the days” (□), that is, for the days that he should dwell with him as a priest. In 1 Sam. ii, 19, it is said that Samuel's mother made him a little robe, and brought it up to him from days to days in her going up along with her husband to offer the sacrifice of the days." Here the reference is to the particular days of going up to the tabernacle to worship and sacrifice, and the exact sense is not brought out by the common version, "year by year" or "yearly." They may have gone up several times during the year at the days of the great national feasts. And this appears from a comparison of 1 Sam. i, 3 and 7, where, in the first place, it is said that Elkanah went up from days to days, and in ver. 7, "so he did year by year.” That is, he went up three times a year according to the law (Exod. xxiii, 14-17) "from days to days," as the well-known national feast days came round; and his wife generally accompanied him. 2 Chron. xxi, 19 is literally: "And it came to pass at days from days (i. e., after several days), and about the time of the going out (expiration) of the end, at two days, his bowels went out," etc.' Similarly, Isa. xxxii, 10: "Days above a year shall ye be troubled," etc. That is, more than a year shall ye be troubled.' The most that can be said of such a use of the word days, is, that it is used indefinitely in a proverbial and idiomatic way; but such a usage by no means justifies the broad proposition that a day means a year. ures in inter 5. The advocates of the year-day theory rest their strongest argument, however, upon the necessity of such a theory for Disproved by what they regard the true explanation of certain proph- repeated Failecies. They affirm that the three times and a half of pretation. Dan. vii, 25, and the twelve hundred and sixty days of Rev. xii, 6, and their parallels, are incapable of a literal interpretation. And so, carrying the predictions both of Daniel and John down into the history of modern Europe for explanation, most of these writers understand the twelve hundred and sixty year-days as designating the period of the Roman Papacy. Mr. William Miller, famous in the last generation for the sensation he produced, and the large following he had, adopted a scheme of interpreting not only the twelve hundred and sixty days, but also the twelve. hundred and ninety, and the thirteen hundred and thirty-five (of Dan. xii, 11, 12), so that he ascertained and published with great assurance that the coming of Christ would take place in October, 1843. We have lived to see his theories thoroughly exploded, and yet there have not been wanting others who have adopted his hermeneutical principles, and named A. D. 1866 and 1See Keil and Bertheau on Chronicles, in loco. 2 See Alexander on Isaiah, in loco. The thousand ΧΧ. A. D. 1870 as "the time of the end." A theory which is so destitute of scriptural analogy and support as we have seen above, and presumes to rest on such a slender showing of divine authority, is on those grounds alone to be suspected; but when it has again and again proved to be false and misleading in its application, we may safely reject it, as furnishing no valid principle or rule in a true science of hermeneutics.' Those who have supposed it to be necessary for the exposition of apocalyptic prophecies, should begin to feel that their systems of interpretation are in error. The duration of the thousand years, or the millenial reign, mentioned in Rev. xx, 2-7, has been variously estimated. years of Rev. Most of those who advocate the year-day theory have singularly agreed to understand this thousand years literally. With them days mean years, and times mean years, to be resolved into three hundred and sixty days each, but the thousand years of the Apocalypse are literally and exactly a thousand years! Many, however, understand this number as denoting an indefinitely long period, and some have not scrupled to apply to it the theory of a day for a year, and multiplying by three hundred and sixty, estimate the length of the millenium at three hundred and sixty thousand years. But in this case we have no analogy, no real parallel, in other parts of scripture. Allen himself candidly admits that "there is nothing in the customary use of the phrase a thousand, in other places, which will determine its import in the Book of Revelation. The probability of its being used there definitely or indefinitely must be determined by examining the place itself, and from the nature of the case."" This is a very safe and proper rule, and it may well be added that, as we have found the number ten to symbolize the general idea of fulness, totality, completeness, so not improbably the number one thousand may stand as the symbolic number of manifold fulness, the rounded æon of Messianic triumph, (ó aiwv μéλλwv), during which he shall abolish all rule and all authority and power, and put all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor. xv, 24, 25), and bring in the fulness (TÒ TλŃpopa) of both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. xi, 12, 25). It may be said that Bengel's long-ago exploded theory of explaining apocalyptic designations of time is worthy of as much credence as this more popular year-day theory. In his Erklärten Offenbarung Johannis (1740) he takes the mystic number 666 (Rev. xiii, 18) for his startingpoint, and dividing it by 42 months, he makes a prophetic month equal 159 years. His prophetic days were of corresponding length, amounting to about half a year, and his scheme fixed the end of all things in A. D. 1836. In favour of Bengel it may be said that he started with a number which is propound. ed as a riddle, which is more than we can say in favour of these other theorists. 2 American Biblical Repository, July, 1840, p. 47. SYMBOLICAL NAMES. A symbolical use of proper names is apparent in such passages as Rev. xi, 8, where the great city, in which the bodies of sodom and the slain witnesses were exposed, and "where also their Egypt. Lord was crucified," is called, spiritually,' Sodom and Egypt. Evidently this wicked city, whether we understand Jerusalem or Rome, is so designated because its moral corruptions and bitter persecuting spirit were like those of Sodom and Egypt, both famous in Jewish history for these ungodly qualities. In a similar way Isaiah likens Judah and Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. i, 9, 10). Compare also Jer. xxiii, 14. In Ezek. xvi, 44–59, the abominations of Jerusalem are made to appear loathsome by comparison and contrast with Samaria on one side and Sodom on the other. In like manner "Babylon the great," is evidently a symbolical name in Rev. xiv, 8; xvi, 19; xvii, 5; xviii, 2, etc. Babylon and Whether the name is used to denote the same city as Jerusalem. that called Sodom and Egypt in chapter xi, 8, or some other city, its mystical designation is to be explained, like that of Sodom and Egypt, as arising from Jewish historical associations with Babylon, the great city of the exile. That city could, in Jewish thought, be associated only with oppression and woe, and their antipathy to it as a persecuting power is well expressed in Psa. cxxxvii. The opposite of Babylon, the Harlot, in the Apocalypse, is Jerusalem, the Bride (Rev. xxi, 9, 10). So, too, in the psalm just referred to, the opposite of Babylon, with its rivers and willows, was Jerusalem and Mount Zion. And the careful student will note that, as one of the seven angels said to the prophet, "Come hither," and then "carried him away in spirit into a wilderness" and showed him the mystic Babylon, the Harlot (Rev. xvii, 1-3), so also one of the same class of angels addressed him with like words, and then "carried him away in spirit into a mountain great and high," and showed him the holy Jerusalem, the Bride (chap. xxi, 9, 10). And if the Bride denotes the true Church of the people and saints of the Most High, doubtless the Harlot represents the false and apostate Church, historically guilty of the blood of saints and martyrs. Which great city best represents that harlot-Rome, which truly has been a bitter persecutor, or Jerusalem, so often called a harlot by the prophets, and charged by Jesus himself as guilty of "all the righteous blood poured out upon the land, from the blood of Abel, the righteous, 1Пvevμatikās, i. e., by a mental discernment intensified and exalted by a divine inspiration which enables one to see things according to their real and spiritual nature. unto the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah" (Matt. xxiii, 35)— where also their Lord and ours was crucified—each expositor will determine for himself. Return to Egypt. The name of Egypt is used symbolically in Hos. viii, 13, where Ephraim is sentenced, on account of sin, to "return to Egypt." The name had become proverbial as the land of bondage (Exod. xx, 2), and Moses had threatened such a return in his warnings and admonitions addressed to Israel (Deut. xxviii, 68). In Hos. ix, 3, this return to Egypt is, by the Hebrew poetic parallelism of the passage, made equivalent to eating unclean things in the land of Asshur. Hence the Assyrian exile is viewed as another Egyptian bondage. jah. The names of David and Elijah are used after the same symDavid and Eli-bolical manner to designate, prophetically, the prince Messiah and the prophet John the Baptist. In Ezek. xxxiv, 23, 24, Jehovah declares that he will set his servant David for a shepherd over his people, and for a prince among them. Here, assuredly, the language cannot be taken literally, and no one will contend that the historical David is to appear again in fulfilment of this prediction. Compare Ezek. xxxvii, 24; Jer. xxx, 9; Hos. iii, 5. So, too, the prophecy of the coming of Elijah in Mal. iv, 5, was fulfilled in John the Baptist (Matt. xi, 14; xvii, 10--13). The name Ariel is used in Isa. xxix, 1, 2, 7, as a symbolical designation of Jerusalem, but its mystical import is quite Ariel. uncertain. The word, according to Gesenius,' may denote either lion of God, or altar of God; but whether it should be understood as denoting the city of lion-like heroes, or of invincible strength, or as the city of the altar place, it is impossible to determine. Fuerst thinks (Heb. Lex.), in view of Isa. xxxi, 9, "where Jerusalem is celebrated as a sacred hearth of the everlasting fire, it is more advisable to choose this signification." serpent. A hostile, oppressive world-power is designated in Isa. xxvii, 1, Leviathan, the as "Leviathan, a flying serpent, Leviathan, a crooked serpent. a dragon which is in the sea.” Some think three different hostile powers are meant, but the repetition of the name Leviathan, and the poetic parallelism of the passage, are against that view. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, and Rome have all been suggested as the hostile power intended. It i, perhaps, best to understand it generically as a symbolic name for any and every godless world-power that sets itself up as an opposer and oppressor of the people of God. 1 Commentar über den Jesaia, in loco. SYMBOLISM OF COLOURS. Rainbow and The setting of the rainbow in the cloud for a covenant sign between God and the land, that no flood of waters should again destroy all flesh (Gen. ix, 8-17) would naturally tabernacle colassociate the prominent colours of that bow with ideas ours. of heavenly grace. In the construction of the tabernacle four colours are prominent, blue, purple, scarlet, and white (Exod. xxv, 4; xxvi, 1, 31; xxxv, 6, etc.), and the blending of these in the coverings and appurtenances of that symbolic structure probably served not only for the sake of beauty and variety, but also to suggest thoughts of heavenly excellence and glory. The exact colours, tints, or shades denoted by the Hebrew words translated blue, pur it is hardly possible now ,(תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי and ,אַרְגָּמָן תְּכֵלֶת) ple, and scarlet to determine with absolute certainty,' but probably the common version is sufficiently correct. ferred from Blue. The import of these several colours is to be gathered from the associations in which they appear. Blue, as the colour Import of colof the heaven, reflected in the sea, would naturally sug- ours to be ingest that which is heavenly, holy, and divine. Hence their associait was appropriate that the robe of the ephod was made tion. wholly of blue (Exod. xxviii, 31; xxxix, 22), and the breastplate was connected with it by blue cords (ver. 28). It was also by a blue cord or ribbon that the golden plate inscribed "Holiness to Jehovah " was attached to the high priest's mitre (ver. 31). The loops of the tabernacle curtains were of this colour (Exod. xxvi, 4), and the children of Israel were commanded to place blue ribbons as badges upon the borders of their garments (Num. xv, 37-41) as if to remind them that they were children of the heavenly King, and were under the responsibility of having received from him commandments and revelations. Hence, too, it was appropriate that a blue cloth was spread over the holiest things of the tabernacle when they were arranged for journeying forward (Num. iv, 6, 7, 11, 12). Purple and scarlet, so often mentioned in connexion with the dress of kings, have very naturally been regarded as Purple and symbolical of royalty and majesty (Judg. viii, 26; Esther Scarlet. 1See Bähr's section on the Beschaffenheit der Farben in his chapter on Die Farben und Bildwerke der Cultus-Stätte, Symbolik, vol. i (new ed.), pp. 331-337. See also Atwater, Sacred Tabernacle of the Hebrews, pp. 209-224, and the various biblical dictionaries and cyclopædias, under the word Colours. Josephus' explanation of the import of these colours (Ant., iii, 7, sec. 7) is more fanciful than authoritative or satisfactory. |