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What's New
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July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
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Sign in
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The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb

At the center of Revelation unfolds a long series of visions where the powers of heaven and those of evil clash. The Lamb opens the seals of the book, trumpets sound, signs blaze in the sky. One must not see there the chronological account of events to come, but the unveiling of the drama that runs through all history: the combat of God and evil, of the Lamb and the dragon. These pages, the most impressive of the book, show that this combat is real and hard, but that its outcome is in no doubt, for the victor is already known.

The seals and the plagues

When the Lamb opens the seven seals, then when the seven trumpets sound, plagues fall upon the world: wars, famines, death, upheavals of nature. These terrible images do not fix dated catastrophes; they tell the trials that, from age to age, shake humanity and call it to conversion. In the midst of these plagues, John glimpses beneath the altar of heaven the souls of the martyrs, those who were killed for the Word of God, and who cry out to the Lord asking how long injustice will last. They are told to wait yet a little. Thus the book looks squarely at the suffering of the just and the apparent triumph of evil, without ever denying the pain, but placing it within a vaster design where God holds everything in hand.

The crowd of the ransomed

In the midst of the plagues, a vision of consolation opens: an immense crowd, that no one can count, of every nation, race, and language, stands before the throne, clothed in white robes, a palm in hand. These are the saved of every age. An elder explains to John who they are: “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:14 The image is striking: it is by plunging into the blood of Christ, that is, by uniting themselves to his death and resurrection, that believers are purified and made worthy of heaven. This crowd is that of the martyrs and of all the saints, those who passed through the great tribulation without denying their faith. Before the unleashing of evil, Revelation already shows the victory of the humble, henceforth in peace and light.

The woman and the dragon

At the summit of the book appears the greatest of signs: “a woman, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Revelation 12:1 This woman gives birth to a son called to reign over the nations, at once threatened by a monstrous dragon that wants to devour him. The child is Christ; the dragon is evil in person, whom the text clearly identifies: “the great dragon, the ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan.” Revelation 12:9 The woman is read at several depths, all true: she is the people of God and the Church that gives birth to Christ and to believers in pain; she is also Mary, the mother of the Savior, the new Eve who crushes the head of the serpent. The dragon, hurled down from heaven, rages upon the earth, but he is already defeated: his very fury is the sign that he has lost. This scene fulfills the very first promise of the Bible. In the garden, after the fault, God had told the serpent that he would put an enmity between him and the woman, between his offspring and the offspring of the woman, who would crush his head. What Genesis announced in germ, Revelation shows fulfilled: the woman gives birth to the one who conquers the serpent, and the dragon, despite all its rage, can do nothing against the child caught up to God. The child called to shepherd the nations with a scepter of iron also fulfills the royal psalm, where God gives to his Messiah all the nations as an inheritance. The combat begun in the first garden ends here in the victory of the woman’s son.

The beast and the false prophet

The dragon, unable to reach Christ, then raises up his instruments on earth: a beast that rises from the sea and another that imitates it, figures of the powers that persecute the Church and demand the adoration due to God alone. For the first readers, it was the Roman empire divinizing its emperors; through the centuries, it is all the powers that rise against God and oppress believers. The beast receives a mysterious number, six hundred sixty-six, figure of imperfection and of human pride that apes the divine without ever attaining it. Faced with this persecution, the book does not call to armed revolt, but to what it names the perseverance of the saints: to hold firm in the faith, to refuse the idol, to keep the commandments, if need be unto martyrdom. For the beast has a numbered time, while the Lamb reigns forever. These beasts, too, come from the prophets. Daniel had seen rise from the sea four beasts, figures of the empires that oppress the people of God; Revelation gathers them into a single monstrous one, which recapitulates all the violence of the hostile powers through history. What Daniel saw from afar, as a succession of empires, John understands as one and the same combat, ever renewed, of the power that makes itself god against the true God. But Daniel had also seen the end: the beast judged and the reign given to the Son of Man. Revelation only unveils its fulfillment, in the victorious Christ.