Revelation 20:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For whoever did not live before the thousand years were ended, that is, throughout the whole period in which the first resurrection takes place, did not hear the voice of the Son of God and pass from death to life.

At the second resurrection, which will be the resurrection of the flesh, he will finally pass with that flesh into the second death.

Then it is said: "This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection" (Rev 20:5-6). That means the one who is a participant in it.

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

"Over them," he says, "the second death has no power." Therefore it has this power over those others of whom he said above: "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 that whole interval called a thousand years, none returned to life from the death in which ungodliness held him.

Had he 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.

Concerning this resurrection he says: "I saw the Lamb standing, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand," that is, standing with Christ. These are those who in the last times are going to believe through the prophecy of Elijah.

The Spirit bears witness concerning them that they are virgins not only in body, but also in tongue (cf. Rev 14:4-5).

Therefore above he mentioned that the twenty-four elders said: "We give thanks to Thee, O Lord God, who hast reigned. And the nations were enraged" (Rev 11:17-18).

At the first resurrection this Scripture also depicts the beautiful city to come.

Concerning the first resurrection Paul spoke thus in the Epistle to the Macedonian churches: "For this we say to you," Paul declares, "by the word of God: the Lord Himself, intending to raise the dead, will descend from heaven with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thess 4:15-17).

We have heard that he said "trumpet." This must be considered, for elsewhere the apostle speaks of another trumpet.

In the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: "At the last trumpet the dead will rise," becoming immortal, "and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:52).

He said that the dead are the immortals who are going to rise to bear punishment. But it is evident that we shall be changed and clothed with glory.

Therefore, when we hear that there is a last trumpet, we must understand that there is also a first. These are the two resurrections.

Therefore, however many are going to rise at the first resurrection and reign with Christ over the world, over all the nations, they will rise at the last trumpet after a thousand years.

That is, they will rise at the last resurrection among the ungodly, sinners, and those guilty of various kinds of offenses.

And he rightly adds, saying: "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection; over him the second death has no power." The second death is punishment in Hades.

Therefore the words "they shall be priests of God and of Christ" must be understood as a repetition of what came before. For the miracles of the saints, which we now see by experience, were still future at the time of the revelation to the evangelist.

Thus there are two deaths and the same number of resurrections. The first death is bodily, sent as punishment for man's disobedience. The second is eternal torment.

The first resurrection is rebirth from dead works. The second is the passage of the body from corruption into incorruption.

The first death is natural, the separation of soul and body. The second is spiritual death from sin, of which the Lord also spoke: "Do not fear those who kill the body. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna" (Mt 10:28).

"The thousand years," says Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea, "are the time from the Incarnation of Christ to His second glorious coming... The thousand years are the time during which the Gospel will be preached."

There is no need to understand the thousand years literally. Thus the number has no literal meaning in the words of the Song of Songs: "A man will bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard is before me: the thousand are for Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit" (Song 8:11-12).

Nor does it have a literal meaning in the words of the Lord Jesus: "They brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty" (Mt 13:8).

By a full number, abundance and perfection in fruitbearing are depicted. So here, through the thousand years, the full fruitbearing of faith is depicted, for which all necessary time has been given.

The fullness of time is expressed by the words "a thousand years." From the beginning of this millennium the first, mystical, essential resurrection of the dead was revealed, and it continues to be revealed now. It will continue until the end of time.

The Lord, having trampled down death by death and having raised in Himself and with Himself the human race, first granted resurrection in soul to His most pure Mother and to His apostles on the day of Pentecost.

Saint John the Theologian calls this resurrection in soul the first resurrection. It is resurrection from the first deadening, from deadening by sin, over which the second death, that is, eternal perdition, no longer has power.

"The hour is coming," the very Author of the resurrection proclaims, "in which all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth. Those who have done good will rise to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment" (Jn 5:28).

What resurrection, then, does the Seer proclaim to us, one presented as belonging exclusively to the blessed and holy? It is called the first. Therefore there is not only one resurrection.

If we do not find the first resurrection, let us seek another, or the last. Perhaps the last will point to the first. "Everyone who sees the Son," says the incarnate Son of God, "and believes in Him has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn 6:40).

The last resurrection has been found. It is last because it must take place on the last day of this passing world. From this boundary we must necessarily return backward along the path of time to seek the first resurrection.

How far back? Without doubt, no farther than the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself. For, as the Apostle says: "Christ has risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20).

"In Christ all shall be made alive," he continues, "but each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming; then comes the end" (1 Cor 15:22-24).

Therefore the first resurrection, the resurrection of the blessed and holy, must be sought between the day of Christ's resurrection and the last day of the world.

Where are they? Truly, is not the taking of the Most Holy Virgin bodily into heaven, by the signs left upon earth, resembling Christ's resurrection, the first example of the first resurrection?

If the Mother of the Author of the resurrection follows Him into resurrection on the third day after Her dormition, then may it not happen that certain others, especially holy and worthy of blessedness, receive a certain preliminary and specially granted participation? Such would be those, for example, who gave their life for the name of the Resurrector.

Perhaps after many ages, yet before the last universal resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living, they may receive participation both in resurrection and in the glory and blessedness proper to it.

How simply, it seems, and naturally the words of the Seer are explained in this way: "The souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God lived. But the rest of the dead did not live. This is the first resurrection" (Rev 20:4-5).

But who has known the mind of the Lord? Can a man who does not know what the present day will bring forth (Prov 3:28) seek to know what the ages, pregnant with the mysteries of God's judgments, will bring forth?

"Do not seek what is too high for you," the pious sage teaches, "and do not examine what is too strong for you. Understand what has been commanded you, for you have no need of hidden things" (Sir 3:21-22).

I obey the experienced instructor. I leave aside the examination of future mysteries, whose true understanding is not so necessary as a false one is dangerous. I seek to understand what has been commanded.

"Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection." Is there anything commanded here? What about holiness? Did not God Himself command concerning it: "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Pet 1:16)?

And blessedness? Are we not commanded to seek it under the name of the Kingdom of God? But since the Seer proclaims blessed and holy the one who has part in the first resurrection, must we not fear that one who has no share at all in the first resurrection can hope for blessedness just as little?

This already compels us, with concern for ourselves, to renew the question: what is the first resurrection?

Resurrection is from the dead, for one who is alive has no need to rise. Therefore a correct knowledge of what death is can lead us to understand resurrection.

What, then, is death? The separation of the soul from the body? This idea is common in human language, but foreign to Christian language and to the word of God.

It is foreign to Christian language. For do you yourselves not say, for example, the Dormition of the Theotokos? If someone were to say, "We celebrate the death of the Theotokos," would you not consider this a crude expression, so to speak foreign to Christianity, almost reproachful?

It is foreign to the word of God. For when it was said to Adam, "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17), he lived the visible life usual for us for nine hundred thirty years after eating from the forbidden tree.

Shall we then say that the word of God was not fulfilled? But if, as everyone must acknowledge, it was fulfilled faithfully and exactly, is it not revealed that death, according to the meaning of the word of God, is not at all what we imagine when we see a soulless body?

True death was born on earth precisely on the day of the first sin. From that day it lived with Adam, took part in his deeds and in the begetting of his children, and therefore gave birth together with the human race.

What, then, is death? To answer this according to the meaning of the word of God, it is best to ask: what is life?

Come, then, let us know life in its source. "In Him was life," says the Theologian, "and the life was the light of men" (Jn 1:4). Life is in God the Word, and this life is the life of men.

Participation in the life that is in God the Word, and His light, is man's true life. It is the active state of light, peace, freedom, strength, purity, and incorruption.

Consequently, separation from the life of God the Word and estrangement from His light are man's true death. It is the state of darkness, unrest, weakness, impurity, and finally corruption.

Therefore the renewal of communion with the life of God the Word and the return to His light are man's true resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in it.