Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.
Username: EUAFU
Date: 2020-08-18 10:08:56
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Biblical viewpoint here
What if this fake invasion isn't really fake, but we are lied to about who is invading?
Revelation says that the armies of the world, following the beast, make war on God and his angels...
God returns, but they have prepped us into thinking this is an alien threat...
War
1. WHAT IS AN APOCALYPSE?
The Greek word apokálypsis means revelation. The literary genre of revelations (or apocalyptic) had a great vogue among Jews in the two centuries immediately before and after Christ. Its origin is mainly due to the fact that authentic prophets were scarce in Israel after the Babylonian exile (587-538 BC); the last biblical prophets - Haggai, Malachi and Zechariah - exercised their ministry in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.
Now after the century. V the people of Israel remained subject to the foreign yoke: returning from the Babylonian exile in 538 BC, they remained under Persian rule until Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) of Macedonia, who conquered the land of Israel, annexing it to the Macedonian Empire. After the death of the Emperor, Palestine remained under the Egyptians (Ptolemy dynasty) until 200 BC. On this date, the Syrians occupied and dominated the land of Israel, constituting the period of the Antiochs or Seleucids there. Finally, the Romans in 63 BC invaded Palestinian territory and imposed their yoke on the Jews, a yoke that lasted until the people of Israel were expelled from their land in 70 A.D. (fall and ruin of revolted Jerusalem). Now in these harsh circumstances of life, the people of Israel, having no prophet, felt the need to be comforted and encouraged not to faint. It was then that the Jewish authors began to cultivate more assiduously the apocalyptic or revelation literary genre, which has an affinity with the prophecy, but, in fact, does not identify with it.
Apocalypse (revelation) tends to instill in readers an unshakable confidence in Divine Providence. However, instead of doing it in a scholarly or purely theoretical way, exhorting the faith, the author resorts to a trick: he attributes to a famous biblical character of the past (Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Daniel) or to an angel of the Lord prophetic revelations about the time that he and his supporters are living. This famous ancient character describes the troubled times that readers experience and assures that the storm will pass, with the cause of God triumphing over the faction of the wicked; these will be prostrate, as the final judgment of history and the consummation of time will soon take place. This is what gives apocalypse the appearance of prophecy; however, it should be noted that the author, when describing the facts of his time (as if they had been predicted by Enoch or Moses ...), describes them on the basis of his observations and personal experiences. The use of a famous character from antiquity as a revelator of the message is an artifice of the apocalyptic genre: it tends to instill more courage and hope in the readers; indeed, if the sacred author himself, contemporary with immediate readers, foretold better days, he would not have the same authority that was undeniably recognized by Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Daniel ... In turn, the sacred writer had grounds to comfort his persecuted comrades and predict the final victory of good over evil, because it is heralded by all the prophecies and promises made to Israel. The author of an apocalypse adds nothing new to these promises; it only makes them current, repeating them in a solemn and emphatic manner in a painful moment in the history of its people and announcing the fulfillment of them shortly. Moreover, Salvation, already offered by God in earlier phases of Israel's tribulations, was a pledge that, this time, the Lord would not abandon his people.
The most typically apocalyptic pages of the Old Testament are chapters 7 through 12 of the book of Daniel. These sections were written in the century. II under the control of Syrians or Antiochs in Palestine; attributed to Daniel, famous male of the century. VI, the symbolist description of the events that took place from the Persian domain (6th century BC) to the Syrian domain (2nd century BC); in the style of dreams and visions, Persian, Macedonian, Egyptian, Syrian kings who reigned over Israel until Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164) are presented; for the times of this, the apocalyptic author announces the final intervention of God and salvation to be brought by the Messiah. It is not easy to understand an apocalypse, since it uses exuberant symbolism and places the reader in front of a cosmic scenario, which combines heaven and earth.
More precisely, the formal elements of the apocalyptic genre can be characterized as follows:
1) The author's pseudonymy. This is a contemporary of his first readers, but he speaks to them as if he were an old and venerable character. This is clearly seen, for example, in the book of Daniel. In the Apocalypse of Saint John it is an angel who reveals.
2) The esoteric (or reserved) character of the revelations. These would have been communicated in the past to the venerable character of antiquity; they should, however, remain a secret until the days of the author of the apocalypse. See, for example, Daniel 8,26; 12.9.
3) Frequent interventions by angels. These appear, in apocalypse, sometimes as ministers of God who collaborate with Divine Providence in the dispensation of salvation to men, sometimes as interpreters of the visions or revelations that the author of the book describes for example in Ezekiel40,3; Zechariah 2,1s; 2.5-9; 5.1-4; 6.1-8; Revelation 7, 1-3; 8, 1-13.
4) Rich and sometimes unique symbolism. Animals can mean men and people; beasts and birds generally represent the pagan nations; good angels are described as men, and bad angels are fallen stars. The use of numbers is frequent, exploring their symbolism (3.7, 10, 12, 1000 as symbols of calm; 3 1/2 (as a symbol of poverty and tribulation). It is the exuberance of the symbolism of the apocalypse which makes it difficult to understand them; the reader or interpreter should try to understand this symbolism from parallel biblical and extra-biblical passages (in fact, there are symbols that are repeated with the same meaning: grasshoppers, eagles, cedar, three years and a thousand years ...).
Apocalypse authors are quite free to conceive their symbols, their visions and personifications; they propose strange scenes without worrying about their likelihood, for example, the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21: 1-27; Ezekiel 47: 1-12.
5) Strong eschatological note. The apocalypses all turn to the end times of history and describe them with grandiosity, presenting the solemn intervention of God in the midst of a cosmic scenario, the judgment of the peoples, the shaking of nature, the punishment of the wicked and the exaltation of the good ( in this context, a prominent and rewarding role is reserved for Israel).
This trait distinguishes apocalypse well from prophecy. Prophecy is always a word said in the name of God (propheemi = to say instead of); however, it does not always aim at the future; it often refers to situations in the present, seeking to shake men from their religious indifference or from hypocrisy in life, leading them to more dignified and correct moral conduct; yes, prophecy has a strongly moralizing character, valid for contemporaries, but not always directed towards the future or eschatology. - On the contrary, in apocalypses the moralizing nature disappears almost completely; what concerns the sacred author are the final events of history, which will result in a definitive defeat of the wicked and a prize for the good; visions, dreams and fantasistic symbols (which the prophets already cultivated, but with sobriety) become the dominant element in the literary form of the apocalypse.
6) The apocalyptic literary genre was gradually formed, with its diverse characteristics, through the centuries. Some of its elements are already found in the writings of the prophets, before the century. II BC There are even passages of prophets that have an apocalyptic style, as there may be in the apocalyptic writings passages of prophetic nature. Thus in the book of Daniel the passages of Daniel 2,34.44s are considered prophetic; 7.9-14; 12.13.
2. CIRCUMSTANCES OF ORIGIN OF THE APOCALYPSE OF SÃO JOÃO
1. At the end of the century. I the situation of Christians spread throughout the Roman Empire became more and more painful.
In truth, the Lord Jesus left this world, asking the disciples to wait for his glorious return; however, he did not want to indicate to them neither the day nor the hour of his coming, as this should be seen as that of a thief who appears unexpectedly at midnight (cf. Mt 24,43; 1Ts 5,2s); watch, then, and pray in holy expectation. However, despite the sobriety of Jesus' words, the disciples hoped that his coming would take place soon, while the generation of the Apostles themselves still lived. As the decades passed, however, that hope dissipated; to many it seemed that Christ had forgotten his Church and that they were going to believe in the Gospel.
The situation had become even more distressing since Nero, in 64, unleashed the first violent persecution against Christians. "Being a disciple of Christ" was equivalent, from that time on, to be considered an "enemy of mankind": the opposition between Christian and pagan mentalities was increasingly manifested, so that, living in full pagan society, the Christians often had to abstain from family celebrations, from civic celebrations, from public games, even from certain professions and branches of business (as the reigning polytheistic and superstitious mentality was expressed through all these means).
In particular, in Asia Minor the environment was fraught with foreboding: there the Emperors' cult was taking on ever greater proportions, to the point of becoming the touchstone of a Roman citizen's faithfulness to his homeland.
Since 195 BC the city of Smyrna has had a temple dedicated to the goddess Rome; in A.D. 26, the Smyrnians erected another sanctuary in honor of Tiberius, Livy and the Senate.
In Pergamos, since 29 BC, the cult of the Emperor was instituted.
The city of Ephesus, at the beginning of Augustus' reign, had built an altar dedicated to this sovereign in the enclosure of "Artemision" or Diana's temple.
The inhabitants of Asia Minor were especially inclined to such a form of worship, as they felt highly benefited by the rulers of Rome, who had put an end to the civil wars in the region, ensuring the population prosperity in industry, commerce and culture in general.
In addition, another danger to Christianity was noted in Asia Minor at the end of the century. I. The people of that region were endowed with an exuberant religious soul, so that they welcomed not only the traditional religions of the Empire and Christianity, but also the forms of worship called "the mysteries" (by Mitra, Cibele, Apolo ... ), recently brought from the East. Such mysteries fascinated by their secret nature and their promise of divinization.
This state of affairs makes it possible to draw the following conclusion: in Asia Minor a religion that, like Christianity, strictly professed a single and transcendent God manifested by one Savior, Jesus, must soon be faced with a formidable alliance of all forces from paganism: religious systems, political interests, economic plans should be armed in a unanimous and close fight against Christian monotheism; to be a disciple of Christ in such circumstances would mean to suffer the hatred and general boycott of non-Christian relatives, friends and fellow citizens, so that even in the daily life of the home the Christian would feel suffocated because of his faith.
The situation suggested to many disciples of Jesus or the apostasy in relation to the Divine Master or a kind of pact with the ideas of paganism, in order to give rise to religious syncretism (characterized mainly by dualism or the repudiation of matter that the Eastern mystic much propagated). It was in such dismal circumstances that St. John wanted to write the Apocalypse.
2. The purpose of the book is thus evident.
The sacred author aimed, above all, to encourage his impoverished courage in his faithful; the Apocalypse, in consequence, is essentially the book of Christian hope or unshakable trust in the Lord Jesus and his promises of victory.
The question then arises: how did Saint John seek to lift his spirits and corroborate the readers' hope? There will be, in the name of God, promised better days here on earth in reward of fidelity to Christ, so that whoever was harassed because of the Lord Jesus would be esteemed by fellow citizens and caressed by prosperous conditions of temporal life (happy economy, health , success in ventures ...)?
3. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE APOCALYPSE
As can be understood, a large number of systems try to interpret the Apocalypse. Everyone agrees on the general meaning of the book, which wants to announce the victory of Good over evil, of the kingdom of Christ over the machinations of sinners. They differ, however, when they try to indicate the precise time when the Apocalypse places this victory. The various theories are grouped under the following headings:
1) System called "eschatological" or the end of time: Saint John would be describing the final clashes in history. This interpretation was in vogue in antiquity; it was set aside in the Middle Ages; from the 16th century to the present day, it is more and more prestigious, mainly due to currents that prophesy the end of the world for the near future;
2) Ancient history system (from the 1st to the 4th / 5th centuries): the Apocalypse would describe the struggle of Judaism and Paganism against the disciples of Christ, a struggle that ended with the fall of Pagan Rome (476) and the triumph of Christianity ;
3) Universal history system: the Apocalypse would present, in the form of symbols, a complete view of the entire history of Christianity: it would successively describe the main episodes of each era and the end of the world.
All of these interpretations are, in some way, flaws, as they do not take sufficient account of the book's own style and want to deduce from the Apocalypse news that satisfies the concrete desires or even the reader's curiosity. For this reason, leaving them aside, we will propose the theory of recapitulation, which has its great master in Fr. E.-B. Allo O.P., professor at the University of Friborg (Switzerland) and author of the book: Saint Jean. L'Apocalypse. Paris, 1933 (4th edition) (1). Let us examine this theory.
1 According to what he tells us, until today no commentary on the Apocalypse has been published as dense and documented as that of Fr. Allo O.P.
The Recap
First of all, it is necessary to note that not the entire book of Revelation is written in an apocalyptic style. It comprises two parts announced in Revelation 1.19: 1.4-3.22: the things they are (review of the life of the seven communities in Asia Minor to which St. John writes); the style is sapiential and pastoral;
4.1-22.15: the things that must happen afterwards. This is the apocalyptic part itself, to which we turn our attention. Let's look at the structure of this part:
4,1-5,14: the heavenly court, with its liturgy. The Lamb "standing up, as if immolated" (5,6), receives in his hands the book of the history of humanity. Everything that happens in the world is under the control of this Lord, who is the King of the centuries. - Let us note that the apocalyptic part of the book opens with a grandiose scene of peace and security; any picture of later misfortune is subordinated to that initial intuition.
The body of the book, which follows, comprises three septenaries: 6.1-8.1: the seven seals 8.2-11.18: the seven trumpets 15.5-16.21: the seven bowls.
We reflect on this central (decisive) nucleus of the Apocalypse.
One wonders: can such an artificially constructed structure still be the immediate reflection of history as it is lived by men? Rather, it would not be the result of a logical arrangement or the work of a spirit that reflects on events and seeks to discern some guiding threads under the different occurrences of daily life? We know that the style of São João is compared to the flight of an eagle that revolves around the contemplated object until finally giving the boat or saying clearly what it wants. Taking into account this peculiarity of style, we can say that the sacred author does not expose the successive concrete events in the history of Christianity, but presents the invisible reality that is constantly asserting itself behind the visible episodes of history. In other words: the Apocalypse presents (in the form of symbols) the struggle between Christ and Satan, a struggle that is the bottom and backbone of all history. Each septenary (that of seals, that of trumpets and that of bowls) is therefore a complete literary piece in itself; the number 7, moreover, means fullness or totality, according to the mystique of the ancients.
Inner circle: 6.1 - 8, 1: 7 stamps. A synthesis of history book opens
Middle circle: 8.2 -11.18: 7 trumpets. Open book: the scourges on the profane world
Outer circle: 15.5-16.21: 7 cups. The history of the persecuted Church, the protagonists being the WOMAN and the DRAGON of ch. 12
Next, from 17.1 to 22.15, that is, after the three septenaries, the agents of evil fall:
17.1-19.10: the fall of Babylon (symbol of pagan Rome);
19,11 -21: the fall of the two Beasts that rule Babylon (the pagan imperial power and the official religion of the Empire);
20: 1-15: the fall of the Dragon, supreme instigator of evil.
In contrast, the final section (21: 1-22, 15) shows the heavenly Jerusalem, Wife of the Lamb and antithesis of perverted Babylon.
Verses 22: 16-21 are the epilogue of the book.
Let us go a little deeper into the sense of the central triple septenary of the Apocalypse.
The first, that of seals (6.1-8.1), shows us the gradual opening of the book that is in the hands of the Lamb. It is the most sober and clear septenary, which, it can be said, summarizes the entire book; let us examine it closely:
- the first seal corresponds to "a white horse, whose assembler had a bow. They gave him a crown and he left winning and still to win" (5,2). The white horse reappears in 19: 11-16; its editor is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings (19,16). - Consequently, we say that the first septenary opens with an inviting figure: that of the Word of God or Gospel that, winner (because it has already been propagated in the world), is even more willing to spread. Against this background come the three classic scourges of history:
- the second seal corresponds to the red horse, symbol of war (6,3s):
- the third seal is that of the black horse, symbol of the black hunger and the famine that war brings (6.5s);
- the fourth seal is that of the greenish horse, symbol of the plague and death resulting from war and hunger (6.7s).
There are the three scourges that afflict men at all times and which the Bible frequently mentions; cf. Leviticus 26,23-29; Determination 32.24s; Ezekiel 5.17; 6.11-12; 7.15; 12.16.
After that, the fifth seal presents the martyrs in heaven asking God for justice for the earth or an end to the disorder that prevails in the world. They reproduce the cry of the righteous of all times, anxious that the reversal of values in the history of humanity will end. In response, they are told to be patient and wait for the number of the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem to be completed Revelation 6: 9-11.
The sixth seal already puts us in the presence of the outcome of history: the Great Day of Judgment has arrived (6.17). Then the righteous appear in the celestial bliss: the Jews represented by 144,000, and those from paganism, constituting "an innumerable multitude of all nations, tribes, peoples and languages" (7,9); celebrate the heavenly liturgy. - Here the first septenary ends properly; it comprehends in its broad lines the distressing aspects of human history and the longing of the just for the order to be restored; the consummation of history is victory and happiness for the faithful. The consolation that St. John wants to convey to his readers, consists precisely in showing that the calamities under which men groan are involved in a wise plan of God, where all evils are dimensioned to serve the salvation of creatures and the glory of the Creator . Here is the synthesis of the Apocalypse presented clearly in the first septenary.
And the seventh seal (8.1)? - Corresponds to a half-hour silence. Yes, the book has opened completely. The seer awaits the execution of God's designs contained in the open book. This half-hour silence is the "hook" from which the second septenary hangs.
The second and third septenaries (8,2-11,18 and 15,5-16,21) take up the content of the first with some variants. Let us note, to begin with, that each one ends with the consummation of history (seventh trumpet in 11.14-18 and seventh bowl in 16.17-21). The second septenary focuses mainly on the scourges that afflict the profane world: the land, vegetation, waters, stars ... On the contrary, the third septenary aims at the fortunes of the Church persecuted by the Dragon (Satan) and his two agents (the pagan imperial power, which manipulates the official religion of the pagan state).
Let us observe within the second septenary the "hook" from which the third septenary hangs: in Ap 10.8-11, John is given a booklet, sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach. How to understand this? - The second septenary presents the execution of God's plan contained in the book whose seals were opened. Therefore, if there must be another series of revelations, there must also be another book that brings them; it is precisely this that John receives in 10: 8-11 (bitter in the stomach, because it carries heavy news for faithful Christians).
The interval between the second and third septenaries deserves special attention, that is, the section from 11.19 to 15.4. He prepares the series of cups, presenting the great protagonists in the history of the Church: the Woman and the Dragon in chapter 12; the two Beasts, manipulated by the Dragon, the first rising from the sea (who looks from the island of Patmos to the great sea, turns to Rome) and represents the persecuting imperial power, while the second Beast rises from the land (who de Patmos looks at the nearby continent, turns to Asia Minor, where the Emperor's religious cult is champion); see Ap 13,1 and 11 respectively. The headquarters of these two agents is Babylon (= pagan Rome). Chap. 12, in presenting the Woman and the Dragon, is also a synthesis of the message of the Apocalypse and the history of the Church, which will be commented on in the fourth part of this study. - As said, the agents of evil are doomed to perish, as we read in 17.1-20.15, giving way to heavenly Jerusalem and the bliss of the just.
Therefore, the calamities that the Apocalypse presents to be unleashed on the world will not be interpreted to the letter; rather, its meaning will be understood in the light of the scenes of peace and triumph that the sacred author intersperses between the scourge narratives (while the righteous suffer on earth, there is complete security in heaven, according to the Apocalypse). Juxtaposing afflictions (on earth) and joy (in heaven), St. John wanted to tell his readers precisely that the tribulations of this life are in strict relation to the Wisdom of God; they were carefully planned by the Lord, who wanted to include them within a very harmonious plan, a plan to which nothing escapes. Consequently, in suffering the afflictions of everyday life, Christians should remember that such adversities do not exhaust all reality, but are only the external and visible facets of a reality that has its heavenly and grand aspect; the calamities, therefore, under which first-century Christians felt ready to fail, should not impress them; they constituted as the wrong side and bottom of a rug that, seen in its authentic and superior aspect, is a true oriental rug, full of rich colors and beautiful designs.
Here is the form of consolation that the sacred author wanted to instill in his readers (not only from the first century, but from all times in history): the events that affect us here on earth are ambiguous or something that has two faces: an outer, visible one, which is often distressing and tends to overwhelm us; another, however, interior, invisible to the eyes of the flesh (but perceptible to the eyes of faith), which is great and beautiful, as it is part of the victorious struggle of Good over evil; it is really the prolongation of the work of the Lamb that was sacrificed, but today it reigns over the world with its glorified wounds (cf. c. 5). For this reason, while Christians on earth groan the blessed in glory sing (Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!)
In heaven, the righteous are not crushed by what is calamitous on earth; rather, they continue to sing joyfully to God because they perceive the true meaning of our tribulations. Well, St. John means, that same peace and tranquility must also become the sharing of Christians on earth, because, although they live in the present time and in the world, they already have in their souls eternity and heaven in the form of a germ. (the germ of sanctifying grace, which is the seed of heavenly glory).
Thus the Apocalypse offers an image of what is the life of the Christian or, more broadly, the life of the Church: it is a reality simultaneously of earth and heaven, of time and eternity. Insofar as it belongs to the land and time, it is distressing; this aspect, however, is far from essential; at its core, the life of the Christian is heavenly and, as such, it is peaceful, like the life of the righteous who in heaven possess in full what Christians have on earth in germ.
4. TWO TEXTS IN PARTICULAR
We will look more closely at Revelation 12: 1-17 and 20: 1-10.
4.1. Revelation 12,1-17
This chapter summarizes the whole history of the Church in the form of the struggle between the Woman and the Dragon, figures parallel to those of the Woman and the serpent in Genesis 3,15.
In a nutshell, this excerpt presents a glorious and aching Woman at the same time. He is about to give birth to a son that a monstrous Dragon is waiting to grab him. The Woman begets her Son, who has the features of the Messiah; He escapes the Dragon and is taken up into the heavens. Then there is a battle between Miguel with his angels and the Dragon; it ends up being projected from heaven on earth, where it seeks to slaughter the Mother Woman, pursuing her in different ways. However, God Himself is in charge of defending Woman in the desert during the three and a half years or the 42 months or 1260 days of her existence. Seeing that he cannot do anything against this great figure, the ancient Serpent throws himself at the other children of the Woman, trying to lose them.
What does this chapter mean?
It is clear that the Dragon represents Satan, who is "a liar and a murderer from the beginning" (John 8.44).
As for the Woman, she cannot be identified with any individual character, but it is the Woman who runs through the entire history of salvation. Indeed; at the first Eve (= Mother of the living or of life) God promised a noble role in the work of Redemption. The first Eve (= Mother of Life) was extended in the Daughter of Sion (the people of Israel, from whom the Messiah was born); the daughter of Sion culminated in the second Eve, Maria SS., who had the grace to be personally the Mother of Redeemer; that is why in Rev 12: 1 the Woman is glorious like Mary, but painful like the people of Israel. Mary's motherhood continues in that of the Holy Mother Church; it has the guarantee of the safety (cf. Mt 16,18) that Christ promised to her, but the children she generates in the waters of Baptism are subject to be affected by the dragon's dragon, who acts in this world as an Adversary already defeated, but jealous of rounding up the unwary who listen to him (St. Augustine says that the devil is a chained dog; he can bark, making a lot of noise, but only bites anyone who comes close). Finally, the Mother-Woman, who exercises her motherhood throughout the history of salvation, will be consummated in heavenly Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21 s).
The battle between Michael and the Dragon does not correspond to the original fall of the angels, but it plastically means the defeat of Satan, won when Christ overcame death by his Resurrection and Ascension. God allows him to tempt men in these centuries of Church history, with a providential purpose, that is, in order to prove and consolidate their fidelity. Satan acts only by permission of God.
The duration of 1260 days or 31/2 years that women spend in the desert, does not designate chronology, but has symbolic value.
Indeed, 3 1/2 years, 42 months and 1260 days are equivalent terms; correspond to half of 7 years. Now, being 7 the symbol of totality, of perfection and, therefore, of calm, the half of 7 becomes the symbol of unfinished and pain. Therefore, 31'2 years (and the equivalent expressions in months and days) in the Apocalypse designate the whole history of the Church insofar as it is something that has not yet ended or insofar as it is a painful struggle between the first and the second coming of Christ, in the desert of this world.
4.2. Rev 20.1-10
This is the passage that speaks of Christ's apparent millennial kingdom on earth, with Satan in chains. The millennium would be inaugurated by the first resurrection, reserved for the just only, who would be given to live in peace and tranquility with Christ. After the millennium, Satan would be released to carry out his final invective, which would end with his definitive loss. Then there would be the second resurrection, for other men, and the final judgment.
The millenarian theory, understood to the letter, was professed by former Church writers (St. Justin + 165, St. Irenaeus + 202, Tertullian + after 220, Lactâncio + after 317 ...) However St. Augustine (+ 430) proposed new way of understanding the text - which definitively excluded literal interpretation; the Holy Doctor was based on John 5: 25-29, where it reads:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word ... has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and it has come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it will live ... Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when all those in the tombs will hear His voice: Those who have done good will go out to the resurrection of life; they have done evil, they will come out for the resurrection of judgment ".
In this passage, the Lord distinguishes two resurrections: one, which occurs "now" ("and has already come"), in the present time, when the preaching of the Good News resounds; it is spiritual, due to Baptism; it is equivalent to the passage from original sin to the life of sanctifying grace. The other is simply future and will take place at the end of time, when bodies benefit from the new life now latent in souls.
Therefore, in Revelation the first resurrection is the passage from death to the life that takes place in the baptism of each Christian, when he begins to live the supernatural life or the life of heaven in the midst of the struggles of the earth. The second resurrection is, indeed, the resurrection of the bodies, which will take place when Christ comes in his glory to judge all men and put a definitive end to history.
A thousand years, in Revelation 20: 1-10, designate the history of the Church insofar as it is a victorious struggle ("a thousand" is a symbol of fullness, of perfection. By the Redemption on the Cross, Christ overcame the Prince of this world (cf. John 12.31), making him similar to a chained dog, which can bark a lot, but which can only bite anyone who voluntarily comes close to him (S. Augustine). This is precisely the situation of the Evil One at the time he goes from first to the second coming of Christ or in the course of the history of Christianity; for this reason the three and a half years that symbolize the painful aspect of those centuries (we are already in the twenty-first century), are equivalent to a thousand years, in case we want to focus our attention on the happy, transcendent or heavenly aspect of the life of the Christian who sojourns on earth, sanctifying grace is the seed of the glory of heaven.
This shows how much it would be contrary to the mentality of the sacred author to take literally the thousand years of chapter 20 and admit a millennial kingdom of Christ visible on earth after the current history cycle.
5. CONCLUSION
The recapitulation system thus proposed frankly deserves to be preferred to the others, as it is the one that most takes into account the mentality and style of the sacred author St. John; the latter, also in his Gospel, resorts to repetitions or the spiral recapitulation style.
However, no one will deny the allusions of the Apocalypse to characters from ancient history (Nero, the invasion of the barbarians, Rome, Babylon ...). Through these references, St. John did not aim to hold his reader's attention on episodes from antiquity, but only to mention characteristic types of human mentalities or life situations that accompany the entire history of the Church: thus Nero becomes the type of political sovereigns who persecute the Church at any time (there are many reproductions of Nero throughout history). For this reason also the number 666 of the Beast of the Apocalypse, an opponent of the Christians, is equivalent (according to the most probable interpretation) to the expression Kaisar Neron (Emperor Nero). (1)
Rome and Babylon, in turn, typically designate the power of this world that, with its thousand attractions of splendor and pleasure, seeks to seduce Christ's disciples into sin - The struggle that Saint John witnessed, between pagan Rome and Church, is evoked in the Apocalypse not because of this very struggle, but within a broader perspective, that is, in order to symbolize and predict the perennial struggle that has been waged between diabolic power and Christ through the centuries, until it ends with the full victory of the Lord Jesus.
These considerations contribute to highlight how futile the attempt to discover the prediction of strange phenomena of the present time (atomic bombs, explosions, floods and droughts, flying saucers) in the Apocalypse pictures. These are typical and perennial pictures, pictures that are reproduced throughout history, varying only in their facets.
His message covers all analogous situations: they do mean that the misfortunes of present life, however terrifying they may seem, are subject to the wise plan of Divine Providence, which makes everything work together for the good of those who love Him (cf. Romans 8,28).
In this passage, the Lord distinguishes two resurrections: one, which occurs "now" ("and has already come"), in the present time, when the preaching of the Good News resounds; it is spiritual, due to Baptism; it is equivalent to the passage from original sin to the life of sanctifying grace. The other is simply future and will take place at the end of time, when bodies benefit from the new life now latent in souls.
Therefore, in Revelation the first resurrection is the passage from death to the life that takes place in the baptism of each Christian, when he begins to live the supernatural life or the life of heaven in the midst of the struggles of the earth. The second resurrection is, indeed, the resurrection of the bodies, which will take place when Christ comes in his glory to judge all men and put a definitive end to history.
A thousand years, in Revelation 20: 1-10, designate the history of the Church insofar as it is a victorious struggle ("a thousand" is a symbol of fullness, of perfection. By the Redemption on the Cross, Christ overcame the Prince of this world (cf. John 12.31), making him similar to a chained dog, which can bark a lot, but which can only bite anyone who voluntarily comes close to him (S. Augustine). This is precisely the situation of the Evil One at the time he goes from first to the second coming of Christ or in the course of the history of Christianity; for this reason the three and a half years that symbolize the painful aspect of those centuries (we are already in the twenty-first century), are equivalent to a thousand years, in case we want to focus our attention on the happy, transcendent or heavenly aspect of the life of the Christian who sojourns on earth, sanctifying grace is the seed of the glory of heaven.
This shows how much it would be contrary to the mentality of the sacred author to take literally the thousand years of chapter 20 and admit a millennial kingdom of Christ visible on earth after the current history cycle.
5. CONCLUSION
The recapitulation system thus proposed frankly deserves to be preferred to the others, as it is the one that most takes into account the mentality and style of the sacred author St. John; the latter, also in his Gospel, resorts to repetitions or the spiral recapitulation style.
However, no one will deny the allusions of the Apocalypse to characters from ancient history (Nero, the invasion of the barbarians, Rome, Babylon ...). Through these references, St. John did not aim to hold his reader's attention on episodes from antiquity, but only to mention characteristic types of human mentalities or life situations that accompany the entire history of the Church: thus Nero becomes the type of political sovereigns who persecute the Church at any time (there are many reproductions of Nero throughout history). For this reason also the number 666 of the Beast of the Apocalypse, an opponent of the Christians, is equivalent (according to the most probable interpretation) to the expression Kaisar Neron (Emperor Nero). (1)
Rome and Babylon, in turn, typically designate the power of this world that, with its thousand attractions of splendor and pleasure, seeks to seduce Christ's disciples into sin - The struggle that Saint John witnessed, between pagan Rome and Church, is evoked in the Apocalypse not because of this very struggle, but within a broader perspective, that is, in order to symbolize and predict the perennial struggle that has been waged between diabolic power and Christ through the centuries, until it ends with the full victory of the Lord Jesus.
These considerations contribute to highlight how futile the attempt to discover the prediction of strange phenomena of the present time (atomic bombs, explosions, floods and droughts, flying saucers) in the Apocalypse pictures. These are typical and perennial pictures, pictures that are reproduced throughout history, varying only in their facets.
His message covers all analogous situations: they do mean that the misfortunes of present life, however terrifying they may seem, are subject to the wise plan of Divine Providence, which makes everything work together for the good of those who love Him (cf. Romans 8,28).
1 The indication of the identity of the first Beast in the form of the number 666, in Rev 13.18, belongs to the literary device called gematria: the letters were given a numerical value, so that each name had an equivalent number. The interpretation of 666 must be sought in the linguistic, geographical and historical context of Saint John and his immediate readers, not in a later time or in a language other than Hebrew and Greek. Taking this principle into account, it can be said that 666 is equivalent to Kaisar Neron written in Hebrew characters:
N V R N R S Q
50 6 200 50 200 60 100 = 666
This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that some ancient manuscripts have 616 and not 666. This is explained by the fall of the N at the end (read from right to left), understandable, since one could say Nero instead of Neron.
Apocalipse: Interpretação
