Voices and influences
Victorinus of Pettau
The first Latin commentator on Scripture, who wrote on Revelation and died under Diocletian.
Summary
This site quotes Victorinus of Pettau 41 times across 3 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 304.
- Quoted here most in Revelation: 39 of 41.
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Victorinus of Pettau
- Lived
- died 304
- Tradition
- Early Church
5 of 41 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Victorinus of Pettau died in 304 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
"These are the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth." These two candlesticks and two olive trees He has to this end spoken of, and admonished you that if, when you have read of them elsewhere, you have not understood, you may understand…
The rest of the quotation
here. For in Zechariah, one of the twelve prophets, it is thus written: "These are the two olive trees and two candlesticks which stand in the presence of the Lord of the earth; " that is, they are in paradise.
Zechariah 4:14 So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.” BSB
"And He had in His right hand seven stars." He said that in His right hand He had seven stars, because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold agency was given into His power by the Father.
Victorinus Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, 304
The rest of the quotation
As Peter exclaimed to the Jews: "Being at the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this Spirit received from the Father, which ye both see and hear." Moreover, John the Baptist had also anticipated this, by saying to his disciples: "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.
Acts 2:33 Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. BSB
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, and showed unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass, and signified it. Blessed are they who read and hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written.
The rest of the quotation
The beginning of the book promises blessing to him that reads and hears and keeps, that he who takes pains about the reading may thence learn to do works, and may keep the precepts.
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near. BSB
"Grace unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." He is, because He endures continually; He was, because with the Father He made all things, and has at this time taken a beginning from the Virgin; He…
The rest of the quotation
is to come, because assuredly He will come to judgment. "And from the seven spirits which are before His throne."
Revelation 1:4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne, BSB
"And His head and His hairs were white as it were white wool, and as it were snow." On the head the whiteness is shown; "but the head of Christ is God."
The rest of the quotation
in the white hairs is the multitude of abbots6 like to wool, in respect of simple sheep; to snow, in respect of the innumerable crowd of candidates taught from heaven. "His eyes were as a flame of fire." God's precepts are those which minister light to believers, but to unbelievers burning.
Revelation 1:14 The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Victorinus of Pettau 41 times across 3 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
Victorinus was bishop of Poetovio in Pannonia — a Roman garrison town on the Drava river, in what is now Ptuj in Slovenia. He wrote in the second half of the third century, and he was the first Latin-speaking Christian to write commentaries on books of the Bible. Jerome, who knew his work well and used it, made a blunt observation about him: he did not know Latin as well as he knew Greek, and so his works, though excellent in matter, are inferior in style. Victorinus was reading Greek exegesis — Origen, Hippolytus, Irenaeus — and carrying it west into a language that had no commentary tradition yet. His Commentary on the Apocalypse is the oldest surviving Latin commentary on Revelation, and one of the oldest commentaries of any kind. He read the book by what he called recapitulation: the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls are not a sequence of successive events but the same period told three times over, from different angles. That reading has been argued about ever since and is still one of the live options. He also expected a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth after the resurrection of the just — the position later called chiliasm or millenarianism, which was the common view of the second and third century church and which the West largely abandoned after Augustine. Jerome held the later view, and when he reissued Victorinus's commentary he edited the ending, cutting the millenarian passages and substituting his own. For centuries only Jerome's version was known. The original text was recovered in the modern era, and both recensions can now be compared. Another work survives, On the Creation of the World, a short treatment of the seven days. He also, Jerome says, wrote commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, and a book against all heresies. Those are lost. Jerome ends the entry with one line: and at the last he was crowned with martyrdom. The Great Persecution began in 303, and Victorinus is usually placed among its dead, about 304. Nothing further is recorded — no trial, no account, no place. The record of his death is a single clause in a fourth-century catalogue. Sources: Jerome, On Illustrious Men 74, and Letters 58 and 70; Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse and On the Creation of the World (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7); Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2.
41 quotations across 3 books
Where this voice is quoted
Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads.
“"And there appeared another sign in heaven; and behold a red dragon, having seven heads." Now, that he says that this dragon was of a red colour-that is, of a purple colour-the result of his work gave him such a colour.”
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1,260 days.
“"But the woman fled into the wilderness, and there were given to her two great eagle's wings." The aid of the great eagle's wings-to wit, the gift of prophets-was given to that Catholic Church, whence in the last times a hundred and forty-four thousands of…”
Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent.
“"And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a flood, that he might carry her away with the flood."”
But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that had poured from the dragon’s mouth.
“"And the earth helped the woman, and opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth." That the earth opened her month and swallowed up the waters, sets forth the vengeance for the present troubles.”
And the second beast performed great signs to cause even fire from heaven to come down to earth in the presence of the people.
“"And he shall make fire come down from heaven in the sight of men." Yes (as I also have said), in the sight of men. Magicians do these things, by the aid of the apostate angels, even to this day.”
Then another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has…
“"Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather in the grapes of the vine," he signifies it of the nations that should perish on the advent of the Lord.”
So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes of the earth, and he threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.
“"And the angel thrust in the sickle, and reaped the vine of the earth, and cast it into the wine-press of the wrath of God. And the wine-press of His fury was trodden down without the city."”
Then I saw another great and marvelous sign in heaven: seven angels with the seven final plagues, with which the wrath of God is completed.
“"And I saw another great and wonderful sign, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is completed the indignation of God."”
And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had…
“"And I saw the woman herself sitting upon the scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy." But to sit upon the scarlet beast, the author of murders, is the image of the devil.”
There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.
“"And there are seven kings: five have fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he is come, he will be for a short time."”
The beast that was, and now is not, is an eighth king, who belongs to the other seven and is going into destruction.
“"And the beast which thou sawest is of the seven." Since before those kings Nero reigned. "And he is the eighth." He says only when this beast shall come, reckon it the eighth place, since in that is the completion.”
The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal—12,000 stadia in length and…
“The city which he says is squared, he says also is resplendent with gold and precious stones, and has a sacred street, and a river through the midst of it, and the tree of life on either side, bearing twelve manner of fruits throughout the…”
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.
“And in that he says that the sun is not necessary in the city, he shows, evidently, that the Creator as the immaculate light shines in the midst of it, whose brightness no mind has been able to conceive, nor tongue to tell.”
Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there.
“And that the gates cannot be shut, it is evidently shown that the doctrine of the apostles can be separated from rectitude by no tempest of contradiction.”