Everett Ferguson: Some Patristic Interpretations of the Angels of the Churches (Apoc. 1-3)

Early Christian literature anticipates some of the popular modern interpretations of the angels to whom the seven letters of the Apocalypse were addressed.  That the angels are heavenly counterparts of the earthly churches may be the earliest interpretation (Asc. Isa. 3.5).  Also early is the understanding of the angels as personified spirits of the churches (Tertullian, Paenit. 8.1; Scorp. 12.8).  It occurs also in the commentaries on the Apocalypse by Tychonius and Oecumenius.  Popular among Greek authors was to understand the angels as guardian or patron angels—Hippolytus, Chr. et Antichr. 59; Origen, De princ. 1.8.1; Hom. Num. 11.4; Hom. Lk. 13.5; 13.7; Eusebius, Ps. 47.13-15; Basil, Isa. 1.46; Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 42.9.  Another interpretation was that angel stood for the bishop (Epiphanius, Pan. 25.3.1), a view common among Latin authors—Hilary of Poitiers, Ps. 129.7; Augustine, Ep. 45.8.22; Bede, Comm. Apoc.  Most modern commentators show little awareness of the ancestors of their interpretations.