Revelation 20:1–3

Revelation 20:1 — The Angel with the Key and Chain John's vision opens with an angel "coming down out of heaven" (καταβαίνοντα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ), a phrase that marks divine commission and authority throughout Revelation (cf. 10:1; 18:1). This angel is not identified, though patristic interpreters such as Origen and later commentators have speculatively associated him with Michael or even Christ himself in angelic form. Most Catholic exegetes, following the weight of tradition, treat him as a mighty angelic minister acting on behalf of God. The two instruments he carries are laden with symbolic force: the key of the abyss (τὴν κλεῖν τῆς ἀβύσσου) mirrors the key given in 9:1, where an angel opens the abyss to release locusts — here the same abyss becomes a prison, not a source of evil. The great chain (ἅλυσιν μεγάλην) is an image of absolute restraint, drawn from Jewish apocalyptic tradition (1 Enoch 10:4–6, where Azazel is bound in darkness). Together, key and chain signal that the abyss, once a well of evil, is now under heaven's sovereign lock and key.

Revelation 20:2 — The Fourfold Identification of the Enemy The identity of the captive is announced with exceptional deliberateness: "the dragon, the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan." This fourfold naming is the most complete identification of evil in all of Scripture, and its rhetorical weight is unmistakable. "The dragon" (ὁ δράκων) is the apocalyptic beast of Revelation 12–13, the adversary of the woman and her child. "The old serpent" (ὁ ὄφις ὁ ἀρχαῖος) reaches back to Genesis 3:1, identifying this figure as the same deceiver who corrupted our first parents — the serpent is old because his malice is primordial. "The devil" (ὁ διάβολος) means the slanderer or accuser, connecting him to Job 1–2 and Zechariah 3. "Satan" (ὁ Σατανᾶς) means "adversary" and is his personal name in the Hebrew tradition. The accumulation strips away every mask: this is not a mere symbol but a personal, intelligent, malicious being who has been active since the fall of humanity and who is now definitively seized. The verb ἐκράτησεν — "he seized" or "he took hold of" — is forceful, almost violent, indicating that Satan does not surrender but is overpowered. He is bound "for a thousand years" (χίλια ἔτη), the famous millennium that has generated centuries of debate. Within Catholic interpretation, this number is best read symbolically, following Augustine's magisterial treatment in De Civitate Dei (XX.7–9): the thousand years represents the entire era between Christ's First and Second Coming — the age of the Church — during which Satan's power to deceive the nations en masse has been broken by the Gospel.

Revelation 20:3 — Cast, Shut, and Sealed The triple action — cast (ἔβαλεν), shut (ἔκλεισεν), and sealed (ἐσφράγισεν) — is a legal and ceremonial progression, recalling the sealing of Christ's tomb (Matt 27:66) and the sealing of the scroll in Daniel 6:17. The purpose of the binding is stated precisely: "that he should deceive the nations no more" (ἵνα μὴ πλανήσῃ ἔτι τὰ ἔθνη). The word πλανάω (to lead astray, deceive) is Satan's defining activity in Revelation (12:9; 13:14; 20:8, 10). The binding does not annihilate Satan nor eliminate temptation of individuals, but it restrains his capacity for universal, coordinated deception of whole peoples — the kind that had kept the gentiles (τὰ ἔθνη) locked in idolatry before the proclamation of the Gospel. This restraint opens the missionary era of the Church. The ominous coda — "after this, he must be freed for a short time" (δεῖ αὐτὸν λυθῆναι μικρὸν χρόνον) — uses the word δεῖ ("it is necessary"), which in Revelation always points to divine providence: even Satan's momentary release falls within God's sovereign plan, preparing the way for the final judgment of 20:7–15.

Catholic tradition offers a uniquely coherent reading of this passage, grounded in the Augustinian amillennial interpretation that became the dominant framework of the Western Church and was never challenged by any ecumenical council precisely because it places the millennium in the present age of the Church rather than in a future earthly reign.

Augustine and the Millennium: In De Civitate Dei XX.7, Augustine argues that the "thousand years" is a perfect number signifying completeness — the whole span of Christ's reign through his Church on earth. The binding of Satan is the reality inaugurated by the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection. Christ himself declared, "Now the ruler of this world will be driven out" (John 12:31), and at the temptation in the desert (Matt 4:1–11), the "stronger man" bound the strong man (cf. Luke 11:21–22). This reading was received and developed by Bede, Aquinas (Summa Theologiae Suppl. q.77), and remains standard in Catholic commentaries.

The Catechism (CCC §675–677) explicitly addresses the eschatological deception of the nations under the Antichrist before Christ's return, noting that the Church will pass through a final trial. Paragraph 677 states: "The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection." The binding ensures the Church's missionary age; the release foreshadows the final assault.

The Fourfold Name theologically affirms what the Catechism teaches at CCC §391–395: Satan is a fallen angel, not a metaphor or an impersonal force. His personal, malicious, intelligent nature — affirmed by Lateran Council IV (1215) and Vatican I — is precisely what makes his binding so momentous. The Church Fathers (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses V.28; Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem III) saw in this passage the fulfillment of the proto-Gospel promise of Genesis 3:15: the enmity between the serpent and the woman's seed resolved in Christ's crushing victory.

For a Catholic today, these verses are not an abstract prophecy about future geopolitics but a present spiritual reality with practical consequences. The binding of Satan means that the devil, though active, is leashed — he cannot prevent the Gospel from reaching any nation, culture, or heart. This should produce missionary boldness, not anxious fatalism. When we hear that "Satan deceives the whole world," we can respond: he is bound; his deceptions have a ceiling imposed by Christ's Cross.

Practically, the fourfold naming of the enemy in verse 2 is itself a spiritual exercise. The Church's tradition of invoking the names of evil powers in exorcism (cf. the Rite of Exorcism and the St. Michael Prayer) is grounded in this kind of naming: you cannot fight what you refuse to identify. Catholic spiritual direction has always maintained that discernment of spirits — knowing the difference between temptation, deception, and genuine spiritual movement — is a concrete skill, not a medieval relic.

Finally, the "short time" of Satan's release (v.3) is a call to sober vigilance, not panic. The Catechism's teaching on the final trial (CCC §675) invites Catholics to prepare not by fear but by fidelity — deepening sacramental life, Scripture, and community precisely when deception is greatest.