the divine promises.

John calls beheaded those who were put to death with axes. Allegorically he speaks of those who put to death the members of their own body through faith in Christ and gained still greater steadfastness through it. For they were expelled from the synagogue, pelted with countless reproaches, and their possessions were seized by plunder, as the wise Apostle testifies, because they had wholly believed in Christ. Of such the Lord also said: "Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and speak every evil thing falsely against you for My sake" (Mt 5:11). Following the order of the narrative and grasping every thought in harmony with divine Scripture, one may understand those who did not worship the beast and did not receive either his mark or his image in this way. They are those who were not of one mind with the remaining Jews in the plots against the Lord. They did not wish to obey the instructions of the God-hating devil, for this is worship of him and of his image. Indeed, by the image John means that the will of the devil had been imprinted on the hearts of the Jews. He calls the same thing a mark, which contains the governing and the executive principle. For the head, of which the forehead is a part, represents governance, and the hand represents action. By the thousand years he means, as was said above, the Lord's sojourn on earth. During it they lived a spiritual life and reigned with Christ, hindering demons, honoring sufferings, and performing many miracles. It is not merely being present together with Christ, the King of Glory, that means reigning with Him. Therefore it is said of them in the Prophet: "When the Heavenly One scattered kings upon this earth, it became white as snow on Selmon" (Ps 67:15).

By such repentance fornicators, adulterers, publicans, and robbers seized the Kingdom of Heaven. To such repentance, to resurrection from the death of the soul, the Apostle Paul calls us: "Awake, thou that sleepest," he cries, "and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph 5:14).

But who heeds this voice, this spiritual trumpet calling the soul to resurrection? This resurrection is more necessary for salvation than the one that will enliven bodies, but will no longer enliven souls deadened by sin.

We all remain in deadness when we fulfill our sinful desires. They not only war against the soul, but, when satisfied, also put it to death.

Pointing to the death of the soul, to essential death, the Savior of the world called dead all those living during His earthly sojourn who paid no heed to His all-holy teaching. That teaching is necessary for salvation and is the one thing needful for man's true life.

"Leave the dead to bury their own dead" (Lk 9:60), He said to His follower who asked permission to leave the Lord for a time and turn from attention to His holy teaching, in order to bury his departed parent.

The Lord called dead those who were alive in the flesh, but were truly dead, being deadened in soul. This is according to Saint Gregory Palamas, blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, and other holy Fathers.

Saint John the Theologian saw those risen from the death of the soul and said of them: "I saw thrones, and those who sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast, nor his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years... This is the first resurrection."

Some said that when Christ establishes His thousand-year Kingdom on earth, He will restore Jerusalem in all its beauty and will again introduce the performance of the ceremonial law of Moses with all its sacrifices.

They also said that the happiness of the righteous will consist in every possible sensual pleasure.

Thus the heretic Cerinthus began to teach in the first century, being imbued with false Jewish and gnostic beliefs. After him other Judaizing heretics continued this: the Ebionites, the Montanists, and, in the fourth century, the heretic Apollinarius with his followers.

Others, on the contrary, maintained that the blessedness of the righteous during the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ would consist only in innocent, pure, spiritual delights.

They did not at all preach either the renewal of Jerusalem at that time or the restoration of the ceremonial law of Moses.

In this form, the opinion about the millennium was first expressed by Papias, who lived still in the apostolic age.

Then it is found in Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Methodius, and Lactantius. In later times it was renewed, with certain peculiarities, by the Anabaptists, the followers of Swedenborg, and other mystics and illuminists.

But neither in its first nor in its latter form can the teaching about the millennium be accepted by an Orthodox Christian.

First, in both forms it is based on the supposition that the resurrection of the dead will be twofold.

The first would be a thousand years before the end of the world, the resurrection of the righteous alone. The other would be before the very end of the world, when sinners too will rise, and the universal judgment and eternal recompense will follow.

Meanwhile the Savior Himself taught with complete clarity that there will be only one universal resurrection of the dead on the last day.

At His voice, both the righteous and sinners will then rise together from their graves and immediately receive from Him the final judgment and final recompense (Jn 5:25, 28-29; Jn 6:40, 54; Mt 13:40-42; Mt 25:31-46).

Second, in both forms it admits a coming of Christ the Savior to earth a thousand years before the end of the world.

This is contrary to the teaching of the word of God, which proclaims only two comings of Christ.

The first was in humility, when He came to redeem us. The second will be in glory, at the very end of the world, when He will appear to judge the living and the dead (Mt 13:40-43; Mt 24:27-51; Mt 25:31-46).

Third, in both forms it admits that, after the Kingdom of grace and before the Kingdom of glory, there will be some intermediate, third Kingdom of Christ, for which an end will come after a thousand years.

Meanwhile the word of God teaches only two Kingdoms of Christ.

There is the Kingdom of grace, which will continue until the very end of the world and the universal judgment (1 Cor 15:25). There is the Kingdom of glory, which will begin immediately after the universal judgment and will have no end (Lk 1:33; 2 Pet 1:11).

Fourth, in its first form it particularly contradicts the teaching of the word of God that, in the resurrection of the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage (Mt 22:30; Lk 20:34).

It also contradicts the teaching that the Kingdom of God is not food and drink (Rom 14:17).

It contradicts the teaching that the ceremonial law of Moses, which had only a prefigurative significance until the coming of the Savior, was abolished by Him forever and replaced by the more perfect New Testament law.

Fifth, even if some of the ancient teachers of the Church held the teaching of chiliasm in its latter form, such as Justin, Irenaeus, and Methodius, they held it only as a private opinion, not as a dogma.

This is clear from the testimony of Justin himself. He remarks that he thinks this together with some, while many Christians of pure and Orthodox faith do not share his belief.

This is all the more certain because, sixth, other teachers of the Church at the same time directly rose against the teaching of chiliasm.

Such were Caius, presbyter of Rome, Saint Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Tyconius of Africa, Basil the Great, Saint Gregory the Theologian, Saint Epiphanius, blessed Jerome, Philastrius, and blessed Augustine.

They called the expectations of the chiliasts empty inventions, laughable and absurd fables, and teachings wholly contrary to Holy Scripture.

Seventh, if it was possible to hold the teaching of chiliasm as a private opinion, this was only until the universal Church expressed its voice on the matter.

But when the Second Ecumenical Council, in 381, condemned all the errors of the heretic Apollinarius, it also condemned his teaching on the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ.

For this reason it inserted into the Symbol of Faith the words concerning Christ: "of His Kingdom there shall be no end."

After this, it is wholly impermissible for an Orthodox Christian to hold this teaching even as a private opinion.

Eighth, in proof of their ideas, the chiliasts usually pointed, and still point, to chapter 20 of the Apocalypse.

This chapter sets forth the vision of John the Theologian: how an angel, having the keys of Hades, came down from heaven and bound and shut the devil in the abyss for a thousand years.

Then there was the first resurrection, when the followers of Christ lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

After the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison for a little while, and will go out to deceive the nations on the earth.

Soon afterward judgment will follow upon all the resurrected dead, with eternal recompense for them and for the devil.

But it is known that the Apocalypse is a prophetic and deeply mysterious book, whose meaning is not precisely accessible to us.

To interpret prophetic passages literally, when in this form they appear to contradict other direct and clear passages of Scripture, is wholly contrary to the rules of sacred hermeneutics.

In such cases hermeneutics rightly prescribes explaining prophecies in a mystical sense, because God, who gave revelation to men, cannot contradict Himself.

As far as the mystical meaning of chapter 20 of the Apocalypse can be understood, its best interpreters, following blessed Augustine, explained this chapter as follows.

By the name of the angel who came down from heaven and had the keys of Hades is meant the Angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus.

He came to earth in order, by His death, to destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb 2:14), to destroy the works of the devil on earth (1 Jn 3:8), and to cast him out (Jn 12:31).

By the binding and shutting of the devil in prison is meant that the Lord, by His preaching, by His repeated acts of casting demons out of men, and especially by His death, truly cast the devil out.

He bound the strong man (Mt 12:29). He disarmed principalities and powers, made a public spectacle of them in boldness, and triumphed over them on the Cross (Col 2:16).

By the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ is meant the whole indefinite period from the very beginning of the gracious Kingdom of Christ on earth.

More precisely, it means the period from the time when the faith of Christ, under Constantine the Great, became triumphant and dominant in the world until the end of the age.

This corresponds to the Psalmist's words: "He remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations" (Ps 104:8).

There the expression "to a thousand generations" means, indefinitely, all future generations of mankind until the end of the world.

By the first resurrection is meant the spiritual resurrection of men in Christianity. It begins through their conversion, justification, and regeneration.

This corresponds to the words: "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you" (Eph 5:14; cf. Jn 5:24).

It is completed when the souls of true Christians pass from the present life, which was for them as though death, into true life with Jesus Christ.

Further, the release of the devil from prison for a little while, so as to deceive the nations, signifies the appearance of the Antichrist on earth shortly before the very end of the world.

Finally, the judgment over all the dead who have come to life, and the recompense both for them and for the devil, is the universal and final judgment and the final recompense.