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Interpretation of the Book of Revelation in the early Middle Ages has received much scholarly attention, especially the commentaries from the sixth through ninth centuries. Did you ever wonder how Christians in the tenth century interpreted Revelation? My essay, entitled “Exegesis of the Apocalypse in the Tenth Century,” was recently published as Chapter 8 in the Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature edited by Colin McAllister.

The article examines three texts from the tenth century: the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Arethas of Caesarea, the Catechesis Celtica, and an anonymous Gloss on the Apocalypse of John. At this time none of these texts are available in English translation. The chapter explains the provenance and purpose of each text, provide summaries and details of their contents, along with excerpts from them in English. The chapter ends with a translation of the entire anonymous Gloss on the Apocalypse of John.

If you are interested in how the Book of Revelation has been interpreted in Christian history, or if you collect commentaries on the Book of Revelation from ancient and medieval writers, I encourage you to purchase a copy of this book, which is available in affordable paperback. Click here.

Early Latin Commentaries on the Apocalypse contains translations of two Hiberno-Latin commentaries on the Book of Revelation from the seventh and eighth centuries.  They are the pseudo-Jerome Handbook on the Apocalypse of the Apostle John and On the Mysteries of the Apocalypse of John found in the anonymous eighth-century Reference Bible.  These commentaries use earlier Latin commentaries, such as those of Victorinus and Tyconius, as source material.  However, they contain unique interpretations of the Book of Revelation.  The Handbook has the number of the beast (Rev 13:18) as 666, 000, which the author says may be the number of Antichrist’s army or disciples.  It also says that they are heretics who interpret the thousand years of Rev 20 in a carnal manner and who think that Christ has not already bound the devil.  On the Mysteries implies that Nero was reigning when John wrote the Apocalypse (On Rev 17:10), and that the mark of the beast will be a slight counterfeit of the Chi-Rho symbol for Christ.