Patristic Wisdom: Looking to All Saints’ Sunday

Jean Duvet, “The Apocalpse: An Innumerable Multitude
which stand before the Throne”

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev 7:9–17)

The innumerable myriads of the nations who received the faith of Christ and who had gained their share in blessedness were allotted the honored place of standing before the Lord and his Father’s throne, as was said earlier. Being clothed in white robes is a description of their purity during their life. The palm branches, which are a symbol of victory, indicate that they are promised the victory of Christ over their spiritual and earthly enemies. And they cry out, “Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb!” confessing that salvation is with them, because they had preserved the servants of God who had been sealed from the total destruction of the world. At the end of this act of thanksgiving, the ranks of worshipers in heaven, together with the elders, answered Amen, giving their approval to what was said. Then the divine angels, too, offer their own praise to God, honoring him seven times with their worship, which, as has been mentioned earlier, symbolizes the ceaseless nature of the adoration of the angels; for seven is a perfect number.

When one of the elders asked the evangelist who these were from the nations who were clothed in white robes, he did not ask out of ignorance but as a challenge to find out about them. So he goes on to say, These are they who are coming out of the great tribulation. For it was not a slight contest but a truly great one which the righteous had in overcoming the Antichrist. He says, And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Yet it should follow that robes dipped in blood would turn out to be scarlet rather than white. So how did they become white? Because baptism enacted into the death of the Lord, as Paul in his great wisdom said, purges all filth resulting from sin and renders those who are baptized in it white and pure. But participation in the life-giving blood of Christ also bestows this favor. For the Lord says concerning his own blood that it is being poured out “for many” and “on behalf of many, for the forgiveness of sins.” Thus these serve God for ever, and God dwells among them. Indeed, the dwelling-place of God, said one of God’s saints, is where the souls of his saints continually remember him; therefore God naturally dwells with those who serve him day and night.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more: formerly those from the nations went through every trial; but now they will be sated with innumerable good things. He says, Nor shall the sun strike them: in some places of the divine Scripture the sun metaphorically stands for temptation, as when the prophet says, “The sun shall not burn you by day, neither the moon by night,” or as when the evangelist writes that the sun shone and scorched the seeds which had sprung up on stony ground, interpreting the sun as temptation. Therefore he now says that temptation would in future never harm them, for they had been found worthy to be shepherded by Christ and nourished at the waters of life. And God, he says, will wipe away every tear from their eyes. So those who have lived and struggled with unprofitable cares have no need of a tear, nor of “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” but deserve everything good and wonderful.

Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 5.3