I got the below quote from here
The 144,000 - Who They Are and What Their Purpose Is
"Now that we have reviewed God’s law about intermarriage, Israel’s history of apostasy and Ezra’s solution to intermarriage, we are in a good position to understand the meaning of the phrase, “they did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure.”In summary, the 144,000 will not be corrupted by marriage and they will not fall into apostasy because of their families. The 144,000 will successfully fulfill God’s assignment. They will not be deterred by marital conflicts or familial rejection. They will not be compromised. They will fulfill the calling, mission and purpose for which God ordains them. Perhaps the following A/B parallels will clarify this matter:"
Others have said the virgins refer to those who are not defiled by the false teachings in their churches. I think that could be correct as the early church fathers say below also but you can have a pure faith within a church if you reject heresy. But I think the above can also be correct. But does that mean those who apostatise are still saved but will not hear the song of the redeemed? No they will not be saved but the only one's who have this reward are those who were tested in that time and did not enter an unbelieving marriage or apostasise. Some of us are not tested and we don't have that reward. Because during the time of the beast will be the great falling away or people will be tempted to fall away.
I am saying all this to prove non virgins can be virgins again in God's sight but that it is risky and why get AIDS and risk the possibility of not repenting or just in general some who were virgins and lose it will die early if they had all their chances and especially if they are evil and a stumbling block or those with more understanding or more inexusability being a stumbling block but some will live longer. I must not be as the pharisee who said to God I thank You I am not like other men. Jesus said there are last who will be first and first who will be last. Many virgins will be found less pure than those who were not virgins. I bet David is among the complete number of the redeemed virgins who sing the song of the redeemed. Everyone has the ability to repent to be saved and to repent to be a saint. Those who are last will be first also refers to the worst sinners can become first that is as saved and forgiven as everyone who is saved. And others we think are good could be damned.
This is Revelations 14:1-5 commentary from ancient christian commentary where virgins are mentioned. Sometimes they praised actual virginity that is because it is more safe to be pure as a virgin as solomon says those who go to sin it is harder to return. But in total you can see everyone who is saved is a virgin in God's eyes just as Jesus said the kingdom of God is like 10 virgins who went to meet the bridegroom
14:1–5 THE LAMB STANDS ON MOUNT ZION
Overview: Although the Romans had devastated the ancient city of Jerusalem because of the insanity of the cross (Oecumenius), Christ is seen standing on Mount Zion. In the last days the Jews will come to faith and the Lord will once again make them his own possession and bring them to himself (Victorinus, Oecumenius). It may also be, however, that Christ is standing upon the new city of the living God. With him are that infinite number who believed the apostolic preaching and were chaste in the inner and the outer person (Andrew of Caesarea) and who love God with heart and soul and mind (Bede).
From the church comes the voice of the saints who with a divine and melodious euphony (Oecumenius, Andrew of Caesarea) celebrate the struggles of Christ by praise and imitation (Bede). Their song is like the harmony of many harps, for they crucify their flesh with its vices and desires and with united breath praise God with psalter and harp (Andrew of Caesarea, Bede). The new song that they sing can be sung only by those taught by virtue and deemed worthy by chastity and purity (Oecumenius, Andrew of Caesarea). Knowledge of this song is for those purchased by the blood of Christ (Oecumenius), and this knowledge is given according to their behavior and good will (Andrew of Caesarea).
Those who sing this new song are especially those who have kept their flesh incorrupted and who eternally rejoice with Christ before the other elect (Bede). The 144,000 follow Christ wherever he goes. Christ became the Archvirgin of the church when he was made man and preserved his flesh incorrupt in virginity (Methodius). The church possesses a spiritual virginity in those who hold to the rule of the catholic faith and are not corrupted by any adulterous commixture with heretics (Fulgentius of Ruspe, Caesarius of Arles). She possesses a spiritual virginity also in those who preserve their marital chastity and in the devoted widows (Augustine, Fulgentius of Ruspe). However, in those who keep their flesh untouched by any sexual intercourse, the church receives a fuller, more perfect virginity (Fulgentius of Ruspe). Therefore, those whose virginity of body remains undefiled sing a new song that none but they will be able to sing (Augustine).
Such virgins are firstfruits, with the widows and those continent in marriage accompanying them in due order (Jerome, Augustine). The true virgin follows the Lamb by a full imitation and alone follows him wherever he goes; other Christians follow the Lamb so far as they can and are able. The virgins will have, therefore, a joy more blessed and a dominion more sweet (Augustine), for they will enjoy a closer vision of him in the life to come (Bede). The martyr, too, follows the Lamb by a special imitation. Yet virgins, married people and widows need not despair over their vocation, for Christ suffered for all, and his garden includes not only the roses of martyrs but also the lilies of virgins, the ivy of married people and the violets of widows (Augustine). He who overcame the devil and unlocked the underworld by his resurrection returned as victor to heaven, where the Father has placed him at his right hand. To that exalted place the unsullied flock will follow their unsullied leader (Maximus of Turin).
14:1 On Mount Zion Stood the Lamb
Many Jews Will Come to Faith. Victorinus of Petovium: Concerning this [first] resurrection he says, “I saw the Lamb standing and with him—that is, standing with Christ—144,000.” He is speaking of those from the Jews who at the end of time will come to faith through the preaching of Elijah, and of these the Spirit testifies that they are virgin not only in body but also in language. Commentary on the Apocalypse 20.1
The Jews Will Again Become the Lord’s Possession.
Oecumenius: In the Gospels the Lord is depicted speaking to the lawless people of the Jews, “Behold, your house is desolate.” For after the insanity of the cross, they were no longer worthy of the divine visitation. How is it, then, that the Lord, as though through a change of mind, is shown by the vision “standing on Mount Zion”? For that their city and temple and entire populace was left wholly desolate, the Romans have clearly shown, having burned the temple and having torched the cities, having laid waste to the entire land and having enslaved the capital city itself. But that now the Lord is shown having come to Mount Zion represents the conversion of Israel by faith in the last days, when indeed the Lord will make them his own possession and bring them to himself. For this was proclaimed through Isaiah, saying, “The Redeemer will come from Zion and will remove ungodliness from Jacob, says the Lord.” And both the prophet and the apostle stand in agreement with Isaiah. For the one sings, “You will make them turn their back; among those who remain you will prepare their face,” and the other writes, “When the full number of the Gentiles come in, then all Israel will be saved.” … In a previous section he said that the 144,000 were those from Israel who had come to faith, 12,000 from each of the tribes. Does he now also again refer to these? I do not think so. For he does not designate them here with a definite article—he did not say “the 144,000” but only “144,000”—let alone indicate that they had vigilantly practiced virginity. For virginity was in no way eagerly practiced in Israel, just as later the Gentiles were not interested in it. Therefore, we must regard those mentioned to be a mixture of persons from Israel and from the Gentiles, and the greater part from the Gentiles. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
Christ Stands on the New City.
Andrew of Caesarea: Without any doubt whatsoever, the “Lamb” is Christ. He is standing on Mount Zion, not the ancient city, but the new city of the living God. These thousands indicate either the full harvest of the apostolic seed, the grace in each being completed twelve times a thousand, the perfect fruit of the faith of those being saved, or they signify those from the New Testament who are chaste in both the inner and the outer person. For among the ancients the virtue of virginity was rare, found only in a very few, and from this fact one must suppose that these are different from those mentioned earlier who were introduced with the names of the tribes of Israel, to whom he did not attribute virginity. The foreheads of all of these are sealed with the light of the divine countenance, by which they are revealed as holy to the avenging angels.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1.
The Church Rejoices in Body, Soul and Mind.
Bede: By the example of his power and the safety of his protection the Lord Christ guarded his church, which was toiling under the burden of its struggles. For although the body which had been confounded by the power of the devil and marked by his brand was shown, lest you fear that the body of the Lamb had been overcome by the furor of the beast, he showed also the church rejoicing with its usual brightness and number. Note as well that the beast stands on the sand of the sea, while the Lamb stands upon Mount Zion. This finite number [144,000] should be regarded as representing an infinite number and by the meaning of a hidden mystery suitable for that virginal throng that loves God with all its heart, all its soul and all its mind, and by the integrity of the body, which consists of four qualities, is consecrated to him. For three times three makes nine, and four times four makes sixteen, and sixteen times nine completes the number of 144,000, so that there should be no doubt concerning the remaining members of the church when such a perfect multitude is seen from those who in the midst of a more difficult life are seen with the Lamb, having been deservedly placed upon Mount Zion. [His name and the name of his Father on their foreheads] stands in analogy with the mark on the forehead of the body of the beast, for it says that God and Christ were written upon the foreheads of the church. Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.1.
14:2 A Voice Like Harpers Playing Harps
The Singing of the Righteous.
Oecumenius: That the sound was like that of harpists indicates the divine euphony and harmony of the song. For if “praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner,” as it is written, it is certainly seemly and fitting in the mouth of the righteous. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
The Melodious Song of the Saints. Andrew of Caesarea: The voice of many waters and of thunder and of the harpers indicates the penetrating clarity of the singing of the saints and of the harmonious and melodious euphony of their song, which resounds throughout “the assembly and festal gathering of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” and which, just as in the harmony of strings, sounds forth with the united breath of the saints and is accomplished by the dying of the desires of the body. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.2–3.
All Saints Are Harps.
Bede: The loud voice of the saints is the great devotion of love, which he says he heard from heaven. When he said that those who uttered the voice stood on Mount Zion, it was to indicate that by Mount Zion he referred to nothing other than the church who, encouraged toward overcoming the distresses of her afflictions by the sublime joy of the contemplation of her king, celebrates [his] struggles at the same time by praise and by imitation. This is truly to sing to the Lamb who is standing [on Mount Zion].… Although all the saints are harpists of God, who crucify their flesh with its vices and lusts and praise him with psalter and harp, how much more are they who, by the privilege of an angelic purity, render themselves totally a sacrifice to the Lord and in a particular way deny themselves and, taking up their cross, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.2.
14:3 They Sing a New Song
Only Those Purified by Christ’s Blood Know the New Song.
Oecumenius: “And no one,” it says, “could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.” I think that no one is strong enough even to hear the mysteries of the new song except for those who are thought worthy to sing them. For knowledge is given to each according to the measure of his purity. For “there are many rooms,” says the Lord, or rewards of good things, “with my Father.” He calls those “redeemed” who had been purchased by the blood of Christ. For the precious blood of Christ was poured out on behalf of all humankind. Yet for some it was without profit, namely for those who willingly robbed themselves of the salvation that came from it—indeed, through the prophet the Lord reproached these, saying, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down into destruction?” But for those who have been saved and made righteous, of whom these, of whom the passage now speaks, are the first fruit and the first offering, it was immensely profitable, more than anyone could say. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
Knowledge of the New Song Belongs to the Faithful
Andrew of Caesarea: No one else, it says, can learn this song except these, for the knowledge [of the song] is co-extensive to the measure of their behavior, just as the servants of people are allowed to know their master’s secrets in proportion to their good will.… We think that, after the twenty-four elders, these are leaders of the rest who because of their chastity and purity in word and deed have, after the sojourn of Christ, come to possess the brightness of the virtues. Taught by the virtues, they sing the new song, which remains unknown to most, not only in this life but in that to come. For although when “the perfection of knowledge will come, then the imperfect will cease,” as the apostle says, the appearance of the divine mysteries will be proportionate to the life of the saints here. For “in my Father’s house are many rooms,” and “star differs from star in glory,” just as also there is a difference of torments. Redeeming us from these, may the Lord of all count us among those who are being saved through his own goodness, not regarding the multitude of our sins but his own mercies, on account of which he came to the earth and shed his precious blood for us, that washing away our stains and spots, he might bring us to the Father, with whom glory, power and honor are due to him, the Leader of our salvation, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.3–5.
Only Virgins Sing This Song Eternally to the Lamb.
Bede: The old song was this: “Blessed is he who has his seed in Zion and his household in Jerusalem.” However, the new song is this: “Rejoice, O barren one, who did not bare,” and again, “To eunuchs in my house and within my walls, says the Lord, I shall give a place and a name better than sons and daughters.” … To sing the song to the Lamb is to rejoice with him for eternity before all the faithful, especially from the incorruptibility of the flesh. Nevertheless, the other elect are able to hear the song, although they cannot sing it, because through love they have been made glad in their high status, although they do not rise to their rewards. Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.3.
14:4 They Are Virgins Who Follow the Lamb
The Lord Promises the Grace of Continence Also to Women.
Cyprian: Nor is this an empty precaution and a vain fear that takes thought of the way of salvation, that guards the life-giving precepts of the Lord, so that those who have consecrated their lives to Christ, and, renouncing the concupiscent behaviors of the flesh, have dedicated themselves to God in body as well as in spirit, may perfect their work, destined as it is for a great reward, and may not be solicitous to adorn themselves or to please anyone except their Lord, from whom in truth they await the reward of virginity, since he himself says, “All do not accept this word but those to whom it is given; for there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made so by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.” Again, too, by these words of the angel the gift of continence is made clear, virginity is extolled: “These are they who were not defiled with women, for they have remained virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” And indeed not to men only does the Lord promise the grace of continence, disregarding women; but since woman is a part of man and was taken and formed from him, almost universally in the Scriptures God addresses the first formed because they are two in one flesh, and in the man is signified likewise the woman. But if continence follows Christ, and virginity is destined for the kingdom of God, what have such maidens to do with worldly dress and adornments, whereby in striving to please men they offend God? The Dress of Virgins 4–5.
The Word Incarnate Preserved His Flesh Incorrupt.
Methodius: What then did the Lord, who is the Truth and the Light, take in hand when he came down from heaven? He preserved the flesh which he had taken upon himself incorrupt in virginity, so that we also, if we would come to the likeness of God and Christ, should endeavor to honor virginity. For to become like God is to the avoid corruption. John, filled with Christ, shows us that the Word, when he was incarnate, became chief Virgin in the same way as he was chief shepherd and chief prophet of the church, saying in the book of the Revelation, “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand, having his name and his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders. And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes,” showing that the Lord is leader of the choir of virgins. And notice in addition to this how great in God’s sight is the dignity of virginity: “These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault,” he says, “and they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” And he clearly intends by this to teach us that the number of virgins was, from the beginning, restricted to this number, namely, a hundred and forty-four thousand, while the multitude of the other saints is beyond counting. For let us consider what he means when discusses the rest. “I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and tribes and people and tongues.” It is plain, then, as I said, that in the case of the other saints he introduces an uncounted multitude, while in the case of those who are in a state of virginity he mentions only a very small number, so as to make a strong contrast with those who make up the uncounted number. Symposium 1.5.
Virgins Are Firstfruits.
Jerome: Out of each tribe, except the tribe of Dan, the place of which is taken by the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand virgins who have been sealed are spoken of as future believers, who have not defiled themselves with women. And that we may not suppose the reference to be to those who have not had relations with harlots, he immediately added, “for they continued virgins.” Whereby he shows that all who have not preserved their virginity, in comparison with pure and angelic chastity and of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, are defiled. “These are they who sing a new song that no man can sing except him that is a virgin. These are firstfruits unto God and unto the Lamb and are without blemish.” If virgins are firstfruits, it follows that widows and the continent in marriage come after the firstfruits, that is, are in the second and third rank; nor can a lost people be saved unless it offer such sacrifices of chastity to God and with pure victims reconcile the spotless Lamb. Against Jovinian 1.40.
The Whole Flock of God Will Be Gathered.
Maximus of Turin: The man Jesus Christ, who overcame the devil by his suffering and unlocked the underworld by his resurrection, returning to heaven like a victor after having accomplished a great deed, hears from God the Father: “Sit at my right hand.” And it is not to be wondered at that it is given to the Son to sit on the same seat as does the Father, since by nature he is of one substance with the Father. But perhaps someone is puzzled that the Son is said to be on the right. For although there are no degrees of dignity where the fullness of divinity is concerned, nonetheless the Son sits on the right not because he is preferred to the Father but so that he not be believed to be inferior. And the Son is on the right because, according to the Gospel, the sheep will be gathered on the right but the goats on the left. It is necessary, therefore, that the first lamb occupy the place of the sheep and that the unsullied leader come before the unsullied flock that will follow him, as John says in the Apocalypse: “These are the ones who follow the Lamb of God wherever he goes, who have not defiled themselves with women.” Therefore the prophet David says, “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand.” That is to say, the Lord who is Father offers the lofty seat of his throne to the Lord God Christ, who is his Son, and for the sake of honor he places him at his right on an eternal seat. Sermon 40.2.
Those Faithful in Marriage Have Hope.
Augustine: And we too, brothers and sisters, if we truly love him, let us imitate him. After all, we won’t be able to give a better proof of love than by imitating his example. “For Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we might follow in his footsteps.” In this sentence the apostle Peter appears to have seen that Christ suffered only for those who follow in his footsteps and that Christ’s passion profits none but those who follow in his footsteps. The holy martyrs followed him, to the shedding of their blood, to the similarity of their sufferings. The martyrs followed, but they were not the only ones. It’s not the case, I mean to say, that after they had crossed, the bridge was cut; or that after they had drunk, the fountain dried up. What, after all, is the hope of the good faithful, who either bear the yoke of matrimony in chastity and concord in the wedded state, or tame the allurements of the flesh by living continently as widows, or even raise the standard of a loftier sanctity, and flourishing in a new kind of virginity, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes”? What hope, I repeat, is there for these, what hope for all of us, if the only ones who follow Christ are those who shed their blood for him? So is mother church going to lose all those children of hers, whom she has brought forth all the more abundantly, the more secure she has been in the time of peace? In order not to lose them, is she to pray for persecution, pray for trials and temptations? Perish the thought, brothers and sisters! How, I mean to say, can anyone pray for persecution who cries out every day, “Do not bring us into temptation”? That garden of the Lord’s brothers and sisters, includes, yes it includes, it certainly includes not only the roses of martyrs but also the lilies of virgins, and the ivy of married people and the violets of widows. There is absolutely no kind of human beings, dearly beloved, who need to despair of their vocation; Christ suffered for all. It was truly written, it is he “who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the acknowledgment of the truth.” Sermon 304.2.
True Virgins Follow the Lamb.
Augustine: Marriages are to possess their own good, not because they bring forth children but because they bring them forth honorably, lawfully and chastely, for the good of society; and once they are begotten, they likewise bring them up in a wholesome and purposeful way. Marriage is a good also because the partners preserve for each other the fidelity of the marriage bed, and because they do not violate the sacrament of marriage. All these, however, are duties of human obligation, whereas unsullied virginity and abstention from all intercourse by devoted continence is a role assigned to angels, the intention to preserve enduring incorruption while in the corruptible flesh. All physical fertility, all marital chastity must yield precedence to this, for the first does not lie within human power, and the second does not abide in eternity; free will does not control bodily fertility, and there is no marriage, however chaste, in heaven. It is certain that those who already in the flesh possess something not of the flesh will attain a grandeur beyond the rest in that immortality that is shared by all.…
So there is no commandment of the Lord that binds virgins. However, in the eternal life that is to be attained by avoidance or forgiveness of sins, there is an illustrious glory that is to be assigned not to all who will dwell in eternity, but to certain individuals there, and to obtain this it is not sufficient to have been freed from sins; some vow must also be made to him who has delivered us. It is not a sin to have failed to make such a vow, but it is praiseworthy to have made and delivered it.… But because in that eternal life the lights of their merits will shine differently, “There are many dwelling places” in the Father’s house. Accordingly, since the value of the denarius remains the same, one of us will not live longer than another, but in those numerous dwelling places one will obtain brighter glory than another.
So press on, holy ones of God, boys and girls, males and females, unmarried men and women; press on unremittingly to the end. Praise the Lord in tones sweeter as your thoughts center on him more fruitfully. Hope in him more blessedly as you serve him more urgently; love him more glowingly as you please him more diligently. With loins girded and lamps alight, await the Lord’s arrival from the wedding. You will bring to the marriage of the Lamb a new song to play on your harps—not indeed one such as the whole earth sings when it is bidden, “Sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord, the whole earth,” but one such as none but you will be able to sing. For in the Apocalypse this is how you were seen by the man beloved of the Lamb before all others, who was wont to recline on his breast, who imbibed and vomited forth God’s description of the wonders of heaven. That man saw you, twelve times twelve thousand blessed harpists, your virginity of body undefiled, your truth of heart inviolate, and he wrote these words about you because you follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Where do we imagine this Lamb goes, when no one but you presumes or is able to follow him there? Into what glades and meadows? Where, I believe, the pasture is one of joys—not the empty joys of this world for they are deceitful lunacies, nor those joys in God’s kingdom that accrue to the rest who are not virgins, but joys distinct from the portion of those allotted to all the rest. These are the joys of Christ’s virgins, issuing from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, following Christ, through Christ, because of Christ. The joys peculiar to Christ’s virgins are not the same as those of nonvirgins, though these too are of Christ; for there are different joys for different persons, but no others obtain such as these.
Advance towards them, follow the Lamb, for the Lamb in the flesh is assuredly virginal as well; for this he preserved for himself when he was full-grown, and he did not deprive his mother of it when he was conceived and born. Follow him as you deserve, because of your virginity in heart and flesh, wherever he goes, for what does “follow” mean but “imitate”? For as the apostle Peter says, “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example to follow in his steps.” Each of us follows him in as much as we imitate him, not as the Son of God through whom alone all things were made, but as the Son of man who revealed in himself all that we must imitate. Many things in him are revealed for all to imitate, but bodily virginity is not set forth for all, for those who have already lost their virginity have not the means of being virgins. So the rest of the faithful, who have lost their virginity, must follow the Lamb not wherever he goes, but so far as they themselves can go. They can in fact follow everywhere except where he has advanced into the glory of virginity. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”; imitate him who became poor for your sake, when he was rich. “Blessed are the meek.” But what is beyond doubt is that married people too can walk in his footsteps. Though they do not plant their feet perfectly in the same traces, they none the less tread the same paths. But see, that lamb treads the virgin’s path, so how will those who have lost it follow him when they never recover it? So you who are his virgins, you must follow him on that path as well, for it is on this score alone that you follow him wherever he goes. We can encourage those who are married to advance toward any other gift of sanctity to which they can follow him, excepting when they have lost this path beyond hope of recovery.
Follow him therefore, maintaining with constancy the course that you vowed with burning zeal to take. While you can, ensure that you do not lose the good of virginity, for you can do nothing to regain it. The rest of the crowd of the faithful who cannot follow on this path will observe you. They will observe you, but they will not envy you, and by sharing the joy with you they will possess in you what they do not possess in themselves. They will not be able to sing that new song that belongs to you alone, but they will be able to hear it and to take delight in that good of yours that is so surpassing. But you who are virgins will both sing and hear it, for you will also hear it from your own lips as you sing it; your joy will be the more blessed and your dominion sweeter. Those who do not attain your greater joy will experience no grief, for the Lamb whom you follow wherever he goes will not abandon those either who cannot follow him where you can. The Lamb of whom we speak is almighty; he will both go before you yet not desert them, for he will be the God who is “all in all.” Holy Virginity 12, 14, 26–29.
In Her Virgins the Church Gains a Fuller Virginity.
Fulgentius of Ruspe: [The church], though she has in her diverse members different gifts, according to the grace that has been given to her, still she has received the greater grace of a gift in those members in whom she is spiritually called a virgin, so that she also gains the integrity of bodily virginity. For in other faithful members, who believe in God correctly according to the rule of the catholic faith and observe conjugal and widow’s chastity, who are not splattered by any stain of any act of fornication and remain exempt from any illicit sexual act of infidelity, the church gains a spiritual virginity only; but in those members in whom she guards the correct faith in such a way that they keep the flesh untouched by any sexual intercourse, the more the church has a fuller virginity, the more perfectly she possesses the name of the same virginity. In the former she has nothing less of its life; in the latter, however, she acquires something more for glory, because just as Paul says, “The brightness of the sun is one kind, but the brightness of the moon another, and the brightness of the stars still another. For star differs from star in brightness. So also is the resurrection of the dead.” Finally, under the name of eunuchs (who also in the Gospel the Lord affirms have castrated themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven) the Lord through Isaiah again promises virgins a better place in his house and within his walls. For so it is written: “For thus says the Lord, ‘To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’ ” Also in the Apocalypse of blessed John, they are the ones who “follow the Lord wherever he goes” who have remained virgins. Letter to Proba 10.
The Church Holds to the Purity of the Faith. Caesarius of Arles: In this passage we do not understand the “virgins” to be only those who are chaste in the body. Rather, we have especially in mind the whole church that holds to the pure faith, as the apostle says, “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” For she is not corrupted by any adulterous commixture of the heretics, nor to the end of its life is it hindered by the alluring yet deadly desires of this world or by an infelicitous perseverance in them without the remedy of penance. Exposition on the Apocalypse 14.4, Homily 11.
A Closer Vision of Christ.
Bede: The elect are doubtless imbued with one true faith, even if their merits differ in rank; for they will come to one light of eternal truth in heaven, even though the ones who endeavor to cleave to Christ higher up in this life will enjoy a closer vision of him in that life. Accordingly, it is said of certain ones on account of the merit of their great virtue, “These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes”; just before, it is said of others, as if of the nearby branches on the lampstand, “And they were singing a new song, as it were, before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.” By this it is shown that all the saints throughout the streets of that heavenly city sing a new song of gladness to God, but those who in this life transcended the common life of the faithful by the special privilege of sacred virginity are there raised up into a special position above the others in the joy of song. On the Tabernacle 1.25, 32.
14:5 They Are Spotless
Beyond Human Nature.
Oecumenius: The language of the vision relays how surpassingly excellent and beyond human nature are those who are in Christ. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
Physical Virginity Unworthy Without Purity of Heart.
Caesarius of Arles: Truly, dearest brothers, of what profit is it for a man or woman, whether cleric or monk or religious, if bodily virginity is preserved, as long as purity of the heart is violated by evil desires? Of what benefit is it to show chastity in one member and to keep corruption in all the rest? For if you notice carefully, those virgins who follow the Lamb do not do so merely because of the fact that they have preserved only bodily virginity. Finally, when he had said, “These are they who did not defile themselves with women,” he continued and added, “and in their mouth there was found no lie; they are without blemish.” Listen carefully that if anyone boasts about bodily virginity alone, as long as he loves deceit he will not be able to follow Christ along with those holy virgins. For this reason let no virgin presume only upon her physical virginity, because if she is disobedient or gossiping she knows that she will have to be excluded from the bedchamber of her heavenly Spouse. Although a virgin possesses a hundredfold and a married woman the thirtyfold, still a chaste and humble married woman is better than a proud virgin. Sermon 155.3.
Baptism and Penance. Caesarius of Arles: It does not say “there was no [lie in their mouth],” but “no lie was found in their mouth.” For whatever the Lord finds when he calls forth from here, that is what he judges. For whether through baptism or through penance we are able to be made both virgins and without falsehood in the interior person. Exposition on the Apocalypse 14.5, Homily 11.
The Whole Church Is Virgin.
Bede: Virgins are not joined to the divine following because of chastity only, unless they also lead a life unblemished by any infection of sin. Tyconius does not interpret this vision to refer especially to virgins, but generally to the whole church, which the apostle betroths “to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ,” and he concludes in this way: “He did not say ‘no lie was in their mouth’ but ‘no lie was found.’ ” As the apostle says, “And such were you, but you have been washed,” and “the iniquity of the unjust will not harm him on the day he will have turned from his iniquity,” and he will be able to be a virgin, and deceit will not be found in his mouth. For those who are chaste and pure he calls “virgins.” Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.5.
The 144,000 - Who They Are and What Their Purpose Is
"Now that we have reviewed God’s law about intermarriage, Israel’s history of apostasy and Ezra’s solution to intermarriage, we are in a good position to understand the meaning of the phrase, “they did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure.”In summary, the 144,000 will not be corrupted by marriage and they will not fall into apostasy because of their families. The 144,000 will successfully fulfill God’s assignment. They will not be deterred by marital conflicts or familial rejection. They will not be compromised. They will fulfill the calling, mission and purpose for which God ordains them. Perhaps the following A/B parallels will clarify this matter:"
Others have said the virgins refer to those who are not defiled by the false teachings in their churches. I think that could be correct as the early church fathers say below also but you can have a pure faith within a church if you reject heresy. But I think the above can also be correct. But does that mean those who apostatise are still saved but will not hear the song of the redeemed? No they will not be saved but the only one's who have this reward are those who were tested in that time and did not enter an unbelieving marriage or apostasise. Some of us are not tested and we don't have that reward. Because during the time of the beast will be the great falling away or people will be tempted to fall away.
I am saying all this to prove non virgins can be virgins again in God's sight but that it is risky and why get AIDS and risk the possibility of not repenting or just in general some who were virgins and lose it will die early if they had all their chances and especially if they are evil and a stumbling block or those with more understanding or more inexusability being a stumbling block but some will live longer. I must not be as the pharisee who said to God I thank You I am not like other men. Jesus said there are last who will be first and first who will be last. Many virgins will be found less pure than those who were not virgins. I bet David is among the complete number of the redeemed virgins who sing the song of the redeemed. Everyone has the ability to repent to be saved and to repent to be a saint. Those who are last will be first also refers to the worst sinners can become first that is as saved and forgiven as everyone who is saved. And others we think are good could be damned.
This is Revelations 14:1-5 commentary from ancient christian commentary where virgins are mentioned. Sometimes they praised actual virginity that is because it is more safe to be pure as a virgin as solomon says those who go to sin it is harder to return. But in total you can see everyone who is saved is a virgin in God's eyes just as Jesus said the kingdom of God is like 10 virgins who went to meet the bridegroom
14:1–5 THE LAMB STANDS ON MOUNT ZION
Overview: Although the Romans had devastated the ancient city of Jerusalem because of the insanity of the cross (Oecumenius), Christ is seen standing on Mount Zion. In the last days the Jews will come to faith and the Lord will once again make them his own possession and bring them to himself (Victorinus, Oecumenius). It may also be, however, that Christ is standing upon the new city of the living God. With him are that infinite number who believed the apostolic preaching and were chaste in the inner and the outer person (Andrew of Caesarea) and who love God with heart and soul and mind (Bede).
From the church comes the voice of the saints who with a divine and melodious euphony (Oecumenius, Andrew of Caesarea) celebrate the struggles of Christ by praise and imitation (Bede). Their song is like the harmony of many harps, for they crucify their flesh with its vices and desires and with united breath praise God with psalter and harp (Andrew of Caesarea, Bede). The new song that they sing can be sung only by those taught by virtue and deemed worthy by chastity and purity (Oecumenius, Andrew of Caesarea). Knowledge of this song is for those purchased by the blood of Christ (Oecumenius), and this knowledge is given according to their behavior and good will (Andrew of Caesarea).
Those who sing this new song are especially those who have kept their flesh incorrupted and who eternally rejoice with Christ before the other elect (Bede). The 144,000 follow Christ wherever he goes. Christ became the Archvirgin of the church when he was made man and preserved his flesh incorrupt in virginity (Methodius). The church possesses a spiritual virginity in those who hold to the rule of the catholic faith and are not corrupted by any adulterous commixture with heretics (Fulgentius of Ruspe, Caesarius of Arles). She possesses a spiritual virginity also in those who preserve their marital chastity and in the devoted widows (Augustine, Fulgentius of Ruspe). However, in those who keep their flesh untouched by any sexual intercourse, the church receives a fuller, more perfect virginity (Fulgentius of Ruspe). Therefore, those whose virginity of body remains undefiled sing a new song that none but they will be able to sing (Augustine).
Such virgins are firstfruits, with the widows and those continent in marriage accompanying them in due order (Jerome, Augustine). The true virgin follows the Lamb by a full imitation and alone follows him wherever he goes; other Christians follow the Lamb so far as they can and are able. The virgins will have, therefore, a joy more blessed and a dominion more sweet (Augustine), for they will enjoy a closer vision of him in the life to come (Bede). The martyr, too, follows the Lamb by a special imitation. Yet virgins, married people and widows need not despair over their vocation, for Christ suffered for all, and his garden includes not only the roses of martyrs but also the lilies of virgins, the ivy of married people and the violets of widows (Augustine). He who overcame the devil and unlocked the underworld by his resurrection returned as victor to heaven, where the Father has placed him at his right hand. To that exalted place the unsullied flock will follow their unsullied leader (Maximus of Turin).
14:1 On Mount Zion Stood the Lamb
Many Jews Will Come to Faith. Victorinus of Petovium: Concerning this [first] resurrection he says, “I saw the Lamb standing and with him—that is, standing with Christ—144,000.” He is speaking of those from the Jews who at the end of time will come to faith through the preaching of Elijah, and of these the Spirit testifies that they are virgin not only in body but also in language. Commentary on the Apocalypse 20.1
The Jews Will Again Become the Lord’s Possession.
Oecumenius: In the Gospels the Lord is depicted speaking to the lawless people of the Jews, “Behold, your house is desolate.” For after the insanity of the cross, they were no longer worthy of the divine visitation. How is it, then, that the Lord, as though through a change of mind, is shown by the vision “standing on Mount Zion”? For that their city and temple and entire populace was left wholly desolate, the Romans have clearly shown, having burned the temple and having torched the cities, having laid waste to the entire land and having enslaved the capital city itself. But that now the Lord is shown having come to Mount Zion represents the conversion of Israel by faith in the last days, when indeed the Lord will make them his own possession and bring them to himself. For this was proclaimed through Isaiah, saying, “The Redeemer will come from Zion and will remove ungodliness from Jacob, says the Lord.” And both the prophet and the apostle stand in agreement with Isaiah. For the one sings, “You will make them turn their back; among those who remain you will prepare their face,” and the other writes, “When the full number of the Gentiles come in, then all Israel will be saved.” … In a previous section he said that the 144,000 were those from Israel who had come to faith, 12,000 from each of the tribes. Does he now also again refer to these? I do not think so. For he does not designate them here with a definite article—he did not say “the 144,000” but only “144,000”—let alone indicate that they had vigilantly practiced virginity. For virginity was in no way eagerly practiced in Israel, just as later the Gentiles were not interested in it. Therefore, we must regard those mentioned to be a mixture of persons from Israel and from the Gentiles, and the greater part from the Gentiles. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
Christ Stands on the New City.
Andrew of Caesarea: Without any doubt whatsoever, the “Lamb” is Christ. He is standing on Mount Zion, not the ancient city, but the new city of the living God. These thousands indicate either the full harvest of the apostolic seed, the grace in each being completed twelve times a thousand, the perfect fruit of the faith of those being saved, or they signify those from the New Testament who are chaste in both the inner and the outer person. For among the ancients the virtue of virginity was rare, found only in a very few, and from this fact one must suppose that these are different from those mentioned earlier who were introduced with the names of the tribes of Israel, to whom he did not attribute virginity. The foreheads of all of these are sealed with the light of the divine countenance, by which they are revealed as holy to the avenging angels.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1.
The Church Rejoices in Body, Soul and Mind.
Bede: By the example of his power and the safety of his protection the Lord Christ guarded his church, which was toiling under the burden of its struggles. For although the body which had been confounded by the power of the devil and marked by his brand was shown, lest you fear that the body of the Lamb had been overcome by the furor of the beast, he showed also the church rejoicing with its usual brightness and number. Note as well that the beast stands on the sand of the sea, while the Lamb stands upon Mount Zion. This finite number [144,000] should be regarded as representing an infinite number and by the meaning of a hidden mystery suitable for that virginal throng that loves God with all its heart, all its soul and all its mind, and by the integrity of the body, which consists of four qualities, is consecrated to him. For three times three makes nine, and four times four makes sixteen, and sixteen times nine completes the number of 144,000, so that there should be no doubt concerning the remaining members of the church when such a perfect multitude is seen from those who in the midst of a more difficult life are seen with the Lamb, having been deservedly placed upon Mount Zion. [His name and the name of his Father on their foreheads] stands in analogy with the mark on the forehead of the body of the beast, for it says that God and Christ were written upon the foreheads of the church. Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.1.
14:2 A Voice Like Harpers Playing Harps
The Singing of the Righteous.
Oecumenius: That the sound was like that of harpists indicates the divine euphony and harmony of the song. For if “praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner,” as it is written, it is certainly seemly and fitting in the mouth of the righteous. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
The Melodious Song of the Saints. Andrew of Caesarea: The voice of many waters and of thunder and of the harpers indicates the penetrating clarity of the singing of the saints and of the harmonious and melodious euphony of their song, which resounds throughout “the assembly and festal gathering of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” and which, just as in the harmony of strings, sounds forth with the united breath of the saints and is accomplished by the dying of the desires of the body. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.2–3.
All Saints Are Harps.
Bede: The loud voice of the saints is the great devotion of love, which he says he heard from heaven. When he said that those who uttered the voice stood on Mount Zion, it was to indicate that by Mount Zion he referred to nothing other than the church who, encouraged toward overcoming the distresses of her afflictions by the sublime joy of the contemplation of her king, celebrates [his] struggles at the same time by praise and by imitation. This is truly to sing to the Lamb who is standing [on Mount Zion].… Although all the saints are harpists of God, who crucify their flesh with its vices and lusts and praise him with psalter and harp, how much more are they who, by the privilege of an angelic purity, render themselves totally a sacrifice to the Lord and in a particular way deny themselves and, taking up their cross, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.2.
14:3 They Sing a New Song
Only Those Purified by Christ’s Blood Know the New Song.
Oecumenius: “And no one,” it says, “could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.” I think that no one is strong enough even to hear the mysteries of the new song except for those who are thought worthy to sing them. For knowledge is given to each according to the measure of his purity. For “there are many rooms,” says the Lord, or rewards of good things, “with my Father.” He calls those “redeemed” who had been purchased by the blood of Christ. For the precious blood of Christ was poured out on behalf of all humankind. Yet for some it was without profit, namely for those who willingly robbed themselves of the salvation that came from it—indeed, through the prophet the Lord reproached these, saying, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down into destruction?” But for those who have been saved and made righteous, of whom these, of whom the passage now speaks, are the first fruit and the first offering, it was immensely profitable, more than anyone could say. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
Knowledge of the New Song Belongs to the Faithful
Andrew of Caesarea: No one else, it says, can learn this song except these, for the knowledge [of the song] is co-extensive to the measure of their behavior, just as the servants of people are allowed to know their master’s secrets in proportion to their good will.… We think that, after the twenty-four elders, these are leaders of the rest who because of their chastity and purity in word and deed have, after the sojourn of Christ, come to possess the brightness of the virtues. Taught by the virtues, they sing the new song, which remains unknown to most, not only in this life but in that to come. For although when “the perfection of knowledge will come, then the imperfect will cease,” as the apostle says, the appearance of the divine mysteries will be proportionate to the life of the saints here. For “in my Father’s house are many rooms,” and “star differs from star in glory,” just as also there is a difference of torments. Redeeming us from these, may the Lord of all count us among those who are being saved through his own goodness, not regarding the multitude of our sins but his own mercies, on account of which he came to the earth and shed his precious blood for us, that washing away our stains and spots, he might bring us to the Father, with whom glory, power and honor are due to him, the Leader of our salvation, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.3–5.
Only Virgins Sing This Song Eternally to the Lamb.
Bede: The old song was this: “Blessed is he who has his seed in Zion and his household in Jerusalem.” However, the new song is this: “Rejoice, O barren one, who did not bare,” and again, “To eunuchs in my house and within my walls, says the Lord, I shall give a place and a name better than sons and daughters.” … To sing the song to the Lamb is to rejoice with him for eternity before all the faithful, especially from the incorruptibility of the flesh. Nevertheless, the other elect are able to hear the song, although they cannot sing it, because through love they have been made glad in their high status, although they do not rise to their rewards. Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.3.
14:4 They Are Virgins Who Follow the Lamb
The Lord Promises the Grace of Continence Also to Women.
Cyprian: Nor is this an empty precaution and a vain fear that takes thought of the way of salvation, that guards the life-giving precepts of the Lord, so that those who have consecrated their lives to Christ, and, renouncing the concupiscent behaviors of the flesh, have dedicated themselves to God in body as well as in spirit, may perfect their work, destined as it is for a great reward, and may not be solicitous to adorn themselves or to please anyone except their Lord, from whom in truth they await the reward of virginity, since he himself says, “All do not accept this word but those to whom it is given; for there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made so by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.” Again, too, by these words of the angel the gift of continence is made clear, virginity is extolled: “These are they who were not defiled with women, for they have remained virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” And indeed not to men only does the Lord promise the grace of continence, disregarding women; but since woman is a part of man and was taken and formed from him, almost universally in the Scriptures God addresses the first formed because they are two in one flesh, and in the man is signified likewise the woman. But if continence follows Christ, and virginity is destined for the kingdom of God, what have such maidens to do with worldly dress and adornments, whereby in striving to please men they offend God? The Dress of Virgins 4–5.
The Word Incarnate Preserved His Flesh Incorrupt.
Methodius: What then did the Lord, who is the Truth and the Light, take in hand when he came down from heaven? He preserved the flesh which he had taken upon himself incorrupt in virginity, so that we also, if we would come to the likeness of God and Christ, should endeavor to honor virginity. For to become like God is to the avoid corruption. John, filled with Christ, shows us that the Word, when he was incarnate, became chief Virgin in the same way as he was chief shepherd and chief prophet of the church, saying in the book of the Revelation, “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand, having his name and his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders. And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes,” showing that the Lord is leader of the choir of virgins. And notice in addition to this how great in God’s sight is the dignity of virginity: “These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault,” he says, “and they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” And he clearly intends by this to teach us that the number of virgins was, from the beginning, restricted to this number, namely, a hundred and forty-four thousand, while the multitude of the other saints is beyond counting. For let us consider what he means when discusses the rest. “I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and tribes and people and tongues.” It is plain, then, as I said, that in the case of the other saints he introduces an uncounted multitude, while in the case of those who are in a state of virginity he mentions only a very small number, so as to make a strong contrast with those who make up the uncounted number. Symposium 1.5.
Virgins Are Firstfruits.
Jerome: Out of each tribe, except the tribe of Dan, the place of which is taken by the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand virgins who have been sealed are spoken of as future believers, who have not defiled themselves with women. And that we may not suppose the reference to be to those who have not had relations with harlots, he immediately added, “for they continued virgins.” Whereby he shows that all who have not preserved their virginity, in comparison with pure and angelic chastity and of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, are defiled. “These are they who sing a new song that no man can sing except him that is a virgin. These are firstfruits unto God and unto the Lamb and are without blemish.” If virgins are firstfruits, it follows that widows and the continent in marriage come after the firstfruits, that is, are in the second and third rank; nor can a lost people be saved unless it offer such sacrifices of chastity to God and with pure victims reconcile the spotless Lamb. Against Jovinian 1.40.
The Whole Flock of God Will Be Gathered.
Maximus of Turin: The man Jesus Christ, who overcame the devil by his suffering and unlocked the underworld by his resurrection, returning to heaven like a victor after having accomplished a great deed, hears from God the Father: “Sit at my right hand.” And it is not to be wondered at that it is given to the Son to sit on the same seat as does the Father, since by nature he is of one substance with the Father. But perhaps someone is puzzled that the Son is said to be on the right. For although there are no degrees of dignity where the fullness of divinity is concerned, nonetheless the Son sits on the right not because he is preferred to the Father but so that he not be believed to be inferior. And the Son is on the right because, according to the Gospel, the sheep will be gathered on the right but the goats on the left. It is necessary, therefore, that the first lamb occupy the place of the sheep and that the unsullied leader come before the unsullied flock that will follow him, as John says in the Apocalypse: “These are the ones who follow the Lamb of God wherever he goes, who have not defiled themselves with women.” Therefore the prophet David says, “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand.” That is to say, the Lord who is Father offers the lofty seat of his throne to the Lord God Christ, who is his Son, and for the sake of honor he places him at his right on an eternal seat. Sermon 40.2.
Those Faithful in Marriage Have Hope.
Augustine: And we too, brothers and sisters, if we truly love him, let us imitate him. After all, we won’t be able to give a better proof of love than by imitating his example. “For Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we might follow in his footsteps.” In this sentence the apostle Peter appears to have seen that Christ suffered only for those who follow in his footsteps and that Christ’s passion profits none but those who follow in his footsteps. The holy martyrs followed him, to the shedding of their blood, to the similarity of their sufferings. The martyrs followed, but they were not the only ones. It’s not the case, I mean to say, that after they had crossed, the bridge was cut; or that after they had drunk, the fountain dried up. What, after all, is the hope of the good faithful, who either bear the yoke of matrimony in chastity and concord in the wedded state, or tame the allurements of the flesh by living continently as widows, or even raise the standard of a loftier sanctity, and flourishing in a new kind of virginity, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes”? What hope, I repeat, is there for these, what hope for all of us, if the only ones who follow Christ are those who shed their blood for him? So is mother church going to lose all those children of hers, whom she has brought forth all the more abundantly, the more secure she has been in the time of peace? In order not to lose them, is she to pray for persecution, pray for trials and temptations? Perish the thought, brothers and sisters! How, I mean to say, can anyone pray for persecution who cries out every day, “Do not bring us into temptation”? That garden of the Lord’s brothers and sisters, includes, yes it includes, it certainly includes not only the roses of martyrs but also the lilies of virgins, and the ivy of married people and the violets of widows. There is absolutely no kind of human beings, dearly beloved, who need to despair of their vocation; Christ suffered for all. It was truly written, it is he “who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the acknowledgment of the truth.” Sermon 304.2.
True Virgins Follow the Lamb.
Augustine: Marriages are to possess their own good, not because they bring forth children but because they bring them forth honorably, lawfully and chastely, for the good of society; and once they are begotten, they likewise bring them up in a wholesome and purposeful way. Marriage is a good also because the partners preserve for each other the fidelity of the marriage bed, and because they do not violate the sacrament of marriage. All these, however, are duties of human obligation, whereas unsullied virginity and abstention from all intercourse by devoted continence is a role assigned to angels, the intention to preserve enduring incorruption while in the corruptible flesh. All physical fertility, all marital chastity must yield precedence to this, for the first does not lie within human power, and the second does not abide in eternity; free will does not control bodily fertility, and there is no marriage, however chaste, in heaven. It is certain that those who already in the flesh possess something not of the flesh will attain a grandeur beyond the rest in that immortality that is shared by all.…
So there is no commandment of the Lord that binds virgins. However, in the eternal life that is to be attained by avoidance or forgiveness of sins, there is an illustrious glory that is to be assigned not to all who will dwell in eternity, but to certain individuals there, and to obtain this it is not sufficient to have been freed from sins; some vow must also be made to him who has delivered us. It is not a sin to have failed to make such a vow, but it is praiseworthy to have made and delivered it.… But because in that eternal life the lights of their merits will shine differently, “There are many dwelling places” in the Father’s house. Accordingly, since the value of the denarius remains the same, one of us will not live longer than another, but in those numerous dwelling places one will obtain brighter glory than another.
So press on, holy ones of God, boys and girls, males and females, unmarried men and women; press on unremittingly to the end. Praise the Lord in tones sweeter as your thoughts center on him more fruitfully. Hope in him more blessedly as you serve him more urgently; love him more glowingly as you please him more diligently. With loins girded and lamps alight, await the Lord’s arrival from the wedding. You will bring to the marriage of the Lamb a new song to play on your harps—not indeed one such as the whole earth sings when it is bidden, “Sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord, the whole earth,” but one such as none but you will be able to sing. For in the Apocalypse this is how you were seen by the man beloved of the Lamb before all others, who was wont to recline on his breast, who imbibed and vomited forth God’s description of the wonders of heaven. That man saw you, twelve times twelve thousand blessed harpists, your virginity of body undefiled, your truth of heart inviolate, and he wrote these words about you because you follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Where do we imagine this Lamb goes, when no one but you presumes or is able to follow him there? Into what glades and meadows? Where, I believe, the pasture is one of joys—not the empty joys of this world for they are deceitful lunacies, nor those joys in God’s kingdom that accrue to the rest who are not virgins, but joys distinct from the portion of those allotted to all the rest. These are the joys of Christ’s virgins, issuing from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, following Christ, through Christ, because of Christ. The joys peculiar to Christ’s virgins are not the same as those of nonvirgins, though these too are of Christ; for there are different joys for different persons, but no others obtain such as these.
Advance towards them, follow the Lamb, for the Lamb in the flesh is assuredly virginal as well; for this he preserved for himself when he was full-grown, and he did not deprive his mother of it when he was conceived and born. Follow him as you deserve, because of your virginity in heart and flesh, wherever he goes, for what does “follow” mean but “imitate”? For as the apostle Peter says, “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example to follow in his steps.” Each of us follows him in as much as we imitate him, not as the Son of God through whom alone all things were made, but as the Son of man who revealed in himself all that we must imitate. Many things in him are revealed for all to imitate, but bodily virginity is not set forth for all, for those who have already lost their virginity have not the means of being virgins. So the rest of the faithful, who have lost their virginity, must follow the Lamb not wherever he goes, but so far as they themselves can go. They can in fact follow everywhere except where he has advanced into the glory of virginity. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”; imitate him who became poor for your sake, when he was rich. “Blessed are the meek.” But what is beyond doubt is that married people too can walk in his footsteps. Though they do not plant their feet perfectly in the same traces, they none the less tread the same paths. But see, that lamb treads the virgin’s path, so how will those who have lost it follow him when they never recover it? So you who are his virgins, you must follow him on that path as well, for it is on this score alone that you follow him wherever he goes. We can encourage those who are married to advance toward any other gift of sanctity to which they can follow him, excepting when they have lost this path beyond hope of recovery.
Follow him therefore, maintaining with constancy the course that you vowed with burning zeal to take. While you can, ensure that you do not lose the good of virginity, for you can do nothing to regain it. The rest of the crowd of the faithful who cannot follow on this path will observe you. They will observe you, but they will not envy you, and by sharing the joy with you they will possess in you what they do not possess in themselves. They will not be able to sing that new song that belongs to you alone, but they will be able to hear it and to take delight in that good of yours that is so surpassing. But you who are virgins will both sing and hear it, for you will also hear it from your own lips as you sing it; your joy will be the more blessed and your dominion sweeter. Those who do not attain your greater joy will experience no grief, for the Lamb whom you follow wherever he goes will not abandon those either who cannot follow him where you can. The Lamb of whom we speak is almighty; he will both go before you yet not desert them, for he will be the God who is “all in all.” Holy Virginity 12, 14, 26–29.
In Her Virgins the Church Gains a Fuller Virginity.
Fulgentius of Ruspe: [The church], though she has in her diverse members different gifts, according to the grace that has been given to her, still she has received the greater grace of a gift in those members in whom she is spiritually called a virgin, so that she also gains the integrity of bodily virginity. For in other faithful members, who believe in God correctly according to the rule of the catholic faith and observe conjugal and widow’s chastity, who are not splattered by any stain of any act of fornication and remain exempt from any illicit sexual act of infidelity, the church gains a spiritual virginity only; but in those members in whom she guards the correct faith in such a way that they keep the flesh untouched by any sexual intercourse, the more the church has a fuller virginity, the more perfectly she possesses the name of the same virginity. In the former she has nothing less of its life; in the latter, however, she acquires something more for glory, because just as Paul says, “The brightness of the sun is one kind, but the brightness of the moon another, and the brightness of the stars still another. For star differs from star in brightness. So also is the resurrection of the dead.” Finally, under the name of eunuchs (who also in the Gospel the Lord affirms have castrated themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven) the Lord through Isaiah again promises virgins a better place in his house and within his walls. For so it is written: “For thus says the Lord, ‘To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’ ” Also in the Apocalypse of blessed John, they are the ones who “follow the Lord wherever he goes” who have remained virgins. Letter to Proba 10.
The Church Holds to the Purity of the Faith. Caesarius of Arles: In this passage we do not understand the “virgins” to be only those who are chaste in the body. Rather, we have especially in mind the whole church that holds to the pure faith, as the apostle says, “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” For she is not corrupted by any adulterous commixture of the heretics, nor to the end of its life is it hindered by the alluring yet deadly desires of this world or by an infelicitous perseverance in them without the remedy of penance. Exposition on the Apocalypse 14.4, Homily 11.
A Closer Vision of Christ.
Bede: The elect are doubtless imbued with one true faith, even if their merits differ in rank; for they will come to one light of eternal truth in heaven, even though the ones who endeavor to cleave to Christ higher up in this life will enjoy a closer vision of him in that life. Accordingly, it is said of certain ones on account of the merit of their great virtue, “These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes”; just before, it is said of others, as if of the nearby branches on the lampstand, “And they were singing a new song, as it were, before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.” By this it is shown that all the saints throughout the streets of that heavenly city sing a new song of gladness to God, but those who in this life transcended the common life of the faithful by the special privilege of sacred virginity are there raised up into a special position above the others in the joy of song. On the Tabernacle 1.25, 32.
14:5 They Are Spotless
Beyond Human Nature.
Oecumenius: The language of the vision relays how surpassingly excellent and beyond human nature are those who are in Christ. Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1–5.
Physical Virginity Unworthy Without Purity of Heart.
Caesarius of Arles: Truly, dearest brothers, of what profit is it for a man or woman, whether cleric or monk or religious, if bodily virginity is preserved, as long as purity of the heart is violated by evil desires? Of what benefit is it to show chastity in one member and to keep corruption in all the rest? For if you notice carefully, those virgins who follow the Lamb do not do so merely because of the fact that they have preserved only bodily virginity. Finally, when he had said, “These are they who did not defile themselves with women,” he continued and added, “and in their mouth there was found no lie; they are without blemish.” Listen carefully that if anyone boasts about bodily virginity alone, as long as he loves deceit he will not be able to follow Christ along with those holy virgins. For this reason let no virgin presume only upon her physical virginity, because if she is disobedient or gossiping she knows that she will have to be excluded from the bedchamber of her heavenly Spouse. Although a virgin possesses a hundredfold and a married woman the thirtyfold, still a chaste and humble married woman is better than a proud virgin. Sermon 155.3.
Baptism and Penance. Caesarius of Arles: It does not say “there was no [lie in their mouth],” but “no lie was found in their mouth.” For whatever the Lord finds when he calls forth from here, that is what he judges. For whether through baptism or through penance we are able to be made both virgins and without falsehood in the interior person. Exposition on the Apocalypse 14.5, Homily 11.
The Whole Church Is Virgin.
Bede: Virgins are not joined to the divine following because of chastity only, unless they also lead a life unblemished by any infection of sin. Tyconius does not interpret this vision to refer especially to virgins, but generally to the whole church, which the apostle betroths “to one husband, to present a pure virgin to Christ,” and he concludes in this way: “He did not say ‘no lie was in their mouth’ but ‘no lie was found.’ ” As the apostle says, “And such were you, but you have been washed,” and “the iniquity of the unjust will not harm him on the day he will have turned from his iniquity,” and he will be able to be a virgin, and deceit will not be found in his mouth. For those who are chaste and pure he calls “virgins.” Explanation of the Apocalypse 14.5.
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