Reading the Apocalypse with Saint Augustine
Excerpts to Understand the Book of Revelation 20:6-8
How did Saint Augustine interpret the Book of Revelation 20:6-8?
“Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years. [v.6]
“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.” [vv.7-8]
Excerpts* from Saint Augustine’s The City of God, Book XX to gain insight to Revelation 20:6-8…
Chapter 5 about “judgment“
“Many passages I omit, because, though they seem to refer to the last judgment, yet on a closer examination they are found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to some other event — whether to that coming of the Saviour which continually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in which comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the whole Church is His body, or to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem. For when He speaks even of this, He often uses language which is applicable to the end of the world and that last and great day of judgment, so that these two events cannot be distinguished unless all the corresponding passages bearing on the subject in the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are compared with one another — for some things are put more obscurely by one evangelist and more plainly by another — so that it becomes apparent what things are meant to be referred to one event. It is this which I have been at pains to do in a letter which I wrote to Hesychius of blessed memory, bishop of Salon, and entitled, Of the End of the World.”
Chapter 6 must distinguish 1st from 2nd resurrection
“After that He adds the words, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in Himself; so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:25-26 As yet He does not speak of the second resurrection, that is, the resurrection of the body, which shall be in the end, but of the first, which now is. It is for the sake of making this distinction that He says, The hour is coming, and now is. Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul… “They that hear,” that is, they who obey, believe, and persevere to the end.”
[…so, faith in Christ is the first resurrection]
Chapter 7 on the two resurrections and 1k years in Rev 20:6
“The evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections in the book which is called the Apocalypse, but in such a way that some Christians do not understand the first of the two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies.”
[Summary: The first resurrection is about coming to faith in Christ and so it is about God’s grace in the soul and baptism, and so incorporation into the Church: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Colossians 2:11-12]
“The devil, then, is bound and shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and which he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For it is not said that he should not seduce any man, but that he should not seduce the nations — meaning, no doubt, those among which the Church exists — till the thousand years should be fulfilled,— i.e., either what remains of the sixth day which consists of a thousand years, or all the years which are to elapse till the end of the world.”
Chapter 8 concerning the 1k year binding of the devil
“And He binds him that he may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice, hinder or destroy the faith of those countless weak persons, already believing or yet to believe, from whom the Church must be increased and completed; and he will in the end loose him, that the city of God [the Church (especially the Church triumphant)] may see how mighty an adversary it has conquered, to the great glory of its Redeemer...”
Chapter 9 saints reign with Christ 1K years [militant and triumphant], what it IS & how it can differ from the eternal kingdom [as Church triumphant]
“Matthew 5:20 We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her. Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him.”
“...It is then of this kingdom militant, in which conflict with the enemy is still maintained, and war carried on with warring lusts, or government laid upon them as they yield, until we come to that most peaceful kingdom in which we shall reign without an enemy, and it is of this first resurrection in the present life, that the Apocalypse speaks in the words just quoted. For, after saying that the devil is bound a thousand years and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done in the Church in those days, in the words, And I saw seats and them that sat upon them, and judgment was given. It is not to be supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be produced than that which we have in the words, What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven“”
“ ...And the souls, says John, of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God,— understanding what he afterwards says, reigned with Christ a thousand years, Revelation 20:4 — that is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ...
“...The Church, then, begins its reign with Christ now in the living [militant] and in the dead [purgatorial & triumphant]. For, as the apostle says, Christ died that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead. Romans 14:9 But he mentioned the souls of the martyrs only [triumphant], because they who have contended even to death for the truth, themselves principally reign after death; but, taking the part for the whole, we understand the words of all others who belong to the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ.”
Chapter 10 answering those who think resurrection refers only to the body and not first regeneration of the soul
*Link to the full Book XX of Saint Augustine’s The City of God (from which excerpts came)" at the New Advent website: