SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section FirstPrologue (Revelation 1:1-8) General.—Of God.—Of Revelation.—Of witness [Martyrium].—Of visions.—Of Divine service.—Of the Church.—Of the Trinity.—Of salvation.—Of the destination of Christians.—Of the Coming of Christ, in order to the complete revelation of God. Special.—[Revelation 1:1. Revelation as the Apocalypse, the end and crown of revelations.—-The end and crown of the Biblical Books.—The end and crown of the doctrines of the Christian faith.—The end and crown of parζneses. [Revelation 1:2. The Apostles as the great martyrs or witnesses of Christ:—Of His past, present, future [or coming].—John, in respect to his import in a doctrinal and a homiletical point of view.—John as the Seer of spirit in realities (the Gospel) and of realities in spirit (the Apocalypse).—The vision as a sign of the depth of the inner human life, and the height of the ripened Christian life.—[Revelation 1:3. Blessedness of the Christian in anticipation of the Coming of Christ.—The always certain nearness of the last time in the rapid course and change of Christian times.—The Coming of Christ in every Christian age.—Christian worship in the simple ground-form of readers and hearers.—Common blessedness of the leading and the led in a true cultus.—[Revelation 1:4-5. As the all-embracing idiocrasy of Christ is divided and reflected in the Apostles, so the idiocrasies of the Apostles are divided and reflected in those of the Church.—The Seven Churches in the deepest reality One Church.—The Trinity of God in the glory of its revelation: The Father, as the Primal Source of grace and peace—Who is, Who was, and Who cometh; The Holy Ghost in the manifestations of the Seven Spirits before the Throne of the Divine Rule; The Son of God, as the Faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead; as the Prince of the kings of the earth; as He Who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His blood.—The grace which is upon Christians, and the peace which is in them, an eternally new benedictive greeting from the Triune God.—[Revelation 1:6. The high calling of Christians, by which they are made a kingdom of priests; how this calling is realized for them, and how it becomes realized in them.—Kings and priests considered in respect of their connection: 1. Kings and priests, in the sense of their degeneracy, alternately war and conspire against each other; 2. Kings and priests, in the sense of the worldly order of things, mutually balance and limit each other; 3. Kings and priests, as servants of God, in the sense of the spiritual life, are one, and mutually condition each other.—A man becomes a king, in the service of God, only when he continually sacrifices or surrenders all things to Him in pure self-renunciation, as a priest.—A man becomes a priest of the Eternal Spirit only when he can administer kingly possessions in kingly freedom.—The first doxology: 1. Glory; 2. Dominion; 3. Both to continue into the ζons.—Whereby can I perceive that God is glorified on earth? 1. When no earthly glory obscures, like a cloud, this heavenly Sun. 2. When His glory is duly seen and appreciated in the reflected lustre of all that is holy and glorious on earth.—In God’s Kingdom, His dominion is based upon His glory, as is His glory upon His dominion.—What is the meaning of eternities [ζons? the G. V. has: von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit=from eternity to eternity]? Infinite revelation of the Divine Essence. Infinite unfolding of a blessed life. Infinite development and unveilment of the world.—The Biblical Amen: The perfected Personality of Christ; Perfected phase of the Kingdom; Perfected certitude of prayer.—[Revelation 1:7. The Theme of the Book: He cometh.—Also the theme of worldly history; of religious presentiments; of science and of art.—With the clouds. As high and free as are the clouds as they emerge to view out of the depths of Heaven; as hidden and as manifest as the lightning in the cloud; as elevated above the earth, and as surely destined for the earth.—And every eye shall see Him. One day these eyes of ours shall show to each and all of us the Lord.—How this announcement finds its incipient fulfillment in every act of worship that we perform: We look up to Him. We perceive ourselves to be guilty in respect of the cross of Christ. We celebrate His Passion and His Death with sacred lamentations for the Dead.—This prophecy shall one day become a completed reality.—With Christ’s Coming Sunday comes; true and unceasing worship comes; the word of revelation comes upon the whole earth.—Even His enemies must see Him; must recognize their guilt in respect of Him in their guilt in respect of their inmost selves; must join, in one way or another, in the last lamentation over Him.—[Revelation 1:8. In the Coming of Christ, God shall perfectly manifest Himself as Jehovah, the Covenant God:—faithful to Himself—faithful to His people—faithful to His justice toward all.—Alpha and Omega; or the most profound idea elementarily illustrated. As the whole expression embraces the entire spirit-world, so the Spirit of God comprehends the beginning, the middle, and the end of things.—Import of the fact that God will not perfectly manifest Himself until the end of the course of this world; that He is utterly distinct from (1) fate, (2) despotism, (3) arbitrariness, (4) chance.—On the Martyrs.—On Divine Service.—On the Feast of Trinity.—On Confirmation. Comp. Exodus 19.; Isaiah 6.; Ezekiel 1.; Daniel 7.; Zechariah 12.; Matthew 24:30, et al.Starke: All revelations of God come to us through Christ.—The most eminent function of an Apostle or Teacher is to testify of Christ.—Such a reading and hearing of Holy Scripture as is pleasing to God, confers blessedness.—The wish: [1] The utterer of the wish; [2] The objects of the wish; [3] The subject of the wish; [4] The One to Whom the wish is addressed.—Cramer: The condition of a Christian a noble condition.—Ναὶ, ἀμὴν est gemina confirmatio, una grζca, altera hebraica.Sander (“Versuch einer Erklδrung,” 1829, see p. 73): If the Revelation of John be compared with the rest of the Sacred Writings, especially those of the Prophets, it will be found that John uses scarce any image that is not contained in these and that might not be explained through them. Compare Revelation 1. and Ezekiel 1:26; Isaiah 6., etc. (Moreover, the homogeneousness of the images presupposes the homogeneousness of the facts.) Only in John’s writings all those things which in the other Prophets are more scattered, are concentrated; he catches, as it were, in the focus of a burning-glass all the rays of individual Prophets, so that it is not to be wondered at that the brightness thence resultant dazzles many. Waechtler (see p. 74): A knowledge of the Revelation of St. John is highly important for all Christians (Revelation 1:1-3)—Grace and peace from God, the inexhaustible Fountain of all comfort (Revelation 1:4-6). Bφhmer (see p. 73): In the Christian creed, the Holy Ghost is placed after the Father and the Son, as proceeding from Them both. John, however, is writing, not a system of divinity, but a sacred history, in which the general point of departure is the all-sovereign eternal God; next are revealed the powers which prepare the way for the fulfillment of His counsel of salvation, and last comes Christ Himself—first, as the true and highest Prophet, the “faithful Witness,” then as the “First-born of the dead,” and finally as the “Prince of the kings of the earth.” [Barnes: Revelation 1:7. And every eye shall see Him. Every one has this in certain prospect, that he shall see the Son of Man coming as a Judge.] On the literature (see above, p. 74). Lilienthal, Bibl. Archivarius, p. 808.—Danz, p. 57 and Supplement, p. 6. [ ON THE , Revelation 1:6. By the American Editor[The expression Kingdom of God (and its manifest synonyms, Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom, Kingdom of Christ, etc.) is of most frequent occurrence in the New Testament, and apparently of greatest importance. It is the phrase employed to designate that—(1) which the Baptist heralded (Matthew 3:2); which our Lord, in the beginning of His ministry, proclaimed as at hand (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14); (3) to the exposition of which His life before His Crucifixion was mainly devoted (Luke 4:43, and the Gospels pass.); (4) concerning which He gave prλeminent instruction throughout the forty days that followed His Resurrection (Acts 1:3); (5) which He sent forth His disciples to herald before His Passion (Matthew 10:7; Luke 9:2; Luke 10:9); (6) concerning which His ministers, after His Ascension, went everywhere giving instruction (Acts 8:12; Acts 14:22; Acts 19:8; Acts 20:25; Acts 28:23; Acts 28:31; and the Eps. It might naturally be supposed that some one objective would be represented by this oft-recurring and apparently important phrase, and yet there is no expression which the great mass of interpreters regard as having been used in so many varied and mutually exclusive senses. In some instances it is represented as designating something established on earth in New Testament times, either before the Crucifixion, or at the Ascension, or on the day of Pentecost; in others (and by the same interpreter), as something to be established in the future. Where it is regarded as indicating something already established—in some instances it is viewed as representing true religion in the heart; in others, the vital Church; and in others still, the apparent Church. Where viewed as designating something future—sometimes it is held to signify the millenial era on earth; and sometimes the Kingdom of glory in Heaven. Dr. Robinson, who may be regarded as a representative of the most numerous school of evangelical interpreters, and who, through his Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries, exerts a most powerful influence upon the theological thought of the ministry of this country, under the title Βασιλεία, thus writes: “We may therefore regard the kingdom of heaven, etc. in the New Testament as designating in its Christian sense, the Christian dispensation, or the community of those who receive Jesus as the Messiah, and who, united by His Spirit under Him as their Head, rejoice in the truth, and live a holy life in love and communion with Him. This spiritual kingdom has both an internal and an external form. As internal, it already exists and rules in the hearts of all Christians (it is then a principle.—E. R. C.) and is therefore present. As external, it is either embodied in the visible church of Christ, and in so far is present and progressive; or it is to be perfected in the coming of the Messiah to judgment and His subsequent spiritual reign in bliss and glory, in which view it is future. But these different aspects are not always distinguished, the expression often embracing both the internal and external sense, and referring both to its commencement in this world and its completion in the world to come.” In his following digest of passages he gives instances of all these alleged uses. Now it is evident that a dispensation, a principle, and a people actuated by that principle, are distinct, mutually exclusive objectives. To suppose that they were designated by one and the same expression, and that expression manifestly one of the most important in the Book of Life, is to attribute to the inspired writers a looseness in the use of language which, to say the least, would be thought strange in an uninspired teacher, and which, in the case of men writing under the influence of the Spirit for the instruction of the Church in all ages, is scarce conceivable. To such a supposition we should be driven only by most urgent considerations. The question naturally arises—Is there not some one objective which the expression may be regarded as indicating in each instance of its occurrence, and which objective shall satisfy all the demands of the expression—grammatical and contextual—in all its occurrences in the word of God? If such an objective can be set forth, it must, manifestly, be regarded as the one contemplated by the Spirit of the Lord. The writer believes that there is such an one—complex indeed, as is the objective of the term Church—but which, in all its fullness, may be regarded as designated by the expression wherever it occurs.—To the exposition of that objective this Excursus is devoted. As preliminary, however, to this consideration of the nature of the Basileia (which, for the sake of precision, that Kingdom of God heralded by John and preached by Jesus will, in this article, be styled) it will be necessary to discuss another topic, viz.: its futurity. The generally received opinion that the Scriptures teach that it, in some one of its phases, was established in the days of our Lord, or shortly after His Ascension, lies at the basis of the prevalent idea as to its nature; and, consequently, until that opinion is at least shaken, and several of the texts which, almost without question, are assumed so to teach, are shown to have no such force, it cannot be expected that due weight will be given to those expressions which set forth its nature in language inapplicable to aught that now exists, or has ever existed, on earth. I. THE OF THE Before presenting the scriptural argument it is proper to premise that— (a). The fact that the natural Kingdom of God includes the earth as a revolted province, affords no proof that the Basileia prophesied by Daniel as future was established by Jesus. That natural Kingdom existed from the beginning. (b). The mere fact that the existing order of things on earth—an organized Church, grace in the heart—can be spoken of as a Kingdom, does not imply that the Basileia has been established; a similar state of things existed when Daniel prophesied of the establishment of the Basileia as future. With these remarks we proceed to the argument. 1. Our Lord and His Apostles at every stage of New Testament history referred to its establishment as future: (1). Indefinitely as to accompanying event (only the leading passages will be cited): Jesus preached that it was at hand (i.e., not then established) Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14 : He taught His disciples to pray “Thy Kingdom come,” Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2 : He sent them forth to preach the coming Kingdom, Matthew 10:7; Luke 9:2; Luke 10:9 : near the close of His ministry He spake a parable for the instruction of those who thought it “should immediately appear” (μέλλειαναφαίνεσθαι), Luke 19:11 : in the institution of the Supper He again and again referred to its futurity Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:16-18; Luke 22:24-30 : it is declared that, after the Resurrection, “He opened their (the Apostles’) understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45), and also that “He was seen of them forty days, (and) speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God,” Acts 1:3;—on the last day of His sojourn with them, they, illuminated and instructed, asked a question, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the Kingdom unto Israel,” evidently based upon the belief that it had not already been established, and He gave an answer that implied the correctness of that belief; is it conceivable either that they were mistaken, or that, if they had been, He would have so answered as to confirm them in their mistake? The Apostle James speaks of believers as heirs of a promised Kingdom, Revelation 2:5 : Paul, of his being preserved unto God’s heavenly Kingdom, 2 Timothy 4:18; of inheriting the Kingdom, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:5; of his fellow-workers unto (εἰς) the Kingdom, Colossians 4:11 : Peter exhorts believers so to walk that they might enter into the everlasting Kingdom, 2 Peter 1:11. (2). By representing it as synchronous with the second glorious Advent of the Messiah: This intimation was first given by Jesus just before the Transfiguration and after He had begun to show to His disciples that the first Advent was to be one of humiliation, comp. Matthew 16:21; Matthew 16:27-28; Mark 8:31; Mark 8:38; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:22; Luke 9:26-27. It is evident from a comparison of our Lord’s last discourse (the Greek text) on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24, 25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5-33), with the LXX. of Daniel (Daniel 7:9-17, Daniel 9:27, Daniel 12:1-13), that He had those prophecies in view throughout; and that He, as did Daniel (Daniel 7:13-14), connected the establishment of the Basileia with a future glorious Advent of the “Son of Man;” comp. Matthew 24:3; Matthew 24:27; Matthew 24:30; Matthew 24:39; Matthew 25:1; Matthew 25:31; Matthew 25:34; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27-28 (and note especially) Rev 31: see also 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10; 2 Timothy 4:1. (There was probably an allusion to this in the institution of the Supper; comp. Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:16; Luke 22:18, with 1 Corinthians 11:26). 2. Jesus implied that the offer of immediate establishment was withdrawn from the Jewish Church because of its rejection of Him, and that the establishment itself was postponed; comp. Luke 19:41-44 (the weeping over Jerusalem and the accompanying remarks) with the subsequent addresses in the temple, Matthew 21:23 to Matthew 23:39, especially Matthew 21:42-43, Matthew 23:37-39. The preceding scriptures do not in themselves imply more than the withdrawal of the offer from the Jewish Church, in order to an immediate establishment amongst Jewish and Gentile converts; but, in connection with the words of Jesus referred to under the preceding head, the implication of an indefinite postponement becomes manifest. This view finds confirmation in the prediction of the humiliation of the Church until the day of Christ’s glorious appearing, 1 Peter 4:13; (see also Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 2:12; 2 Timothy 3:12, etc.). 3. There is no critically undisputed passage in the Scriptures which declares, or necessarily implies, even a partial establishment in New Testament times (Revelation 1:6, is not contemplated in this argument, as the correct reading is uncertain). The passages which have been referred to as proving the doctrine of a present establishment may be divided into two classes, viz.: those which it is alleged (1) logically imply it, (2) directly declare it. These will be examined in the order indicated. It should be distinctly noted that it is not denied that many of these passages are consistent with the hypothesis of a present establishment. All that is now claimed (save in reference to one or two of them) is that they are also consistent with the hypothesis of an entirely future establishment. (1). Those passages which, it is alleged, logically imply a present establishment of the Basileia. a. Those in which our Lord, and others, declare it to be near (ἐγγίζειν), as Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17, etc. Admitting that any reference in argument to the distinction between prophetic and historic nearness would, in this connection, be out of place, it is enough to say that the offer of an immediate establishment, an offer subsequently withdrawn because of virtual rejection, fully satisfies all the requirements of the language referred to. b. Those which declare that Jesus was a King, Matthew 2:2; Matthew 21:5; John 1:49; John 18:37, etc. Reference need only be made to the manifest distinction between a King de jure and a King de facto. He was born King of the Jews, and yet confessedly for thirty years He did not establish His Kingdom. A similar explanation may be given to the fact that believers are styled a βασίλειονἱεράτευμα, 1 Peter 2:9. (The fact that He is now exalted to the throne of universal dominion, Ephesians 1:20-22, no more proves that the Basileia is now established on earth, than did the universal government of God in the days of Daniel prove that the Kingdom of God was then established on earth. We must distinguish between a Kingdom on earth, and a Kingdom over earth—which includes earth as a revolted province.) c. The exhortations of our Lord to “seek the Kingdom of God,” Matthew 6:33; Luke 12:31. It is manifest that both these exhortations are consistent with the hypothesis of a future Kingdom—as though He had said, So act, that when the Basileia is established you may enter it. Indeed the contexts of both exhortations require that we should put that interpretation upon them: the one in Matt. follows the direction to pray “Thy Kingdom come” (Revelation 1:10), and that in Luke is manifestly parallel with the exhortation to wait for an absent Lord (Luke 1:35-40). d. The declaration “this generation shall not pass,” etc., Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32. The term γενεά is one of the most indefinite in the Greek language. It is used to represent a race of men, a generation (of which three make a century, an age (see Liddell and Scott). Immediately after the preceding utterance our Lord declared that the time of His second coming was concealed (Matthew 24:36); is it not probable that, in using this indefinite term, He did so designedly, that no note of time might be given? e. The declaration of Jesus, “There be some standing here,” etc., Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27. This, according to the opinion of Chrysostom and others (see Lange Comm. on Matthew 16:28), may find its fulfillment in the immediately following Transfiguration. In this event the Basileia was not merely symbolized, but in all its glory was for a moment set up on earth (comp. 2 Peter 1:16-18). (2) The passages which, it is alleged, declare a present Basileia. a. Matthew 11:12; Luke 16:16. It is assumed that βιάζεται and ἁρπάζουσιν are taken in a good sense, as in the E. V. Against this assumption may be urged—(a) the established usage of the words: βιάζειν occurs in the New Testament only in the passages under consideration; in the LXX. it occurs (undisputed) ten times, it represents rape (Deuteronomy 22:25; Deuteronomy 22:28; Esther 7:8), the breaking through the barriers around Sinai (Exodus 19:24), simple violence (Sir 4:29; Sir 31:24; 2Ma 14:41), urging (Genesis 30:12; Judges 19:7; 2 Kings 5:23); the leading idea of the word when applied to persons is, inimical violence; ἁρπάζειν occurs thirty-three times in the LXX., and (with possibly four exceptions) is always used in a bad sense; it represents the violence of the robber, the ravening of the lion and the wolf (Genesis 37:33; Leviticus 6:4, etc.); in the New Testament (besides the instance under consideration) it occurs, Matthew 13:19; John 10:12; John 10:28-29; John 6:15; Acts 8:39; Acts 23:10; 2 Corinthians 12:2; 2 Corinthians 12:4; in all these instances the idea is that of overmastering force, and in the first four, which (with the one under consideration) are the only instances of its use by our Saviour, it indicates sinful force: (b) The unfitness of the terms, when used in a good sense, to represent the approach of a penitent sinner to Christ: the disciples were captives—not conquerors; (c) Their unfitness in a good sense, and their fitness in a bad sense, to represent the condition of things then existing. It is true that in the beginning of our Lord’s ministry the people crowded around Him; but few, however, in the modern sense of the phrase, “entered the kingdom;” on the occasion indicated by Matthew 11:12, the people were deserting Him (Revelation 1:12-20), and their leaders were engaged in that system of opposition and persecution that culminated in His crucifixion. Must we not conclude that by these words our Lord intended to indicate that violent opposition to, and ravening upon, the offered kingdom in the person of Him, its representative, which resulted in the withdrawal of the offer (Matthew 21:43) and the fearful denunciations of Mat 23:13-39? b. Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20. The original is both cases is ἔφθασανἐφ’ ὑμᾶς, not ἔρχεται (Luke 17:20), nor ἀναφαίνεσθαι (Luke 19:11). “In the New Testament, with the exception of 1 Thessalonians 4:15, (?) φθάνειν occurs only in the later, weakened sense of reaching to” (Lange Com. on 1 Thess., p. 43, E. V.). The phrase is similar to the one in 1 Thessalonians 2:16, where, manifestly, it was not designed to represent the wrath spoken of as already poured forth upon its objects—they were living men, but as having reached unto, overhanging them, comp. also Romans 9:31; 2 Corinthians 10:14; Philippians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:15, in all which, however, the prepositions are different. The passages under consideration aptly accord with the idea of a near approach of the Basileia to the Jews in the person of Christ, implying an offer of establishment which might be withdrawn; they are equivalent to the declaration of Luk 10:9; Luke 10:11. c. Luke 17:20-21. This passage, probably, by the advocates of the prevalent theory of the Basileia, is regarded as their most important proof-text, both as to its nature and present establishment. In this portion of the Excursus, only its bearing on the latter of these points is to be considered. In the E. V. there is a difference in tense between the question of the Pharisees and the answer of Jesus—they asking, when the Basileia should come, and He answering, it cometh not with observation, it is within you—which necessarily implies a declaration of then existing establishment. This difference is altogether unauthorized—both the question and the answer are in the present; the question of the Pharisees should be translated “when cometh (ἕρχεται) the kingdom of God?” The question was asked in the vivid, dramatic present; it manifestly had reference to the future; it would be in defiance of every conceivable law of language to suppose that our Lord, in following the lead of His questioners, intended to indicate a different tense. The question and the answer are but illustrations of that law proper to all languages, but pre-eminently to the Greek, by which a certain future may be represented by a verb in the present; illustrations may be found, Matthew 26:2 (after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed, etc.); 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 (it is sown in corruption, it is [in the future resurrection] raised in incorruption), (see Jelf, Winer, Kόhner, and grammarians generally). To the conclusion that the language of our Lord must be understood as having reference to the future, it may also be remarked, we are shut up by the following considerations: The supposition that He indicated an existing Basileia (a) implies that it was set up in (or among) the Pharisees; (b) disconnects His words from the immediately-following address to the disciples, whilst the contrary supposition brings them into manifest and beautiful connection therewith, and with His other utterances.d. In this connection may be considered that class of passages which are regarded as teaching the doctrine of a present Basileia from their use of present verb when mentioning it. (Reference is not now had to those in which there is aught in the context that apparently requires the hypothesis of a present kingdom—each of these receives an independent consideration). These passages are: all those parables which thus refer to the Basileia, Matthew 13:31; Matthew 13:38; Matthew 13:44-45; Matthew 13:47, etc.; also Matthew 11:11; Romans 14:17. These, it is admitted, are all consistent with the hypothesis of a present kingdom; but, under the rule set forth under the preceding head, they are all grammatically consistent with that of a certain future establishment. That there is nothing in the nature of the Basileia as set forth in the parables to require the hypothesis of a present kingdom, but the contrary, will appear in the second general division of this Excursus. e. Acts 2:29-36. It is assumed by many that the exaltation of Act 2:33 constitutes the session on the throne of David of Act 2:30. But the assumption is wholly gratuitous. Nowhere in his sermon did the apostle declare the oneness of the two events; and most certainly the exaltation there spoken of does not imply the session as already existing—it may be an exaltation begun, to culminate in a visible occupancy of the throne of David. (The visible establishment by an emperor of the seat of his government in the heart of a once revolted province, does not derogate from his dignity—does not imply an abdication of government in the rest of his empire.) But beyond this, not only is the assumption gratuitous; it is against probabilities that amount to certainty. The apostle, be it remembered, was arguing with Jews, to prove that the absent Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 2:36); he was arguing with those, one of whose most cherished beliefs it was that the Messiah should occupy a visible throne. To suppose that, under such circumstances, he should advance a doctrine at war with this belief without a word of explanation or proof, and that too in a sentence capable of an interpretation consistent therewith, is inconceivable. The interpretation suggested by the writer is confirmed not only by its consistency with the previous teachings of our Lord, but by the address delivered by the Apostle Peter shortly after, Acts 3:19-20. The literal translation of the passage referred to is as follows (see Lange Com. and Alford): “Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah Jesus, who was appointed unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things,” etc. It is also confirmed by the subsequent teachings of the apostle in his epistles; comp. 1 Peter 1:4-7; 1 Peter 1:13; 2 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1:16; the κληρονομία and ἀποκάλυψις of the I Epistle are manifestly synonymous with the βασιλεία and παρουσία of the II. 1 Thessalonians 2:12. The preposition in the Greek is εἰς. But since believers on earth are not yet in glory, the whole expression is manifestly proleptical, and the E. V. gives the translation, unto. Colossians 1:13. At first glance, the passage apparently teaches that believers are already translated de facto into the Basileia; it may however legitimately be regarded as teaching a de jure translation. Not only does this interpretation bring the passage into harmony with the great mass of Scripture, but it seems to be required by the immediately preceding and succeeding contexts; believers are not yet delivered de facto from the ἐξουσία of Satan (Ephesians 5:12), nor have they yet received de facto, certainly not in completeness, the ἀπολύτρωσιν (comp. Luke 21:28; Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 4:30; see Lange Comm. in loc.). Hebrews 12:28. The reception of the Basileia herein spoken of manifestly may be de jure. Believers on earth receive a sure title to their future possession. II. NATURE OF THE When the Baptist and our Lord began to preach “the Kingdom of God is at hand,” the subject of their discourse was no novelty. The Jews were then expecting the establishment of a Basileia, which had been foretold by the prophets. The phrases “Kingdom of God,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” do not indeed occur in exact form in the Old Testament; cognate expressions, however, appear, which may be divided into two classes—(1). Those which refer to the natural Kingdom of God over the universe, Daniel 4:3; Daniel 4:34; Daniel 6:26; Psalms 145:12-13; (LXX. Daniel 3:33, Daniel 4:31, Daniel 6:27; Psalms 144:12-13). (2). Those in which the then future Basileia of the Messiah was predicted, Daniel 2:44; Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:27, (LXX. as Heb.); allied to the prophecies from which these citations are made, are Isaiah 11; Isaiah 32; Isaiah 59:20 to Isaiah 66:24; Psalms 2; Psalms 72, etc. There can be no doubt that the Basileia foretold in the latter class was the one contemplated by Jesus, especially in view of the distinct reference to the prophecies of Daniel, and the quotations therefrom, in His great eschatological discourse on the Mount of Olives. 1. The apparent characteristics of the Basileia as deduced from a normal interpretation of the prophecies referred to, are as follows: It was a government to be established.—(1) in a glorious, visible advent of “the Son of man,” Daniel 7:13-14; (2) in the συντέλειατοῦκαιροῦ, Daniel 9:27; Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:13; (3) after a period of great θλῖψις. Daniel 12:1; Daniel 11:26-27; (4) whose members should be governors (the subject nations were under, not members of the Basileia), Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27; (5) as �cumenical, Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:27, et pass. the other prophecies; (6) as political, in the proper sense of the term, as indicating an external government exercised, as are now merely human governments, over the persons and property of men, (passim the prophecies; (7) whose members should be the saints (spiritually holy ones) of the covenanted people of the preceding ζon or καιρός, Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27 (comp. 27, Daniel 9:27,Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:13); (8) in which righteousness (spiritual and external) should prevail, (pass. the prophecies). Let it be observed concerning these characteristics—a. That no one is exclusive of any other; all may co-exist in one and the same objective. b. That if fairly deduced from the normal sense of the Old Testament Scriptures they are to be regarded as the true characteristics, unless it can be shown that the New Testament teachers declared that the prophecies are not to be normally interpreted, at least in reference to the points specified. c. That whilst the first six accord with those presented in what is universally recognized as the old Jewish scheme, the 7th and 8th are different—for the Saints of the covenanted people, the Jews substituted the natural seed of Abraham, and for spiritual, mere ceremonial righteousness. 2. Jesus and the other inspired New Testament teachers recognized the truth of the foregoing characteristics. They did so not only by positive affirmation in respect to each one; but also by direct condemnation of the Jews for misinterpreting the Scriptures, where they substituted different doctrines, and by silence at times, as well as occasional affirmation, in respect to all those other points on which the Jewish belief accorded with them. (In the following exhibit, for purposes of compactness and distinctness in argument, the 7th and 8th of the characteristics will be considered first, and in the inverse order—the preceding notation, however, being preserved.) (8). The Basileia was to be a government in which righteousness (spiritual and external) should prevail. It is a universally recognized fact that the great mass of the Jews of our Saviour’s day regarded all righteousness as consisting in ceremonial observance. Our Lord in rebuking this opinion, and in declaring to the people, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of heaven,” (Matthew 5:20), proceeded on the ground, not that the true meaning of the Old Testament had been hidden beneath a mystic veil which He came to remove, but that they had “made the law of God of none effect (i. e. had set aside its normal interpretation) through their (your) traditions” (Matthew 15:6). Throughout the whole of His ministry, as lies on the surface of the New Testament, He taught the great doctrine previously taught by the prophets, that into the Basileia nothing impure should enter. (As to the special force, as bearing on this point, of the parables in Matthew 13, 12, 25, see below.) (7). Whose members should be the saints (spiritually holy ones) of the covenanted people of the preceding ζon. The Jews believed that the members of the Basileia were to be selected from the members of the covenanted people of the preceding ζon, and on this point our Lord uttered no denial. He referred not merely to those then living as entering into the future Kingdom, but to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as having a place therein, Luke 13:28. His teachings manifestly accorded with their beliefs. The Apostle Paul declared, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” and, further, that upon those who remain upon earth until the coming of the Lord a resurrection change should pass (comp. 1 Corinthians 15:50-52 with 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17), implying that those who inherit the Kingdom are the changed Saints of a former dispensation. For the Saints, however, the Jews substituted the ceremonially righteous, and for the covenanted people, the natural seed of Abraham. Both these substitutions Jesus condemned, and that in accordance with the normal interpretation of the Old Testament. The former condemnation and its ground were virtually considered under the preceding characteristic. As to the latter, the Baptist declared: “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham,” Matthew 3:9, and our Lord declared to the Chief Priests and Elders, “The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation (ἔθνος=gentile people) bringing forth the fruits thereof,” Matthew 21:43. Now, in making these declarations, Jesus and His forerunner were not uttering new revelations—they were proceeding on the platform of Old Testament Scripture, whose normal sense was ignored by the Jews. It is true that the covenant belonged pre-eminently to the natural seed of Abraham; yet, from the beginning, on the one hand, great branches of that seed had been cast aside; and, on the other, provision had been made for the reception of proselytes, and it had also been prophesied that in process of time Jehovah would call them His people (φָ ?ν=λαός) who had not been His people, Hosea 2:23. In that portion of the epistle to the Romans (9–11) in which the Apostle establishes the covenant relations of converted Gentiles, their true engrafting into the covenanted people (Romans 10:17-21), he does not speak of it as a strange thing, but argues it as the fulfillment of prophecy, quoting the prophecy of Hosea above cited (Romans 9:24-26). Manifestly the New Testament teachers not merely approve this characteristic, but the Apostle Paul approves it as in accordance with the Old Testament. (1). It was to be established in a glorious visible advent of “the Son of Man.” This is universally recognized as one of the most prominent doctrines of the Jews. If it had been an error, it is inconceivable that our Lord would not have rebuked it in terms as decided as those employed in reference to other errors. But on the contrary He affirmed it, and affirmed it, manifestly, as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel (see under section 1, (2), of the I. division). The only instances in which it is claimed that He denied it (or spoke of a Basileia as coming in any other mode) are Luke 17:21-22, and those few passages in which He referred to the Kingdom in the use of a present verb. The passage in Luke is best explained as being in harmony with His other teachings (see above), and the other passages, as we have seen, are grammatically consistent therewith. (2). In the συντέλειατοῦκαιροῦ (Daniel 9:27; Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:13). This was directly taught and in manifest reference to the prophecy of Daniel, comp. Matthew 24:3; Matthew 24:6; Matthew 24:13; Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:7; Luke 21:9; Luke 21:31; see also Matthew 13:39-40; Matthew 13:49, with context. (3). After a period of great θλῖψις (Daniel 12:1; Daniel 7:26-27). Confirmed in the New Testament, Matthew 24:21; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:19; Mark 13:24; 1 Peter 4:12-13; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-7. (4). The members to be governors (Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27). This was a doctrine never controverted by our Lord; but, on the contrary, He again and again so spake as to manifest that He took its truth for granted. See Matthew 19:28; Matthew 24:47; Matthew 25:21; Matthew 25:23; Luke 12:44; Luke 19:17; Luke 19:19; Luke 22:29-30. The counsel that He gave His disciples on the occasion of the ambitious request of the Sons of Zebedee, Matthew 20:25-28, and the rebuke He administered at the Last Supper, Luke 22:24-27, cannot be understood as negativing that doctrine. His design on both these occasions was, not to teach that there should be no ruling in the Basileia, but to rebuke the ambitious spirit that seeks after authority for the sake of self, and to teach that the true idea of ruling is that of rendering service. This is evident from the fact that He presented Himself, the acknowledged Master, as their model; and from the further facts that, on the first of the mentioned occasions, He implied that one was to sit on His right hand and another on His left (to share in superior authority), Matthew 20:23, and that, in the latter, immediately after the rebuke, He declared to His Apostles that they should sit on thrones, Luke 22:29-30. (See also 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; Judges 14, 15; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5:10; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 22:5.) (5). As �cumenical. No one affirms that this characteristic was ever denied by our Lord. It was not, indeed, directly declared by Him that the saints should be associated with Him in the rule of all the earth; it was manifestly implied, however, in His evident reference to the prophecies of Daniel as of normal interpretation without any qualification, and in His association of His disciples with Himself in government, in connection with the known belief of the Jews. It seems to be directly affirmed, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; Judges 14, 15; Revelation 20:6. (6). As political, (i. e., an external government exercised over the persons and property of men). There can be no question as to the apparent teaching of the Old Testament on this point; all the prophecies bearing on the Basileia present the idea of an external, political government. And it is also universally admitted that the Jews were expecting such a kingdom of the Messiah, an expectation which was shared by the Apostles. It is utterly inconceivable that if they had been mistaken on this point, especially as their mistake was confirmed by the apparent teaching of the prophecies, the Great Teacher would not have distinctly undeceived them. And yet throughout His whole ministry He continually so spake as to leave them in error if they were in error. On the occasion of the Last Supper, He employed language which must have confirmed them in their belief on this point, Luke 22:29-30,—a belief not shaken by His forty days teaching on the subject of the Basileia after His resurrection, as is evident from their last question, and in which He must have still further confirmed them by His answer, Acts 1:3-7. The alleged instances of His teaching a contrary doctrine will be considered in the following division. III. Our Lord and His disciples taught no doctrine of the (or a) Basileia (either complete or inchoate) as lacking any one of the preceding characteristics. It is alleged that this was done in those utterances in which the Basileia is spoken of in the use of a present verb, and also in Luke 12:14; Luke 17:20-21; Matthew 13:31-52; John 18:36; Romans 14:17. All these passages, it is contended, set forth a Basileia having a merely internal character. As to those texts whose force in this direction is derived merely from their grammatical form, we have seen that they are consistent with the idea of a future Basileia. We have also seen that Luke 17:20-21, is consistent with the theory maintained in this excursus. The other passages will be considered in their order. Luke 12:14. “Who made Me a judge or a divider over you?” The kingdom had not then been established; our Lord at that time occupied simply the position of a teacher. Matthew 13:31-52. It is contended that in the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven especially, Jesus taught concerning the Basileia, that it begins silently and imperceptibly in the heart and in the community, and gradually increases. The force of the argument is derived from the assumption that in these parables the thing next to the verb of comparison is that to which the Basileia is compared—that in one case it is compared to the mustard seed, and in the other to the little leaven which the woman hid. But if this rule hold good in one case, it must in all others; and under its operation we have the kingdom likened (Matthew 1:24) to the sower, (Matthew 13:45) to the merchant-man, (Matthew 20:1) to the householder. (Matthew 22:2) to the king, etc. Manifestly, in all these instances, we must pass over the next thing to the verb of comparison, to seek for the object of comparison. Doubtless the true explanation of the phrase “the kingdom is likened, etc.,” is the one given by Alford on Matthew 13:24, “is like the whole circumstances about to be detailed,” i. e., the entire parable presents a truth concerning the kingdom. With this explanation, unity as to the nature of the Basileia (which on the current interpretation is lacking) is brought into this whole series of parables, and these and all the other parables are brought into beautiful consistency with all the other teachings of our Lord. The series in Matt. may be regarded as setting forth that nothing impure, imperfect, or immature, can have place in the Basileia—in such case the good grain, the mighty tree, the thoroughly leavened lump, the treasure separated from the field, the pearl, the good fish, will represent it. John 18:36. In this utterance, it is contended that our Lord intended to declare to Pilate that the kingdom He came to establish was not after the manner of the kingdoms of this world, i. e., not external, political. It is admitted that the utterance considered in itself will bear this interpretation; but it will also bear one consistent with the theory herein advocated, especially in view of the introduction of νῦν in the last clause of the verse, which may be regarded as a particle of time—My kingdom is not now established. Which of these interpretations are we to adopt? The one supposes that our Lord whispered into the ear of a heathen (neither the disciples nor the Jews were in the Pretorium, John 1:28), the great truth concerning His kingdom, which he had not only concealed from His disciples (hid from them in a bewildering enigma) but a few hours before on the solemn occasion of the institution of the Supper, Luke 22:29-30; but which, also, He continued to conceal throughout the forty days of His subsequent continuance with them, during which time He is represented as “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,” Acts 1:3, and as opening “their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures,” Luke 24:45! The other interpretation supposes that He spake in consistency with His previous and subsequent teaching. Romans 14:17. This passage is perfectly consistent with the hypothesis of a merely internal Basileia, but manifestly it is also consistent with the hypothesis of a perfectly holy external government. “Meat and drink” do not necessarily infer externality, they may refer to mere fleshly enjoyment which has no place in the Basileia as set forth in this excursus. In conclusion of the whole subject it may be remarked: (1). If it has been fairly shown that the great mass of Scriptures in which the term Basileia occurs, require as the objective thereof the one set forth in this excursus, then is it utterly illogical, from the possible force of a few scattered passages, which may, without straining, be interpreted in consistency with the others; either, on the one hand, to deny the validity of the objective established, or, on the other hand, to hypothesize a second and variant objective—to conclude that the term was used ambiguously. (2). The theory herein defended is not liable to the objection that it presents a “carnal” or “material” doctrine concerning the nature of the Basileia. Most certainly the doctrine is not “carnal” in the bad sense of that term, nor as teaching that gross flesh and blood shall inherit the kingdom; nor is it “material” save so far as the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is so. It agrees with this latter doctrine in implying that the redemption of Christ respects the body as well as the soul, and also with the doctrine set forth in Romans 8:18-23. (3). Much important matter bearing on this subject, connected with the scriptural use of the terms συντέλεια, παρουσία, ἐπιφάνεια, ἀνάστασις, παλιγγενεσία, ἀποκατάστασις, κληρονομία, ζωὴαἰώνιος, has necessarily been passed over. Fully to discuss the subject in connection with all these terms would require a volume. (4). If the foregoing reasoning be valid, increased doubt is thrown upon the reading ἡμᾶςβασιλείαν, Revelation 1:6, of this chapter. Should, however, the now generally accepted reading be sustained, the passage may be rendered consistent with the theory herein supported by attributing to ἐποίησεν a proleptical, or rather de jure, force. And, lastly, this excursus has been written in a spirit of deep conviction, but not, it is trusted, in one of dogmatism. The writer feels that any man should study so vast and important a subject with the deepest humility and self-distrust, and express his conclusions with the utmost modesty; and he more keenly feels, as he finishes his work, than in the beginning, how unfit he is to grapple with it. If aught of dogmatism should have appeared in the expression of his views, he trusts that it will be attributed to the necessity of his situation, where brevity in expression is of prime importance.—E. R. C.] Footnotes: [The phrase Kingdom of Heaven occurs only in the Gospel of Matthew. That it is strictly synonymous with Kingdom of God is manifest from the following comparisons—Matthew 4:17 with Mark 1:14-15; Matthew 5:3 with Luke 6:20; Matthew 13:11 with Mark 4:11, Luke 8:10; Matthew 13:31 with Mark 4:30-31; Matthew 19:14 with Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16; Matthew 19:23 with Mark 10:23, Luke 18:24. Matthew himself uses Kingdom of God five times (Matthew 6:33, Matthew 12:28, Matthew 19:24, Matthew 21:31; Matthew 21:43). It needs but a glance at these passages to perceive that he uses the phrase as synonymous with the one more frequently employed by him.—E. R. C.] [Fully to appreciate this remark, we must appreciate the force of the terms παρατηρήσις and ἐντός. The former of these occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and only in one disputed passage in the LXX. Its verbal root, however, occurs several times, and always has the force of close watching or observation (Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7; Luke 14:1; Luke 20:20; Acts 9:24; Galatians 4:10). In accordance with the meaning of the verb, the Lange Com. (Van Oosterzee) translatesμεταπαρατηρήσεως: “with or under observation,” remarking “so that it can be recognized and observed by outward tokens, and that one could exclaim with assurance, Lo here! lo there!” The translation doubtless is correct, and also, in the main, the accompanying remark. The latter, however, might be so modified as to distinctly set forth the twofold idea of observation—(1) as to essence (as that which in itself is visible), and (2) as to manifestation or approach (as the dawn, whose approach is with or under observation). With this modification; not under observation, would mean either without visibility (as the wind), or without the signs of gradual approach (as the lightning). The strict meaning of ἐντός is within, in the midst of, as in Matthew 23:36; that which is ἐντός men individually, is that which is internal to them individually; that which is ἐντός them collectively (viewed as one whole), is that which is internal to them as a whole—in the midst of them—among them individually. This latter use of the term occurs Xenophon Anab. i. 10, 3—ἀλλὰκαὶταύτηνἔσωσαν (οἰἚλληνες) καὶἄλλαὁπόσαἐντὸςαὐτῶν, etc.. (see Alford in loc.) Now. remembering the close connection in the Jewish mind between the establishment of the Basileia, and the glorious coming of the Son of Man—a connection established by the prophecy of Daniel (Revelation 7:13-14), and not previously rebuked but approved by Jesus (Luke 9:26-27)—let any one hypothesize as the meaning of μετὰπαρατηρήσεως with the signs of a gradual approach, and of εντὸς in the midst of, and read the entire passage, Revelation 1:20-20. The Pharisees ask our Lord “when cometh the Kingdom of God?” He answers, “It cometh not with the signs of a gradual approach; neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there, for lo the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Then turning to His disciples He says: “The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, Lo here, lo there; go not after nor follow. For as the lightning that lighteneth (flashing) from one part under heaven shineth to the other part under heaven (comes not with the signs of a gradual approach), so also shall the Son of Man be in his day,” etc. Does not the very unity perceptible in the entire address—the vividness of the scene it presents—the manifest oneness of the doctrine with that elsewhere taught by our Lord, especially on the Mount of Olives—place the stamp of truth on the hypothesis? Does it not become manifest that this passage, so far from teaching the doctrine of a present establishment of the Basileia, must be numbered amongst those that connect the establishment with the Second Advent?—E. R. C.] [Normal is used instead of literal (the term generally employed in this connection) as more expressive of the correct idea. No terms could have been chosen more unfit to designate the two great schools of prophetical exegetes than literal and spiritual. These terms are not antithetical, nor are they in any proper sense significant of the peculiarities of the respective systems they are employed to characterize. They are positively misleading and confusing. Literal is opposed not to spiritual but to figurative; spiritual is in antithesis on the one hand to material, on the other to carnal (in a bad sense). The Literalist (so called) is not one who denies that figurative language, that symbols, are used in prophecy, nor does he deny that great spiritual truths are set forth therein; his position is, simply, that the prophecies are to be normally interpreted (i. e. according to the received laws of language) as any other utterances are interpreted—that which is manifestly literal being regarded as literal, that which is manifestly figurative being so regarded. The position of the Spiritualist (so called) is not that which is properly indicated by the term. He is one who holds that whilst certain portions of the prophecies are to be normally interpreted, other portions are to be regarded as having a mystical (i. e. involving some secret meaning) sense. Thus, for instance, Spiritualists (so called) do not deny that when the Messiah is spoken of as “a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief,” the prophecy is to be normally interpreted; they affirm, however, that when He is spoken of as coming “in the clouds of heaven” the language is to be “spiritually” (mystically) interpreted (see the quotation from Robinson in the introduction to the Excursus). The terms properly expressive of the schools are normal and mystical.—E. R. C.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section SecondFirst Vision. Heaven-picture of the Seven Churches (Revelation 1:9-20) General.—The pastoral fidelity of man here appears in reciprocal action with the pastoral fidelity of God. John on Patmos thinks of his seven churches in the spirit of prayer. But the Lord, through the Spirit of revelation, changes his glance at the seven churches into a vision of the whole future of the Church.—Heavenly blessedness in the midst of earthly martyrdom.—The prophetic visions as the theocratic higher reality of the Platonic ideas, the lofty mysterious source-points of all fundamental spiritual currents, or of the stream of salvation in the history of the world.—Preliminary conditions of prophecy—external affliction, internal solemn joy, loneliness, prayer.—Forms of revelation.—Development of revelation from the auricular to the ocular wonder.—Appearance of Christ in His glory in respect of its fundamental features. Christ, the Son of God, also eternally the glorified Son of Man—The shock experienced by the Seer at the appearance of the Lord in His revelation, a species of death, and hence a source of new, high life. How this shock—a. In its original form runs through the history of the prophetic callings (Exodus 3:6; Exodus 4:24; Exodus 34:30-35; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 1:6; Ezekiel 3:14-15; Daniel 10.); b. Is reflected in Jewish tradition (Ju. 13:22) and in Greek manticism, in which the manticist himself represents death, whilst the priest who expounds his oracle is representative of new life; c. Is shadowed in the history of apostate prophets, especially in that of Balaam (Numbers 24:4); d. Is crystallized in the fundamental forms of regeneration; repentance and faith—death of the old, resurrection of the new, man.—Doctrine of the kingdom of the dead, and of death.—Hades is to be distinguished from Gehenna.—The appearance of Christ, deadly for the moment, conferring life for ever.—Sacred literature (Revelation 1:19).—Key of symbolism (Revelation 1:20). Special.—[Revelation 1:9. John, an exile on earth, at home in Heaven.—The great Prophet, a brother and companion [fellow-partaker] of all Christians, (1) in tribulation, (2) in the glory of the Kingdom, (3) in the endurance of Jesus.—Patmos, so poor in geography, so glorified in the Theocracy, like Bethlehem and Nazareth. The like is true of Palestine and the earth itself. [Revelation 1:10. Sunday in its apostolic radiance: The day of the spirit; of transport; of complete revelation.—Sunday quiet, absorption of life in its profoundest depths, and thereby, at the same time, in the richest retrospect, and the clearest fore-view.—The sacred voice.—[Revelation 1:11. The sacred Book.—The Bible reposing upon Divine voices and trumpets.—The Christian who, through deep absorption of spirit, finds the three times [the past, present and future] in the present, thereby learns to know God as He Who is, Who was and Who cometh.—The seven churches or representatives of all churches—primarily, of all those in Asia Minor—or the one Church in its seven-fold form.—The sacred septenary of the churches, founded upon the septenary of the Spirits of God, and ever recurring in the subsequent sevens.—[Revelation 1:12-13. Christ is, therefore, here in the midst of the candlesticks, as well as in the other world. The same hierarchism which sunders doctrine and life, belief and morals, clergy and laity, spirit and nature, faith and culture, body and soul, also tears earth and Heaven apart. As the deist confines God to the other world, so the Hierarchy banishes the Lord Jesus Christ thither.—Christ is the living unity of the seven individual golden candlesticks, and through this unity alone is the type of the one seven-branched candlestick fulfilled (Exodus 25:31-37).—[Revelation 1:14-16. The form of Christ, considered in regard to its attributes; or the difference between theocratic symbolism and humanistic æsthetics.—[Revelation 1:17. Fear not, a groundword of Christianity from beginning to end (Luke 2:10; Matthew 28:5; see the Concordances, Title, Fear not).—The history and operation of the Death and Resurrection of Christ lift all fear from all believers.—[Revelation 1:18. Christ, the Living One, (1) in respect of His spiritual essence and mission (the First, the Last, the Life of life); (2) in respect of His history (having been dead, and having become alive forever); (3) in respect of His power (having the keys of Death and Hades),—[Revelation 1:19. “Write what thou seest.” All Scripture a copy of Divine reality.—[Revelation 1:20. The key of symbolism must form the starting-point for the disclosure of all Apocalyptic mysteries.—The Angels of the churches, neither presbyteries, nor bishops, nor preachers, but the spirit of the churches in symbolic personification—the spirit which, undoubtedly, should be represented by the heads of the churches, but which is very frequently not represented by them. This spirit represents their idiocrasy, their ideal, the quality of their spiritual life, and is the local invisible church.—The churches as candlesticks.—Celebration of Sunday.—Bible festivals.—Celebration of Easter.—Festival of the dead.—Celebration of church consecration (or consecration of the angel of a church).—Celebration of the ministry.—See the succession of the visions, Revelation 4:2 (individual items) Revelation 17:3 (individual items).—Parallels: Acts 10:10 sqq.; Revelation 20:7; Zechariah 4:2; Daniel 7.; Daniel 10.; Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 48:12; Malachi 2:7.* *[The G.V. here reads “Engel”=angel, instead of the “messenger” of the E. V.—Tr.] Starke: A man is in the Spirit (1) ordinarily, when he permits himself to be governed by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9; Galatians 5:5); (2) extraordinarily, by transport and a Divine revelation of things to come (Matthew 22:43).—Christ is always present with His Church, to enlighten, sanctify and defend it (Ephesians 5:26).—He has, therefore, no need of any vicar.—The Church has for its foundation-pillar the invincible power and strength of Christ.—Christ’s servants are in His hand, honored by Him and assured of His help. Richter (see p. 73): In Revelation 1:17-18, Jesus declares, in different words, the same thing that is expressed in Matthew 28:18, “All power [authority] is given unto Me in Heaven and on earth,” and the same that is expressed in that other saying of His, “I and the Father are one” [John 10:30]. After the lapse of nearly two thousand years, we find ourselves in a different posture toward this saying—so far as belief in it is concerned—from that occupied by the Church in John’s time. Has there not been a considerable progress in the setting up of Christ’s Kingdom? (It is true that we must not overlook the fact that, together with the furtherances of faith during the course of the centuries, there has been a constant new formation of apparent hindrances.) Gaertner (see p. 73): With the trumpet-sound of the voice of Christ, the Revelation was opened for the ear;—with the seven candlesticks, it was opened for the eye.—These seven candlesticks precisely correspond to the seven lamps on the seven-branched candlestick in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. The independent candlesticks, having each one its own standard, denote the greater perfection of the New Testament Church; furthermore, the Lord walks in the midst of them, which would be impossible, so far as the figure is concerned, in the case of the one seven-branched candlestick (rather, this fact is declaratory that there shall be, in the New Covenant, no external visible hierarchic unity of the churches). What is there more beautiful and more cheering than a bright light upon a candlestick in a dark and gloomy night! So the Church is a light in the darkness of this world, shining into the gloom and obscurity of mankind. Where there is a church that has the pure word of God and acts in accordance therewith, there is a golden candlestick; just so the faithful Church in Israel was a light to the Gentiles throughout the whole of the Old Testament time. The seven candlesticks are indicative of a perfect Church, into which the Holy Spirit from God’s inner world streams seven-fold (seven-fold, and yet singly, through Christ). [Bonar (Revelation 1:17): And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. O sinner, learn to know this Christ now as the Saviour, ere the day arrives when you shall see Him as the Judge! His love would save you now; His majesty will crush you then.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section ThirdEarth-picture of the Seven Churches. The Seven Epistles (Chs. 2, 3) General.—The seven Churches as real portraits and at the same time as typical pictures of the whole Church, as regards (1) local extension and (2) chronological development.—The seven Churches as the centre of the seven loosed Seals or unveiled worldly history; as the occasion for the seven penitential Trumpets for the world in the Church and the Church in the world; as the organ of the seven Thunders of awakening and reformation; as the object of the enmity of the kingdom of darkness in the seven Heads of Antichrist; purified and saved by the hardening judgments of the seven Vials of Anger which are poured out upon the Antichristian world, in order to the mediating of Christ’s appearing and His union with the Bride, in that one Spirit in Whom the Seven Spirits are united.—The seven Epistles as the all-sided sum of all messages of the heavenly Head-Shepherd to the shepherds and congregations of the Church; as the all-sided ensample of pastoral ministry on the part of the shepherds; and, at the same time, as prophetic alarm voices from the Spirit of the Church to the flocks themselves.—The Johannean Theology.—The Johannean Church.—Its historic continuance within Church History.—Its abiding fundamental features.—Its future. The seven Churches as the seven candlesticks of the earth:—As portraits of the manifold configurations of Christianity.—Parallels and antitheses: Ephesus and Smyrna. Smyrna and Pergamus. Pergamus and Thyatira (Balaam and Jezebel). Thyatira and Sardis. Philadelphia and Laodicea.—Lights and Shadows: 1. The Metropolis: Growing churchliness, decreasing Christliness. Increased external works at the expense of inwardness—the first love. 2. Smyrna, the Martyr-Church, in conflict with a Judaizing, orthodoxistic tendency. 3. Pergamus, the confessing Church, lax in the exercise of church discipline towards antinomianism. 4. Thyatira, the enthusiastic Church, spotted with immoral fanaticism. 5. Sardis, the Church with a show of churchly life, but spiritually dead. 6. Philadelphia, small and pure—hence also a mission Church. 7. Laodicea, the lukewarm.—How the Lord’s threats and promises to the seven Churches have been fulfilled. Historic life-pictures.—The manifold forms of Christ in relation to the seven Churches. All agreeing with individual traits of His total appearance (Revelation 1.). Special.—To avoid repetition, we here simply refer to the exegetical department. 1. Ephesus. The Mother-Church externally and legally faithful, hut gathering inward and spiritual darknessHow Christ presents Himself to this Church, the metropolis, in accordance with its need (Revelation 2:1). Commendation of the Church: its many virtues (Revelation 2:2-3). In contrast to these, the one great, threatening want (Revelation 2:4). Corresponding admonition, warning, threat (Revelation 2:5). A hopeful sign, limiting the censure of Christ. In the Church’s hatred of Nicolaitanism there remains a trace of the first love (Revelation 2:6). Alarm cry and ethically conditioned promise, in harmony with the Church’s stand-point. Ephesus the metropolis, and metropolises in Church History (Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, etc.). 2. Smyrna. The Martyr-Church persecuted by JudaismPicture of Christ, in conformity to the needs of this Church (Revelation 2:8). Praise of the Church (Revelation 2:9). Its tribulation in the present and in the future, and the Lord’s word of encouragement (Revelation 2:9-10). The great promise (Revelation 2:10). The alarm cry and the glorious goal, in harmony with the conflict of the Church (Revelation 2:11). Smyrna and other martyr-churches in conflict with the various forms of Judaism and orthodoxism (with the false and the great ban). The synagogue of Satan. 3. Pergamus. The Martyr-Church persecuted by HeathenismProclamation: Christ as the possessor of the two-edged sword (Revelation 2:12). Praise of martyr faithfulness in external conflict (Revelation 2:13). Censure of false endurance when there was a call to spiritual conflict (Revelation 2:14-15). Admonition to repentance and threat of the judicial interference of Christ (Revelation 2:16). Peculiar promise, referring to the relations of the inner, spiritual life (Revelation 2:17). Pergamus, or the libertine Church, defective in the observance of church-discipline towards Nicolaitans and Balaamites. Balaam, the type of the false prophet or apostasy. The first Old Testament Judas (followed by Ahithophel and others), a prelude of the last Judas, the false prophet (Revelation 13). 4. Thyatira. The excited Church stained with antinomistic spiritual fanaticismAnnouncement of the Searcher of hearts and reins in His holy motion (Revelation 2:18). Commendation of the Church’s zeal (Revelation 2:19). Censure of its toleration of Jezebel and the antinomistic extravagances of which she is the instigator (Revelation 2:20-21). Terribly earnest threat of punishment, in perfect harmony with the sin committed (Revelation 2:22-23). Limitation of the threat by a promise to spare the guiltless (Revelation 2:23-25). Promise of the spirit of holy discipline and of true progress in antithesis to a false advance—in harmony with the situation of the Church (Revelation 2:26-28). The alarm cry comes at the end, instead of preceding the promise, as heretofore. The same change of position between the conditional promise and the alarm cry obtains in the following Epistles. The architectonic distinction hence arising between the first three and the last four Churches may at the same time be suggestive of the antithesis of their geographical position. Smyrna and Pergamus lie to the north of Ephesus; Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, to the south of Pergamus.—Phases of Jezebel in Church History, or the manifold re-appearance of fanatical and immoral sects and schools. Corrupting women in ancient and modern Church History, contrasted with the line of pious women. 5. Sardis. The Church for the most part spiritually deadChrist addresses Himself to this Church—in which there is a lack of the Spirit—in His whole general sovereignty over the entire Church and in the fullness of His Spirit. He begins by bringing against it the heavy charge of deadness—doubly a crime, since it has the name of living (Revelation 3:1). Alarm cry, in reference to the still extant remnants of life (Revelation 3:2-3). Recognition of the few innocent ones, conjoined with a promise corresponding to the fact that they have not defiled their garments (Revelation 3:4-5). Alarm cry (Revelation 3:6).—Sad instances of dead or dying congregations, and even whole Churches. 6. Philadelphia. The pearl among the ChurchesChrist in the solemn aspect of the Administrator of the keys of David, i. e. true communion (Revelation 3:7). Great recognition of the Church’s faithfulness, and great promise—both in lively alternation (Revelation 3:8-10). Encouragement and extraordinary final promise (Revelation 3:11-12). Alarm cry (Revelation 3:13).—Characteristic of living Christian Churches and communities: An open door. Open outwardly for missions; open inwardly for communion. 7. Laodicea. The lukewarm Church—nigh unto reprobationThe view which we take of Laodicea—viz., that it has fallen into lukewarmness in consequence of its spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] tendency—is supported by the characteristic announcement of Christ. He appears here entirely as the historic Christ, and characterizes Himself in this very peculiarity as identical with the ideal primal principle of the creation (Revelation 3:14). The censure of the Church’s lukewarmness is immediately conjoined with the threat of the judgment of reprobation (Revelation 3:15-16). The Lord then discovers the source of the lukewarmness of the Church to be, pride in its supposed spiritual riches, whilst it is, in reality, in a state of inexpressible spiritual necessity (Revelation 3:16-17). With this condition, correspond Christ’s searching counsel (Revelation 3:18), the expression of His love and compassion in the censure which He administers (Revelation 3:19), and His peculiar admonition to repentance (Revelation 3:20). The ethically conditioned promise is of as concrete a character as the self-presentation of Christ at the beginning, in perfect accordance with the needs of a church dissolved in spiritualism ([Spiritualismus], Revelation 3:20-21). The closing paragraph concludes both the seventh Epistle and all the foregoing Epistles (Revelation 3:22).—Spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] back-ground of the lukewarm Church. An idealistic dream-life as unbelief in the historic power of ideas, or, rather, in the Incarnation of the Word. Upon glancing over the entire group, we behold in most of the Churches a juxtaposition of light and shade—yet in very different proportions; only Laodicea incurs blame alone, and only Philadelphia is entirely free from censure. This contrast is explained by the spiritual pride of the one, and the humility and modesty of the other. Christ is different and yet the same in His posture toward each individual Church.—The celestially perfect Shepherd of the flock and Physician of the soul. The wealth of homiletical works upon the Seven Epistles is so immense, and the works in question are so accessible, that, instead of attempting to augment this treasure, we shall refer to what is already extant. Even in more ancient times the Seven Epistles have afforded inducement to manifold dissertations on them, as is evident, e. g., from the list of productions relative to them in Lilienthal’s Biblischer Archivarius, pp. 811–819. We have cited on p. 74 of the Introduction the special works of Meister, Wichelhaus, Heubner, Zorn, Van Oosterzee. We have still to mention, among others, Lisko, Christenspiegel, Betrachtungen über die sieben Sendschreiben der Offenb. Joh., Berlin, 1837.—To the above may be added the numerous homiletical or generally edifying works upon the whole Apocalypse (see the Int.), especially those of Bengel, Hahn, Schulthess, Roos, Wächtler, et al. The Sermons of Wichelhaus made considerable impression in their time; Wächtler’s Sermons are energized by study, spirit and fervor; the Sermons of Van Oosterzee are especially distinguished by a plenitude of spirit and a grand play of oratory. Starke: The title of Christ at the opening of every letter is taken from the vision and description of Christ in Revelation 1:11-18; it is, however, not always the same, but varies, on the contrary, in each epistle, corresponding in purpose and appearance with the contents of the epistle and the state of the Church addressed. The promise which in every epistle is given to the conqueror is adapted to the condition of each Church and to the evil that must be overcome.—The first love. The expression is drawn from the first love of married persons, which is wont to be pure and fervid, Jeremiah 2:2. (This first love is, therefore, the pure bridal phase of religious consciousness—i. e. its receptivity, purity [in the sense of being without admixture of foreign or contaminating elements], freedom, warmth and devotion; in one word, genuine earnestness and depth [wahrhaftige Innigkeit und Innerlichkeit]).—As common traits of the Old Testament Balaam and the New Testament Nicolaitans may be mentioned: 1. Boasting; 2. Covetousness; 3. Seduction to apostasy; 4. Bringing under judgment.—Warm or cold. Warmth is positively wished for; coldness is desired only inasmuch as it is accompanied by less danger and responsibility than lukewarmness.—(Starke allegorizes the names of all the seven Churches—a procedure to which the name of Philadelphia might offer special inducements.) Lavater: Jesus Messias, oder die Zukunft des Herrn nach der Offenb. Joh. (a poetical work). Smyrna: Und der Herrliche rief mir: Schreibe dem Engel in Smyrna: Also der Erste, der Letzte, der todt war und ewiglich lebet: Ich weiss deine Werke, etc. [And the Glorious One cried unto me: Write to the angel in Smyrna: Thus (saith) the First and Last, Who was dead and eternally liveth. I know thy works, etc.] The Kreuzritter ([Knight of the Cross] Von Meyer, Schlüssel zur Offenb. St. Joh.; see p. 73). “Be faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life.” Wreath or crown, it is all the same—except that the crowns of victors were wont to be made of living foliage. The Lord over death and life here demands of His followers such faithfulness and steadfastness as shall go with them even to a violent death. He Himself has won the wreath of victory and the highest crown of eternal life, and His first martyr, Stephen (i. e. wreath, crown), in the name that he bears, exhibits, as it were, to all martyrs their heavenly reward. Van Oosterzee: Let us, then, contemplate the Revelation of the glorified Christ on Patmos: as, for John, never to be forgotten—full of significance for all the centuries of the time following it—rich in instruction for each one of us.—Christ stands before you as the Image of the invisible God, the priestly King of the Kingdom of God, the faithful Friend of His servants, the Lord and Judge of the future.—Smyrna: Poor Smyrna enriched; calumniated Smyrna honored; threatened Smyrna ensured; militant Smyrna faithful; triumphant Smyrna crowned.Literature: Trench, Comm. on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia, 1867 [New York, 1872]. [From M. Henry: Revelation 2:1. He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand. The ministers of Christ are under His special care and protection.—He walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Christ is in an intimate manner present and conversant with His churches, and knows the state of each one of them. Revelation 2:2. I know thy works and thy labor. Those that are stars in Christ’s hand had need to be always in motion, dispensing light to all about them.—Thy patience. It is not enough that we be diligent, but we must be patient, and endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ.—Thou canst not bear them that are evil. It consists very well with Christian patience, not to dispense with sin, much less allow it. Revelation 2:4. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee. Those that have much good in them, may have something much amiss in them; and our Lord Jesus, as an impartial Master and Judge, takes notice of both.—Thou hast left thy first love. Observe, (1) The first affections of men toward Christ, and holiness, and heaven, are usually lively and warm. (2) These lively affections will abate and cool, if great care be not taken, and diligence used, to preserve them in constant exercise. (3) Christ is grieved and displeased with His people when He sees them grow remiss and cold toward Him, and He will one way or other make them sensible that He does not take it well from them. Revelation 2:5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. Observe, 1. Those that have lost their first love must remember from whence they are fallen; they must compare their present with their former state, and consider how much better it was with them then than now. 2. They must repent; they must be inwardly grieved and ashamed for their sinful declining, and humbly confess it in the sight of God. 3. They must return and do their first works; they must, as it were, begin again, go back step by step, till they come to the place where they took the first false step; they must endeavor to revive and recover their first zeal, tenderness, and seriousness, and must pray as earnestly, and watch as diligently, as they did when they first set out in the ways of God.—Or else I will come unto thee quickly, etc. If the presence of Christ’s grace and Spirit be slighted, we may expect the presence of His displeasure. Revelation 2:7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Observe, 1. What is written in the Scriptures is spoken by the Spirit of God. 2. What is said to one church, concerns all the churches, in every place and age. 3. We can never employ our faculty of hearing better than in hearkening to the word of God.—To him that conquereth. The Christian life is a warfare against sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh. It is not enough that we engage in this warfare, but we must pursue it to the end; we must fight the good fight till we gain the victory; and the warfare and victory shall have a glorious triumph and reward.—To eat of the tree of life, etc. They shall have that perfection of holiness, and that confirmation therein, that Adam would have had. If he had gone well through the course of his trial, then he would have eaten of the tree of life which was in the midst of paradise, and that would have been the sacrament of confirmation to him in his holy and happy state. So all who persevere in their Christian trial and warfare, shall derive from Christ, as the Tree of Life, perfection and confirmation in holiness and happiness in the paradise of God; not in the earthly paradise, but the heavenly (Revelation 22:1-2). Revelation 2:8. Christ was dead, and by dying purchased salvation for us; He is alive, and by His life applies this salvation to us. Revelation 2:9. I know thy tribulation. They who will be faithful to Christ, must expect to go through many tribulations; but Jesus Christ takes particular notice of all their troubles.—Thy poverty (but thou art rich). Poor in temporals, but rich in spirituals: poor in spirit, and yet rich in grace; their spiritual riches are set off by their outward poverty. Many who are rich in temporals, are poor in spirituals. Some who are poor outwardly are inwardly rich. Spiritual riches are usually the reward of great diligence; the diligent hand makes rich.—I know the blasphemy. He knows the wickedness and falsehood of the enemies of His people. Revelation 2:10. He foreknows the future trials of His people, forewarns them of them, and forearms against them. Forearms them, 1. By His counsel. 2. By showing them how their sufferings would be alleviated and limited: (1) They should not be universal; (2) They should not be perpetual; (3) It should be to try them, not to destroy them. 3. By promising a glorious reward to their fidelity. Observe, 1. The sureness of this reward: I will give thee. 2. The suitableness of it: (1) A crown, to reward their poverty, fidelity and conflict. (2) A crown of life, to reward those who are faithful even unto death, are faithful till they die, and who part with life itself, in fidelity to Christ. Revelation 2:11. He that overcometh, shall not be hurt of the second death. Observe, 1. There is not only a first, but a second death; a death after the body is dead. 2. This second death is unspeakably worse than the first death, both in agony and in duration—it is eternal death, to die, and to be always dying. 3. From this hurtful, this destructive death, Christ will save all His faithful servants. Revelation 2:13. I know where thou dwellest, etc. Christ takes notice of the trials and difficulties His people encounter. Revelation 2:14. Observe, 1. Corrupt doctrines and a corrupt worship often lead to corrupt conversation. 2. To continue in communion with persons of corrupt principles and practices is displeasing to God, and causes those who thus do to become partakers of other men’s sins. Though the Church, as such, has no power to punish the persons of men, either for heresy or immorality, with corporal penalties, yet it has power to exclude them from its holy communion; and if it do not so, Christ will be displeased with it. Revelation 2:19. It should be the ambition and earnest desire of all Christians that their last works may be their best works. Revelation 2:21. Observe, 1. Repentance is necessary to prevent the sinner’s ruin. 2. Repentance requires time. 3. Where God gives space for repentance, He expects fruits meet for repentance. 4. Where the space for repentance is lost, the sinner perishes with a double destruction. Revelation 2:23. All the churches shall know, etc. God is known by the judgments that He executeth. Note here, 1. His infallible knowledge of the hearts of men. 2. His impartial justice. Revelation 2:28. Christ is the Morning Star: He brings day with Him into the soul; the light of grace and of glory. Revelation 3:3. I will come unto thee as a thief, etc. Observe, 1. When Christ leaves a people as to His gracious presence, He comes to them in judgment; and His judicial presence will be very dreadful to those who have sinned away His gracious presence. 2. His judicial presence to a dead declining people will be surprising; their deadness will keep them in security, and, as it procures an angry visit from Christ to them, it will prevent their discerning it and preparing for it. 3. Such a visit from Christ will be to their loss; He will come as a thief, to strip them of their remaining enjoyments and mercies, not by fraud, but in justice and righteousness, taking the forfeiture they have made of all to Him. Revelation 3:4. God takes notice of the smallest number of those who abide with Him; and the fewer they are, the more precious in His sight.—They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. In the stole, the white robes of justification, and adoption, and comfort; or in the white robes of honor and glory, in the other world. This is an honor proper and suitable to their integrity and fidelity, and no way unbecoming Christ to confer upon them, though it is not a legal, but a gospel worthiness that is ascribed to them; not merit, but meetness. Revelation 3:5. He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment. The purity of grace [Revelation 3:4] shall be rewarded with the perfect purity of glory.—I will not blot his name, etc. Observe, 1. Christ has His book of life, a register and roll of all who shall inherit eternal life: (1) the book of eternal election; (2) the book of remembrance of all who have lived to God. 2. Christ will not blot the names of His chosen and faithful ones out of this book of life. 3. Christ will produce this book of life, and confess the names of the faithful who stand there, before God, and all the angels; this He will do as their Judge, and as their Captain and Head. Revelation 3:7. He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David. Note here Christ’s personal, and His political character.—Observe the acts of His government: 1. He opens—a door of opportunity to His churches, a door of utterance to his ministers, a door of entrance, the heart, a door of admission into the visible Church, laying down the terms of communion, and the door of admission into the Church triumphant, according to the terms of salvation fixed by Him. 2. He shuts the door; when He pleases, He shuts the door of opportunity, and the door of utterance, and leaves obstinate sinners shut up in the hardness of their hearts; He shuts the door of church-fellowship against unbelievers and profane persons, and He shuts the door of heaven against the foolish virgins who have slept away their day of grace, and against the workers of iniquity, how vain and confident soever they may be. Revelation 3:10. Observe, 1. The gospel of Christ is the word of His patience; it is the fruit of the patience of God to a sinful world, it sets before men the exemplary patience of Christ in all His sufferings for men, it calls those who receive it to the exercise of patience in conformity to Christ. 2. This gospel should be carefully kept by all who enjoy it. 3. After a day of patience we must expect an hour of temptation; a day of gospel-peace and liberty is a day of God’s patience, and it is seldom so well improved as it should be, and therefore is often followed by a day of trial and temptation. 4. Sometimes the trial is more general and universal; it comes upon all the world. 5. They who keep the gospel in a time of peace shall be kept by Christ in an hour of temptation. Revelation 3:15. Lukewarmness or indifference in religion is the worst temper in the world. If religion be a real thing, it is the most excellent thing, and therefore we should be in good earnest in it; if it be not a real thing, it is the vilest imposture, and we should be earnest against it.—I will spew thee out of my mouth. As lukewarm water turns the stomach and provokes to a vomit, lukewarm professors turn the heart of Christ against them. … They shall be rejected, and finally rejected; far be it from the holy Jesus to return to that which has been thus rejected. Revelation 3:17. Here observe what a difference there was between the thoughts that the Laodiceans had of themselves and the thoughts that Christ had of them. Revelation 3:19. Sinners ought to take the rebukes of God’s word and rod as tokens of His good-will to their souls, and should accordingly repent in good earnest, and turn to Him that smites them. Revelation 3:20. Observe, 1. Christ is graciously pleased by His Word and Spirit to come to the door of the heart of sinners. 2. He finds this door shut against Him. 3. When He finds the door shut, He does not immediately withdraw, but He waits to be gracious, even till His head be filled with the dew. 4. He uses all proper means to awaken sinners, and to cause them to open to Him; He calls by His word, and He knocks by the impulses of His Spirit upon their conscience. 5. They who open to Him shall enjoy His presence, to their great comfort and advantage; He will sup with them, He will accept of what is good in them, He will eat His pleasant fruit, and He will bring the best part of the entertainment with Him; He will give fresh supplies of graces and comforts, and thereby stir up fresh actings of faith, and love, and delight. Revelation 3:21. It is here implied that notwithstanding the lukewarm and self-confident character of this Church, it was possible that by the reproofs and counsels of Christ they might be inspired with fresh zeal and vigor, and come off conquerors in their spiritual warfare. 2. That if they did so, all former faults should be forgiven, and they should have a great reward.—Those who are conformed to Christ in His trials and victories, shall be conformed to Him in His glory. From The Comprehensive Commentary: By a frequent Scripture metaphor a person, living in the defilements of this world, and neglectful of preparation for another, is said to be “dead while he liveth,” while he who meets death in the discharge of his Christian duty, is pronounced “living though he die,” John 11:25-26; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 3:14 : Judges 12. (Woodhouse.) Barnes: Revelation 2:10. Ye shall have tribulation ten days. Affliction in this life, however severe, can be but brief; and in the hope that it will soon end why should we not bear it without murmuring or repining? … Be thou faithful unto death, etc. It is true of every one who is a Christian, in whatever manner he is to die, that if he is faithful unto death, a crown of life awaits him.—Revelation 3:3. It is always well for Christians to call to remembrance the “day of their espousals,” and their views and feelings when they gave their hearts to the Saviour, and to compare those views with their present condition, especially if their conversion was marked by any thing unusual.—Thou shall not know what hour I will come upon thee. Every man who is warned of the evil of his course, and who refuses or neglects to repent, has reason to believe that God will come suddenly in His wrath and call him to His bar. Proverbs 29:1. Revelation 3:15. I would thou wert hot or cold. Any thing better than this condition, where love is professed, but where it does not exist; where vows have been assumed which are not fulfilled. Revelation 3:20. If any one hear My voice. Any one, of any age, and in any land, would be authorized to apply this to himself, and, under the protection of this invitation, to come to the Saviour, and to plead this promise as one that fairly included himself.—Chaps. 2, 3. Though the churches to which these epistles were addressed have long since passed away, yet the principles laid down in them still live, and they are full of admonition to Christians in all ages and all lands.—From Trench: Revelation 2:2 : I know thy works. These are words of comfort and, strength for all who, amid infinite weakness, are yet able to say, “Search me, O Lord, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me” (Psalms 139:23-24), or with St. John, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee” (John 21:17); but words of fear for every one who would fain keep back any thing in his outer or inner life from the Lord.—Revelation 3:4. Observe the gracious manner in which the Lord recognizes and sets His seal of allowance to the good which any where He finds.—From Vaughan: Revelation 2:10. Christ says to each one of us, Be thou faithful: use well the talent that I have given thee; forget not Who gave it; forget not Who will call for an account of it.—From Bonar: Revelation 3:7 : He that hath the keys of David. The key (1) Of David’s house, (2) Of David’s castle, (3) Of David’s city, (4) Of David’s treasure-house, (5) Of David’s banqueting-house. Revelation 3:20. Note here (1) the love of Christ: in the message as addressed to Laodicea, the unloving and unlovable; (2) the patience of Christ: I stand at the door; (3) the earnestness of Christ: I knock; (4) the appeal of Christ: If any man will hear my voice and open the door; (5) the promise of Christ: I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:21. We have here—I. The battle; II. The victory; III. The reward. I. The battle: The Christian’s life in this world a warfare: (1) Inner warfare; (2) Outer warfare; (3) Daily warfare; (4) Warfare not fought with human arms; (5) Warfare in which we are sharers with Christ. II. The victory: multitudinous as is the battle. Sure through Him Who Himself overcame. Individual. III. The reward: (1) A throne; (2) Christ’s throne.] FIFTH EPISTLE. SARDISRev_3:1-6 Revelation 3:1. Sardis, once the wealthy capital of Lydia, and the city of Cr�sus, is now a poor village, bearing the name of Sart. An earthquake took place here during the reign of Tiberius. Melito was bishop of Sardis about the middle of the second century. For particulars, see Commentaries and Books of Travel. From the description given of the church, it appears that its members, with the exception of a small remnant, were almost entirely secularized. Though occupying a correct position in respect of creed and worship—having the name of life, therefore—the faith of the church was a dead faith, and its life of that worldly form which is always accompanied by the most manifold moral defilements. Yet the reproach of death is not absolute; otherwise, there could be no question of a part that was in danger of dying or, still less, of a vital strength that should reanimate this part, the elements of which strength the angel must find in the church itself. “Ewald’s conjecture, that the Christians of Sardis had, on account of their heathenish life, not been molested by the heathen, and that this is the reason why the epistle does not speak of θλῖψις and ὑπομονή, is scarcely in accordance with the text.” (Duesterdieck). Even if [as Dόsterdieck avers] “the church had enough of the semblance of Christianity to preclude the friendship of the heathen,” there is no foundation for the assertion that Ewald’s conjecture is not in accordance with the text, save the bare fact that it is not expressly laid down in the text. That hath the seven Spirits of God.—The seven fundamental forms of the revelation of Christ, in the seven fundamental forms of the working of God’s Spirit, with Whom He (Christ) is anointed without measure; corresponding to the seven stars or fundamental forms of the Church. Why is Christ thus described here? Explanations: Because of His omniscience, penetrating the innermost recesses (De W. and others). But this would be a repetition of the idea set forth by the eyes like a flame of fire (see Thyatira). Unlimited power to punish and reward (Hengstenberg). But the Seven Spirits are not Seven Spirits of judgment. They denote the holy all-sidedness of Christ and Christianity, here as opposed to the false all-sidedness of a sham Christianity, which is conformed to the world. Inasmuch as they are indicative of the fullness of the Spirit of Christ, they are proclaimed to a church which, from its lack of spiritual life, is at the point of death. Bengel: The Seven Spirits have reference to the vital forces which Christ proposes to communicate to the church. [By the Seven Spirits, as was set forth in the note on Revelation 1:5, we must understand the Holy Ghost, “seven-fold in His operations.” Christ is spoken of as having the Spirit, not because in the days of the flesh, as the Son of man, He was anointed with the Spirit without measure (John 3:34), but because, as the Son of God, the Spirit of God is His Spirit (Romans 8:9), and because He sends the Spirit (John 15:26; John 20:22; Acts 2:33), Who acts as His representative (John 15:18; John 15:26). In reference to the fitness of the assumption of this designation in the address to the Angel of the Church of Sardis, Trench well remarks: “To him and his people, sunken in spiritual deadness and torpor, the lamp of faith waning and almost extinguished in their heart, the Lord presents Himself as One having the fullness of all spiritual gifts; able therefore to revive, able to recover, able to bring back, from the very gates of spiritual death, those who would employ the little last remaining strength which they still retained, in calling, even when thus in extremis, upon Him.”—E. R. C.] And the seven stars.—The Spirits and stars are contrasted here. The seven stars must receive their vital light from the Seven Spirits; these latter are also the source whence Sardis must draw its light. [“Since the ‘stars are the angels of the seven Churches’ (Revelation 1:20), we must see in this combination a hint of the relation between Christ, as the giver of the Holy Spirit, and as the author of a ministry of living men in His Church (Ephesians 4:7-12; John 20:22-23; Acts 1:8; Acts 20:28).” Trench.—E. R. C.] Thy works, that thou hast a name.—We are not to read: and that thou, etc. Dόsterdieck interprets: From thy imperfect works I know that thou, etc. The meaning of the passage, however, is, doubtless—the sum of thy works is sham Christianity. A name.—Several have interpreted this as referring to the fortuitous name of the bishop (Zosimus, etc.), or to his office. Others have better interpreted it by referring it to the outward semblance of the church. [“In name” (Barnes); “Nominally” (Alford); thou hast the reputation.—E. R. C.] Thou livest.—In accordance with the conception of life in Christ. [“The word life is a word that is commonly employed in the New Testament to denote religion, in contradistinction from the natural state of man, which is described as death in sin.” Barnes.—E. R. C.] And thou art dead.—Spiritual deadness, as spiritual sleep, indulged in to the furthest extremity which admits of a waking; hence the admonition of Rev 3:2. Our passage, particularly, proves that the state of the angel represents the state of the church. Revelation 3:2. Become thou watching.—This is a stronger term than the simple awake. Watchfulness or wakefulness must become as much an attribute of the angel’s life as sleep—carelessness, indifferentism—is now. And strengthen the things which remain.—Here also we must take the angel in his connection with the church. It does not mean, therefore, the remaining good in thy soul (Bengel); nor, the rest of those in the church; but the dying, though not yet dead, life which constitutes the vitality hitherto possessed by the church. Novatianism could only have written: the ones who remain [τοὺςλοιπούς], and it is true that, from another point of view, there would necessarily be a reference to persons as constituting the remainder (Ezekiel 34:4). The present passage, however, treats of the general edification of the church, not directly of the special cure of souls. The “official conception” of the angel regards τὰλοιπά as representative of the laity (Hengst.). [Alford thus writes: “The latter view (that τὰλοιπά refers to persons), is taken by (Andr., Areth., as reported in Dόsterd., but not in Catena) Calov., Vitr., Eichh., De Wette, Stern, Ebrard, Dόsterd., Trench, et al. And there is nothing in the construction to preclude the view. But if I mistake not, there is in the context. For to assume that the λοιποί could be thus described, would surely be to leave no room for those mentioned with so much praise below, in Revelation 3:4.”—E. R. C.] For I have not found thy works perfect [completed].—Good works are not the only ones intended here—at the best, they are still imperfect, as a matter of course; nor is the external conduct in general referred to; but the actual collective works as phenomena of the spiritual condition; they are not complete before Christ’s God; in His light and judgment they lack the impress of the New Testament spirit, the stamp of principial perfection in the purity and sincerity of love. Pure, ripe, rich are the predicates of Christ’s works and of Christian works in Him. [“The word here employed is not that which we commonly render ‘perfect;’ not τέλεια, but πεπληρωμένα; so that the Lord contemplates the works prepared and appointed in the providence of God for the faithful man to do as a definite sphere (Ephesians 2:10), which it was his duty and his calling to have fulfilled or filled to the full, the same image habitually underlying the uses of πληροῦν and πληροῦσθαι (Matthew 3:15; Romans 13:8). This sphere of appointed duties the Sardian Angel had not fulfilled; not, at least, ‘before God;’ for on these last words the emphasis must be laid. Before himself and other men his works may very likely have been ‘perfect,’ indeed we are expressly told that he had ‘a name to live,’ Revelation 3:1, etc.” Trench.—E. R. C.] Revelation 3:3. Remember, therefore.—Not only the reception of the Gospel on the part of the church (how received), but also its character as Gospel (how heard), is specified by πῶς. In each connection there is a reference to the qualitative nature of living Christianity. The degeneration of the subjective keeping of God’s word is accompanied by a degeneration of the objective form of truth; orthodoxy itself, when dead, becomes heterodoxy; Thus, not only the receiving, but also the thing received, must be traced back to original (principial) vitality. Dead orthodoxy sinks the doctrine in doctrines, the primary articulation in derived articles. The result of right remembrance, which always constitutes the essence of true repentance, will be a compliance with the following commands. [“This may refer either to some peculiarity in the manner in which the Gospel was conveyed to them—as by the labors of the Apostles, and by the remarkable effusions of the Holy Spirit; or to the ardor and love with which they embraced it; or to the greatness of the favors and privileges conferred on them; or to their own understanding of what the Gospel required, when they were converted. It is not possible to determine in which sense the language is used, but the general idea is plain, that there was something marked and unusual in the way in which they had been led to embrace the Gospel, and that it was highly proper in these circumstances to look back to the days when they gave themselves to Christ.” Barnes. “The charge against Sardis is not a perverse holding of untruth, but a heartless holding of the truth; and therefore I cannot but think that the Lord is graciously reminding her of the heartiness, the zeal, the love with which she received the truth at the first.” Trench.—E. R. C.] And hold fast and repent.—The distinctions of Bengel are not applicable to this passage (see Dόsterdieck).—True holding and keeping is a constant seizing and holding fast; here, a renewed seizing and holding fast that lead to repentance. The significance of the perfect εἴληφας, as contrasted with the aorist ἤκουσας, indicated by Ewald, would have greater weight if λαμβάνειν did not denote the manner of the subjective appropriation. [Hold fast.—“1. The truth which thou didst then receive; 2. What remains of true religion among you. Repent in regard to all that in which you have departed from your views and feelings when you embraced the Gospel.” Barnes.—E. R. C.] If, therefore, thou dost not watch.—Stress is again laid upon the main matter, and a threat connected with its non-observance. The threat itself corresponds with the command. To spiritual sleepers the Lord, as Judge, always comes as a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42). Spiritual sleepers have lost all perception, by their spiritual senses, of the threatening signs of the development of judgment unto its catastrophe. As this applies to the judgment at the end of the world, so it also holds good in regard to all preliminary judgments upon whole congregations as well as upon individual souls. Even though there may be an obscure presentiment of judgment, the proximity and actual hour of it take its objects by surprise; the hour is hidden from the sleepers, and the judgment comes upon them in as strange a form as a thief. Revelation 3:4. But thou hast a few names in Sardis.—The Lord’s righteous verdict always distinguishes between the guilt of communities and the guilt or innocence of individuals; here also the distinction is made. The contrast which the persons indicated in the text present to the dead mass of the church, makes them appear as living members, known to the eye of the Lord by name [comp. John 10:3]; after being made to prostrate themselves under the general verdict, they are relatively excepted from that verdict as individuals. [“In most cases, where error and sin prevail, there may be found a few who are worthy of the Divine commendation; comp. Romans 11:4.” Barnes.—E. R. C.] Which have not defiled their garments.—This sentence is not absolute praise, inasmuch as it is simply negative; still it is great praise, inasmuch as the individuals referred to have withstood the general infection. On the various one-sided explanations of the garments (the body, as the garment of the soul; the conscience; the righteousness of faith, the baptismal robe), also Ebrard’s interpretation, see Dόsterdieck [this commentator regards all such special interpretations as an unwarrantable straining of the text.—Tr.]. But neither must we stop at the general conception, maculari per peccatum (Lyra), against which Aretius and Vitringa have insisted upon the ideas of life and its actions, or confession and morals. The divine sharp-sightedness of the Lord is proved by the fact that among the Sardians who have the semblance of life, He perceives their defilement or non-defilement by the mere appearance of their life, by their actions. If the works of the majority, in their negative aspect, were formerly characterized as not complete, not perfect, here they are indirectly characterized as polluted, defiled by the filth of worldliness, of earthly-mindedness, of heathenishness; thus Christ passed sentence upon the pious-mouthed Pharisees, judging them from their very words. And so the spotted garments do really refer to the polluted consciences, and, symbolically, to the defiled baptismal robe. [“That ‘white raiment’ there [Revelation 3:5] is the garment of glory—this the garment of grace. That incapable of receiving a stain, being part of an inheritance which, in all its parts, is ἀμίαντος (1 Peter 1:4); this, something to which σπῖλοι (Ephesians 5:27; James 3:6), μιάσματα (2 Peter 2:20), μολυσμοί (2 Corinthians 7:1), can only too easily adhere. … This, itself a wedding garment (Matthew 22:11-12), but not necessarily identical with the fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of saints (Revelation 19:8), is put on at our entrance by baptism into the Kingdom of grace; that at our entrance by the resurrection into the Kingdom of glory.” Trench. “There can be little doubt that the simpler and more general explanation is the right one; viz.: who have not sullied the purity of their Christian life by falling into sin.” Alford. So also Barnes.—E. R. C.] And they shall walk with Me in white.—The reward of these is appropriate to their conduct, yet far superior to it. “The white robes, with their ‘bright hue of victory’ (Bengel), are peculiar to the inhabitants of Heaven (Revelation 3:5; Revelation 6:11; Revelation 7:9; Revelation 19:8). Those who keep their garments undefiled in this earthly life, shall walk with Christ (μετ’ ἐμοῦ, compare Luke 23:43; John 17:24) in white robes, living, thus adorned, in statu gloriζ immortalitatis (N. de Lyra), before the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the full and blessed enjoyment of fellowship with Him” (Duesterdieck). On a reference of the promise to the Israelitish sacerdotal dress, see Dόsterdieck. Because they are worthy.—Here also we learn, in accordance with Scripture, to distinguish between the righteousness of faith in the court of the Spirit and the repentant conscience, and righteousness of life in the tribunal of the Judge of the world (Revelation 16:5); recognizing the fact, however, that the latter is always conditioned upon the former. [“They have shown themselves worthy to be regarded as followers of the Lamb; or they have a character that is fitted for Heaven. The declaration is not that they have any claim to Heaven, on the ground of their own merit, or that it will be in virtue of their own works that they will be received there; but that there is a fitness or propriety that they should thus appear in Heaven.” Barnes. “God’s word does not refuse to ascribe a worthiness to men (Matthew 10:10-11; Matthew 22:8; Luke 20:35; Luke 21:36; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:11); although this worthiness must ever be contemplated as relative and not absolute. … There are those who ‘are worthy,’ according to the rules which free grace has, although there are none according to those which strict justice might have laid down.” Trench.—E. R. C.] Revelation 3:5. He that conquereth shall thus be clothed in white garments.—The ever-recurring term ὁνικῶν has here the special meaning of victory over temptation emanating from the subtle worldly-mindedness and slumbrous spirit of the church. The faithful in Ephesus had to overcome the temptation of excess in external works, amid which the first love grew cold. Believers in Smyrna had to overcome the trial of persecutions unto death. Believers in Pergamus were to overcome anomianism. Believers in Thyatira must be victorious over fanaticism. The Philadelphians were tried with Judaism, and the Laodiceans, finally, had the temptation to self-righteousness to surmount. The richer expression, he shall thus be clothed, etc., gives prominence to the free act of grace in the righteous recompense; as does also the clause: And I will not [Lange, never (οὐμὴ)] wipe out his name.—His name was entered in the Book of Life simultaneously with his calling and conversion. Such names may, however, be wiped out—a destiny awaiting many in Sardis. But the names of the conquerors shall never be wiped out. The figurative expression, book of Life, borrowed from the registers of the living citizens of a community (see Dόsterd.), like the idea of calling, is not always used in exactly the same sense; sometimes it predominantly denotes the actualized ethical relation of man to God (Psalms 69:28; Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 21:27); sometimes it is pre-eminently, significant of the relation and conduct of Divine grace to man (Exodus 32:32; Psalms 139:16; Revelation 17:8); and sometimes the predominant idea is that of the concrete unity of the two elements which we have mentioned, the reciprocal relation of which is always implied (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 13:8).But I will confess his name.—Third promise. The recurrence of the name is significant. It is the mark of a dead church-life that only a collective Christianity remains, that Christian names, pronounced personalities, are lacking. In Sardis, however, there are still a few such names; and these the Lord will confess by name as His own, before God His Father, and before the angels of God—in the most glorious circle of life, therefore. Highest glorification of the highest definiteness of their personal life! [Comp. Matthew 10:32 Luke 12:8.—E. R. C.] [“It is a very instructive fact, that everywhere else in the epistles to all the churches, save only to this and to Laodicea, there is mention of some burden to be borne, of a conflict either with foes within the church or without, or with both. Only in these two nothing of the kind occurs. The exceptions are very significant. There is no need to assume that the church at Sardis had openly coalesced and joined hands with the heathen world; this would in those days have been impossible; nor yet that it had renounced the appearance of opposition to the world. But the two tacitly understood one another. This church had nothing of the spirit of the Two Witnesses, of whom we read that they ‘tormented them that dwelt on the earth’ (Revelation 11:10), tormented them, that is, by their witness for a God of truth and holiness and love, Whom the dwellers on the earth were determined not to know. … The world could endure it because it too was a world.” Trench.—E. R. C.] SIXTH EPISTLE. Rev_3:7-13 Philadelphia, like Sardis, was situated in Lydia, about thirteen hours’ journey southeast from that capital. It derived its name from its builder, the Pergamese king, Attalus Philadelphus. Though frequently visited by earthquakes, the city still exists under the Turkish name of Alah Shehr, a living monument of the faithfulness of Divine promises in the midst of ruins. Comp. the Encyclopζdias and Books of Travel. On its church-historical reminiscences see Dόsterdieck. In Philadelphia, as in Smyrna, there was a “synagogue of Satan,” i. e., an association of Judaistic enemies of Christianity, in opposition to which the epistle, whose images are theocratic throughout (see Dόsterdieck), signalizes the church as the true people of God. Revelation 3:7. These things saith the Holy [One], the True [One].—The Lord’s self-designation is here in perfect accordance with the theocratic idea of God, and that in reference to the question as to which is the true people of God. The description is connected as a whole with the import of the Son of Man, Revelation 1:13, in accordance with Daniel 7. The Holy One.—The specific predicate of the God of Israel, the Sanctifier to Himself of a peculiar people—or a people of possession (see 1 Peter 1:15-16). “Christ, rejected and blasphemed by the synagogue of Satan, is nevertheless, simply and plainly the Holy One, the true Messiah and Lord of the Church” (Dόsterdieck). The personal manifestation of the God of Israel, the Founder of the Theocracy. Dόsterdieck (p. 186) cites a number of instances of the misapprehension or ignoring of this obvious reference. [Comp. Luke 1:35; Acts 3:14. “Christ claims here to be ὁἍγιος, the Holy One; cf. Acts 2:27; Acts 13:35; Hebrews 7:26. In all these passages, however, ὅσιος, not ἅγιος, stands in the original; nor are these words perfectly identical, though we have but the one word, ‘holy,’ by which to render them both. The ὅσιος, if a man, is one who diligently observes all the sanctities of religion; anterior, many of them, to all law, the ‘jus et fas,’ with a stress on the latter word. If applied to God, as at Revelation 15:4; Revelation 16:5, and here, He is One in whom these eternal sanctities reside; who is Himself the root and ground of them. The ἅγιος is the separate from evil, with the perfect hatred of the evil. But holiness, in this absolute sense, belongs only to God; not to angels, for He chargeth His angels with folly (Job 4:18), and certainly not to men (James 3:2; Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21). He then that claims to be ‘the Holy One’—a name which Jehovah in the Old Testament continually claims for Himself—implicitly claims to be God,” etc. Trench. “As opposed to the συναγωγὴτοῦσατανᾶ below.” Alford.—E. R. C.] The True One.—In the New Testament, the term, “the true” [der Wahrhaftige, ἀληθινός, veritable, see Comm. on John, p. 460, Am. Ed.—E. R. C.] denotes not only the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (2 Corinthians 1:20), but also the substance of the Old Testament shadowy sketches (John 1:17). Accordingly, the attribute ἀληθινός is related to ἀληθής, and founded thereupon; the two epithets are contra-distinguished, however, by the pre-eminence of the idea of substantiality. of true spiritual life, in ἀληθινός, Comp. the series of interpretations cited by Dόsterd. The blasphemies of the Jews who refused to see in the Lord aught but the hanged one”—hence, a false Messiah—are correctly pointed out by Hengstenberg as the antithesis to ὁἀληθινός. As Christ is personal holiness as the realized fundamental idea of the Old Covenant, so He is also the True in the sense of the fulfillment and essential consummation of the Old Testament, the perfect essential form of the Messiah. [“We must not confound ἀληθινός (=verus) with ἀληθής (=verax). God is ἀληθής (=ἀψενδής, Titus 1:2), as He cannot lie, the truth-speaking and truth-loving God; with whom every word is Yea and Amen; but He is ἀληθινός, as fulfilling all that is involved in the name God, in contrast with those which are called gods, … That is άληθινός, which fulfills its own idea to the highest possible point. … Nor is άλιθινός only, as in this case of God, the true as contrasted with the absolutely false; but as contrasted with the subordinately true, with all imperfect and partial realizations of the idea; thus Christ is φῶςἀληθινόν (John 1:9; 1 John 2:8), ἄρτοςἀληθινός (John 6:32), ἄμπελοςἀληθινή (John 15:1); there is a σκηνὴαληθινή in Heaven (Hebrews 8:2). In each of these cases, the antithesis is not between the true and the false, but between the perfect and the imperfect, the idea fully and the idea only partially realized; for John the Baptist also was a light (John 5:35), and Moses gave bread from Heaven (Psalms 105:40), and Israel was a vine of God’s planting (Psalms 80:8), and the tabernacle pitched in the wilderness, if only a figure of the true, was yet pitched at God’s express command (Exodus 25).” Trench.—E. R. C.] That hath the key of David.—The key of the house of David was kept by the steward of his house; it was the province of this official to grant or deny access to the king, and to decide all questions of presentability at court. According to Isaiah 22:22, the key was given to Eliakim, after being taken from Shebna. This key to the perfected theocratic Royal House, the House of the Messiah, the Messianic Kingdom, is now held by Christ the Messiah Himself (not by a steward); He and He alone decides, first, by His word and Spirit in the Church, and, again, by His authoritative rule in the world, the question as to who belongs to the people of God. And thus He forms in His Church the contrast to the synagogue of Satan. That which the Judaists would exclude, He includes; what they would include, He excludes. The difference, however, is that their communion, like their excommunication, is a mere delusion, whilst His acts have absolute reality. When He opens, none can shut: the world cannot take away His peace—no, not even from the martyr. When He shuts, none can open: the sentence of judgment which He by His Spirit executes in the spirits of men, can be invalidated by no fanatical self-delusion, or deception on the part of others. [“Christ teaches us here that He has not so committed the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, with the power of binding and loosing, to any other, His servants, here, but that He still retains the highest administration of them in His own hands.” Trench. Is not “emphasis” to be laid on “the ὁἔχων”—the “steward” may hold the key, subject to the authority of the Master, the latter alone can be said to possess it? This view supports the interpretation of Dόsterdieck given below.—E. R. C.] Various interpretations. Christ alone opens the Holy Scriptures; Lyra. The cross of Christ instrumentum omnipotentiζ; Alcasar. That supreme power which is the property of the Lord, Matthew 28:18; Dόsterd. and others. Christ, as Lord and King of the Kingdom, admits into it and excludes from it (Dόsterd., Hengst., and others). Revelation 3:8. I know thy works.—We do not, with Bengel and others, pass over the next word ἰδού, etc., and find a specification of the works in the subsequent ὅτι, etc.; but neither are they “destitute of further qualification” [Dόsterd.]; on the contrary, they contain the motive of the following: Behold I have given [δέδωκα, etc.]; they are consequently an expression of full recognition. Before thee a door opened.—Does this mean: The door into the Kingdom of God is opened for the church, though the Judaists would fain shut it, or is it a door to successful activity? The former apprehension, with various modifications, is supported by Bengel, Hengstenberg and others (see Dόsterd.), whilst most commentators favor the latter conception, interpreting the passage as referring to the church’s opportunity for missionary labors. Dόsterdieck declares in favor of the latter view, with reference to Revelation 3:9. The connection may also be thus construed, however: So far from thine adversaries being able to shut the door upon thee, they shall be constrained to turn to thine open door themselves. If we translate thus: Behold, I have determined that the door shall stand open before thee, we include both particulars, and it generally proves that that church which itself enters into the Kingdom of God draws in others with it.For thou hast little strength.—This must not be understood as indicative of spiritual weakness (a lack of miraculous gifts, Lyra), but of the external smallness or insignificance of the church (Dόsterd., et al. [“The words ‘little strength’ may refer either to the smallness of the number; … or it may refer to the spiritual life and energy of the church—meaning that, though feeble, their vital energy was not wholly gone. The more natural interpretation seems to be to refer it to the latter.” Barnes. It may refer to either of these, or both; conjoined with their lack of temporal wealth.—E. R. C.]). Though thou hast little strength [“not as E. V., ‘a little strength,’ thereby virtually reversing the sense of the words: μικρὰνἔχειςδύν. importing ‘thy strength is but small,’ and the E. V. importing ‘thou hast some strength,’ the fact of its smallness vanishing under the indefinite term ‘a little,’ … and (using that little well).” Alford.—E. R. C.].—The sense is, though thou hast little strength, Thou didst keep, etc. [This idea of the German, weakened by the parenthesis, must be preserved.] Thou didst keep My word, etc.—The church has already proved its faithfulness by confessing Christ in tribulation; therefore the Lord will grant it spiritual success exceeding the measure of its external power. Revelation 3:9. Behold, I will make them [Lange: I give (δίδωμι) that some] of the synagogue of Satan.—Here also that community of Judaism which assumes to be the true Israel, is denominated a synagogue of Satan, with the same energy with which the Johannean Gospel opposes Judaism. Even from this community of demonic adversaries, the church shall win some souls. Here, too, the διδῶμι has more the appearance of an enactment than of a gift. He makes a disposition of these few already; subsequently He causes them to come. And fall down before thy feet.—As it was prophesied in the Old Testament that the Gentiles should be converted and come unto Zion to the Jews, so here it is predicted that the Judaizing Jews shall in their conversion come to the Church of Christ as the true Zion. Even the προσκυνεῖν, as an expression of homage, and, at the same time, humiliation before the Church of Salvation and of the presence of the Lord, is heard in the following prophecies: Psalms 72:9; Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 49:23; Isaiah 60:14; Zechariah 8:20. On the misinterpretation of this passage in favor of the Catholic Hierarchy, see Dόsterd., p. 192.And to know that I have loved thee.—Ἠγάπησα denotes a continuous love, begun in the past. Dόsterd. refers this demonstration of love to the death of Christ, in which case Philadelphia would only represent the Church total. Others interpret the word as indicative of the superiority or excellence of the Philadelphian church. De Wette: That I have known thee to be a faithful church. Both considerations must, however, be recognized in their unity: That My love to thee has become manifest in thy life of faith. The recognition of Christ is implied with the recognition of the church, and as the real motive of the latter. Dόsterdieck gives prominence to the thought that the Jews shall know the love of Christ as manifested in His death upon the cross, whilst now they still blaspheme Him as a crucified malefactor. Revelation 3:10. Because thou didst keep the word of My patience [endurance].—Dόsterdieck makes the pronoun μου relate, not to τῆςὑπομ. alone (like Ewald, De Wette, Hengstenberg and others), but to the whole conception τὸνλόγ., etc. (with Grot., Eichhorn and others). But the reading: My word of patience, gives rise to obscurity, suggesting the thought that the words of other teachers have glorified patience. There are also different explanations of this apprehension of the sentence. The word which, among other things, prescribes patience (Heinrich); The word which bestows and demands patience (Dόsterd.). Isolated utterances of Christ, recommending patience—Christian patience (Hengstenberg. This interpretation approximates the other). [Barnes: “My word commanding or enjoining patience, that is, thou hast manifested the patience which I require.” Trench: “Better, however, to take the whole Gospel as ‘the word of Christ’s patience,’ everywhere teaching, as it does, the need of a patient waiting for Christ, till He, the waited-for so long, shall at length appear.” The translation, constancy or endurance, or steadfastness, is altogether to be preferred; the idea of patience is rather that of uncomplaining submission under trial—in this sense it is a misnomer to speak of the ὑπομονή of Job, James 5:11.—E. R. C.] The word of the patience of Christ is also variously interpreted as the word of My passion, My constancy (Calov.). The word which, as the word concerning the cross, demands, in respect of its purport and in respect of the obligation which it imposes, steadfastness such as is peculiar to Christ and His people (Vitringa). We read: The word ripened in persecution into a word of perseverance, to the martyrs’ testimony [martyrium], to confession. Hence: Thou hast kept my word in the fiery trial of temptation and opposition, when the word concerning the cross became a word of the cross;—the word in the beauty and power of the cross. The Holy Scriptures contain multiplied references to ὑπομονή; particularly Revelation 2:2-3; Revelation 2:19; Revelation 13:10; Revelation 14:12 [Luke 8:15; Luke 21:19; Romans 2:7; Romans 5:3-4; Romans 8:25; Romans 15:4-5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:5; Hebrews 10:36; Hebrews 12:1; James 1:3-4, etc.—E. R. C.] I also will keep thee.—Three-fold interpretation: [1] Thou shalt be excepted from the hour of temptation. [2] Thou, with all the faithful, shalt be preserved from the plagues of unbelievers. [3] Thou shalt be kept through exterior temptation; it shall not become to thee an internal temptation to apostasy (Vitringa, Hengstenb., and others). Dόsterdieck: “The expression τηρ. ἐκ must be distinguished from τηρ. ἀπό.” From the hour of temptation.—The hour of temptation is the culminating point in the time of temptation (Luke 22:53), the moment of the crisis. In general, doubtless, the severe conflicts of faith which the Church must undergo previous to the Coming of the Lord (see Revelation 3:11) are here intended, as bringing with them the danger of apostasy. More particular definitions: The preservation represented Revelation 7:3 sqq. (Ewald, De Wette); the tribulations of Antichrist (Primasius); in addition to these, the plagues of the sixth angel (Bede).—Needless limitations. False modifications: The persecutions under Nero (Grotius), Domitian (Lyra), Trajan (Alcasar and others). [A πειρασμός is aught that tends to cause to swerve from the right (either in feeling or action), whether it be a promise, an allurement, a prophecy of evil, a threat, a persecution, or an affliction (see Luke 4:13; Luke 8:13; Luke 22:28; Luke 22:40; Luke 22:46; Acts 20:19; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Galatians 4:14; 1 Timothy 6:9; 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 4:12, etc.). It is so styled because it is a trial, a test, of faith or the spirit of obedience. The hour of temptation (testing) is doubtless that special period referred to, 1 Peter 4:12 (τῇἐνὑμῖνπυρώσειπρὸςπειρασμὸνὑμῖνγινομένῃ), and by our Lord, Matthew 24:21-22; (a period both of testing and of punishment—primarily, however, of the former). This special period, be it observed, is distinguished from the period of ordinary πειρασμοί referred to 1 Peter 1:6, and Matthew 24:4-13. It is also to be observed that the promise is not of preservation in trial, as was the promise to Peter, Luke 22:32; but of preservation from (ἐκ) the hour or period of trial (comp. 2 Peter 2:9). The idea of this promise seems to be, that as the Philadelphians had continued steadfast throughout the period of ordinary testing, they were to be exempted from those extraordinary πειρασμοί which were to come upon the world.—E. R. C.] Which is about to come upon all the world [οἰκουμένη].—Though it is relatively true that the Roman empire was the οἰκουμένη [Grot., Vitr., Stern, et al.]. it must here symbolize the whole of the inhabited world. This is indicated by the next clause. To try them that dwell upon the earth.—According to Dόsterdieck, “the mass of mankind in antithesis to believers, redeemed out of all peoples.” The following passages are cited in illustration of this view: Revelation 6:10; Revelation 11:10; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 13:14. It results from Revelation 13:8, however, that the inhabitants of the earth are more or less identified with unbelievers only on account of the great majority of the latter over believers. It is true that the temptation comes, as a judicial infliction, only upon the unbelieving; yet the tempting fact comes, as a rigorous trial, upon believers also, in order to their confirmation. This result they owe to Divine preservation. Revelation 3:11. I come quickly.—Constantly recurring announcement, designed for the awakenkening and terrifying of foes and the consolation and elevation of the pious. We would again insist upon the fact, that it is no definition of time in the common chronological sense; it is to be apprehended in an exalted religious sense. The term ταχύ always involves the surprisingness of the coming, as unexpected, sudden, terribly early and terribly great. Hold that fast which thou hast.—See Revelation 1:3; Revelation 2:25; Revelation 22:7. Cherish the charism peculiar to thee. The ever new reproduction and more thorough acquisition of the thing possessed is expressed, together with the holding of it fast (Matthew 24:13). Here the charism of steadfastness in the faith is denoted. [“Whatever of truth and piety you now possess.” Barnes.—E. R. C.] That no man take thy crown.—That no man despoil thee of the victor’s wreath. that awaiteth thee at the goal; i. e. that none cause thee to lose it. Not, therefore, in the sense of another’s coming before and winning it in the church’s stead (Grot.). Μηδείς, however, represents the power of temptation, finally concentrated in Antichrist, with reference to the competitive contests of antiquity. Revelation 3:12. A pillar in the temple.—The distinct promise corresponds again to the distinct conduct of the church: 1. A pillar in the spiritual Temple of God; 2. An eternally consecrate inmate of the Temple; 3. Adorned with the three-fold inscription: a. With the name of God; the complete expression of perfect religiousness. b. With the name of the City of God; the complete expression of perfect ideal churchliness. c. With the name of Christ; the complete expression of perfect Christliness, which embraces in one both the foregoing considerations. This promise will, of course, not be perfectly fulfilled until the Coming of the Lord; yet we cannot, with Dόsterdieck, regard its fulfillment as exclusively subsequent to the second Advent. Dόsterdieck not only denies the reference of the promise to the Church Militant alone (Lyra, Grot., and others), but he even disputes its application to it and the Church Triumphant (Vitringa and others). [“The promised reward of faithfulness here is, that he who is victorious would be honored as if he were a pillar or column in the Temple of God. Such a pillar or column was partly for ornament, and partly for support, and the idea here is, that in that Temple he would contribute to its beauty and the justness of its proportions, and would at the same time be honored as if he were a pillar which was necessary for the support of the Temple.”—Barnes. Alford judiciously observes: “It is no objection to this view (substantially the one set forth above) that in the heavenly Jerusalem there is no Temple, Revelation 21:22; but rather a corroboration of it. That glorious City is all Temple, and Christ’s victorious ones are its living stones and pillars. Thus, as Dόsterdieck well remarks, the imagery of the Church Militant 1 Corinthians 3:16 sqq.; Ephesians 2:19 sqq.; 1 Peter 2:5 sqq., is transferred to the Church Triumphant, but with this difference, that the saints are no longer the stones merely, but now the pillars themselves, standing on their immovable firmness,” This passage is but one of many which set forth the pre-eminence of the victorious saints of the present dispensation, in the future ζon of blessedness and glory. They are the ἀπαρχή, the first fruits, James 1:18; Revelation 14:4; the bride, Revelation 21:9; kings in the Kingdom then to be established, Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:22; priests in the holy congregation, Revelation 1:6; Revelation 5:10; Revelation 20:6; pillars in the heavenly Temple. (See also note on Revelation 2:26.)—E. R. C.] And he shall nevermore go out. (Καὶἔξωοὐμὴἐξέλθηἔτι.)—The pillar shall not be put out, according to Ewald and others. But there is doubtless a change of figure. The victor can no more fall away or be separated from the blessed fellowship of God. His secure position in the eternal Temple as a pillar, for firmness and beauty, is only equalled by his sure establishment therein as an inmate. [Continued purity, and exemption from association with anything impure, seem to be emphasized by the use of ἔξω; comp. Revelation 22:15.—E. R. C.] Hengstenberg justly says, that this applies to every Christian, for to be a Christian is to be a victor. The inscription also refers to the victor, not to the pillar, see Revelation 14:1. On the reference of the name of Jesus to Jesuani, Jesuitζ, see Dόsterdieck’s note, p. 197. An analogue of the three names in Jewish Theology, see in Dόsterdieck, p. 198. Which cometh down out of heaven.—See Revelation 21. As the Church in this world is ever growing more spiritual, so the Church in the other world is constantly becoming more real, more corporeal, until its perfect worldly appearance is consummated in the resurrection. [See under Revelation 21:1-3.—E. R. C.] As the three names, in close connection with the Trinity, are expressive of a three-fold manifestation of the Divine image in the beatified one, so they also denote a three-fold appertinency or consecrateness on his part. [And I will write upon him the name of my God.—“Christ will write this name of His God upon him that overcometh—not upon it, the pillar. It is true, indeed, that there were sometimes inscriptions on pillars, which yet would be στῆλαι, rather than στῦλοι; but the image of the pillar is now dismissed, and only the conqueror remains. In confirmation of this, that it is the person, and not the pillar, whom the Lord contemplates now, we find, further on, the redeemed having the name of God, or the seal of God on their foreheads (Revelation 7:3; Revelation 9:4; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 22:4), with probable allusion to the golden plate, inscribed with the name of Jehovah which the High Priest wore upon his (Exodus 28:36-38). In the ‘Kingdom of priests’ this dignity shall not be any more the singular prerogative of one, but the common dignity of all.” Trench.—And the name of the City of my God.—“What the name of this City is, we are told Ezekiel 48:35 : ‘The Lord is there.’ Any other name would but faintly express the glory of it; ‘having the glory of God’ (Revelation 21:11; Revelation 21:23). He that has the name of this City written upon him is hereby declared free of it. Even while on earth he had his true πολίτευμαἐνοὐρανοῖς (Philippians 3:20; see Ellicott thereon), the state, city or country to which he belonged was a heavenly one; but still his citizenship was latent; he was one of God’s hidden ones; but now he is openly avouched, and has a right to enter in by the gates to the City (Revelation 22:14).” Trench.—And.… My new name.—“This ‘new name’ is not ‘The Word of God’ (Revelation 19:13), nor yet ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ (Revelation 19:16). It is true that both of these appear in this Book as names of Christ; but at the same time neither of them could be called His new name; the faithful having been familiar with them from the beginning; but the ‘new name’ is that mysterious and, in the necessity of things, uncommunicated and, for the present time, incommunicable name, which, in that same sublimest of all visions, is referred to: ‘He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself’ (Revelation 19:12); for none but God can search out the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:12; cf. Matthew 11:27; Judges 13:18). But the mystery of this new name, which no man by searching could find out, which in this present condition no man is so much as capable of receiving, shall be imparted to the saints and citizens of the New Jerusalem. They shall know even as they are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).” Trench.—E. R. C.] [The following extract from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (Revelation 54) will be read with interest in this connection: “Two Turkish chieftains, Sarukhan and Aidin, left their names to their conquests, and their conquests to their posterity. The captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss, of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelation; the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above four-score years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example that the paths of honor and safety may sometimes be the same.”—E. R. C.] SEVENTH EPISTLE. Rev_3:14-22 Our Laodicea was situated on the river Lycus in Phrygia Major, in the neighborhood of Colosse and Hierapolis; it was a large and rich commercial city. Bearing earlier the name of Diospolis, and then of Rhoas, it received its subsequent appellation in honor of Laodice, the Queen of King Antiochus II. In the year 62 this city, like Colosse and Hierapolis, was destroyed by an earthquake, but was speedily rebuilt. An insignificant town called Eskihissar, surrounded by ruins, now forms the last trace of its existence. Laodicea was the last of the seven churches; hence, a circular letter to these (the Epistle to the Ephesians) had, on reaching this city, arrived at its final destination, and from there an exchange could readily be effected between it and the Epistle to the Colossians (Colossians 4:16). Notwithstanding this, Winer still talks of a lost letter from Paul to the Laodiceans. The bearer of the seven epistles, having gone northward from Ephesus through Smyrna to Pergamus, turned southward to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea; thus traversing a trivium and a quadrivium.For further particulars, see Encyclopedias, Books of Travel and Geographical works. “A bishop and martyr of Laodicea, called Sagaris (A. D. 170), is mentioned by Eusebius, H. E. iv. 20; v. 24; even Archippus (Colossians 4:17) is named as bishop (Const. Apost. viii. 46). Each has been regarded as the angel of the church; and in the expression ἡἀρχὴτ. κτ., Revelation 3:14, Hengstenberg has even discovered an allusion to the name of Arch-ippus as the most influential leader of the church at Laodicea.” (Duesterdieck.) A curious discovery, certainly! Colossians 2. does not distinctly prove, as Dόsterdieck assumes, that in Paul’s time the Laodicean church, as well as that at Colosse, was in danger from erroneous theosophic doctrines, though Vitringa, with astonishing acuteness, maintained that there were traces of such things in the very epistle that we are examining (Dόsterdieck, p. 199). The spiritual condition of the church may be clearly gathered from the epistle addressed to it, but cannot be explained from the external circumstances of the church itself. Revelation 3:14. These things saith the Amen.—Here also a harmony of all parts may be taken for granted at the very outset. The central point of all the terms contained in the epistle lies, manifestly, in the false self-gratulation of the Church as expressed in Revelation 3:17. In the first place, such a morbid assurance of completeness, involving a cessation from striving, and even from aspiration—such a conviction of having arrived at a state in which all need is done away with (πεπλούτηκα)—does not arise in a healthy condition of faith, for even on the firm ground of the peace of reconciliation, such a condition implies—nay, is itself—a longing and striving after perfection (the true righteousness of faith, an agonizing after righteousness of life). But, again, this assurance of completeness and consequent stoppage of all exertion does not spring into existence where there is a mere legal holiness of works; the goad of the law is constantly rousing those under its bondage—or, at least, the worthier portion of them—from the false repose to which they, for a moment, may have yielded, and urging them on. Spiritualism [Spiritualismus], however, is always and everywhere thoroughly satisfied, whether it appear in a mystical form, declaring, I too am a son of God, or in a rationalistic guise, affirming that there is no such thing as a son of God, no such thing as the Atonement. Spiritualism [Spiritualismus] has the property of not being warm, because it has no spiritual [geistlich] blood, no social, historical or personal life; but neither is it cold, for it has its religious views and opinions, its party even, for which it can, for a time, be enthusiastically or fanatically hot. It does not, however, grow warm for the living fellowship of God and the Church of God. Now this spiritualism [Spiritualismus] may, in Laodicea, as well as elsewhere, have been based upon the antecedents of theoretical, theosophic heresies; at the writing of the epistle, however, these heresies were a vanishing point in the background; the enthusiastic soarings in the clouds had been succeeded by the reactionary fall of satiety and lukewarmness. Hence the word of revelation does not directly attack theoretical errors of the church, but its practical appearance, so specifically modified, however, that we perceive the epistle to be also aimed at the germs of the church’s corruption latent in the background. The self-designation of Christ is the first instrument for the accomplishment of the design we have just stated. The Amen, the faithful and true [genuine] Witness, the Originator (ἀρχή, see Colossians 1:18) of the creation and redemption. He is the Amen as the perfect and complete personal conclusion of the revelations of God, beyond Whom there can be no angelic or philosophic or spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] revelations,—the focus of the Divine sun of revelation, through Whom alone true vital heat is to be got. He is the faithful and essential, perfectly historical and real Witness of the truth, in face of Whom the inflated illusions, images and systems of spiritualism [Spiritualismus] must vanish away. He is the living, personal Principle of the whole creation; hence there is no principial life of spirits or spirit outside of that cosmical order of the Kingdom, which is comprehended in Him. With this description of Christ, the description of the church corresponds. Its works are specifically merged in its character, and this character is lukewarmness—not lukewarmness as positivism, however, but as a double negation: neither cold nor warm. If the church were cold, if it were a stranger to Christ, like the heathen, or even if it cherished a positive antipathy against Him, He would not approach it in the character of a Judge; it might yet become, warm. It has just enough Christianity to come under condemnation, but not sufficient to attain to blessedness, for the reason that it is not warm. This condition, in its approximation to eternal hopelessness, wrings from the Judge Himself, in His blessed majesty, a sigh that seems laden with a human grief: O that thou wert cold or warm!—Again, the condition of the church is illustrated by the figure of lukewarm water, which, when drunk, causes nausea: I am about to (not yet: I will) spew thee out of my mouth; i. e. reject with lively indignation and repulsion. Not cold, not warm, but lukewarm. This attitude toward the Lord, His word and His Church, is based upon the church’s conduct toward itself, upon its spiritual [geistlich] pride. This pride is likewise expressed three-foldly: I am rich—I have become rich to excess or satiety—I have need of nothing (or, as it may also be rendered, no person, no Saviour, no fellowship). The first declaration is expressive of the church’s self-deception in imagining that it can be rich independently. In the second declaration, the church intimates, that in some way or other (by an arcanum or a would-be new idea) it has become rich, and that its wealth is forever an accomplished fact. In the third declaration, the fearful consequence is announced: it has need of nothing more; it is subjectively free from all heavenly and earthly props; its satiety is the complete caricature of the blessedness of true faith, having an imaginary exaltation in an imaginary omniscience. Its false self-appraisement is met by the annihilating sentence of the Lord: Thou knowest not.—Ignorance, and that in relation to the most immediate and necessary knowledge—ignorance of its own condition; ignorance in its most aggravated form—self-blinding, constitutes the basis of its wants. The church (represented by her character, her masculine life-picture) knows not that she is, on the one hand, the wretched one, the specific bearer of the burdens of a salvationless state; and, on the other, the one pitiable above all Others, on whom, also, the Lord wills yet to have pity in consideration of her ignorance (see Luke 23:34). The three fundamental traits of this woful picture are: poor and blind and naked; poor in reference to the true riches of life; blind in reference to truth and knowledge; naked in reference to the utter want of a truly spiritual [geistlich] appearance in genuine good works or signs and evidences of the inner life. The counsel of the Lord is in harmony with the situation. The church is admonished to buy all that she lacks of Him. For of Him alone can the beggar buy—buy for nought (Isaiah 55:1), and yet buy, inasmuch as it is only under moral forms and conditions that the free gift is received; its reception implies the surrender of a whole world of counterfeit value, and thus there is a difference between its bestowal and the actual giving of alms to a beggar. The first proffer is that of gold—gold purified by fire; the heavenly riches of righteousness, in the sterling quality of the fidelity of faith; purified by the fire of tribulation, and thus proven to be genuine gold. The spiritualist [Spiritualist] dares not expose his gilded fancies to the fire of tribulation. The church’s nakedness is the second thing provided for—in advance of her blindness; and this is, doubtless, because a modicum of sight is pre-supposed in the first and second acts, and because it is high time that the manifestation of the shame of her nakedness, appearing, as it necessarily will, in moral scandals, should be averted by demonstrations of Christian life, in white garments, which are connected with the gold of faith. Then comes the eye-salve of truth, in order to the gaining of true and perfect sight in Christian knowledge, from which the spiritualist [Spiritualist], in his false conceit of knowledge, is most remote. The severe utterance of the Lord is next exempted from all suspicion of partyism, party-strife or school-wrangling. The truth of Christ, under whatever aspect it is viewed, always turns to rebuke when it encounters falsehood; and the very fact of its rebuking and chastening is designed to teach the person thus exercised, that the love of Christ has not yet given him up, and that, on the contrary, it would fain win him by these means of rebuke and chastening—that it is thereby calling him to repentance. Revelation 3:20. Behold, I stand at the door.—With the peculiar species of sinfulness in the condition of the church, the peculiar form of repentance corresponds. An obliteration of the consciousness of man’s liberty of election is partly the cause, partly the effect of spiritualism [Spiritualismus]; the nerve of moral freedom, is paralyzed, and the sense of moral greatness, as exemplified in the history of the world, is obscured. Therefore Christ—Who has not for a long time been, in this high-flying spiritualism [Spiritualismus]—stands at the door of the soul and knocks. He finds the door shut; still He does not burst it in; He knocks and begs for admittance. In face of this conduct of the royally Free, the unfree should rouse him from his palsy. If any man.—This, indeed, is not to be expected of the mass of blinded ones, yet it may be hoped of individuals. If any man hear My voice.—There is help for any one who still has an ear for this—for the affectionate tone, the loving call of Jesus’ voice. Amid his spiritual [geistig] waverings betwixt light and darkness, his heart, constantly declining, as it is, into an indifference to personal love, is not yet quite dead. This is proved by the fact of his opening the door to the Lord, by his reception of the personal Christ as his Friend and Saviour. And what then? With the peculiar modification of repentance, the peculiar modification of grace corresponds. The subsequent word of promise is, assuredly, meant for all who are converted, but especially is it intended for the returning spiritualist [Spiritualist]. I will come in to him and will sup with him.–In the case of the spiritualist [Spiritualist], above all, the new life must take the form of the most intimate communion, of personal fellowship with the Lord. This communion is primarily Christ’s supping with him; his heart, his property, his bread henceforth belong to the Christian fellowship. But the higher form of this new life is that he, on his part, sups with Christ, that he becomes a participant in His blessed, heavenly life. And though the general reference here is to the meal of vital communion, the restoration of the spiritualist [Spiritualist] will also be particularly evidenced in a proper appreciation of the Lord’s Supper, the social Christ, a Sacrament which he has before despised in his imagined self-sufficiency. In this epistle, as in all the others, the concluding promise to the victor is in perfect harmony with all that has gone before. Revelation 3:21. To him that conquereth will I grant to sit with Me on My throne.—The throne of Christ is the glory of His Kingdom—the sitting on His throne, the personal vital possession of this glory; the sitting with Him on this throne is, therefore, the co-enjoyment of this highest definiteness of perfected personal life. This future forms the extremest contrast to the expectation of the spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] indifferentist who holds that he is to be swallowed up in the waves of the general, impersonal world-essence. But the promise unfolds still greater glories: And sat down with My Father.—We can imagine nothing concerning a fellowship in God’s personal exaltation above the world, above the transitoriness, unfreeness, and imperfection of the world. The words at the head of this paragraph, however, unmistakably form the culminating point of the contrast to the nihilistic views of the indifferentistically lukewarm mind, the positive counterpart of the negative Buddhistic Nirvana. The solemn conclusion appeals for the last time to the organization, the capacity, the destination of man; for the last time to man’s freedom and to the first stirrings of freedom in hearing and obeying; for the last time to the high calling of the Christian—to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. The words this time have a seven-fold weight, for they form the conclusion not only of the last letter, but of all the foregoing epistles likewise. The more general import of Christ’s declaration, Behold, I stand at the door, is this, viz., that the last epistle sketches the last form of the church, and touches upon the Parousia. After this general consideration of the final epistle, we present, briefly, the following exegesis of particular points: Revelation 3:14. The Amen, 2 Corinthians 1:20.—[“Referring, as is the case in every epistle, to some attribute of the speaker adapted to impress their minds, or to give peculiar force to what He was about to say to that particular church. … The word amen means true, certain, faithful; and, as used here, it means that He to whom it is applied is eminently true and faithful. What He affirms is true; what He promises or threatens is certain. Himself characterized by sincerity and truth (2 Corinthians 1:20), He can look with approbation only on the same in others; and hence He looks with displeasure on the lukewarmness which, from its very nature, always approximates insincerity.” Barnes. It may also be observed that a state of lukewarmness is a state of indifferentism, of partial unbelievingness. The lukewarm hear as though the promises and threats of their teachers were as vain as the wind. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section FourthSecond Grand Vision. Heaven-picture of the Seals. (Chs. 4, 5) General.—a. Translation of the Seer to Heaven. A vision within a vision, at the same time denoting a momentary translation into the light of the consummation.—The import of Heaven in the whole of Sacred Writ, from Genesis 1:1 throughout, is at once cosmical and spiritual. Heaven is, so to speak, the plastic symbol of religion, and especially of Christianity. God’s Kingdom, a Kingdom of Heaven. b. The Throne, the Sitter thereon, and His Government. The Throne indescribable. The figure of the Enthroned One is—and justly—not depicted, but only symbolized, approximately, by precious stones, having the hue of light and life.—The rainbow, or the glory of the Godhead, visible, in the chromatic, seven-fold radiance of revelation, to the spirit-world.—The twenty-four Elders on their thrones, or the elect in the lustre of perfect fellowship with God.—The white robes of consummation.—The ground-forms of Divine revelation: Lightnings, voices, thunders; see Exeg. Notes.—The Seven Spirits of God, under the figure of eternally burning Lamps [Torches], symbols of the eternal living unity of light, life and love.—The glassy sea and the four Life-forms; see Exeg. Notes.—God’s governance under the figure of these Life-forms.—The second doxology (Revelation 4:11) a development of the first (Revelation 1:6)—an expression of the ever richer revelation of God. c. The Sealed Book of the Course of the World. Lamentation and Consolation. The course of the world as a completed book, or the counsel of God. As a sealed book, or the nocturnal gloom of worldly history. As a terrible book, in the apparent impossibility of unsealing it. As a book full of wonders of salvation, destined to be opened by the Lion of Judah in His victory. Christ the Crucified and Risen One, the Opener, Explainer and Transfigurer [Erklδrer und Verklδrer] of the book with seven seals. The seals of guilt [Schuld=indebtedness to justice], of imputation of guilt, of judgment, of the curse, of death, of the fear of death, and of despair—how Christ looses them and resolves them all into deliverance and mercy, through His redemption. Even the Gospel is to the unenlightened world a dark book of fate, but through the enlightenment which proceeds from Christ, even the dark destiny of the world shall itself become a Gospel. d. The Lion as the Lamb. The unity of Lion and Lamb, or the absolute victorious power of perfect love and suffering. Divine omnipotence and Divine endurance in their general unity as exhibited in the history of the world, and in their concentrated unity as exhibited in Christ. The Lamb, the centre of all life, (1) of the Throne of God, (2) of the four ground-forms of His governance, (3) of the chosen presbyters of the Old and the New Covenant.—The symbolic appearance of the Lamb, see Exeg. Notes.—As it had been slain, or the infinite import of the historic phase of Christ and Christianity. Christ has taken the office of solving the riddle of worldly history from the hand of the Father. e. The Cultus of the Lamb. The third doxology, or the New Song: the type of Christian cultus. An antiphony between the beatified human world and the holy angel-world; a symphony of all good spirits and all creatures, to the praise of the Lamb and the glorification of the all-ruling God. Special.—[Chs. 4–5. The great vision of the Providence of God.—[Revelation 4:2-3. The power of Providence: God on His Throne; [Revelation 4:4. the aim of Providence: consummation of the spirit-world, represented by the twenty-four Elders; [Revelation 4:5. operations of Providence: manifestations of the Spirits of God; [Revelation 4:6. the work of Providence: the glassy sea, the billowy and yet transparent history of the world; [Revelation 4:6-8. the organs of Providence: the four Life-forms, or ground-forms of the Divine governance; [Revelation 4:8-11. gloriousness of Providence: its result a continuous doxology; [Revelation 4:1] idea of Providence: the sealed book. [Revelation 4:2-3. Terrors and obscurities of the government of Divine Providence.—[Revelation 4:4. The weeping geniuses of humanity.—[Revelation 4:5. Weep not. How many times these words appear in the New Testament, like fear not, or be of good cheer, and similar heavenly words of encouragement.—[Revelation 4:5-6. The light and all enlightening centre of Providence: Christ as the Lamb and the Lion.—Christianity, or the Death and Resurrection of Christ in their infinite operation.—The Redemption [Erlφsung] as the solving [Lφsung] of all riddles of worldly history, of humanity and of the world.—The Elders, appearing, in their attributes, as heirs of perfect communion with God, as the trusted witnesses of His rule.—A Presbytery of God: Christological idea of men who are in affinity with God. and who, through Christ, are elevated into the position of heirs of God.—[Revelation 4:8-11. Third and completely developed doxology.—Every delineation of the Lion is false, which does not, at the same time, permit the Lamb to be clearly recognized. Every delineation of the Lamb is false, behind which the Lion vanishes. Only the Spirit of Christ can grasp this great contrast as a living unity. As so entirely a unity, that the Lion were not without the Lamb’s nature, or the Lamb without the Lion’s nature.—How Holy Scripture is reflected in the ideal Books which we meet with in the Apocalypse. There are few essential relations at the basis of the Bible which do not here appear in the form of Books.—The Christian cultus, reposing in its truth upon the heavenly cultus of all beings.—Sacred songs and new songs.—All sacred songs are outgushes of the one celestial New Song.—To the song of praise of creation and providence (Revelation 4:11) is added the song of praise of redemption (Revelation 5:9).—The ground-form of worship an antiphony, in which spirits occupying different stand-points exchange their blessed views.—The Amen in the synagogue and in Christian worship. Starke: Quesnel: One who would know the mysteries of Heaven, must be free from earth.—The Elders: This figure here, as in the whole of this vision, is taken from the Temple at Jerusalem, David having instituted twenty-four orders of priests; these held their councils in the outer court of the Temple, the High Priest sitting in the midst upon his seat, and the four and twenty priests or elders sitting in a half-circle around him and before him on their seats. (The Seer has himself, Revelation 21., suggested, as the import of the Elders, the twelve heads of the Tribes of Israel and the twelve Apostles; the appointment of the orders [or courses] of priests, however, is itself connected with the original duodecenary.)—The office of the Elders—nay, of all believers—is to comfort the mourning from God’s Word and not to leave them without encouragement (Isaiah 40:1). He who would emphatically comfort another, must have sufficient grounds for his consolation to rest upon (John 16:33). Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, London, Dove (p. 528): Most of the best commentators divide the Apocalypse or Revelation into two parts—the book, βιβλίον, sealed with seven seals, and the little book, βιβλαρίσιον, as it is called several times. But it happens, unluckily, that according to their division the lesser book is made to contain as much as, or more than, the larger; whereas, in truth, the little book is nothing more than a part of the sealed book, and is added as a codicil or appendix to it. De Rougemont, La Rιvιlation (see p. 73): Le trτne ιtait environnι d’ un arc-en-ciel, qui avail la couleur de l’ ιmιraude. L’ arc-en-ciel est le signe de l’ alliance de Dieu avec l’ humanitι tout entiθre, issue de Noι, et il annonce ici que les rιvιlations subsιquentes auront pour objet l’ histoire future des nations. L’ ιmιraude est verte, et le vert est la couleur de l’ espιrance.H. W. Rinck (see p. 73): Die Zeichen der letzten Zeit.—And I wept much, etc. John had a priestly heart, he was a fellow-partaker in the Kingdom of Christ (Revelation 1:9); the Kingdom of God was more to him than his life—“If I forget thee, let my right hand be forgotten” (Psalms 137:5 [G. V.]) was the key-note of his soul more truly than it was that of the Babylonish captivity;—he longed for the establishment of Jesus’ Kingdom on earth more than did Daniel for the re-establishment of Jerusalem and Israel (Daniel 9). Such being his feelings, we can understand the tears that he wept because none was found worthy to open the Book of the Future. Literature. Roffhack, Schφpfung und Erlφsung nach Offenb. 4 u. 5., Barmen, 1866. [From M. Henry: Revelation 4:1. Those who well improve the discoveries they have had of God already, are prepared thereby for more and may expect them. Revelation 4:8-9. Note here the object of adoration: 1. One God, the Lord God Almighty, unchangeable and everlasting; 2. Three Holies in this one God, the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. Revelation 4:10-11. Observe, 1. The Object of worship—the same as in the preceding verses. 2. The acts of adoration: (1) They fell down before Him that sat on the Throne; they discovered the most profound humility, reverence, and godly fear. (2) They cast down their crowns, etc.; they gave God the glory of the holiness wherewith He had crowned their souls on earth, and the honor and happiness with which He crowns them in Heaven. (3) The words of adoration: Thou art worthy, etc.; a tacit acknowledgment that God was exalted far above all blessing and praise; He was worthy to receive glory, but they were not worthy to praise, nor able to do it according to His infinite excellences. 4. The ground and reason of their adoration, which is three-fold: (1) He is the Creator of all things, the first Cause. (2) He is the Preserver of all things, and His preservation is a continual creation. (3) He is the final Cause of all things; for Thy pleasure they are and were created.—Revelation 5:5-6. Christ is a Lion, to conquer Satan; a Lamb, to satisfy the justice of God.—He appears with the marks of His sufferings upon Him, to show that He intercedes in heaven in the virtue of His satisfaction. Revelation 4:8-11. It is just matter of joy to all the world, to see that God does not deal with men in a way of absolute power and strict justice, but in a way of grace and mercy through the Redeemer. He governs the world, not merely as a Creator and Lawgiver, but as our God and Saviour.—Here observe, 1. The object of worship—the Lamb. It is the declared will of God that all men should honor the Son as they honor the Father; for He has the same nature. 2. Posture of the worshippers—they fell down before Him; gave Him not an inferior sort of worship, but the most profound adoration. 3. The instruments used in their adoration—harps and vials; prayer and praise should always go together. 4. The matter of their song. (1) They acknowledge the infinite fitness and worthiness of the Lord Jesus for the great work of opening the decrees and executing the counsel and purposes of God; Thou art worthy, etc.; every way sufficient for the work and deserving of the honor. (2) They mention the grounds and reasons of this worthiness. Revelation 4:9. Christ has redeemed His people from the bondage of sin, guilt, and Satan; redeemed them to God; set them at liberty to serve Him and to enjoy Him. Revelation 4:10. He has highly exalted them. When the elect of God were made slaves by sin and Satan, in every nation of the world, Christ not only purchased their liberty for them, but the highest honor and preferment, making them kings, to rule over their own spirits, and to overcome the world and the evil one; and priests, giving them access to Himself, and liberty to offer up spiritual sacrifices. And they shall reign on the earth; they shall with Him judge the world at the great day.—From The Comprehensive Commentary: Ch. 4. The Lord Jesus, “having overcome the sharpness of death, hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers;” and if we look unto Him by faith, and obediently attend to His voice, whilst He calls us to “set our affections on things above,” we shall, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, behold the glory of our reconciled God on His “throne of grace;” be encouraged by the engagements of His everlasting covenant, and draw nigh in humble boldness with our worship; notwithstanding the terrors of His justice, and the awful curses of His broken law. (Scott.)—Revelation 5:9. Redemption by the blood of Christ (mark it well, O my soul!) is the ground-work of the majestic, triumphant song of praise in heaven; and a disposition to join in it, our chief capacity for, and actual happiness in, time and eternity. (Adams.)—From Vaughan: Chap. 4. We may learn hence the reality of a heavenly world, and of its concern and connection with this;—facts full of confusion and discomfiture to the worldly and sinners, but of comfort and encouragement to the Christian.] See Revelation 4:1 ff for the passage quote with footnotes. Revelation 5:1. [And I saw.—“Notice that from the general vision, in the last chapter, of the heavenly Presence of God, the scene is so far only changed that, all that remaining as described, a particular incident is now seen for the first time, and is introduced by καὶεἶδον.” Alford.—E. R. C.] Revelation 5:1. On the right hand of Him that sitteth upon the Throne.—[See Synoptical View, p. 149]. For a discussion of ἐπὶτὴνδεξιάν, in opposition to Ebrard’s view, see Dόsterd., p. 234. [“The right hand was open, and the book lay on the open hand.” Alford.—E. R. C.] A scroll.—The book [scroll], βιβλίον, was in the Hebrew form of a roll (not in the form of a Roman document, as Huschke maintains). [In answer to the question, “What is represented by this Book?” Alford presents seven different opinions, which may be condensed as follows: 1. The Old Testament, or the Old and New conjoined (Orig., Euseb., Epiphan., Hippol., Victor., August., Tichon., Bede, Hilary, Jerome, Joachim, Greg, the Great, Haymo, Ansbert). 2. Christ Himself (Hilary [?], Heterius, Paschasius). 3. Libellus repudii a Deo scriptus nationi Judaicζ (Wetstein). 4. Sententiam a Judice et patribus ejus conscriptus in hortes ecclesiζ conceptam (Schφttgen and Hengstenberg). 5. That part of the Apocalypse which treats of the opening of the seven seals, Revelation 6-11. (Alcasar). 6. The Apocalypse itself (Corn. a-Lap.). 7. “Divinζ providentiζ concilium et prζfinitio, qua apud Se statuit et decrevit facere vel permittere, etc.” (Areth., Vitringa, Mede, Ewald, De Wette, Stern, Dόsterd., et al.). The last he declares to be, in the main, his own view. See also Synoptical View.—E. R. C.] Within and on the back.—The idea of a great leaf-roll, covered with writing on both sides, is here presented. Similar descriptions in classical literature; see in Dόsterd. [“According to ancient usage, a parchment roll was first written on the inside, and if the inside was filled with writing, then the outside was used, or back part of the roll; and if that also was covered with writing, and the whole available space was occupied, the book was called opistho-graphos (written on the back-side; Lucian, Vit. Auction. 9, Plin. Epist. 3:5). or written ‘in aversβ cartβ,’ Martial, viii. 22.” Wordsworth.—E. R. C.] The book [scroll] has no vacant places, for the world’s history is great, and in Heaven everything is foreseen even to the very end. The explanation of the whole passage is by no means as easy as Dόsterdieck and others seem to think. It is not easy to demonstrate how a single leaf could be unsealed without the simultaneous loosing of all its seals, or how the loosing of a single seal could have freed only a single division of the leaf. And therefore we, with Vitringa (De Wette?) and others, adopt the idea of seven membranes or leaves, of which each one was separately sealed. Further, we reject the view which conceives of the book [scroll] as directly embracing the whole Apocalypse. It of course embraces it implicite, but explicite its contents are exhausted with the sixth chapter, inasmuch as the seventh seal, on being opened, gives place to a new vision and introduces a new group of pictures. We can, indeed, say that as the seven churches preside over the seven seals, so the latter preside over the seven trumpets; nevertheless, not only do trumpets and seals form distinct groups, but the seals, as forms of secrecy or mystery, constitute a perfect antithesis to the trumpets. We must particularly note here the idea of the seal (secrecy and security at once, Isaiah 29:11, etc.); that of the sevenfold seal (a sevenfold and hence sacred involution of both considerations); the idea of the book [scroll] (Exodus 32:32; Psalms 139:16, etc.); finally, the idea of the writing on both sides. “The idea that the βιβλίον is the Old Testament (Victorinus), or the whole of Sacred Writ, containing the New Testament within and the Old Testament without (Primas., Bede, Zeger) is founded upon mere guess-work.” Duesterdieck. Our comment upon this is that the contents are made known by the unsealing. Revelation 5:2. And I saw a strong angel (ἰσχυρόν).—To the world of Angels the world of the contrast of guilt and grace is a mysterious region (1 Peter 1:12). Even to the strong Angels it is mysterious. And an anxiety is felt in the heavenly realms for a solution of this dark enigma of earth. Now, the research of the whole non-Christian spirit-world in regard to the great enigma of the world’s history might itself be called a mighty Angel. The longing of all spirits and all men cannot solve this enigma, and it sends out its demand for a solution into the universe. And hence beneath the unmistakable proclamatory office of the strong Angel, whose voice must pierce the whole world (Vitringa and others), we hear the cry of the entire world of spirits for the coming of the looser of the seals. Without this loosing [Lφsung] there can be no complete releasing [Erlφsung, redemption], as, on the other hand, the loosing is conditioned by the releasing [or redemption]. According to De Wette and Hofmann, the loosing of the seals is at the same time the execution of that which is sealed. But a great part of the book [scroll] is referable to the economy of the Father—not to that of the Son: we have reference especially to the red, the black, and the pale horse. Even the Rabbinic declaration: non facit Deus quidquam, donec illud intuitus fuerit in familia superiori, does not lead to the assumption which we have indicated.Who is worthy?—The history of the world in its eschatological tendency is unsealed only by the perfect ethical power resident in the Lamb. To open the scroll and to loose the seals of it.—Is this a hysteron-proteron (De Wette)? We think not. The undertaking is first spoken of as a whole, and then its details are entered into. And, moreover, it is highly probable that there was something that bound the book [scroll] together as a whole. Revelation 5:3. Or under the earth.—All this is in perfect accordance with the real circumstances of the case. The angels know not sin; the spirits in Hades and the demons (under the earth) know not grace; and sinful men know not the depths of the contrast between sin and grace. According to Dόsterdieck, the place under the earth denotes, not demons (Vitringa), but only departed souls. Why should demons be excluded, since they, most of all, are positively blind in regard to the issue of things?And no one was able.—This takes for granted numberless attempts. Nor even [neither] to look upon it.—Dόsterdieck: “The seeing resultant upon the opening; hence, the seeing, within it.” This would be a great deal and would lie beyond the opening, whilst it is intimated that the inspecting precedes the opening. Most creatures dare not so much as look well at the problem, and none thoroughly recognizes it as a Divine book. Revelation 5:4. And I wept much.—Hengstenberg, who is apt to see judgment everywhere, has even accused the weeping John of weak faith (p. 302); upon which view Ebrard sarcastically expatiates. It is particularly remarkable that Hengstenberg can conceive of a pusillanimous weeping as compatible with a condition of inspired vision. In this vision, John the Seer sees himself weeping as a bishop, and the weeping bishop has a right to weep. How could he receive a communication concerning the whole history of the worlds—a communication which exalted the most terrible things, war, famine, death’s rule in the world’s history, the great martyr history, and the dread trumpet tones of the world’s evening, into one triumphal procession of Christ—how could he, we repeat, receive such a disclosure without tears? Perfect faith in the glorified Christ in the centre of the world did not exclude the law that the universal consequences of His glorification must be unfolded in a grand sequence of stages, amid the most painful apostolic and reformatory struggles!Revelation 5:5. One of the Elders.—The spirit of literalism has given birth to unsupported definitions of this Elder as Matthew or Peter (of course it is taken for granted that one or the other of these Apostles is already glorified). Behold.—This, according to Dόsterdieck, has reference to the beholding of the Lamb, in Revelation 5:6. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath conquered.—John is to see, as he never has done before, the full consequence of Christ’s victory in its relation to the grand enigma of the world’s history. Interpretations: 1. Christ has obtained the power of opening the book (ἐνίκησενἀνοῖξαι, Bengel, Ewald and others). 2. Absoluteness of Christ’s victory (Ebrard and others). The text is, however, no mere declaration of Christ’s worthiness to open the book. The opening of all seals is the consequence of absolute victory. For the sealing is a judgment, ensuant upon the darkening of the mystery of the world into an obscure and forbidding enigma by sin. Consequently, victory over the power of darkness is the condition of the loosing of the seals. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.—The promise of the Protevangel to the effect that the Seed of the woman should crush the serpent’s head, was further modified by the prophecy which constituted Judah the typical conqueror, the victorious Lion (Genesis 49:9). The fact that in the passage cited Judah was designated merely as a type, is brought out in our text by the additional clause: the Root of David. These latter words are expressive of the further explication of the type, in respect of its genealogical kernel, in David, the warlike and victorious prince; in other words, it is intimated, that the Incarnation of Christ was the innermost motive power of the Christological significancy of David (Isaiah 11:10), and consequently that the type of the Lion of Judah has found its true fulfillment. The whole designation of Christ is a profound Christological saying, which neither refers alone to the human descent of the Saviour (Dόsterdieck), nor to His Divine nature simply (Calov.). A reference to the hewn-down stem of the Davidic house, in accordance with Isaiah 11:1, is applicable here only as a collateral thought. [Alford thus comments: “The root of David (comp. Romans 15:12 with Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 11:10), i. e. the branch or sucker come up from the ancient root, and so representing it: not as Calov., al., the Divine root which brought forth David, to which Vitringa also approaches very near: for the evident design here is to set forth Christ as sprung from the tribe of Judah and lineage of David, and His victory as His exaltation through suffering.”—E. R. C.]. Revelation 5:6. And I saw [Lange: And lo] in the midst of the Throne.—[See Synoptical View, p. 149]. The vision of the Seer expands, and lo! Christ appears, in wondrous contrast to the ideas which a Judaistic conception of the Lion of Judah, the ideal David, might entertain. This contrast is strikingly brought out (after Bengel) by Ebrard: “Now comes this Lion, the Mighty One, Whom none is able to resist,—the Victor par excellence. How terrible must be His aspect! But lo! a Lamb (ἀρνίον) appears in the stead of the Lion, and that ὡςἐσφαγμένον. This is the battle whereby the Lion has overcome, viz.: that He has suffered Himself to be slain as a Lamb. It is only in the omnipotence of all-suffering love that the greatness of Omnipotence could be proved.” Superfluous interpretations of the diminutive ἀρνίον see cited by Dόsterdieck. [“The use of ἀρνίον, the diminutive, as applied to our Lord, is peculiar to the Apocalypse. It is difficult to say what precise idea is meant to be conveyed by this form … possibly, as De W., it may be to put forward more prominently the idea of meekness and innocence.” Alford. As there was manifestly an intended contrast between the announced Lion and the appearing Lamb, may it not have been intended to bring out more vividly, not merely His meekness and innocence, but His extreme natural feebleness?—E. R. C.] The Lamb stands in the middle of the space enclosed, on the inner side, by the Throne and the four Life-forms [Living-beings], and on the outer side by the circle of Elders. Thus Dόsterdieck, De Wette, Hengstenberg, whilst Ebrard, on the other hand, conceives of the Lamb as seated in the midst of the Throne, and also in the midst of the circle of Elders. “A truly monstrous idea,” observes Dόsterd., who justly cites the Hebrew αֵ ?ιοΞεּ ?αֵ ?ιο. This arrangement moreover, distinctly proves that the four Life-forms are not four representatives of the creature, but that they can be only four Ground-forms of the Divine governance which is embraced in the Lamb, as are also the Seven Spirits which, therefore, likewise stand between God and Christ.) [“The words (ἐνμέσῳ) seem to indicate the middle point before the Throne; whether on the glassy sea (De Wette) or not does not appear; but certainly not on the Throne, from what follows in the next verse. Ἐνμέσῳ is repeated as ἀναμέσον in Leviticus 27:12; Leviticus 27:14.” Alford.—E. R. C.] [Standing.—“The Lamb is here represented as standing, as having been slain (comp. Isaiah 53:7; Jeremiah 11:19). Although Christ was slain, yet He stands. He was not overthrown. On the contrary, by falling He stood.” Wordsworth.—E. R. C.] As it had been slain.—Dόsterdieck, in accordance with many others: “As one whose still visible scars indicate its having once been slain.” The completion of the Biblical delineation of the Lamb, see Revelation 1:18. Seven horns and seven eyes.—See the Synoptical View [p. 149]. Comp. the Concordances. Seven world-historical manifestations of Christ in forms of power; seven world-historical manifestations in forms of spirit (the Lights). Against the combination made by Bede and others, according to whom the seven horns as well as the seven eyes are included in the explanation—which are the Seven Spirits, etc.—see Dόsterd., p. 242. The Spirits here do, undoubtedly, seem to be manifestations of the spiritual life of Christ in the narrower sense of the term, and should, we think, be apprehended as Spirits of truth, knowledge. In accordance with their position in Revelation 1., however, they also represent the specific mighty governance of Christ; ; Michael, among the Archangels, appears as the symbol of His mighty rule. The septenary denotes perfect holy working, as the number three is significant of holy being. Sent forth.—See Zechariah 4:10. [Seven horns.—“The horn is the well-known emblem of might; comp. 1 Samuel 2:20; 1 Kings 22:11; Psalms 112:9; Psalms 148:14; Daniel 7:7; Daniel 7:20 sqq., Revelation 8:3 sqq.; Revelation 17:3 sqq. The perfect number seven represents that all power is given unto Him in Heaven and earth, Matthew 28:18. And seven eyes, etc., which eyes represent the watchful, active operation of God’s Spirit poured forth through the death and by the victory of the Lamb, upon all flesh and all creation. The weight of the whole sentence lies in the predicative anarthrous participle, ἀπεσταλμένα. As the seven burning lamps before the Throne represented the Spirit of God immanent in the Godhead, so the seven eyes of the Lamb represent the same Spirit in His sevenfold perfection, profluent, so to speak, from the incarnate Redeemer; busied in His world-wide energy; the very word ἀπεσταλμένα reminding us of the Apostolic work and Church.” Alford.—E. R. C.] Revelation 5:7. And He came.—Expressive of the calmest decision and certainty. Since the great action of the Lamb is in question, εἴληφεν can not be reduced to a passive receiving. Λαμβάνειν has in general in the New Testament a considerable ethical weight. Revelation 5:8. When He had taken; ὅτεἔλαβεν.—[See Synoptical View, p. 149. In place of the antiphony, Revelation 4. [8, 11], sustained by the four Living-beings and the Elders, in praise of the Creator and the creation, we have here a three-fold choral song in glorification of the Redeemer, the Redemption, and that transfiguration of the obscure and gloomy history of the world issuing from the Redemption. The order of succession in this chorus is very significant. First resounds the song of praise of the four Life-forms [Living-beings] and the Elders; then the song of the Angels (Ephesians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:12); after that the song of all creatures (Psalms 148; Romans 8). If the four Life-forms [Living-beings] were representatives of nature, nature would here twice strike up the song of praise, in one case in advance of the Angels. It may, indeed, be questioned: how can the four Life-forms [Living-beings] fall down before the Lamb if they denote Fundamental Forms of the Divine governance? But we might also query: how can Christ send forth the Seven Spirits that yet do stand between God and Him? All these manifestations, however, are, as individual forms of revelation, subordinated to the Lamb in His unity and in the unity of His highest decisive deed; and that with the expression of the freest homage. And the real beginning of every creaturely song of praise must proceed from Divine operations themselves. [Fell down before the Lamb.—They render to Him Divine honor; comp. Revelation 4:10.—E. R. C.] Having every one a harp [lute].—The playing upon the cither or harp is limited to the Elders; the Greek reads: ἔχοντεςἕκαστος. On the difference between the cither and the harp, see Winer, Musical Instruments. See Revelation 14:2; Revelation 15:2. [Also Kitto’s Cyclopζdia, and Smith’s Dict. of the Bible.—E. R. C.] And golden vials full of incense.—Each cither, or lute, is proportioned to the individual who holds it, and belongs to him alone; the golden vials are alike; hence the plural in the case of the latter, though each might have his vial as well as his lute. These vials are full of incense, and the explanation reads: αἵεἰσιναι̇προσευχαὶτῶνἁγίων. Though αἵ may by attraction relate to θυμιάματα is more probable that its reference is to the vials, since these forms, these measures of precious metal (intrinsic value) are an essential part of the matter. [“Αἵ might well have θυμιαμάτων for its antecedent, being feminine to suit προσευχαί below; but it is perhaps more likely that φιάλας is its antecedent—each vial being full of incense.” Alford. So also Wordsworth. Far more natural does it seem to refer the αἵ, with Barnes, to θυμιαμάτων, thus bringing the passage into correspondence with Psalms 141:2, “Let my prayer be set before Thee as incense,” and with the apparent meaning of the incense offered in the Temple.—E. R. C.] Here, too, commentators violate common sense in the effort to grasp both items [the harp and the vial] at once. Ebrard: The κιθάρα is supported by the knees and operated upon by one hand (without its falling?), whilst the other presents the φιάλη. Dόsterdieck: “In the right hand the vial, whilst the left holds the cither.” How then could they play? The like arrangements of Biblical facts are of frequent occurrence; for instance, De Wette makes the Lamb stand on the sea of glass. Symbolism gives both attributes to the Elders without insisting upon the idea that each one manages both harp and vial at each and every instant. Hengstenberg remarks that the harps, in conjunction with the songs of praise, refer chiefly to praise, and the golden vials to supplicatory prayers. On the ungrounded application of the passage to the establishment of the Catholic doctrine of the intercession of saints, or to the support of the practice of invoking their intercession, compare Dόsterdieck, p. 244. Luther did not deny, he says, that the members of the Church Triumphant pray for those of the Church Militant. The text, however, does not exactly bear upon this point. That which we gather from the words under examination, is that the prayers of the saints on earth are inclosed in the holy measure of the golden vials; that they are by the ideal Church divested of their earthly, unbounded, and immoderate affections. As God beholds all mankind in the most special sense in Christ, so, too, He views the earthly Church in the light of the ideal Church, which is its aim. It is justly remarked, in this connection, that the twenty-four Elders are symbolical forms. On the other hand, the view of Hengstenberg and Bengel, who understand the saints already in Heaven to be included in our passage, is productive of confusion. In reference to these prayers, the posture of the Elders is different from that of the Angel with the censer, Revelation 8:3. That Angel seems to gather the prayers of the saints together, and to supplement them precisely as the Holy Ghost is declared to do in Romans 8:28. The prayers are thus made perfectly acceptable, and hence the same exalted Angel takes charge of the granting of them, filling the emptied censer with fire from the altar, i. e., with flames of the Divine judgment of the Spirit, and pouring its contents upon the earth—a proceeding productive of voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquake, stirring forces which promote the process of consummation going on in the earth. Revelation 5:9-14. [See under Revelation 5:8, p. 158. Let us first compare this first choir with the second and third, and then examine the three anthems. The second choir is composed of Angels, the heavenly host (1 Kings 22:19). And I beheld and heard, says the Seer. This does not mean: he saw, that is, he heard; but it probably indicates that the survey of the infinite array of spirits recedes behind the distinct perception of their song. The circular arrangement of this celestial army first demands our notice; all of the vast array are related to the little inner circle, that centre of the history of salvation. Observe next their infinite number: myriads consisting of myriads, and thousands consisting of thousands. According to Bengel, the addition of the smaller numeral denotes a limitation of the whole number; according to Hengstenberg, it indicates that distinctions vanish in the case of immense numbers. Dόsterdieck, on the other hand, says: ‘The anti-climax (comp. Psalms 68:17) signifies that the first and greater number is not sufficient.” Revelation 5:13. And every creature.—[“The chorus of assenting praise from creation itself.” Alford.—E. R. C.] The third choir is formed of the sphere of creatures generally, in four divisions or regions (Bengel). The three-fold. division in Philippians 2:10 has reference exclusively to the spirit world; the four-fold division here, with its world-numeral, relates to creatures in general. As the spirit-world is already represented in the first two choirs, we cannot, with Alcasar, regard the term in Heaven as referring to Christians. As the song of praise of this choir is a matter-of-fact one, ΰ-Lapide’s explanation, to the effect that sun, moon and stars are meant (included), is not to be rejected. The heavenly beings, as well as beatified saints (Dόsterd.), are represented in the first and second choirs. In respect to the earth, Dόsterdieck regards all other creatures as intended together with men. It is justly denied that demons (Vitringa) are here denoted by the creatures under the earth; reference is had to the realms of the dead [to Hades, where demons are not (see Excursus on Hades, p. 364 sqq.)—E. R. C.]. Upon the sea.—On Patmos John had a lively view of creatures which live upon the sea rather than in it; we have reference particularly to sea birds, and flying fish. The first choir [Revelation 5:9-10] represents the whole knowledge of the New Testament, and magnifies it in a new song. From the wording of the song it would seem that the four Life-forms joined in it. As, however, the anthem is sung to the music of the harps, and the harps are the property of the Elders, the above assumption becomes somewhat dubious. But then the question arises: how can the Elders sing of the redemption without including themselves if they too have a part in it? Be it observed that an Apocalyptic Heaven-picture always has reference to a subsequent earth-picture. Thus our song of praise relates to Revelation 6, especially to the Martyrs amid the sufferings of the earthly time. They are ransomed to God with the blood of the Lamb by the redemption. And these very ones who in the earth-picture appear under the altar as souls of the slain, crying for recompense, appear in the Heaven-picture as the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of true Christian kings who already (dynamically) reign upon earth—not merely shall reign (βασιλεύουσιν in accordance with Cod. A. etc.). They reign on earth as God’s Kingdom, but not as individual kings: yet their common rule on earth is mediated by their individual priesthood. As a matter of course, the Elders do not exclude themselves from the redemption; their expression, however, is concrete in reference to the Church Militant on earth. The worthiness of the Lamb to unseal the book [scroll] is deduced from His redemptive act; and justly so, for it alone solves the enigmas of the world’s history. [Is not the reason rather, that, by His redemptive act, He has conquered to become “Head over all things” (comp. Philippians 2:8-9; Ephesians 1:20-22)?—E. R. C.] The Elders sing a new song (sing), for the redemption is a matter of their enraptured experience. The Angels, on the other hand, are moved by adoration and sympathy; therefore they say with a loud voice, in a sort of recitative, as we understand it. The collective creatures of the universe, again, are simply described as saying. This saying is, of course, also dexological. Again, the song of the Angels [Revelation 5:12] is in harmony with their stand point. For them, the idea of the redemption recedes behind that of holy suffering. Because the Lamb was slain, i. e. humbled Himself to such a degree, He is worthy to receive majesty (i. e. glory and dominion) in the spiritual world such as is exalted far above that which is possessed by even them, the Angels (Ephesians 1; Philippians 2). This majesty unfolds itself in three predicates of inner essence and three of outward appearance. The exalted Christ is, in the first place, rich in life; secondly, He is the wise Governor of His great Kingdom; and, thirdly, He possesses all requisite power. Hence, in the first place, He is worthy of all infinite honor; secondly, His dominion is an apparent spiritual glory; and, thirdly, His praise is sung by the whole world of spirits.The song of the creature-world rightly refers to the Creator, Him who sitteth upon the Throne. But even the creature-world is acquainted with Christ’s import to the creation. For it, however, the death of Christ recedes, giving place to the calm ground-tone of His Logos rule. He is magnified with the Enthroned One as the Lamb. And in harmony with the world-numeral four, the creatures utter four eulogies. The sublimest doxology of all is the ascription of praise [blessing] in the region of conscious creatures. Next comes the ascription of honor from all living things. Next, the loveliness and magnificence of all beautiful creations in the Cosmos [glory]. The conclusion is formed by the glorification of God’s power in the whole universe. And thus it is to be into the ζons of the ζons, say the creatures. They speak thus, first, because they are under the law of temporality, and have a sense of the greatness of eternity; and, secondly, because they are destined to an eternal development reaching into the ζons. Finally, it is exceedingly significant that the four Life-forms [Living-beings] utter an Amen to the whole heavenly cultus, while the twenty-four Elders, falling down, are plunged in adoration. In regard to the seven eulogies of the Angels, Bengel thinks that they should be uttered like one single word, on account of the one article at the beginning; he also regards them as referring to the seven seals. We prefer to take them as different views of the spirit-world. The hypothesis that the four Life-forms utter the Amen on account of their comparatively meaner position (an idea of Hengstenberg’s) needs but a passing mention. [Additional Note on the Living-Beings (Revelation 4:6).—It is generally conceded, that the Ζῶα are the same as the heavenly Cherubim of the Old Testament. Not only is the term (Ζῶα) the one that is employed by Ezekiel, Revelation 1:5 (LXX.), to designate those whom he afterwards declared to be the Cherubim, Revelation 10:1 sqq., etc.; but the general appearance, the position, and the office of the Living-beings of both Testaments are the same (comp. Revelation 4:6-8; Ezekiel 1:5-10; Ezekiel 10:1 sqq. See also the description of the Seraphim, Isaiah 6:2-3, with whom many of the most judicious commentators identify them). On the subject of their nature, however, there is great diversity of opinion. It is generally agreed that they are Mediate symbols; but beyond this there is unexampled diversity. They have been explained as—1. Individual-mediate symbols of (1) the Four Evangelists, (2) the Four greatest Fathers of the Church, etc. 2. Classical symbols of (1) the Church Militant (Mede and Elliot), (2) the Ministers of the Church on earth (Daubuz), (3) eminent Ministers and Teachers of every Age (Vitringa), (4) glorified Saints who have been raised to special eminence (Lord), (5) Saints who are to attend Jehovah as Assessors in the Judgment (Hammond), (6) the Church Triumphant (Bush), (7) the forms of animated nature (Alford). 3. Aberrant symbols of (1) Divine Attributes (Stuart), (2) the Four Cardinal Virtues, (3) the Four Fundamental Forms of Divine Government (Lange), etc.This diversity indicates utter uncertainty in the mind of commentators as to the Scriptural idea of the Cherubim. This uncertainty, in the judgment of the Am. Ed., is due primarily to the corrupted form of the doxology in Revelation 5:9-10; and is itself, in great measure, the cause (not the result) of that confusion of thought which prevails in the Church on the entire subject of Symbolism. The effort will be made to show the truth of both these positions.It will be generally admitted, that the apparent force, not only of the Heaven-scene set forth in chs. 4, 5 but of the language and descriptions of the entire Apocalypse is (1) to place the Living-beings on the same platform as to reality of existence with the Elders and Angels (if these are symbols, then are the Ζῶα symbols; if these are real persons, then so are the Ζῶα); and (2) to suggest the idea, in reference to all these objects, that they are heavenly Persons. (The idea that the Angels and the Cherubim are persons seems also to be implied throughout the Old Testament; the Elders, at least by that name, are not mentioned therein.) Whilst, however, it is generally conceded that the Angels and Elders are persons, it is also generally held that the Ζῶα are mere symbols. Whence arises this apparently unauthorized variance? This question cannot be answered by a reference to the admitted fact that the objects immediately beheld by the Seer (the simulacra) were symbols. This, in a sense, is true; but (1) it was also true in the case of the Angels and the Elders; it consequently does not explain the variance; and (2) it is not true that the simulacra beheld by John were symbols in the sense in which that term is ordinarily employed—in the sense, for instance, in which the Lamb was the symbol of Jesus. There is an ambiguity here, resulting from the generally unappreciated fact that there are two essentially distinct classes of symbols. A moment’s reflection should convince any man that whilst the Lamb was a symbol of Christ, there was back of this in the vision of the Lamb itself, the same distinction of simulacrum and object of representation that existed in the vision of the Ζῶα. In the vision of the Lamb not only was there a double symbolization, but a symbol of one class was charged upon that of another. The meaning of the writer may be made clear by the following diagram: JOHN SAW—I. A simulacrum, representing      an Angel. Ζῶα. II. A simulacrum, representing a Lamb, representing Christ. By this diagram the fact and importance of the distinction between Immediate and Mediate symbols, presented in the Preliminary Note, p. 146, is made visibly manifest. In ordinary language (and in ordinary thought) the simulacrum drops entirely out of view, and the Seer is said to behold, not the simulacrum, but the object it represents. Nor can the variance be explained by a reference to the probable fact that the simulacra of the Ζῶα were ideal as to form. It is probable that the simulacra of the Angels were also ideal; and it is certain that the undescribed Form upon the Throne was so—we do not thence conclude that the Blessed One whom that Form indicated (Revelation 4:2-3) must have been a Symbol. (And here becomes manifest the importance of the distinction between Similar and Ideal Symbols. See p. 146.) Nor, again, is it in the least supported (not to say explained) by the admitted fact that mere (Mediate) Symbols are introduced into the Heaven-scene—as, for instance, the Lamps symbolizing the Holy Spirit, and the Lamb representing Christ; for (1) these are not associated with the Angels, Elders, and Ζῶα, as the Angels, Elders, and Ζῶα are associated with each other; and (2) the symbol of the Lamps was declared to be a symbol by the fact that it was explained, and that of the Lamb, the previously recognized symbol of Christ, needed no explanation—in the case of the Ζῶα there is no intimation, either in this narrative, or any where else in the Scriptures, that they symbolized any thing. The only satisfactory explanation of the variance is the one suggested above, viz.: that if the Ζῶα did take part in a doxology that ascribed their redemption to Christ, whatever be the apparent force of the implications of Scripture to the contrary, they must be symbols either of individual redeemed men, or of classes of redeemed men. And so, in effect, commentators must have argued in the days when the text of the Recepta was universally accepted. And thus the idea became established in the Church that the Cherubim, the Ζῶα, could not be heavenly persons—that they must be mere symbols. But what do they symbolize? On this point there is not the slightest intimation given in the Word of God. The whole matter seems relegated to the imagination of commentators. The proof of these assertions is to be found, not only in the multitudinous and contradictory explanations given by able men, but in the entire lack of Scriptural evidence adduced as supporting any specific view. On the platform of the Recepta, the Ζῶα are the Sphynx of the Bible. It should here be observed that the very necessity of adopting a conclusion in this important instance, in the face of the apparent implications of the language and scenic descriptions of the Scripture, together with the entire lack of Scriptural explanation of the (supposed) symbol, necessarily precludes any true scientific investigation of the subject of Symbolism. Such an investigation can be made only on the basis of those implications which the compelled conclusion virtually declares to be deceptive, and of those explanations which in the most important instance manifestly do not exist. The idea that the Ζῶα are mere Symbols plunges the whole subject of Symbolism into inextricable confusion—it involves the further idea that the entire symbolization of the Scripture is without order, at least without order discoverable by us. It may, however, be remarked by some that our author is free from the alleged trammels of the Recepta; he accepts as genuine that form of the doxology which does not imply that those who united in it had any necessary connection with the redeemed race, and yet he regards the Living-beings as Symbols. In answer it may be said, that every observer of the course of human thought must have perceived that a generally established idea will often, in measure, linger, even in the mightiest minds, after the foundation on which it was reared has been swept away. To this, it is with the greatest deference suggested, may be due the position of Lange on this subject. He saw clearly (the fact is patent) that the correction of the doxology released him from the necessity of regarding the Ζῶα as symbols of human beings, and he took a forward step; but, reared under the influence of the universally accepted idea that the Living-beings must be mere symbols, and not perceiving the concealed truth, that the corrected doxology logically releases from this position also, he failed to take a second. The step he has taken is a mighty one in advance. It is preparatory, if not essential, to another, viz., that the Ζῶα are not Symbols at all—not Symbols of the Fundamental Forms of Divine Government, but personal Ministers thereof. This view, which subsidizes all of truth that our author has with so much power and beauty elaborated, is respectfully submitted for consideration. It is submitted in the belief that, upon reflection, it will be seen to be, not only more consistent with the apparent force of Scripture language and description than the one presented by Lange, but also absolutely essential to a consistent scientific scheme of the great subject of Scripture Symbolism. The ideal forms of these glorious ministers of Jehovah, who stand nearest the Throne, are doubtless symbolic. So far as those forms are common to all, they are doubtless symbolic of their common attributes of knowledge, wisdom, and power; and so far as they are peculiar, they are representative of their peculiar characteristics and ministries. The question is suggested for consideration, whether the key to their respective ministries (ministries in accordance with their characteristics, as symbolized by their personal appearance) may not be found in the characteristics of the four seals, at the opening of which they respectively officiated. (See foot-note on p. 179). In conclusion, it may be remarked, concerning the number four attributed to them, that two hypotheses are possible. The first, that it is natural, i. e., indicative of the actual number of these heavenly Ministers in the realms of Nature; the second, that it is ideal, drawn from the precedent symbolic number of nature (four), and thus symbolic of their relation to nature. The judgment of the writer inclines to the adoption of the former of these, both because of the relation of the Ζῶα to the first four seals, and because this view manifestly presents a reason why four should have been selected as the number of nature.—E. R. C.] Footnotes: [See foot-note on p. 149.—E. R. C.] [“The epithet ἰσχυρόν is by no means superfluous, but corresponds to the φωνῇμεγάλῃ below, which, as appears by what followed, penetrated Heaven and earth and Hades”—Alford. This is one of the passages which indicate that there are grades of angelic beings.—E. R. C.] [That the loosing involved the symbolic execution of that which was sealed, seems to be clear. John beheld in vision (by symbols) that which was afterwards to be (in reality); (comp. Revelation 4:1 with the frequent recurrence of εἶδον). The fact stated by Lange cannot invalidate this conclusion. The “economy of the Father” was, so to speak, the platform on which the actions of the Son were wrought; in order to the unfolding of the latter there must have been, of necessity, an unfolding, to some degree, of the former, just as in the unfolding of a writing there must be the unfolding of the parchment on which it is inscribed.—E. R. C] [See Excursus on Hades, p. 364 sqq.—E. R. C.] [As in the Synoptical View, Lange here takes for granted that the Seer knew before the disclosure. He wept, not because of the woes that were to be (of these as yet he knew nothing), but because no one was found worthy to open the seals—to make the disclosure. See Synoptical View and foot note, p. 149.—E. R. C.] [What is the proof of this assertion? And if it be true in reference to men, how came the scroll to be sealed in reference to sinless angels? It should be remarked in continuance, however, that there can be no doubt that the right and power of the God-man to open the seals, which is but a mode of representing His supreme authority over all things, is the result of His victory over the power of darkness and sin and death.—E. R. C.] [See Textual and Grammatical Notes.—E. R. C.] [Dόsterdieck’s comment, in our opinion, has special reference to Ebrard’s conception of the Lamo as sitting. It is thus that he quotes and italicizes Ebrard: “Das Lamm erscheint mitten im Thron, so dass es zu gleicher Zeit im Centrum der vier lebenden Wesen und im Centrum der aussen herumsitzenden, einen weiter concentrischen Kreis bildenden, 24 Aeltesten sitzt.” He then gives utterance to the comment cited by Lange: “eine wahrhaft ungeheuerliche Vor-tellung (with this addition—the italics are our own—): das Lamm mitten im Throne sitzend.” Lange, by his peculiar representation of Ebrard’s view and his suppression of the italics in sitzt, and also by his immediate introduction of the Hebrew term, which Dόsterdieck does not cite in direct connection with Ebrard, makes the latter commentator the author of an utter absurdity, viz., the assumption that the Lamb could sit in two places at once.—Tr.] [See Additional Note on the Living-Beings, p. 161 sq.—E. R. C.] [See comment and additional foot-note under Revelation 1:5, p. 91.—E. R. C.] [The proper place of this paragraph would seem to be under the following verse. As, however, there are allusions in it to this verse, the Am. Ed. has not felt at liberty to transpose it.—E. R. C.] [“The word vial, with us, denoting a small, slender bottle with a narrow neck, evidently does not express the idea here. The article here referred to was used for offering incense, and must have been a vessel with a large, open mouth. The word bowl or goblet would better express the idea, and it is so explained by Prof. Robinson, Lex., and by Prof. Stuart, in loc.’ Barnes. The criticism is undoubtedly correct. Since, however, the word vial is so inwrought into the religious literature and thought of the English speaking people, and as no material interest is affected by its retention in the text, it is deemed expedient to retain it. Similar remarks might be made in reference to the retention of the term harp.—E. R. C.] [From this passage Stuart derives the opinion that prayer is offered by the redeemed in Heaven. (See Barnes, in loc.) This doctrine cannot be regarded as established by this Scripture; it is however, consistent with it, and seems naturally to flow from it. It may further be said that the doctrine referred to does not involve the utterly unscriptural idea that prayer may be offered to glorified saints, nor is it inconsistent with aught elsewhere taught in the Word of God.—E. R. C.] [See foot-note on p. 152.—E. R. C.] [See Textual and Grammatical.—E. R. C.] [The idea that the Saints are to reign as mere subjects (i.e. to be kings without authority over others) seems to he inconsistent with (1) the essential idea of reigning, which is to exercise authority over others; (2) the express intimations of the word of God; comp. Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27; Luke 22:29-30, etc. (see Excursus on the Basileia ii. 1, (4), (6), p. 98 ). The requirements of the first of these positions might apparently be satisfied by saying that the glorified saints, being freed from the dominion of Satan and sin, are to reign over themselves. The requirement of the second, however, cannot thus, even in appearance, be satisfied. If it be asked, Over whom are the Saints to reign? it may be answered, (1) Some, as superior Rulers, over their brethren (see Luke 22:29-30, etc.); and (2) all, as kings, over the human races to be born after the establishment of the Basileia, and, perchance, over other races throughout the universe. Speculation as to this last point, however, not only as to answer, but as to question, should be restrained.—E. R. C.] [See foot-note to Revelation 5:4, p. 152.—E. R. C.] [Sing.—“why present? Is it because the sound still lingered in his ears? Or, more probably, as describing their special and glorious office generally, rather than the mere one particular case of its exercise?” Alford.New song.—“New, in the sense that it is a song consequent upon redemption, and distinguished therefore from the songs sung in Heaven before the work of redemption was consummated. We may suppose that songs of adoration have always been sung in Heaven; … but the song of redemption was a different song, and is one that would never have been sung there if man had not fallen, and if the Redeemer had not died.” Barnes.—E. R. C.] [The above arrangement of the particulars of the ascription seems to the Am. Ed. not only to have no foundation in the text, but to be inconsistent therewith; for (1) the force of the single article placed before the first particular is to bind all together as one word (so Bengel and Alford); and (2) δυναμις cannot be regarded as a generic term (meaning majesty), inclusive of those that follow as representatives of specific excellencies. The true idea seems to be that we have here a seven-fold (indicating completeness or perfection) ascription of glory.—E. R. C. [It should here be remarked that, to prevent confusion, the generally accepted terminology will be used throughout this argument. The hope may also be here expressed, that, as incidental results of the argument, the importance of a classification of symbols similar to the one given in the Preliminary Note (p. 145 sqq.), and of the employment of a scientific terminology, will be apparent.—E. R. C.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section FifthEarth-picture of the Seven Seals. Their opening. (Ch. 6)General.—The course of the world in its totality—considered with reference to its predominantly external and predominantly internal phases. Sublime picture of the Four Riders. The cry, as with a voice of thunder, Come and see! Come and see that Christ, upon the white horse, precedes the three dark riders, that He has dominion over them, and that He has brought them into His service, into the service of His Kingdom. Come and see: the bright fundamental thought of world-history, so dark in respect of its predominant visible aspect. The four Horses, or world-history a course, in eternal onward motion. Each horse has its rider, i. e., its idea; its conduct and tendency, regulated by that idea; its goal and purpose. The main tendency of all, however, is regulated and defined by the tendency of Christ. The group of four Riders may be classified under two heads, viz., Christ or personal Victory, contrasted with impersonal War, the desolator of personal life. For as Christ constitutes the three dark Riders His followers and presses them into His service, so the second Rider may regard the third and fourth as his esquires, War being attended by Dearth, in the first place, and secondly by Pestilence. 1. History of the world in its predominantly human aspect. First Seal. Christ, as the Logos, also the dynamic Force, the fundamental and leading Power of worldly history—a Power victorious in holy suffering. The great Victor in all the wars of worldly history—(1) He has conquered, (2) He is conquering, (3) He will conquer.—Second Seal. War. Its dark side or abnormity. Its light side in the train of Christ. Comp. the author’s pamphlet: Vom Krieg und vom Sieg.—Third Seal. Dearth. Terrestrial sufferings. Social sufferings. Wealth and poverty. Usury and pauperism. Care of the poor. Socialistic projects. Infinite increase of pauperism through the luxury of those that are at ease; infinite decrease of it through the plainness and simplicity of Christian sentiment and classical culture.—Fourth Seal. Death. Circumstances of mortality. Pestilences. Poisons. Wild beasts. Suicides. Lust and cruelty in their reciprocal action. Death of children. Offerings to Moloch. Macrobiotic counter-agencies.—2. History of the world in its predominantly spiritual aspect. Fifth Seal. The Martyr-history of the Kingdom, as the kernel of the history of the world: the suffering Christ. The martyrs, beginning with Abel. In respect of human wickedness, slain on the field of the curse, without the sacred camp, on the Place of a Skull; in respect of the Divine counsel, sacrificed on God’s altar, buried beneath the altar. Connection of all martyr-sufferings with the holy sacrifice and expiatory sufferings of Christ in the centre. All martyr-sufferings for the sake of God’s Word (or for the sake of truth, in the heathen world), cleansed from sin, purified and perfected through the sufferings of Christ. The blood of the heavenly-minded, shed by the earthly-minded, animated by the spirit of intercession, and yet a real historic impulse after justice, demanding recompense. Old Testament martyrologies (Matthew 23). Apostolic martyrologies. Old-Catholic martyrologies. Mediζval Protestant martyrologies. Evangelic martyrologies. The grand history of spiritual martyrdoms. Even John and all like-minded with him, though they died a natural death, are true martyrs. True martyrdom, faithfulness in confession, enduring unto death. Witness as confession. There are none save persecuted confessions—no persecuting ones. Christianity itself a confession. Consolation concerning all martyr suffering, and pacification of all martyrs. Pacification in view of the whole matter: a. The great company of sufferers; b. The Divine counsel concerning the completion of their number; c. Rest in patience and in the hope of perfect retribution; d. The white robes beyond this life, glistening ever clearer in historic lustre even in this present world. The memory of martyrs is revived even through the canonization of their murderers. The terrors of the Inquisition are, from the fact of their becoming more and more an object of detestation to mankind, also a precursory rehabilitation of the slain.—Sixth Seal. The triumphant Christ. Symbolic presages of the Coming of Christ, spiritual and cosmical: the great earthquake. Darkening of the sun and moon (Matthew 24). The sun of the spiritual life veils itself in black; the moon of the natural life becomes as red as blood. The stars of Heaven fall, i. e., our old cosmical system is dissolved. The old Heaven and the old earth-phase (mountains, islands) vanish in the process of metamorphosis. Dissolution of the old social order of things: the kings, etc., are afraid (Revelation 6:15). The Coming of the Lord to judgment; a coming to the terror of all the earthly-minded (Revelation 6:16). The great Day of Wrath (see Zeph.). Its convulsing effect. The great Day of Wrath also, however, the great Day of final Redemption. The Seventh Seal, yet to be opened, the envelope of all those Trumpets calling to conflict and repentance which, as judgments of God, complement and transrupt the course of the world. Special.—[Revelation 6:2. Attributes of the First Rider, or the individual traits in His appearance.—[Revelation 6:4. Symbolic traits of the Second Rider; [Revelation 6:5] of the third; [Revelation 6:8] the fourth.—[Revelation 6:4]. War as a Divine ordinance; to him it was given to take peace from the earth. To him a great sword was given.—[Revelation 6:5. Famine or Dearth on earth, a distressful state with which the celestial ones are acquainted (Revelation 6:6), which they modify, limit, and direct.—[Revelation 6:8. Death as a judgment; as a judgment transformed into a blessing. The Death of Christ, the death of Death.—Hades also in the service of Christ.—[Revelation 6:9-11. The souls of the martyrs: they are all in existence still, and visible to the eye of the Seer.—How their faithfulness to the Word of God and their witness of Jesus were imputed to them as a crime.—Their common character.—As the avengement of blood contains a germ of righteous retribution, so the judgment of God is a great and holy analogue of unholy avengement of blood.—White robes: a favorite image of John; a favorite adornment of the Church.—Wait a little while. Sadness and peace in the consolatory assurance that the sufferers for Christ’s sake constitute a great company.—The anxious question of the weak human heart as to how God the All-Ruler, in His holiness which hates evil and in His truth whereby He is the Covenant-God of the pious, can suffer His children, servants, and witnesses to be slain by His enemies—suffer them to be slain for His name’s sake, and even make them wait so long for His retribution.—The heavenly answer to this question.—[Revelation 6:17. The Day of Wrath, in relation to its appearances in the Scriptures (or as predicted) and in the history of the world (or as presaged).—The Day of Wrath in its effects. Starke: The Rider on the white horse is Christ; this is clearly manifest from Revelation 19:11-16. A white horse was held in particular esteem by the heathen; when the kings of Persia wished to sacrifice to the sun, they offered up a white horse to that luminary. It gave prestige to generals to ride before their armies on white horses; victors used white horses in celebrating their triumphs, and the Romans had their triumphal chariots drawn by white horses.—Red is a sign of war; hence the Persians and Lacedemonians wore red garments when they went to war.—The color of the horse in Revelation 6:5 is indicative of hunger, which makes people look black and parched (Lamentations 4:2; Lamentations 4:7-8).—A balance in his hand. Such as spices were weighed with. Indicative of want is the fact that provisions are not measured, as usual, by the bushel, but weighed by the scale (Leviticus 26:26); not the greatest want and famine are indicated, however, for where it is necessary to weigh out grain, there is, indeed, scarcity, but not yet famine.—Χλωρός, pale, sallow, betokens the pale yellow hue of dry and withering herbs and leaves of trees; thus Constantius was called Chlorus, on account of his paleness. Because Death is commonly called pale, and makes men of a clayey hue, yea, turns them to clay, this figure of a pale horse is most appropriate.—On the Fifth Seal. Quesnel: The saints pray for the second Coming of Christ just as patriarchs and righteous men of old sighed for His first Coming (Psalms 14:7; Luke 10:24).—The expressions relative to the occurrences under this Sixth Seal are taken from Isaiah 2:19-21; Isaiah 13:9-10; Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 34:2; Isaiah 34:4; Ezekiel 32:7-8; Joe 3:15-16; Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:25. The exposition of the Seals is placed by Starke on the Church-historical platform, and the alternative is discussed as to whether the first five Seals are already fulfilled, or whether the fulfillment of all the Seals is still future. Starke gives the grounds for (and therefore, relatively against) each hypothesis. Graeber, Versuch einer historischen Erklδrung, etc. (see p. 73): First Seal. A white, shining horse, and he that sat upon it had a bow, and there was given unto him a crown [Kranz=wreath], and he went forth conquering, and that he might (or should) conquer. This first image exhibits to our view not a pagan, but a Christian Victory—to this effect is the superscription which we must give to this picture. The Rider is himself first described, and then his work is set forth. His work is victory. He went forth conquering and to conquer, i.e., he went from one victory to another. His victory was a triumphal procession through the world. How sublime and how comfortable is it that the first thing revealed to us concerning the government and dominion of Christ on earth, is His victory. His first procedure is victory, and He goes from one victory to another, and ends with victory! According to this, all that He does is victory. He cannot do otherwise than triumph. Fortune changes not under His government, as it does in the wars of earthly kings, nor are His victories purchased at great expense, like those of earthly sovereigns, but He conquers always—absolutely. Whoso in these wars will not suffer himself to be gained over to Christ’s side as His friend, is judged as His foe. Every one is conquered—these to enjoy everlasting felicity, those to suffer the penalty of eternal damnation.—The bow (Psalms 7:12-13). He is armed, not with the sword, but with the bow, because the short sword puts the combatant in great danger of being wounded himself, whilst the bow, on the other hand, strikes from afar. (What relation does the “sword in His mouth” bear to the “bow in His hand ?” The sword is, assuredly, His word; the bow, doubtless, is the operation of His Spirit, in its awakening as well as its judging power.) Pollock, [The Course of Time]. Der Lauf der Zeit, ein Gedicht in zehn Gesδngen, όbersetzt von Hey. Hamburg, Perthes, 1830. On the Sixth Seal. An attempt to depict the cosmical crisis. [”Meantime the earth gave symptoms of her end; and all the scenery above proclaimed that the great last catastrophe was near. The sun at rising staggered and fell back, etc.”] (The idea that in decaying cosmical nature extremes constantly become more sharply prominent, is suggested, but not worked out with sufficient clearness. According to Scripture, moreover, the cosmical convulsion is first perceptible in earthly life.) Van Oosterzee, De Oorlogsbode (the messenger of war): Tijdpreek in Augustus 1870, ’s Gravenhage. On Revelation 6:1-8. The theme: De Oorlog en zijne ellenden, beschouwd in het licht der christelijke Heilsopenbaring. “Op de tweede vraag, wie hem beschikt, dezen rustverstoorder, antwoordt onze tekst veelbeteekenend, dat hem deze macht is gegeven.On the seven Seals, and particularly the four Riders, there is a variety of special literature. See Lilienthal, Archivarius, p. 822. See Introduction, p. 74.—L. Hofacker, Ueber das weisse Pferd, etc. Tubingen, 1830.—Cunningham, Dissertation on the Seals, etc. London. [From M. Henry: Revelation 6:16. The wrath of the Lamb. Though Christ be a Lamb, yet He can be angry, even to wrath, and the wrath of the Lamb is exceeding dreadful; for if the Redeemer, that appeases the wrath of God, Himself be our wrathful enemy, (“through our rejection of His atonement,”) where shall we have a friend to plead for us? They perish without remedy, who perish by the wrath of the Redeemer. Revelation 6:17. As men have their day of opportunity, and their seasons of grace, so God has His day of righteous wrath; and when that day comes, the most stout-hearted sinners will not be able to stand before Him.—From Bonar: Revelation 6:10. How long? These words occur frequently in Scripture, and are spoken in various ways: 1. As from man to man; 2. As from man to God; 3. As from God to man. Passing by the first mode of their usage—comp. Job 8:2; Job 19:2; Psalms 4:2; Psalms 62:3—we come to the other two. 1. The Words as from man to God; comp. Psalms 6:3; Psalms 13:1; Psalms 35:17; Psalms 74:10; Psalms 79:5; Psalms 89:46; Psalms 90:13; Psalms 94:3-4; Habakkuk 1:2; Revelation 6:10. In these passages they are the language, (1) Of complaint. Not murmuring or fretting, but what the Psalmist calls “complaining,” an expression of weariness under burdens. (2) Submission. (3) Inquiry. (4) Expectation. 2. The words as from God to man; comp. Exodus 10:3; Exodus 16:28; Joshua 18:3; 1 Kings 18:21; Psalms 82:2; Proverbs 1:22; Proverbs 6:9; Jeremiah 4:14. Taking up these words of God as spoken to different classes, we would dwell on the following points: (1). Long-suffering. It is this that is expressed in the passage in Jeremiah. (2.) Expostulation. How long halt ye between two opinions ? (3) Entreaty. God beseeches man. (4) Earnestness. (5) Sorrow. (6) Upbraiding. (7) Warning.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section SixthIdeal heavenly World-picture of the Seven Penitential Trumpets. (Ch. 7) General.—The Invisible Church here and beyond: here, the sealed—militant conquerors; beyond, blessed conquerors. The Sealing, and its doctrinal import (δοκιμή characterized by James as δικαιοῦν; Romans 5:4; James 2:21). The neglect of the distinction between justification and sealing has resulted in a sad obscuration of the evangelic fundamental doctrine of justification, especially in three great theological school-circles. According to the idea of the Apostle James, Abraham was justified, Genesis 15, and sealed, Genesis 22. Since justification always takes place in a forum of justice, and since there are different sorts of forums (see the Art. by Tersteegen in Herzog’s Encyklopδdie), James could speak of justification as an imputation of faith as righteousness, and apply the term of δικαιοῦν to sealing. In the one case, the court of conscience was intended, in the other the forum of the Church was contemplated (“and he was called the friend of God”). Seethe Lange Com. on James 2. [and on Romans 5],—The Sealing has reference not solely to the last time, but, through the whole succession of the New Testament time (which is, indeed, in a general sense denominated the last time), to the assurance of saints in face of the temptations of this world. That is, the Sealing in Revelation 7 relates to the Trumpets in Revelation 8. That which the four Angels are stationed on the four corners of the earth to accomplish—namely, to loose the four winds of the earth, the spirit of the world in all its ground-forms, upon the earth and the sea, to injure them: upon the theocratic Divine institution, or the Church, and upon national life, to purge them through great temptations—this, we repeat, is fulfilled in the judgments of the Trumpets. In reference, however, to these temptations, which shake and imperil the visible Church, the invisible Church is represented as assured—assured, partly through the sealing effected here and partly through the entry of the blessed into the Church Triumphant beyond. When it is declared that the Angels may not loose the winds of temptation until the sealing is consummated, in the priority of the time of the sealing the priority of strength in the sealed is expressed. They are established through the gift of the grace of steadfastness. In chap. 14 we learn that their approval was conditioned by uprightness, purity, and the avoidance of false-hood, but we must first know that their sealing is entirely a work of grace.—On the import of the four winds from the four corners of the earth, the earth itself, the sea, the trees, the rising of the sun, the injuring, the number 144,000, see the Exeg. Notes. We have already demonstrated that the literal interpretation of the twelve Tribes of Israel as having reference to the Jewish nation in the last time, is utterly untenable. The symbolic designation of the chosen servants of God by the name of the spiritual Israel, is, however, sufficient guaranty for the fact that the Apostle has in view the general hope of a restoration of Israel at the same time that he contemplates a more extended class of elect persons. For as the symbolic name of Israel does not exclude believers from the Gentiles, neither does it shut out believing Jews, or the hope that Israel, as a people, will yet exercise faith in their long neglected Messiah. The well-known Judaistic apprehension of the Sealing—discussed by us in the Exegetical Division—bears upon it not only the exegetical stain of gross literalness, but also the blot of dogmatical error, in maintaining that in the end of the times Israel could again possess national prerogatives in the Kingdom of God, when it was precisely on account of its pretensions to such prerogatives in the midst of the ages that the nation incurred rejection. Furthermore, the architectonics and symmetry of the table of the sealed plead for its symbolical character. The special duodecenary, running through the general duodecenary and multiplied invariably by the ζonic number 1000, is the ever recurring expression of sacred fullness, sacred completeness. Again, the free arrangement and modification of the list of the twelve Tribes (see Exeg. Notes) are in favor of this symbolical character; and it is no less supported by the perfect coφrdination of individual Tribes in respect of the number selected from each. We must here repeat the statement previously made elsewhere, namely, that the selection does not exclude further circles of blessed ones. The same literal exegesis which, on the one hand, so exceptionally favors Judaism, would, on the other hand, inflict most serious detriment upon it if it were proposed to apprehend the text as declaring that many Jews should, in the last times, become believers, but that their number, however, should not exceed 144,000. The sealed are the true stand-holders of the living Church throughout the ages of the Church, the pillars, against which many who are weak lean for support. This truth is immediately expressed by the second part of the vision, the vision of the innumerable throng of blessed ones. These are characterized by the following items: 1. They form a countless throng; in antithesis to doctrinal particularism. 2. They are from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues; in antithesis to exegetical particularism, which stamps the Apocalypse with a Judaistic tendency. 3. They are perfected: they stand before the Throne of God and the Lamb, clothed in white robes—the adornment of holiness—and palms—as tokens of victory, peace and festival—in their hands; in antithesis to hierarchic particularism, which treats of an immediate entry into blessedness in conformity with mediζval ideas (confining the privilege to martyrs, monks, priests, ascetics who have built up a holiness of works, and calendar saints). 4. Their cry: The salvation is with our God, etc.;—thoroughly evangelic; it is even a protest against all righteousness of works and doctrine. With our God and the Lamb: in antithesis both to pietistic-exclusive and deistic-exclusive forms of belief. 5. The Amen and the song of praise of the whole angel or spirit world. The great Heaven-picture of the perfected is accompanied by heavenly instructions concerning the origin of the blessed, their endless train, their character and destiny. Even the faith of a John failed to grasp the origin of these innumerable throngs of blessed ones and the height at which they had arrived. But one of the Elders, to whom the depths of the history of the Kingdom are no secret, vouchsafes him an explanation: He explains (1) whence they have come—viz. out of great tribulation. All come from unknown depths of suffering, of conflict—not simply from visible martyr-sufferings (see Romans 6). They have all washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. With the depth of their experience of suffering, corresponds the depth of their experience of salvation: they all recognize and confess the world-reconciling Atonement. But, again, with these depths, corresponds the height of their goal. Thus we have (2) an explanation as to whither they have arrived—viz. before the Throne of God, to a blessed priestly service, after the type of life in the Temple; to the perfect satisfaction of every longing, and to freedom from all heat, after the image of a life of business, toil and wandering (Psalms 23); to the full and comfortable discovery of the joyful harvest of the seed of tears, yea, to the discovery of the heavenly pearl to which every tear has turned (see Exeg. Notes). Special.—[Revelation 7:1] Various forms of the spirit of the world and its temptations.—Temptations as Divine dispensations.—Limited as to time, place and degree.—Their design.—[Revelation 7:2-3] Different moments in the development of salvation—especially sealing.—The awakened may fall; but it is the distinction of the sealed that they have made good their faith in the battle of life, particularly in moments of great sacrifice.—Men in Christ.—[Revelation 7:4-8] The heroes of Israel, the heroes of David, as types of God’s heroes.—Chosen stones, flowers, animals, men, Christians.—The Twelve Tribes as types of the charisms.—Consecration of a natural gift to a gracious gift, through the gift of the Spirit.—Both gifts are gifts of grace in the broader sense of the term—the first as a gift of unmerited creative favor, the second as a gift of unmerited redemptive salvation.—The Twelve Tribes types of the fullness of the charisms in the Kingdom of God.—The choice of them, a type of the personally and historically chosen.—The number 1,000 as a figure of the continual presence of Christ in His Church through the whole ζon.—Comparison of particular characteristic Tribes: Judah and Joseph; Simeon and Levi; Joseph and Benjamin.—[Revelation 7:9. The visible and the invisible Church.—The two spheres of the invisible Church, in this world and in the Beyond.—In the visible Church, the visible appearance of the Church may be greatly obscured. If the visible Church becomes invisible as the Church, the invisible Church emerges into visibility. This remark applies to every time, but is particularly true of the last time.—The heavenly Festival of Palms.—[Revelation 7:10] The heavenly confession of the blessed.—Their song.—[Vers.11, 12. The song of praise of all spirits concerning the consummation of the blessed.—Doxologies of men and angels.—[Revelation 7:13. The catechism of John which the Elder institutes, compared with the catechism of Peter (John 21).—[Revelation 7:14] Humility of the great Apostle as manifested in his answer to the question of the Elder.—The great, eternal, pilgrim and festal procession of blessed souls from earth to the heavenly Home.—[Revelation 7:15] The Throne.—Service in the Temple.—The glory of God over them.—Analogous passages: Isaiah 25:4 sqq.; Isaiah 49:10; Psalms 23, 91, 126; Isaiah 66:13. Starke: God has numbered His elect, but their number is known to Him alone. If He has counted the hairs of the faithful, He has surely counted their persons.—The same number in each Tribe, when there were some Tribes that were more numerous than others, shows that God bears the same gracious will to all believers, of whatsoever race or people they be. (The text, however, has reference to sealed persons, and the numbers are symbolical.) Revelation 7:13. The best and fittest mode of instruction—especially for those who are young and simple—is by question and answer, Genesis 3:9; Luke 2:46-47 (!). A. H. W. Brandt, Anleitung zum Lesen der Offenb. Joh. (see p. 73): The sealed. John does not see them even in spirit; much less are they to be seen with the bodily eye in their substantiality on earth. Nevertheless they are a people of God on earth, having His Spirit, and numbered by Him, in the sense of Mat 10:30. They are described, in prophetic wise, by their Old Testament type, whose names and Tribes are presented not in the single 12, but by 12x12, and multiplied by thousands. It is the true Israel, baptized with the Spirit and consisting of all (?) the servants of God who are born of the Spirit. Revelation 7:9-12. And behold! A great multitude. This excites the astonishment of the Seer, which was not the case with the preceding occurrence; he, indeed, did not see the sealed, but this multitude visibly appears in Heaven. (A highly significant contrast. Concerning the sealed on earth he learns only the tribal characters and numbers by an auricular wonder; the blessed, on the other hand, are presented to his contemplation in personal distinctness by an ocular wonder.) [From M. Henry: Revelation 7:3. God has particular care and concern for His own servants in times of temptation and corruption, and He has a way to secure them from the common infection: He first establishes them, and then He tries them; He has the timing of their trials in His own hand. Revelation 7:9. Before the throne, and before the Lamb. In acts of religious worship we come nigh to God, and are to conceive ourselves as in His special presence; and we must come to God by Christ; the throne of God would be inaccessible to sinners, were it not for a Mediator. Revelation 7:13-17. Here we have a description of the honor and happiness of those who have faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ, and suffered for Him. Note, 1. The low and desolate state they had formerly been in. The way to heaven lies through many tribulations; but tribulation, how great soever, shall not separate us from the love of God. 2. The means by which they had been prepared for the great honor and happiness they now enjoyed; they had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is not the blood of the martyrs themselves, but the blood of the Lamb, that can wash away sin, and make the soul pure and clean in the sight of God. 3. The blessedness to which they are now advanced, being thus prepared for it. They are happy, (1) In their station, for they are before the throne of God night and day, and He dwells among them; they are in that presence where there is fullness of joy. (2) In their employment, for they serve God continually, without weakness, drowsiness, or weariness; heaven is a state of service, though not of suffering; of rest, but not of sloth; it is a praising, delightful rest. (3) In their freedom from all the inconveniences of this present life; a. From all want, and sense of want; They hunger and thirst no more. b. From all sickness and pain; they shall never be scorched by the heat of the sun anymore. 4. In the love and conduct of the Lord Jesus; He shall feed them, He shall lead them to living fountains of waters. (5) In being delivered from all sorrow, or occasion of it; God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.] Section SeventhThe Seven Penitential Trumpets. Earth-picture. (Chaps. Revelation 8:1 to Revelation 9:21) General.—Since there is an increase of disagreement in the different expositions of this eighth chapter, and, by consequence, an augmented insecurity attaching to any exposition of it hitherto offered, there is an increased demand for caution in the theoretic and practical application of it. Many, for instance, consider Revelation 7 as an episode, and affirm an immediate connection of Revelation 8 with Revelation 6. We, on the contrary, regard Revelation 7 as the heavenly phase of the Earth-picture which follows it in the vision of the Trumpets. Or, in other words, the Seven Trumpets are a loosing of the four winds from the four corners of the earth, in order to the injury of the Church and national life (earth and sea). In accordance with this view, we have to do altogether with darkenings of the visible Church, with spiritual occurrences presented under cosmical forms. These darkenings are, agreeably to the conditions of the Church, judgments; for individual Christians, they are temptations [or testings]; as dispensations of the Lord, they are admonitions and arousing summonses to repentance and to combat—and, hence, Trumpets.The silence in Heaven for the space of half an hour denotes that heavenly bracing and arming for which the whole great hour of temptation [Revelation 3:10] gives occasion. Even the Seven Angels with the Trumpets must restrain themselves and wait for the right moment, like the Four Angels in the preceding chapter. Their waiting has a common purpose with that of the Four Angels. The latter waited for the accomplishment of the Divine work of sealing; the former wait for the consummation of the human prayers of the saints, which correspond with the work of sealing. Thus the spirit of prayer must constitute the Church’s defence against the coming temptations. The prayers which ascend from earth must, however, be completed in Heaven. Their purification from earthly passion—e. g., of confessionalism or nationalism—is first represented in the form of a supplementing with incense, which an Angel with a golden censer, in which much incense is given him for the heavenly altar of incense, adds to the prayers of the saints. In accordance with Scripture, this figure can be understood solely of the heavenly intercession of the Spirit of Christ. Next the other function of the Angel is represented—the emptying of the censer, previously filled with fire from the altar, upon the earth. This is indicative, without doubt, of the missions of the high-priestly Spirit of Christ from Heaven, the effects of which missions are figuratively represented in voices, thunders, lightnings, and earthquake (see the Exeg. Notes). The two-fold continuance of Christ’s work, in His eternal Spirit, consists in a direction towards God in intercession, and a direction towards the Church on earth in the outpourings of His Spirit, accompanied by the glowing coals of His high-priestly temper of love and sacrifice. The First Four Trumpets (see Exeg. Notes). [Revelation 8:7] The first darkening of the Church owes its origin to fanaticism; this appears as a judgment upon the lack of inward devotion and sincerity.—[Revelation 8:8-9. The second great temptation [or trial] is the spread of fanaticism, in which a great mountain, a theocratic, ecclesiastico-political institution, begins to burn and plunges into the sea—Christian national life.—[Revelation 8:10-11] This calls forth the reactions of embitterment—deviations [or dissents], apostasies, indicated by the burning star which falls upon the rivers and fountains.—[Revelation 8:12] A result of these three destructive and corruptive agencies, which, with all their contrasts, work together, is the great spiritual diminution of the sunlight of revelation, the moonlight of natural revelation (which, amid all the advances of natural science, may still become obscured), and the light which proceeds from spiritual stars in the Church. The Last Three Trumpets. These are distinguished from the first four Trumpets and raised above them, primarily in that they are heralded by an Eagle, which flies through the midst of Heaven and proclaims their approach, and secondly by the Eagle’s designation of them as three woes upon those who dwell on the earth. We remark here, by way of addition, that the scope of the first woe is accurately defined as the sphere of the Fifth Trumpet (Revelation 9:1-11). No less definite is the determination of the sphere of the second woe as the sphere of the Sixth Trumpet (Revelation 9:1-21). As chs. 10 and Revelation 11:1-14 relate to the seven sealed Thunders, and in a sense form a real episode between the Trumpets, it might be as well to regard the second woe under a formal aspect, as closed with Revelation 9:21, as to conceive of it as continued through Revelation 10,—in accordance with the material point of view to which we adhered on p. 226, to the adoption of which we were particularly influenced by Revelation 10:4. The lack of precision in the construction of this portion of the Apocalypse is owing to the fact that the Apocalyptist was in the main desirous of depicting, under the cycle of the Seven Thunders, only the activity of the Two Witnesses, but found occasion to communicate the issue of their history as well. From the material point of view, the incipient apostasy, depicted Revelation 11:1-14, certainly forms a supplement to the judgment of the Sixth Trumpet. The Eagle’s cries of Woe upon the dwellers on the earth, are expressive of the fact that the Spirit of prophecy now, in lofty majesty, announces three universal temptations [trials] which are to come upon all men and which shall be so mighty as to make it manifest from the outset that the majority will fall when exposed to them, whilst the minority, constituted by the sealed, will have to undergo the sorest afflictions and persecutions. In respect of the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, we refer to the Exegetical Notes. Although, for our own part, we regard our view as thoroughly grounded (especially by the circumstances that the locusts of the Fifth Trumpet so torment men as to plunge them in despair, without killing them, and that the fiery horses of the Sixth Trumpet kill men—which must, doubtless, be understood as significant of a spiritual killing), it is requisite that the security of the foundation of this exegesis should be additionally manifested before any superstructure is erected upon it. The founding of homiletical and practical applications upon the traditional Church-historical exposition, e. g., upon the hypothesis that the locusts are Mohammedans and Apollyon the caliphs, and that the horses of the Sixth Trumpet are the second deluge of Mohammedans—the appearance of the Turks (Sander; according to Von Meyer, the locusts denote the mediζval priesthood, the horses being Oriental barbarians in general)—has, like kindred expositions, not such evidence in its favor as evangelical preaching and instruction demand. Especially noteworthy, in our eyes, is the fundamental thought that the destructive agencies depicted in the Seven Trumpets, are set forth in plastic figures of disturbed nature—in part, of the most horrible unnaturalness. A rain of hail and fire, mingled with blood; a great mountain, plunging, burning, into the sea; a star falling from Heaven, and, burning like a torch, poisoning many rivers and fountains; sun, moon, and stars, shorn of a third of their brightness—all consternating images of a disturbance of nature. Under the Fifth Trumpet, however, the most terrific contradictions of nature are exhibited: locusts that eat no green thing, but, on the contrary, sting men after the manner of scorpions; having hair like the hair of women, and teeth like lions’ teeth, etc.; these make their appearance as a mere prelude to the fiery horses of the Sixth Trumpet, which seem to drag their riders along with them, which bite with their snake-like tails as with mouths and vomit from their mouths fire, smoke and brimstone. But not until the Seventh Trumpet is the contradiction of nature consummated in the figures of the Dragon, the Beast, and the Woman who rides upon the Beast. With a master-touch at which we can but marvel, evil is here throughout delineated in extravagant contradictions, as unnaturalness. Special.—We note only such items as appear to us to be more or less firmly established.—Darkenings of the Church, judgments of God.—The Trumpets of God—Divine judgments upon the unfaithful—as summonses of the faithful to battle, and as calls to awakening and repentance for all.—[Revelation 8:1] The silence in Heaven a sign of the great sympathy of the heavenly Church in its foreview of the trials of the Church on earth.—[Revelation 8:3-4] Completion of the prayers of believers by the intercession of Christ in Heaven.—[Revelation 8:5] The fire of the health-bringing Spirit, falling from Heaven in order to the vitalizing of the Church, that the fire of judgment may not in the end fall upon her from Heaven.—[Revelation 8:6] The series of Trumpets of judgment and repentance, a continual climactic succession, in accordance with the increasing development of mankind.—[Revelation 8:7] Fanaticism, a mixture of frost and fire (icy coldness of heart and carnal heat of the imagination), mingled with blood.—[Revelation 8:8] What can be understood, in a spiritual sense, by a burning mountain, falling into the sea?—[Revelation 8:10-11] Since Satan has been styled a star, falling from Heaven, we may designate the falling star called Wormwood, apostasy, that has its origin in embitterment.—Intellectual or spiritual rivers, currents and fountains in humanity; their destinations and manifold empoisonment.—[Revelation 8:12] Darkening of intellectual or spiritual lights of Christendom, and the sins which must have preceded such darkening.—[Revelation 8:13] The Eagle of prophecy.—Warning cry of the Spirit of prophecy, concerning the whole earth.—As a woecry, it has reference to the earthly-minded.—The great dispensations of woe upon the earth are, incontrovertibly, great general temptations (no cry of woe was heard at the forth-going of the three sombre horsemen). [Revelation 9:1] The abyss, as the middle region between Hades and hell.—[Revelation 9:2-11] The soul-sufferings of humanity, accompanying its development, through the medium of Christianity, in the sphere of all spiritually unsound life.—All spiritual manifestations which, by reason of great internal contradictions, assume a monstrous character, judge themselves. They are, however, the means of the spiritual ruin of the blinded individuals who yield themselves up to them. Examples of such contradiction may be given in abundance, and consist, especially, of pretensions to high spiritual life, conjoined with enslaving ordinances (Montanism); pretensions to high Christian sanctity, conjoined with pitiless severity (Novatianism); pretensions to purity from the influence of world and state, conjoined with a system of robbery (Donatism), etc.—[Revelation 9:13-19] Manifestations of unnaturalness in the religious and moral world are armies of corruptive and destructive agencies slaying spiritually and, indirectly, also physically.—The horses of corruption and destruction run away with their riders.—[Revelation 9:20-21. Impenitence under the judgments of God, considered under the antithesis of bigotry and the service of sin (see chs. 20 and 21). Bigotry and sensuality are prominent features of the most modern forms of corruption. Starke: This author gives a singular interpretation of the silence in Heaven as a time immediately succeeding the great judgment and destruction of the Antichristian kingdom, viz. the thousand years (a half hour!). In commenting on the consecutive Trumpets, Starke cites, as usual, two adverse explanations, the one class given by those who regard the Trumpets as fulfilled, the other by those who look upon them as to come. Christoph Paulus, Blicke in die Weissagung, etc. (see p. 73): Only the first judgment at the time of the first Trumpet, and the last at the time of the seventh Vial of Anger are accomplished by hail; they alone, therefore (because hail comes from above?), appear as a result of immediate Divine interference, as an immediate demonstration of Divine power. All the other judgments, from the second to the last, bear the stamp of historical occurrences (?).—Judgment of the fourth Trumpet. No remarkable occurrence on earth, no historical event distinguishes the time of the fourth Trumpet; nothing of importance happens, but a condition is gradually brought about in which the brightness of all Divine authority on earth is obscured; Church, laws and magistrates lose a considerable portion of their reputation and influence. Literature.—Vetter, Die sieben Posannen, Breslau, 1860 (see p. 75). [From M. Henry: Revelation 8:3-5. Observe, 1. All the saints are a praying people; 2. Times of danger should be praying times, and so should times of great expectation; 3. The prayers of the saints themselves stand in need of the incense and intercession of Christ to make them acceptable and effectual, and there is provision made by Christ to that purpose; 4. The prayers of the saints come up before God in a cloud of incense; no prayer thus recommended was ever denied audience and acceptance; 5. These prayers that were thus accepted in heaven produced great changes upon earth in return to them. Revelation 9:7-12. Note, 1. When the gospel is coldly received and not permitted to have its proper effect upon heart and life, it is usually followed by dreadful judgments. 2. God gives warning to men of His judgments before He sends them; He sounds an alarm by the written word, by ministers, by men’s own consciences, and by the signs of the times; so that if a people be surprised, it is their own fault. 3. The anger of God against a people makes dreadful work with them; it embitters all their comforts, and makes even life itself bitter and burdensome. 4. God does not in this world stir up all His wrath, but sets bounds to the most terrible judgments. 5. Corruptions of doctrine and worship in the Church are themselves great judgments, and the usual causes and tokens of other judgments.—Revelation 9:2. The Devil carries on his designs by blinding the eyes of men, by extinguishing light and knowledge, and promoting ignorance and error; he first deceives men, and then destroys them; wretched souls follow him in the dark, or they durst not follow him. Revelation 9:16. He Who is the Lord of hosts has vast armies at His command, to serve His own purposes. [From Vaughan: Revelation 9:2. If men will not have heaven open to them, if they will break off the connection between earth and heaven, they must expect to have that between earth and hell opened.] B.—EΑRTH-PICTURE OF THE SEVEN , ISSUING FROM THE OPENING OF THE SEVENTH SEAL Revelation 8:1 to Revelation 9:211. Opening of the Seventh SealRev_8:1-61 And when he had [om. had] opened the seventh seal, there was [ἐγένετο=supervened] silence in [ins. the] heaven about the space of [om. the space of] half an hour. 2And I saw the seven angels which [who] stood [stand] before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. 3And another angel came and stood at [or before] the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with [or add it to] the prayers of all [ins. the] saints upon the golden altar which was [is] before the throne. 4And the smoke of the incense, which came [om., which came] with [to or for] the prayers of the saints, ascended up [om. up] before God out of the angel’s hand. 5And the angel took the censer, and filled it with [from the] fire of the altar, and cast it [om. it] into [upon] the earth: and there were [supervened] voices, and thunderings [thunders, and voices], and lightnings, and an earthquake. 6And the seven angels which [who] had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to [om. to—ins. that they might] sound [trumpet]. 2. First four Trumpets. Predominant human spiritual Sufferings under the figure of Sufferings in NatureRev_8:7-127 The first angel [om. angel] sounded [trumpeted], and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: [ins. and the third part of the earth was burnt up,] and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 8And the second angel sounded [trumpeted], and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; 9And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life [ψυχάς] died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. 10And the third angel sounded [trumpeted], and there fell a great star from [ins. the] heaven, burning as it were [om. it were] a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of [ins. The] waters; 11And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood: and many [ins. of the] men died of [from] the waters, because they were made bitter. 12And the fourth angel sounded [trumpeted], and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; [,] so as [om. so as—ins. that] the third part of them was [might be] darkened, and the day shone not [might not shine] for a [the] third part of it, and the night likewise [in like manner]. 3. Last three. Trumpets, Predominant demonic Sufferings—in figures of Nature perverted into UnnaturalnessRev_8:13 to Revelation 9:2113 And I beheld [saw], and [ins. I] heard an angel [eagle] flying through the midst of heaven [in mid-heaven], saying with a loud [great] voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of [them that dwell upon] the earth by reason of [ἐκ] the other [remaining] voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which [who] are yet [about] to sound [trumpet]! Revelation 9:1-21a. Fifth Trumpet. First WoeRev_8:1-12. 1And the fifth angel sounded [trumpeted], and I saw a star fall [fallen] from [ins. the] heaven unto [upon] the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless 2 [om. bottomless] pit [ins. of the abyss]. And he opened the bottomless [om. bottomless] pit [ins. of the abyss]; and there arose [ascended] a [om. a] smoke out of the pit, as the [om. the] smoke of a great furnace; and the sun [ins. was darkened] and the air were darkened [om. were darkened] by reason of [ἐκ] the smoke of the pit. 3And there came [om. there came] out of the smoke [ins. came forth] locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4And it was commanded [said to, ἐῤῥέθη] them that they should [shall] not hurt [injure] the grass of the earth, neither [nor] any green thing, neither [nor] any15 tree; but only those [the] men which [who (οἵτινες)] have not the seal of God in [upon] their [the] foreheads. 5And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should [shall] be tormented five months: and their torment was [is] as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh [it hath stricken] a man. 6And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall [ins. earnestly] desire to die, and death shall flee [fleeth] from them. 7And the shapes of the locusts were like unto [om. unto] horses prepared unto battle; and on [upon] their heads were [om. were] as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were [om. were] as the [om. the] faces of men. 8And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9And they had breastplates, as it were [ins. iron] breastplates of iron [om. of iron]; and the sound of their wings was as the [a] sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10And they had [have] tails like unto [om. unto] scorpions, and there were [om. there were] stings [ins.; and] in their tails: and [om.: and—ins. is] their power was [om. was] to hurt [injure] men five months. 11And they had [have] a king over them, which is [om. which is] the angel of the bottomless pit [om. bottomless pit—ins. abyss], [;] whose [his] name in the [om. the] Hebrew [,] tongue is [om. tongue is] Abaddon, but [; and] in the Greek tongue [om. tongue—ins. he] hath his [the] name Apollyon. [ins. The] 12one woe is past [hath passed]; and, [om. and,] behold, there come [ins. yet] two woes more hereafter [om. more hereafter—ins. after these things]. b. Sixth Trumpet. Second WoeRev_8:13-1313 And the sixth angel sounded [trumpeted], and I heard a [or one (μίαν] voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14saying to the sixth angel [,] which had [the one having] the trumpet, Loose the four angels which 15 [that] are bound in [at] the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which [that] were [had been] prepared for an [the] hour, and a [om. a] day, and a [om. a] month, and a [om. a] year, for to [om. for to—ins. that they should] slay the third part of [ins. the] men. 16And the number of the army [armies] of the horsemen [cavalry] were [was] two hundred thousand thousand 17 [two myriads of myriads]: and [om. and] I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that [those who] sat on them, having breastplates of fire [fiery] and of jacinth [hyacinthine], and brimstone [sulphureous]: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued [goeth forth] fire and smoke and brimstone [or sulphur]. 18By these three [ins. plagues] was [om. was—ins. were slain] the third part of [ins. the] men killed [om. killed], by the fire, and by [om. by] the smoke, and by [om. by27] the 19 brimstone [or sulphur], which issued [went forth] out of their mouths. For their [om. their—ins. the] power [ins. of the horses] is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were [are] like unto serpents, and [om. and] had [having] heads, and with them [these] they do [om. do] hurt [injure]. 20And the rest of the men [,] which [who] were not killed [slain] by these plagues [,] yet [om. yet] repented not [did not even repent] of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils [the demons], and [ins. the] idols of gold, and [ins., of] silver, and [ins. of]30 brass, and [ins. of]30 stone, and of30 wood; which neither can [can neither] see, nor hear, nor walk: 21Neither repented they [And they did not repent] of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. AND VIEWThe trumpet calls to war; the trumpet summons the congregation to assemble. Both points are embraced by the vision of the Seven Trumpets; it is the vision of the experiences of the Church as the Church Militant; the vision of her conflict in her spiritual assailments and perils. This spiritual conflict of the Church is evident from each individual feature of the vision. The prayers of all the Saints: the third, as a diminution of three, the number of spirit; the opening of the abyss; the horsemen, coming from the great river Euphrates, i. e. from the sphere of Babylon; the slaughter of mankind, effected by their demonic horses; and the impenitence still remaining after all these plagues—everything is indicative of spiritual circumstances. These spiritual circumstances are, moreover, of such a nature that they can be overcome only by a mighty effort of Heaven itself; by a tension of the heavenly spirits in meditation, prayer and intercession. Hence there is silence in Heaven. Praise seems to grow dumb in Heaven itself. Heaven prays in consideration of the conflicts which are before the Church on earth. The heavenly hour is the decisive hour of the whole crisis; the entire half of this hour is employed in the celestial hallowing of the conflict of the Church Militant. In the mean time, the seven Angels, with the trumpets which are given them, stand waiting. The other Angel, whose task it is to give a heavenly completeness to the earthly and imperfect prayers of the Saints is, doubtless, in accordance with Romans 8:26, the Spirit of Prayer, in connection with the symbolical intercession of Christ. In this character he approaches the heavenly altar of incense. His instrument is the golden censer—the heavenly purification and measurement of the prayers which ascend to Heaven mingled with pathological turbidity and eccentricity (comp. the μετριοπαθεῖν of Christ the High Priest, Hebrews 5:2). The incense given to him is offered upon the golden altar of incense before the Throne, and the smoke of it rises up and completes the imperfect prayers of the Saints before God. By the retro-active power of this heavenly sacrifice of prayer, the earth is consecrated for her struggle: the Angel pours the fire of the altar, with which he has filled the censer, upon the earth. Then from the heavenly fire of prayer there issue on earth voices and thunders and lightnings and an earthquake: holy ideas and words, holy preachings and alarm-cries, holy illuminations and spiritual judgments, result in holy convulsions of the human world. Thus is set on foot a victorious counteraction against the onsets just beginning. Though seven terrible corruptive and destructive agencies are now, one after another, let loose against the earth, we must remember that the providence of God has encircled them with angelic might; that in Heaven they are transformed into seven grand dispensations; and that they are announced by Trumpets, which summon the Church to the conflict—summon her to resistance, by repentance and by a closer serriment in collectedness of spirit and in the life of Christian fellowship. First Trumpet-blastThe first Trumpet sounds, and hail, mingled with fire and blood, falls upon the earth. This is, unmistakably, the dispensation of carnal zeal, of sensuous piety, of fanaticism (Luke 9:54), which falls upon the earth, i. e., the churchly form of the Kingdom of God (Psalms 93). The hail, or the icy coldness of men’s souls toward true spiritual life, corresponds with the fire of superstitious passions (see Nitzsch, System, p. 39); and the fire is continually more and more mingled with blood, as is demonstrated by the first appearance of fanaticism in sacred history, Genesis 34, and, further, by all kindred records, especially by the superstitious persecutions of heretics in the history of the Church. This unholy fire consumes the third part of the earth, i. e., the Church, or, in a universal sense, legal order; the third part of the trees (Psalms 1), i. e. pious personalities; and more than the third part of the green grass: the entire soul-pasturage of the Christian flock (Psalms 23) is more or less scorched and blasted, being converted partly into hay, partly into ashes. Second Trumpet-blastThe mountain, which is next introduced, is not a real mountain, but the appearance of a great burning mountain, rushing, like a giant meteor, through the air, as though hurled, by some mighty hand, upon the sea. This, manifestly, is the deceptive semblance of a great Divine ordinance, which, changed by the flames of bigot passion into a self-consuming crater, is inflicted, as a Divine judgment, upon the sea or national life. The third part of the sea is turned to blood by means of religious wars and abominations of all kinds springing from fanatical party spirit. The further consequence is that the third part of the creatures in the sea perish, and the third part of the ships are destroyed. The poisoning of Christian national life by the false fire-mountain destroys a third part of the healthful and gladsome popular life, and a third part of all human intercourse, blessing and prosperity. Whole nations, states and vital branches of the state are, so far as their spiritual existence is concerned, in good part ruined. History affords abundant illustrations of these Apocalyptic words. Third Trumpet-blastFrom Heaven, from the kingdom of spirit, a great star falls, a real spiritual luminary, burning like a torch, i. e., like a great and brilliant world-light. If we contemplate its spiritual fall, we cannot fail to perceive, that it is the personified likeness of false liberty, of the fanaticism of negation, rushing upon us under the semblance of a new enlightenment for the world. For it falls upon the third part of the rivers, i. e. more general spiritual tendencies, or currents, as they are called at present (Isaiah 8:6; Isaiah 35:6); it falls also upon the fountains (Proverbs 25:6), i. e., creatively original minds, whence the currents proceed. When it is said that the name of the star is called Wormwood, the idea immediately strikes us that it is indeed that embitterment by which—as in the history of Julian—a great portion of the heavenly knowledge-life, the enfranchising spiritual reform, is corrupted and transformed from a quietly shining heavenly star into a burning torch that falls from Heaven, and, instead of truly enlightening, poisons the fountains and currents of spiritual life. Thus a third part of the spiritual water of life, in society, culture and literature, is turned into a water of death, a soul-destroying partyism, sedition and sectarianism, inflicting even bodily death upon many men, by mortally embittering them (comp. Hebrews 3:8; Exodus 17:7; Numbers 14:22; Deuteronomy 6:16). Fourth Trumpet-blastA third part of the Heaven of spiritual life is closed, and thus the opening of the abyss at the blast of the fifth Trumpet is prepared. The third part of the sun is smitten; i. e., the third part of the sun of revelation is concealed and made of none effect by the united darkness of positive and negative fanaticism—superstition and unbelief. In like manner the third part of the moon is smitten. Together with the bright day-life of Christian knowledge, the night-life of the spiritual repose and peace of souls is, in a great degree, obscured; the spiritual life of nature, we might say, in accordance with Mark 4:27. Thus, too, the third part of the stars is smitten; in spite of all the advances of astronomy, the joyous upward gaze of immortal souls into the heavenly home of the eternal Father-house (John 14:2) declines with many even to utter extinction. And it is in perfect accordance with the laws of polarity, that, together with the true day-life of the spirit, the true night-life of the heart, especially in the intercourse of spirits, has suffered great loss. By this great spiritual obscuration of sun, moon and stars—an obscuration which, though on the one hand partial, is, on the other hand, lasting—preparation is made for the first of the three great woes. This woe, together with its successors, is heralded by an eagle which John sees and hears, by reason of the rustling of his wings, flying through the lofty midst of Heaven; an eagle proclaiming with a mighty voice a three-fold woe upon the inhabitants of the earth—a woe coming with the last three Trumpets. As the horse denotes regular rapid historic motion, so the eagle is indicative of a vehement and mighty movement toward a great catastrophe. This eagle flies along the meridian altitude of Heaven, thus being visible down to the very horizon, besides being able to descry the coming woes with his piercing glance, and to make himself heard by all with his mighty voice. Thus the eagle is indicative of the lofty and rapid flight of the seer-spirit over the earth, with its sharp outlook upon the catastrophes of the last times. It is the very genius of Apocalyptics, the eagle of John. That it does not denote the final judgments themselves (as Hengstenberg maintains), is evident from the fact, that it distinguishes them from itself as the three woful times of the future. In spite of its lofty eagle nature, it seems to suffer in human sympathy with the inhabitants of the earth, upon whom the judgments are coming. Thus the way is prepared for the Fifth Trumpet-blastAgain a star falls from Heaven upon the earth, or, rather, it has already fallen when John sees it. If the previous falling star was the genius of all carnal levity, it is followed quite naturally by the genius of demonic gloom, the second Janus-face of the more general spiritual corruptions in Christian and, especially, modern times. This star receives the key to the pit of the abyss. The abyss is, undoubtedly, not equivalent to Sheol, or the realm of the dead, in the general sense of that term; but neither is it the same as Gehenna, in the full sense of that word as identical with the lake of fire. It is the hell-like or demonic region of the realm of disembodied and unembodied spirits—a region of torment, bounded on the one side by the brighter portion of Sheol and on the other by Gehenna (the remarks on p. 30 must be modified by the present comments; see p. 35). [See Excursus on Hades, p. 364 sqq.—E. R. C.] It is declared, Revelation 17:8, that the Beast ascends out of the abyss and goes into ἀπώλεια; Revelation 20:3, Satan is cast into the abyss; after the final revolt, however, he also is cast into the lake of fire, to which the Beast and the false Prophet have previously been banished. In the present passage, mention is made of the same demon-region which, 2 Peter 2:4, is, through the medium of a verb, indirectly designated as Tartarus. The pit of the abyss is manifestly the connecting channel by means of which the region of tormenting demons holds communication with the earth and with human life. It corresponds with the partial closure of Heaven. Not all of Heaven is closed; not all of the abyss is let loose upon the human world, but the connecting channel between earth and the abyss is now, in a mode entirely new, thrown open. As the revelation of Heaven, on its side, extends into the human world of spirit, so it is also with the pit of the abyss: it is opened in the demonic depths of the human psychical life itself through a demonic sympathy with the spirits of the abyss. The genius of a God-estranged gloom is the star that opens the pit; the key in his hand is hopelessness, the more general form of despair. As the opening of the gloomy demonic death-realm below began with the darkening of the Gospel above, it is not in the modern world alone that a spirit of gloom has pressed into the Christian world. Rather, the origin of the sombre abysmal moods in Christendom is to be found in the land of the cultus of the dead, the cultus of graves—in Egypt. Again, during the whole of the Middle Ages we must distinguish between the monk’s garb, assumed by all Christian confederations, and the specific spirit of monkery in its dark form. In the course of time the latter has continually been assuming darker and darker forms, until in the modern world it touches its other and worldly extreme. Substantially, however, the two extremes of gloom amount to about the same thing; they are connected in a decided estrangement from the Gospel, from inwardness, as well as in a fanatical racing and chasing, and in absolute fancifulness, whether in a religious or an irreligious garb. The first result of the opening of the pit of the abyss is the thick-rising smoke—spiritual derangement exhibiting itself in a gloomy play of the fancy, darkening more than ever the sun of truth and consciousness and the clear air of prospect and hope. Then locusts break forth out of the smoke;—demonic hobgoblin forms, not eating grass, as do locusts, but, like scorpions, stinging men. They have no power over the objective region of genuine spiritual life—over the grass of the soul’s pasture, the verdure of new life, the trees of God by the rivers of water; their power is over those men who have not the seal of God on their foreheads. It is, therefore, manifest that good men, awakened men, well-meaning men, in a more general sense, may be exposed to them. Even those men, however, whom they successfully attack, they cannot directly kill; they have power only to torment them five months, i. e., to rob them of spiritual liberty, indicated by the numeral five, through a series of minor changes of time or of the moon. And in those days—those gloomy days of ancient and, especially, modern despair—men shall seek death and not find it; death shall even seem to flee before them. This does not exclude individual suicides on the extreme of these self-tormentings; in general, however, these gloomy soul-moods are below the level of the feeling of, and pleasure in, life. And what an array of phantoms, or mere semblances full of contradictions, do these tormenting spirits of modern soul-suffering constitute! The description of the text very significantly proclaims them to be nothing but fantastical and airy visions (see p. 22). The phantasmagoria image forth, as war-horses, strong and passionate moods; they transform themselves into heads, wearing superb and kingly crowns, radiant with the semblance of gold; then they put on a humane face, as of man, and even assume a sentimentally soft deportment, indicated by the hair as of women, whilst yet they bite as though they had lions’ teeth. But above all, they love to disguise themselves as grand warlike phantoms; they appear in breast-plated war-hosts; their wings thunder like war-chariots charging to the battle; and with their fanciful terrors they change the world of Christian brotherhood more and more into a grand complex of camps. The venomous sting of these locusts is in their tails, which are like the tails of scorpions, the emblems of the evil spirit. Thus, too, the still worse power of the monsters of the sixth Trumpet lies not only in their mouths, but also in their tails. The meaning of this fact is, doubtless, that their effects increase and intensify toward the end; they make themselves felt particularly in the pains and painful consequences of party-trains. Their power is limited, however, and the Seer again brings into view its terminus, five months. These demons of torment are, moreover, not isolated apparitions; they form a mysterious complex, a unity wherein, on the one hand, their fearful power lies, and, on the other, its limitation is contained. As Hades constitutes a unitous realm of the dead, governed by Death personified; and as the kingdom of evil, as beyond this life, is concentrated in Satan, whose manifest organ in this world is Antichrist, so, in the midst between Hades and the domain of Satan, the Abyss lies; this also is under the rule of a king, called, in Hebrew, Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the destroyer, waster. This king, in accordance with the distinct region and operation belonging to him, is the genius of despair, which must be regarded as specific destituteness of good or salvation, specific destruction. The two names doubtless signify, likewise, that the Hebrew form of his spoiling of souls is different from the Greek form; in the one case, he is wont to appear in the form of demonic possession; in the other, in that of melancholy madness. In view of all this, however, this whole terrible sphere of psychical torments must be clearly distinguished from the ethico-demonic plagues appearing at the sound of the sixth Trumpet. This one woe passes; but it is the forerunner of two others which are still worse. Sixth Trumpet-blastOn account of the importance of what follows, this trumpet-blast is supplemented by a voice. The voice issues from the horns of the golden altar. Horns are symbols of protective power; the horns of the altar of incense, therefore, are significant of the perfect security of that spiritual life which proceeds from a life of prayer perfected in Heaven. In this sense the voice cries: Let loose! the Church is armed. Thus Christ Himself says: “It must needs be that offences come, but woe,” etc. (Matthew 18:7; comp. 1 Corinthians 11:19). The following treats, doubtless, of offences in the strictest sense of the term—tares (see Matthew 13:38-39). Loose the four Angels by the great river Euphrates. With a grand assurance of victory, the vision brings out two fundamental features in the infliction of religious-ethical offences upon the earth. They appear at the start as four bound Angels. As emphatically as they, as offences, belong to the kingdom of darkness and are representative, in respect of the numeral four, of the spirit of the world (like the four beasts of Daniel 7)—just so certain is it that they are bound by God’s providence, and are unable prematurely to break forth to destroy His souls, and that, under angelic power, under the power of the four Angels who, according to Revelation 7, hold them bound, they must, as dispensations of God, themselves go forth for judgment, when the time comes, as His messengers. In respect of their inmost essence, they may be representative of four fundamental forms of the Satanic essence and worldliness; they are, however, fundamental forms disguised as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11:14; 2 Thessalonians 2). Thus all heresies, at their first appearance, claim to be truths in a higher form of knowledge, and also operate as powerful lies through the admixture of elements of truth. Schleiermacher, perchance, might have found his four ground-forms of heresy symbolized here, had he properly appreciated the Apocalyptic style. Again, though these offences seek to press forth in their quiet preparedness, they are conditioned by their Divinely ordained time as to hour, day, month and year; as to the hours of decisive conflict, the days of their apparent victory, the moons of their periodic change, and the years of their collective domination. As it is their natural tendency to kill men (John 8:44), such is likewise their mission, inasmuch as they are instruments of judgment. Their murders, however, are spiritual murders; they deprive the third part of mankind of their spiritual life and prosperity. After the portrayal of their peculiar essence, these fundamental forms vanish behind the prodigious train of horsemen forming their concrete appearance. What Bόrger said of the dead [in the ballad of Lenore] is true also of erring spirits: they ride, and ride fast. One would think that a myriad might have been enough; but as a curse generates a curse, so the erring spirits is productive of more of its kind, even to myriads of myriads. The circumstance that the enormous number is twice given, may have its foundation in the fact that errors are divided into positive and negative ground-forms or extremes. The concrete numeric form employed by the Seer does not, therefore, gain by its resolution into two hundred millions. The Seer heard their number and could never forget it in its importance. In these images of cavalry the horses themselves are the main thing. In Revelation 6 the horses are but the bearers, in symbolical colors, of the acting riders; here, on the contrary, only the horses seem to be actually operative; the riders work merely as weak directors of the movements of their steeds and by their symbolical breastplates and colors. Is the intimation intended that these riders, heretics, are, in many respects, not so bad as their horses, death-breathing heresies? Or is it suggested that the horses ordinarily run away with them; that they speedily lose control over the movements originated by themselves? Possibly both thoughts are intimated. At all events, they all, without exception, are strongly mailed against the darts of truth, of sincerity and soberness of spirit, for fanatics are chips of one block, though not in a predestinarian sense; there is among them a good deal of talent, ambition, ardor and a strong impulse of self-consciousness; but little genius, soul, piety and reverence. The colors of their breast-plates correspond with the fatal operations of their horses. The fire of fanaticism, so prone to be mingled with blood; the smoke of gloomy and confused mental disorders, already resolved into vapor; and the brimstone of still unused fuel floating about—how could the fundamental forms of false-lightism be more fitly characterized! Again, the horses have heads as the heads of lions. Their arrogance, their aggressive appearance, assumes the semblance of true lion-heartedness, of genuine leonine strength. It is natural that their fatal operations issue from their mouths, though these may also, in a figurative sense, work by means of the pen. Besides the power in their mouths, they have power in their tails. These tails are still worse than those of the locusts of the fifth Seal; they are not like scorpions, but like serpents, which, after the manner of serpents, do harm with their heads. It is, perhaps, not out of the way to suppose that the Seer designed giving prominence, along with the direct dogmatic injuries, to the pernicious moral effects of offences or false principles; for thus they have a two-fold mortal agency—through head and tail. It is in the nature of the thing that an inestimable amount of bloodshed follows in the train of spiritual murders. The Seer finally brings out the melancholy fact with which this cyclical world-picture closes; which is also, be it understood, a characteristic universal picture of the last time. The rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues, are those who have not, through a fall into heresies, lost all spiritual life. In this respect, therefore, they offer a contrast to the others; yet even they have not suffered themselves to be roused to repentance. They are divided into two ranks, composed of those who are guilty in a religious point of view pre-eminently, and those whose guilt is pre-eminently moral—both ranks, however, being connected. The principal offence of the one side is, that they are subject to the works of their hands, i. e., thoroughly externalized, sunk in externalisms, of which they do not repent. Demon-worship, a subtile service of devils—thus runs the terrible superscription, beneath which a pompous image-worship is set forth—idolatry with figures of gold, of silver, of brass, of stone, and of wood. The absolute irrationality of this idolatry is noticed by the Apocalypse as well as by the Old Testament. These idols can neither see, nor hear, nor walk; they are, therefore, less than the beasts. On the other side, the chief superscription is that of murder—something which well corresponds with the service of the Devil; the individual forms—sorcery, fornication, theft—are at all events connected with this fundamental form. Sorcery [Magismus], in its most general import, is the duskiest side of immorality; it has a wide domain, from conscious impieties to ecclesiastical mechanisms. Fornication is a chief sin of heathen grossness under the mask of Christian culture. Theft understands sublimating itself into the most subtile and underhand forms of swindle and fraud. We would submit the following general observations: We have seen that the Seven Times Seven which forms the foundation of the Book, stands in a natural sequence. The same remark was applied, in particular, to the seven Churches. Again, if we examine the seven Seals, we cannot fail to recognize the naturalness of their sequence: war, dearth, all sorts of death, especially pestilence, martyrdom, earthquakes. The same remark holds good, furthermore, in regard to the Trumpets: 1. Fanaticism; 2. A fanaticised community-life; 3. Negative embitterment; 4. Darkening of revelation and of the life of salvation; 5. Penitential demonic psychical sufferings; 6. Demonic mental or spiritual disorders, heresies—preparatory to apostasy. [ OF VIEWS, ETC.] By the American Editor[Elliott regards the Trumpet-septenary as included in the seventh Seal, and also this Septenary as chronologically consecutive on that of the six Seals preceding. The Period of the first six Trumpets (to the close of the First Part of the Sixth, Revelation 9:21) he regards as extending from A. D. 395 to 1453, including “the destruction of the Western Empire by the Goths, and the Eastern Empire by the Saracens and Turks.” The half hour’s silence in Heaven (Revelation 8:1) he interprets as “the stillness from storms” in “the aerial firmament;” i. e., a continuance, for a brief period, of the calm brought to view, Revelation 7:1; by the incense offering he understands the presentation of the prayers of the Sealed before God by Jesus, the great High Priest. The Trumpets he regards as fulfilling the uses of the trumpets under the Levitical law, which uses he represents as two: (1) “as regarded the Israelites, to proclaim the epochs of advancing time;” (2) “during war-time, and as regarded their enemies, to proclaim war against those enemies as from God Himself (Numbers 10:1-10).” The first four Trumpets he, in common with other interpreters, regards as intimately connected together; and he understands by them the four Gothic ravages which ended in the subversion of the Western Empire. He contends that during the period of these ravages the Roman world was, in fact, divided into three parts, viz. the Eastern (Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, Egypt); the Central (M�sia, Greece, Illyricum, Rh�tia); the Western (Italy, Gaul, Britain, Spain, Northwestern Africa); and that the third or Western part was destroyed. The first Trumpet (Revelation 8:7): (A. D. 400–410) the Era of Alaric and Rhadagasius. The second (Revelation 8:8-9): (A. D. 429–477) the Era of Genseric, to whom “was allotted… the conquest of the maritime provinces of Africa and the islands.” The third (Revelation 8:10-11): (A. D. 450–453) the Era of Attila who, as a “baleful meteor,” “moved against the Western provinces along the Upper Danube, reached and crossed the Rhine at Basle, and thence tracing the same great frontier stream of the West down to Belgium, made its valley one scene of desolation and woe;” thence directing his steps to “ ‘the European fountains of waters’ in the Alpine heights and Alpine valleys of Italy.” The fourth (Revelation 8:2): (about A. D. 476 or 479) the Era of Odoacer, by whom “the name and office of Roman Emperor of the West was abolished,” and “thus of the Roman imperial Sun, that third which appertained to the Western Empire was eclipsed, and shone no more.” By the Angel (Eagle) flying through mid-heaven (Revelation 8:13), he understands the public “forewarnings of coming woe” that prevailed throughout the period from the death of Justinian, A. D. 565, to the rise of Mohammed and the Saracens—forewarnings in (1) the warning utterances of eminent fathers of the Church (Sulpitius Severus, Martin of Tours, Jerome, Hesychius, Evagrius, Theodoret, and especially Gregory the Great); (2) the generally diffused idea that the end of the world was approaching; (3) the threatening “outward state and aspect of things.” The fifth Trumpet (Revelation 9:1-11): the Saracenic woe beginning with the public announcement by Mohammed of his alleged mission, A. D. 512, and extending through one hundred and fifty years (five prophetic months, Revelation 8:5) to A. D. 762, when, in the establishment of Medinat al Salem (City of Peace) as the capital of the Saracenic Empire and the following tranquillity, occurred what Daubuz calls “the settlement of the locusts.” The sixth Trumpet, Part I. (Revelation 8:13-13): the Turkish woe, extending from January 18th, A. D. 1057, the day on which the Turcomans went forth from Bagdad on their career of victory, to the day on which the investiture of Constantinople was completed, to May 16th, A. D. 1453 (i.e., 396 years, 118 days=the prophetic year, month and day, Revelation 9:15).Barnes agrees substantially with Elliott as to the periods of the Trumpets, and the nature of the judgments inflicted under them. He differs in certain points of interpretation, as will be seen under Explanations in Detail. Wordsworth regards the description of the seventh Seal as closing with Revelation 8:1, to be resumed in the glories set forth in chs. 21, 22; and maintains that the Seer then proceeds to portray the Divine judgments, from the beginning, on the enemies of the Church, under the Seven Trumpets. The Trumpets are prefaced by the prayers of the Saints (Revelation 8:3-4), in answer to which the judgments are sent forth (Revelation 8:5-6). The Trumpets correspond with the woes inflicted upon Egypt (Exodus 9:23-26), and to the sevenfold encircling of Jericho (Joshua 6:1-20); the first six are preparatory denunciations, warning, calling to repentance, and preparing for the seventh which will convene all nations to the general judgment. The first (Revelation 8:7) is a retributive sequel to the second Seal, and represents the woes which fell upon the Roman Empire in the fourth century, when it was smitten by a hail storm from the North (the Gothic invasion). The second (Revelation 8:8-9): the uprooting and destruction of Imperial Rome (which had been as a great Volcano) by the Goths, Vandals and Huns. The third (Revelation 8:10-11): heretical teachers (represented by the fallen star), who embittered the waters of Holy Scripture. (“In the Seals heresy is represented as a trial of the Church; in the Trumpets it is treated as a judgment inflicted on (godless) men for sins.”) The fourth (Revelation 8:12): “a prophecy of the great prevalence of errors, defections, apostasies and confusions in Christendom, such as abounded in the Seventh Century.” The fifth (Revelation 9:1-11): the Mohammedan (Saracenic and Turkish) woe. The sixth (Revelation 8:13-13): “This vision has revealed. … that the Holy Scriptures (four-fold Gospel), though bound as captives for a time, would be loosed by the command of God, and that they would traverse the world like an innumerable army. And although they are. … ministers of salvation unto many, yet the Vision has declared, that the Holy Scriptures would be like instruments of punishment and death to the enemies of God.” (!) Alford regards the seventh Seal as having its completion in Revelation 8:5; the preparation for the Trumpets, however, he looks upon as “evolved out of the opening of the seventh Seal.” The first four he regards as connected together by “the kind of exercise which their agency finds”—“the plagues indicated by them” being “entirely exercised on natural objects.” The fifth and sixth are in like manner connected; the plagues being inflicted on men—the former by pain, the latter by death; the seventh forming rather the solemn conclusion to the whole than a distinct judgment of itself. He affirms (1) that the series of visions reaches forward to the time of the end, and (2) that the infliction of the plagues is general, no particular city nor people being designated as their object. He assigns no date for the beginning of the Trumpets, and leaves us in doubt as to whether he regarded them as in the process of development or still future. Lord apparently regards the seventh Seal as closing with Revelation 8:5; the silence was symbolic of a short period (1) of contemplation, submission and faith amongst Angels and the Redeemed in Heaven, and (2) of quiet on Earth—the period of repose intervening between the close of persecution, A. D. 311, and the commencement, near the close of that year, of the civil wars by which Constantine was elevated to the throne; the voices, etc. (Revelation 8:5), symbolize the agitations and revolutions which attended the elevation of Constantine and the subversion of Paganism. His interpretation of the Trumpets is substantially that of Elliott and Barnes. Glasgow represents the seventh Seal as comprehending the Trumpets. The period of silence he identifies with the seven and a half days from the Ascension to Pentecost, the smoke of the incense with the Intercession of Christ, the fire thrown on the land with the effusion of the Holy Ghost. The Trumpets he regards as successive: I. The woes ending in the destruction of the Jewish state, one third of the people being destroyed by the Roman army. II. The expatriation of the Jews after the revolt under Barcochba (the mountain burning with the wrath of God cast into the sea of the pagan empire). III. Usurpation of Prelacy. IV. Arianism promoted by Constans and Constantine. V. The Mohammedan woe (Saracens and Turks). VI. The four bound Angels are kings, popes, inquisitors, and councils, previously kept in restraint, but who are now loosed to slay the third part of the men, i. e. true Christians—the period of persecution beginning A. D. 1123, and extending to the Reformation.—E. R. C.] IN DETAIL Revelation 8:1. Half an hour.—“The anxious expectancy of the inhabitants of Heaven” (Dόsterdieck). Classical, but not Biblical: Stupor c�litum (Eichhorn. Similar interpretations see in Dόsterdieck, p. 299). Vitringa: The whole purport of the seventh Seal is: ecclesia in pace! Similar interpretations see in Dόsterdieck, p. 301. Hengstenberg offers a most remarkable interpretation: Silence of Christ’s enemies (in Heaven!). We regard Dόsterdieck’s polemic against the idea that there is a recapitulation in this place also, as utterly wrong; especially do we object to his unconditional rejection of Lyra’s interpretation, viz. that nothing but the Church’s battle against heretics is depicted, though it is true that this explanation would be applicable only to the sixth Trumpet, if heresies proper were alone involved. The fact that there is a difference between a supposed anxiety in Heaven and a readily intelligible tension of spirit and prayerful mood in the same blessed place needs no further exposition. See the Synoptical View. [For different views of the σιγή see Add. Note, p. 201 sq. Bishop Newton (after Philo) calls attention to the fact, that “while the sacrifices were made (2 Chronicles 29:25-28), the voices and instruments and trumpets sounded; while the priest went into the Temple to burn incense (Luke 1:10), all were silent, and the people prayed to themselves.” (See also 2 Chronicles 29:29). This silence was, so to speak, intensified on the great day of Atonement when, at the offering of the incense and the sacrifice, all save the High Priest withdrew from the Sanctuary (see Leviticus 16:17; also Kitto’s Cyc., Articles Atonement [Day of] and Incense). It was said to the souls under the altar in answer to their cries (the cries of their blood for vengeance), that they should rest until the full number of martyrs (or the time of martyrdom) had been completed (Revelation 6:9-11). On the completion of the number, or the time (it matters not which, for they would be completed together), the Seer beheld in symbolic vision the offering, by the Great High Priest, of their prayers (doubtless inclusive of the cry of the blood of their sacrifice), together with the incense of His own merits before the Throne—it was fitting that during that highest offering every creature sound, even that of praise, should be hushed in Heaven.—E. R. C.] Revelation 8:2. And I saw.—This scene, depicted in Revelation 8:2-6, can have taken place only in the pause of the σιγή. Heaven is sunk in prayerful silence; it is also, however, busy preparing to encounter the ill effects of the events which transpire at the blast of the seven Trumpets. According to Ebrard, this scene of preparation takes place after the silence; according to Dόsterdieck, the silence ceases with Revelation 8:5, since there we read of thunder and voices. (Further on, however, he also makes the σιγή end with Revelation 8:6.) But these latter are but the general consequences of the sacred fire cast upon the earth. The seven Angels who stand [Lange: Stood] before God; not who stepped [took their stations] before God (Luther). But neither is the reference to seven Angels who, by preference, stand permanently before God (Dόsterdieck; Archangels, De Wette; the seven Spirits, Ewald). They are, undoubtedly, the Angels of the seven Trumpets (Ebrard, Hengstenberg), and the article—the seven Angels—has reference to the presupposition that these seven stand ready, waiting their Divine commission. With Hengstenberg, the idea of the seven Archangels shifts into that of Angels whose number is modified by that of the Trumpets. Seven Trumpets.—See above. For an archζological treatise on the Trumpets, see Hengstenberg, p. 432 sqq. [Eng. Trans., p. 395 sqq.]. Revelation 8:3. Another Angel.—“The other Angel, like the one mentioned in Revelation 7, is to be regarded as a real Angel,” says Dόsterdieck. The meaning of this is, that the Apocalypse is not to be treated as a symbolical Book in this passage either. Hengstenberg, also, at first regards the Angel here described as occupying merely the position of a carrier, although he subsequently remarks that he is nothing but a symbolical figure. Manifestly, the former view is in opposition to the text. This Angel ministers at the heavenly altar of incense. For it is to such an altar alone that the present passage refers, as Grotius and others maintain; not to an altar of burnt-offering, as is the opinion of Hofmann and Ebrard. The question might well be asked: What idea should we connect with a heavenly altar of burnt-offering? The altar of incense is quite another thing. Comp. Dόsterdieck’s polemic against Hofmann and Ebrard, p. 305. The attribute of this Angel is the golden censer; by the heavenly incense, which he burns, the prayers of all the Saints on earth are perfected. This Angel can even pour the holy altar fire upon the earth and waken voices, thunders, lightnings and earthquake. Can an Angel do all this? Such forced literalism should surely not bear the name of historical interpretation. If consistently retained, it would here of necessity lead to the Roman Catholic idea of angelic mediation. The inquiry is historical as to who is elsewhere in Scripture to be regarded as the perfecter of earthly petitions, by heavenly intercession or by the heavenly administration of prayer. The result of such inquiry precludes the possibility of this Angel being taken for any but Christ, in accordance with Bede, Bφhmerr, and many others (1 John 2:1), or the Holy Ghost (Romans 8:26). It might, however, also be maintained, that the heavenly perfecting of human prayers is generally represented by a symbolic angelic form (Grotius: angelus precum ecclesiζ). A golden censer.—On λιβανωτός see the lexicons. There was given unto him much incense.—Much of the spirit of prayer, of heavenly renunciation and heavenly confidence. [Of what was the incense of the Tabernacle symbolic? In seeking an answer to this question, it should be remembered that it was compounded of the most precious spices, that in its normal condition it was most holy (Exodus 30:34-36), but at the same time inefficacious for its peculiar uses until consumed by fire from the altar of burnt-offering; thus consumed, however, it was that without which the High Priest could not enter the Holy of Holies to offer the blood of the Atonement (Leviticus 16:12-14), and with which every morning and evening was sanctified (Exodus 30:7-9). What can it symbolize but the excellencies of the God-man, most holy in their normal condition, but made effluent and efficacious for atonement and sanctification only by fire from the Altar of Sacrifice?—E. R. C.] That he should add it to the prayers.—Ταῖςπροσευχαῖς has been differently interpreted to mean: as the prayers; in the prayers; or among them. The attempt has also been made by emendations and constructions to improve the simple sense, that this incense was intended for the prayers of the saints, that is, for their heavenly supplementation and perfection (Vitr., Calov. and others). Upon the golden altar.—This, according to Ebrard, is the altar of incense, whilst, on the other hand, the altar mentioned elsewhere, in Revelation 8:3; Revelation 8:5, is an altar of burnt-offering. The altar of burnt-offering in Revelation 6:9 should not be cited in support of this view, for that is to be found, in a symbolical sense, on earth. If, however, this description of a golden altar before the Throne be applied to the idea of the Temple, the golden altar is the Ark of the Covenant, Revelation 11:19. The Ark of the Covenant was really an altar, and that the third and holiest; it was also golden. According to Leviticus 16:12—a passage misconstrued by Ebrard, p. 281; see in opposition to him Dόsterdieck, p. 305—the offering of incense was, on the great Day of Atonement, made over the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies.Revelation 8:4. And the smoke. … ascended.—Ebrard: “The prayers of the Saints had ascended long before this; but had hitherto not been heard.” This relation between earthly prayers and heavenly intercessions, or perfectings, cannot possibly, however, be thus parted into separate times. The human prayers are, as it were, swallowed up by the smoke of the heavenly incense, whose attributive destination is “to the prayers of the Saints;” in this form, the smoke rises before God—locally speaking, this can mean only: over the Ark of the Covenant. Thus is the perfect acceptability of the prayers expressed. Their acceptance and answering is also, however, symbolically Bet forth. Revelation 8:5. And the Angel took the censer.—He fills it with fire from the altar of incense, and casts the fire upon the earth. Thus, rightly, Dόsterdieck. Ebrard, on the other hand, is of opinion, that he must have taken the fire from the altar of burnt-offering, and then have set the censer down upon the altar of incense. Hence the fire, he thinks, is indicative of the flame in which the martyrs were burned, and is to be regarded as a fire of judgment. It is not to be wondered at that Hengstenberg even here finds a close connection between the fire of prayer and the fire of zeal which shall consume the adversaries. According to him, the silence in Heaven itself is but a silence of the annihilated enemies of God upon earth (p. 424 [Eng. Trans., p. 392 sq.]). Here, however, we have to do with the heavenly fire of Divine providence, which, having perfected the prayers, is now become a fire of saving grace. By its being cast upon the earth, the earth is rendered capable of bearing the judgments now following; by no means, however, are these voices, thunders, lightnings and earthquake significant of the judgments themselves. Comp. the voices, Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5; the thunder, John 12:29; the earthquake, Matthew 28:2; Acts 4:31; Acts 16:26. [The fire with which the incense was ignited was taken from the altar of burnt-offering (Leviticus 16:12); it is probable, however, that the coals cast upon the earth were taken from the golden altar, where the incense had been consumed: the fire of sacrifice which made effluent the virtues of Christ for the blessing of His people is poured back on earth for vengeance. The following explanation is suggested in Kitto’s Cyc. (Art. Incense), which is worthy of consideration: “A silver shovel was first filled with live coals (at the altar of burnt-offering), and afterwards emptied into a golden one, smaller than the former, so that some of the coals were spilled (Mishna, Tamid, v. 5, Yoma, iv. 4).” It is possible that this Temple custom may have been reproduced in the vision; the preceding explanation, however, seems the more probable.—E. R. C.] Hengstenberg regards the earthquake as “the presage of imminent great revolutions.” But, be it observed, the earthquake was induced by fire from Heaven, which can here properly be said only of reformations. [?] For general observations on the first four Trumpets, see Dόsterdieck, p. 308. Revelation 8:6-7FIRST TRUMPETRev_8:7. Hail and fire, mingled with blood.—Comp. Exodus 9:24; Joe 2:30. Dόst.: “To explain allegorically all that John now sees,” i. e. to assume that the Apocalypse is a symbolico-allegorical Book,[“is an undertaking, which, there being no ground for it whatever in the text, can lead to nothing but arbitrary guesswork.”]. By sticking to the letter of the text, on the other hand, we arrive at the conclusion, that the third part of the earth (the surface of the earth, with all that is thereon) is burnt up, “and, still more, the third part of the trees and all the grass upon the whole earth.” All the abortive interpretations in the world cannot make us abandon our conviction that the Apocalypse has an allegorical meaning.Dόsterdieck cites Bede: P�na gehennζ Grotius: Judζorum obduratio and iracundia sanguinaria (not bad!); Wetstein: Arma civilia, etc., p. 310. Sander, better than many others, interprets the figure as significant of the fire of false devotion, joined with bloodshed, placing the same, however, in the definite period of the time succeeding Constantine. The Kreuzritter thinks the migration of nations is referred to. Paulus believes that a great scarcity and famine is intended (the soil and vegetation being particularly involved in the dispensation). Gδrtner thinks there is a reference to Arianism. [By this Trumpet, Elliott and Barnes understand the desolation of the Western Empire by the Goths under Alaric and Rhadagasius (see p. 201; where also Elliott’s exposition of “the third part” may be found). These commentators regard their hypothesis as confirmed by the fact, that the nature of one of the elements of the plague (hail) indicates it as coming from the North, and the further fact that it was upon “the land” indicates that it was to fall on the continental provinces. Both these conditions were fulfilled in the invasion contemplated. Bishop Newton, who previously presented this view, farther supports it by the following extract from Philostorgius, a historian who wrote in this period: “The sword of the barbarians destroyed the greatest multitude of men; and among other calamities, dry heats with flashes of flame and whirlwinds of fire occasioned various and intolerable terrors; yea, and hail greater than could be held in a man’s hand fell down in several places, weighing as much as eight pounds (Hist. Ecc. l. 2. Revelation 7).” He also quotes from Claudian, who, in his poem on this very war, (De Bello Getico, 8:173), compares the invaders to a storm of hail.—E. R. C.] Revelation 8:8-9SECOND TRUMPETSee Jeremiah 51:25; Exodus 7:20. “The text,” remarks Dόsterdieck, “contains nothing of an allegorical nature.” And this though the literal apprehension admits of positively no well-founded conception. The above-cited commentator quotes, in illustration of the allegorical interpretation, Bede: Diabolus, etc., in mare sζculi missus est; Grotius: The mountain is the arx Antonia in Jerusalem; Hengstenberg, who, he says, “entertains, in general, the view, that all the Trumpet-visions except the last are representative of the same thing, viz. war;” Ebrard: The volcanic, Titanic energy of egoism, etc. Ebrard likewise supposes that the mountain is a volcano (like the Throne of God, Revelation 4.), which, by reason of its inward raging violence, plunges into the sea (ἐβλήθη is subversive of this view). Dόsterdieck believes the ὠς to be indicative of the fact, that only a mass of fire resembling a great mountain is intended. But since the mountain is always significant of a fixed and permanent order of things, ὠς merely denotes that this mountain lacks the reality of the spiritual mountain-nature. The same truth is involved in the fact, that the mountain is on fire, and that hence, to counteract its conflagration, it is thrown into the sea. Christian history is acquainted with many such burning mountains, which, by reason of fanaticism, have incurred judgment—beginning with the destruction of Jerusalem, the fall of Judaism, the casting of which into the sea of nations resulted in a considerable empoisonment of national life. Similarly, not only have states subsequently fallen—as, for instance, the Eastern Roman Empire—but also a series of dynasties, being become a prey to fanaticism, have been hurled from their proud eminence. Sander holds that the Arian controversies are here predicted. The Kreuzritter regards the passage as expressive of the maritime supremacy of the Roman Empire; while Gδrtner maintains that the erroneous doctrines of the Orient, and Islam, etc., are denoted. In short, every variety of arbitrary interpretation attaches to the passage. [For other views, see on p. 201 sqq.—E. R. C.]Revelation 8:10-11THIRD TRUMPETRev_8:10. There fell a great star from the Heaven.—The literal apprehension brings with it such queries as these: whether the star itself were devoted to perdition, or whether perdition consisted but in the falling of the star; how one star could fall upon so many streams and springs; and how it is that wormwood, which is not a deadly poison, can here have such bitter effects. Dόsterdieck remarks, ΰ propos of the last question, that natural wormwood is not meant here, immediately breaking out again into a polemic against allegorizing expositors, i. e., expositors of allegories. We cannot deny that the most aimless and arbitrary play of interpretation again meets us at this passage. Pelagius, Arius (H. W. Rinck thinks Arius is here intended—a view which is also held by Renan, Strauss, Schenkel and their associates), Romulus Augustulus and Gregory the Great file past us in accordance with more ancient conceptions of the great star, whilst the synchrono-historical interpretation advances the Jewish fanatic Eleazar (Dόsterdieck, p. 313). According to Ebrard, the star is, “as it were, the natural spirit of bitterness, the power of bitterness or embitterment, sent down by God in visible concentration, so to speak, as a judgment upon the earth.” Sander construes the star as false asceticism, monkish morality, constantly developing after Constantine’s time. According to Paulus, apostasy is intended. According to Gδrtner, “the adulterations of doctrine by the Romish bishops and priests” (thus the Kreuzritter). Even the external form of the star has been the subject of a superfluity of conflicting conjectures: it has been represented as a shooting-star of great magnitude (Zόlling, Ewald); a comet (Wetstein); a “great star” in the literal sense of the words (Dόsterdieck). On the import of the star see Daniel 12:3; Judges 13. On the fountains see Proverbs 13:14; Proverbs 14:27; Proverbs 18:4; Proverbs 25:26. On the rivers see 2 Kings 5:12; Isaiah 8:6; Ezekiel 47:1. [See also pp. 201 sq.—E. R. C.]Revelation 8:12FOURTH TRUMPETThe third part of the sun.—It is necessary here to lay special stress upon the fact, that in treating of the Trumpets we have to do with spiritual affairs—not with natural phenomena. It is, therefore, somewhat superfluous to ask whether a natural percussio of the sun (after the Rabbins) or a supernatural one (in accordance with Wolf) be meant; whether a temporal third of the luminary (in accordance with Ebrard) or a local third (in accordance with Dόsterdieck) be intended. These ideas, since they have no symbolic significance, are not to be pressed; the idea, however, that the third part of the brightness of the luminary is smitten or done away with (according to Bengel, Bφhmer and others) is, as we think, the true one. This is to be understood, in the first place, as touching the effect of the luminary, and it must be limited to its general effect in time; it should not be taken as an effect prejudicial to every individual Christian. Thus, when the third part of the sunshine is extinguished, this fact corresponds with the loss of the third part of the capacity of the human spiritual vision for taking in the sunlight—the third part of man’s love and kinship to spiritual sunlight. The thing meant is a more general obscuration of the light of revelation; an obscuration conditioned upon human guilt and modified by a fraction of the numeral of spirit. But as amid this obscuration there are those for whom all three thirds of the sun are smitten—men walking in the darkness of night—so, on the other hand, there are those who have the full light of the firmament. The censure which De Wette and Dόsterdieck cast upon the Seer as having “unnaturally” followed out the uniformity existing between the third of the luminary and the third of the day or night-time, rests only upon a prejudice in favor of the sensuous conception of the passage, i. e., upon a failure to recognize its symbolicalness. Ebrard qualifies his interpretation of the third as a temporal third with the remark: “This is conceivable in the vision; scarcely so in reality. Here also therefore, the vision must contain a prophetic symbol.” He adds: “Hengstenberg is, as usual, ready with his allegorical application of the vision to anxious and gloomy times of war. Vitringa, by the sun, apprehended the Roman Emperor; by the moon, the Patriarchs [ecclesiastical]; by the stars, the bishops; by the whole vision, Arianism, together with the migration of nations, etc.” Other interpretations see noted in Dόsterdieck, p. Rev 314: The troubling of the Church by false brethren, heresy, Islam, political disorders, Goths and Vandals, etc. Sander justly remarks: “No positive operation of hostile powers, no distinct and single perverted tendency is here spoken of; it is something purely negative—a suppression of light, a recession of truth, subsequent to the operation of the three perverted tendencies already mentioned” [first three Trumpets]. He thinks this condition belongs to the time of the Middle Ages. The Kreuzritter makes this Trumpet refer to the operations of Mohammedanism. Gδrtner finds the Beast from the abyss here indicated—the sovereignty of the people, which is to set up a false religion. Grδber interprets the obscuration as significant of the stoppage of the machine of state, the disturbance of magistratic affairs. The reverse of this dismal darkening see in Isaiah 30:26. The opposite of the latter idea see in Isaiah 24:23, and again in Isaiah 13:10. On the symbolism of the sun, Malachi 4:2. For the figure of the moon, Genesis 37:9 may not be without significance. Feminine nature, natural life, nocturnal consciousness: kindred ideas. The Kreuzritter applies the darkening of the moon to the darkening of natural wisdom, science, civilization and culture, by Mohammedanism. Dόsterdieck thinks the first four Trumpets have reference to cosmical foretokens of the end of the world, in accordance with Matthew 24:29. [See also pp. 201 sq.—E. R. C.]Revelation 8:13[ OF THE THREE WOES]Revelation 8:13. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ Revelation 9:1FIFTH TRUMPET, OR THE FIRST WOERev_9:1. I saw a star fallen from the Heaven to the Earth.—Its fall is done; it has fallen hither from Heaven to judgment, Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14:12. A star—therefore not an Angel (Eichhorn); either good (Bengel) or bad (Dόsterdieck); certainly not the devil (Bede, against which view Revelation 12:9 militates). According to Dόsterdieck, the ideas of star and Angel are confluent (Psalms 103:21; Jeremiah 33:22). Here, however, where distinct symbols or conceptions are treated of, the two forms must be kept separate. If we suppose the locusts to be phantasies originating in psychical gloom, we may take the star, which has fallen from Heaven, to be repentance without faith, or the sorrow of this world—so-called Cain or Judas repentance—or the remorse and penance of religious self-torment, whether clothed in a more ancient and mediaeval or a more modern form. Comp. John 13:30; 1 John 3:21. To him was given, etc.—It is the key of the pit of the Abyss, and is given him only after his fall. Repentance was in Heaven at first, but, through want of submission, fell to Earth, a fallen star, receiving now the melancholy ability to open the pit of the Abyss, the demonic domain of the lower realm of the dead. On the Abyss, comp. the Lexicons. The pit, φρέαρ, denotes the mouth of the Abyss; the mouth being significant of the close connection and readily opened communication between human psychical life and the demonic domain. Different interpretations of the star see in De Wette, p. 102:—(Lyra): Valens; (Grotius): Eleazar; (Herder): Menahem, the son of Judas. The Abyss: the fortress Masada. Abaddon: Simon, the son of Gorion. A singular interpretation is given by Alcasar: the Mosaic Law. According to Hengstenberg, the star is an ideal person, a line of rulers, the last and grandest form being Napoleon. Sander: Mohammed and his Islam. Gδrtner: Arius. The Kreuzritter: The hierarch; he regards the ascending smoke as enthusiasm and fanaticism. [Barnes (on Revelation 8:10): “A star is a natural emblem of a prince, of a ruler, of one distinguished by rank or by talent. See Numbers 24:17 and Isaiah 14:12. A star falling from Heaven would be a natural symbol of one who had left a higher station, or of one whose character and course would be like a meteor shooting through the sky.” And in loc.: “This denotes a leader, a military chieftain, a warrior. In the fulfillment of this, we look for the appearance of some mighty prince and warrior, to whom is given power, as it were, to open the bottomless pit, and to summon forth its legions.” [Alford: “The reader will at once think on Isaiah 14:12 : ‘How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!’ And on Luke 10:18 : I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven.’ And doubtless as the personal import of the star is made clear in the following words, such is the reference here. We may also notice that this expression forms a connecting link to another place, Revelation 12:9, in this Book, where Satan is represented as cast out of Heaven to the Earth. It is hardly possible, with Andr. Ribera, Bengel and De W., to understand a good Angel by this fallen star.” Elliott agrees with Alford in regarding him as Satan, whom he looks upon as the inspirer of Mohammed. (For other views see on pp. 201 sq.)—E. R. C.] Revelation 9:2. And he opened the pit of the abyss.—The smoke. The region of the evil conscience in the realm of the dead is a region of self-burning, like Gehenna, whence the smoke of torment ascends. The Seer knows of a retroaction of the gloomy feelings of this region on the Earth, the more since this region is even to be found in the back-ground of an unfree human soul-life in this world. Hence there results a great darkening of the sun and air. Revelation 9:3. Locusts.—Old Testament types, Exodus 10:12-15; Joel 1, 2. In antithesis to natural locusts, which desolate vegetation, these locusts leave unharmed all green things, attacking solely those men who have not the seal of God. The scorpions of the earth.—(Of the earth; De Wette: in antithesis to the abyss.) See the article Scorpion in Winer, particularly the distinction between the Oriental and the Italian species. Interpretation of the locusts: Longobards, Vandals, Goths, Persians, Mohammedans, Jewish zealots. Bede and others: The raging of heretics. The Pope and the monks; or, Luther and the Protestants (ancient Protestant exposition—in opposition to Bellarmin and others), etc. Hengstenberg: Martial hosts, see Dόsterdieck, p. 328. “He who, like Hebert (Die zweite sichtbare Zukunft Christi, Erlangen, 1850), looks for the literal fulfillment of all these visions, expecting, for instance, the actual appearance of the locusts described in Revelation 9:1 sqq., certainly does more justice to the text than any allegorist; by reason of a mechanical conception of inspiration and prophecy, however, he fails to recognize the distinction betwixt real prophetic matter and poetic forms” (Dόsterdieck). Remarkable words, if we consider that by allegorists are understood such as regard the Apocalypse as a Book of allegoric figurative forms. Revelation 9:5. Not kill them, but that they shall be tormented [Lange: torment them].—This trait is characteristic; it runs through Revelation 9:6 : They shall seek death and not find it. In itself, this torment is not spiritual death as yet; it is, however, so great as to make men weary of life. Five months.—The reference of the five months to the popular idea that locusts are wont to appear during the five months from May onward (Dόsterdieck, p. 323 [Alford]), does not preclude the symbolical significancy of the number. Here, too, manifold guesses have been hazarded. See De Wette, p. 102; Dόsterdieck, p. 321; Ebrard, p. 294; Sander, p. 70. Vitringa thought he had found the key to the mystery in the following formula: Each day of each month=one year. Bengel defined the month as 15 5/6 5/3 years. Hengstenberg saw in the number 5, as the number of incompleteness, the sign of half. Thus: “A long time, but not the longest.” Revelation 9:6. Seek death.—“A terrible counterpart to the ἐπιθυμία of the Apostle, springing from the holiest hope” (Dόsterd.). Revelation 9:7-10. Like horses.—The likening of the locusts to horses see likewise in Joel 1, 2 As crowns.—Ewald: The antennζ. Dόsterdieck and others: A jagged elevation in the middle of the thorax (?). Hengstenberg: The sovereign people. We must not overlook the fact, that the figures are modelled from the idea, as is often the case in the Gospel parables. Their faces as the faces of men.—Hengstenberg cuts the knot: “Virtually they really were the faces of men.” Undoubtedly if they were troops of cavalry! Revelation 9:8. Hair as the hair of women.—Hengstenberg: Suffering their hair to grow at will, uncut and untended. Ebrard: “Mild and gentle womanly faces.” By this he understands, not inaptly, those women whom, as history shows us, the spirits of the abyss employ as tools to decoy many fools. Yet the text does not speak of women’s faces. As the teeth of lions.—To terrify—not to bite with. Hence the interpretation of Calov. and others is wrong: The false doctrines and blasphemies with which heretics have rent the orthodox Church. Dόsterdieck thinks their desolating voracity is symbolized; this quality, however, should not be portrayed here. Revelation 9:9. As iron breastplates.—Their thoraxes. The sound of their wings.—Comp. Joe 2:5. Revelation 9:10. Tails like scorpions.—Does this mean that their tails themselves are like scorpions (Bengel and others); or that they, like scorpions, have tails (Dόsterdieck)? The analogy of Rev 9:19 seems to favor the former supposition. But as we must adhere to the general idea of the locusts, the latter view is the more probable. Revelation 9:11. And they have a king over them.—According to Hengstenberg, this king is identical with the fallen star. And certainly it is impossible not to perceive a close affinity between them. If, however, we regard the fallen star, a faithless remorse and penitential self-torment, as the beginning of the plague of locusts, their king surely must be regarded as its consummation—the genius of absolute self-torment. This symbolical king must likewise be distinguished from Satan, for whom Grotius and others take him. The comment: An angel who is, in a peculiar manner, the head of the Abyss (Bengel and others) throws no light on the subject. Abaddon.—See the Lexicons, article ΰֲ ?αַ ?γֹּ ?εκ. It occupies in the Old Testament the same relation to Sheol as in the writings of the Rabbins to Hell. [See Excursus on Hades, p. 364.—E. R. C.] Apollyon.—With reference to ἀπώλεια. John had himself beheld the truest type of the whole locust plague in the development of Judas, in reference to whom it must be said that even suicide is a seeking of death and not finding it. [See Excursus on Hades.—E. R. C.] Revelation 9:12. Behold, there come.—On the singular, ἔρχεται, see Dόsterdieck. De Wette reads ἔρχονται, with Cod. B. and others. The following two woes are, according to the arrangement of the Seer, intensively as well as extensively greater. The climax, intensively viewed, may be stated as follows: Penitential self-torment; the spiritual death of heresy; consummate apostasy. Extensively defined: An infliction of torment upon such men as have not the seal of God; an infliction of death upon the third part of men; and, moreover, double hurtfulness; an apparent general fall into destruction by the reception of the mark of the Beast. See Revelation 14:9-11. Revelation 9:13 sqq.SIXTH TRUMPET, OR THE SECOND WOEIn consequence of the omission of the utterances of the seven Thunders, Revelation 10, the esoteric sketch of the cycle in question is incorporated in the sixth Trumpet. And this makes it possible to regard the sixth Trumpet as a double Trumpet. It is half the Trumpet of heresies; half the Trumpet of beginning apostasy. Hence the second woe is continued through Revelation 10 to Revelation 11:14. Hence, also, it results that the second woe is in two stages. At the end of the first stage, men do not repent of the works of their hands, Revelation 9:20; at the end of the second stage, there is at least a repentance of fear, ch, Revelation 11:13. Still it must be observed that the section consisting of chs. 10 and 11 to Revelation 9:14 is representative of an entirely new cycle—a cycle connected with the preceding section only from Revelation 11:7. The connection between the two consists in the fact, that in Revelation 9 we have to do with the spiritual end of the course of the world; in Revelation 11:7 sqq., with the spiritual beginning of the end of the world. Thus at the revelation of the consummate offence, the precursory offences form themselves into a unit. See 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8. Revelation 9:13. A voice from the four horns.—Not from God, “behind the altar.” The four horns of the altar denote the complete, all-sided protective power of the altar. From the same altar on which the prayers of the saints were perfected (Revelation 8:3-5), the signal that they have been heard goes forth. The earth is now, in its sealed ones, prepared by voices and thunders and lightnings and an earthquake of the spiritual life; the greatest temptations may, therefore, now be let loose. The distinction between these new and great temptations and the foregoing ones is at the same time expressed. That which the voice from the horns of the altar says, is, of course, to be traced back to Divine decision. According to Dόsterdieck, the misapplication of the horns to the four Gospels (Zeger and others) may have even occasioned the reading—four horns. Nevertheless, four, as the number of completeness, is not devoid of significance in a correct apprehension of the passage. Other interpretations of the four horns see in Dόsterdieck, p. 332. How important it is that the trials should not break out before their set time, appears from the fact, that the Angel of the sixth Trumpet may loose the four bound Angels only upon a higher order. The same truth is demonstrated by the cooperation of the sixth Angel. Offences must come. [The following, abridged from Elliott (Vol. I., pp. 481 sqq.), is worthy of consideration: “When a voice of command issued from the Throne, or some divinely commissioned Angel, it was an intimation that it originated from God; but when proceeding from some other local source, it was indicated that the locality whence the voice proceeded was one associated with sin to be punished (comp. Genesis 4:10; Genesis 31:38; Isaiah 66:6; Habakkuk 2:11; James 5:4). So here, a cry commissioning judgment from the mystic incense Altar indicates that that Altar had been a scene of special sin. But this explanation is only partial. It would seem as if guilt had been contracted in respect of some ritual in which the horns of the Altar were concerned. There were three such services in the Mosaic ritual. The first two were the occasional atoning services for sins of ignorance; the third that of the Annual Atonement. In all these cases, some of the blood of the sacrifice was put on the horns of the Altar (comp. Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 4:3-7; Leviticus 4:13-18; Leviticus 16:1-18). It was thus that Hezekiah made atonement for Israel after its apostasy under Ahaz (see 2 Chronicles 29:20-24). This rite of Atonement having been performed, the promised reconciliation with God followed. From the Temple, and Altar, and each blood bedewed horn of the altar, a voice, as it were, went forth, not of judgment, but of mercy; instead of summoning destroying armies against Judah from the Euphrates, it staid them (comp. 2 Chronicles 32:21; Isaiah 37:33-34). Thus direct was the contrast between Israel’s case under Hezekiah, and that of Christendom as here figured. And now when, after the judgments of successive Trumpets, the Seer heard a voice denouncing judgment yet afresh from the four horns of the golden Altar, what could he infer but this, that in spite of the previous fearful rebukes of their apostasy, neither the priesthood nor the collective people, at least of this third of Christendom, would have repented. More particularly, as the rite had special reference to the sins connected with the incense Altar itself, it was to be inferred that those sins would be persisted in: to wit the abandonment of Christ in His character (1) of the one great propitiatory Atonement, and (2) of the one great Intercessor; and thus the sin would be graven even on the four horns of the golden Altar, and their one and common voice, or that of the intercessorial High Priest from the midst of them, would pronounce the fresh decree of judgment: ‘Loose the four Angels to slay the third part of men.’ ”—E. R. C.] Revelation 9:14. Loose the four angels.—The number four being the number of the world, the four symbolical angels represent the collective spirit of the world, collective heathenism, in its infection of Christianity and transformation of Christian truths into powerful lies, 2 Thessalonians 2 These angels are, therefore, neither bad angels (Bede, Dόsterdieck and others), nor good ones (Bossuet), nor destroying ones (De Wette, Ebrard), if, by such, personal beings are understood. As symbolic forms they are, beyond question, evil spirits—yet in angelic shape; as it were in the angelic shape of the one Satanic mask of an Angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) in four world-forms. Different interpretations of the quaternary see in Dόsterdieck, p. 333. At the great river.—We doubt not that the hither bank of the great river Euphrates has an import similar to that of Babylon, yet without coinciding with Babylon. Babylon is a peculiar configuration of the spiritual river Euphrates; that river, the general basis and condition of Babylon—spiritual Babylon as the sphere of historical Babylon. Different interpretations: Parthian armies against the Romans; Roman armies against Jerusalem; Tartars, Turks (the Angels being their commanders). The Euphrates, the Tiber; Babylon, Rome (Wetstein). The Euphrates, the border of Abraham’s land, or of the Roman empire. According to Dόsterdieck, the mention of the Euphrates is merely schematical [schematisch], as the region whence plagues usually came in the Old Testament—the Assyrians, for instance. Insignificant enough! Ebrard: “Almost all ancient Protestant exegetes discover in this passage a prediction of Mohammedanism. Grotius, Wetstein, Herder, Eichhorn and others think it prophetic of the army of Titus, which destroyed Jerusalem. De Wette, with Zόllig and Ewald, occupies the ground of ‘fancy.’ ” In opposition to these historical conceptions, a just reference has been made to the supernaturalness of the martial hosts portrayed. Dόsterdieck will not listen to any allegorical apprehension of this supernaturalness, and so, according to him, these armies are still more incomprehensible than those of the locusts. According to Gδrtner (p. 465), the two hundred millions of horses are two hundred millions of devils—hosts of Satan, amongst whom the fanatical faith of Islam, symbolized, as he contends, by the Euphrates, originates. The horsemen are such men as are borne away by the horses. Revelation 9:15. The four angels were loosed.—The resistance hitherto made by the power of truth is withdrawn. Prepared for the hour, etc.—Beautifully expressive of the certainty that these trials, like all hateful things in the world, have their appointed time, and that time only, Luke 22:53. To slay the third part of men.—Only spiritual slaying can be meant here, as is further indicated by “the third part,” three being the number of spirit, Revelation 8:7-12. Revelation 9:16. And the number.—Two hundred millions [two myriads of myriads]. He did not himself count the hosts, but heard the number through the voice of prophecy; this fact makes the number more than ever significant. It being impossible to conceive of an army of this size, Bengel has added together all the Turkish armies of more than two centuries; Hengstenberg sees an allegorical collective designation of all armies in the number; whilst Dόsterdieck takes it as schematioal [schematisch]—that is to say, denoting, like the army, nothing definite. But, manifestly, the number itself is allegorical. The myriad is indicative of an enormous number; the formula, myriad times myriad, denotes the infinite productivity of the figures; and, finally, the binary is significant of an antithesis, either of positive and negative offences, or of dogmatical and ethical heresies. Revelation 9:17. And thus I saw the horses,—In the vision, he adds, probably because the monstrosity of their appearance necessitates a slight reminder of the fact that we have here to do with allegorical forms; an assumption which Dόsterdieck, in his horror of allegory, endeavors to refute. And those who sat on them.—The horses are of prime importance (see above); their riders, however, are first described. In this place the riders bear the colors of the horses, as the horses the colors of the riders in Revelation 6. Having breastplates.—According to Bengel and others, the riders are here referred to; according to Dόsterdieck and others, the words, having breastplates, refer to both horses and riders. This view is contradicted, in the first place, by the impossibility of putting the idea into execution; and, furthermore, by the antithesis between the colors of the breastplates and the destructive stuff issuing from the mouths of the horses. Many hypotheses have been founded on the colors of the breastplates, see Dόsterdieck, p. 337. On ῦάκινθος see Ebrard. He conjectures that this color was dark brown; it cannot but be seen, however, that it must correspond with the color of smoke. Dόsterdieck would have it that “dark red” is the corresponding color. As the heads of lions.—Not actual lions’ heads. A cruel and terrific aspect cannot be meant by this, according to Dόsterdieck, because it “would undoubtedly correspond better with the allegorical exposition.” It is likewise denied that there is an allegorical meaning to fire, smoke, and brimstone. The combination is, most certainly, found in volcanos in natura. The significance of these forms, however, appears from the following other passages: Revelation 14:10-11; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 21:10. For different interpretations, see Dόsterdieck. The view of Calov., who finds the three substances associated in the Koran, is particularly striking. Other singular exegeses are those of Grotius (burning torches), Hengstenberg and Bengel (the murderous spirit and wanton destructiveness of soldiers). It is worthy of note that the same materials which compose the erring spirit of this world, create the hellish torment of the next: the fire of fanaticism; self-dissolution in ambition and self-seeking; demonic irritability—inflammability. Revelation 9:19. For the power of the horses.—They are hurtful in a two-fold manner; with their mouths and with their snake-like tails. Their principal power, however, is in their mouths. On the futile application of this double figure to the fable of two-headed serpents or amphisbζnζ (Wetstein, Beng., Herder), see Dόsterd. Other interpretations: Bengel: Reference is had to the turning of the Turkish cavalry, to the sudden detriment of their pursuers. Hengstenberg interprets the hurtful power in the tails as significant of the insidious malignity of martial hosts; for fiery wrath, warlike terrors, and the like, pervade the visions of the fifth and sixth Trumpets particularly, according to him. Grotius: The tails are indicative of foot soldiers [on the backs of the horses, behind the horsemen]. Sander: They dragged the teachings of their false prophet behind them. Volkmar has even applied this passage to the kicking out of the horse behind. The after-effects of all heresies consist in the fact that they poison morals and manners, introducing a destructive element into Christian social life especially, and thus issuing in psychical and physical evils. Revelation 9:20. And the rest of the men, who were not killed by these plagues.—The Seer distinguishes between the specific destruction of a third of mankind by the fatal horses and the general corrupt condition of the human race. Repented not.—Comp. Revelation 16:11. Their conversion should show itself in a specific abstinence from religious and moral transgressions. The works of their hands, therefore, do not directly denote their whole conversation and walk, but those characteristic sins in which, of a truth, their whole walk was reflected. It has been maintained that idols are thereby indicated, as their own manufacture (Hengstenberg, Dόsterdieck); but the first object—τὰδαιμόνια—stands in the way of this view. This first object is, indeed, of prime importance to the Seer. The meaning is as follows: subtile demon-worship, symbolized by subtile idol-worship offered to images of the most diverse materials; see 1 Corinthians 10:20. Which neither see, etc.—Compare the analogous passages in the Old Testament [Psalms 115:4-7; Psalms 135:15-17; Isaiah 46:7; Jeremiah 10:5; Daniel 5:23]. Revelation 9:21. Of their sorceries.—The poison-mingling, as the word might likewise be understood, is already contained in the preceding murders. Ebrard: “Sorcery is to be understood as seductive enchantments.” The reason alleged in support of this view, viz., that true sorcery is a sin against God, whilst the present passage treats of injuries inflicted by man upon his brother man, is, however, of insufficient weight. All gross (poison-mingling) and all refined sorcery is conjoined with injury to one’s neighbor. The terms are, doubtless, symbolical throughout; Galatians 5:20. “It is clear that the author is thinking of heathen.” De Wette (similarly Dόsterdieck). Truly, the author regards all the things mentioned, even in respect of their most subtile conception, their most subtile manifestation in Christendom, as heathenish. [ NOTE ON THE SEVENTH SEAL AND THE ] By the American Editor[The very position of the Seventh Seal, separated as it is from the others by the visions of chap. 7, should lead us to suppose that it is sui generis; and a careful consideration of its development supports and enforces this supposition. The most rational hypothesis, as it seems to the Am. Ed., is that it includes the Trumpets and the Vials; there is no strong disjunctive at the beginning of either Revelation 9:2 or 6, such as would certainly have been employed had the Seal closed with Revelation 9:1 or 5, and no such disjunctive occurs until Revelation 18:1. This hypothesis is not only in accordance with the manifest indications of the phraseology, but it avoids the supposition that a Seal was opened without any thing being revealed under it, and it also gives unity to all that follows, and to the whole complex vision. In the view of the writer, the opening of the first five Seals discloses the general course of history to the time of the second Advent—false Christs, war, dearth, aggravated mortality, together with the persecutions of the saints; the opening of the sixth reveals the events immediately preceding the Advent (see pp. 178 sq.); the seventh is the Seal of Judgment (also terminating in the Advent), in which, under the Symbol of Seven Trumpets (indicating the going forth of Jehovah against the enemies of His people, comp. Numbers 10:9; Numbers 31:6; Joshua 6:4-5; 2 Chronicles 13:14; Jeremiah 51:27, etc.), are revealed the woes to be visited upon the sinful and persecuting world-power; the last Trumpet develops into the seven Vials.That the opening of the Seal was to be delayed, is consistent with God’s dealings in judgment—sentence against an evil work, ordinarily, is not executed speedily (Ecclesiastes 8:11); and not only so, but it is intimated, (Revelation 6:10-11), that there should be delay until a certain period (or number of martyrs) should be completed. The length of this period of delay being unrevealed, the time of the beginning of the Trumpet-blasts can be determined only by the occurrence. It becomes a most interesting and important question: Have any of these blasts been given, or are they all still future ? The writer must acknowledge that, after a careful consideration of the principal views that have been presented, he has been constrained to the conclusion that the scheme of interpretation advocated by Elliott and Barnes is substantially correct (see foot-notes on pp. 205 sqq.). The points of resemblance between the symbols and the events of history, especially as portrayed by the infidel Gibbon, are too many, too striking, and too exact, to allow the thought that they are merely fortuitous. It would seem as though God had raised up the great historian just mentioned to perform a work for the Bible and the Church, which could not have been so effectually performed by a friend—at times it seems as though he were writing history, purposely for the elucidation of prophecy. The language of Barnes in reference to the correspondence between the events of the sixth Seal and the history of the Turkish invasion, as described by him, may be equally applied to the correspondence between the entire series of symbols and his descriptions of all the invasions which historical interpreters have adduced as fulfilling these symbols: “If Mr. Gibbon had designed to describe the conquests of the Turks as a fulfillment of the prediction, could he have done it in a style more clear and graphic than that which he has employed? If this had occurred in a Christian writer, would it not have been charged on him that he had shaped his facts to meet his notions of the meaning of the prophecy? ” It must be acknowledged that there are difficulties connected with this interpretation; that there are some points where the symbol and the event adduced as realizing it, do not seem exactly to harmonize. It may be remarked that, in view of the imperfection of our records of history, and the partial ignorance of individual interpreters, even of that which is imperfectly recorded, such discrepancies are to be expected—indeed, it is matter of surprise that they are not more numerous and important. In fact, one of the influences that led the writer to adopt, in the main, the scheme of Elliott, was the exhibit of objections by Alford. Thoughts, such as the following, arose in his mind: If these are the only objections that can be adduced by an acute and learned opponent, they are tantamount to an acknowledgment that in the far more numerous and important matters presented in the scheme, there is complete resemblance between the Symbol and the event; and if this be so, either these discrepancies will disappear on a more thorough investigation of our historical records, or else they will serve to show that on the points at issue our records are themselves imperfect. The first of Alford’s objections is to Elliott’s interpretation of the third part (see p. 201). He remarks, “It is fatal to this whole class of interpretations that it is not said: the hail, etc., were cast on a third part, but that the destruction occasioned by them extended to a third part of the earth on which they were cast. And this is most expressly declared to be so in this first case by all green grass being destroyed, not a third part of it” (Revelation 8:7). Now, Elliott’s hypothesis concerning the third part is deduced from a most careful comparison of Rev 8:7-12 with the acknowledged facts of history. It is notorious that four successive hordes of enemies did, in the Fourth and Fifth centuries, burst upon the Roman Empire, their ravages being almost entirely confined to a third, or the Western division, thereof; and it is manifest, also, that these ravages did, as to their general features, most strikingly fulfill the requirements of the symbolization—the first invasion being on the inland provinces, the second on the maritime portions, the third on the rivers and fountains, the fourth affecting the governors, the luminaries of that third part (see pp. 205 sq.). In view of the general agreement, which is like that of the mountain shadows on the bosom of the Lake of Geneva and the mountains themselves, it seems legitimate to conclude that the symbol shadowed forth the fact, and that the third part of the former was designed to indicate (when the event should occur) the third part of the smitten empire. If this be so, then, when it is said that hail fell upon the earth, we may understand the prophecy as meaning that it fell upon that third part; and, be it observed, there is no undue straining of language in such an interpretation, for certainly there is no disagreement between a prophecy that Great Britain shall be smitten, and the fact that Scotland receives the blow. And still further, by the third part of the trees and all the grass, we may understand the trees and the grass of that smitten third part. Another objection is that Elliott’s scheme fails to give any satisfactory explanation of the exemption of the sealed from the torment of the fifth plague (Revelation 9:4). So far as Elliott is concerned, the objection is well taken. This does not imply, however, that an explanation cannot be given consistent with the scheme. Whilst historical records do give us the general information that the citizens of those countries which had been the seat of the old Roman Empire did suffer fearfully from the Saracenic invasions, they are almost totally silent as to the fate of individuals; from historical investigation it is impossible to determine who were the sealed, and what was their condition during the ravages of the Saracens. Alford writes: “In the very midst of this corrupt Christianity, were at that time God’s elect scattered up and down; and it is surely too much to say every such person escaped scathless from the Turkish (Saracenic) sword.” If from, other points of resemblance between the Symbol and the Saracenic woe (and there are many such which cannot be challenged, see pp. 207 sq.), the identity between the object of prophecy and that woe can be established, then it is not “too much to say,” especially in view of the absence of all proof to the contrary, that God did, according to His promise, preserve His sealed ones from the torment which was visited upon the unsealed. Another objection is brought against Elliott’s interpretation of the crowns like unto gold (Revelation 9:7). “Elliott tries to apply it to the turban; but granting some latitude to the στέφανοι, the ὄμοιοιχρυσῷ, will hardly bear this. The appearance of a turban, even when ornamented with gold, is hardly golden.” True; but a yellow turban (Barnes) might be described as like to gold. Certainly Alford, who interprets fiery and sulphureous (Revelation 9:17) as meaning red and light-yellow, should have no objection to this explanation. Alford again writes: “I cannot forbear noticing, as we pass, the caprice of historical interpreters. On the command not to kill the men, etc., in Revelation 9:5, Elliott says: ‘i. e., not to annihilate them as a political Christian body.’ If then the same rule of interpretation is to hold, the present verse (6) must mean that 'the political Christian body' will be so sorely beset by these Mohammedan locusts, that it will desire to be annihilated, and not find any way. For surely it cannot be allowed that the killing of men should be said of their annihilation as a political body in one verse, and their desiring to die in the next, should be said of some thing totally different, and applicable to their individual misery.” The propriety of the criticism of the distinguished commentator may be allowed, and yet it be shown to have no force against the historical scheme. In chs. l.–lii. of the immortal history of Gibbon, we have described the rise, the conquests, and the decline of the Saracens. In the grand features of history as therein set forth, we perceive the similarity to the complex symbol of Rev 9:1-11. Prominent amongst these features is the fact that though the Mohammedan conquerors tormented, they never totally destroyed the political combinations of Christendom. In Europe they were as an invading army encamped—they were never able to take Constantinople; although they ravaged the country around Rome, they were restrained from the capture of the Imperial City; in their advance upon Christendom from the Pyrenees, they were driven back by Charles Martel. Even in Spain, where for centuries they held dominion, they never completely extinguished either the Spanish nationality or the organized Church. In Syria, where their first conquests in Christendom were made, although their sceptre has passed away to the Turks, we still find nominally Christian communities substantially as they were organized in the days of the Saracens. “After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of the Turkish Empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by the Arabian Caliphs…… All the oriental sects were included in the common benefits of toleration; the rank, the immunities, the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate…… The captive churches of the East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the pride or the zeal of the Christians” [Gibbon, Revelation 51.). From the beginning, these communities have been tormented, but not destroyed. And not only so, but from the days of the Caliphs their preservation as organized communities, having a peculiar dress, has been in accordance with the policy of their rulers—they are thus more easily kept in subjection, and are separated from Moslems as inferior and tributary. The very preservation of these communities has in all time subjected them to torment, to official exaction and popular contumely and persecution. Is it not most natural to suppose that as political communities they have desired annihilation? The last objection urged by Alford is against Elliott’s interpretation of Rev 9:19. “Well may Mr. Barker say (Friendly Strictures): ‘An interpretation so wild, if it refutes not itself, seems scarcely capable of refutation.’ Happily, it does refute itself. For it is convicted, by altogether leaving out of view the power in the mouths, which is the principal feature in the original vision; by making no reference to the serpent-like character of these tails, but being wholly inconsistent with it; by distorting the canon of symmetrical interpretation in making the heads attached to the tails to mean that the tails are symbols of authority, etc.” The force of the criticism is admitted, and yet, like the preceding, it bears not against the historical scheme. The following is suggested as possibly the true explanation of the verse alluded to. On opening Webster’s Dictionary we find the following as the second definition of Basilisk: “In military affairs, a large piece of ordnance, so called from its supposed resemblance to the serpent of that name, or from its size. This cannon carried an iron ball of 200 pounds weight, but is not now used.” Such were the cannon with which the Turks moved to the assault of Constantinople. These long, serpent-like instruments of destruction, dragged breach foremost in the rear of the companies that served them, might well have been described in symbol as tails, like unto serpents having heads; and the power by which the Turkish armies breached the walls of Constantinople, and thus subjugated the Eastern third of the old Roman Empire (Revelation 9:18), was in these tails and the mouths of these heads. It should be remarked, in conclusion, that the resemblance contemplated in this Note is not merely between the individual symbols and the events which have been adduced as fulfilling them respectively, but it is a resemblance between the entire series regarded as a whole, and the entire course of history—it extends to the relations of the symbols to each other, their succession and mutual proportions.—E. R. C.] Footnotes: [Elliott and Barnes, in accordance with Bishop Newton and many other historical interpreters, understand by this Trumpet the woes under the Saracenic invasions. They support this view by considerations such as the following: 1. The admixture of the human with the bestial (Revelation 9:7-8) seems to imply, that the agents in this woe were men. 2. It is implied, that they were actuated by a false religion by Revelation 9:1-3; Revelation 11:3. That they were symbolized by locusts (Revelation 9:3) indicates (1), that they were from the Orient, Arabia especially (see an exceedingly able article by Elliott [Hor. Apoc., Vol. I., pp. 420 sqq.] on “The Local Appropriateness of Scripture Symbol); (2) that they ravaged in numerous and immense armies as succeeding swarms; (3) their destructiveness. 4. The peculiarities of appearance presented Revelation 9:7-10 are strikingly significant of the Saracens: (1) like unto horses, they were principally horsemen; (2) crowns like unto gold, their peculiar head-dress—turbans adorned with gold (Elliott) or yellow (Barnes); (3) faces like men, bearded; (4) hair like women, they wore their hair (unlike other military nations) long. (“In that most characteristic of Arab poems, Antar—a poem composed at the time I speak of—we find the mustache and the beard, the long hair flowing on the shoulders, and the turban also, are specified: i. 340; ‘He adjusted himself properly, twirled his whiskers, and folded up his hair under his turban, drawing it from off his shoulders:’ i. 169; ‘His hair flowed down his shoulders:’ iii. 117; ‘Antar cut off Maadi’s hair in revenge:’ iv. 325; ‘We will hang him up by his hair:’ ii. 4; ‘Thou foul-mustachioed wretch!’ ” Elliott); (5) teeth like lions, their ferocity; (6) breastplates as of iron, “Sale’s Koran ii. 104, ‘God hath given you coats of mail to defend you in your wars’ ” (Elliott). 5. The addition of the scorpion (also pointing to the Orient) sting, Revelation 9:10, indicates (1) that their agency was to be on men, and not as the simple locust figure would have indicated, on vegetation, Revelation 9:4. (It was the command of the Caliph Aboubeker, the father-in-law and successor of Mohammed, in accordance with the spirit of the Koran, issued to the Saracens on the invasion of Syria, “Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of corn; cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat.” Gibbon, Revelation 51); (2) that it was to be a tormenting, not an utterly destructive, agency, Revelation 9:5 (the sting of the scorpion is exceedingly painful, but not ordinarily fatal, see Books of Travel generally. In reference to the nature of this woe, as thus appropriately symbolized, the following is extracted from Barnes): [“As applicable to the conflicts of the Saracens with Christians (Christendom, the external Church), the meaning here would seem to be, that the power conceded to those who are represented by the locusts was not to cut off and to destroy the Church; but it was to bring upon it various calamities to continue for a definite period. … In respect to this, some remarkable facts have occurred in history. The followers of the False Prophet contemplated the subjugation of Europe and the destruction of Christianity from two quarters—the East and the West—expecting to make a junction of the two armies in the North of Italy, and to march down to Rome. Twice did they attack the vital part of Christendom by besieging Constantinople; first, in the seven years’ siege, which lasted from A. D. 668 to A. D. 675, and secondly, in the years 716–718, when Leo the Isaurian was on the imperial throne. But, on both occasions, they were obliged to retire defeated and disgraced. Gibbon, 3:461 seq. Again, they renewed their attack on the West. Having conquered Northern Africa, they passed over into Spain, subdued that country and Portugal, and extended their conquests as far as the Loire. At that time they designed to subdue France, and having united with the forces which they expected from the East, they intended to make a descent on Italy, and complete the conquest of Europe. This purpose was defeated by the valor of Charles Martel, and Europe and the Christian world were saved from subjugation. Gibbon Revelation 3:4 seq. ‘A victorious line of march,’ pays Mr. Gibbon, ‘had been prolonged above a thousand miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the highlands of Scotland. The Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or the Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelations of Mahomet.’ The arrest of the Saracen hosts before Europe was subdued, was what there was no reason to anticipate, and it even yet perplexes historians to be able to account for it. ‘The calm historian,’ says Mr. Gibbon, ‘who strives to follow the rapid course of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, inevitable danger.’ ‘These conquests,’ says Mr. Hallam, ‘which astonish the careless and superficial, are less perplexing to a calm inquirer than their cessation—the loss of half the Roman empire than the preservation of the rest’ (Middle Ages ii. 3, 169). These illustrations may serve to explain the meaning of the symbol—that their grand commission was not to annihilate or root out, but to annoy and afflict. Indeed, they did not go forth with a primary design to destroy. The announcement of the Mussulman always was, ‘the Koran, the tribute, or the sword,’ and when there was submission, either by embracing his religion or by tribute, life was always spared. ‘The fair option of friendship, or submission, or battle,’ says Mr. Gibbon (3:387), ‘was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet.’ Comp. also vol. iii. 453, 456.” [6. The length of the woe, five, months, i. e. (in the prophetic calendar) one hundred and fifty years—the precise length of the Saracenic invasion (see abstract of Elliott on p. 201; and also the Note on Prophetic Days, p. 260.—E. R. C.] “The fact that such creatures have never yet been seen should not make as conclude, that they never can or never will come. In the last times many things, till then unheard of, shall come to pass—much thitherto unseen shall greet mortal vision.” Thus Hebert. This mode of apprehension, however, has nothing to do with inspiration, as Dόsterdieck thinks, but with literal exegesis. [Elliott and Barnes, in accordance with Bishop Newton and many other distinguished historical interpreters, understand by the events under this Trumpet the Woe of the Turkish invasions (see pp. 201 sq.). The following is an abstract of the alleged parallelism between the prophecy and history, in view of which this view has been adopted and supported. (In the arrangement of the points, the plan of Barnes has been, in great measure, followed.) 1. The place, of departure: Revelation 9:14 declares this to be the Euphrates; it is a well known fact, that the Turks went forth from this river on their career of conquest. 2. The four Angels, Revelation 9:14 : Barnes explains this by referring to the fourfold division of the old Turkish Empire, previous to the outpouring on the remains of the Roman Empire, into four Kingdoms—Persia, Kerman, Syria and Roum (Gibbon, Revelation 57); Elliott discards this and all similar divisions, and suggests that the number four was chosen either (a) in accordance with the propriety of the figure as indicating that there would be a general outpouring, in correspondence with the four winds which are the proverbial representatives of all winds, or else (b) as indicating that the tempest Angels (Revelation 7:1) loosed in the Saracenic woe were subsequently bound at the Euphrates. 3. The preparation, Revelation 9:15 : the Turkish Empire, having its seat about and to the East of the Euphrates, had long been growing in power and fitness to subdue the Eastern Roman Empire; long before their attack upon the latter, they had become the most powerful nation on the earth (see Gibbon, Revelation 57). 4. Bound and loosed, Revelation 9:14-15 : it is a matter of surprise that the powerful Empire which had subdued the East should so long have refrained from moving westward; it would seem as though they had been restrained by some superior power. 5. The material of their armies: Revelation 9:16 implies that this was cavalry, the well known principal element of the Turkish hosts. 6. Their numbers: Revelation 9:16, two myriads of myriads; the Turkish armies were immense. Gibbon says (Revelation 57): “The myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles, etc.” (It is probable, if this hypothesis be correct, that the number relates to the entire number engaged throughout the period of the invasions.) 7.The numeration: by myriads, Revelation 9:16 : it is one of the peculiarities of the Turks to speak of numbers, not as we do, by thousands, but by tomans (myriads), “so that it is not without his usual propriety of language that Gibbon speaks (as in the quotation in the preceding division) of ‘the myriads of Turkish horse’ ” (Elliott). 8. Their personal appearance: Revelation 9:17, “breastplates fiery, hyacinthine and sulphureous;” Daubuz remarks: “From their first appearance, the Ottomans have affected to wear warlike apparel of scarlet, blue and yellow.” 9. The heads of the horses as the heads of lions, Revelation 9:17; indicative (1) of their strength and fierceness—these were well-known characteristics of the Turkish cavalry; (2) not only of the characteristics, but of the titles of the heads or leaders; Gibbon writes (Revelation 57.): “The name of Alp Arslan, the Valiant Lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul Bey displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates, and entered Cζsarea, etc.” Elliott remarks (vol. i., p. 498): “This kind of title, which reminds one of those of the American Indians, seems to have been common among the Turkmans. So Kizil-Arslan, the Red lion, a chief contemporary with Togrul Bey; and again kilidge Arslan (Noble Lion) etc.;” and again he writes (p. 510): “So Rycaut on the Turks, Revelation 21 : ‘The Turks compare the Grand Seignor to the lion, and other kings to little dogs.’ ” 10. Out of their mouths, etc., Revelation 9:17. Barnes remarks: “This is just such a description as would be given of an army to which the use of gunpowder was known. Looking now upon a body of cavalry in the heat of an engagement, it would seem, if the cause were not known, that the horses belched forth smoke and sulphureous flame;” the use of fire-arms by the Turks in their invasion of the Eastern Empire is one of the established facts of history. 11. The destructive agency, Revelation 9:18 : Not only did the Turks use fire-arms, but to this agency, more than to aught else, was their success due, as appears from the following remarks of Gibbon in reference to the siege of Constantinople, Rev 68: “Among the implements of destruction, he (the Turkish Sultan) studied with peculiar care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon, a Dane or Hungarian, who had almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the Turkish Sultan. Mohammed was satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist: ‘Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople? I am not ignorant of their strength; but were they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior power: the position and management of that engine must be left to your engineers.’ On this assurance, a foundry was established at Adrianople, the metal was prepared, and at the end of three months Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude; a measure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore; and the stone bullet weighed above six hundred pounds. A vacant place before the new palace was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was issued that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit of a hundred furlongs; the ball, by the force of gunpowder, was driven about a mile; and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground. …. The same destructive secret had been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches and despotism. The great cannon of Mohammed has been separately noticed—an important and visible object in the history of the times. But that enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude; the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most accessible places; and of one of these it was ambiguously expressed that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, and that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets. From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire.” In view of such historical facts, Elliott remarks: “It was to ‘the fire and the smoke and the sulphur,’ to the artillery and firearms of Mahomet, that the killing of the third part of men, i. e., the capture of Constantinople, and by consequence the destruction of the Greek empire, was owing.” 12. Power in their tails, Revelation 9:19 : on this Elliott remarks: “A horse-tail to denote a ruler! Strange association! Unlikely symbol! Instead of symbolizing authority and rule, the tail is in other Scriptures put in direct contrast with the head, and made the representative rather of the subjected and the low. Besides which, it is not here the lordly lion’s tail, but that of the horse. Who could ever, ΰ priori, have conceived of such an application of it? And yet among the Turks … that very association had existence, and still exists to the present day. … It is the ensign of one, two or three horse-tails that marks distinctively the dignity and power of the Turkish Pasha.” Barnes remarks: “The image before the mind of John would seem to have been that he saw horses belching out fire and smoke, and—what was equally strange—he saw that their power of spreading desolation was connected with the tails of the horses.” 13. The number, the third part of the men, Revelation 9:18 : this Elliott explains as indicating the overthrow of the Eastern, or one-third of the entire, Empire. Barnes writes: “No one in reading the accounts of the wars of the Turks, and of the ravages which they have committed, would be likely to feel that this is an exaggeration; it is not necessary to suppose that it is literally accurate.” 14. The time of continuance—a day, hour, month and year, Revelation 9:15 : this period in the prophetic calendar, on the ordinary hypothesis of regarding the prophetic year as consisting of three hundred and sixty days, would equal three hundred and ninety-one years and thirty days. Elliott, however, calls attention to the fact, that the term employed is not the prophetic καιρός, but ἐνιαυτον; he therefore hypothesizes that the Julian year was intended, and thence deduces as the period contemplated, reckoning twelve hours to the prophetic day (comp. John 11:9), three hundred and ninety-six years, one hundred and eighteen days. The Turks, according to Abulfeda, went forth from Bagdad on their career of Western conquest on the 10th of Dzoulcaad A. H. 448, which corresponds with January 18th, A.D. 1057; from this to May 29th, 1453 the date of the fall of Constantinople, is three hundred and ninety-six years, one hundred and thirty days; or counting to May 16th, the day on which the investment was completed, the fortieth day of the siege, we have the exact prophetic period. Concerning the fortieth day, we have the “unintended expository words (of Gibbon): ‘After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could be no longer averted.’ ” 13. The effect, Revelation 9:20-21 : it is notorious that, previous to the Turkish woe, nominal Christendom was sunk in a condition of (1) demon worship (the invocation of saints), (2) idolatry (image worship), (3) murders (bloody persecutions), (4) sorceries (incantations and pretended miracles), (5) fornications (abounding impurities), (6) thefts (indulgences, masses, etc.); and it is equally notorious that this woe was not followed by general repentance.—E. R. C.] [These judgments, in the opinion of the Am. Ed., commenced after the Woman had become the Harlot—after the unholy alliance between the Church and State. See on Revelation 17.—E. R. C.] [“There were to be seven Trumpets sounded, and under the seventh Trumpet seven Vials poured out. The numeral resemblance of these to the seven trumpet blasts sounded on seven successive days against the ancient Jericho, and which were followed on the seventh day by seven compassings of its walls, till on the last the wall fell down, and entrance was given to Israel into that first city of the promised Canaan (Joshua 6:3-16)—this interesting resemblance, I say, has been noticed by Ambrose Ansbert in old times, and in more modern times by Vitringa, and other Apocalyptic interpreters after him. It almost seemed as if some power were marked out hereby as the New Testament Jericho; whose domination opposed, and whose overthrow would introduce the saints’ enjoyment of the Heavenly Canaan.” Elliott, Vol. I, p. 349.—E. R. C.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section EighthVeiled Heaven-Picture of the Seven Thunders. (Revelation 10:1-11.) General.—Here the mystery of prophecy is raised to a higher power within the mysterious Apocalypse itself. A contrast even is presented consisting in the fact that the Seven Thunders are to be specially sealed (Revelation 10:4), whilst the Revelation in general is not to be sealed (Revelation 22:10). We have already endeavored to explain the motive of this special sealing, and have at the same time set forth the hypothesis that the Seer has in a correspondent exoteric form furnished a sketch Of the sealed esoteric contents of the Seven Thunders (Revelation 11:1-14). For Christianity can in no point be absolutely esoterical. It may also safely be assumed, that the elements of the Seven Thunders are to be found in the Apostolic Epistles and even in the Gospels. There is, e. g. (if we regard thunder as the symbol of a spiritual purification of the atmosphere and refreshment of life), an oppugnment of orthodoxistic legality in the Epistle of James; a reform of unfree chiliastic externality in the first Epistle of Peter and in both the Epistles to the Thessalonians; libertinism is opposed by the second Epistle of Peter and the Epistle of Jude; the Pauline Epistles reform, in rich gradation, the faith, the Church, Christology, etc.; and beyond them there is yet another Johannean reform of Christian gnosis. John not only knew that the Law, as the first reformation of Israel, was given amid thunder and lightning, that the fiery chariot of Elijah had formed a turning-point between the legal and the Messianico-prophetic period, but he had also himself been present when Christ’s prayer for the glorification of His Father’s name was answered with a word of assent that sounded like thunder. And it was in harmony with the development of revelation that thunder, which in the Old Testament, was a symbol of the Law, should become for the Son of Thunder, under the New Covenant, a symbol of the Gospel and its seven-fold holy evolutions. In respect of the beautiful, elevated and elevating aspect of thunder, even the Scandinavian mythology is in advance of the standpoint of popular terror, so largely occupied in Christendom with regard to this phenomenon (comp. also Sophocles, �dipus at Colonos). In referring, at this juncture, to our Exeg. Notes, it will be understood, as a matter of course, that it is the part of Homiletics to treat the present section of the Seven Thunders with especial caution, although, of course, the phenomena accompanying the voices of the Thunders are not sealed. As to the sealing itself, the expression is to be taken in its broader sense. In a literal sense, written matter is sealed; but here the command is: write not.Special.—a. [Revelation 10:2-3. The Angel of the End-time. A presage and symbol of the Coming of Christ. 1. His appearance; 2. The little book in his hand relating to the end-time; 3. His dominion and power: his feet planted on the land and the sea; 4. His cry as the roaring of a lion—the awakening call to the awaking seven Thunders. The word of Christ, the eternal source of all spiritual operations in the Church.—b. [Revelation 10:3-7. The Seven Thunders as mysterious mediations of the end-time. As sealed mysteries. The more complete their sealing as canonical and doctrinal certainties of prophecy, the more powerful their operation upon the religious presentiment, the feelings, the spirit of prayer. The Seven Thunders in nature (Psalms 29.), emblems of the Seven Thunders of the Kingdom of God.—The mysteries of Christianity, prefigured by the mysteries of the Theocratic Sanctuary; manifest in the facts and fundamental doctrines of Christianity (1 Timothy 3:16); mediated by the evangelic form of mystery (Matthew 10:27), by mysteries sacramental, Church-historic (disciplina arcani), especially those pertaining to the mediζval period of Church-history, and by eschatogical mysteries.—The sealing of the Thunders, the mystery of mysteries.—The certainty of certainties, or the solemn oath of the Angel concerning the approaching end.—The oaths of God recorded in Holy Writ are Divine assurances which re-echo in the surest certainty of elect human hearts.—How is this to be understood—to wit, that the time of Christ’s coming is unknown, that it may, in a chronological sense, still be distant, and yet that it is emphatically near? 1. We are in the midst of a constant, uncheckable movement toward that goal; 2. The movement is continually increasing in rapidity, and the catastrophe of this periodic course will come, at all events, more suddenly than we think. The motives of this catastrophe are to be found in the depths of the religious and moral world (where the carcase, etc.). Every great event has, from time immemorial, taken men by surprise, like a sort of Last Day.—The time of the Seventh Trumpet, the time of the end.—The blessed secrets intrusted to the servants of God, contrasted with the unblessed secrets of the children of wickedness.—c. [Revelation 10:9-11] New and second calling of the Seer.—Command to the Seer to eat the little book. The act itself, and its import. The hearty reception of the prophecy of the last time in its sweet charm and its convulsing and painful effect. (Anguish and terror, especially the terrors of war, not only attack the heart, but are frequently the occasion of cholera-like epidemics.)—The converse orders of the operations of the book, as presented by the Angel and by the Seer. Joy and sorrow, says human feeling; sorrow and joy, says the heavenly Spirit.—Thou must prophesy again, or the commission to publish the tidings of the last time in the midst of the course of the world, as an imminent Divine doom upon the whole world, peoples and kings. Starke: The Lion roareth—who shall not fear, examine himself, and truly repent (Amos 3:8)? He that dwelleth in Heaven may keep silence for a while, but in His own time He shall speak so that both our ears shall tingle (Psalms 2:5; Psalms 50:21; 1 Samuel 3:11).—Some commentators think that they (the Seven Thunders) discovered the saddest fortunes of the true Church.—Here, also, Starke presents the antithetic view of “those who regard this as fulfilled” and “those who deem it to be still future.”—The Prophets and Apostles did not write down all things that they saw and heard, but only so much as was necessary for us and as the Holy Ghost commanded them to write.—Although the prophetic predictions remain for a time sealed, when the time of their fulfillment and dιnoument arrives, all becomes intelligible and manifest (Daniel 12:9). Jung Stilling, Die Siegesgeschichte der christl. Religion in einer gemeinnόtzigen Erklδrung der Offenb. Joh. (Sδmmtliche Schriften, Vol. III. Stuttgart, 1835. On Revelation 10:1): His countenance shineth like the sun, for He dwells in the light and enlightens all things that He looks upon; since His appearance until now it has been growing brighter and brighter. About His head the rainbow gleams; for He is a Messenger of the Covenant,—a Messenger Who is to proclaim the unveiling of the mystery of God, in which mystery God’s covenant with Noah and all His promises are to be fulfilled. He is clothed with a cloud—which is the chariot and travelling apparel of Him Who is to come in the clouds (Revelation 1:7; Daniel 7:13). And His feet are like pillars of fire; for where He stands, He stands firm; the gates of hell cannot move Him from the spot, and whoso thinks to drive Him away, burns his own fingers. All this is surety to us for the validity of His embassage, for the truth of the little book that He has in His hand, and which John now communicates to us. Riemann, Die Offenb: St. Joh. (see p. 73): Every word of God, as heavenly food from the tree of life, is sweet when we first receive it in faith, but afterwards, though the sweetness does not cease, it becomes bitter also, as a judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart, when the old Adam must sink in death under the sharpness of this two-edged sword: again, this word is doubly sweet when it proclaims the final triumph of Christ over the kingdom of darkness, and yet at the same time it is bitter, for with this proclamation it conjoins lamentation and mourning and woe that sorely come upon the Messianic Church through the last desperate conflict of the prince of darkness with the Kingdom of God. [From The Comprehensive Commentary: Revelation 10:9-11. It becomes God’s servants to digest in their own souls the messages they bring to others in His name, and to be suitably affected therewith themselves; also, to deliver every message with which they are charged, whether pleasing or unpleasing to men. (M. Henry)] Section NinthExoteric Intimations from the Earth-picture of the Seven Thunders. (Revelation 11:1-14) General.—The remarks made by us in reference to the preceding section, apply with equal force to this. The exegetical foundation is not yet sufficiently sure, clear and firm to warrant the erection of a doctrinal and homiletical superstructure. We must distinguish, here as well as elsewhere, between our own firm conviction and the conventional status of exegesis in the Church, which it is not admissible to leave entirely out of consideration in an official undertaking. We must, first of all, settle the relation which this section bears to the preceding one. It is not difficult to perceive that the Seven Thunders are recognizable in the procedures of the two Sons of Oil, since fire goes forth from their mouths and they can shut and open Heaven like Elijah.Another unmistakable fact is that we have here to do with a sketch of those Church-historical circumstances which form a transition to the time of the end. It is equally certain, furthermore, that in the provision concerning the Temple. Revelation 11:1-2, we have a picture of the Christian Church, and not a prophecy relating to the Temple at Jerusalem, to be apprehended literally and, in such case, manifested to be erroneous. In regard to the Temple and the subsequent history of the Two Witnesses, as well as the judgment at the close of the section, we refer to the Exeg. Notes. A cautious treatment of the subject might base itself upon the following fundamental lines: The inner and outer (or invisible and visible) Church (Revelation 11:1-2); the New Testament order of God’s Kingdom in the antithesis of Church and State (Revelation 11:3-7); the grave prospect that the hemming in of Antichristianity will at some future day be done away with (Revelation 11:7-10; 2 Thessalonians 2.); the certainty that the forms of Church and State, though suffering a temporal extinction, will celebrate their resurrection in the consummation of the Kingdom of God (Revelation 11:11-12). Finally, the social earthquake connected with the preceding events, which shakes the New Testament City of God of externalized Christian order and, by a precursory judgment, calls many to repentance, whereby such as comply with the call withdraw themselves from the consummate apostasy of the time of the Beast, and are preserved from the final judgment at the Parousia of Christ. Special.—[Revelation 11:1-2. The Temple arrangements of the Old Covenant, in their symbolic import for the Christian Church. (a) The priestly Sanctuary, which has become one with the Holy of Holies; (b) the Altar; (c) the Worshippers; (d) the outer court of the Gentiles.—Import of the outer court: a figurative testimony (1) against that view which reckons the outer court as forming part of the Sanctuary; (2) against the other idea which denominates the outer court the world, simply. [Revelation 11:3. The two ground-forms of witness concerning Christ in the Christian age: The Churchly communion, and the Christian and humane social morals and manners which it inculcates.—[Revelation 11:4. The olive trees, by which the life of the sons of oil, Christians, is, not generated, but mediated.—Olive trees and candlesticks [lamp-stands] at once; i.e., on the one hand, gifted with a source of spiritual life (John 4.), and, on the other, elaborated into a form favorable for the mediation of the Spirit to men.—The whole Christian age, a time of the one Spirit of Christ in the change of different temporal forms. In the main, the olive trees are at the same time candlesticks [lamp-stands], and the candlesticks [lamp-stands] olive trees: i.e., spiritual life and formal organization, knowledge and practice, run together, in parallel development, through the ages. In individual cases, however, the candlestick [lamp-stand] that should stand beside the olive tree is occasionally missing, and still more frequently the candlestick [lamp-stand] lacks the accompaniment of the olive tree.—[Revelation 11:5-6. Competition of the mediζval Church and State in the training of Christian humanity. Their union. Their terrible severity. Their strainings of authority and their gradual loss of the sympathy of Christian popular life.—[Revelation 11:7. The Beast out of the abyss as the prelude of Antichristianity or the Beast out of the sea, or how demonic Antichristian dispositions precede the final Antichristian figurations in human characters.—Dying and dead forms of the old order of things (Revelation 11:9).—The Antichristian feasts of the future (Revelation 11:10).—[Revelation 11:11-12. The time of three days and a half, or the time of the apparent downfall of the Kingdom of God, always, at the same time, the time of a glorious exaltation of it.—Prospect of the final fulfillment of all Churchly and Stately foretokens in the unity of a heavenly Kingdom.—[Revelation 11:13. The Apocalyptic earthquakes in their grand significance: (1) In their spiritual import; (2) In their social import; (3) In their cosmical import.—Fall of the external historic City of God.—Twofold effect of the judgments and terrors of God: Many are killed, the rest are affrighted and give glory to God.Starke: The true Church should not be judged by its magnitude and visibility, because (just as) the outer court many times surpasses the Temple in length and breadth.—The teachers of the Christian Church must, internally, resemble olive trees, and be filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit, whilst outwardly they must shine as lights, with an irreproachable life—Quesnel: When God has used His servants for the sanctification of others, He uses the wicked to purify those servants themselves by suffering and martyrdom.—The world is to be deplored, in that it celebrates its sins with rejoicings, as a public festival. Lφwe, Weissagung und Geschichte in ihrer Zusammenstimmung (see p. 73): [Revelation 11:3 sqq.] This twofold number, doubtless, denotes a twofold, Divinely commissioned ministry, but not an external condition; thus there are always in existence Rome few powerful witnesses—testifying of repentance and faith—of ecclesiastical and secular office and vocation, in order to the support of Christ’s spiritual Kingdom in the world. Wilhelm Friedrich Rinck, Apokalyptische Forschungen,. Zόrich, 1853 (see p. 72): As the Lord sent out His disciples by twos, thus the many witnesses and servants of Christ are here introduced as two messengers (?). Their ministry lasts as long as Jerusalem (the outer court) is trodden down by the Gentiles; the whole time, consequently, from the destruction of Jerusalem to the end of the world.—Two olive trees and two lamp-stands. Oil and lamp-stands belong together.—The city. Neither Jerusalem nor Rome is intended, but an allegorical great city, which lays violent hands on the messengers of God, and even on His own Son, It is impossible that it can be any particular single city when they of the peoples, tribes, tongues and nations are to see the bodies of the slain witnesses. Constance is a part of that great city.* *[It was at the Council of Constance (A.D. 1414–1418) that Huss and Jerome of Prague, the forerunners of the Reformation, were condemned and martyred.—E. R. C.] [From M. Henry: Revelation 11:1. Observe, 1. The temple was to be measured; the gospel-church in general; whether it be so built, so constituted, as the gospel rule directs. 2. The altar. That which was the place of the most solemn acts of worship may be put for religious worship in general; whether the Church has the true altars, both as to substance and situation: as to substance, whether they take Christ for their Altar, and lay down all their offerings there; and in situation, whether the Altar be in the holiest; that is, whether they worship God in the Spirit and in truth. 3. The worshippers. Whether they make God’s glory their end, and His word their rule, in all their acts of worship; and whether they come to God with suitable affections, and whether their conversation be as becomes the gospel.] Section TenthHeaven-picture of the Manifestation of Antichristianity on Earth. [Revelation 11:15 to Revelation 12:12) General.—The present section, and also the subsequent chapters, Revelation 12:13 to Revelation 13:18, are peculiarly adapted to illustrate and confirm the construction of the Apocalypse as presented by us. Our section is not readily intelligible without a definite reference to the subsequent Earth-picture, and the development of Antichristianity brought to view in that picture can be apprehended only as illuminated by our Heaven-picture:—as a judgment foreseen in the counsel of God; as an apparent domination of Antichristianity, completely overruled by the victorious power of Heaven, by the triumph of Christ and the victory of His heroic spirit over Satan in the spirit-sphere. Here, as elsewhere, the heavenly celebration of victory (Revelation 11:15-19) precedes the earthly judgment (Revelation 13:1 sqq.). The Woman clothed with the sun, the Divine Congregation of the Kingdom, appears conformably to her heavenly phase, in full splendor (Revelation 12:1-6); high above her fugitive phase, menaced with mortal peril, on earth (Revelation 15:13–17). The true offspring of her heart (Revelation 12:2-5) is a holy counterpart of the wicked False Prophet, who, in the guise of a lamb, comes forth from her terrestrial order, the earth. The great red Dragon who appears in Heaven, the region of spirit, with great seductive power; whose intention it is to destroy the male Son and conquer His spirit-host, but who here makes an utterly fruitless attempt against that Son, Who is caught up to God,—an utterly abortive attack upon Michael and his angels—and is, in consequence, cast down to earth,—subsequently appears on earth as a terrible persecutor of the Woman: he vomits forth his water-floods, i. e., masses of peoples, against her; he wars against her individual children; he incarnates himself, with his seven heads, in the seven-headed Antichrist; he helps the horrid Beast, after it has been wounded to death, to an apparent healing; he institutes, by the semblance of demonic omnipotence, devil worship and blasphemies on earth; he draws the False Prophet, with his delusive works, into his service, and attains, for the time being, to a dominion on earth which is, to all appearance, legally organized through the medium of social symbols. According to the Heaven-picture, the Woman is sheltered in the wilderness, whither she herself has fled, by a place prepared for her by God (“A stronghold sure”), and there finds food and maintenance through her whole trial-time of a thousand two hundred and sixty days and days’ works. According to the Earth-picture, the two wings of the great Eagle must be given her for her flight; in the place of refuge to which she has fled, she is sustained through the same period that was before indicated, which, however, is here designated by the ominous number a time, (two) times and a half—whereby a great, sore and apparently endless time of temptation [trial] is expressed, a period which seems to continue even to hopelessness; she is, moreover, oppressed in a twofold manner by the Serpent. To save herself from being drowned and carried away by the water-floods, the sun-woman must accept the aid of the earth, by which acceptance her visible existence is itself made dependent upon the earth; and after the abortive attack upon the kernel of her totality, war is waged against her in the remainder of her seed, her individual children. The high import of the seventh Trumpet, which continues from now to the seven Vials of Anger or to the judgment, is first expressed by a great celebration in Heaven. There is a sublime paradox in the fact that the beginning of Satan’s apparent rule on earth is celebrated in Heaven by great voices saying: The kingdom of the world is become our Lord’s and His Christ’s, and He shall reign from eternity to eternity. This epoch of heavenly victory is so completely decided with the appearance of Antichristianity that the heavenly Elders can make the festival already one of thanksgiving. There is a grandeur in the intuition or deduction by which they recognize in the very wrath of the nations the forth-breaking of the Divine anger (with its Vials of Anger); in the death-time of those who live in and for this world, a new life-time of the [blessed] dead in the world beyond—the beginning epoch of their restoration, which, in accordance with its nature, brings with it destruction for the destroyers of the earth. Upon this festal antiphony between the heavenly voices and the thanksgiving of the Elders, follow the opening of the heavenly Temple, and the events connected therewith. The full revelation of Satan is anticipated by the perfect revelation of revelation, if we may thus speak. For those who will see with the Seer, the Temple is opened; the idea of the Kingdom of God becomes generally intelligible; the Ark of His Covenant becomes visible: i. e., the profoundly dark mystery of reconciliation and grace is converted into the clear light of knowledge for all those who see; and the effect of this glorious development of the life of the Church of God cannot fail of supervention; viz., lightnings of particulars of revelation, voices of proclamation, thunders of preaching, earthquakes of mental convulsions, and a great hail storm of fanatical sentiments originating in the commingling of sultry heat and icy cold. Together with the glory of revelation, the glory of the Congregation of the Kingdom becomes manifest,—the Woman clothed with the sun, in the astral adornment of the terrestrial cosmos. All the pangs [woes] of earth appear, in connection with the Woman’s pangs, as travail-pangs, birth-pangs of the Messiah. Next appears the enemy, the great red Dragon. He is a union of serpent and swine, “Spottgeburt von Dreck und Feuer,” resplendent in the gloomy radiance of his fiery nature and blood-guiltiness; he has seven mock-holy heads instead of the one holy head, and there attaches to him the contradiction of the ten horns of his authority, expressive of the fact that that authority reposes entirely upon the decenary of the world, whilst the crowns upon his seven heads indicate a legal power falsely gained by the semblance of the sacred seven. Not, however, by the lustre of his crowns, but by the terrible lashings of his tail—apparent power—does he cast the third part, or a spiritual third, of the stars, the geniuses of the spirit-world of Heaven, down to earth, into the earthly service of the ecclesiastico-worldly order of things. The frustration of his plans, however, is expressed in a series of defeats: 1. Christ, in the light of eternity, is caught up as the Male into Heaven, to the Throne of God; 2. The Woman is made secure in her place of refuge, and provided for; 3. The Dragon, with his angels, is, by Michael and his angels, precipitated from Heaven to earth, from the sphere of pure spirit of the inner Church to the external Churchly and Stately ordinances; 4. Even in this world an invisible Church Triumphant has been establishing itself, and is as deep and high, as wide and broad, as the perfect joyousness of faith extends in its two fundamental features; faith-righteousness in the Reconciliation, and martyr-faithfulness unto death. A transition to the Earth-picture is formed by the following thought: The highest weal of the heavenly-minded becomes a woe upon earth and sea, the Hierarchy and popular life. Special.—Reciprocal action betwixt the development and consummation of the kingdom of darkness, on the one hand, and the Kingdom of God on the other. [Revelation 11:17-18. Heavenly rejoicing over earth’s last time of need.—Judgment of the wrath of God in the wrath of the nations.—The end-time, a joyful celebration of the justification of all God’s witnesses. [Revelation 11:19. Transfiguration of the whole revelation of salvation in knowledge and life: a sure hope of Christendom.—Great effects of this ever more manifest revelation, [ch. 12] Revelation 12:10. [Revelation 12:1]. The Woman clothed with the sun, or the glory of the eternal Congregation of God’s Kingdom. [Revelation 12:2. Birth-pangs of the Church of God: 1. The Martyrs of Israel; 2. Christ, the Great Martyr; 3. The Martyrs of the Christian Church.—Christ, even as the universal, eternal Christ, issues from the travail-pangs of the Church of God in Time.—All the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the eternal glory. [Revelation 12:3-4. The doctrine of Satan, perfected in the Apocalypse. The great red Dragon (1) as a figurative representation of Satan; (2) of Satanic or demonic evil; (3) of evil in general. Unbelief has advanced from a denial of Satan to a denial of Satanic evil; from the denial of the latter to a denial of evil in general. The knowledge of faith must advance through a deeper-going doctrine of evil to an apprehension of Satanic evil, and through the latter to an insight into Divine revelation relative to the existence of Satan and his kingdom.—Evil in the figure of the Dragon: 1. Absolute hideousness, the Dragon, the monstrous shape, in its hypocritical pretension to beauty, in the pomp of fiery red, and with its seven crowns; 2. Absolute falsehood in the contradiction of horns and crowns, with its hypocritical pretension to holy intelligence in its seven heads; 3. Absolute badness in its conduct toward the “stars” or spirits of Heaven, toward God and Christ, toward the Woman and the destiny of humanity, with the hypocritical pretension to the founding of a free spirit-kingdom (of fallen stars).—Satanic evil, or conscious enmity to God and Christ.—Satan and his kingdom. The doctrine respecting these has, by reason of the mediζval classifications of it, which, in manifold ways, continued to obtain even in Protestant orthodoxy after the Reformation, called forth a reaction similar to that induced by the gross enhancement of the doctrine of election, by the fearful exaggeration of the power of excommunication, of Church discipline, clerical authority and letter-faith. This doctrine has hence become a difficult, and, more or less, an esoteric, subject for homiletics. It, nevertheless, must not be dropped, and still less should it be denied; its true treatment, however, is conditioned (1) by a prominent setting forth of that spirit-world which pervades the universe; (2) by the maintenance of the fact that the origin of sin consists not in animal sensuality, but in a spiritual abuse of liberty; that a fall of spirits is assumable neither as having taken place on our earth alone nor throughout the universe; and that from the earthly fall of spirits, we are, according to Scripture, to infer a previous fall of spirits, forming the centre and back-ground of the evil of this world. The scattered manifestations of evil on earth, notwithstanding their plurality, constitute, in their opposition to the Kingdom of God, a unitous power as the Kingdom of Darkness. A unitous power against the Kingdom of God they are, but not a united power in themselves, as is evident from the monster with the seven heads.—Antitheocratic manifestations in the Old Testament as foreshadowings of Antichristian manifestations in the New Testament and in Church history.—Satan’s work in the invisible world becomes manifest here in Antichristian facts, and must be brought to view by means of these.—The enemy of man, according to John 8:44, as a seducer (to spiritual pride, Genesis 3; to fanatical fleshly lust, Numbers 25, etc.); as an accuser (Job).—Types of Antichrist: Balaam; Goliath; Ahithophel; Antiochus Epiphanes; Judas.—[Revelation 12:5. Satan’s plot for the destruction of Christ defeated by Christ’s resurrection and ascension.—[Revelation 12:7. The battle between light and darkness on earth is, in its decisive centre, a conflict of spirits in the spirit-realm (see Comm. on John, John 13:31).—[Revelation 12:9. The casting of Satan out of the pure sphere of the Christian spirit into the sphere of earthly ordinances, (a) in the life of Jesus (Matthew 4.; Luke 10:18; John, l. c.); (b) in the sphere of the Church through the medium of the Spirit of Christ.—Song of triumph over the accuser, Revelation 12:10 (see Exeg. Notes). Starke (Lφsecken): “It is a noteworthy circumstance that there is here (Revelation 11:15-16) no mention of the four Beasts, which elsewhere throughout the Book precede the Elders in praising and thanking God (Revelation 5:14; Revelation 7:11). The reason of this seems to be that at this time the true public ministry of preaching, represented by the four Beasts (?), will be suppressed to such a degree as to be neither visible nor appreciable any more.” (A little problem lies before us, but the solution offered is a failure. Possibly the four Life-forms [Living-beings] are omitted because they denote the fundamental forms of the Divine Governance in the economy of salvation, whilst here an exercise of Judicial power is celebrated.) Revelation 11:19. And there occurred lightnings and voices and thunders: the promulgation of the Law and the Gospel was set in motion again.—And an earthquake: great commotions arose.—And a great hail: with this, the judgments of God burst upon the Antichristian kingdom. [And the Temple, etc.] The things concerning which there has been so much strife shall be clearly shown and known—to wit, the Person, nature and attributes of Christ, the satisfaction made by Him, the whole nature of the covenant of grace and of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. After the offence has been taken away, God will yet give to all nations on earth free access to His Church and Throne of Grace.—(Revelation 12:3. “Dragons are said to be the largest of all serpents and beasts, some of them attaining the length of forty or fifty cubits. Alexander the Great is said to have had one shown him that was five hundred feet long.”) Revelation 12:4. And his tail, wherein were his greatest power and cunning, drew, subdued by cruelty, torture, artifice, flattery, the third part of the stars, a great part of the teachers of mankind. Revelation 12:11. This is the wondrous victory of Christians—to conquer through tribulation and death, to gain in losing (Romans 8:37).—Quesnel: The nearer we come to the end, the more earnestly does the devil strive to ruin us, and the more ought we to watch, pray and work. N. Von Brunn, Blicke eines alten Knechts, der auf seinen Herrn wartet, in die Offenbarung, etc. (see p. 73): To us mortals, because of the limitations of our vision, much appears as in process of coming to pass, which, by celestial spirits, with sight unhindered by a veil of flesh, is seen to be already accomplished, (The Church-historical system of interpretation is pursued in this work. The practical remarks are significant and edifying.) Graeber (see above): “The positions of Hengstenberg are as untenable with regard to Revelation 11:19 as in relation to Revelation 8:1. Suppose, for instance, that the Revelation really definitively closed here, which, according to Hengstenberg, is assumable. What! is the entire development of God’s Kingdom on earth to close with a 'great hail!'—The wilderness (Revelation 12). Thus says Thomas ΰ kempis: ‘If thou wouldest know and learn somewhat that will be useful and profitable to thee, learn what so few know or are able to do—to be willing to be unknown and to be accounted as nought.’ The wilderness, then, is self-renunciation; not simply barrenness, want, poverty, or the concealment of the Kingdom of God in the Middle Ages.) The Lord withdraws His people from the turmoil of the world: a Moses He buries, as it were, for forty years in the wilderness with Jethro; an Elijah He conceals by the brook Cherith, and entombs a Luther in the narrow cell of a cloister, etc.” [From M. Henry: Revelation 12:10. The accuser, etc. Though Satan hates God’s presence, yet he is willing to appear there, to accuse the people of God. Let us therefore take heed that we give him no cause of accusation against us; and that when we have sinned, we presently go in before the Lord, and accuse and condemn ourselves, and commit our cause to Christ as our Advocate. Revelation 12:11. The servants of God overcame Satan, 1. By the blood of the Lamb, as the meritorious cause. Christ by dying destroyed him that hath the power of death, that is, the Devil. 2. By the word of their testimony, as the great instrument of war; the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; by a resolute, powerful preaching of the everlasting gospel, which is mighty, through God, to pull down strongholds; by their courage and patience in sufferings; they loved not their lives unto the death, when the love of life stood in competition with their loyalty to Christ; they loved not their lives so well, but they could give them up to death, could lay them down in Christ’s cause.—From Barnes: Revelation 11:15 : A time is to come when, in the proper sense of the term, God is to reign on the earth; when His kingdom is to be universal; when His laws shall be everywhere recognized as binding; when all idolatry shall come to an end; and when the understandings and the hearts of men everywhere shall bow to His authority.—From Vaughan: Revelation 12:11. The three weapons by which the Christian victory is won: The atonement made for all sin in the death of Christ; the word or message of God, to which all true Christians bear in act and in endurance a firm and intelligible testimony; and that spirit of entire self-devotion and self-surrender which perseveres even unto death, and stops not short (if God so require) of the sacrifice of life itself for Christ.] B.— FROM THE EARTH-PICTURE OF THE SEVEN . OF THE RENEWAL OF THE EARTH; OR TRAITS OF THE OF THE SEVEN WHICH, IN , WERE SEALED.—IN : THE FIRST AND ; OR THE BEAST FROM THE ABYSS, THE DEMONIC REALM OF THE DEAD Revelation 11:1-14a. The Inner and the Outer ChurchRev_11:1-21 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: [,] and the angel stood, [om. and the angel stood,—ins. he] saying, Rise, and measure the temple [ναὸν] of God, and 2the altar, and them that worship therein [in it]. But [And] the court which is without [outside of] the temple [ναοῦ ?] leave [cast] out, and measure it not [it shalt thou not measure]; for it is [was] given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and [or and] two months. b. The Two Witnesses. The Ideal Church and the Ideal StateRev_11:3-123 And I will give power [om. power] unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore [sixty] days, clothed in sackcloth. 4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God5[Lord] of the earth. And if any man [one] will [wills] hurt [to injure] them, fire proceedeth [goeth forth] out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man [one] will hurt [shall will to injure] them, he must in this manner 6[thus must he] be killed. These have [or ins. the] power to shut [ins. the] heaven, that it [om. it—ins. rain (ὑετός)] rain [βρέχῃ ?] not in [during] the days of their prophecy: and have power over [ins. the] waters to turn them to [into] blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues [every plague], as often as they [ins. shall] will. 7And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast [wild-beast] that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit [om. bottomless pit—ins. abyss] shall make war against [with] them, and shall overcome [conquer] them, and [ins. shall] kill them. 8And their dead bodies [corpse] shall lie [be] in [upon] the street [broad-way] of the great city, which spiritually is called [is called spiritually] Sodom 9and Egypt, where also our [their] Lord was crucified. And they [men] of the people [peoples] and kindreds [tribes] and tongues and nations shall [om. shall] see their dead bodies [corpse] three days and a half, and shall not [om. shall not] suffer [ins. not] their dead bodies [corpses] to be put in graves [a sepulchre]. 10And they that dwell upon the earth shall [om. shall] rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall [or om. shall] send gifts one to another; because these two 11prophets tormented them that dwelt on [dwell upon] the earth. And after [ins. the] three days and a half the Spirit [a spirit] of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw [those 12who beheld] them. And they [or I] heard a great voice from [ins. the] heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to [into—ins. the] heaven in a [the] cloud; and their enemies beheld them. c. The JudgmentRev_11:13-1413 And [ins. in] the same [that] hour was there [there was] a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain [ins. names] of men seven thousand: and the remnant were [became] affrighted, and gave glory to the God of [ins. the] heaven. 14The second woe is past; and, [om. and,] behold, the third woe cometh quickly. AND VIEWThe first figure that we meet with in this chapter could scarcely be plainer; nothing save a lapse into the misapprehensive literal conception could, from this passage, Revelation 11:1-2, draw the conclusion that the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing at the time of these visions. The Temple has always been a symbol of the visible form under which the Kingdom of God has appeared, i. e. the Theocracy at first, and, later, the Church; and even the Temple of Ezekiel most distinctly presents this typicalism (especially in the features of the mystical stream, Ezekiel 47:1, and the voice of the Lord, Ezekiel 43:7). In general, the mystical Temple of Ezekiel seems to constitute a form which is transitional to the Temple of the Apocalypse, in accordance with the symbolical circumstances. The Holy of Holies has become one with the Holy Place, because the time of reconciliation has come; and, on the other hand, the outer court has spread into a number of outer courts, because it must become a place for all nations; comp. Matthew 21:13, Isaiah 56:7. This significance and grandeur of the outer court particularly appears in the picture presented in the Apocalypse. Its contrast to the Temple is likewise strongly set forth. The Prophet is to measure the Temple, but not the outer court. The Temple of Ezekiel is also measured, Revelation 40. But the City of Jerusalem itself is described as an immeasurable place in the Prophecy of Zechariah, Revelation 2:1 sqq. In the Apocalypse, the measured Temple expands into the measured City of God (Revelation 21:15); the unmeasured or immeasurable outer court expands into the ideal domain of the world and the nations, out of which all glory shall be brought into the Holy City (Revelation 21:24; Revelation 22:2). The Temple itself, then, must be measured; a reed is given to the Prophet that he may measure it. The Spirit of God in the Church has within Himself and in the Prophet a consciousness that the inner, essential Church is a Divine definity, chosen by God and known to Him—not a passing cloud, a drifting, shifting, transitory object. That which is here expressed by measure, is twice declared by the number 144,000 (chaps. 7 and 14). So the Northern Mythology claims that the heroes of Odin are numbered. A still more remarkable circumstance is that the Altar also is measured—the Altar of incense—the whole domain of holy prayer-life. And, humanly speaking, this belongs to the most conscious consciousness of God—to the inmost intuition (innersten Erinnerung) of the Church. Finally, the worshippers in the Temple are to be measured. For the spiritual nature and development of every individual believer, the degree and the species of his glory, are known to God; they repose upon the individual capacities and disposition of each believer, as determined from eternity, his free agency being in nothing impaired (see Matthew 6:27). In antithesis to these Divine fixities, an immeasurable indefiniteness is reserved for the outer court. There can be nothing hostile in the direction to cast it out; the words can be expressive only of the decree that it is not to be measured along with the Sanctuary, that the consciousness of its externality is to be made permanent. For in its very quality of an outer court, it already lies outside of the Temple; and, furthermore, the direction: cast it out (on the milder or more general signification of ἐκβάλλειν, see the Lexicons) is modified by the words: measure it not. And why not? For it is given to the Gentiles. This does not mean merely, because the throng of the Gentiles—of such as are not subjective, living Christians—is immeasurable, but also because their assembly is fluctuating; because the outer court denotes the vestibule to the Sanctuary—a preparation for entrance into the Sanctuary. Of course, so long and in so far as the Gentiles are Gentiles, they trample on the outer court, as is also declared concerning the impenitent Jews, Isaiah 1. They are loungers, street-walkers [Pflastertreter] in a religious sense; their outer court is the entire Holy City, i. e., the Church as an external body; they are they who, according to another figure, “stand all the day idle in the market.” In the Christian service of the Sanctuary, they constitute the ebbing and flowing mass; they may, as a pious man once paradoxically expressed himself, sit in the way of the truly devout. Their theological knowledge consists partly of gross popular conceits, partly of spiritualistic mist. In confession, they strain the Divine word, in one direction, into a literal ordinance, and relax it, in the other direction, until nothing but an uncertain sentiment remains. In matters of practical piety, they are either violently active or inconstant and wavering. In all cases, the treading of the outer court is the leading feature of their devotions. In regard to the import of the forty-two months, Dόsterdieck and others believe, that they are connected with “the type of the duration of the down-treading of the Holy City by Antiochus Epiphanes.” That, however, lasted but three years (see 1Ma 4:59; comp. 1Ma 1:55). Moreover, the different designations of the theocratic time of tribulation (a time, two times, and half a time, Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:7), according to times, years, months or days, are not without a mutual connection (see Introduction, p. 16). The forty-two months are the times of the pilgrimage of Christianity through the world, bearing the cross of suffering—suffering inflicted on the internal Church through the external Church. These times are defined as forty-two little periods of change. The second picture, in the history of the Two Witnesses, treats of another antithesis—that of the Christian Church and the Christian State. For the voice of the Lord which, in the text, so simply speaks of His two Witnesses, we, in face of the many marvels which have here been found, conceive of as setting forth the antithesis of the Christian Church and the Christian State; and this in accordance with the original passage in the Prophecy of Zechariah, on which the present passage is founded. The candlestick of Israel, the light and law of the Theocracy (Zechariah 4:2), receives its oil from the two olive-trees, or sons of oil, standing at the right and left of it (Revelation 11:3-4). Now these, as they stand before the Ruler of the whole Earth, are, according to the context (Revelation 3), Joshua, the High-Priest, the typical representative of the future Church, concerning whom it is expressly declared, that he stands before the Angel of the Lord, and Zerubbabel the governor, the typical representative of the future State, distinguished by like dignities (Revelation 4:6-7). Many, no doubt, will regard this conception as too home-spun—not sufficiently ingenious or anecdotical. But, let us further remark, the removal, through the Man of Sin, of the hindrance to Antichristianity—the κατέχον (2 Thessalonians 2:6), or κατέχων (Revelation 11:7)—coincides precisely with the removal of the two olive trees [German, sons of oil] through the medium of the Beast out of the abyss. The two Witnesses of God prophesy. To prophesy is to aid in opening for the Kingdom of God a way into the future, by declaring the signs of the future. True advances, developments and reforms, are prophecies in act. All sound dogmas of the Church, as well as all sound laws of the State, are prophecies. Both Witnesses prophesy clad in sackcloth—in the penitential garb of the Church Militant and of the State, which latter is engaged in an incessant struggle with the ungodly spirit of the world. Here the movement continues through an uninterrupted chain of days’ works—one thousand two hundred and sixty days. The time is equal to the forty-two months, but is viewed from an entirely different point; the whole Church and the whole State, in their higher aspect, are denoted here. As, however, Church and State are distinct under the new dispensation, their oil no longer flows together in one candlestick; both are olive trees [oil-trees]; both, also, are candlesticks. Again, they stand before the God of the earth; i. e., they unitedly represent firm, historic order, authority,—symbolized by the earth. Both have retained somewhat of the Old Testament character, the Elijah nature; and they are, manifestly, drawn after the type of Elijah. When they desire to injure any one, fire goeth forth out of their mouth. This can, of course, only be spiritual fire; just as the sword issuing from the mouth of the Lord, is but a spiritual sword. Nevertheless, it is a fire of judgment; it devoureth their enemies. The death that they inflict upon those who offend them, cannot he apprehended as the spiritual death in order to the new life; at least social death must be understood—exclusion from religious communion and civil fellowship, practiced in the Middle Ages under the great and gloomy forms of outlawry and excommunication. Their power to shut the Heaven, that it rain not, is most strongly suggestive of Elijah; whilst their power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall will, recalls the wonders done by Moses in Egypt. They can shut Heaven. The meaning of this is, they can check and withhold the blessings of the Spirit. To turn the waters into blood, is to darken the currents of national life through wars and bloodshed. To smite the earth with every plague, means to curtail the blessing of the historical authority or order of things in every way, and to convert it into a curse. As often as they shall will, adds the Seer, thereby indicating a great development of despoticalness and autocracy in their power. Can it be supposed, we ask, that toward the end of the New Testament economy, two persons could appear as Prophets, having power to answer personal grievances with devouring fire? Or having power, at their own discretion, to bring forth in nature such wonders of judgment, and inflict them upon the earth? The Church and the State, however, have, in a symbolical sense, acted after precisely the Old Testament fashion here described, and that, with such a mingling of their qualities, as though they had done all things in common. They have likewise, in respect of their fundamental tendency, prominently set forth by the Seer, prophesied, i. e., served the cause of development; and they have been Witnesses of God—representatives of His light and justice. The predominantly Old Testament character of the past and present fulfillment of their mission, undoubtedly aids in cutting short the time of their testimony and in facilitating the triumph of the Beast over them. In consequence of the severity—in many respects excessive—of their rule, as manifested, particularly, in the form of the mediζval excommunication, and the military and judicial system of the same period, a two-fold Helot rancor, an ecclesiastical and political resentment, has ineffaceably impressed itself on the memory of the agitated life of the nations, bringing near the fatal time at which the Beast of Antichristianity may ascend out of the abyss. Be it observed that Antichristianity passes through three climactic stages before attaining to perfection; exhibiting itself first in the form of the Beast out of the abyss, next in that of the Beast out of the sea, and finally in that of the Beast from the earth. The Beast out of the abyss possesses, as yet, no positive popular and human apparent form, much less the complete mock-holy semblance of the Lamb, possessed by the Beast from the earth; it first comes forth, as a bodiless spirit, from the abyss, in the power of a predominantly demonic spirit of the times, or party spirit. This spirit has ascended from the abyss, i. e., the demonic region of the realm of the dead, which constitutes a transition-form to the final hell. In this respect he is suggestive of the spirit of gloom which arose from the abyss at the fifth Trumpet. And from the fact of this resemblance, it results that he does not necessarily appear in the naked forms of lawlessness [Anomismus]. There is a gloomy churchly form which is subversive of the true Church, and a passionate state-form which undermines the true State. If we have recognized in the two Witnesses the intimate union between Church and State, as respects the bright side of both institutions, it becomes evident that their absolute disagreement must speedily be followed by self-dissolution. The true spirit of the Church can, indeed, long curb the wantonness of the State; the true spirit of the State can long protect the Church against a false ecclesiastical system. But mankind has already seen the false Church-form in conflict with sound State principles, and vice versβ. And mankind must finally see the Church ruined by the Church, the State by the State, because in the case of each, sombre party-spirit has taken the place of right principles. The Beast, then, shall make war with the two Witnesses—not merely a word and pen war, but also the war of social breach. He shall conquer them in public opinion, as men say, and complete his triumph by killing them. They are killed when destroyed as to their true principles—when the masses rule over faith and worship [Kultus] in the Church, over morals and culture in the State; or when, in the State, the last trace of kinship with the Church is destroyed through principial Atheism, and the last trace of political or social discipline and duty has disappeared from the Church. Then are they killed, even though their outward forms continue to exist, like the shades of departed substances, as, for instance, the forms of the Roman Republic under the first Emperors. It is most significantly said: their corpses lie in the street of the great city. Their bodies, therefore, are not formally buried and put out of sight; they remain in the public street of the great city, under the eyes, and amid the surging to and fro, of a society fundamentally anarchical. The great city itself is called Sodom and Egypt. Sodom is the symbol of perfect unnaturalness; Egypt is the symbol of a magical natural science and deification of nature. The two extremes, in their abominable coalition, are the Janus heads of a world which, in her deification of nature, is fundamentally at variance not only with God, but also with the kernel or inmost essence of nature itself. There, adds the Seer, their Lord was crucified. The crucifixion of Christ was itself the result of a coalition of the spiritual unnaturalness of Judaism—self-murderous, in the killing of its Messiah—and the heathen world, which had fallen into sorcery [Magismus] and an intellectual cultus of nature. Thus, as the murderess of Christ, Jerusalem may be the type of this great collective city, Sodom-Egypt; that the real Jerusalem itself is intended, can be supposed only under the erroneous system of an anti-symbolical, so-called historical treatment of the Book. With the symbolical name Jerusalem, however, another collective city, Babylon, might easily correspond. Some of the men, better disposed ones, who still have a remnant of influence left, individuals of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations, shall in the meantime keep their dead bodies in view for three days and a half—not permitting them to be put into sepulchres; assuredly, in the hope of their revival. But the time rich in promise, the time of resurrection, the three days (Hosea 6:2), pass away without affording any comfort; the corpses lie there until the hour of despair, indicated by three days and a half. And precisely this fact is a cause of delight to those who dwell on the Earth, or cling to the Earth in her earthiness—the earthly-minded ones. They rejoice over the apparent destruction of the two Witnesses; they hold feasts and contemplate further festivities; mutual greetings, in the way of presents or compliments, are exchanged, falling, particularly, to the share of the great utterers of public opinion, we doubt not. The reason for all this is as follows: These two Prophets tormented them that dwell upon the Earth. Churchly rule [Norm] and civil law have always, to the true men of this world, who have made themselves at home on the Earth, been as a troublesome fanaticism, only disciplinary and tormenting. But the people who watched their dead bodies have not sorrowed in vain. Finally, out of the horror of the human heart, full of a religious-moral anguish, a super-terrestrial power developes. It is thus not without instrumentality that, in the most disconsolate hour, the flame of the ecclesiastical and the political spirit rises again bright and heavenly, with united brilliancy and glorified beauty; that a spirit of life from God penetrates the corpses, so that they again stand upon their feet, prepared for war and victory, offering defiance to the whole apostate world, and diffusing great spiritual terror over all with whom they come in contact. But they are not commissioned to fight again the former conflict; in the Kingdom of Spirit, they have triumphed through their defeat, like Christ their Lord. Therefore they hear, or the Seer hears, a great voice from Heaven saying to them: Come up hither. But how can the Christian Church and the Christian State have assigned to them an ascension more glorious than that of Elijah—similar to that of Christ Himself? Nitzsch says: “Church and State shall, in their consummation, be swallowed up in the unity of the Kingdom of God.” Let us particularly consider the following in this connection: Their ascension is their exaltation above the former historical, in part pedagogical, forms, into the ideal form of a pure spiritual fellowship. They ascend into Heaven even whilst still on Earth, by being transported into the realm of pure spirit, of perfect fellowship with God. When, however, it is declared, that a cloud envelops them, there takes place a gathering and separation of this perfected congregation of God, this Bride of Christ, from the unbelieving world (Matthew 24:31); and, no less, an alteration of her condition, to meet the heavenly glorification—an alteration characterized as an “ attaining” [Entgegenkommen=coming towards] “the resurrection” (Philippians 3:11); as a being “changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51); as a being “caught up into the air to meet the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Their enemies must be spectators of their beginning glorification. The hour of their glorification, however, becomes an hour of judgment for the world. The separation of the congregation of God from the world is followed by a great earthquake; all the relations of the old human society are shaken and mingled confusedly together by the separation of the salt of the Earth. Thus a great reaction is awakened in the better elements of the ungodly world. The tenth part of the godless city falls in the earthquake. Ten, as perfect development, realized freedom, is also perfect will, decided tendency. Thus, with the fall of the tenth part of the Antichristian world, the back-bone of that world is broken; henceforth it is a confused mass, anxiously expectant of the end. This change is especially brought about, however, by the fact that seven thousand names of men, or men of name, are slain in their names by the earthquake. Without doubt, the reaction of the terrified peoples has been directed with special fury toward their leaders, who, as seducers, by thousands, as spirits, by seven (Matthew 12:45). have promised men the seventh day—the peoples’ holiday. Above all, their names, shimmering with a deceptive lustre, are given up to scorn and destruction. Whilst we must not forget that a cyclical life-picture of the entire New Testament time is here presented to us, neither should the fact be overlooked, that the conclusion of this time is characterized as the second woe—the intermediate one therefore—that which forms the transition from the first to the third woe; and it is in accordance with this fact that we must seek to determine the eschatological import of the present section. We have seen that the second woe has presented itself in the grand succession of heresies (religious and ethical), which run through the entire Christian time; the time of this woe, therefore, coincides with that of the activity of the two Witnesses; it forms the reverse of their dispensation (Matthew 24:26). It has likewise been found that the third woe begins with the seventh Trumpet, as the time of ripened Antichristianity, with features historically developed and determined. The second woe is, therefore, a peculiar conformation of the times, consummated at the defeat of the two Witnesses and continuing until the period of positive Antichristianity. Its characteristic feature is the tremendous rocking of affairs beginning with the bursting forth of Antichristianity. The authorities and guardians of Church and State seem at last to be everlastingly destroyed; the better disposed are but individuals from all parts of the world who, in a manner, keep watch by the bodies of the slain, whilst the ruling party celebrate the excited festivities of an utterly secularized party-spirit. Then, however, by reason of the separation and gathering of the Church of God, a reaction again takes place; the power of the godless city is shaken by the glorious precursory appearing of the congregation of the Kingdom and by the altered sentiments of many of her inhabitants—in whom the change, however, bears the predominant character of a repentance of fear, and can therefore give way to the full manifestation of Antichristianity in the third woe. This period of a purely Antichristian spirit of the times, without final consolidation, is, in more general descriptions, included together with the final revelation of Antichrist, e. g. 2 Thessalonians 2:8. The manifestation of wickedness [or the Wicked One—des Boshaften] has its gradations, as has already been intimated. This time seems to be more definitely characterized by the Beast, which is transformed into the eighth king (Revelation 17:11), and which forms the transition from the seven kings of the old world of authority to the ten kings of absolute democracy. We must, further, not overlook the fact, that even the second woe touches the end of the world, and that even the third woe, the revelation of Antichristianity, reaches back into the old time. In this connection, we would again call to mind the law of the cyclical circles; they ever present total world-pictures, though observing a continual progression toward the end of the world and illustrating always a different aspect of the world. A feature worthy of notice is that the Beast of this second woe ascends out of the same abyss whence, after the fifth Trumpet, the smoke, accompanied by the swarm of locusts, arose; that, on the other hand, it precedes the third woe of consummate Antichristianity, just as the judgment upon Babylon (chs. 17 and 18) precedes the judgment upon the Beast (Revelation 19) We have, then, in Revelation 11, the Earth-picture of the Christian visible world, in respect of its all-sided historic conformation in good and evil; above all, in respect of the conflict, waxing ever more pronounced, between ecclesiastical and political nomism ([Nomismus] in the good sense of the term), on the one hand, and the antinomism or anomism of false liberty, or the modern spirit of the times, on the other hand—a conflict finally conducting, in part, to the ripe antithesis betwixt the Kingdom of God and the world, and ending, in the world itself, with the most extreme fluctuations. [ OF VIEWS, ETC.] By the American Editor[Elliott and Barnes regard Revelation 11:1-2, as properly belonging to the preceding section (the latter part of Rev 11:2 being transitional to the following section) and as indicating the Re-Formation of the Church by those whom the Seer symbolized. The Temple, in the widest sense of the term, (inclusive of the Sanctuary and all the Courts) they interpret “as symbolic of the Christian Church Universal: the Holy of Holies… representing that part of it… gathered into Paradise; the remainder of the Temple… the Church on Earth, the Holy Place,…. as figuring the Church in respect of its secret spiritual worship and character,… the Altar-court… the Church in respect of its visible and public worship,…. the outer or Gentile court is the symbolic scene of the adscititious members from out of heathenism.” The bestowment of the rod (Elliott), as denoting “the royal authorization of those whom St. John here represented… in the work of the Scriptural re-formation of the Church;” the direction to measure, coupled with the casting out, as implying, 1. The defining of those who alone could rightly be considered as belonging to Christ’s Church (“such as in public profession and worship recognized that cardinal point of the Christian faith which the Jewish Altar and Altar ritual-worship symbolized, viz. Justification by the alone efficacy of Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice”);—2. The exclusion or excommunication of “the Romish (and Greek?) Church… as apostate and heathen;”—the recognition of those excluded as within a Court of the Temple, as indicating that those excluded “would continue to appear for a time attached as an appendage to the Church visible.” By the Witnesses they understand the unbroken series of upholders and proclaimers of truth, divided as follows: (1) The earlier Western Witnesses, such as Serenus of Marseilles in the early part of the 8th Century, the Anglo Saxon Church, Agobard, Claude of Turin, etc.; (2) the Eastern line, consisting of the Paulicians arising about A. D. 653; (3) the United Eastern and Western lines, during the 11th and 12th Centuries; (4) the Waldenses and Albigenses originating about A. D. 1170; (5) the Churches of the Reformation.—They interpret: (1) The 1260 days as indicating 1260 years; (2) the olive-trees and candlesticks, that they were to consist of both ministers and churches; (3) the number two that they were to be, (a) a number competent to bear witness (comp. Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:16, etc.), (b) a, small number, (c) possibly the original division into two lines, Eastern and Western; (4) their, being clothed in sack-cloth, that they were to witness in the midst of grief and persecution; (5) their power (Barnes), (a) over those who should injure them, to devour them with fire, their doctrines and denunciations, which would resemble consuming fire (resulting ultimately in Divine judgment); (b) to shut heaven, that spiritual blessings would seem to be under their control. (“During the ages of their ministry, there was neither dew nor rain of a spiritual kind upon the earth, but at the word of the Witnesses. There was no knowledge of salvation but by their preaching—no descent of the Spirit but in answer to their prayers; and as the Witnesses were shut out from Christendom generally, a universal famine ensued,” Seventh Vial); (c) over the waters, that the wars, commotions, etc., which have followed the attempts to destroy them, and which have caused rivers of blood to flow, would seem to have been in answer to their prayers; (6) the war against them, the war of extermination waged in particular against the Waldenses (“from the year 1540–1570… no fewer than nine hundred thousand Protestants were put to death by the Papists in different parts of Europe.”—Barnes); (7) the Beast (the fourth Beast of Daniel, Daniel 7.), the Papacy; (8) the death, the apparent destruction of the Witnesses at the Lateran Council (to which all dissentients had been summoned and at which none appeared) when, May 5, A. D. 1514, the Orator of the Council proclaimed to the Pope from the pulpit, “Jam nemo reclamat, nullus obsistit!” “There is an end of resistance to the papal rule and religion; opposers there exist no more:” and again “The whole body of Christendom is now seen to be subjected to its Head, that is to Thee.” (Quoted by Elliott, Vol. II., p. 450); (9) the not permitting their bodies to be buried, “that they should be treated with indignity as if they were not worthy of Christian burial,” (it was decreed that heretics should be denied Christian burial by the Lateran Council, A. D. 1179; again, 1215, by Gregory IX.; and by Pope Martin, 1227); (10) the broad place (or way) of the City, (Elliott) the Council above mentioned, representing the whole Roman power, gathered in Rome; (11) the rejoicing, etc., the special rejoicings after every new victory over “heretics,” and especially at the close of th Council mentioned in sect. (8)—(see Elliott, Vol. II., pp. 454 sq.); (12) the resurrection after three days and a half, the renewal of witness by Luther—Luther posted his theses at Wittemberg, Oct. 31, 1517, i. e., three years and 180 days after May 5, 1514, when the Orator of the Lateran Council (see above in 8) proclaimed heresy to be extinct; (13) the ascension, the deliverance of the Churches of the Reformation from persecution and into positions of prosperity and influence; (14) the earthquake, the Reformation—“That religious revolution which astonished and convulsed the nations of Europe” (Lingard, quoted by Barnes); (15) the fall of the tenth part of the City, the falling away from Rome of, (Barnes) a considerable portion of her power, (Elliott) England, one of the ten Papal kingdoms; (16) the slaying of seven Chiliads, (Elliott) the separation from the Roman power of the Seven United Provinces of Holland—(Barnes) the proportion of those who perished in Europe in the wars consequent on the Reformation; (17) the remnant affrighted, the alarm of, (Elliott) the remnant of Papists in Protestant countries, (Barnes) the entire unconverted portion of the Roman City; (18) gave glory to God, (Elliott) praise was given by the Witnesses, (Barnes) the unconverted stood in awe at what God was doing. Stuart understands Revelation 11:1-2, “to prefigure the preservation of all which was fundamental and essential in the ancient religion, notwithstanding the destruction of all that was external in respect to the Temple, the City, and the ancient people of God.” The vision of the Witnesses he interprets as symbolizing “that God would raise up faithful and well endowed preachers among the Jews, at the period when the nations were ready to perish; that those preachers would be persecuted and destroyed; and after all that the Christian cause would still be triumphant.” Wordsworth regards (Revelation 11:1-2) the Temple and Altar (of incense) as symbolizing the true Church; the reed as the Scriptures; the measuring as an act “of appropriation and of preservation (Numbers 35:5; Jeremiah 31:39; Habakkuk 3:6; Zechariah 2:2), and also of partition and separation, (2 Samuel 8:2)”; “in this vision of the Apocalypse, the last written of all the Books, of Holy Scripture (the completion of the Canon or measuring rule), St. John receives the reed from Christ and measures the Church.” The two Witnesses he understands as indicating the Church (called two as consisting of both Jews and Gentiles), enlivened and enlightened by the two Testaments (the two olive trees); their persecution, death, etc., that the history of Christ will be reproduced in the history of His Word and Church. The Beast and City he interprets as Barnes and Elliott. Alford remarks, “No solution at all approaching to a satisfactory one has ever yet been given of any one of these periods. This being so, my principle is to regard them as being still among things unknown to the Church, and awaiting their elucidation by the event.” Concerning the Witnesses he remarks on Revelation 11:6, “All this points out the spirit and power of Moses combined with that of Elias. And undoubtedly it is in these two directions that we must look for the two witnesses or lines of witnesses. The one impersonates the law, the other the Prophets. The one reminds us of the Prophet whom God should raise up like unto Moses; the other of Elias, the Prophet who should come before the great and terrible day of the Lord.” As to whether the prophecy is to be fulfilled by individuals or lines of witnesses, he does not attempt to decide. Lord writes as to the measuring of the Temple, “The rod is the symbol of the revealed will of God;… the Holy of Holies… the scene in which God visibly manifests Himself, Christ intercedes, and the Cherubim, the representatives of the redeemed, serve in His presence; so the other sanctuary symbolizes the place or places on earth in which the true worshippers offer Him the public worship which He enjoins. The Altar on which incense, the symbol of prayer, was offered, represented the Cross of Christ, the instrument of His expiation, and thence of reconciliation and access to God.… To measure the Temple, then, was to seek and learn the truths taught in the Scriptures, and symbolized first by the inner sanctuary,… and next… by the outer sanctuary, respecting the place or places on earth which He has appointed for the worship which He enjoins on His people, respecting the expiation on which they are to rely,… and respecting the ministers who conduct the worship He enjoins.… The court, which was on the outside,… denoted the station of the congregation of visible worshippers;… to reject it as no part of the Temple, was therefore, to reject the body of the nominal or visible, as not true worshippers; and the direction to reject it was equivalent to the prophecy that the nominal was not to be a true Church.… The command to measure the Temple was addressed to the Apostle doubtless as representing the same persons as he symbolized in the prediction that he must again prophesy before peoples, etc.” On the subject of the Witnesses, he agrees as to their nature, substantially, with Elliott and Barnes; their death, resurrection, and ascension, however, he regards as still future and as literal. The 1260, and three and a half, days, he interprets as symbolic of years. Glasgow refers the measuring to Apostolic times. “The Apostles (symbolized by John), by inspiration, gave laws of discipline and of morals, for receiving or excluding candidates or members. Thus they measured the House and City of God. And they measured the Altar by teaching the doctrine of the one sacrifice offered by Christ, and of His intercession, and of His government on the mediatorial throne; and they measured the worshippers, by supplying the patterns and rules of duty, and thus furnishing the means of distinguishing the Lord’s peculiar ‘people’ from His enemies.” The outside Court he interprets substantially as Elliott; the trampling of the City, as the predominance “of what Neander and Killen have called ‘the Catholic system.’ ” The Witnesses he also interprets as symbolizing the Paulicians, Waldenses, etc.; he begins the Witness, however, with the protest of the Novatians about A. D. 253, and thus concludes the 1260 days (or years) of prophesying in sackcloth (or affliction) in A. D. 1514. He adopts the opinion that the declaration made May 5th, 1514, in the Lateran Council, referred to above, denotes the death and exposure of the dead bodies of the Witnesses. On other points of interpretation he agrees generally with Elliott.—E. R. C] IN DETAIL Dόsterdieck holds, with us, that the present section really closes with Revelation 11:14. [With Elliott and others, the Am. Ed. regards Revelation 11:1-2 as connected with the preceding chapter. See Additional Note, p. 132.—E. R. C] Revelation 11:1. And there was given me a reed.—After the analogy of Old Testament prophetico-symbolical transactions; see Isaiah 8:1, and many other passages, particularly in the Prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Given.—By whom? The indeterminateness denotes that nothing in the symbolism is dependent upon this feature. The literal interpretation would fain define the giver. A reed—Ezekiel 40:3; Revelation 21:15. [Like unto a rod.—“The word ῥάβδος, rod, is coupled three times in the Apocalypse with the adjective σιδηρᾶ (Revelation 2:27; Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15). And in the same places it is coupled also with the verb ποιμαίνειν, to tend, as a shepherd does. The idea is thus suggested of a pastoral staff.” Wordsw.—E. R. C.] Saying [Lange: Whilst it was commanded].—Δέγων—indefinite form. Bcngel explains, grammatically but not symbolically: the κάλαμος. Measure the Temple.—The Temple in Jerusalem had long since been measured; it, however, is not what is meant here. Neither, indeed, is the measuring to be taken literally. The worshippers, also, are to be measured, i. e., precisely determined. In Ezekiel 40:3 sqq., the measuring of a symbolical Temple is spoken of, whilst Revelation 21 treats of the measurement of the symbolical City of God. According to Dόsterdieck and many others, the measuring here denotes exemption from destruction; the above-mentioned commentator supposes that the treading under foot of the outer court is indicative of actual destruction. Yet the very passages that he cites [in connection with the measuring]—Amos 7:7; Habakkuk 3:6—have reference to destruction, and the idea that the outer court was destroyed, but that the Temple and the worship continued to subsist, is utterly futile, as is in general the so-called historic application of the passage to the Temple at Jerusalem. Dόsterdieck calls the interpretation of the Temple as the true Church of God, allegoristic! One-sided, we admit that it is, to interpret the measuring of the Temple as indicative of a reconstruction of the Church, or to apply the contrast between the Temple and the outer court, in which contrast the chief weight of the similitude lies, to the contrast between the evangelic Church and Catholicism; in opposition to the latter exposition, Catholic exegetes distinguish between good Catholics and excommunicated persons. [See the Absteact of Views, etc., pp. 227 sqq.—E. R. C.] The altar.—The Altar of incense. The Altar of burnt-offering stood in the outer court. [Elliott and Barnes regard the Altar as that of burnt-offering. It must be acknowledged that the language apparently points to the three great divisions of the Temple enclosure—the ναός or Sanctuary, the θυσιατήριον or altar [court], and the court outside the Sanctuary, i. e., the court of the Gentiles. Of these courts, that of the Gentiles alone entirely surrounded the Sanctuary; the inner court merely enclosed it on three sides: the latter, from both its local and spiritual relations to the Sanctuary, could not so well be described as outside (τὴναὐλἠντὴνἔξωθεντοῦναοῦ), as the former.—E. R. C.] In it ἐναὐτῷ.—These words might be referred to the Altar of incense, inasmuch as all prayers do, in a symbolical sense, ascend from the Altar of incense; most exegetes, however, make them relate to the Temple. The main thing, here as elsewhere, is the contrast presented to those without. John is thought even here to have in view the imminent destruction of Jerusalem, differing, however, from the eschatological prophecies of the Lord by predicting a preservation of the Temple, and placing the faithful Jewish Christians therein! (comp. also De Wette, Lόcke, p. 354). Revelation 11:2. And [Lange: But] the court which is without the Temple.—On misapprehensions of the outer court, by Luther, Vitringa, Ewald, see Dόsterdieck. Cast out.—Eichhorn, correctly: Profanum declara. Given unto the Gentiles [heathen].—[On the New Testament force of to τὰἔθνη see Cremer’s Biblico-Theological Lexicon under “̓ ?́Εθνος. The following is extracted: “It is a peculiarity of New Testament, or, indeed, of Bible usage generally, to understand by τὰἔθνη, πάντατὰἔθνη, those who are not of Israel, opp. υἱοὶ̔Ισραήλ, Acts 9:15; Acts 14:2; Acts 14:5; Acts 21:11; Acts 21:21; Acts 26:20; Romans 2:24; Romans 3:29; Romans 9:24; Romans 9:30-31; Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 2:15 : οἱἐκπεριτομῆς Acts 10:45 : περιτομή Galatians 2:9 (cf. Ephesians 2:11): γένος 2 Corinthians 11:26 parallel; οἱκατάλοιποιτῶνἀνθρώπων, Acts 15:17. In this sense the word corresponds to the Hebrew βει (LXX. Sometimes=λαός, e.g., (Joshua 3:17; Joshua 4:1), which signifies primarily nothing but a connected host, multitude.… Τὰἔθνη are the peoples outside of Israel—the totality of the nations, which, being left to themselves (Acts 14:16), are unconnected with the God of Salvation, Who is Israel’s God; Acts 28:28; Ephesians 2:11-12; Romans 11:11-12; Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; Ephesians 3:6; Matthew 12:21. Left to themselves and to their own will, they stand in moral antagonism to the Divine order of life, Ephesians 4:17; 1 Peter 4:3-4; 1 Corinthians 10:20; 1 Corinthians 12:2; Matthew 6:32; Luke 12:30; cf. Matthew 18:17; they are not in possession of the revealed law. Romans 2:14; cf. Romans 9:30; nor are they bound to the rules and laws of Israelitish life, Galatians 2:12; Galatians 2:14-15. It is this moral-religious lack that renders so significant the emphasis laid on the ὑπακοὴπίστεως, on the part of the ἔθνη, Romans 1:5; Romans 15:18; Romans 16:26… Whether in the Apocalypse ἔθνη is opposed to Israel, or, as it appears to me, to the New Testament redeemed Church, must be left to commentators to decide. Revelation 2:26; Revelation 11:2; Revelation 11:18; Revelation 12:5; Revelation 14:8; Revelation 15:3-4; Revelation 16:19; Revelation 18:3; Revelation 18:23; Revelation 19:5; Revelation 20:3; Revelation 20:8; Revelation 21:24; Revelation 21:26; Revelation 22:2.” See foot-note† on p. 27.—E. R. C.]—[ Given unto.]—Dόsterd.: They shall lodge therein as victors, treading the outer court and the entire Holy City. Bengel—better, at least: The outer court is not measured, because an unthought-of throng of Gentiles shall one day worship therein. But something more than a mere future is contemplated. De Wette and others: The bloody sacrificial service, consummated on the altar of burnt-offering, shall cease. Revelation 11:3. My two Witnesses.—According to Dόsterdieck, these must be personal individuals. Personal individuals possessing the characteristics described cannot be pointed out as existing at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, or as living on through the entire Crossζon of the Church down to the end of the world. According to Dόsterdieck and others (p. 382), these two witnesses are Moses and Elijah; according to Stern and others, they are Enoch and Elijah; even Luther and Melanchthon have been suggested. According to Ebrard, they are symbols of authorities, powers, which, however, he pertinently enough defines as Law and Gospel. Since the Witnesses can be witnesses of Christ only, the term, My witnesses, is elucidative of the strong Angel mentioned in the foregoing chapter [who spoke to John, Revelation 10:9; Revelation 10:11, and whom Lange apparently regards as still speaking]. [See Abstract of Views, pp. 227 sqq., and Add. Note, pp. 232 sq.—E. R. C.]. I will give.—What He gives them, is declared by what follows; δώσω, therefore, need not be supplemented by conjectures. Sackcloth, as a penitential dress, Jeremiah 4:8; Jonah 3:5; Matthew 11:21. [As a garment of affliction, see Genesis 37:34; 2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 21:10; 2 Kings 6:30; Esther 4:1-4; Job 16:15; Psalms 30:11; Psalms 35:13; Psalms 69:11; Isaiah 3:24; Isaiah 15:3; Isaiah 20:2; Jeremiah 48:37; Jeremiah 49:3; Amos 8:10.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:4. The two olive trees.—The Seer, as an accomplished symbolist, has descried in the olive trees of Zechariah 4. perfectly admissible types of New Testament affairs. On αἱ ?…ἑστῶτες, see the remark in Dόsterdieck. [“As the olive-tree furnished oil for the lamps, the two trees here would seem properly to denote ministers of religion; and as there can be no doubt that the candlesticks, or lamp-bearers, denote churches, the sense would appear to be that it was through the pastors of the churches that the oil of grace which maintained the brightness of those mystic candlesticks, or the churches, was conveyed. The image is a beautiful one, and expresses a truth of great importance to the world:—for God has designed that the lamp of piety shall be kept burning in the churches by truth supplied through ministers and pastors.” Barnes.—E. R. C.] Before the Lord of the earth.—The Lord is the unitous authority of the earth or the theocratic institution—which formerly branched into Joshua and Zerubbabel, and now ramifies into State and Church. Ebrard interprets the Old Testament Lord of the whole earth as indicative of the king of Persia, and regards the corresponding New Testament expression as significant of the ruler of this world. Revelation 11:5-6. “The individual lineaments of this description, especially in Revelation 11:6, are borrowed from the history of Elijah and Moses. This reference—admitted by all expositors—to the miracles of those old Prophets (miracles which are in no wise allegorically understood) of itself renders it highly improbable that the description of the present passage is allegorically intended” (Dόsterdieck). Most original logic, this! As if historical facts, and especially such as have since their very occurrence assumed a symbolical coloring, might not be employed in allegorical descriptions. A slight examination of the New Testament will speedily convince us that such is not the case. [See the quotation from Alford, p, 229.—E. R. C.] Fire goeth forth out of their mouth.—Jeremiah 5:14. The reference to 2 Kings 1:10 is by Dόsterdieck considered of doubtful propriety, because Elijah calls down fire from Heaven. But even this fact might be paraphrased, in the prophetic style, as follows: fire proceeded out of his mouth, Sir 48:1. If, however, we take the words, out of their mouth, and fire, literally, we have “a fearful reality” (Dόsterd.). This is called historical exegesis. The spectator of such fire-works might possibly say: a dubious reality—magic; such an one would be able to set his mind at rest only by echoing the verdict of Rothe: “God is an adept at sorcery.” Revelation 11:6. Power to shut Heaven.—1 Kings 17:1. During [Lange: For] the days.—If the words, for the days of their prophecy, denote the time of their entire activity, and that with reference to the 3½ years of drought predicted by Elijah, the time of this entire activity would need to be reduced to ordinary years—and this is not practicable. We, therefore, apprehend the passage thus: for the days fixed by their prophecy. Over the waters.—Exodus 7:19. With every plague [Lange: With all (manner of) plagues].—Reference to the Egyptian plagues generally. According to Dόsterdieck, it is inadmissible to interpret even these features allegorically, i e., to apprehend them as allegorical. Whilst the interpretation of Bede—making the power to shut Heaven the potestas clavium—may be too restrictedly ecclesiastical, the more general application of the passage to the withholding of the rain or blessing of the Gospel, is certainly removed beyond the objection urged against it, viz.: that in case of its acceptance, it would be necessary to apprehend 1 Kings 17.; James 5:17; Exodus 7. sqq. figuratively also; and this, apart from the fact that even these passages are not to be taken in so naked a Grζco-historical sense as many seem to suppose. Revelation 11:7. Finished their testimony, the wild-beast, etc.—Preliminary and more general symbolization of Antichristianity. This one Beast branches into two Beasts in Revelation 13. Revelation 11:8-10. In the broad-way [Lange: street] of the great city.—The literal method entails the apprehension of the fact that the bodies remained lying in the City, in accordance with the ancient conception of the great impiety of suffering corpses to remain unburied. The question arises hare, however: are the individuals (Revelation 11:9) of (all) the peoples identical with the persons mentioned in Revelation 11:10, who are described in general terms as the inhabitants of the earth, and are, therefore, enemies of the Witnesses? The text plainly distinguishes between the two classes. There is, then, in any case, a two-fold interest which is subserved by the leaving of the corpses unburied—a hostile and a friendly interest. In Revelation 11:9 it is declared: βλὲπουσινἐκτῶνλαῶν, etc. “That the great City is identical with the Holy City, where the ναὸςτωῦθεοῦ stands (Revelation 11:1 sqq.), and that it is, therefore, none other than Jerusalem, is evident from the context” (Dόsterdieck). Even the literal interpretation is forced to admit that Sodom and Egypt (see Isaiah 1:9; Ezekiel 16:48) is a “spiritual appellation,” the fact being expressly set forth in the text. Yet this appellation is robbed of the greater part of its force, when the attempt to exhibit a distinction (Hengstenberg’s, for instance: Egypt has reference to religious corruption, Sodom to bad morals) is swept aside, with the declaration that the only point of importance is that in which Sodom and Egypt are essentially one, viz.: perfect hostility to the true God, His servants, and His people. The great City.—As the so-called historical interpretation regards the present passage as significant, throughout, of the real Jerusalem (Ewald, Bleek, De Wette, Dόsterd., et al.), the following question arises: Why is the City called the great, and not the holy? Discussions of this question are submitted by Dόsterdieck, p. 370. The question does not present itself at all to a more correct exegesis—one that appreciates the symbolical import of the passage. It is something of a leap to discover, like Calov., here, in the City of Jerusalem, Babylon—in Babylon, Rome—in Rome, papal Rome. Undoubtedly, this great City of Jerusalem is, in essentials, of like import with the great City of Babylon (in the more general sense of the latter, Revelation 16:19); but the context contains a reason for the fact, that the City is here indirectly called Jerusalem, as the city where the Lord was crucified, and there, Babylon. Here, namely, it represents the symbolically modified Theocracy, or Divine establishment, embracing Church and State, as a mock-holy fallen Theocracy; there, it represents the centre of the open Antichristian spirit of the world.—The meaning of the great City is more generally apprehended by Ebrard, p. 342.Different interpretations of the three and a half days see in Dόsterdieck, p. 371. A short time; the time during which Christ lay in the grave; the time which exceeds the term during which corpses should remain above ground; analogous to Revelation 11:2; Chiliastic computations of the number. Revelation 11:11. And after the three days and a half, a spirit of life, etc.—materially [as distinguished from grammatically, Hengstenberg’s interpretation of πνεῦμαζωῆς as the Spirit of life cannot be incorrect [Dόsterdieck to the contrary, notwithstanding], since this spirit proceeds from God.—A form of peculiar significance: εἰσῆλθενἐναὐτοῖς. Great fear.—The usual effect of great Divine wonders, angelic appearances, spiritual operations, and especially of the wonder of resurrection. Revelation 11:12. And they ascended, etc.—Suggestive of the ascension of Elijah and, still more, of Christ’s ascension. Revelation 11:13-14. And in that hour.—That is, the events narrated took place simultaneously with the ascension of the two Witnesses and were co-operative therewith. According to Dόsterdieck, not even this earthquake should, as Ebrard maintains, be symbolically apprehended as an extraordinary event. In respect of the numbers, we refer to the Synoptical View. Ebrard’s interpretation, see p. 347; comp. Dόsterdieck, p. 374. In spite of the invincible difficulties which lie in the literal apprehension (the outer court destroyed; the Temple, and even the worship therein celebrated, continuing; the two Witnesses vomiting fire; Christ prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem—the Seer narrates its visitation by an earthquake, etc.), Dόsterdieck, supported, we must own, by notable predecessors, believes that this apprehension is in all points firmly established against the symbolical apprehension. An allegorical text, however, does not cease to be allegorical for the simple reason, that a multitude of wrong interpretations have attached themselves to it. Arbitrary interpretation is not conquered by cutting the Gordian knot and plunging into the absurdities of literalism; that which is requisite and able to overcome it is a more precise and accurate determination of the symbolical expressions and conceptions of the Old Testament. Such a determination at once dispatches the following collection of arbitrary expositions presented by Dόsterdieck, p. 375. Revelation 11:1-2 are, according to Bede, prophetic of the institution of the festival of Church consecration by Pope Felix. The two Witnesses are, according to Lyra, Pope Silverius and the Patriarch Mennas; or, according to others, the testes veritatis; or the Waldenses; or Huss and Jerome; or Luther and Melanchthon. The Beast out of the Abyss is the Imperial general Belisarius, or the Pope. The Temple is the true Church; the outer court, bad Christians, etc. Similar chronological computations see in Dόsterd.’s note, p. 376. In reality, however, most of the so-called allegorists essentially occupy the same standpoint with the historical expositors after Lόcke, Bleek, Dόsterd. and others; both have in view particular historic facts, literally defined; only, according to the allegorists, these particularities are actual, inspired prophecies, veiled in figures. Modern supporters of the historical view have found some portions of the veil indispensable; they, moreover, divide the prophetic items into truths and errors. With all Dόsterdieck’s fondness for literalism, however, he decidedly rejects the rationalistic interpretation, p. 377 sqq. See likewise his further examination of the symbolical exegesis as represented by Hengstenberg. [ NOTE ON THE SECTION] By the American Editor[In the judgment of the American Editor, Revelation 11:1-8 (or 7) are connected with the vision of the preceding chapter Revelation 11:2-8 (or 7) containing an address made to the Seer during that vision, in which the work and death of the Witnesses are verbally described to him. The vision of the Witnesses begins with Revelation 11:9 (or 8). It will be perceived that at that point the phraseology changes; the Seer no longer rehearses what another told him; he describes what he himself beheld. If this opinion be correct, the Apocalyptic stand-point of John at the vision beginning Revelation 10:1, was probably at the period of the death of the Witnesses; in the explanatory narration beginning Revelation 11:3, the narrator described as future that which was to be; but in the description of the vision, John describes as past and present that which (in symbol) he so beheld. The Witnesses.—Who are they? Barnes has well declared concerning the passage which describes them: “This is, in some respects, the most difficult portion of the Book of Revelation.” There are many points in the description which seem to favor the idea that they are, as is contended by Elliott, Barnes, etc., the long line of protesters against a heathenized Christianity; there are other points, however, in which we feel that, on this hypothesis, the symbols are but inadequately satisfied; the miraculous powers ascribed to them, for instance and especially, seem to demand something which the history even of the Waldenses does not fully supply. The thought has arisen in the mind of the writer, that possibly here, as in some of the Old Testament prophecies, and probably in those concerning Antichrist (see Add. Note, p. 339), the symbols may have a double objective—respecting (1) two lines of witnesses which are to be consummated in (2) two individual Witnesses, in whom they are to be fully (as Immediatesimilar Symbols) realized. On this hypothesis (possibly) the lines would prophesy throughout the twelve hundred and sixty years of initial Gentile trampling; the individuals throughout twelve hundred and sixty days of consummate trampling (the three and a half years=twelve hundred and sixty days, during which the lines would lie as dead), and then be literally slain, and lie unburied for three and a half days. On the general hypothesis that lines of witnesses either primarily or exclusively) are intended, two questions arise, viz., What is the period of their rise? and what of their death? These questions are so intimately associated that they cannot with propriety be considered separately; they constitute one complex subject. On this subject there are three particular hypotheses set forth by those who adopt the day-for-a-year theory: 1. That of Elliott, that they began in the Paulicians about A. D. 653; were slain at the Lateran Council, May 5th, 1514; arose again in Luther, Oct. 31st, 1517; and still continue their testimony. 2. That of Glasgow, who agrees with Elliott as to the period of their death, but who places their beginning about A. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ PART END OF THE WORLD [Revelation 11:15 to Revelation 22:5]SECTION FIFTH Developed Antichriatianity. The seven-headed Dragon and his Image [Erscheinungsbild]: the seven-headed BeastRev_11:15-18A.—THE HEAVEN-PICTURE ABOVE THE ON EARTH; OR THE TRIUMPH OVER THE DRAGON, AND HIS FALL FROM HEAVEN TO THE EARTH Revelation 11:15—Revelation 12:12a. Pre-celebration of the VictoryRev_11:15-1915 And the seventh angel sounded [trumpeted]; and there were great voices in [ins. the] heaven, saying, The kingdoms [kingdom] of this [the] world are [is] become the kingdoms of [om. the kingdoms of] our Lord [Lord’s], and of [om. of] his Christ 16[Christ’s]; and he shall reign forever and ever [into the ages of the ages]. And the four and twenty [twenty-four] elders, which [who]2 sat [sit] before God on 17[upon] their seats [thrones], fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty [or All-ruler], which [who] art, and [ins. who] wast, and art to come [om., and art to come]; because thou hast taken to thee [om. to thee] thy great power, and hast reigned. 18And the nations were angry [wroth], and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should [om., that they should-ins. to] be judged, and that thou shouldest [om. that thou shouldest-ins. to] give [ins. the] reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to [om. to] the saints, and them that [those who] fear thy name, [ins. the] small and [ins. the great]; and shouldest [om. shouldest-ins. to] destroy them which [those who] destroy the earth. 19And the temple of God [ins. which was in the heaven] was opened in heaven [om. in heaven], and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament [covenant]: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings [thunders], and an earthquake, and [ins. a] great hail. Footnotes: Revelation 11:15. The plural of the Rec. is based upon a misapprehension of the passage. [Modern Critical Editors read ἐγένετοἡβασιλεία with ΰ. A. B*. C. P. Vulg., etc. The Rec. is supported by only 1, 7.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:16. [Lach. omits the οἱ in both instances, the former with ΰ. A., the latter with A. B., etc.; Alf. brackets both; both are given by Treg. and Tisch., the former with cΰ. B*. C. P., the latter with ΰ. C. P.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:16. [Gb., Treg., Tisch. (8th Ed.) give κάθηνται with ΰet c.. B. C., etc.; Lach., Tisch. (1859), Alf., καθήμενοι with A. P.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:17, [See Add. Comm. on Revelation 1:8, p. 93.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:17. The third item is here om. by the best Codd. [Modern Crit. Eds. om. with ΰ. A. B*. C. P., Am., Fuld., Harl., etc.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:18. [See Add. Comm. on Revelation 11:2.—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:18. On an erroneous accusative in Cod. A., and in some others, see Dόsterdieck. [Lach., Alf., and Treg., with ΰ. A. C., read τοὺςμικροὺςκαὶτοὺςμεγάλους; Tisch., with ΰcc. B. P., gives τοῖςμικροῖς, κ. τ. λ..—E. R. C.] Revelation 11:19. The reading ὁἐντῷοὐρανῷ. Alf. om. ὁ with ΰ. B.; Treg. and Tisch. give it with A. C. P., etc. Crit. Eds. generally give οὐρανῷ without the add. of ἄνω as in ΰ*.—E. R. C.] Revelation 12:1-12b. The Theocracy. Christ. The Churches of the Wilderness, or Church of the Cross1And there appeared [om. there appeared] a great wonder [sign (σημεῖον)—ins. was seen] in [ins. the] heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2And she being with child cried [crieth], travailing in birth [om. in birth], and pained [tormented] to be delivered 3[bring forth]. And there appeared [was seen] another wonder [sign] in [ins. the] heaven; and [,] behold [,] a great red [πυῤῥός] dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and [ins. upon his heads] seven crowns [diadems] upon his heads [om. upon his heads]. 4And his tail drew [draggeth] the third part of the stars of [ins. the] heaven, and did [om. did] cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which [who] was ready to be delivered [about to bring forth], for to devour her child as soon as it was born [that, when she should bring forth, he might devour her child]. 5And she brought forth a man child [male son (υἱὸνἄρσεν)] who was [is (μέλλει)] to rule [shepherdize] all [ins. the] nations with a rod of iron [an iron rod]: and her child was caught up [away (ἡρπάσθη)] unto [to] God, and to [to] his throne. 6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath [ins. there] a place prepared of [by (ἀπό)] God, that [ins. there] they should feed [may nourish] her there [om. there] a thousand two hundred and threescore [sixty] days. c. Establishment of the Church Triumphant in the Heaven of the inner Spirit-life on Earth. Freedom of the Invisible Church7And there was [ἐγένετο] war in [ins. the] heaven: [,] Michael and his angels fought against [warring with] the dragon; and the dragon fought [warred] and his angels, 8and [ins. they] prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in [ins. the] heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out [thrown down (ἐβλήθη)], that [the] old [ancient] serpent, [ins. that is] called the [om. the] Devil, and [ins. the] Satan [or adversary], which deceiveth [that seduceth or misleadeth (ὁπλανῶν)] the whole world [inhabited world (οἰκἰυμένην)]: he was cast out [thrown down] into [unto] the earth, and his angels were cast out [thrown down] with him. 10And I heard a loud [great] voice saying in [ins. the] heaven, Now is come [ins. the] salvation, and strength [the power], and the kingdom of our God, and the power [authority] of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast [thrown] down, which accused [that accuseth] them before our God [ins. by] day and [ins. by] night. 11And they overcame [conquered] him by [on account of] the blood of the Lamb, and by [on account of] the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives [life (ψυχήν)] unto the [om. the] 12death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabited of [om. the inhabiters of] the earth and of [om. of] the sea! for [because] the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath [anger], because he knoweth that he hath but a [om. but a] short [little] time. AND VIEWHere, manifestly, the beginning of the End commences, and, consequently, the second division of the Apocalypse. It begins with the heavenly pre-celebration of the victory over the Dragon—Satan—and over his representative on earth—the Beast, i. e., Antichrist. This precelebration is linked to the blast of the seventh Trumpet. A striking turn in the description is found in the fact, that the Spirit of prophecy does not make the seven-headed Beast appear immediately upon the blast of the seventh Trumpet, as the seven Trumpet-Angels emerged from the seventh Seal. In like manner, the vision of the seven Seals might not directly follow the picture of the seventh Church; nor, furthermore, can the seven Vials of wrath be immediately linked to the seven heads of Antichrist, and this irrespective of the fact, that these [the heads] constitute, in the first place, a unitous phenomenon. If it had been designed that the seven Thunders should be particularly set forth, they would have followed upon the seventh Trumpet, whilst the seventh Thunder would have been succeeded by the announcement of the Antichristian time. The sealing of the seven Thunders, however, necessitated a modification of the outward consequence of the septenaries; nor could the new Divine manifestations issue from the preceding bad human conditions, but could only follow them as judgments. From the seventh Trumpet great or powerful voices proceed. Not one voice, but a chorus of voices—and those, mighty, voices—concordantly proclaim the great victory This is, manifestly, an expression of the strongest assurance of victory, developed in the very face of the emergence of Satan and his Antichrist. This assurance of victory in Heaven is also an assurance of victory in the spirit-realm of the Kingdom of God in this world, i. e., in the invisible Church. It is a fundamental feature of the Kingdom of God, that this assurance of victory has been in process of more and more glorious development from the Protevangel down to the consummation of the New Testament (1 John 5:4). And, indeed, with the death and resurrection of Christ the victory is, in principle, decided, so that there is no longer question save as to the full development of the principle into the visible appearance. But in what manner do the voices proclaim the victory? The kingdom of the world is become our Lord’s and His Christ’s, and He shall reign to the ζons of the ζons. The position of Christ toward God the Lord is economically modified here, because the kingdom relationship is involved (see 1 Corinthians 15:25-27). Since we must distinguish between a Kingdom of power, possessed by God from the beginning, and a Kingdom of His Spirit’s sovereignty in spirits, founded by His grace in Christ, to which, however, the kingdom of darkness stands opposed—an anarchy of spirits, under the lying power of Satan—the point in question here can be nought but the synthesis, already accomplished in principle, of the Kingdom of power and the Kingdom of grace. It is a Kingdom of God over the world, which is at the same time a Kingdom over hearts; or a Kingdom over hearts which, from the invisible Church, goes forth, in dynamic operation, through all the world, finally spreading through the worlds of space, as through the ζons of time. At the close appearing of this Kingdom, the kingdom of darkness is destroyed. With the mere announcement of this absolute Kingdom is conjoined the absolute thanksgiving of pious humanity in the evening of the world; pious humanity as, represented by the twenty-four Elders, the Presbytery of the Theocracy and the Presbytery of the New Testament Kingdom of God, both of which institutions have had so much to suffer from the oppressions of the kingdom of darkness. [See foot-note†, p.152.—E.R.C.] They, lying upon their faces, rightly return thanks to God as the All-Ruler, Who now has taken to Himself—i. e., brought into full operation—His great power. In these words a grand theological revelation is contained. From the beginning of the world’s history, but, above all, in the humiliation of Christ, in His cross, and His cross-bearing Church, God has so greatly restrained His power, in the maintenance of the liberty, thereunto opposed, of moral agents, and in the service of love, as to make it seem as if He had laid that power aside. Now, however, that the seed of liberty has gradually matured, having sprouted up partly on the right hand side, partly on the left hand side, He can unchain His full majestic power, and He has begun His absolute royal rule. The first mark of this turn in the current of affairs is peculiar; it has almost the aspect of a contradiction. The heathen [nations] have become wroth, it is declared; the power of darkness seems just now to be more than ever at liberty. But as, in the second Psalm, the strongly emphasized today marks the very date of the general rebellion against Jehovah and His Anointed as the date of the anointing and institution of His Son—as the date of the crucifixion of Christ became the date of His exaltation likewise—so it shall be at the time of the last great apostasy; even above the wrath of the heathen and simultaneously: with it, the revelation of the wrath of God appears. The wrath of God is destination to death (Exodus 4:14; comp. Ezekiel 12:24; Psalms 90). The suicidal death-choice of the old world, in its apostasy from the living God, brings the judgment of the Divine destination to death directly upon this old world. The living have become a prey to death; the dead, on the other hand, revive. The time of the dead, when it is their turn to have justice done them, has come; the retributive judgment must be held, in which God gives to His servants their reward, i. e., the final perfect and solemn restoration, which forms the antithesis to all the ignominy and sorrow of their historic life. And here the Old Testament Prophets and the New Testament saints are beautifully linked together; and with them, all the God-fearing, who have kept the name of God—their knowledge of God—sacred; all, both small and great, in the whole sphere of God’s Kingdom. For they all had to suffer from the destroyers of the earth—of Divine order on Earth, as well as of Nature and Earth in the literal sense. But the time of compensatory retribution is likewise the time of punitory retribution: the destroyers of the Earth must themselves be destroyed. The judgment is consummated amid the complete revelation of that idea of justice by which it is put in execution. Hence the Temple of God in the Heaven is opened, i. e., the radiant archetype of the Kingdom of God on Earth is revealed in its ideal and dynamical authority for mankind. The Ark of the Covenant in this Temple becomes visible; the heavenly rule [Norm] of the condemning law, as well as of the real redemption, is made known to all the world. Nor is the radiant appearance all; it produces, as a vital phenomenon, in the richest manifestations of its powers, lightnings, or revelations of the Spirit; voices, or Divine words and thoughts; thunders, or lively stirrings of soul; earthquake, or convulsions of the old world; and a great hail, as a symbol of the conflict betwixt Heaven and Earth: fire and cold issue from the disclosure of the heavenly spirit-world at the end of the world. And now the history of Antichristianity on Earth is prefigured by the history of it in Heaven. Here Heaven is manifestly the pure celestial sphere of spirit and of spirits, the background of all occurrences in that general history of the world which is visible to all. A great sign appears in this Heaven. A Woman, the Kingdom of God, modified by the feminine receptivity of the human mind, is seen. She makes her appearance in the unity of the Old Testament Theocracy and the New Testament Kingdom of Heaven; she is adorned with the sun of revelation; with the moon, as a symbol of nature, in its subserviency to the Kingdom of God (and also as symbolizing the change of times), under her feet; and a crown of twelve stars upon her head—the adornment of a plenary number of elect spirits appertaining to her. The Seer has deeply felt the conflict of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, as is proved by the words: And she, being with child, crieth, etc.; the Lord’s people, together with Himself, have experienced these throes of the Messiah (see John 16:21). This sign is accompanied by another: Behold, a great fiery-red Dragon. In Heaven! how is this possible? Heaven is that realm of spirit and of spirits in which Christ overcame Judas (see the author’s Leben Jesu, Book ii., p. 1328), without the observation of mere historical men, in their external world; hence, it is the spiritual back-ground of worldly history. In this Heaven, the great red Dragon appears; the winged primeval serpent, at once serpent and swine; signalized as a monster, not only by the fiery hue of the murderer, but also by the seven heads, and especially by the disproportion between the seven heads, or the caricature symbol of holy intelligence—not to say of a Holy Spirit—and the ten horns or the symbols of worldly power; the heads only are adorned with diadems, thus making the worldly power appear as unauthorized might, obtained by artifice. Farther on, the Dragon, the ancient serpent (Genesis 3), is expressly called the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9; Revelation 20:2). These seven heads of the Dragon are not to be identified with the seven heads of the Beast, nor are they to be referred to historical shapes; they are seven spiritual deformities which ape the seven Spirits, or ground-forms of the Spirit. It is declared concerning his first exertion of violence: His tail draggeth the third part of the stars of the Heaven, and cast them upon the Earth. This cannot be regarded as significant of the apostasy of a portion of the angels, since the angels of the Dragon are spoken of, further on, as still in Heaven. The passage should rather be interpreted in accordance with Revelation 8, particularly Revelation 12:10. The third part of the spirits designed as light-bearers in the human Heaven are, by the violent oscillations of the demonic tail—overpowered, that is, by the impressions of apparently irresistible vivacity and might—swept from the Heaven of spiritual purity, and cast upon the Earth; made subservient to worldly-mindedness, in order to the more thorough transformation of God’s Earth (Psalms 93) into an Earth estranged from God. The preliminaries to the crucifixion of Christ were, in particular, the fruit of this act of the Dragon. Fallen stars constituted the government of Palestine and the majority of the Sanhedrin; even the Messianic hopes of the Jews were satanically empoisoned. In the face of Christ’s appearance, however, the machinations of the Dragon concentrate themselves; for Christ is the glorification of the personal God, of love in the love-kingdom of personal life, by means of an absolutely worthy personal conduct; Satan, on the other hand, is the seducer and accuser of men, who tends to sink the whole world in worldliness—to plunge the personal kingdom into the service of impersonal things, by means of the lying perversion of his own true creaturely essence into the semblance of a false divinity. Shamelessly, therefore, the Dragon takes his stand before the Woman who is about to be delivered, that he may devour her child. Thus was the power of evil concentrated in Israel at the very moment when Christ, in respect of His historical descent from the eternal congregation of God, extending through the Theocracy and the Church, was about to be born. But the new-born Child is a man—the Man, simply (Isaiah 9)—destined, in the words of the Old Testament (Psalms 2), to rule [shepherdize] the nations with a rod of iron; ordained to the government of the world in redemptive and judicial righteousness—for Satan, therefore, unattainable in His essence (John 14:30). His own name for Himself is the Son of Man, in the highest sense. Pilate calls Him the Man [ὁἄθρωπος=Mensch, human being]. The vision calls Him the Man [Mann (υἱὸνἄρσεν)], in the highest sense of the term. And here, in accordance with the spiritual, ζonic aspect of the history, there is no special reference to the sufferings of Christ; His death itself forms a part of His elevation above every assault of Satan; hence it is declared: her Child was caught away to God and to His Throne. This exaltation (Philippians 2:6 sqq.) is at the same time the foundation of the Church Triumphant in Heaven and on Earth. Of the Woman it is said, that she fled into the wilderness. She is the same who bore Christ—hence, the Old and New Testament Church in undivided unity. The wilderness, prepared for her by God as a place of shelter, exhibits a transformation similar to that presented by the cross. As the cross, from the tree of the curse, has become the symbol of salvation, so this wilderness, from being the abode of demons (Leviticus 16:22; Matthew 4; Matthew 12:43), was changed into a refuge from the Arch-demon. This wilderness is the perfect New Testament renunciation of the world, which makes the Church on Earth, in respect of its invisible kernel, like unto the Church in Heaven. The entrance thereto is baptism into the death of Christ (Romans 6); its external form is asceticism; its security is courage for the cross; its verdant oases are the triumphs of the martyrs. The time of residence in this wilderness is modified after the measure of the New Testament trial-time; not in the form of the change of times (Revelation 11:2), but in that of uninterrupted days’ works—twelve hundred and sixty days (Revelation 11:3). In regard to the Woman herself, the notation of time is more obscure, less definite, and gloomier: a time, two times, a half time (Revelation 12:14; Daniel 12:7)—running, we may say, into apparently endless helplessness or destitution (Luke 18:1). The succeeding scene is most wonderful. The theatre of this war in Heaven—a conflict marvellous when considered merely in the abstract—is, we believe, the spiritual and spirit world of the Church Invisible—not, however, the Heaven of Christ’s glory. The nature of the conflict is equally remarkable: Michael and his angels (as the attacking party) war with the Dragon; but the Dragon also wars, and his angels (as the resisting party). We have shown elsewhere that the Archangel Michael is an image of Christ victoriously combatant. Christ is an Archangel in His quality of Judge; and He appears as Judge, not only at the end of the world, but also in the preservation of the purity of His Church (Acts 5:1 sqq.; 1 Corinthians 5:1 sqq.). That Christ has His angels also—those that war with Him—not merely in the evening of the world, but from the beginning, is a fact which John has previously intimated in his Gospel (John 1:51); they are the principles and spirits which are with Him absolutely. And so the Dragon also has his angels, his assistants. Since the foundation of Christ’s Church, Christian and Antichristian principles have been warring with each other—primarily, in spiritual, intellectual and ethical forms (John 14 [John 15?]). These battles are not simply central general combats, but a sum of great single conflicts. Michael wars; the angels war; the Dragon wars, and his angels. But, with them, he is defeated. Why is it so concisely declared: they prevailed not? Be it observed, in the first place, that the principial victory of Christ has already taken place, and that the final historic victory cannot yet be intended. But Satan is totally defeated, in so far as respects the fact, that the New Testament Heaven, in its central essence, is thoroughly purged from him and his angels; in Heaven their place is no more found. That is, as the Church Triumphant is now established in Heaven, so, in correspondence with it, the Church on Earth has also a place that is purified from all Satanic essence—the sphere of pure Christian spiritual life, the communion of saints. Out of this Heaven, therefore, is cast the great Dragon, the ancient Serpent (the demonic seducer of Adam); the Devil and Satan, as the slanderer and enemy of mankind (Job 2), who has continually changed the conception: man is sinful and wicked—into the calumniatory sentence: he is fundamentally bad; and this, on account of his success in approving himself the seducer of the whole world. When it is declared, that the whole Satanic troop is cast upon the Earth, in company with its leader, it cannot be necessary to apprehend the declaration in an astronomical or local sense. Expelled from the inner Church, Satan now directs his whole assault against the outer Church. The wheat of Christ’s field remains pure; but the field, as such, becomes impure: the enemy sows his tares amongst the wheat. The foundation of the holy Church, the communion of saints, is an infinitely glorious achievement. A great voice pronounces the hymn of victory; it is a single, common triumphant consciousness of all the heavenly throng. Now there is founded, with Christ and through Him, a pure, eternal Heaven, which descends from Heaven to Earth. And with the pure Church, the New Testament Kingdom of Heaven is established, in which God reigns with three attributes: He has taken upon Himself the salvation—the perfect and final redemption from all evil; He has, further, taken to Himself the power over redeemed souls, and has called in the current of worldly affairs as co-operative in redemption (Romans 8); and, consequently, He has finally assumed the real Kingdom of His Spirit as a sovereignty over all good spirits. The attribute of Christ is, henceforth, the authority, the executive power (ἐξυσία). Such is the constitution of the Kingdom (Revelation 11:15). How all this has come to pass, is intimated in the following words. The negative term runs thus: the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God by day and by night. The temptations to despair, which Satan brought to bear upon the consciences of men, subsequent to his seduction of them into sin, are annihilated, throughout the whole realm of faith, by the sure and perfect peace of reconciliation (comp. 1 John 3:20; Hebrews 2:15). And they conquered him by [on account of] the blood of the Lamb, is the reason assigned for their victory; for it is upon the triumph of Christ that the triumphs of Christians are grounded. Their heart-victories, however, have become intellectual victories likewise, through the word of their testimony; and victories of their entire life, because they loved not their life unto death, when martyrdom was the price of adherence to the truth (Matthew 16:24-25). Therefore rejoice, ye Heavens, and ye that dwell (take up your abode)in them—such is the festal conclusion. Heaven spreads out into a plenitude of Heavens (John 14:2), and these Heavens become peopled with blessed conquerors. A terrible contrast to the above is presented by the last words: Woe unto the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea. The danger is heightened for the world-church of external order and authority, as well as for the surging popular life and the fluctuations of society. For the Devil, as the poisoner of the truly historical powers, has made their common destruction his aim. He has great anger; the principle of demonic worldly-mindedness is excited—the more, as it is a final paroxysm, or because he knoweth that he hath little time. The fact that the Heaven-picture continues to this passage, is proved, among other things, by the concluding hymn (Revelation 12:10-12). [ OF VIEWS, ETC.] By the American EditorI. Revelation 12:15-17[Elliott regards Revelation 12:14 as setting forth the cessation of the Turkish woe—the period of cessation beginning with the battle of Lepanto, A. D. 1571, and extending to the peace (humiliating to Turkey) in 1791, between Turkey on the one side and Russia and Austria on the other. He connects this “second half” of the Turkish woe with the visions of Rev 10:1 to Revelation 11:13, as follows: It was just after the “slaying of the third part of men” (Revelation 9:18), i. e., the fall of Constantinople—and the ineffectiveness of the catastrophe to induce repentance (see p. 210, foot-note), that the Covenant Angel descended (Revelation 10:1)—betokening the Reformation (see p. 218); and also it was just after the fall of the tenth part of the City and the seven Chiliads (Revelation 11:13), i. e., the political earthquake following the Reformation (see p. 228), that the announcement of Rev 12:14 was made. (The beginning of this earthquake he places about A. D., 1569; the battle of Lepanto was fought A. D. 1571.) Revelation 12:15-17 he interprets as a general Heaven-picture of the last time (including the establishment of Christ’s Millennial Kingdom), the development of the great events of this vision being deferred until after “the parenthetic Visions” in chs. 12–14. Barnes regards the description of the events of the seventh Trumpet as closing with Revelation 12:18 (Revelation 13:1); the period extending to the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom, and the vision closing the series of visions beginning at Revelation 5:1. He regards Revelation 12:19 (Revelation 13:2) as commencing “a new series of visions, intended, also, but in a different line, to extend down to the consummation of all things.” Stuart: “One powerful and bitter enemy of Christianity is now, or is speedily to be, put down. The judgments of Heaven, which had been so gradually proceeding, and seemingly so slow, are immediately to be consummated. The triumph of Christianity over opposing and embittered Judaism is to be completed. ‘Their place and nation are now to be taken away.’ The progress of the Gospel can no longer be stayed by them.” Wordsworth agrees with Barnes in regarding this section as closing the first series of visions, and with commentators generally, in regarding it as referring to the last time. Alford: (Revelation 12:14). “Transitional—The episodical visions of Rev 10:1-11; Revelation 11:1-13 are finished; and the prophecy refers to the plagues of the sixth Trumpet, Revelation 9:13-21. These formed the second woe, and upon these the third is to follow (Revelation 12:15-17). But in actual relation and detail it does not immediately follow. Instead of it, we have voices of thanksgiving in Heaven, for that the hour of God’s Kingdom and vengeance is come. The Seer is not yet prepared to set forth the nature of this taking of the Kingdom, this reward to God’s servants, this destruction of the destroyers of the earth. Before he does so, another series of prophetic visions must be given regarding not merely the dwellers on the earth, but the Church herself, her glory and her shame, her faithfulness and her apostasy. When this series has been given, then shall be declared in its fullness the manner and the process of the time of the end.”—“Notice (1), that the seventh Seal, the seventh Trumpet, and the seventh Vial, are all differently accompanied from any of the preceding series in each case; (2) at each seventh member of the series (a) we hear what is done, not on earth, but in Heaven (chs. Revelation 8:1; Revelation 11:15; Revelation 16:17); (b) we have it related in the form of a solemn conclusion (with slight variations), ἐγένοντοβρονταὶκ.τ.λ., chs. Revelation 8:5; Revelation 11:19; Revelation 16:18 sqq.; (c) we have plain indication in the imagery or by direst expression, that the end is come, or close at hand, by (α) the imagery of the sixth Seal, and the two episodes preceding the seventh Seal, (β) the declaration, here ἦλθενὁκαιρὸςτῶννεκρῶνκριθῆναι, (γ) the Γέγονεν sounding from the Temple and the Throne on the pouring out of the seventh Vial; (3) all this forms strong ground for inference, that the three series of visions are not continuous, but resumptive; not indeed going over the same ground with one another, either of time or of occurrence, but each evolving something which was not in the former, and putting the course of God’s providence in a different light. It is true that the Seals involve the Trumpets, the Trumpets the Vials; but it is not mere temporal succession, the involution and inclusion are far deeper,” etc.Lord: The seventh Trumpet is to be followed by 1. The assumption by the Redeemer of the dominion of the earth in a new and peculiar relation as its King, and the commencement of a visible and eternal reign. 2. The resurrection, and public adoption as heirs of the Kingdom, of all saints who have suffered the penalty of death; and the acceptance and reward of all living saints. 3. The destruction of the apostate powers, the Wild-beast, False Prophet, etc. This Trumpet is cotemporaneous with the seventh Vial (comp. Revelation 12:19 with Revelation 16:18 sqq.); the lightnings, voices, etc., denoting excitements, commotions, and revolutions among the nations, and the descent on them of judgments. The opening of the inner Temple and the exhibition of the Ark (Revelation 12:19)(Revelation 13:2), denote, probably, that the mysteries of the former administration are finished, and that thenceforth the reasons of the Divine procedure are to be understood. Glasgow regards the prophecy of the period of the seventh Trumpet as contemplated in only Revelation 12:15. This period he holds to begin with the Reformation and to extend “through all the period of the Vials.” “The Trumpet declares the Kingdom to be Christ’s, and goes on to announce the events by which all rebels are to be brought to submission or extinction.” The voices he interprets as “The voice of Jesus through the instrumentality of ecclesiastical voices. They are the voices of Luther, Zwingli—all the Reforming preachers.” He explains the expression: “His Christ’s,” as relating to the Church (see Expl. in Detail). Revelation 12:16-17 describe a Heaven scene (at the opening of or throughout the period?); Revelation 12:18 (Revelation 13:1), an Earth scene at the beginning of the Reformation. Revelation 12:19 (Revelation 13:2), he refers to the day of Pentecost, when “Peter and the other apostles, by preaching, ‘opened the door of faith instrumentally!’ ” (See Expl. in Detail.) II. Revelation 12:1-12[Elliott: With this section this author regards Part IV. of the Apocalypse as beginning, including chs. 12, 13, 14. This Part presents a “supplemental and explanatory history of the Rise, Character, and Establishment of the Beast from the Abyss, or Popedom; with its chief Adjuncts; and the contrasted Impersonation of Christ’s faithful Church.” The vision of this section be holds to be retrogressive. By the Travailing Woman he understands Christ’s true visible Church, in the heaven of political elevation (invested with Christ as the Sun of Righteousness; the moon, representing the civil authority, under her feet; the stars, ecclesiastical ministers, recognized as dignified authorities before the world); bringing forth with pain (the Diocletian persecution) a son who is to rule, etc., i. e., producing children who, united and multiplied into a nation, are to be raised to dominant political power; (this elevation being first accomplished under Constantine, to whom, according to Ambrose, was given the title “Son of the Church”). The Dragon he interprets as the Roman Empire as a persecuting power hostile to Christianity. He presents the following indications as to the time of the birth and effort to destroy: (1) not until after the close of the Second century, as it was then that the dragon was first used as a Roman ensign; (2) not until the time of Diocletian, as it was then that the diadem was first assumed as one of the imperial insignia; (3) the drawing by the Dragon of a third part of the stars of Heaven indicates that though he was still in the political heaven, his power was diminished to a third part of the Imperial power, and this occurred about A. D. 313, when in two divisions of the Roman Empire, Europe and Africa (under Constantine and Licinius), Christianity was in the ascendancy, but in the third, Asia (under Maximin), Christians were still exposed to persecution; (4) this was the period of the termination of forty weeks (280 prophetic days from Pentecost) of the Church’s gestation. The attempt to destroy he explains by (1) the persecution of Maxi min (see Gibbon II. 489); (2) the apostasy of Licinius, A. D. 323, and the following persecutions. The catching up of the child to God and His throne he regards as the elevation of Constantine, as an avowed Christian, to the undivided throne of the Roman Empire, and the consequent establishment of Christianity, after the defeat of Licinius at the battle of Adrianople, A. D. 323 (see Gibbon and historians generally). (For the explanation of the flight of the Woman, see the following abstract, p. 258.) The war in Heaven he regards as indicating the struggle of Paganism for re-elevation to political power under Licinius and Julian the Apostate, and the throwing down of the Dragon (or Satan, who inspired them) as the final downfall of Paganism, primarily in the defeat of Licinius, and finally in the death of Julian in the Persian War, A. D. 363. Revelation 12:10-12 (1st clause) he interprets as the Church’s song of victory in the “symbolic Heaven of political elevation and power.” The last clause of Rev 12:12 he regards “as a detached and solemn notification by the dictating prophetic Spirit of some woe on the Roman Empire soon about to follow,” reference being had “primarily, to heretical persecutors within the Church and Empire; and, secondarily, to the Gothic scourge.” Barnes agrees, in the main, with Elliott. His most important variations are as to—1. The adornment of the Woman: by the moon under her feet he understands “the ancient (Jewish) and comparatively obscure dispensation now made subordinate and humble; and by the twelve stars, “the usual well-known division of the people of God into twelve parts.” 2. The war in Heaven: he writes, “Another vision appears. It is that of a contest between Michael, the protecting Angel of the people of God, and the great foe, in which victory declares in favor of the former, and Satan suffers a discomfiture, as if he were cast from Heaven to Earth.” Stuart interprets (1) the Woman as the Church (“not simply as Jewish, but in a more generic and theocratic sense, the people of God”) at the period of Christ’s birth; (2) the child as Christ Himself; (3) the dragon as Satan inspiring Herod, Judas and other persecutors; (4) the attempt to destroy as the massacre at Bethlehem and the other assaults on our Lord; (5) the catching up to Heaven as the Ascension; (6) the War in Heaven (the lower heaven, the air) as a struggle between good and bad spirits, “according to the usual popular modes of conception;” (7) “the words of the voice in Heaven (Revelation 12:10 sqq.) are to be regarded mainly as anticipative of victory in respect to the future, grounded on a reminiscence of victory with regard to the past.” Wordsworth regards Revelation 12 as a “Prophetic View of the History of the Church relatively to Rome” (Revelation 12:1-12, relatively to heathen Rome). “The Woman in this vision is the Christian Church; she appeared in Heaven, for her origin is from above; she is clothed with the Sun, for Christ is the Sun of righteousness; she has the moon under her feet, because she will survive the changes of this world; she has on her head a crown of victory (στέφανος); the crown of twelve stars indicates the Twelve Apostles.” The Dragon is the Old Serpent, who is called in this Book the Dragon, see Revelation 12:9; Revelation 12:15-16, where the names Satan, Devil, Dragon and Serpent are interchanged; the Dragon is also described here as having Seven Heads, etc.; diadems are symbols of royally; horns are emblems of power (Luke 1:69); the number seven represents completeness, and combined with the number ten (ten horns), it connects this manifestation of the Dragon with the display of his power, as wielded by the fourth great Monarchy, that of Rome.” He refers the Male Son primarily to Christ, secondarily to the people of Christ; the rod of iron is Christ’s word, the Holy Scriptures, and by it the male children, the masculine spirits of Christ’s Church, are endued with power from Him to rule the nations and overcome the world.” (On the flight of the Woman see the Abstract on p. 261.) Concerning the war in Heaven, he writes: “St. John now reverts to an earlier period, in order to recite the antecedent history of the Dragon, and to explain the circumstances under which he was led to persecute the Woman, and he traces that history till it is brought down, in Revelation 12:14, to the same point as in Revelation 12:6, namely, to the escape of the Woman in the Wilderness; Satan is displayed as he was before his fail from Heaven.” Alford regards the vision of this chapter “as introductory to the whole imagery of the latter part of the Apocalypse,” and holds that “the principal details of the present section (chapter) are rather descriptive than strictly prophetical.” By the Woman he understands “the Church, the Bride of God, and, of course, from the circumstances afterwards related, the Old Testament Church, at least at this beginning of the vision;” by the Dragon, the Devil (“he is πυῤῥός, perhaps for the combined reasons of the wasting properties of fire, and the redness of blood;” the seven crowned heads represent “universality of earthly dominion;” “the magnitude and fury of the Dragon are graphically given by the fact of its tail … sweeping down the stars of heaven”); by the child, “the Lord Jesus, and none other” (“the exigencies of this passage require that the birth should be understood literally and historically, of that Birth of which all Christians know;” (see also Expl. in Detail, Revelation 12:5). Concerning the war, he writes: “The war here spoken of appears in some of its features in the Book of Daniel, Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1 (also Judges 9) … Satan’s being cast out of Heaven to the Earth is the result not of the contest with the Lord Himself, of which it is only an incident leading to a new phase, but of an appointed conflict with his faithful fellow angels led on by the Archangel Michael.” (See also Expl in Detail.) In conclusion he writes: “I own that I have been led … to think whether after all the Woman may represent, not the invisible Church of God’s true people, which under all conditions of the world must be known only to Him, but the true visible Church: that Church which in its divinely prescribed form as existing at Jerusalem was the mother of our Lord according to the flesh, and which continued as established by our Lord and His Apostles, in unbroken unity during the first centuries, but which, as time went on, was broken up by evil men and evil doctrines, and has remained, unseen, unrealized, her unity an article of faith, not of sight, but still multiplying her seed, those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, in various sects and different countries, waiting the day for her comely order and oneness again to be manifested—the day when she shall ‘come up out of the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved;’ when our Lord’s prayer for the unity of His people being accomplished, the world shall believe that the Father has sent Him. If we are disposed to carry out this idea, we might see the great realization of the flight into the wilderness in the final severance of the Eastern and Western churches in the seventh century, and the flood cast after the Woman by the Dragon in the irruption of the Mohammedan armies. But this, though not less satisfactory than the other interpretations, is as unsatisfactory. The latter part of the vision yet awaits its clearing up.” Lord. “The Woman is the representative of the true people of God; … her sunbeam robe, her station above the moon, and her crown of stars, bespeak her greatness, conspicuousness, and majesty; … her cry and labor to bear, denote the importunate desire and endeavor of those whom she symbolizes to present to the empire one who should, as their son, rise to supreme power, and rule the nations with an iron sceptre, etc.” “The great red Dragon symbolizes the rulers of the Roman Empire; the seven heads denoting the seven species of the chiefs of its ancient government; the ten horns the chiefs into which its western half was divided on its conquest by the Goths; … its sweeping its tail through the sky, dragging one-third of the stars, and casting them to the earth, represents its violent dejection of one-third of the Christian teachers from their stations by imprisonment,” etc. By the child he understands Constantine; and his being caught up to God and His throne he takes as denoting “both (1) that he was rescued in an extraordinary manner from the attempts of the Pagan Emperor to destroy him, and exalted to supreme power in the Empire; and (2) that he became in that station a usurper of the rights of God, and an object of idolatrous homage to his subjects.” “That the Woman fled into the desert, signifies that the people of God, wholly disappointed in their expectation of a more favorable rule from monarchs professing to be Christian and exposed to greater evils than they had suffered from their pagan persecutors, were compelled, in order to safety, to retire from the nationalized Church into seclusion.” (See also Abstract on p. 262). Concerning the war, he writes: “Michael and his angels are symbols of believers in Christ, who gain a victory by faith in His blood, by proclaiming His word, and by submitting to martyrdom rather than swerve from fidelity to Him. … Satan and his angels, on the other hand, symbolize antagonists of believers, who endeavor by contradiction to countervail, or by persecution to prevent, their testimony and to maintain the supremacy of idolatry. … The period of this war was the period of the persecutions by Diocletian, Galerius, Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius; and the victory, that change of feeling that rendered persecution and paganism itself unpopular, prompted Constantine to espouse the cause of the Christians, and finally led to the rejection of paganism as the religion of the State.” “The chant (Revelation 12:10) was uttered by the victors, and indicates that the Church was to regard … (the victory) as insuring the speedy Advent of Christ, and commencement of His millennial reign. The heavens summoned to rejoice are the new heavens, the symbol of the risen and glorified saints; … they who dwell in those heavens are the sanctified nations who are to live under their sway; … the land and the sea … denote the nations at rest and in agitation anterior to the establishment of that millennial kingdom.” “That the dejection of Satan and his angels was to be a woe to the earth, indicates that the decline of the pagan party into a minority was to exasperate its priests and rulers, and lead them to more violent measures, to overwhelm their antagonists, and reinstate themselves in authority.” Glasgow regards the Woman as denoting the invisible Church; the Child, all the regenerated children of God, the assumption of the Child, the elevation of the members of the Church invisible to a heavenly status; the Dragon (“the seven headed monster, with his sixth head now fully developed ”), the heathen empire; the attempt to devour, the persecution of the Church begun, in a public and national sense, in A. D. 51, under Claudius, but in an indirect sense in Herod’s massacre of the babes; the flight (Revelation 12:6, distinguished from that of Rev 12:14), the banishment of Christians in the first persecution, A. D. 51. The war he interprets as the intellectual and polemical warfare waged between Jesus (Michael) and His ministers (Quadratus, Aristides, Justin, etc.), and Satan and his ministers (Celsus, Porphyry, Diocletian, etc.), resulting in the dejection, i, e., the destruction of Pagan supremacy under Constantine. The hymn (Revelation 12:10) he regards as that of Christians raised to the Heaven of ecclesiastical superiority; the woe (Revelation 12:12) as implying that Satan instigated the pagan priesthood to resist Christianity to the utmost, and also that after Constantine, Arianism prevailed. Auberlen. “Woman and Beast form manifestly the same contrast as in Daniel the Son of Man and the Beasts. … In both cases it is the human which is opposed to the bestial, only with Daniel in male, with John in female shape. Daniel beholds the Man, the Bridegroom, the Messiah; because he looks into the time when Christ shall reappear visibly and establish His Kingdom upon earth. John, on the other hand, within whose horizon lies, to speak at present only in a general way, the time before the second advent, beholds the Woman, the Bride, the Congregation of God in the world. He beholds her in the figure of a Woman, and this symbolism is not confined to the Apocalypses, but is a consummation of the whole usus loquendi of the Old and New Testaments. It begins in the Pentateuch … (for example Exodus 34:15; Leviticus 17:7; Leviticus 20:5-6; Numbers 14:33; Numbers 15:39; Deuteronomy 31:16; Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 32:21). We find a further development of this view in the writings of the Prophets … (Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 54:1; Jeremiah 2:2; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 2:23-25; Jeremiah 3:1; Ezekiel 14:23; Hosea 1, etc.). In the New Testament the same expression is used by John the Baptist . Thus from the very outset Christ is introduced in the place of Jehovah: in the time of fulfillment Jehovah became Jesus Christ, as His name manifests, ὁΚύριος, the Lord. He Himself calls Himself the Bridegroom (Matthew 9:15). … We meet the same view in the Apostolic Epistles (Ephesians 5:23-32, comp. with Genesis 2.) … All this the Apocalypse sums up in one word, Woman (Revelation 12:1). The characteristic of woman, in contradistinction to that of man, is her being subject (Ephesians 5:22-24), the surrendering of herself, her being receptive. And this is in like manner the characteristic of man in his relation to God, and receiving from Him. … Humanity, in so far as it belongs to God, is the Woman; therefore it is said of Christ, the Son of the woman (Revelation 12:5), that He is a Male-Son. True, He is born of a woman; …but at the same time, He is the Son of God, and as such His relation to the Church is that of Husband to Wife. … This is the simple meaning of the addition of male to son, apparently pleonastic. … Beside Him no man dare deny his receptive, woman-like position; for they who imagine to have life in themselves, who separate themselves from God, rise against Him, and, trusting to stand in their own strength, sink to the level of irrational beasts. The proud nature-strength of man is not of a manly, but of a beastly kind; it is nothing but the brute force of the beast. … The choice of symbols is (not) accidental or arbitrary, but based on the essential characteristics of Woman and of the beast. … Woman and Beast designate the Kingdom [Church] of God, and the kingdom of the world, not only in this or that period of their development in time; but also in general universality.” By the male-son, this commentator understands (as above) Christ; by the Woman, at the period of Christ’s advent, “the congregation of God in its Old Testament shape;” by her adornments—the sun, the supernatural Divine light borne by her; the moon under her feet, heathenism vanquished and conquered by her; the crown of stars, the twelve-fold division of Israel (continued in the twelve-fold New Testament shape, Revelation 21:12). The wilderness he regards as indicating the heathen world whither the Church fled from Canaan; “the flight of the Woman into the wilderness is nothing else but the passing away of the Kingdom, [Church] of God from the Jews, and its introduction among the Gentiles: Matthew 8:11-12; Matthew 22:43; Acts 13:46-47; Acts 28:25-28.” (“The Acts of the Apostles gives us a grand comment upon this in the description it contains of the Church’s migration from Jerusalem to Rome. … The Church’s life is nourished by the kind ministrations from on high; she lives in the wilderness, even as Israel on manna from Heaven; … but though she finds no nourishment, yet she finds a refuge and an asylum in the Gentile world, even up to this day.”) Concerning the war in Heaven (Revelation 12:7-12) he writes: “We cannot possibly find anything else but a description of the fact, known to us from other parts of Scripture … that the Prince of this world is judged by the completion of Christ’s work of reconciliation … There are three stages of the conflict of Christ and Satan. The first is the temptation of Christ in the wilderness; … (the second, the assault upon) those who were near Christ, in order to oppose the Saviour’s work; the third, in which the victory is consummated, is the sufferings and death, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. (What Paul expresses in Colossians 2:15, in a didactic form, John saw in a prophetic vision. The devil is now cast out of Heaven after the Son is raised to the throne of God, Revelation 12:5. The Archangel Michael is appointed the executor of the judgment. For according to Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1, he, among the high angelic Princes, is the Angel to whom is entrusted the defence of God’s Church against the opposing powers in the invisible world of spirits.)” Revelation 12:12 sqq. he regards as setting forth the second period in the history of Satan during which, having “lost his power and place in Heaven, and chiefly for this reason, because (ὅτι) he can no longer accuse men before God,” “he concentrates all his strength (by temptation and persecution) to ruin as many souls as possible.” (See also in loco.)—E. R. C.] IN DETAILRev_11:15. Great voices.—Voices simple are prophecies. In view of the hasty movement of the Kingdom of Darkness toward the revelation of Antichristianity, Heaven is filled with the triumphant and prophetic presentiment that now the judgment upon the dark kingdom and, consequently, the appearance of Christ’s Kingdom, are near. “The question—to whom did these voices belong?—need neither be asked nor answered” (Dόsterdieck). For various insignificant hypotheses on this subject, see Dόsterdieck. This commentator also rightly discards the limitations of the circuit of the seventh Trumpet (Hengstenberg: it embraces Revelation 12:15-17; Ebrard: Revelation 12:15-17), and, in connection with others, maintains the proleptical import of the voices. On the other hand, the interpretation of the words: In the Heaven, as indicative that John is still in Heaven, reposes upon a comprehensive misapprehension of the structure of the Book. The kingdom of the world.—Simultaneously with the Satanic and Antichristian uprising, the imminent emergence of the Kingdom of Christ is decided (Matthew 26:64; comp. Psalms 2.)—as beginning, however, with dynamical operations which are in constant process of development, and do not become perfectly apparent until the end, at the Parousia. Is become our Lord’s.—Rapturous feeling of the Christian consciousness, in face of the apparent rule of the Beast who is about to come forth. He shall reign.—See Daniel 7:14. Our Lord’s and His Christ’s.—Careful observation of the economical relation. Revelation 12:16-17, 18. The twenty-four Elders.—These, therefore, are distinguished from the voices; doubtless, however, as forming the concentrated acme of them. The prophecy concerning the Kingdom of God likewise assumes a stronger expression. First, in the circumstance that the Elders fell upon their faces (see Revelation 4:10; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 5:14; Revelation 7:11; Revelation 19:4). The contemplation of the sublime, thrills us with a sense of our own littleness and nothingness; the adoring and admiring consideration of the sublime, triumphant Divine rule, in its moments of grandeur, casts angels and men upon their knees. In the twenty-four Elders we see, as ever, the elect representatives of the human race. [See foot-note†, p. 152.—E. R. C.] The second element in which the prophecy of the Kingdom presents a stronger tinge, is the form of their adoration: they give thanks, in the loftiest assurance of spirit; they regard what is to come as already decided. “They give thanks, not because they regard themselves as participants in the great power and government of God (Hengstenberg), a conception which is as remote from the subject here as in Revelation 12:15” (Dόsterdieck). As remote, in the sense of hierarchical superiority, and as near, in the sense of humble co-heirship with Christ. Furthermore, the feeling that God is the All-Ruler assumes additional prominence, and the future of His consummate sovereignty has become present—hence the omission of ὁἐρχόμενος. Because Thou hast taken, etc.—In the economy of grace, God had suffered human spirits to pursue their own way in liberty, emptying Himself, as it were, of His power, even to the semblance of impotency (Christ on the cross), that He might then make conquest of souls in this their liberty, and educate them to salvation. Now, however, this economy of salvation is ended, and God brings His whole authoritative sway into active and visible operation again. Thirdly, there is a particular grandeur in the sign by which the Elders recognize the turning-point of the times. This sign consists in the fact that The nations [Lange: heathen] were wroth.—In the very wrath of the revolt, the apostasy of the heathen—and also of the Christian peoples, which have, by apostasy, become heathen again,—the Seer—as, approximately, the singer of Psalms 2 (particularly in the to-day that exegetes have misunderstood)—perceives that the wrath of God is on the point of executing its judgment. Not only has He arisen “against the wrath of His enemies,” but in the very wrath of His enemies, the judgment of His wrath is revealed. Undoubtedly, however, the wrath of God first issues forth, in full revelation, in the Vials of wrath [or anger] which follow upon the wrath of the heathen under the domination of the Antichristian Beasts. The time of the dead.—We understand this, not as significant of the judgment upon the awakened dead, Revelation 20:12, with Dόsterd., but as indicative of the satisfaction imparted to the pious dead by the judgment upon living transgressors (see Revelation 6:10-11). This judgment is two-sided: first, it gives reward to all the servants of God, and that in all proportionate degrees: to Prophets, saints, even to simple God-fearing men—and not only the great, but also the small. This reward does not necessarily begin with the heavenly glory; the most affecting reward is satisfaction, vindication of honor, justification. Hence the second side of the judgment, the antithesis: To destroy those who destroy the earth.—The latter expression recurs in Revelation 19:2. It is in every respect highly significant, whether by earth we understand the theocratic Divine institution, or the basis thereof, the cosmos, which, in all points of its ideal destinations, is laid waste by the enemies of the Lord, even in the direction of an ungodly civilization. Dόsterdieck refers τοῖςδούλοις to the Prophets only, apprehending τοῖςφοβουμένοις as a summary expression for the entire mass of the godly. The distinction of Bengel, adopted by Hengstenberg, accords better, however, with New Testament usage; namely, the servants of God and the God-fearing—by servants understanding the saints together with the Prophets. Nor must the antithesis, the small and the great, be confounded with the same antithesis in Revelation 13:16; Revelation 19:18—interior relations being contemplated here. Revelation 12:19 (Revelation 13:2). And the Temple of God which was in the Heaven was opened.—Herewith begins the heavenly fulfillment of the preceding festal prophecies. The Heavenly Temple is the archetype of the earthly Temple (see Exodus 25:9; Exodus 25:40); it is, therefore, the ideal Kingdom of God. The Church Invisible, then, begins to become visible; even the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies is seen. The meaning of this is, we believe: the ideal import of the holiness of the law and the truth of the redemption becomes a matter of Christian knowledge manifest to all the world. Hence, also, there proceed from this great ideal appearance lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and earthquake, and a great hail—all kinds of awakening and vitalizing convulsions of the spiritual world. They commence with lightnings, with grand radiations of new illumination, and close with a great hail, in which the grand conflict of hostile winds with the heavenly spring-wind in the spiritual atmosphere seems to be set forth. So far as the idea of the heavenly Temple, the heavenly Ark of the Covenant, etc., is concerned, we may remark that the Jewish axiom cited by Dόsterdieck [see p. 150 and foot-note.—E. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section EleventhEarth-picture of Antichristianity. (Revelation 12:13 to Revelation 13:18) General.—The climax manifest in the development of Antichristianity on earth, is signalized by the names: the Dragon, Antichrist, and the False Prophet, added to which, as a sort of supplement, is the dominant Antichristian congregation, with its Antichristian symbols of fellowship. At first, the Dragon has no conscious organs on earth; he does but vomit forth the water-floods, as will-less or unfree masses of peoples, against the Woman, to cause her to be carried away. Nor can he, after this attempt, at first do more than direct his temptations, in single demonic attacks, against individual believers or isolated communities. Subsequently, however, he procures a conscious human organ: the Beast which rises out of the sea of national life, and in which he himself vanishes for a long time. In Antichristianity, which is at first a fellowship of Antichristian sympathies, but which finally becomes personal in geniuses of wickedness who attain their meridian in the Man of Sin, the Satanic essence is reflected in heightened potency. It appears as the consummate compound of all demonic and antitheocratic world-powers, or the four Danielic Beasts. The names of blasphemy, visible on its head, must, doubtless, be regarded as indirect blasphemies; it assumes many attributes of a blasphemous nature, e. g. absolute authority as a ruler and teacher, and the like. With these names are also connected the direct blasphemies which are providentially permitted him by the gift of the mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; aye, which must aid in the execution of judgment upon God-estranged Christendom. That, however, which is in the highest degree conducive to the dominion of Antichristianity, is the apparent perfect revival of it in its ungodly, worldly essence, after the mortal wound dealt to it by Christianity in one of its heads (in a special world-power). Thus are the outward victory of the kingdom of darkness over the saints, and its temporary public rule over the nations, brought about; assuredly, under forms of subtile worldly refinement and by means of the sympathy of infatuated millions. Nor is the devil-worship which is established in the same manner to be regarded as a rude shamanism. The whole submission and homage of the nations arise from a cowardly recognition of the apparently invincible power of falsehood, hate and violence. Violence exercised in the sphere of religion shall, however, meet its judgment; and the more consummate will be that judgment, the more thoroughly the faithful learn, themselves to abstain from all violence contrary to the dictates of conscience and the provisions of justice. Antichristianity attains its full power, however, only through the medium of the False Prophet, who, at all events as such, proceeds from the Church in its external constitution. That he does not conduct the entire institution over to the hostile camp, is evident from the subsequent fact that the Harlot is killed by the Beast; nevertheless, he denotes the true essence of its worldly spirit, the turning-point, subsequent to the appearance of which the familiar relationship between the Woman and the Beast, in which the Beast was at first subservient to the Woman, changes its character, and the Woman is brought into subjection to the Beast. We are thus furnished with a picture of the most disgraceful apostasy, first appearing in back-sliding sympathies, next exhibited in prominent examples of defection, and finally reaching its climax in a perfect genius of perfidy. The consummate hypocrite then establishes the consummate Antichristian congregation, which exhibits the complete counterpart of the true Church, in that it, like the true Church, has its wonders of revelation, its symbolic cultus, its symbolic marks, and its ban of excommunication. Its wonders of revelation, however, are delusions; its cultus is a worship of the Beast’s Image; its marks are brands of spiritual slavery; and its ban is more than the great ban—it is a social outlawry of the faithful. The very mark, however, by which the Antichristian is to be recognized, presupposes the continuance of a quiet Church of God in this troublous time, for the benefit of whose members the mark is designed. Special. [Chap. 13. The Beast and the False Prophet, or the relations, antipathies and sympathies between the secular and the spiritual Babylon. [Revelation 12:13. The Satanic power, the woe-engendering spirit on earth. Also in the domain of the symbolic earth, the institution and order of Church and State.—The spirit of the kingdom of darkness, a spirit of persecution. [Revelation 13:14. The safety of God’s Church on earth, ensured by the wildernesses of poverty and renunciation.—Holy dwellers in the wilderness: Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Christ.—Churches of the wilderness.—The blossoming wilderness.—Borne away on eagles’ wings from the persecutors of earth: 1. Israel; 2. The Christian Church; 3. All believing souls.—Preservation and nourishment of the Church even through times of sorest distress. [Revelation 13:15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth, etc. The dragon now becomes a serpent, and again the serpent becomes a dragon.—The river [water as a river] in its symbolical import, in respect of its bright and its dark side. [Revelation 13:16. The earth under the same aspects.—Historic dependence of the Church on the earth. Her apparent mergement in the earth. Her solicitude for the earth. [Revelation 13:17. Isolated temptations [trials] of the true children of the Church and witnesses of Jesus. By isolated attacks, it is true, the power of faith is divided, but so, likewise, is the power of evil.—Satan seeks Christians. But for what reason? [Revelation 13:1. The Beast out of the sea. His dark intent. His horrible and monstrous appearance. His business (the bringing into vogue of a worship of the Dragon, blasphemy against the Holy One and holy things, and the conquest of holy men [the saints]. His history. His success.—His blasphemy, (a) indirect, (b) direct. Against (1) the Name of God, (2) His Tabernacle, (3) them that dwell in Heaven (see Exeg. Notes).—The great world-monarchies depicted, as regards their bright side, in the human figure of Daniel 2.; as regards their dark side, in the bestial figures of Daniel 7.—Concentration of all ungodly and antigodly principles in the last Antichristian world-power.—The nature of the Wild-beast, nay, of consummate bestiality, in the semblance of, and with the claim to, consummate civilization. The Beast in the antithesis of (1) sensuality and blood-thirstiness; (2) stupidity and an absolute lack of appreciation of the Divine, and deviceful animal cunning; (3) a lust for prey and an impulse to destruction.—The Apocalyptic Beast, in its elegant, spotted body resembling the leopard; in its heavy and clumsy paws resembling the bear; in its heads, horns and crowns perfect monstrosity and deformity.—In what respect may we speak of a conquest of the saints by the Beast, and in what respect is the expression an improper one?—Universalism, or the international power of Antichristianity.—Devil-worship in its gross, subtile and extra-subtile forms.—The heavenly Book of Life.—Watchword of the Church of God under the persecutions of this world (Revelation 13:10). [Revelation 13:11-17. The False Prophet: 1. His types in Holy Writ; 2. His examples in Church History; 3. His fundamental traits at all times.—Apostasy is a twofold hypocrisy, just as hypocrisy is a twofold apostasy (perfidy at once toward Heaven and hell).—Hypocrisy, the mother of apostasy.—Perfidy, or specific depravity, the brand of apostasy.—Distinction between sinners who are only wicked [Böse] and those who are depraved [Schlechte].—Satan, because he finds his tools in the depraved, calumniates all men as depraved, but in this presupposition he is put to shame (see Job; Zechariah 3; Matthew 4).—All tyrants are put to shame when they make the assumption that humanity is rotten and depraved at the core.—God has placed a rock in the midst of the way of worldly history upon which all godlessness must be confounded.—The mock character and work of the apostate. His mock-holiness (like the Lamb); his mock-miracles; his mock-cultus; his mock-church.—Horrid picture of the church of Satan.—Horrible opposites in the nature of evil: in the nature of the Beast; in the nature of the False Prophet; in the nature of the Antichristian community.—Outlawry of believers in the time of the perfect dominion of unbelief: (1) subtile; (2) universal. [Revelation 13:18. The mysterious number. Taken as a riddle, it is infinitely obscure (the most diverse interpretations of it have been given). Taken as a symbol, it is clear enough. The Antichristian signature of a life full of endless, vain and frustrated plots, toils, malignities and intrigues.—The mysterious description of the Beast, a great warning for faith—not a great problem for curious investigation.—The grand combinations of the hellish spirit are always confounded by reason of one mistake in his calculation: 1. He holds all to be as depraved as himself; 2. He says: there is no God (Psalms 14:1), and he regards the holy and excellent ones that are on earth (Psalms 16:3) as chimeras. Starke, Cramer: God has many ways and means of preserving His Church, and can quickly give her wings, that she may easily escape the malice of tyrants—for the Church is to endure forever.—However long or short a space the tribulation of God’s faithful ones is to continue, God has beforehand decreed and meted it out. Revelation 13:16 (Psalms 124:1-5). This style of expression is drawn from the natural shutting up of waters in the earth (Psalms 93:3-4).—Quesnel: No one who is of the true seed of the Church escapes the temptation and persecution of Satan (2 Timothy 3:11-12).—A worldly kingdom is called a Beast because its government is often conducted with bestial irrationality, tyranny, unrighteous violence and brutish lusts (Daniel 7:4; Daniel 7:23).—Worldly kingdoms are subject to many and great vicissitudes, for God setteth up and removeth kings (Daniel 2:21; Daniel 5:25-28).—As lions are of great courage, and very strong and cruel, so the kings of Assyria and Babylon were very haughty, powerful and cruel. As bears are indeed very fierce, and yet have something in common with men, in that they eat all sorts of food, and are especially fond of honey, and can be tamed so that they will dance to our music, so certain kings of Persia were very cruel, whilst others, again, were very amiable toward the people of God. As leopards are spotted, wily and swift, thus was the Grecian monarchy (Revelation 13:2).—The Spirit of God speaks in His children, the spirit of the devil speaks, likewise, in his members.—The multitude and high position of those who profess a false religion do not convert error into truth.—The patience of believers in their affliction is their great crown.—The shape of a lamb and the heart of a dragon.—As the Egyptian sorcerers counterfeited some miracles, etc.—False religions are set up by violence and cruelty; the Gospel, by humility and patience. We should bear in our bodies the mark of Christ, but not that of the beast (Galatians 6:17).—The Antichrist practices two kinds of violence; he deprives true believers of life and (or) of freedom, which is as dear as life.—As the Beast is not some individual person, but a fellowship of men, so the name of the Beast cannot be the name of a prince, etc. The name Adonikam would be quite suitable for Antichrist (Ezra 2:13, etc.), since there were 666 of the family of Adonikam that returned out of captivity to their own land. (It is doubtless from this source, or from the still earlier one of Vitringa, that Hengstenberg derived his explanation.)—True wisdom consists in knowing how to distinguish the Spirit of God from the spirit of darkness. Læmmert, Babel, das Thier und der falsche Prophet (see p. 74): Revelation 13:1-7. After John has seen the pure Church of God and the Dragon which persecutes her, he is made to behold the Beast out of the sea, the Dragon’s representative on earth. This connection obliges us to revert to Revelation 12. H. W. Rinck, Die Lehre der Heiligen Schrift vom Antichrist (see p. 73): Interesting communications and dissertations on the subject of the spiritists [Spiritisten]. The False Prophet is here regarded as the representative of false science, and is distinguished and separated from the great Harlot Babylon. Revelation 13:1-18b. The Antichrist out of the Sea of Nations1And [ins. I] saw a beast [wild-beast] rise up [ascending] out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns [ten horns and seven heads], and upon his horns ten crowns [diadems], and upon his heads the [om. the] name [names] of blasphemy.[;] 2and the beast [wild-beast] which [that] I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were [om. were] as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat [throne], and great authority 3[ἐξουσία].[:] And I saw [om. I saw] one of [from among] his heads as it were [om. it were—ins. if] wounded [slain] to death; and his deadly wound [or the wound of his death] was healed: and all the world [the whole earth] wondered after the beast 4[wild-beast]. And they worshipped the dragon which [om. which—ins. because he] gave power [the authority (τὴνἐξουσίαν)] unto the beast [wild-beast]: and they worshipped the beast [wild-beast], saying, Who is like unto [om. unto] the beast [wild-beast]? [ins. and] who is able to make [om. make] war with him? 5And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power [om. power—ins. there] was given unto him [authority (ἐξουσία)] to continue 6[Acts 7] forty and [om. and] two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy [unto blasphemies] against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell [those who tabernacle] in [ins. the] heaven. 7And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome [conquer] them: and power [authority (ἐξουσὶα)] was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations 8[every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation]. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not [every one whose name hath not been] written in the book of life of the Lamb [ins. that hath been] slain [or ins.,] from the foundation of the world. 9If any man [one] have [hath] an ear, let him hear. 10He that leadeth into [If any one is for] captivity shall go [om. shall go—ins.,] into captivity [ins. he goeth]Revelation 15 : he that killeth [if any one shall kill] with the sword [ins., he] must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience [endurance] and the faith of the saints. c. The Antichristian False Prophet, as the last Product of the Earth—i. e., the Ancient Order of Things—in its Lapse into Antichristianity11And I beheld [saw] another beast [wild-beast] coming up [ascending] out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12And he exerciseth all the power [authority (ἐξουσία) of the first beast [wild-beast] before him, [in his presence;] and [ins. he] causeth [maketh] the earth and them which [that] dwell therein [in it] to [om. to—ins. that they should] worship the first beast [wild-beast], whose deadly [om. deadly] wound [ins. of his death] was healed. 13And he doeth great wonders [signs], so that [or in order that also (ἵνακαί)] he maketh [may make] fire come down from [ins. the] heaven on [unto] the earth in 14the sight [presence] of men, and deceiveth [seduceth or misleadeth (πλανᾷ)] them that dwell on the earth by the means of [because of] those miracles [the signs] which he had power [it was given to him] to do [work] in the sight [presence] of the beast [wild-beast]; saying to [telling] them that dwell on the earth, that they should [om. that they should—ins. to] make an image to the beast [wild-beast], 15which [who] had [hath] the wound by a sword, and did live [lived]. And he had power [it was given to him] to give life [or a spirit (πνεῦμα)] unto the image of the beast [wild-beast], that the image of the beast [wild-beast] should both speak, and cause that as many as would [should] not worship the image of the beast [wild-beast] should be killed [slain]. 16And he causeth [maketh] all, both [om. both—ins. the] small and [ins. the] great, [ins. and the] rich and [ins. the] poor, [ins. and the] free and [ins. the] bond, to receive [om. to receive—ins. that they should give them] a mark in [on] their right hand, or in [on] their foreheads 17[forehead]: and [or om. and] that no man might [one should be able to] buy or sell, save [but] he that had [hath] the mark, or [om. or] the name of the beast 18[wild-beast], or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast [wild-beast]: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore [and sixty] and [om. and] six. AND VIEWPrefatory Remarks on the Relation of Ch. 13 to Ch. 17—It has already been remarked that the figure of Satan and his seven heads (Revelation 12.) (Revelation 12) must not be identified with the figure of Antichrist and his seven heads. Neither must the history of the rule of Antichristianity, primarily set forth as a whole (Revelation 13), be identified with the judgment upon the first third of Antichristianity, the Harlot, (Revelation 17). Consequently, the details also (chs. 13 and 17), especially the parallels of the seven heads, may, indeed, be regarded as similarities, but are not to be treated as identities. This remark applies particularly to the deadly wounding of one of the Beast’s heads (Revelation 13) and the temporary disappearance of the Beast (Revelation 17)—a disappearance certainly resultant upon the wounding. All those combinations that are grounded upon the identity of these two items, which are connected as cause and effect, fall to pieces when subjected to a more precise and circumstantial exegesis. It is impossible to overlook the antithesis, that, in the total history of Antichristianity (Revelation 13), the False Prophet, the spirit of a fallen Hierarchy, is subservient to the Antichristian political World-power, whilst in the history of partial Antichristianity (Revelation 17), the Woman rides upon the Beast, although the Beast at last destroys the Harlot. Comp. Ebrard, pp. 377 and 455. Above all, we would remind our readers of the fact that we have another entire cyclical world-picture before us, viewed under the aspect of Antichristianity; it is no mere petty section of Roman history, comprised, as some would have it, between the years 1 and 70 A. D. Further, the following definite antithesis is distinctly evident: As the Beast out of the sea represents the whole of historical worldly political Antichristianity, as embraced, however, in its final consummate appearance—so, likewise, the Woman, contrasted with the Beast, is not, so to speak, a particle of the Kingdom of God, still less the Jewish people, but the whole Old and New Testament Kingdom of God, and this too with reference to the final form of the Old Testament, in which the Mother appears, and to the final form of the New Testament Church, which divides into the two forms of Harlot and Bride, finally appearing as the Bride. Our Earth-picture is in three sections. In the first, the devilish essence has obtained no human shape, but already operates by summoning to its aid human masses which unconsciously serve it. In the second section, it has fashioned an organ unto itself in the appearance of the Beast out of the sea. In the third section, it has even made a Beast from the earth, a production of the old Theocratic order of things, subservient to the sea-monster, and hence, indirectly, ministrant to itself. The beginning of the first section plainly shows that here the Earth-picture commences which corresponds with the Heaven-picture, for in Revelation 13:14, Revelation 13:6 is repeated. Here, however, we have the amplificatory statement: to the Woman were given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness. The great eagle may be relatively understood of worldly powers, if the context require such an apprehension, as for instance in Ezekiel 17:3; Ezekiel 17:7. When, however, the term is as free from limitation as we find it here, our thoughts are led back to the redemption of Israel from Egypt, when Jehovah bare the people on eagle wings (Exodus 19:4); and we are the more forcibly reminded of that event, since Israel, also, found refuge from the pursuing Pharaoh far out in the wilderness. If Jehovah Himself is not to be here understood, the thing signified is His redemptive providence, in its powerful, swift and lofty flight, unattainable for all earthly pursuers. The fact that the wings must be two in number requires no elucidation; it is, however, somewhat remarkable that the Woman receives the wings herself and becomes a flying Woman. Thus did the young Church of Christ fly from Jerusalem to Pella; and thus in every subsequent persecution it has fled deeper into the wilderness of solitude, of concealment, of renunciation, of foreign countries; thus it finally fled literally into the wilderness of hermitry and monasticism. For the wilderness forms, in general, a contrast to the worldly region of secular life, just as the wilderness into which the Eagle bore Israel formed a contrast to Egypt. The Middle Ages afford a symbolical representation of these flights, in the development of monkish forms, of constantly increasing strictness, in face of every new advance of secularization;—back of these figures, however, lies the fact that the Church has ever fled deeper into the hiding-place of world-renunciation. Here is her place, where she is nourished. And how she has been nourished with heavenly strength, has been shown by the Mystics of the Middle Ages as well as by the Martyrs of the Reformation. The time of her sojourn in the wilderness, or the time of the Church of the Cross, is, as has already been observed, obscurely designated in a twofold manner—by the number 3½ and by the indefinite form of times. Thus she is nourished from the face of the Serpent. Even the serpent of hierarchical despotism scarce observed how the Church was nourished inwardly with powers of the world to come [Hebrews 6:5]. But the abode of the Woman does not remain hidden from the Serpent, who casts out of his mouth water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away. In the parable of the mustard seed, Christ had described the development of the seed into a tree-like shrub, which the birds would mistake for a real tree, and make their nests in its branches; John could already see the beginnings of the fulfillment of this prophecy in the pressing of foreign elements into the living Church. In his quality of Seer, however, he had the broadest and most extensive view of this whole inundation of the Church by the Grζco-Roman world, by the migrations of nations, by its baptism with many peoples. For it is an irrefragable fact that waters are indicative of surging national life (Psalms 93:3-4); consequently, the river here denotes a violent flux of national life against the essential Church, and the casting of this water out of the mouth of the Dragon forces the inference of a diabolical background to this tremendous onset. We cannot, of course, deny the fact that an opposite attraction to the light had its share in influencing the Germanic peoples, especially, in their migrations; this, however, does not invalidate a truth clearly unfolded in the migrations of the Huns, the Vandals, the Turks, and the Mongols, in their perilous onset against the Church. And, moreover, the Germanic nations were urged on and swept away by the dark lust of conquest of the Huns. But the earth helped the Woman by opening her mouth and swallowing up the river. It was the earth as a Divine institution, in the double form of the pedagogical Church of the Law, striking back into the Old Testament, and the Christian State, which subdued the flood of barbarous nations through the medium of a Theocratic education. Numbers 16:32 can hardly, merely on account of the similarity of expression, be cited here as analogous. The rage of the Evil One is, indeed, only heightened by this discomfiture; it, however, takes another direction. The Dragon, angry concerning the Woman, departs to make war “with the remnant of her seed.” These are designated as truly pious persons; they keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The explanations of them as brethren of Christ, or Gentile Christians, or Zionites, are not satisfactory. It would seem nearer the truth to say that they are the individual Christians who, collectively, form the Woman (Bleek et al.), if the text did not make a decided distinction between the Woman, or the Kingdom of God in its visible appearance, and these isolated children of the same. And here it is a natural proceeding to glance back from the striking expression οἱλοιποί (comp. Revelation 3:2) to the significant typical expression of the Prophets: the remnant ([residue, remainder] ωְׁ ?ΰֵ ?ψִ ?ιϊωֶׁ ?ΰַ ?ψ; Isaiah 10:20-22; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 28:5; Amos 9:12; Micah 2:12; Micah 4:7; Micah 7:18, etc.). There has been a storm of judgment, in the assaults of the Dragon upon the Woman, at the end of which there is but a remnant of individual Christians left, who are true servants of God and martyrs of Christ. The Woman has had to submit to an alliance with the earth; the essential Church has had to consent to an alliance with the Theocratic ecclesiastico-political form. In consequence of this alliance, the Church has itself become more akin to the earth, and a distinction has arisen between her visible totality and her living children. Subsequently she is herself partially represented by the earth. In the last time, therefore, Satan instinctively directs his attacks only upon the vital Christianity of individual Christians. He may gain many a victory in combat with them; for how many separatists and sects fall a prey to diabolical deceit. As a whole, however, they resist him, and this urges him on in the direction of the sea, the social life of the nations. Accordingly, he stands upon the sand of the sea. Here he appears to vanish—only, however, to arise in his moral creature, the Beast out of the sea, positive Antichristianity. The fact that here, as well as Daniel 7:2 sqq., the sea represents the life of the nations, is proved not only by the consistent import of this symbol, but also by the agreement of the idea in respect of the ascending Beast. The fundamental thought is this—that always a demonic ruling power issues from a spiritual anarchy of excited national life, and rests thereupon. It does not follow from this that we already have to do with a democratic form of Antichristianity. The decisive passage where we are to seek for light is the scene Revelation 16:19. After the out-pouring of the seventh Vial of wrath, the one great city, Sodom-Egypt (Revelation 11:8), is divided into three parts, and the one judgment branches into three judgments—the judgment upon specific Babylon, executed by the ten kings (chs. 17, 18); the judgment upon the ten kings, executed through the Parousia of Christ (Revelation 21); and the judgment upon God and Magog as the host of Satan, executed through the intervention of God with fire from Heaven (Revelation 20:9). Hence it is evident that in the present bestial figure, those three potencies are still undivided—Antiehristian absolute despotism, democracy and anarchy. That the decidedly worldly character of the Beast is expressed, is evidenced by his coherence with the Danielic world-monarchies; and, no less, by his hostile antithesis to the Theocratico-churchly Woman, and his distinction from the False Prophet from the earth. Still, the three ground-forms of Antichristianity already peep forth from our unitous figure, and among them, of course, the first ground-form, Babylon, appears. That a great Beast of prey is intended, is evident from the attributes of the Beast as well as from his peculiar designation (θηρίον not=ζῶον). With these attributes, he appears as a unitous compound of the Danielic beasts, yet in an original modification. The ten horns of the fourth Danielic Beast come in view here. In the stead of the four Beasts, however, we have the one Beast, and that not with four, but with seven heads, because here the centre of gravity falls in the New Testament time, beyond the vision of Daniel. The Beast has, moreover, become civilized with the times. In the vision of Daniel, the lion occupies the foreground; here, the general aspect of the Beast is pied, like the less formidable leopard—variegated with hierarchic and despotic colors. Of the Danielic bear, the Johannean Beast has retained the ursine feet, on account of his ungainly appearance, or his fatal embraces. Of the lion, the mouth remains (see 1 Peter 5:8). Thus compounded, he is still more of a monster than the fourth Danielic Beast; and his monstrosity is still further increased by the fact of his union of the seven spirit-like and apparently holy heads with ten horns of worldly authority—a disproportion which distinctly proclaims that his authority is to be regarded as bestial arbitrariness, and not as reposing upon actual spirit-might; this fact is also evident from the circumstance that he has set his crowns not on his heads, but, more shamelessly than Satan himself, on his horns. On the other hand, the heads have on them names of blasphemy, different forms of rebellion against the Divine-human government of God, and against the God-man Himself (Daniel 7 :2 Thessalonians 2). The Dragon seems desirous of being completely merged in this his representative. He gives him (the manner of the giving is intimated John 13:27) his magical power, i. e. his lying power; his throne or his terrific ruler-glory, intimidating to all that is cowardly and base on Earth; and his authority as a ruler (see Matthew 4:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Manifestly, this collective appearance of Antichristianity reaches back into the Old Testament; in this it resembles the collective appearance of the Kingdom of God, in the form of the Woman (Revelation 12). As, however, the main history of the Woman falls in the New Testament time, so it is with the full revelation of Antichristianity, which even tapers at last into the consummate figure of Antichrist (Revelation 13:17-18). And now we come to the hardest knot of the Book. The point of departure for our consideration is the mark, or recognition-sign (χάραγμα), the real symbolum of the congregation of the Beast. Every one who chooses to belong to this congregation must bear this sign about him, either on his forehead or on his hand. After the analogy of branded slaves, he must bear the Antichristian slave-mark on himself as a sign that he belongs to the Beast—indirectly to the Dragon—and that he has not fallen under social excommunication, like the confessors of Christ. Now is this mark to be apprehended literally or figuratively? The particulars seem to favor the literal apprehension of it. Either on the forehead or on the hand—either in ordinary writing or in number-writing. Forehead and hand, however, are themselves intelligible symbols; and, consequently, the sign on the forehead seems to denote the Theocratic impiety of open confession of the prince of enmity to God and Christ, whilst the sign on the hand is apparently significant of the practical impiety of open atheistical audaciousness; thus a contrast is formed, as if the complete dogmatics and ethics of Satanic superstition and unbelief were intended. But, though the spiritual deportment is the main thing, the instantaneous recognizability of the spiritual state is conditioned on a definite symbolum. This symbolum consists of the Antichristian party-name, corresponding to the generic name of Christian. The devil-worshipper calls himself after the name of the Beast who rules him; either plainly, without circumlocution, or in numeric writing. In the declaration: here is wisdom—however, it cannot be meant that the Seer designs depositing here in a riddle the central point of all the wisdom of revelation. The like expression recurs, more plainly, in Revelation 17:9 : Here is the understanding that possesses [is master of] wisdom—in accordance with what follows after, the skillful, holy, intelligent ability to recognize the Antichristian power, or rightly to apply the Apocalyptic sign to the corresponding historic phenomenon. In this, therefore, wisdom will approve itself. Wisdom alone will not answer; understanding alone would be still further from the mark. But whosoever has the right understanding of wisdom will reckon the number of the Beast, or transpose the ideal marks of the Beast into historic marks. The Seer next furnishes the key. The number of the Beast is, in the first place, the number of an unknown man. It runs through a line of precursory Antichrists down to the last specifically consummated Antichrist. The standing sign, however, is the demonic side of Antichrist, and this is signalized by the number six hundred sixty-six. By an absolute unrepose and toil, by the absolute denial of the approaching Sabbath or Golden Age, and by an absolute aimlessness and abortiveness, or self-consumption, we are to recognize the features of Antichrist. Where these appear in demonic perfection, there is Antichrist (comp. Isaiah 48:22; Isaiah 57:21; Isaiah 66:24). To compute the number of the Beast means, therefore, to determine the human unknown Antichrist in accordance with the stationary and revealed traits of the demonic nature of Antichrist, with the understanding of wisdom (not the understanding of a prying and calculating curiosity).Between the general form of Antichristianity and its summing up in the last Antichrist, a highly significant consideration presents itself. One of the heads of the Beast appears as wounded to death; but the deadly wound becomes whole again. Such a wounding could proceed only from Christianity. We must, however, carefully distinguish the fact, that Christ Himself, in the kingdom of spirit, has bruised the serpent’s head (the life-principle of the seven heads)—from the fact that historic Christianity inflicts a deadly wound upon the Antichristian world-power in the distinct head of the pagan-Roman world-monarchy,—a wound which, in this present world’s history, can be healed. This item coincides precisely with the apparent vanishment of the Beast that was and is not and shall be, as represented by the seventh head (Revelation 17:8-10.—See Int., pp. 25 sq.). Since that healing, all the Earth has been wondering after the Beast. Since within Christianity itself an Antichristian power has unfolded in many and diverse forms, having even partially matured its principles, the generality of men, especially such as are hangers on of authority a tout prix, have become accustomed to divide their hearts, and at the rupture of light [truth] and falsehood, right and might, with superstition and cowardice to pay homage to the lying power, making, for the most part, only symbolical reverences to Christianity. This is worshipping the Beast, and it is also, indirectly, a subtile devil-service—a worshipping of the Dragon. For that which has converted Satan into an Ahriman, an evil deity, for such men, is the fact that he has given power to the Beast; this he has accomplished by means of an impious policy of craft and violence—a policy which, starting from Italy especially, attained such fearful terroristic development in the Middle Ages. In reference to the Dragon, they worship Godless principles; in reference to the Beast, they worship his incomparableness and irresistibility. Vast pomp and inexorable hardness compose the social cement which, ever more and more, threatens to convert the majority of men into an idea-less, anti-ideal mass—the method which would succeed in giving mankind an animal training, were it not that it has a Divine kernel before which all the might of Satan must be confounded. So secure is Divine Providence in face of the Beast, that it gives him a mouth for all boasting and blasphemy, i.e., for all self-exaltation and derision of Divine truth, of Christian principles. For precisely this is the Divine method of sifting, as exhibited in the history of the world; thus the elect must become manifest, and thus the chaff must be separated from the wheat. To this end, therefore, authority is given to him, power to do what seems good to him for forty-two months. This, again, is the whole time of the Church of the cross—not, however, in the form of times or of days, but in the form of months [moons], like the abandonment of the outer court to the Gentiles (Revelation 11:2); the greatest vicissitudes and fluctuations thus being indicated. Meanwhile, this Antichristianity is perfecting itself against the end. Finally, there is an open manifestation of audacity; the Beast blasphemes God, and that in a threefold manner: he blasphemes His name, or revealed religion; His tabernacle, or His vital, simple, unadorned Church; and His children, the men of the Spirit [or men of spirit, i. e., spiritually-minded men], who dwell in Heaven: in his blaspheming against them that dwell in Heaven, a blasphemy against the hope of a hereafter is involved. It is also given him even to make war with the saints and to overcome them. For the combat is conducted before the undiscerning, appearance-seeking and party-spirited world, and here, almost invariably, it is the Stentor voice, arrogance and false pathos that decide; and the result is all the more certain since extraordinary magical and terroristic aids are on the side of the Beast, extending even to all terrors of violence and tricks of craft. Thus there is vouchsafed him an extension of authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. Now it is an unmistakable fact that this ideally unitous might has hitherto, in its actual exercise, been only approximately unitous, although the phenomena of the gradual realization of such a unity occasionally appear in formidable powers. But with the developments of the Antichristian might, corresponds the homage of all who dwell upon the earth, the true slaves of the old ordinances and the old earth, further characterized as those whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The meaning of this is—they lack the Divine trait of a believing aptitude for suffering, of willingness to suffer for the truth, to suffer with Christ. The highly significant words now following, to which the arousing challenge is prefixed, “if any man hath an ear, let him hear,” may primarily conduce to the comfort of believers amid the persecutions which the Beast prepares for them. The Old Testament law of the strictest retribution, in spite of that misunderstanding which regards it as abrogated in the social affairs of life, because it is thus abrogated, by a higher law, in the Kingdom of Love, of personal relations, re-appears at the close of the New Testament in all its freshness, nay, in sharper outlines than before. We refer our readers to the original text and the attempt of the translation to reproduce it. The retribution will correspond in each case to the fault. Believers are to comfort themselves with these words in their sorrows. The words are, also, however, designed for their instruction, for even well-meaning, pious zeal has, in manifold ways, violated the law of the patience [endurance] of the saints. Often are the sufferings of a later Christian generation expiations of ancient trespasses, committed in a sphere in which the patience [endurance] and the faith of the saints alone win the victory. Here appears the vital law which lies at the foundation of the patience and faith of the saints. The more prominence is given to this law, inasmuch as just these excesses of pious zeal to which we have referred, are connected with the contrast which now comes to view with the appearance of the second Beast, that arises from the earth. This Beast from the earth, the supreme issue of the spirit of corrupt theocratic authority, the spiritual extract of the fallen hierarchy, is a still more hateful monster than the Beast out of the sea. He is personified baseness, for he denies his origin, the consecrated earth of God. He is personified hypocrisy, for he has two horns like a lamb, and he speaks like a dragon; he is, therefore, still worse than the Beast out of the sea, in Satanic falseness, in Satanic hate. He is, likewise, personified hollowness, in that he begins to imitate the deeds of the first Beast. Finally, he is personified reprobacy, in that he becomes an eye-servant of the first Beast, changing from a prophet of God into a prophet of Antichrist. The prototype of such “arch-rogues” was Judas, when he became subservient to the enemies of Christ, himself excelling them in depravity. Even in earlier Judaism such traitors made their appearance, especially in the time of the Maccabees, when Simon, Jason, Menelaus and the like figured (2 Maccabees 4). In reality, Caiaphas, in his relation to the Romans, belongs to this class. Throughout the Christian ages such perfidies have been repeated: there was a rank growth of them in the French revolution in particular. Even our own time betrays a peculiar disposition to the production of such subjects. The approach to the bridge of treason is, however, visible at all times in such tendencies as seek to obliterate, as far as possible, the contrast between God and the world, sin and grace, inwardness and outward show. But at all events, the master of false prophecy is yet to come—the vice-Antichrist, acting as the deputy [Scherge] of the head Antichrist, and seeking to save at least his thirty pieces of silver out of the wreck of his former system. Thus, therefore, the False Prophet enters the service of Antichrist; his office, henceforth, is to gain adherents for his master. He it is who also prepares the earth for apostasy. A special motive which he urges to induce men to become worshippers of the Beast, is the fact that his deadly wound is healed. This, in his sense, signifies that the operation of Christianity is exhausted—that Christianity has outlived itself—Biblical, pristine Christianity is at an end. This false, counterfeit lamb does great signs, and would even, in appearance, imitate the former Church-ban by a ban of nature, and make fire fall from Heaven. Here, especially, we perceive the heavenly integrity of the former Son of Thunder, who once desired to make fire fall from Heaven upon a Samaritan city. He now knows to what such a proceeding would lead, and knows that God has reserved to Himself the right in the final judgment to let fire fall from Heaven on the Satanic mob (Revelation 20). The signs, however, which the false lamb really executes, to the seduction of men, will be lying signs, like the cause which he serves—or, at all events, grandiose magical arts. The greatest sign is the infatuation of men into making an image to the Beast—to the Beast, moreover, as presenting the mockery of Christ’s resurrection, as having been wounded to death, and as having revived again—i.e., to the invincible, immortal Beast. It is a slight reminder of the sin of Aaron, that the men must make the image, but the False Prophet himself gives it a spirit, so that the image of the Beast can speak. Thus, in fine, the theory, science, poetry, and art of Antichristianity speak just as does this Beast himself in his practical shape. The declaration that the tendency of the image was to cause that all who would not worship the Beast should be killed, is doubtless to be taken as referring to social death; and matters even arrive at such a pass that those who refuse their countenance to the Beast are, by his godless company, who have adopted an absolutely anti-symbolical symbolum, completely excluded from social intercourse, as indicated by buying and selling. Thus there is already prepared, by the world, that separation which Christ, at His coming, shall judicially consummate. [ OF VIEWS, ETC.] By the American Editor[Elliott: The dejected Dragon (Satan) persecutes the Woman (the true, primitive, orthodox, catholicly united Church), also fallen from Heaven (her first figured state of elevation and glory), by inciting against, her (1) Arian emperors (Constantius, A. D. 337–361; Valens, A. D. 364–378): (2) temptations to superstition: (3) the Arian-Pagan Gothic flood (see below). The flight into the wilderness indicates a change, not of place, but of state; it implies “the faithful Church’s (gradual) loss of its previous character of Catholicity or Universality, its invisibility in respect of true Christian public worship and destitution of all ordinary means of spiritual sustenance.” (For the period of the Wilderness-state, Revelation 12:14, see below with Revelation 13:5) The two wings of the great eagle, the assisting and protecting influence of the Eastern and Western divisions of the great, eagle-symbolized, Roman Empire united under Theodosius the Great; these wings were given to her: Theodosius was not only a Church-member, but appears to have been a truly pious man. The flood cast out of the serpent’s mouth, the Arian-Pagan Gothic invasions (a double idea suggested: (1) what flows from the mouth is doctrine, good or bad, Proverbs 18:4; Proverbs 15:28; (2) floods are a constant Scripture metaphor for the invasion of hostile nations, Isaiah 8:7; Jeremiah 46:7; Ezekiel 26:3; Nahum 1:8, etc.; see also, with the double sense, Psalms 144:7); such was the fury of this flood as “to sweep away all the political bulwarks of the Roman authority before it; and thus might well have been deemed sufficient to sweep away also the Christian Church and Christianity itself, the professed religion of the Empire.” The earth helped, etc.: “In those continuous and bloody wars of which the Western world had been the theatre, the barbarous invading population was so thinned, so absorbed, as it were, into the land they had invaded, that it needed their incorporation as one people with the conquered to make up the necessary constituency of Kingdoms. And in this incorporation, not only was much of their original institutions, customs and languages absorbed, but their religion altogether. … So the Arianism of the invading flood, as well as its Paganism, was seen no more. It was absorbed, as it were, into the soil, and had disappeared.” The Beast from the sea (Revelation 13:1) is one with (1) the Beast from the Abyss (Revelation 17:3); (2) the little horn of Daniel’s fourth wild Beast (Daniel 7:7-8; Daniel 7:19-24); (3) St. Paul’s Man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12); (4) St. John’s Antichrist (1 John 2:18-22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7), and symbolizes the Papal Empire (the sea representing the flood of invading Goths): the seven heads signify (1) seven hills (of Rome), Revelation 17:9; (2) “the number of different successive governing heads of bestial character—forms of government—which (not another Beast or Empire, but) the same individual seven-hilled Roman Empire would be under from first to last, from its early origin to its final destruction; there being here premised, however, … that the seventh head visible on the Apocalyptic Beast would be, in order of existence, its eighth (Revelation 17:11),” they (five having fallen at the time of the Apocalypse, Revelation 17:10) represent (a) Kings, (b) Consuls, (c) Dictators, (d) Decemvirs, (e) Military Tribunes, (f) the στέφανος crowned Emperors beginning with Augustus (the head then existing), (g) the διάδημα Emperors beginning with Diocletian, (this head received its deadly wound in the edict of Theodosius, suppressing Pagan worship, which edict, according to Gibbon, Revelation 28, “inflicted a deadly wound on Paganism,” but revived or sprouted again as an eighth head, viz.;) (h) the Popedom—professedly Christian, but essentially heathen: the ten horns represent the ten kingdoms into which the Western Empire was divided (and which gave their power and strength unto the Beast, Revelation 17:12-13), viz., (1) the Anglo-Saxons, (2) the Franks of Central France, (3) Alleman-Franks of Eastern France, (4) the Burgundic Franks of South-eastern France, (5) the Visigoths, (6) the Suevi, (7) the Vandals, (8) the Ostro-Goths in Italy, (9) the Bavarians, (10) the Lombards; (with changes, “the number ten will be found to have been observed on from time to time, as that of the Western Roman or Papal Kingdoms”): the Beast and the ten horns receive their power at one and the same time (μίανὥραν, Revelation 17:12), i. e., from about A. D. 430–530; three horns plucked up before the Beast (Daniel 7:8), the subjection of the Vandals, Ostrogoths and Lombards to the temporal power of the Pope (A. D. 533–755, in which last year was Pepin’s donation of the Exarchate of Ravenna—a donation confirmed and enlarged by Charlemagne, A. D. 774, which completed Peter’s Patrimony); blasphemies, as Christ’s Vicar assuming all his offices as Prophet, Priest and King; worshipped (Revelation 13:4, comp. 2 Thessalonians 2:4), the Pope seats himself “on the day of his consecration upon God’s high Altar under the dome of St. Peter’s, there to receive the adoration of his Cardinals,” and “in the eighth century it was Gregory the Second’s boast to the Greek Emperor, ‘All the kings of the West reverence the Pope as a God on Earth’ ” (Gibbon; see also Secular and Ecc: Histories). The two-horned Beast represents the Papal Clergy united under the Pope in his ecclesiastical character as Western Patriarch, and acting so as to support his usurpation as Vicar of Christ: (1) he has horns like a lamb, and speaks as a dragon, i. e. under pretence of preaching the Gospel, he elaborates a denial of Christ; (2) he exercises all the power and authority of the first Beast before (i. e. as responsible to) him, the grand characteristic (assumed) power of the Pope—that of the keys—is delegated to the clergy; (3) signs, the assumption by the clergy of the power to work miracles; (4) causing them that dwell on the Earth to worship, the entire influence of the clergy exercised to support the usurped claims of the Pope. The Image of the Beast symbolizes the Papal General Councils, which virtually represented the Head of Antichristendom, (1) it was the two-horned Beast (the papal clergy) that said to them who dwelt on the Roman Earth, that they should make the image (constitute a General Council); (2) it was given to this Beast to give breath to the image, etc.—it was the peculiarity of the General Councils that on matters ecclesiastical the clergy should alone have voice; (3) the Image was made to be worshipped—these Councils claimed to pronounce infallibly on questions of religion and faith; (4) the Image caused as many as would not worship it to be put to death—the Councils anathematized and excommunicated all who would not submit to their decrees. The name is, the one suggested by Irenζus, Δατεινός—the numerical value of the constituent letters of which is (λ, 30 + α, 1+ τ, 300+ ε, 5 + ι, 10 + ν, 50 + ο, 70 + ς, 200=) 666; the imposing on men the mark, etc., is causing the inhabitants of the Roman Earth to devote themselves to the Papal Antichrist, and this both in profession (forehead) and action (hand), even as soldiers to their emperor, slaves to their master, devotees to their god.—The period of the Beast’s continuance as a persecuting power, Revelation 13:5, and of the wilderness-state of the Church, Revelation 12:6, is twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days or years: the primary terminus a quo of this period is the promulgation of Justinian’s Code and Decretal Epistle to the Pope, A. D.). 529–533; the secondary epoch is the Decree of Phocas, A. D. 604–608; the primary concluding terminus, A. D. 1789–1793, “the epoch by which a blow was dealt to the Papal power from which it has never recovered.” (In reference to the secondary concluding terminus, Elliott calls attention to the fact, that Daniel (Revelation 12:11-12) foretells a supplemental period of seventy-five years which he (writing in A. D. 1861) suggested was probably to be added to that terminus in A. D. 1864–8. Writing in A. D. 1868 (Postscript to Preface, Vol. I.), he claims that the Bull of the Pope for the Convocation of an �cumenical Council, issued in that year, in that it does not invite Sovereigns to sit in that Council, is “an admission of the completed ending of the period of the kings of Western Christendom spiritually subjecting the power of their kingdoms to him; that is, of the completed ending of twelve hundred and sixty years.” The present he regards as the supplemental period, to close about A. D. 1943.Barnes: (Revelation 12:13-17). Satan (after his failure to destroy the Church through Pagan persecutions, see p. 240), “puts forth his power and manifests his hostility in another form—that of the Papacy… The Church is, however, safe from that attempt to destroy it, for the Woman is represented as fleeing to the wilderness (some place of refuge—possibly the retreats of the Waldenses, deserts, monasteries, etc.), beyond the power of the enemy, and is there kept alive. Still filled with rage, though incapable of destroying the true Church itself, he turns his wrath, under the form of Papal persecutions, against individual Christians.”—(Ch. 13) The first Beast is the one (secular) Roman power contemplated as made up of ten subordinate kingdoms, which “combined in itself all the elements of the terrible and the oppressive, which had existed in the aggregate in the other great empires that preceded it.” The second Beast is the Papacy considered as a spiritual power, putting on the apparent gentleness of the lamb, but at the same time possessing the spirit of the Dragon. The deadly wound of the first Beast indicates that the Roman civil and secular power was so waning (in consequence of the invasion of the Northern hordes) as to be in danger of extinction; the healing symbolizes the restorative and preservative influence of the Church of Rome upon the secular empire. The secular power thus preserved is to continue 1260 prophetic days or years—blaspheming (by its (1) arrogant claims, (2) assumed authority in matters of conscience, (3) setting aside Divine authority, (4) impions declarations in derogation of the Divine claims); persecuting (e. g., the Waldenses, Albigenses, etc.), but at last shall (1) go into captivity, (2) come to an end in blood.—The image of the Beast symbolizes the civil government strongly resembling the old Roman dominion, which the spiritual power of the Papacy caused to exist, depending for its vital energy on the Papacy, and in its turn, lending its aid to support the Papacy.—In reference to the name and mark of the Beast, Barnes agrees with Elliott. Stuart: (Ch. 13). The first Beast symbolizes the Pagan Roman Empire; the second, the Pagan Priesthood; the deadly wound of one of the heads, the death of Nero, one of the seven Kings of Rev 17:10-11; the restoration, the belief of a reappearance of that emperor(!); the image, the statue erected to him as a god; the forty-two months, the period of the Neronic persecution (from November, A. D. 64 to June, A. D. 68); the name, πֵ ?ψεֹ ?οχֵ ?ρַ ?ψ, the letters of which give the number 666. Wordsworth: “The Two Wings are emblems of the Two Testaments; … the Church flies on their pinions in her missionary course through the wilderness of this world.” The flood and the help of the earth, he interprets as Elliott.—(Ch. 13) He agrees with Elliott in the exposition of this chapter, with the following exceptions: By the seven heads he understands (Revelation 17:10-11) “the kingdoms which were successively absorbed within the circle of the Roman Empire, … the (1) Babylonian, (2) Medo-Persian, (3) Greek, (4) Syrian, (5) Egyptian, (6) Roman Heathen Imperial … (7) Imperial power of Germany.” By the wounding, the ceasing of the imperial power in the abdication of Augustulus—it is not said that the Head was restored, but that the wound of the Beast was healed (Revelation 13:12), the Beast lived on in the Papacy. By the image, “the personification of the Papacy, in the visible form of the Pontiff for the time being.” Alford: (Revelation 12:13-17.) The figure of the wings is taken from Old Testament expressions in reference to the flight of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11). “We must not understand (by) the Woman, the invisible spiritual Church of Christ, nor (by) her flight into the wilderness, the withdrawal of God’s true servants from the eyes of the world… I own that considering the analogies and the language used (in reference to Israel in the desert), I am much more disposed to interpret the persecution of the Woman by the Dragon, of the various persecutions by Jews which followed the Ascension, and her flight into the wilderness, of the gradual withdrawing of the Church and her agency from Jerusalem and Judea, finally consummated by the flight to the mountains on the approaching siege… And then the river … might be variously understood—of the Roman armies which threatened to sweep away Christianity—or of the persecutions which followed the Church into her retreats, but eventually became absorbed by the civil power turning Christian—or of the Jewish nation itself, banded together against Christianity wherever it appeared, but eventually itself becoming powerless against it by its dispersion and ruin—or, again, of the influx of heretical opinions from the Pagan philosophies which tended to swamp the true faith. I confess that not one of these seems to me satisfactorily to answer the conditions; nor do we gain any thing by their combination.… As to the time indicated by the 1260 days, or 3½ years, the interpretations given have not been convincing, nor even specious.” See also the extract from Alford on p. 242. He concludes his section with the words: “This latter part of the vision yet waits its clearing up.”—Chap. 13) The first Beast is one with the four Beasts of Daniel and that of Revelation 17; he symbolizes the aggregate of the empires of this world as opposed to Christ and His Kingdom; the seven heads are (1) Egypt, (2) Nineveh, (3) Babylon, (4) Persia, (5) Grζcia, (6) Rome, (7) the Christian Empire beginning with Constantine; the wounding (with Auberlen), the conversion of the empire to Christianity, by virtue of which the Beast in his proper essence, in the fullness of his opposition to God and His saints, ceases to be; the worship, etc., “are a sort of parody on ascriptions of praise to God (Exodus 15:11; Psalms 35:10; Psalms 71:19; Isaiah 40:18; Isaiah 40:25; Isaiah 46:5, etc.): they represent to us the relapse into all the substantial elements of Paganism of the resuscitated empire;” the forty-two months, the well-known period of the agency of Antichrist. The second Beast, identical with the false Prophet of Rev 19:20, is the reviver and upholder of the first; in reference to the first, he is (1) identical as to genus, (2) diverse in origin, (3) subsidiary in zeal and action; he symbolizes the sacerdotal persecuting power, Pagan and Christian, which, gentle in its aspect and professions, was yet cruel in its actions. The Image, the statue of the Emperor, which every where men were made to worship; “it is not so easy to assign a meaning to the giving life and speech to the Image… The allusion probably is to some lying wonders permitted to the Pagan priests to try the faith of God’s people. We cannot help, as we read, thinking of the moving images, and winking and speaking pictures, so often employed for purposes of imposture by their far less excusable Papal successors.” Revelation 13:16-17 point to the commercial and spiritual interdicts which have, both by Pagan and by Papal persecutors, been laid on non-conformity. Concerning the name and number, he writes in the Prolegomena, §5, Rev 32: “It (Δατεινός) is beyond question the best solution that has been given; but that it is not the solution, I have a persuasion amounting to a certainty.” (See also in loc.) Lord: (Revelation 12:13-17.) “The Dragon who followed the Woman symbolizes the Pagan priests and their abettors;.. their following after her denotes their attempt to join her society by a profession of Christianity.” “The Serpent … was not the Devil who fought with Michael, but the Monster Dragon of seven heads (see p. 242), … it represents the rulers of the Roman Empire from the elevation of Constantine.” The gift to the Woman of the wings, denotes that supernatural aids were granted her, viz.: graces that formed a part of herself; the river, the flood of false doctrines and superstitious rites introduced by Constantine and his successors; the earth, the people generally, who eagerly embraced the adulterated religion, and who by their exulting reception of it so occupied the attention of the rulers as to allow the dissentients to escape; the retreat from the face of the serpent, the flight of the true Church to a place unknown (the Waldenses, etc.); the anger of the serpent, the continued disposition to destroy; the making war with the remnant, the persecution of isolated dissentients; the time, times, and half a time, twelve hundred and sixty years.—(Ch. 13) The first Beast symbolizes “the Gothic rulers who established governments in the Western Empire during the Fifth century, and their successors and subjects to the present time;” the symbols of the first part of Rev 13:2, that this government unites in itself the agility of the leopard, the strength of the bear, and the mercilessness and voracity of the lion; the head receiving the wound was the last—the wounding denotes the slaughter of all Christian heirs to the throne and the accession of Julian the apostate; the recovery, the restoration of the Christian succession in Jovian; the worship, etc., of Revelation 13:3-4, that the populace (1) entertained for their rulers awe and admiration, (2) and, regarding them as having acquired the rights of the old Roman Emperors, acquiesced in their assumptions in matters of religion; the great things and blasphemy, usurpations of authority over Divine rights, laws, etc.; Revelation 13:7, the persecutions of the Albigenses, Waldenses, etc.; Revelation 13:9-10 predict the slaughter and vassalage of all who should attempt to deliver themselves from religious tyranny by force (exemplified in the history of all persecuted peoples); the forty-two months denotes 1260 years of domination (the terminus a quo being about A. D. 597 or somewhat later). The second Beast indicates the “hierarchy of the Italian Catholic Church within the Papal dominions;” the earth whence he came, the population of the empire under a settled government; the two horns, twofold rule (civil and military)—lamb-like (apparently for ornament and defence), dragon-like (aggressive, insatiable, merciless); Revelation 13:12 (first part), that it exercises the same power (civil and military) as the first Beast, and contemporaneously (issuing and executing decrees, making war, etc.); Revelation 13:12 (second part), the leading of the populace to submit to blasphemous usurpations of the emperors; Revelation 13:13-14, the pretended miracles of the priesthood. The Image symbolizes the Papal Kingdom which the priesthood established—“the union of their several national churches into a single hierarchy, and subjection of them to the Pope as their supreme legislative and judicial head, after the model of the ancient civil Empire under Constantine,” etc. The Name is Δατεινός, whose letters give the number 666. Revelation 13:16; Revelation 13:18 indicate excommunication and outlawry for non-conformity. Glasgow: (Revelation 12:13-17.) Revelation 13:13. When Satan could not prevent the external prosperity of the Church, he diffused the poison of heresy. Revelation 13:14. The second flight of the Woman; the great eagle is the fourth Ζῶα of chap. 4; the flight to the desert indicates expatriation (in the valleys of Piedmont, etc.); the time, etc., the prophetic period of 1260 years (beginning about A. D. 607). Revelation 13:15-17, as Elliott. (Revelation 13) This is not a new vision, but a continuation of the preceding—the Dragon that sank down in the sea (Revelation 12:18)(Revelation 13:1) emerges in a new form and with a new name; this Beast (see p. 242) emerges from the sea, i. e., “of the Arian Goths and northern Pagans, and remanent Pagans of the Empire.” For his expositions of the heads, see p. 242; in his interpretation of the horns he agrees with Elliott, p. 259. The wounding denotes the fall of the Western Empire, partially in A. D. 476, and more completely A. D. 493—this fall did not imply a total cessation of the imperial power; the imperial laws and principles were so adopted by the barbarian conquerors that ultimately a new Roman Empire sprang to life from the contused head of the old (the restoration). The transition of the Beast from the Dragon-form spanned over the time from Constantine to Justinian; the forty-two months were allotted to him after the healing of the mortal stroke, and their beginning (A. D. 529–532) was marked by the institution of the Benedictine Order, and the publication of the Code of Justinian. The second Beast is the Papal hierarchy (generally on this subject he agrees with Elliott). The Image—(sic)—“this we at once recognize in the temporal power of the Pope, and the territory called Peter’s Patrimony, granted by Pepin in A. D. 754; to which may be added the creation of cardinals, who are at once priests and temporal lords;” (this image of the monster has not the term of 1260 prophetic days assigned to it; the giving of spirit to it was fulfilled in the summoning of Western Councils—by these it both spoke and acted. The Name and number, Δατεινός, is one, though not the sole, solution of the problem. (He presents the following, all bearing on the Latin Church: BΒνεδικτός, Ἰταλικὴἐκκλησία, Εὐπορία, Παράδοσις, Ἕσπεροςἀββᾶ, ψΰωׁ μχδμ, Vicarius Filii Dei, Vicarius generalis Dei in terris, etc.). Auberlen: (Ch. 13) This writer in many points agrees with Elliott, and his views have to a considerable extent been adopted by Alford, Glasgow and others. According to him: The first Beast represents the world-power; the seven heads, (1) Egypt, (2) Assyria, (3) Babylon, (4) Medo-Persia, (5) Greece, (6) Rome, (7) the Germanic-Sclavonic Empire; the wounding, the conversion to Christianity of the seventh head; the healing, the apostatizing of the Christian head (this is the eighth head of Rev 17:11, the Antichristian Kingdom, in the strict sense; probably a person); the ten horns denote ten kingdoms into which the last head is to be divided (this division is still future). The second Beast is identical with the False Prophet of Rev 19:20, and with the human eyes of the little horn of Dan 7:8; the first Beast is a physical, political—this a spiritual power, the power of doctrine and knowledge, of intellectual cultivation, of ideas; he arises from the earth, i. e., the civilized, consolidated, orderly world; he comes in a Christian garb and name, the horns of the lamb, but with the spirit and speech of the Dragon (comp. Matthew 7:15); the Image which the False Prophet causes to be made (the historical substratum of which is in the image in Daniel 3, and the statues of the Roman Emperors, to which divine worship was paid), denotes the deification of the world and the world-power—this is the new heathenism, sinking back into the deification of nature and humanity, of which it cannot be predicted what forms of folly and bestiality (Romans 1:22 sq.) it shall yet assume; with this enhancement of idolatry, seem to be connected new demonic mighty operations, according to Revelation 13:15. Revelation 13:15-17 contain a prophecy that all public intercourse will be on condition of receiving the mark of the Beast (which is significantly contrasted with the Seal of the servants of God, Revelation 7:3 sqq.), and that true believers will be given into the hand of Antichrist for persecution, as is intimated, Daniel 7:21; Daniel 7:25; Matthew 24:9.—E. R. C.] IN DETAIL Revelation 12:13. He persecuted the woman.—First he persecuted her Child, the holy Christ Himself; now he persecutes the Woman, the institution of the Kingdom of God; subsequently, when the Woman has, in respect of her outward appearance, allied herself with the earth, he persecutes her inner essentiality—that which is later to appear as the Bride—in her remaining children. That the earth must, equally with the wilderness, be symbolically apprehended, is required by the consistency of the description. Revelation 13:14. The two wings.—The saving providence of God is represented, in eagle-like flight; the Church has so intimately appropriated this providence, that it may be said that the eagle-wings are given her, Romans 8:28-37. As the deliverance on eagles’ wings, into the wilderness, is suggestive of Israel’s deliverance, so, also, an entrance into the heavenly Canaan is in view; not, however, the Judaizing prospect of the external leadership of a Jewish Church at the end of the world.Where she is nourished.—The beginning of this fact had arrived even in the ancient days of John—with the flight to Pella. The typical element in the miraculous nourishment of Israel in the wilderness is here touched upon. She is nourished (and thus preserved) from the face of the serpent (Bengel, Ewald, et al.). That the wilderness is to be apprehended in a symbolical sense, is manifest from the fact that the Woman, whilst in it, is unattainable for Satan, although elsewhere earthly wildernesses are designated as a favorite abode of evil spirits. The Serpent, therefore, sends a stream of water out of his mouth after the escaped Woman. Revelation 13:15-16. Water as a river.—That is, in the form of an apparently incessant current. Dόsterdieck vainly labors to fix upon the interpretation of the torrent of water as a torrent of nations an allegoristic character. It is the simple historico-philological explanation of a very pronounced allegorical figure; whilst, on the other hand, the general application of the figure to pressing dangers, or the citation of billows of death and streams of destruction (Psalms 18:4), is meaningless in this connection, it being the intention of Satan not to kill the woman outright, but to cause her to be carried away of the river—possibly, only to cause her “to float with the current” (Ποταμοφόρητον). The divergent specializations of the stream of nations do, indeed, rest upon ill-advised and arbitrary guesswork, practised in conformity to the theory of Church-historical predictions (persecutors; wicked men and evil demons; heretics; Saracens; Ewald: a sore peril menacing the fugitive Christians by the Jordan! See Dόsterdieck). Dόsterdieck’s objections against the general reference of the water-stream to streaming nations (p. 418) are based upon a continuous misapprehension of allegorical modes of expression. He asks: “Can it be said that the Germanic peoples came, like a flood, out of the jaws of Satan, and were swallowed up by the earth?” It may, assuredly, be assumed that in the first motions of the migrations of nations, especially in the rising of the Huns, demonic impulses were at play; and, similarly, it may be asserted that the Theocratic order of the Mediζval Occident overcame the hostile torrent of barbarians. And [Lange: But] the earth.—Neither the application of this figure to the cultured Roman world (Auberlen) or to another opposing worldly power (Hengstenberg), nor the reference of it to the cleaving Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), in accordance with the opinion that the final Anti-christian time is here exclusively spoken of (Ebrard), corresponds to the explicit character of this Old Testament type. Revelation 13:17. And the dragon was wroth.—Since the Dragon has already been wroth against the Woman, an increase of wrath is here expressed, developed in the conflict with the Woman. Hence the reading: ἐπί in conjunction with τῇγυναικί is significant. The preposition ἐπί with the dative may, indeed, simply denote the object of an action, but it often signifies: concerning, on account of, about, and this is most frequently the case with verbs that indicate an emotion of the mind (as here). Satan becomes so incensed concerning the combat with the Woman that he now departs, etc.With the remnant—See above. A copious treatise on this point see in Dόsterdieck, who, however, by these remaining ones apprehends, with Zόllig, the Zionites (?) on earth.Revelation 13:18. And he stood.—[See Text. and Gram., Note 7.—E. R. C.] According to De Wette and many others, the reading ἐστάθη is exegetically impossible. In reality, however, the reading of the Recepta, ἐστάθην, for which there is less authority, is far less possible. See above. Since a demonic operation upon the sea of nations is in question, Satan takes his station upon the sandy shore, a place where the earth is flat and the sea shallow. A contemporaneous appearance of the Dragon, on the sand, and the Beast, above the waves of the ocean, is not declared; the Dragon vanishes as the Beast inspired by him makes his appearance. Revelation 13:1. Ascending out of the sea.—See the Introduction. Out of the sea of nations: Many interpreters from Victorinus down. Out of Europe (! Bengel); out of the Italian insular kingdom (Ewald). The sea is the sea and nothing more, Dόsterdieck declares, just as the earth is the literal earth—why, then, are not also the Beasts literal beasts? A wild-beast.—Doubtless, only the God-opposed, Antichristian world-power can primarily be intended—eschatologically concentrated and modified, however (Auberlen, Hengstenberg). One-sided, therefore, is the interpretation of the Beast as pagan Rome (from Victorinus to Bleek and many others); and equally one-sided is the application of it to papal Christian Rome (Vitringa, Bengel, et al.). The import of the figure, undoubtedly, does not gravitate backward to heathen Rome, but, in accordance with its eschatological tendency, forward to Christian Rome. Heathen Rome can be but visible in one of the seven heads; and the like is true of Christian Rome, or, rather, the ecclesiastico-political Rome of the Middle Ages. The Beast is ἀναβαῖνον through a long period. With the circumstance that the terrestrial ocean embraces the earth, the fact that the Beast from the earth does not appear as co-regent with the Beast out of the sea, but as his vassal, must not be confounded, as in Dόsterdieck.—The Beast, as θηρίον, is to be distinguished from ζῶον; the word is indicative of a bestially ferocious nature, see Daniel 7:1. Ten horns.—See the Introduction. Seven heads.—Interpreted as seven world-periods; or seven persecutions of Christians; or seven Antichristian world-powers. Hengstenberg defines these powers as follows (Revelation 2:13): The Chaldean, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman kingdoms. The first and second heads he looks for as existing before the Chaldean empire. Consequently, “only Egypt and Assyria can be thought of.” The sixth kingdom, he affirms, is that of Rome, in accordance with Revelation 17:10; the seventh endures, as he believes, until the cessation of the God-opposed power, and passes into the ten horns or God-opposed kings. We have taken the liberty of apprehending the seven heads otherwise (p. 25 sq.). In the first place, it is, in all probability, to be taken for granted that the Apocalyptist retains the four world-monarchies of Daniel. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section Twelfth Heavenly World-picture of the Seven Vials of Anger, or the Judgment of Anger in its General Form (embracing the Three Special Judgments upon Babylon, the Beast and Satan.) (Chs. 14, 15) General.—The peculiar sublimity of this section is thoroughly manifest only when it is regarded as representative of the heavenly celebration of God’s anger-judgments on earth, and when its relation to these is recognized in the treatment of it. The dreadful darkness of these judgments, as they here appear, is pure light above,—aye, it is there resolved into festal radiance. Above, the measures of Divine anger, ruling, as a holy anger of united love and righteousness, over the wrath of the heathen [nations], and, by its ruling, conducting the latter to the judgment of self-annihilation, are recognized and magnified, in their holiness and gloriousness, to the glory of God and the Lamb. In the foreground of the whole festal scene stands the Lamb, on the Mount Zion, surrounded by the 144,000 elect, who represent the Church Triumphant. Herein two grand ideas are involved. On the one hand, the Lamb has lifted His heavenly Congregation high above the sphere of anger; and, on the other hand, it is the very righteousness and privilege of the Lamb and His companions by which the wrath of the heathen [nations] is excited, and the holy anger of God at that wrath is superinduced. Here lies the causality of the Vials of Anger. Next follows a description of the perfect heavenly consciousness of the necessity for these judgments, as well as of the ideal import of them—that at the right time they must needs come as the harvest of the earth, now that the earth is ripe for harvest,—ripe for a judgment which will be the final redemption, in virtue of its separation betwixt the wheat and the chaff. This entire description is presented in the form of a grand transaction between six Angels, three of whom are charged with the proclamation of the judgment, whilst the three others have the symbolic execution of it. The two divisions are separated by an intervening voice from Heaven, declaratory of the blessedness of the dead who die in the Lord. The first herald of the judgment proclaims throughout the universe that the imminent judgment will be an eternal Gospel, a Gospel of eternity, for all who give glory to God. As a death-judgment, the judgment is divided into two sections, the first consisting of the judgment upon Babylon the Great, and the second composed of the judgment upon the Beast and its worshippers. These two judgments form two sides of the one general judgment (Revelation 14:19-20). The transactions of the three executive Angels likewise fall into two divisions. At the head of the three executive Angels appears the seventh, or rather the first, figure of the entire group, the Man on the white cloud, or the Lamb, again, in another form. As the Father has reserved to Himself the time and the hour of the final judgment, an Angel represents this reservation on the part of the Father, by summoning the One on the cloud to the harvest of the earth. Christ casts His sickle upon the earth, and thus ensues the harvest in the truest sense of the term—the harvest of redemption, of the redeemed. This is followed by the harvest of anger. Thus is unfolded the perfect heavenly consciousness concerning the idea, the purpose, the time and the hour of the judgment of anger. Next follows Act the Third, the representation of the holy order of the judgment of anger, and its sacred heavenly measures. The Divine clemency which characterizes the judgment itself is expressed first by the fact that it is septenariously divided; secondly, by the execution of the judicial decrees by seven Angels of God; and, thirdly, by the circumstance that the result of the judgment once more appears,—the crystal sea, the eternal, new humanity,—and that this result is celebrated by a song, in which the song of Moses, or the song of anger, and the song of the Lamb, or the song of love, are united. Worthy of special prominence is the further fact that the Angels go forth from the Temple of the tabernacle of the witness, and thus accord with the ideality of the Divine Law—a truth which is likewise expressed in their holy adornment [clothed in pure and white linen], and in the committal to them of the dispensation of the Divine anger in golden vials—in heavenly measures, determined by Divine faithfulness (see Exeg. Notes). Special. [Chs. 14, 15. Pre-celebration of the anger-judgment in Heaven. [Revelation 14:1-5. The Church Triumphant: (a) Her stand-point, (b) her centre, (c) her characteristics, (d) her song.—Relation of the 144,000 triumphant ones to the 144,000 sealed ones (Revelation 7).—The end-judgment as the harvest of the earth.—The new Bong: (1) Its newness, (2) its melodies, (3) the singers, (4) the hearers. [Revelation 14:6. The eternal [everlasting] Gospel as the Gospel of eternity. Or as the eschatological phase of the one principial Gospel. [Revelation 14:8. Pre-celebration, in Heaven, of the judgment upon Babylon. [Revelation 14:9-11. Pre-celebration of the judgment upon Antichristianity. [Revelation 14:12. The patience of the saints, (1) as endurance in persecution, (2) as forbearance from persecution.—Great warning against Antichristianity (Revelation 14:9-11). [Revelation 14:13. Blessed are the dead, etc., or the heavenly peace-bell, pealing amid the thunders of judgment. [Revelation 14:14-20. God’s double harvest on earth: 1. The proper harvest (the sickle); 2. The improper harvest (the wine-press). Revelation 15 : The heavenly equipment of the seven Angels of Anger in its grand significance: 1. What they effect (Revelation 15:2); 2. What they glorify (Revelation 15:3); 3. What they bring about (Revelation 15:4). [Revelation 15:6. Forth-going of the judgments of God out of His Temple.—The judgments of God in their beauteous heavenly aspect (Revelation 15:6-7). [Revelation 15:8. Sublime veiling of the majesty of God during the time of His judgments on earth, and the import of that veiling. Starke (Chap. 14.): Christ stands in the midst of His Church, over against Antichristian abominations and cruelties, as a Conqueror (Psalms 100:2), and is ready to help His people (Acts 7:56).—Cramer: The holy Christian Church is not founded upon the sand, but upon a mountain (Psalms 68:16), aye, firmer than the seven mountains on which the great city lies (Revelation 17:9). Revelation 14:2. This is to be understood of the true confessors of the Church’s doctrine, in which doctrine they, in reference to the corruption of the spiritual Babylon, are emphatic and unanimous. Hence there is ascribed to them a voice of great waters, because with their doctrines they instituted many movements; a voice of a great thunder, which penetrates and shakes all things, indicates the mighty preaching of the Gospel, Mark 3:17; and a voice of harmonious music teaches that all their doctrines beautifully harmonized in Christ, Colossians 3:16. (All this is, indeed, not yet fulfilled in Protestant theology or the ecclesiastical structures of the Reformation, so far as their outward form is concerned.) This picture is drawn from the service of the Levites in the Old Testament (Psalms 134). Revelation 14:3. It sounded entirely new (as when we hear a new and unknown song, set to a strange and unaccustomed tune), because the faithful bring it with new hearts, and because it tells of new benefits, etc.—It is called new in antithesis to the old.—God’s praise must be sung in the Church.—He who would sing the Gospel song aright, must have a new heart and must have his face set toward God and His Throne. Revelation 14:6. The Angel with the everlasting Gospel. Those who regard this as fulfilled, explain it as follows; This has reference to a remarkable teacher who should reform the Church and purify it in the time of Antichrist; by this Angel, Luther and his associates, who began the Reformation, are intended. Those who regard it as future, explain as follows: The voices of these three Angels pertain to the very last time, etc.Revelation 14:8. This expression is taken from the philters or love-potions of abandoned women, etc.Revelation 14:9. This proves clearly that the Beast cannot be the Harlot, or the Papacy. Revelation 14:13. The ancients carefully distinguished between dying for the Lord and dying in the Lord; the former is peculiar to martyrs, the latter is common to all true Christians. (The distinction, becomes false, however, so soon as it is pressed.)—The voice of the Lord which gives command to write, also commands men to read.—The tears which flow at the departure of pious persons may be wiped away by the diligent contemplation of the bliss to which they have attained.—The Holy Scriptures know of no purgatorial fires; those who have died in the Lord they place, immediately upon their death, in Heaven. Revelation 14:15. And another Angel. Some understand, by this other Angel, the Holy Ghost, Who is sent into the hearts of men and, with strong crying, makes the distress of the faithful known unto Christ. Revelation 14:18. Some regard the Angel mentioned here, as the Holy Ghost. Revelation 14:20. In the grain harvest there is no sign of anger, but, on the contrary, there is mercy in it, for believers who have remained faithful to Jesus under the domination of the Beast, are then gathered into God’s garner because the judgment upon the wicked is at hand (Matthew 13:30). The vintage is a harvest of anger, for there is express mention of anger in this connection (Revelation 14:19).—Revelation 15:3. Some apprehend the song of Moses as the Law and the song of the Lamb as the Gospel (in contra-distinction to those who regard the song of Moses as the song of the physical redemption, by means of the passage through the Red Sea, and the song of the Lamb as the song of the spiritual redemption from the spiritual Egypt). True servants of God must unite the song of Moses and that of the Lamb—the old and the new. Sabel (see p. 73): Revelation 14:1. He is called the Lambkin [τὸἀρνίον] in antithesis, to the great red Dragon (Revelation 12:3) who gave his great authority to the Beast (Revelation 13:2), and in antithesis to the Beast itself, which speaks great things and blasphemies (Revelation 13:5). Revelation 14:3. No one could learn the song, etc. There are, then, lessons to be learned even in Heaven. That learning will, however, be something different from our more mechanical, discursive learning. Even [in this mortal life] we know the difference between this latter learning and the being taught of God (John 6:45). Revelation 14:4. Even on the basis of the Apocalypse a literal interpretation of this passage would be productive of great embarrassment. Such an interpretation would exclude from the 144,000 the Apostles themselves—a thing inconceivable according to Matthew 19:28; the brethren of the Lord—of whom it is related, 1 Corinthians 9:5, that they carried their wives with them on their missionary journeys; and also Philip, one of the deacons, the father of four daughters (Acts 21:8-9). There is, moreover, not the slightest indication to be found in the Old Covenant, from the participants in which the nucleus of the heavenly congregation of the first fruits had been gathered, that celibacy was regarded with any favor in Israel. On the contrary, no eunuch, no impotent man, could enter into the congregation of God (Deuteronomy 23:1), and only of the future system of salvation was it prophesied that not even the eunuch should be shut out from it (Isaiah 56:3; see Genesis 2:18; Matthew 19:4-5; Ephesians 5:23; 2 Corinthians 11:2; 1 Timothy 4:1-3).—The Angel with the everlasting Gospel. This is the Angel of missions, the representative of all missionary labor, both within apostate Christendom and in heathen lands. (Missions are good and great; but the reference here is to a time when missions must have completed their work, and to a new fact, the end-judgment, in its character of a gospel of a blessed eternity, for believers.) [From M. Henry: Revelation 14:13. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth, etc. They are blessed, 1. In their rest; they rest from all sin, temptation, sorrow, and persecution. 2. In their recompense, their works follow them; they do not go before them as their title or purchase, but follow them as their evidence of having lived and died in the Lord. 3. In the time of their dying, when they have lived to see God’s cause reviving, the peace of the Church returning, and the wrath of God falling upon their idolatrous, cruel enemies.—From The Comprehensive Commentary: Revelation 14:4. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Through persecutions and tribulations, into obscurity, or into prisons, with self-denial, obedient faith, and patient hope; “taking up their cross,” and copying His example of meekness, purity and love. (Scott.)—From Barnes: Revelation 14:3. To appreciate fully the song of Zion; to understand the language of praise; to enter into the spirit of the truths which pertain to redemption, one must himself have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Revelation 14:11. And they have no rest, day nor night. It will be one of the bitterest ingredients in the cup of woe, in the world of despair, that the luxury of rest will be denied forever, and that they who enter that gloomy prison sleep no more; never know the respite of a moment—never even lose the consciousness of their heavy doom. Revelation 14:13. Blessed are the dead. We should be grateful for any system of religion which will enable us thus to speak of those who are dead; which will enable us, with corresponding feeling, to look forward to our own departure from this world.—Which die in the Lord. Not all the dead; for God never pronounces the condition of the wicked who die, blessed or happy. The declaration is confined to those who furnish evidence that they are prepared for heaven. “To die in the Lord” implies, 1. That they who thus die are the friends of the Lord Jesus. 2. It would seem also to imply that there should be, at the time, the evidence of His favor and friendship. This would apply (1) to those who die as martyrs; and (2) to those who have the comforting evidence of His presence and favor on the bed of death.—That they may rest from their labors. In view of such eternal rest from toil, we may well endure the labors and toils incident to the short period of the present life, for however arduous or difficult, it will soon be ended.—Their works do follow them. Note here, 1. That all that the righteous do and suffer here will be appropriately recompensed there. 2. This is all that can follow a man to eternity. He can take with him none of his gold, his lands, his raiment; none of the honors of this life, none of the means of sensual gratification. All that will go with him will be his character, and the results of his conduct here; and, in this respect, eternity will be but a prolongation of the present life. 3. It is one of the highest honors of our nature that we can make the present affect the future for good; that by our conduct on earth we can lay the foundation for happiness millions of ages hence. Revelation 14:15. For the time is come for Thee to reap. That is, “the harvest which Thou art to reap is ripe; the seed which Thou hast sown has grown up; the earth which Thou hast cultivated has produced this golden grain, and it is fit that Thou shouldst now gather it in.”—From Vaughan: Revelation 14:7. Till a man fears, he can never know hope. The first, call of the everlasting Gospel itself is to fear God and to worship the universal Creator. Revelation 14:11. Some rest not day nor night from praise (Revelation 4:8); others rest not day nor night from suffering. Revelation 14:15. As there is a harvest of the earth for good, so also there is a harvest of the soul, an immaturity and a ripeness of the individual Christian. Revelation 14:18. So also there is an individual ripening for the vintage of wrath and judgment.—From Bonar: These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We follow Him here in suffering and service, as we shall follow Him hereafter in glory and joy.] 4. Preparation, in Heaven, for the JudgmentRev_15:1-8a. The Ideal Preparation1And I saw another sign in [ins. the] heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the [om. the] seven last [om. last] plagues [ins, the last]; [,] for in them is filled up [finished] the wrath [anger] of God. 2And I saw as it were a [ins. glassy] sea of glass [om. of glass] mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory [those conquering] over [from] the beast [wild-beast], and over [from] his image, and over his mark [om. and over his mark,] and [and] over [from] the number of his name, stand [standing] on [or by] the [ins. glassy] sea of glass [om. of glass], having the [om. the] harps of God. 3And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, [ins. O] Lord [,] God Almighty [,the All-Ruler]; just and true are 4thy ways, thou King of Saints [om. saints—ins. the nations]. Who shall [or should] not fear thee [om. thee] O Lord, and glorify34 thy name? for thou only art holy (ὅσιος) 8 : for all [ins. the] nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest [were manifested]. b. The Real Preparation. Equipment of the Angels of Judgment, or the Seven Angels with the Vials of Anger5And after that [these things] I looked [saw], and, behold, [om., behold—ins. opened was] the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony [witness] in [ins. the] heaven was opened [om. was opened]: 6And the seven angels came out of [from] the temple, having [or that had] the seven plagues, clothed in [ins. linen] pure and [and] white [glistening] linen [om. linen], and having their breasts girded [girt around the breasts] with golden girdles. 7And one of the four beasts [living-beings] gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath [anger] of God, who liveth for ever and ever [into the ages of the ages]. 8And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man [one] was able to enter into the temple, till [until] the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled [should be finished]. AND VIEWThe fundamental idea of the whole section, Revelation 14-15, is the End-Judgment in its general form—the same Judgment which subsequently branches into the three special Judgments upon Babylon, the Beast, and Satan himself in conjunction with Gog and Magog. The fundamental idea of this first division [chs. 14, 15] of our section is the preparation of the End-Judgment, or the judgment of the Vials of Anger, in Heaven. Because this great judgment brings about the final decision, it is preceded by a very great and solemn preparation in Heaven, the description of which runs through two chapters, the judgments then being executed upon the earth itself, in swift succession, by the outpouring of the Vials of Anger (Revelation 16). Thus, this heavenly proleptical celebration of the End-judgment is analogous to the great proleptical celebration of the Seven Seals of world-history in chs. 4 and 5. The anger of God is the manifestation of His love in the forth-going and predominancy of His righteousness unto judgment. God’s anger ordains death as a punishment for sin—as a reaction against the spiritual death of man, continuous disobedience or germinant apostasy (comp. the art. Zorn [anger, wrath] in Herzog’s Real-Encyklopδdie). And inasmuch as anger impels apostasy, or hardening, which is but another form of apostasy, to a crisis, it conducts to eternal death through spiritual death—i. e., it manifests itself in judgment. But as the very first manifestation of anger was but the climax of a rhythmical succession of chastisements under the reign of long-suffering (Romans 2:4-5), so also the true anger- [or wrath-] period, the great day of anger [or wrath], appears in a succession of constant augmentations. Great, however, though the anger-judgments may be, so that they wear the aspect of endless and nameless darknesses—as, e. g., in the destruction of Jerusalem, in the fall of Constantinople,—before God they are weighed and measured, and their measure and operation are appointed them by God’s faithfulness. Thus, anger is contained in golden vials; it is so scrupulously prepared in Heaven, so pondered over, so permeated by the Divine Intelligence, that, as a heroic act of Divine reason, it embodies in itself precisely the opposite to what is described in the heathen pictures of the envy of the gods, and the might of destiny. Our remarks hold good especially in regard to the moderation and limitation of the anger-judgments for the righteous, who are oftentimes externally exposed to the same tempests as the godless—in regard to the cutting short of the troublous days, as the Lord expresses it (see Comm. on Matthew 24:22); they are, however, also applicable to the operation of judgment in general. As these Anger-Vials are, on the one hand, akin to the Trumpets, and unmistakably parallel with them (see Int., p, 86), they form, on the other hand, an antithesis to them, in that the Trumpets are predominantly exhibited in the light of judgments in order to awakening (see Revelation 11:13), whilst the Vials of anger generally operate as judgments of hardening (see Revelation 16:9; Revelation 16:11). The first great vision in the Heaven-picture of the end of the world is the throng of the elect centre of the Church Triumphant, representative of the Church Triumphant itself. The scene is on Mount Zion. That Mount Zion can neither be situate in Heaven, nor be geographically understood of the eminence on which the Temple stood in Jerusalem; is evident from the symbolical import of the expression. Accordingly, Mount Zion is the real State of God, in its consummation. The heavenly appearance, Revelation 1:12, becomes, Revelation 4:2, the sphere of the heavenly Throne. In Revelation 7:9, the Church Triumphant is depicted in the process of its growth. Here we have the picture of its preliminary spiritual consummation. It is still, however, to be conceived of as in the sphere of the beyond, for only in Revelation 21. is the union between the Christian further and hither shores consummated in the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem, as the City of God, upon the earth. Then, and not till then, the complete pneumatico-corporeal transfiguration of the world, and the real resurrection, are declared. The spiritual consummation of the Church, however, is declared in this earlier passage—its blessed, secure position above the anger judgments now about to break upon the earth. The centre of the picture is formed by the Lamb. He is surrounded by 144,000 elect souls. To the query as to whether these are the same souls that appear as sealed ones in Revelation 7, we would answer: First, that the crisis of trial lies before those sealed ones, whilst these who surround the Lamb have passed it, and are, to the triumphant prophetic gaze, perfected ones, the centre, therefore, of the innumerable throng of Rev 7:9. Secondly, the symbolical import of the number 144,000 must be carefully regarded in this passage also. We need not, therefore, press the inquiry as to the identity of the two bands as individuals, but may regard as established their identity as a whole; inasmuch as the sealed elect of this world must also appear in the other world as perfected elect ones. The companions of the Lamb, therefore, are the complete number of the centre of the blessed, representing the entire Church Triumphant. They have the Name of Christ and the Name of the Father written on their foreheads, i. e., they are perfected confessors, and hence not such as think they must obscure the Name of the Father by the Name of the Lamb; nor are they such as act in a converse manner. That the Seer intended to represent this throng as composed exclusively of Jews is an utterly ridiculous assumption, from beginning to end. It is, however, particularly ridiculous when the designation of them as virgins is literally understood of celibacy, and the climax of absurdity is reached with the explanatory citation of the Old Testament provision, in accordance with which sexual intercourse rendered unclean for a time. For marriage itself was so far from being represented in the Old Testament as defiling, that, on the contrary, the greatest promises were attached to it. Even Mary, the Mother of our Lord, was obliged to pass through a legal purification, and the Apostle Peter was married. To attribute such a view as the above to the writer of the Apocalypse is to regard him as a dualistic ascetic. Even the Patriarchs and Prophets would, on this ground, be excluded from the number of the elect by this supposed Judaist or Judaizing non-Judaist—for the historical interpretation advances even to the latter conception of the Apocalyptist. This great optical wonder is followed by a great auricular wonder. The new song of the consummation of the Church Triumphant bursts, in a grand harmony, from Heaven. It sounds like the roar of many waters, for it is the united praise offered to God by the redeemed peoples. It sounds like a great thunder, for it is the completed, world-refreshing revelation of God. It sounds like the harping of harpers, for all true art has entered into the service of the holy. And they sing a new song. These words seem to relate primarily to the harpers, for it is declared that they sing it before the Throne, before the four Life-shapes and before the Elders. The song, however, is not their property; it is given to them as the perfect blossom of revelation; hence it is also new—a marvel of song, which has never before been. We must not overlook the fact that the new song, like the State of God, passes through different stages of development before attaining to perfection; see chs. Revelation 5:9; Revelation 14:3; Revelation 15:3; Revelation 19:6 (comp. Exodus 15; Psalms 96:1). Even the 144,000 elect must learn the song, and they alone can learn it, because it presupposes the entire depth and circuit of their experience and the whole state of their being “bought from the earth.” They have not defiled themselves with women. It is manifest that this can be understood only symbolically, for virgins are spoken of. The symbol, however, does not consist of women themselves, but of defilement with women, by which defilement the women themselves are more particularly characterized (Proverbs 9:13). That illicit intercourse is here referred to, and not marriage, may be understood as a matter of course, in a Book which closes with the Bridal of the Lamb. The Biblical representation of idolatry and apostasy under the figure of harlotry is familiar to all readers of the Sacred Writings, and the idea referred to is the more obvious here, since immediately before the great apostasy has been depicted. The doing of these virgin souls was, however, founded upon their being. As virgins, they have also kept themselves pure from all fanaticism and party-spirit in their piety, for both these forms of the defilement of piety are also, in particular, very fatal forms of subtile idolatry. Their virginity is expressed in the fact that they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth—follow Him, therefore, in all His historical and heavenly movements and advances, and follow only Him. Absolute, pure obedience in absolute, pure trust, is the sign that they are bought from among men as first-fruits (see Comm. on James 1:18) unto God and the Lamb. As, however, the consummation of their electness was based upon redemptive grace, evidence of that electness was given, above all, in the characteristics of uprightness (Proverbs 2:7; Ecclesiastes 7:8) and veracity. Grotius rightly makes mention of the fact that all idolatry is infected with falsehood (John 3:21). The fact that they should not be represented as sinless and having no need of redemption, is manifest from the declaration concerning them, that they stand before the Lamb, that they are bought, and that no falsehood was found in their mouth—no species of untruthfulness—and that they stand as, in every respect, wholly perfected, blameless—as is expressly affirmed—before the Throne of God. After this exhibition of the security of the whole blessed Kingdom of God, the announcement of the Judgment may be made. This Judgment has three sides: First, it is, for the righteous, final redemption; hence, its proclamation as an everlasting gospel, the eschatological gospel of the final σωτηρία, through the judgment, to eternal blessedness and well-being ([Heil] Matthew 25.; Luke 21:28). This gospel is proclaimed to all who sit on the earth, all who are most firmly attached to earth (Revelation 15:6), before the coming of the Judgment itself; and the proclamation is conjoined with an admonition to voluntary self-humiliation before God, Who is here pertinently designated as the Creator, the Cause and Lord of all things, and particularly also, as the Author of the fountains of waters, i. e., all original geniuses. The Judgment is, secondly, for the world ripe unto perdition, an actual fall into perdition. Hence the proclamation: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! Be it here observed that in this passage it is not Babylon in the narrower sense of the word, to which reference is had, as in Revelation 17. As in Genesis, Revelation 1, water is at first spoken of in the most general sense, then in a special sense, and finally in the most special sense, so here by Babylon the whole ungodly Anti-christianized world is intended. At the outpouring of the seventh Vial of anger, this ungodly and Antichristian world, represented by Babylon, is divided into three parts (Revelation 16:19), when the general Judgment branches into the three special judgments: upon the Harlot, or Babylon in the narrower sense; upon the Beast; and upon Gog and Magog under the leadership of Satan. Concerning the more general Babylon which has, undoubtedly, for a considerable time had its culmination-point in the more special Babylon, it is declared: She gave all the nations [heathen, Gentiles] to drink of the wine of the anger [or rage] of her fornication. Antichristianity is a unitous evil mock-growth, which has twined its stifling tendrils throughout humanity, as, on the other hand, the tree of the Kingdom of God has pushed its holy roots throughout the same. The wine of the anger of fornication is only materially identical with the anger of God (see Revelation 11:18); in a formal point of view it forms an antithesis thereto. The wine of the anger of fornication is, as sin, passionate, riotous intoxication in apostasy; as a judgment, it is also the wine of the wrath of God, the mind-deranging operation of the death-judgments of God. Finally, the judgment consists, in the third place, of the sentence which interprets the facts. Thus the actual separation of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25) precedes the sentence passed upon them. The sentence of the Angel is conditioned as follows: If any one worshippeth the Wild-beast and his image, and receiveth his mark on his forehead or on his hand. The one implies the other: recognition of the power of the Beast, and appropriation of the false idea of the system, theocratic or practical testimony. The sentence is as follows: he incurs the internal judgment of having to drink of the wine of the anger [or wrath] of God—deadly derangement of the mind; this is a wine mingled, i. e., here poured out (presented, credenzt) unmixed [οἵνοςκεκεράσμενοςἄκρατος], as the strongest and most intoxicating beverage, in the cup, the self-limiting decree, of His wrath [ὀργή]. The external local result is as follows: he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. The outward and apparent form of the Judgment is fiery self-consumption in the ever affluent new elements of fiery irritation. For as, to the righteous, every affluent experience is transformed into the gentle oil of the Spirit, so, to the wicked, every experience becomes brimstone—fuel for his passion. The temporal result of the Judgment is as follows: the smoke of their torment ascendeth into ages of ages. Smoke rises from fire; not, however, from a clear fire, but from that which is hemmed in and dim. Here, doubtless, the fire of hate is particularly referred to—fanatical passionateness in apostasy. Hence it is further declared: they have not rest by day and by night; this they have not, not in a good sense (Revelation 4:8), but in a bad sense, as demonic beings, and the true causality thereof lies in their very apostasy;—the context is: who worship the wild-beast and his image, and if any one receiveth the mark of his name. The fact that the condition of damnation can continue into the ages denotes, indubitably, the temporal immensity of that condition, but is also, at the same time, expressive of ζonic figurations and alterations of it. At the close of this sentence, we again encounter the saying of Rev 13:10, amplified by the declaration that the patience [endurance] of the saints is also evidenced in keeping the commandments of God; their faith, meanwhile, appearing as a faith in Jesus. Only through this patience or endurance can a man escape that sentence of ζonic fiery death. Here also, as in Revelation 13:10, this spirit of blessed calm forms a contrast to the fire-smoke of the restless (Isaiah 48:22). Here again the Seer significantly insists upon the fact that a vital veneration of God and faith in Jesus necessarily accompany each other. The sentence unto damnation is now contrasted with the sentence unto blessedness. But why does not the Angel give utterance to the latter, and not a voice from Heaven? We might reply, because the experience of the celestial blessedness of proven Christians passes the experience of Angels. According to the context, this beatitude is pronounced by the Spirit, i. e., the Spirit of the Church Triumphant; He, therefore, gives utterance to a testimony of direct experience. The beatitude of the blessed dead is, however, specially signalized, and commended, as it were, as an inscription for gravestones, with the command: Write. Although this precious sentence (Isaiah 48:13) holds good for all times—blessed are the dead, etc.—it is of particular moment when regarded in its bearing upon the last times. Then are the dying, who die in the Lord as they have lived in Him, to be accounted particularly blessed, because they are taken away from the storm of the last days (see Isaiah 57:1). We, therefore, interpret ἀπάρτι in the following sense: Such are henceforth peculiarly blessed, because they attain unto rest from their sore conflicts, whilst the blessing of their works, and also their perfected vocation to ideal activity, accompany them into the Church Triumphant. Before passing to a consideration of the three Angels of the beginning execution of the End-Judgment, we must examine the relation of these three Angels to the preceding three Angels of the announcement of Judgment. It is natural to suppose that the first three Angels form an organic totality (ἄλλος Isaiah 48:15, ἄλλος Isaiah 48:17, ἄλλος Isaiah 48:18, akin to ἄλλος, ἕτερος, ἄλλος, 1 Corinthians 12:10), and not that an abstract series of other and still other Angels is cited. The second angelic triad, then, corresponds to the first, and the following scheme is formed: A. The Announcement of the end. The Lamb standing on Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1). 1. The ἄλλοςἄγγελος, the proclaimer of the everlasting Gospel, or the Gospel of eternity (Revelation 14:6). 2. The ἄλλοςδεύτεροςἄγγελος, as the proclaimer of the decided fall of Babylon the Great (Revelation 14:8). 3. The ἄλλοςἄγγελοςτρίτος, the proclaimer of the judgment upon the worshippers of the Beast (Revelation 14:9). 4. The voice from Heaven: Proclamation of the blessedness of the dead who die in the Lord. B. The Accomplishment op the End. Appearance of the form of the son of man on the White Cloud (Revelation 14:14). 1. The ἄλλοςἄγγελος, issuing out of the Temple, proclaiming the hour of the Judgment (the beginning of the entire Judgment) as a judgment upon Babylon (Revelation 14:15). 2. The ἄλλοςἄγγελος, issuing out of the Temple in Heaven, with the sharp sickle for the consummation of the harvest (Revelation 14:17). 3. The ἄλλοςἄγγελος, Revelation 14:18, issuing from the Altar, having power over the fire of sacrifice—who challenges the preceding Angel to the completion of the End-Judgment, as that Angel (Revelation 14:15) had in his turn challenged the form of the Son of Man (Revelation 14:14). We, therefore, distinguish the group of the proclamation of Judgment (A) and that of the execution of Judgment (B). The former is under the dominion of the Lamb, Who stands fast forever on Mount Zion as the Head of the Church Triumphant; the latter group is under the dominion of the form of the Son of Man on the white cloud, with the crown upon His head, and in His hand the sharp harvest-sickle—under the Christ, therefore, as He comes for Judgment upon the world (Matthew 26:64; comp. Daniel 7). With the first Angel, who has proclaimed the eternal Gospel, i. e., the Gospel of a blessed eternity, the final σωτηρία (Revelation 14:6), corresponds the first Angel of execution, in that he notifies the Son of Man of the hour or time of harvest, and summons Him to the harvest; whereupon, He Who sits upon the cloud, casts His sickle upon the earth and reaps the earth. This harvest (Revelation 14:16) is, without doubt, the harvest of the wheat (Matthew 3:12; Matthew 13:39), with which the Parousia begins (Matthew 24:31), corresponding to the Gospel of the final redemption, and to be distinguished from the harvest of judgment (Revelation 14:19-20). Distinctive marks: The Angel of Rev 14:15 goes forth from the Temple, i. e., the ideal Temple of the ripened Church of God, for the ripeness of God’s Church for redemption is the sign of the ripeness of the world for judgment; this Angel is, the symbol of the decree of the Father (Acts 1:7). Again, this first harvest is called simply the harvest of the earth; it begins with Christ, as the Judge of the world, casting His sickle from the cloud to the earth—that is, with the commencement of His Parousia itself. Here, therefore, the earth which is reaped, is to be understood in the more special sense of the term. With the second Angel of proclamation, who cries out: Fallen is Babylon (Revelation 14:8), corresponds the second Angel of execution (Revelation 14:17). This latter Angel issues forth from the Temple of Heaven, for the judgment unto judgment is based entirely upon the objective sentence of Divine Righteousness, which decides when the internal corruptness [Verderben] of the world must find its judgment in external ruin [Verderben]. Even this Angel of judgment, however (who bears a similarity to the import of Michael, the judging Christ), receives the summons to the execution of judgment from another Angel, the third Angel of execution. This Angel issues from the Altar; he has authority over the fire. This is what qualifies him to call for the fire of judgment. For every little flame, every fire of sacrifice, has been a pre-exhibition of the great sacrificial burning at the end of the world. Thus with the third Angel of proclamation (Revelation 14:9), who announced that law of the Kingdom in accordance with which the sentence of damnation (Revelation 14:9-11) and the Judgment, as a judgment of fire, ensue, corresponds the Angel of the actual fiery Judgment, whose world-historic prefiguration is sacrifice. We scarcely need mention that this double angelic triad forms a group of symbolical figures; in which the first triad belongs more to the economy of Christ, and the second more to the economy of the Father. It may appear particularly remarkable that the harvest of judgment is represented as a gathering of the vine—the vine thus, apparently, having an entirely different import here from that assigned it John 15:1. It might here be suggested that all Antichristianity will be a corrupt and apostate Christianity. There is, however, another motive which lies at the door, viz., that of conforming the entire picture to the central idea of the wine-press, Isaiah 63. The wine-press of wrath or deadly judgment brings with it the retribution for the great blood-guiltiness of the world’s history—especially as manifested in the history of the martyrs;—this retribution is exhibited in the mighty river of blood in which, at the end of the world, the life of the old humanity pours forth. The treading of the wine-press is accomplished without the city; an antithesis by which only the City simple, the City, of God, can be intended. The depth of the river of blood is indicated by the declaration that it reaches to the reins [Zδgel] of the horses—not to the bits [Zaόme, German Version], for in that case the horses would necessarily sink. It is with difficulty, therefore, that the horses of world-development (Revelation 6:2; Revelation 19:14) can labor through this stream; it is only through a great crisis that the new world issues from the old. The bloody stream itself overspreads 1000 stadia, the symbol of an ζon, by the space of 600 stadia, by which an immense extent of further suffering is indicated. In Revelation 15 is represented the preparation of this Judgment which is about to be executed through the medium of the Vials of Anger. It might be conjectured that the Earth-picture of the Anger-Vials would begin here, but individual traits are against such a supposition—especially the festival-keeping on the crystal sea. First, then, the Seer beholds another sign in Heaven, the seven Angels with the last seven plagues, or judgment-strokes, with which the anger of God shall be filled up. Again, however, the vision must strengthen the courage of the faithful; the description of the terrible angelic forms is therefore preceded by a picture of the celebration of the Judgment in the congregation of the blessed. The glassy sea is here, as in an earlier passage [Revelation 4:6], the completed history of the peoples as a history of salvation, sub specie ζterni, translumined by the Spirit of God; Divinely still and transparent, and Divinely moved. Here, however, it is mingled with the appearance of fire (see p. 34); for this new world-form has passed through the sacrificial fire as well as through the fire of the universal judgment; moreover, the reflection of the Vials of anger falls upon the crystal splendor of this sea. Hence, the blessed are here designated as victors over the Beast. Their victory is detailed. They have vanquished not only the temptation of the Beast, but also the temptation of his Image, the temptation of his mark, the Antichristian symbol; aye, they have overcome even the temptation to a covert [Verblόmt] recognition of him by the assumption of the number of his name in a restless pursuit of vanity. And now they all have harps; harps of God, as Divinely inspired singers and players. The new song which they sing is now called the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Of the two songs, the song of the typical redemption (Exodus 15.) and the song of the real redemption, one unitous, grand anthem of redemption is born. Even the Law is, in the light of the consummation, glorified into a phase of the Gospel; and it is also, in spiritual forms, its very self glorified, elevated—and, by being elevated, in a sense abrogated [aufgehoben],—transmuted into celestial custom (Matthew 5). This song has reference to the imminent final Judgment from which they, through the redemption, have escaped, as Israel escaped from the pursuit of Pharaoh. Hence, mention is first made of the great wonders of God, particularly as manifest in His conduct of the Final Judgment. Hence, God is again magnified as the All-Ruler [Παντοκράτωρ], and His ways, in particular,—His government and providences [Fόhrungen und Fόgungen=leadings and joinings]—are extolled as righteous and true; as righteous in His world-historic retribution—as true in His final fulfillment of all prophecies and threats. Thus He approves Himself the essential King of the nations (not simply of the saints, after the scantily attested reading). Thus the worship of the true fear of God appertains to Him at the end of days as much as, and still more than, in the days of the Old Covenant, for this fear is fundamentally diverse from the fear which is cast out by perfect love. The supreme reason for this worship is expressed in the words: He only is holy—words declaratory of the Absolute Personality, not merely as a negation of all impersonal conduct, but also as the Founder and Awakener of the Personal Kingdom of Love, in Whose almighty traction of love all nations [Heiden, heathen, Gentiles] shall come and worship before Him after they have beheld the grand manifestation of His judgments. These words point to a great conversion, to take place amidst the development of the world’s judgment. After this pre-celebration of the Judgment of Anger, the Seer, with new amazement (Revelation 15:5), beholds the equipment of the seven Angels for the execution of the Judgment. The scene opens with the opening of the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Witness, i. e., the Ark of the Covenant—the Holy of Holies, therefore. There the holy Law reposes, which has testified the will of God to the nations; thence, therefore, perfect retribution proceeds, as a punitory providence which itself bears the mark of the Holy of Holies, and hence is to be regarded entirely as a providence in order to the protection of personal life. This providence issues from the Holy of Holies, under the guidance of the seven Angels who are to execute the seven last plagues. These Angels themselves appear as highly consecrate spirits, clothed with pure, glistening (or pearl-beset?) linen, for they accomplish the deliverances of supreme truth and righteousness solely, in executing the sentence of the anger of God; they are no mediums for the outflowings of dark and unfree passion, no ministers of blind and senseless fate-strokes. Hence they are also girded as for a festal celebration, about the breast—not as for labor, about the loins; they are girded with golden girdles, the signs of Divine strength, self-determination, and bound-abiding faithfulness. The seven Vials of Anger are given to the Angels by one of the four Life-shapes. Here it is particularly manifest that these Life-shapes cannot be regarded as symbolical forms of creature life. They stand between God and these high Angels—who may not, indeed, be identified with the Archangels—and receive the Vials, which are full of the anger of God. One of them distributes the Vials; greater explicitness is not accorded to the vision—hence it would be mere guess-work were we to conjecture that the Lion was the recipient and distributer of the Vials. Why do we here find the expression: Who liveth into the ages of the ages? The domination of God’s wrath in inflictions of death is conditioned by this life. The manifestation of absolute Life is a decree of death to obstinate sinners. Furthermore, God withdraws Himself from human view as an angry God. Thenceforth the Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, so that none could go into the Temple until the seven plagues were fulfilled. This phenomenon cannot be resolved into the more general fact that the glory of God veils itself in the pillar of cloud or in a pillar of smoke (Exodus 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10; Matthew 17:5), although it is connected with that fact. For the Temple was not previously filled with smoke, to the eye of the Seer; he has even had a mysteriously expressed sight of God. But as God, as the Holy One, in general conceals Himself from the gaze of sinful man, so this is especially the case in His judgments. “He made the darkness about Him His covering—His pavilion round about Him dark waters [Wassernacht], clouds upon clouds,” Psalms 18:11. Thus He covers Himself when He comes with terrors upon His enemies. For the Prophet Isaiah also (Isaiah 6), the Temple in which he has seen the glory of Jehovah, afterwards becomes filled with smoke; a sign that this Temple should be burnt, but also an expression of the fact that God is, for the human eye, hidden most in His judgments, most difficult of comprehension therein. That affectionate and familiar boldness which seeks an immediate access into the Temple, to God, shrinks back amid the thunders of majesty; nevertheless, the Mercy-seat is set up in front of the Temple in the person of Jesus Christ for all in the whole world who seek for refuge (Romans 3). [ OP VIEWS, ETC.] By the American Editor[Elliott: Revelation 14:1-5, is parallel with chs. 12, 13, and presents a view of the true Church gathered around the true Christ (the Lamb—standing, not yet enthroned)—in antithesis with the merely nominal Church gathered around the enthroned Antichrist, as set forth in those chapters; Revelation 14:2-3, mark a progression in their condition—they refer to the Reformation;—the harpers are the rejoicing members of the churches of the Reformation; the voice of many waters and of a great thunder implies the uniting of both nations and princes in their rejoicing; the new song, the song of the Reformation, as set forth by Luther: “Learn to know Christ, Christ crucified, Christ come down from Heaven to dwell with sinners! Learn to sing the New Song, Thou Jesus art my righteousness; I am Thy sin; Thou hast taken on Thyself what was mine; Thou hast given me what is Thine.” Revelation 14:6-8 are parallel with chs. 15, Revelation 16:1-14 (Revelation 11:15-19), and set forth the missionary advance of the true Church throughout the Era predicted in those passages . Revelation 14:9-20 are connected with Revelation 16:15 to the end of the Apocalypse . Barnes: Ch. 14. contains a succession of symbolical representations, designed to comfort those exposed to the troublous events of chs. 12, 13, by showing the ultimate result of those events: There is represented by the vision of (1) Revelation 14:1-5, the character and final triumph of all the redeemed; (2) Revelation 14:6-7, that the gospel will be preached among all nations, and that as indicating the near approach of the consummation; (3) Revelation 14:8, the destruction of Antichristian, Papal Rome; (4) Revelation 14:9-12, the certain and final destruction of all the upholders of that power; (5) Revelation 14:13, the blessedness of all who die in the Lord; (6) Revelation 14:14-20, the final overthrow of all the enemies of the Church; the harvest representing the righteous to be gathered into the Kingdom; the vintage, the wicked to be destroyed.—Ch. 15 commences the statement of the manner in which the pledges of the preceding chapter would be accomplished, which statement is pursued through the subsequent chapters, giving in detail what is here promised in a general manner—it “is merely introductory to what follows, … and designed to introduce the account of those judgments with suitable circumstances of solemnity.” Stuart: “The combination of three such powerful enemies against Christianity (the Dragon, Satan [p. 240]; the First Beast, Pagan Rome; the Second, the Pagan Priesthood [p. 261]), was in itself of fearful import. … To animate the courage, however, of this noble little band, (of Christians), the writer arrests the progress of action in the great drama, in order to hold out the symbols of ultimate and certain victory: Symbol First is of the Lamb (Christ) on the earthly Zion, surrounded by His 144,000 sealed ones—not forces to be employed against enemies, but trophies of victory already achieved; Second, consists of a triplex series of proclamations of (a) the ultimate and certain spread of the gospel throughout the whole world, Revelation 14:6-7, (b) the absolute and certain fall of mystical Babylon (heathen Rome), Revelation 14:8, (c) the awful punishment that awaits the followers of the Beast; Third, is constituted of a triplex series of actions—(a) the reaping, Revelation 14:14-16 (the harvest which is ripe, i. e., the enemies of the Church whose wickedness is consummated), (b) the gathering, Revelation 14:17-19 (also the wicked), (c) the treading of the wine-press, Revelation 14:20.Ch. 15. A Heaven-scene preceding the infliction of the seven last plagues: the martyrs around the Throne sing the song of anticipative triumph, and praise the justice of God as about to be displayed in the overthrow of the Beast, Revelation 15:2-4; the smoke preventing the entrance of any one into the Temple, Revelation 15:8, indicates that no one is permitted to intercede for those about to be punished, and consequently, that their punishment is certain and inevitable. Wordsworth: Revelation 14:1-5. This vision reveals that, although during the sway of the Beast many would fall from the faith, yet the true Catholic Apostolic Church of Christ (the 144,000—the number of completeness and union in the true doctrine and discipline of Christ, as preached by the twelve Apostles) would never fail, and would finally triumph over the power of the Beast, and would stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion (in antithesis to the rising of the Beast from the sea) in His Kingdom, which will never be destroyed (comp. Psalms 125:1, etc.); the virginity of the 144,000 (Revelation 14:3) indicates that they were not corrupted by the spiritual harlotries of Babylon (Revelation 14:8; Revelation 17:1-5); the song of triumph (Revelation 14:2-3), is that of Angels chanting the victory of the Church. Revelation 14:6-7 predict the universal proclamation of the gospel (by literal Angels?), and that as a preparation for the End (compare Matthew 24:4). Revelation 14:8 is anticipative of the fall of Babylon, i. e., Papal Rome. Revelation 14:9-11, a warning (by literal Angels?) against worshipping the Beast. Revelation 14:14-16, Vision of the Last Judgment, as (1) a Harvest, the ingathering of the good; (2) a Vintage, the crushing of the wicked. Revelation 15:1. “St. John, having been brought in the foregoing chapter to the eve of the Day of Judgment, now re-ascends, as usual, to an earlier point in the Prophecy; and enlarges on the judicial chastisements to be inflicted on the Empire of the Beast.” Revelation 15:2-4. “Anticipations, continued and expanded, of the future victory of the faithful over the power of the Beast.” Revelation 15:5-8. “Preparation for the pouring out of the Seven Vials on the Empire of the Beast.” Alford: Ch. 14. This is not entirely another vision, but an introduction of a new element, one of comfort and joy, upon the scene of the last; it is anticipatory, having reference to two subjects to be treated of afterwards in detail—(1) the mystic Babylon, (2) the consummation of punishment and reward; it is general in its character, reaching forward close to the time of the end, and treating compendiously of the torment of the apostates and the blessedness of the righteous. It naturally divides itself into three sections: I. Revelation 14:1-5. The 144,000 are identical with those of Rev 7:4, and represent the people of God; their introduction here serves to place before us the Church on the holy hill of Sion (“the site of the display of God’s chosen ones with Christ” [“the seat of God’s true Church and worship?”]), where God has placed His King, as an introduction to the description of her agency in preaching the gospel, and her faithfulness in persecutions. II. Revelation 14:6-13. The four announcements of this section form the text and the compendium of the rest of the Book—these are of (1) the universal proclamation of the gospel as previous to the final judgments, Revelation 14:6-7, (2) the fall of Babylon (Rome, Pagan and Papal—principally Papal; see on Revelation 17), as an encouragement for the patience of the saints, Revelation 14:8; (3) the final defeat and torment of the Lord’s enemies, Revelation 14:9-12; (4) the blessedness of all who die in the faith and obedience of Christ. III. Revelation 14:14-16. The Harvest, i. e., the ingathering of the saints, answering to the proclamation of the gospel in Revelation 14:6-7. IV. Revelation 14:17-20. The Vintage of Wrath, fulfilling the denunciations of Rev 14:8; Revelation 14:11. Ch. 15. Prefatory to the Seven Vials: Revelation 15:1, the description of the vision; Revelation 15:2-4, the song of triumph of the saints victorious over the Beast; Revelation 15:5-8, the coming forth of the seven Angels, and delivering to them of the seven Vials. (See also in Expl. in Detail in loc.) Lord: Revelation 14:1-4. The 144,000 are the same as those of Revelation 7; they are also the Witnesses of Revelation 11 raised from the dead; they have not belonged to the apostate Church, nor sanctioned the blasphemous usurpations of the Wild Beast, but are pure worshippers of God; they are the first-fruits unto God (distinguished from the complete harvest of Rev 14:15-16); the song of Rev 14:3 is their song. Revelation 14:6-7. The Angel represents a body and succession of men, who are to bear the everlasting gospel both to the nations of the ten kingdoms, and to all other tribes and languages of earth. Revelation 14:8. Great Babylon is the aggregate of the nationalized hierarchies of the ten kingdoms; she symbolizes the teachers and rulers of the churches, with whom the kings of the earth join in the institution, practice, and dissemination of a false religion; uniting with her in the usurpation of the rights of God as lawgiver, etc.; her fall is her severance from the civil governments, and dejection from her station and power as a combination of national establishments; the Angel is the representative of a body of men, his flight in mid-Heaven denotes their publicity and conspicuity, and his annunciation, that there is to be a public and exalting celebration of her overthrow. Revelation 14:9-13. The warning implies that notwithstanding great Babylon has fallen from her station as a national establishment, men are still worshipping the Wild-beast and its image, and receiving its mark—those Romish hierarchies are still to subsist after their fall, and acknowledge the Pope as their head; the symbol foreshows that after great Babylon has fallen from her station as a combination of nationalized hierarchies, numerous teachers shall arise who shall publicly and strenuously assert the exclusive right of God to enjoin the faith and institute the worship of the Church, etc. Revelation 14:14-16. The one like the Son of Man represents (not Christ but) a human being, raised from the dead in glory, like the human form of Christ in His exaltation—the period of this agency, therefore, is after the revivification of the Witnesses; those harvested by him are the saints, living and mortal. Revelation 14:17-20. The dejection of the vine into the wine-press signifies that those whom the vine symbolizes are to be crushed by the vengeance of the Almighty—the treading of the wine-press outside the city (the symbol of the nationalized hierarchies), denotes that the grapes are from their vineyards—the river of blood symbolizes the vastness and visibility of the destruction; the dejection of the vine into the press is a different work from the treading—the former is the work of the reapers, the latter of the Son of God. Revelation 15:1-4. A Heaven-scene wherein the entire mass of witnesses, who throughout the ages have held the testimony of Jesus, and refused submission to Antichristian powers, are represented as praising the wisdom and rectitude of the Almighty. Revelation 15:5-8. The introduction to the pouring out of the Vials, indicating that no intercession by the saints on earth for the salvation of Antichristian foes is to be offered during this period. Glasgow: Revelation 14. The 144,000 are the same as those of chap. 7—they are the first-fruits (comp. Exodus 13:15; Exodus 34:20), representing all God’s ransomed people; the Angel of Rev 14:6 symbolizes the ministry of the gospel from the beginning (specially as missionaries to the heathen); the Angel of Rev 14:8 represents home missionaries, who are more controversial and Protestant than the preceding; the third Angel, Revelation 14:9, symbolizes the Protestant ministry; the dead of Rev 14:13 are the martyred dead of all ages; the one sitting on the cloud, Revelation 14:14, is Christ in His humanity throughout the gospel dispensation sitting on the cloud (the symbol taken from the cloudy pillar), which ever abides over the Church; the Angel of Rev 14:15, the whole body of Christ’s ministry—the time of their prayer to Christ coincides with the death of the Witnesses, the reaping-time of His compliance with that prayer is that of the resurrection of the witnesses (the Reformation); the Angel of Rev 14:17 is the Holy Ghost; that of Rev 14:18 represents persecuted saints; the vintage symbolizes the wasting wars that followed the Reformation. Revelation 15. The resurrection of the witnesses symbolizes the Reformation, and also presents a general view of the glorious events and retributions that followed.—E. R.C.] IN DETAIL Revelation 14:1. And I saw, and behold.— Lively introduction of the new, great vision of the heavenly pre-celebration and preparation of the final Judgment. The consummation of the Church, as appearing in the 144,000 virgins, is symptomatic of the consummation of the earth, of its ripeness for judgment. The Lamb (Revelation 7:17)—here in the radiance of His glorious spoils of victory. On the Mount Zion.—Is the mountain to be conceived of as in Heaven (in accordance with Grotius, Hengstenberg, Ebrard, et al.)? Or is it, in accordance with De Wette and Dόsterd., to be taken in its “proper” acceptation, i. e., literally? Dόsterdieck applies the epithet allegoristic to the interpretation of Mount Zion as the Church (after Bede, Calov., et al.), in his chronic misapprehension of what allegorism is. The vision is, evidently, a picture of the Church Triumphant, resident in that spiritual Heaven which pervades Heaven and earth. Mount Zion, however, particularly symbolizes the lofty citadel, the eternal fortress of the people of God. And with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand.—There is as little foundation for the belief that these 144,000 are composed exclusively of Gentiles (Dόsterdieck) as for the assumption that the 144,000 of Revelation 7 are Jews exclusively. For a discussion of the question as to the identity (Grot., Vitringa, and many others) or diversity (Bleek, Neander, et al.) of the two assemblies, we refer our readers to the Synoptical View [also Add. Note, p. 193.—E. R. C.] The 144,000 of the present chapter are, as a whole, the same kernel of the Church of God—a kernel, however, which has developed, from a host of combatants warring on this side of the boundary which divides this life from the life to come, to a host of victors who have crossed the line; as, similarly, the seal on the foreheads of the first has become the open inscription of appertinency to God and Christ. Revelation 14:2. A voice from the Heaven.—The heavenly character of the voice is the main thing; the sounds are sounds of perfection. The voices are in part voices of Christian nations (the voice of great waters), in part the voices of great Prophets (the voice of a great thunder), both the former and the latter being perfected in holy art (the voice of harpers). In a certain degree, therefore, the voice from Heaven certainly does represent the 144,000 themselves (Bengel, Hengstenberg, et al.); more strictly speaking, however, it is the true fountain of song within the Church of God, whose outflowings pass but gradually to the entire Church;—the choir of the celestial Church.—Great waters (Revelation 1:15).—The voice of a great thunder (Revelation 6:1).—Harps (or citherns).—With all its sublimity, the song, in its spiritual beauty, is as exquisitely delicate as the music of the cithern. [Alford comments: “The harpers and the song are in Heaven, the 144,000 on earth; and no one was able to learn the song, i. e., to appreciate its melody and meaning, so as to accompany it and bear part in the chorus.” On the other hand Lord remarks: “The Mount Sion on which the 144,000 stood was that of the heavenly tabernacle… The song, accordingly, which he heard from Heaven was their song; not the song of the other redeemed or of angels. This is apparent from the representation that it was sung before the Living-creatures and Elders, and that no one was able to learn it but the 144,000. To suppose it to have been sung by others, is to suppose that they had already learned it.”—E. R. C.] Revelation 14:3. A new song.—As the Old Testament is new in comparison with the primeval time; as the New Testament is new in comparison with the Old Testament; as the eternal gospel is new in comparison with the gospel of principal σωτηρία; so the new song is new in comparison with Moses’ song of redemption;—a more developed form is the conjunction of the two songs (Revelation 15:3).—And no one could learn the song, etc.—The condition whereon the learning of it is dependent is not artistic talent, but the depth of ethical experience, such as is possessed by the 144,000. The highest ζsthetics, the most profound artistic intelligence, in the simplest words. Revelation 14:4-5. On different attempts to construe the following, see Dόsterd. Attributes of the 144,000: 1. They are virgins (παρθένοι, virgin-like [Jungfrδuliche]; the Greek term is applied to men as well as to women) in a religious sense; they have kept themselves pure from idolatry (Coccei., Grot., et al.), ideal iconoclasts, who, it may be, even as heathen, perceived the myths to be but symbols. The words [παρθένοιγάρεἰσιν] have been infelicitously referred to monkish asceticism by Roman Catholic exegetes; to celibacy (Augustine, Bede, Rothe, Dόsterdieck); to chastity (Hengstenberg; abstinence from all fornication, De Wette); to the Christians of the last days (Hofmann). And thus the symbolism of the entire Old Testament, bearing upon this point, has been unable to obtain a foothold in the minds of these commentators. And the flimsy deductions which Neander and others (also Dόsterdieck especially, see his note, p. 466) have drawn from the misunderstanding, are a result of this ignoring of the Old Testament symbol, a recognition of which should the more assuredly have been induced by the fact that this virginity forms the extreme contrast to the extreme abomination of idolatry, viz.: the worship of the Beast.2. These (with emphasis) are they who follow the Lamb, etc.—Dόsterdieck and others lay stress upon the present, follow, in order to confute the interpretation of the term as a preterite, expressive of the following of Christ to tribulation and death (Grot., Bengel, Hengstenberg). They are the constant attendants of the Lamb, it is declared. The latter thought, however, is inclusive of the former one, even as it is also the result of it. [“If He goes to Gethsemane, they follow Him thither; if He goes to Calvary, they take up their cross and follow Him thither. He is gone to Heaven, and they will be with Him there also.” Wordsworth.—E. R. C.] 3. These were bought.—Emphasis is laid upon the personal worth of these souls by the repetition of οὗτοι. They are redeemed [bought] in a special sense, agreeably to their destination of being an ἀπαρχή for God and the Lamb. [“Redeemed from among men—language derived from the Book of Exodus: ‘The first-born of my sons I redeem’ (Exodus 13:15; Exodus 34:20). This exhibits the 144,000 as representing all God’s ransomed people.”—E. R. C.] Does ἀπαρχή constitute an antithesis to the entire world (in accordance with De Wette, et al., comp. James 1:18), or, which is more probable, to the general throng of believers (Ewald), or of the blessed (Bengel, Dόsterd., et al.)? In accordance with the distinction made, Revelation 7, between the 144,000 and the innumerable multitude, a special selection is likewise intended here. In this view, the difference between the Augustine-Calvinistic and the Biblical doctrine of election is clearly apparent. 4. In their mouth was not found falsehood.—“The term ψεῦδος (comp. Revelation 21:27) is to be apprehended in its general import, and not to be limited to the falsehood of idolatry (Grot.: non vocarunt deos, qui dii non sunt, Bengel), heresy, or a denial of Christ (Hengstenberg).” Dόsterdieck. This deliverance is more than half recanted by the remark that a certain antithesis to the sphere of falsehood in which the seducing pseudo-prophet moves, is obvious, (after Ewald, Ebrard). Idolatry is the primary form of falsehood, see Romans 1. Summation of attributes: For they are blameless.—Here, again, their ζonic disposition is cited as the basis of their temporal conduct; as in Revelation 14:4 : for they are virgins. In discussing the design of this vision it must first of all be stated that, in accordance with the construction of the whole Book, the vision has not a backward reference to Revelation 13, but a forward reference to ch. xvi, as a life-picture of the final σωτηρία contrasted with the final Judgment. Church-historical interpretations of particular details—some of which are of a remarkable character—see in Dόsterdieck, p. 468, and De Wette, p. 143. Christiani’s reference of the 144,000 to the Church of the last time agrees better with the context than many another interpretation. A reference to the Israelitish Church of the end [Luthardt] belongs to a Judaizing chiliasm. Revelation 14:6-7. Another Angel.—The reference of the expression “another Angel” to Angels who have previously appeared upon the scene (De Wette, Dόsterdieck), is untenable. The difficulty of ἄλλος was, perhaps, the cause of its omission in Cod. B.; see above.—Flying;—Comp. Revelation 8:13.—In mid-heaven.—A herald to the whole world.—An everlasting gospel.—Ebrard: “The older exegetes, together with Lόcke, are probably right in understanding the import of the tidings to be salvation in Christ generally.” (Note by the same com.: “Of course this apprehension does not in the slightest degree justify the arbitrary allegoristic references of the three Angels to Wickliffe, Huss, and Luther, and the like. Calovius understood by the first two Angels Luther and Chemnitz, most coolly appropriating to himself the honor of being the third.”—In conjunction, that is, with the other opponents of syncretism; see De Wette on this passage; also Dόsterd., p. 474.) Other interpretations of the three Angels, see collected in De Wette, p. 147 (Peter de Bruis, Wickliffe, Luther, etc.). Ebrard refers the Angel of the everlasting Gospel to the preaching of the Gospel amongst the heathen, which, according to Matthew 24, precedes the end. But though the old Gospel is, in respect of its purport, an eternal Gospel, it should, as the Gospel of principial salvation, be distinguished from the Gospel of the final redemption to eternal felicity; and the new proclamation, of which the present passage speaks, is not for the heathen alone, but for the whole earth. One-sided, but not incorrect, is the explanation of Corn. ΰ-Lapide: A message promissory of the eternal good things in Heaven. According to Hengstenberg, the message of the Angel is a Gospel [even for the enemies of God], inasmuch as his exhortation to repentance is conjoined with the grant of a respite for repentance. But there is no intimation here of a respite for repentance in the strict sense of the words. The last-named commentator interprets the attribute eternal as having reference solely to the irrevocability or certainty of this Gospel. On the reference of this Angel to Luther, comp. Hengstenberg, II., p. 133. To declare glad tidings unto them, etc.—The fact that this message is not addressed simply to the heathen who may still be left (Ebrard, p. 408), is clearly evident from the further explication of those for whom it is intended: to every nation, etc. Neither can it be said that the Angel’s exhortation to repentance is distinct from his message of joy:—the message in its totality is the everlasting Gospel, in the form of a parζnesis [παραίνεσις]. The general character of the exhortation:—Fear God, etc., rests upon the law that the preaching of the end goes back to the preaching of the beginning; and that partly on account of the fact that most Christians have learned very little from Christianity, and that there is now no time to lose. The fear of God, according to the text, would be for many the beginning of salvation, as it is elsewhere declared to be the beginning of wisdom. Finally, in the eternal Gospel, the form shall have become transparent for the universal Gospel, and a real worship of God, Who, besides the Heaven, has made the earth and the sea and fountains of waters—all in a symbolical sense—would be the actual foundation of conversion, the beginning of all Christian development. This Gospel is, certainly, conditioned, but, as conditioned, it is also a real Gospel (see Luke 21:28). It cannot be denied that the passage is suggestive of man’s absolute dependence upon God, as opposed to a false dependence upon, and subserviency to, the Beast;—the particular truth, however, which it is designed to exhibit is, that the judicial power of God is based upon the fact that He is the Creator of all things. Revelation 14:8. And another, second Angel, etc.—It is not on account of the dramatic vividness of the scene that one Angel follows another (Dόsterd.), but because of the rapid succession of particular items in the approaching judgment—a truth of which Grotius was sensible when he commented thus: Quot rei nunciandζ, totidem nuntii. Fallen.—One of the sublimest words of consolation for advanced Christians. Comp. Isaiah 14. Before God, the thing is decided; the decision on earth approaches. The passage is, therefore, a proleptical description, in prophetic form, of an imminent event (see Revelation 11:18).—Triumphant certainty is expressed in the repetition: fallen!Babylon the great.—Babel was, even in Genesis, the primeval type of a God-opposed world-power; in the Prophets, Babel [or Babylon] became the greatest type of the anti-theocratic world-power; and here the typical expression is perfected in the type of the antichristian world-power. Godless self-exaltation (Daniel 4:30), apparent crushing omnipotence over against the Church of God, and perfect impotence in face of the suddenly approaching storms of Divine judgment—are tie individual features of the type. Here, however, as has already been remarked, the reference is, not to Babylon in the narrower sense of the term, but to Babylon in the most general sense, culminating, of course, in Babylon in the more restricted sense. Who gave all the nations to drink of the wine of the anger [or rage] of her fornication.—Wine is a symbol of enthusiasm; fornication is a symbol of idolatry; and θυμός in this connection is the wrathful [angry] zeal of fanaticism. As fanaticism, in its lust of rule and its intolerance, corresponds with internal irreligiousness and profligacy, so idolatry itself corresponds with actual unchastity. These characteristics are found combined in the religion of ancient Babylon, and are in process of constant development, corresponding to the increasingly God-opposed character of the world-powers. Various have been the false interpretations of the wine of anger, as e.g., poisoned wine and ardent wine—explanations rightly rejected by Dόsterdieck. Yet the expression can not be regarded as significant purely of the wine of the anger of God; rather, together with the anger of the heathen [nations] or the Harlot, the reaction of the Divine anger develops into judgment (see Revelation 11:18; Revelation 17:4; comp. Romans 1:21 sqq.). This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section ThirteenthEarth-picture of the Seven Vials of Anger, or the End-judgment in its general aspect. (Ch. 16.) General.—The special homiletical treatment of this section is, like that of others, made more difficult by the disagreement of exegeses. According to Hengstenberg, for instance, the earth denotes the earthly-minded; the sea, the sea of nations, the unquiet wicked world (in antithesis to the earthly-minded!); the fountains of waters, the sources of prosperity; the sun, that luminary in its burning quality, the type of the sufferings of this life; the throne of the Beast, the government of the Roman emperors; the Euphrates, the hinderance to the advance of the God-opposed world-power into the Holy Land, against the Holy City, against the Church. According to Brandt, the earth is the Holy Land, which has become the scene of the world-kingdom of the Dragon; the sea is the mass of peoples united under the sceptre of the Beast; the rivers and fountains are the peoples and families in their still subsistent sunderment; the sun is the glowing sun and nothing more; the throne of the Beast is the sovereign power of the Beast; the Euphrates is the Beast out of the Earth, or Babylon. The exposition of Sabel is in part better; The earth denotes the positive foundations of State and Church; the sea, the Gentile-Christian world of nations. Next, however, come some abortive interpretations: The waters of life [rivers] are the refreshing truths of salvation, and the fountains of waters are the schools at which they are taught; the sun is the Church of Jesus Christ; the throne of the Beast is the Antichristian world—its darkening is the confusion and shattering of that world—The Euphrates is well characterized as emblematic of the boundary line of the civilized world; the drying up of it betokens a change in political wisdom resulting in a new migration of nations, as it were. The Vials of Anger should, above all, be compared with the Trumpets; and the antithesis between the Trumpets calling to repentance and the judgments of hardening, should be noted. The judgments of hardening may be elucidated by the Egyptian plagues, Isaiah 6:10 and analogous passages. They are indicative of such judgments as ripen corruption—when it has come to be past healing—into its final development and consummation, thus resulting in blasphemy, which in itself is damnation (Revelation 16:9; Revelation 16:11; Revelation 16:21), whilst, the Trumpets were designed to produce repentance. The first Vial of Anger readily suggests examples of the moral corruption and dissolution of individual states and communities (Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome, etc.) as warning signs. In treating the second Vial of Anger we may touch upon the symptoms, of the empoisonment of popular life by writings, tendencies, conspiracies. The symbolic import of the rivers is sufficiently attested by Scripture—the Nile, the Euphrates, the Jordan, the brook of Siloah; the same remark applies to the fountains. A consideration of poisoned and poisoning, death-dealing currents and fountains or fountain minds, would be appropriate here. The transformation of the sun of revelation into a glowing and scorching mass, by human fanaticism, negative as well as positive, is easily intelligible. The darkening of the throne and kingdom of darkness may be explained by the crumbling of the power of falsehood into contradictions, partyisms and suicidal complots. The drying up of the Euphrates, as the abolition of the boundary line between the civilized and the barbarian world, has a rich significance. Abolition of the distinctions of religions, stations, culture, of the sexes (emancipation of women), etc.—Symbolic import of the frogs.—The dissolution and decomposition of the common spiritual vital air must be a presage that the common existence of those who breathe it is drawing to a close.—The downfall of things in the evening of the world will be, first, a downfall of the spirit-world (Revelation 16:19); secondly, a downfall of nature; thirdly, a downfall of the relation between the human world and the life of nature. Special.—[chap. 16] The Vials of Anger in comparison with Christ’s Cup of Suifering: 1. The similarity; 2. The contrast,—[Revelation 16:2. The noisome sore in a social and a spiritual sense: Deficit; corruption of morals; mortality, etc.—[Revelation 16:3; Revelation 16:14. Transformation of the waters into blood, as a retribution for the nefarious and mock-holy shedding of blood (Revelation 16:5-7).—Apology for the avenging righteousness of God.—The blasphemies (Revelation 16:9; Revelation 16:11; Revelation 16:21). How are they punished? Primarily, through themselves, (1) their madness, (2) their impotence, (3) their torment.—[Revelation 16:12. The dangers to Christian humanity lying dormant in the Orient. An Orient of mischief over against the Orient of salvation.—[Revelation 16:13. The three frogs. Even in respect to the terrors of the last time, a sacred irony of the Spirit is manifested, testifying to the freeness of the Spirit,—[Revelation 16:14. Enthusiasm of those inspired by the frogs.—[Revelation 16:15. The Coming of the Lord compared with the coming of a thief: 1. Strangeness of the figure; 2. Design of this strangeness.—[Revelation 16:16. Armageddon, or the theocratic battle-fields.—Battle-fields of the world, from their dark and their bright side.—The last battle-field: Armageddon, the scene of a conflict between the world and the spirit-realm.—[Revelation 16:17. It is done!—The last glorious revelation of Christ’s Spirit in His Church (Revelation 16:18).—[Revelation 16:19. The falling of great Babylon into three parts, the announcement of the three judgments.—Crisis of nature in the evening of the world (Revelation 16:20-21). Starke: (This expositor continues his presentation of opposite views.) Revelation 16:2. Those who regard this as already fulfilled, explain it mystically thus: The sore is the manifestly shameful and hurtful condition of the whole papistic Church. (In contrast to this view, there is a literal exposition of the empoisonment of earth and of life, and also an allegorical interpretation, referring the passage to the bad conscience and anguish of soul of the wicked.)—The wrath of man is greater than his power, but God has power to carry out His wrath (1 Kings 19:2-3). Revelation 16:4. Those who regard this plague as fulfilled see in it the blood-thirsty doctrines and counsels of the Pope. Revelation 16:6. God, in proportioning His punishments to the sins which have provoked them, teaches us that we should proportion our penitence to our sins.—The blood of saints is precious in God’s eyes; He forgetteth it not, but recompenseth it with righteous vengeance. Revelation 16:8. Interpretations of the sun: [1] The natural sun; [2] A mighty king; [3] The Beast (! Reinbeck). Revelation 16:9. Application to the wars of Charles VIII. and subsequent French kings in Italy.—As all things work together for the good of the pious, so all things, even the beams of the sun, work evil to the wicked (Romans 8:28).—Quesnel: The scourgings of God discover the heart; out of a perverse heart they bring forth blasphemies, out of a penitent heart they bring praise, humility and love. Revelation 16:10. Even thrones and majesties are not secure from the chastisement of God. He can in His wrath destroy entire and flourishing kingdoms—Dimpel: Misuse not thy tongue for the flattery and excessive exaltation of the lofty, the distinguished and the rich, that thou mayest not afterwards, when God taketh such idols from thee, have to moan and lament, aye, and gnaw thy tongue for vexation; but let thy tongue daily tell of God’s righteousness. Revelation 16:10. Singular interpretation: The darkening of the Beast’s kingdom is the revelation, reaching far and wide, of all the abominations and vices of the Pope and the whole Roman clergy. Opposite (?) interpretation: The kingdom of the Beast despised by men. Revelation 16:12. Some: The drying up of the Euphrates is yet to come, although it might seem to be partially fulfilled in the kingdom of France, that being the most powerful kingdom of Europe, and the one that has afforded most protection to the Beast, in the persecution of the Huguenots, etc.—A great religious war is in prospect, the issue of which is greatly to be desired for the true Church. Revelation 16:13. The frogs: considered in respect of the Antichristian hellish trinity in which they originate—viz., the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet. Many a one who has a horror of the Devil when Scripture calls him a Dragon, listens to him with complacency when he speaks by the mouth of an unchaste woman, or a false teacher or godless babbler. The Devil has his apostles, as well as the Lord.—Quesnel: Satan has his designs when he assembles armies, men have theirs, and God has His, to the realization of which last all things must conduce (Isaiah 10:6-7). Quesnel: [Revelation 16:17. There is a seventh and last Vial for every individual sinner, but who knows it? Revelation 16:18. Some apprehend this mystically as referring to the Church: there shall be voices, open preaching of the Gospel, the thunder of the Divine word, and lightnings, the bright light of the Gospel, shall break forth again with power, and a remarkable movement of men’s souls shall be the result. Revelation 16:20. How foolish it is to attach ourselves to a world that fleeth away, and, like our desires, vanisheth. Revelation 16:21. God’s chastisements do not always make men better—they sometimes have a directly opposite effect. Bengel, Sechzig erbauliche Reden. The Trumpets make a wide circuit in a long time, but the Vials make quick work of it.—The four holy Beasts [Living-beings] are nearer to the Throne than the Angels in general, and these seven Angels in particular (recte!) [ch. Revelation 15:7].—The earth is Asia, the sea Europe, the rivers Africa (which contains the two principal rivers, the Nile and the Niger, etc.). The sun is the whole surface of the earth (partly, therefore, Asia, Europe and Africa again). Revelation 16:10. They still think that the Beast is right, and they become none other than they were, either internally or externally. Revelation 16:21. The whole creation is like an organ with many stops, and when one stop after another shall be drawn out as a plague upon the wicked, scorners shall learn somewhat that they look not for. Briefe über Offenb. Joh. Ein Buch für die Starken, die schwach heissen (Pfenninger). Revelation 16:1-2. An evil and poisonous ulcer came upon the men who had the mark of the Beast and who worshipped his image. Another wonderful and repentance-preaching sparing of Christians. Revelation 16:8-9. How strong must be our conviction of the immeliorability of these men. Revelation 16:17-21. The great earthquake, greater than any that had ever been, will, judging from Revelation 16:20, bring about those great changes in the shape of the earth, whose embellishment is in prospect, which must precede the time of the Messiah’s government.—[Revelation 16:21. The last hail: I, for my part, confess that as often as I think of a violent—nay, of the most violent—fever of earth, I can never picture to myself all the symptoms, in their great variety and contrast, in sufficient grandeur and extraordinariness. [From M. Henry: Revelation 16:15. When God’s cause comes to be tried, and His battles to be fought, all His people should be ready to stand up for His interest, and be faithful and valiant in His service. Revelation 16:21. Note here, 1. The greatest calamities that can befall men will not bring them to repentance without the grace of God working with them. 2. Those that are not made better by the judgments of God, are always the worse for them. 3. To be hardened in sin and enmity against God by His righteous judgments, is a certain token of utter destruction.—From The Comprehensive Commentary: Revelation 16:9; Revelation 16:11; Revelation 16:21. Without the special, preventing grace of God the more men suffer, and the more plainly they see the hand of God in their sufferings, the more furiously they often rage against Him. Let then sinners now seek repentance from Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, or they will hereafter have the anguish and horror of an unhumbled, impenitent and desperate heart, burning with enmity against God, as well as tortured by the fire of His indignation; and thus augmenting guilt and misery to all eternity. (Scott.) Revelation 16:15. These will be times of great temptation; and therefore Christ, by His apostle, called on His professed servants to expect His sudden coming, and to “watch,” that they might retain, and be found in, the garments of salvation, and not “walk naked,” and so be put to shame, as apostates or hypocrites; for the blessing would belong only to the watchful. (Scott.)—From Wordsworth: Vials are holy vessels. Wherever means of grace are not duly used, they recoil on those to whom they have been offered, and become means of punishment.—From Vaughan: Revelation 16:15. The garments of the watcher must not be laid aside; he must have his loins girded about (for action), as well as his lights burning (Luke 12:35).—The peculiarity of Christ’s coming is that everything which seems to defer really brings it near; everything which seems to make it improbable is an argument of its certainty and of its approach. Behold, I come as a thief.—Awake, then, thou that steepest! Be not found of Him, when He cometh, drowsy and stupefied, overcharged with cares and riches and pleasures of this life; the lamp of grace expiring, or the garment of holiness laid aside.—From Bonar: Revelation 16:15. These are words for all time, but specially for the last days. They (1) warn, (2) quicken, (3) rouse, (4) comfort. Note here, 1. The coming. Christ comes (1) as Avenger, (2) as Judge, (3) as King, (4) as Bridegroom. “As a thief;”—at midnight; when men are asleep; when darkness lies on earth; when men are least expecting Him; when they have lain down, saying: “Peace and safety.” Without warning, though with vengeance for the world in His hand: when all past warnings of judgment have been unheeded. Without further message; for all past messages have been in vain. Like a thief to the world, but like a Bridegroom to the Church. 2 The watching. Not believing, nor hoping, nor waiting merely; but watching. Watch upon your knees. Watch with your Bibles before you. Watch with wide open eye. Watch for Him Whom not having seen you love. 3. The keeping of the garments. Do not cast off your raiment either for sleep or for work. Do not let the world strip you of it. Keep it and hold it fast. It is heavenly raiment, and without it you cannot go in with your Lord when He comes. 4. The blessedness. It is blessed (1) because it cherishes our love; (2) it is one of the ways of maintaining our intercourse; (3) it is the posture through which He has appointed blessing to come, in His absence, to His waiting Church. 5. The warning. Adam was ashamed at being found naked when the Lord came down to meet him; how much more of shame and terror shall be to unready souls at meeting with a returning Lord! O false disciple, come out of your delusion and hypocrisy, lest you be exposed in that day of revelation! O sinner, make ready, for the day of vengeance is at hand!] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section FourteenthFirst Special End-Judgment: The Judgment upon Babylon, as a Heaven-picture. (Ch. 17) General.—Babylon, in the wider sense of the term, is the entire anti-Godly world, conceived of in its concentration; Babylon, in the narrower sense of the term, is the secularized, ungodly and anti-Godly, external Church; a birth-place of Antichristianity, in which the Antichristian essence often appears very undisguisedly, though the Beast, Antichrist himself, does not manifest himself therein. Here, the reference is to Babylon in the narrower sense, and primarily in respect of the heavenly appearance of her judgment. According to this Heaven-picture of the judgment, the horrible appearance of the Woman is itself the judgment. Conformably to her general appearance, she is the great Harlot (Revelation 17:1-2), i. e. the object and subject of idolatry, the patroness of, and seducer to, apostasy from the living God. Her appearance is presented in abominable contradictions: 1. A Woman in the wilderness of a seemingly holy renunciation of the world and asceticism, and yet riding, like an Amazon, upon a royally decorated Beast, a many-headed monster, marked with names of blasphemy. 2. The Woman in magnificent princely attire, with the golden cup in her hand—and yet in, and together with, the cup, abominations and uncleannesses of idolatry, and even bearing on her forehead, for all who are acquainted with spiritual characters, the following title: Babylon the Great, the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth. 3. The Woman, claiming the purest womanliness, in the religious sense of the term (see Revelation 12), drunken—with the blood of the saints; with the blood, even, of the martyrs of Jesus—of Jesus, Whose mother, sister, bride, she would fain be called. The Beast on which she rides has also great contradictions attaching to it. 1. It was and is not. The ungodly world-power was and is not—is in principle annihilated by Christianity. 2. It is not, and it will ascend out of the abyss, to a new development of ungodly worldly glory in face of Christianity. 3. It will ascend, to the end that it may go down into perdition. 4. It is the hardest riddle to all the pious, the admiration of all the earthly-minded. 5. Its seven heads are seven mountains, which, however, are in reality identical with many ebbing and flowing waters. 6. It goes to destruction in the consecrated septenary of its kings, only to revive again in the profane decenary of kings. 7. It has long borne the Woman on its colossal body, and will at last destroy her with its ten horns. 8. The monstrous dividedness of the Beast is transformed into perfect unitedness in the warfare against the Harlot. 9. The Woman goes to destruction through the contradiction of her similarity to the Lamb and her affinity to the Beast. Special.—[Revelation 17:1. Come, I will show thee the judgment of the great Harlot. Her appearance itself, therefore, is, primarily, her judgment. We are not to shun speaking of this judgment; but we must not interpret it rudely, in a manner offensive to the legal system of faith and worship. We have, therefore, to distinguish (1) between the Woman and the Beast which bears her; (2) between the symbolic form of the Woman, which embraces a symbolic Babylon, and her historic and most prominent organs and central points; (3) at the same time we are to recognize the fact that the corruption of the Church converges, more or less, to historic nodes, and is therein consummated. Babylon is everywhere in the Church, and yet is nowhere perfectly palpable; it, however, has its historic zenith-points. (Who, for instance, could refuse to reckon consummate Byzantinism, Mormonism and other sects based upon a pretension to inspiration, as forming portions of Babylon?)—As many Antichrists appear in the fore-ground of Antichristianity (1 John 2:18), so in the foreground of the consummate Babylon of the last time there are many Babylons, especially predominantly spiritual and predominantly secular figures of Babylon.—A leading mark of Babylon is the universal ruinous effect which proceeds from the very city which pretends to be and once was a teacher and educator of the nations; this effect is two-fold and in many respects antithetic: the seduction of kings to fanatical worldliness, and of nations to fanatical mock-holiness.—[Revelation 17:2. With whom the kings of the earth committed fornication. An old and yet in many respects new story. History points to a whole series of dynasties which have been ruined by fanaticism, or have at least been brought to the very verge of ruin.—History tells us of nations that have been made drunk, and that have, more or less, sunk into national ruin. Fallen or sunken Christian kingdoms in the East and West.—[Revelation 17:3-4. The similarity and the difference between the picture of Revelation 12 and that of the present chapter: 1. Between the phases of the Woman; 2. Between the phases of the wilderness; 3. Between the relative positions of the Woman and the Beast.—Contrast between the wilderness abode of the Woman and her luxury.—Contrast between her perilous equestrian seat, figuring a taming of the Beast, and her festal attire. (There is also a distinction between warboots—Ephesians 6:15—and slippers.)—Contrast between the golden cup and the abominations contained in it.—[Revelation 17:5. The name on the forehead—manifest and yet a mystery.—The old antithesis: Babylon and Zion.—[Revelation 17:6. Amazement of John (see Exeg. Notes).—Horror of the holy mind at a caricature of the holy.—Strange manifestation of unnaturalness in the corruptions of the Church. Revelation 17:8. How the earthly-minded are, by the terrible aspect of the Beast, kept in a state of dependence upon the Woman, as long as the latter sits upon the Beast. Revelation 17:9. Hither an understanding that hath wisdom. Profane learning can only misinterpret this enigmatical phenomenon.—The world-monarchies, see Exeg. Notes.—Waverings of unredeemed humanity between the false unity of the world-monarchy and a dissipation into heathenism, barbarism, savageness.—Continuance of this wavering in the antithesis of the Hierarchy and separatism, absolutism and radicalism.—[Revelation 17:12 ] The ten horns: Or the fall of religious absolutism is followed by the rule of an irreligious radicalism.—[Revelation 17:13. Demonic union of the ten horns. The principle of this union is to be found in their hatred of the Lamb, whose shadow they still persecute in the Woman. Revelation 17:14. The Lamb shall conquer them. Find the agreement between this and Revelation 13:7. Of a conquest through [seeming] defeat, and a defeat through [seeming] conquest. What contrasts between the inner and the outer world, between the passing moment and the future, between seeming and being, are contained in the preceding paragraph.—The Beast as the conqueror of the Harlot, conquered by the Lamb.—Comp. the Old Testament prophecies against Babylon, especially Jeremiah 51.—Fearful mission of the ten kings (Revelation 17:17).—[Revelation 17:16. Threefold judgment upon the Woman.—[Revelation 17:12. The Antichristian power lasts but one hour, i. e., a short time; but it is an hour in the theocratico-religious sense, a sore and painful hour of temptation [trial]. The union of the wicked occurs only in special moments of judgment and never, through an abolition of their inner egoistical division, attains to the oneness of the saints. Revelation 17:18. in relation to Revelation 17:7. In Heaven, the unnatural appearance of the Woman is itself, already, “the judgment of the great Harlot.” Starke: Application of the judgment upon Babylon to the “idolatrous Church of the Papacy.” Reasons for this application: “the great magnificence and ostentation of this Church in the external worship of God; the blandishments and flatteries which it employs to draw people to itself, etc.” Fornication is interpreted as spiritual adultery, apostasy from Christ, the Husband of the Church. It is easy to learn who this Harlot is, from the description of her, and from her antithesis, the Bride of the Lamb. Her equestrian posture indicates that she derives her might and authority from the Beast and that she rules over it;—that she has arbitrarily subjected the Roman Empire to herself, has placed herself above emperors and kings, and has instated and deposed them. The crimson and bloody hue [of the Beast] is indicative of the bloodthirstiness excited in it by the persuasions of the Harlot.—[Revelation 17:4. Arrayed in purple and scarlet: purple, to indicate her usurped royal exaltation and pre-eminence above all potentates; and scarlet, to indicate her thirst for the blood of the saints. The true Church is resplendent only in the robe of Christ. There is nothing so abominable and unclean that it cannot be disguised and decorated with a tinsel of this world. Revelation 17:5. The whole essence of false religion is a mystery, but a mystery of iniquity and all godlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:7). As the mystery of Christ passes all understanding and incites to godliness, so the mystery of iniquity is conceived by pure serpent-cunning and contains nothing but deception; note, e.g., the miraculous power resident, as the Church of Rome pretends, in certain pictures and images, etc.—[Revelation 17:6. A leading mark of the false Church: pagan Rome, in the three centuries [of her existence subsequent to the Christian era], shed less blood, by far, than so-called Christian Rome. (Starke adduces the example of France, in particular.) Revelation 17:8. And yet is: This is not to be understood as referring to Antiochus himself or to such Antichristian regents as stood in the fiercest spirit of Antiochus (Hoffmann’s view?). Revelation 17:9. Understanding and wisdom are two different things. There may be understanding without wisdom, but there can be no wisdom without understanding.—(Starke mentions the seven mountains of Rome; he remarks, however, that the Apocalyptic seven mountains have also been interpreted as seven famous Popes.) Revelation 17:12. Marginal gloss, (Luther): These are the other kings,—for instance, of Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, France (!).—Quesnel: The Lamb suffers and succumbs in His members, and the members, whilst they are oppressed, conquer in the Lamb (Romans 8:37). Revelation 17:16. This verse is entirely subversive of the opinion that the Beast denotes the Pope.—Great cities, great sins; and by the example of such cities, whole countries are seduced (Jeremiah 23:15). Auberlen (p. 317 [Eng. Trans.]): The fact that the Harlot is judged first, is not only in harmony with the general principle, that judgment must begin at the house of God (Jeremiah 25:29; Ezekiel 9:6; 1 Peter 4:17), but a restoration of actual truth is also designed. The object which, in effect, alone continues to exist—is recognized as existing—at the time indicated [the time of the judgment of the Harlot], is the world; for even the Church now courts only its favor, even for the Church it is the only reality. Against such a Church, the world must carry the day; and therefore the Harlot is not judged by the Lord Himself, but by the Beast and its kings. Graeber: [Revelation 17:5. A mother of harlots is one who brings up others to harlotry. Revelation 17:6. It must needs be a subject of highest amazement that Christians, or those who pretend to be Christians, can reach such a pass.—[Revelation 17:16. The Catholic States will in great part themselves accomplish the work of the destruction of the papacy. Laemmert (Das Thier und der falsche Prophet, p. 36): “The origin of Babel [Babylon] is related, Genesis 11. (comp. with Revelation 10:8-11). This [Genesis 11. is the same chapter which, in its second part, gives the genealogy of the chosen Shemite, Abraham, and closes by describing the exode of Terah and his family from Chaldea and their entrance into Canaan. Here, therefore, we already have the foundation and beginnings of that grand dualism which runs through the whole of the Sacred Writings and the entire history of mankind down to the consummation. The founder of Babel was a grandson of him who scoffed at his father, and his name was Nimrod, i. e., rebel. Human arrogance built the city and the tower, to make itself a name—not to the honor of God’s name; of its own strength and will—not at the behest of God. The inner motives were thoughts of arrogance, of the deification of man and of self.” Chantepie de la Saussaye, De Toekomst, p. 117. Man kann zeggen, dat de grand der tegenstelling der beide rijken reeds ligt in de paradijs-belofte. Doch wat daar nog slechts in het allgemeen gen?md wordt het zaad der slang, etc., verkrijgt immer meer kleur en gestalte. [From The Comprehensive Commentary.—The Lord takes pleasure in satisfying His people concerning the reason and equity of His judgments on His enemies; that they may not be intimidated by the severity of them, or fail to adore and praise Him on that account.—Great prosperity, pomp and splendor, commonly feed the pride and lusts of the human heart; yet they form no security against Divine vengeance.—Those who allure or tempt others to sin, must expect more aggravated punishment, in proportion to the degree of the mischief done by them. (Scott.)] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section FifteenthFirst Special End-Judgment; Judgment upon Babylon. Earth-picture. (Ch. 18) General.—That essential judgment of Babylon which lies in her very appearance, and has been manifested in the light of Heaven, is here unfolded on earth in a distinct series of evolutions. The first Act of the judgment, as executed by the Angel from Heaven, consists of the verdict upon Babylon, the sentence of Divine justice. The second Act is the incipient execution of the judgment in the social sphere of justice. It is divided into two actions: (1) The people of God go out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4; Revelation 18:6), and (2) the world is commissioned to react against Babylon in pursuance of the same law of violence which she herself has exercised (Revelation 18:6; Revelation 18:8). The universality of her judgment is expressed in the despair and lamentation of all her allies, who are too cowardly to take her part, but yet are stricken with her. The third Act is the complete historic repudiation of Babylon, executed by the strong Angel with a millstone, in a symbolic act. The whole constitutes the greatest tragedy of the world, complete in three or five Acts, according to the greater or less prominence bestowed upon the middle items: 1. The guilt of Babylon towards humanity; 2. The exode of the people of God from her; 3. The reaction of the hostile world against her; 4. The lamentation of her friends—a prelude to the final catastrophe; 5. The final catastrophe. The Angel who, descending from Heaven, lightens the earth with his radiance, and proclaims the fall of Babylon, is also, without doubt, the actual spiritual author of her judgment. For he has great authority, and transports her judgment from Heaven to earth. That is, that judgment which is already declared in the sphere of the celestial Spirit, with the delineation of the character of Babylon, now, through the heavenly illumination proceeding from the Angel, becomes a subject of the universal consciousness of mankind. We hold that the Angel represents evangelic Christianity in the full development of the beauty of its moral and humane principles. For Babylon has outraged all these principles, from liberty of conscience to the recognition of public law. She has perverted her claim to be the educator of mankind into the exact opposite, having become the seducer and destroyer of humanity. The cry of this Angel is followed by the voice from Heaven, the sentence of the heavenly Spirit, the law of the Kingdom of God—declaratory, on the one hand, of the right of the Church (come forth out of her) and, on the other hand, of the right of the State (recompense to her), and expressing itself, thirdly, as the spirit of history and poetry, in the portrayal of the great lamentations. The tragic coloring of this entire judgment-scene is distinctly brought out in all this; it is particularly prominent, however, in the symbolic execution of the final catastrophe. Special.—[Revelation 18:1. Who is the Angel who comes down from Heaven, and whose glory lightens the earth?—[Revelation 18:2. The mighty cry over Babylon. Fallen! fallen! or the perfect certainty that Babylon will fall on earth, even as she has already fallen in the sight of God.—Contrast betwixt what Babylon should be and what she has become.—[Revelation 18:3. Babylon’s transgression against mankind: (1) against the nations, (2) against the kings, (3) against the rich and great.—[Revelation 18:4. Call to the people of God, to come out from Babylon: 1. Meaning of the call; 2. Motive of the call; 3. Neglect of the call (latitudinarianism); 4. Misinterpretation of the call (separatism).—[Revelation 18:4; Revelation 18:6. Diverse conduct of the Church and the world toward guilty Babylon.—Retributory right of the world. This remains pure only in so far as it remains an execution of the right and keeps itself free from fanaticism.—[Revelation 18:8. Recompense of corporeal fiery judgments by a social and spiritual judgment of fire.—[Revelation 18:7-8. Contrast between the haughty self-blinding of Babylon and her imminent and great day of judgment.—The City of the Seven Mountains: yesterday and today.—[Revelation 18:9-19. The three lamentations of the world over the fall of Babylon. Common characteristics of them: 1. A view of her fall; 2. A standing afar off and refraining from taking her part; 3. A participation in the stroke that has fallen upon her—but in the sorrow of this world, with no recognition of the justice of the blow, of its nature as a judgment, or of the Judge Who has inflicted it.—Heaven’s judgments, earth’s tragedies.—[Revelation 18:9-10. Lamentation of the kings (see Exeg. Notes).—[Revelation 18:11; Revelation 18:15-17]. Lamentation of the great, the supporters of the luxury of the earth.—, [Revelation 18:17-19]. Lamentation of the pilots or tradesmen.—Community and division of egoistical interests in the lamentations over the fall of Babylon.—Ironical enumeration of the depreciated goods of Babylon (Revelation 18:12-14).—As the Church in its way, and the State in its way, so science and art in their way are concerned in the judgment upon Babylon.—The unspiritual lamentation of the world over the fall of Babylon contains the germ of that judgment which is later to descend upon the world.—[Revelation 18:21. The symbolic act of the strong Angel, a representation of the grand final catastrophe itself.—[Revelation 18:22-23. Babylon’s desolation. Her spiritual desolation shall be followed by an æsthetic desolation, and to this a desolation of business and of home life shall succeed. Revelation 18:24. The summit of Babylon’s guilt: she is the murderess of the prophets and saints.—This verse is supplemental to Revelation 18:3. Starke: Revelation 18:2; comp. Isaiah 21:7; Jeremiah 51:8 The repetition of the word [fallen] is indicative of the greatness and certainty of the fall. Revelation 18:4. This exode is based upon a gracious leading out on the part of God. There are certain grades in the execution of it, and it is performed as follows: 1. With the heart, by a right belief and acknowledgment of the truth, and hatred of false doctrine; 2. With the mouth, by a public confession of the truth, and rejection of errors; 3. With the body, by a going away from those places in which Babylon has its throne and superstition.—God’s people and Church are, partially, still in Babylon, although hidden; otherwise God could not command them to come out.—[Revelation 18:5. Sins that cry unto Heaven (Genesis 4:10), whose measure is full, and upon which final ruin follows. Revelation 18:7. These words are taken from Isaiah 47:5-10. The greater the security and pride of the wicked, the more terrible is their punishment. Revelation 18:8. As Babylon burned innocent martyrs with fire, so shall she herself be burned with fire. Revelation 18:10. The fear of torment may cause us (outwardly) to remove far from those with whom we have sinned, but love to God alone can make their sin odious to us. Revelation 18:12. Quesnel: Let us gather treasures that will endure to eternity; nought is eternal save that which is done with a view to eternity. Revelation 18:16. The world does not mourn over the loss of eternal salvation, but over the loss of riches and external magnificence. Revelation 18:20. It is at the downfall of evil, and at Divine vengeance that the pious rejoice; not out of a carnal mind and self-love, but by the ordinance of God and from the love of righteousness (Psalms 91:8). Revelation 18:21. The wicked fall into the abyss of perdition as stones fall into the abyss of the sea. That which the world regards as highly exalted finally meets with the deeper fall (Ezekiel 21:26). Revelation 18:24. The slaughter of true believers under the papacy is like the murder of the saints in the beginning of the world.—Great cities are destroyed on account of the many and enormous sins that are committed in them.—God reckons to the charge of the wicked all the sins of their ancestors, because they tread in their foot-steps (and the guilt of their ancestors attains its consummation and meridian in them). Schlüssel Offenb. Joh. durch einen Kreuzritter (p. 289): The most terrible thing for a human community is when the salt of the earth, that should preserve it from corruption, is taken out of it by death or emigration, when the props of the rotten building give way, when Lot is led forth from Sodom, because there are not even, ten righteous men therein. [From M. Henry: Revelation 18:4. Those that are resolved to partake with wicked men in their sins must receive of their plagues. Revelation 18:5. When the sins of a people reach up to heaven, the wrath of God will reach down to earth. Revelation 18:7. God will proportion the punishment of sinners to the measure of their wickedness, pride and security. Revelation 18:9-19. The pleasures of sin are but for a season, and they will end in dismal sorrow.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section SixteenthSecond Special End-Judgment, or the Judgment upon the Beast (Antichrist) and his Prophet. a. Heavenly World-picture of the Victory. (Revelation 19:1-16.) General.—The heavenly post-celebration of the judgment upon the Harlot issues in a pre-celebration of the marriage of the Bride. For the Harlot and the Bride bear toward each other the indissoluble relation of a contradictory antithesis. Heaven, or the Church Triumphant, and not God’s Church on earth, celebrates, pre-eminently, the judgment of the Harlot; for an exalted stand-point is requisite for this celebration, and with lesser spirits, vulgar minds, it might easily degenerate into fanaticism. Even in the Heaven of consummate spiritual life, the positive result of that judgment is the thing which is first rejoiced over. The salvation and the glory and the power are our God’s. Not until after this, is the satisfaction of justice touched upon (Revelation 19:2). The perfect fixedness of the judgment is next set forth (Revelation 19:3). The whole heavenly post-celebration of the judgment is completed in an antiphony, in which the natural relations seem to be inverted, in that the twenty-four Elders and four Life-forms utter the Amen, which is supplemented by the third Hallelujah. Thus a three-fold heavenly Hallelujah is devoted to the rejoicings over the judgment. The Church of God on earth is now commanded to join in the celebration, and her rejoicing assumes the form of a pre-celebration of the marriage of the Bride. The delineation of the simple, yet august, adornment of the Bride, and the glorification of the imminent marriage, are followed by the appearance of the Bridegroom, coming from Heaven, on His warlike and victorious march against the Beast. Special.—[Revelation 19:1-4. Three-fold Hallelujah of the Church Triumphant over the fall of Babylon. This feature is the more significant, since it is here only that the Hallelujah appears in the Apocalypse. The Hallelujah is also philologically significant; Jehovah, the Covenant-God, is glorified, because Babylon obscured His glory and power to the uttermost through her idolatry; in that she, on the one hand, corrupted the earth with her idolatry, and, on the other, killed the servants of God, who sought His glory. The rising of the smoke of her torment becomes a Hallelujah as an eternal visible assurance that the salvation and the glory and the power of God, in redeemed souls, are established forever.—[Revelation 19:5. The heavenly order for a general song of praise.—[Revelation 19:6-7. The song of praise: 1. The sound of it; 2. The contents of it.—The marriage of the Lamb. It will essentially consist in the fame of God’s glory.—The beholding of the glory of God constitutes the bliss of the beatified. The bliss of the beatified is the highest glorification of God.—Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.—[Revelation 19:8. The Bride in her adornment.—In antithesis to the Harlot in her gorgeous, but blood-colored, attire.—[Revelation 19:9. Blessedness of those who are called to the marriage of the Lamb.—Every previous beatitude has this for its end and aim. This is true, above all, of the beatitudes in Matthew 5.; and also of that in Revelation 14:13.—God’s words, pure essential facts: They will be manifested to be the most real realities.—[Revelation 19:10. Repeated repudiation of the worship offered by John to angelic beings—comp. Revelation 22:9.—The measure of inward devotion is the measure of the purity of the worship which we offer to God. This inward devotion, however, is not to be defined simply in accordance with our feeling; least of all, as a mere ecstatic sentiment; but also intellectually, and as an ethical readiness.—The witness of (concerning) Jesus, the real prophecy of this world’s history.—[Revelation 19:11-16. The Bridegroom, in His going forth for the final redemption and emancipation of the Bride: 1. His forth-going from Heaven; 2. His character; 3. His appearance; 4. His title; 5. His army; 6. His power (Revelation 19:15); 7. His right. Starke (Revelation 19:1): Hallelujah. There is here, probably, an allusion to the six Psalms, from the 113 to the 118, which were called the great Hallelujah, and were sung at high festivals, especially at the Feast of Tabernacles (Psalms 104:35). Revelation 19:2, from Deut. 22:43. Splendor, power, subtlety, adherents—all cannot save when God wills to punish. He fears none of them. Revelation 19:3, from Isaiah 34:10. Revelation 19:4. The praise of God that issues from a heart that is full of God, fills and kindles other hearts to His praise. Revelation 19:6. (This verse Starke interprets as holding forth the prospect of the conversion of the Jews.) Although there are diverse voices and powers, there is yet one Spirit, one faith, one consonance of the whole Church. Revelation 19:7. The preparation of the Bride consists in her constantly becoming more qualified for the reception of all the treasures of salvation acquired by her Bridegroom. Revelation 19:9. [Write.] The Divine authority of the matter to be recorded and of this entire Book is the more strongly indicated, the more frequent the occurrence of this expression (Revelation 1:11; Revelation 1:19; Revelation 2:1; Revelation 2:8; Revelation 2:12; Revelation 2:18; Revelation 3:1; Revelation 3:7; Revelation 3:14; Revelation 14:13).—[Revelation 19:10. John was not mistaken in the person of the Angel, for he well knew that he was no Divine person. (Starke here wrongfully assumes that not worship, but only an humble expression of reverence, is here denoted.) Revelation 19:11. Heaven opens before Christ, both in the condition of His humiliation and in that of His exaltation. Revelation 19:12. Christ has, not one, but many crowns, because He has gained many victories, and is the King of kings. Revelation 19:14. [In heaven] the faithful are resplendent in white linen, though here they may bear the cross. Revelation 19:16. Kings cannot be happier than in yielding themselves subjects of Christ. Spurgeon, Stimmen aus der Offenb. Joh., p. 132. [Revelation 19:12. And on His head many crowns.] The Saviour’s many crowns. Oh, ye well know what a Head that is; its wondrous history ye have not forgotten. A Head that once reclined, lovely and infantine, on the bosom of a woman. A Head that bowed meekly and willingly in obedience to a carpenter. A Head that in later years became a well of weeping and a fountain of tears (Jeremiah 9:1; Hebrews 5:7). A Head whose sweat was as it were great drops of blood, falling upon the earth (Luke 22:44). A Head that was spit upon, whose hairs were plucked out. A Head which at last, in the fearful death-struggle, wounded by the crown of thorns, gave utterance to the terrific death-cry (Psalms 22:1): Lama Sabachthani! (The death-cry was: Father, into Thy hands, etc.) A Head that afterwards slept in the grave; and—to Him Who liveth and was dead, and behold, He is living now forever-more (Revelation 1:18), be glory—a Head that rose again from the grave, and looked down, with beaming eyes of love, upon the woman who stood mourning by the sepulchre. [From M. Henry: Revelation 19:10. This fully condemns the practice of the papists in worshipping the elements of bread and wine, and saints, and angels.—From The Comprehensive Commentary: Revelation 19:1-4. All heaven resounds with the high praises of God, whenever He executes His “true and righteous judgments” on those who corrupt the earth with pernicious principles and ungodly practices, and when He avenges the blood of His servants on their persecutors. Who then are they that throw out insinuations, or openly speak of cruelty and tyranny, on hearing of these righteous judgments, but rebels who blasphemously take part with the enemies of God and plead against His dealings towards them? (Scott.) Revelation 19:10. If the highest of holy creatures greatly fear and decidedly refuse undue honor, how humbly should we sinful worms of the earth behave ourselves! (Scott.)—From Barnes: Revelation 19:1. All that there is of honor, glory, power, in the redemption of the world, belongs to God, and should be ascribed to Him.—From Bonar: Revelation 19:10. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The theme or burden of the Bible is Jesus. Not philosophy, nor science, nor theology, nor metaphysics, nor morality, but Jesus. Not mere history, but history as containing Jesus. Not mere poetry, but poetry embodying Jesus. Not certain future events, dark or bright, presented to the view of the curious or speculative, but Jesus; earthly events and hopes and fears only as linked with Him.] Section SeventeenthSecond Special End-Judgment. b. Earth-picture of the Victory over the Beast. The Parousia of Christ for Judgment. The Millennial Kingdom. (Revelation 19:17 to Revelation 20:5.) General.—We must distinguish here: 1. The premise of the last time, the features of which are to be gathered from other passages; 2. Christ’s war, in His Parousia, with the Beast and the False Prophet, and the judgment upon them and their Antichristian kingdom; 3. The chaining of Satan, and the Millennial Kingdom thus introduced. The features of the last time, corresponding to its character as here pre-supposed, are visible throughout the eschatology of the Scriptures. See Matthew 24:22 sqq.; Mark 13:21 sqq.; Luke 17:26 sqq.; Revelation 21:26 sqq.; Romans 11; 2 Thessalonians 2:7 sqq.; 2 Timothy 3:1 sqq.; 2 Peter 3.; 1 John 2:18; Judges 14, 15. Compare especially the terminal points in the cycles of the Apocalypse itself: Revelation 3:20; Revelation 6:12 sqq.; Revelation 10:7; Revelation 11:7; Revelation 13,—beginning, particularly, with Revelation 19:11; Revelation 17:16. These traits are incipiently set forth in the Old Testament; comp. Isaiah 63. sqq.; Ezekiel 36:33; Ezekiel 37:21; Daniel 9:2; Hosea 14:6; Joe 3:1; Zephaniah; Haggai 2:6; Zechariah 12. It should be noted, that in Zechariah as well as in Ezekiel two judgments upon the nations are distinguished: viz. a more special one, followed by the restoration of Israel, and a general one, with which the end-time closes. Comp. Zechariah 12, 14, and also Ezekiel 36 with 38 and 39. The spiritual situation which superinduces the symptoms of the last time consists in the complete secularization of the Church—the carnal security of Christians, the spiritual luke-warmness of congregations, an extinction of the old foci of Christendom, and a corresponding extension of the Kingdom of God amongst heathen and Jews. The actual date at which the last time begins corresponds with the fall of Babylon. The consummate Antichristianity of the world has executed judgment upon the wavering Antichristianity in the Church; the former has, however, drawn an apostate of the Church—the False Prophet—into its service, and with his help it obtains a social victory, in that τὸκατέχον is taken away (2 Thessalonians 2:6), or in that the two Sons of Oil (Revelation 11) are killed. Antichristian pseudo-Christianity, expressing itself not only in hierarchical, but also in sectarian announcements of Here is Christ and There is Christ, has turned into pseudo-Christian Antichristianity; practical atheism, or the negation of all faith, has begotten a lying positivism which prosecutes human deification even to the production of the deified man, the culmination point of the Antichristian tendency. For human deification is at this Juncture no longer a “worship of genius,” but the deification of the masses—nay, more, of the Beast, of the brutal power and carnal self-seeking of the masses, and this fundamentally depraved generalization must necessarily, through the worship of agitators, turn into the worship of the agitator κατ’ ἐξοχήν. The actual mark of the last short, but grievous time, is a social terrorism which develops in company with the principles of Antichristianity. The perverted congregation of the Beast seeks to give itself a dogmatical and symbolical shape by its sign of recognition, the mark of the Beast: the faithful fall under the subtile social excommunication of the last time. The characteristics of this grievous time are: a great testing, a great temptation, a great trial of endurance, a great purging, all of which, however, result in a great development of the sealed. The traits of the oppressed Widow thus develop into the traits of the Bride, and the cry of the oppressed forces its way to Heaven (Luke 18:1-7). The Parousia of Christ for war and victory is here, as in the Gospels, heralded by signs in Heaven and earth. With the cosmical sign of the Angel standing in the sun and proclaiming the approaching judgment, the cosmical signs in the Eschatological Discourse of the Lord correspond. The ethical sign on earth is the consummate conspiracy of the kings, i. e., the supporters of Antichristianity, and their preparation for battle against Christ. Comp. Psalms 2. In respect of the day of rebellion, the following declaration holds good for ever: To-day have I begotten Thee—i. e., set Thee in royal dominion. As to the battle itself, the Seer intimates that the same turn of affairs takes place here as in the building of the tower of Babel and in the Crucifixion of Christ, and, it might also be said, in the great persecution of the Christians under Diocletian. The point of an external combat is not reached; the Antichristian army seems to be smitten with absolute confusion (Revelation 16:10). For the Beast is taken, like an individual malefactor; with him the False Prophet is seized, and both are cast into the lake of fire. That the slaying of the Antichristian army is expressive of a spiritual annihilation, is evident from the fact that they are slain with the sword which proceeds from the mouth of Christ. In respect to the chaining of Satan and to the Angel who accomplishes it, we refer to the Exeg. Notes. We make the same reference in regard to the Millennial Kingdom. The idea of the coming of this pervades the whole of Sacred Writ (see Psalms 72; Isaiah 65, etc.). The First Resurrection, as the blossom of the resurrection time, as the result of the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15.), as the foretoken of the general resurrection, is also a time of great spiritual awakening and resurrection; to this period, doubtless, belongs the prospect of a more general restoration of Israel, for it occurs between the penultimate judgment upon the heathen ([nations] (the οἰκουμένη) and the last judgment (upon Gog and Magog). With the first resurrection, the first new heavenly order of things is connected: the rule of Christ, in the midst of His people, over the world—a spiritual and social governing and judging as a foretoken of the last judgment. The abyss of the curse shut, the Heaven of blessing wide open: these are the characteristics of the great crisis which makes the σωτηρία visibly manifest throughout an entire ζon. Special.—The appearing of Christ in its two aspects: 1. The war (Revelation 19:17-21); 2. The victory (Revelation 20:1-5).—[Revelation 19:17-18. The Angel in the sun, and the meaning of his outcry.—[Revelation 19:19. The Antichristian revolt against the Lord and His army.—The spiritual combat in its form and results. [Revelation 20:1-3. The Angel who chains Satan (see Exeget. Notes).—Satan shall receive his full dues when he shall be let loose again at the end of the thousand years. In other words, evil must live itself out, or completely accomplish its self-annihilation.—[Revelation 20:4-6. Import of the first resurrection.—Traits from the picture of the Millennial Kingdom. Starke (Revelation 19:18): Those who apprehend this mystically, interpret thus: That ye may spoil the goods, etc.Revelation 19:20. Those who apprehend this mystically, explain thus: The others, who were seduced [by the False Prophet], were more gently dealt with; they were either conquered and overcome by the sword of Christ’s mouth, His word, and willingly subjected their life and possessions to Christ, or they lay prostrate, proscribed and despised, as dead bodies. Those who, like birds of prey, have impoverished and devoured others, shall themselves be devoured (2 Samuel 12:9-11).—Revelation 20:3. Marginal note by Luther: The thousand years must have begun at the time when this Book was written. Starke, on the other hand: The thousand years are not past, but to come.—Satan has his certain time to be bound and to be loosed. Revelation 20:4. Those who regard the thousand years as having already expired, apprehend the resurrection spoken of here as a spiritual resurrection. (Starke adduces another explanation, according to which the resurrection is a physical one, but the life of the risen is in Heaven [2 Timothy 2:11-12]. The difficulty here originates, probably, in a fear of the ill-understood Seventeenth Article of the Augsburg Confession. The Seventeenth Article, however, negatives the assumption of a millennium (a) before the Parousia of Christ and the resurrection of the dead; (b) as a secular kingdom of the righteous, based on the oppression and subjection of the wicked.) Riemann, Die Lehre der Heiligen Schrift vom tausendjδhrigen Reiche oder vom zukόnftigen Reiche Israel (in opposition to J. Diedrich, Schφnebeck, 1858). It is only by caprice that the Millennial Kingdom can here be styled the future kingdom of Israel.—Flφrke, Die Lehre vom tausendjδhrigen Reiche (Marburg, 1859). “Our view (of the Millennium) has its point of departure in a difference with the Augsburg Confession.” (On this misunderstanding, see the remark in the preceding paragraph.) Steffann, in his work entitled: Das Ende der Zeiten, Vortrδge όber Offenb. des heil. Joh. (Berlin, 1870), also controverts this misunderstanding and Hengstenberg’s interpretation: “Ebrard is right in saying that, in drawing up this Article, the Reformers rejected their own view of the Millennial Kingdom and thereby opened the way for a future correct view, etc. The rτles are changed, therefore; not those who reject the Millennial Kingdom on the basis of this Article, but we, who teach it in accordance with the permission given us in this Article, stand on the platform of the Augsburg Confession” (p. 336). Muenchmeyer, on the other hand, intimates with sufficient plainness, in his Bibelstunden όber Offb. Joh. (Hanover, 1870, p. 186), that orthodoxistic exegetical tradition and the ill-understood Seventeenth Article have induced him to place the Millennial Kingdom in the past. He, however, does not reckon the thousand years from the time of John to Gregory VII, with Luther, nor, with others, from the time of Constantine, but from the conversion of Germany—“according to which interpretation the thousand years are now approaching their end, if we have not already entered upon the little lime” (in which view he resembles Hengstenberg). Hebart, Fόr den Chiliasmus (Nuremberg, 1859), points to the profitableness of the doctrine of the Millennial Kingdom (p. 24).—Die chiliastische Doktrin und ihr Verhδltniss zur christlichen Glaulenslehre, by Dr. Johann Nepomuk Schneider (see p. 73).—Das tausendjδhrige Reich (in opposition to Hengstenberg), Gόtersloh, 1860, p. 98. In Ezekiel 37:1-14 the house of Israel is spoken of in precisely the same manner (as in chap. 36.), and there is nothing in the chapter which could indicate that in this section the house of Israel is not to be apprehended as the natural Israel, but that the prophecy relates to the Church. (See the further remarks on the subject, p. 99. Emphasis is judiciously laid upon the fact that the part which treats of Gog and Magog follows this promise.) Christiani, Bemerkungen zur Auslegung der Apokalypse (Riga, Bacmeister, p. 28). “Empirical ecclesiasticity must be highly overrated by those who ascribe to such a Church-historical event as the constituting of Christianity the state-religion of the Roman world-kingdom, so high an import in the history of salvation [as to date the Millennial Kingdom therefrom], not. withstanding that the benefits of this event were accompanied by many evils attendant upon the externalization of the Church” (in opposition to Keil). Rinck, Die Schriftmδssigkeit der Lehre vom tausendjδhrigen Reich (in opposition to Hengstenberg, Elberfeld, 1866, p. 35). This expositor places the transformation of the faithful in this time. He also assigns the fulfillment of the following prophecies to the same period: Micah 4:1-4; Isaiah 65:17-25; Acts 3:19-21; Romans 11; Amos 9:9-15. Rinck likewise places the people of Israel at the head of the nations in the Millennial Kingdom, and makes them the leading missionary people of the earth. The Judaizing anticipations of Baumgarten, et al., do not, however, appear with any greater distinctness than attaches to them in the view just stated. It is in any case as one-sided to drop the symbolic element in favor of the historic, as to surrender the historic in favor of the symbolic element. Can the following words be understood of the Jewish people in the historical sense: “When the multitude of the sea is converted unto him?” Israel has already, in the person of the historic Christ, taken the leading place amongst the nations, and in the persons of the Apostles it has become the principal missionary people on earth—this might suffice. According to Romans 11, all Israel is to be saved, after the fullness [full number] of the Gentiles has come in. In the end, only dynamical distinctions can be of weight, and when Christ comes to earth with all the elect Gentile Christians of all ages, an external preponderance of the newly converted Jewish people is out of the question. The prospect of the more general conversion of Israel is, doubtless, rightly assigned to the Millennial Kingdom. A Christ in glory will remove the last hindrance of faith for all who have failed to accommodate themselves to the offense of the cross, not out of malice, but through weakness and an obedience to Jewish traditions. For the Israelitish view, moreover, the expectation of a time of the glorification of the Theocracy on earth lay at the door, although this did not involve an approximation to the Christian modification of this doctrine. Yet even Isaiah, viewing the power of evil in the light of the Spirit, perceived that a chasm would intervene between the time of the Messiah’s humiliation and sufferings and the time of His glorification. Again, Ezekiel, in distinguishing between the corruption of the central civilized world and that of the remote barbarian world, arrived at the foreview that the victory over anti-Messianism and Israel’s restoration should be followed by a late conflict with Gog and Magog. Volck, Der Chiliasmus, seiner neuesten Bekδmpfung (Keil, Kommentar όber Ezechiel) gegenόber Dorpat, 1869). “It may now be seen what importance should be attached to the position of Lόnemann, who affirms (commenting on 1 Thessalonians 4:14) that the idea of an intervening space between the resurrection of believers and that of other men (Revelation 20.) is entirely foreign to the mind of the Apostle Paul. Precisely the contrary is true. That idea is perfectly familiar to him—a fact which is admitted by Meyer, who remarks on 1 Corinthians 15:24, that Paul, following the example of Christ Himself, has bound up the doctrine of a two fold resurrection with the Christian faith. Meyer here alludes to the ἀνάστασιςτῶνδικαίων, mentioned by the Lord in Luke 14:14.” Lavater, Aussichten in die Ewigkeit. Our Lord replies to the question of the Sadducees (Luke 20.) in the following terms: “Those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection of [E. V.: from] the dead, can die no more,” etc. From this it is evident that our Lord, in this passage, speaks of the resurrection of the righteous as a felicity which pertains exclusively to them. [From M. Henry: Revelation 20:1. Christ never wants proper powers and instruments to break the power of Satan, for He has the powers of heaven, and the keys of hell.] B.—Earth-Picture of the Victory over the Beast. The Parousia of Christ for Judgment Revelation 19:17 to Revelation 20:5a. The Judgment upon the Beast17And I saw an [one] angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud [great] voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven [mid-heaven], Come and gather yourselves [om. and gather yourselves—ins., be gathered] together unto the [ins. great] supper of the great [om. the great] God; 18That ye may eat the [om. the] flesh of kings, and the [om. the]4 flesh of captains [ins. of thousands], and the [om. the]4 flesh of mighty [strong] men, and the [om. the]4 flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the [om. the]4 flesh of all men [om. men], both19 [om. both] free and [as well as] bond, both [and] small and great. And I saw the beast [wild-beast], and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make [ins. the] war against [with] him that sat [the one sitting] on the horse, and against [with] his army. 20And the beast [wild-beast] was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles [the signs] before him [in his presence], with which he deceived [seduced or misled (ἐπλάνησεν)] them that had [om. had] received the mark of the beast [wild-beast], and them that worshipped his image. [:] These both [the two] were cast alive into a [the] lake of [ins. the] fire burning [that burneth] with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat [the one sitting] upon the horse, which sword proceeded [goeth forth] out of his mouth: and all the fowls [birds] were filled [satiated] with their flesh. b. The Millennial Kingdom [Revelation 20:1-5)1And I saw an angel come down from [descending out of—ins. the] heaven, having the key of the bottomless [om. bottomless] pit [abyss] and a great chain in [upon] his hand. 2And he laid hold on the dragon, that [or the] old [ancient] serpent, which [that] is the Devil [or Slanderer], and Satan [or the Adversary], and bound him a thousand years, 3and cast him into the bottomless [om. bottomless] pit [abyss], and shut him up, and set a seal upon [om. him up, and set a seal upon—ins. and sealed over] him, that he should [might] deceive [seduce or mislead (πλανήσῃ)] the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled [finished]: and [om. and] after that [these] he must be loosed a little season [time]. 4And I saw thrones, and they sat [ins. down] upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were [had been] beheaded for [on account of] the witness of Jesus, and for [on account of] the word of God, and which [who] had not [om. had not] worshipped [ins. not] the beast [wild-beast], neither [nor yet] his image, neither had [om. neither had—ins. and] received [ins. not] his [om. his—ins. the] mark upon their [the] foreheads, or in [om., or in—ins. and upon] their hands [hand]; and they lived and reigned with Christ a5 thousand years. But [om. But] The rest of the dead lived not again [om. again] until [till] the thousand years were [should be] finished. This is the first resurrection. AND VIEW a. The JudgmentThe judgment upon the Beast is accomplished, not in a manner purely of this world and in a form purely historical, like the judgment upon the Harlot, but in a more spiritual form, which is based upon the appearance of Christ from the other world, and which introduces the cosmical transition-form between time and eternity, the Millennial Kingdom. The first point for consideration is that cosmical change itself, which proceeds from the sun and summons all the birds under the Heaven, all the forces of earthly metamorphosis, to consume all the dead flesh, the exanimate materials which shall be the issue of the great defeat of the Antichristian world—to consume them, in order to convert them into new life. The second point is ethically mysterious. A decisive act of judgment takes the place of the battle contemplated by the Beast and the Kings. The two leaders and misleaders of the infatuated Antichristian host, the Beast and the False Prophet, are seized. That which seizes them seems to be a judgment of madness, for they are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. For them, hell begins in this life; the fire of the fuel in which they have wrapped themselves, surrounds them on all sides—a flame of infinitely wild, fanatical agitation, doomed, in consequence of its absolute worthlessness, to form the pool of a mortal and dead stagnation—the unprogressive and eternally monotonous movement in a circle, or the fiery whirlpool of phrases and curses. In the case of the False Prophet, his guilt is once more noted, in explanation of his judgment; the most bitter reminiscences cling to the perfidy of his apostasy. The third point is the judgment upon the followers of the Beast. They are not immediately cast into the fiery lake, but are for the time only killed. They are killed by the sword issuing from the mouth of Christ. They are morally judged and annihilated. What remains of them is a world of shadows, a sort of realm of the dead on the surface of this earth itself. All the birds become satiated with their flesh; i. e., all their sensuous and earthly possessions have lost their value and are decayed like the flesh strewed over a field of dead bodies. All the birds are satiated with their flesh; i. e., all the forces of metamorphosis are laboring for their transformation into a new shape. The fullness and manifoldness of the flesh to be devoured by the birds is vividly described in Revelation 19:18. A complete end is to be made of all this. Though it might with reason be said that because the sun is the symbol of the revelation of salvation, the Angel of judgment, standing in the sun as the angel of the whole salvatory development of revelation, indicates the hour when the work of the revelation of salvation is entirely completed, when the world clock of the history of salvation in this world has run down—we must not overlook the fact that this moment must coincide with the perfect ripeness of our cosmical system, and that, consequently, a catastrophe must start from the centre of our cosmical system, as well as from the focus of our religious moral system. The harvest of the earth and the harvest of the Kingdom of God coincide, in accordance with the parallelism between spirit and nature, as is declared in the Eschatological Discourse of our Lord (Matthew 24:29), although the Day of the Harvest, the Last Day, stretches out into an ζon of a thousand years in a symbolical sense. The birds of the heaven have, in typical preludes, often been invited to similar feasts upon the slaughter fields of history (Deuteronomy 28:26; Jeremiah 7:33; Jeremiah 16:4; Ezekiel 39:17). In this fact there is not only an expression of irony concerning the vanity of earths glory, but also an expression of the triumph of life over death. The Kingdom of God is acquainted with a transformation of matter; it is, however, of another and higher sort than that of which modern materialists talk; it does not lie under the curse of an eternal rotation, but is, on the contrary, under the law of the highest life, which changes this lower world of becoming into the eternal world of the City of God. b. The Millennial KingdomThe prophecy of the thousand years of Christ’s reign on earth is, in and for itself, a true pearl of Christian truth and knowledge, because it throws light upon an entire series of difficult Christian conceptions. In the first place, it mediates an understanding of the Last Day, in that it shows how the latter expands into a Divine Day of a thousand years, in a symbolical sense, i.e., a specific ζon; and thus it also casts light backwards upon the import of the days of creation. Secondly, it mediates the understanding of a catastrophe which is to divide between this life and the life to come, time and eternity, the world of becoming and the world of consummation, in that it shows how the great and mighty contrast is harmonized by an ζonic transition-period, in perfect accordance with the laws of life and vital development, as was clearly explained by Irenζus (see Dorner, Geschichte der Christologie, p. 243). Especially does it mediate the fact of the resurrection, in that it represents a first resurrection as preceding the general resurrection, in harmony with the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:23). Thus the resurrection is characterized as an affair of growth or progress, conditioned upon spiritual circumstances. In accordance with this, we apprehend the fact that even in this life the believer advances towards the resurrection (Philippians 3:11); that a resurrection-germ gradually develops within him (Romans 8.); that the beginnings of the resurrection commence with his removal into the other world (2 Corinthians 6.); that believers, in their ripening towards the resurrection, are, as blossoms of the general resurrection, a whole ζon in advance of the rest of mankind—a fact which is also indicative of a higher form of resurrection; and that Christ must needs have been the firstling and the principle of the whole resurrection (Ephesians 1:20). Thus also the great antithesis is explained which must necessarily exist between the original transruption (Durchburch) of sin or the curse in humanity and the final transruption (Durchburch) of salvation and blessing. As, in the primitive age, pneumatic corruption was for a long time hindered in its outbreak by the resistance of healthy vital substance in the psychical, somatic and cosmical sphere, so in the New Testament time, pneumatic salvation in humanity has had to struggle long with the resistance of evil in the psychical, somatic and cosmical sphere. With the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, however, begins the transruption of the blessing, in opposition to the old transruption of the curse. Whilst, on the one hand, the communication of believing humanity with Heaven and its pure spirit-world is spiritually consummated by the Parousia of Christ, and destined to be also physically consummated, the communication between the spiritual sphere of earth and the Satanic sphere of the abyss, on the other hand, is discontinued:—in the first place, because the organic mediators of Satanic operations, the Beast and the False Prophet, as also Great Babylon, are judged and destroyed. Though at the close of the great transition-ζon Satan again obtains a foot-hold on the earth, it is the last convulsive struggle of the serpent-nature manifesting itself in a brutal mutiny, which, for the very reason that it is veiled under no spiritual pretexts, like former Satanic efforts, but is the issue of consummate boldness and insolence, is blasted, not by Christological weapons, but by the fire of the Almighty from Heaven. But of this great effulgent picture of the Millennial Kingdom, the lack of patience and hope in the Christian sphere (Romans 8:24-25) has made the most manifold caricatures. We distinguish the caricatures of real so-called Chiliasm; the caricatures of the spiritualistic denial of Chiliasm, even to the misapprehension of its primal type—according to this class, the Apocalypse itself is chiliastic, and the same character is finally attributed to the concrete Christian hope; finally, the caricatures of the Millennial Kingdom which were produced by placing it in the past or the present (see the Introduction). True Chiliasm existed, so far as its element was concerned, long before the doctrinal forth-setting of the χίλιαἔτη, whence it takes its name. It is based upon the great family failing of all Judaizing Christianity; to such Christianity, the cross of Christ is still, more or less, an offence; to such Christianity, the redemption accomplished in the first Parousia of Christ is unsatisfying, and the centre of gravity of the redemption is consequently regarded as situate in the second Parousia, when Christ shall appear in His glory, and shall also promote His people to the state of glory. This Judaizing Christianity has no understanding of the principial completion of redemption in its depth and inwardness; hence, only in the final, peripheral redemption does it behold the true redemption. According as its ideals of glory are nobler or more base, its eschatological hopes assume a purer or an impurer form, so that a perfect scale of Chiliasms is formed, stretching from an anticipation of the sensuous glorification of Israel to the most carnal orgies in pre-celebration of the return of Christ. This is material Chiliasm proper. It has been rejuvenated in three Anglo-American sects of our own time. The element of truth which is perverted into falsehood and extravagance in it, is the Christian and Biblical expectation of the real, and in a religious sense ever near, coming of Christ.But material Chiliasm early sought and found a formal supplement, in that it boldly converted the words of the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:8)—words which, spoken with reference to Psalms 110:4, were designed as a counteraction against chiliastic impatience—into a chronological article of doctrine, in which it believed that it had discovered the key to the computation of the time of Christ’s coming. A Judaizing presupposition was here involved—viz., that God’s historical work of salvation would arrive at completion in a Divine week, reflected in the human week. To this was added later the further assumption, that at the first coming of Christ the world had been in existence for about four thousand years. Upon these bases men reckoned, and determined the time of the second Advent. Here another arbitrary assumption arose, converting the Millennial Kingdom into the real Sabbath of God, though the latter is to last forever, whilst the Apocalyptic ζon appears as a mere transition-period. In many respects, this formal Chiliasm, whence the system has its name, was subservient to material Chiliasm; in many other respects, however, especially in more modern Theology, formal Chiliasm, as a theological subtilty, detached itself entirely from material tendencies, although it continued to be afflicted with the material infirmity of a somewhat superficial and extravagant conception of the history of salvation. In face of all these Judaizing conceptions, the spiritualistico-ethnical conception has always considered itself bound, not only to combat true, sensuous Chiliasm, but also to controvert, or at least cast a shade upon, its assumptions—the expectation of the real coming of Christ, for instance; and it has especially felt itself obliged to cast the reproach of Chiliasm upon the putative originator of the same, the Apocalypse. And this, particularly, on account of the thousand years, the χίλιαἔτη. The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights might, with about equal justice, be denominated a chiliastic composition. A turbid mixture of both one-sided views is formed by the placing of the Millennial Kingdom in the course of Church History. In reference to this mixed form, we can distinguish two species. Mediζval Catholicism beheld in the Romish Church the actualized Kingdom of God itself, especially in respect of the papal system. The Old Lutheran orthodox dating back of the Millennial Kingdom into the Middle Ages—a view recently revived by Hengstenberg—was a fruit of the stunting of Eschatology in the era of the Reformation, especially in adherence to utterances of Luther’s. We here refer partly to the history of the interpretation of the Apocalypse, as already presented by us, partly to the following exegesis in detail. The singular opinion of Stier and others, that there is to be a double Parousia, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, seems desirous of conjoining so-called “Chiliasm” with the older orthodoxy.With the judgment upon the spiritual motive powers of the Beast, with the destruction of his powerful lies, Satan has lost his foot-hold within the infatuated human race—his right of naturalization, we might say, in this earthly sphere. He is therefore cast into the abyss. An Angel descends from Heaven to execute God’s sentence upon him. The office of this Angel reminds us of the offices of Michael; his name, however, is not mentioned. He has the key to the abyss—not simply to the pit of the abyss; this key he has in order that he may shut the abyss, i. e. entirely shut off Satanic influences from men for the time of the thousand years. This power, however, is connected with the moral fact that all the spiritual pretences contained in the Satanic illusive promise, eritis sicut deus, are destroyed by the beauteous reality of the great appearance of the Kingdom. All that Satan falsely promised concerning the path of impatience and guilt, is here attained in the path of pious patience: fullness of blessing, happiness, glory of life of every sort. Thus Satan has come to the end of his Latin, and needs, agreeably to the serpent’s tenacity of life, a thousand years to contrive the last desperate stroke of senseless heaven-storming—a procedure which is reported to have been the first act of the revolted Titans of Grecian story. And for this last rebellion a further existence is granted him, for the judgment upon him must be complete. His existence during the thousand years, however, consists in a sojourn in the abyss, betwixt death and damnation (the Realm of the Dead [Hades] and Gehenna), fastened to the chain which the Angel brings with him from Heaven. He has now made an open show of his entire nature, and is therefore called by his various forms and titles, except that the appellation of Accuser is no longer given to him—although even this name is contained in the διάβολος. The condemnatory sentence is executed in four acts which follow each other in rapid succession. He is seized, cast chained (not chained to any object external to himself, but hand to hand, 2 Peter 2:4) into the abyss, shut in, and sealed. The seal is the symbolic expression for the appointed Divine doom upon him, and is more powerful in its effect than the seal with which the grave of Jesus was sealed. The purpose of all this is that he may not prematurely seduce the heathen, the remnants of heathenism which still constitute the old border of the new world that is in process of becoming.This, then, is the negative side of the Millennial Kingdom. The positive side appears in three features: [1] The first resurrection, [2] the first judgment of restitution, [3] the first period of imperishable triumphal rest and rejoicing and unfading glory in the fellowship of Christ. The first resurrection is represented as a special reward of the faithfulness of Christ’s martyrs—above all, the martyrs of the last time, who have not worshipped the Beast; hence these latter constitute a particular class by the side of those slain at an earlier period. They stand in the fore-ground, as representatives of the Victorious Church (see 1 Corinthians 15:23); but we must recollect that this Church is itself of greater extent than here appears. For Christ has come with the hosts of Heaven, according to Revelation 19:14; according to the Epistle of Jude (Revelation 19:14), He is to come with His myriads of saints. With the sphere of this resurrection, the full liberation of the life-power on the sanctified earth is expressed (see Isaiah 65:13 sqq.). The second sphere is the sphere of the preliminary judgment. For the Seer, this occupies the foreground, since Christian longing cries for the removal of all the shame and wrong which, in this world, weigh upon the name of Christ and Christians; hence the Seer first sees the thrones of judgment set. If we consider that the judgment upon the Antichristian host has already been held, and that the last judgment upon the last revolt, which is as yet but germinating deep in the darkness, cannot be anticipated, there results, as a middle domain of judgment, an instruction (Pδdagogik) and discipline exercised by Heaven upon the human race, as extant at the Parousia, and thus sharing in the cosmical metamorphosis. It is that process of elimination and sanctification which must take place before the perfect appearing of the City of God on this earth; it is a judgment of peace, in accordance with Psalms 72 and Matthew 19:28. The third sphere is the living and reigning with Christ in the glory of a spiritual life which dominates and clarifies all creaturely essence—the organization of earth for its union with Heaven. There is no trace here of an external restoration of Israel in the sense of a privileged people of God, or of a restoration of the Old Testament cultus in an inconceivable New Testament sublimation; unless we should apply the subsequent words, they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and the words the beloved City, to the support of such a theory—in which case the symbolism of the expression must necessarily be di-carded. We cannot suppose that there is to be a two-fold heavenly Jerusalem; and the one true Jerusalem is still in Heaven, whence, according to Revelation 21:2, it does not descend to earth until the end of the thousand years. [ THE ]By the American Editor[The word Millennium means, etymologically, a thousand years, and may with propriety be used in reference to any period of that length. By common consent, however, the specific term The Millennium is employed to denote the period mentioned in Revelation 20:4-7. The theories on this subject that have been held in the Church are divisible into two classes—the Preterist and the Futurist—the former of which set forth that the origin of the Millennial period was in the past; the latter, that it is in the future. Each of these classes consists of two or three generic theories, the respective upholders of which differ amongst themselves on many specific points. It is proper to remark that in the following statement the writer has been greatly indebted to the work of Elliott. a. Preterist TheoriesI. The Augustinian. This theory is so styled as it was first propounded by the great Augustine in his Civitate Dei, Revelation 20:7-9. It has been upheld in all ages of the Church since its first promulgation, and in modern times by Wordsworth. Its main elements are—1. The period began at the first Advent, when Satan was bound and cast out of the hearts of true Christians and their reign over him (regnum militiζ) began: 2. The Beast symbolizes the wicked world, and its image a hypocritical profession: 3. The first resurrection is that of dead souls to spiritual life, a resurrection continued in every true conversion throughout the period: 4. The thousand years is a symbolical expression of completeness appropriately indicating the entire period of the Messiah’s reign: 5. This period to be followed by a new persecution of the Saints under Antichrist; the destruction of whose hosts by fire from heaven would be followed by the universal resurrection of the good and bad, and the general judgment; after which will begin, in heaven, the glorious period of the New Jerusalem. II. The Grotian. This theory was first propounded by Genebrard in the 16th Century; it found its chief advocates, however, in Grotius and Hammond. It differs principally from the preceding in that it makes the reign of Saints to be, not that of the individual Christian in the domain of his own heart, but that of the Church in the world. The elements of this theory are—1. By the Beast is denoted Pagan Rome, whose destruction under Constantine was predicted in Revelation 21:2. The power of Satan was then broken, as was manifested in the establishment of the Christian religion as the religion of the State: 3. The Millennial period began in that establishment, it was continued through a thousand years to the 14th Century, and closed with the attack on Christendom by the Ottoman Turks: 4. Gog and Magog denote the Mohammedan power, at the close of whose gradual destruction is to take place—the universal resurrection, the general judgment, and the eternal blessedness of the Saints in heaven.III. The Gippsian. This view, suggested by Mr. Gipps in 1831, makes the beginning of the period synchronous with the rise of Papal Antichrist. It represents (according to Elliott) “ those who lived and reigned with Christ to be men endowed with the spirit of the early Antipagan martyrs, now revived, as it were, to testify for Christ: after which, at the end of the Beast’s and witnesses’ concurrent (!) Millennial reign, the second and glorious resurrection of the rest of the dead is to be fulfilled in the Jews’ conversion and restoration.” b. Futurist TheoriesIV. The Pre-Millennial. This theory, as to its general features, is the most ancient. It was held by the primitive Fathers, and has been taught with various specific modifications in all ages of the Church. Amongst its most prominent English speaking advocates, in modern times, are Mede, Caryll, Gill, Noell, Elliott, the Bickersteths, the Bonars, Alford, Lord, etc. The elements are that—1. The Millennium is to begin in a glorious personal advent of Christ, immediately after the destruction of Antichrist: 2. The binding of Satan is to be “an absolute restriction of the powers of hell from tempting, deceiving, or injuring mankind:” 3. The duration is to be one thousand years (literal or symbolical): 4. The resurrection is to be a literal resurrection of Saints of the preceding ζon (either the martyrs, or the specially faithful, or the entire body): 5. The entire government of the earth is to be exercised by Christ and His risen and transformed Saints, the latter being ὡςἄγγελοι (Mark 12:25): 6. Under this government, all false religion having been put down, the Jews and all nations having been converted to Christ, Jerusalem being made the universal capital, righteousness, peace and external prosperity shall prevail throughout the earth: 7. At the close of this period, Satan having been loosed, there shall be a great apostasy, followed by (1) the destruction of the apostates, (2) the universal resurrection of the remaining dead of all dispensations, (3) the general judgment, (4) the consummation. The principal variation amongst those who hold this theory are as to—1. The continuance of Christ on earth;—some holding that it is to be only for the establishment of the Kingdom; others that it is to continue more or less uninterruptedly throughout the whole period: 2. The duration, some holding that the thousand years are literal; others that they are symbolic: 3. The subjects of the resurrection;—some holding that they are all the saints; others that they are only the martyrs; others still, that they are the specially faithful, including the martyrs: 4. The relation of the Jews to the other nations;—some contending that they are to occupy a position of superiority; others denying or modifying this opinion. V. The Post-Millennial. This theory, which is the one most generally adopted by English speaking Protestant Theologians, was first fully developed by Whitby. Faber, Brown and Barnes have been amongst the most prominent of its advocates. The scheme as set forth by Whitby is as follows:— “I. I believe that, after the fall of Antichrist, there shall be such a glorious state of the Church, by the conversion of the Jews to the Christian faith, as shall be to it life from the dead; that it shall then flourish in peace and plenty, in righteousness and holiness, and in a pious offspring; that then shall begin a glorious and undisturbed reign of Christ over both Jew and Gentile, to continue a thousand years during the time of Satan’s binding; and that, as John the Baptist was Elias, because he came in the spirit and power of Elias,—so shall this be the church of martyrs, and of those who had not received the mark of the Beast, because of their entire freedom from all doctrines and practices of the Antichristian Church, and because the spirit and purity of the times of the primitive martyrs shall return. And therefore— 1. I agree with the patrons of the Millennium in this, that I believe Satan bath not yet been bound a thousand years, nor will he be so bound till the time of the calling of the Jews, and the time of St. John’s Millennium. 2. I agree with them in this, that the true Millennium will not begin till the fall of Antichrist; nor will the Jews be converted till that time, the idolatry of the Roman Church being one great obstacle of their conversion. 3. I agree both with the modern and ancient Millenaries, that then shall be great peace and plenty, and great measures of knowledge and of righteousness in the whole Church of God. I therefore only differ from the ancient Millenaries in three things: 1. In denying Christ’s personal reign upon earth during this thousand years; and in this both Dr. Burnet and Mr. Mede expressly have renounced their doctrine. 2. Though I dare not absolutely deny what they all positively affirm, that the City of Jerusalem shall be then rebuilt, and the converted Jews shall return to it, because this probably may be collected from those words of Christ, Jerusalem shall be trodden down till the time of the Gentiles is come in, Luke 21:24, and all the prophets seem to declare the Jews shall then return to their own land, Jeremiah 31:38-40; yet do I confidently deny what Barnabas and others of them do contend for, viz.: that the temple of Jerusalem shall be then built again; for this is contrary not only to the plain declaration of St. John, who saith, I saw no temple in this new Jerusalem, Revelation 21:22, whence I infer there is to be no temple in any part of it; but to the whole design of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is to show the dissolution of the temple-service, for the weakness and unprofitableness of it; that the Jewish tabernacle was only a figure of the true and the more perfect tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man; the Jewish sanctuary only a worldly sanctuary, a pattern, and a figure of the heavenly one into which Christ our High Priest is entered, Hebrews 8:2; Hebrews 9:2; Hebrews 9:11; Hebrews 9:23-24. Now, such a temple, such a sanctuary, and such service, cannot be suitable to the most glorious and splendid times of the Christian Church; and therefore the Apostle saith, The Lord God omnipotent, and the Lamb, shall be their Temple. 3. I differ both from the ancient and the modern Millenaries, as far as they assert that this shall be a reign of such Christians as have suffered under the heathen persecutors, or by the rage of Antichrist; making it only a reign of the converted Jews, and of the Gentiles then flowing in to them, and uniting into one Church with them.” With the above presentation, post-millenarians, in the main, agree. The chief point of difference is as to the return of the Jews to their own land—some holding, with Whitby, that it is to take place; others, denying it. There are also differences as to—1. The nature of the Second Resurrection implied in Revelation 20:5,—some, with Vitringa, identifying it with the general resurrection of Rev 19:12-13; others, as Whitby, Faber and Brown, explaining it as the uprising of Antichristian principles in the confederacy of Gog and Magog: 2. The New Jerusalem,—some, with Whitby, regarding it as relating to the Millennial condition of the Church; others, as Brown and Faber, understanding by it the post-millennial condition of blessedness and glory.—E. R. C.] IN DETAIL Revelation 19:17. One angel standing in the sun.—“In the sun, because from this stand-point, fitted, as it also was, to the glory of the Angel, he can best call to the birds, flying ἐνμεσουρανήματι (Ewald I., De Wette, Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Volkmar).” Duesterdieck. If this were the motive for the position of the Angel, he might much better have taken his stand in the moon. His position in the sun has an import relative at once to the Kingdom of God and to the Cosmos. The sun, as revelation, is the principle of the spirit-realm of this present life; the sun, as a celestial body, is the domain of this present Cosmos (see Syn. View; comp. Revelation 1:16; Matthew 24:29). Come, be gathered together.—See the citations above; comp. also Matthew 24:28. According to Dόsterdieck, the slain λοιποί of Revelation 19:21 are the whole mass of the inhabitants of the earth. But whence, then, would come the mutineers at the end of the thousand years? The Eastern kings should also be distinguished from the ten kings. Gog and Magog have not yet joined the conflict. The λοιποί are, manifestly, the Antichristian host, from which the mass of earth’s inhabitants are still to be distinguished. Unto the great supper of God.—Antithesis to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. At the former, all the flesh of the fleshly-minded becomes a prey to the birds; at the latter, believers, as heirs of God, become heirs of all things. Revelation 19:18. That ye may eat.—The prospective complete destruction of the hostile host is set forth in detail. Revelation 19:19. And I saw the wild-beast.—The war-making, on the part of the Beast, is entirely of this world; it is a march, a drawing up in order of battle, the combatants being provided, perhaps, with the most terrible material weapons. But, opposed to them, stands an army of God, partially and predominantly as a host of spirits. And yet more, the στράτευμα of Christ stands contrasted, in its perfect unity, with the internally confused and divided στρατεύματα of the Beast. The attempt at an external conflict is immediately frustrated. The prophetic chiaroscuro resting upon this double array and battle cannot be brushed aside. It may only be gathered from the nature of the armies, that upon the side of Christ all the dynamic forces of spiritual humanity are concentrated, whilst upon the side of Antichrist demonic excitement may summon to its aid all the contrivances of craft and violence. Revelation 19:20. And the wild-beast was taken.—In what way, is reserved for the future to make known. Since there is no mention made of any preceding battle, a spiritual process of dissolution is pre-supposed as taking place in the hostile army—especially a separation between the ringleaders and the Antichristian host, mediated by Divine terrors. And with him the false prophet.—In the crisis of the disunion between Babylon and the Beast, the False Prophet has espoused the side of the Beast; a view which is prepared by the general description in Revelation 8. It is a result of a failure to distinguish between the general judgment-picture of chap. 8. and the three subsequent pictures of judgment, when Ebrard seeks to distinguish between the pseudoprophet “in the sixth world-kingdom” and an analogous lying power in “the eighth world-power” (p. 507). Cast alive into the lake of the fire.—See Revelation 20:10; Revelation 20:14 and chap Revelation 21:8. It is equally incorrect to apprehend Gehenna or the lake of fire as a mere internal condition of the damned, as to apprehend it purely as a cosmical region of punishment. A remark which is true concerning the Apocalyptic Heaven—viz., that it has the import of a spiritual region as well as a corresponding cosmical region—applies also, in antithesis to Heaven, in the first place to Hades, in the second place to the Abyss, and in the third place to Gehenna. Hengstenberg advances a marvellous view. “The term alive, without bodily death (comp. Revelation 19:21), confirms the idea that the Beast and the False Prophet are not human individuals, but purely ideal forms. A human individual cannot enter hell alive.” Against which Ebrard: “If the Beast and the lying Prophet be emblems of mere powers, we do not rightly know what the emblematic trait of being cast alive into the lake of fire can mean,” etc. “In Revelation 20:12 (comp. John 5:29) the wicked are raised from their graves and re-united to their bodies expressly to the intent that they may be able to endure the flames of eternal torment (Revelation 20:15) in their bodily natures as well as in their spirits.” But, little congruity as there is between purely ideal forms and the lake of fire and brimstone, there is as little necessity to make the possession of a body a preliminary condition of Gehenna suffering. When the lake of fire is called “the second death” (Revelation 20:14), this fearful conception stretches, on the one hand, beyond ideal forms, and on the other, beyond a corporeal suffering by fire. De Wette judiciously remarks, in respect of the distinctions between the punishment of the two Antichristian forms and the punishment of Satan: “They are judged earlier than Satan—who, Revelation 20:3, is bound but for a thousand years—because their existence and activity have attained their end, whilst, on the other hand, Satan, by virtue of the course of development of things, still has a root in the world and must again make his appearance.” De Wette has, moreover, not apprehended the term alive as corporeally as Hengstenberg most strangely takes it in express connection with ideal forms. That the Beast and the False Prophet may be apprehended as collective personalities, is not to be denied; but neither is it to be denied that they converge into symbolically significant units. In the statement that they were cast alive into the lake of fire, it is doubtless intimated that they could fall under the judgment of Gehenna whilst still on earth. “Fire and brimstone,” remarks Hengstenberg, “as designations of hell torments, have already appeared in Revelation 14:10-11. The lake of fire and brimstone is first mentioned here, and then again spoken of in Revelation 20:10; Revelation 20:14-15; Revelation 21:8. As the fire and brimstone are suggestive of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha (comp. the remarks on Revelation 14:10), the inference is obvious that the Dead Sea is referred to as the earthly reflection of hell.” The term γεέννα, he further observes, is found neither in the Apocalypse nor the Gospel of John, whilst the first three Gospels have it. Ebrard remarks, in opposition to this, that though the Dead Sea owed its origin to a rain of fire and brimstone, it does not burn with brimstone, but consists of brackish water. As it is as little possible to doubt the identity of the two terms, lake (or, to use a word which seems to us more applicable, pool) of fire and Gehenna, as it is to doubt the distinction between Gehenna and Sheol, our next task must be to inquire into the origin of the idea of Gehenna. See Comm. on Matthew, p. 114 [Am. Ed.]; Mark, p. 90 [Am. Ed.]. If the Dead Sea were the foundation of this figurative principle of doctrine, distinct traces of the fact would necessarily be found in the Old Testament. Besides the fire of Gehinnom, we have, Isaiah 30:33, a stream of brimstone, equally without reference to the Dead Sea. Comp. the article Tophet in the Lexicons; also in Winer; see also Psalms 11:6. The marshes and sloughs by the side of the river of salvation (Ezekiel 47:11) have also, doubtless, contributed to the completeness of the image. That the figure as a whole is an original idea of John’s, as a pool of fire, is evidenced by the opposite figure of the crystal sea. Moreover, the Dead Sea could not well have been employed as an image of hell, without giving rise to the idea that the people of Sodom fell under the judgment of damnation on the very occasion of their destruction—an idea which the Spirit of Scripture has avoided presenting. Comp. Matthew 11:23; 1 Peter 3:19; see our Introduction, p. 34. [See the Excursus on Hades, p. 364 sqq.—E. R. C.] Revelation 19:21. And the remnant.—The Antichristian host itself—not the whole remaining human race. They were slain—i. e., according to Hengstenberg and Ebrard, they were not cast body and soul into the lake of fire, but they suffered only bodily death, whilst their souls went into Hades. “They are sent into hell,” observes Hengstenberg, “only at the universal judgment (comp. Revelation 20:12-15), that is, if they do not in the meantime, whilst they are in the intermediate state, attain unto salvation (1 Peter 3:19-20) as those who have committed only the sin against the Son of Man, and not that against the Holy Ghost.” It is questionable, however, whether the slaying of the whole Antichristian host should be apprehended literally or not. They are slain with the sword of the One sitting upon the horse.—As this sword goeth forth out of His mouth, we should, apprehending the words literally, have to assume that they were all stricken down by the word of Christ, like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). But if this were the case, it would be necessary that they should all have passed through the spiritual experiences of those two. This, however, is by no means supposable; on the contrary, great masses of them are seduced, infatuated, pitiable people—portions of them having even been impressed into the service of the Beast and the False Prophet. We therefore assume that they are slain in that they are, in a social respect, rendered absolutely null by that new order of things in the Millennial Kingdom which is instituted by the word of Christ, and, furthermore, that all those properties of theirs that have become utterly valueless (their flesh) become subjects of a metamorphosis in order to their incorporation into the new order of things. According to Dόsterdieck, the slaying by the sword of Christ is but significant of a perfectly toil-less conflict [on the part of Christ]. According to Ebrard, the sword slays them as the word of omnipotence. De Wette remarks on the entire section: “This grand picture of the downfall of Antichristianity has been much weakened by the historical exegetes.” Grotius finds here depicted the abolishment of idolatry by the Christian emperors of Rome, and refers Revelation 19:18 to the fall of Julian in the Persian war. The interpretation of Wetstein is the most petty and insignificant: “Vespasianus cum familia in Domitiano extincta, uti prius familia Cζsarum.” Ulrich refers this judgment to the unnatural death of persecutors of the Christians. Herder: “The leaders of the insurrection, Simon, the son of Gorion, and John, met with the fate here depicted.” For additional particulars see Dόsterdieck, p. 545. From amongst other items we quote the following: “Corn. ΰ-Lapide cites authors who relate concerning Luther that he killed himself, and that his funeral was attended not only by a multitude of ravens, but also by devils that came from Holland.” Revelation 20:1-5 The Millennial KingdomThis section is by Dόsterdieck assigned to the third judgment. Manifestly, however, the Millennial Kingdom is the result of the second judgment. Apart from this, Dόsterdieck has a remark which is well worthy of notice—viz.: that the order of succession of the individual acts of judgment is the reverse of that in which the Antichristian forms appear. Sequence of the manifestations of Antichristianity: Satan, the Beast with the False Prophet, the Woman. Sequence of the judgments: The Woman, the Beast with the False Prophet, Satan himself. This antithetic parallelism must not, however, be reckoned amongst the organic relations of the Apocalypse, unless we behold the revelation of evil in the corruption of the Woman sketched in the features of the False Prophet; a view which does, indeed, pass muster, insomuch as the False Prophet in the form of a lamb seems to represent the Woman herself. Revelation 20:1. I saw an angel descending out of, etc.—Opposed to the spirit-form of Satan there must be a spirit-form from Heaven, just as Christ, the God-man, stood opposed to Antichrist, the Beast. This spirit-form of the Angel has been most diversely interpreted (as Christ; the Holy Ghost; the Apostolate; Constantine the Great; Calixtus II.; Innocent III.; see De Wette, p. 183). As the fallen angel or star of remorse ([Verzweiflungsbusse] chap. 9) opens the pit of the abyss, so it is the Angel of consummate evangelic peace, the Angel of the developed bliss of justification, of blessedness in the Parousia of Christ, who, descending from Heaven, can cast Satan into the abyss, because he has destroyed all his points of appliance in humanity, with the exception of the one consisting of the suppressed rancor of mob-nature, which finally breaks out in Gog and Magog. We have here, therefore, an angelic form representative of the polemical victorious operation of the peace of Christ—a Michaelic form. This is evident from the further fact that he has the key of the abyss.—In accordance with Revelation 1:18, Christ has the key of death and the realm of the dead [Hades]. We have already seen that the abyss forms the deepest border-region of the realm of the dead; it is contiguous to Gehenna, which latter is not ready for the reception of its guests until the time of the universal judgment. Consequently, Christ possesses the key to the abyss likewise, and hence it is evident that the Angel is significant of a fundamental form of the operation of Christ. And a great chain.—The concrete means of fettering Satan—and that, completely, and for a very long time. This is the power of the Spirit of grace and truth, making the genius of malice and falsehood powerless to injure for a whole ζon. The key to the pit of the abyss (Revelation 9:1) must not be confounded with the key to the abyss simply. Nothing is more erroneous than, with Ewald, to identify the fallen star (Revelation 9:1 sqq.) with this Angel. We translate in his hand, instead of on his hand (ἐπί), for it is not good German to say, a chain on his hand. As a matter of course, the chain is not all contained within the closed hand. Revelation 20:2. And he laid hold on the dragon.—Great and irresistible turn of sentiments in the spirit-world, concretely expressed—the more so since the consummate spiritual operations likewise become real dynamic operations. That [or the] ancient serpent.—See Syn. View. Comp. Revelation 12:9. And bound him a thousand years.—The thousand years are a symbolic number, denoting the ζon of transition. The millennial binding of Satan is the preliminary condition of the Millennial Kingdom. Those who deny the demonic origin of sin, deriving sin exclusively from the sensual or material nature of man, here meet with a mighty contradiction to their theory. But, on the other hand, those who refer all evil to Satan cannot explain the loosing of the latter. Revelation 20:3. And cast him into the abyss.—Revelation 9:1; Revelation 11:7; Revelation 17:8. A more general idea, is presented in 2 Peter 2:4, where it is declared that the fallen angels have been cast down to Tartarus, in chains of darkness, held fast or preserved unto judgment. For, first, Tartarus is a more general term for the whole sub-terrestrial region; secondly, the term ταρταροῦν is indicative of a hurling away with a constant tendency toward Tartarus; thirdly, the bonds of darkness are those self-perplexings, self-enchainings of evil which impel toward Tartarus; fourthly, the judgment is in prospective here only as a certain future. The various statements concerning the abode of the Devil and bad spirits may readily, if pressed as to the letter of the Scripture, be involved in contradictions, as has been evidenced by Strauss, for instance (see the author’s Positive Dogmatik, p. 572). But as we must needs distinguish between the dwelling-places and spheres of operation of spirits, so likewise is it necessary to distinguish between the different stages of their history. The abyss may indeed be regarded as the proper dwelling-place of Satan and the fallen angels, inasmuch as it, as the specific region of God-estranged rancor and grief, or despair, denotes the transition from the realm of the dead to hell, or from the sadness of death to damnation. The realm of the dead is only more tormented through the operations of demons than the human world (brooks [E. V.: floods] of Belial [Psalms 18:4]); but hell is prepared for the Devil and his angels as the region of final punitive suffering (Matthew 25:41). But as Satan is not at home with himself, neither does he stay at home (Judges 6); by nature he is excursive and rambling (Job 2:2), given to appearing and disappearing, fond of roving about (hence Azazel)—i. e., modes of existence and spheres of operation are to be distinguished especially here. In this relation, Scripture distinguishes Heaven as the pure domain of spirits (Job 1, 2; Revelation 7; Luke 10:18); earth, especially the atmospheric sphere, as the sphere of sympathetic and antipathetic worldmoods,—and in reference to this sphere of operation, it distinguishes the forms of the serpent, or hypocritical craft (Matthew 4; 2 Corinthians 11:14), and the roaring lion of terroristic might (1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 8). The import of the judgment upon Antichrist is that Satan is cast entirely out of the sphere of earth for a thousand years, and shut up in his true home, the abyss. Shut and sealed over him.—Expressive of the inviolable Divine determination, manifest in the equally unshakable Divine operation. Likewise an antitype of the impotent sealing of Christ’s grave on the part of hell and the world.—After these he must be loosed.—This also is a Divine decree—a decree, however, conditioned by the ethical design of causing the remnants of evil, of heathenism, in the sphere of Christ’s Kingdom, to appear, and thereby destroying them.—A little time.—Little from the stand-point of triumphant faith. See Revelation 17:10. Revelation 20:4-5. Fundamental Traits of the Millennial Kingdom. And I saw thrones.—According to Dόsterdieck, the θρόνοι “do not come under consideration as kings’ thrones (Eichhorn, Zόllig), but only as judges’ seats (Heinrich, Ewald, De Wette, Hengstenberg, etc.),” as is shown (he declares) by the prefigurement of Dan 7:9, 22, and the κρίμα, expressly mentioned in our passage also. But what then is the force of the words: They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him [Revelation 20:6]? Christ Himself also is amongst the sitters on the thrones as their centre. Moreover, the κρίμα can be understood only in the Old Testament sense, as significant of a princely judicial rule, since the special judgment upon the Antichristian world has been previously executed. It is highly characteristic that the thrones constitute the foreground of the picture. They are significant of the beginning of the Church Triumphant in this world—the visible appearance of the Kingdom of God. Distinct as is the presentment of the thrones themselves, of their occupants it is indefinitely said: and they sat down [seated themselves] upon them. Who are meant by they? According to Beza, Eichhorn, Ebrard, et al., the martyrs mentioned further on; this view is opposed by De Wette and Dόsterdieck. The context also is against it. First, John saw the thrones and those who seated themselves upon them, and then the beheaded ones who revived and reigned with Christ. We must not forget, however, that Christ has not come alone from Heaven, but that He was accompanied by a chosen army (Revelation 19:14). Without doubt, the occupants of the thrones are those who form the peculiar escort of the Lamb (Revelation 14:4); who even in this world, as sealed ones, constituted the kernel of the Church of God (Revelation 7), the proper centre of which is formed by God’s men of revelation [i. e. God’s revealers], particularly the Apostles (ch Revelation 21:14). In considering their position toward Christ, however, something more than mere martyr faithfulness or even mere historic dignity as Prophets or Apostles comes in view—namely, the endowment and destination of the Father, the special electness lying at the base of the special glory. These mysterious co-regents of Christ (comp. also Matthew 5:9) have been very variously interpreted (God and Christ; the Angels; the Apostles; the Martyrs; the saints, Daniel 7:22; the twenty-four Elders [De Wette and Dόsterdieck]; Hengstenberg, “the twelve Apostles and the twelve Patriarchs”). Here, however, we have no longer to do with forms that are partially typical [the Elders]; we will simply say: those who in a special sense have been inwardly endowed as joint-heirs with Christ, seated themselves upon the thrones. And judgment was given unto them.—This κρίμα cannot possibly refer to Revelation 20:1-3 and Revelation 19:20-21, as Ebrard maintains, since in those passages the sentence of judgment was decided by war, and the execution of judgment was a very brief process. We should hardly expect that Antichrist or Satan himself would have to be sentenced through a trial by jury. The judgment may be regarded primarily as a two-fold decision—a decision concerning those who are still living (who were not in the Antichristian army), as to whether their lives shall be preserved throughout the thousand years; and a decision concerning those who were beheaded, as to how far they are worthy of being called to the first resurrection. Nevertheless, the antithesis of life and death is now, in a high degree, dynamically, psychically and ethically modified (see Isaiah 65:20), i. e. dying and reviving are effects which proceed from within. In general, however, the entire ζon is to be conceived of as an ζon of separations and eliminations in an ethical and a cosmical sense, separations and eliminations such as are necessary to make manifest and to complete the ideal regulations of life. Of judgments of damnation between the judgment upon Antichrist and the judgment upon Satan, there can be no question; the reference can be only to a critical government and management, preparatory to the final consummation. The whole ζon is a crisis which occasions the visible appearance of the Heaven on earth; the whole ζon is the great Last Day. We may even conceive of the mutiny which finally breaks out as a result of these separations, for a sort of protest on the part of the wicked was hinted at by Christ in His Eschatological Discourse (Matthew 25:44), and the most essential element of the curse in hell is the continuance of revolt, the gnashing of teeth. To the degree in which this can decrease, torment can approach indifference. Opinions concerning this judgment are marvellously at variance. According to Augustine, the reference is to a judgment upon the old earth: Sedes Prζpositorum et ipsi Prζpositi intelligendi sunt, per quos ecclesia gubernatur. According to Hoλ, on the other hand, the judgment relates to Heaven itself, as a theological disclosure as to the fate of the souls of the martyrs and others in Heaven, during the thousand years. According to Piscat., De Wette, et al., “the probable idea is that the judgment now held has to decide as to who are worthy to have part in the first resurrection and the Millennial Kingdom.” And (I saw) the souls of them, etc.—Two main points modify the entire picture: a. The thrones; b. The souls of the martyrs. As these were cut off from the most lively life by a violent death, they abode nearer to life than other dead persons; their more intimate communion with Christ produced the resurrection principle within them; and as men upon whom the ban of the world pre-eminently fell, they must be pre-eminently honored in the Kingdom of God [als die vorzugsweise Geδchteten mόssen sie die vorzugsweise Geachteten des Reiches Gottes sein]. As beheaded, they also accompany Christ from the other world, and though it cannot be said that their category precisely coincides with that of the occupants of the thrones, neither can it be affirmed that they may not be amongst those enthroned ones. The Seer distinguishes three categories of the participants in the first resurrection, or those “that are Christ’s in His Parousia” (1 Corinthians 15:23). First, the sitters on the thrones; secondly, the martyrs generally, who were beheaded for Christ’s sake; thirdly, all the faithful of the last time, who have worshipped neither the Beast nor his image, nor have assumed his mark. These are the macrobii of the last time, who sleep not, but are changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 2 Corinthians 5:4-5; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). Over and above these, as a fourth category, are the remnants of the old humanity that have not belonged to the Antichristian army; the inhabitants of the domain of Gog and Magog, who find themselves only in the periphery of the renewing crisis. It was perhaps on account of the third class that the Seer employed the term ἔζησαν. But even if this is, with reason, made emphatic: they revived—lived again (=ἀνέζησαν, De Wette), it does not prove that we should regard the last [third] class (consisting of those who are alive at the time of Christ’s appearing), with Dόsterd., et al., as having likewise died in the mean time. The expression, [Revelation 20:5] but the rest of the dead, finds its antithesis in the martyrs; and the transformation, as well as the awakening, shall lead to the first resurrection. Revelation 20:5. The rest of the dead, etc.—That is, those not pre-eminently animated by the principle of the life of Christ, not led toward the first resurrection (Romans 8:17 sqq.; Ephesians 1:19; Philippians 3:11), and therefore a whole ζon deeper under the power of death. This is the first resurrection.—With these words the Seer constitutes that entire resurrection-process which begins with the Parousia of Christ, a distinct dogmatical conception. We have already discussed the gloriousness and naturalness of this conception. The manifold evasions of this idea, this Christian hope, seem like a general horror—not, however, a horror vacui, but a horror vitζ et spiritus. In regard to the thousand years, the number, as has already been observed, is symbolical, like all other apocalyptic numbers; it denotes an ζon, and is specifically the transition-ζon between this present world and the world to come. “The Jews indicate the duration of the Messianic Kingdom by different numbers; according to R. Elieser, however, the days of the Messiah amount to a thousand years; this opinion is based upon the statement, Isaiah 63:4, ‘the day of vengeance was in my mind’ [E. V. is in mine heart], and the further declaration, Psalms 90:4, ‘a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday,’ etc. The weightier reason of the Ep. Barnab. c. xv. might be added to this, that as God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, so in six thousand years all things would be consummated and in the last chiliad a great world-Sabbath would be celebrated.” (De Wette.) The slavish dread of Chiliasm felt by the Old Catholic Church and the mediζval Theology, amounting to an avoidance of the misunderstood Apocalypse itself and a dread of the historical sense of its text, whilst the Old Catholic Church and mediζval Theology were themselves sunk deep in material Chiliasm, has found expression in the most diverse interpretations, from Augustine down to Hengstenberg; there is a maximum of excuse for the beginning of the series, but scarcely a minimum for the end of it. On the course of the exegeses see pp. 63 sqq. Likewise Dόsterdieck, pp. 554 sqq. In this exegetical party, the elder Lutheran Theology continues most involved in the toils of mediζval tradition. The slavish Theology of the letter has found a support in the view of John Gerhard in particular (Dόsterd., p. 556). The Apocalypse, Gerhard declares, is a deutero-canonical book—the Kingdom of Christ will never on earth, not even at the end of the days, be one of external sovereignty (a sentiment dictated, doubtless, by a misunderstanding of Article XVII. of the Augsburg Confession)—all the dead are to arise in one day—there is to be but one general resurrection of the dead at the Parousia of the Lord. Accordingly, it is further stated, the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom probably falls in the time of Constantine—Gog and Magog are to be regarded as significant of the Turks. A partiality for this prejudiced tradition can in general be regarded only as the sad fruit of partyism. In regard to the view of Hengstenberg in particular, we refer primarily to the notices of Apocalyptic Literature, pp. 69 sq., 71. The starting point of Hengstenberg’s view is by Rinck (Die Zeichen der letzten Zeit, p. 333) declared to be the assumption that the Beast can be understood only as the Pagan, not as the Christian, State. This assumption is a proof that Hengstenberg had no just conception of the idea of Antichristianity—which cannot possibly be a product of pure heathenism—and no idea of the fall of an external State or Church. And yet according to the same commentator, Satan himself is at last to break forth—or rather has broken forth—immediately, (in a worse mode, therefore, than in the form of the Beast) in the midst of Christendom. Many arguments employed by Hengstenberg in his article entitled, “The so-called Millennial Kingdom,” to be found in the second volume of his commentary, have a very ad hominem sound; for instance, the argument from the inscription on the dome of the royal castle. We are justified in assuming that Hengstenberg was more concerned for the credit of Christian Rome than for the credit of the Christian State (which appears not merely in German, but also in French, Romance, and Slavonic forms), in declaring that the Woman also should be apprehended exclusively as Pagan Rome. Furthermore, the text of the Apocalypse constantly suffers violence at the hands of Hengstenberg. The chaining of Satan (Revelation 20:1-3) ill admits of an assignment to the Middle Ages—hence he explains: “Satan is able to ensnare individual souls during this time, but not the nations as a whole.” As if the individual souls of many princes and popes had not had a highly decisive influence in the working of their political and hierarchical systems—Machiavellism, the Inquisition, Dragonnades and the like. Again, the first resurrection, according to the same expositor, can not be apprehended as a bodily resurrection; it merely denotes the translation of the souls spoken of into that glorious intermediate condition in the other world, where they lived and reigned with Christ. ̔ ?̀Εζησαν, he affirms, is not equivalent to ἀνέζησαν. But, manifestly, this coming to life is distinct from the blessed living-on in the other world (chs. 7 and 14), and prominence is given to it as antithetic to the condition of the dead who did not become alive again during the thousand years. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ III. THIRD OR GENERAL END-. UPON SATAN AND ALL HIS COMPANY. THE SECOND DEATH Revelation 20:6-10A.— OF THE LAST GENERAL Revelation 20:6-86 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on [over] such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and [ins. they] shall reign with him a [the] thousand years. 7And when the thousand years are expired [finished], Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8and shall go out to deceive [seduce or mislead (πλανῆσαι)] the nations which are in the four quarters [corners] of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to [the] battle [war]: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. AND VIEW The prophecies relative to the three judgments here taper, so to speak, to a point. The most detailed of these prophecies was that which concerned the Harlot; the prophecy concerning the Beast was couched in less ample terms; and this last prophecy of judgment is concentrated in a very little sketch, so that we can scarce perceive the articulations which separate one cycle from another, and divide the heavenly prognosis from the earth-picture. Nevertheless, the breaks in question are still to be found. The words of Rev 20:6 do indeed glance back to the thousand years; but this is, manifestly, in order to the introduction of the last Judgment, which brings with it the second death. Even within this diminutive judgment-picture, the antithesis is unmistakable. Revelation 20:7-8 speak of the loosing of Satan and the seduction of Gog and Magog in the future tense. But with Revelation 20:9 the Seer makes a historic presentation, in the prophetic preterite, of the fact which he has before predicted. The plan of the whole Book is, therefore, retained in this case also. The perspective brevity of this section testifies unmistakably to the canonical truth and chasteness of the description. For an apocalyptic fiction, the elaboration of this sombre picture of the last revolt of the heathen, the fiery judgment upon Satan, and the second death in the lake of fire, would have possessed the greatest charms. Our Prophet, however, gives only the few features that he has seen—gives them as he has seen them, darkly, in well-nigh figureless language. It cannot be said, however, that he is wearied, for soon after follows the picture of the perfected City of God, magnificently developed and vividly distinct. With a beatitude relative to the sharers in the first resurrection, the perspective of the last judgment is opened. The participants in this resurrection are called blessed, as those whose lot is absolutely decided, who have passed their judgment and come forth from it as holy ones, forever consecrate to God. This retrospect is occasioned by the prospect of the second death as the doom of the third and last judgment. Over such the second death hath no authority. The second death (δεύτεροςθάνατος) is damnation in the pool of fire, according to Revelation 20:14 and Revelation 21:8; not gradual dissolution and annihilation (Rothe). The term eternal death [Dόsterdieck] is less explanatory of this mysterious judgment than the figurative expression, the pool of fire. It is a fellowship with all those who are in that condition of absolute irritation which is at the same time absolute stagnation, in endless ethical self-consumption and annihilation as a punishment for the persevering negation of God and the personal Kingdom of love. The opposite of this death-peril consists in the fact that the sharers in the first resurrection will be priests of God and of Christ. This priesthood, as absolute submission to God in blessedness in Him, stands contrasted with the unblest madness of the pool of fire; and, furthermore, it is perfect submission in reference to the economy of the Father as well as to the economy of redemption. They offer the whole creation, they offer the whole Church, with all the good things of them both, evermore to God and to Christ; and this is the condition whereby an eternal and ever-better possession of these good things is secured—a participation in the dominion of the Lord. Even in the Millennial Kingdom they shall reign with Christ. Not in the vision form, but in prophetic discourse the Seer now announces the loosing of Satan after the thousand years. He shall be loosed out of his prison—not break out of it. In accordance with the determination of God, Satan, and with him all evil, must be thoroughly and completely judged. Hitherto judgment has been predominantly accomplished through instrumentalities. The historic judgment upon the Harlot was executed by the Beast, i. e., the preliminary hypocritical instance of evil has been judged by the perfect consistency of evil, in accordance with a very general historic law;—half-way-ness succumbs to consistency. Antichristian evil, as a spiritual power, has been judged by the spiritual effect of the personal appearance of Christ, by the terror of His σόξα and by the sword out of His mouth. In the end, however, Satan employs the means of resistance still afforded him by his creaturely strength, reviving in a convulsive struggle, in rebellion against God; and with the brutal opposition of consummate Satanity, corresponds the savage sense of strength of the heathen [nations] in the corners of the earth, who have withdrawn themselves from the sanctifying process of the eschatological economy (the new οἰκουμένη), aye, have hardened themselves under it, and have become, especially in their resentment against that heavenly order of things which oversways them, kindred in mind to Satan. It has been asked: whence come these countless heathen, since, according to Revelation 19:21, Christ has slain the Antichristian host? But apart from the fact that He slew them with the breath of His mouth, i. e., morally annihilated them, which might not prevent a continuance of physical vegetation on their part, the terms employed, the heathen [nations] in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, afford sufficient explanation. Ezekiel prophesied that the people of God should, long after the more familiar anti-theocratic assaults, have to sustain an attack from the circle of the remotest barbaric Orient (Ezekiel 38, 39). This eagle-glance at the future, whose significance trains of Huns, Mongols, Tartars and Turks have already confirmed, could not be missing from our Apocalypse. The present prophecy is heralded in Revelation 16:12. But whilst Ezekiel, in prophesying of Gog in the land of Magog, referred to distinct Asiatic peoples (see Dόst., p. 552), John employs the terms as a universal symbol, in designation of all the barbarous peoples in the corners of the earth—so, however, that the distant Orient plays the principal part. The idea of these last heathen is precisely analogous to the churchly idea. In the earlier days of Christianity, the inhabitants of the villages (pagani) or of the heaths, far remote from the great centres of civilization, formed the remnants of the old world—remnants which were both unconverted and difficult of conversion. Thus the entire old world will leave its remnants in a moral, symbolical heathenism, which will surround the Kingdom of Christ not merely as a terrestrial, but also as a spiritual boundary. But the idea that Evil shall at last break out and incur judgment in such a final heathenish mutiny, in a brutal revolt, the stupidity of which is veiled by the innumerable force of the hosts therein concerned, is characteristic of the great Prophet, who sees far above and beyond the learning of the schools. IN DETAIL Revelation 20:6. Blessed and holy is he, etc.—As in the process of the formation of Christian character, the beatitudes of the righteousness of faith condition sanctification or the becoming holy, so in the condition of consummation, blessedness is still more decidedly the eternal source of the renewal of holiness. It is a remarkable fact that even Spinoza had a dim idea of this, that blessedness is itself a virtue and a condition of virtue. Even civic contentment has, in a limited degree, an ennobling influence. By holiness, eternal and complete consecratedness to God is here expressed.—Over such the second death, etc—They are beyond temptation, and cannot relapse into sin, and hence cannot fall under the fearful dominion of the second death.—The second death is, Revelation 20:14, declared to be the judgment in the pool of fire: eternal agitation amidst the eternal frustration of plots and attempts: the specific demonic and Satanic suffering. “A dying and an inability to die,” ancient expositors were wont to say. The fact is here expressed that the Millennial Kingdom forms only a heavenly circle of culture of the new world within the old earth—in other words, that the heathen [nations], from whom the last rebellion proceeds, form an antithesis to God’s people of the first resurrection. The remains of the old humanity will occupy very much the same relation to the new humanity which the remains of the pre-Adamite creation occupy to the human world; although a general recognition of Christ, and, to this extent, the beginning of Christianity amongst all these peoples, is induced by Christ’s victory over Antichrist (Revelation 14). The general conversion of the heathen even precedes the Parousia of Christ. They shall be priests of God and of Christ.—Because they shall be priests, they shall also be co-regents with Christ, and being both throughout the thousand years, they appear unconditionally elevated above the perils of the last Satanic assault. Revelation 20:7. And when the thousand years are finished.—When the destination of the thousand years is fulfilled (ὅταντελεσθῇ). Satan shall be loosed.—The obedience of the heathen [nations], their Christianity, their faithfulness, must finally undergo a fiery test, after they have long enough been spectators of the Heaven on earth, and enjoyed, in nature and grace, the blessings of the Parousia of Christ. For a similar purpose Satan was permitted to exercise his arts in the first Paradise, to tempt Job, Christ Himself, and His Apostles. Such is the Divine method for the testing and perfecting of the elect, the purification and sifting of the churches, the unveiling of the wicked in order to their judgment, and the inducement of the self-judgment of Satan, resulting in his dynamical destruction. Under this Divine economy, evil in abstracto is permitted fully to develop, as is also evil in concreto, in wicked individuals, in the fellowship of the wicked, in the father of liars. Revelation 20:8. And shall go out to seduce [or mislead] the nations [Lange: heathen].—“The difficulty occasioned by the statement that heathen peoples are here once more represented as going up to battle against the saints, after the destruction (Revelation 19:21) of all peoples and kings that worshipped the Beast” (Dόsterd.), is very simply solved by a distinction between the Antichristian host and the remaining world of peoples, particularly those under the Eastern kings—irrespective of the fact that it is doubtful whether the killing of the rest (Revelation 19:21) should be taken literally. Vitringa calls attention to the fact “that the ἔθνη, Gog and Magog, dwell in the uttermost ends of the earth (Ezekiel 38:15 and Revelation 20:9).” Another difficulty, according to Dόsterdieck, consists in the fact that foes belonging to this earthly life fight against the faithful who have part in the first resurrection. This will undoubtedly be a very foolish proceeding, but it will not on that account be improbable, as those who have passed through the resurrection dwell upon earth in bodily form. Dogs attack lions, beasts attack men, barbarians and savages attack civilized nations, the foes of Christ attack the Church of God;—all these are wars from motives of, sheer instinct, the rationality of which we have not to take upon ourselves to prove. In the antithesis of Cain and Abel, it was, in reality, the mortal who assaulted the immortal. Consider further “that these heathen peoples are seduced to battle against the saints by Satan himself directly.” Revelation 16:13, it is affirmed, militates against this idea. That passage, however, rather gives an explanation of the manner in which we should conceive of the agitation of Satan. At first, as the red Dragon (Revelation 12), he had no such definite organs as at a later period (Revelation 13), and yet even then he could work by spiritual influences. And even though the Beast and the False Prophet are destroyed, the frogs which went forth from their mouths as well as from, the mouth of the Dragon, reminiscences of rancor, resentment and rage [Groll. Gram und Grimm], can be made effectual for the seduction of the heathen, primarily through their leaders. In the four corners of the earth.—Hengstenberg, in the interest of his exegesis, has very ingeniously taken the edge off of the four corners of the earth by striving to prove that the corners comprehend that which lies within them, and that hence the four corners of the earth denote the same ground as τὸπλάτοςτῆςγῆς (see his citations, vol. ii., 368 sq. [Eng. Trans.]). But allowing that the four corners might denote, by synecdoche, the complete totality of the land or the people, such a use of the term is entirely different from the present statement, that Satan shall go out to seduce the heathen in the four corners; and from the further statement that they went up upon the breadth of the earth. Gog and Magog.—The following questions arise here: 1. What ethnographical sense did the theocratic world attach to Gog and Magog? 2. How did Gog and Magog become, in the Old Testament, the symbol of the last foes of the theocratic Church of God? 3. How has the Apocalypse taken up this symbol and applied it in manifold forms? 4. How is the same idea reflected in Jewish tradition? [1. In respect to Biblical ethnography, the name of Magog appears, by the side of Gomer, amongst the sons of Japhet, Genesis 10:2; see Comm. on Genesis, p. 348 [Am. Ed.]. Josephus explains Magog as indicative of the Scythians. “Magog seems to be a collective name, denoting the sum of the peoples situate In Media and the Caucasian Mountains, concerning whom a vague report had reached the Hebrews, etc.” See Winer, Title Magog; Dόsterdieck, Note on p. 552. Gog, according to Uhlemann, as there quoted, and others, means mountain; Magog the dwelling-place, or land of Gog. According to Ezekiel, eze38:2, the prince or the nation is called Gog, the land of the same being denominated Magog, which embraces Rosch, Meshech and Tubal (see the table of nations). [2. In the Apocalypse of Ezekiel, the spirit of prophecy has, in accordance with a distinct ethical pre-supposition, arrived at the idea that the people of God shall, after all its conflicts with familiar anti-theocratic enemies, after its complete restoration, re-instatement and renewal, have to undergo one more last assault from the rude and brutal enmity of Eastern barbarian nations. These enemies are introduced by Ezekiel under the names of Gog and Magog. Hitzig [Commentar. zu Ezech., p. 288) thinks that the Prophet chose the name Gog, the Scythian, on account of its being the name of the most remote peoples; and adds that the Scythians had appeared in Palestine not so very long prior to the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy—two explanations which invalidate each other. On the question as to whether the Scythians had been in Palestine previous to the prophecy, comp. Winer, Title Scythians. We behold in the name the symbolic term for the rudest and most savage heathenism as contrasted with the perfected Theocracy. Jehovah will curb, subdue and destroy Gog like a wild beast. [3. In harmony with the same eschatological idea, the Apocalypse took up the symbolical announcement, and to its representation of Gog and Magog as two collateral powers the inducement was given by Ezekiel, in his designation of Magog as a complex of different peoples. In the general judgment picture (Revelation 16) these enemies appear as the kings of the east, who come from the region of barbarism beyond the Euphrates. [4. “In Jewish Theology, also, the two names, of which the first denotes in Ezekiel l. c., the king of the land and people of Magog, are found in conjunction as the names of nations: In fine extremitatis dierum Gog et Magog et exercitus eorum adscendent Hierosolyma et per manus regis Messiζ ipsi cadent, et VII. annos dierum ardebunt filii Israelis ex armis eorum (Targ. Hieros. in Num. xi. 27, etc.).” Duesterdieck. Comp. De Wette, p. 191. Ibid., singular interpretations of the names by Augustine, Jerome et al.; application to the Goths, Saracens, Turks, all enemies of the Church, Antichrist. “The sorriest interpretation is that of Bar Cochab (Wetst.).” Hengstenb. (2. p. 369 [Eng. Tr.]) seems to find a significancy in Brentano’s initial juxtaposition of Gog, Magog and Demagog. A witty reply to the perhaps only seeming desire to discover Gog and Magog in the demagogues of the 19th century, see in Ebrard, Note, p. 517. To the war.—That last great war, foretold for ages by Prophecy. The number of whom is as the sand of the sea.—According to Ezekiel even, Gog leads with him a mixture of eastern nations (as did, in reality, Attila, Genghis Khan and Timur). At the same time, the figure employed is expressive, on the one hand, of the multitude of sordid human natures, and on the other hand, of a blind trust in this multitude. The salvability of the Scythians, however, is expressly declared by the Apostle Paul, Colossians 3:11. In the coalition of Satan with the mob of Gog and Magog, the combination of demon and beast, serpent and swine, formed by the dragon figure, is completely realized. SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section NinteenthThird or General End-Judgment. b. Earth-picture of the Last Judgment. (Revelation 20:9-10.) General and Special.—Brief history of the greatest war. 1. The war: (a) they went up; (b) they surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. 2. The defeat: (a) fire from Heaven devoured them; (b) Satan is cast into the lake of fire.—Great Heaven as an ally of this little earth.—The Kingdom of the Lord must always be victorious.—The greater the danger which menaces the people of God, the more wondrous their preservation.—The last victory, in its magnitude: Most wonderful (apparently without a weapon of defense), most mysterious (from Heaven), most glorious (destruction of Satan forever). Starke: Those who regard this vision as, in part, fulfilled, apprehend it as relating to Turks, Tartars, Scythians and Mohammedans, etc. Those who take it, in company with the thousand years, as still future, etc. (Confused mingling of the most diverse periods!)—Dimpel: O wretched hellish trinity ! The Beast, the False Prophet and Satan, are tormented in the fiery lake to all eternity. H. Böhmer (p. 293): The fact here presented, to wit, that Satan, after having been bound, shall at last be loosed again for a short time, seems to us to constitute a deep and weighty truth; not because sin can be traced only to a seduction through Satan, but because we must naturally suppose that God will, at some future day, permit all who set Him at defiance to unite themselves for the last possible battle against Him and thus prosecute their abuse of liberty to the climax of self-inflicted judgment. We hold this final emergence of Satan to be necessary, because without it there would be no real finale to that conflict which was begun in apostasy from God, and, consequently, no full victory. [From M. Henry: God will, in an extraordinary and more immediate manner, fight this last and decisive battle of His people, that the victory may be complete, and the glory redound to Himself.—From Vaughan: Upon this gathering, this confederation of infidelity, of ungodliness, and of atheism, will burst the light of Christ’s coming, and the devouring fire of God.] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section TwentiethThe New Heaven and the New Earth. The Kingdom of glory a. Heavenly World-picture of the Consummation. (Revelation 20:11 to Revelation 21:8) General.—We here refer to our detailed treatment of the subject in the Exeget. Notes (p. 358 sqq.). Special.—The end of the old world, the natal hour of the new world. This truth is (1) prefigured by life in nature (out of death, life); (2) grounded in the antithesis between the old and the new life of the Christian (the dying of the old man, the rising of the new man); (3) mediated, in its realization, by the verbal prophecies of Scripture and the real prophecies of the development of the Kingdom of God (every apparent down-going, the condition of a glorious resurrection).—The end of the world, a presentiment of all creature-life.—The new world, an object of the aspiration of all the pious.—[Revelation 20:11-15. Individual features of the end of the world: The Judge; the down-going [of the old world]; the resurrection; the judgment; the Book of Life; the lake of fire.—[ch. 20 sqq.] The new world: A consummate reality; anew Heaven and a new earth; the new Jerusalem; the new habitation of God (Revelation 20:3); the new existence (Revelation 20:4); the new creation (Revelation 20:5).—The Word of God, the foundation of the first world (John 1:1[–3]);—in the explication (and world-historic operation) of His words, the foundation of the second world.—Certainty of the new world, (1) in respect of its Founder (Revelation 20:6); (2) in respect of the heritage which it shall afford to the conquerors [Revelation 20:7]; (3) in respect of the certainty of its antithesis [the lake of fire, Revelation 20:8].—The second death? Infinitely mysterious in its nature. On the other hand, exceedingly clear as the final consequence, and hence the final punishment, of consistent sin. The second death, the last consistent result of the first beginnings of evil.—The contradiction immanent in the figure of the lake of fire, in perfect accordance with the essence of godlessness: 1. Extreme agitation and motion; 2. In perfect aimlessness; 3. Hence ethical self-consumption on the basis of physical indissolubleness.—Significant character-portrait of the lost under the superscription of the fearful. True heroic courage in the light of eternity; and its aim. Starke: There are two lines of opinion as to the vision set forth in chs. 21 and 22. Some consider that whilst it presents, chiefly, the condition of the Church on earth during the thousand years, a picture of the glorious state of the Church in Heaven is commingled with the former view; others hold that the contents of these two chapters refer particularly to the glorious state of the Church Triumphant in Heaven.—Quesnel: (Comp. Revelation 21:4 and John 16:20.) O precious tears of penitence and grief shed by the righteous and accounted worthy to be wiped away by the hand of God Himself. (Revelation 21:6.) God will yet manifest Himself to His Church as Alpha and Omega, and prove that the promise which He gave in the beginning, He will emphatically fulfill in the end.—Quesnel [Revelation 21:8]: There is a, fearfulness which can condemn us equally with any misdoings. Claus Harms, Die Offenb. Joh. gepredigt (Kiel, 1844; p. 183): The New Jerusalem. I. It has its name and form from that Jerusalem in Israel. II. But the glory of the new is far greater than the glory of the old. III. Greater, even, than anything the Prophets have predicted in regard to it. IV. Yes, the new Jerusalem surpasses even Heaven and eternal blessedness. V. Christians, have we this glorious city before our eyes? VI. And in our hearts? Haken, Kosmische Bilder, Riga, 1862 (p. 190): The new Heaven and the new Earth. Psalms 102:25-26; Hebrews 1:10. In both passages the terms pass away [perish] and change are promiscuously employed; the Heavens pass away only so far as they are changed. [From M. Henry: Revelation 20:11-15. Observe, 1. The throne and tribunal of judgment, great and white, very glorious, and perfectly just and righteous. 2. The Judges 3. The persons to be judged. 4. The rule of judgment settled; the books were opened. The book of God’s omniscience, and the book of the sinner’s conscience; and another book shall be opened—the book of the scriptures, the statute-book of heaven, the rule of life. This book determines matters of right; the other books give evidence of matters of fact. 5. The cause to be tried; the works of men, what they have done, and whether it be good or evil. 6. The issue of the trial and judgment; and that will be according to the evidence of fact, and rule of judgment.—Revelation 21:3. The presence of God with His people in heaven will not be interrupted as it is on earth, but He will dwell with them continually.—The covenant interest and relation that there are now between God and His people will be filled up and perfected in heaven. They shall be his people; their souls shall be assimilated to Him, filled with all the love, honor and delight in God that their relation requires; this shall be their perfect holiness, and He will be their God; His immediate presence with them, His love fully manifested to them, and His glory put upon them, will be their perfect happiness. Revelation 21:4. Note, 1. All the effects of former trouble shall be done away. God Himself, as their tender Father, with His kind hand, shall wipe away the tears of His children; and they would not have been without those tears when God shall come and wipe them away. 2. All the causes of future sorrow shall be forever removed; There shall be neither death nor pain; and therefore no sorrow nor crying; these are things incident to that state in which they were before, but now all former things are passed away. Revelation 21:5-6. We may and ought to take God’s promise as present payment; if He has said, He makes all things new, it is done.—Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. As it was His glory, that He gave the rise and beginning to the world, and to His Church, it will be His glory to finish the work begun, and not to leave it imperfect.—The desires of His people toward this blessed state [Revelation 21:1-4] are another evidence of the truth and certainty of it; they thirst after a state of sinless perfection, and the uninterrupted enjoyment of God; and God has wrought in them these longing desires which cannot be satisfied with anything else, and therefore would be the torment of the soul if they were disappointed; but it would be inconsistent with God’s goodness and His love to His people to create in them holy and heavenly desires, and then deny them their proper satisfaction; and therefore they may be assured when they have overcome their present difficulties, He will give them of the fountain of the water of life freely. Revelation 21:6-8. The greatness of this future felicity is declared and illustrated, 1. By the freeness of it. 2. The fullness of it; inherit all things. 3. By the tenure and title by which God’s people enjoy this blessedness; by right of inheritance, as the sons of God. 4. By the vastly different state of the wicked. Revelation 21:8. Observe, 1. The sins of those who perish. The fearful lead the van in this black list; they durst not encounter the difficulties of religion, and their slavish fear proceeded from their unbelief. They, however, were yet so desperate as to run into all manner of abominable wickedness. 2. Their punishment. This misery will be their proper part and portion, and what they have prepared themselves for by their sins.—From The Comprehensive Commentary. Revelation 21:8. There is then a fearfulness which alone is sufficient to cause our condemnation, as well as the other crimes here mentioned. It is not only that fear which causes us to deny and abandon the faith; but that also which causes us to be wanting to important and essential duties, through fear of hurting our fortunes, our ease, and even our temporal and spiritual interests, and of creating ourselves enemies. True courage is, to fear nothing but God and displeasing Him. Real cowardice is, not to have courage to overcome self, nor renounce the creature, through the hope of enjoying the Creator. (Quesnel.)—From Vaughan: Revelation 21:3. To have God with us is to be perfectly safe: to have God for our God is to be perfectly happy. Revelation 21:8. The fearful. O terrible end! O fatal compromise carried on too long and too far with sinners and with sin ! O spirit of oversensitiveness, of dislike to trouble, of dread of isolation, of inability to judge decisively and to act courageously, which has brought you, by slow stages, by easy descents, to a level so vile, and a companionship so horrible !—From Bonar: Revelation 20:12. Books are opened—books probably containing God’s history of the sinner’s life, His record of the sinner’s deeds. … The Divine version of human history how unlike all earthly annals ! Most of the leading facts the same, yet how differently told and interpreted. Alongside of these is another book, called the book of life—the register of those whose portion is life eternal. Revelation 21:13. Judged every man according to his works. God keeps His diary of every soul’s doings and sayings and thinkings. Revelation 21:14. Of the old prediction in Hosea (Revelation 13:14): “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction,” John here records the awful (and glorious) fulfillment.] 2. The New Heaven and the New Earth. The Clarified World and the Kingdom of GloryRev_21:1-81 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away [departed]; and there was no more sea [the sea is no more]. 2And I John [om. John] saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God [om. from God] out of [ins. the] heaven [ins. from God], prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a great voice out of heaven [om. heaven—ins. the throne] saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell [tabernacle] with them, and they shall be his people [peoples], and God4 himself shall be with them, and be their God [or om. and be their God]. And God [God or om. God] shall wipe away all tears [every tear] from their eyes; and there shall be no more death [death shall be no more], neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain [nor shall sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, be any more]: for the former [first] things are passed away [departed]. 5And he that sat [the one sitting] upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said [saith] unto me [or om. unto me], Write: for these words are true and faithful6 [faithful and true]. And he said unto me, It is [They are] clone [or fulfilled]. I am [or am], [ins. the] Alpha and [ins. the] Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst [thirsteth] of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7He that overcometh [or conquereth] shall inherit all [om. all—ins. these] things; and I will be his [om. his—ins. to him a] God, and he shall be my [om. my—8 ins. to me a] son. But [ins. to] the fearful [cowardly], and unbelieving, and the [om. the] abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers [fornicators], and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all [ins. the] liars, shall have [om. shall have] their part [ins. shall be] in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: [,] which is the second death. AND Synoptical ViewTwo points must here be established at the outset. First, the detachment of the section Revelation 20:11-14 from the foregoing last special judgment, the judgment upon Satan. Secondly, the distinction, which is carried out here also, of a predominantly heavenly-ideal and a predominantly terrestri-real vision-picture, or the distinction of the sections Revelation 21:1-8 and Revelation 21:9 to Revelation 22:5. In respect to the first point, with the judgment upon Satan the last part of the world-judgment internal to this present world and life, or the outpouring of the Vials of Anger, is accomplished. Though the universal end-judgment is, by the Scriptures and the Church, preeminently denominated the Dies Irζ, it lies beyond the proper department of the Vials of Anger, since it introduces the eternal dooms, and is a judgment unto life for the blessed, as well as a death-judgment upon the damned; irrespective of the fact that the term of the end-judgment is, in Eschatology, summed up together with the foregoing special judgments in one great Day of Wrath, whose prelude is to be beheld in the day of wrath upon Jerusalem. In respect to the second point, we must not overlook the fact that the two finales contained in Revelation 21:6-7 and Revelation 22:4-5 would, as tautologies, obscure the text, if they were not to be regarded as parallels, in perfect analogy with the parallels Revelation 12:6; Revelation 12:14. The antithesis does here, indeed, issue in a point in which the two lines are not so strongly distinguished—Heaven descends to earth: earth becomes Heaven—; still, the pause between the visional Heaven-picture and the appearance of the City of God upon earth is distinctly perceptible (Revelation 21:10). The present Section A branches into the great antithesis of the end of the old world and the appearance or, primarily, the heavenly development, of the new world. The centre and causality of the end of the world is the great white throne and the Judge enthroned thereon. The adjectives great and white manifestly denote the majesty and holiness of the Judge and His judgment. In harmony with the universalism of the judgment and in accordance with Revelation 21:4-5, God Himself is to be understood by the Judge; not, however, to the exclusion of the fact that Christ is the appearance of the great judging God (Titus 2:13), and thus His Parousia has here mediated the Last Judgment. With the great appearance of God the Judge, a complete subversion of the old form of the world takes place:—the corporeal world becomes nothing; the spiritual world becomes all. From His face the earth and the Heaven fled: and fled without a goal—they vanished. This cannot be apprehended as a real annihilation of the world, as the ancient orthodoxy maintained. And though the idea does essentially coincide with the fiery metamorphosis of 2 Peter 3:10-13, it was not the intention of the Seer hyperbolically to express that fact [of the fiery metamorphosis]. Rather, in the antithesis, The corporeal world vanishes, the spiritual world appears, is contained the strongest expression of the thought that at last, under the almighty operation of the absolute personality of God, personal relations, as the true life-principles of the world, must become perfectly manifest. Above all, the old antithesis between Heaven and earth is hereby removed. But as decidedly as worldly relations withdraw, spiritual relations come into prominence. The Seer beholds the dead standing before the throne;—the great, because even the greatest is subject to this judgment, and the small, because even the smallest shall have perfect justice done him here. And with this the general resurrection is expressed; emphasis is not laid upon it, however, in the same manner as upon the first resurrection, because it is not specifically a resurrection to life. Clearly and positively as personalities themselves appear before the throne, just so distinctly are all the works of all individuals—works which bear the impress of their characters and which have fixed their destinies—in everlasting remembrance. There are the books, which are opened for the revelation of these works, in the unitous character of which latter the judicial sentence is, de facto, already extant (Matthew 12:37). From the books the Seer distinguishes the book, the book of life, as the book κατ̓ἐξοχήν, the Bible of eternity set forth in living Divine images. In this book, that sum total is already made up, for which the books in the plural contain, amongst other things, the material. Those who are written in this book have already, in spirit, passed the judgment (John 5:24; Romans 6.; Galatians 2:19). The result of the life of other men is contained in the books, but is also summed up in the brief epitome presented in the statement that they have fallen under judgment if their names are not found in the book of life. The following antitheses should be noted: 1. The books and the book; 2. The works and the names; 3. The lostness of the names of the lost in the confusion of their works; and the concentration of the works of faith in the names of the faithful, the perfected characters. Formally, therefore, the judgment is general; all stand before the throne. And it must all the more be general, since the very separation of the righteous from the mass of the unrighteous is itself the expression and illustration of the judgment. In a material aspect, however, the general judgment, with this very separation of the righteous, brings in view the special judgment of damnation; the more, since the truly perfected Christians, the eschatological Christians, we might say the approved ones of the end-time, with all the martyrs, who represent a spiritual end-time through the entire course of the world’s history (scarcely those also who have become believers during the thousand years), are already, through the first resurrection, not only exempted from the judgment, but also called to share in its administration. This general description of the judgment is followed by a specialization which goes back to the beginning. And first in regard to the dead. They come back from every direction out of the condition in which they have been hitherto; through the medium of the general resurrection they are placed before the throne of God. Not even into the abyss could they have sunk so deep as not to appear again. We, therefore, apprehend the detailed description as a gradation. That they are given back by the earth is assumed by the Seer as a matter of course. But also by the sea, in whose depths they seemed to have vanished forever; by death, by the power of death itself; and by the realm of the dead [Hades]—are they given up. So far as the immortality of the soul is concerned, these categories are all alike; in whatever way they [as to body] perished, they all [as to soul] live on. Again, so far as death is concerned, they are all dead and in the realm of the dead [Hades]. But in respect of the relation of these categories to a bodily appearance before the throne of God, gradual distinctions are formed. They vanished in the depth of the ocean;—they are here again. They seemed long since a prey to the power of death;—they are living again. They seemed to be floating away as shades in the gloomy land beyond the portals of death;—here they come as entire men in the reality of earthly life, summoned before the judgment throne of God. So they are judged, each one according to his work. The judgment is thus thoroughly general and thoroughly individual, and likewise, as the final judgment, characterized as in accordance with the works of those judged (Matthew 25). The judgment makes a thorough end of the old form of the world. Death itself is cast into the pool of fire. As the natural life of the blessed is swallowed up in the spiritual life, so the natural death is merged into the spiritual death. The natural death appertains to the region of becoming; with the abolition of this region, it is itself abolished. What remains of it is the sense of continual self-annihilation in the region of an absolutely indifferentized [neutralized] self-tormenting existence. The whole institution of the realm of the dead [Hades], so far as its dark side is concerned, passes into the pool of fire, into the condition of a death multiplied into itself, and yet a conscious, living death. Again, together with death and Hades, the spiritually dead incur the judgment of the pool of fire. Life, life, life, to infinitude, is denoted when it is said: the name is found in the book of life. The contrast is death, death, death, to infinitude. Middle positions, uncertain, wavering forms, have ceased to be, for it is the harvest of the world. The pool of fire, or the pond-like, stagnating lake of fire, denotes the entire precipitate of the world and worldly history; hence the new world can unfold itself, over against it, in all its glory. The Seer first beholds the new world in the antithesis of the new Heaven and the new earth, for the old Heaven and the old earth have departed, and the sea is not any more. The sea is the womb of shapeless life, as the nutriment of life that is in process of shaping, and in this respect it is an attribute of the region of becoming, but not of the region of being. It will be understood that Heaven and earth are intended not in the cosmical sense merely, but also in the spiritual sense, and this may be true of the sea also. For the sea of nations is, in common with the mundane sea, a womb—a womb of characters, as the latter is of creatures. That which is to unite Heaven and earth is the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, prepared in Heaven by God as a bride adorned for her husband. Our first business here is to reconcile this Parousia of the perfected Church of God with the Parousia of Christ and His escort (Revelation 19:14). It is impossible to accept the confused notion that another Parousia of Christ from Heaven must ensue here. Consequently, we must distinguish the train of His elect, which has accompanied Him to earth, and has here compacted itself into a whole, from the general constituents of the Church Triumphant; a distinction which was suggested in chs. 7 and 16. The Church Triumphant in the other world does not consist purely of warriors of God [Gotteskδmpfer] in the narrower sense of that term, and it has found a new home in that other world. Therefore the barrier between Heaven and earth must be in the act of vanishing, if the new earth is to be raised to the dignity of becoming the mother-country of the new Church of God. This, however, seems to be a polar vital law: Principial consummation bears upward from earth to Heaven; the consummate appearance of life brings back again from Heaven to earth. This may be otherwise expressed as follows: Redemption, as principial, first conducts the redeemed from without inwards; next, as eschatological, from within outwards. Thus ensues the heavenly consummation of God’s Kingdom upon earth. It is proclaimed by a great voice from the Throne—hence by a solemn declaration in the name of the Divine government—in a progressive series of theocratic items. First, the theocratic cultus shall find its fulfillment in the consummation of the Kingdom of glory. Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men. That which was typically heralded by the Jewish tabernacle, and, later, by the Temple; that which the Church principially realized,—attains now its consummate and visible appearance: a Congregation of God, in which man’s communion with God is completely realized. Secondly, the visible appearance of the full harvest of all pious tear-seed sown throughout the history of the world. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. An image which might have been drawn from the nursery is employed to express the sublimest thought—the transmutation of all the earthly sufferings of the pious into heavenly bliss, through the sensible presence of Divine love and faithfulness. We may also say—the perfect transfiguration of the cross. For the first things have departed. A second, imperishable Kingdom of Life has arisen, in contrast to the second death. Thirdly, the visible appearance of the renewal of the earth, or rather of the whole earthly Cosmos,—relatively, of the whole universe itself. Behold, I make all things new. This promise, too, must be written; it becomes, in pursuance of the Divine order, a written bond for the hope of mankind, like the promises in Revelation 14:13 and Revelation 19:9. Fourthly, the full realization of all the promissory words of God. And He said unto me: They are fulfilled. Namely, the words of which it is declared: They are trustworthy and true [veritable]. They have become realized in the new earth, as words creative of God’s second, new and eternal world. The surety for them is given by the same God Who must be the Omega of all life, because He is its beginning (see Romans 11:36). Fifthly, together with the universal destiny of the world, all individual destinies are fulfilled. For the men of longing, all longing for the eternal will be satisfied. The fountain of the water of life—highest life and sense of life, springing forth to infinitude from the depths of the Godhead—is offered for the free enjoyment of all who have thirsted for it. But as the highest need of the soul, the longing for its true element, has made the thirsters warriors, combatants against all illusions of false satisfaction, and since victory has crowned the constant conflict, the second individualization of the promise runs thus: He that conquereth [or the conqueror] shall inherit these things—namely, the fulfillment of all these promises. And that which constitutes the centre, the sum and substance of this inheritance, is expressed in the words: I will be his God, and he shall be My son (1 John 3:2). Because the reference is to a conquest and a fulfillment conditioned entirely upon ethical grounds, an antithesis is once more employed. It is highly significant that the lost are designated, above all, as cowards. In respect of the measure and vocation of man, in face of eternity and its revelations, faith is, in the first place, heroic bravery and gallantry; on the other hand, unbelief, in its fundamental form, is faint-heartedness, cowardice, despair as to the high calling of God and the high vocation of human nature. Under this characterism, therefore, the unbeliever comes, with his timorousness in view of Divine truth; the sinner, in the narrower sense of the term, as one who is timorous in regard to the worth of righteousness; the murderer, who was timorous at the calling of love; the fornicator, who was timorous at the law of spiritual liberty and purity of life; the sorcerer, who was timorous at the sanctity of Nature’s laws; the idolater, who, in his timorousness, surrendered the glory of the knowledge of God; also the liar, who despaired as to the good in truth;—they all cowardly despaired of the Life in life, the Divine word, law and Spirit—hence their portion shall be in the pool of fire. Their tendency led, in a straight line, to the perturbation of their being in absolute irritation. IN DETAILRev_20:11. The pause between the foregoing section and the present one is marked by the announcement of a new vision: καὶεἶδον. Revelation 20:11. A great white throne.—The greatness and whiteness are indicative of the glory and holiness of the throne (Dόsterd.). And the One sitting upon it.—Who is this? Answers: 1. The Messiah (Bengel et al.; Matthew 26:31 [64?]); 2. God (De Wette, Hengstenb., Dόsterd.; see Revelation 1:8; Revelation 4:3; Revelation 21:5-6; Daniel 7:9); 3. God and Christ, “the Two forming One, in perfect undividedness” (Ewald). With this modification, the visible appearance of God in Christ, No. 3 is entirely correct (Titus 2:13; 1 John 5:20).—The earth and the heaven fled (see Revelation 16:20; Revelation 21:1).—The antithesis between the appearance of God and. the disappearance of the world as world, is represented under the figure of an antagonism and conflict. Before the God Who maketh all things new the old form of the world takes to flight.—And place was not found for them.—The renewal pervades everything. Revelation 20:12. And I saw.—The dead have once more taken visible shape.—The great and the small (see Revelation 11:18; Revelation 13:16).—The perfect equality of men before the judgment seat of God is repeatedly declared. The 12th verse, as Dόsterdieck judiciously remarks, closes with a general description; Revelation 20:13 th then reverts to special items, as in Revelation 15:1; Revelation 15:6. Bengel and Hengst. apprehend the relation as a continuous unitous description: in that case, the νεκροί of Revelation 20:12 would necessarily be those who are transformed, who have lived to see the day of the Parousia, in contrast to those who are really raised from the dead. Such a view does violence to the text.—Books were opened.—(Daniel 7:10). As there is repeated mention of books in the Apocalypse, so likewise is there in the Gospel of John (the Scriptures); see especially Revelation 21:25. The book of life is but one; it is the book of the life of mankind in a concentrated form. Whilst the books seem to be journals concerning the works of all, the book contains the heavenly result of the history of the world, a register of the treasure, the κλῆρος, the harvest of God, in the names of the blessed. Since the entire decision is briefly contained in the question: Is the name of such and such a man in the book of life, or not? the books occupy the place of vouchers. Thus in Matthew 25. the one book is illustrated in the statement that Christ places the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left hand; the ensuing discussion of the works of the righteous and the wicked, however, is suggestive of the books. Revelation 20:13. And the sea.—The sea cannot here be understood directly as the sea of nations, although it is thus that Hengstenberg defines even this declaration, maintaining that the reference is to those who have perished in the battles of the nations. According to this, the literal form of the passage would be: the battlefields gave back their dead. In this case, in the subsequent sentence where it speaks of death as giving up its dead, we should have to understand those who had fallen on those fields of battle, rather than, with Hengstenberg, unblest dead ones. However, the reference is rather to different conditions of the dead. Personalities of all sorts (Revelation 20:12) must re-appear out of mortal conditions of all sorts (see Syn. View). In regard to the sea, De Wette, after Wetstein, groundlessly cites a pagan idea here, according to which those who had been swallowed up in the sea did not enter Hades. According to Dόsterdieck, this second presentation [Revelation 20:13] embraces only such as incur the punishment of the second death or the lake of fire. This assumption is based upon the false hypothesis that, according to Revelation 20:5, all believers rose from the dead at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom. In that case the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom would really have constituted the judgment itself. Any blessed effects of the Parousia upon the world of nations would then have been out of the question. Revelation 20:14. And Death and Hades, etc.—“Death and Hades, presented in Revelation 20:13 (comp. Revelation 1:18) as localities, here appear (comp. Revelation 6:8) personified, as demonic powers” (Dόsterdieck). The Apocalyptist, however, would probably not father this conception. The inference is, rather, that the pool of fire must not be understood in a purely ethical sense, but that it has also its physical side. And this declaration doubtless imports that the two ground-forms of the old mortality—first, dying itself, and secondly, the mode of existence of the dead—are merged in their consummation-form, in which nothing remains of them but the second death, the ζonic suffering of the lost (see Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:26). Revelation 20:15. And if any one was not, etc.—Literally apprehended, this seems very hard; ideally apprehended it means, where the second, higher life is utterly wanting, there is the second death; the essential and proper fulfillment of death; the natural, and therefore the positive consequence. Revelation 21:1. And I saw.—Picture of the consummation—first, as a Heaven-picture. The final goal of the history of the old world; therefore, the final goal of all the longing of all the pious (Romans 8.), of all revelations of salvation and prophecies, of all the forms and operations of the redemption and of the Kingdom of God, and hence even of all judgments, which at last, in the concentration of the final judgment, were obliged to make room for the eternal City of God. “Augustine (De Civ. Dei xx. 17) apprehends what follows de seculo futuro et immortalitate et ζternitate sanctorum, and this opinion of his has, with more justice than others pronounced by him upon the Apocalypse, become authoritative.” De Wette. Even Hengstenberg, with a salto mortale, touching lightly the last period of the rebellion of Gog and Magog, has leaped from the mediζval Kingdom into the consummation-time of the new Jerusalem. Grotius, on the contrary, keeps to the period subsequent to Constantine, and Vitringa conceives of the time as still prior to the universal judgment (comp. Dόsterd., p. 562, but particularly De Wette, p. 194). From the stand-point of a conception of heavenly felicity as abstractly spiritual, many have been unable to reconcile themselves to this descent of Heaven to earth, in antithesis to a rising of earth to Heaven. “The idea of the Church Triumphant is not that which precisely corresponds with the idea presented here: the conception here presented is that of the Kingdom of God in its consummation—a Kingdom for which Christ has, in His Church, broken the way—a Kingdom which has been gradually actualized—the Kingdom of the whole of redeemed and blessed humanity; the dominion of Christ is merged in that of God, Who is present (Revelation 21:11), and shares His Throne with the Lamb (Revelation 22:1).” De Wette.A new Heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66; Psalms 104:30). “The theological question as to whether the old world is to pass away in such a manner that the new world will arise from it as from a seed, or whether an absolute new creation, following upon the complete destruction of the old world, is to be assumed, can be decided least of all by the Apocalyptic description; this description, however (comp. also 2 Peter 3:10 sqq.), is not opposed to the former view, which has greater Scriptural probabilities in its favor than the latter (1 Corinthians 15:42 sqq.; Romans 8:21; Matthew 19:28).” Duesterdieck. On the contrary, the Apocalypse alone sets forth the true mediation of the last metamorphosis of the old world, in the Millennial Kingdom. The idea of the antithesis of an absolute destruction and new creation belongs only to the half-spiritualistic, half-materialistic letter-theology of orthodoxism. And the sea.—Why is it no more? The following answers to this inquiry are presented by Dόsterdieck: 1. Navigation is no longer necessary (Andr.); 2. It is dried up by the universal conflagration (Bede); 3. As the old world arose out of the water, so the new has arisen out of the fire (De Wette); 4. A horror of the deep sea (Ewald); 5. There was no sea in Paradise either (Zόllig); 6. Connection of the sea with the infernal abyss (Ewald II.); 7. The sea as a constituent part of the old world. “The text does not forbid the idea of a new sea accompanying the new earth” (Dόsterd.). For our explanation see the Synopt. View.Revelation 21:2. The holy City.—New Jerusalem.—It is related to the ἄνὡΙερουσαλήμ (Galatians 4:26) as the resurrection is related to the principle of the new life; or the Palingenesia to the ἀναγέννησις; as the end to the harvest (1 Corinthians 15). The heavenly essence of the Church of God, possessed by it even upon earth, here arrives at a heavenly manifestation.—Coming down from God.—For a kindred rabbinical conception, cited by Wetstein on the passage in Galatians, see Dόsterdieck, p. 563.—Prepared.—See Revelation 19:7-8; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27; 1 Peter 3:3. The new Jerusalem, as the sum of perfected individuals, is the City of God; in its unity, it is the Bride of Christ. The consummate manhood of all the citizens of the City of God is conditioned by their consummate receptivity, which extends even to perfect unanimity. Revelation 21:3. Behold, the tabernacle of God.—See Isaiah 2:3; Isaiah 4:5; Ezekiel 37:27; Ezekiel 43:7; 1 Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:19-22. Revelation 21:4. God shall wipe away, etc.—See Psalms 126:5-6; Isaiah 25:8; Isaiah 65:19.—Death.—See Revelation 20:14.—Sorrow.—Mourning for the dead, especially.—Nor crying, nor pain.—Κραυγή is the acute form of sorrow (“vehement outcry,—for instance, at the experience of such acts of violence as are indicated in Revelation 13:10; Revelation 13:17; Revelation 2:10. [Bleek, Ewald; comp. Exodus 3:7; Exodus 3:9; Esther 4:3.” Duesterd.). The πόνος, pain, or painful labor, is the chronic form of the same.—For the first things.—To be taken in an emphatic sense, like the first man (1 Corinthians 15:4-5 sqq.)—the present ζon. In accordance with the entire mass of Holy Scripture, the world is designed to be a succession of two worlds. Revelation 21:5. And the One sitting upon the throne, etc.—“That which the heavenly voice [Revelation 21:3], interpreting the vision of John, had proclaimed, is now confirmed by the One sitting upon the throne (comp. Revelation 20:11), in two speeches.” Duesterd. The words, And He saith unto me: Write; for these words, etc., are, according to Bengel, Zόllig, Hengst., and Dόsterdieck, an interlogue [Zwischenrede=between-speech] on the part of the Angel; these commentators refer to Revelation 19:9; Revelation 22:6. Observe, however, the change between Revelation 14:9 sqq. and Revelation 21:13 [to which also reference is made by Dόsterdieck]. There the discourse of the Angel is followed by a speech from Heaven which commands the Seer to write the comforting declaration [Revelation 21:13]. We therefore cannot infer from Revelation 19:9 that an angelic speech here interrupts the voice from the throne. And this inference is the less proper from the fact that it would seem very strange for the speech of an Angel to be made to corroborate the language of God Himself. Moreover, the Divine speech in Revelation 21:6 is too closely connected with Revelation 21:5 for the above-cited view to be tenable. Revelation 21:6. They are fulfilled.—Comp. Revelation 16:17. According to Dόsterdieck, γέγοναν refers to what John has previously seen. But his visions were sure in themselves. We refer the expression to the λόγοι in the sense of highest realization; they have become facts. The words, I am the Alpha and the Omega, etc., contain the proof of the foregoing assertion that the words of God are, on the one hand, words of absolute faithfulness (πιστοί), and, on the other hand, of absolute reality (ἀληθινοί).—I will give unto him that thirsteth, etc.—In the satisfaction of all true human longing, the height of human blessedness is expressed (blessedness=possession of fullness; comp. the Lexicons). Revelation 21:7. He that conquereth.—(See the Seven Epistles.) Here, towards the end, we are once more carried back to the beginning. For the nucleus of the Seven Churches, considered in their symbolic totality, is the foundation for the glorious City of God which is now about to appear.—God as the inheritance of man; consummate blessedness: man as the son of God; consummate dignity (Matthew 5:9; Romans 8:17). Revelation 21:8. But the cowardly.—Δειλοῖς. “In contrast to ὁνικῶν, those Christians are meant who elude the painful combat with the world by denying the faithfulness of the faith (Bengel, De Wette, Hengst.).” Duesterdieck. This is certainly a much too special and superficial explanation. The category of these cowards, who were cowardly in the highest relation, embraces all the lost: that is, in other words—in view of the high epic goal of humanity, all lagging behind and being lost is traced back to a lack of specific ζonic manly courage, to a shameful straggling from the ranks and a desertion of one’s colors. If we apprehend the δειλοῖς as composing a genus, a significant senary of species is formed: 1. Unbelievers and the abominable (in practice), transgressors against nature (see Romans 1); 2. Murderers and fornicators (cruelty and sensuality—a well-known pair); 3. Sorcerers and idolaters. Even here the affinity is manifest. Now, however, a seventh sort supervenes, apparently,—liars. But it is not without import that an addition is here made—καὶπᾶσιν—in accordance with which these latter are classed with idolaters. Idolatry is in several instances in the Apocalypse designated as falsity (see Revelation 14:5; also Grot., Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:15; comp. Romans 1:25).—Unbelieving.—According to Bengel and Ewald: Apostates from the faith. According to Dόsterdieck: Inhabitants of the earth hostile to the Christian faith. In the universal judgment, this distinction is no longer of any importance; the heathen is an unbeliever—the unbeliever is a heathen.—Abominable.—Those who through the working of abomination have made themselves abominable, ἐβδελυγμένοι, flagitiis f�di.—Their part.—Change of construction. We are not to overlook the fact that they have deserved their lot, i.e., have drawn it upon themselves as the penalty of their sin. [ ON HADES] By the American Editor[Concerning the souls of the departed, between the periods of their decease and the resurrection of their bodies, there are two questions of acknowledged interest. The one relates to their moral condition; the other, to their local habitation. The former of these questions it is not intended to discuss at all in this Excursus. The doctrine generally held in Protestant Churches is herein assumed to be true—viz.: that at death the period of gracious opportunity and discipline is brought to a close; that the souls of believers in Christ are at once made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory; and that the souls of unbelievers, having sinned away their day of grace, are left hopeless in their sins, and are reserved in misery for public condemnation and everlasting destruction. The second of these questions—viz.: that which relates to the local habitation of departed spirits—is one, not only of great interest, but also, in the judgment of all who have given special attention to it, of great difficulty. This difficulty arises, in the judgment of the writer, from three sources. The first and most important of these is the reticence of Scripture on the subject—but little is revealed thereon in the Word of God. More, however, is revealed than is generally supposed. The second source of difficulty is properly introduced by the preceding remark. Notwithstanding the amount of distinct revelation, the whole matter is obscured to the reader of the English Version of the Bible by the erroneous rendering of the Hebrew term ωְׁ ?ΰεֹ ?μ (Sheol) and its Greek equivalent ̔ ?́Αιδης (Hades). These words which in the original Scriptures have a fixed and definite meaning, indicating a place in the Unseen World distinct from both Heaven and Hell (regarded as the place of final punishment), are constantly rendered by either grave or Hell. By this mistranslation an idea proper to the Word of God is completely blotted out from the English Version; and, not only so, but the texts which present that idea are distributed amongst those which set forth two entirely distinct ideas—thus obscuring the teachings of Scripture concerning both the grave and Hell. But the obscuring and confusing influence of this erroneous translation does not terminate upon those who study only the English Version. The first and most enduring conceptions of the doctrines of Scripture are derived from the Version we read in childhood—conceptions which, even when false, subsequent study often fails to eradicate. And beyond this,—every Version, especially the one in common use, is, to a certain extent, a Commentary, and as such exerts a powerful influence over the minds of students of the original Scriptures. Had the word Hades been reproduced in our Version, much of the confusion that now embarrasses this subject could never have found existence. And here it is in place to remark that even though the Greek and Hebrew words were indefinite, synonymous sometimes with grave and sometimes with Hell, it would have been well, since the Holy Ghost inspired synonyms, to have preserved their use in our Version. The third source of difficulty is the general and almost unquestioned assumption that the dwelling-place of the souls of the righteous dead has been the same since the Resurrection of Christ that it was before that event—an assumption opposed, as the effort will be made to show, to distinct intimations in the Word of God. In consequence of this assumption, there have been two schools in the Evangelical Church, each basing its doctrine on the clear and irrefragable teaching of the Scriptures—the one, in view of the ante-resurrection testimony, affirming the existence of an intermediate place, located in Hades, into which the souls of those who now die in the Lord are carried; the other, in view of the post-resurrection testimony, denying that there is now, or ever has been, such a place. It is the desire of the writer to contribute something toward the settlement of this interesting question; and to this end he will endeavor to set forth what seems to him, after careful investigation, to be the Scriptural teaching concerning Sheol or Hades. To avoid confusion, the Greek term Hades, which is the Septuagint and New Testament equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, will be used throughout this article. It may also be remarked that the term Hell will always be employed as indicating the place of final punishment. It will be proper to say something as to the principles and mode of the investigation as conducted in the study. It was assumed, in the first place, that it should be made entirely within the field of the original Scriptures—the Septuagint being used as a door of communication between the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New. It was also assumed that each expression employed in Scripture to indicate a topic of revelation, should be regarded as maintaining one uniform sense throughout the Word of God,—unless, indeed, the contexts of different instances of its use should require us to put different senses upon it. It is desirable that the limitation of this principle should be distinctly recognized. It was not dogmatically assumed that each expression must, at all hazards, be regarded as having only one sense; but that, until the contrary should appear, each passage should be so regarded. Now, the term Hades (Sheol) occurs sixty-five times in the Old Testament; in thirty-one instances it is rendered in the English Version by grave, in thirty-one by Hell, and in three by pit. In the New Testament it occurs eleven times; in one of these instances it is rendered by grave, and in ten by Hells. It was not assumed that these renderings, or at least one class of them, must be wrong; on the contrary, it was admitted that the very fact that they had been made by the learned Translators carried with it strong probability of their essential correctness—not so strong, indeed, as to make unnecessary an investigation or to show the impropriety of this assumption in order thereto, yet sufficiently strong to make manifest the importance of the limitation. As to the mode of the investigation—all the passages in which Hades occurs were tabulated and compared together, with the view of determining whether, consistently with the contextual requirements of each, some uniform meaning might not be given to the term. The experiment was successful beyond most sanguine expectation. It resulted in the conviction that by Hades is designated—I. Not the grave; II. Not Hell; III. Not the Unseen World, including Heaven and Hell; IV. Not the state of death; V. But—(1) a Place in the Unseen World distinct from both Heaven and Hell; (2) having, before the resurrection of Christ, two compartments—one of comfort, the other of misery; (3) to which, antecedent to the resurrection of Christ, the souls of all who died were carried; (4) into which Christ, at His death, descended, delivering the souls of the righteous; (5) to which, since the ascension of Christ, the souls of the wicked, and of the wicked only, have been consigned; (6) in which they are reserved in misery against the day of general judgment; (7) from which they are then to be brought for public judgment previously to their being cast into Hell. The following argument is designed to commend the foregoing results of private study to others. It will be found to be strictly Scriptural. The truth of the facts on which it is based can be readily tested by any one who has access to the Englishman’s Hebrew, the Englishman’s Greek, and Cruden’s English Concordance. As a further preliminary it is proper, though scarcely necessary, to state that in conducting the special arguments to prove that Hades is not the grave, is not Hell, etc., it is not designed to assert that in many particular passages the original term cannot bear the meanings denied to them. It is freely admitted that in some instances it may be translated grave, and in others Hell, without destroying the sense. And so in some instances it might be translated house, and in others ship. This is but saying that in every passage the context does not determine the meaning of all the terms employed therein. It is contended, first, that in no passage are these meanings required by the context; and, secondly, that in many they are excluded thereby. It is also claimed that it will become apparent upon a careful examination that, while the one meaning attributed to the term in this Excursus is required by many passages, it is excluded by none—that consistently with the context, it may be put upon it in every instance of its occurrence in the Word of God. It is also proper to mention that independent arguments will not be presented in proof of each one of the points included in the last general topic. It is believed that the truth of each will appear in the course of the general discussion. I. Hades not the GraveThis will be argued, in the first place, from data afforded by the Old Testament; and, secondly, from that afforded by the New. A. That Hades must be regarded as having been used in the Old Testament to designate something different from the literal grave, seems to be evident from the following considerations: 1. It is never construed in the mode, nor with the terms, continually employed in the case of χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ (or χְ ?αεּ ?ψָ ?δ), and which unmistakably mark that term as designating the place of the sepulture of the body. Thus χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ is used in both singular and plural;—it has a territorial location, Exodus 14:11; its site is purchased and sold, Genesis 23:4-20; it is possessed by the owner of the soil or by the person buried therein, Genesis 1:5; Genesis 35:20; it is dug by human hands, Genesis 1:5; it is connected with the verb signifying to bury, Genesis 47:30;—dead bodies are buried in it by living men, Genesis 1:13;—it is marked by a monument, Genesis 35:20; it may be touched by living men, Numbers 19:16; literal dead bones are in it, 2 Kings 13:21;—it may be opened by men and the bones exhumed, 2 Kings 23:16. Hades is always singular; it is never thus construed; it is not in a single instance thus spoken of. 2. It is spoken of with expressions of comparison utterly inconsistent with the idea of the literal grave. Thus we read of—“The lowest Hades,” Deuteronomy 32:22, Psalms 86:13; “The depths of Hades,” Proverbs 9:18; “the midst of Hades,” Ezekiel 32:21. 3. It is in two instances clearly distinguished from the grave. In Genesis 37:35, where it first appears in the Bible, Jacob declares—“I will go down into Hades unto my son;” but from Genesis 37:33 we learn that the Patriarch was under the impression that Joseph had not, and could not have, a grave; he is there represented as exclaiming, “An evil beast hath devoured him.” And in Isaiah 14:15 it is declared that Lucifer shall be “brought down to Hades,” who, Isaiah 14:19, is represented as being “cast out of his (χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ) grave.” 4. It is used in antithesis with Heaven under circumstances which show that the literal grave cannot be intended. “It is as high as Heaven, what canst thou do ? deeper than Hades, what canst thou know?” Job 11:8. “If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in Hades, behold, thou art there,” Psalms 139:8. “Though they dig into Hades, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to Heaven, thence will I bring them down,” Amos 9:2. 5. In the poetical Books it never occurs in one of two parallel clauses, answering to χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ in the other; nor under any other circumstances which grammatically require us to regard it as a synonym thereof. 6. It is manifestly used as synonymous with two other terms which cannot be regarded as indicating the literal grave—viz: αεֹ ?ψ [pit) and ϊַ ?ηְ ?ϊִ ?ιּ ?εֹ ?ϊΰֶ ?ψֶ ?υ nether parts of the earth. The former of these, αεֹ ?ψ, occurs fifteen times, and is distinguished from χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ by all the general characteristics by which Hades is distinguished from it. That it is synonymous with Hades, or that it indicates a compartment thereof, is abundantly evident. In Psalms 30:3 the words appear in corresponding hemistiches—“O Lord, thou hast brought my soul from Hades; thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the (αεֹ ?ψ) pit.” The same occurs in Proverbs 1:12, “Let us swallow them up alive as Hades; and whole as those who go down to the pit.” It is evident upon bare inspection that in Isaiah 14:15—“Thou shalt be brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit”—the αεֹ ?ψ of the second clause is synonymous with the Hades of the first; it is also evident that it is synonymous with the Hades of Rev 21:9; Revelation 21:11, rendered in the former Hell and in the latter grave. That these words are synonymous will be further evident from an examination of Eze 31:14-18. In that passage Hades occurs three times,—in Ezekiel 31:15 it is translated grave; and in Ezekiel 31:16-17, Hell: αεֹ ?ψ occurs twice, in Ezekiel 31:14-16, and in both instances is rendered pit. The words translated “nether parts of the earth,” in Ezekiel 31:14; Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 31:18, are ΰֶ ?γֶ ?υϊַּ ?ηְ ?ϊιϊ)—a compound term manifestly synonymous with the other two. The phrase ϊַ ?ηְ ?ϊִ ?ιϊΰֶ ?ψֶ ?υ or ϊַ ?ηְ ?ϊּ ?ιεֹ ?ϊΰֶ ?ψֶ ?υ occurs nine times. In Ezekiel 31:14; Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 31:18; Ezekiel 32:18; Ezekiel 32:24; Ezekiel 26:20, it is manifestly synonymous with Hades. In Psalms 139:15 it is used as a figurative expression for the womb. It also appears in Isaiah 44:23 and Psalms 63:9 (10). What does it mean in these passages? Dr. Hodge, in his Commentary on Ephesians (Revelation 4:9), remarks concerning this phrase that it “is used for the Earth in opposition to Heaven, Isaiah 44:23; probably for the grave in Psalms 63:9; as a poetical designation for the womb in Psalms 139:15; and for Hades or the invisible world, Ezekiel 30:24.” He gives no reason for any of these interpretations, evidently presuming that their correctness would be manifest upon inspection. No exception can be taken as to the propriety of his opinion in the last two instances, (save as to the judgment concerning the nature of Hades conveyed by the use of the alternative phrase—“or the invisible world”). It should be carefully noted, however, that the phrase appears in Ezekiel, not only in the one passage referred to by him, but in five others,—in all of which it is manifest that it must be synonymous with Hades. This then is not only an established, but it is the leading, sense of the expression; and we must conclude that it has this sense in the other three passages unless the contrary be required by the contexts. Now in Psalms 139:15 the context requires that we should attach to it a figurative meaning. But what is there in the other passages to make it necessary to depart from the leading sense? Most certainly when the Psalmist exclaimed, Psalms 63:9, “Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth,” there is nothing to forbid the idea that he meant they should go into Hades. Nor, on the supposition that Hades was a place of conscious existence to which the souls of the departed good as well as of the evil were carried, is there anything unnatural or improbable in supposing that when Isaiah (Isaiah 44:23) wrote, “Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth,” he intended to call on Hades to rejoice. 7. Those in Hades are spoken of as being in a state of conscious existence, which never occurs in the case of the occupants of χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ. In Isaiah 14:4-17, the chief ones of the earth who are already imprisoned in Hades, are represented as greeting the King of Babylon at his entrance with the words, “Art thou also become weak as we?” Similar teaching is found in Ezekiel 30:16; Ezekiel 32:21. With this agrees the idea suggested by the phrases, “sorrows of Hades,” 2 Samuel 22:6, Psalms 18:5 (6); “pains of Hades,” Psalms 116:3; and with this agree also the facts that the womb (ϊַ ?ηְ ?ϊִ ?ιεּ ?ϊΰֶ ?ψֶ ?υ), Psalms 139:15, and the belly of the whale in which Jonah (Revelation 2:2) was imprisoned—both places of conscious existence, though of darkness and confinement—were figured by Hades. All this, it is true, may be attributed to poetic license—and so any teaching of the poetic Scriptures may thus be attributed. Nevertheless the fact remains that these declarations are found in the inspired Word of God in connection with Hades, and the further fact that similar expressions are never found in connection with χֶ ?ηֶ ?ψ. In view of all the foregoing considerations it seems rational to conclude that in the Old Testament Scriptures the term Hades was not used to designate the literal grave. Certain exegetical objections to this conclusion, may, however, present themselves to the minds of some. These, so far as they are known, or can be imagined, will now be considered. (1) It may be urged that the declarations of Jacob and his sons concerning the bringing down of gray hairs to Hades, Genesis 42:38; Genesis 44:29; Genesis 44:31; and the direction of David to Solomon to bring to Hades the hoar heads of Joab and Shimei, 1 Kings 2:6; 1 Kings 2:9; seem to imply that Hades was regarded as the resting-place of the body. This might be admitted, and at the same time a valid argument be drawn from other Scriptures requiring us to put another than the apparently normal construction upon the words of the Patriarch and David. We are not, however, driven to such a strait as this. Let it be observed that there is nothing in the form of the expressions to forbid our regarding the phrases gray hairs and hoar heads as indicating men in a state of old age. From this point of view there is nothing unnatural in regarding the Hades to which these old men were to be brought as a place of departed spirits. In the case of Jacob, for a reason already given, we cannot regard him as contemplating under this term the literal grave. (2) In several passages, it may also be objected, Hades is spoken of under terms proper only to the grave. Psalms 6:5 (6), “In Hades who shall give thee thanks?” Isaiah 38:18, “Hades cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth;”—Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Hades, whither thou goest.” It must be acknowledged that these passages, in themselves, irrespective of the condition of the writers, are consistent with the idea that by the term Hades as employed in them was meant the literal grave. This, however, is not a necessary interpretation—and if it be, let it be observed, these texts must be regarded as affirming that the grave is the end of man, as denying the immortality of the soul. But the passages are also consistent with the idea that by Hades is meant the state of death, or Hell, or a place of gloom in the Unseen World distinct from Hell. In the progress of the discussion each of these hypotheses will be considered. (3) Again, it may be contended that the ideas of burial and physical consumption, which are ideas proper only to the grave, are presented in the following passages: Psalms 49:14 (15), “Like sheep they are laid in Hades, death shall feed on them,” etc.; Job 24:19, “Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so doth Hades those which have sinned.” The difficulty in these passages is altogether in the English translation. Dr. J. Addison Alexander translates the former, “Like a flock to the grave (Hades) they drive; death is their shepherd.” In Job 24:19, the verb translated consume is properly rendered violently take, as in the margin; the reference is to the rapacity of Hades—not to the consumption of the body. The declaration in the following verse—“the worm shall feed sweetly on him,” may refer to the condition of the body when the spirit has been seized by Hades. (4) It may also be asserted that in the Book of Job, especially in the 17 chapter, the oneness of Hades with the grave seems to be naturally implied. In the 17 of Job, most of the words that have been brought into this discussion are employed: χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ, Job 17:1; Hades, Job 17:13; ωָ ?ηַ ?ϊ, Job 17:14; and αεψ, Job 17:16. At first glance it would seem as though these terms had been used indiscriminately as synonyms for each other. Careful inspection, however, shows that they may be regarded as indicating the future of the entire man—the body to the grave, the spirit to the place of departed spirits. We, of the present day, sometimes speak of the grave as our place after death, and sometimes of the world of spirits as our place, without intending thereby to imply our belief that they are one and the same. So is language employed in the book of Job; and in Job 17 both forms of expression are introduced. Thus, naturally—and only thus—can the phraseology employed in Job be reconciled with itself and with other Scriptures. B. The New Testament teaching as to the distinction between Hades and μνῆμα or μνημεῖον (the grave or sepulchre) is remarkably clear. The term, as remarked in the Introduction of this Excursus, occurs but eleven times in the New Testament, and in every instance save one it is, in the English Version, translated Hell. The excepted case is in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O grave, where is thy victory.” That in the other instances it will not bear the translation grave is evident upon bare inspection. These are as follows: “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto Heaven, shalt be brought down to Hades,” Matthew 11:23; “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (the Church), Matthew 16:18; “And thou, Capernaum … shalt be thrust down to Hades,” Luke 10:15; “And in Hades he (Dives) lifted up his eyes, being in torments,” Luke 16:23; “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades,” Acts 2:27; “His soul was not left in Hades,” Acts 2:31; “I … have the keys of Hades and of death,” Revelation 1:18; “His name was Death and Hades followed with him,” Revelation 6:8; “Death and Hades delivered up the dead that were in them,” Revelation 20:13; “Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire,” Revelation 20:14. The New Testament idea of Hades as distinct from the grave may be most clearly perceived in the declaration concerning Dives in Luke 16:23; and in the didactic teaching of the Apostle Peter, Acts 2:27-31, concerning the soul of Jesus between His death and His resurrection. The Apostle, manifestly, spoke of both the body and the soul of our Lord (comp. Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:31), asserting that the former did not see corruption (although it was placed in a sepulchre), and that the latter was not left in Hades—implying, of course, that it went to Hades. Unless we adopt the conclusion that the soul sleeps with the dead body in the tomb—in the face of the manifest implications of the Apostle and the whole tenor of the Word of God—Hades must be distinct from the tomb. That the soul of Jesus did descend into Hades will, it is believed, more abundantly appear in the course of this Excursus. Reference has been made to one instance in the New Testament in which the E. V. renders Hades by grave, viz., 1 Corinthians 15:55. In his comment on this passage, Dr. Hodge writes, in immediate continuance of what has already been quoted—“Here where the special reference is to the bodies of men and to the delivery of them from the power of death, it is properly rendered the grave. The Apostle is not speaking of the delivery of souls of men from any intermediate state, but of the redemption of the body.” It is indeed true that the special reference is to the glorification of the body. But does this forbid the idea that there should be any reference to the soul, that, in the moment of the body’s glorification and in essential order thereto, re-animates that body? If indeed there be, or has been, no place of the soul’s imprisonment, then, of course, there can be no reference to such a place; but if, on the other hand, there is, or has been, such a place, what more natural than that, in view of the redemption of the body, which involves the complete deliverance of the soul, reference should be made to that deliverance?From all that has been said, it seems evident that the New Testament confirms the teaching of the Old as to the distinction between Hades and the literal grave. II. Hades not Hell regarded as the Place of Final PunishmentThere are three opinions concerning Hades which it is important should be clearly distinguished from each other: the first, that it is Hell; the second, that it is the Unseen World including both Heaven and Hell; the third, that it is a term having no reference to place, but indicating merely the state of death. The first and second of these are often confounded together, and the second and third. That, however, they constitute three essentially distinct doctrines is evident upon reflection. It is designed in this section to show the fallacy of the first. 1. That Hades cannot be regarded as indicating merely Hell, is manifest from the fact that it is represented as the dwelling-place (antecedent to the resurrection of Jesus) of all the righteous dead. The Patriarch Jacob declared his expectation of going into Hades, Genesis 37:35; Job made a like declaration, Job 17:13; the inspired David, Psalms 16:10, and the righteous Hezekiah, Isaiah 38:18, used language which implied that they entertained a similar expectation. But the location of the spirits of these worthies in Hades locates all the rest of the righteous. Concerning Jacob it is declared, that upon his death he was “gathered unto his people,” Genesis 49:33. This expression,—and the remark is also true of the similar phrase, “gathered unto his fathers,”—is one having reference to the spirit, and not to the body. That it is not an euphuism, as some contend, for being buried, is evident from three considerations: (1) Concerning Jacob it is declared, that “he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people,” Genesis 49:33. He was “gathered unto his people” immediately upon his death; but he was not buried until long after, Genesis 1:13; (2) Concerning both Abraham, Genesis 25:8-9, and Isaac, Genesis 35:29, it is declared that they died, and were gathered unto their people, and were buried; and (3) To Josiah God declared: “I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave (χֶ ?αֶ ?ψ) in peace,” 2 Kings 22:20. Manifestly, being gathered to one’s people (or fathers) was something distinct from both death and burial; and, further, God gathered to the fathers, man buried. The expression could have reference only to the spirit, and indicates the fact that all departed souls were carried to one place. It may appear to some that Acts 13:36 militates against the preceding explanation. It is therein declared, that David “fell on sleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption.” The Greek words translated “laid to his fathers” (προσετέθηπρὸςτοὺςπατὲραςαὑτοῦ) are those used in the Septuagint to translate that oft-recurring Hebrew phrase which is rendered in the English Version: “gathered to his fathers.” It must be acknowledged that in this passage, at first glance, the phrase seems to be an euphuism for buried; and this impression is deepened in the mind of the reader of the English Version by the improper rendering of προσετέθη as laid to, instead of gathered to. The idea of burial is not merely suggested, but is directly presented by the term employed in translation. This is indeed a possible, though a most unusual, rendering of the verb. In this Septuagintal phrase, however, it is manifestly excluded by the fact that in the Septuagint it is the translation of the Hebrew ΰָ ?ρַ ?σּ, and consequently can have no meaning that the Hebrew verb has not. Now, whilst προσετέθη may mean laid to, ΰָ ?ρַ ?σּ never has that meaning. The verse properly translated reads: “David fell asleep, and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption.” This declaration, from bare inspection of it as it occurs in the New Testament, may mean either, (1) David died, and his body was buried, and saw corruption—the reference being only to the lower nature; or (2) David died, and his spirit went to the place of departed spirits, and his body saw corruption—the reference being to the whole man. Nor is there anything in the context that will enable us to decide which of these is the correct interpretation. We must be guided in our determination by the usus loquendi of the Hebrews. As we have seen that amongst them that phrase had reference to the spirit, we must place that meaning upon it when employed by the Apostle. The foregoing argument in proof that the righteous dead were collected in Hades is fully borne out by the parable of Dives and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31. Our Lord does not indeed directly declare that Lazarus was in Hades—concerning Dives only was this declaration made, Luke 16:23 : “And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” The whole parable, however, seems to be constructed on the idea that both were there—though in different compartments thereof. The underlying thought seems to be that Hades is a world to which the spirits of all the dead are consigned, having two compartments—one of comfort, and the other of misery—separated by an impassable gulf or chasm, but within speaking distance of each other. That our Lord did not intend to represent Lazarus as in Heaven seems to be evident. The place of his abode is not styled Heaven, but Abraham’s bosom; he is not represented as being carried up to it (the general form of expression when Heaven is the terminus), he is simply carried; it is within speaking distance of Dives, being separated from him only by a chasm—but Heaven and Hades are represented as being poles apart: “It is as high as Heaven—deeper than Hades,” Job 11:8; its central figure is not God, but Abraham; God is not there in His glory, nor angels save as ministers of transportation; it is not represented as a place of perfect bliss—Lazarus is merely comforted (παρακαλεῖται), a term never used in descriptions of the blessedness of Heaven. The hypothesis that Jesus contemplated Lazarus as in Hades not only gives force and consistency to the whole parable, but is directly in accordance with the natural interpretation of the brief and scattered teachings of the Old Testament concerning the abode of the righteous dead. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/lange/ SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section Twenty-FirstHeavenly-Earthly Picture (Earth-Picture) of the New World. The Kingdom of Glory. (Revelation 21:9 to Revelation 22:5.) General.—The Kingdom of glory is the Kingdom of consummation; of the consummate development of all the human capabilities of mankind, as born again through Christianity, together with the consummate development of the renewed cosmos of mankind; the Palingenesia of the human world, founded on the holy Birth and Resurrection of Christ—His Primogeniture from the dead—and mediated by the regeneration and resurrection of the faithful.—Relation of the human cosmos to the universe in general.—This relation is modified by the absolute priority of Christ, resting upon His Divine-human nature, the ideal perfection of His life, the holiness of His cross, the glory of His victory. The consummation itself, however, as eternal, is based upon the super-creaturely, God-related, æonic nature of humanity; upon the eternal foundation, the eternal aim, and the eternal value of the life and work of Christ; and upon the covenant-faithfulness of God and the sureness of His promises. The promises of God, as real prophecies, in nature and in the development of life, as well as in those verbal prophecies of the Kingdom of God which hover above this life, have all aimed at that glorious consummation, at the eternalization of the Christian life and its sphere, the eternal City of God. Hence, the domain of the consummation is at the same time the domain of all fulfillments; it is both of these as the Kingdom of glory, the blessed realm of spirits, filled with the life of the Eternal Spirit. The Kingdom of glory unfolds in three spheres, appearing (1) as the consummation and fulfillment of the Theocracy, or as the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of God (Revelation 21:9-21); (2) as the consummation and fulfillment of all the truth and all the longing contained in the religious history of mankind, or as the holy Home-City of all believing Gentiles [nations] (Revelation 21:22-27); (3) as the consummation and fulfillment of all the prophecies of nature, or as the Home-Country of all souls, the universal, new Paradise (Revelation 22:1-5). Special.—The perfected Kingdom of God, in respect of its different designations and imports: Historic form of the Kingdom of God (Revelation 21:9-21); the City of God; the heavenly Jerusalem; the Bride.—Blessed prospect of the City of God. Most glorious of all prospects. “Jerusalem, du hoch gebaute Stadt,” etc. [“Jerusalem, thou city fair and high”]. “Ich hab’ von ferne, etc.”—Procession of the City of God: 1. From Heaven to earth; 2. From earth to Heaven; 3. Back again, from Heaven to earth.—[Revelation 21:10. The descending City of God, or perfected communication between Heaven (the starry world) and earth.—Description of the City of God (Revelation 21:11-21). Its source of light; its walls; its gates; its dimensions and fundamental forms; its fundamental materials.—Spiritual, universal form of the Kingdom of God (Revelation 21:22-27). Its spiritual Temple. Its spiritual Sun. Its spiritual Church. Its spiritual liberty. Its spiritual fullness. Its spiritual purity and consecrateness.—The new Paradise (Revelation 22:1-5). The river of life: 1. Where does it appear? 2. Whence does it come? 3. Whither does it flow?—The river of life: 1. In respect of its name; 2. In respect of its beauty (like crystal); 3. In respect of its products.—The trees of life—the manifestation of highest life: 1. From the Fountain of life to the River of life; 2. From the River of life to the Trees of life; 3. From the Trees of life to their fruits; 4. From the fruits to the health-producing leaves.—The perfected, pure, consecrated creature (Revelation 22:3).—The laws of purity for creaturely life: a prophecy of the future glorification of the world.—Activity and rest in the Paradise of God (Revelation 22:3-4).—Perfect union of culture and cultus in the Paradise of God.—The service (Revelation 22:3).—The blessed rest (the beholding of God [Revelation 22:4]).—The region of eternal sunshine [Revelation 22:5].—The new world shining in the radiance of the glory of the Lord.—The glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8), in its eternal duration and renewal. Starke: [Revelation 21:12. God is a fiery wall and protection to His Church (Zechariah 2:5). Revelation 21:13. Entrance into the Church is free to all people, in all corners of the world, who will but come to the fellowship of the Church (1 Timothy 2:4). Revelation 21:14. The one true Foundation of the Church and of eternal blessedness is Christ alone (1 Corinthians 3:11). This Foundation is laid solely through the Apostles (Ephesians 2:20). (The reconcilement of the apparent contradiction is to be found in the fact that Christ has organically unfolded His fullness in the twelve Apostles.)—On Revelation 21:23, comp. Isaiah 60:19-20.—On Revelation 21:24, comp. Isaiah 60:3; see Isaiah 49:23; Isaiah 2:2 sq.; Psalms 72:10-11; also Isaiah 52:1; Isaiah 60:21; Ezekiel 44:9.—Revelation 22:2. A contrast to ancient Babylon is here presented. As the Euphrates flowed through the midst of Babylon, and as the river of Babylon dried up (Revelation 16:12), so, on the other hand, the spiritual Jerusalem has the river of the Holy Spirit, which brings water through the midst of the City and which shall never dry up.—Christ is the Tree of life, which has life in itself.—On Revelation 21:3, comp. Zechariah 14:11. W. Hoffmann, Maranatha (Ruf zum Herrn, Vol. VIII. Sermon on 2 Peter 3:13-14. P. 180). We shall speak of the new world of the redeemed, as described in our text in the following words: “But we wait for a new Heaven and a new earth.” For the first word of revelation from God’s mouth runs: “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth,” and the last word of prophecy is that which we have just read. Thus, between the first coming into existence of Heaven and earth and the last everlasting being of Heaven and earth, all the Divine economy moves. [From M. Henry: Revelation 21:10. They who would have clear views of heaven must get as near heaven as they can, into the mount of vision, the mount of meditation and faith, from whence, as from the top of Pisgah, they may behold the goodly land of the heavenly Canaan. Revelation 21:11. Having the glory of God; glorious in her relation to Christ, in His image now perfected in her, and in His favor shining upon her. Revelation 21:12. Note, 1. The wall. Heaven is a safe state. 2. The gates. It is accessible to all those that are sanctified. Revelation 21:22. There the saints are above the need of ordinances, which were the means of their preparation for heaven. Perfect and immediate communion with God will more than supply the place of gospel-institutions. Revelation 21:23. God in Christ will be an everlasting Fountain of knowledge and joy to the saints in heaven. Revelation 21:27. The saints shall have (1) no impure thing remain in them, (2) no impure persons admitted among them. Revelation 22:1. All our springs of grace, comfort and glory are in God; and all our streams from Him, through the mediation of the Lamb. Revelation 22:3. And there shall be no more curse. Here is the great excellency of this paradise—the Devil has nothing to do there; he cannot draw the saints from serving God to be subject to himself, as he did our first parents, nor can he so much as disturb them in the service of God. Revelation 22:4-5. Note, 1. There the saints shall see the face of God; there enjoy the beatific vision. 2. God will own them, as having His seal and name on their foreheads. 3. They shall reign with Him forever; their service shall be not only freedom, but honor and dominion. 4. They shall be full of wisdom and comfort, continually walking in the light of the Lord.—From The Comprehensive Commentary. Revelation 21:9-27. “Glorious things are” indeed here “spoken of the City of God” (Psalms 87:3); and the whole is well suited to raise our expectations and enlarge our conceptions of its security, peace, splendor, purity and felicity; but, in proportion to our spirituality, we shall be more and more led to contemplate heaven as filled with “the glory of God,” and enlightened by the presence of the Lord Jesus, “the Sun of righteousness,” and the Redeemer of lost sinners, knowing that “in His presence is fullness of joy, and pleasures at His right hand for evermore.” (Scott.)—As nothing unclean can enter thither, let us be stirred up, by these glimpses of heavenly things, in giving diligence to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God;” that we may be approved as “Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile,” and have a sure evidence that we are “written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Scott.)—Revelation 22:5. In that world of light and glory there will “be no night,” no affliction, or dejection, no intermission of service and enjoyments; they will “need no candle;” no diversions or pleasures of man’s devising will there be at all wanted; and even the outward comforts which God has provided, suited to our state in this world, will no longer be requisite. (Scott.)—From Vaughan: Revelation 21:22. The Lord God and the Lamb are the Temple of it. The worship of heaven is offered directly, not only to God, but in God. It is as if God Himself were the shrine in which man will then adore Him. The blessed will be so included in God that even when they worship, He will be their temple.—If we would hereafter worship in that temple which is God Himself, Christ Himself, we must know God now by faith; we must have life now in Christ.—Revelation 22:3. If in heaven we would serve God, we must begin to be His servants here.—From Bonar: Chs. 20, 21. What a termination to the long, long desert-journey of the Church of God, calling forth from us the exulting shout which broke from the lips of the Crusaders, when first from the neighboring height they caught sight of the holy city: “Jerusalem! Jerusalem!”] SPECIAL -ETHICAL AND NOTES Section Twenty-SecondThe Epilogue. (Revelation 22:6-21) General.—The Johannean character of the Epilogue of the Revelation has already been dwelt upon. A depth of meaning and a festalness of mood, conjoined with a somewhat indefinite expression, or a mysterious form, are peculiar to this section as well as to the Epilogue of the Gospel; and the fundamental thought which animates them both is an earnest longing for the Coming of the Lord. In regard to the construction, comp. the Exeg. Notes. Special.—The pureness of the Revelation (Revelation 22:6) corroborated by its Author. By its intimate connection with the whole of Holy Writ. By its fulfillment hitherto.—(Revelation 22:7.) Behold, I come quickly. 1. How this saying is misunderstood when it is interpreted in the sense of a secular computation of time. 2. How, for the standpoint of religious sentiment and Christian expectations, it always retains its truth, and, 3. continually gains in weight.—Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy. Revelation 22:8-9. What is the significance of the distinction between the Angel of Christ and Christ Himself (see Exeg. Notes)?—[Revelation 22:10. Seal not the words of the prophecy of this Book. Why not? The time is at hand.—Earnest and grand character of the course of the world to its end.—Seal not the Book; not even by false interpretations—especially, chiliastic darkenings and rationalistic volatilizings.—Seal not even the Apocalypse with hierarchic seals, much less then the whole of the Bible. Revelation 22:11. Lofty import of these words: What thou doest (wilt do), do quickly! (See Exeg. Notes.)—Christ’s word concerning His Coming (Revelation 22:12). He announces Himself as the righteous Recompenser.—His reward according to men’s works: 1. The reward not as the wages of hired service, but an honorarium of love; 2. Not for works of hired service, but for those of the service of love.—Christ as the Alpha and Omega. Some say: Omega, but not Alpha. Others: Alpha, but not Omega. Whoso, however, rightly says the one, says also the other.—Antithesis of blessedness and damnation (Revelation 22:14-15).—Without—its import (Revelation 22:15).—Who is without? Note the pure and purely moral character of these traits.—Christ’s testimony regarding His Coming: A testimony to the Church (Revelation 22:16).—Christ in His human and Divine glory (I am the Root, etc.).—How His human and Divine glory guarantees His Coming.—[Revelation 22:17. The three-fold Come—of the Spirit, the Bride, the individual Christian.—He who would greet the Lord with a come! must first hearken to the Lord’s call: Come!—Our Welcome to the Advent of Christ must be based upon His Welcome to the reception of salvation.—The clear sound of the Gospel may still be heard at the very close of the Revelation. Here, also, the declaration is: Take freely.—[Revelation 22:18. The Apostle’s warning in regard to the Apocalypse: It is no subject for haughty-cavil, but an enigma for humble meditation.—The mysteries and enigmas of Scripture concluded with a final enigma.—Whoso occupies a wrong position in regard to the future, occupies also a wrong position in regard to the present and the past.—[Revelation 22:20. Briefest and most sublime dialogue between the Lord and His people. 1. He says: I come quickly 2. We say: Amen, yea, come, Lord Jesus.—Who can, with a good courage, say Amen to the announcement of His Coming?—The sum of all human longing, all Christian hope, all Divine promise, in the cry: Come, Lord Jesus!—The Apocalypse, a Book of faith; of love; of hope; of longing, of patience; of comfort; of investigation; of knowledge. Of sacred awe, of blessed vision. Revelation 22:21. The benediction. Benedictions from the beginning to the end of the Scriptures: In respect (1) of their purport; (2) of their rich development; (3) of their conditionedness; (4) of their glorious operation. Starke (Revelation 22:10): No man should be prohibited from reading the Holy Scriptures. Revelation 22:11. If the wicked wilfully refuse to follow, God at last suffers them to go their own way (Proverbs 1:24 sqq.). Revelation 22:12. Comp. Isaiah 40:10. Revelation 22:17. Because many souls should yet be drawn to Christ—among other things, by the testimonies of this Book concerning the glorious Coming of Christ—John adds these words: let him that heareth, say, Come. Revelation 22:19. O awful punishment of those who falsify God’s word! There is nothing more precious [than the word of God]—hence it needs no addition of worldly eloquence, there is nothing more pure—hence we must take nothing from it. Revelation 22:20. Let us say Amen and Yea to the promises of our Saviour, although as yet we see nothing (?) of their fulfillment. Calwer Handbuch der Bibelerklärang. [Revelation 22:10. Although much in the Revelation was not intended to be understood until the times of fulfillment, yet this Book is not a shut (sealed) Book, but a Revelation [Offenbarung]. Lisko (Bibelwerk): [Revelation 22:16. He [Christ] is also the bright morning-star, Who caused the day, the whole period of Divine life in mankind, to arise, and issue forth from Himself, and Who now beams upon us from the other world (as the morning-star of the Day of Eternity). Gerlach (Bibelwerk): Revelation 22:17. To inflame the longing of the faithful for the return of their Saviour, is one of the principal designs of this Book. [From M. Henry: Revelation 22:20. Christ will come quickly; let this word be always sounding in our ear, and let us give all diligence, that we may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.—Surely I come quickly.—Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. What comes from heaven in a promise, should be sent back to heaven in a prayer. Revelation 22:21. Nothing should be more desired by us than that the grace of Christ should be with us in this world, to prepare us for the glory of Christ in the other world.—From The Comprehensive Commentary: Revelation 22:16. The bright and morning star. Christ’s rising, in His incarnation, introduced the gospel-day; His rising in power introduceth the millennial day; His rising in the saving influences of His Spirit introduceth the spiritual day of grace and comfort; and His appearance to judge the world will introduce the eternal day of light, purity and joy. (Brown.)—“The Spirit,” by the sacred Word, and by His convictions and influence in the sinner’s conscience, says “Come” to Christ for salvation; “the Bride,” or the whole Church militant and triumphant, says “Come,” and share our felicity. It therefore behooves every man who hears the invitation to call on others to “come.” (Scott.)—From Barnes: Revelation 22:11 : There is nothing more awful than the idea that a polluted soul will be always polluted; that a heart corrupt will be always corrupt; that the defiled will be put forever beyond the possibility of being cleansed from sin. Revelation 22:16. The bright and morning star. (Let that star) remind us that the Saviour should be the first object that should draw the eye and the heart on the return of each day. Revelation 22:17. And let him that is athirst, come. Whoever desires salvation, as the weary pilgrim desires a cooling fountain to allay his thirst, let him come as freely to the gospel as that thirsty man would stoop down at the fountain and drink.—From Vaughan: Revelation 22:7. A special blessing is pronounced by our Lord Jesus Christ upon those who prize, and keep as a precious and sacred deposit, this particular portion of His revealed truth. Revelation 22:11. There will come a time to each one of us, when, whatever we are, that we shall be; when the seal of permanence will be set upon the spiritual condition; when the unjust man shall be unjust forever, and the righteous man shall be forever righteous. Revelation 22:12. To give back to each one as his work is. That is the judgment. It is the reaping of the thing sown. It is the receiving back the things themselves that were once done in the body (2 Corinthians 5:10); receiving back the very acts and deeds themselves, only developed, full-grown, full-blown, ripened unto harvest.—From Bonar: Revelation 22:14. Blessed are they that keep His commandments. It is to a life of such keeping that we are called. By such a life, we partake of blessedness as well as glorify God.—Enter in through the gates into the city. (Enter) not over the wall; not by stealth; but as conquerors in triumphal procession, their Lord, as King of glory, at their head. Revelation 22:17. Note here, 1. The cry for Christ’s advent. 2. The invitation to the sinner. Observe (1) The inviter; Christ Himself. He invited once on earth; He now invites from heaven with the same urgency and love. (2) The persons invited; a. The thirsty. They who would fain be happy, but know not how; who are seeking rest, but finding none; who are hewing out broken cisterns; betaking themselves to dried-up wells. b. Whosoever will. A wide description. It shuts out none. (3) The blessings invited to; The water of life. “Water,” that which will thoroughly refresh you and quench your thirst; “water of life,” living and life-giving. This water is the Holy Ghost Himself, Who comes to us as the bringer of God’s free love, with all the joy which that love introduces into the soul. (4) The price. Freely. Free to each one as he is; though the chief of sinners, the emptiest, wickedest, thirstiest of the sons of men. Revelation 22:18-19. Note here, 1. The perfection of God’s word. 2. The honor God puts on it. 3. Our responsibilities in regard to it. 4. The sin and clanger of tampering with it.]