Revelation 8:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The bitterness signified by wormwood, as some assert, means the sorrow that strikes sinners tormented in Gehenna. Because of its vastness, it is plausibly and rightly called waters. But we think this also indicates the sorrows of the last days. The star either means that all this comes from heaven, or it points to the devil. The prophet Isaiah speaks of him: "How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, rising in the morning" (Isa 14:12). The devil makes men drink bitter corruption through pleasures. By God's permission, he also brings sorrows, though not upon all. Rather, by God's longsuffering, he brings them upon a third part, so that unbelief in the recompense after death may not lead the impatient to spiritual death.

"The name of this star is Wormwood, and the third part of the waters became wormwood." The third part of men became like the star that fell upon it.

"And many of the men died from the waters, because they had become bitter." Those who died from the waters may plainly be understood as those who were baptized anew.

He says that men fall from heaven, that is, fall away from the Church. These are those who, in the eyes of men, shine with good merits, and for this reason they are compared to stars and torches. The Apostle Jude exposes them, calling them wandering stars (Jude 1:13), for they lead astray by their superficial brilliance. The Lord compared such people with whitewashed walls and tombs (cf. Mt 23:27). Since the fall of the great usually shakes many, John says that a star fell upon part of the rivers and lakes, whose name was Wormwood. This name signifies great bitterness. We know that when such men fall, many lose their firmness, and many are scandalized by following their evil example. John rightly compared this with wormwood.

The third trumpet signifies the falling away from the Church of heretics, who pollute the waters of Holy Scripture.

The heretics, whom the Apostle Jude calls wandering stars (Jude 1:13), fall from the zenith of the Church. They try to mingle the flame of their wantonness with the waters of divine Scripture.

They do not fear to distort not only its meaning, but often its very words. They are rightly called wormwood, because even a small admixture of them can make a great sweetness bitter.

A particular local Church is not yet the whole lampstand, but a great star. If she begins to teach and to lead My servants astray (Rev 2:20), and not to teach what she received and preserves, then she will not escape the bitterness of great tribulation.

Both she and her children will be struck with death from the bitter water of errors (see Rev 2:22-23).