Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked,
and behold, an opened door in heaven, and
the first voice, which I heard speaking with
me like a trumpet, was saying, Come up here,
and I will show you what is necessary to be
after these things!
from Writings on the Apocalypse (2022, CUA
Press) transl. & edited by Prof. T.C. Schmidt
teaches New Testament & Early Christianity
at Fairfield University.
It is necessary to peruse the God-breathed
Scripture [compare II Timothy 3:16] more
intelligently so that we may not incur
derision from the wise of the world
[I Cor.1:20] For they,
having heard that
there was a door opened in heaven,
consign it as an impossible thing
to be said.
For what we shall speak to them are not
the things that are recorded obviously,
but according to what is hidden.
The essence of supra-sensible things
is often signified in SCRIPTURE
with the title of "Heaven."
Therefore, whenever it says that a door
was opened in heaven,
we understand that
according to our interpretation as
the nature of supra-sensible things,
and particularly so whenever one of
the saints says that he ascended there.
Notice that it is not written that another
entity took John up, like that which
happened to Elijah, but that he was
appointed to ascend by a voluntary
impulse to there where he who
called him exists. And he was in heaven.
But he says that he who summoned him did
so with a great voice like a trumpet,
speaking to him with the text that
has been presented.
But what is spoken in this manner
symbolizes the lofty utterances of
supra-sensible things,
which were lucidly presented to him.
[comparable to Origen of Alexandria's COMMENTARY
on JOHN Book II. 46 - 47]
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