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_.

105 Or, _sanctuary_.

M15 The Epistle to Laodicea M16 A Door Opened in Heaven

106 Or, _come to pass. After these things straightway_, &c.

M17 The Throne and the King M18 The Four and Twenty Elders M19 The Seven Lamps of Fire M20 The Four Living Creatures

107 Or, _glassy sea_.

108 Or, _before_. See ch. 7.17. comp. 5.6.

109 Or, _who cometh_.

M21 The Creation Chorus

110 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

111 The Greek word denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature or to the Creator.

112 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

M22 The Sealed Book

113 Gr. _on_.

M23 The Lamb

114 Or, _between the throne with the four living creatures, and the elders_.

115 Some ancient authorities omit _seven_.

M24 The Book Taken and Worship Rendered

116 Gr. _hath taken_.

M25 The Redemption Chorus

117 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

118 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M26 The First Seal

119 Some ancient authorities add _and see_.

M27 The Second Seal

120 Some ancient authorities read _the peace of the earth_.

M28 The Third Seal

121 Or, _A choenix_ (_i. e._ about a quart,) _of wheat for a shilling_—implying great scarcity. Comp. Ezek. 4.16 f.; 5.16.

122 See marginal note on Mt. 18.28.

M29 The Fourth Seal

123 Or, _pestilence_. Comp. ch. 2.23 marg.

M30 The Fifth Seal

124 Some ancient authorities read _be fulfilled_ in number. _II Esdr._ 4.36.

M31 The Sixth Seal

125 Or, _military tribunes_. Gr. _chiliarchs_.

M32 The Angels Holding the Winds

126 Gr. _bondservants_.

M33 The Number Sealed from the Tribes M34 The Countless Multitude M35 The Salvation Chorus

127 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

128 Gr. _The blessing, and the glory_, &c.

129 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

M36 The Great Reward

130 Gr. _have said_.

131 Or, _sanctuary_.

132 Or, _before_. See ch. 4.6; comp. 5.6.

M37 The Seventh Seal M38 Seven Angels Given Seven Trumpets M39 The Angel with the Incense

133 Or, _at_.

134 Gr. _give_.

135 Or, _for_.

136 Gr. _hath taken_.

137 Or, _into_.

M40 The Trumpets Made Ready to Sound M41 The First Trumpet M42 The Second Trumpet M43 The Third Trumpet M44 The Fourth Trumpet M45 The Eagle‐Cry

138 Gr. _one eagle_.

M46 The Fifth Trumpet

139 Gr. _likenesses_.

140 That is, _Destroyer_.

M47 The First Woe Ended M48 The Sixth Trumpet

141 Gr. _one voice_.

142 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M49 The Angel Coming Down Out of Heaven M50 The Thunder‐Voices M51 The Mystery of God to End

143 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

144 Some ancient authorities omit _and the sea and the things that are therein_.

145 Or, _time_.

146 Gr. _bondservants_.

M52 The Book Eaten

147 Or, _concerning_. Comp. Jn. 12.16.

M53 The Temple Measured

148 Gr. _saying_.

149 Or, _sanctuary_.

150 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

151 Or, _sanctuary_.

152 Gr. _cast without_.

153 Or, _Gentiles_.

M54 The Two Witnesses with Power

154 Gr. _lampstands_.

M55 Their Testimony Finished

155 Gr. _carcase_.

M56 Their Resurrection and Ascension

156 Gr. _names of men, seven thousand_. Comp. ch. 3‐4.

M57 The Second Woe Ended M58 The Seventh Trumpet

157 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

M59 The Victory Chorus

158 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

159 Gr. _bondservants_.

M60 Tokens of Judgment

160 Or, _sanctuary_.

161 Or, _sanctuary_.

M61 The Woman’s Glory and the Dragon’s Power M62 The All‐Ruling Man‐Child

162 Or, _Gentiles_.

M63 The Woman’s Escape M64 Michael Warring with the Dragon

163 Gr. _inhabited earth_.

M65 Satan’s Downfall Proclaimed

164 Or, _Now is the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom, become our God’s, and the authority is become his Christ’s_.

165 Gr. _tabernacle_.

M66 Persecution of the Woman and Her Seed

166 Some ancient authorities read _I stood_, &c. connecting the clause with what follows.

M67 First Beast—the Beast from the Sea

167 Gr. _slain_.

168 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

169 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

170 Or, _to do_ his works _during_. See Dan. 11.28.

171 Gr. _tabernacle_.

172 Some ancient authorities omit _And it was given ... overcome them_.

173 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

174 Or, _written in the book ... slain from the foundation of the world_.

M68 An Admonition to Patience

175 The Greek text in this verse is somewhat uncertain.

176 Or, _leadethinto captivity_.

177 Or, _stedfastness_.

M69 The Second Beast—the Beast from the Land

178 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

179 Some ancient authorities read _that even the image of the beast should speak; and he shall cause_ &c.

180 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M70 An Admonition to Wisdom

181 Some ancient authorities read _Six hundred and sixteen_.

M71 The Lamb and His Company M72 The Incommunicable Chorus M73 The Purity of the Redeemed M74 The Message of the Eternal Gospel

182 Or, _an eternal gospel_.

183 Gr. _sit_.

184 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M75 The Message of Babylon’s Fall M76 The Message of Doom for the Beast and His Followers

185 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

186 Gr. _mingled_.

187 Gr. _unto ages of ages_.

188 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M77 The Test of Patience

189 Or, _stedfastness_.

M78 The Blessedness of the Holy Dead

190 Or, _in the Lord. From henceforth, yea saith the Spirit_.

M79 The Harvest of the Elect

191 Or, _sanctuary_.

192 Gr. _become dry_.

M80 The Vintage of Wrath

193 Or, _sanctuary_.

194 Gr. _vine_.

M81 The Angels with the Plagues M82 The Victors by the Sea

195 Or, _glassy sea_.

196 Or, _upon_.

197 Or, _glassy sea_.

M83 The Chorus of Moses and the Lamb

198 Gr. _bondservant_.

199 Many ancient authorities read _nations_. Jer. 10.7.

200 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M84 The Temple in Heaven Opened

201 Or, _sanctuary_.

202 Or, _sanctuary_.

203 Many ancient authorities read _in linen_, ch. 19.8.

204 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

205 Or, _sanctuary_.

206 Or, _sanctuary_.

M85 The Command to Pour Out the Vials

207 Or, _sanctuary_.

M86 The First Vial

208 Or, _there came_.

209 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M87 The Second Vial

210 Gr. _soul of life_.

M88 The Third Vial

211 Some ancient authorities read _and they became_.

212 Or, _judge. Because they ... prophets, thou hast given them blood also to drink_.

M89 The Fourth Vial

213 Or, _him_.

M90 The Fifth Vial M91 The Sixth Vial M92 The Three Unclean Spirits

214 Or, _upon_.

215 Gr. _inhabited earth_.

M93 The Warning Voice

216 Or, _Ar‐Magedon_.

M94 The Seventh Vial

217 Or, _sanctuary_.

218 Some ancient authorities read _there was a man_.

219 Or, _Gentiles_.

M95 The Judgment of the Great Harlot M96 Babylon the Harlot City

220 Or, _names full of blasphemy_.

221 Gr. _gilded_.

222 Or, _and of the unclean things_.

223 Or, _a mystery, Babylon the Great_.

224 Or, _witnesses_. See ch. 2.13.

M97 The Mystery of the Woman and the Beast is Told

225 Some ancient authorities read _and he goeth_.

226 Gr. _on_.

227 Gr. _shall be present_.

M98 The Kings that War against the Lamb

228 Or, _meaning_.

229 Or, _there are_.

M99 The Harlot Made Desolate

230 Gr. _hath a kingdom_.

M100 The Fall of the Great City Proclaimed

231 Or, _prison_.

232 Some authorities read _of the wine_ ... _have drunk_.

233 Some ancient authorities omit _the wine of_.

234 Or, _luxury_.

M101 God’s People Called Out of Her

235 Or, _clave together_.

236 Or, _luxurious_.

237 Some ancient authorities omit _the Lord_.

M102 The Lament of the Kings of the Earth over Her Doom

238 Or, _luxuriously_.

M103 The Lament of the Merchants of the Earth

239 Gr. _cargo_.

240 Gr. _amomum_.

241 Gr. _bodies_. Gen. 36.6 (Sept.).

242 Or, _lives_.

243 Gr. _gilded_.

M104 The Lament of the Seamen from Afar

244 Gr. _work the sea_.

M105 The Holy Bidden to Rejoice M106 The Ruin Complete

245 Gr. _one_.

246 Some ancient authorities omit _of whatsoever craft_.

M107 The Voice of a Great Multitude

247 Gr. _bondservants_.

M108 The Hallelujah Chorus

248 Gr. _have said_.

249 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

250 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M109 The Array of the Bride M110 The Blessedness of the Marriage Supper M111 Worship Refused by the Angel

251 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

252 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M112 The Conqueror on the White Horse (The Beginning of the End)

253 Some ancient authorities omit _called_.

254 Some ancient authorities read _dipped in_.

255 Gr. _winepress of the wine of the fierceness_.

M113 The Call to the Birds of Mid Heaven

256 Gr. _one_.

257 Or, _military tribunes_ Gr. _chiliarchs_.

M114 The Beast and the False Prophet Taken

258 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M115 Satan Bound

259 Gr. _upon_.

M116 The First Resurrection and the Millennial Reign

260 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M117 The Blessedness of the Millennial Period

261 Or, _authority_.

262 Some ancient authorities read _the_.

M118 Satan Loosed Again and Overthrown (The War of Gog and Magog)

263 Some ancient authorities insert _from God_.

264 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

M119 The Second Resurrection and the Final Judgment M120 The New Creation M121 The Holy City

265 Or, the _holy city Jerusalem coming down new out of heaven_.

M122 A Great Voice Out of the Throne

266 Gr. _tabernacle_.

267 Some ancient authorities omit, and be _their God_.

M123 All Things Made New

268 Or, _Write, These words are faithful and true_.

M124 The City the Bride of Christ M125 The Glory of the New Jerusalem from Afar

269 Gr. _luminary_.

270 Gr. _portals_.

271 Gr. _portals_.

M126 The Measure of the City M127 The Materials of Her Building

272 Or, _lapis lazuli_.

273 Or, _sapphire_.

274 Or, _transparent as glass_.

M128 The Glory Within

275 Or, _sanctuary_.

276 Or, _sanctuary_.

277 Or, _and the Lamb, the lamp thereof_.

278 Or, _by_.

279 Gr. _common_.

280 Or, _doeth_.

M129 The River and Tree of Life

281 Or, _the Lamb. In the midst of the street thereof, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life_, &c.

282 Or, _a tree_.

283 Or, _crops of fruit_.

M130 The Beatific Vision

284 Or, _no more anything accursed_.

285 Gr. _bondservants_.

286 Gr. _unto the ages of the ages_.

M131 The Message Reaffirmed M132 Worship Again Refused by the Angel

287 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

288 See marginal note on ch. 3.9.

M133 The Book Not to Be Sealed

289 Or, _yet more_.

M134 Christ’s Promise to the Victors

290 Or, _wages_.

291 Or, the _authority over_ Comp. ch. 6.8.

292 Gr. _portals_.

293 Or, _doeth_ Comp. ch. 21.27.

M135 Christ the Morning Star

294 Gr. _over_.

M136 A Universal Invitation

295 Or, _Both_.

M137 John’s Witness and Warning

296 Gr. _upon_.

297 Or, even from _the things which are written_.

M138 A Last Promise of Hope and Prayer of Yearning M139 The Blessing on the Saints

298 Some ancient authorities add _Christ_.

299 Two ancient authorities read _with all_.

300 Bacon, _Intr. to New Test._, p. 235; and _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 160.

301 As held by Seiss and others, following Heinrich, who make the topic of the Revelation Christ in his Second Advent, contrary to the generally accepted exegesis.

302 Alford, Plummer, Lee, Milligan, and others, as against Düsterdieck, Stuart, and the preterists generally.

303 “It means the revelation which Jesus makes, not that which reveals him.... Revelation ἀποκάλυψις is a word reserved for the Gospel; no Old Testament prophecy is called a revelation.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 1; also cf. Düsterdieck, Meyer’s _Com. on Rev._, pp. 94‐95.

304 “The testimony of Jesus Christ, like the revelation of Jesus Christ, means that which he gave, not that which tells about him.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 2.

305 Simcox, _Camb. Gr. Test._, Rev., p. 41; Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 2; also cf. Moulton, _Intr. to Litr. of Bib._, p. 312, who says, “A careful reading will show that these words are to be understood, not as a part of the revelation, but as the writer’s (or editor’s) comment upon the book.” This view, it will be seen, does not affect the sense of the verses, but only their origin.

306 “Understanding can only know what is, has been, or will be. It is impossible for anything to exist for understanding otherwise than as a matter of fact it does exist in those three relations of time.” (Kant, _Critique of Pure Reason_, Watson’s “Selections,” p. 186; or, in a slightly different translation, Edition of Meiklejohn, p. 307). It is important for us to note that God is thus presented as comprehending in himself all the possibilities of existence in human understanding.

307 For the view that the origin of this conception is to be found in the later Jewish literature rather than in the Old Testament, see Scott in _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 126. Swete interprets, “Here the spirits are seven, because the churches in which they operate are seven.” _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 6.

308 R. V. “loosed us from our sins by his blood.” “The insertion or omission of a single letter (in the Greek word) makes the difference between the A. V. ‘washed’ and the R. V. ‘loosed.’ The manuscript evidence for each is very evenly balanced; the other evidence likewise. On the whole, the old reading, ‘washed,’ seems more in harmony with the thought of the book and with Johannine diction in general.” _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 127.

309 “The continuous return (the coming of the Lord in the power of the Spirit) prefacing, heralding the full manifestation of his might and glory, is the grand theme of the Apocalypse.” Reynolds, _Pulp. Com._, John’s Gospel, Intr., p. lxxxvi.

310 This title, Παντοκράτωρ “the Almighty,” is used nine times in Revelation, and only once elsewhere in the New Testament (II Cor. 6:18).

311 Tribulation is the pervading undertone of the whole book. “The moving spirit of the vision in the Apocalypse is the sufferings of the church” (Ramsay, _The Church in the Roman Empire_, p. 295). “The ethical keynote is patience” (_New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 129).

312 See notes on “The Place” in the Introduction to this volume.

313 “The earliest use of the name (the Lord’s day) is in this passage,” Scott, _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 130; Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 5.

314 See Scott, art. “Rev.,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Chr. and Gosp._

315 “The vision of the Divine Christ in Rev. 1 dominates every subsequent paragraph in the Apocalypse.” Reynolds, art. “Gosp. of John,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

316 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 7; also see Thayer’s _Gr. Lex. of New Test._

317 “The association of angels with stars was a common Semitic idea.” (Moulton). Each star was conceived of by the Jews as having its angel, as also every force and phenomenon of nature had its separate angel. It is not strange, therefore, that John grouped them in his thought.

318 Milligan, _Internat. Com._, vol. iv, Rev., p. 36; also Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev. p. 8. For the other view see Faussett, J. F. & B. _Com. on Rev._, p. 589; Stuart, _Com. on Apoc._, pp. 460‐1; and Trench, _Ep’s to Seven Ch’s_, p. 75f.

319 “This last image is not so strange as it appears at first sight, for the short Roman sword was tongue‐like in shape.” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._, art. “Sword.”

320 An indication of divine power as well as victory; for “it was part of the teaching of the Rabbinic schools that the key of death was one of four (the keys of life, the grave, food, and rain) which were in the hand of God alone.” _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 133.

321 “The word mystery is not used in the Bible in the modern sense of ‘something that cannot be fathomed or understood,’ but on the contrary it indicates either something which is waiting to be revealed or that which when explained conveys understanding. In the latter sense it comes near to our word ‘Symbol.’ And this is the sense in which it is to be taken here and in ch. xxii. 7.” (_New Cent. Bib._, Rev., pp. 133‐4). In the general and broader sense, however, “The term μυστήριον in the New Testament means truths once hidden now revealed, made generally known, and in their own nature perfectly intelligible.” Bruce, _Exp. Gr. Test._, vol. I, p. 196.

322 See art. “Rev.”, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; also “_New Test. Doctr. of Rev._” in the same work, vol. V. p. 334e.

323 Milligan, _Lect. on Apoc._, p. 16.

324 Asia in the New Testament (with the possible exception of Acts 2:9) always means the Roman province of that name, which embraced only the western part of what we now call Asia Minor, and consisted of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and part of Phrygia, with the islands of the coast,—see the map in the beginning of this volume. “Asia was one of the most wealthy and populous and intellectually active of the Roman provinces,” Ramsay, art. “Asia.” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

325 Ramsay, _Letters to Seven Ch’s._, p. 35.

326 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 3; Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, Intr., p. liv, and p. 4.

327 Milligan, _Lect. on Apoc._, p. 38; _Stuart_, _Com. on Apoc._, pp. 101‐16, and Excur. II, p. 747 in same volume; also see App’x E in this volume on the “Symbolism of Numbers.”

328 Sayce, Hibbert Lect’s on _Origin and Growth of Religion_, p. 82.

329 So Milligan, Plummer, and others—see notes in Ch. 20:2f.

330 “Probably the most striking feature of the Seven Letters is the tone of unhesitating and unlimited authority which inspires them from beginning to end.” Ramsay, _Letters to Seven Churches_, p. 75.

331 See Ramsay’s _Letters to the Seven Churches_, where there will be found much accurate information concerning the seven cities that is based upon an extended residence in those cities, and careful personal investigation. A more concise account by the same author is given in Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._, in the separate articles upon each city.

332 Moulton’s _Mod. Read. Bib._, Rev., p. 196.

333 The exhortation to “hear what the Spirit saith to the churches” applies not only to what is contained in the seven epistles, but to the entire Apocalypse which follows. See Ramsay’s _Letters to Seven Ch’s_, p. 38.

334 Paradise is the word used in the Septuagint for Eden. It occurs but three times in the New Testament. It originally signified a park or garden such as was used by Oriental monarchs for a pleasure‐ground, but in Christian usage it becomes a name for the scene of rest and recompense for the righteous after death. See art. “Paradise” by Salmond, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

335 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., pp. 59‐60.

336 Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 30.

337 Pergamus, though a rarer form, is preferable to Pergamos (A. V.), or Pergamum (R. V.) as the designation of the city, owing to its softer sound for the English ear, though the form is otherwise indifferent. See Ramsay’s art. “Pergamus,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._ “Ἡ Πέργαμος is found in Xenophon, Pausanius, and Dion Cassius, but τὸ Πέργαμον in Strabo, and Polybius, and most other writers, and in the inscriptions; the termination is left uncertain in Apoc. i.11 and ii.12.” Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 33.

338 “Pergamum was the first place in Asia where as early as the reign of Augustus was erected a temple to Rome and the Emperor,” Salmon, _Hist. Intr. to New Test._, p. 239. “An allusion to the rampant paganism of Pergamum ... but chiefly perhaps to the new Caesar worship in which Pergamum was preeminent and which above all other pagan rites menaced the existence of the Church,” Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 34.

339 “The name Balaam does not indicate a sect, but a set of principles.” Briggs, _Mess. of Gospels_, p. 451; also see _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 143.

340 This identification is suggested by the present author as a probable one, for jade is the most notable white stone that was in use in ancient times, and it is still highly prized for seals, charms, and kindred purposes in China and the Far East. Dr. Schlieman found implements made from the coarser kinds of it in the immediate region of Pergamus among the relics of the oldest of the cities in the excavations at Hissarlik, the mound of ancient Ilium, near Troas; and a jade celt engraved with Gnostic formulæ in Greek characters is preserved in the Christy collection. See art. “Jade,” _Encyc. Brit._

341 Trench, _Ep’s to Seven Churches_, pp. 178‐80. Trench’s view, however, that the Urim and Thummim consisted of a single stone is not correct, though his interpretation of this passage is as usual very suggestive. See art. “Urim and Thummim” in Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

342 See Trench, Stuart, Plummer, Lee, Scott, and others. Lange says concisely, “Two meanings attached to the white stone among the Greeks, viz. acquittal in judgment, and the award of some rank or dignity.” Lange’s (_Com. on Rev._, p. 121). Swete says “The white stone is the pledge of the divine favor which carries with it such intimate knowledge of God and Christ as only the possessor can comprehend.” (_Apoc. of St. John_, p. 40).

343 See art. “Signet,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

344 Hilprecht, _S. S. Times_, Sept. 10, 1904, art. “Babylonian Life in the Time of Ezra and Nehemiah.”

345 Weizsäcker thinks the new name is “the λόγος of John’s Gospel” (_Apost. Age_, vol. II p. 171); but by “new” is more likely meant a hitherto unknown name. Stevens interprets it as “a symbol for the Messiah,” (_Theol. of New Test._, p. 540). On the other hand Scott says, “A new name stands for a new character.” (_New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 143); and Ramsay regards it as “perhaps an allusion to the custom of taking new and secret baptismal names,” (art. “Pergamus,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._); also Düsterdieck thinks that the name applies to the Christian (_Com. on Rev._, p. 148); and Swete holds the same view (_Apoc. of St. John_, p. 40). “White” and “new” as Trench points out, are “key‐words” in the Apocalypse (_Ep’s to Seven Ch’s_, p. 172).

346 Ramsay explains, “There had been a Jewish colony planted in Thyatira, and a hybrid sort of worship had been developed, half Jewish, half pagan, which is called in Revelation the woman Jezebel,” (_Paul the Trav. and Rom. Cit._, p. 215). Scott thinks it “most probable that the reference is to some well‐known and influential woman within the church at Thyatira, whose influence on the Christian community was parallel to that of Jezebel upon Ahab—a self‐styled prophetess, whose teaching and example were alike destructive of Christian morality,” (_New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 147). Schürer also holds that Jezebel denoted a definite woman, (Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._, art. “Thyatira”). Plummer finds in the name a unity of symbolism with other parts of the book, thus, “Jezebel anticipates the harlot of ch. 17, as Balaam anticipates the false prophet of ch. 13” (_Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 66).

347 Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 42.

348 “To become acquainted with ‘the depths,’ (i. e. the deep things of divinity, as they would say—called here ‘the deep things of Satan’ in irony) was an essential pretense of the Gnostics.” Düsterdieck, Meyer’s _Com. on Rev._, p. 152.

349 “I will grant him to see the Morning‐star”. Moffatt, _New Trans. of New Test._

350 “The word used is κλέπτης a ‘thief,’ and not ληστὴς a ‘robber,’ showing that secrecy, not violence, is the point of the similitude.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 108.

351 “The word ‘white’ (λευκὸς), excepting in Mat. 5.36 and Jn. 4.35, is in the New Testament always used of _heavenly_ purity and brightness,” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 109.

352 The “book of life” is mentioned seven times in the Revelation, an indication of the place it occupied in the writer’s thought.

353 Ramsay, _Letters to Seven Ch’s_, pp. 377‐78.

354 Milligan, _Internat. Com._, Rev., p. 48.

355 Scott, _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 136.

356 Ramsay, art. “Sardis,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

357 Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 53; and Ramsay, art. “Philadelphia,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._

358 Bousset’s inference is scarcely justifiable:—“It is the tone of immediate expectation of the end; the last great struggle throughout the whole inhabited world is at hand; the storm is drawing near; already the seer beholds the lightning flash”. (_New Cent. Bib._, Rev., pp. 153‐4). Swete also interprets similarly, as referring to “the troublous times which precede the Parousia,” and adds, “This final sifting of mankind was near at hand.” (_Apoc. of St. John_, p. 55).

359 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 113; Wordsworth, quoted in _Bib. Com._, Rev., p. 547.

360 Ramsay, art. “Philadelphia,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; and his _Letters to Seven Ch’s._, p. 400.

361 “The word ‘Amen’ is here used as a proper name of our Lord; and this is the only instance of such an application.... The ‘faithful and true witness’ is an amplification of the Amen”. Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., pp. 114‐15.

362 “The origin of God’s creation.” Moffatt, _New Translation of New Testament_.

363 “Laodicea was the one famous medical centre in Phrygia.... The description of the medicine here mentioned is obscured by a mistranslation. It was not an ointment but a kollyrium, which had the form of small cylinders compounded of various ingredients, and was used either by simple application or by reduction to a powder to be smeared on the part.” Ramsay, _Letters to Seven Ch’s._, p. 429.

364 See art. “Laodicea” by Ramsay, Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; and Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, pp. 61‐2.

365 See App’x F, “The Literary Structure of the Apocalypse.”

366 See Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._, art. “Stones, Precious;” also the separate arts. in the same work on the names of precious stones which we find in the Revelation. Plummer regards the jasper, which is further described in ch. 21:11 as being “clear as crystal,” to be the modern diamond, while Cheyne thinks it the opal, and Scott identifies the sardius with our carnelian.

367 The A. V. reads, “_there was_ a sea of glass”; the R. V. renders, “as it were a glassy sea”; and the Am. R. V. gives, “as it were a sea of glass.” The Revisers evidently regarded the phrase as a figurative way of describing the quiet of the sea. Alford, however, and Swete interpret literally as “a sea of glass.”

368 Cf. Faussett, J. F. & B. _Com. on Rev._, p. 625.

369 See _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 164.

370 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 145; Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 68.

371 “Throughout the vision no past tense is used. The vision represents the worship of heaven (so far as it can be presented to human understanding) as it continues eternally.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 145.

372 Bleek, _Lect. on Apoc._, p. 199; Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 145.

373 _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 163.

374 _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 163.

375 For Bleek’s view of the arrangement see notes on “The Lamb in the Midst of the Throne,” under ch. 5:6‐8a.

376 “No one can authoritatively affirm that created beings of a lower order than man will not in some sense share in the future life.” A. A. Hodge, unpublished _Classroom Lectures_.

377 See in Am. R. V., I Sam. 4:4; II Sam. 6:2; II Ki. 1:9‐15; I Chr. 13:6; Ps. 80:1, 99:1; Isa. 37:16; Ezek. 10:1‐20.

378 Fairbairn regards the cherubim as typifying “Earth’s living creaturehood, especially man, its rational and immortal head”. See his _Typology_, vol. 1, pp. 125‐208. Plummer similarly interprets the living beings as symbolical of all animal life, and suggests that the human face of the cherubim represents “humanity as distinct from the church (which is represented by the four and twenty elders), and appears to indicate the power of God to use for his purposes and his glory that part of mankind which has not been received into the church.” _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 146. Also see art. “Cherubim,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._; and for an apocalyptic description of the cherubim, _Bk. of Enoch_ (ed. Charles), 14:11, 18; 20:7; 61:10; 76:7.

379 Stuart, _Com. on Apoc._, p. 515; also cf. Düsterdieck, and Plummer. Other definitions, though differing in statement, have a general similarity. For example, “The Book of Destiny” (Bacon, _Intr. to New Test._, p. 284); “The Book of Doom” (Moffatt, _Exp. Gr. Test._, Rev. p. 382); “The Book of History” (_Temple Bib._, Intr. to Rev., p. xxxvii); or, better still, “The Book of God’s Counsels” (Lee, _Bib. Com._, Rev., p. 563). Faussett, following De Burgh, makes the book “The Title‐deed of Man’s Inheritance Redeemed by Christ” (J. F. & B. _Com. on Rev._, p. 602). Seiss accepts this interpretation and explains further by reference to Jewish customs of land tenure (_Lects. on Apoc._, vol. i, p. 266f.). The definition preferred in the present volume is “The Book of God’s Plan for the Ages.”

380 “A Roman will, when written, had to be sealed seven times in order to authenticate it, and some have argued that this explains the symbolism here” (_Exp. Gr. Test._, Rev. p. 383); but this suggestion is of doubtful value when the Hebrew use of seven was so well established.

381 See Düsterdieck, Meyer’s _Com. on Rev._, p. 207.

382 “The ability to open was a consequence of a former act of victory, viz. the redemption.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 164.

383 “The kingship of Christ is more clearly set forth in the Revelation than in any other part of the New Testament, though not in any single text, but by the representations of the book throughout,” Riddle, unpublished _Classroom Lectures on Revelation_. Also see Pfleiderer, _Influence of Paul on Christianity_ (Hibbert Lect., 1885), p. 130.

384 “John looked to see a lion and beheld a Lamb,” the change of symbol seeming to indicate that “the might of Christ is the power of love.” See Stevens, _New Test. Theol._, p. 542. “The name which most expresses what Christ is to the Christian is the ‘Lamb.’ ” “This is used twenty‐nine times in the book.” Porter, art. Rev., Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._ “This is a dramatic way of expressing the truth that the efficient factor of history is gentleness.” Dean, _Book of Revelation_, p. 103.

385 See Bleek’s _Lect. on Apoc._, p. 200f.

386 Cf. Bisping, quoted by Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 167.

387 “This description of the glorified Lord, sublime as a purely mental conception, becomes intolerable if we give it outward form and expression.” (Trench, _Ep’s to Seven Ch’s_, p. 64). In fact, “No

## scene in the great Christian Apocalypse can be successfully

reproduced upon canvas; the imagery ... is symbolic and not pictorial,” (Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, Intr., p. cxxxiv.) “Symbolism does not appeal to the pictorial sense at all, but rather to some analytic faculty, or conventional association of ideas.” (Moulton, _Bib. Idyls_, Intr. p. xx). The incongruity of many of their symbols from the aesthetic point of view does not seem to have occurred to the Hebrew mind, for with them the religious idea was predominant. Many of the events recorded in the Revelation are manifestly impossible except in a vision.

388 “Here we have the ideas of ch. 1. 5 repeated (i. e. of the love and redemption of Christ) with the further thought that love like that displayed in Christ’s death for man’s redemption is worthy not only of all praise, but of having all the future committed to its care. It is really a pictorial way of saying that redeeming love is the last reality in the universe which all praise must exalt and to which everything else must be subordinate.” Denney, _Death of Christ_, p. 246.

389 Moulton’s _Mod. Read. Bib._, Psa. vol. i, Intr., p. xxxiif.

390 The call is most naturally understood as a call for the vision to appear. Simcox so interprets: “Each of the living creatures by turns summons one of the horsemen.” (_Cambr. Gr. Test._, Rev., p. 85); Scott, also, holds the same view (_New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 176); and Moffatt, prefers it (_New Trans. New Test._, footnote). Plummer, however, says the call is addressed to John,—perhaps a more common view; on the other hand Alford, Milligan, and Swete, say the call is to Christ to come. The view that the call is addressed to the rider is more likely correct, though the interpretation of the seals is not materially affected by the view we may take of this part of the symbolism. In any case, “Each living being invites attention to the revelation of the future of that creation of which they are all representatives.” _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 185.

391 “_Conquering, and that he may conquer._ This is the key to the whole vision. Only of Christ and his kingdom can it be said that it is to conquer ... only of Christ’s kingdom shall there be no end.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 184.

392 _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 179; also see Mommsen’s _Provinces of Rom. Emp._, vol. ii, p. 1 (note), Swete regards the first seal as “a picture of triumphant militarism.” _Apoc. St. John_, p. 84.

393 “White is always typical in the Revelation of heavenly things,” Plummer, (_Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 183). “If any other than our Lord is he that goes forth conquering and to conquer, then, though the subsequent interpretation may have occasional points of contact with truth ... the true key of the book is lost.” (_Alford, Gr. Test._, vol. iv, p. 249).

394 Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 185. For a different interpretation see Milligan, _Expos. Bib._, Rev., p. 91.

395 “_A choenix of wheat for a denarius_ &c. The choenix appears to have been the food allotted to one man for a day; while the denarius was the pay of a soldier or of a common laborer for one day.” Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 185.

396 The oil and the wine are interpreted by some (as Wordsworth, and Milligan) to mean spiritual food which will not be lacking in time of famine; but this opinion is not sustained by anything in the text. Swete understands the vision to forbid famine prices, and to refer only to relative hardships—an unusual view.

397 It is doubtless true, as pointed out by Ramsay, that according to the usual custom in celebrating a triumph “the Roman generals were borne in a four‐horse car” (_Letters to Seven Churches_, p. 58). This, however, does not seem to have been necessarily or always the case, and even when so, the horses were white. Cf. Swete, _Apoc. of St. John_, p. 84; and Scott, _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 177.

398 It is interesting to note that God is here described (v. 10) as ὁ δεσπότης an absolute ruler, a word implying the divine might and authority, which occurs but once in the Apocalypse, and which is translated “Lord” in the A. V., and “Master” in the R. V. This term, it should be understood, is “strictly the correlative of slave, δοῦλος, and hence denotes absolute ownership and uncontrolled power.” (Thayer’s _Gr.‐Eng. Lex. New Test._) In its present use “it would seem to convey the idea of personal relationship, as Paul speaks of himself as the _slave_ of Christ (δοῦλος).” (Strong, art. “John, Apostle,” Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._)

399 For an interesting parallel passage in Apocalyptic literature see _Ascension of Isaiah_, 9.7‐18, where the saints, as here, receive a preliminary reward; also, _Bk of Enoch_, 22:5f, where the voice of the spirits of the children of men who were dead “penetrated to heaven and complained.”

400 “The day of the Lord” is a notable phrase in the New Testament, and should receive our careful attention, though it only occurs twice in the Apocalypse (ch. 6:14; 16:14). As Davidson interprets it, “The day of the Lord is an eschatological idea; the phrase therefore cannot be rendered ‘a day of the Lord,’ as if any great calamity or judgment felt to be impending might be so named: the day is that of final and universal judgment.” (See art. “Eschatol. of Old Test.”; Hastings’ _Dict. of Bib._). This view, however, must not be applied too strictly; for while it is clear that the final day is usually the thought in mind, yet through long and continuous use the phrase “the day of the Lord” seems to have acquired a wider application, and to have been applied to any striking crisis in the history of the world, each day of the Lord being, however, a type of the final and great day. (See Rawlinson, _Pulp. Com._, Isa., p. 228).

401 Cf. _New Cent. Bib._, Rev., p. 124.

402 See App’x G, “Apoc. Lit.”

403 The view here given, limiting the contents of the seventh seal to the first verse of the eighth chapter, is upon the whole the preferable one (Plummer, _Pulp. Com._, Rev., p. 229; Wordsworth, _The Apoc._, p. 155; and Vaughan, _Lect. on Rev._, pp. 204‐5), though it is disputed on exegetical grounds by Düsterdieck and others (Meyer’s _Com. on Rev._ p. 261f.). It will be found, however, that it is amply sustained by a broad view of the context. This verse (ch. 8:1) might well have been included in