Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Read Chapter 20
Andreas of Caesarea
AD 637
first resurrection. that is, in the rising out of deadening thoughts and mortifying actions, these are blessed.
reign: The Spirit when He wrote this, declared that the Church would reign a thousand years, that is, unto the end of the world; and a doubt might arise from this. For that it is concerning a perpetual kingdom is manifest. SATAN LOOSED <a
saints: Another version has "priests of God and of Christ," and it is not said of bishops only and of presbyters, who properly are called "priests" in the Church. But as we are all called Christs because of the mystical chrism, so are we all called priests, because we are members of the one Priest, of Whom the Apostle Peter says, "a holy people, a royal priesthood."
priests of God and Christ. it is not said of bishops only and of presbyters, who properly are called "priests" in the Church. But as we are all called Christs because of the mystical chrism, so are we all called priests, because we are members of the one Priest, of Whom the Apostle Peter says, "a holy people, a royal priesthood." 1Pet 2:9
Such fruit it is necessary that we bring when we come to the judgment-seat of Christ, on the first day of the feast; for if we are without it we shall not be able to feast with God, nor to have part, according to John,
Supply the life of glory for their souls, which glorifies life is called the first resurrection. Indeed the second will be when they will rise in glorious bodies. Because these have salvation that they already posses in their souls and afterwards they will have this bodily;
second death. What sort of death is this? It is that quite clearly which results from sin and is followed by punishment. For just as he has spoken of the first and the second resurrection, so he speaks of the first and second death. The first one is the physical death, which separates the soul and the body, but the second death is the spiritual death, resulting from sin. The Lord said of this, “Do not fear those who kill the body; but rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.(Mt. 10:28)”
Blessed and holy is he... he means that man will unite with God, who gives life to all, and that he will receive from Him eternal life. Just as we stated earlier that the child receives temporal life from his mother, so shall man go to rest, and die in God's bosom, which is His eternal kingdom.
I do not think the reign of a thousand years is eternal; or if it is thus to be thought of, they cease to reign when the thousand years are finished. But I will put forward what my capacity enables me to judge. The tenfold number signifies the decalogue, and the hundredfold sets forth the crown of virginity: for he who shall have kept the undertaking of virginity completely, and shall have faithfully fulfilled the precepts of the decalogue, and shall have destroyed the untrained nature or impure thoughts within the retirement of the heart, that they may not rule over him, this is the true priest of Christ, and accomplishing the millenary number thoroughly, is thought to reign with Christ; and truly in his case the devil is bound. But he who is entangled in the vices and the dogmas of heretics, in his case the devil is loosed. But that it says that when the thousand years are finished he is loosed, so the number of the perfect saints being completed, in whom there is the glory of virgin...
