This section is considered by many to refer to Christ’s second coming, the

Parousia, and, if that view were established, it would serve to support

the opinion of those who hold that the second advent will be

premillennial; but such an interpretation is beset with many difficulties

and cannot be sustained by what is said in these verses. The description

does not correspond with the account of Christ’s coming again which is

given in the Synoptic Gospels and the Epistles, nor with the passing

foregleams of it in the preceding chapters, but rather with the

delineation of Christ’s conflict with the world as it is set forth in this

book, which is depicted in its beginnings under the first seal where

Christ goes forth conquering and to conquer, and which is now seen to pass

through the thick of battle to the crowning of victory. For while the

second coming is manifestly the one great objective event ever retained in

the background of the visions, overshadowing and interpenetrating every

part of the Apocalypse, yet it is at no time definitely introduced or

particularly described; and the most accurate and impartial interpretation

throughout is that which regards both the time of its occurrence and the

position it occupies in relation to other events of the last days as

nowhere revealed in the Apocalyptic vision. With the present author this

view has grown through time from that of a possible solution of a much

vexed question into a settled conviction of its correctness.(539) And it

should be seen, that with this section (ch. 19:11‐21) in grave doubt, to

say the least, concerning its application to the advent, if indeed it

should not be regarded as entirely inapplicable, there is nothing

definitely taught in the Revelation in regard to the time of Christ’s

second coming; for whatever opinion we may entertain concerning the time

of that glorious event so dear to the Christian heart, we cannot regard

this passage as decisive in the matter unless we interpolate into it a

meaning which it does not necessarily contain.

2 Satan Bound, Ch. 20:1‐3a

The temporary destruction of Satan’s power is here indicated by his being

bound for a season; and this marks another advance in the triumphal march

of events. An angel coming down from heaven with the key of the abyss, and

a great chain in his hand, lays hold upon the Dragon, the Old Serpent,

Satan, and binds him for a thousand years, and then shuts him up in the

abyss, his present dwelling‐place, from which he can now emerge at will

during the period of conflict, and seals it over him that his power may be

restrained until the end of that time. The binding of Satan indicates the

limiting of his authority over the nations, with the subsequent ushering

in of the triumph of the gospel among men, when, according to the

announcement of the seventh trumpet, “The kingdom of the world is become

the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (ch. 11:15), a promise

partially fulfilled at this stage, but awaiting its complete fulfilment in

the final consummation. The limiting of Satan’s power is a preparatory

stage to the events that follow, and precedes the first resurrection, as

it also precedes the millennium.

3 The First Resurrection, Ch. 20:4‐6

The resurrection, which is the effective redemption of the body from

death, that is necessary for complete victory over sin and for the full

consummation of man’s life in eternity,(540) is at this point begun,(541)

and is marked in the Revelation by two successive stages, the first

accompanying the triumph of the messianic kingdom, and the second

preparatory to the final judgment. These two parts of the resurrection are

separated in the vision by the whole millennial period. The first

resurrection is special and compensative (scil. “the resurrection out of

the dead”—Gr. ἐκ νεκρῶν—Phil. 3:11), consisting of certain of the saints

and martyrs who by reason of their enduring resistance of the forces of

evil in their lives and deaths are adjudged worthy to attain unto this

resurrection, viz. “of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of

Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the Beast,

neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon

their hand.” The first resurrection which is evidently limited to this

particular class, and is compensative in character for evils endured,

precedes the second or general resurrection by a thousand years, or the

whole duration of the millennium, which is not a definite, numerical

thousand years, but in accordance with the general use of numbers in the

Apocalypse is a period of vast but indefinite length. The cry of the

martyrs (ch. 6:9) has been heard, and they who have part in this

resurrection shall live and reign with Christ throughout the whole

millennial era, i. e. shall share in his presence and glory as a reward

for their superior faithfulness, shall be with him where he is, evidently

in heaven, for nothing is said of any new or different relation of Christ

or of the saints to those who dwell upon the earth as now begun, or as

entered upon at any time during this period. We are simply told that the

redeemed saints shall live and reign with Christ, i. e. they shall enter

upon the new and fuller life with Christ which follows the resurrection of

the body, and they shall share in the triumphant rulership of Christ in

heaven. The main thought in the phrase “with Christ”, it will be seen, is

not so much that of location, as of association with him in messianic

rule.(542) The statement here made that “they shall be priests of God and

of Christ” (v. 6) evidently does not mean that they are to exercise the

function of mediators for the rest of mankind during that intermediate

period,—for no such service in heaven is anywhere taught in Scripture—but

only that they are granted familiar access to and fellowship with God and

Christ such as the priests had who drew near under the old covenant; they

stand in his presence as the priests of old stood in the temple and waited

and served and worshipped.

4 The Millennium, Ch. 20.: 2b, 3b, 4b, 5a, 6b and 7a

The millennium is the Latin equivalent of the Greek phrase χίλια ἔιη or a

thousand years, which has now attained a permanent place in Christian

thought. In the prophetic view of the apocalyptic vision this is the

crowning period of the church upon earth so long looked for and foretold,

the triumphant realization of messianic prophecy, the _dénouement_ of

redemptive history in the world, a time of rest and victory when evil

shall be restrained though not extinguished, and righteousness shall rule

among men. The millennial reign of the saints with Christ, while Satan is

limited in his sphere, as is indicated by his being bound with a great

chain, is evidently intended to represent the period of the church’s

triumph. The length of time implied by the millennium is a period of

multiple completeness which is represented by a thousand, the cube of ten,

the symbol of a duration that is of great but indefinite extent, covering

a long period of time, stretching to untold generations, during which the

rule of Christ shall be triumphantly established upon the earth.(543) The

chief thought in the thousand years is doubtless that of great and

enduring victory. This period, as has been effectively said, “may well be

of such an indefinite length as to lead to the salvation of unnumbered

multitudes—multitudes so vast and countless that all the lost of all the

ages will be but an infinitesimal fraction in comparison.”(544) Such a

view serves to lighten in a measure the dark places of Scripture and

history with a vision of blessing and hope, though it cannot be said to

disperse to any great extent that impenetrable shadow which hangs over

God’s purpose in the world’s long deep night of sin and death.

No other passage in the New Testament has taken a deeper or more permanent

hold upon the minds of believing men than this pregnant prophecy of a

millennium, in which the thousand years is six times named in as many

verses. Unfortunately interpreters have not been agreed concerning the

meaning of the passage; in fact no part of the Word of God has, perhaps,

been so much in dispute as these verses in the Revelation. It may be worth

while, therefore, to say that in the interpretation we should clearly

recognize upon the one hand that the promise of a millennium was intended

to create in the minds of men a pervasive hope of ultimate divine triumph

in the world; while upon the other hand we should avoid making this

glorious promise the groundwork of purely human fancy. The blessings of

the millennial period here set forth evidently pertain both to the saints

in glory and to the kingdom of God in this world. The particular nature of

the reign of the saints with Christ during the thousand years is not

revealed; but we know assuredly that Christ and his kingdom have prevailed

upon the earth. The millennium manifestly presents a natural and complete

antithesis to the long period in which the church suffered oppression

under domination of the world‐powers. The part allotted to the saints in

the triumph of the kingdom in which they live and reign with Christ, is

set forth in terms of long prevailing and deeply cherished Jewish ideals.

To occupy “thrones of judgment” was part of the recognized hope of Israel

(Ps. 122:5), and is clearly a human way of conceiving of superhuman

relations. That this hope is to be realized in the final spiritual

supremacy of God’s children, specially promised to the twelve of the inner

circle (Mat. 19:28; and Lu. 22:30), and evidently to be shared in a

particular degree by all those who have part in the first resurrection,

though ultimately in some measure also by all the redeemed, does not admit

of serious doubt, but the exact form in which it will be realized is not

made plain.

According to the usual premillennial view the first resurrection is

interpreted as consisting of all believers who have died previous to that

time, and not of those only who share in it by reason of special service

and testimony; and the millennial reign of those who rise from their

graves in this resurrection is held to be upon the earth, and is to be

ushered in by the second coming of Christ who will establish a new

dispensation in which he will be personally manifest, and will rule in the

world, either from an earthly capital as Jerusalem, or from heaven in

close communication with the saints.(545) This view, it will be seen,

rests upon Jewish conceptions, and derives its support from a sternly

literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecies. But, notwithstanding

its natural attractiveness to the minds of men, it fails of adequate

confirmation in the text. Upon the other hand most of the symbolical

school interpret the first resurrection figuratively, as a resurrection to

spiritual life, and regard the millennium as now in progress. The

prevalence of this view seems to be largely due to the early influence of

Augustine,(546) who identified the millennium with the period of the

Christian church on earth, and held that for those who belong to the true

church the first resurrection is past already, making it the equivalent of

the resurrection to spiritual life spoken of in John’s Gospel (Jn.

5:25),—a passage which, though showing that a spiritual resurrection is a

distinct Johannine conception, does not serve to break the natural force

of these words in their present connection. The usual interpretation of

the thousand years given by the symbolical school cannot be considered as

satisfactory,(547) viz. that the phrase expresses a quality, i. e.

completeness, and not a period of time; and that the meaning of the phrase

“bound him for a thousand years” is that Satan was completely bound. The

symbolical use of the number one thousand is evident, but that does not

deprive it of all quantitative value, it only affects its literal

significance; and the denial that the word “years” has any reference to

time is without proper exegetical support and must be rejected.(548)

According to the current symbolical interpretation the entire passage (ch.

20:1‐10) is regarded as an episode which is descriptive of the complete

safety and spiritual deliverance of Christ’s people throughout the whole

period of the age‐long conflict;(549) and thus the millennium as a period

of triumph and blessedness for the saints on earth, preceding and distinct

from the final blessedness of the world to come, fades away into a figure

of speech, while the triumph of the gospel is obscured. But this view

cannot be sustained except by a sacrifice of the natural, if we may not

certainly say the correct exegesis; for the paragraph will not fit a

purely figurative interpretation.(550) This view would dispose of the

question of a pre‐ or post‐millennial coming by denying that there is any

millennium, in the historic sense of the term, taught in the Revelation.

But the expedient is a fallacious one, if John spoke as a prophet by the

inspiration of the Spirit, for his words incorporated the thought of his

time in which the millennium had a definite meaning; and that he foresaw

and described it as such is fairly evident, though he manifestly modified

its extravagances. The idea of a triumphal period of the Messiah’s reign

is too deeply inwrought in the Apocalyptic literature which preceded the

present Apocalypse to be put aside lightly as a symbol of

completeness.(551) The duration of this time was a frequent and favorite

subject of Jewish speculation;(552) and according to the general laws of

language, the phrase used in the text, “a thousand years”, necessarily

carries with it the conception of a period of time, but in accordance with

the usage of the author, it loses its definite numerical significance and

indicates a period of long but unmeasured duration; it becomes the symbol

of a period that is complete.

It will be recognized by the attentive student of the Word of God that

this passage and its connections form the _crux interpretum_ of the whole

book of Revelation; and it is well, perhaps, not to speak with too much

positiveness on a subject so differently understood by many of the most

eminent scholars and interpreters. The view presented above seems to be

the most natural meaning that can be given to the words of the vision, and

seems also to accord more fully than any other with the many promises of

God concerning the outcome of all that great and progressive movement

among men which we call the Kingdom of Heaven in the earth. For without

such a period of victory, the whole evolutionary movement in human life

and history, which so manifestly marks the purpose of God and the plan of

redemption, would somehow seem to fail of any proper consummation; while

in this view the millennium, marking the triumph of the gospel, would

vindicate the present method of history and redemption, just as the

premillennial view would abandon it and introduce a different order.

Indeed, it may be well here to say, what should be clearly seen by every

student of the Revelation, that the premillennial view introduces

practically three dispensations into the plan of redemption, viz. the

first, that of Moses which measurably failed; the second, that of Christ

which is also to fail of complete success; and the third, that of the Holy

Spirit which shall absolutely triumph. Whether, indeed, such a view is

justified by what the Gospels teach and the Epistles indicate, is a

question that each interpreter of Scripture must determine for himself;

though it must be said that the large majority of Christians in all ages

have not so understood the message of the Word. And it would certainly be

remarkable if Christ, who was so wonderful a teacher, had intended to

predict a premillennial coming to his own, and yet left it in such an

indefinite form that the majority of earnest Christians would forever fail

to apprehend it. But, in any case, to give up the expectation of the final

supremacy of the gospel in the world, whether we look for it to be

attained before or after the coming of the Lord, through the method of

history or contrary to it, is to empty of its richest content the

Christian hope for the world of men, and to contradict the deepest longing

of the pious heart.(553)

5 Satan Loosed Again and Overthrown, Ch. 20:3c, and 7‐10

A renewal of Satan’s activity is permitted by divine authority, as is

indicated by his being loosed again out of his prison, and seems to be of

the nature of a reaction in favor of evil, a sequence for which we are

scarcely prepared at this juncture, after the millennial period of

Christian ascendancy. We find described in these verses a recrudescence of

organized opposition to Christ and his kingdom, indicated by Satan coming

forth again out of the abyss, according to the prevailing method of the

Apocalypse by which evil comes in periodic onsets. In the elucidation of

the passage most interpreters, who regard the millennium as representing

the triumphal period of Christ’s kingdom upon earth, consider this

incident, together with Satan’s previous binding without the complete

destruction of his power until the end when he is cast into the lake of

fire, as showing conclusively that opposition to Christ has only been

subdued during the millennial period but not extinguished, so that like a

smouldering fire it bursts forth into flame again before the end.(554) It

can scarcely be denied that such is the underlying assumption of the

passage, as is generally conceded, though the usual symbolist view,

relying upon this, minimizes the character of the millennial triumph, and

regards the opposition to Christ as being subdued only so far as believers

are concerned, toward whom Satan is then completely bound, the millennium

and the conflict going on simultaneously—a view that is not adequately

sustained by the text. On the other hand the futurist view magnifies the

nature of the millennial triumph, and leaves no reasonable room for this

final outburst of sin; for the millennium with Christ dwelling among his

people upon earth is heaven already begun, and the Scriptures nowhere

teach either the continuance of evil after Christ’s second coming, or the

existence of an interval between Christ’s coming and the judgment. The

interpretation here given is accepted by many modern scholars and follows

a median line, regarding the millennium as a period of relative triumph

followed by a fresh outbreak of sin, as seems to be indicated in this

passage. If we compare these verses with that strange apocalyptic passage

in Paul’s Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (II Thess. 2:3f.), we find

that he there predicts a falling away from the faith and the coming of the

Man of Sin before the advent, which seems to refer in the figurative

language of Apocalyptic to this same period of final struggle preceding

the end. And the Man of Sin there foretold may perhaps be regarded as an

ideal personification of the sin of man then prevailing, “whom the Lord

shall consume with the spirit of his mouth”. This last struggle is,

however, only for a little time (v. 3), i. e. for a season that is short

in comparison with the millennial period, and is apparently permitted in

order to bring about the triumphal termination of the conflict that Satan

may be completely and forever overthrown and flung into the lake of fire

(v. 10), the final place of punishment, together with the Beast and the

False Prophet whose destruction has been already described.

Though the general idea of the paragraph is relatively plain, the

particular meaning of the prediction is involved in much obscurity, viz.

that of a war in which Satan deceives the nations of the earth, Gog and

Magog,(555) whose number is as the sand of the sea, and who go up under

his leadership to compass the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but

who are destroyed by divine intervention through fire from heaven. The

description is evidently symbolic, and Gog and Magog were doubtless not

intended to be identified as particular nations; nor can the fulfilment be

literally understood. Like many of the prophecies of the past it is

surrounded by a haze of indefiniteness that prevents its full

interpretation until its meaning is revealed by the course of events. The

source of the symbolism is found in the Old Testament invasion of Gog, a

passage in Ezekiel (ch. 38‐39), a prophetic scene of war, which becomes

here the formal type of the last struggle between the hosts of sin and

those of righteousness, and seems to refer to some new, national, and

world‐wide form of opposition to Christ and his kingdom in which all the

earth‐forces of evil are gathered together for their extinction—a final

stage of the conflict necessary for the completeness of the victory, which

is to be postmillennial, and in which all the powers of evil shall be

speedily and finally overthrown.(556) It may also be that the view of

battle here given is intended to be partly retrospective in its purpose,

and to link this struggle with the age‐long conflict which culminates when

the Beast and the False Prophet are taken, giving another view of Har‐

Magedon in which now, after a period of quiescence, Satan’s overthrow

forms the final part.

6 The Second Resurrection, Ch. 20:11‐12a, and 13a

This is the final and complete resurrection which occurs at the end of the

world, and comprises all those, whether believers or not, who failed to

participate in the first resurrection. The completeness of this

resurrection is specially emphasized. Even the sea gave up the bodies of

the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the souls of the

dead that were in them (v. 13a), in preparation for the judgment. The

description here given of the second or general resurrection, it will be

seen, presents the ordinary view of Scripture, while that of the first

resurrection introduces a new and different conception, viz. that of a

special resurrection. The main distinction between the two resurrections

may be regarded as chiefly one of order rather than time, though the

precedence of the first in point of time is also included. In each case a

resurrection of the body is meant, but the first is partial in extent,

consisting of a particular class, while the second is universal,

comprising all classes.(557) The paragraph, when thus interpreted, affords

a clearer view of the resurrection as a whole, showing its proper order or

sequence, and separating into two main parts that which is mostly regarded

in the New Testament in its entirety as a single event occurring at the

last day. In fact the doctrine of two resurrections taught in this

passage, and the clearness with which the resurrection of the wicked for

judgment is set forth, together constitute the most notable contribution

of the Apocalypse to the eschatology of the New Testament;(558) for

“whatever may be the difficulties involved, and however they may be

solved, we must recognize that John here predicts an anticipative and

limited resurrection of the same character as the general resurrection

which is to follow.”(559) This was undoubtedly the thought presented to

John’s mind in the vision, whether we attach any didactive significance to

it or not, and it ought not to be overlooked in our interpretation.

At this point it may be not amiss to say, what must be apparent to every

careful student of Scripture, that it was not the divine purpose in the

book of Revelation to reveal the intimate nature or detail of the great

events which lie at the close of man’s history on the earth; but rather to

give a general outline of the divine order, which would serve to

invigorate our faith and stimulate our hope in the onward path of

Christian duty. And while it is for the most part fruitless to inquire

particularly concerning that which is not clearly revealed, at the same

time the general bearing of this passage should not be allowed to escape

our attention, for it is one of the most significant in the book of

Revelation, and we may well pause a moment to consider its proper meaning.

We have here, apparently,—if one may offer an opinion on so obscure a

subject,—a hint that the resurrection which has just been described as

occurring in two periods, first and second, is to be regarded as a

_process_ rather than as an _event_ that is single and separate in itself,

one which in its entirety covers a long period of time, and is to be

accomplished in progressive stages in which the righteous share first

according to their relative worth—a process which is apparently marked by

two principal periods that are specially in mind in the description before

us. In the light of this view it may be well to recall some of the events

in the Scripture record which seem to support it. The translation of Enoch

and Elijah in the Old Testament, the equivalent of an immediate

resurrection, which anticipated the victory of Christ over death, would

otherwise be an unexplained anomaly. But according to this interpretation

it forms a part of the divine order; their resurrection was not anomalous;

it was only one step in the ever progressive plan of the ages. The

mysterious hiding, too, of Moses’ grave in the valley of the land of Moab,

finds an adequate explanation if he was subsequently translated when the

divine purpose in his burial was accomplished—the burial vindicating the

divine honor, while his resurrection was immediate and triumphant. The

record, also, in the closing chapter of Daniel (Dan. 12:1‐3) though

obscure, points to a stage in the resurrection in which not all but many

shall rise, and includes as well those who rise to shame and everlasting

contempt, though no indication of the time when this will occur is given

by the prophet. But more particularly in Matthew’s account of the

crucifixion of our Lord (Mat. 27:52‐3), we find that his death was

followed not only by the rending of the veil in the temple, indicating the

departure of the divine glory, but that “the tombs were opened, and many

bodies of the saints which had fallen asleep were raised, and coming forth

out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city

and appeared unto many.” It is a weak exegesis that interprets their

resurrection as merely spectral, or as only temporary and transient, even

though it were for the purpose of witnessing to the divinity of our Lord.

The natural meaning is that they arose as a part of the victory of Christ,

and were ready to enter with him into the rest that remaineth for the

people of God. These passages all seem to point to a progressive

resurrection that is to be accomplished in successive stages, and they

cannot well be otherwise interpreted except by indirection. It is true

that the subject is only incidentally touched upon in the New Testament,

yet it seems to be here clearly implied that precedence in resurrection is

divinely accorded to those who are prepared for it, as a part of the

reward of righteousness, and that this belongs to the divine order.(560)

Beyond this we cannot safely go, for it is not well to be too confident in

maintaining any view that depends so largely upon the interpretation of

single passages, even though the inference, as in this case, seems to be

natural and conclusive.

7 The Last Judgment, Ch. 20:11‐15

The final divine inquiry into the sum and fruitage of each and every life,

which is retributive in its purpose, is entered into at the end of the

world when all the dead, small and great, stand before God to be judged,

after the resurrection is complete.(561) The great judgment throne in the

vision is white, the symbol of purity, and he that sat upon it is not

named, but throughout the book the judge is the Father as distinguished

from the Son. The two principles of the judgment given in this graphic

account, which is a reflection of the Vision of Judgment in the prophecy

of Daniel (Dan. 7 and 12), are _first_ “according to their works” which

are written in the books of record that are now open; and _second_

according to the divine purpose which is “written in the book of life”.

The “book of life” was originally the name used for the roll of Jewish

citizens kept from at least the ninth century before Christ (cf. Ezr.

2:62; Neh. 7:5, 64; and 12:22, 23) from which the names of the dead were

erased, that is now applied to the Lamb’s book of life (ch. 21:27), the

roll of living citizens of the New Jerusalem.(562) Those not found in the

book of life are cast into the lake of fire together with death and Hades,

both of which are now merged into this final and fitting retribution for

sin, i. e. physical death as experienced by men in this world, and Hades

the abode of the dead during the intermediate state, are both abolished as

temporary conditions in preparation for the new heaven and the new earth

of the righteous, and are succeeded by the lake of fire for the sinful.

This is the last event of time, the issue of the earthly life, the

End(563) foretold by prophecy, the crisis that marks the transition to

eternity, the closing scene in the great drama of human history. The view

now passes at once from this scene of terror and judgment to the sublime

vision of joy and triumph in the far and fadeless glory beyond.

VII The Vision of the New Jerusalem (A Vision of Triumph). Ch. 21:1‐22:5

The vision of the New Jerusalem is a crowning picture of redemption

consummated, a vision of triumph and peace after the conflict is over and

the victory won, portraying the eternal bliss of the redeemed in the

immediate presence of God, whose glory is realized in the intimate

fellowship and ultimate well‐being of his creatures that have been finally

recovered from sin and fully confirmed in righteousness. In this closing

vision of the Revelation we reach the goal of Christian hope in the future

life with God. Some future‐historical interpreters have, however, regarded

this section as describing the millennial glory upon earth, preceding the

final consummation of all things; but the view is involved in so many

difficulties that relatively few have accepted it. On the contrary the

Christian mind of all ages has instinctively found in the vision a

perspective view of the heavenly glory, an opinion that it may be

confidently said is not a mistaken one.(564) The New Jerusalem presents

the resultant condition of victory following the long struggle against

sin, “the world to come” already ushered in, which lies beyond the

millennium and the resurrection. At this point it may be well to call

attention to the fact that the millennium in Hebrew thought is the

culmination of “the _age_ to come”, i. e. the age which is the triumphing

period of the Messiah upon earth; whereas the New Jerusalem is the

realization of “the _world_ to come”, i. e. of the world that is future

and eternal. These ideas were quite distinct in Jewish thought, and they

ought also to be distinct with us. The wonderful account of the new heaven

and the new earth speaks of other conditions than those of the present

time; and the view of the glorious city in this closing vision (ch.

21:2‐22:5) is aptly divisible into eight parts, the symbol of culmination,

or of a new life or period begun, the division indicated in the comments

that follow.

1 The New Heaven and the New Earth, Ch. 21:1

In this verse we are presented with a view of the new creation which

environs the New Jerusalem, the sign of the changed and exalted conditions

of future existence which await those that are Christ’s, the creation

redeemed as well as the creature, “for the first heaven and the first

earth are passed away”, and all things have become new.(565) This idea,

which coincides with that of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (ch.

8:19‐23), is not, however, further developed, but the view turns at once

to the heavenly city, for the vision has its proper center in the city,

and is designed to present a view of redeemed humanity in the presence of

God to which that of the redeemed creation is merely incidental.

2 The Holy City, Ch. 21:2‐22:5

Heaven, its joys and its inhabitants, is described under the type of a

city, the New Jerusalem, the counterpart of the Old whose warfare has been

accomplished, a civic and social dwelling‐place that is new, holy, and

glorious, an ideally perfect city in the midst of an ideally perfect

world;(566) the symbol of the glorious conditions of the redeemed and

purified church in the midst of the new life of eternity, and the

antithesis of Babylon, the type of the old sinful and polluted world. The

description is full of echoes from the Isaian rhapsody of Zion Redeemed

(Isa. 54, 60, and 65), and Ezekiel’s vision of Jerusalem Restored (Ezek.

40 and 48).(567)

(1) The Tabernacle of God with Men, Ch. 21:3‐4

The city in its entirety becomes the antitype of the tabernacle of Israel,

especially of the inner sanctuary or holy of holies, where God forever

dwells with men, and they shall be his peoples,(568) and sorrow, pain, and

death shall be no more, for the former things are passed away. This is

authoritatively declared by a voice out of the throne, a divine message,

possibly given by one of the Angels of the Presence, as a comforting and

assuring promise of the divine nearness and guardianship in the future

life of God’s people.

(2) The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, Ch. 21:2, 9‐10

The city, the dwelling‐place of the redeemed, and the symbol of the new

conditions of the glorified church in the midst of eternity, becomes now

by metonymy the symbol of the redeemed church herself, the Bride of

Christ, the inhabitants being thought of to the exclusion of all else. The

great city, the holy Jerusalem, is seen coming down out of heaven from

God,(569) as a bride adorned for her husband on her marriage day,—a figure

of the intimate and tender relation of Christ with his people in the final

state of the blessed. The city in these verses (9‐10) is manifestly the

symbol of the church that dwells within it; but the view that makes the

New Jerusalem the symbol solely of the redeemed church, not only here but

throughout the entire passage,(570) fails to realize the flexibility of

prophetic usage. The idea of place and local surroundings in the general

description of the city undoubtedly stands first in the Apocalyptist’s

thought, and would seldom be questioned by the ordinary reader, though it

includes also the inhabitants as well, and may be used for the inhabitants

alone, as is done in this part of the passage, without invalidating the

general meaning. In the ninth verse, with the announcement of the angel,

“Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb”, the

account in verse second is resumed, and is wrought out in detail. One of

the vial‐angels carries John away in the Spirit into a mountain great and

high that he may see the vision more fully, an indication of its

importance.

(3) The City of New Things, Ch. 21:5‐8

All things are declared new and changed, and to be the inheritance of

those that shall overcome,(571) to whom also the fulness of divine sonship

is awarded; but the craven and unbelieving, the sinful and impure, shall

be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. These words of

authority, promise, and threatening, are spoken by him who sitteth on the

throne, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who now

himself, when all is fulfilled, speaks openly instead of through those

mysterious voices that have hitherto issued from out the throne and

temple, another token of the nearer communion of the saints with God in

the new heaven and the new earth.(572) And John is again commanded to

write, for the words spoken are “faithful and true”, and “they are come to

pass”, i. e. all God’s promises and threatenings have been fulfilled, even

the things of the new creation have already come into being, and the

mystery of God is ended, according to the prediction of the angel with the

book (ch. 10:7), i. e. the mystery of the divine purpose in the great work

of creation and redemption has now been fully made known.

(4) The City of Glory(573), Ch. 21:11‐21

“Having the glory of God”, i. e. the glory of his abiding presence, which

is reflected in the glory of gate and wall and street, yet the city is

described for our better understanding in terms of the earthly creation.

Its light is like unto a stone most precious, and the materials of its

structure are most costly; the building of the wall is of jasper, the city

and the street of pure gold, and the foundations of the wall adorned with

all manner of precious stones,(574) while the several gates are each of a

single pearl,—the mingled symbols of brilliancy, glory, costliness, and

beauty. The city lies foursquare, a perfect figure, the distinctive number

of the earthly creation still, though new, with twelve foundations, gates,

and angels, the church number, reflecting the number of the tribes of

Israel and of the apostles of the Lamb, and with walls one hundred and

forty‐four cubits high, the square of the church number, and twelve

thousand furlongs in length on each of the four sides,(575) the church

number multiplied by a thousand, and the number of the sealed in each

tribe (ch. 7:5f.),—pertinent symbols, all of these, of the perfect home of

the redeemed, as well as of the symmetry of the perfect church. The city

is further described as a perfect cube like the holy of holies in the

sanctuary, the length and breadth and the height of it being equal (v. 16)

which perhaps means that in the height is included the eminence on which

it stands, though others think that there is an intentional absence of all

verisimilitude.(576) The symbolical meaning of the cubical dimensions is

evidently that of a symmetrical and ideal perfection which is proportional

in all its parts, and like to the holy of holies in the earthly

temple.(577) The circuit of the walls is forty‐eight thousand stadia, i.

e. four times twelve thousand furlongs or stadia, and seems to be a

designed reference to the city of Babylon, the greatest city of the

ancient world, the circuit of which was four hundred and eighty stadia, i.

e. four times one hundred and twenty furlongs or stadia, while that of the

New Jerusalem is greater a hundredfold, which is evidently the language of

symbolism.(578) The city which is first seen from afar, coming down out of

heaven (v. 11‐14), is afterward measured, and its glories pointed out by

the angel (see the divisions indicated by paragraphs in the text of the

Revelation given in the first part of the volume).

(5) The City of Many Nations, Ch. 21:24, and 26

The nations walk amidst the light thereof, and the kings of the earth

bring their glory into it, a description which seems to reflect the

thought of a new earth that will be peopled as well as the holy city, as

implied in the first verse of the chapter, and perhaps designed to show

the cosmopolitan character of the New Jerusalem.

(6) The City of Exclusions, Ch. 21:1, 4, 22, 23, 25, 27; and 22:3, 5

The city has no more sea, i. e. the old, earthly, turbulent sea of

conflict and unrest (v. 1); no more death, neither mourning, crying, nor

pain any more (v. 4); no separate temple or inner sanctuary of partial

access to God, for the city is all temple, and God forever dwells among

his people (v. 22); no sun, nor moon, nor night, for the Lamb is the light

thereof, his spiritual light superseding the physical (v. 23, 25, and ch.

22:5); no shut gates of defence or hindrance, for there is no longer

either night or enemy abroad (v. 25); and no more curse, nor any unholy to

renew the conflict, nor anything unclean or that maketh an abomination and

a lie, for Christ is throned as victor (v. 27, and ch. 22:3). In this

final view of heaven not only has the temple disappeared, but also the

elders, and the four living creatures, and all that accessory symbolism of

the earlier visions which was appropriate to the church‐historic period.

These are no longer needed, for the conditions which they served to

symbolize have passed away. Even the angels are no longer seen within, for

this is a vision of redeemed men who look upon the face of their Redeemer.

(7) The City of Life, Ch. 22:1‐2

As the antidote of death the eternal city is seen to possess a “river of

water of life” that flows out from the throne of God and of the Lamb in

the midst of the street thereof, the source of enduring life to all the

holy (Ps. 46:4‐5). The city is, also, seen to have the “tree of

life”,(579) the seal of God’s first covenant in Eden (Gen. 2:9; 3:22),

bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and with

leaves for the healing of the nations, which has at last wrought its

beneficent results and forever removed the curse. The word tree is in the

singular, but the context shows that it is to be understood generically,

i. e. a tree of life which is found on this side of the river and on that,

or trees of life growing by the river‐side.(580) We notice, also, that the

river, which in the earthly Paradise was parted and became four heads when

traced to its source, is now replaced by a single river of water of life

in the heavenly; and the Scripture story of man, viewed from its beginning

to its close, is seen to finally lead up from the lost Paradise of

creation to the Paradise regained by redemption. And in that city forever

dwell only those “that are written in the Lamb’s book of life”.

(8) The City of God, Ch. 22:3‐5

The crowning glory of the holy city is the abiding presence of Jehovah,

for the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein, and the redeemed

shall see his face(581) in the beatific vision, and his name shall be upon

their foreheads, and they shall reign for ever and ever. Then and there

man redeemed, who has so long been separated from the face of God by the

ruinous results of sin, shall be at last restored to the fulness of the

divine presence to abide throughout eternity.(582) Whether, indeed, God in

his essential being can ever be directly apprehended by the finite spirit,

is a question that with our present light we cannot definitely determine.

It may well be in eternity as in time, there as well as here, that for us

to see the Son is to see the Father, and that the beatific vision for

which men have so often longed and hoped and prayed in the past, is to be

realized in a way quite different from the common thought, by the blessed

vision of the glorified and exalted Christ in the fadeless life of the

perfected kingdom of God in heaven. The name which shall be upon the

foreheads of the redeemed is evidently the “new name” of chapter three (v.

12) which sums up in itself all the fulness of the future revelation of

God to the glorified, the transcendental and ineffable name to men upon

earth “which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it”, i. e. in the future

life of the heavenly kingdom.

It is surely worthy of our attention here to note in closing, how all

God’s revelations of himself have not only tended to grow in intensity and

clearness, but also to center in the name by which he is made known.

Beginning with the announcement of his sacred name Jehovah, as distinct

from his former name Elohim, in connection with the great events of

Israel’s redemptive history, there is a manifest movement in the

historical self‐revelation of God to men that is marked by progressive

steps which lead on through all the promise and mystery of the incarnate

Christ to this final revelation of himself, lying beyond history, that

shall be made to the redeemed under the “new name” when redemption is

complete. He who was first promised to men, to be born “of the seed of the

woman”, and “of the seed of Abraham”, and was afterward more clearly

revealed to Israel as “the son of David”, “the servant of Jehovah”,

“Immanuel”, “the Son of Man”, and “the Messiah”, and who was made known to

men in his incarnation as “Jesus”, “the Christ”, and “our Lord”, was

finally recognized by the church under his full redemptive title as “the

Lord Jesus Christ”, by which name he shall be known throughout all the

centuries to the end of time. But the vision of the city of God reaches

far beyond this, and tells of his name to be then written upon the

foreheads of the redeemed, manifestly his “own new name” (ch. 3:12) that

is to be revealed to the glorified when redemption is complete, which

stands for the full, final, and complete revelation of God in Christ in

the new relations of the great future life in heaven.

Thus, with the redeemed enthroned in power, and dwelling in the unveiled

presence of God revealed, there is completely fulfilled the ultimate

divine purpose of man’s creation and redemption. This, in John’s view, is

the consummation of all things, that

“One far‐off divine event,

To which the whole creation moves.”

The transition to the closing part of the book is now made, but it is not

very definitely marked, and in the division into chapters it was

overlooked entirely, for the twenty‐second chapter should begin at this

point. Some would make the break at the close of verse seven, but it more

properly belongs at the close of verse five, where the description of the

New Jerusalem ends.

III THE EPILOGUE, Ch. 22:6‐21

The epilogue consists of a recapitulation of the authority and contents of

the book, instructions for its use, and an enforcement of its lessons. It

is a brief but impressive conclusion, giving the final words of the angel,

with the promise of Christ to the victors, and the closing testimony of

John.

A The Final Words of the Angel, with the Promise of Christ, Ch. 22:6‐16

These words should be regarded as spoken for Christ, and the promise to

the victors as made in his name, by the angel that he sent to testify

these things unto John, the interpreting angel of chapter one (v. 1), who

now looks back over the entire revelation that has been given, returning

from the series of visions revealing the future to the standpoint of the

introductory vision.(583)

1 The Message Reaffirmed, Ch. 22:6‐9

The importance of the message is recognized and its trustworthiness

emphasized by repeated affirmation. An effort is thereby made to impress

indelibly its lessons upon the heart of the church.

(1) The Witness of the Angel, Ch. 22:6‐7

The sayings of the book are declared to be true and faithful, and of

divine authority; the speedy coming of Christ is announced,(584) i. e.

“quickly” in the divine view which covers all eternity, but not to be

understood as at once or soon from the ordinary or human point of view;

and a blessing is pronounced upon those who keep the words of the prophecy

of this book in anticipation of their complete fulfilment.

(2) The Witness Confirmed by John, Ch. 22:8a

To the declaration of the angel is added the direct testimony of John that

he saw and heard these things, a parenthetical remark, strengthening the

statement of the angel and confirming the words of the book.

(3) Worship from John again Refused, Ch. 22:8b‐9

The form and presence and message of the angel overwhelm John with awe,

and he tenders his worship; but the angel, as before (ch. 19:10),

acknowledges himself a fellow‐servant with John, and bids the Apostle

worship God—probably a protest against angel worship which may already

have begun.

2 The Book Not to be Sealed, Ch. 22:10‐11

The words of the prophecy are not to be sealed, i. e. they are not to be

kept secret, evidently not even their deeper meaning, so far as it was

known, was to be veiled in secrecy, but was to be openly communicated to

the churches, for the time of inevitable reward is declared to be at hand

(v. 10‐11) both for the righteous and the wicked, when the present

opportunity shall be ended.(585) The opposite direction, it will be

noticed, was given concerning the Book of Daniel (ch. 12:4, 9), which was

commanded to be “shut up and sealed till the time of the end”, because as

had been previously explained, “it belongeth to many days to come” (Dan.

8:26). But this book is to be given at once to men, an evident indication

that its contents were not regarded as secret or veiled, but were intended

to be read and understood by all.

3 The Promise of Christ to the Victors, Ch. 22:12‐16

“Behold, I come quickly;(586) and my reward is with me,” is the gracious

promise of recompense to be given to the faithful, for he will “render to

each man according as his work is”—a fundamental principle of the final

judgment that is everywhere emphasized throughout the book. “I am the

Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”,

is a recapitulation of these three comprehensive titles descriptive of

Christ which have hitherto been used separately (chs. 1:8, 17; 2:8; 21:6),

but are now massed together in impressive solemnity. It is the equivalent

of saying, “I am the Source, and through me will be the Consummation, of

all that which is and was and shall be the ages through”—an affirmation of

absolute supremacy in the universe.(587) The declaration of the next verse

(v. 14), “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the

right _to come_ to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into

the city”, is the seventh and last of the wonderful Benedictions of the

book (see App’x C). In contrast with these that are blessed, are all the

wicked of every class who are left without, including “every one that

loveth and maketh a lie”. He who sent his angel to testify to these things

is Jesus (v. 16), once born of the family of David, the bright and morning

star, the glorious harbinger of the day of redemption.(588) The words are

in the form of direct address, and are undoubtedly from Christ himself,

though as there is no apparent indication of a change of speaker from

verse six, where the voice is clearly that of the angel, we may regard

them either as given by the angel who repeats what Christ has said, or as

personally spoken by Christ himself.(589) It is well for us at this point

to remember the interesting fact, generally known by students of the Greek

Testament, that in verse sixteen, “at the word ‘David’, the manuscript 1,

from which Erasmus compiled the Textus Receptus, ends. In order to supply

the remainder, which is deficient, Erasmus retranslated the Vulgate

Version into Greek. The Greek, therefore, of the Textus Receptus from this

point onwards is the Greek of Erasmus”,(590) and hence lacks the authority

of the original text.

B The Closing Testimony of John, Ch. 22:17‐20

These verses contain the final witness, warning, and exhortation of the

Apostle, which is given to the churches before the book is closed,

concerning all the things which are written therein.

1 A Last Universal Invitation of Grace, Ch. 22:17

“Come!” “Come!” “Come!” A thrice repeated call to all men to come to

Christ for the free gift of life eternal, is fervently uttered before the

book is closed forever. The beloved disciple with ardent zeal sends out

this final call to the unsaved, and thus the message of judgment

throughout the book reaches a fitting close in a full, free, and urgent

invitation to all men of every class to accept the offer of salvation.

This certainly appears to be the natural meaning of the passage, as is

made clear by the appeal in the latter part of the verse, which would

otherwise lack coherence, viz. “And he that is athirst let him come: he

that will, let him take of the water of life freely.” The verse is,

however, regarded by many as belonging to the words of Christ just

preceding (v. 12‐16), though it is more likely, but we cannot say

certainly, spoken by John. Either connection is possible, and does not

materially affect the sense. Another, perhaps the more common though less

likely interpretation, makes the word “Come”, repeated in the first half

of the verse, a call to Christ to come again, referring to his promise in

the twelfth verse; and regards the passage either as the words of Christ

affirming the witness of the Spirit and the Bride who entreat him to come,

or as an answering cry from John on behalf of the church.(591)

2 A Last Impressive Warning of Exhortation, Ch. 22:18‐19

“If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the

plagues which are written in this book: and if any man shall take away ...

God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy

city.” These are the authoritative words of a messenger conscious of

divine authority, and are intended to preserve the integrity of his

message.(592) They are similar in form to the warning given in Deuteronomy

(Deut. 4:2; 12:32), guarding against the deliberate falsification, or

misinterpretation, of a divine message.

3 A Last Assuring Promise of Hope, Ch. 22:20a

“Yea: I come quickly” is the final and repeated assurance of Christ to the

church of his personal coming. The promise of the Lord Jesus that he will

come again quickly, which was introduced almost at the beginning of the

book, and which recurs at intervals throughout, is thus solemnly

emphasized and repeated once more at the close, a clear indication of the

place which it occupied in the mind of the Apostle. As before it is not

“quickly” in the earthly sense, else Christ would have come long since,

but from the divine point of view, for God’s plan is never slow in its

accomplishment.(593)

4 A last Ecstatic Prayer of Yearning, Ch. 22:20b

“Amen: come, Lord Jesus”, is the Apostle’s closing rejoinder of rapturous

faith and hope. “In this final assurance of the Lord, ‘I come quickly’,

the Book of Revelation finds its keynote again, and so sinks to rest with

the acquiescent [and triumphant] reply of faith, ‘Amen: come, Lord

Jesus.’ ”(594)

C The Author’s Benediction, Ch. 22:21

The apostolic blessing of the human author of the Apocalypse is added as a

final word to the message of the book, invoking the grace or favor of the

Lord Jesus, the divine Saviour, upon all the saints, the usual closing

words of the New Testament Epistles. The benediction, though unusual in

apocalypses, is here no doubt added because the book was intended to be

read in the churches. And thus in words familiar to every believer is

brought to a close the great Apocalyptic writing of the Christian church,

the last message of the glorified Christ to his faithful disciples upon

earth, a deep and soul‐inspiring view of the past, the present, and the

future, beheld in the light of Apocalyptic vision. Moved by its manifold

lessons of faith and hope, we surely cannot but join with fervent accord

and repetition in its last word of appeal and blessing,

AMEN AND AMEN.

APPENDIX A: SOME FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE

(The Conditions of the Present Age)

I A Duality of Forces in the Moral World

The Good ... vs... The Evil;

... or ...

The Kingdom of God ... vs... The Counter‐Kingdom of Satan.

II A Triple Antagonism of Moral Life

1 Between God and Satan, the Evil Angels, and The Men of the Earth.

2 Between Good Angels and Satan, Evil Angels, and The Men of the Earth.

3 Between The Saints and Satan, Evil Angels, and The Men of the Earth.

III A Trinal Antithesis of Moral Character

1 Of the Lamb and the Dragon, i. e. of Christ and Satan, or in the Greek

Ἀρνίον and δρακων. The same antithesis is implied between the Lamb and the

two Beasts to whom the Dragon gives his power, as shown by the Greek names

Ἀρνίον and θηρίον.

2 Of the Bride and the Harlot, i. e. of the True Church and the Faithless

World, or in the Greek Νύμφη and Πόρνη.

A like antithesis also exists between the Woman (cf. ch. 12) and the

Harlot, Γυνὴ and Πόρνη.

3 Of Jerusalem and Babylon, i. e. of the Holy City and the Unholy or the

Great City, Ἱερουσαλὴμ and Βαβυλὼν.

The full antithesis is found in the final contrast between the New

Jerusalem and the Old Babylon, the City of God and the City of Sin, or the

Redeemed Church and the Godless World.

IV A Threefold Theocratic Method in Man’s Redemptive History

1 By Moral Conflict—the Evil against the Good;

2 Through Divine Preservation—God Caring for his Own;

3 Unto Christian Triumph—the Victory of the Redeemed.

APPENDIX B: CURRENT QUESTIONS OF DIVIDED OPINION

I The Four Schools of Interpretation

1 The Preterist, or Contemporaneous‐Historical School;

2 The Progressivist, or Continuous‐Historical School;

3 The Futurist, or Future‐Historical School;

4 The Symbolist, or Spiritual School.

The wide diversity of prevailing opinion is well indicated by the

existence of four separate schools of interpreters, who represent as many

different viewpoints that are currently attributed to the prophecy, and

that are based upon two fundamentally different methods of regarding its

purpose, viz. the Historical which _specializes_, and the Symbolical which

_idealizes_ the message of the book, conveniently referred to as the

Historical and Symbolical Schools.

II The Seven Shibboleths of Interpreters

1 The Personal Anti‐Christ;

2 The Emperor Nero;

3 The Roman Church;

4 The Mohammedan Power;

5 The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine;

6 The Time, Purpose, and Circumstances of Christ’s Second Coming;

7 The Personal Millennial Reign of Christ on the Earth.

These are the main subjects of disagreement among interpreters, and mark

the dividing lines of opinion. The Historical School, in its various

forms, usually makes one or more of these central to the thought of the

book; while the Symbolical School, for the most part, does not regard any

of them as either distinctly indicated, or certainly implied. It is

fortunate, however, that the main teaching is not materially affected by

the view we may take concerning these subjects of disagreement.

APPENDIX C: HEPTACHORDS OF SONG AND BLESSING

I The Seven Choral Symphonies of the Revelation

1 The Creation Chorus Ch. 4:8b‐11

2 The Redemption Chorus Ch. 5:9‐14

3 The Salvation Chorus Ch. 7:10‐12

4 The Victory Chorus Ch. 11:17‐18

5 The New and Incommunicable Chorus Ch. 14:2‐3

6 The Adoration Chorus (of Moses and the Lamb) Ch. 15:3‐4

7 The Hallelujah Chorus Ch. 19:1‐7

II The Seven Benedictions of the Revelation

1 The Benediction upon the Receivers of the Book Ch. 1:3

2 The Benediction upon the Holy Dead Ch. 14:13

3 The Benediction upon the Watchers for their Lord Ch. 16:15

4 The Benediction upon the Guests at the Marriage Supper Ch. 19:9

5 The Benediction upon the Sharers in the First Resurrection Ch. 20:6

6 The Benediction upon the Keepers of the Prophecy Ch. 22:7

7 The Benediction upon the Purified Ch. 22:14

APPENDIX D: THE FORMAL SERIES OF SEVENS

I The Initial Series of Seven

(Messages of Christ to the Church Universal)

1 A Message to the Church when Declining, as in Ephesus:—“Remember ... and

Repent.”

2 A Message to the Church when Suffering, as in Smyrna:—“Fear not ... Be

Faithful.”

3 A Message to the Church when Impure, as in Pergamus:—“Repent, or I Come

with the Sword.”

4 A Message to the Church when Struggling, as in Thyatira:—“Hold Fast till

I Come.”

5 A Message to the Church when Dying, as in Sardis:—“Stablish the Things

that Remain.”

6 A Message to the Church when Steadfast, as in Philadelphia:—“Hold Fast

... That No One Take thy Crown.”

7 A Message to the Church when Self‐Deceived, as in Laodicea:—“Be Zealous

... and Repent.”

APPENDIX E: THE SYMBOLISM OF NUMBERS

(A Key to Scripture Interpretation)

The value of the symbolism of numbers in the general interpretation of

Scripture is variously estimated, but its importance in interpreting the

Revelation is almost universally conceded, for without it we cannot

understand aright the symbolic teaching of the book. The attentive student

will not fail to notice the wide use of numbers throughout, and the effect

of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, upon the symbolism

of the simpler numbers. The author believes that a cautious use can often

be made of numbers in the interpretation not only of the Revelation where

their use is so manifest, but of many other parts of Scripture, if not too

much stress be laid on the symbolic meaning, for the Hebrew mind delighted

itself in symbols. The value of this knowledge lies in the fact that an

additional thought may often be caught in this way that would otherwise

escape our attention, though it is usually subordinate and does not occupy

so prominent a place as in the Revelation. The symbolism of the numbers

used in the book is concisely stated in this appendix for the convenience

of the reader.

ONE (a unit), the Primary Number. The symbol of that which is single,

alone, or representative. One hour, and one day, in the Revelation stand

for a relatively short time, and a half‐hour for a clearly limited period,

even though these may not be actually short from the human point of view.

The fractions one‐half, one‐third, and one‐fourth do not represent

definite parts, but in a general way portions less than the whole, that

which is of limited extent in relation to the whole.

TWO (a pair), the Lowest Plural Number. The symbol of confirmation, of

added strength and surety, especially the number of confirmation in

witness‐bearing. The Two Witnesses in chapter eleven, and the Two Beasts

in chapter thirteen, it will be seen, serve to strengthen each other.

THREE (a triad), the Divine Number. The symbol of the Trinity; of the

spiritual as contrasted with the material; of blessing in the Old

Testament. A small total that is deemed sufficient; a limited plurality;

spiritual completeness. The smallest number with a beginning, a middle,

and an end—a fact that impressed the Jewish mind.

THREE AND ONE‐HALF (one‐half of seven), a Broken Number, the half of the

Perfect Number. The symbol of the finite or undetermined; a broken and

uncertain period without a fixed limit; a shortened period of time when

applied to duration, and usually one of tribulation; a period of trial and

judgment. Three and a half years is the period of the church’s conflict in

the Revelation, the age of the church militant, the church‐eon; and three

and a half days is the short and indefinite period of world‐triumph in

which the church suffers oppression—the equivalent of the half‐week in

Daniel. Three and a half years, the period of drought in Elijah’s time, of

the little horn in Daniel, and of Christ’s public ministry, is introduced

four times in the Revelation, viz. it is the period of the Two Witnesses

(ch. 11:3), of the Woman in the wilderness (ch. 12:6, 14), of the Dragon’s

rage (ch. 12:14), and of the power of the Beast (ch. 13:5), each of which

is a time of tribulation.

FOUR (the four corners or sides of a square), the Earth Number. The symbol

of the physical creation, having relation to this present world which is

usually thought of as evil; also used of world‐wideness, universality of

extent, as all parts of the earth without any moral significance.

FIVE (one‐half of ten), an Incomplete Number. The symbol of the

indefinite, the uncertain, with the suggestion of smallness; as a measure

of time an incomplete period.

SIX (one less than seven; and one‐half of twelve), an Imperfect Number.

The symbol of evil, of incompleteness of quality, or of imperfection;

Satan’s number, the signature of non‐perfection; the representative of

that which is earthly as opposed to that which is heavenly; falling short

of the fulness of seven, the perfect number, and but the half of twelve,

the church number.

SEVEN (the number of days in a week; also four plus three), the Perfect

Number. The symbol of perfection, or completeness of quality; of totality

of kind, fulness, or universality. A sacred number with the Jews; the

number of the covenant in the Old Testament; the ethical number, for it

often has a moral significance, and, as will be seen, is composed of the

earth number (four) added to the divine number (three). The number seven

occurs _fifty‐four_ times in the Revelation, indicating that it occupied

an important place in the mind of the writer, and should receive special

attention.

EIGHT (seven plus one), a Reinforced Number. The symbol of culmination, of

resurrection, or of a new life or period begun.

TEN (the ten digits; the ten commandments), the Complete Number. The

symbol of completeness of all the parts, of totality of portions,

entirety, and absoluteness; a finite number as contrasted with infinity;

in its larger multiples implying indefiniteness and magnitude. Ordinarily

used of things that are earthly, though not necessarily implying any moral

significance. It is a relevant fact, however, that nothing which is

described in heaven is ten in number, though its multiples are constantly

introduced. The combination of seven with ten in the seven heads and ten

horns of the Dragon and the Beast, is unusual and has an evil significance

throughout, which is probably intended to indicate that that which was

originally designed for moral perfection (seven) has been prostituted for

earthly ends (ten), as is signified by joining one to the other.

TWELVE (the twelve sons of Jacob; four multiplied by three), the National

Number of Israel. The symbol of the covenant nation, the church number—the

number of the earth (four) multiplied by the number of the divine (three)

becoming the sign of God’s people divinely chosen out of the earth. By

some it is interpreted as the number of world‐witness for divine truth, as

the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles, putting the purpose of the

church first.

TWENTY‐FOUR (twelve multiplied by two), the National Number Doubled. The

symbol in the Revelation of the church of both Dispensations united, the

Jewish and Christian, the church of all the ages. The glorified church in

heaven is ideally represented by the four and twenty elders that are

before the throne, i. e. the elders represent one phase of that life.

FORTY (ten multiplied by four), the Probational Number. The symbol of

temptation, or of the power of the earthly; often connected with the

divine test of character, the earth number (four) multiplied by the

complete number (ten) signifying the complete power of the earthly which

is ever testing men. Also, as forty years was regarded as the period of

intellectual maturity in man, it sometimes stood for a full period, a

complete epoch, especially a complete period of stress or trial.

FORTY‐TWO (twelve multiplied by three and a half; or seven multiplied by

six), a Broken Number. The symbol of the church‐historic period of trial,

the world‐age, the duration of the rule of wickedness. Three and a half

years in months,—the source from which this number is derived in the

Revelation,—serves to indicate the incomplete period of the church (twelve

multiplied by three and a half), and also the full or complete period of

evil (six multiplied by seven).

SEVENTY (ten multiplied by seven), the Cosmopolitan Number. The symbol of

world‐wideness; of a two‐fold completeness that is all embracing and

comprehensive, comprising both seven and ten; the number of the nations.

[The numbers forty and seventy, strange to say, do not occur in the

Revelation, though forty is common in the Old Testament, and occurs also

in the New, and the square of forty (1600) is found in chapter fourteen

(v. 20); seventy also had a well‐known meaning to the Hebrew mind,

especially from the period of the Captivity which lasted seventy years,

and was also the number of disciples sent forth by our Lord for wider

service during his Perean ministry. It is quite probable, however, that

these numbers are not used in the Revelation, where so much stress is laid

on the symbolism of numbers, simply because their symbolism was not

needed, just as one hundred is not used except in combination with other

numbers].

ONE HUNDRED (ten multiplied by ten), the Complete Number Squared; ten

multiplied by itself. The symbol of a multiple completeness that is

usually applied to the earthly.

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY‐FOUR (twelve multiplied by twelve), the National

Number of Israel Squared. The symbol of the completeness of the redeemed

church—the multiplying of a number by itself conveying the idea of a

multiple fulness or completeness; Israel, God’s people, made complete.

Six Hundred and Sixty‐six (six hundred, plus sixty, plus six), the Number

of the Beast. The symbol of the threefold form of the world’s evil which

culminates in the Second Beast. Six, the number of imperfection (one short

of the mystic seven), thrice repeated, six, six, six, (666), represents

the combined force of the Dragon, the First Beast, and the Second; or,

differently stated, six hundred may be taken as the symbol of the Dragon,

sixty as the symbol of the First Beast, and six as the symbol of the

second, which gives a total of six hundred, and sixty, and six,

representing the combined power of evil incarnated in the Second Beast. In

this symbolism there may also be included the thought of a triune power in

antagonism to the divine Trinity—a trinity of sin.

ONE THOUSAND (ten multiplied by ten multiplied by ten), the Cube of Ten.

The symbol of multi‐completeness; a number that is great but indefinite in

its symbolism, and often used of the heavenly. The thousand years of

chapter twenty is a great period of time of unknown length, stretching out

to untold generations, the millennium of the church’s history, the period

of the church’s triumph and victory.

TWELVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY (forty‐two multiplied by thirty; or twelve

multiplied by three and a half and this again by thirty), the Time Number.

The symbol of the indefinite period of present‐world duration; the age of

persecution. Twelve hundred and sixty days are equivalent to forty‐two

months of thirty days each, or three and a half years of three hundred and

sixty days each, the symbol of the incomplete period of trial during which

the church suffers oppression. To this may perhaps be added the

combination of twelve multiplied by five, representing the incompleteness

of the church as one factor, and seven multiplied by three, representing

the completeness of the divine as the other factor, these multiplied

together equalling twelve hundred and sixty and symbolizing God working

out perfect results through the incomplete period of the church.

SIXTEEN HUNDRED (forty multiplied by forty; or one hundred multiplied by

sixteen), the Square of Forty; or the Square of Ten multiplied by the

Square of Four. The symbol of that which is coextensive with the created

world. Forty is composed of four, the earth number, multiplied by ten, the

number of completeness; and sixteen hundred, the square of forty, is the

sign of completeness so far as this world is concerned. The square of four

multiplied by the square of ten gives the same result, and conveys the

same idea of world‐completeness.

SEVEN THOUSAND (one thousand multiplied by seven), the Number of Multi‐

Completeness, one thousand, multiplied by seven, the Number of Fulness or

Perfection. The symbol of a great number that is fully complete; the

number of those put to death in the fall of the great city (ch. 11:13).

TEN THOUSAND (one thousand multiplied by ten; the square of one hundred),

the Superlative Number. The symbol of innumerability, or of an innumerable

multitude. This is the highest _single_ number in the system of notation

used in the New Testament; ten raised to the fourth power, a myriad

(μυριὰς).

TWELVE THOUSAND (one thousand multiplied by twelve), the Number of Multi‐

Completeness (one thousand) multiplied by the Number of the Tribes of

Israel (twelve). The symbol of the complete number saved out of Israel

from each tribe; or, as others interpret it, the complete number saved out

of all the nations, included here under the twelve tribes, twelve thousand

from each tribe; also the measure of one side of the wall of the New

Jerusalem which is multi‐complete and encircles the redeemed of Israel.

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY‐FOUR THOUSAND (one thousand multiplied by one

hundred and forty‐four; or twelve thousand multiplied by twelve; or the

cube of ten multiplied by the square of twelve), the Number of Redemption.

The symbol of the multiple completeness of the redeemed church, whether

applied to the redeemed from the Old Dispensation, or by synecdoche to

those from all ages and nations.

TEN THOUSAND TIMES TEN THOUSAND (ten thousand multiplied by ten thousand),

the Number of Multi‐Completeness (one thousand) multiplied by the Number

of Completeness of Parts (ten), and this again multiplied by itself; the

Square of a Myriad, one hundred millions in number. The symbol of an

innumerable multitude which is made more intense by squaring it; the

multiple and innumerable number of the angels in heaven.

TWICE TEN THOUSAND TIMES TEN THOUSAND (ten thousand multiplied by ten

thousand, and this again doubled), the Double Square of a Myriad, two

hundred millions in number—the largest multiple number in the book of

Revelation, and the largest number mentioned in the Bible. The symbol of

an innumerable multitude made more intense by multiplication, becoming

thereby an _innumerably_ innumerable multitude, and this again doubled.

The countless number of the vast invading army of horsemen under the sixth

trumpet which destroy a third part of men from the earth; the world‐forces

which under direction of the world‐rulers of the darkness work world‐ruin

among men—a significant figure of the mighty power and destructive agency

of the heathen world as it appeared to John’s mind in the great

Apocalyptic vision.

APPENDIX F: THE LITERARY STRUCTURE OF THE APOCALYPSE

A Diagram showing the relation of its several parts.

[Illustration]

The Literary Structure of the Apocalypse

APPENDIX G: THE APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE(595)

The Apocalyptic Literature is a characteristic product of Jewish national

and religious thought. It was a favorite literary method of a particular

age, and was born of a travail of soul which strove to find expression for

those new currents of thought and feeling that came to the surface in

later Judaism. Following the decadence of prophecy it belonged to the

period of Jewish oppression, and voiced the heart‐cry of a people true to

God in the midst of national distress. Though anticipated in fragmentary

parts of earlier prophecies, as in Ezekiel and Zechariah, the style of

Apocalyptic first found definite form in the book of Daniel, which became

the type of all subsequent Writings of this class that flourished so

abundantly in the two centuries preceding and the century following the

beginning of the Christian era. Couched in language that is

characteristically figurative and symbolical the literary form is at once

marked and significant, and reached its highest development in the

canonical Apocalypse which has given name to the whole class. The

essential limitations of this class of literature are clearly

recognizable; its ideas move within a narrow range, its point of view is

sombre and unequal, and its center of interest is mainly eschatological.

It occupies a sphere peculiarly its own, a world of pious and often

fantastic dreams—“for prophecy as it lost its footing on the solid earth

took refuge in the clouds”;(596) it wrote the word mystery large across

its page, and revelled in the weird and shadowy; but beneath its peculiar

phantasy lay a profound religious motive—it sought to stay the troubled

souls of men in time of storm, and in its deeper purpose strove to

reconcile the righteousness of God with the sufferings of his people. In

the form of strange and sometimes even grotesque symbolic visions—thought

couched in symbols burning and vivid, which no other figure of speech

could so well convey—and under the name of some hero of the past, it

sketched in outline a history of the world, the origin of evil, the future

victory of righteousness, and the final consummation of all things through

which alone, according to the Apocalyptic view, the providential rule of

God could be vindicated.

There still exists a not inconsiderable remnant of this very interesting

literature, though the greater portion has perished in the wreckage of

time. The principal books still extant are the _Apocalypse of Baruch_; the

_Ethiopic_ and _Slavonic Books of Enoch_; the _Ascension of Isaiah_; the

_Book of Jubilees_; the _Assumption of Moses_; the _Testaments of the XII

Patriarchs_; _Second Esdras_ (known also as _Fourth Ezra_); the _Psalms of

Solomon_; and the _Sibylline Oracles_. The late recovery of some of these

from apparent oblivion is a matter of history, and their recension and

translation by European and American scholars is not without interest to

the general student. The study of this literature as a distinct class is

one of the notable contributions to knowledge by the modern critical

school. These Jewish Apocalypses were widely read in their day, and they

both partook of and leavened the thought of their time, for they

incorporated and expressed the current mysterious hopes and beliefs of the

people. Their influence is distinctly traceable in the diction of the New

Testament, and the _Book of Enoch_ is obviously quoted in the Epistle of

Jude. These works ranked very high with the primitive Christians, and this

led to their being reedited by early Christian writers, and, it is

generally thought, to the interpolation of later ideas. There is, however,

a very wide variation of opinion concerning the extent to which changes

have been introduced, and this is one of the puzzling questions that

confronts the textual critic. Then, also, beside these changes in the

older books, a new series of Christian Apocalypses sprang up, influenced

no doubt by the _Apocalypse of John_. A considerable number of these have

survived, such as the _Apocalypse of Peter_, _of Paul_, _Thomas_,

_Stephen_, _Cerinthus_ and others, but the greater portion have been lost,

and those we have are decidedly inferior both in style and conception to

the earlier Jewish works of which they are a feeble imitation.

It is difficult for us to conceive the conditions of mind and thought that

gave rise to such a literature. In itself it affords an interesting

psychological study. The Oriental is a mystic by nature, and many of his

ways of thinking can never be quite clear to the Western mind. The Jew in

times past was the great figure of the Orient, as he has also been well

named “the most commanding figure in history”; for whatever he may now be,

the Hebrew which we find in his literature is enveloped in the atmosphere

of the East. The Hebrew writers as a class are unique. Although devoid in

a large measure of the humanistic idea of literature for its own sake,

they yet subserved the truest aim in that they brought to the surface and

made verbal those deeper tides of thought and feeling which move and flow

in the universal heart, those wide‐spread and enduring currents which they

instinctively felt were shared by the men of their own generation. Writing

only for a religious purpose, and because they had a message for life, the

development of their thought‐forms was more or less incidental, and was

the product alike of the man, his religion, and his environment. So that

while we especially emphasize the national conditions which contributed so

largely to the birth of this literary form, we should not forget that

behind all that which was temporary and passing lay the Semitic mind and

the Mosaic cult.

The rise of Apocalyptic marks a transition stage in the development of

Hebrew thought that is of momentous significance, for it led to clearer

views of immortality, and truer conceptions of God’s relation to the world

of men, as well as to a distinct clarifying of the Messianic hope. Its

deeper roots are found in the failure of prophecy. No living voice was

heard among the people speaking for God as in former days. Prophecy had

grown senile and was in decay; it had become a thing of the past, and in

its place had followed the scholastic work of the scribes, mechanically

interpreting the messages of old. But, as is pointed out by Charles,

“Scribism could not satisfy the aspirations of the nation: it represented

an unproductive age of criticism, following a productive age of prophetic

genius.” And Apocalyptic was the spontaneous outcry of a heart‐hunger

which refused to be fed on the barren husks of labored interpretation

served up by the scribes. It was in the true line of succession to

prophecy, and though it fell far behind the prophetic message both in its

form and content, and was even feeble in comparison, yet, as Charles has

said, “It attested beyond doubt the reappearance of spiritual genius in

the field of thought and action.” There is assuredly something that is

profoundly pathetic in this deep heart‐cry of the Jewish people which

rings mournfully out of the far past; for even at this remote distance of

time and space we cannot read without emotion their enduring record of

sorrow and suffering, of longing and hope, if we share at all in the wider

world of religious experience.(597)

The apocalyptists were evidently conscious that they had no new message

for their generation, and this conviction led to certain well‐defined

results. First of all they fell back upon the old message for most of

their ideas; but with singular skill they contrived to present them in new

form. The essential elements of their thought were taken from the Old

Testament prophecies, while the material framework was drawn from without.

They attempted in their own way to develop an esoteric meaning in the

prophecies of the past, and for this purpose called to their aid the bold

and striking imagery of the Eastern mind. They laid under contribution the

luxuriant symbols of Babylon, Persia, and the surrounding nations; they

gathered the rarest figures from the accumulated stores of poetry, art,

and religion; and then with a fertile fancy they interwove these all in

the fantastic fabric of their dreams. Then, again, they hid their own

personality, and masked under the name of some great religious hero of the

past. Enoch and Moses, Isaiah and Baruch, served as a thin disguise for

the real authors who remained unknown,—for the Apocalyptic writings are

all pseudonymous so far as known, with the apparent exception of the

_Apocalypse of John_, and the _Shepherd of Hermas_,—and yet we cannot say

that there was any real motive of deception in this, if we take into

account the views of authorship which then prevailed, for “the ethical

notion of literary property is a plant of modern growth”.(598)

The fashioning of Apocalyptic was influenced by many different causes, but

the most marked and significant of them all is to be found in the existing

national conditions of the time. By the captivity in Babylon Judah had

been brought within the sweep of the great tide of history; the world

became vaster; prophecy had a new and broader outlook, and its thought was

forever after interpenetrated by an element of Apocalyptic. The strange

figures of Babylonian imagery were absorbed by the Hebrew mind, and

enshrined in their subsequent literature. On the other hand the nation

itself was in decay; the power of the past had been broken and destroyed;

and “it was terror and oppression”, in good part at least, as Stevens has

well said, “that gave this new trend to their thought”. They had drunk

deeply of the bitter cup of national distress; the encroachment of the

world‐empires had envenomed the past, embittered the present, and

overshadowed the future; the glorious promises of God had thus far failed

of any substantial realization, and the contrast between promise and

fulfilment was too wide to be overlooked. But the Hebrew with sublime

courage did not lose faith in God because of the delay. Apocalyptic voiced

his answer to the problems of the time, and it, like Prophecy and the

Wisdom Literature, was rooted in certain ethical conceptions which are

fundamental to its thought, such as that God is holy, that the world in

which we live is a moral world, and that righteousness must win.(599) And

this gave to the apocalyptist his theme:—the Fortunes of the Kingdom of

God, and how they are to be reconciled with all that God has said; for God

must be vindicated, he is forever true, and his word cannot fail. This

thesis was maintained in two ways. _First_, by attempting a wider view of

the problem of sin and righteousness. That became the question no longer

of a single nation, but of the whole race—for under the stimulus of new

and wider conditions, a great enlargement of the Hebrew spirit took place.

There must be a providential and moral order in the universe which if

sought out will give the true meaning of history. The divine purpose must

be interpreted through the broader sphere of the world’s life. This

standpoint had now become possible through the wider world‐view produced

in later Judaism by contact and intercourse with other nations. And thus

Apocalyptic came to express both a deeply wrought theodicy and a Semitic

philosophy of history. _Second_, the apocalyptist completed his

vindication of God by shifting the center of attention from the present to

the future. The more certain it became that no present realization of his

hopes was possible, the more surely he turned to a future age that would

abundantly recompense all the pain and disappointment of the past. It was

this that made the outlook of Apocalyptic essentially eschatological.

Beginning with the history of the past veiled under the form of prophecy,

the apocalyptist rushes on to predict the future, for there he finds the

victory. The End! The End! is his cry,—the End that victory may come—for

God is to be vindicated only by the consummation of all things, and

history can only be read aright in the light of its finality. The answer

of the End is the key that Apocalyptic offers to the mystery of all that

“which was and is and is to come”; and it is this persistent effort to

read the mind of God concerning the future that gives to Apocalyptic an

element of peculiar interest. For though it is often like the voice of “an

infant crying in the night * * * * and with no language but a cry”, it has

yet a deep significance all its own; it was a form of thought by which God

led his people into clearer views of truth, and to new and larger

vision.(600) Upon the other hand the shifting‐point in every apocalypse

from history to prediction can usually be made out without essential

effort; for beneath the form of symbols and symbolic actions can

ordinarily be discovered the chief actors and principal events of the past

and present which correspond to history; while the things of the future

which are predicted, reach out at once to extravagant proportions. Thus

each Jewish apocalypse by its content and movement, serves to mark out its

own horizon and reveal its own environment.

The general prevalence of the Apocalyptic form in the period in which it

was used may be accounted for partly by its suitability to the theme which

it treated, and partly by the prevailing conditions of national

surveillance. Its visions and symbols and dream‐movement were peculiarly

adapted to meet the conditions of a writing which did not dare to make

plain its bitter reproaches of the foes of Israel. Its hidden meaning,

also, answered well to hint darkly what lay in the future; and its

fantastic imagery appealed to the imagination.(601) The pervasive element

of mystery served to invest these writings with a subtle charm that all

the intervening lapse of centuries and even the present temper of a

scientific age have wholly failed to dissipate. The effort of most modern

Jewish scholars to attribute the Apocalyptic Literature to Essenism cannot

be sustained; neither can we accept the gratuitous assertion of

Montefiore, that “the Apocalyptic writings lie for the most part outside

the line of the purest Jewish development”. Schürer and Charles reflect

the opinion of the majority of Christian scholars in maintaining its

nearer relation to Phariseeism, though admitting it to be “a product of

free religious thought following older models”, and showing distinctive

marks of Phariseeism in some of its parts and of Sadduceeism in others. At

the same time most authorities are willing to grant the probability of

Wellhausen’s suggestion, that “the secret literature of the Essenes was

perhaps in no small degree made use of in the Pseudepigrapha, and has

through them been indirectly handed down to us”.

The value of Apocalyptic is increasingly recognized as a storehouse of

Jewish and Jewish‐Christian thought in the age preceding and in the early

part of the Christian era. It forms the necessary connecting link between

the Old Testament and the New, and is especially rich in messianic and

eschatological conceptions. It is the chief source of information through

which we can trace the changes that occurred in Jewish belief, and the

later development of Jewish thought, in the period immediately preceding

the time of Christ. It carries us back, in effect, to the thought‐world of

the first century, and enables us, as Schürer aptly says, “to reconstruct

the thought, the aspiration, and the hopes of pious Jews in the generation

that first heard the gospel, and even of the Apostles themselves; for

however Christ’s thought transcended the thought of his time, that of the

Apostles did not, except so far as the Holy Spirit illumined them for

special ends.” And, as Charles remarks, “If the Apocalypses were edited

later they only reflect more fully the thought of that age, and they

exhibit what is subsumed throughout in Christ’s teachings.” We can see in

these writings not only a transition stage in Judaism preparatory to the

gospel, but how this modified Jewish thought fits in with the gospel

teaching. They show, for example, how the Old Testament idea of the future

life grew in depth and compass in those centuries which precede the

Christian era; and how this advance was retained and enlarged, modified

and exalted, by Christ himself and by the Apostles; and how, also, the

expansive growth of the messianic hope, which was sometimes almost wholly

submerged, but which always contrived to reappear with increasing

clearness, contributed to that popular expectancy, though in some degree

also to that general misapprehension, of the Messiah’s mission which the

New Testament everywhere reveals. And they enable us to appreciate how the

divine method of gradual advance in spiritual knowledge was operating

during those prevening centuries which have so often been regarded as

barren and fruitless; and how this advance contributed its due proportion

to the marvellous results attained in the life of our blessed Lord and in

the period of the apostolic church. The force of this conclusion is, of

course, partially annulled if we assume, as has been done by some, that

many of the clearer messianic references in the Apocalyptic writings are

Christian interpolations. But the present tendency of critics is toward a

less destructive view than formerly prevailed. Charles, for example,

maintains that the possibilities of Jewish thought should be given full

scope, and nothing attributed to Christian interpolation, or to Persian or

other external origin, except that which cannot be reasonably accounted

for from Jewish sources. The general independence of Israel’s religious

development has certainly come out more clearly from the investigation. As

has been pointed out by Fairweather, “With the exception of certain modes

of thought and expression, including the visionary style so much employed

by Ezekiel, the patriotic Jew apparently brought back with him from

Babylon no new literary possession.... Many scholars explain the

eschatological development of the Apocryphal period on the theory of the

contact of Judaism with foreign systems of thought.... But, as Nicolas has

said, ‘Ideas do not pass ready made and complete from one nation to

another like the fruits of industry which are transported in caravans.’...

There may be, however, stimulus without transference, and this appears to

be what really happened in the case before us.”(602)

The Apocalyptic Literature undoubtedly served a splendid purpose, for its

effects were both wide‐spread and in many respects beneficial. It served

to rebuke sin, to maintain righteousness without any present prospect of

reward, to keep alive the rich hopes of the future, to comfort God’s

children in the midst of distress, and to cultivate a patriotic spirit

that cherished the nobler ideals of the past; while at the same time it

formed a secure depository for those new concepts of truth that sprang up

during the long era of preparation for the Messiah, and it thereby

contributed a rich quota of thought and phrase to that greater future

which was then drawing near to its birth. “In general Apocalyptic

furnishes the atmosphere of the New Testament. Its form, its language, and

its material are extensively used.... The simplest way to describe the

relation is to say that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament found

the forms of thought made use of in Apocalyptic Literature convenient

vehicles, and have cast the gospel of God’s redemptive love into these as

into moulds. The Messianism of the apocalyptists has thus become unfolded

into the Christology of the New Testament.”(603) But upon the other hand

Apocalyptic reveals a type of thought that can scarcely be regarded as

healthful. It had no deep or abiding sympathy with the great overshadowing

world‐sorrow which it measurably apprehended, and it proposed no present

remedy for the unhappy fortunes of Judaism. It dealt too largely with the

future hopes of the nation, and did not like prophecy address itself to

the immediate possibilities of the present; and it thereby robbed life of

one of its chief incentives to action, viz. the hope of present success.

For it gave up hope of the world as it was, and thereby produced a world‐

despair that could not be counteracted by the prospective world‐joy which

glowed in the messianic promise. According to Apocalyptic perspective,

“the present served mainly as a back‐ground of shadow for developing the

richer light of the coming age;” and, “the proper design of the world was

to be found in its ending and not in its longer continuance.” Even with

the wider world‐view which the apocalyptists possessed, history lost its

value; for they at least partially misread the providential order of the

world. As Stevens has forcibly said, they “viewed the method of God as

ictic and sudden, and not detailed and patient”,—the very opposite of the

divine method in history. And such an interpretation of life produced its

inevitable results in dreams of an hallucinary but impossible future. It

developed and cultured a form of mysticism that has left a permanent

impression upon the Christian church—a mysticism that takes refuge from

present evils, and from worse that are deemed impending, in the hope of an

ultimate and protracted future of blessing wrought by cataclysmic

revolutions, and leading up to a new manifestation of the divine Person

upon earth, and to new conditions of life in the world of nature.(604) For

it is in Apocalyptic rather than in Scripture that we find the source of

that pessimistic view which has prevailed in various circles of the church

in all ages, that looks for the world to grow continually worse as the

centuries go on, until by a great climax of the future a new order of

things shall be introduced that is essentially different in its divine

manifestations and in its spiritual ordering from all the past. But

notwithstanding the many defects of this class of writings, and their

manifest extravagancies, they were yet divinely used, and evidently filled

an exceptionally large place in the far‐reaching providential plan of God

for the education of the Jewish nation, and through them of the world,

just as God is ever using human and imperfect means for wise and

beneficent ends.

The importance of some knowledge of Apocalyptic to the student of John’s

Revelation cannot well be overestimated, for it is only in the light of

Apocalyptic Literature that it can be rightly interpreted. It reproduces

the author’s native horizon, and reveals the sources of his mode of

thought; it provides the key to the method of vision and symbol and dream‐

movement; and it makes clear the inevitable limitations as well as the

recognized possibilities of this unique style when it becomes the vehicle

of a true instead of an assumed revelation. For although the source of

much of the imagery of the Apocalypse is to be found in the Old Testament,

yet it is often materially changed by passing through the medium of later

Jewish thought as reflected in the Pseudepigrapha; and although New

Testament ideas everywhere prevail in, through, and above, those of the

Old, yet the whole spirit and movement of the Apocalypse is moulded by

certain underlying pre‐Christian conceptions that belong to Jewish

Apocalyptic. We find, for example, that the divine method in history is

uniformly viewed as in the Apocalyptic Literature, and contrary to general

experience, as chiefly one of crisis and catastrophe rather than of

gradual development—the sudden and striking hiding from view the continued

and ordinary. And we cannot but inquire how far this conception is with

John the result of literary form and spiritual mood, rather than intended

to set forth the intimate nature of the divine method; and how far it is

designed to portray vividly the effects to be accomplished, rather than to

signify the manner of their accomplishment. We find, too, that John, in

common with the apocalyptists, dwells more upon the future hopes of the

kingdom than upon its present possibilities, keeping his eye ever fixed

above the conflict upon the far future of promise. And we cannot but

inquire how far this aspect of his world‐view was divinely designed as a

message of comfort to a people in distress, rather than as a comprehensive

presentation of the progressive world‐plan of the ages; and how far it is

given only as one point of view, rather than as designed to express the

fulness of the divine purpose. To these inquiries there can properly be

but one answer, the view‐point is characteristic of and peculiar to

Apocalyptic. It does not present the normal aspect of life; it is the

product of adverse conditions and breathes the spirit of pain; its vision

is forever saddened by the overwhelming world‐sorrow that darkens the

horizon of thought. And while all Hebrew literature is essentially grave,

and devoid of the element of humor, yet Apocalyptic is abidingly

overshadowed by a weight of world‐woe from which men seek to escape into

another sphere and into new and better conditions of life.

The larger study of Apocalyptic Literature must continue to have its

effect upon the interpretation of the Apocalypse which is indisputably its

greatest masterpiece. For by attentive consideration of the peculiarities

of this form of composition we are gradually led to perceive that only in

so far as we invest ourselves with the atmosphere which produced so

strange a coloring of thought, can we hope to interpret aright that

peculiar view of the world, growing out of the conditions of Jewish

depression, which regards it as the arena of an all‐pervasive conflict,

and involved in prevailing sin and suffering, in order that through these

seemingly adverse experiences it may by sovereign control be divinely made

ready for the future glory of the Messiah’s kingdom. And we are thus amply

assured that a correct apprehension of the form and fashion of Apocalyptic

thought will undoubtedly guide us in all that pertains to the material

framework of the Apocalypse, though certainly we should not forget that we

must always go to the Old Testament and to the New when we would reach its

inner heart. The present general consensus of opinion among modern

scholars, therefore, seems to be, that having measurably exhausted inquiry

concerning the Old Testament references, whatever progress we are to make

in the immediate future in unfolding the thought of the Revelation must be

through a further study of the thought‐forms of the century that gave it

birth, which so richly abound in the Apocalyptic writings, but which so

long escaped the scholarly and attentive consideration of Christian

thought.

[Transcriber’s Note: Obvious printer’s errors have been corrected.]

FOOTNOTES

1 The principal thought in each quotation has been _italicized_ for

the sake of emphasis.

2 “To pretend to have found an answer to every question raised by the

Apocalypse is the opposite of science.” Jülicher, _Intr. to New

Test._, p. 291; also cf. Warfield, art. “Revelation,” _Schaff‐Herzog

Enc._

3 That meaning for the most part, as Farrar has forcibly said

concerning the portion of the book which relates to the earthly and

historic future, “is irrevocably lost for us, and in point of fact

has never been known to any age of the church—not even to the

earliest, not even, so far as our records go, to Irenæus the hearer

of Polycarp, or to Polycarp the hearer of St. John.” _Early Days of

Christianity_, p. 528.

4 Moulton, _Mod. Read. Bib._, vol. Rev., notes, p. 192; also cf. Rev.

ch. 19. 10, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

5 “In interpreting symbolism, as in all the higher forms of allegory,

the first critical requirement is restraint. Even with such a poet

as Spenser it is only a rude exegesis which identifies a particular

personage with a definite idea: in the more mystic symbolism of the

present poem (Revelation) it is a violation of true literary taste

to seek a meaning for every detail of complex presentation.”

Moulton, _Mod. Read. Bib._ Rev., p. 192, notes.

6 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 2.

7 Moulton, _Mod. Read. Bib._, Rev., Intr. p. xx.

8 Cf. Davidson, art. “Prophecy”, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; also see

Scott, on the distinction between “Prophecy” and “Apocalyptic,” _New

Cent. Bib._, Intr. to Rev., p. 26.

9 “The term apocalypse signifies in the first place the act of

uncovering, and thus bringing into sight that which was before

unseen, hence a revelation.... An apocalypse is thus primarily the

act of revelation: in the second place it is the subject‐matter

revealed; and in the third place a book or literary production which

gives an account of revelation whether real or alleged.... The term

apocalypse is sometimes used, with an effort at greater precision,

to designate the pictorial portraiture of the future as foreshadowed

by the seer. (In this sense it denotes the literary style in which

the writing is couched).... Thus an apocalypse becomes a form of

literature precisely in the same manner as an epistle.” Zenos, art.

“Apoc. Lit.,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Chr. and Gosp._

10 Chs. 1.4; 4.8; and 22.8. We may omit ch. 21.2 (following the

Revisers) as without sufficient authority.

11 “The Divine” as a title for St. John ... is certainly as old as

Eusebius: (_Praep. Evan._ xi 18), Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 1.

12 So Lücke, Bleek, Düsterdieck, Jülicher, and others.

13 Dods’ _Intr. to New Test._, pp. 244‐47: Salmon’s _Intr._, p. 2O3f;

Bacon’s _Intr. to New Test._, p. 23Of; Swete, _Apoc. St. John_,

Intr., p. clxxf; and Milligan’s _Discuss. on Apoc._, ch’s. II and

IV. Also, see Simcox on Rev., _Cambr. Gr. Test._, “Excur. III,” for

a brief analysis of the theories of composite authorship advanced by

Vischer and Volter; Warfield, _Presb. Review_, Ap. ’84, p. 228, in

reply to Volter; Moffatt, _Expositor_, Mar. ’09, “Wellhausen and

Others on Apoc”; and same author, “Intr. to Rev.”, _Exp. Gr. Test._,

vol. V. pp. 292‐94:.

14 The theory current among modern critics of two Johns in Asia, or

else of identifying the traditional John of Ephesus with the

hypothetical John the Presbyter, has a very slender foundation. “The

existence of this second John, the Presbyter, if he really did

exist, rests upon a single line of an extract from Papias, a writer

of the second century.” Sanday’s _Criticism of the Fourth Gospel_,

p. 16. “Either John (the Apostle) wrote it (the Revelation), or John

was never at Ephesus.” Holtzman, quoted in “Intr. to Rev.”, _New

Cent. Bib._, p. 36. For an interesting discussion of “the two

Johns,” see “Excur. XIV” in Farrar’s _Early Days of Christianity_;

also Smith, “Intr. to Ep’s of John”, _Exp. Gr. Test._, vol. V, pp.

158‐62; and Strong, art. “John, Apostle,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

15 This view that the Apocalypse is pseudonymous is now, however, for

the most part being given up. With the revival of prophecy under the

influence of the life and teachings of Christ, “it is only what we

would expect when the primitive Christian prophet, a John, or a

Hermas, disdains the pseudonymity of his Jewish rivals.” Bacon’s

_Intr. to New Test._, p. 234; also see _New Cent. Bib._, Rev.,

Intr., p. 32.

16 Charles points out the many Hebraisms of the Apocalypse, and says of

the author, “While he writes in Greek he thinks in Hebrew, and the

thought has naturally affected the vehicle of expression.... He

never mastered Greek idiomatically ... to him many of its particles

were apparently unknown.” _Studies in Apoc._, p. 82.

17 Bp. Wescott, “Intr. to John’s Gospel”, _Bib. Com._, pp. lxxxiv‐vii;

cf. Swete’s discussion of this view, “_Apoc. St. John_”,

“Authorship”, pp. clxxviii‐i.

18 Prof. M. B. Riddle, unpublished _Class‐room Lects. on Rev._

19 Reynolds, “Intr. to Gosp. of John,” _Pulp. Com._, p. lxvii.

20 See Bacon’s _Intr. to New Test._, pp. 136‐38; Briggs’ _Messiah of

the Apostles_, p. 301; and tentatively, Swete, _Apoc. St. John_,

“Authorship,” pp. clxxx‐xxxi.

21 Cf. Jülicher’s _Intr. to New Test._, chapter on the “Johannine

Problem.”

22 “More than any other class of writings they show signs of having

been edited and modified.” Zenos, art. “Apoc. Lit.,” Hastings’

_Dict. of Chr. and Gosp._

23 Holtzmann, quoted in _New Cent. Bib._; “Substantially it bears the

marks of composition by a single pen; the blend of original writing

and editorial re‐setting does not impair the impression of a

literary unity.” Moffatt, _Exp. Gr. Test._, Rev., Intr., p. 288.

24 As by Vischer, Harnack, and others.

25 As by Volter, Spitta, Pfleiderer, Briggs, and others.

26 As by Weizsäcker, Jülicher, Bousset, Moffatt, and others. For a

short consensus of modern theories see _Exp. Gr. Test._, Rev.,

Intr., pp. 292‐94, which affords a good illustration of wide and

extravagant guessing.

27 This objection to the modern critical view is one of evident force,

and deserves thoughtful consideration, Cf. Swete’s _Apoc. of St.

John_, Intr., pp. xlix and cliii, which maintains the literary unity

of the book.

28 As Porter, Scott, and others.

29 See Porter’s article “Revelation,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; and

Scott’s Intr. to Rev., _New Cent. Bib._

30 Cf. Reynolds, Intr. to John’s Gosp., _Pulpit Com._, p. lxvii;

Riddle, _S. S. Times_, Jun. 1, 1901; and Burton, in _Records and

Letters of the Apost. Age_, notes, p. 229.

31 “The common opinion has returned to the traditional date, the

closing years of Domitian’s reign (81‐96).” Votaw, “Apoc. of John,”

_Biblical World_, Nov. 1908.

32 See Weizsäcker’s _Apostolic Age_, vol. ii. pp. 173‐205; also

_Moffatt’s Hist. New Test._, p. 45f.

33 Cf. Farrar, _Early Days of Christianity_, pp. 510‐13f.

34 “Nero’s massacre was a freak of personal violence,” and “had nothing

whatever to do with the imperial cultus.” Moffatt, _Exp. Gr. Test._,

Rev., Intr., p. 310. Mommsen’s view (_Prov. Rom. Emp._, vol. ii, pp.

214‐17 note) is that the historical situation reflected in the

Apocalypse indicates that it was written after Nero’s fall, and the

destruction of Jerusalem; and that the references to persecution

imply a regular judicial procedure on account of refusal to worship

the emperor’s image, a feature quite different from the Neronian

period in which the executions on the ground of alleged incendiarism

&c., do not formally belong to the class of religious processes at

all. He would not, however, date it so late as Domitian, preferring

a date somewhere between A. D. 69 and 79, toward the end of the

reign of Vespasian. Bartlett puts the probable date about A. D.

75‐80 (see his _Apost. Age_, p. 404). Such views of the date are

interesting but exceptional.

35 The book seems to mark a transition in the Roman Empire from

tolerance to hostility, when it began to insist upon idolatrous

worship, and that more properly belongs to a period later than the

time of Nero. Cf. Mommsen’s view in the preceding note.

36 See “Rev. and Johan. Epist.,” by A. Ramsay, _Westmin. New Test._, p.

8.

37 See map at the beginning of this volume.

38 Cf. Dean Stanley’s “Sermons in the East,” p. 230, quoted in _Bib.

Com._, Intr., sec. 4.

39 “The extreme skepticism which denies even the presence of the

Apostle in Ephesus (as Keim and others), is purely modern. The

tradition of the survival of ‘the beloved disciple’ in Ephesus ‘down

to the times of Trajan’ is widespread, uncontradicted,

circumstantial ... the counter evidence is trivial” (Bacon’s _Intr.

to New Test._, p. 231). “The proof given by Irenæus from Polycarp

... is more than tradition, it is direct documentary evidence”

(Weizsäcker, _Apost. Age_, vol. ii, p. 168).

40 Cf. Reynolds, art. “John, the Gospel of”, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._;

also Lee Intr. to Rev., _Bib. Com._

41 For a discussion of this literature see App’x G, also art. “Apoc.

Lit.” by Charles, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; Drummond, _The Jewish

Messiah_, pp. 3‐132; Schürer, _The Jewish People in Time of Christ_,

Div. II, vol. iii, p. 44 sqq; Stuart _Com. on Rev._, Intr. pp.

20‐98; Driver, “Bk. of Daniel”, in _Camb. Bib._, Intr., pp. lxxvi‐

lxxxv; Scott, _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., Intr., pp. 13‐34; also art.

“Apocalypse” in _Jewish Encyc._

42 For a good statement of the present use of the term, see art.

“Apocalyptic,” _Jewish Encyc._, vol. I; also art. “Apoc. Lit.”,

Hastings’ _Dict. of Chr. and Gosp._

43 See König, art. “Symbol” in Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._, vol. v, p.

169f., who says, “What the metaphor is in the sphere of speech, the

symbol is in the sphere of things.” Also see remarks by Milligan in

_Lect’s. on Apoc._, ch. I, under the head of “Visions and Symbols,”

p. 13f. For a fine discriminative view of the place of symbols in

Oriental poetry, see Moulton’s _Mod. Read. Bib._, “Bib. Idyls,”

Intr., pp. xx‐xxif.

44 It is not meant by this to imply that symbols as a class can

ordinarily be presented to the eye, or effectively depicted upon

canvas. In fact no symbol in the Apocalypse can be reproduced in

scenic form without doing manifest injustice to the thought and

purpose of the writer.

45 Milligan identifies the Apocalypse of John too closely with that

discourse, making it mainly a development of its principal ideas.

See his _Lect’s. on Apoc._, p. 42f.

46 Moulton uses the term “rhapsody” in a technical sense to describe

the literary form of Hebrew dramatic prophecy, which affords a

helpful and convenient nomenclature. See _Mod. Read. Bib._, vol.

John, notes, p. 191, also vol. Isa., Intr., pp. vii‐xii.

47 The Greek words μυστήριον and ἀποκάλυψις are commonly used in the

New Testament as correlative terms, signifying the once secret or

hidden in contrast with the now discovered or partially revealed.

See art. “Mystery,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

48 Moulton’s _Intr. to Litr. of Bib._, p. 326.

49 See Append. G, on Apocalyptic Literature.

50 It belongs to the innermost purpose of Jewish Apocalyptic “to

attempt to answer the question how and when the dominion of the

world possessed so long by heathen nations, will finally be

delivered to the people of God.”, Hilgenfeld, quoted by Düsterdieck,

Meyer’s _Com. on Rev._, p. 34.

51 As Renan, and others.

52 Purves, art. “Rev.”, Davis’ _Dict. of Bib._; Milligan, _Lect. on

Apoc._, p. 153f.; and Lee, _Bib. Com._, Intr. to Rev., pp. 491‐2.

53 With correct insight, it has been well said, that “the ancient

commentators beheld in the visions of the Apocalypse not a prophetic

history of the Christian church, so much as a figurative

representation of the contest going on in the world between the evil

and the good. And the moral of the book, the end for which it was

given, (according to the spirit of these interpretations), was to

assure the righteous of their ultimate triumph, notwithstanding the

apparent or temporary success of the powers of darkness.” Todd’s

“Discourses on Prophecy”, quoted in T. L. Scott’s _Paragraph Version

of Revelation_, opening page.

54 As Milligan, Plummer, Lee, Riddle, Purves, Warfield, and others.

55 Dods’ _Intr. to New Test._, p. 244.

56 Harnack, art. “Rev.”, _Encyc. Brit._; also McGiffert, _Apos. Age_,

p. 624; and Porter, art. “Rev.”, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

57 See “Analytical Conspectus” by Randell on p. xxvii of vol. on Rev.

in _Pulp. Com._

58 Moulton, vol. St. John, notes, p. 195, _Mod. Read. Bib._

59 “Most of the prophetic books (in the Old Testament) lend themselves

to a seven‐fold arrangement.... All that is implied in such a

feature of style is an extreme sense of orderly arrangement; and to

the Hebrew mind order suggests the number seven” (the number of

fulness or completeness of quality), _Mod. Read. Bib._, Mat., Intr.

p. xi.

60 See also App’x F., diagram.

61 See Moulton, _Mod. Read. Bib._, vol. St. John, Intr. p. xxii.

62 See Foreword, p. 9.

63 “The influence of the _Bk. of Enoch_ on the New Testament has been

greater than that of all the other apocryphal and pseudepigraphical

books taken together.” _Book of Enoch_ (Charles). Gen. Intr., p. 41.

M1 The Book Described

64 Or, _gave unto him, to show unto his servants the things_ &c.

65 Gr. _bondservants_.

66 Or, _them_.

M2 A Blessing Pronounced

M3 The Address and Greeting

67 Or, _who cometh_.

68 Many authorities, some ancient, read _washed_. Heb. 9.14; comp. ch.

7.14.

69 Gr. _in_.

70 Or, _God and his Father_.

71 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_. Many ancient authorities omit _of

the ages_.

M4 The Coming Christ

M5 The Responsive Message

72 Or, _he who_.

M6 The Trumpet Voice

73 Or, _stedfastness_.

M7 The Glorious King‐Priest

74 Gr. _lampstands_.

75 Gr. _lampstands_.

M8 A Message of Reassurance

76 Gr. _became_.

77 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

78 Gr. _upon_.

79 Gr. _lampstands_.

80 Gr. _lampstands_.

M9 The Epistle to Ephesus

81 Gr. _lampstands_.

82 Or, _stedfastness_.

83 Or, _stedfastness_.

84 Gr. _lampstand_.

85 Or, _garden_: as in Gen. 2.8.

M10 The Epistle to Smyrna

86 Gr. _became_.

87 Or, _reviling_.

88 Some ancient authorities read _and may have_.

89 Gr. _a tribulation of ten days_.

M11 The Epistle to Pergamum

90 The Greek text here is somewhat uncertain.

M12 The Epistle to Thyatira

91 Or, _stedfastness_.

92 Many authorities, some ancient, read _thy wife_.

93 Gr. _bondservants_.

94 Many ancient authorities read _their_.

95 Or, _pestilence_. Sept., Ex. 5.3, &c.

96 Or, _Gentiles_.

97 Or, _iron; as vessels of the potter, are they broken_.

M13 The Epistle to Sardis

98 Many ancient authorities read _not found thy works_.

M14 The Epistle to Philadelphia

99 Gr. _given_.

100 The Greek word denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a

creature or to the Creator.

101 Or, _stedfastness_.

102 Or, _temptation_.

103 Gr. _inhabited earth_.

104 Or, _tempt_.