And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
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Andreas of Caesarea
AD 637
an angel. An angel administers such a sentence,it says, in order to show that the devil is both weaker than thèse ministering powers in terms of power and that from the beginning in vain he boldly ruled over all.
Here he narrates the destruction of the devil which had taken place during the Master's passion, in which he who appeared to be strong, having bound us as his spoils, one stronger than he, Christ our God, redeemed us from his hands, condemning him to the abyss. This is shown by the demons calling upon him not to be cast into the abyss.(lk 8:31) chain. He (John) called the restraint of his evil activity chain for our clarification.
bottomless pit. this is meant the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the Church of God; (City of God 20.7)
bottomless pit. He recapitulates from the beginning, and more fully, in what way he had said above," The beast which you saw was, and is not; and is to ascend from the abyss, and will go into perdition.(Rev 17:8)" The Lord, therefore, endued with His Father's power, descends and is incarnate, to wage war with the prince of the world, and when he is bound to spoil his goods.
As if in a sketch on a canvas, the evangelist perceives the spiritual actions of the Lord against the Devil. Since it was not possible for a human being such as John to see spiritual events, they are depicted for him in physical terms- an angel with a chain binding the Devil and throwing him into the bottomless pit. For this is how the book of Job, too, expressed in physical terms the Devil's venture and God's consent.
key to the bottomless pit. this is because he has in his power the hearts of those whom he hardens, and of those whom he opens to believing. The bottomeless pit is the great number of the faithful peoples, because just as it is incomprehensible, so also is the great number of peoples.
Those years wherein Satan is bound are in the first advent of Christ, even to the end of the age; and they are called a thousand, according to that mode of speaking, wherein a part is signified by the whole, just as is that passage, the word which He commanded for a thousand generations, although they are not a thousand. Moreover that he says, and he cast him into the abyss, he says this, because the devil, excluded from the hearts of believers, began to take possession of the wicked, in whose hearts, blinded day by day, he is shut up as if in a profound abyss. And he shut him up, says he, and put a seal upon him, that he should not deceive the nations until the thousand years should be finished. He shut the door upon him, it is said, that is, he forbade and restrained his seducing those who belong to Christ. Moreover, he put a seal upon him, because it is hidden who belong to the side of the devil, and who to that of Christ. For we know not of those who seem to stand whether they shal...
