Fathers

Loading…

What the Fathers say

Revelation 3:12

Eastern Fathers

Oecumenius

And he who overcomes, he says, that he will make them to sit with him always in the sight of God; for this is to become the pillar of the divine temple. For the pillar could never go out for any good reason from the place in which it is fixed. I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, and My new name. Through all this, the enjoyment of God and dwelling in goodness and blessedness are fully revealed, whatever they will possess in the age to come. …

Commentary on Revelation ↗

Western Saints

Bede

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, etc. He who overcomes adversities for my sake will gloriously fear no further loss of adversity in the temple of the Church. These pillars, that is, holy men, now strengthen the Church by supporting it, then will adorn it by standing out, just as those two in the doors of Solomon's temple.

Commentary on Revelation ↗

Bonaventure

This passage establishes that it was those who were upon Mount Sion who were sealed; also, that one of the angels who were to pour out the bowls — and, fittingly, it was the sixth — showed him the city the measure of which was a hundred and forty-four cubits. Toward the beginning of the Apocalypse, it is said of the sixth angel, that of Philadelphia: "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. …

Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23 ↗

Alcuin of York

He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. God's temple is the Church, according to this: The temple of God is holy, which you are. [1 Cor. 3:17] Since not only the preachers, but also the good listeners triumph over the old enemy, and in this verse everyone who overcomes is said to become a pillar in God's temple, we are forced to confess that a pillar is the same as the temple, that is the universal Church. …

Commentary On Revelation ↗