Fathers

Revelation 9

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The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky which had fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those people who don’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. They were given power, not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a person. In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like golden crowns, and their faces were like people’s faces. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions. They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war. They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months. They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”. The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this. The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them. Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the horses’ heads resembled lions’ heads. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur. By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm. The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk. They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

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What the Fathers say

Revelation 9:5

Eastern Fathers

Oecumenius

Could it be that some of the Fathers accepted the concept of restoration [ἀποκατάστασιν] from this point onward, saying that sinners are punished only up to this time, but thereafter no longer, as if they have been purified by the punishment? But what should be done regarding the many others among the Fathers, and the approved Scriptures, which speak of the punishments of those who were then being punished as eternal? What then might one say, or how should one regulate the parts? One must blend the opinions of both sides. …

Commentary on Revelation ↗

Western Saints

Bede

And it was said to them that they should not kill them, etc. Although heretics, empowered by secular authority, are allowed to attack the good temporally, they cannot kill the soul, as the Lord says. For the time of the world is signified by five months, because of the five-part sense which we use in this life. That another translation contains six months agrees with the same sense because of the six ages of the world.

Commentary on Revelation ↗

Alcuin of York

And it was given unto them that they should not kill them; but that they should torment them five months yet. If those who do not have the sign are reprobates, how can the locusts be forbidden from killing them? And can it be that those who do not have the sign of God are alive? Therefore it is implied that this refers to the previous sentence. …

Commentary On Revelation ↗