Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday of Easter

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:8–10)

The preaching of the Old Testament joined with the New reveals the Christian people singing a new song, that is, the proclaiming of their public confession. It is new that the Son of God became man; it is new that He was given over into death by people; it is new that He rose again on the third day; it is new that He ascended in the body into heaven; it is new that He gives the forgiveness of sins to people; it is new that people are sealed with the Holy Spirit; it is new that they receive the priestly service of supplication and await a kingdom of such immense promises. The harps, whose strings are stretched on its frame, signify the body of Christ, that is, the flesh of Christ bound to his passion. The bowls represent the confession of faith and the extension of the new priesthood. The praise is “of many angels,” indeed, it is of all who bring the thanksgiving of all the elect to our Lord for the deliverance of the human race from the destruction of death.

Victorinus of Petovium, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5

The song sung to God incarnate is new, since it had never been invented before the incarnation. What was the song? You are worthy, he says, to effect this salvation for human beings, You who were slain for us, and with Your blood you took possession of many from among those under heaven. Very correctly he said from every tribe and tongue and people and nation: for He did not acquire possession of everyone (for many died in unbelief), but only those who were worthy of salvation. The prophet also said something similar, “Arise, O God, judge the earth, because You” will place “your inheritance among all the nations,” where he does not simply say “all the nations.” And he made them kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth. You can indeed understand this literally, for the kings and leaders of the churches are faithful people and servants of Christ. But you can also understand kings to be those who control their passions and are not controlled by them. And you can understand priests to be those who present their own persons “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” as Scripture says.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5