Commentary on the Apocalypse

Section Seventeen

172 SECTION SEV ENTEEN Chapter 49 How the People Are Burnt By the Fourth 16.8–9. 8 And the fourth angel began to pour out his bowl on the sun. And it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 People were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues, and they did not repent to give him glory. erhaps people will also be physically burnt by the flames of the sun at that particular time. “With bit and bridle,” God, who loves humanity, compels “the jaws of those who do not approach him”1 in order that they might know repentance, even though those who fall into the depth of evil deeds do not turn toward repentance but turn away toward blasphemy and will be carried away by the wickedness of mind. Perhaps by the sun it also hints at the course of the day during which the ones deserving chastisements are to be scorched by the burning heat of temptations, it says, so that by painful afflictions they will hate sin, the mother of these . But the fools, instead of being conscious of their own errors, “will sharpen the tongue”2 against God, just as even now it is possible to see many unwilling blaming the Divine Goodness for the unspeakable misfortunes encircling us by barbarian hands, because he had reserved such great afflictions for our generation. [170] 1. Ps 32(31).9. 2. Ps 64(63).3, 140(139).3. SECTION SEVENTEEN 173 Chapter 50 How the Kingdom of the Beast is Darkened Through the Fifth 16.10–11. 10 And the fifth angel began to pour out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom became darkened. 11 gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores, and did not repent of their deeds. To empty out the bowl on the throne of the beast means such a wrath to be poured out and portrayed as a darkening upon the kingdom of the Antichrist, inasmuch as it obtains no light by the “Sun of Righteousness.”3 The gnawing of tongues shows the excess of the pain by which those misled by him, being afflicted, will be overcome by the wounds sent by God so that they might know that the one honored by them as God is deceitful, and that they might cease the error. But not even after this will they turn towards repentance, but towards cursing. If those will turn to cursing by the application of afflictions, and if those being stricken by hail as talents will be persuaded in the same manner—likewise, with the help of God, we interpret , as we are able, that occasion at that point4 —and if the evil demons through human bodies, which they have used as organs , although afflicted by the holy ones , nevertheless [171] do not refrain from cursing those who plague , one must ponder what, then, is necessary for us to realize about the impious being tormented in the Gehenna of fire. How then is evil so innate to the point that they completely cease from the thought of it, or are they only hindered in the carrying out of evil plans into deed, just as evildoers also are put into prison out of necessity yet do not hold back the intentions to harm others? But I myself, hearing eternal punishments, I cannot disbelieve what has been declared. Knowing his readiness toward compassion and goodness, I surmise that in no way would he either threaten or strike with endless condemnation those deserving it if the condemned ones had already repented 3. Mal 3.20 LXX (4.2 RSV). 4. The hail as heavy as talents will not occur until Rv 16.21. 174 ANDREW OF CAESAREA and hated the evil which they freely chose to commit. For it is not through necessity, but voluntarily that they are punished. For if in the case of Pharaoh even though he knew him to be tempered by the chastisement, but to be hardened again after their removal, nevertheless he judged him worthy of moderate treatment and spared him the chastisements although he was being asked by Moses, how much more so these if he knew they put aside the filth in the fire, in accordance with the likeness of gold, which some have understood as...