Genesis 17. Abraham, and he who spoke to him saying: I am the Lord Almighty: walk before me and be perfect original: "ego sum dominus omnipote[n]s: ambula coram me & esto perfectus". He is the one who is to come, and he shall remain in his glorious essence when
Psalm 107. his enemies have been reduced to nothing. Those who pierced him used to say: When will he die? or,
Psalm 40. behold, he shall die, and his name shall perish.

Why John prefixed the title of his name three times in chapter 1. A small decorative initial P is decorated with floral patterns. Having sent forth this magnificent display of so great a Catholic and Apostolic confession, the venerable teacher and confessor of holy faith, the great orator of heavenly wisdom, finally enters upon his narration. In the midst of the seven churches, or rather in the midst of the one universal church, he is to be heard worthily with an open mouth.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patience of Jesus: was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ: I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice like a trumpet saying: What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamum, and Thyatira, and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Behold, now for the third time the diligent and anxious author has prefixed the title of his name to this work. First, when he said: he signified this by sending through his angel to his servant John. Second, when he said: John to the seven churches which are in Asia. And now a third time: I, he says, John, your brother. For what reason does he, about to speak or narrate, triple the placement of his name in this way? Is it by chance, or is he repeating and dwelling on it because he desires to spread his own name? Not at all. Rather, he intends our benefit. As he begins to write down these most difficult revelations, he places his name first to defend them. He does this so they are not despised and so that the book is not slandered on account of its difficulty, which would lead people to judge it as lacking worthy meaning or to deny that it belongs to John the apostle and evangelist, the beloved of Jesus Christ. For this indeed happened long after that time. Certain Jews, See Church History, book 5, chapter 8; and book 7, chapter 22; also book 3, chapters 19 and 31. Exhibition of the Church, book 7, chapter 22. The words of Dionysius, bishop of the Corinthians. holding a carnal understanding of future promises and teaching that they would be fulfilled physically, claimed that the saints would reign with Christ for a thousand years in physical delights on this earth. They tried to assert the proofs of this dogma by taking testimonies from this revelation. On the other hand, others thought this book should be utterly rejected from the canon of scriptures and cast aside (as ecclesiastical history testifies), arguing against its individual chapters. They said the title of the book was not true, but that John’s name had merely been placed upon someone else’s writing. Therefore, they claimed this was not John’s book, nor could it be seen as a revelation since it was covered by a thick veil of ignorance. Among these, Dionysius, the bishop of the church of the Corinthians Historically, this reference usually points to Dionysius of Alexandria, whose views on the Apocalypse are preserved in Eusebius's Church History, a man of great erudition in the word of God and grace, said: I do not at all dare to despise or cast aside the scripture of this book. Instead, I judge that the things written in it exceed and stand above the limit of human hearing. There is in it a certain secret, hidden, and wonderful sense for all, which I also admire and venerate, even if I do not understand it. I feel that certain divine mysteries are covered by human words, not so much discerning this by my own judgment, but believing it by faith. And therefore I do not reject what I do not understand, but I admire it all the more the less I can grasp it. After this, he discussed the different body of the whole book, examining each part and clearly showing that it is impossible for a worthy understanding to appear according to the literal sense. He also adds these words: The prophecy being completed, he calls those blessed who keep these things. But he also calls himself blessed. For he says: Blessed is he who keeps the word of the prophecy of this book. By these and such types of objections and responses, this book of heavenly revelations was loved and handled. Unless the Holy Spirit, who revealed all these things, had prepared men of rational reverence to defend it, the pigs would have trampled such precious pearls and the heretics would have contaminated them. Heretics hostile to this book. What would have happened if such authority of so great a name had not stood at the entrance of reason? Rightly then, because according to the law every word stands on the mouth of two or three witnesses, John placed the title of his name repeated a third time. He is the one who gave testimony to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and to all things that he saw. Deuteronomy 17. John 8. The humility of John in the title. And note how much this authority of the name shines with the grace of holy humility: your brother, he says, and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patience of Jesus. For he could have said: I, John, the teacher and Apostle, your preacher, and your evangelist, that disciple whom Jesus loved, whose partners and whose brothers you have earned the right to be. And he would have spoken rightly. But this mode of speaking would not be so much like a little child.

XV.

COMMENTARY BOOK I.

Matthew 18. Such a little child as each of the apostles wished to become or be, when the good teacher said: Amen I say to you, unless you are converted and become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself like this little child, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. What is this assumed moderation of a child? For as long as the heir is a child, says Galatians 4. the apostle, he differs nothing from a servant, although he is lord of all. And indeed we are all servants in our own judgment. But this John, the beloved of the Lord Jesus, is among the sons to whom the good inheritance of the word of God has been left by testament. Yet he had learned from that good teacher to humble himself here through virtue, just as a child who is small Matthew 23. by age humbles himself among the little servants or the sons of the little servants, sitting in the dust with them, not loving the first places at feasts, nor greetings in the market, nor the first seats in the synagogues. Rightly then, and as befits a disciple of such a teacher, he was content with our fellowship of humble little servants, saying: I, John, your brother, I, John, your partner. If the cause had demanded it, we do not doubt he could have said something greater, or rather something more humble: I, John, your servant. For did not that other 2 Corinthians 4. man, namely the vessel of election, Paul, the apostle of the same Jesus Christ, not hesitate to say this? We do not, he says, preach ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ, and ourselves as your servants through Jesus. ¶ Your partner, he says, in tribulation. This is a great congratulation of a mild and humble heart. Someone might have thought him exempt John a partner in tribulation. John, last chapter. from tribulation, or from the tribulations of the just (which are many), because it is written of him in the gospel: Peter, turning, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, and says of him: Lord, what about this man? Jesus says to him: If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. As if he were saying: I do not wish him to be consumed by the passion of the martyrs, but to wait for the final day without the violence of persecution, when I myself, coming, shall receive him into the eternal mansion of blessedness. And what is this to you? You, by undergoing the suffering of the cross, remember that you ought to follow my footsteps. On account of this (as has been said), someone might think him exempt from the tribulation of the holy martyrs. ¶ But he drank the cup of the Lord, the cup of tribulation, according to the truth of the same Lord saying Where John drank the cup of tribulation. Matthew 20. to the two sons of Zebedee, of whom this man was one: Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? When they answered "We can," he said: You shall indeed drink my cup. Where then did he drink that cup of the Lord? Surely there where, according to the prophetic word of the just Simeon, a sword pierced the soul Luke 2. John 19. of his blessed mother. For when all the disciples had fled and left him, this beloved disciple stood with Mary his mother near the cross. He himself saw the nails in his hands and feet, and the spear piercing his side. There indeed, did that same sword which pierced the soul of Mary the mother not also bruise the soul of the beloved and diligent disciple? It certainly touched him, and there, drinking the cup of the Lord, he was made a partner in tribulation just like Mary and all the martyrs of Christ. ¶ Moreover, Partner in the kingdom. whoever is a partner in tribulation is also a partner in the kingdom by right. That which follows Luke 22. is a legal right before the heavenly king. For he says: You are those who have remained with me in my temptations: and I appoint to you a kingdom, as my father appointed to me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. If he said this to all in common, although they were about to flee in that moment, and Peter was even about to deny him, how much more does this saying apply to this man, who stood by the cross even then and was always present thereafter? ¶ When he had said "in tribulation and Partner in the patience of Jesus. the kingdom," he added "and the patience of Jesus." For even after he was a partner in that tribulation of the one dying, and the kingdom of the one rising, he had the patience of Jesus by imitating his suffering, the reproaches, the mockeries, the blows, and the whips. For example, when he himself was scourged with the others, as is read in the Acts 5. Acts of the Apostles, and when he was cast into a vat of boiling oil by Domitian, and finally separated from men. In that also he was a partner of the saints in the patience of Jesus. For just as Christ Jesus patiently endured and prayed saying, "Father, forgive them," so also this man loved those who brought evils upon him and Luke 23. prayed for them. ¶ I, such a man, was on the island, he says, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Was on the island of Patmos. The history is well known, namely that this blessed John was banished to the island of Patmos because of the word of God, to which he gave testimony, or because he preached that he was born from the heart of the Father before all ages. It was also because of the testimony of Jesus Christ, by which he testified that he was the Word incarnate. Patmos, moreover, is interpreted as a "strait" term: fretum; gloss: a narrow body of water or a place of distress. For the sea there is wider because it is narrow. To him who was an exile there, to whom the earth was denied, heaven was opened. He is therefore an example to all saints, that the more they are afflicted in the straits of the present world, the more the heavenly secrets are manifested to them. ¶ Having now designated his person, the place of his exile, and the cause, he also took care to indicate the time: I was, he says, in the spirit on the Lord's day. On the Lord's day.