The Divine Warrior's Winepress and the King of Kings

Old Testament: Isaias 63:1-3; Psalms 2:9

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra... Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone... and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel. ... Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

New Testament: Apocalypse 19:11-13, 15-16

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and with justice doth he judge and fight. ... And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood... And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword... And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty. And he hath on his garment, and on his thigh written: KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

The connection

Isaias's oracle pictures the Lord coming alone from Edom, His robes stained red because He has trodden the nations in judgment like grapes in a winepress, a task too terrible for anyone to share. John's vision in the Apocalypse shows the same figure returning in glory: His garment already stained with blood before the battle even begins, treading that same winepress of wrath, ruling with the rod of iron promised to God's anointed king in the second Psalm. The title written on His robe and thigh, "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," answers Isaias's own question, "Who is this?" It is the same one, now revealed in full.

Moral sense

Let Christ reign now, in small daily obedience, not only when His victory is visible.

Anagogical sense

Every rival throne, permanently empty, forever.

Warrant

Checked in the Greek, and the winepress is not a loose echo: lenos stands at Isaias 63:2 in the Septuagint and at Apocalypse 19:15, with the verb to tread, katapateo at Isaias 63:3 and pateo at Apocalypse 19:15, himation across Isaias 63:1-2 and Apocalypse 19:13 and 19:16, and rhabdos from Psalm 2:9 to Apocalypse 19:15. Four words carry from the two Old Testament passages into the one scene. The Fathers read this figure as Christ, though of His Passion rather than His judgment: St Cyril of Jerusalem finds the red garments in the purple robe put on Him before Pilate (Catechetical Lectures XIII, 27), and St Jerome hears in 'I have trodden the winepress alone' the Lord left alone at His Passion (Against Jovinianus II, 36). St Gregory Nazianzen hears Isaias's question on the lips of the angels at the Ascension, 'Who is this that cometh from Edom', and answers it with 'the beauty of the array of the Body that suffered, adorned by the Passion, and made splendid by the Godhead' (Second Oration on Easter, 25); the Celestial Hierarchy that bears the name of St Dionysius likewise has the highest angels asking Jesus 'Wherefore are Thy garments red?' (VII, 3). Both set the question at His going up; the Apocalypse answers it at His coming again.

The verses

Isaias 63:1 · Isaias 63:2 · Isaias 63:3 · Psalms 2:9 · Apocalypse 19:11 · Apocalypse 19:12 · Apocalypse 19:13 · Apocalypse 19:15 · Apocalypse 19:16

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Texts. Latin: Clementine Vulgate, public domain. Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex via morphhb, text public domain, morphology CC BY 4.0. Greek New Testament: SBLGNT, CC BY 4.0. Septuagint: Swete 1909 via lxx-swete, CC BY-SA 4.0, with Wisdom 3:4 to 17 and Ecclesiastes from LXX-Swete-1930. Verse mapping between the numbering systems: UBS versification tables, MIT. Dictionary words: Latin from William Whitaker's WORDS via Open Words, MIT; Hebrew lemmas from morphhb with glosses from Strong's Hebrew dictionary via the Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon, public domain; Greek lemmas from MorphGNT, CC BY-SA 3.0, with glosses from Dodson's Greek Lexicon, public domain.
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