Alcuin of York — on Rev 10:5-6 (COMMENTARY ON REVELATION)

“And the angel, whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and he swore by him that liveth for ever and ever. When the Lord forbids swearing, what does it mean that he himself swears, if not that men are often mistaken in swearing, whereas he, who is the truth, is never mistaken? So, the angel lifting up his hand to heaven was our Redeemer carrying his humanity up to the Father's seat by his own power. His swearing by him that lives for ever and ever means that he shows that he, who is the Father's Word, and his flesh, which indicates the whole man, who consists of flesh and soul, are one person of God and the true God of man; or if it is not this, then certainly he swears by the Father because he attributes him everything. In what is said after that, who created heaven, and the things which are therein; and the earth, and the things which are in it; and the sea, and the things which are therein, he refutes the error of the heretics who are not afraid to claim that some things were made by the good prince and others by the prince of darkness. Now let us hear what he swore: That time shall be no longer. However, if time shall be no longer when holy preaching has come to an end, how can the Psalmist say, Their time shall be forever? [Ps. 80:16] One should know then that for the just, whom the eternity of immortality will receive, no time of changeableness will come after that; whereas the unjust, whom an eternal decline will take possession of, will be as if they were confronted with times of mutability: for, since time declines moment by moment, it is fitting for the decline of the wicked to be called by the name of time. Therefore the Psalmist affirms concerning the unjust what the Lord denies concerning the just.”