Revelation

THE REVELATION

OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE

[1] [2]

[3] [4]

[5] [6]

[7] [8]

INTRODUCTION

AUTHENTICITY.--The author calls himself

John

(Re 1:1, 4, 9; 2:8).

JUSTIN MARTYR [Dialogue

with Trypho, p. 308] (A.D. 139-161) quotes

from the Apocalypse, as John the apostle's work, the prophecy of

the millennium of the saints, to be followed by the general

resurrection and judgment. This testimony of

JUSTIN is referred to also by

EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 4.18].

JUSTIN MARTYR, in the early

part of the second century, held his controversy with

TRYPHO, a learned Jew, at Ephesus, where

John had been living thirty or thirty-five years before: he says that

"the Revelation had been given to John, one of the twelve apostles of

Christ." MELITO, bishop of Sardis (about

A.D. 171), one of the seven churches

addressed, a successor, therefore, of one of the seven angels, is

said by EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History,

4.26] to have written treatises on the Apocalypse of John. The

testimony of the bishop of Sardis is the more impartial, as Sardis is

one of the churches severely reproved

(Re 3:1).

So also THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH

(about A.D. 180), according to EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 4.26], quoted

testimonies from the Apocalypse of John. EUSEBIUS

says the same of Apollonius, who lived in Asia Minor in the end of the

second century. IRENÆUS (about A.D. 180), a hearer of POLYCARP,

the disciple of John, and supposed by ARCHBISHOP

USHER to be the angel of the Church of

Smyrna, is most decided again and again in quoting the Apocalypse

as the work of the apostle John [Against Heresies, 4.20.11;

4.21.3; 4.30.4; 5.36.1; 5.30.3; 5.35.2]. In [5.30.1], alluding to the

mystical number of the beast, six hundred sixty-six

(Re 13:18),

found in all old copies, he says, "We do not hazard a confident theory

as to the name of Antichrist; for if it had been necessary that his

name should be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have

been declared by him who saw the apocalyptic vision; for it was seen

at no long time back, but almost in our generation, towards the end of

Domitian's reign." In his work Against Heresies, published

ten years after Polycarp's martyrdom, he quotes the Apocalypse twenty

times, and makes long extracts from it, as inspired Scripture. These

testimonies of persons contemporary with John's immediate successors,

and more or less connected with the region of the seven churches to

which Revelation is addressed, are most convincing. TERTULLIAN, of North Africa (about A.D. 220), [Against Marcion, 3.14], quotes the

apostle John's descriptions in the Apocalypse of the sword proceeding

out of the Lord's mouth

(Re 19:15),

and of the heavenly city

(Re 21:1-27).

Compare On the Resurrection of the Flesh [27]; A Treatise on

the Soul, [8, 9, &c.]; The Prescription Against Heretics,

[33]. The MURATORI fragment of the canon (about

A.D. 200) refers to John the apostle writing to

the seven churches. HIPPOLYTUS, bishop of Ostia,

near Rome (about A.D. 240) [On Antichrist,

p. 67], quotes

Re 17:1-18,

as the writing of John the apostle. Among

HIPPOLYTUS' works, there is specified in the

catalogue on his statue, a treatise "on the Apocalypse and Gospel

according to John." CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (about A.D. 200)

[Miscellanies, 6.13], alludes to the twenty-four seats on which

the elders sit as mentioned by John in the Apocalypse

(Re 4:5);

also, [Who Is the Rich Man Who Shall Be Saved? 42], he mentions

John's return from Patmos to Ephesus on the death of the Roman tyrant.

ORIGEN (about A.D. 233),

[Commentary on Matthew, in EUSEBIUS

Ecclesiastical History, 6.25], mentions John as the author of

the Apocalypse, without expressing any doubts as to its authenticity;

also, in Commentary on Matthew, [16.6], he quotes

Re 1:9,

and says, "John seems to have beheld the Apocalypse in the island of

Patmos." VICTORINUS, bishop of Pettau in Pannonia,

who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in A.D.

303, wrote the earliest extant commentary on the Apocalypse. Though the

Old Syriac Peschito version does not contain the Apocalypse, yet

EPHREM THE SYRIAN (about

A.D. 378) frequently quotes the Apocalypse as

canonical, and ascribes it to John.

Its canonicity and inspiration (according to a scholium of

ANDREAS OF CAPPADOCIA) are

attested by PAPIAS, a hearer of John, and

associate of POLYCARP. PAPIAS was bishop of Hierapolis, near Laodicea,

one of the seven churches. WORDSWORTH conjectures

that a feeling of shame, on account of the rebukes of Laodicea

in Revelation, may have operated on the Council of Laodicea, so as to

omit Revelation from its list of books to be read publicly (?).

The Epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne to the churches of Asia

and Phrygia (in EUSEBIUS, [Ecclesiastical

History, 5.1-3]), in the persecution under Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 77) quotes

Re 1:5; 3:14; 14:4; 22:11,

as Scripture. CYPRIAN (about

A.D. 250) also, in Epistle 13, quotes

Re 2:5

as Scripture; and in Epistle 25 he quotes

Re 3:21,

as of the same authority as the Gospel. (For other instances, see

ALFORD'S Prolegomena, from whom mainly this

summary of evidence has been derived).

ATHANASIUS, in his Festival Epistle,

enumerates the Apocalypse among the canonical Scriptures, to

which none must add, and from which none must take away.

JEROME [Epistle to Paulinus] includes in

the canon the Apocalypse, adding, "It has as many mysteries as words.

All praise falls short of its merits. In each of its words lie hid

manifold senses." Thus an unbroken chain of testimony down from the

apostolic period confirms its canonicity and authenticity.

The ALOGI [EPIPHANIUS,

Heresies, 51] and CAIUS the Roman presbyter

[EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.28],

towards the end of the second and beginning of the third century,

rejected John's Apocalypse on mere captious grounds. CAIUS, according to JEROME [On

Illustrious Men], about A.D. 210, attributed

it to Cerinthus, on the ground of its supporting the millennial reign

on earth. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA mentions many before his time who rejected it

because of its obscurity and because it seemed to support Cerinthus'

dogma of an earthly and carnal kingdom; whence they attributed it to

Cerinthus. This DIONYSIUS, scholar of

ORIGEN, and bishop of Alexandria

(A.D. 247), admits its inspiration (in

EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 7.10]),

but attributes it to some John distinct from John the apostle, on the

ground of its difference of style and character, as compared with

John's Gospel and Epistle, as also because the name John is several

times mentioned in the Apocalypse, which is always kept back in both

the Gospel and Epistle; moreover, neither does the Epistle make any

allusion to the Apocalypse, nor the Apocalypse to the Epistle; and the

style is not pure Greek, but abounds in barbarisms and

solecisms. EUSEBIUS wavers in opinion

[Ecclesiastical History, 24.39] as to whether it is, or is not,

to be ranked among the undoubtedly canonical Scriptures. His antipathy

to the millennial doctrine would give an unconscious bias to his

judgment on the Apocalypse. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (A.D. 386),

[Catechetical Lectures, 4.35,36], omits the Apocalypse in

enumerating the New Testament Scriptures to be read privately as well

as publicly. "Whatever is not read in the churches, that do not even

read by thyself; the apostles and ancient bishops of the Church who

transmitted them to us were far wiser than thou art." Hence, we see

that, in his day, the Apocalypse was not read in the churches. Yet in

Catechetical Lectures, 1.4 he quotes

Re 2:7, 17;

and in Catechetical Lectures, 1; 15.13 he draws the prophetical

statement from

Re 17:11,

that the king who is to humble the three kings

(Da 7:8, 20)

is the eighth king. In Catechetical Lectures, 15 and 27, he

similarly quotes from

Re 12:3, 4.

ALFORD conjectures that CYRIL

had at some time changed his opinion, and that these references to the

Apocalypse were slips of memory whereby he retained phraseology which

belonged to his former, not his subsequent views. The sixtieth canon

(if genuine) of the Laodicean Council in the middle of the fourth

century omits the Apocalypse from the canonical books. The Eastern

Church in part doubted, the Western Church, after the fifth century,

universally recognized, the Apocalypse. CYRIL OF

ALEXANDRIA [On Worship, 146], though

implying the fact of some doubting its genuineness, himself undoubtedly

accepts it as the work of St. John. ANDREAS OF

CÆSAREA, in Cappadocia, recognized as

genuine and canonical, and wrote the first entire and connected

commentary on, the Apocalypse. The sources of doubt seem to have been,

(1) the antagonism of many to the millennium, which is set forth in it;

(2) its obscurity and symbolism having caused it not to be read in the

churches, or to be taught to the young. But the most primitive

tradition is unequivocal in its favor. In a word, the objective

evidence is decidedly for it; the only arguments against it seem to

have been subjective.

The personal notices of John in the Apocalypse occur

Re 1:1, 4, 9;

Re 22:8.

Moreover, the writer's addresses to the churches of Proconsular

Asia

(Re 2:1)

accord with the concurrent tradition, that after John's return from his

exile in Patmos, at the death of Domitian, under Nerva, he resided for

long, and died at last in Ephesus, in the time of Trajan [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.20,23]. If the

Apocalypse were not the inspired work of John, purporting as it does to

be an address from their superior to the seven churches of Proconsular

Asia, it would have assuredly been rejected in that region;

whereas the earliest testimonies in those churches are all in

its favor. One person alone was entitled to use language of authority

such as is addressed to the seven angels of the churches--namely, John,

as the last surviving apostle and superintendent of all the churches.

Also, it accords with John's manner to assert the accuracy of his

testimony both at the beginning and end of his book (compare

Re 1:2, 3,

and 22:8,

with Joh 1:14; 21:24;

1Jo 1:1, 2).

Again, it accords with the view of the writer being an inspired

apostle that he addresses the angels or presidents of the several

churches in the tone of a superior addressing inferiors. Also,

he commends the Church of Ephesus for trying and convicting "them which

say they are apostles, and are not," by which he implies his own

undoubted claim to apostolic inspiration

(Re 2:2),

as declaring in the seven epistles Christ's will revealed through

him.

As to the difference of style, as compared with the Gospel and Epistle,

the difference of subject in part accounts for it, the visions

of the seer, transported as he was above the region of sense,

appropriately taking a form of expression abrupt, and unbound by the

grammatical laws which governed his writings of a calmer and more

deliberate character. Moreover, as being a Galilean Hebrew, John, in

writing a Revelation akin to the Old Testament prophecies, naturally

reverted to their Hebraistic style. ALFORD

notices, among the features of resemblance between the styles of the

Apocalypse and John's Gospel and Epistle: (1) the characteristic

appellation of our Lord, peculiar to John exclusively, "the Word of

God"

(Re 19:13;

compare

Joh 1:1;

1Jo 1:1).

(2) the phrase, "he that overcometh"

(Re 2:7, 11, 17;

3:5, 12, 21; 12:11; 15:2; 17:14; 21:7;

compare

Joh 16:33

1Jo 2:13, 14; 4:4; 5:4, 5).

(3) The Greek term (alethinos) for "true," as opposed to

that which is shadowy and unreal

(Re 3:7, 14;

6:10; 15:3; 16:7; 19:2, 9, 11; 21:5; 22:6).

This term, found only once in Luke

(Lu 16:11),

four times in Paul

(1Th 1:9;

Heb 8:2; 9:24; 10:22),

is found nine times in John's Gospel

(Joh 1:9;

4:23, 37; 6:32; 7:28; 8:16; 15:1

Joh 17:3; 19:3, 5),

twice in John's First Epistle

(1Jo 2:8; 5:20),

and ten times in Revelation

(Re 3:7, 14;

6:10; 15:3; 16:7; 19:2, 9, 11; 21:5

Re 22:6).

(4) The Greek diminutive for "Lamb" (arnion, literally,

"lambkin") occurs twenty-nine times in the Apocalypse, and the only

other place where it occurs is

Joh 21:15.

In John's writings alone is Christ called directly "the Lamb"

(Joh 1:29, 36).

In

1Pe 1:19,

He is called "as a lamb without blemish," in allusion to

Isa 53:7.

So the use of "witness," or "testimony"

(Re 1:2, 9; 6:9; 11:7,

&c.; compare

Joh 1:7, 8, 15, 19, 32;

1Jo 1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11).

"Keep the word," or "commandments"

(Re 3:8, 10; 12:17;

compare

Joh 8:51, 55; 14:15).

The assertion of the same thing positively and negatively

(Re 2:2, 6, 8, 13; 3:8, 17, 18;

compare

Joh 1:3, 6, 7, 20;

1Jo 2:27, 28).

Compare also

1Jo 2:20, 27

with Re 3:18,

as to the spiritual anointing. The seeming solecisms of style

are attributable to that,inspired elevation which is above mere

grammatical rules, and are designed to arrest the reader's attention by

the peculiarity of the phrase, so as to pause and search into some deep

truth lying beneath. The vivid earnestness of the inspired writer,

handling a subject so transcending all others, raises him above all

servile adherence to ordinary rules, so that at times he abruptly

passes from one grammatical construction to another, as he graphically

sets the thing described before the eye of the reader. This is not due

to ignorance of grammar, for he "has displayed a knowledge of

grammatical rules in other much more difficult constructions" [WINER]. The connection of thought is more

attended to than mere grammatical connection. Another consideration to

be taken into account is that two-fifths of the whole being the

recorded language of others, he moulds his style accordingly. Compare

TREGELLES' Introduction to Revelation from

Heathen Authorities.

TREGELLES well says [New Testament Historic

Evidence], "There is no book of the New Testament for which we have

such clear, ample, and numerous testimonies in the second century as we

have in favor of the Apocalypse. The more closely the witnesses were

connected with the apostle John (as was the case with

IRENÆUS), the more explicit is their

testimony. That doubts should prevail in after ages must have

originated either in ignorance of the earlier testimony, or else from

some supposed intuition of what an apostle ought to have

written. The objections on the ground of internal style can

weigh nothing against the actual evidence. It is in vain to argue, a

priori, that John could not have written this book when we have

the evidence of several competent witnesses that he did write

it."

RELATION OF THE

APOCALYPSE TO THE REST OF THE

CANON.--GREGORY OF

NYSSA [tom. 3, p. 601], calls Revelation "the last

book of grace." It completes the volume of inspiration, so that we are

to look for no further revelation till Christ Himself shall come.

Appropriately the last book completing the canon was written by John,

the last survivor of the apostles. The New Testament is composed of the

historical books, the Gospels and Acts, the doctrinal Epistles, and the

one prophetical book, Revelation. The same apostle wrote the last of

the Gospels, and probably the last of the Epistles, and the only

prophetical book of the New Testament. All the books of the New

Testament had been written, and were read in the Church assemblies,

some years before John's death. His life was providentially prolonged

that he might give the final attestation to Scripture. About the year

A.D. 100, the bishops of Asia (the angels of the

seven churches) came to John at EPHESUS, bringing

him copies of the three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and desired

of him a statement of his apostolical judgment concerning them;

whereupon he pronounced them authentic, genuine, and inspired, and at

their request added his own Gospel to complete the fourfold aspect of

the Gospel of Christ (compare MURATORI

[Fragment on the Canon of Scripture]; EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.24]; JEROME [Commentary on Matthew]; VICTORINUS on the Apocalypse; THEODORET [Ecclesiastical History, 39]). A Greek

divine, quoted in ALLATIUS, calls Revelation "the

seal of the whole Bible." The canon would be incomplete without

Revelation. Scripture is a complete whole, its component books, written

in a period ranging over one thousand five hundred years, being

mutually connected. Unity of aim and spirit pervades the entire, so

that the end is the necessary sequence of the middle, and the middle of

the beginning. Genesis presents before us man and his bride in

innocence and blessedness, followed by man's fall through Satan's

subtlety, and man's consequent misery, his exclusion from Paradise and

its tree of life and delightful rivers. Revelation presents, in reverse

order, man first liable to sin and death, but afterwards made conqueror

through the blood of the Lamb; the first Adam and Eve, represented by

the second Adam, Christ, and the Church. His spotless bride, in

Paradise, with free access to the tree of life and the crystal water of

life that flows from the throne of God. As Genesis foretold the

bruising of the serpent's head by the woman's seed

(Ge 3:15),

so Revelation declares the final accomplishment of that prediction

(Re 19:1-20:15).

PLACE AND TIME OF WRITING.--The best authorities

among the Fathers state that John was exiled under Domitian

(IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 5; 30];

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA;

EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.20]).

VICTORINUS says that he had to labor in the mines

of Patmos. At Domitian's death, A.D. 95, he

returned to Ephesus under the Emperor Nerva. Probably it was

immediately after his return that he wrote, under divine inspiration,

the account of the visions vouchsafed to him in Patmos

(Re 1:2, 9).

However,

Re 10:4

seems to imply that he wrote the visions immediately after seeing them.

Patmos is one of the Sporades. Its circumference is about thirty miles.

"It was fitting that when forbidden to go beyond certain bounds of the

earth's lands, he was permitted to penetrate the secrets of heaven"

[BEDE, Explanation of the Apocalypse on

chap. 1]. The following arguments favor an earlier date, namely, under

Nero: (1) EUSEBIUS [Demonstration of the

Gospel] unites in the same sentence John's banishment with the

stoning of James and the beheading of Paul, which were under

Nero. (2) CLEMENT OF

ALEXANDRIA'S'S story of the robber reclaimed by

John, after he had pursued, and with difficulty overtaken him, accords

better with John then being a younger man than under Domitian, when he

was one hundred years old. Arethas, in the sixth century, applies the

sixth seal to the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D.

70), adding that the Apocalypse was written before that event. So the

Syriac version states he was banished by Nero the Cæsar.

Laodicea was overthrown by an earthquake (A.D. 60)

but was immediately rebuilt, so that its being called "rich and

increased with goods" is not incompatible with this book having been

written under the Neronian persecution (A.D. 64).

But the possible allusions to it in

Heb 10:37;

compare

Re 1:4, 8; 4:8; 22:12;

Heb 11:10;

compare

Re 21:14;

Heb 12:22, 23;

compare

Re 14:1;

Heb 8:1, 2;

compare

Re 11:19; 15:5; 21:3;

Heb 4:12;

compare

Re 1:16; 2:12, 16; 19:13, 15;

Heb 4:9;

compare

Re 20:1-15;

also

1Pe 1:7, 13; 4:13,

with Re 1:1;

1Pe 2:9

with Re 5:10;

2Ti 4:8,

with Re 2:26, 27; 3:21; 11:18;

Eph 6:12,

with Re 12:7-12;

Php 4:3,

with Re 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15;

Col 1:18,

with Re 1:5;

1Co 15:52,

with Re 10:7; 11:15-18,

make a date before the destruction of Laodicea possible. Cerinthus is

stated to have died before John; as then he borrowed much in his

Pseudo-Apocalypse from John's, it is likely the latter was at an

earlier date than Domitian's reign. See TILLOCH'S

Introduction to Apocalypse. But the Pauline benediction

(Re 1:4)

implies it was written after Paul's death under Nero.

TO WHAT READERS ADDRESSED.--The inscription states

that it is addressed to the seven churches of Asia, that is,

Proconsular Asia. John's reason for fixing on the number seven

(for there were more than seven churches in the region meant by "Asia,"

for instance, Magnesia and Tralles) was doubtless because seven

is the sacred number implying totality and universality: so it is

implied that John, through the medium of the seven churches, addresses

in the Spirit the Church of all places and ages. The Church in its

various states of spiritual life or deadness, in all ages and places,

is represented by the seven churches, and is addressed with words of

consolation or warning accordingly. Smyrna and Philadelphia alone of

the seven are honored with unmixed praise, as faithful in tribulation

and rich in good works. Heresies of a decided kind had by this time

arisen in the churches of Asia, and the love of many had waxed cold,

while others had advanced to greater zeal, and one had sealed his

testimony with his blood.

OBJECT.--It begins with admonitory addresses to

the seven churches from the divine Son of man, whom John saw in vision,

after a brief introduction which sets forth the main subject of the

book, namely, to "show unto His servants things which must shortly come

to pass" (the first through third chapters). From the fourth chapter to

the end is mainly prophecy, with practical exhortations and

consolations, however, interspersed, similar to those addressed to the

seven churches (the representatives of the universal Church of every

age), and so connecting the body of the book with its beginning, which

therefore forms its appropriate introduction. Three schools of

interpreters exist: (1) The Preterists, who hold that almost the whole

has been fulfilled. (2) The Historical Interpreters, who hold that it

comprises the history of the Church from John's time to the end of the

world, the seals being chronologically succeeded, by the

trumpets and the trumpets by the vials. (3) The Futurists, who consider

almost the whole as yet future, and to be fulfilled immediately before

Christ's second coming. The first theory was not held by any of the

earliest Fathers, and is only held now by Rationalists, who limit

John's vision to things within his own horizon, pagan Rome's

persecutions of Christians, and its consequently anticipated

destruction. The Futurist school is open to this great objection: it

would leave the Church of Christ unprovided with prophetical guidance

or support under her fiery trials for 1700 or 1800 years. Now God has

said, "Surely He will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His

servants the prophets"

(Am 3:7).

The Jews had a succession of prophets who guided them with the light of

prophecy: what their prophets were to them, that the apocalyptic

Scriptures have been, and are, to us.

ALFORD, following ISAAC

WILLIAMS, draws attention to the parallel

connection between the Apocalypse and Christ's discourse on the Mount

of Olives, recorded in

Mt 24:4-28.

The seals plainly bring us down to the second coming of Christ, just as

the trumpets also do (compare

Re 6:12-17; 8:1,

&c.; Re 11:15),

and as the vials also do

(Re 16:17):

all three run parallel, and end in the same point. Certain "catchwords"

(as WORDSWORTH calls them) connect the three

series of symbols together. They do not succeed one to the other in

historical and chronological sequence, but move side by side, the

subsequent series filling up in detail the same picture which the

preceding series had drawn in outline. So

VICTORINUS (on

Re 7:2),

the earliest commentator on the Apocalypse, says, "The order of the

things said is not to be regarded, since often the Holy Spirit, when He

has run to the end of the last time, again returns to the same times,

and supplies what He has less fully expressed." And PRIMASIUS [Commentary on the Apocalypse], "In the

trumpets he gives a description by a pleasing repetition, as is

his custom."

At the very beginning, John hastens, by anticipation (as was the

tendency of all the prophets), to the grand consummation.

Re 1:7,

"Behold, He cometh with clouds," &c.

Re 1:8, 17,

"I am the beginning and the ending . . . the first and

the last." So the seven epistles exhibit the same anticipation

of the end.

Re 3:12,

"Him that overcometh, I will write upon Him the name of my God, and the

name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down

out of heaven"; compare at the close,

Re 21:2.

So also

Re 2:28,

"I will give him the morning star"; compare at the close,

Re 22:16,

"I am the bright and morning star."

Again, the earthquake that ensues on the opening of the sixth

seal is one of the catchwords, that is, a link connecting

chronologically this sixth seal with the sixth trumpet

(Re 9:13; 11:13):

compare also the seventh vial,

Re 16:17, 18.

The concomitants of the opening of the sixth seal, it is plain, in no

full and exhaustive sense apply to any event, save the terrors which

shall overwhelm the ungodly just before the coming of the Judge.

Again, the beast out of the bottomless pit

(Re 11:7),

between the sixth and seventh trumpets, connects this series with the

section, twelfth through fourteenth chapters, concerning the Church and

her adversaries.

Again, the sealing of the 144,000 under the sixth seal connects this

seal with the section, the twelfth through fourteenth chapters.

Again, the loosing of the four winds by the four angels standing on the

four corners of the earth, under the sixth seal, answers to the loosing

of the four angels at the Euphrates, under the sixth

trumpet.

Moreover, links occur in the Apocalypse connecting it with the Old

Testament. For instance, the "mouth speaking great things"

(Da 7:8

Re 13:5),

connects the beast that blasphemes against God, and makes war

against the saints, with the little horn

(Da 7:21;

Re 13:6, 7),

or at last king, who, arising after the ten kings, shall speak

against the Most High, and wear out the saints

(Da 7:25);

also, compare the "forty-two months"

(Re 13:5),

or "a thousand two hundred and threescore days"

(Re 12:6),

with the "time, times, and the dividing of time," of

Da 7:25.

Moreover, the "forty-two months,"

Re 11:2,

answering to

Re 12:6; 13:5,

link together the period under the sixth trumpet to the section,

Re 12:1-14:20.

AUBERLEN observes, "The history of salvation is

mysteriously governed by holy numbers. They are the scaffolding of the

organic edifice. They are not merely outward indications of time, but

indications of nature and essence. Not only nature, but history, is

based in numbers. Scripture and antiquity put numbers as the

fundamental forms of things, where we put ideas." As number is the

regulator of the relations and proportions of the natural world, so

does it enter most frequently into the revelations of the Apocalypse,

which sets forth the harmonies of the supernatural, the immediately

Divine. Thus the most supernatural revelation leads us the farthest

into the natural, as was to be expected, seeing the God of nature and

of revelation is one. Seven is the number for perfection

(compare

Re 1:4; 4:5,

the seven Spirits before the throne; also,

Re 5:6,

the Lamb's seven horns and seven eyes). Thus the seven

churches represent the Church catholic in its totality. The

seven seals

(Re 5:1),

the seven trumpets

(Re 8:2),

and the seven vials

(Re 17:1),

are severally a complete series each in itself, fulfilling perfectly

the divine course of judgments. Three and a half implies a

number opposed to the divine (seven), but broken in itself, and which,

in the moment of its highest triumph, is overwhelmed by judgment and

utter ruin. Four is the number of the world's extension;

seven is the number of God's revelation in the world. In the

four beasts of Daniel

(Da 7:3)

there is a recognition of some power above them, at the same time that

there is a mimicry of the four cherubs of Ezekiel

(Eze 10:9),

the heavenly symbols of all creation in its due subjection to God

(Re 4:6-8).

So the four corners of the earth, the four winds, the four angels

loosed from the Euphrates, and Jerusalem lying "foursquare"

(Re 21:16),

represent world-wide extension. The sevenfoldness of the Spirits on the

part of God corresponds with the fourfold cherubim on the part of the

created. John, seeing more deeply into the essentially God-opposed

character of the world, presents to us, not the four beasts of

Daniel, but the seven heads of the beast, whereby it arrogates

to itself the sevenfold perfection of the Spirits of God;

at the same time that, with characteristic self-contradiction, it has

ten horns, the number peculiar to the world power. Its unjust

usurpation of the sacred number seven is marked by the addition

of an eighth to the seven heads, and also by the beast's

own number, six hundred sixty-six, which in units, tens, and hundreds,

verges upon, but falls short of, seven. The judgments on the

world are complete in six: after the sixth seal and the sixth

trumpet, there is a pause. When seven comes, there comes "the

kingdom of our Lord and His Christ." Six is the number of the world

given to judgment. Moreover, six is half of twelve, as

three and a half is the half of seven. Twelve is the

number of the Church: compare the twelve tribes of Israel, the

twelve stars on the woman's head

(Re 12:1),

the twelve gates of new Jerusalem

(Re 21:12, 21).

Six thus symbolizes the world broken, and without solid

foundation. Twice twelve is the number of the heavenly elders; twelve

times twelve thousand the number of the sealed elect

(Re 7:4):

the tree of life yields twelve manner of fruits. Doubtless, besides

this symbolic force, there is a special chronological meaning in the

numbers; but as yet, though a commanded subject of

investigation, they have received no solution which we can be sure is

the true one. They are intended to stimulate reverent inquiry, not to

gratify idle speculative curiosity; and when the event shall have been

fulfilled, they will show the divine wisdom of God, who ordered all

things in minutely harmonious relations, and left neither the times nor

the ways haphazard.

The arguments for the year-day theory are as follows:

Da 9:24,

"Seventy weeks are determined upon," where the Hebrew may be

seventy sevens; but MEDE observes, the

Hebrew word means always seven of days, and never seven

of years

(Le 12:5;

De 16:9, 10, 16).

Again, the number of years' wandering of the Israelites was made

to correspond to the number of days in which the spies searched

the land, namely, forty: compare "each day for a year,"

Nu 14:33, 34.

So in

Eze 4:5, 6,

"I have laid up on thee the years of their iniquity, according

to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days

. . . forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a

year." John, in Revelation itself, uses days in a sense

which can hardly be literal.

Re 2:10,

"Ye shall have tribulation ten days": the persecution of ten

years recorded by EUSEBIUS seems to correspond

to it. In the year-day theory there is still quite enough of obscurity

to exercise the patience and probation of faith, for we cannot say

precisely when the 1260 years begin: so that this theory

is quite compatible with Christ's words, "Of that day and hour knoweth

no man"

[Mt 24:36;

Mr 13:32].

However, it is a difficulty in this theory that "a thousand years," in

Re 20:6, 7,

can hardly mean one thousand by three hundred sixty days, that is,

three hundred sixty thousand years. The first resurrection there must

be literal, even as

Re 20:5

must be taken literally, "the rest of the dead lived not again

until the thousand years were finished"

(Re 20:5).

To interpret the former spiritually would entail the need of

interpreting the latter so, which would be most improbable; for it

would imply that "the rest of the (spiritually) dead lived

not (spiritually)" until the end of the thousand years, and then

that they did come spiritually to life.

1Co 15:23,

"they that are Christ's at His coming," confirms the literal view.