XVIII. ON THE APOCALYPSE CHAPTER I.

A woodcut illustration depicts the vision of St. John from the Book of Revelation. In the center, Christ stands among seven large, ornate candlesticks. He is dressed in a long robe podere a floor-length priestly garment with a golden girdle zona aurea golden belt around his chest. A double-edged sword emerges from his mouth, and he holds seven stars in his right hand. To the left, a figure, presumably John, kneels in prayer or adoration. The background shows a landscape with hills and a building on the right.

This was certainly spoken against the envy of the Jews. Before these words, he had indicated through the likeness of the Ninevites that his glory was to be declared to the nations. Because the Jews had an evil eye meaning they were envious and were perishing in their envy, the nations would instead perform penance.

Matthew 12.
Luke 11.

For he had said: The men of Nineveh will rise in judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. It is to be understood that just as the men of Nineveh did penance at the preaching or sign of Jonah, who was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the nations will do penance at my preaching or my sign. After I have been in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, they will likewise rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it.

Christ is the lamp and the light. John 1 and 8.

You ask why this happens. It is because I am the lamp. Just as a lamp is lit, not to be put in a hidden place, but to be placed upon a lampstand, so I have come into this world so that the nations may be illuminated by my light. Therefore, according to the logic of Gospel truth, the lamp ought to be placed or is placed upon a single lampstand. According to this revelation, the Son of Man is seen in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. This is Christ, of whom Simeon spoke.

Luke 2.

A light for the revelation of the nations. Already then, when John saw this mystery, he was full for the glory of all the churches.

Golden candlesticks.

For the seven candlesticks as has already been said are the seven churches, which means all churches. These candlesticks are rightly seen as golden because the sacred faith is compared to gold that passes through fire. It is through this faith that we from the nations are made like candlesticks, that is, churches. As the apostle Peter also says:

1 Peter 1.
What Christ was like in the midst of the seven candlesticks.

So that the proof of your faith may be much more precious than gold, which is tested by fire. In what manner did he see him in the midst of such golden candlesticks? It was so that Marcion, Cerinthus, and Ebion early Christian heretics, and other antichrists who disparaged the ancient glory of Christ, might hear. Indeed, it was so that John himself might know more certainly what kind of testimony he would later be asked to provide regarding the divinity of Christ. He saw one like the Son of Man, clothed in a podere priestly robe and girded at the breast with a golden girdle.

Like the Son of Man.

In the "likeness of the Son of Man," we understand the truth of his humanity, just as it is written elsewhere:

Philippians 2.

Made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man.

Clothed in a long robe.
Girded at the breast with a golden girdle.

In the clothing of the podere the long garment, which is a priestly vestment, we recognize the dignity or office of the priesthood. For he himself is our priest or high priest, of whom the apostle says:

Hebrews 4.
1 Peter 2.

Having therefore, he says, a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. And Peter the apostle says: For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

Psalm 92 Psalm 93 in modern Bibles.

In the fact that he was girded at the breast with a golden girdle, we understand royal authority, about which the Psalm says: The Lord has reigned, he is clothed in beauty: the Lord is clothed in strength and has girded himself with power. The beauty and strength with which the reigning Lord is clothed, or with which he girded himself after the kingdom of sin was destroyed and death was overcome, we understand through the golden girdle. He was now seen girded with this at the breast. Why at the breast, in the middle of which is the place of the heart? It is so that such a girding signifies the state of a vital nature, for Christ is now an immortal king.

Romans 6.

For rising from the dead, he dies no more; death will no longer have dominion over him. Behold, these three things have now been shown: that he is the Son of Man that is, a man, that he is

a priest, and that he is a king. Truly, the other evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke had already testified to these things in sufficient writings. The aforementioned heretics did not refuse to hear their testimonies. For whatever kind of antichrists they were, they confessed that Christ was a man, a priest, and also a king. Now we come to the point from which the controversy arose, namely, the highest and most ancient divinity of this same man, priest, and king, Jesus Christ.

His head and hair were white through divinity.
Song of Songs 5.

It follows then: His head and his hair were white like white wool, and like snow. What is the head of the Son of Man if not his divinity? Knowing this, the bride in the Song of Songs says: His head is the finest gold. That head, and the hair of that head, are said to be white as snow. This was said of the Son of Man, the Son of God.

Daniel 7.

Furthermore, Daniel says of the Ancient of Days, who is his Father: His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool.

Father and Son are equally old.

Therefore, both the Ancient of Days and this Son of Man who in the same book of Daniel came with the clouds of heaven and reached the Ancient of Days are of one and the same antiquity according to the head, which is to say, according to divinity. For the hair of the head of both is equally white. Both are shown to be ancient through the whiteness of the head. There is no distance between them. This Son is not younger than his father who is so old by a year, a month, a day, an hour, a point, a moment, or even an atom. He saw him thus in the spirit. Since John had also touched him physically in the body, he was destined to write such things for the reason already mentioned.

John 1.

In what way or in what kind of writing? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God.

What Christ is like.

Therefore, the Son of Man clothed in a long robe, girded at the breast with a golden girdle, having a white head, is Christ the Son of God: true man, highest priest, great king, ancient and true God. Meanwhile, the aforementioned antichrists were concocting their blasphemies to deny that he existed before Mary. But he, providing for himself, or rather for his church whose faith was in danger, was already showing John his head white with antiquity. This head not only existed before Mary, but was also begotten without time before the morning star, born of the Father before all ages.

The hair is divine words.

Furthermore, what is the hair that is so white with antiquity, like white wool and like snow? They are hair because they proceed from the head and are many. The words of God are many, which proceeded from the one Word or through the one Word that was in the beginning. For God the Word in his substance is one Word and one head. But the many words which God uttered to holy men or prophets are like the many hairs of one head.

Like white wool.

Why is this hair compared to wool? Just as a garment is made by weaving wool that has been transferred to a spindle, so holy Scripture is woven together by writing from these hairs, which are the manifold words of God transferred into the language and voice of the prophets. And why not just any wool, but "white wool" or as written in Daniel "pure wool"? It is because those words are holy and pure, they are right and irreproachable.

Psalm 11 Psalm 12.
Psalm 18 Psalm 19.

Hence the saying: The words of the Lord are pure words. Likewise: The law of the Lord is immaculate or irreproachable, converting souls. I say, converting souls and washing them from all sins. Therefore he added, "and like snow." For snow sometimes signifies purification.

Psalm 50 Psalm 51.
Isaiah 1.

Hence the prophet says in the psalm: You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. Likewise in the prophet: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow.

Grey wisdom.

Finally, it must be known that whoever rises before this grey head and shows reverence to his white hair, and receives his words worthily, becomes grey-haired himself because he receives and meditates on those words. He deserves to be called an elder, as Wisdom shows when it says:

Wisdom 4.

Venerable old age is not characterized by length of time, nor is it measured by the number of years. Rather, a man's understanding is his grey hair, and a spotless life is the age of old age.

John 1.
His eyes like a flame of fire.

It follows: And his eyes were like a flame of fire: His feet were like bronze aurichalcum fine brass as in a glowing furnace. What he was about to write when he said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... what was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it... he was the true light that illuminates every man coming into this world": what he was about to write in such a way was shown to him in this shining image.

Deuteronomy 4.

For just as that beginning, or the Word that was in the beginning, is signified by the white head, so by these eyes is signified that life which is the light of men, which illuminates every man coming into this world. Therefore his eyes are like a flame of fire, which means his inspiration illuminates every man and shines in the darkness. Therefore it is rightly said "like a flame of fire," because our God is a fire, and his looking upon us is a flame. It is a flame that illuminates so that we are not in darkness, that we are not children of the night and darkness, but children of the light and children of God.

1 Thessalonians 5.

Because