“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”
They cried out with a loud voice, 'Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?' — the martyrs' cry frames their suffering as demanding justice (krima); they call God sovereign (despotēs), holy (hagios), and true (alēthinos), emphasizing his character as judge. Their question—how long (heos pote)?—expresses the eschatological tension: justice delayed feels like justice denied.
Church Fathers on Revelation 6:10
“And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.” He relates that he saw under the altar of God, that is, under the earth, the souls of them that were slain. For both heaven and earth are called God's altar, as says the law, commanding in the symbolic form of the truth two altars to be made — a golden one within, and a brazen one without. But we perceive that the golden altar is thus called heaven, by the testimony that our Lord…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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