And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short time.
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Bede
AD 735
five: Seeing that he had described in the number seven the fulness of worldly dominion, the last part of which, that is, the kingdom of Antichrist, had not yet come; he now accordingly testifies that five kings had passed away, that the sixth was present, that the seventh was to come.
short space: Because the Lord beholds us both proud and weak, he says, that the days which he has introduced as singularly evil, are mercifully shortened; in truth, that he may both alarm their pride by the adversity of the time, and refresh their weakness by the shortness of it. <a
Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet. The meaning of this is obscure. And perhaps it were better to own with St. Augustine that we do not know the meaning, than to advance suspicions and conjectures. But it is not improbable that by these seven kings may be understood the collection of kings, in what are called the seven ages of the world, from its creations to its consummation. The first age, is reckoned from Adam to Noe, and the deluge: the second age, from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to Moses; the fourth, from Moses to David; the fifth, from David to Christ. These five were past, and fallen, when St. John wrote. The sixth is, and is to last from Christ to antichrist. And another, the seventh, is not, being the time of antichrist, and only a short time. See Cornelius a Lap ide on this verse. (Witham)
he time must be understood in which the written Apocalypse was published, since then reigned Cæsar Domitian; but before him had been Titus his brother, and Vespasian, Otho, Vitellius, and Galba. These are the five who have fallen. One remains, under whom the Apocalypse was written— Domitian, to wit. The other has not yet come, speaks of Nerva; and when he has come, he will be for a short time, for he did not complete the period of two years.
