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According to various ancient commentators



Rev. 20:1

angel coming down from heaven: We understand the angel coming down from heaven to be our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is called the angel of great counsel. He visited the region of those who are mortal, for as one who is stronger he wished to bind the strong one, so that he might make vessels of mercy out of those who had earlier been vessels of wrath. And he accomplished this through that work that he had promised before when he said, "No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his wares, unless he first binds the strong man, (Mt. 12:29) that is, the Devil. The key of the bottomless pit is the depth of the divine judgments, for 'the judgments of God are deep. (Ps. 36:6)" Indeed, to him alone is it known who from the mass of sinners are to be called out into the full number of the elect. [Primasius]


key: We must entreat the Lord more earnestly here, lest we consent in error concerning the number of the 1000 years or through our own excess nurture error. Rather, let us entreat the Lord that he who is called Faithful and True might keep our faith safe. The Lord himself said at the beginning of this book, "I am the first and the last, and the living one although I was dead; and I have the keys of death and Hades.(Rev. 1:17-18)" By the key it speaks of him who bears the office of ministry, so that he might open the pit of the abyss. The great chain is the unbreakable bond of the divine commandment. it is in his hand, which means that he exercises it by work and deed . [Apringius of Beja]



abyss: Also the great Justin says that at the coming of Christ the Devil will first learn that he is condemned to the abyss, that is, to the Gehenna of fire. It is therefore possible also to understand the sentence of Christ against the Devil in the words just spoken. The seer says that the angel administers this sentence, thereby revealing that the Devil is weaker in power than the ministering powers and showing the vanity of one who insolently opposes him who has rule over all things. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]



chain: meaning the work of restraining the Devil’s evil. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]






Rev. 20:2

and bound him: This passage expresses the destruction of the Devil that occurred through the passion of our Lord. For through his passion the one who is stronger than the Devil, namely, Christ our God, bound him who seemed to be strong and freed us, who were his spoils, from his hands and condemned him by throwing him into the pit. this is shown by those demons who pleaded that he not send them into the pit. the demonstration of idol worship, the destruction of pagan temples, the abandonment of the defilement of alters and the knowledge of the will of God throughout the world. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]

1000 years: In Greek letters 1000 is designated with an ‘alpha.’ In the aplpha we have the beginning, which is Christ; in the name of Christ we have the cross which is our victory and the destruction of the evil enemy. Therefore, both by the cross he bound the enemy of the world who deceived those who dwell upon the earth. For to that eternity no time is added, and the eternity of his time will be enclosed by no end, nor will there ever be an end to the number of years. And so by the sovereignty of the Lord through the power of the cross he bound him in the abyss. [Apringius of Beja]



1000 years: It is in no way good to understand the 1000 years as referring to a 1000 years as such. For when David says, ‘of the word that he commanded for a 1000 generations,(Ps. 105:8)’ we ought not to understand this to mean a hundred years times ten. Rather, David means many generations taken as a whole. So also in this case, we regard the number 1000 to signify either many or that which is complete. If we take it to mean many then it refers to the preaching of the gospel into all the world and the sowing of the seeds of piety in the world. Or should it mean complete, then it signifies that during this time, having been released from the life learned from the law, we have been called to the ‘perfect man,’ to the measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ. Therefore, the ‘1000 years’ are the time from the incarnation of the Lord until the arrival of the antichrist. Whether the matter is as we have interpreted it, or the 1000 years are one hundred times ten, as some believe, or the 1000 years are less than this, this is known to God alone, who knows how long his patience is beneficial to us, and he determines the continuance of the present life. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]



1000 years: These thousand years are reckoned from the passion of Christ. During them it is not permitted to the Devil to do whatever he wishes, for God does not permit his servants to be tempted beyond that which they are able to endure. [St. Caesarius of Arles]




Rev. 20:3

And sealed over him: That is, placed upon it the bolt of the cross so that he might never regain his strength, nor any more seduce the nations, whom the resurrection will restore and make better. Nonetheless, to this explanation the following seems in opposition. Until the 1000 years shall be ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while: However, one can understand this to mean to the extent that the will of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and his command allow. ‘For a little while,’ that is, in a moment of time and by the power of the one who commands, Satan is dissolved into nothing and at the same time disappears. For if he is loosed so that he might be free, how then does he say, ‘I saw thrones?’ This is similar to the most holy Daniel who speaks same sense as follows, “In the day your people shall be written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace, that they might eternally see.(Dan. 12:1-2)” For how is he released from chains, if the resurrection is already celebrated and if the seats of judgment are seen? [Apringius of Beja]




Rev. 20:4

Thrones: Indeed, the teaching thrones had already been given to the holy Apostles through whom the nations have been enlightened. However, thrones will also be given according to the purpose of God in the age to come for the condemnation of those who rejected the preaching of the gospel. As David said, “For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, as a testimony for Israel,” and again, “For there are set thrones for judgment.(Ps. 122:4-5)” [St. Andrew of Caesarea]



Judgment: that is, the authority to judge, was given to the rest of the saints, namely, to the martyrs who suffered for Christ and did not receive the mark of the spiritual beast, the Devil, that is, the image of his apostasy. And as we can see, even to the present time they judge the demons by this authority, for they reign with Christ until the end of the present age and are honored by pious kings and faithful rulers and demonstrate their God-given power against every bodily weakness and demonic activity. It is clear that the Devil, the antichrist and the false prophet share with one another both their deeds and their names, since each of them is called ‘beast,’ and the dragon, clearly Satan, is shown with seven heads and ten horns with as many diadems. Moreover, the beast that comes up out of the sea, clearly the antichrist, appears in a similar form and testifies to the same will and activity for the destruction of those who have been deceived. Those who have been freed from this will reign with Christ in the manner just mentioned until his second coming, and after that they will enjoy more abundantly the promises of God. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]





Rev. 20:5

1000 years: We should listen to the Lord when He says to the Sadducees that the righteous will be ‘as the angels in heaven.(Mt. 22:41)’ We listen also to the Apostle who says, ‘the kingdom of God is not food and drink.(Rom. 14:167)’ And so we interpret the 1000 year period to be that of the preaching of the gospel. It is not necessary to think of thes3e 1000 years in terms of a number. When it is said in the Song of Songs ‘everyone was to bring for its fruit a 1000 pieces of silver,’ and agin, Solomon shall hae a 1000 and they who keep its fruit 200,(Songs 8:11-12)’ the precise number is not indicated, but the full and complete harvest. So also here, the harvest of faith in its entirety is meant. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]



Reign for a 1000 years: The souls of all the martyrs and of all the Christian faithful who rise again and awaken from the dust of the earth shall reign, it says, with Christ for a 1000 years. That is, they will reign by the sign of the cross and by the pre-eminence of the Lord’s passion. [Apringius of Beja]



Until the 1000 years were ended: That is, until such time as the sacrament of the faith and the mystery of the cross is perfected in them and that those who are beginning to flourish might appear in their eternal blessedness. [Apringius of Beja]



The rest of the dead did not come to life: He did not say, ‘they did not arise again,’ but that they dead not come to life, because without joy and happiness, and without the reward of eternity, in their torments they shall be regarded as though dead. [Apringius of Beja]



This is the first resurrection: That is to say, the happiness of the saints and their reward; for it is said to be the ‘first’ because of its splendor and its preeminence. [Apringius of Beja]




Rev. 20:6

Second dead had not power over: To be sure, they have been resurrected unto the 2nd death, that is, they have been damned to the lake of fire, even as it is stated in the psalms: “As though living he swallows them as in anger.(Ps. 57:9)” All those who shall have been in the congregation of the saints, shall be called saints, and they shall be priests of Christ our God, and they shall reign with him in the strength of the cross and in the sovereignty of his might. [Apringius of Beja]



The first resurrection: is that by which we rise through baptism. As the Apostle says, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things which are above.(Col. 3:1)” And again he says, “living as those who have been brought to life from the dead.(Rom. 6:13)” For sin is death, as the Apostle says, “when you were dead through trespasses and sins.(Eph. 2:1)” Therefore, just as the first death is in this life because of sin, so also the first resurrection is in this life through the remission of sins. [St. Caesarius of Arles]



Second death shall have no power over them: Form the holy Scriptures we are taught that there are two lives and two deaths. The first life, which is after the transgression of the commandment, is temporary and fleshly. The second life is eternal and is promised to the saints because of Christ’s obedience to the divine commandments. Likewise, there are two deaths. The first is that of the flesh and is temporary. The other is eternal and is the reward for sins. It occurs in the age to come; this is the Gehenna of fire. We also know a distinction among the dead. There are the accused, of whom Isaiah wrote, “The dead shall not see life.(Is. 26:14)” These are those persons who by their deeds bring upon themselves both stench and death. There are the praiseworthy, who in Christ put to death the deeds of the body and crucified themselves with Christ and died to the world. The dead who are rejected, who were not buried with Christ and did not rise with him through baptism but who remained in that death which comes through sins, they shall not live with him until the end of the 1000 years, that is, the perfect number that extends from his first appearance until his second, glorious appearance. Having been born only from the earth and not from the Spirit, these return to the earth. Their death becomes the beginning of the punishment coming to them. However, those who have a portion in the first resurrection, that is, in the rising from the thoughts that bring death and from dead works, these are blessed, for the second death, that is, the unending torment, shall have no power over them. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]



And they shall reign with Him for a 1000 years: The Spirit repeats what he had written before, that the Church is going to reign a 1000 years in this age until the end of the world. It is clear that no one ought doubt about the eternal rule when the saints rule even in this present age. For those are rightly said to reign who with God’s aid govern well both themselves and others in the temptations of the present world. [St. Caesarius of Arles]



they shall be priests of God and of Christ: Those who have a portion of the first resurrection shall serve as priests and shall reign with Christ, as we see, for the 1000 years as they are interpreted by us, until Satan is loosed and deceives the nations. Not that these will then be deprived of the kingdom. Rather, they will possess it more certainly and more manifestly with the passing of temporal reality and the arrival of things eternal. For the time between the loosing of the Devil and the verdict against him and his punishment in Gehenna is short. So that ‘they shall be priests of God and of Christ’ ought to be regarded as the restoration of former things. Therefore, since there are two deaths, it is necessary also to accept two resurrections. There is the first, physical death, given as a wage for human disobedience. The second death is eternal punishment. The first resurrection is the giving of life from dead works. The second resurrection is the transformation from the corruption of our bodies into incorruptibility. [St. Andrew of Caesarea]






Rev. 20:7

Satan will be loosed from his prison: We have here a difficulty for we must inquire how it is that when the 1000 years have ended,. The enemy is given his freedom and the nations continue to live upon the earth within the infinity which occurs after the end. For indeed, after the resurrection, when the judgment of the living and the dead has been rendered, all things everlasting are given and those who reign with Christ, namely, the saints will come with God’s aid to the eternal blessings, that is, to the very reality of eternality itself. Moreover, they will be rewarded with the contemplation of him who is the Beginning, and possessing the presence of a vision of such a majesty they will be established in it bliss. When the rewards of all the blessed have been ended and perfected, and all things have been brought to the one headship of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him all things are held together, ‘Satan will be loosed from his prison.’ Then the nether regions themselves will be freed from him, at the same time the author of darkness will be dissolved and disappear, ‘and go out,’ into eternal perdition. [Apringius of Beja]


to deceive: This means to scatter or to spoil, that is, to drag the nations along with him into condemnation, namely, all the wicked whom he has deceived in every part of the earth. And he will cause those who have been gathered together with him in one single condemnation to be delivered over to eternal torments.[Apringius of Beja]



Rev. 20:8

Gog and Magog: This means 'out of the covering' or 'out from the roof.' Everyone whom he the Devil has brought out and led to the collapse of the own arrogance, or those whom he supported by the roof of his pride, or those who will be recognized as coming from the same cover and height of his arrogance, all these persons will be taken at the same time in one condemnation and by an eternal fire.[Apringius of Beja]


he will gather them for battle: It describes as something future what is in the past, for in some manner this battle is the hostility that the wicked have toward good works. And since those who are wicked are many and numerous, he adds, 'whose number is like the sand of the sea.' [Apringius of Beja]