Voices and influences
Oecumenius
The Greek writer who left the oldest surviving commentary on the book of Revelation.
Summary
This site quotes Oecumenius 105 times across 12 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 550.
- Quoted here most in Acts: 55 of 105.
Oecumenius
- Lived
- died 550
- Tradition
- Patristic
- Portrait
- None held under a licence this site can print
5 of 105 quotations
Own words
Quoted at 50 words or fewer, because Oecumenius's works are in copyright.
With the common ordination of the seven having taken place, Stephen obtained the greater grace of choice for the one more suitable for selection. For he who before ordination did not perform marvels, when it was not evident what he was, and when by ordination …
Acts 6:8 Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. BSB
Therefore, he confirms Christ's resurrection by the fact that they ate with him after the resurrection. For he did not make any sign from the resurrection; for the resurrection itself was a great sign, and there was no such sign of a resurrection as eating …
Acts 10:41–42 not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had chosen beforehand, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. BSB
He says that it shone so that they could both see and hear Peter and not think it a vision. The phrase "quickly [ἐν τάχει]" does not mean making a noise, but persuading not to delay. [CHRYSOSTOM]
Acts 12:7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. BSB
"was stirred within him." Here he does not say anger, nor indignation; for anger and indignation are far from grace. What then is this, "was stirred within him"? Instead of "he was aroused," he does not bear it, but is softened, as elsewhere he says, …
Acts 17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols. BSB
"by night in a vision." It should be noted that Paul saw the Lord Jesus by a dream. Therefore, he himself said: Did I not see Jesus our Lord? Whether he saw Jesus in a dream, or saw him while awake, there is no difference; …
Acts 18:9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Oecumenius 105 times across 12 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Oecumenius wrote the earliest Greek commentary on the book of Revelation that has come down to us. He wrote it in the first half of the sixth century, most likely in the 530s or 540s. The man himself is hard to see. For a long time the name was attached to a tenth-century compiler of biblical catenae, and older reference books call the commentator 'Oecumenius of Trikka,' a bishop in Thessaly. That identification does not hold. The best current view is that the author was a layman, a rhetorician of high education writing in the reign of Justinian, probably the same Oecumenius who corresponded with Severus of Antioch — which would put him among the Christians who could not accept the Council of Chalcedon. His commentary treats the person of Christ in ways that fit that setting. The text itself was lost for centuries. It survived only inside later Greek compilations and was not recovered as a whole work until 1901, when the American scholar Franz Hoskier identified and published it from manuscripts. Before that, the oldest Greek commentary on Revelation anyone could read was that of Andrew of Caesarea, written a little later and partly in response to it. What Oecumenius does with Revelation is worth knowing. He is not a literalist about the millennium; he reads much of the book as an account of what Christ has already accomplished and of the church's life between the first and second comings, using allegory freely. The seals, the trumpets, the woman clothed with the sun — he takes them as pictures of the incarnation, the church, and the trials of the present age rather than as a timetable of things yet to come. The thousand years he understands as the period from the incarnation onward, not as a coming earthly reign. Where a modern premillennial reader will disagree with him at nearly every turn, the value of the book is that it shows how one educated Greek Christian of the sixth century actually handled the last book of the Bible — and how contested its reading already was. He also shows how hard-won Revelation's place in the canon was in the East. The Greek church had argued about the book for centuries; the Syriac churches largely left it out; and Oecumenius writes as a man defending its worth as well as explaining it. Andrew of Caesarea, writing his own commentary at Caesarea in Cappadocia shortly afterward, pushed back on Oecumenius's readings at many points, and it was Andrew's work — not this one — that the Byzantine world went on to copy and read. Oecumenius survives as the older witness, brought back into the light after fourteen hundred years. Sources: Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse (Greek text ed. Marc De Groote; English translation by John N. Suggit, Fathers of the Church, volume 112); H. C. Hoskier, The Complete Commentary of Oecumenius on the Apocalypse (1928); Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse.
105 quotations across 12 books
Where this voice is quoted
Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.
“He says, and you have patience and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown fatigued, and you have done well indeed; for it is said, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of God." (Gal. 6:2)”
So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!
“Because, he says, that you are lukewarm. Lukewarm is called the one who has indeed received the Holy Spirit through baptism, but has extinguished the gift through negligence and concern for temporary matters. This is also a divine command: "Do not quench the Spirit."”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To Him who sits on…
“The present text expresses the doxology universally accorded by all creation, both heavenly and earthly, to God the Father, and to the Word who became man [ἐνανθρωπήσαντι] and was made flesh [σαρκωθέντα], that is, also glorified together with the Holy Spirit.”
For this reason, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple; and the One seated on the throne will spread His tabernacle…
“These, therefore, worship God forever; and God dwells among them. One of the saints said that the dwelling of God is the unceasing remembrance of Him that remains in the souls of the saints; therefore, God reasonably dwells there. They worship Him day and night.”
He held in his hand a small scroll, which lay open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.
“And he is said to have held in his hand a tiny open scroll [βιβλιδάριον]. Daniel, recalling such small scrolls [βιβλίων], says: "before him sat a judge, and scrolls [βίβλοι] were opened." (Dan.”
Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ…
“As a detour, the vision recounts the matters concerning the two witnesses, who are identified as prophets, and elaborates on all that pertains to them, focusing on their origin and where they have come from.”
Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy.
“He says that Christ is indeed King of all nations, but since it is said to Isaiah: "and the root of Jesse and the one who rises to rule the nations, upon him the nations shall hope," (Isa.”
The beast that you saw—it was, and now is no more, but is about to come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction.
“"The beast which you saw, was and is not, and is about to rise up out of the abyss," he says.”
Give back to her as she has done to others; pay her back double for what she has done; mix her a double portion in her own cup.
“Therefore he says that God, having been very patient, has now risen for retribution. He therefore tells her to render sins double, although through the all-wise Moses God commanded us that "one should not exact vengeance twice for the same thing." (see Deut.”
of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots; of slaves and souls of men.
“And he says horses and chariots and bodies. The word "chariots" is a Latin term; for with the Romans holding sway it is not inappropriate for the divine evangelist to have used a Latin word. The Scripture has put it into Greek.”
And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations.
“Glory and honor of the nations, that which is brought into the holy city, in an indirectness he said those who among the Gentiles have become esteemed and have behaved worthy of life; for these shall be carried into the heavenly Jerusalem and shall dwell…”
They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
“And this will come from seeing his face; for he says they shall see his face; and they will see, insofar as is attainable by human nature, even his name upon their foreheads. The present passage plainly signifies the unceasing remembrance and communion of God.”
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
“For the profane have already been shut out from the conduct of the holy and from entrance into the spiritual Jerusalem. But how could the grace of Christ our God come upon those who have been proclaimed?”