and heavenly life are implied rather than expressly announced. Even the new heavens and the new land are an earthly, human picture, and such profound spiritual conceptions as "drawing water from the fountains of salvation" (Isa. xii, 3) are associated with the thought of dwelling in the midst of Zion.

Finally, we may affirm that the formal elements of the great Messianic prophecies are such as to admonish us not to Not to be literexpect their literal fulfilment. It is a morbid and ally interpreted. prodigy-loving tendency which searches human history to find minute fulfilments of ancient predictions. One might well infer from the expositions of some writers that the sole essence and value of some Messianic prophecies were dependent on the minute fulfilment of certain details of imagery, which are at most only incidental to the great idea of the prophecy. Thus the entry of our Lord into Jerusalem, meekly riding upon an ass, was truly a fulfiling of the words of Zech. ix, 9, and is so declared by the evangelists (Matt. xxi, 1–9; John xii, 12-16). But to find all or the chief part of the import of Zechariah's prophecy fulfiled in that particular event is to miss the great lesson of the prophet's words, and of Christ's symbolic act. The passage cited by the evangelists is only an incidental part of the composite picture presented by Zechariah, and by no means exhausts its meaning, which is to be found rather in the incarnation, humility, and ultimate triumph of the Christ, of which the incident of his riding into Jerusalem on an ass was itself only a symbol.1 Not literal but substantial fulfilment of the great ideals of prophecy is therefore to be looked for. It is the lowest and least important kind of prophecy that deals with minute details. Such was Samuel's prediction of what should occur to Saul on his way home after the search for his father's asses (1 Sam. x, 2–7), and its method borders closely on the popular conceptions of fortunetelling. Messianic and apocalyptic prophecy moves in a higher realm of thought.

1" That triumphal procession," says Wright, "was not in the main the fact which the prophecy was designed to depict. The prophecy would have been as truly and really fulfiled if the triumphant procession of Palm Sunday had never taken place. That single incident in the life of our Lord is not the point which the prophet had in view. It was rather the whole of the Saviour's life, the entire series of events connected with Christ's first advent, that was presented in one striking picture.”—Zechariah and his prophecies, p. 239. Similarly Lowe: "The prophecy was fulfiled by our Lord, when he rode into Jerusalem. But he fulfiled it more in spirit than to the letter; ... generally, by his own life of humility, and in particular by illustrating to friends and foes, by his symbolical act of riding on an ass, that his kingdom is not of this world."-Hebrew Students' Commentary on Zechariah, p. 89. London, 1882. Comp. Hengstenberg, as quoted, p. 287 above.

Apocalyptics defined.

CHAPTER XVI.

OLD TESTAMENT APOCALYPTICS.

APOCALYPTICS is a theological term of recent origin employed in biblical literature to designate a class of prophetic writings which refer to impending or future judgments, and the final glory of the Messianic kingdom. According to Lücke 'biblical apocalyptics includes "the sum total of the eschatological revelations of the Old and the New Testament." The great theme of all these Scriptures is the holy kingdom of God in its conflict with the godless and persecuting powers of the worlda conflict in which the ultimate triumph of righteousness is assured. This form of prophecy may, accordingly, include such Messianic predictions as we have treated in the preceding chapter, but it takes a wider range. Exhibiting a view of the world of man which one living above the world, and forecasting the future, may be supposed to hold, it emphasizes the divine interposition in all the affairs of men and nations, and hence it has had a peculiar fascination for minds anxious to find in the word of God detailed events of history written beforehand."

In 1 Cor. xiv, 6 the apostle distinguishes between apocalypse and prophecy. One may speak "either in (or by way of) apocalypse, or in knowledge, or in prophesying, or in teaching." The apocalypse

1 Versuch einer vollständigen Einleitung in die Offenbarung des Johannes, p. 25. Second ed., Bonn, 1852. See his whole chapter entitled Erörterung des Begriffs oder Theorie der Apokalyptik, pp. 17-39; and compare Hilgenfeld, Die jüdische Apokalyptik, Einleitung, pp. 1–16 (Jena, 1857); Düsterdieck, Kritisch-exegetisches Handbuch über die Offenbarung Johannis, pp. 35–46 (Göttingen, 1877); Lange, The Revelation of John, pp. 1–6. American ed., New York, 1874.

2 The amount of apocryphal apocalyptical literature still extant is very large, and may be divided into Jewish and Christian apocalyptics. Comp. Lücke, pp. 223–230. Much of it may be properly called Jewish-Christian; but, altogether, it is of little value in the elucidation of scriptural prophecy, which holds an incomparable eleva tion above it. Lücke and Stuart devote a considerable part of their works on the Apocalypse to an account of these pseudepigraphal books. Hilgenfeld (Jüdische Apokalyptik, pp. 5-8) disregards entirely the distinction between canonical and apoc. ryphal apocalyptics, and treats the books of Daniel, Enoch, Pseudo-Ezra, and the Sibylline Oracles as a precursory history (Vorgeschichte) of Christianity. But most, if not all, of the apocryphal Apocalypses (at least in their present form) are posterior to the Christian Scriptures.

is to be understood especially of the heavenly revelation, in the reception of which the man is passive; prophecy, on the other hand, denotes rather the inspired human activity, the uttering forth of God's truth (see above p. 314). "In prophecy," says Auberlen, "the Spirit of God finds his immediate expression in words; in the apocalypse human language disappears, for the reason given by the apostle (2 Cor. xii, 4): he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.' A new element appears here which corresponds to the subjective element of seeing, the vision. The prophet's eye is opened to look into the unseen world; he has intercourse with angels; and as he thus beholds the unseen, he beholds also the future, which appears to him embodied in plastic symbolic shapes as in a dream, only that these images are not the children of his own fancy, but the product of divine revelation adapting itself essentially to our human horizon.” 1

Biblical apocalyptics comprehends that entire series of biblical revelations which accord with the idea of

Scope of bibli

tics.

a divine apocalypse as defined above. Its scope is therefore cal apocalypvery extensive. From the earliest period of God's revelation of himself to man, apocalyptic disclosures of the divine purposes of righteous judgment and abounding grace served to cheer the hearts of the godly, and to comfort them in times of trial. They were given in many portions and under manifold forms, and helped by their impressive visions to strengthen faith in God. The inspired seer was permitted to look above and beyond the evils of his own time, behold the crucial day of the Lord on the near horizon, and depict an approaching age in which all wrongs should be duly recompensed, and righteousness, glory, and joy become the abiding portion of the people of God.

Aside from their wealth of tropes and symbols, which they exhibit more than any other class of writings, the apoca- Formal elelyptic prophecies are notable for their highly-wrought ments. artistic arrangement and finish. There appears constantly the double vision of judgment and salvation, and the natural divisions and subdivisions of the principal apocalypses frequently fall into fours and sevens. The double picture of judgment and glory is seen in the two symbols which were placed at the gate of the garden of Eden (Gen. iii, 24). The sword of flame represented the divine justice which demands the punishment of sin, and the cherubim, symbols of endless Edenic life, convey to fallen man the blessed hope of a restored paradise. The communications of God to Noah and

1 The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation of St. John viewed in their mutual Relation, pp. 83, 84. Edinb., 1856.

to Abraham are a series of revelations of judgment and of love. Considerable portions of Isaiah, Amos, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zecha riah are cast in apocalyptic form. The book of Joel is perhaps the oldest entire book of this character, and its two main divisions are devoted respectively to the impending judgments and coming glory of Jehovah. It is also noticeable that the successive writers freely appropriate both the language and symbols of their predecessors, and modify or change them to suit the particular revelation each would make known. Isaiah imitates some passages of Joel; Ezekiel draws from both; Zechariah makes much use of Daniel and Ezekiel; and there is scarcely a figure or symbol employed in John's apocalypse which is not appropriated from the Old Testament books.

The hermeneutical principles to be observed in the interpretation Hermeneutical of apocalyptics are, in the main, the same as those which principles. we apply to all predictive prophecy. But probably no rule or admonition needs more emphasis than that the student closely attend to the formal elements referred to above, and learn to distinguish them from the great thoughts or truths which they serve to embody. The confusing of form and substance has too often loaded the divine revelation with a burden it was never designed to bear, and such a habit is certain to draw a veil over the mind so as to prevent a truthful understanding of important sections of both the Old Testament and the New (comp. 2 Cor. iii, 14). The great apocalypses should be compared with each other, their formal elements carefully noted, and their methods of enunciating great judgments and great triumphs should be made familiar to the mind. We can illustrate these principles only by a discriminating application of them to such books and parts of books as may best serve the purpose of examples. We, accordingly, proceed to examine in this chapter the structure and import of several of the most important apocalyptic portions of the Old Testament, and reserve for a separate chapter the great apocalypse of the New Testament.

THE REVELATION OF JOEL.

We first direct attention to the apocalyptic form and method of Analysis of Jo- the Book of Joel. His prophecy is arranged in two el's prophecy. leading divisions. The first part consists of a twofold revelation of judgment, each revelation being accompanied by words of divine counsel and promise (chapters i, 1-ii, 27); the second part goes over a portion of the same field again, but delineates more clearly the blessings and triumphs which shall accompany the day of Jehovah (chapters ii, 28-iii, 21; Hebrew text, chapters iii and iv). These two parts may be properly entitled: (1) Jehovah's impending

judgments; (2) Jehovah's coming triumph and glory. The first may again be subdivided into four sections, the second into three, as follows:

1. Chap. i, 1–12. After the manner of Moses, in Exod. x, 1–6, Joel is commissioned to announce a fourfold plague of locusts. What one swarm leaves behind them another devours (verse 4), until all vegetation is destroyed, and the whole land is left in mourning. This fourfold scourge, as a beginning of sorrows in the impending day of Jehovah, should be compared with the four riders on different coloured horses, and the four horns of Zech. i, 8, 18, the four war chariots of Zech. vi, 1-8, the wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes of Matt. xxiv, 7; Luke, xxi, 10, 11, and the four horses of Rev. vi, 1-8. It is thus a habit of apocalyptics to represent punitive judgments in a fourfold manner.

2. Chap. i, 13-20. After the manner of Jehoshaphat, when the combined forces of Moab, Ammon, and Seir were marching against him (2 Chron. xx, 1-13), the prophet calls upon the priests to lament, and proclaim a fast, and gather the people in solemn assembly to bewail the awful day that is coming as a destruction from Shaddai. Under this head other features of the calamity are incidentally mentioned, as the distress of beasts, cattle, and flock, and the ravages of fire (verses 18-20.)

3. Chap. ii, 1-11. In this section the prophet proclaims the day of Jehovah in still more fearful aspects. Under the blended imagery of darkness, devouring fire, numberless locusts, and rushing armies (all which are represented in a plague of locusts),' the earth and the heavens are shaken, and sun, moon, and stars withhold their light. The formal elements of this terrible apocalyptic picture deserve special examination. There are few more sublime descpriptions to be found in the literature of the world.

1 An eyewitness of a plague of locusts, which visited Palestine in 1866, says: "From early morning till near sunset the locusts passed over the city in countless hosts, as though all the swarms in the world were let loose, and the whir of their wings was as the sound of chariots. At times they appeared in the air like some great snowdrift, obscuring the sun, and casting a shadow upon the earth. Men stooà in the streets and looked up, and their faces gathered blackness. At intervals those which were tired or hungry descended on the little gardens in the city, and in an incredibly short time all that was green disappeared. They ran up the walls, they sought out every blade of grass or weed growing between the stones, and after eating to satiety, they gathered in their ranks along the ground, or on the tops of the houses. It is no marvel that as Pharaoh looked at them he called them 'this death' (Exod. x, 17). . . . One locust has been found near Bethlehem measuring more than five inches in length. It is covered with a hard shell, and has a tail like a scorpion." -Journal of Sacred Literature for 1866, p. 89. Compare the same Journal for 1865, pp. 235-237.

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