import of all these expressions is in noticeable harmony with our Lord's repeated declaration: "This generation shall not pass away until all these things be accomplished." But when John wrote, the things contemplated were much nearer at hand than when Jesus addressed his disciples on the Mount of Olives.' After the manner of other apocalypses this book is divisible into two principal parts, which may be appropriately desig- Plan of the nated, (1) The Revelation of Christ, the Lamb (chaps. Apocalypse. i-xi), and (2) The Revelation of the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb (chaps. xii-xxii). These two parts, after the manner of Daniel's repeated visions, traverse the same field of view, and each terminates in the fall of a great city, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. But each of these parts is divisible again into smaller sections, the first into three, the second into seven. The whole will be apparent in the following outline: I. REVELATION OF THE LAMB. 1. In the Epistles to the Seven Churches, i-iii. 1. Vision of the Woman and the Dragon, xii. 2. Vision of the Two Beasts, xiii. 3. Vision of the Mount Zion, xiv. 4. Vision of the Seven Last Plagues, xv, xvi. 5. Vision of the Mystic Babylon, xvii, xviii. 6. Vision of Parousia, Millennium, and Judgment, xix, xx. It should be observed that John's Apocalypse is, in its artificial arrangement and finish, the most perfect of all the prophecies. Its it confessedly contains the "for ever and ever" of chap. xxii, 5. Manifestly the thousand years of chap. xx, 2, like the ages of ages in chaps. xi, 15 and xxii, 5, is a statement that runs far beyond the great catastrophes of the book, and is too exceptional in its nature to be included among the things which were to come to pass quickly. 1 On the early date of the Apocalypse see Glasgow, The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded, pp. 9-54 (Edinb., 1872); Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, chap. xxvii (Lond., 1882); and Schaff's new edition of his History of the Christian Church, pp. 834-836. We have already discussed at some length the time of this prophecy (see pp. 135-140), and have shown good reasons for believing that it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The preponderance of the best modern criticism is in favour of this view. If now, in harmony with such date, we find the structure and import of the book, as studied in the light of biblical apocalyptics, a self-consistent whole, and meeting signal fulfilment in the ruin of Judaism and the rise of Christianity, the interpretation itself becomes a controlling argument in favour of the early date. lypse. outline and the correlation of its several parts evince that its imaArtificial form gery was most carefully chosen, and yet there is scarcely of the Apoca a figure or symbol that is not appropriated from the Old Testament. The books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah are especially made use of. The number seven is notably prominent as seven spirits, seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven heads, seven eyes, seven horns, seven plagues. The numbers three, four, ten, and twelve are also used in a significant way,' and where symbolical numbers are so frequently used we should at least hesitate about insisting on the literal import of any particular number. Constant reference, therefore, should be had, in the interpretation of this book, to the analogous prophecies of the Old Testament. of the book. Immediately after the opening statements, and the salutation and The great Theme doxology of verses 4-6, the great theme of the book is announced in this truly Hebraic and emotional style: "Behold he is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him,' and they who pierced him, and all the tribes of the land,' shall wail over him " (chap. i, 7). Let it be particularly noted that these words are appropriated substantially from our Lord's discourse (Matt. xxiv, 30): "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the land wail, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and much glory." The words "they who pierced him" are from Zech. xii, 10, and should here be understood not so much of the soldiers 1 See Stuart on the "Numerosity of the Apocalypse" in his Commentary, vol. i, pp. 130-149. Comp. Trench, Com. on the Epistles to the Seven Churches of Asia, pp. 83-91. 2 To press the literal import of these words, and insist that Christ is to come on a material cloud, and be visible to every person living at one time on the habitable globe, involves manifest absurdities. No person or phenomenon in the clouds of heaven could be visible, at one and the same time, to all the inhabitants of the world. That every one shall at some time see the Son of man is unmistakable doctrine, as is also the statement of 2 Cor. v, 10, that "we must all be manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; " but in an apocalyptic passage like that above, the language is to be understood in general harmony with the temporal and geographical limitations of the prophecy. The statement is no more to be explained literally than that concerning the trembling of the idols of Egypt in Isa. xix, 1, a passage closely parallel with this: Behold Jehovah riding on a swift cloud, and coming into Egypt, And the idols of Egypt tremble before him, And the heart of the Egyptians melt within them. 3 The common English Version, "all kindreds of the earth," appears to have misled not only many common readers, but even learned commentators. No Hellenist of our Lord's day would have understood nãoai ai pvλaì tñs yñç as equivalent to all nations of the habitable globe. The phrase is traceable to Zech. xii, 12, where all the families of the land of Judah are represented as mourning. who nailed him to the cross, and pierced his side, as of the Jews, upon whom Peter charged the crime (Acts ii, 23, 36; v, 30), and who had cried, "His blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matt. xxvii, 25). To these Jesus himself had said: "Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matt. xxvi, 64). Having announced his great theme, the writer proceeds to record his vision of the Alpha and the Omega, the first and Words to the the last-an expression taken from Isa. xli, 4; xliv, 6; Seven Churches. xlviii, 12. The description of the Son of man is mainly in the language by which Daniel describes the Ancient of days (Dan. vii, 9) and the Son of man (x, 5, 6), but it also appropriates expressions from other prophets (Isa. xi, 4; xlix, 2; Ezek. i, 26, 28; xliii, 2). The seven golden candlesticks remind us of Zechariah's one golden candlestick with its seven lamps (Zech. iv, 2). The meaning of the symbols is given by the Lord himself, and the whole forms an impressive introduction to the seven epistles. These epistles, though written in a most regular and artificial form, are full of individual allusions, and show that there was much persecution of the faithful, and that a momentous crisis was at hand. The various characteristics of the seven Churches may be typical of varying phases of church life and character for subsequent ages, but they are nevertheless distinct portraitures of then existing facts. The mention of Nicolaitans (ii, 6), the faithful martyr Antipas (ii, 13), and the mischievous prophetess Jezebel (ii, 20), is evidence that the epistles deal with actual persons and events, though the names employed are probably symbolical. The warnings, counsels, and encouragements given to these Churches correspond in substance with those our Lord gave to his disciples in Matt. xxiv. He warned them against false prophets, told them they should have tribulation, and some would be put to death, and the love of many would wax cold, but that he who endured to the end should be saved. It is not to be supposed that in this remoteness of time we can feel the force of the personal allusions of these epistles as well as those to whom they were first addressed. The Seven Seals. The prophecy of the seven seals is opened by a glorious vision of the throne of God (chap. iv), and its symbols are taken from the corresponding visions of Isa. vi, 1–4, and Ezek. i, 4-28. Then appears in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book close sealed with seven seals (v, i). The Lion of Judah, the Root of David, is the only one who can open that book, and he is revealed as "a Lamb standing as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes." His position was "in the midst of the throne" (v, 6). The eyes and horns, symbols of the perfection of wisdom and power, the appearance of a slain lamb, expressive of the whole mystery of redemption, and the position in the throne,' as suggestive of heavenly authority-all serve to extol the Christ as the great Revealer of divine mysteries. The first four seals correspond virtually with the symbols of Zech. vi, 2, 3, and denote dispensations of conquest, bloodshed, famine, and aggravated slaughter or mortality. These rapidly successive and commingling judgments correspond strikingly with our Lord's prediction of wars and rumours of wars, falling by the edge of the sword, famines, pestilences, terrors, days of vengeance, and unheard of horrors. The pages of Josephus, descriptive of the unparalleled woes which culminated in the utter ruin of Jerusalem, furnish an ample commentary on these symbols and on the words of our Lord. Why should we ignore the statements of the Jewish historian, and search in the pages of Gibbon, or in the annals of modern Europe, to find the fulfilment of prophecies which were so signally fulfilled before the end of the Jewish age? Scene. The fifth seal is a martyr-scene-the blood of souls crying from The Martyr- under the altar where they had been slain for the Word of God (vi, 9, 10). This corresponds with the Lord's announcement that his followers should be put to death (Matt. xxiv, 9; Luke xxi, 16). The white robes and the comfort given to the martyrs answer to Jesus' pledge that in their patience they should win their souls (Luke xxi, 19), and that "whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel's shall save it " (Mark viii, 35). But these souls wait only for "a little time" (ver. 11), even as Jesus declared that all the martyr-blood shed from the time of Abel should be visited in vengeance upon that generation, even upon Jerusalem the murderess of prophets (Matt. xxiii, 34-38). And then, to show how quickly the retribution comes, like the "immediately after the tribulation" of Matt. xxiv, 29, the sixth seal is opened, and exhibits the terrors of the end (verses 12-17). We need not linger to show how the symbols of this seal correspond with the language of Jesus and other prophets when describing the great and terrible day of the Lord. But we should note that before this judgment falls the elect of God are sealed, 1 In chap. xxii, 1, it is called "the throne of God and of the Lamb." The throne belonged to the Lamb as well as to God. Comp. chap. iii, 21. The Sixth Seal. 2 To understand the rider on the white horse as a symbol of Christ, as many do, and the others as symbols of war, famine, etc., involves the interpretation in manifest confusion of imagery. If the first rider denote a person, so should the others; but, according to the analogy of corresponding prophecies, we have here a fourfold symbo of impending judgments. Comp. above, p. 341. and there appear two companies, the elect of the twelve tribes (the Jewish-Christian Church-the circumcision), and an innumerable company out of all nations and tongues (the Gentile Church-the uncircumcision) who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (chap. vii). This is the apocalyptic counterpart of Jesus' words: "He shall send forth his angels with a great trumpet-sound, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. xxiv, 31). The Seven The opening of the sixth seal brought us to the very verge of doom, and we might naturally suppose that the seventh would usher in the ultimate consummation. But it Trumpets. issues in the vision of the seven trumpets, which traverses a part of the same field again, and awfully portrays the signs, wonders, and horrors indicated by the symbols of the sixth seal. These trumpet woes we understand to be a highly wrought picture of the fearful sights and great signs from heaven of which Jesus spoke, the abomination of desolation, Jerusalem compassed with armies, and "signs in the sun and moon and stars; and upon the land distress of nations in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things coming on the world" (Luke xxi, 25, 26). Accordingly, the first four trumpetwoes fall, respectively, on the land, the sea, the rivers and fountains. of water, and the lights of heaven, and their imagery is appropri ated from the account of the plagues of Egypt, and from other parts of the Old Testament. These plagues do not ruin everything, but, like Ezekiel's symbols (Ezek. v, 2), each destroys a third. The last three trumpets are signals of direr woes (viii, 13). The tormenting locusts from the abyss, introduced by the The plague fifth trumpet, assume the form of a moving army, after from the abyss. the manner of Joel's description (Joel ii, 1-11), and are permitted to torment those men who have not the seal of God upon them. They may appropriately denote the unclean spirits of demons, which were permitted to come forth in those days of vengeance and possess and torment the men who had given themselves over to 1 "The descriptions are of a kind," says Bleek, "that cannot be meant literally, since they cannot be shaped into intuitive ideas. But it is also inadmissible to refer them to single political events and catastrophes happening upon the earth, either at the time of the writing, so that the seer must have had them already before his eyes, or occurring later, so that these visions were fulfilled in them. Rather should we view the contents of these visions as a general poetical representation of the great revolutions of nature connected with the appearing of the Lord, or preceding it, in which Old Testament images, taken particularly from the narrative of the Egyptian plagues, lie at the foundation, and particulars should not be especially urged."-Lectures on the Apocalypse, p. 228. Lond., 1874. |