is appropriately called "the false prophet" (chaps. xvi, 13; xix, 20), for his great work was to turn men to a blasphemous idolatry. The mystic number of the beast (xiii, 18) would then be represented both by the Greek Aareivos, and the Hebrew Dp, the numerical value of each being 666. For the beast was both the Latin kingdom, and its representative and head, Nero Cæsar. The vision of Mount Zion in chap. xiv is a glorious contrast to the preceding revelations of antichrist. It Vision of Mount presents the heavenly side of this period of persecution and trial, Zion. and sets it forth in seven exhibitions: (1) First is seen the Lamb on Mount Zion (the heavenly Zion), and with him are the thousands of his redeemed Israel in great glory (verses 1-5). These are no other than the woman's seed who have been caught up to the throne of God (xii, 5), but are now seen from another point of view. (2) Next follows the vision of the flying angel bearing eternal good tidings to every nation (verses 6, 7). This is done in spite of the dragon and his agents. While the dragon, wielding the forces of empire, seeks to annihilate the Church of God, the true children of the heavenly Jerusalem are caught up to be with Christ in glory; but the Gospel is still preached in all the world, accompanied by warning and promise. Thus the saints triumph "on account of the blood of the Lamb, and on account of the word of their testimony" (chap. xii, 11). (3) Then an angel, as by anticipation, announces the fall of Babylon the great (ver. 8), and is followed (4) by another who warns men against the worship of the beast and his image (verses 9-12). (5) Then a voice from heaven pronounces them blessed who die in the Lord from henceforth (ver. 13); as if from that eventful epoch the dead in Christ should enter at once into a rest we may fairly assume that the image of the beast for the time being would be the image of the reigning emperor."-Greek Test. on Rev. xiii, 15. It is strange that learned critics will turn, with an air of contempt, away from an explanation of the "image of the beast" so natural and simple as that given above, and find satisfaction in such fancies as that this image denotes the images of saints set up in papal churches (Faber); or the pope considered as the idol of the Roman Church (Newton, Daubuz); or the temporal power of the pope, and the patrimony granted by Pepin in A. D. 754 (Glasgow); or the papal kingdom or hierarchy which the priesthood established (Lord); or the empire of Charlemagne, regarded as the image of the old heathen Roman Empire (Mede); or the pope's decretals (Osiander); or the Inquisition (Vitringa); or the papal General Councils of Western Europe (Elliott). Writers so full of visions of modern Europe and the fortunes of the papacy that they quickly discern apocalyptic epochs in such events as the battle of Sadowa, July 3, 1866, the pope's bull of July, 1868, the insurrection in Spain under Prim, and the revolution in France consequent upon the battle of Sedan, 1870, can scarcely be expected to view any prophecy from the historical standpoint of the sacred writer. Comp. Elliott, Horæ Apocalypticæ, 5th ed., Lond., 1872; Preface and Postscript. which the dead of the previous æon could not know. (6) The sixth scene is that of the Son of man represented as wearing a golden crown, holding a sharp sickle in his hand, and attended by an angel (verses 14-16); and with these soon appears another angel having a sharp sickle, and the land was reaped, and the winepress, trodden without the city, spread rivers of blood that seemed to deluge all the land. This is but another picture of the same great catastrophe, seen from another point of view. The vision of the seven vials (piáλaç, bowls) full of the wrath of The seven last God, which are also called the seven last plagues (chapPlagues. ters xv, xvi), is but another symbolization of the seven trumpet-woes (of chapters viii-xi), with which they minutely correspond. The duplicate vision of these terrible judgments (one judg ment of sevenfold fury, comp. Dan. iii, 19) is analogous to other repetitions of the same subject under different imagery (see above, pp. 317-319, and 324, 325). This double vision of wrath, like the double dream of Pharaoh, served to show that these things were established by the Almighty, and that he would shortly bring them to pass (Gen. xli, 32).1 Vision of the lon. 2 The vision of Babylon the great (chapters xvii, xviii) is a highly wrought apocalyptic picture of the apostate Church of mystic Baby- the old covenant (comp. above, p. 299). The then existing Jerusalem, in bondage with her children (Gal. iv, 25), is portrayed as a harlot, and the language and imagery are appropriated largely from Ezekiel's allegory of the same city (Ezek. xvi; comp. Ezek. xxiv). It is that murderess of prophets against whom Jesus uttered the terrible words of Matt. xxiii, 34-36. From the beginning of the Roman Empire Jerusalem sought and maintained a heathenish complicity with the Cæsars, and the empire became, politically, her dependence and support. There was constant strife among ambitious rulers to obtain the so-called "kingdom of Judea." Jerusalem was the chief city of that province, and is, therefore, properly said to "reign over the kings (not of the earth, and not over emperors and monarchs of the world, but) of the land" (chap. 1 "The repetition of the vision of judgment in various forms," says Farrar, "is one of the recognized Hebrew methods of expressing their certainty. The same general calamities are indicated by diverse symbols." He cites from the ancient Commentary of Victorinus the statement that the seven vials are but another symbol of the same judgments as those denoted by the trumpets, and adds: "There is fair reason to suppose that Victorinus derived this valuable and by no means obvious principle of interpretation from early, and perhaps from apostolic, tradition."-The Early Days of Christianity, chap. xxviii, p. 450. London, 1882. 2 Comp. Isa. i, 21: "How has the once faithful city become a harlot!" Comp. also Jer. ii, 2, 20; iii, 3-6; iv, 30; xiii, 27. xvii, 18). It is the same land (yñ), the tribes of which mourn over the coming of the Son of man (chap. i, 7). We, accordingly, take the mystic Babylon to be identical with the great city which, in chap. xi, 8, is called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified.2 Mystery of beast. The explanation of the mystery of the woman and the beast, given in chap. xvii, 7-18, has puzzled all interpreters. It is noticeably a composite explanation, and avowedly woman and applies partly to the woman and partly to the beast which carries her. The mystery requires for its solution "the mind which hath wisdom" (ver. 9), and it may have had a meaning and force for John's contemporaries which we of a long subsequent age cannot so easily feel. "The beast which was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go away into destruction" (ver. 8), is an expression of cautious reserve, which is notably like Paul's guarded language about the man of sin (2 Thess. ii, 5–7). The beast with seven heads and ten horns is usually identified with the wild beast from the sea (chap. xiii, 1), and may be understood of Rome and her allied and tributary princes who took part in the war against Judea and Jerusalem. The great harlot city, whose "The kings of the land," who, in Psa. ii, 2, set themselves against Jehovah and his Christ, are declared by the Apostle Peter to be such kings as Herod and Pontius Pilate (Acts iv, 27). These, he declares, "were gathered together with Gentiles and peoples of Israel." Josephus says: "The city of Jerusalem is situated in the very middle (of the land), on which account some have called that city the navel of the country. Nor indeed is Judea destitute of such delights as come by the sea, since its maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais. It was parted into eleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was supreme, and presided over all the neighbouring country as the head does over the body."-Wars of the Jews, book iii, iii, 5. 2 It deserves notice that there is a title which, in the Apocalypse, is applied to one particular city par excellence. It is the title "that great city" [ý móλis ʼn μeyáλn]. It is clear that it is always the same city which is so designated, unless another be expressly specified. Now, the city in which the witnesses are slain is expressly called by this title," that great city;" and the names Sodom and Egypt are applied to it; and it is furthermore particularly identified as the city "where also our Lord was crucified " (chap. xi, 8). There can be no reasonable doubt that this refers to ancient Jerusalem. If, then, “the great city" of chap. xi, 8, means ancient Jerusalem, it follows that "the great city" of chap. xiv, 8, styled also Babylon, and "the great city" of chap. xvi, 19, must equally signify Jerusalem. By parity of reasoning, "that great city" [ý móλis ǹ μeyáλn] in chap. xvii, 18, and elsewhere, must refer also to Jerusalem. It is a mere assumption to say, as Dean Alford does, that Jerusalem is never called by this name. There is no unfitness, but the contrary, in such a distinctive title being applied to Jerusalem. It was to an Israelite the royal city, by far the greatest in the land, the only city which could properly be so designated; and it ought never to be forgotten that the visions of the Apocalypse are to be regarded from a Jewish point of view.-The Parousia, pp. 486, 487. holy temple had been made a place of merchandise and a den of thieves (Matt. xxi, 13; John ii, 15), was carried for a hundred years by Rome, and at last hated and destroyed by the very kings with whom she had maintained her heathenish traffic. Jerusalem's relation to Rome and her tributary princes was well voiced in that Jewish appeal to Pilate: "If thou release this man, thou art not Cæsar's friend. . . We have no king but Cæsar” (John xix, 12, 15). the abyss. But while the relations of Jerusalem and Rome are thus outlined, The beast from the beast "which was, and is not, and shall come (πáρεσται, shall be present, ver. 8), may symbolize a deeper mystery. He is not a combination of the lion, the leopard, and the bear, nor does he "come up out of the sea" like the beast of chap. xiii, 1, but he is a scarlet-coloured beast,” and “ comes up out of the abyss." May he not, therefore, be more properly regarded as a special manifestation of the "great red dragon" of chap. xii, 3? The seven heads and ten horns of the dragon indicate seats of power and regal and princely agents through whom the kingly "angel of the abyss" (chap. ix, 11) accomplishes his satanic purposes. We need not, therefore, look to the seven hills of Rome,' or to ten particular kings, for the solution of the mystery of the scarlet-coloured beast. The language of the angel interpreter, even when ostensibly explaining the mystery, is manifestly enigmatical. Just as when, in chap. xiii, 18, he that has understanding is called upon to "count the number of the beast," so here the clue to the mystery of the seven heads and ten horns is itself a riddle. "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is sitting" (ver. 9). This may indeed refer literally to seven mountains, either of Jerusalem or Rome, for both these cities covered seven heights; but it is as likely to refer, enigmatically, to manifold political supports or alliances, considered as so many seats of power or consolidated kingdoms, and called seven because of covenanted arrangements. The words which follow 1The seven mountains on which the woman sitteth (ver. 9) may be the mountains of Jerusalem as well as the seven hills of Rome. There were Zion, Moriah, Acra, and Bezetha, and the three fortified heights, Millo, Ophel, and the rock, seventy-five feet high, on which the Castle of Antonia was built. See Edersheim, The Temple, pp. 11, 13. Boston, 1881. The notion that the septem colles of Latin writers were famil iar to John and his Greek and Hebrew readers, and, necessarily to be understood here, is as fanciful as that the eagles of Matt. xxiv, 28, are the Roman eagles. The number seven, in this allusion to the mountains, need not be pressed into fuller significance than the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb in chap. v, 6, where no one insists on a literal significance of the number seven. 2 "The mountains," says Glasgow, "are, like other terms, to be understood should be rendered: "And seven kings there are," not necessarily, as commonly translated, "they are seven kings," that is, the mountains represent seven kings. We are not satisfied with any solution of the riddle of these seven kings which we have yet seen, and will not presume to add another to the legion of guesses which have been put forth.' But we venture to suggest that the beast "which was, and is not, and shall come," may be understood primarily of Satan himself, under his different and successive manifestations, in the persons of bitter persecutors of the Church. It was the beast from the abyss by whom the two witnesses were slain (chap. xi, 7; comp. chap. xx, 7). Cast out by the death of one imperial persecutor he goes into the abyss (comp. Luke viii, 31), and, anon, comes up again out of the abyss, and appropriates the blasphemy and forces and diadems of the empire to make war upon the Lamb and his faithful followers. As the Elijah, who was to come before the great and notable day of Jehovah (Mal. iv, 5), appeared in the person of John the Baptist (Matt. xi, 14), and was so called because he represented the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke i, 17), so the beast "which was, and is not, is himself also an eighth,' and symbolically. If the woman is not literal, why should the mountains be so thought? And to call the woman a literal city, built on seven hills, is equally gratuitous, whether a Protestant says it of Rome or a Romanist of Constantinople."-The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded, p. 439. 1 The explanations of the seven kings may be divided into three classes: I. Those which regard them as so many different historical phases of world-power, as (1) Egypt, (2) Assyria, (3) Babylon, (4) Persia, (5) Greece, (6) Rome, (7) Germanic-Sclavonic Empire (Auberlen); or (1) Babylonian, (2) Medo-Persian, (3) Greek, (4) Syrian, (5) Egyptian, (6) Roman, (7) German Empire (Wordsworth). II. Those which make them represent so many different classes of rulers, as (1) kings, (2) consuls, (3) decemvirs, (4) military tribunes, (5) dictators, (6) emperors, (7) popes (Vitringa); or (1) kings, (2) consuls, (3) dictators, (4) decemvirs, (5) military tribunes, (6) the wreath-crowned (σrépavos) emperors, (7) the diadem (diáðnua) emperors (Elliott). III. Those which understand seven individual kings, as the first seven Cæsars, (1) Julius, (2) Augustus, (3) Tiberius, (4) Caligula, (5) Claudius, (6) Nero, (7) Galba (Stuart). Others begin the seven with Augustus; Grotius begins with Claudius; Düsterdieck throws out of the number the three usurpers, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, and makes the seventh head Vespasian. Züllig understands the seven kings to be (1) Herod the Great, (2) Archelaus, (3) Philip, (4) Antipas, (5) Agrippa, (6) Herod of Chalcis, (7) Agrippa II., considered as antitypes of the seven Edomite kings mentioned in Gen. xxxvi, 33-38. The author of The Parousia (Lond., 1878) identifies them with the seven procurators of Judea, (1) Cuspius Fadus, (2) Tiberius Alexander, (3) Ventidius Cumanus, (4) Antonius Felix, (5) Porcius Festus, (6) Albinus, (7) Gessius Florus. The above by no means exhausts the various explanations. Surely he who would presume to determine an important question of apocalyptic interpretation upon any theory of the seven kings builds upon a very uncertain foundation. 2 According to Gebhardt "the eighth king is identical with the beast (comp. Cowles on the Revelation, in loco), whose seven heads are seven kings. As individual |