The Explanation of the Apocalypse by Venerable Beda

We are fortunate to have this explanation of the Apoclypse from Venerable Bede in these times, when it appears that the Apocalypse is being fulfilled. Venerable Bede opens: "The Apocalypse of St. John, in which God was pleased to reveal by words and figures the wars and intestine tumults of the Church, seems to me, brother Eusebius, to be divided into several sections. "In the first of these, after a copious preface to strengthen the faith of the weak, and a description of the sufferings of the Lord and of the glories which followed, he sees one like unto the Son of Man clothed with the Church, Who, after He has related what has happened, or is about to happen, in the seven Churches of Asia in particular, recounts the general conflicts and victories of the whole Church. And here, designedly, in the sixth place He has foretold that the Jews are to be made subject to the Church, and that there is to be a trial of the world at large, and that He Himself will come quickly; and He places in the seventh the lukewarm Laodicea. For when the Son of Man cometh," will He," dost thou think, "find the faith in the earth?" "Then in the second section, after that the four living creatures in the throne of God, and the twenty-four elders, have been described, he sees the Lamb, on the opening of the seven seals of the closed book, unfold the future conflicts and triumphs of the Church. And here, according to the custom of this book, he preserves the order unto the sixth number in the series; and then he passes by the seventh, recapitulates, and concludes the two narrations with the seventh. But the recapitulation is also itself to be understood according to its place, for sometimes he recapitulates rom the commencement of suffering, sometimes from the middle period, and sometimes with a view to speak of the last affliction only, or a short time before. But this he observes as a fixed point, to recapitulate after the sixth. Next, in the third section, under the likeness of seven angels sounding with a trumpet, he describes the various events of the Church." Venerable Bede continues on with several other sections. Venerable Bede makes this observation about the Mark of the Beast: "The mark is the mystery of iniquity, which is received by those who are hypocrites in practice and profession."