Revelation 8:11Meaning & 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).

After eight centuries had passed from the Nativity of Christ, holy writers of the Church began to lament the scarcity of spiritual instructors and the appearance of many false teachers. Because of the lack of instructors, they command us to turn to the reading of the patristic writings. They also command us to keep away from reading books written outside the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The farther the times departed from the appearing of the divine light on earth, the more the lack of true and holy instructors increased. The abundance of false teachers also increased. Since the discovery of printing, they have flooded the earth like a deluge, like the bitter apocalyptic waters from which many people died a spiritual death. "Many false prophets will arise," the Lord foretold, "and will deceive many. And because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of many will grow cold" (Mt 24:11-12). This prophecy has been fulfilled. Its fulfillment is before our eyes.

"The name of the star is called apsinthos, Wormwood." In warm countries, wormwood and other bitter herbs are much stronger than in temperate lands, and when taken internally they cause stupefaction.

By the bitterness that the waters received from the fallen star, impious men are destroyed and brought to nothing. In the Arabian wilderness there were also the waters of Marah, but they were sweetened by a miraculous tree. Here no such tree is indicated.