1 After these things I looked, and behold, the door was opened in heaven, and the former voice, which I had heard as the sound of a trumpet, speaking to me, said, 'Come up hither, and I will show you what must be after this.' 2 And straightway I was in the spirit; and behold, the throne stood in heaven, and on the throne was He who sats; 3 And this one who sits in appearance was like a stone of jasper and sardis; and a rainbow around the throne, similar in appearance to smaragdus. 4 And round about the throne are twenty-four thrones; And on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, who were clothed in white robes and had golden crowns on their heads. 5 And out of the throne came lightnings, and thunders, and voices, and seven lamps of fire burned before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God; 6 And before the throne was a sea of glass like crystal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, are four beasts, full of eyes in front and behind. 7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face like a man, and the fourth beast like a flying eagle. 8 And each of the four beasts had six wings round about, and inwardly they were full of eyes; and they have no rest day or night, crying out: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, is, and is to come. 9 And when the animals give glory and honor and thanksgiving to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 then the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and put their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and all things are and are created according to thy will.

Comment

Open. 4, 1–2. The picture that the Evangelist paints here is a kind of iconographic depiction of the heavenly divine service, where heaven is something like a temple, and the invisible presence of God is manifested in the form of a beam of light. The seated person is like a precious stone, it is the center from which rays of light emanate, and above him is a rainbow, that is, there is no anthropomorphic, human-like image. Bowing elders, monsters with the heads of living beings, with bodies "full of eyes" – all this is a super-worldly, unearthly divine service. First, let's consider its details, and then turn to the general meaning.

The words "After these things I looked..." is a common expression in apocalyptic literature, denoting the transition to the next topic. After that, he looked"... – he raised his eyes – and something happened. "And behold, a door is opened in heaven..." – this means that the Apostle John contemplates this from afar, he does not enter it himself, he remains at the gates, and a kind of picture opens up before him, as it were, a scene that he sees, but does not participate in it himself. When the apostle Paul mentions his state of spiritual ascension, he says that he "was lifted up to the seventh heaven." Here this heaven opens, but the Apostle John only contemplates it.

And then he hears a voice: "You're going to be shown all this now." Everything that is written here resembles some kind of dream, it happens as if in a dream. On the other hand, every word here is dictated by the Bible, the Old Testament, and all images are familiar. In fact, sleep and vision are closely related, because in dreams we come into contact with certain spiritual realities, and they are embodied in those forms that are peculiar to our thinking in general, to our experience in particular, and to the concrete events of our lives in these years, months, and days.

"And immediately I was in the spirit..." (Rev. 4:2) — The opened gates are, of course, a conventional expression, but they originate from the "gates of the temple" and "the gates of the tabernacle." These are the gates that were opened when the ark of the covenant was brought out as a sign of God's presence among the people. But here there is no ark and no temple. Whether the temple had already been destroyed at that time, or whether it was in fatal danger, or whether it was before the destruction of the temple, is a debatable question. We said at the beginning that the Apocalypse dates from the year between the year sixty-four and the year ninety-five. But the main thing is that the Evangelist shows: earthly worship is a reflection of a certain divine service in another world, and therefore, in order to see this service, one must have a special charisma. "And immediately I was in the spirit"... — this inspiration came to him immediately.

"And behold, the throne stood in heaven"... – it means that he sees the throne. The throne is the throne in this context (an image taken from the sixth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, where the Lord sits on a throne; the same image is contained in the Book of Kings, where the prophet saw the Lord seated on a throne). The throne is a symbol of royalty, but there is no king on it, but there is a clot of fire and light, which the writer could only compare with precious stones, and a rainbow that overshadows this throne.

The "twenty-four thrones" are humanity, animals, these monsters with the heads of a calf, a lion, an eagle and a man are the kerubim who personify the created world. From ancient times, from the very first books of the Bible, they personified the universe. This is especially clearly stated in the prophet Ezekiel, where four cherubs, huge fiery kerubim, similar to those depicted by the Assyrians and Babylonians, carry a divine chariot on their shoulders. And here, the same semblances of kerubi surround the heavenly ark, and twenty-four elders on both sides, twelve each, are the sign of the chosen ones of mankind. Some believed that it was the Church of the Old and New Testaments, the patriarchs and the apostles (which is not excluded if it was written in the 90s). But if in the year sixty-four, when perhaps some of the apostles were still alive, then this is already doubtful. Christ says: "Sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel," that is, when the Lord draws you close to Himself, that is, sits at the right hand, at the right hand of His throne, this means a special trust in God. There is another interpretation, which can be reduced to the following: in the Jerusalem temple there were twenty-four lines of priests who were supposed to perform divine services during the day. And here, since a certain heavenly service is being performed, we are in the heavenly altar, here these twenty-four elders are heavenly priests, intercessors, representatives of the human race, heavenly twenty-four lines.

"From the throne came lightning and thunder and voices" – this is the image of Sinai. "And seven lamps of fire burned before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God..." The seven are the fullness of the spiritual world, the seven angels of the book of Tobit, who are with God, and at the same time the fullness of the church, for the seven angels are the patrons of the seven churches.

"In front of the throne is a sea of glass, like crystal" ... is a common image of the world cosmic globe in the Bible, it is the sky, the firmament, which resembles both the sea and transparent glass.

The four animals are the cosmic universe, and they are at its four corners. "They are full of eyes" – the eyes, according to the prophet Ezekiel, are the stars that sparkle in the heavenly chariot, and thus the entire universe is gathered here: people, living creatures and heavenly bodies. And they all cry out continuously, day or night, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." These are the words from the sixth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, this is the song of the angels, the song of the seraphim.

But what does it mean, "they have no rest day or night"? This means that cosmic worship is a special kind of communion with God, and that they have constant communion with God. Divine services have as their goal communion with God, it is the path to God, and not that God is brought something that He needs. Now, the heavenly beings, the spiritual beings that lie at the bottom of nature, the angels and the people, are there in constant communion with God. This is exactly what it means... "They have no rest day or night...", that is, there is no time for them. They are above time, over being, there they cry out: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty, Who was, is, and is to come." It is believed that this hymn was very ancient, it was sung by the first Christians in apostolic times (which is why it was included in the liturgy). Not only does nature give praise to God, but all creation, especially the twenty-four elders, who fall down before the living, placing their crowns before the throne.

Why do they lay down their crowns? All mankind is crowned; man is set up as the king of creation, but at the same time he is a king only because he received his power from above, from God. When he wants to fall away from God, he puts on this crown and considers it his own. When true humanity stands before the face of God, it falls down before Him and takes off its crown. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for Thou hast created all things, and all things exist and are created according to Thy will." Before us is the heavenly Eucharist; glory, honor and thanksgiving are given to Him who sits on the throne, and thanksgiving is the Eucharist. This beginning of the description of the mystery of the fate of the world is considered by some interpreters to be the prologue of the appeal to the Jewish church — hence the eleventh chapter, and from the twelfth chapter — the appeal to the pagan church. But this division is not accepted by everyone. In any case, the narrative of the hidden fate of the world begins with a picture of the vision of the glory of God, painted in the colors of the Old Testament authors.

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