YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Presented by the Author THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD- TORONTO THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN STUDIES IN INTRODUCTION WITH A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY BY ISBON T. BECKWITH, Ph.D., D.D. FORMERLY PROPESSOK OP THE INTERPRETATION OP THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE GENEBAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK, AND OP GREEK IN TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD Nefa gorfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1919 All rights reserved Copyright, 1919, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published November, igig. Norfaooti iprcss J. S. Cuahing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE Foe the understanding of the Revelation of John it is essen tial to put one's self, as far as is possible, into the world of its author and of those to whom it was first addressed. Its mean ing must be sought for in the light thrown upon it by the con dition and circumstances of its readers, by the author's inspired purpose, and by those current beliefs and traditions that not only influenced the fashion which his visions themselves took, but also and especially determined the form of this literary composition in which he has given a record of his visions. These facts will explain what might seem the disproportionate space which I have given to some topics in the following Intro ductory Studies. The Apocalypse is the one book of the New Testament whose theme is the doctrines of the Last Things, the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, that is, to use the common theological term, the doctrines of Eschatology. But these had a growth, running through the periods of biblical history; and the Apocalypse, springing from the heritage of these centuries, contains much, especially as regards form, which belongs to this eschatological development. The more fully, then, one comprehends the earlier eschatology, its history, and the prevalence of its princi pal conceptions, the better is one fitted to understand the Apocalypse in its leading aspects. I have therefore given a rather long chapter to the eschatology of the Old Testament and late Jewish writers, together with that of the different parts of the New Testament. Reference is frequently made to this to elucidate the Apocalypse. A second topic requiring somewhat extended notice is that of the late Jewish writings called by scholars Apocalyptic. VI PREFACE These, broadly speaking, are visions, whether actual or assumed, of the unseen world, chiefly of the coming ages. These writ ings form a distinct class, with certain characteristic concep tions, forms, symbols, and methods of composition. To this class belongs the Revelation of John, which, though incompara bly superior to, and in important particulars differing from, aH others of the kind, yet agrees with them in many leading ideas, as well as in imagery, language, and manner of writing. There is scarcely a paragraph in the Revelation which does not re ceive some illumination from other writings of this group. A knowledge of the characteristics of this so-called apocalyptic literature is then indispensable in the study of the Apocalypse of John. Two closely related topics, llic Times of the Apocalypse and its primary Purpose, necessarily enter into the study of one preparing himself to read the book from the author's stand point. Like the other books of the New Testament, the Reve lation, while containing truth for all time, was immediately occasioned by a concrete, practical purpose for the Church in the age in which it was written. The relation of the Roman Empire to the Church at the close of the first century (the time of the Apocalypse), and especially the establishment of a state- religion in the emperor-worship, which plays a foremost part in the Revelation, contained within them the principle of the supreme struggle between the world and Christianity. That struggle, already beginning at the time, was viewed as destined to reach its climax in a future not very remote. The primary purpose of the Apocalypse was to help the Church to meet the conflict then and afterwards. The relation of the book to its age must therefore claim adequate space in prefatory study. As the Apocalypse is a prophetic book, the subject of the right reading of prophecy in general presents inquiries which cannot be passed over too briefly. I have discussed certain canons for the interpretation of prophecy, recognized by present- day scholars, which may give some measure of guidance in dis tinguishing the transitory element from the permanent, and I have tried to show the application of such canons to some of the perplexing questions of the Revelation. The great spiritual revelations given in the Apocalypse regarding the coming of PREFACE vii God's kingdom are conveyed in forms of the Prophet's time ; and the usefulness of his book for a subsequent age depends largely upon the separation, so far as is practicable, of the permanent from the transitory. Criticism, technically so called, demands a considerable place in a study of the Apocalypse at the present time. For some decades now the view that the book lacks unity has attracted the support of a numerous group of scholars, and a large body of critical literature has been occupied with proposed analyses of it into different documents of widely differing authors, which supposedly have been revised and combined, perhaps through several revisions, into the present form ; or, as others would maintain, the present form of the book is the result of a suc cession of revisions and enlargements of a single original docu ment. These theories enter into nearly all recent discussions of the Apocalypse. The investigations upon which they are founded, carried on often with singular acuteness, are of great value in the study of the book, even if the conclusions are not always accepted. They cannot then be ignored by the inter preter or passed over in a few words. Yet they need to be tested by the methods of a strict exegesis, and especially in the light of the peculiar literary characteristics of the author of the Apocalypse. In these respects they are not infrequently found wanting. I have given in the Introduction a survey with some discussion of the representative hypotheses, and at the end of the commentary on each paragraph of the book have taken up the principal criticisms of the paragraph. In view of the prominence of the subject in recent study of the Apocalypse, it is proper to state here the position which I have taken in regard to the originality and unity of the book. As all students are aware, the author's mind was stored to a marvelous degree with the ideas, the language, and the imagery found in the Old Testament and in apocalyptic writings. The evidence of this appears on every page, one might almost say in every para graph of a few verses. That his visions themselves should have been shaped more or less by that with which his mind was filled would be inevitable ; still more would this influence be felt in any deliberate effort to describe these spiritual experiences. The Apocalyptist did not write down his visions while in a viii PREFACE state of ecstasy, but after all were ended. No doubt they were in themselves beyond the possibilities of adequate portrayal. And as he recalls them, and seeks to describe them and put them into systematic form, as he has done in his book, he labors with careful deliberation and all the resources at his command to give his readers some apprehension of the great scenes re vealed to him and their significance. In this then he becomes, not a mechanical recorder of something seen and heard, but a literary artist struggling to give form to inspired ideas, as do often the poets and prophets of the Old Testament. His por trayal becomes a carefully studied composition. He writes in the traditional manner of the apocalyptic, using its familiar conceptions, its language, and its imagery. Symbols and other suggestions are derived very frequently from the Old Testa ment, sometimes from common Hebrew folk-lore, and in some instances apparently from apocalyptic sources not preserved to us. There are passages in which critics are probably right in finding traces of the influence of some unknown apocalyptic writing — passages which, if taken by themselves, would seem to belong to a different connection, or different historic circum stances. But, as may be certainly concluded from the Apoca- lyptist's use of the Old Testament, these are very far from being fragments incorporated into his book bodily and apart from the connection. Like certain passages of the prophets unmistaka bly before his mind in some places and shaping his representa tion, so these sources have suggested to him pictures or symbols, which he transforms and applies with the utmost freedom. Without resorting to an unjustifiable method of exegesis, para graphs exhibiting such influence may be shown to have for the Apocalyptist a meaning bearing directly on his theme and fitting into the general plan which he conceives and carries out from the beginning. In this sense, then, I hold that the book is a unit, the work of one mind ; that it has a wonderful plan to which every part contributes, a plan carried out with extraor dinary power to its great culmination. But both the plan and its execution are marked by traits which are peculiar to the author. I have accordingly given a paragraph to the illustra tion of some of the leading characteristics in what may be called the author's literary manner, because the recognition of these PREFACE ix is important for the right interpretation of the book, and be cause a failure to recognize them is a frequent cause of the denial of its unity. I have given in the Introduction a Summary of the Contents of the Apocalypse, embodying the interpretations adopted and showing the meaning of each division of the book in itself and its place in the plan of the whole. This chapter is designed to be read in connection with the text in order to exhibit the unity of the book and to give the reader a succinct view of the tre mendous drama as it moves on from the beginning, with the forces shown at work within it, till it reaches its climax in the end. While the work here offered is intended first of all for theo logical seminaries and colleges, for the clergy and other special students, I have also sought to make it helpful to that large number of readers, not professional scholars, who are interested in the Revelation and are accustomed to the use of biblical Commentaries, especially those who seek aid in fitting them selves for the instruction of maturer classes in the Bible. Accordingly I have in general translated into English matter in other languages. As more convenient for this class of read ers, the English words given in the notes not infrequently cover more than the Greek words actually quoted from the text. I have in some cases retained the more familiar forms, e.g. the name Jehovah, the abbreviation 2 Es. instead of 4 Ez. for the Apocryphal book 2 Esdras. Sections likely to interest the special student only are printed in finer type. I would espe cially call the attention of the readers here in mind to the Sum mary of the Contents spoken of above, in connection with which the Revised Version should be used. For the effective use of the Summary they should prepare themselves by reading, if only superficially, the chapters in the Introduction on Escha tology, the Apocalyptic Writings, the Times and the Purpose of the Revelation, the Permanent and Transitory Elements in it. I have hoped that such a study of the Revelation, aided also by occasional reference to the discussions and notes in the Com mentary proper, might suffice to show even the non-professional reader that this book of the New Testament — to many an enigma — is one of the most comprehensible, as it is one of the X PREFACE most splendid, books of our Bible, and — I might also add — a book of extraordinary literary power. No effort has been made in the following work to give a full bibliography for the various subjects touched upon ; but a con siderable number of those publications which for one reason or another are most noteworthy are mentioned in their respective places. For the Greek text on which the Commentary is based see p. 727. I. T. B. CONTENTS PAGB PREFACE V ABBREVIATIONS xiii INTRODUCTORY STUDIES 1 I. The Eschatological Hope 3 Primitive Age 4 Patriarchal and Pre-MonarcMcal Age .... 8 MonarcMcal Age 16 Exilic and Post-Exilic Age 30 _ The New Testament Era 82 II. Apocalyptic Literature 166 Characteristics 169 Occasion 175 Jewish Apocalyptic Writings 177 III. The Times of the Apocalypse op John .... 197 IV. The Purpose 208 V. Question of the Unity 216 Critical Analyses 224 VI. Some Characteristics of the Author's Literary Manner 239 VII. Summary of the Contents of the Apocalypse . . 255 vm. Permanent and Transitory Elements in the Apoca lypse 291 IX. Theology or the Apocalypse 310 X. History of Interpretation 318 XI. Early Circulation and Recognition .... 837 XII. Authorship 343 The Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel .... 353 Xm. The Two Johns of the Asian Church .... 362 John the Presbyter 362 Question of John the Apostle at Ephesus .... 366 XXV. The Beast of the Apocalypse 393 Symbol of the Roman Emperors 394 Symbol of Antichrist 397 Antichrist as Nero reincarnated 400 The Second Beast 408 XV. The Text 411 COMMENTARY 417 Criticism and Textual Notes : see end of respective divisions. INDEX 788 xi ABBREVIATIONS This list is not meant to include all the works referred to, but only to make clear references which might be obscure. Other abbreviations not given here will probably be obvious in their connections. See also p. 416. al : others, elsewhere. Apocalyptic writings. Ap. Abr. ; Apocalypse of Abraham — Ap. Bar. : Apocalypse of Baruoh (Syriac) — Asc. Is.: Ascension of Isaiah — Ass. Mos; : Assumption of Moses — En. . Enoch (Ethiopic) — 2 Es. : 2 Esdras (of the Apocrypha, commonly cited 4 Ez.) — Jub. : Book of Jubilees — Od. of Sol. : Odes of Solomon — Ps. Sol. : Psalms of Solomon — Sib. Or.: Sibylline Oracles — SI. En.: Slavonic Enoch — Test XII Pat: Testaments of the XH. Patriarchs — Test Lev : Testament of Levi, etc. — Vit. Ad. . Life of Adam and Eve. Baldensperger : Messian-Apok. Hoffnung, etc. 3d ed. 1908. Beet: Last Things. 1905. Bertholet: vol. II. of Stade's Bib. Theol. d. A. T. 1911. Blass: Gram. d. neutest. Griech. 1896. Blj : Commentaar op de Openbaring. 1908. Bouss : Bousset, Antichrist. Eng. tr. 1896. Judenthum: Religion d. Judenthums im neutest. Zeitalt. 1903. Jud. Ap. : Jildische Apokalyptik. 1903. Kom : Offenbarung Johannis. 2d ed. 1906. Box : The Ezra Apocalypse. 1912. Briggs, Mess. Ap. : Messiah ofthe Apostles. 1895. • Mess. P. : Messianic Prophecy. 1886. Bruce, Paul : St. Paul 's Conception of Christianity. 1894. Briickner : Entstehung d. paulin. Christol. 1903. Burton : Moods and Tenses in N. T. Greek. 8d ed. 1898. Buttm. : Gram, of N. T. Greek. Eng.tr. 1878. Calmes : L' Apocalypse devant la Critique. 1907. CB. . Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Charles, Eschat. . Christian Doctrine of Future Life. 1899. Studies : Studies in the Apocalypse. 1913. CorniU : Introd. to Canon. Books of 0. T. Eng. tr. 1907. Dalman, Worte : Worte Jesu. 1898. Davidson, Theol. : Theology of 0. T. 1904. Deissmann : Licht. vom Ost. 2d and 3d ed. 1909. Denney, Jesus : Jesus and the Gospels. 1908. Dewick, Eschat. . Primitive Christian Eschatology. 1912. Driver, Introd. : Introduction to Lit. of 0. T 7th ed. 1898. xiii xiv ABBREVIATIONS Dohschiitz: Eschatology of the Gospels. Eng.tr. 1910. Drummond : The Jewish Messiah. 1877. Diist. : Dusterdieok, Offenbar. Johan. 1865. Edersheim : Life and Times of the Mesxiah. 8th ed. 1898. EGT. : Expositor's Greek Testament. En. Bib. : Encyclopaedia BibUca. 1899-1903. Erbes : Offenbar. Johan. kritischuntersucht. 1891. EV : both AV and RV. Ewald : Johannes' Apokalypse. 1862. Peine : Jesus Christus u. Paulus. 1902. Theol. d. N. T. 1910. GMT. : Goodwin, Moods and Tenses of Gk. Verb. 1890. Gunkel : Schopfung u. Chaos. 1895. Hamack, Alt. Lit. I. : Ueherlieferung etc.. First part of Altchrist. Lit. 1893. Chron. : Chronologic d. altchrist. Lit. 1897. Dogm. . Dogmengeschichte. 1890-1894. Hast. : Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible. 1898-1904. Haupt, Eschat. : Eschatolog. Aussagen Jesu. 1895. Hausrath : Jesus u. d. neutest. Schriftsteller. 1906. Hennecke : Neutest. Apokryphen. 1904. Hilgenf eld : Judische Apokalyptik. 1857. Hirscht : Die Apok. u. ihre neueste Kritik. 1895. Holtzmann, Ein. : Einleitung in d. N. T. 3d ed. 1892. Mess. : Das Messian. Bewusstsein Jesu. 1907. Theol. : Neutest. Tlieol. 2d ed. 1911. Holtzm-Bau. : Holtzmann-Bauer, Offenbar. Johan. 1908. Hiihn : Messian. Weissagungen. 1899. ICC. . Internat. Crit. Commentary. Jeremias : Bahylonisches im N. T. 1905. Jew. En. : Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901-1906. JUlicher, Ein. : Einleitung in d. N. T. 6th ed. 1906. Kabisoh : Eschatol. d. Paulus. 1893. Kautzsch: Apokryphen u. Pseudepigraph. d. Alt. Test. vol. II. 1900. Kennedy: St. Paul's Conception ofthe Last Thingn. 1904. Kiihn: Kuhner, Ausfuhr. Gram. d. Griech. Sprache. 3d ed. 1890-1904. Lepin : Je'sus Messie et Fils, etc. 3d ed. 1907. Lietzmann : Der Menschaisohn. 1896. L & S. : Liddell and Scott, Greek Lexicon. 1883. loc. cit. : the passage cited. Liioke : Einleitung in d. Offenbar. <1. Johan. 2d ed. 1852. Mathews : Me^.tinn. Hope in the N. T. 1905. Moff, Introd.: Moffatt, Introduction to Lit. of N. T. 1911. Rev. : Revelation, in EGT. 1910. Muirhead: Eschatology of .Teaus. 1904. op. cit. : the work cited. Orelli : O. T. Prophecy. Eng. tr. 1885. Ottley: Aspects ofthe 0, T. 1898. ABBREVIATIONS XV par. : parallel passages in the Synoptic Gospels. Peters : The Religion of the Hebrews. 1914. Pfleiderer : Das Urchristenthum. 2d ed. 1902. Preuschen : Griech-Deutsch. Handwortebuch zum N. T. 1910. Rauch : Offenbar. d. Johan. untersucht, etc. 1894. Riehm : Messian. Weissagung. 2d ed. 1885. Sabatier : Les Origines Litteraires et la Comp. de I'Apoc. 1888. Salmond : Christian Doctrine of Immortality. 3d ed. 1897. Schoen: L' Origine de I' Apocalypse. 1887. Schiirer : Geschichte d. jildisch. Volkes im Zeitalt. Jesu Christi. 4th ed. 1909. Schultz : Alttest Theol. 5th ed. 1896. Schwally : Leben nach d. Tode. 1892. Schweitzer, QHG. : Quest of Historic Jesus. 1910 ; tr. of von Reimarus zu Wrede. Smend : Alttest. Religionsgeschichte. 2d ed. 1899. Smith, W. R., PropAete : The Prophets of Israel. 1882. Spitta : Offenbar. Johan. untersucht. 1889. Stade : Bib. Theol. d. A. T, vol. L 1905. For vol. II. see Bertholet. Stanton : Jewish and Christian Messiah. 1886. Stuart : Commentary on the Apocalypse. 1845. Thayer: Gk-Eng. Lexicon of N. T. 1887. Titius : Neutest. Lehre von d. Seligkeit. 1895-1900. Vischer : Die Offenbar. Johan. eine judisch. Apok. 1886. Volter : Offenbar. Johan. 2d ed. 1911. Das Problem d. Apokalypse. 1893. Volz : Judische Eschatologie. 1903. Weber, System : System d. altsynagogal. paldstin. Theol. 1880. Weiss, B., TheoL : Bib. Theol. A N. T. 7th ed. 1903. Weiss, J. . Offenbar. Johan. 1904. Paul and Jesus. Eng. tr. 1909. Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes. 2d ed. 1900. Wellhausen, An. : Analyse d. Offenbar. 1907. Ein. : Einleitung in d. drei erst. Evangelien. 1905. Wendt: Teaching of Jesus. Eng.tr. 1897. Wernle, Reich. . Reichsgotteshoffnung, etc. 1903. Westcott: General Survey of Hist, of Canon of N. T 1896. Introduction to Study ofthe Gospels. 1896. Weyland: Omwerkings-en Compilatie-Hypothesen toegepast op de Apok. 1888. WH, Introd.: Westcott and Hort, Introd. and Appendix: the second part of their Greek Test. Win : Winer, Gram, of N. T. Eng. tr. 1870. Wrede : Paulus. 2d ed. 1907. Zahn, Ein. . Einleitung in d. N. T. 3d ed. 1907. Forsch. : Forschungen zur Geschichte d. Neustest. Kanons. GK. . Geschichte d. Kanons. 1888-1890. Grundriss : Grundriss d. GK. 1901. INTRODUCTORY STUDIES One who would seek to help students of the New Testament to an understanding of the Revelation of John ^ cannot fail to be aware of the difficulty of the task. It is doubtless true that no other book, whether in sacred or profane literature, has received in whole or in part so many different interpretations. Doubt less no other book has so perplexed biblical students through out the Christian centuries down to our own time. Its imagery and symbolism are often strange ; its different parts seem to lack coherence, their significance in themselves and in their relation to one another or to a common plan is often obscure ; the scenes unfolded in its visions might, if taken quite by them selves, be understood to symbolize a great variety of events or personages in the history of the nations or the Church, they might be referred to things past, things now taking place, or things yet to come. Visions like allegories lend themselves easily to very varied application. It is not surprising then that most divergent and extravagant interpretations of parts of the book have been offered with confidence and urged with a certain measure of plausibility.^ And so in all these diver gences and uncertainties it has come about that readers of the New Testament have often despaired of seizing the meaning in tended. The devout reader has never failed to place among the most cherished parts of his Bible such passages as the vision of the Celestial City (chapts. 21-22), the vision of the innumerable multitude of the redeemed with God and the Lamb (chapt. 7), and the like, while yet the Revelation as a whole has seemed to remain for him a sealed book. Notwithstanding all this it may, however, be said that through the methods of biblical research 1 On the title, see p. 417. ^ Tor different modes of interpretation, see pp. 318 f£. 1! 1 2 INTRODUCTORY STUDIES followed in more recent times results have been reached which, though they do not solve all the perplexing problems of the book, do nevertheless give a good measure of certainty regard ing its meaning and structure in the main. Not only is the day of fanciful interpretation past, the book is no longer an enigma. Much as scholars may differ regarding many inter esting questions pertaining to it, yet these questions do not profoundly affect the view to be taken of its fundamental scope and contents. Whether certain portions have been incorporated from other apocalypses, whether these are of Jewish or Chris tian origin, whether an earlier or later date be assigned to the book, whether the author was St. John the Apostle or another John, these and similar questions may. be differently answered by different scholars without materially changing our view of the great aim of the book, or even of the general features of its plan in the form in which it was received into the Sacred Canon and has been handed down to us. Regarding its essential char acteristics something approaching unanimity may be said to have been reached among the larger number of scientific inter preters. This gain in the interpretation of the book has been won chiefly through a better apprehension of the history of its leading thoughts in the ages preceding its appearance, through a fuller study of the large class of apocalyptic literature to which it belongs in manner and form, through the critical study of sources, taking the word ' source ' in a comprehensive sense, and through a clearer understanding of the nature and scope of prophecy. This advance is a conspicuous result of applying ta biblical study the historical method. By the historical method of studying any ancient writing we mean the endeavor to realize as fully as possible the historic past out of which the work sprang. This includes not only the circumstances which called forth the writing and its meaning for its time, but also the forces which entered into its production — the writer's characteristics and heritage, the history of his conceptions, his obligations to his predecessors, his use of traditional types and forms, in fact whatever went to make up the man as he wrote and whatever shaped the contents and form of his writing. That such a method is equally applicable to those books in which divine inspiration is a constitutive factor is unquestion- ESCHATOLOGY 3 able, inasmuch as the divinely illumined writer must receive his message, not magically, but through concepts which belong to his own modes of thought, and must impart it in familiar human forms. We may confidently believe that such a study is one of the ways through which the Divine Spirit, promised as a guide in truth, is ever leading the Church on to a better understanding of the word of God. If, then, we would under take the study of the Revelation of John with the hope of reaching an interpretation in keeping with the procedure and results of sober-minded biblical research, avoiding arbitrary hypotheses,' we must approach the work through certain pre liminary studies. In the brief space of an Introduction the topics here referred to cannot be treated with fullness, but it is hoped that such a survey may be taken as will furnish what is requisite for entering on an intelligent prosecution of our task. I. The Eschatological Hope As the central topic of the Apocalypse is the consummation of the hope of God's people we naturally begin our study with a survey, as brief as practicable, of that, hope from its first recorded expression on through the ages with its changes in character and form down to its culmination in the teaching of our Lord and his Apostles and its most elaborate exhibition in this book of the Apocalypse. What we are here concerned with relates to the things of the Last Days, the final state to which the children of God, whether the individual or the people as a whole, have from age to age looked forward. In speaking of this as the eschatological hope, we use the term 'eschatology ' in a broad sense denoting the doctrine of the Last Days in whatever form they were in any particular age conceived. While the word is sometimes taken in a limited sense in rela tion only to the people of God, or the nations of the world, as an organic whole and not with reference to the individual except as a part of that whole,i yet in its broader use it denotes the doctrine of the End, whether the aspect le individual or gen eral, national or universal, earthly or heavenly.^ When this expectation is spoken of as messianic, the term being taken as 1 So Volz 1. 2 Cf. Davidson Theol. 401. 4 ESCHATOLOGY practically synonymous with eschutological, it must be kept in mind that reference is not always made to the presence of the personal Messiah, but to that final state of glory, the fuUy established Kingdom of God, whether earthly or heavenly, which forms the object of hope at the particular time under consideration. There are times when the figure of a personal Messiah is wanting, or at least inconspicuous, in the anticipa tions of the coming kingdom. ^ But since such anticipations find their consummation only in the days of the Messiah, they may be regarded appropriately as a part of the messianic hope.^ In tracing the growth of the eschatological hope among the Hebrews we cannot always fix in the minuter details the char acteristics of a particular age, nor the precise date at which different phases appear or disappear, because there is often uncertainty concerning the exact age of the historical docu ments, because also some of these documents contain portions inserted at a later time and some retain traditional elements which may be intended as figurative rather than literal. ^ Bjit taking Hebrew history in its larger divisions, we may be reason ably certain regarding the nature of the eschatological expecta tions in the respective periods and can generally perceive the influences which have caused the changes in the transition from one period to another. 1. The Primitive Age. In the first period of biblical history, that contained in the first eleven chapters of the book of Gene sis, we have a legendary story of a primitive age before the separation of mankind into the tribes that formed, the nations of the earth. As an introduction to his history of the Hebrew people the author has here brought together a group of narra tives (from what source derived, we need not here inquire) relating to the earlier ages of the world and man, for the pur pose of setting forth certain fundamental truths of religion. And in this story of primitive humanity there are contained two striking religious promises. The first occurs in the tragedy of Eden in the words addressed to the Serpent, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise 1 See p. 40. 2 Cf. Stade 218. 3 cf. Volz 1. PRIMITIVE AGE 5 his heel.' ^ The doom here uttered announces the bitter con flict to be waged through all time between the race of men and the race of the Serpent, the ever-continuing, agonizing struggle of humanity against the power of evil. At the same time there is implied, though not directly declared, the hope of victory for man. The evil power in the narrative, the Serpent, is the chief offender ; it is upon him that the sentence falls flrst, and in a struggle with him ordered by God he cannot be the victor. As he grovels in the dust his head is to be crushed beneath the heel of man, who though in bitter pain does not succumb to his foe.^ At the very threshold of his history and in the im measurable calamity of his failure as described by the Hebrew writer, a vision of future blessing is opened to man. ' Hence forth man's gaze is no longer turned backwards in longing after a lost Paradise, but is directed hopefully to the future.' ^ The absence of all particularistic or Hebraic coloring in this nar rative seems to mark it as prehistoric in its essential religious features, that is, as preserving evidence of a religious hope existing in the race out of which the Hebrews sprang. In tracing the external features of the story to an early legend we do not, it must be observed, change the religious character of the narrative. The history of man's moral struggle and fail ure does not thereby lose any of its reality and truthfulness. Rightly has this passage been called the Protevangelium, First Grospel, for it contains the first promise of ultimate triumph in the conflict with evil. For the same reason it may be called messianic, though it is doubtful whether there is any direct reference to a personal Messiah. The term ' seed of the woman ' is quite general in the narrative — there is nothing to indicate a limitation. All mankind is the seed of the Mother of man.* And as the conflict announced is for universal humanity, so is the promise. 'The verse must not be interpreted so as to exclude those minor, though in their own sphere not less real, triumphs by which in all ages individuals have resisted the suggestions of sin and proved themselves superior to the power of evil.' ^ It is true that the promise is fully realized only in that One of the seed of the woman, who brought to nought 1 316. 2 Cf. Dillmann Kom., Driver Gen. ad loc. 3 Orelli 90. i Schultz 667. "i Driver Gen. 57. 6 ESCHATOLOGY him that had the power of death. i The prophecy then is mes sianic like many others, in that it anticipates an ideal which can be completely reached only in the Messiah and the condi tions of the messianic era. The serpent in the narrative is not the Satan of the later Scriptures. The identification of the two belongs to a later period in Hebrew thought. He is a demon in animal form. Legends of demoniac animals, especially serpents, are found elsewhere in Semitic traditions (cf. Stade Geschichte d. Volkes Israel 160 ; Marti Religion d. AU. Test. 18). Such a legend our writer has made use of in the story of the Fall. The mythological serpent fur nishes him a symbol of the power seducing man to evil (cf. Schultz 515). These narratives of the ' origins ' are in the form of myths current for cen turies among various branches of the Semitic race. They relate to a period immeasurably remote from any historical record ; they contain many ele ments which cannot be taken as actual history. But the great truths con tained in them touching God and the spiritual life of man are clear. With an insight, possible in that age only through divine illumination, the writer seizes fundamental truths of religion, and taking up current narratives in a purified form uses them as vehicles for his God-given message. And nothing reveals the influence of a divine inspiration more strikingly than the fact that these narratives, when compared with the forms preserved among other branches of the race, are seen to be so wonderfully purged of all irreligious and immoral elements. Such narratives then fall into the same category as parables, allegories, figures, etc. ; they are the forms only — the substance is the revealed truth enshrined within them (cf. Ottley 57, Peters 183 f.). A second promise belonging to this period, and opening an other aspect of religious hope, is recorded in Gen. 9^5 «._ j^ ^j^g sequel to the story of the flood, in that new beginning of human history, Noah, the second progenitor of the race, forecasts in poetic form the characteristics and destinies of his three sons' descendants, the three great branches of the human family as known to the Hebrew writers. Here as elsewhere, 2 by what has been called the prophetical interpretation of history, the des tiny of a people is conceived to be determined by a blessing or a curse pronounced upon an ancestor. While a curse falls upon the race of Ham and wide dominion on the earth is given to that of Japheth, the blessing of Shem is centered in his" relation to God. 'Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem.' Shem's blessing is expressed in an outburst of praise to him who is the author of the blessing. The good to come to him is not speci- ' Heb. 2". 2 Cf. the ' blessing ' of Jacob, Gen. 49 ; that of Moses, Dt. 32. PRIMITIVE AGE 7 fled — it is enough that Jehovah is his God. His blessing con sists fundamentally in that peculiar relation to God which is not the portion of his brothers. We have not here a duplicate of the promise to Abraham, but rather one of the steps prepara tory to the latter. No covenant is formed with Shem as with Abraham ; there is no institution of a new national unit, no promise to Shem's seed as such, but the assurance of a special blessing to his family because they know Jehovah and have him for their God. It is not unlikely that the precise /orm of the oracle given in this passage is influenced by the history of the Hebrews, the descendants of Shem, and reflects their consciousness of their peculiar character as the people of God. This passage, as well as that containing the final promise spoken of above, belongs to a document (J) which the author of Genesis has incorporated into his book and which doubtless dates at the earliest from a time succeed ing the establishment of the Hebrew monarchy (of. Driver Introd. 128, Cornill 76). Yet it is difficult to avoid the conviction that we have here a tradition belonging to a time prior to the appearance of the Hebrews in history as a people. This same document (J), in giving the story of the foundation through Abraham of a nation which should be God's peculiar people, does not emphasize Abraham's descent from Shem ; and since Shem's descendants included many other peoples besides the Hebrews, that is, since the larger part of Shem's descendants were not among the chosen people, this prophecy regarding his race is more likely to have given perplexity to a writer of this later age, than to have originated with him. For him the beginnings of the chosen people are with Abraham. The prophecy appears to express one of the religious hopes of a race, the prehistoric ancestors of the Hebrews, which was endowed with remarkable religious apprehension and aspiration. In fact the religious conceptions of the Hebrews in his toric times imply a period of prehistoric revelation from which they started and through which they reached a stage so advanced. Such are the two hopes of this primitive period — the one altogether ideal, touching man universally, the other limited to a tribe, but beginning that course of development, through a process of selection, in which the ideal is ultimately to reach its realization. With profound insight into the divine charac ter the writer who gathered up these traditions saw expressed here the hope of a closer- relation with God in spite of the entrance of sin — a relation grounded not merely in descent but in the moral attitude of man. The blessing is, however, not thought of as independent of the family or tribe ; so indi- 8 ESCHATOLOGY vidualistic a conception was impossible in that stage of society. The special relation to God is moral but it is realized only through membership in the family whose God is Jehovah. We might sum up the two hopes in one, as an aspiration toward the sublime ideal of victory over evil, realizing itself, not in isola tion and individually, hut in the corporate body of a family who know and recognize Grod. It was this that gave vitality and direction to all subsequent eschatological expectation among the Hebrews. The prophecies of a .primitive revelation taken up by them in prehistoric time gave them an outlook which appears among almost no other people of the ancient world. The Hebrews were almost alone among the nations in putting their Golden Age in the future rather than in the past, though they often, as will appear farther on, conceived that future under earthly and temporal aspects. It is interesting to notice that each of the promises of which we have been speaking came to man after a failure involving the race in disaster. The Fall in Eden at the outset, and the ail-but universal wickedness that brought on the visitation of the Flood, might have shut every door of hope. Nothing is more characteristic of the concep tions of the Hebrew religion than this clear apprehension of God's dealing with his children. To them that sit in the region and shadow of death light springs up. And so through the later history the most striking outbursts of eschatological hope, as expressed in the prophets and in the apocalyptic writings,! appear in times of national calamity. 2. The Patriarchal and pre-Monarchical Age. In turning from the earlier chapters of Genesis (1-11) to the later narra tives, we pass from the legendary age of the human family to the beginnings of a historic people — the one people chosen out of the tribes of the ancient world to be the recipient of God's special revelation and the medium of religious knowledge to men. The transition is too great to be readily measured in time, but it is rapid, abrupt even, as regards the religious aspect given in the biblical record. This is not strange, be cause the writer views the legendary age in the light of an inspired perception of (lod's purposes from the beginning, and 1 On the Apocalyptic wi'itings see p. 166. PATRIARCHAL AND PRE-MONARCHICAL AGE 9 he sees, in the early Hebrew history the immediate steps in the development of these purposes. In our present inquiry it will suffice to take this history from its beginning to the age imme diately preceding the establishment of the monarchy in the person of Saul, as constituting a single period. For in this period the idea of a chosen people, a Kingdom of God on earth, first arises and reaches a certain definite stage in its realization. The migration of a Semitic clan from the far east into Canaan, of which the record is given in the story of Abraham, was a movement begun and carried on in the consciousness of a religious vocation. The great leader, following what he recog nized as a divine summons, led his tribe out of heathen sur roundings, ' not knowing whither he went,' ^ and guided by Providence came into that land where he remained to the end a sojourner, a nomad dwelling in tents with the heirs of the promise. But in that long trial of his faith, wonderfully endured, God, according to the narrative as given in Genesis, opened to him a vision such as has never come to another, save that given to the Son of Man in the face of his messianic work, though Abraham himself may have fallen short of its full meaning and scope. Even if it could be shown that the patri archs were not actual personalities, even if in the narratives concerning them we have tribal life given under the form of personal histories, yet the essential truth contained in our record remains the same. The Hebrew clan, as guided by its leaders, became conscious of a special religious character and cherished these visions, dim though they may have been, of its destinies. The promises given to Abraham, the mission com mitted to him, were repeated and made more definite from time to time — they were renewed to Isaac and Jacob. ^ The process of selection, begun in Abraham, continues in the next succeed ing generations, in keeping with the law of God's providence by which the fittest agent is chosen for working out a given end.3 Isaac is chosen, not Ishmael ; Jacob, not Esau. Israel's race thus chosen out of the tribes of men was to form the people with whom God enters into a solemn covenant ; it was 1 Heb. 118. 2 Gen. 122J-.i', ISi"-, 155, nia, 22i6ff-, 263*-, 28Wff-. 3 Cf. Eo. 9" Ti kot' 4K\oy^v TrpSSeffis tov BeoO, ' The divine purpose which has worked on the prhiciple of selection,' Sanday and Headlam, ad loc. 10 ESCHATOLOGY to be hi5 people and he was to be their God ; it was to con tinue through the ages, spreading over a wide earthly domain, unnumbered in multitude, and bearing within itself blessings which all the nations of the earth should desire. In the position and outlook of the Hebrew people as thus determined there are given at least four elements which are characteristic of the eschatological expectation of this period. (1) The race was to form a nation, a unit among the peoples, having its separate, organic, national life. The consciousness of its national character, however dim in the nomadic life of the patriarchal age, became clear through the influence of later experiences. The sufferings of common hardships in Egypt, the common trials of the exodus and the wanderings in the wilderness, the long struggle against common enemies in the conquest of Canaan, the possession of a common religious and moral law intensified the sense of unity as well as of separate- ness from other peoples. In spite of the jealousies and divisions that appeared among the tribes the sense of a common nation ality was not lost in Israel, nor was there any widespread tend ency to merge its identity in the races of kindred blood with which it was in near contact. (2) The Hebrew nation was to possess a land. At first a tribe of wanderers in a land ' not its own,' it looked forward to a permanent settlement within a territory geographically defined and ultimately to become as wide in its boundaries as its people Avere to be numerous. To the seed which was to be as the stars in multitude was prom ised the land ' from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.' i It was not until centuries after Abraham that the realization of this promise first began in the conquest of Canaan, and still several centuries later under David and Solomon that its virtual fulfillment was reached. The literal language of the promise (which belongs to the document J) was probably suggested by the actual extent of the kingdom at the time of its greatest expansion. But under this form is recorded the outlook given to the patriarchs and their descend ants answering to their consciousness of their divine vocation. The possession of a large country was inseparable from their sense of their calling to become a great nation. But the I Gen. 1518. PATRIARCHAL AND PRE-MONARCHICAL AGE 11 prophecies of Israel's dominion which are found in this period, though colored by the hopes of a later time, do not yet prom ise an extension which is universal. The language of the ' Blessing ' of Jacob, ' unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be,^ contemplates not all nations, but those with which Israel comes in contact, those in or near Canaan, as is shown by the limited scope of the whole ' Blessing. ' Even the far- reaching outlook pictured in Balaam's predictions ^ promises only victory over enemies and the conquest of neighboring nations. The prophetic vision is still limited in space as it is in time.^ (3) Over this nation and this realm the sovereign ruler was God. The polity was what, since Josephus * applied the word thus, has been called a theocracy. Other Semitic peoples also viewed their tribal god as their king.^ And our records of the theocratic conceptions of the Hebrews in the age which we are considering doubtless reflect later ideals. Yet it seems clear that from very early times Hebrew national life was dominated to a degree not found elsewhere by a sense of the ruling presence of God. The evidence of this is seen not in isolated, occasional utterances, but in every movement, in every phase, of their history. The patriarchs, the leaders, the judges are only organs or agents of God. They act in a sense of his immediate direction.^ The Mosaic legislation — and by this we mean those fundamental religious, moral, and civil laws which can be referred to the great Lawgiver, as contrasted with the later elaborate system which we may call Mosaic because it is an outgrowth of the law of Moses — may be said to have given the Hebrew people its organic existence as a nation ; but everywhere the Law is regarded not as that of Moses, but of God. It is Jehovah's voice which is everywhere conceived to be speaking — the words are his words, his finger engraves them on the tables of stone ; Moses is but his prophet. Before the institution of the monarchy there existed in the Mosaic state no established officer or executive whose function it was in virtue of his office to act as the organ of God's rule. In great crises God raised up leaders and deliverers, — Moses, Joshua, the Judges, who were recognized as his immediate and special 1 Gen. 4910. 2 Num. 23 f . 3 Cf . pp. 301 ff. * c. Ap. II. 16. 6 Cf. W. R. Smith, Prophets 50. « Cf . Riehm 66. 12 ESCHATOLOGY agents for meeting extraordinary needs. In its ordinary course the foundations of national life, social and civic, as well as religious, rested upon the recognized rule of the God of the Covenant and the God-given law.i The recognition of God's kingship carried with it a sense of his abiding presence with his people — not only in oracles and visions, in sacred rites, in the glory that filled the sanctuary, and in all the varied the- ophanies recorded in their story, but especially in his living word, which in the language of the later Deuteronomic writer was not in heaven nor beyond the sea but in the mouth and in the heart.^ Moses was to the people to Godward and he brought their causes to God.^ We even find the direction to ' bring unto God ' or to ' come near unto God ' in special cases where a witness or judge is sought.* (4) The Hebrews unlike other peoples of antiquity were conscious of a divine mission. God had given them a knowledge of truth which was to shine forth from them to lighten the world. While the con sciousness of this sublime calling is clear in later times in the writings of the prophets, it is true that in the age with which we are here concerned its presence is seen but dimly ; perhaps it is nowhere directly expressed with certainty. Obviously until the conception of Jehovah as merely the tribal god was outgrown, until the uniqueness of Israel was fully apprehended in the light of the uniqueness of Israel's God, the sense of such a mission could not be pervadingly vivid. Yet it could hardly fail to be present as an inspiring hope in the great religious leaders when they began to perceive that Jehovah was higher than all gods, and that he was a God of mercy and goodness towards his people. It may be questioned how far absolute monotheism was apprehended in this age. But what is some times called practical monotheism is contained in the beliefs of Israel from an early time and is expressed in forms which do not appear to be due to a late age. To the Hebrew, Jehovah was not only the God before whom he himself had none other, but he was the one God whom he recognized as mighty beyond the boundaries of his own people, as mightier than all the gods 1 Cf. Riehm 76. 2 Dt. SOi^ff-. 3 Ex. 18". ¦• Ex. 216, 228, 1 Sam. 225. See R.V. Most recent scholars are agreed in translating Elohim here ' God,' not ' Judge,' as in A.V. PATRIARCHAL AND PRE-MONARCHICAL AGE 13 of the nations, as the creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is.^ Israel's history revealed the supremacy of Jehovah. The God who delivered into the hands of the Patriarch the allied forces of Elam, overthrew the heathen cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, sent signs and wonders into Egypt, smote great nations and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land for an heritage unto Israel, was for the Hebrew a Lord above all gods. The very covenant relation between God and Israel, in which all the religious ideas of the Hebrews centered, implied the isolated supremacy of Jehovah. Of his own good pleasure he had chosen out of all the tribes that one whom he would.^ 'A God whose almighty rule is not limited to that land and people in whose midst he is worshiped is no mere national god.' ^ Almost certainly then we might expect to find in the inspired leaders of Israel, in those who caught a clearer vision of God and his purposes, some percep tion of blessings to flow out to the nations — an ideal, seized vaguely perhaps, yet destined to become fruitful even in the thought of that age. Many find this doctrine of Israel's mis sion expressed in the words, 'Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests.' * Israel is thought to be described here as mediat ing between God and the other nations, it being the function of the priest to mediate between God and another. It is ques tionable, however, whether such a thought is contained in the words. The aim of the passage is to describe, not Israel's function, but its privilege as the reward of obedience, its rela tion to God, not to man ; it shall form a kingdom whose citi zens are all priests, i.e. are wholly consecrated to God's service and have immediate access to him.^ But it can hardly be doubted that this lofty ideal is contained in the promise to Abraham, translated in our Versions, 'In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' ^ If this is the exact meaning of the words, we have here an explicit declaration of the doc trine afterwards fully expressed in the prophets that Israel should become the medium of messianic blessings to the Gen tiles.'^ The language of the promise should, however, in the I Ex. 20". 2 Ex. 195. 3 Schultz 125. ¦* Ex. 196. 5 Cf . Heb. 1015 ff. See among others Knobel, Dillmann, Baentsch in Nowack's Handkom, on Ex. 196. On kingdom see Com. 16. 6 gen. 128. 'Cf. Is. 22 », Zee. 823. 14 ESCHATOLOGY opinion of most recent scholars be rendered 'bless themselves in thee,' i.e. in thy name.i xhe nations in wishing for bless ings upon themselves would wish for those possessed by Abraham and his seed in whom they see true blessedness. ' Wherever among the nations a blessing should be uttered or a blessing received, there would Abraham and his descendants be made mention of as the highest type of divine blessing.' 2 Whichever interpretation is adopted, the bearing of the pas sage upon Israel's mission to the Gentiles is essentially the same. Through the divine favor bestowed upon his people Jehovah was to become known to the nations and the blessed ness which he alone could give was to be desired by them. The fact that in what is probably the correct interpretation of our passage the thought is implied rather than expressed — is given in germ only and not in clearly developed form — indicates the more certainly that we have here an early conception rather than a reflection thrown back from a later time. Elements which really belong to a later period, e.g. the royal glory of Judah anticipated by several centuries in the ' Blessing ' of Jacob (Gen. 498*) or the triumph of the king of Israel, celebrated by Balaam (Num. 24''), many generations before the anointing of Saul, reveal them selves distinctly as descriptions of facts given in experience rather than as prophecy (cf. Schultz 563, Ottley 297). It is further to be noted that the passages which contain the intimation here spoken of, Gen. 123, j^gis^ 22^8^ 26'', 281'', ^ji belong to J, a document antedating the time of those prophets in which this function of Israel is first distinctly expressed ; cf . Driver Introd. 15 f., 123. While the prophecies of this period, read in the light of subsequent his tory, can be seen to imply in their ultimate, ideal significance the messianic age and the Messiah, and so in this sense may be classed as messianic proph ecy, there is as yet no certain reference directly to a personal Messiah. The obscure utterance, translated in A.V. and the text of R.V. ' till Shiloh come ' (Gen. 491°), has been taken by very many to point to Christ. Scholars differ greatly in regard to the exact meaning of the phrase, but most are agreed that Shiloh cannot be a proper name or recognized title designating 1 The promise, with slight variations in form but the same in sense is o-iven in Gen. 123, isis, 2218, 26^ 28ii — thrice to Abraham, and confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. In the first, second, and fifth places the verb is in the conjugation Nlphal and Is therefore ambiguous, i.e. it may be reflexive ('bless themselves') or passive ('he blessed'). In the otlier two cases it is in the Hithpael and is necessarily reflexive. The certain passages would seem to determine the sense of the uncertain. Hence most recent Interpreters translate ' bless themselves ' Cf. among others Dillmann, Driver, Knobel in loc, Riehm 71 f . ; Schultz 670 f '• Briggs Mess. P. 89 f . ' " ' 2 Schultz 570 1. For a similar idea cf. Gen. 482o, ' In thee will Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and ;is Manasseh. ' PATRIARCHAL AND PRE-MONARCHICAL AGE 15 the Messiah. (Cf. Driver Gen. 410 ff., Dillmann ad loc, Briggs 95 ff., Schultz 564 ff., Westcott Intr. Ill, Hast. IV. 500, and Cheyne in En. Bib. IV. 4469 ff.). The words of Moses, ' God will raise up unto thee a prophet like unto me ' (Dt. 1815), though subsequently seen to reach their ideal fulfillment in Christ (cf. Ac. 3^^), refer primarily not to a particular person but to any one of a succession of prophets who should arise to meet permanently the need of the people. Israel is forbidden to resort to the heathen practices of augury and divination — a revelation is to be given to them through prophets who shall be raised up for them from time to time according to their needs. (Cf. Driver in ICC, Bertholet in Marti's Kom. ad loc, Schultz 626, Ottley 299.) So also Balaam's prediction, ' There shall come forth a star out of Jacob ' (Num. 24"), though often understood of the Messiah, refers as the context shows to the victorious sway of Israel and its triumph over the Moabites and Edomites (cf. Gray in ICC, Knobel, Dillmann, Baentsch in Nowack's Kom. ad loc.}. It is evident now that among these characteristics of the life and hope of Israel in the age which we have been considering, the central one, that which conditions and gives significance to the rest, is the idea of a theocratic people, a kingdom of which God is the sovereign and in which the citizens are in covenant relation with him. God reigns over a people whom he has made his own and bound to himself in a covenant of obedience and blessing. There emerges thus in this period the idea of a King dom of G-od — an idea which in one form or another has ever since contained the most essential element in eschatological ex pectation. The eschatological hope of this period might then be defined as an anticipation of a theocratic kitigdom to he realized within national (^Hebrew') and territorial (^Palestinian') limits, hut containing within it a blessedness which other peoples should recog nize and desire. It should be noticed that the future to which Israel looks forward for the fulfillment of this hope is not thought of as indefinitely remote. There is nothing in the narrative to indi cate that Abraham in founding the new race looked beyond the earlier generations for the full possession of the promised land and the other covenant blessings. For Jacob, predicting the destinies of his descendants in the ' latter days,' lit. ' the end of the days,' ^ that 'last time ' is not projected into a future beyond the era which is to follow upon the deliverance from Egypt and the establishment in Canaan. ' The horizon bound- 1 Gen. 491. 16 ESCHATOLOGY ing his field of vision lies where, according to the promises given him, his posterity has grown into tribes and taken up its abode in the promised land.' ^ Even Moses, who gave to the kingdom its organic form and fundamental law, can hardly have looked to a far-off age for its consummation. To him, too, the complete establishment of the people with its civil and religious ordinances in their destined home, constitutes the ' end of the days,' the final, unending era. The ordinances of his law are not characterized as imperfect, temporary, typical of or pre paratory to, something better. His utterances do not reveal a consciousness that this form of the kingdom was merely pro visional and not final. But these limitations in the outlook of Israel's forefathers do not destroy the reality, or diminish the value, of the revelation attributed to this age. The prophecies given contained only the germ of the great truths which un folded themselves slowly through the future and which are to reach fruition only in the consummation of the Messiah's king dom. As in all prophecy, the abiding truth is necessarily given in local and temporal forms. '^ 3. The Monarchical Age. By this designation is intended the period from the institution of the monarchy down to the Babylonian captivity. In the preceding paragraph we have reviewed the leading eschatological ideas in what may be called the formative period of Hebrew history. The patriarchal age, the sojourn in Egypt, the years in the wilderness with the revelation at Sinai, the conquest of Canaan, and the anarchic centuries of the Judges contributed each its own factor to the preparation for the most splendid era that followed in the mon archy. After the imperfect and disappointing beginnings of the monarchy in the reign of Saul, the Hebrew kingdom under David and Solomon rose rapidly to the height of its glory and new elements entered into its eschatological hopes. In this brief period the kingdom may be said to have taken a place among the great world-powers. The condition of the neigh boring nations favored its expansion, it became a military power, and its domain is said, in tradition probably not greatly exaggerated, to have reached from Egypt to the Euphrates, and to the Orontes on the north. Internally the tribes of 1 Orelli 116. 2 See pp. 298, 301. MONARCHICAL AGE 17 Israel were now welded together into at least organic unity, industry and an extensive commerce brought in great wealth, a central capital strongly fortified and splendidly adorned was established at Jerusalem, and through the building of the temple with a magnificence befitting the sole sanctuary of Jehovah and the ordering of the worship with a pure and elaborate ceremonial the political capital became also the re ligious center for all Israel. Zion became the home of the ark, the dwelling-place of the Most High. It was David who had raised the tribe of Judah, hitherto inconspicuous, to the head ship of Israel, who had formed a great kingdom, founded an ideal capital, and had made it the shrine of the national religion by bringing up into it the ark of God. He, the warrior, the conqueror, the friend of his people, the king in whom in spite of grievous failures there were traits of the saint, more nearly than any other in Hebrew history approached the ideal ruler of God's people, and after a long reign he left the throne to his dynasty, which held it in unbroken succession more than four centuries, that is, till the overthrow of the kingdom by the Babylonians. Naturally the uniqueness of the Davidic house and of the tribe of Judah gave them a unique position in the political and religious conceptions of the Hebrew people. And this position was not permanently changed by the disruption in the second generation after David which resulted in the exist ence of two kingdoms, the northern and the southern — Israel and Judah. While the northern kingdom did not recognize the supremacy of the house of David, it does not appear to have claimed the leadership of the whole nation in either politi cal or religious concerns. It was stronger and richer than the southern kingdom, at times it was zealous for the religion of Jehovah ; in it were contained elements which contributed to the development of the national faith — in it first arose the great order of the prophets, to it belonged the labors of Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, and Amos. But on the other hand its govern ment was throughout unstable, rebellion with change of dynasty was frequent, no one city remained continuously the seat of rule, there existed no central sanctuary, and when the kingdom was overthrown by the Assyrians and the people deported, it ceased forever to be a factor in the national or religious life of 18 ESCHATOLOGY the Hebrews. The captives became merged with their heathen captors and were as a body lost to the people of Israel. In striking contrast the people of the kingdom of Judah which survived a century and a half longer, the scene of the labors of a series of great prophets, passed through the furnace of the Babylonian captivity purified, holding to their religion and national hopes, prepared to return to their land with religious conceptions fraught with momentous consequences for aU time. Hebrew history henceforth is the history of _ the Judseans. The eschatological hopes center in Judah and the house of David — it is here that the religious development, the future of the kingdom of God, lies. The division of Israel into two kingdoms could not even in the northern kingdom entirely stifle the consciousness of a unity resting in oneness of blood and religion. Among the prophets of the north, while it does not appear that Elijah or Elisha touched upon the separation as one of the sins which they rebuked, or counseled a return to union with Judah, yet Hosea saw in the northern secession a rebellion against Jehovah and the theocratic community. To him the rulers were usurpers (8*, ISH). The sanction which God would seem to have given to the rending of the kingdom and the appointment of the northern kings (1 K. ll'i, 16^ 2 K. 98) is explained by Hosea as a visitation of divine anger (ISH). ' The disunion of north and south was so great that for the sake of peace it was better to separate. But when the moral and spiritual decay of N. Israel had reached such a point as in the time of Hosea, no prophet with any spiritual insight could fail to perceive that the usurping kings lacked the divine blessing ' (Cheyne, in CB. Hosea 87). In view of Hosea's declarations it is probable that he looked for the reunion of the divided kingdom under the leadership of Judah. This hope is directly expressed in several passages (in, 35) which, however, are by many critics {e.g. Stade, Cornill, W. R. Smith, Marti) referred to a later hand. Amos 9ii "¦, which would show that prophet to have been in essential agreement with Hosea, is also assigned to the hand of an editor by many {e.g. Cheyne, A^'ellhausen, Duhm. Driver in CB. Joel and Amos 119 ff. defends the passage). In the prophets and poets of the southern kingdom there is no recognition of two divisions in the theocratic people as a permanent factor in the purposes of God, no consciousness of a leadership separate from Jvidah or of any capital city save Jerusalem. Israel in their warnings and promises to a very large extent means the whole people, North and South alike. Their prophetic oracles are addi-essed to each in turn or both in t^ommon. The Eschatological Hopes of This Period. This long period, so momentous in Hebrew history, so varied in national and religious developments, gave birth to conceptions and hopes of MONARCHICAL AGE 19 great importance in the history of the kingdom of God, and in the unfolding of his purposes for his people. (1) The theo cratic king. As the government of Israel took in this period the new form of the monarchy, so there arose in thought the new element of the theocratic king — an element destined to exert the profoundest and most far-reaching influence in eschatological hopes. As we have seen above,i the government ¦ of Israel in the preceding period was theocratic ; Israel had no king but Jehovah. All rule emanated directly from God ; all who exercised authority were only his organs. And in the institution of the monarchy there was no departure from this fundamental principle. Viewed from one point the institution was regarded as a falling away from the high ideal of Jehovah's sole and direct rule.^ But God revealed the broader aspect of his purpose. The conditions of the age made necessary a visi ble, personal representative of the divine ruler to maintain his kingdom among the nations, and to carry it forward toward a higher realization. ^ The human kingship was not in conflict with the divine, nor even coordinate with it. The two were in ideal one. The theocratic king was the embodiment of the divine rule. This close relation was shown in the events of the first institution of the monarchy. It was God who chose the person to be made king ; it was he who bade his prophet consecrate the chosen one as his ' anointed.'* He was placed over Israel by God in God's stead. He stood thus in the rela tion of a divine personage. Therefore while in the preceding period religious thought centers in the theocratic people, in this era it culminates in the theocratic king. Perhaps only minds of deeper insight perceived the full significance of the kingly office, but imperfectly as the ideal was realized, there was found here the germ out of which the wonderful figure of the ideal king portrayed by later prophets and poets is only a growth. The glowing colors irradiating his majestic perfections as we see him pictured in many passages in the prophets and the psalms are referred by an increasingly large number of critics to the period after the exile, but there is little in these repre sentations which is not in germ at least implied in his theocratic character as perceived in this age. In this unique relation of 1 P. 11. 2 Cf. 1 s. s** 3 Cf. 1 s. gisff- * 1 s. 916. 20 ESCHATOLOGY the theocratic king to God and his people there is contained what later prophets saw in the unfolded vision of the Messiah. The figure of the personal king may fall into the background or even disappear at times, but it emerges again as the domi nating factor in the hope of God's people, until it culminates, transformed and spiritualized, fulfilling all prophecy, in the person of him who is ' King of kings and Lord of lords.' ^ (2) The Bay of Jehovah. Another fact brought into promi nence by the political and spiritual history of Israel in this period is the expectation of the day of Jehovah, that is, Jeho vah's intervention in the affairs of the world to judge his cause and the cause of his people.^ This expectation appears in Amos, the earliest of the written prophets, but already as an article of belief current among the people. ^ It was born of Israel's relation to Jehovah as his people. They alone among the nations were, as they believed, the object of his love and concern ; their cause was his cause. But after the brief glory of David and Solomon's era they were harassed by enemies on every side ; Egypt, Syria, and Assyria, one after another, afflicted them, and in their affliction they sighed for the day of Jehovah,* when God by a signal intervention should anni hilate forever the power of their foes and establish his people in everlasting peace. In the popular conception the coming crisis was one of assured joy and triumph for Israel ; it was to be the consummation of the nation's hope. The expectation as cherished by the people at large rested on the outward and national relation to Jehovah. His moral character was largely overlooked. If his people kept his ordinances, if they duly offered the sacrifices, observed the fasts and feasts, and aU the ceremonial prescriptions of the law, their part of the covenant was performed, and they could claim that Jehovah on the other hand should perform his. That he would do this was their certain belief. The Day of the Lord then could be to them a day of joy only; to their enemies a day of confusion and destruction. But the great prophets of the eighth and seventh 1 Rev. 19". 2 The use of day ' in this expression comes from the Hebrew use of the word m the sense of 'day of battle,' or 'victory' ; cf. Is. 9". See W R Smith Prophets Z^l. 3Cf. 518. <> Am. Joe. cit. "'" "' *™'^''' MONARCHICAL AGE 21 centuries before Christ, whose mission was preeminently to preach the holiness and righteousness of God and the corre sponding character required in his people, gave to the Day an other aspect, which becomes paramount throughout this period. From the time of Amos on, it is proclaimed as a crisis in which God will manifest in the sight of the world his indignation against all iniquity, whether among the heathen or in his chosen people. The prophets found predominant in Israel corruption, civil and social, injustice, inhumanity, profligacy, greed, oppression of the poor, almost every form of moral fail ure, though joined with zeal in the external observances of religion. It became their special office then to correct the popular misconception of the Day of Jehovah and to proclaim it as a visitation preeminently upon the sin of Israel itself.^ At the same time it is to be a day of judgment upon the nations'^ — not merely for their treatment of God's people, but for their offenses against the laws of universal morality.^ Dif ferent prophets make prominent different aspects of the Day, but throughout the period it is conceived as a crisis in the affairs of Israel and the nations, the vindication of the right eous character of God. It is to be a day ' upon all that is proud and haughty and upon all that is lifted up, . . . and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low, . . . and the idols shall utterly pass away. And men shall go into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the earth from before the terror of Jehovah and from the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake mightily the earth.'* It should be noticed that, in this crisis, Jehovah himself is to come forth manifesting himself in the fullness of his power and glory. Great movements among the nations, the overthrow of kingdoms, commotions in the natural world may accompany his coming, but they do not constitute its essential character. He may employ kings and peoples as his agents, but all such agencies are unessential features in the picture — often they are absent from it. This event then is es sentially different from the interventions of providence which have from time to time taken place in the past. Those might 1 Cf. Am. 32, Hos. 1315 S Is. l^f; Zeph. 1^. 2 cf. Is. 13, Zeph. 1. 3 Cf. W. F- Smith 134. " Is. 2i2ff-. 22 ESCHATOLOGY be spoken of as a day of the Lord — this alone as the Day ; it is final, eschatological. While such a crisis necessarily implies judgment, we do not find in this period the later idea that all the tribes of the earth shall be gathered before Jehovah's throne to be judged, nor is there present the later belief in a resurrec tion of the dead to share in the judgment, i The events of the Day belong to time and earth, and are thought of as n^ar. Zephaniah's cry, ' The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near and hasteth greatly,' ^ expresses the common expectation of the prophets. Isaiah saw in the coming overthrow of Assyria the precursor of the day,^ while for Zephaniah its tokens were found in the threatening movements of a foe commonly identi fied with the Scythian hordes who at this time invaded western Asia.* 'The prophets wrote and spoke usually amidst very stirring scenes. Great events were passing around them. . . . The noise of falling empires, the desolations of the kingdom of God, the revolutions in men's thoughts revealed to their ear his footsteps. . . . God was so near that his full presence which he had promised appeared imminent. ' ^ Henceforth the Coming of God, called variously ' the day of the Lord,' ' the great day,' 'that day,' 'the day of judgment,' etc., conceived under different forms, accompanied by different circumstances, appears as the central event about which all eschatological expectations range themselves. Most of the prophets contain oracles regarding it ; « it forms the principal theme of Zepha niah and Joel; it is fundamental in much of the later non- canonical literature, in the teaching of our Lord and the writers of the New Testament, and in the hope of the Christian Church. (3) The Remnant. The prophets who proclaimed the punish ment to be visited upon Israel for its sins, even to the downfall of the state and captivity among the heathen, yet foresaw that God would not make 'a full end' of his people.'^ The funda mental belief of the Hebrews, Jehovah is Israel's (iod, Israel is Jehovah's people, could never absolutely lose its force in the 1 Hos. 13" refers to fhe restoration ot the nation, not the resurrection of the individual. 2114. 31424-27. 4 Cf. Davidson in CB. Zeph. 98. 6 Davidson Theol. 381 6 Cf. Is. 2i2 f-. " Cf . p. 21 ff. 36 ESCHATOLOGY The overwhelming penalty of Israel's trangression has fallen in the destruction of the nation and the captivity ; ' She hath re ceived of the Lord double for all her sins.' i Henceforth the more lurid light of the picture falls upon the nations that have exalted themselves against Jehovah. As most of the pre-exihc prophecies contain paragraphs directed against the hostile powers of that time, so in this period similar oracles form essential por tions of the utterances of Ezekiel, Second Isaiah, most of the later prophets, and many post-canonical writers.^ As in the earlier period so in this, the coming of Jehovah's kingdom is near at hand. For Ezekiel it lay just beyond the downfall of Egypt which is predicted as near ; ^ Second Isaiah looked for it as the sequel to Cyrus' overthrow of the Babylonian power ; * Haggai foresaw it in the events to follow the return led by Zerubbabel and the completion of the temple ; ^ the author of the book of Daniel, in the overthrow of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Greco-Syrian power ; ^ the author of 2 Esdras, in the downfall of Rome.'^ ((^) The idea of a second conflict with hostile powers appears for the first time in Ezekiel.^ With him as with the other prophets the destruction of the well-known enemies of Israel in the near future is to be followed by an era of messianic peace and felicity.* But according to Ezekiel after a long continuance of this messianic era, ' in the latter days,' ^° Gog of the land of Magog will come from the uttermost parts of the north leading a host made up of hordes from the north and the south and from far off parts of the earth ; they will come up against Israel and cover the land like a cloud. But Jehovah will send upon them a sword, pestilence, hailstones, fire, and brimstone ; they will fall upon the mountains and in the fields, and be given to the birds and beasts to devour. It is a final rally of the powers of earth against the kingdom of God's peo ple. These invaders from the north are taken by many to be 1 Is. 402. 2 Cf. Ezk. 25-32, Is. 47, Jl. 3, Ob. v 15, Zee. 9, En. 90i8f., Ap. Bar. 13^«-, Sib. Or. III. 303-833. 3 Ezk. 2921, 303 f. . of. Davidson Ezk. in CB. 215, 217 f. * Is 4P*-^ 6 Hag. 2'^». 6 Dan. 728-2?. Cf. Driver in CB. ad loc 1 2 Es. 68-10. Cf . Rev. 19 ff. 8 38-39. Ct. Stade 295, Huhn 44, Briggs Mess. P. 283. » 34-37 lo 338, 16. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 37 the Scythian hordes that overran and terrorized western Asia in the seventh century B.C.; but neither Gog nor Magog can be identified with any known king or land. Whatever the truth as regards the connection of the names with any historic people, the reference in Ezekiel is to an event falling after a long continuance of the messianic era, the final gathering of the nations under a great leader against the messianic king dom and their overwhelming destruction. Such a messianic interval between a first and a second judgment of the enemies of God's kingdom does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testa ment, but is found sometimes in later writers.^ Generally the Messiah's kingdom is represented as continuing in undisturbed peace forever after the one great conflict which precedes its establishment. And this conflict is oftenest conceived under forms and symbols similar to those which make up this picture in Ezekiel. The final effort of the world against the kingdom of God is represented as a united assault of the nations upon the Holy Land.^ As eschatological figures Gog and Magog (the latter like the former a person instead of a land) appear frequently in rabbinical predictions among the enemies whom the Messiah wiU conquer. The ' Day of Gog ' and the 'Day of Magog' are current expressions.^ Evidently the names became traditional representations of the last assailants of the messianic kingdom, and as such they have passed into the Revelation.* (e) The redeemer, the champion of God's people in this final crisis, is, in the expectation of the earlier part of our period, Jehovah himself. The messianic king does not appear as the instrument of deliverance. This is the representation through out the prophets except in Daniel. ^ 'Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep and will seek them out, ... I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered, ... I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel. ... I 1 On the messianic Age as an interregnum, see p. 76. 2 Zee. 122 1, En. 56, Sib. Or. HI. 663, 2 Es. 13= «-, Rev. 20=- ^ 208. 8 Cf. Weber Sustem 370 f., Volz 176, Bousset /ud. 206. .^ ¦ v ' 6 In Dan 12i Michael, the patron-angel of the Jews, appears as their cham pion Is 114 and Mic. 56, both probably post-exihc passages refer not to the establishment of the kingdom, but to the kingly function of raamtammg the peace of the reabn against outbreaks of evil within and onsets of enemies from without. 38 ' ESCHATOLOGY myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.' ^ But in later times the destruction of hostile powers and the exaltation of God's people are often, though not always, attributed to the Messiah.^ (/) Foreshadowing the advent of Jehovah and attending it, vast movements were looked for among the peoples of the earth and in the natural world, times of trial for the people of God, sifting them as grain, ^ times of furious visitations upon the Gentiles, with great portents in the earth and the heavens. Israel learned through its own history, through bitter conflicts with enemies, that it could enter into its state of peace and glory only through suffering and distress ; the prophetic oracles foretold awful calamities which should sweep away the Gentile nations ; and the universal belief that God used the operations of nature in ever varying ways to further his purposes con cerning men led to the expectation that marvels in the physical world would attend marvels in human history. These times of distress as precursors and accompaniments of the coming of the messianic era are often called the ' messianic woes,' * and they become a standing feature in eschatological expectation. Starting from the foreshadowings of the earlier prophets, later writers, especially the apocalyptic, unfold pictures of these pre-messianio troubles with vivid and often fantastic imagery. The author of Isaiah 34 gives an appalling description of the events of these days : the dissolution of the heavens ; slaughter, desolation, and war in the earth. ^ The prophet Joel, whose theme is the Day of Jehovah, dwells upon the coming terrors. ' Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble : for the day of Jehovah cometh, ... a day of clouds and thick darkness. ... I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth : blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. ... I will o-ather all 1 Ezk. 3411 «- See also Is. 43' «-."«-, Hag. 22ifl., Zee. gsff.. h«. 2 Mac 2i8 Bar. 56 «¦ 2 cf . p. 44. 3 Am. 99. i - • . 4 As distress and sorrow are spoken of in the Scriptures under the fio-ure of travail-pams, so m the rabbinical writings the expression 'the birth-pains' of the Messiah,' i.e. preceding the Messiah's birth, became a current term for the last troubles preceding the messianic era, and occurs in conjunction with the eschatological terms Day of Gog, or Magog, the Day of Judgment Ct Vnl? 173 Bousset Jud. 237 f. The same figure?Jr.es, tralail, R.V^Tfound in Mt 248 Mk. lo^. ¦ ' „/I^-.34-35 are generally referred by critics to an exilic or post-exilic source. Cf. Driver Intr. 225 ft., G. A. Smith in Hast. n. 493. suuiuo. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 39 nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and 1 will execute judgment upon them there. ^ It is to these times that the words in Zechariah refer : ' It shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die ; . . . I will bring the third part into the fire and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.' 2 Similarly Daniel, 'There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation. ' ^ In post-canonical writers such representations abound,* and the traditional pictures are taken up into the New Testament ; the main theme in chapters 6-16 of the Revelation is the ' messianic woes,' largely in traditional forms. ^ (^) Allied to the idea of such precursors of the messianic era there appears also in our period the expectation of personal forerunners, who should precede the incoming of the new era. The earliest reference to such a person occurs in Malachi: ' Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come,' ^ and upon the basis of this utterance the belief became general that the great prophet would appear again before the coming of the Lord. Though different activities were attributed to him,'^ he is generally represented as coming to restore order, to remove wrath and strife ^ — a function answering to the violent disorder, the anger and variance, predicted in both civil and family life in the times of the ' messianic woes. ' Both rabbinical writers and the New Testament give evidence of a widespread expec tation of his appearing : ' They asked him, saying. How is it that the scribes say that Elijah must first come ? And he said unto them, Elijah indeed cometh first and restoreth all things.' ^ In rabbinical traditions Moses also is spoken of as coming with Elijah. In Debarim rabba, Ch. 3, God is represented as saying to Moses, ' When I shall send the prophet Elijah ye shall both come together.' 1" The union of these two foremost witnesses for Jehovah, as forerunners of the messianic era, is especially 1 21 f.. 30 f.^ 32. 2 138 f. 5 121. 4 Cf. 2 Es. 5, En. 99-100, Ap. Bar. 70. 6 Cf. Mt. 24, Mk. 13, Lk. 21, 2 Pet. 3. 6 45. 7 cf. Volz 192. 8 Mai. 46. 9 Mk. 911 *• Cf. Mk. 616, 828^ jit. lli'', Jno. 121. 2s. por numerous instances in rabbinical writers see Weber System 337 f., Volz 192, Drummond 223 f. For the fulfillment of this expectation in the person of John the Baptist cf. Mt, 11", par. With the expression 'restore all things,' cf. Ac. 321. 19 See Weber System 338. Cf. Drummond 225, Volz 193. 40 ESCHATOLOGY interesting, since they appear together in the account of the Transfiguration 1 and again in the vision of Rev. ll^*-. Still others were spoken of as forerunners. In 2 Esdras ^ it is said that all who have been translated without tasting death will appear at the end of the troublous times, and among these Jewish tradition included not only Enoch and Elijah, but also Baruch^ and Ezra.* The earlier Christian writers almost universally understood Enoch to be the associate of Elijah as one of the 'two witnesses' in Rev. 11^.^ The answer given to our Lord, ' Some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah,' '^ may imply the existence of a belief that the latter prophet would appear before the end. It should, however, be noticed that as far as the evidence shows, Elijah stood before all others in these expectations. (2) The Ideal King, the Messiah. The hope of the former period which placed at the head of the expected state an ideal king of David's house "^ reaches in this period, especially in the later years, a still clearer and higher development. Whatever doubt criticism may raise regarding the pre-exilic expectation of a Messiah,^ in the age following the exile the hope is certain and at times powerful. The central position occupied by the theocratic king in Hebrew national life throughout the cen turies following the establishment of the monarchy, and on the other hand the universal existence of the monarchical form in the great world-states of these ages, make it unlikely that the Jew should have conceived the coming state under aii}' other form. Although in many writers and at certain epochs in our period the figure of the king recedes into the background or disappears, it does not follow that the ideal state was thought of as wanting this representative of Jehovah. Silence regard ing him only indicates that his agency was not always con ceived to be the essential force in the great events looked for. (a) But in studying the course of messianic hope it is important to notice this silence, and also the advance in expectation from a theocratic dynasty to a single theocratic person.^ In the pre-exilic period, Nahum, Zephaniah, and 1 Mt. 171-9. 2 626. 3 Ap. Bar. 762. -i 2 Es. 149. 6 Cf . Bousset Antichrist 203 ff. « Mt. 16". ' See p. 26. s gee p 27. 9 See below, 6, c. . i^. . EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 41 Habbakuk spoke more or less distinctly of the messianic era without mentioning the messianic king. So likewise in this period no mention is made of him in the eschatological utter ances of Joel, Obadiah,! Malachi,^ Second Isaiah,^ and Daniel.* The books of the Apocrypha, though containing in most cases eschatological references, do not, with the exception of 2 Esdras, mention a personal Messiah. Among other non-canonical Jewish writings in which a Messiah is wanting are the Assumption of Moses, Slavonic Enoch, the Book of Jubilees. But as already pointed out the silence of these writers does not prove his absence from their conception of the coming kingdom. {by Doubtless the messianic hope in the beginning looked forward, not to one individual messianic king, but to a succes sion of theocratic kings, the unbroken perpetuation of the Davidic line, and this vaguer phas6 of the hope appears in our period, especially in the earlier part of it. The prophecy given in the history of David, ' Thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever,' ^ belonging to the former period,^ had in view the dynasty, 1 In Ob. V 21 the ' saviours ' are not the Messiah but deliverers raised up like the ' Judges ' of old to free Israel from their enemies, here the Edomites, though, Uke all deliverers, in a sense types of Christ. 2 In Mai. 31 the ' messenger ' is a forerunner sent to prepare for the coming of Jehovah, who is to come in his own person to abide in his temple among his people. Whether the ' messenger ' or ' angel ' in the second part of the verse he identified with the ' messenger ' or with the ' Lord ' in the first part, cf . R.V. 'and' or 'even,' reference can hardly be made to the theocratic king, since the function here assigned him, whether of preparing for Jehovah's com ing or sitting as his representative in a purifying judgment, is nowhere else in the prophets made a part of the Messiah's activity. Cf. Hitzig in loc, Stade 334. 8 For the 'servant of Jehovah ' in 2 Is., see pp. 49 ff. Is. b6\ often under stood of the Messiah, refers, as most modern commentators agree, to the histor ical David or his house. Cf . Skinner in CB., Duhm in loc. 4 The expression ' one like unto a son of man,' Dan. 7i8, determined a subse quent designation of the Messiah, and until recent times has almost universally been taken to refer to him in person. But modern scholars are to a large extent agreed that the figure is meant to characterize not an individual person but the nature of the final kingdom of God's people. This seems to be required by the writer's own interpretation given in vv. 16-18, 22, 27, according to which the four beasts symhohze heathen world-kingdoms, and the ' son of man,' i.e. man, who is contrasted with the beasts, symbolizes the coming kingdom of God — ' humanity in contrast with animality.' Cf. Driver Dan. in CB. 102 ff. The passage is messianic in the broader sense ; the same is true of the difficult passage 924-27, where neither the facts nor the chronology can be reconciled with an application to Christ. 6 2 S. 7i6. 6 On the pre-exilic date of the passage cf . Cornill 197 ; but others make it post-exilic. Cf. Stade in Enc. Bib. IV. 4278. 42 ESCHATOLOGY and the same is the reference in the messianic promises in Hosea, 'Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek Jehovah their God and David their king,' ^ and in Amos, 'In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, ... and will build it as in the days of old.' 2 Jeremiah ^ designates the coming king as David or a Branch, but the words, ' David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel ' * show that it is the kingly line rather than the individual person that he has in mind.^ The same idea is expressed by Ezekiel, who describes the rule of the messianic kingdom under the figure of the cedar (the Davidic house) which shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit ^ — language which makes clear the meaning of ' my servant David ' in the prophet's other references to the rule of the messianic era. "^ This is clearly the meaning in Psalms 89 and 132. Also 1 Maccabees ^ and Ecclesiasticus ® seem to contemplate the continuance of the Davidic dynasty rather than that of a single prince. ((?) On the other hand in the unfolding of messianic revela tion the expectation of a continuance of the theocratic kingship becomes concrete in the person of a single ideal prince who shall rule the people of God — an expectation which is at last real ized in the Christ that 'abideth for ever.' In post-exilic times and especially in the apocalyptic writings this idea becomes clear and generally prevalent. The books of Isaiah and Micah are the earliest prophetic writings to announce distinctly this single ideal king. 1° In the wonderful picture of the eschatologi cal era given by the former the king is an individual, one whose 'name shall be called. Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.' ^^ The brilliant prophecy of the coming era in Micah ^^ culminates in one individual ruler who shall come forth out of the house of David, one who ' shall 136.2 911. These passages in Hos. and Am. are regarded by recent critics as post- exihc. 3 236, 309, 3313 £F.. 4 3317. 6 Of. Schultz 621. 6 1723. 7 3423, 3724. Cf. Davidson Ezk. in CB. XLIX. 251, Stade 294, Hulin 46. The ' one shepherd ' here means, as shown by 31^^, that in the messianic era the two kingdoms Judah and Israel shall be united again. 8 257. 9 4711. 19 All the paragraphs in Is. and Mic. relative to the subject are regarded by an increasing number of critics as post-exilic. 11 96. The other references to the messianic king in Is. are II1-6, 32i. The context shows that 33", often taken as messianic, refers to Jehovah. 12 51-9, a post-exilic passage. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 43 stand and shall feed his flock in the strength of Jehovah.' Haggai ^ saw in the return from the captivity the dawn of the final era and in the Davidic leader Zerubbabel the chosen one whom Jehovah would set as his signet, the messianic king.^' Zechariah's view seems to have been the same. In the promise ' Behold, I will bring forth my Servant the Branch,' ^ the reference is apparently to Zerubbabel as the messianic prince.* Second Zechariah ^ also thinks of the coming of a single per sonal king whose ' dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.' ^ With this would agree cer tain Psalms,'^ unless with many scholars these are interpreted of a definite historical person.^ Jewish apocalyptic writings which contain this form of messianic hope are, among others, 2 Esdras,^ the Apocalypse of Baruchj^" Enoch,ii Sibylline Oracles,^^' the Psalms of Solomon. ^^ In the New Testament there is no trace of any other expectation. The Targums and Jewish prayers make mention of the hope under both the individualistic and the dynastic form. As expectation centered more clearly in a single person and his nature and functions came to be conceived as unique, nat urally a distinctive appellation or title arose ; and since from the beginning the king of God's people was known as ' The Lord's Anointed ' the ideal king of the coming era came to be generally designated as preeminently ' The Anointed,' or preserving the Hebrew word ' The Messiah.' i* As the distinctive title of the com ing ideal king the term does not occur in the Old Testament,^^ but is found frequently later, as in 2 Esdras,^^ the Apocalypse of Baruch,^'^ immaterially modified in the Psalms of Solomon,^^ and Enoch.i^ In the Talmud, Targums, and New Testament, as the popular designation, the name is as common as the idea. 1 220ff. 2 Cf. Stade 315, Schultz 624. ' 38, of. 612. 4 Cf . Huhn 63, Stade and Schultz ibid. The comparison of 612 1- with 49 shows that Zerubbabel is meant. 6 By this term is meant Zech. 9-14, which, though held by some to be pre- exilic, most critics put later than the prophet Zech. Cf. Driver. Intr. 349, CornUl 363 ff. « O'f-. ^ 2, 45, 72, 110. 8 cf. Huhn 154, Schultz 641. 9 1232, 1332 ff.. 10 29, 39 f. 11 46, 48, 62. 12 III. 652. " XVII. 14. n'BJan — sometimes -without the article as a proper name — in the Sept. transUterated 6 Meo-o-Zas, translated 6 X/3i(rT6s. Cf . Volz 213, Bousset Jud. 214, Drummond 283 f . 16 Ps. 22 would form an exception, if against critical opinion this were referred to the Messiah only. w 1232. "293,301. 18 17^2, 136. i9 48i», 52*. 44 ESCHATOLOGY The title Son of David, found in the Psalms of Solomon i and in the Talmud and Targums, is seen from the New Testament to have become common in popular use.^ The title ' Son of God' occurs in a few instances in non-Christian writings,^ not all of which can easily be referred to Christian revision,* just as the people and the king of Israel are sometimes so denominated. ^ The name ' Son of Man,' made familiar to us by its use in the Gospels, will be spoken of below. ^ Other designations such as 'the Elect One,' 'the Just,' 'the Lion' do not call for special notice here. (c?) The function of the Messiah is thus first of all conceived to be that of the ruler of the theocratic kingdom ; and in keep ing with the ideal character of that kingdom his rule is to be one of perfect wisdom, justice, and goodness. His agency, however, especially in the earlier part of our period, is not made prominent in determining the nature or the course of the kingdom. The kingdom can hardly be called his — it is God's. '^ Jehovah is king ; the laws and ordinances are his ; the messianic king is his servant. ' My servant David (i.e. the Messiah) shall be king over them, . . . they shall also walk in mine ordinances and observe my statutes.' ^ So thoroughly theocratic is the idea of the state that the figure of the Messiah is that of a perfunctory ruler set over a realm already established and perfected by Jehovah. 9 This conception occurs also even in later writers. ' It will come to pass,' says the Apocalypse of Baruch, ' when all is accomplished which was to come to pass in those parts, that the Messiah will then be revealed.' ^^ Generally, however, in the later years, with the growing doctrine of God's apartness from the world " and an increasing distinctness in the conception of the office of the messianic king, the latter became the active agent in the defense of God's people, the destroyer of their enemies, and the establisher of the perfected kingdom of God. ' When the nations become turbulent and the time of my Messiah 1 1721. 2 Cf. Mt. 927, 1223. 3 Cf. eg. 2 Es. 729, 1332,37 gn IO52 * Cf. Volz 213, Drummond 284 ff. 6 of. Hos. lli, 2 S. 7", Ps. 2? %. 8 ibid. 17w. 9 Test. Lev. 185 ff.. 46 ESCHATOLOGY earth. And no one shall again die untimely, nor shall any adversity suddenly befall. And judgments and revilings and contentions and revenges and blood and passions and envy and hatred and whatsoever things are like these shall go into condem nation when they are removed. . . . The reapers will not grow weary, nor those that build be toilworn ; for the works will of themselves speedily advance with those who do them in much tranquillity.' 1 ' The earth also will yield its fruit ten thousand fold and on one vine there will be a thousand branches, and each branch will produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster will produce a thousand grapes, and each grape will produce a cor of wine. And those who have hungered will rejoice ; moreover also they wiU behold marvels every day.' ^ Of the three great offices attributed to the Messiah in Chris tian thought, those of prophet, priest, and king, the last appears almost alone before the time of Christ. In the various activities attributed to him it is his kingly character that is generally thought of. Yet there are not entirely wanting traces of the belief that he would join with this character the priestly and prophetic. It is doubtful whether the title priest is expressly given to him anywhere in the Old Testament,^ but a certain priestly quality seems to have attached to the person of the king with the Hebrews as among other orientals. David performed the ritual acts of sacrifice and blessing,* as did also Solomon,^ and similar functions are recorded of others.^ Not unnaturally then the theocratic king of the messianic era might be conceived as sharing in priestly prerogatives. The prophecy given in Jeremiah 30^^ describes the prince of the messianic kingdom as one who will approach unto God, that is, without an intermediary — he will enjoy the privilege of the high- priest. The king extolled in Ps. 110, and declared 'a priest forever after the manner [RVm. J of Melchizedek,' even if not in the meaning of the author the Messiah, afterwards came to be so regarded. The argument of our Lord given in iNIt. 22*^ "¦, and that of the epistle to the Hebrews 5-7, show this to have 1 73 f. 2 29. 8 Zee. 613 can hardly he understood to unite the priest and the king in the person of the Messiah, for unquestionably the interpretation, ' there shall be a priest upon his throne,' RVm., is to be preferred, as sho-svn bv the followin" clause. ¦• 2 S. 6" '- 6 i k. 8", '-r-K o \ k yni o ^ lO'S' EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 47 been current opinion.^ The author of the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, writing in the time of the Maccabees, who were first priests and then princes, derives the Messiah from the tribe of Levi, not Judah, and makes his priestly character the more prominent,^ but in what appears a later passage ^ his origin is traced to both tribes — he unites the priestly and the kingly. But in all these allusions to the priesthood of the Messiah what seems to be thought of is the dignity of the high- priest's office and his free approach to God. There is no men tion of his making expiation for the sins of the people ; nowhere in pre-Christian literature is such a function attributed to him.* That appears first as a Christian doctrine in the teaching of our Lord and the writers of the New Testament,^ where it receives its fullest exposition in the epistle to the Hebrews. The express designation of the Messiah as a prophet is still more uncertain. The promise that a prophet like Moses should be raised up unto Israel, Deut. 18l^ did not primarily relate to the Messiah; ^ it is not certain that it came to be associated with him before Christian insight perceived that all the great organs of the old dispensation were united in their perfection in the person of Christ. The language of the peo ple as given in St. John, ' This is of a truth the prophet that cometh into the world ; ' and the question of the Pharisees to the Baptist, ' Art thou the prophet ? ' ^ show that a preeminent prophet was expected, doubtless on the ground of the Mosaic promise. And it is true that Jesus is said to have perceived that the same multitude which had proclaimed him ' the prophet ' was about to take him and make him king,^ but this does not conclusively prove an identity of ' the prophet ' and the Messiah in their minds, since their purpose may have been 1 Undoubtedly the psahn is messianic in the broader sense as depicting ideals which are realized only in the messianic king ; and our Lord's argument and that of the epistle to the Hebrews are cogent because based on the generally acknowledged ideal contents of the psalm. Many modern interpreters take the reference to be directly to the Messiah (Delitzsch, Hengstenberg. al.), others understand David himself to be meant (Ewald, Orelli, ai.), but the larger num ber of recent scholars, following Hitzig, take the subject of the psalm to be one of the Maccabees, in whose persons the priestly and princely were united (Duhm, Cheyne, Hiihn, al.) . 2 xest. Lev. 8 and 18. 8 Test. Gad 8. * See p. 49. 6 Mt. 2028, Mi. 10«, Jno. 129, 1 Jno. 22, Ro. 326, Rev. 1=. 6 See p. 15. ' 6", l^i. 8 jno. 6" '• 48 ESCHATOLOGY indicated by other words and acts which were evoked by his ' signs,' 1 and which John, after his manner, has here omitted.^ At all events, the identification of the two was not a prevalent idea, since in the language of both the people and the leaders they are seen to be expressly distinguished. ^ The author of the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs seems to stand alone among Jewish writers in designating the ^Messiah as a prophet.* Yet while not looked upon as holding the distinct prophetic office, he is described as performing in his kingly character functions which belonged to the prophet. Not only was he to work miracles like the prophets, but — and this is the most essential office of the prophet — he was to come in the power of the divine Spirit to reveal God's will to men. It was de clared in Isaiah ^ that the Spirit of Jehovah should rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel, and following out this thought later writers speak of his work of bringing light to men. ' AU the secrets of wisdom will come forth from the thoughts of his mouth.' ^ The Samar itans expected a Messiah who would declare unto them all things.'^ The prophetic function of revealing God was never perfectly fulfilled till he came who could say, ' He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' ^ Both his words and his works led men to recognize him as a prophet or 'the prophet.' ' It is not unlikely that the expected prophet and the Messiah may in the minds of the people have stood vaguely in close combination. Disciples who had recognized Jesus as a prophet mighty in deed and word had until his death hoped he would prove the promised deliverer, the Messiah (Lk. 24^1). It was a current belief among the .Tews that when the Messiah came he would not at first be clearly manifest as such. In Justin Martyr a Jew is represented as saying, ' The Messiah, even if he has been born and is somewhere existent, is unknown and does not yet even know himself, nor has he any power until Elijah shall come and anoint him and make him known to all ' {Dial. c. Tryph. 8) ; and again, ' Even if they say he has come, it is not known who he is, but when he shall have become manifest and honored, then it will be known who he is ' (110). A story is preserved in the Jerusalem Talmud that the Messiah shortly after his birth was snatched away from his mother by a tempest (cf. Drummond 280). This concealment of the Messiah before his public manifestation in 1 Jno. 731. ^Cf. Zahn in Zoc, Stanton 127. 3 Jno 125 7401. 7 Test. Lev. 8. 6 112 e En. 51 ; cf . 468, Test. Levi 18, Test. Jud. 24. 7 Jno. 425. 8 Jno. 149. 9 Cf. Mt. 21", Lk. 716, 24i9, Jno. 9" Ac 322. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 49 the final era referred to elsewhere (cf. En. 62', 2 Es. 1232, 1326, the Targums ; see Weber System 342 ff., Schiu-er II. 620, Volz 219, Drummond 280 f.) was made by the Jews an argument against the Messiahship of our Lord. ' When the Christ cometh,' they say, ' no one knoweth whence he is ' (Jno. 7"). It was not, according to the Jewish idea, a part of the Messiah's functions that he should suffer and atone for the sin of his people. The wonderful figure of the suffering ' servant of Jehovah ' portrayed in Second Isaiah embodies more than any other conception of Old Testament prophecy the characteristics which the Gospel has taught us to attribute to the Messiah as the redeemer of the world. Interwoven with our most funda mental ideas of our Lord's person and work are the words of the prophet, ' Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sor rows ... he was wounded for our trangressions, . . . the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.' ^ And unquestionably these words regarding the ' servant of Jehovah ' are indirectly most truly prophetic of Christ, and are perfectly verified in him alone.^ Most scholars at the present time understand the ' servant ' to be a personifica tion of either the faithful portion of Israel, the true Israel as contrasted with the unfaithful multitude, or the ideal Israel, ' who by his vicarious sufferings makes atonement for the trans gressions of God's people and by his loyal fulfillment of the divine mission intrusted to him becomes the "light of the Gentiles " and the missionary of the nations, so accomplishing in his own person the ideal functions of the chosen people. ' ^ It is reasonably certain that neither the prophet himself nor his pre- Christian readers associated the 'servant' with the Messiah, and such association is not found in the prophets nor in any eschatological writer before the Christian era. The references to a suffering Messiah in the rabbinical writers are generally, perhaps always, of a later date.* The slowness of even the lis. 53"- 2 The so-called ' servant passages ' (Is. 42i-<, 491-^, 50*-9, 52i3-53i2) have been the subject of great controversy. Eor a good summary of the different views see Skinner in CB. Is. XL-LXVL 233 ff. Cf. also Hast. Extr. Index. On the hterature of the subject see Enc. Bib. IV. 4409, Hast. Extr. 707. 3 Ottley in Hast. II. 459. * Cf. Dalman Der leidende Messias 66 f., Weber System 343 fl., Schiirer H. 648 ff. 50 ESCHATOLOGY disciples of our Lord in learning that he could submit to being put to death ^ and the difficulty throughout the period of New Testament history in convincing men that 'it behooved the Christ to suffer ' ^ show that at that time there was in prevalent Jewish belief no connection between the Messiah and the ' suffer ing servant. '^ Second Esdras * contains the remarkable decla ration that the Messiah after a reign of glory lasting -±00 years shall die and with him all that have the breath of life, as an ante cedent of the final judgment ; but this has no relation to an atoning death. ^ (e) The Nature of the Messiah. As the direct descendant of David the Messiah was necessarily thought of as human. The absolute monotheism of the Hebrews forbids us to understand the utterances of the prophets as predicating metaphysical divinity of him, unless there is no other reasonable interpreta tion of their words. But such an interpretation lies near at hand. As the supreme representative and agent of Jehovah in the rule of his people, the one upon whom the Spirit of Jehovah should rest in largest measure, whose reign should be in perfect wisdom and righteousness and continue forever, he could not be characterized in terms applicable to any other man ; and the exuberance of oriental language could hardly fall short of ascriptions which, taken literally, belong only to the divine. In the loftiest characterization of him given by the prophets, that found in Isaiah, ^ the epithets are meant to describe him as the one in whom and through whom God worked as in and through no other. The epithet, ' Mighty God,' whether taken to mean ' God-like hero ' or ' Hero-God,' signalizes the might of God which is operative in the person of the INIessiah. The name ' Everlasting Father ' describes him as a king who is forever like a father to his people.'^ The name Immanuel, ' God with us,' 8 even if taken to refer to the ]\Iessiah, can de- 1 Mt. 1622, Lk. 1834. 2 Acts 173. 3 On our Lord's attitude toward the idea, see. p. 130. -i T-'s*-. 6 The same is true of a curious and late belief found in cerUiin rabbinical writersthataMessiah, the son of Joseph, i.e. ofthe tribe of Joseph, called also the son ot Ephraim, and so a Messiah of the Ten tribes, would fidit against hostile powers and die before the Messiali, son of David, should set up his kingdom for ever. Cf. Weber System 34(1 f., Schiirer 11. (>-2.'i, Drummond 356 f. " 6 gef. ' Cf . Is. 2221. On the whole passage cf . Dehtzsch, Dulim, Olievne, Schultz 610, OreUi272 fl. On 'forever' cf. Ezk. 3725, Dan. 2*. s jg. 7i4, gs. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 51 note only God's presence through his representative. But while the prophets always thought of the Messiah as human, they conceived him to be endowed with powers and attributes which far transcended those of all other men, and their ideal could not be comprehended within the limits of their forms of thought. What they saw dimly could find its perfect embodi ment only in him who was ' God incarnate, Man divine.' In the later years of our period there arose a clearer perception of his actual superhuman nature, as will be seen below. ^ (3) The relation of the kingdom and religion of Jehovah to the (j-entiles in the messianic age. The slowness of the people of Israel to learn that there is but one God, Jehovah, is seen in their frequent lapses into the worship of heathen divinities, to whom they must have attributed a real being and power, How early the truth of absolute monotheism came to be apprehended even by the religious leaders cannot be determined with cer tainty, because many utterances attributed to earlier writers are probably to be referred to a later source. But whatever tenden cies to recognize national gods may have existed before the exile, after that period the belief is general in Israel that the gods of the heathen are no gods, that Jehovah alone is God,^ and that he is sovereign Lord over all the world. As a result partly of this general perception of the oneness of God and his holy character and partly of movements in political history, three important ideas regarding the relation of the eschatological kingdom to the Gentiles — ¦ ideas doubtless already seized by the more enlightened minds — emerge in our period into clearness : (a) the chosen people have a mission to make Jehovah known to the Gentiles; (5) Jehovah must be acknowledged by all mankind ; (c) the messianic kingdom must embrace all peoples of the earth, (a) Out of the experience of the exile the author of the wonderful prophecies in Second Isaiah comes with the mes sage, that as Jehovah has ordained prophets and priests for his people, so he has raised up his ' servant ' Israel to perform the like offices for the Gentile world ; ' I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth ' ; ^ 'I will give thee for a covenant of the people, 1 Cf . p. 73 fl. 2 Is. 446, 4514. 3 ig. 495. 52 ESCHATOLOGY for a light of the Gentiles ; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.' ^ And the consciousness of this sub lime mission, though in many quarters stifled by the narrow spirit of Judaism, appears not seldom in the course of our period. It finds expression in some of the Psalms : ' God be merciful unto us and bless us, . . . that thy way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all nations ' ; ^ it appears in the apocalyptic writers : ' The people of the great God will be to all mortals the guide to life ' ; ^ it is the most potent of the forces in the proselytism active in the last centuries of Israel's history. This belief in God 's merciful regard for the Gentiles is nobly set forth in the book of Jonah, a poem which out of a legend regarding the prophet brings with dramatic power the truth that God wills the repentance of all sinners, even the heathen, and that he himself provides for their instruction and admonition. (6) The expectation that the rule and worship of Jehovah would be universally recognized in the eschatological age now becomes common. Unto him ' every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear ' ; * his ' house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples';^ - Jehovah will arise upon thee [Jerusalem]. . . . And nations shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising.' s The prophet of Isaiah 60 gives a sublime picture of the nations thronging to Jerusalem with their wealth of gold and frankincense and herds to offer all in sacrifice to Jehovah, and with their sons and daughters to minister before him.' (c) And the Messiah's dominion, vaster even than the great world- empires, which presented to the Jew an imperfect prototype of a universal sway, is described as a dominion which should reach from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. s 'The greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High.' 9 In non-canonical writers also the same outlook is ex- 1 426 f.^ cf . 51^. 2 Ps. 671^ of. 963, 10215. 3 Sib. Or. III. 194 f., cf. En. 48-1, I051, Test. Lev. 18. 4 is 4523 6 567. "602'-, cf. 446. ¦ c-J 9f- ^T." tTf' ^^"'' ^'^'- ^'°"-' l^""-' Tob. 1311, Ps. Sol. 1731, Ap. Bar. 685, Sib. Or. III. 710. 8 Zeo 910 1 i- 1 9 Dan. 727, cf. Is. 22-i, Ps. 222? f.. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 53 pressed. ' There will come the holy ruler who will hold the scepter over the whole earth.' ^ On the other hand, parallel with the glorious prophecy of the nations paying homage to Jehovah and their incorporation into the messianic kingdom, there runs through our whole period another and more common view. The bitter sufferings of God's people at the hands of the world-conquerors, and the degradation of the nations in morals and religion caused the Jews to regard all Gentiles as the enemies of God and doomed to merciless destruction. Fierce predictions of the outpouring of God's fury upon all the nations and their utter destruc tion are the prophecies predominant in the later prophets and apocalyptic writers. Jehovah's wrath will be visited upon the people of the earth through fire and sword, and through all the forces of nature ; all powers will be overthrown, all the heathen will be consumed with unrelenting vengeance.^ Intermediate between these two views and in part reconciling them are glimpses of the idea of a remnant which should be left among the peoples judged and which should be joined with the peo ple of God. Visitations sent upon them should produce fruit among the Gentiles also.^ ' It shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts.' * The universalistic ideal which recognized God's mercy for the Gentiles and looked for their admission into the messianic king dom could not in the conditions of the post-exilic era become the predominant belief. The influence in the opposite direction of particularism was too powerful. The Jewish people in these centuries, as the subjects of foreign powers, formed an organized religious community rather than an actual state and their very existence as the people of God depended upon a rigorous main tenance of the laws and ordinances of their religion. This became the period of legalism. The Mosaic law now reached its fullest development, and observance of its ceremonial rites and prescriptions constituted the essential in loyalty to Jehovah, perhaps even more than did performance of the moral and 1 Sib. Or. m. 49, cf. Ps. Sol. 1730, En. 485, 626, Ap. Bar. 53i». 2Cf. Ezk. 391-20, Is. 47, 636, 6616, ji. 3. ob. w 15 f., Zee. 14i-i^, Dan. 711*-, 2 Es. 1387'-, Ps. Sol. 1724, Ap. Bar. 40, 726, gib. Or. III. 303-651, Test. Sun. 6. 8 Cf. Is. I918-22. 4 Zee. I416, cf. 9', Jer. 12i«f-, Ap. Bar. 725, Test. Jud. 24. 54 ESCHATOLOGY spiritual duties enjoined. All that lay outside of this conse crated community was unclean, unholy, hateful to God. More and more the necessity of entire separation from the nations came to be felt, and there resulted the narrow, hardened exclu- siveness such as is seen in the pharisaism of the New Testament era. As Israel was not yet ready for the truth that the Messiah would suffer for his people,^ so the idea of the universality of his kingdom could not be largely fruitful till the Gospel re vealed its true meaning. (4) The central seat of worship and rule in the messianic kingdom. In the prophecies mentioned above it will be noticed that even where the conception of the messianic kingdom comes nearest to Christian universalism, Jerusalem is to be the center of Jehovah's worship for all nations and the seat of rule over all the earth. ^ Many peoples and strong nations wfll come to seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem, ten men out of all the languages of the nations will take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying. We will go with you; ^ the gates of Jerusalem will not be shut day nor .night that men may bring unto it the wealth of the nations; * in Mount Zion will be set up the throne of universal judgment ; ^ ' From the whole earth they will bring incense and gifts to the house of the great God, and there will be no other house with men, . . . all the paths of the field, and the rough hills and the high mountains and the wild waves of the sea will be passable on foot and for ships in those days.' ^ The ideal is local and earthly ; no other is found in the Old Testament Scriptures. Heaven as the des tined abode of the saints is there unknown. A purely spiritual kingdom in which the blessed abide and reign with God in a world beyond appears first in the Apocrypha and the apoca lyptic writings; but even there does not displace the idea of a national and terrestrial realm; that continues to occupy the center of eschatological outlook. The disciples who stood nearest to our Lord were slow to learn that the JNIessiah's kingdom is not of this world. ' 'The numerous popular dis- 1 See p. 49. 2 zec. 99 f. 3 zec. 822 1- 4 t, Rnii 6 2 Eb. 1336 «-, Ap. Bar. 40i. ' " 6 Sib. Or. lU. 772 fi. Cf. citations on p. 52, also Ezk. 1723 1= 616 f. ««« fl Ob. V 21, En. 90»3, Sib. Or. HI. 718 t v Cf. Ac. 16. ' °^ ' ^° ' EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 55 turbances of a politico-religious nature in the time of the Procurators (a.d. 44-66) show sufficiently the feverish expec tation with which the people look forward to a miraculous intervention of God in the course of history and to the dawn of his kingdom on earth. How else could men like Theudas and the Egyptian have found believers in their promises by hundreds and thousands? ' ^ — language equally applicable to the rebellion of Bar-Cochba, whom many held to be the Messiah. The remarkable passages Is. 191', speaking of an altar to Jehovah in Egypt, and Mai. in, speaking of incense offered to Jehovah among the Gentiles from the rising to the setting of the sun, while containing • a notable effort to break through the localized conception of God's kingdom ' (Orelli 318), are not at variance with the representation found everywhere in our period regarding Jerusalem as the religious center even for foreign nations. Such offerings are expressive of a recog-nition of Jehovah (akin to the worship of an Israelite in exile) beyond Zion his chosen dwelling- place, to which all nations will also bring their oblations, as to the sole seat of Jehovah's abode. But while the eschatological kingdom is thus local and earthly, it is conceived under a form fitting the perfected reign of God and the perfected condition of man. On through the prophets and apocalyptic writers the picture unfolds itself with wonder ful splendor. The universe of nature and man will be wholly transformed ; the wilderness and the dry land will be glad, the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose, the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame will leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb sing ; the ransomed of Jehovah will come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy will be upon their heads, they will obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away;^ the wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like the ox, they will not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain.^ The apocalyptic writers following on in the line of the prophets reproduce this picture, sometimes in varied form only, sometimes with extravagant additions.* The glory of the kingdom will be especially exhibited in the resplendency of its capital city. Jerusalem will be builded with sapphires 1 Schtirer II. 604. 2 is. 35. 3 6525. 4 Cf. En. 10" «-, 256, Ap. Bar. 732 «.^ cited on p. 45 f., Sib. Or. III. 743 ff. 56 ESCHATOLOGY and emeralds and precious stones ; its walls and towers and battlements with pure gold; its streets will be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir.i The hope which inspires this glowing panegyric of Tobit breaks out in the ex ultant call of Baruch: 'Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of thy mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever, ... set a diadem on thine head of the glory of the Everlasting. For God will show thy brightness to every region under heaven.' ^ From the idea of transformation a fervid religious imagination passes on to the destruction of the heavens and the earth that now are,^ and to a new creation which shall abide for ever. ' Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered.' * ' Everything that is corruptible will pass away, and everything that dies will depart ; . . . and the hour comes which will abide for ever, and the new world which does not turn to corruption those who depart to its blessedness.' ^ In view, on the one hand, of the highly ideal glory of the transformed Jerusalem, as pictured in these hopes, and on the other, of the traditional belief that the earthly tabernacle was a copy of a heavenly pattern,^ it is easy to understand the rise of the idea of a Jerusalem altogether heavenly, which in the messianic age should descend upon the earth as the Holy City of God's people, though the old idea of the renewal and glorifi cation of the present Jerusalem still remained predominant. Enoch ' sees in vision the removal of the old Jerusalem, and the bringing in of the new. The former is wrapped up, and with all its pillars and beams and ornaments is carried away. Then ' the Lord of the sheep brought in a new house greater and higher than that first house, and set it up on the place of the first; ... all its columns were new, also the ornaments were new and greater than those of the first old one which he had carried away; . . . and the Lord of the sheep was therein.' In the Apocalypse of Baruch, as the seer laments the 1 Tob. 1316 f. 2 Bar. 51 «¦ Cf . Is. 54" *-, Ps. Sol. 173i Sib. Or V 420 ff. 3 Is. 516, Jl. 231, Ps. 10226 1., 2 Es. 620, En. lo «¦ Mt. 2429, 2 Pet 310 * Is. 65". , . . 6 Ap. Bar. 449 s.^ of. 326, Is. 6622, 2 Es. 6 is f-, V'\ 2 Pet 312 f. Wpv 21 1 6 Ex. 25™, Heb. 85. 790281. " ,i^<^v.ii. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 57 destruction of Jerusalem there comes to him the word of the Lord, ' Dost thou think that this is that city of which I said. On the palms of my hand have I graven thee ? It is not this building which is now built in your midst ; it is that which will be revealed with me, that which was prepared beforehand here from the time when I took counsel to make Paradise, and showed it to Adam before he sinned ; . . . I showed it to my servant Abraham by night among the portions of the victims. And again I showed it to Moses on Mount Sinai, . . . and now, behold, it is preserved with me, as also Para dise.' ^ This idea was common in the later centuries of our period ; it appears frequently in the rabbinical writings,^ and also in the New Testament in the expressions ' new Jerusalem ' 'heavenly Jerusalem,' 'Jerusalem that is above.' ^ Its most magnificent expression is that given in the vision of the Holy City coming down out of heaven from God as described in Rev. 21-22. While the profound spiritual insight of the New Testament writers gives to their words a meaning beyond the literal limitation, their language nevertheless shows the com monness of the idea. It should in conclusion be noticed, however, that all the material glories, all the earthly blessings ascribed to the messianic kingdom and the new Jerusalem are only the corol lary of its spiritual perfections. God will dwell there continu ally with his people, and will be unto them an everlasting light ; * the covenant of his peace will never be removed ; ^ all will be taught of Jehovah and enjoy great peace ; ^ a fountain for sin and uncleanness will be opened there ; * God will give his people a new heart, that they may walk in his statutes and keep his ordinances ; ^ they will all be righteous ; ^ the unclean win no more come there. ^^ And this crowning characterization of the kingdom, as given in the prophets, continues through the post-canonical writers. ^^ 142 ft-, cf. 322 «-, 2Es. 726, 852. 2 Cf . Weber System 386, the newly discovered Odes of Solomon 43. See Dalman Worte 106. 3 Rev. 312, 212, Heb. I222, Gal. 426. 4 Is. 6019, Zee. 83, Jl. 3". * is, 5410. o 5413. 7 Zec. I31. 8 Ezk. 1119. 9 Is. 6021. 1° 521. 11 Cf. 2 Es. 627 f-, 863, En. 1020 1-, 6929, ps. Sol. 1782, 41, Test. Levi 18, Jub. 117, 23 fl., 28. 58 ESCHATOLOGY (5) The lot of those who die before the incoming of the kingdom. Not until late in Hebrew history does the belief, that the dead will rise to share in the blessedness of the messianic kingdom, emerge with clearness and obtain wide acceptance. The state of the dead as thought of through nearly the whole period of the Old Testament writings is one of a shadowy existence in an underworld of darkness, from which there is no return. ^ The dead continue to exist, but in a mode which is not called life. In a subject about which gathered inscrutable mysterj^ upon which there was no attempt to form sharply defined and systematic ideas, the language of the prophets and poets of the Old Testament must not be pressed with too rigorous literal- ness, nor must we expect exact self -consistency even in a single writer. But there is general agreement in representing the state of the dead as in sharp contrast with all that is most valued in life. They are cut off from communion with God and even from his care.^ Remembrance and knowledge of the things of life are gone, pleasure is no more, pain and sadness take its place ; ^ princes and captives, the servant and his mas ter, the small and the great, are alike there.* There are, to be sure, traces of a somewhat different view, according to which the distinctions of this life continue ; kings occupy thrones, they remember the king of Babylon, and greet him with taunts as he comes down among them; ^ they are thought to have knowledge of human affairs, and are consulted in divination.® But this is the less usual view, and even this does not strongly lighten up their unsubstantial existence. The thought which cheered Socrates in view of his end, that in Hades he would be in blessed communion with the great and good of all time ' is not found among the Hebrews ; their view of death was not brighter than that of the Homeric Achilles, who in the under world laments : ' Speak not comfortably to me of death ; I would rather on earth do villain's service to another, one with out inheritance, whose substance is but little, than be king of all the dead.' ^ Death may be spoken of as a release from 1 Job 1021 f- 2 Is. 3818, Ps. 65, 309, 886, n i. 115", Job IO21 *-, 147-12. 3 Job 77-10, 1421 1-, Ec. 910. 4 Job 313 fl-, Ec. 92. 6 Is. 149 f. Cf. Ezk. 3221. « 1 s. 288-19, is. 8i9. 1 plat. Apol. 40-41. 8 Od. XI. 488 ff. Cf. Schultz 554 ff., Stade 183 f., Schwally Leben nach d. Tode 03 ff., Salmond Immortality 200 fl. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 59 trouble and pain,i but in the Old Testament it is not thought of as a state where the wrongs of life will be righted, iniquity punished, virtue rewarded.^ The awards of conduct fall in this world. The rewards of the good are prosperity, long life, and a peaceful death; ^ the wicked are visited with misfortune, and with an untimely and miserable death; * or if the due awards do not come to a man himself, they befall his family or people, perhaps in a later generation. ^ Strange as this last mentioned allotment may seem to us with our developed sense of individ uality, it did not appear so to the earlier Hebrews with whom the solidarity of the family, tribe, or people was a ruling idea.^ The individual being lost in the larger unit, the sense of jus tice was not disturbed, if retribution was transferred to one's descendants or people. So late as the times of Jeremiah and Ezekiel do the worth and claims of the individual first begin to assume clearness in the religious consciousness of the Hebrews. The hope which in time came to relieve this gloomy outlook into death did not as among the Greeks arise from a belief in an immortality of higher activity for the soul freed from the hindrances of the body,'^ but rather from a belief in a release from the prison-house, a bodily resurrection to life in all its fullness of joy and capability.^ This belief was slow to arise because of the imperfect sense of personality just mentioned. The Hebrew was satisfied with an immortality which was realized in the continuance of his family and people. God's purposes were thought to relate to the nation and not to the individual, except as contributing to the nation's good. The good man who walked with God was conscious of the divine favor in life and at the hour of death, and having performed his part he was content to depart and leave the future with its 1 Job 313 fE. 2 For the later idea of a partial retribution between death and the resurrec tion, see p. 69 f. 3 pg. 913-16, 3725-27, job 510-26, Num. 2310. ¦t Ps. 5523, Job 312 f., Prov. 616. 6 Ex. 205, Nvun. 14i8, Lam. 57, Ezk. 182. 6 Cf. Davidson in Hast. I. 738, Stade 285 fl., Mozley Ruling Ideas in Early Ages 87 fl., 87 ff. 7 piat. Phaed. 66 f., 79 ff. 8 The intermediate state, in spite of a more comfortable hope which came to be attached to it in the latter part of our period (see p. 69 f.), stiU remained only an imperfect state of waiting for the complete release and recompense of the resurrection. 60 ESCHATOLOGY retributions and fortunes with God. There is no certain evidence of a belief in a personal resurrection until after the exile. There are certain passages ^ which read in the light of later revelation seem to declare the resurrection hope ; but when interpreted from the historical standpoint of their utter ance they cannot be regarded as intended by their authors to express this meaning. It is obviously impossible to enter here into the exegesis of these various passages ; it must suffice to say that critics are now for the most part agreed that they do not assert the doctrine of the resurrection; the language is figurative and refers in part to the restoration of the nation to a new life after its spiritual and political failure spoken of under the figure of death,^ and in part to temporal deliverances of the individual from imminent perils or present distresses. ^ Divine revelation in this as in other truths was progressive,* and of the infiuences which prepared the Hebrews to receive the doctrine some may be obscure, e.g. contact with other peo ples, but others are manifest. The universal belief in the nation's restoration in the glory of the last days, the strong consciousness that real life consisted not in a physical existence but in spiritual union with God, these and similar factors in religious thought must have awakened at least an aspiration in the individual for a survival in death — an aspiration which in some cases could hardly have fallen short of hope. Leading directly to this hope were those influences which fostered a growth in the sense of personality, that is, a growth in the perception that the individual member, no less than the people as a whole, possessed worth with God and claims upon his righteousness. In the very fact of membership in God's peo ple, and in the communion with God thus assured, there lay prerogatives which gave dignity to the individual. Also the moral and religious law of the Mosaic system aimed at not only the nation's relation to God, but also the spiritual life of the individual, the rightness of individual conduct. The divine favor shown to the preeminently good, the stringent 1 Job 1925 «., Is. ,5310, Ezk. 371-1-', Hos. 62, Ps. I610 «- 1716 4915 2 Cf. Ezk. 3711, Hos. 131. ,1' ,ta. <^.w;^^?''''^*^^?v ^n'o.^i"''',^'^ ^"^*" ""<* Religious Contents of the Psalter, .0, -i??"""??^**^ ^^^ ^^ Schwally 112 ff., Enc. Bib. II, 1345 fl., lU. 8956 ff! ' Ct. Uttley, 162 ff. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 61 accountability for his deeds laid upon every person, the far- reaching consequences for good or for evil seen in the issues of individual acts, all tended to awaken a sense of the person's place in the regard and purposes of God.i But such tendencies worked slowly, especially as long as the nation existed in its integrity. When, however, in the Babylonian conquest the nation as such perished, the religious significance of the indi vidual came to be more distinctly perceived. Ezekiel, the great prophet of the new direction in thought, gives its keynote in the words, ' What mean ye, that ye use this proverb, . . . The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge ? As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine ; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son, . . . the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.' ^ But this clear sense of personal accountability and personal retribution brought up with inevitable force the perplexing question of the inequalities of life, the suffering of the inno cent, the impunity and prosperity of the wicked (the book of Job struggled with, but did not solve, the problem) ; and the righteousness of God could no longer be vindicated by an appeal to the course of this world alone ; a wider outlook was demanded to adjust the due relation between the lot of the individual and the orderings of a righteous God. It will be seen then that there lay in the religion and history of the Hebrews a factor which prepared them, though not till the later centuries, to receive the revelation of a life after deAth.^ But individualism could never among the Hebrews lead to severance from the unity of God's people. In neither the old dispensation nor the new is the final felicity conceived of as apart from the Church of the redeemed. The Hebrew's life after death must be a part of that perfected life of his people in the messianic age. An incorporeal immortality entered upon immediately after death, such as the Greek anticipated, 1 Cf . idem 388 ff. ^ 132-4, 20. 3 It is not necessary then to look for the origin of the resurrection doctrine in foreign influence, though its growth may have been accelerated by contact with the Persian religion. See p. 81 ff. Cf. Bousset Jud. 480, Volz 129 f., Fairweather in Ha.st. Extr. 307. 62 ESCHATOLOGY could not satisfy Hebrew aspiration.^ As the righteous God would glorify his people in the last days, and would gather back the dispersed from the ends of the earth, so it came to be an article of Jewish faith that the righteous dead also would be raised to their retribution in the glory of the new kingdom. In the Old Testament there are but two passages which with unquestioned certainty announce the hope of a personal resur rection. The earlier of these. Is. 26^^ (placed by critics almost unanimously after the exile), contemplates the resurrection of the righteous Israelites to dwell with the righteous nation in the ' strong city ' ^ of the messianic world. No mention is made here of the resurrection of unfaithful Israelites nor of the Gentiles. It is expressly stated in v. 14 that the oppressors of Israel shall not rise ; these all remain in the underworld of the dead. The second passage, Dan. 12^, belonging to a still later date, though not asserting a universal resurrection, contains the first recorded announcement of a resurrection of unrighteous ones to receive their final doom. There is nothing to indicate that the writer's outlook here extends beyond Israel, embracing the dead generally. ^ The utterance seems to have the tone of a truth already familiar to the readers,* but it is not possible to trace with certainty the influences which in the period be tween the two declarations led to this widening of expectation to include unrighteous dead. Resurrection as required for the perfect reward of the righteous Israelite might naturally sug gest the like requisite for the punishment of the unrighteous.^ In the following centuries the hope appears with increasing frequency, in the non-canonical writings, and with varying scope. ^ Sometimes the resurrection is limited to the righteous '• — this according to Josephus was the belief of the Pharisees ; * sometimes it is spoken of as embracing all the dead ^ — this seems to have been the popular belief in New Testament times," 1 The appearance of this form ot hope in 4 Mac. 146, ige, 1713 js due to Greek influence — it is not Hebrew. 2 26I t-. 3 ff . Shultz 602. * It may perhaps be implied in Is. 242i f- ; of. Enc. Bib. II. 1355. 6 On the possibility of Persian influence cf. pp. 79 ff. 6 Cf. Volz 126 fl., 237 fl., Charles Eschatology, Drummond 360 fl., Schih-er II. 638 ff. 7 Cf. 2 Mao. 7". so En. OI", 928-i, Ps Sol 812 149 8 Ant. XVIII. 14. , . , . 9 2 Es. 732, En. oil, Ap. Bar. 50 f.. Sib. Or. IV. 180 fl., Test. Ben. 10 10 Cf. Jno. 1124. EXILIC AND POST-EXILIC AGE 63 aud according to Ac. 24}^ that of the Pharisees. On the other hand the belief in either form did not make its way without opposition. Many writings are silent regarding it (e.g. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, Jubilees) and even in New Testament times it was a subject of dispute, and was de nied by the Sadducees.^ The question of the Corinthians anticipated by St. Paul, ' How are the dead raised, and -with what manner of body do they come?' (1 Go. 1536) ap pears also in the non-v, 6 ipxi/^vos Mt. 1232, Mk. IO20, Eph. I21, Heb. 66. Eor these technical terms in non-canonical literature cf. 2 Es. 427, 69. 81, Ap. Bar. 1418, 157, 4860, En. 7 lis, SI. En. 6I2. They are common in the rabbinical writers also ; see Weber System 354. 66 ESCHATOLOGY present order came to be regarded as hopelessly corrupt, as given over to evil powers of whom Satan was chief, and as fit only for avenging destruction ; ^ and this estimate of the pres ent age, common in non-canonical literature of these later centuries, was also taken up into the conceptions of the New Testament writers. The term, 'this world,' 'the world,' be comes a concrete expression for the dominion of sin,^ of which Satan is the god or ruler, which he may give to whom he will ; 3 it is a world that passeth away ; * it is now ' stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and de struction of ungodly men.' ^ (2) The Judgment. Between these two world-periods, clos ing this age and ushering in the age to come, stands the judg ment, the day of Jehovah, but now not conceived as the great day of battle in which the hosts of God march against the nations hostile to Israel, or the day of punishment upon faith less Israelites. The great act is not military, but forensic and universal. Thrones are set and the Ancient of days with attending hosts sits in judgment ; ^ before him are gathered the spirits of other orders, men of all kindreds and tongues, the dead raised again, to receive their award. The division is no longer between Israel and not-Israel, but between the righteous and the wicked, whose deeds are recorded in the opened books. '^ The reward of the righteous is oftenest spoken of as ' eternal life,' a term common in non-canonical literature as well as in the New Testament, and denoting participation in all the blessedness of the eternal world. The figure of light also is often used to describe the glory and blessedness of the state. The dwelling-place in this eternal state is oftenest thought of as on the new earth, or at least in a visible Paradise.^ The conceptions of a world renewed and of a bodily resurrection are necessarily joined with the idea of an abode apprehended by the senses. 'I will change the earth, make it a blessing, and 1 Cf. Ap. Bar. 8,Si» «-, 2 Es. 11« «-, En. 80, 99 f., ,Jub. 108, Test. Dan 5. 2 Jno. 1417, Ro. 122, Eph. 22, 1 Co. 1132, ja. 44, 1 .mo. SI 8 2 Co. 4-1, Eph. 612, Jno. 1430, Mt. 49. 4 1 ,i„o. 2". 6 2 Pet. 37. 6 Dan. 79 1-. For the Messiah as judge see p. 75. 7 Dan. 122, 2 Es. 73i «-, Ap. Bar. 30, 50 f.. En. 10 n f-, 9020-26, Ass. Mos. lOi-s, SI. En. 71 «¦-, Jude vv. «, 14 f.. Rev. 20»-i3. 8 On the renewal of the world, see pp. 55 f . LAST CENTURIES OF POST-EXILIC AGE 67 let mine elect dwell upon it ' ; ' The earth will rejoice, the just will dwell upon it, and the elect will walk up and down in it.' ^ ' All who are godly will live again in the world (on the earth), . . . they will then see one another, beholding the lovely, gladdening sun.'^ On the other hand the abode is sometimes placed in heaven. ^ But in a world renewed, purified of all evil, glorified, heaven and earth are merged in thought. ' The earth is heaven, heaven is the earth, the cleft is gone ; God, the Son of man, the blessed dwell together.' * Paradise as the abode of the blessed is sometimes placed at the ends of the earth,^ sometimes in the third heaven,^ or less definitely in the heavens.'^ The punishment of the unrighteous first of all consists in exclusion from the blessings awarded to the righteous. As seen above, the resurrection in the earlier hope, and sometimes also in the later, was limited to the righteous ; the wicked remain in the underworld cut off from all the good of life ; and so the misery of their doom is sometimes characterized as the loss of all part in the blessedness of the future world. ' The sinner will not be remembered when the godly are visited ; that will be the sinner's part for ever ; but they who fear the Lord will rise to eternal life.' ^ The most common designation of their award, death, destruction, contains this idea of loss, but much more also. It does not signify annihilation, nor a state of unconsciousness. The spirits of the wicked, it is said, 'shall be put to death; they shall cry and wail in a boundless void.' ^ Death, as an eschatological term, sums up all the woe of exclusion from the bliss of the saints, and all the poignant suffering of the abode of the condemned. In this sense it has passed into New Testament usage. i° Sometimes though less commonly, the suffering spoken of is spiritual ; ' They shall pine away in confusion and be consumed with shame, and shall be withered up by fears.' '"¦ They will lament their folly in rejecting the law of God ; ^^ they will be troubled 1 En. 456, 516. 2 Sib. Or. IV. 186 fl. Cf. En. 382, 62i5, Rev. 21, 2 Pet. S". 3 En. 1042, Ass. Mos. 109 f., Ap. Bar. 51io. * Volz 371. 6 SI. En. 423, En. 32i-8, 77s. 6 si. En. 81. ' Ap. Bar. 51", En. 6I12, 8 Ps. Sol. 311 *-, cf. idem 149 f., En. 22", 99i. « En. 1083. 10 Cf . Ro. 212, Heb. 1039. " 2 Es. 787. 12 Ap. Bar. 51''. 68 ESCHATOLOGY beholding the glory of the righteous, even of those whom they have afflicted. 1 But generally it is physical pain that is fore told. The prison-house is a place of darkness, chains, and flaming fire. ' There are all sorts of tortures in that place. . . . Everywhere fire, and everywhere frost and ice, thirst and shivering, while the bonds are very cruel, and the angels fearful and merciless, bearing angry weapons, merciless torture.' ^ The pit of fire is generally present in allusions to the punishment. Its occurrence in the New Testament does not need illustration. And the suffering is unending ; no repentance, no prayers, no intercessions avail. With awful power the Apocalypse of Baruch tells of the death of hope : ' When the Most High shall bring to pass all these things, there will not there be again an opportunity for returning, nor a limit to the times, nor adjourn ment to the hours, nor change of ways, nor place for prayer, nor sending of petitions, nor receiving of knowledge, nor giving of love, nor place of repentance, nor supplication for offenses, nor intercession of the fathers, nor prayer of the prophets, nor help of the righteous.' ^ The same tone of hope lessness appears with appalling frequency through most of the literature of these later centuries. Some of the rabbis taught a limited punishment in the case of Israelites who were moder ate offenders.* The well-kno-wn name of the place of punishment, Gehenna, comes from the Hebrew name Gehinnom, the valley at Jerusalem which became a spot of special abomination, because that there kings of Judah had offered their children in sacrifice to Moloch (2 K. 168, 216). jn the traditional eschatology, which looked for the establishment of the messianic kingdom at Jerusalem, this valley became a fitting place for the final punishment of Jehovah's enemies in the sight of his people, and seems to be referred to as such m Is. 66^*, where it is said that the triumphant Israelites should go forth and look upon the dead bodies of those that had trangi-essed against God, for their worm should not die, nor their fire be quenched (cf. Salmond 355 ff., Skinner in CB. in loc). In the later eschatology the name designates the place of incorporeal and corporeal punishment, after the judgment, which is generally located in the underworld (Ap. Bar. 59io, So", En. 568 902c j^], 729, Rev. 20^). SI. En. places it in the third heaven (lOi). (3) ITie intermediate state. The old conception of Sheol as a place where all the dead alike are forever cut off from God and 1 Wis. 51 1, En. 10816. 2 SI. En. 102 1- s 8612 * Ct. Weber System 327, 374, Volz 287. LAST CENTURIES OF POST-EXILIC AGE 69 the activities of life is found in these later years, but not often. ^ A clearer perception of the individual as the object of award and the belief in a resurrection changed the idea of Sheol, and brought up the question of the state of the dead before the final judgment. The answers given are not uniform, nor are they always clear. But the view becomes generally prevalent that at least a partial retribution is entered upon immediately after death.^ In 2 Esdras the brief space of seven days after death, given to the departed that they may see the future destinies of the righteous and the wicked, may perhaps be interpreted as containing a belief that opportunity for repentance will be given for this time even to the dead. But nowhere else in apocryphal or apocalyptic literature is there clear evidence of a belief in the possibility of change between death and the judg ment ; on the contrary it is said ^ that one of the torments of the wicked is the consciousness that ' they cannot now make a good returning, that they may live.'* In rabbinical literature there is found the doctrine that all who have been circumcised will ultimately be released from Sheol.^ The great judgment, however, is not an empty pageant, only repeating what had already been determined; for this preliminary retribution is not complete, it looks forward to a higher reward or a more dreadful penalty. The preliminary aspect of the first award is expressed in the Apocalypse of Baruch in the sentence pro nounced upon the representatives of the powers of wickedness : ' Recline in anguish and rest in torment till thy last time come, in which thou wilt come again and be tormented still more.' ^ On the other hand the intermediate state is sometimes, espe cially in writings influenced by Hellenic tendencies, almost or wholly left out of view, and what is practically the full requital is entered upon at once after death. '^ Enoch ^ pictures the elect dead as already in the ' garden of life ' at the coming of the judgment day. The Paradise to which Enoch was translated lEcclus. 1727 ff., 41^ Tob. 86, Bar. 2". 2 Cf. 2 Es. 778 «-, "Wis. 3i«., En. 22* f-, 103?, Ap. Bar. 36", Jub. 729, 2222, SI. En. 187, 4012, Lk. i622f., frequent also in rabbinic literature. 8 2 Es. 782. 4 See also p. 68. 6 Cf. Weber System 327 f., Volz 146. Eor a modified doctrine in 1 Pet. see p. 113. 6 3611, of. 521 ff., 2 Es. 787. 95. 7 Cf. Wis. 31-3, 4 Mac. 1718-20. Cf. Volz 142 ff., Bousset Jud. 282. 8 6112. 70 ESCHATOLOGY is described as the dwelling-place of God and the preexistent Messiah ; already there were there ' the patriarchs and the righteous who from time immemorial had dwelt in that place.' ^ The righteous Ezra also is promised translation, together with all those who are like him, to an abode in the presence of the heavenly Messiah, 'until the times be ended,' that is, tdl the Messiah's coming.^ It will be seen then that the ideas of Para dise were manifold. Its location has been spoken of above.^ As a place of abode it is sometimes the dwelling of God, the patriarchs, and the righteous dead,* sometimes it seems identical with heaven,^ again it is the dwelling of the righteous after the judgment.^ Like the heavenly Jerusalem it was formed by God from the beginning "' and like that is to be revealed in the last days.^ Evidently it became an ideal term for a state of rest and felicity in the presence of God and the Messiah. (4) The final Overthrow of the kingdom of Evil Spirits. The judgment is conceived as the culmination of the age-long conflict with evil — the triumph of God not only over the kingdoms of the world, but also and preeminently over the kingdom of evil spirits. In the post-exilic centuries belief in spiritual beings underwent great expansion. Angels or spirits in unnumbered hosts were believed to perform the divine behests through all the universe — in human affairs and in the operations of nature. They were divided into ranks and orders in an im posing hierarchy of thrones and dominions and principalities and powers. 8 There were angels over seasons and years, over rivers and the seas, over the fruits of the earth, over every herb, over the souls of men, writing down all their works and their lives." So also the evil angels and demons were grouped into an organized kingdom under a sovereign lord. In this age for the first time comes prominently into view the figure of one supreme ruler of the demonic hosts, Satan, or among other names, Beliar, Beelze bub, the Devil." And since, as seen above, the world came to be regarded as given over to the dominion of evil powers, the 1 704. 2 2 Es. 149, cf . 728, 1352. 3 p 67 * Cf. En. 61, 70, Jub. 8i9, Lk. 23«. 6 Ap Bar 51" 6S1. En. 9, 423«., Test. Levi 18, Test. Dan 5. ' 7 An Bar 48-6 8 2 Es. 736, 852. 9 Col. 116. 10 s, En ^^ ^P' "'''• * ' 11 Cf. Bousset, Jud. 326 ff. ; Davidson in Hast. I. 93 ff. LAST CENTURIES OF POST-EXILIC AGE 71 great empires that arose one after another in history were viewed as only agencies of Satan in his enmity toward God and righteous men. In eschatological literature these empires, either severally or collectively, as the great world-power hostile to God, are not infrequently symbolized by animals in monstrous form, such as the four beasts in Daniel,^ the monsters of Isaiah 27 (part of a post-exilic paragraph), the eagle of 2 Esdras 11, and the first beast of the Revelation IS^"!". And the great world-rulers who waged war against God's people appear under the symbol of a monster or a part of such monster, as a horn or a head. Thus Antiochus Epiphanes appears in the ' little horn which waxed exceeding great ' in Daniel ; ^ Pompey in the dragon in the Psalms of Solomon ; ^ and as most scholars suppose, Nero in the seventh head of the Beast in the Revelation.* The careers of great monarchs like Antiochus and similar tyrants who ruthlessly warred against God and his people with Satanic might and acting as Satan's agents gave rise to a typical figure which appears in later eschatological expectation, both Jewish and Christian,^ called in Christian terminology Antichrist — a mighty world-ruler pictured with superhuman traits and exalt ing himself against God and warring against the saints.^ The dualism thus represented between God and the kingdom of evil is, however, nowhere in the Jewish religion, as in the Persian ,'^ that of two nearly equal powers, the victory of one of whom over the other can be attained only through a hard con flict. The might of Satan and his agents is always repre sented as only that which God in the execution of his purposes allows to be exercised ; and when the time has come he takes to himself his great power and reigns.^ The myriads of spiritual hosts may be pictured in the march of battle, but there is never a detailed portrayal of a combat ; the hosts of Satan are overthrown with a sudden stroke, with a breath or a word of the mouth : ' Lo, as he [the Messiah] saw the assault of the multitude that came, he neither lifted up his hand, nor held spear, nor any instrument of war ; but only I saw how that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a flood of fire, and 1 73 ff. 2 89 3 225. 4 133. Cf. pp. 893 ff. 5 2 Es. 56, Ass. Mos. 8, Ap. Bar. 40, Sib. Or. V. 28 ff., 2 Thess. 23-w 6 See p. 397. 7 cf. p. 80. 8 Rev. Ili7. 72 ESCHATOLOGY out of his lips a flaming breath, and out of his tongue he cast forth sparks of the storm, ... so that upon a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived, but only dust of ashes and smell of smoke.' ^ With the judgment comes the destruction of all the powers of wickedness, whether on the earth or in the world of spirits. Ungodly men, both the living and the dead, ' perish from before the presence of the Lord of spirits and are driven away from the face of the earth and perish for ever.'^ ' The beasts that were past and held . . . the whole compass of the earth with grievous oppression ' ^ have been destroyed one by another in historic succession, until the last is overwhelmed in the final world-catastrophe.* The fallen angels and evil spirits receive their doom in the pit of fire ; ^ and Satan himself, dethroned and bound, is condemned to the place of torment with his fallen hosts. ^ (5) The Messiah and his Functions. The widened outlook reached in many quarters in these later years is nowhere more evident than in new conceptions which now appear regarding the Messiah. A final catastrophe involving the overthrow of the whole kingdom of evil spirits, the resurrection of the dead, the renewal of the world, the passing away of the present age and the inauguration of the age to come, constitute a series of movements so vast, so transcendent, that a mere human prince, a son of David, can no longer form a central figure. Where such expectations are distinctly cherished and gain the ascend ancy, the Davidic Messiah must either disappear from thought or undergo a corresponding transformation, and in fact, as already pointed out,' in many writings of this age he is not present. But in at least two, Enoch and 2 Esdras, which pretty certainly represent a wider circle of belief, he appears in a new and transcendent form; and in at least these two writers he receives a new name. Enoch culls him ' the Son of 1 2 Es. 139 fl., cf . En. 622, pg. Sol. 1721, 2 Thess. 28, Rev 19i9 «- 2 En. 532, cf. 629 t., 2 Thess. 19. 3 2 Es ll-w " Dan. 7, 287-45, En. .526, sib. Or. III. .S0.3-(!.54, Rev' 17ii-i8 1020 6 En. 106. 13, 9026, Jude v. (i. 2 Pet. 2i. ' 0 Test. Jud. 25, Test. Levi 18, Sib. Or. HI. 73, Ass. Mos. 10, Mt 25« Rev 20". 7 p. 41. 1 • 1 ¦ LAST CENTURIES OF POST-EXILIC AGE 73 man,' or ' that Son of man,' i and 2 Esdras ' the man,' or ' that man.'^ A superhuman, angel-like character now seems to be dis tinctly attributed to him, though none would venture to desig nate him expressly as divine. Thus preeadstence is ascribed to him. This idea is found as early as the LXX, which gives in Dan. 7^^ ' there came one like a son of man and he was pres ent there as an Ancient of days,' ws TraXato? rip-epStv iraprjv. In Enoch it is said of the Messiah, 'Before the sun and the signs [of the zodiac] were formed, before the stars of heaven were made his name was named in the presence of the Lord of spirits.' 3 That the 'name' here, as often in Hebrew phraseol ogy, denotes the person is shown in a following verse, ' He was chosen and hidden with him [God] before the world was formed. ' * 2 Esdras speaks of his coming as that of ' one whom the Most High hath kept (preserved) unto the end of days,' '' or ' hath kept a great season ' ; ® similarly some are mentioned as taken away from the evil of the world to remain with him 'until the times be ended,' that is, till his coming. '^ In the Apocalypse of Baruch ^ it is said that at the consummation of the times he ' will return in glory,' where the meaning is pretty certainly, he will return to heaven where he was before.® Mic. 52, often understood to express the Messiah's preexistence, refers more probably to his ancient Davidic descent.^" This representation of the Messiah's preexistence is thought by some (cf. Stanton in Hast. III. 355, Drummond 293) to be explained by the idea of his concealment after his human birth (see p. 48). But this explanation falls short of the conception embodied in the passages cited. Neither can the preexistence spoken of be understood of an existence in idea merely, as the tabernacle with its furniture was believed to have existed with God in pattern or archetype before the earthly copies were made by Moses (Ex. 259.40, fjeb. 86); for the reference is clearly to a, personal existence (cf. Volz 217 ff., Bousset Jud. 249, Gunkel in Kautzsch 398, Edersheim I. 175 f.). 1 Cf. inter al. 462. 4, 432, 627. 7117. 2 133, 5, 12, 61. Both En. and 2 Es. in their representations show dependence on Dan. 79 «-, and it is probable that they have taken these designations from that passage, interpreted as referring to a superhuman Messiah. 3 433. " 486, cf. 626 f.. 6 1232. 6 1326. 7 149. 8 SQl. 9 This interpretation is required by the context ; so, Charles m loc, Ryssel in Kautzsch 423, Baldensperger 164. . But Volz (87) takes the paragraph to be a Christian interpolation unconnected -with the context and referring to Christ's second advent. "> Cf . Cheyne in CB. ad loc. 74 ESCHATOLOGY In preexistence itself the Messiah may not have stood alone; a kind of preexistence seems to be thought of in the case of Moses (Ass. Mos. 1") and of other forefathers (of. Harnack Dogm. L 98). But even if actual per sonal existence is meant in these cases and not mere presence in the pur pose of God, the representation is less clear and certain ; at all events the abiding presence of these -with God is not spoken of, nor is there attributed to them a continuing personal function in union with God, as in the case of the Messiah (En. 46i «-). In keeping with his preexistence, other attributes above the human, though not declaredly divine, are ascribed to the Messiah. He is endowed with the fullness of wisdom and righteousness, of glory and might ; he is exalted above all other spiritual creatures ; he will share in the throne of God. 'The glory of the highest will be proclaimed over him, the spirit of understanding and sanctification will rest upon him.'i ' The Elect one stands before the Lord of spirits and his glory is for ever and ever, and his might from generation to genera tion.' ^ 'The Lord of spirits seated the Elect one on the throne of his glory, and he will judge all the works of the holy ones in heaven and weigh their deeds in the balance.' ^ ' The kings and the mighty ones and all who possess the earth will glorify and praise and exalt him who rules over all, who had been hidden, for the Son of man was hidden before, . . . they wiU fall on their faces before him and worship him.' * ' That Son of man has appeared and has seated himself upon the throne of his glory, and all evil will vanish from before his face and cease ; but the word of that Son of man will be mighty before the Lord of spirits.' ^ It is not easy to see how such a view of the Messiah's nature and office can be harmonized with the persistent belief in his Davidic descent ; but absence of strict consistency in the eschatological beliefs of a given age or even of a single writer need not present insuperable difficulty. It is true that this picture of the Messiah's elevation over other spiritual powers occurs chiefly in Enoch ; but the later rabbinical -svritings, certamly in this respect not influenced by Christian belief and apparently preserving earlier Jewish teaching, show that he was not setting forth new doctrine (cf. Edersheim I. 177 f.). These portions of Enoch (the SimiUtudes) have been held by some to he a Christian interpolation (so, Ililgenfeld, Volkmar, 1 Test. Levi 18, "En. 4'.)i. 3 Eu qIS 4^2 6 O'.f^s, cf. 4'.), 463 «., Test. Jud. 24. LAST CENTURIES OF POST-EXILIC AGE 75 Drummond, al.) but this view raises great difficulty. The paragraphs in question contain no other traces of Christian influence ; no reference to the historical Christ, his life, death, and resurrection, no specifically Christian doctrines such as a Christian -writer inserts when he tampers -with an earlier document ; and on the other hand a representation such as Enoch's eleva tion to a kind of Messiahship (71" *-) would certainly have been modified. We are therefore probably right in holding the paragraphs to be Je-wish. (Cf. Beer in Kautzsch 231, Baldensperger 17, Schiirer IH. 279 f.) The Messiah now becomes the judge of all. In earlier writers in the judgment which shall convict the hostile nations of their wickedness and justify their destruction a forensic act preced ing their punishment scarcely appears ; where ' judgment,' or ' sitting in judgment ' is spoken of ^ the thought is chiefly of executing sentence, and Jehovah is judge and executor. In the majestic scene described by Daniel ^ it is Jehovah in the like ness of ' one that was Ancient of days ' who did sit and give sentence from the opened books ; and this idea of the person of the judge continues through later non-Christian writers as the more common one.^ On the other hand in the latter part of our period this function is often assigned to the Messiah. In the Apocalypse of Baruch * it is foretold that the leader of the hostile hosts will be taken up to Mount Zion where the Messiah 'will convict him of all his impieties, and will gather and set before him all the works of his hosts. And afterwards he will be put to death.' In similar language 2 Esdras ^ describes the Messiah's judgment : ' He shall come and speak unto them and reprove them for their wickedness and their unrighteousness, ... he shall set them alive in his judgment, and when he hath reproved them, he shall destroy them.' In Enoch's account of the judgment not only the kings and the mighty of the earth, the sinners and the just shall appear before the Messiah's throne, but also the angels and all the spirits of evil.^ In the New Testament this conception of the Messiah as the universal judge becomes the more usual doctrine. There is no conflict between the two ideas respecting the person of the judge ; for as the Messiah is conceived to rule as Jehovah's representative "^ so his judgment is described as exercised in Jehovah's name.^ i.E.f/. Jl. 32.12. 2 79ff.. 3 Cf. 2 Es. 733, En. 473, Sib. Or. IV. 40 ff. MOiK. 6 1232 f.. 6 49*, 554, 618, 623, 6927. 7 Mic. SS Zec. 38. 8 En. 55''. 76 ESCHATOLOGY He is God's agent. Thus St. Paul characterizes the judgment as ' the day when God shall judge the secrets of men ... by Jesus Christ * ^ and the Acts speak of a day in which God ' will judge the world . . . by the man whom he hath ordained.' ^ St. Paul and St. John then can without self-contradiction speak of the judgment as the act of God,^ though generally attribut ing it to Christ.* (6) The messianic age as an Interregnum.^ We see in the survey above, that the two forms of eschatological hope existing side by side in the latter part of our period were the national and the universal ; the former contemplating the future of Israel, the nations of the earth in their relation to Israel, the reign of the Davidic Messiah in an earthly kingdom of right eousness and glory which should endure forever ; the latter, the world of men and spiritual beings, a universal realm in which national and earthly limitations are obliterated, the resur rection of the dead and the judgment, the heavenly ^Messiah, the renewal of. all things and ' eternal life ' in the perfection of the ' coming age. ' The older, national hope, planted in a literal understanding of a long series of prophecies, was too firmly rooted to give way to the newer, transcendental, outlook, and both continued together in spite of differences and inconsist encies. But the effort to harmonize the two, to retain the hope centering in a national messianic kingdom, and at the same time the wider expectation of the ' coming world ' gave rise to a view according to which the messianic age, as a period of national glory fulfilling all the promises of the prophets, is a prelude to the final state, an interregnum between the two seons. ' The messianic kingdom brings the national felicity, the new teon brings eternal life.' ^ The most distinct expression of this view is found in 2 Esdras.' When the full time has come the city (the messianic Jerusalem) will appear in the midst of great 1 Ro. 216. 2 1731. 3 Cf . Bo. 1419, geoo ig tjie correct reading, 36 ; Jno. 860, 5«. * For a similar identification of God and his instrument cf . Ezk 34 where both Jehovah, vv. 11-16, and the Davidic kings, v. 23, are called the 'shepherd of Israel ; also Ex. 3, where both Jehovah, vv. 8, 17, and Moses, v. 10, are called Israel's deliverer. ' 6 Cf. Volz 62 ff., Bousset Jud. 278 ff., Schtirer II. 686 f Salmonrt S12 f Weber System 364 ff., Drummond 312 ff. 6 Volz 64. ^^^°^^^^f f-' LAST CENTURIES OF POST-EXILIC AGE 77 wonders, the Messiah will be revealed and the saints will be in felicity with him for a space of 400 years ; afterwards the Messiah and all that live will die,i the world will be turned into its original silence for seven days ; then the dead will be raised, the world renewed, the Most High will appear on the throne of judgment, and Paradise and the pit of torment will be opened as the endless awards of those who are judged. In another passage ^ 2 Esdras says that the Messiah will deliver his people and 'make them joyful until the coming of the end, even the day of judgment.' A similar representation is found in the Apocalypse of Baruch ^ and probably also in Enoch,* where a vision of the world's history is given in ten ' week '-periods ; of these the eighth, in which ' sinners will be given over into the hands of the righteous,' seems to represent the messianic age^; while the general judgment, the destruction of the world and the appearance of the new heavens fall in the ninth and tenth 'weeks.' In Slavonic Enoch (XXXII f.) the doctrine of an interval of 1000 years seems to be found, as in the Revelation, 20.8 g^^ ^;}jg i,jga of a messianic interregnum is less common. It is doubtful whether it is found in the apocalyptic writers except in these places and in Rev. 20*, though in the late rabbini cal writings a distinction between the ' days of the Messiah ' and ' the coming age ' is not infrequent. To the former they assign periods varying from 40 to 2000 years — in one instance a period of 1000 years, a millennium.'' The pre-Christian existence of this conception of the messianic age between the two aeons is interesting to the biblical student chiefly because it appears in the doctrine of the Millennium in the Revelation,^ a doctrine, however, not certainly found elsewhere in the New Testament.^ (7) The Reckoning ofthe Time until the end. ^^ The eager direc tion of thought toward the expected end found in much of the later Hebrew literature of our period is not due to curious specu- 1 This idea of the Messiah's death has no relation to the historic event of Christ's death ; cf . p. 50. In the Ap. Bar. it is said that the Messiah will return to his heavenly glory at the end of his earthly reign ; cf. p. 73. 2 1234. 3 301, 401-3, cf. 74. < 91, 93. 6 So, Bousset Jud. 274 ; otherwise however, Volz 66. 6 But see p. 184. 7 Cf. Volz 236, Bousset Jvd. 276, Drummond 315 ff. 8 201-fi. 9 On 1 Co. 1528a- see p. 98. Eor this doctrine in the 0. T. see p. 86. 1" Cf. Volz 162 ff., Bousset Jud. 234 ff., Drummond 200 ff. 78 ESCHATOLOGY lation about the future ; it is born rather of the stress and per plexity of the times present. The bitter bondage of God's people to Gentile rulers, the trials of the godly among godless Israelites, the hardness and iniquity which the weaker must endure from the stronger, raised continually the problem of the rule of a right eous God, and faith was pointed on to a future when his ways would be justified to men, and all evil would end. Out of these experiences arose ever and anon the cry. Lord, how long?i The answer, characteristic of eschatological literature of what ever date, is that the end is near. From the prophet of the first great apocalypse, Daniel, who speaks throughout in the belief that the times of distress are approaching their limit, to the seer of the Revelation, whose message is of things which must come to pass shortly ,2 the expectation is generally the same. But before this consummation the world must run its course fixed by God ; ' The end shall be at the time appointed. ' ^ As God was said to have fixed a measure of iniquity,* and the number of the saints ^ to be filled up, so he had determined the measure of time which must be fulfilled : ' For he hath weighed the world in the balance ; and by measure hath he measured the times, and by number hath he numbered the seasons ; and he shall not move nor stir them, until the said measure be fulfilled.' ^ But the eschatological writer conceives the generation which he addresses to be standing already in the closing years of this measured period ; and to set this vividly before his readers he divides the world's history, or at least its later ages, into a definite number of epochs in a program which discloses the final era as not far removed. This division of the world's history, or of the latter portion of it, into a fixed number of periods appears first in Daniel in the prophecies of the four kingdoms, and of the seventy weeks,'' the latter being an eschatological interpretation of the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity prophesied by Jere miah. ^ Henceforth some such mode of computation becomes a stereotyped feature in eschatological writings. The numbers commonly met with are four, seven (or its multiple seventy), ten and twelve. The fourfold division appears again in the 1 Dan. 126 ff-, 2 Es. 669, Ap. Bar. 21i9, Sib. Or. III. 55. 2 p I ??^°- Uf -T, «n * ^''"- ^'*' ^ ^'- 12''' J"^- 1416, 1 Thess. 216. ¦ 6 2 Es. 436, Rev. 611. 6 2Es. 43«i-. '7,92*. 8 92 PERSIAN INFLUENCE 79 Apocalypse of Baruch i and in the rabbinical writings; ^ Enoch combines the four kingdoms and the seventy weeks of Daniel in a scheme of seventy periods divided into four parts ; ^ a tenfold division appears in the Sibylline Oracles IV.* and Enoch; ^ a twelvefold in the Apocalypse of Baruch ; ^ a sevenfold in the Sibylline Oracles III.,^ Enoch,^ Testament of Levi,^ the Revela tion. i" The delineation of the periods generally makes clear to which one the generation then present on the stage of history is reckoned, and thus the place of the end is shown. Sometimes also the time of the end was computed from the sum total of the years which the world is appointed to last, as determined by biblical utterances interpreted with rabbinical sublety.^^ Slavonic Enoch ^^ seems to make the duration of the world 7000 years — 6000 from the creation to the judgment and 1000 for the millennium — and this number is found in the Talmud. On the other hand the view is found that the final day is not fixed, but that its advent may be hastened by the prayers of the saints and the cries of the martyrs for vengeance ; ^^ and later rabbini cal writers ^* make its coming depend upon the repentance of Israel — a belief apparently found among the people also, as it is implied in St. Peter's discourse in the Acts 3^^ (see RV.).^^ (8) Persian influence in later Jewish Eschatology. Whether Jewish eschatology in the later forms spoken of above was a direct and natural outgrowth solely from the Hebrew religion and the teaching of the prophets, or whether new elements were introduced into it from foreign beliefs, has been much debated in more recent times.^® The question is too large to receive discussion here, nor is that essential to the purpose of the survey with which we are concerned. It will suffice to 1 39. 2 Cf . Volz 168. 3 8959-9026. Cf. Beer in Kautzsch 294, Charles En. 244. 4 47 ff. 6 93. 91. 6 53 ff. 7 192 ff. 8 91. 9 17. 19 13, the seven heads. " Cf. Drummond 207 f . 12 33. Cf. Charles in loc i^ En. 47, of. Rev. 61". » Cf . Weber System 333 f . 16 On the ' messianic woes ' as a sign of the approaching end cf . pp. 38 f . 16 Cf. Liieke I. 58 f ., Boklen Die Verwandschaft d. jud.-christ. mit d. pers. Eschatologie, Charles Eschatology, Soderblom La vie future d'apres le Maz- deisme, Cheyne The Origin and reliq. Contents of the Psalter, Bousset Jud. 449 ff., Die jiid. Apokaliptik 86 ff., Baldensperger 189 ff.. Hast. IV. 990, John The Influence of Babylon. Mythol. upon the O.T. in 'Cambridge Biblical Studies,' Jeremias The O. T. in the Light of the Ancient East, Eng. trans. go ESCHATOLOGY state certain factors which enter into the problem. Among the nations with whom the Jews in their later history were in long and close contact, only the Persians, as far as has been discov ered, possessed a distinctly developed eschatology. According to the Avesta, the collection of the sacred books of the Persian religion (called variously Zoroastrianism, Parseeism, Mazde- ism), the two principal divinities, Ormazd (Ahura Mazdah) and Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), exist in the beginning inde pendently of each other. The former is the god of light, the creator of the world, of man and all good ; the latter, the god of darkness and the creator of aU evil. The history of the world after the creation of man is the history of the conflict between these two divinities for the supremacy ; at the end of the present aeon, the last of four ^ons (cf . Daniel's four king doms), the great deliverer of the world, Saoshyant (a Messiah), is raised up ; the god of evil marshals all his forces for a deci sive assault upon the powers of Ormazd and is overthrown ; a universal judgment is instituted, the dead are raised, an ordeal of fire is sent upon the world, through which the good pass unharmed, while it consumes aU that is evil ; the god Ahriman with his angels is cast into the abyss of torment, forever robbed of his power, and the good are admitted to the kidgdom of the renewed heaven and earth to dwell in felicity with their savior Saoshyant. The parallelism with the course of this world and the final issues as conceived in Jemsh eschatology is at once apparent ; and it is difficult to avoid the conviction that there is some measure of dependence. As the Avesta underwent revision sometime in the early Christian centuries, it has been contended that Persian eschatology borrowed from the Jewish, but this view is generally rejected by students of the Avesta ; at all events the more fundamental ideas contained in this representation doubtless formed a part of the original groundwork of the Avesta, as their presence in the Persian religion in pre-Christian times is established by the testimony of Theopompus (380 B.C.) as preserved in Plutarch.^ Circumstances in which Persian religious ideas might find their way to Hebrew acceptance are manifest. As pointed out by Bousset,^ the Jews, who in large numbers remained behind 1 De Iside et Osinde 47. 2 Jvd. 456. PERSIAN INFLUENCE 81 in Babylon and the adjacent country after the return of their compatriots, and who came to form an influential center in the thought of later Judaism, had thus ample opportunity in the course of these centuries to come in contact with Zoroastri anism, which was now the predominant form of religion there ; and they were not unlikely to be influenced, perhaps uncon sciously, by this contact, since in ethical and even theological aspects Zoroastrianism approached more nearly than did any other religion to their own. Ormazd, as a divinity of perfect goodness who should in the end triumph over all evil and become the unopposed lord of the world, was in their minds not far removed from Jehovah; and the judgment of men according to an ethical standard, the overthrow and punish ment of the wicked, the sure reward of the good, and a future kingdom of righteousness, peace, and glory, were all funda mental articles of Jewish belief. The affinities therefore be tween the two races in religious and moral beliefs were such that a certain influence of the predominant people upon the other can be readily understood. But on the other hand this parallelism between the two eschatologies does not certainly prove a large dependence of the Hebrew upon the Persian. While subordinate factors, such as a division of the world's history into a definite number of seons, the multiplication of spiritual beings and their organization in an elaborate hier archy, may have been adopted directly, yet the central doc trines of a universal judgment, a resurrection of at least the just, the destruction of evil powers, the reign of the Messiah, and the everlasting felicity of the redeemed in a renewed world, were expectations which might conceivably be directly developed out of the religion of the prophets. In the changed political condition of the Hebrews after the exile and with their enlarged view of the religion of Jehovah, some such development could hardly fail to take place, if they were to retain faith in their destiny as the people of God. What seems most reasonable to suppose is, that Persian ideas because of their very similarity gave a certain acceleration to the growth of what in germ was already contained in Jewish belief, and at the same time influenced the form taken by the growing conceptions. It is unquestionable that in many in- 82 ESCHATOLOGY stances foreign elements were in different ages taken up into popular thought among the Hebrews ; ^ but these were gener ally transformed and purified by the clearer religious and ethical insight of the Hebrew writers. We may not be going too far in supposing that such borrowed elements in some instances were made by the divine revealer, who works through means, an instrument for setting his revelation in clearer light. But it may be questioned whether as a historical fact the essence of a single fundamental truth was received by the Hebrews in this way. 5. The New Testament Era. This division of our subject is intended to present, in briefest possible outline, the principal •eschatological teaching given in the New Testament, that is, Christian eschatology as related to and contrasted with the Jewish. The later developments of the latter, even if repre sented in writings of the same era as the New Testament Scriptures, belong distinctly to Jewish thought and have been treated in the former sections. But as in every department of religious truth, so in eschatology, the affinity between the Jewish and the Christian forms is very close, the former being the preparation for the la.tter. We have seen hoAv Jewish con ceptions of the Last Things grew and were modified by the course of history, and similarly we may in a general way say that the eschatological expectations of the New Testament era are but the Jewish conceptions enlarged and transformed by the revelation given in Christ. This relation of the Christian doctrines to their forerunners must be kept clearly before us, if we are to avoid misinterpretation of the utterances of our Lord and the New Testament writers regarding the final destiny of man and the issue of the ages. Nor can we over look the great prominence of eschatology in the New Testa ment, remote as it is from the interest of our modern every day religious thought. While that is certainly a one-sided estimate which makes the teaching of our Lord purely eschato logical, solely concerned with the announcement of a kingdom coming in the near future,^ it is nevertheless true that an eager 1 Cf. Gunkel SehSpfung u. Chaos, Delitzsch Babel u. Bibel. 2 cf. pp. 139 g NEW TESTAMENT ERA 83 outlook toward the final consummation is everywhere present as a conditioning factor in his preaching and in that of the apostles. We cannot read the New Testament with an intelli gent grasp of the writers' thought without a recognition of this fact. At the same time neither in a particular writer nor in the New Testament as a whole are we to look for any com plete and systematic exposition of the Last Things, expressed in precise doctrinal terms, just as we find no presentation of a system of theology or christology. Whatever of the doctrines of the End is given appears, not as abstract truth, but in lessons for present practical purposes, as motives tb conduct, as encouragement or warning. Much that we should be glad to know of the future is left untouched, much remains at best as only an uncertain inference. It is evident that while there is agreement among the different parts of the New Testament as regards certain great fundamental expectations, yet the eschatological utterances given by various writers to meet varying occasions and circumstances must present, or at least emphasize, varying forms or aspects of eschatological hope. Within limits we may speak of a general eschatology of the New Testament, but in the following survey we shall take up separately the leading groups into which the writings fall, because only in this way can be seen the variety and scope of the views contained in the whole. And we begin properly with the eschatology of St. Paul. His epistles are nearly, if not quite, all earlier than the other books of the New Testa ment ; we have his teaching, not at second hand, reported by others, but given in his own words ; and in regard to most of these epistles a cautious criticism is disposed to accept their genuineness ; St. Paul, moreover, more than any other apostle may be called the great doctor of the infant church ; his influence upon its thought was everywhere felt directly or indirectly ; some scholars even go so far as to find his ideas and the language coined by him to be recognized in every other New Testament book.^ Pauline Eschatology. ^ Sources. — It is obviously impossible in the space here at command to enter into a discussion of the critical questions 1 Holtzmann, Theol. II. 4. 2 Cf. books on N. T. theology, especially Weiss, Holtzmann, Beysohlag, 84 ESCHATOLOGY concerning the genuineness of the epistles attributed to St. Paul. The follow ing brief note regarding critical opinion must suffice. The Pauline author ship of the four great epistles, Eo., 1 Co., 2 Co., GaL, is so firmly established that uo argument to the contrary is held valid by any considerable number of scholars, even among critics of an extreme tendency. Very general also ia all schools of criticism, though not universal, is the acceptance of 1 Thess. More objection is raised against 2 Thess. (important in its eschatology) ; yet it is now widely acknowledged that no decisive argument against its authen ticity can be found in language and style, that the apparent contradiction between 1 Thess. 5^ and 2 Thess. 28 *-, may be due to difference in reference or a change of emphasis (see p. 89 on reconciliation of the two passages), that the numerous resemblances to 1 Thess. may be accounted for by a ¦vdvid recalhng bf the former epistle through memory or a preserved copy (of. the recalling of the phraseology of an earlier letter in 1 Co. 59). There is a gro-wing tendency in criticism at the present time to regard the argu ments against the traditional view as inconclusive. Still wider is the agreement of critics now regarding Phil., which was placed among the pseudepigraphio -writings by Bauer and his followers. ' Bauer's thesis that the entire epistle is post-Pauline has the approval stiU of only the Dutch radicals, who recognize nothing as Pauline' (Jiilicher Ein. 108). The striking resemblances between Eph. and CoL, the ecolesiology of the former and the Christology of the latter, have led many critics to reject, some the one, and some the other of these two epistles, yet none of these objections has been found so far conclusive as to gain the general acknowledgment of critical scholars. The number of those who would reject CoL has not increased of late, and while a larger number question Eph. the inconchi- siveness of the objections to it seems to become more widely acknowledged in recent criticism. As regards the doctrines in question these two epistles are seen to contain, not un-Paulme ideas, but only earlier ideas more fuUy developed. AH the above-mentioned epistles then may be taken to furnish sources for our study, and the theory of later interpolations adopted hy some, cannot be carried through so completely as to affect the epistles for our present purpose. The Pastoral epistles which present greater dhficulties for the critical student do not contribute eschatological teaching not found m at least some one of the other epistles, and need not therefore be used. The Paulme speeches recorded in the Acts are of course not verbatim re- ports and even if representing the apostle's thought in general, can hardly be taken as evidence of teaching not found in the epistles. St. Paul, trained in pharisaic learning and acquainted with apocalyptic writings, brought with him when he became a Christian a knowledge of the late Jewish conceptions of the Messiah ; and some inference regarding the prominence of Stevens ; cf. also Titius N. T PfleirlPTov ¦^^/^l t t- i • , .., . Wrede Paul, J. Weiss i^uJ^Hausrath /es J Vol T r"'"' ^/"^e' Bruckner, PauJ, Matthews Jfess., Beet TheTc^TTMn^ ' ^'"''^"'^y ^«"'' ^''''^ PAULINE 85 the messianic idea in his pre-Christian thought may be drawn from the place it occupies with him subsequently. The mes sianic titles, ' Christ,' that is, Messiah, and ' Lord,' occur, one or the other of them, more than 300 times in his epistles, while the name Jesus alone is found not more than 10 times. And his conception of the person and work of the Christ formed the center of all his religious thought as a Christian ; it was this that determined the character of his eschatology. Already the doctrine of the Messiah had reached in late Jewish literature a growth in which he appears as a preexistent heavenly person, above all created beings, endowed with divine wisdom and might, one who in the Last Days should come forth in glory to judge the world, vanquish evil, inaugurate the divine kingdom, and reign with God forever.^ In St. Paul's doctrine of the Christ these same elements appear and are taken for granted ; he does not argue to establish them, or treat them as a part of a new revelation given to him. It is probable then that this was the Messiah who in his pre-Christian days he believed would come in the fullness of time. This hope makes clear his furious persecution of the church, which preached Jesus as the Messiah ; to his mind it was extreme blasphemy to think of the man, whose career had ended in an accursed death,^ as the incarnation of that glorious one whom no might could resist and who when he came should abide forever. But when the Messiah of his faith appeared to Saul in the bright light of his glory and revealed himself as also the Jesus whom he perse cuted, Saul's whole conception of the person and work of Jesus was revolutionized. He accepted with all its meaning the truth of the resurrection which the church had been pro claiming as the evidence of its faith. He saw that the Messiah of his earlier belief had come forth to earth in human form for a time and had returned to his heavenly glory. This incarnate life was an episode in the eternal life of the Christ, and the pur pose of this episode, not commonly apprehended in Jewish ideas of the Messiah's work ^ now became clear ; the incarnation and death of the Christ was an atonement for the sin of the world ; that brief earthly sojourn of the Messiah was a preparation for the eschatological coming; it was not the coming to which 1 pp. 74 f. 2 Gal. 813. 3 See p. 49. 86 ESCHATOLOGY Paul with all the people of God had looked forward; that stiU lay in the future, that was the coming which should fulfill the prophecies of the End and realize all eschatological hopes. Neither St. Paul nor the other New Testament writers are accustomed to speak of it as a second coming ; it is with them the coming, the Parousia. Important for St. Paul's spiritual development and eschatology as was that meeting with the Lord which convinced him that the heavenly Messiah had come in the person of Jesus, still more influential in revealing to him the nature of the glorified Christ and his work in the world was the apostle's experience of the indwelling Christ in the person of the Spirit. Christ, the exalted one, was the Spirit,! and as Spirit dwelt in the believers and in the church,^ working out the life of union with him and preparing for his coming. With the far-reaching religious consequences of the doctrine of the indwelling Christ we are not concerned here, except so far as it affected St. Paul's eschatology. In that union with Christ through the Spirit lay the pledge of the believer's resurrection and future blessedness, and of the per fection and glory of the Church. With the great revolution in Paul's understanding and belief that came to him in and after his conversion, some of his former conceptions of the Last Things necessarily fell away, others were profoundly modified, some he seems to have retained vaguely without attempting to adjust them in every case to the hopes of his new faith. The principal eschatological ideas expressed in his epistles may be arranged in the following groups. (1) The Coming of the Lord. This is fundamental in St. Paul's thought. It is mentioned directly or implied throughout as the background of teaching, of hope and warning. And the Apostle has in mind not merely a subjective presence such as is realized in special visitations of the Spirit, but a visible return conceived under traditional Jewish forms. The ideas and terms of the popular eschatology are represented most vividly in the so-called Pauline apocalypses,^ which belong to the Apostle's earliest writings ; but even if we suppose his 1 2 Co. 817 1. 2 Ro. 810 f-, 1 Co. 1212 1. 8 2 Thess. 17-12, 21-10, cf . also 1 Thess. 4i«7. PAULINE 87 conceptions to have become more spiritualized in later years, the essential elements are retained. The Lord will come forth suddenly attended by the heavenly hosts, at the call of the archangel and the sound of the trump the dead wiU rise,i the universal judgment will be held,^ the redemption to which be lievers have been sealed ^ will be accomplished, they will be joined with Christ in his glory * and the kingdom of God will be established forever. ^ As in all eschatological literature, the Day of the Lord marks the transition from ' This Age ' to the 'Coming Age.' Although St. Paul does not employ the latter term, his frequent use of the former shows the distinction to have been an essential part of his thought. As in the Old Testament prophets ^ and in the common belief of the apostolic age, so with St. Paul that day is looked for as near at hand ; '^ he himself hoped to see it dawn.^ Though the experiences of his later life made more distinct the consciousness that he might himself die before the parousia,^ he did not lose his belief in its nearness 10 Antecedents of the Coming. The expectation pf ' times of trouble,' the ' messianic woes,' which is characteristic of apoca lyptic writers ^^ was shared by St. Paul. Referred to in general terms elsewhere,!^ it takes definite form in the 'falling away' (rj a-KoaTacrCa') and the revelation of the ' man of sin ' given in the Pauline apocalypse. ^^ These unmistakable signs must pre cede the Day of the Lord. They are not clearly described here ; in fact they are referred to with the vagueness and mys- teriousness usual in apocalyptic prophecy. They had already formed a part of the apostle's oral teaching among the readers. The great Apostasy predicted is frequently understood of a coming revolt of the Jews from God, as the ' man of sin ' also is 1 1 Thess. 416, 313, 2 Thess. 17, 1 Co. 1522. 2 rq. 26. w, 14i«-i2. 3 Eph. 430. i Col. 34. 6 1 Co. 152<-28. 6 See pp. 22, 36. 7Ro. ]3"f-, ICo. 729, Ph. 45. 8 1 Thess. 416 — ^/ieis includes himself — 1 Co. 15^1 f-. This expectation of the day as near does not easily fall into conformity with the prophecy that before the parousia, the fullness of the Gentiles and then all Israel should come in (Ro. 11. ) . But such a hope is far from impossible with a man of his fervid faith, especially in view of the wonderful scenes already enacted in demonstration of the power of the Spirit and the triumphs of the gospel already achieved. 9 Ph. 120 f-, 217 ; still stronger 2 Tim. 48«-, if that be Pauline. 10 Ph. 45. "Cf. p. 38. 121 Co. 726. 1' 2 Thess. 2»-i9. 88 ESCHATOLOGY conceived to be of Jewish origin. ^ But it is not easy to suppose that a future lapse of the Jews from their religion should have been a conspicuous topic in the Apostle's teaching to a congregation mainly Gentile ,2 or that he would have especially occupied himself with a future increase of their present harden ing of themselves against God seen in their general rejection of the Messiah ; ^ on the contrary he looks for a conversion of his people as one of the events leading to the End.* The predic tion seems rather to relate to a great lapse of Christians in the allurements and perils of the ' last times,' the falling away of many in the intensity of the final struggle between good and evil. Such an apostasy as one of the events of the 'latter days ' is mentioned elsewhere, e.g. in Daniel,^ in later apocalyptic literature, s in the Gospels,'^ in the Pastoral epistles.^ The Man of Sin (or lawlessness, as given in many Mss.) whose appearance is one of the precursors of the Lord's coming,^ is without doubt the Antichrist, the figure which arising in late Judaism as a part of the popular belief regarding the End and referred to, more or less vaguely, in apocalyptic literature becomes distinct in the New Testament.^" In him as the last great enemy is concentrated all hostility to God and the Messiah. The descrip tion of him given by St. Paul is in part a reminiscence of Daniel's picture of Antiochus Epiphanes, the great prototype of subsequent pictures of the Antichrist. He Avill arrogate to himself divine honors above Jehovah himself in the temple at Jerusalem,!! his influence is already at work in the world,!^ but for a little time is restrained by that mighty force for civil and social order, the Roman Empire (to Karexov, 6 /carexcov, vv. 6 f.) ; but when that force is removed, he will appear working in all the power of Satan, deceiving and leading into all iniquity those who harden themselves against a love of the truth; but 1 Cf. Weiss Theol. 63 b, c. 21 xhess. 19 2" 3 1 Thess. 216*-, Ro. 9_io. 4 Rq. Ili5ff.. 6 927 ; on the meaning see Driver in CB. in loc ; cf. 1 Mac lu-i' « En. 939. 7 Mt. 2412. 8 1 Tim. 4, 2 Tim. 3. 9^2 Thess 23 19 See p. 398. 11 Dan. 1136 f., ef . Ezk. 282. The attempt of the Emperor CaUgula in the year 40 A.D. to set up his statue in the temple at Jerusalem and the consequent horror excited among the Jews may have led to the special appHcation and enlargement of these words of Dan. on the part of Christian prophets • of Zahn Ein. I. S 15. 12 V. 7. ^ . ¦ PAULINE 89 he will be destroyed by a breath from the mouth of the Lord at the parousia.! Many scholars, ancient and modern, have taken the Antichrist here to be a false Messiah, one who arising from the Jewish people would present himself to them as their expected Messiah. Cf. Weiss Theol. 63 c, Bousset Antichrist 22 £E. The opinion that d.vop.ia, avofw; vv. 7 f. point to an apostate from the Jewish law is not supported by usage ; of. 2 Co. 6i^, Tit. 2i*. But one who exalted himself openly in the temple above Jehovah could not hope to be accepted by the Jews as the Messiah foretold by the prophets. ' A pseudo-Messiah is wholly different from an anti-Messiah,' Schmiedel on 2 Thess. p. 40; cf. Holtzmann Theol. H. 192. For valuable discussions of 2 Thess. 21-1^ see Bornemann in Meyer 349 ff. and 400 fE., and Wohlenberg in Zahn in loc. and Excursus 170 ff. The mention in 2 Thess. 2' *¦ of signs preceding the parousia is regarded by many as irreconcilable -with 1 Thess. 5i-*, where it is said that the time of that event cannot be foreseen (Schmiedel on Thess. p. 9 ; Jiilicher Ein. 50). The apparent difference, however, disappears upon a nearer view of the passages. In the earlier letter the writer is urging his readers to unremitting watchfulness and preparedness for the Coming, and therefore throws the emphasis on the suddenness and unexpectedness of the event, using two fig ures, the thief in the night and the birth-pains of the mother (58'-), but he is not thinking here of the entire absence of premonitions — in the second figure this could not be the case — but of the impossibility of foreseeing the precise time so that preparation could be deferred. In the later letter he is seeking to remove trouble arising among the Thessalonians from the belief that the advent was at the door ; and in correcting this error he throws the emphasis on the certainty that some time must yet intervene, certain events must happen before the end could come, as he had already told them before he -wrote the earlier epistle. These events might appear at any time and be followed, perhaps at once, perhaps much later, by the parousia; these might be disregarded by those who are ' saying Peace and safety,' so that the end should come unforeseen. They are not sig-ns which justify putting off preparation, they do not show the precise time of the end — that is as indeterminate as ever — but those who have fallen into practical error in the thought that this is close at hand may be assured that it is farther off than they had believed. (2) I%e Resurrection of the dead. As seen above a belief in the resurrection of the dead in a form corresponding to the glory of the messianic age had already arisen in late Judaism.^ The righteous would shine forth in a glorious body like the sun and the stars, they would be as the angels. ^ With St. Paul also this belief was doubtless a part of 'his Jewish heritage ; but it 1 Cf. En. 622, 2 Es. 13io, Is. If. ^ cf. pp. 60 ff. 8 En. 6216. Ap. Bar. 51=. i», 2 Es. 797, of. Volz 254 f., Kautzsch 375 n. 90 ESCHATOLOGY was illuminated by his Christian experience and became one of the central factors in his hope. His meeting with the risen Christ on the way to Damascus gave certainty to the belief and manifested to him the glorified body. On the other hand his life of union with Christ through the indwelling Spirit furnished him with a sure basis of belief in the Christian's undying fife. The Spirit giveth life and where that is there cannot be death ; and the believer's new life in the Spirit must share in that imperishability.! xhe marvelous operations of the Spirit already wrought in the believer's experience are but the ' first- fruits ' to be followed by the crowning issue, the swallowing up of mortality in life.^ And in St. Paul's thought there is no place for an immortality of the soul apart from some form of 'body.' Life in the true sense of the term for him as for his Hebrew predecessors includes necessarily an investiture in a form, which, though it be not in the Apostle's thought fleshly, may be called bodily, and an argument for immortality is for him identical with one for a resurrection. Existence in Hades was not life. In that great chapter of First Corinthians (15) he. has set forth his teaching about the resurrection with matchless splendor. The earthly, visible, body must decay in death as the seed decays — that which is sown is not quickened except it die — but the life principle persists and will be clothed with a new form, as is the life principle of the seed in the new plant ; that form will be a body different in kind from the earthly body ; there are various kinds of bodies known to our experi ence, and so by analogy we can conceive the existence of a body (doubtless the Apostle used this word body because no other could be found so well suited to his idea), different from those of our experience, which shall form the investiture of the risen life, though we cannot apprehend its nature. It will not con sist of the reassembled elements of the earthly body, there will be nothing fleshly about it — flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God — it will be a 'spiritual body' (/oi, 1 Co. lis. W e6.va.Tos Ro. 623, ^TTciXeiB Ph. 319. u j-„,;^ a-arvpta. PAULINE 95 favor and communion. We have seen above ! that the Jewish mind did not conceive of death as the cessation of existence, annihilation ; and there is nothing to show that St. Paul used the term with any other than the common Jewish significance. ^ As regards the doctrines of probation after death, and a restora tion of all (aTTOKardaTaai';'), if there be grounds for them, these must be found, so far as St. Paul's writings are concerned, not in the direct meaning of his words, but in deductions from his general teaching about the purposes of God and the moral nature of man — deductions which we are not justified in say ing that he himself drew. Certain passages ^ have been inter preted to contain such doctrines, but the context forbids this interpretation, as most exegetes agree. Further reference to this subject will be made in another connection,* DiflSculty has been raised by an apparent contradiction between the doc trines of salvation and judgment as taught by St. Paul. (Cf. Pfleiderer 1. 319 f.) If the Christian has ' been saved through faith,' Eph. 28, and it ' there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,' Ko. 8i, then it is said there is no place for a judgment which shall ' render to every man according to his works,' Ro. 26. The Apostle does not take up the sup posed contradiction, doubtless because he could not himself think that it existed. The law that the believer as well as the unbeliever shall reap that which he soweth is everywhere recognized by him, Gal. 67. Even the final award of salvation cannot efface all consequences of present conduct, and what the Apostle says of the Christian teacher's work, 1 Co. 3i^ "-, is true also of every Christian's life ; his work may be burned, while he himseK is saved; yet it may be as one who has made his escape through fire. Cf. Denny in EGT. on Ro. 26, Heinrici in Meyer on 2 Co., p. 155, Kennedy 198 ff. (4) ITie future Kingdom. As already seen, the doctrine of a personal union with Christ as the source of spiritual life and the ground of hope for the future is fundamental with St. Paul. The religious relation then would seem to be with him purely a matter of the individual, and to make superfluous an organ ized society whether Kingdom or Church. But on the con trary the Apostle everywhere emphasizes as cardinal the doc trine of a people of God, an organized body of which every individual Christian becomes a part and through which he is 1 p. 58. 2 Cf . Kennedy 118 ff. ' Ko. 518, 1 Co. 1521 1., 28, Eph. 119, Ph. 2»-ii, CoL I20. 4 pp. gg, 113. 96 ESCHATOLOGY ¦ joined to Christ, its living head; ! and so the idea of a kingdom is as essential in his Christian eschatology as it was in the hopes of ancient Israel, though its character is changed. It is true that the express term is much less frequent with him than in the Gospels ; he however uses it, and in relations which show that it was fundamental in his thought. Sometimes he speaks of the kingdom as present,^ but generally he employs the term in an eschatological sense,^ just as he sometimes speaks of salvation as already attained,* because it is ideaUy, or potentially present in its beginning, while the full reality lies in the future.^ But though the term is less frequent, the idea is everywhere present ; it is in the messianic kingdom that the saints are to reign with Christ ; ^ it is the idea of the kingdom that underlies the use of the word Lord (Kvpicn, sov ereign'), found on every page of the epistles as a designation of the exalted Christ ; and with the same idea in mind the Apos tle speaks of Christ's preeminence over all powers and author- ities.'^ In his thought, the place of the kingdom is often taken by the Church, which represents to him a people of God, not only as an organized body, but as in vital union with Christ, its supreme Lord, and filled with his presence. The identity of the Church with the kingdom in St. Paul's mind is often denied, the latter being regarded as the broader and more spiritual conception. It is of course plain that the Church as it then existed, for example, at Corinth, in Galatia, at Colossae, with all the failures and defects which called forth the Apostle's reproving epistles, no more realized the full ideal of the Church than did the kingdom spoken of as present reahze the perfect kingdom of the future. But when his conception of the Church in its ideal, in the glory of its eschatological perfection, 'not having spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish,' is seen, as in the Ephesian epistle, there is left no other realm to which it is subordinate or complementary. It forms the body to which Christ, he who had been seated at the right hand of God above all angelic powers, has been given as head, and which is filled with him that fiUeth all in all ; ^ it is the community embracing the whole family of man, a 1 Eph. 219-22, Col. 219, 1 Co. 1212-27. , 2 Ro. 1417, Col 113 3 1 Co. 69 1-, 1560, Gal. 521, Eph. 5*, 2 Thess. 16. ' 4 Ro 824 Enh 26. s 6 Cf. Weiss Theol. 96 b. 6'ro. 517, gu, 413 1 Co # ' 7 Eph. 120-22, Col. 116-18. 8 Eph 120 ff. ' ^ ¦-"• * ¦ PAULINE 97 community, by whose creation and union under the one divine lordship the wisdom of God is manifested to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.! No clearer, grander, more spiritual idea of the kingdom can be imagined than that con tained in these representations. It is possible that St. Paul designated this coming messianic rule less often as the king dom of God, because that term or its equivalent had in his pharisaic days been associated with earthly and political glory. At all events, he saw clearly that the kingdom was to be per fectly realized only in perfectly ' serving the Lord Christ,' ^ which formed the sum of all his preaching.^ The place of the future kingdom as thought of by St. Paul, though not distinctly stated, would seem to be the renewed earth. In common with the prophets and apocalyptic writers * he looked for the deliverance of creation from its bondage to corruption, and for its transformation into a glory in keeping with that of the saints at the coming of the kingdom. The form of the world as it now is must pass away, creation must share in the redemption to be completed at the parousia. ^ It is difficult to find real significance in all this transformation, unless in the Apostle's mind, as in common Jewish belief, this glori fied world was to be the seat of the final kingdom. ^ The same conclusion is favored by the idea of a coming of the Lord, which in Jewish thought was everywhere associated with the setting up of a kingdom upon earth, in its present or in a re newed form. The saints who at the parousia are to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air '' are apparently to be brought with him in his escort to earth ; for Christ comes to earth to hold judgment ; nothing is said of a progress into the heavens, and ' the air ' (aijp') is never used of the heaven of God's abode, nor can it be conceived as the place of the new kingdom.^ But 1 Eph. 3i«. 2 Col. 324. 3 Cf. Feine Jesus u. Paulus 173 f. 4 Cf. p. 55. 6 Ro. 819-28, 1 Co. 731. 6 The expression ' The Jerusalem above, ' Gal. 426, taken from popular escha tology and denoting the Holy City now existing in heaven and ready to descend in the last days (cf. p. 56), is evidently used figuratively by the Apostle, for he never refers to it literally in speaking of the parousia and its accompanying events. It is an apt figure to set forth the superiority of the new covenant as contrasted with the old. In the same way the author of Heb. uses the phrase 'the heavenly Jerusalem,' I222. ^ 1 Thess. 4". 8 On 1 Thess. 416-18, of. Bornemann in Meyer, Wohlenberg in Zahn, Schmiedel Band-Kom. p. 28 ff. 98 ESCHATOLOGY there is nowhere with St. Paul a trace of the extravagant imaginings concerning the natural world which are to be found in the apocalyptic writers ; ! the whole significance of his pic ture of the future kingdom centers in the certainty that the saints will be with the Lord in eternal blessedness. Beyond this his prophecy has no sure word for us ; and it must be kept in mind that in the prophecies of the new creation as the seat of the final kingdom and the abode of the saints in their glorified bodies, the distinction between earth and heaven practically disappears.^ A Millennium. On the basis of 1 Co. 1520-28 many scholars, ancient and modern, attribute to Paul a belief, similar to that found in Je-wish apoca lyptic and in the Revelation of Jno., in a millennial reign of Christ between the parousia and the final consummation of the kingdom (see pp. 735 ff.). In this interpretation three steps are supposed, in the order of time : (1) the resurrection of Christ; (2) the parousia together -with the resurrection of Christians, the end of this present age, and the setting up of the messianic kingdom ; (3) after how long an interval is left indefinite, the resurrection of others (whether all the rest of the dead, or those only who in the interval have in the spirit-world accepted Christ), the victory of Christ over all powers hostile to God, and the delivery of the kingdom to the Father. The principal grounds urged in support of this interpretation are the f oUo-wing : (a) ¦jrai'Tes, all, in the words ' all shall be made alive,' v. 22, must include all men absolutely, as in the words ' in Adam all die,' the sense being that as in Adam is the ground, cause, of universal death, so in Christ is the ground, cause, of universal resurrection, (b) The words ' but each in his o-wn order,' i.e. company, band {rdyfia being a military term denoting a company, division, of soldiers — the word itself contains no idea of orderly sequence in time), must distribute the all who are to be made alive into more than one com pany or band. Christ himself cannot be referred to as one of these bands, for he is not one of those who are raised in Christ, and further one person cannot constitute a rdyim, company, (c) The first company to be raised is that of the Christians at the parousia, as sho-wn in v. 28 ; the other com panies must therefore arise later, (d) Verse 24 defines the period to which this later resurrection belongs ; after the parousia — how long after, whether 1000 years as in Rev. is left undetermined — comes the End (or as some would take to re'Xos, the end of the series of resurrections). The reign of Christ, the Millennium, which began with the parousia must continue till all enemies are brought to naught, and the last enemy is death, vanquished 1 Cf. p. 46. 2 See p. 67. Such passages as 2 Co. 51, Col. 16, are sometimes taken to show that St. Paul regarded heaven as the place of the kingdom ; upon the former see below ; the latter refers to what is ideally present in 'heaven, whence Christians will receive it ; cf . Haupt in Meyer in loc. PAULINE 99 in the last resurrection, w. 25 f. Then Christ delivers up the completed kingdom to the Father. There are, however, strong objections to this interpretation: (a) The words iv XP"rr(|), in Clirist, forming one of Paul' s most frequent and charac teristic terms, always denote the believer's spiritual union with Christ. The meaning of v. 22 must then be that, as death results certainly from the union with Adam, so certainly does life result from union with Christ ; the second all then can refer to those only who are in union with Christ it cannot refer to all men absolutely. It should further be noted that an argument upon the resurrection of all men would be foreign to the Apostle's purpose in this paragraph, which is solely designed to show the doubting Christians at Corinth that their resurrection is assured through their union with Christ, (b) The words ' each in his own order,' though following on as tf intended to distribute into different groups the all who are to be made ahve in Christ, are immediately shown by the -writer in the added words, ' Christ the first fruits, etc.,' to distribute all who. are made alive, including Christ, himseK, and he declares that there are two divisions of these, first, Christ, called figuratively the airapxri, the first-fruits of the dead, and second, the Christians at the parousia, the argument concluding with the figure {Sitrapyfi) -with which it began in v. 20. If there be any other possible sub jects of a resurrection, they are entirely beyond the writer's language here. It should be added that there is nothing making it necessary or especially appropriate to find in Taypa here a figurative use of the meaning, military company, though the commentators generally take it so. The same phrase, CKao-Tos iv r(3 tSiio raypuxTi, occurs in Clem. Rom. I. 37, 41, where it can be seen from the context that the author means the appointed station, rank, or place of each one, whether the military commander, the high-priest, the lay man, etc. (cf. 40, 42). The meaning of the phrase in our passage, as the writer himself explains it, would seem to be ' Christ in his God-appointed place or station ; afterwards, Christians in theirs.' (c) There is then in the earlier part of the paragraph nothing said of a resurrection which requires for its fulfillment an indefinite period beyond the parousia ; and even if the Apostle be supposed to believe in a second resurrection, we are not justified in finding it in his language here ; nor is there in the words elra to teAos, then the end, referring to the full consummation, anything which cannot be grouped with the events of the parousia as conceived by St. Paul. Else where he speaks of the Advent as bringing with it the End, the series of events which belong to the completed kingdom of God ; it brings the resur rection, the universal judgment (1 Co. 46, Ro. 2i6*-), the renewal of creation (Ro. 819 ft), victory over hostile powers (2 Thess. 28 f-, 18*-), and over the last of foes, death (1 Co. 1562-^4) ; nowhere is there mention of a later period as briaging in the full end. The reign of Christ, whose continuance is spoken of in V. 24, does not necessarily imply a period after the Advent ; abeady in his resurrection Christ has been raised to a kingship above created powers m this world and in the world to come (Eph. l^"'-, Ph. 29f-), i.e. the reign spoken of may consistently with the Apostle's views be placed between Christ's resurrection and the parousia (cf. Briggs Mess. Ap. 538 ff.). It may 100 ESCHATOLOGY well be that in this particular utterance there is in the /o?-m at least some reminiscence of the apocalyptic and rabbinical doctrine of a messianic rule before the final establishment of the kingdom. It is well to notice that when Paul speaks of the delivery of the kingdom to the Father he can hardly mean that all kingship then ceases with the Son, for elsewhere he speaks of the Son as sharing the Father's throne in the eternal order (cf. pas sages last cited). The meaning suggested by the context and conformable to the Apostle's general teaching is that the Son having finished his media torial work, having fully established the messianic dominion in the abohtion of all opposing power, will then present this completed kingdom to God who is the ' head of Christ ' (1 Co. 118), -^^ijiie he continues to share -with the Father in the throne of eternal rule (cf. AVeiss Theol. 76, o). In reading this entire passage in Corinthians we must keep in mind that Paul sees the End as a whole ; with a true prophetic vision which reaches across a timeless interval he seizes here the whole final issue summed up in one. He forms neither for himself nor for us a program of processes and movements in a succession of ages. Though millenniums may be conceived to intervene be tween one step and another in the progress of the kingdom toward its completion, for him all is projected upon the one background of the End. What he sees, and probably all that he would have his readers see, is the certain, absolute triumph of the 'kingdom of Christ and of God' (Eph. 56), and the inheritance that there awaits the Christian. Johannine Eschatology.! This paragraph is meant to cover the principal eschatological ideas which appear in the Gospel and the Epistles which bear the name of John. Whether these books are all by one and the same author, and how far they may be assigned to St. John, the Apostle, are critical questions, which do not materially affect our present inquiry ; for they form in their characteristic doctrines and manner a single concordant group, at least so far that they may be held to belong to one school. The Revelation is not included in this survey, as its eschatology calls for special treatment by itself. ^ The central doctrines of the Johannine writings are summed up in the words of the Gospel, ^ ' These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing, ye may have life in his name.' And when we see from the study of the books what the author means by the two terms of this statement, we have here the truths which determined the eschatological teaching through- 1 Cf among worlcs on N. T. Theol. Weiss § 157, Holtzmann IL 572 fi., Bey- schla| IL 462 ff., Feine 703 ff., Stevens 284 ff., id. Johan. Theol.; Holtzmann Hand. Kom. IV. 198 f., Titius N. T. III. 8 ff. 2 gee p 156 « 203i. JOHANNINE 101 out. On the one hand the historical person Jesus is the incar nation of the preexistent heavenly being, the Messiah, who has come forth from his eternal glory to save the world,! and to set up a divine kingdom. 2 On the other hand ' eternal life ' in the wide scope of Johannine use is seen to include all the bless ings of the kingdom of God; and the 'belief,' in which the ground and source of that life are found, is seen to be equiva lent in its essential nature to a dwelling of the believer in Christ and the indwelling of Christ in the believer, equivalent, in Pauline phraseology, to ' being in Christ. ' ^ But this indwelling of Christ is realized through the presence of the Spirit.* In this conception of the Messiah and his work on the one hand, and on the other, of the believer's union with Christ through the Spirit together with its consequences, there is a striking agreement of the Johannine writings with the Pauline. The influence of the great apostolic teacher upon the Johannine thought becomes a plausible supposition enter tained by many ; but the similarity may with equal plausibility be traced to the direct teaching of the Lord and the revelation given through the experience of the life in the Spirit. As might be expected in writings which belong to a period not earlier than the last part of the century, when the hope of a near return of the Lord was becoming a less dominant force, the emphasis is thrown more upon the present, the inner and spiritual, than upon the future, the outer and visible. The great events of the End, as conceived in traditional escha tology, are viewed as belonging to the present as well as the future, as beginning in the life that now is and anticipating that which is to come ; and it is upon their significance for the present life that the chief stress is laid. But the fundamental factors which appear in the common Christian predictions of the ' Coming Age,' that is, the parousia, the resurrection, the judgment, and the kingdom, are all found in the Johannine writings; it might be said that they constitute a kind of scheme, or programme into which has been set the practical teaching of the gospel for the life that now is ; or to express it 1 1. 414. References are to the Gospels unless preceded by a Roman numeral mdicatmg one of the Epistles. ^ 1886 f., 33, 6. j i. 5". 20, 151-7. 4 1416-23. 102 ESCHATOLOGY otherwise, they may be taken a.s forming the background from which are projected the dominant traits of the spiritual life. This twofold aspect, a present and an eschatological, will appear as these doctrines are considered in detail. (1) The Kingdom. The idea of the kingdom, however much spiritualized, appears as truly, though not as frequently, in the Johannine writings as elsewhere. In two most significant events in which the nature of Jesus' teaching is made the subject of special inquiry, the interview with Nicodemus and the trial before Pilate, the kingdom and the kingly office are declared expressly in word.! A part of the purpose of the Fourth Gospel referred to above, a purpose showing itself often in the records of the book, is to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the divine king of whom Moses and the prophets wrote ; ^ and at the beginning and the end of Jesus' public ministry the writer accords to him the right to the kingly salutation.^ The infrequency of the term, kingdom of God, in the Johannine writings as contrasted with the Synoptics has sometimes been attributed to the desire to avoid possible misconception on the part of the Roman authority. It is however chiefiy due no doubt to the purpose, character istic of these writings throughout, to set forth the high spirit ual nature of all the teachings of the gospel. The idea of the 'kingdom' has resolved itself into that of 'eternal life,' the most frequent of the characteristic Johannine terms.* What is meant by this phrase 'eternal life' or 'life,' without the adjective, is not continued existence, but the moral state of perfect harmony with God, a living in union with him, an abiding in him as the branch in the vine. Such a state is life in its fullest sense, and belongs to the eternal world, as God is eternal.5 It begins in the believer now and here. It is more commonly spoken of as present,^ but from its very nature it is conceived of as continuing endlessly, as the union Avith Christ may so continue.'^ The idea thus becomes essentially equiva lent to that of the kingdom, or reign, of God, which it has for 1 33. 6, 1836 £. 2 X41, 45, 49. 3 149 1213.' R ^*^'l"" '^^..^^f ^}^^^^ f"'"'* "^*^ equivalent sense occur some 50 times. 99d « 6 P'l^^T o^? ^^ ^^''•^* Teaching I. 243 ff., Stevens Theol. 224 ff. ^ E.g. 647, I. 3i4. 7 E.g. 66i, 1225. JOHANNINE 103 the most part displaced in these writings ; for eternal life in this sense is the state of perfect obedience to the will of Christ,! as also the state in which is given all the spiritual blessedness that in the common hope was attached to the eschatological kingdom. Imperfectly as the great ideal is realized in this world, the kingdom possesses an outward embodiment in the Church, with its visible unity ,2 with its formal rite of intro duction into membership,^ and its recognized officers.* But though the kingdom from its nature and its relation to eternal life must be thought of as beginning in the present, yet the recognition of a coming completion, a glory yet to be revealed, to which the present looks forward, is distinctly expressed.^ The final triumph of the kingdom over evil does not enter so largely into the predictions of the future as in the common eschatology. In keeping with the general tenor of the writ ings the foreground is occupied by the victory over Satan and his domain, the world, in the present life ; ^ yet here as else where the present looks forward to the future completion ; and the ultimate abolition of Satan's power is contemplated in those utterances which speak of the death of Christ as the casting out of the prince of this world, ^ and of his mission to destroy the works of the devil. ^ The place of the future kingdom seems to be thought of as in heaven. Christ, it is said, will come and receive his own unto himself, that they maybe where he is.^ The silence of the Johannine writings regarding a renewed earth is in accordance with the emphasis they everywhere throw upon the spiritual aspect of truth ; but they contain no clear evidence against the belief in such renewal. In view of the prevalence of this belief in Jewish and Christian thought, and the consequent blending together of earth and heaven in the conceptions of ' the final state, it is doubtful whether the language which seems to point to an abode in heaven contrary to common New Testament repre sentation can be rigorously pressed. A Millennial Kingdom be tween the parousia and the final consummation is not men tioned in the Gospel and Epistles. 1 1510-14, I. 324. 2 1016, 1711. 20-23. 3 36. 4 2116-17, H 1 UI. 1, 9 f. 6 1724, I. 32, 217 . 6 i. 218 f., 54 £• ' 1281. 8 1 . 38. 9 143,'l724. ' 104 ESCHATOLOGY (2) The Coming of the Lord. In the great farewell dis course which in the Fourth Gospel (14-16) corresponds to the apocalyptic discourse in the Synoptics, mention is made some what at length of a coming of the Lord to his disciples in the near future.! There is much difference of opinion among interpreters regarding the precise meaning of this promise.^ It has been variously understood of (1) the appearance of the Lord after his resurrection, (2) the parousia, (3) the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. But (1) the brief meetings of the Lord with his disciples after the resurrection could not accomplish what he here seeks to do, remove the sorrow with which they were viewing a lasting separation from him ; ^ these few interviews could not fulfill the promise not to leave them 'orphans,' but to come and abide with them, and not with them only but with all who in the future should love him; * (2) this coming which is described as of a nature not manifest to the world ^ could not be the parousia, which like the light ning should shine from one part under the heaven unto the other, and which should separate the faithless from the faith ful ; ^ (3) the only meaning which seems to suit the represen tation throughout is an abiding spiritual presence with the believer. That the presence here intended is realized through the coming of the Holy Spirit to all who love and obey Christ ^ seems to be shown by the connected utterances.^ As he that seeth the Son seeth the Father, so he that receives the Spirit beholds Christ. ^ Objection has been made (ef . Weiss in Meyer on 14i8, Wendt Teaching, II. 299) to an identification of the thought here expressed with the Pauline doctrine of Christ's presence in the person of the Holy Spirit (p. 86). It is true that the Johannine -writings do not contain the exact equivalent of the statement, ' The Lord is the Spirit ' (2 Co. 3i7), and the Paraclete is distinguished from Christ as ' another ' (14i6), but in the same way the Son is disting-uished from the Father (58i *-) ; and since Christ's presence is 1 1418-23, 1616-23. 2 Cf. Weiss, Holtzm., Meyer, Zahn in loc, Stevens Theol. 235 f., Wendt n. 294 ff. 3 166. 4 1421-23. 6 1421 f. 6 529 J. 228. 7 I428. 8 1416-18, 2C, 1526, 1613-16 I. 324. ' s Some interpret 143 to mean a coming at the death of an individual (cf. Holtzm. in loc, Stevens Theol. 234), but 2122 t. jg against this, as is also N. T. usage, which though speaking of death as it departure to be with the Lord (Phil. 123), no-where represents it as a coming of the Lord to the believer. JOHANNINE 105 realized through the Spirit who comes 'in his name' (14^6-), jt jg doubtful whether a clear distinction between the Johannine and the Pauline doc trines is to be maintained. But while this spiritual coming of Christ to his Church throughout the present age stands in the foreground of Johan nine thought, yet the traditional doctrine of a final, visible parousia with its attendant events is also taught. He promises to come and take his own to the place prepared for them,! and they are awaiting that appearance.^ It will be seen that the references to the parousia represent it as near, within the life time of the readers ; also the signs of the End are seen in the character of the age; it is the 'last hour,' as shown by the working of antichrist already in the world. ^ The coming of antichrist before the End is referred to as a well-known belief.* (8) The Resurrection. The resurrection in the Johannine writings is an integral part of the doctrine of eternal life ; and as that life on the one hand is a spiritual state already present, and on the other, looks forward to a future completion, so there is a present, and also an eschatological resurrection. The Christian has already passed out of death into life.^ 'If a man keep my words he shall never see death.' ^ Death has ceased to exist for such a one. Through a spiritual resurrec tion the believer has entered into that life which is independ ent of physical death. This aspect of the resurrection is so prominent that some scholars find in the Johannine teaching no place for the doctrine of a future resurrection as an escha tological event. The passages which speak of such an event are then regarded as additions or modifications.'^ But the retention of the principal features of the common eschatology in these writings militates against so radical a process of criticism, and in fact the coexistence of the two ideas, which are but two aspects of the same idea, is found as truly, though less prominently, in St. Paul.^ We are certainly right in taking the resurrection, as held in common Christian belief, to be a part of genuine Johannine doctrine. ' The hour cometh 1 142 £. 2 2122 f. I 228 3 J. 218-22, 43, H. 7. « On antichrist, see pp. 397 ff. 6 524, i. 314. 6 351, 1126 f. » Cf. Holtzm. Theol. IL 581 fl. 8 cf . Col. 81 with 1 Co. 1562. 106 ESCHATOLOGY in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth.'! There is, however, no reference to a 'spiritual body ' as in St. Paul. To such an extent do traditional con ceptions remain in these writings, that the resurrection of the unrighteous also is spoken of,^ a reembodiment which would seem to be conceived as having a source different from that of the resurrection of the righteous, as it also clearly has a different purpose ; the resurrection of the one is described as that which belongs to life, that is, which arises out of the true life begun here, and forms its necessary sequence and culmination ; the other is spoken of as that which belongs to judgment, that is, to the appearing of the unrighteous before the judgment seat,^ where according to common belief they should in bodily form receive their sentence.* Beyond this there is nothing said of the significance of the ' bodily ' form given to the unrighteous at the resurrection. What relation it may have been conceived to have to their state after the judgment is not intimated here nor elsewhere in the New Testament. It may quite possibly be a reminiscence of traditional eschatology, retained without special meaning for the Christian writer. At all events the interest of the New Testament writers centers entirely in the destiny of the righteous. (4) The Judgment. Here also, as in the doctrines of eternal life and the resurrection, there is a twofold use of the term. On the one hand the judgment is said to be enacted in this life ; on the other, it is placed among the events of the last day. The former aspect of the doctrine receives the stronger empha sis ; and as in the case of the resurrection some scholars would deny that there is place in genuine Johannine thought for a general judgment at the end.^ ' He that believeth on him is not judged ; he that believeth not hath been judged already.^ He who has accepted Christ has alrea'dy passed beyond judgment and through the spiritual resurrection has entered into the relation with God that constitutes eternal life; he who has rejected Christ has by the very act already judged himself and 1 528 i; 639 1-. 44, 64. 2 529. 3 1248. 1 The above seems the correct interpretation of avda-Taa-is tuijs, xpio-eais ; cf. Holzm. Weiss in Meyer in loc. 6 Cf . Wendt Teaching n. 305, Holtzm. Theol. II, 575 ff. « 8i8. JOHANNINE 107 a.bides in death.! Qu the other hand the announcement of the great judgment of the last day, as expected in common belief, is equally distinct. It forms one of the events of that 'hour when all that are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God,' 2 and it will test the believer and the unbeliever alike.^ There is no real inconsistency between these two groups of utterances. Men are judged or are judging themselves here and now by the attitude they take toward the truth,* and this process of judging must continue till the end. The unbeliever may turn and reverse his judgment ; the believer needs the constant warning to ' abide in Christ ' lest he be cast forth as a branch and withered, lest he be put to shame at the Lord's appearing.^ The judgment in the present life is final only so far as the conditions on which it is based continue to be final. The declaration contained in these two groups of passages is another side of the truth which is expressed in the two sayings, likewise apparently but not really contradictory, ' Whosoever is born of God cannot sin ' ^ and ' If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us.' '' The Johannine idea of judgment agrees then with that of St. Paul, who likewise speaks of a present justification (which with him is a judicial act acquitting the believer now), and a coming judgment in the great day. The Agent in the judgment is variously stated and in terms seem ingly contradictory. Commonly the judge is Christ; again this is apparently denied ; * it is declared that God is ^ and is not !0 the judge. The discrepancy disappears entirely, in view of the relation of the Son to the Father,!! ^nd in view of the writer's rhetorical method in presenting that side of the truth which he means to emphasize. These apparent contradictions form one of the distinct characteristics of the Johannine writ ings, and in themselves do not furnish ground for a theory of interpolation or redaction. The Award at the judgment is, for the righteous, eternal life in the ' abiding places ' which the Lord has gone to prepare for them, where they will dwell with him beholding his eternal glory and transformed 1 524 939 1247 2 528 1. 1248. 3 I. 228, 417. 4 319-21. 6 156' I \i% • 6 I 3».' ' I. 18. 8 1247. 9 860, 546. 10 522. 11 God and Christ are united in judgment ; Christ judges as he hears, he does not judge alone, 530, 8i6. 108 ESCHATOLOGY into the divine likeness ; i the destiny of the unrighteous is not described ; it is however announced indirectly in the statements regarding that from which the righteous are delivered, that is, ' death,' ' perdition ' (6dvaro<;, airoKeadai). These terms do not denote non-existence, for they are used of persons stiU living ; 2 they sum up the negation of all that is included in eternal life as understood in the Johannine writings.^ Beyond this nega tive designation there is nothing said of the state of the unright eous after judgment. The Eschatology of the Epistle to the Hebrews.* The fact which gives interest to the eschatology of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not peculiarity in its doctrines, but the extent to which the author writes in the consciousness of the future. The radiance of the coming fulfillment of the promises, or the shadow of the coming judgment, falls upon almost every para graph of argument or exhortation. The writer reading his familiar Jewish scriptures in the light of not only Christian revelation, but also Alexandrine idealism, delights in emphasiz ing the unseen and future as the substance, as the real and lasting ; everything here is but a ' shadow of the good things to come,' a copy of the prototype in heaven. The Lord will come again ;^ the day is near,^ it will bring with it the resurrection and the judgment '' — events evidently conceived in traditional forms though not described in sensible pictures. Some scholars find in 927 •- the doctrine that the judgment takes place immediately after death. But this cannot be the writer's meaning; for elsewhere in the epistle he connects the final decision, whether for salvation or condemnation, with the parousia (923, 1023-26, se-as). fj^g meaning in this passage is clear ; the writer in arguing that the one oblation of Christ upon the cross has made a sufficient sacrifice for sin and needs not to be repeated, enforces his reasoning by an analogy — the divine appointment for man is death and afterwards the judgment ; so also for Christ, the one death, not to be repeated, afterward the judgment ; but in his case the appearing is to give judgment, which for the believer issues in salvation; in the second clause (v. 28) the -writer substitutes ' salvation ' for ' judgment ' because the efficacy of the one death for salvation is the point under discussion. The 1 142 £-, 1724, I. 32. 2 1712, I. 314. 3 Cf . pp. 102 f . 4 Cf . among works on N. T. Theol. Weiss § 126, Holtzm. II. 332 f „ Beyschlag U. 337 fi.; Mathews Mess. 237 f., Enc. Bib. II. 1377 6 928,16. 6 1025,37. 7 gs, 927 I 1027 1135. EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 109 judgment of the unbeliever has no relevancy here. Similarly in 12^8, ' the spirits of just men made perfect,' some have found the doctrine of a purely spiritual resurrection taking place immediately after death. But elsewhere the writer places the perfect fulfillment of hope, the full salvation, at the End (cf. passages cited above), and there is nothing here at variance with this view, for the context and the general use of teAcioo) and its cognates in the epistle show that the reference is not to the moral and spiritual perfec tion of the just, but to the perfection of the atonement wrought by the blood of Christ, as contrasted -with the imperfect sacrifices of the Mosaic law. God himself will be the judge,! the judgment is final,^ and as it is the great assize at which all must give account, the resur rection of the unrighteous would seem to be implied.^ The place of the dead before the judgment is not certainly spoken of.* The reward of the righteous is the eternal inheritance, ^ a kingdom that cannot be shaken,^ eternal salvation "^ in the presence of God and his glory, ^ participation in the messianic rest, which is the ' sabbath-rest ' of God himself. ^ The doom of the unrighteous is ' perdition,' !" a term not defined more nearly, but doubtless to be taken in the general New Testament sense of the loss of all that belongs to the state of blessedness.!! Neither here nor elsewhere in the New Testament does the word contain the idea of annihilation. But the writer dwells upon the fearfulness of punishment and the fierceness of God's wrath, which is as a consuming fire.!^ The triumph over the powers hostile to God is complete and final, !^ though, as elsewhere in eschatological literature, the total extinction of hostile beings is apparently not thought of ; Christian eschatology simply follows in this respect the earlier forms, not carrying out the idea of triumph to its fullest consequence. In the great consummation the heaven and the earth will be ' shaken,' the temporal and visible will be removed, the things 1 1030, 1223, 134. 2 62. 3 62, 1135 are sometimes interpreted as showing that only the righteous are raised — a plain misinterpretation. 4 The words ' Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, ' 1223, prob ably refer to the Christians on earth whose names are now "written in heaven ; see Weiss in Meyer, and Westcott in loc ; cf . Lk. IO20, Ph. 43. 6 9I6. 6 1228. 7 59. 8 1214, 210. 9 41. 9f.. 10 1039. 11 See pp. 94, 107. 12 1026-31, 1229. It is doubtful whether these passages contain a designed refer ence to the fires of Gehenna so often mentioned in apocalyptic writings. 13 28, 14 1018, 27. no ESCHATOLOGY which cannot be shaken will remain ; ! that is, in a new heaven and a new earth mortality will put on immortality. Whether the writer includes in this renewal of all things the Pauline idea of a spiritual body he does not make certain. This perfected state beyond the judgment, the Coming Age,^ is characterized as the kingdom, the City of God, the heavenly Jeru salem ; ^ and in this, Christ seated at the right hand of God,* will rule with him forever.^ The place of the eschatological kingdom is heaven.^ This conception is a natural consequence of the two doctrines so prominent throughout the epistle, the eternal priestly service of Christ carried on in heaven, and the Christian's perfect freedom of approach to God. But the tend ency must not be overlooked to blend heaven and earth wherever the idea of a renewed world is present.'^ The epistle contains no intimation of a Millennial kingdom before the last great day. The Eschatology of the other Epistles and the Acts.^ St. James? The practical epistle of James makes reference to eschatological truth briefly to strengthen the suffering and tempted Christians in well-doing and to declare the doom of the wicked living in iniquity and cruelty. The passages in which the approaching end is made most of are 5!"% an apostrophic proclamation of the punishment coming upon the godless,!" and 6'-!!, a message of encouragement to the oppressed Christians. The readers are living in ' the last days,' !! the coming of Christ, the Lord of glory, is near,!2 the judgment is at the door.!^ The punishment about to break upon the ungodly is described in imagery suggested by Jewish eschatology ; their riches shall be corrupted, their gold and silver rusted, their flesh consumed as hy fire.!* The destruction of this present world and the bringing in of a new creation are probably in the writer's mind here. 1 in f., 1226-28. 2 66 1314. 3 18,1282,28 1110,16 4 81122 5 18. 6 619 f., 1116. 7Cf. p. 67. ' ¦ _ 8 The Pastoral epistles are not included here ; a special paragraph on these IS not called for, since, whether they are of Pauline authorship or not, they do not present any material departure from the PauUne eschatologv as set forth above. Cf. p. 84. 9 Cf. Weiss Theol. § 57 ; Commentaries on S'-", especially Weiss, Huther, von Soden, Oesterley in EGT.; Enc. Bib. n. 1377, HastT I 753 19 On the apostrophic character of this passage cf . Weiss in Meyer in loc 11 V. 3. 12 V. 8. 13 vv. 9, 3^5. " vv. 2 f . JAMES 111 But beyond the destruction of the material and visible, lies the spiritual doom of death,! doubtless conceived, in accordance with Christian thought generally, as that state in which all is wanting that constitutes the true life of the soul.^ On the other hand the hope held out to the waiting Christian is the certain coming of Christ to deliver, to bestow the reward of patient endurance, to bring in such an ' end of the Lord ' as was that which changed all the sufferings of Job into joy.^ Then the crown of life will be given to them * in the kingdom prom ised to those that love God.^ Further eschatological forecasts such as are found elsewhere are wanting in this epistle. First Peter. ^ St. Peter, to whom this epistle is attributed (and probably with right), is commonly called the Apostle of hope, and although it may be questioned whether this virtue is not equally conspicuous elsewhere in the New Testament, yet the eschatological outlook is dominant throughout this letter. The chief aim of the letter is to encourage the kind of life and the spiritual attitude which the readers should maintain in their present severe sufferings. Naturally then the promises of the coming End form a significant factor in the admonitions. The end of all things is at hand,'^ the readers now undergoing the test of manifold sufferings have but a little while to wait for the salvation which is ready to be revealed. ^ These present fiery trials, the raging activity of Satan,^ seem to be regarded by the author as among the ' messianic woes ' which are to usher in the Advent. These trials are sifting the Christians, distinguishing between the faithful and the unfaithful; 'judgment is begin ning at the house of God,' but if the beginning with the right eous be thus severe, how much more so shall be the end with the ungodly. !<> From his exaltation at the right hand of God, above all angelic powers,!! the Messiah is about to come forth revealing his glory,!^ bringing to his own the perfect deliverance of salvation.!^ The resurrection is not expressly mentioned, but is certainly implied in the references to the manifestation of Christ's glory, and to the judgment at which the dead as well 1 1", 520. 2 Cf. p. 102. 3 vv. 7-11. 4 112. 5 26. « Cf. Weiss Theol. «« 48-51, Mathews Mess. 151 ff., Hast. HI 795, Enc. Bib. n. 1380. 747. 8 IS ff., 10, 510. 9 412-19, 58 f.. i0 4i7f.. 11111,21,32a. 12413 51. 13 15,9,13. 112 ESCHATOLOGY as the living will be judged.! Qq^ himself (perhaps in 4^, Christ) is the judge.^ The destiny of the wicked is referred to only indirectly as the end which is contrasted with salvation. The reward of the righteous is participation in the glory to be revealed in Christ, a life like that of God himself in an inher itance that fadeth not away, an eternal crown of glory. ^ The idea of the kingdom of 6rod, though not spoken of under that name, is implied in the writer's representation of Christians as forming a corporate body, a people, a nation. The Church con stitutes the true Israel of God,* and in the coming realization of its ideal its members will possess, what they now have only potentially, royal and priestly rank ; for as God's own they will share in his kingly glory, they will reign with him, and like the high-priest in the Mosaic system they will have perfect freedom of access to him, offering spiritual offerings.^ The term inherit ance designating their future possession, when employed by so Hebraistic a writer, is doubtless to be taken in the technical sense of the promised messianic kingdom.^ This is to be re vealed in the last day, whether in a world purely heavenly or in a renewed earth is not intimated. There is no place in the writer's thought for a millennial kingdom on earth before the End ; all the events of the consummation are grouped with the parousia. This epistle makes a most important contribution to Chris tian eschatology in its teaching about Christ's activity in the world of departed spirits. In this respect it stands alone among the New Testament Scriptures. The other books main tain a striking reserve regarding the state of unbelievers be tween death and the judgment.^ While they nowhere speak with certainty of the possibility of a spiritual change in that state, yet they nowhere speak of its impossibility; all their utterances regarding the finality of probation, or the fixedness of the lot of the wicked, relate to the state following the judg ment. Their thought is so much occupied with the judgment as near at hand, and the coming redemption of the believer, that the present state of the unbelieving dead is lost from view. First Peter breaks this silence, and represents Christ 1 46. 2 117, 223. 3 14, 46, 5!, 4, 10. 4 25, 9 f. 417 6 26,9 6 Cf. Gal. 318, Heb. Q^K 7 On Lk. 16i9 a. 'of. j. 151. SECOND PETER AND JUDE 113 in the interval between his death and resurrection as preaching the gospel to the dead, in order that they might be made the subjects of the judgment together with the living, and that, though they had suffered a judgment after the manner of men universally in that they had died, they might in the final judgment attain to a share in eternal life, which is like the life of God, 3!^"^°, 4^"®. While in the first passage the writer speaks of the dead who belong to the days of Noah (a class especially appropriate, because of their great wickedness, to illustrate the line of thought there), in the second passage, the reference is to the dead in general. But it should be noticed that the writer is not concerned here with the general doctrine of probation after death, nor is he speaking of those who had heard the gospel and rejected it. He speaks summarily of two classes, the one at the time of Christ's death already in the place of departed spirits, the other still alive, both of whom are about to be judged at the great day. The case of those who in a future generation, that is between Christ's first and second coming, should reject him is a subject entirely outside of his thought. These passages have formed the subject of much controversy, but schol ars are now so largely agreed in adopting, in its main conclusions, the interpretation given above that a detailed discussion of the exegesis does not seem to be called for here. Interest of the dead in the Messiah's coming, and a hope of delivery are mentioned in rabbinical -writings ; cf . excerpts given by Weber System. 328 f., 350 f . : ' When those who are bound, those in Gehinnom, saw the light of the Messiah they rejoiced to receive him;' 'We will exult and rejoice in thee. When? When the prisoners mount out of hell with the Shechinah at their head.' Second Peter and Jude.^ The close relation between these two epistles, the evident dependence of one upon the other both in contents and form, makes it fitting to take them together in the survey of their eschatology, though 2 Peter is much the fuller of the two. Even if 2 Peter be attributed to the same author as 1 Peter, its similarity to Jude in some fea tures which do not appear in 1 Peter favors this order of treat ment. The critical question of the Petrine origin of 2 Peter 1 Cf. Weiss Theol. § 129, Stevens Theol. 312 ff., Enc. Bib. III. 1877, Hast. I. 753. 114 ESCHATOLOGY need not be entered upon here, nor the question of priority in time which arises in connection with 2 Peter and Jude. The dependence of one upon the other does not in itself settle the authorship or affect the canonical value of either. The escha tology of the epistles follows closely traditional lines. The readers are living in the 'last times.' False teachers have crept into the Church, denying Christ, rioting in corrupt liv ing, drawing away the unstable and deriding the Christian hope. Their presence in the last days had been foretold ; the signs of the times then show that the end is near.! -pjjg \jQxi. is about to come with his hosts,^ the judgment like the thief in the night ^ is about to fall upon the workers of evil, ' Their sentence lingereth not. ' * In both epistles warning of a coming visitation of divine vengeance is seen in the punishment of the fallen angels,^ reserved in bonds under darkness unto the judg ment,^ the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is set forth as ' an example,' ^ and other events of history furnish the same prophecy.^ The promises given to the righteous are the blessed ness of salvation expressed in various terms : eternal life in the presence of the glory of God,^ participation in the divine nature,!" entrance into the eternal kingdom.!! The punishment of the ungodly is ' The blackness of darkness reserved for them forever.' ^^ Jude adopting the language of the apocalyptic writers calls it the punishment of eternal fire.!^ Its usual des ignation in 2 Peter is ' destruction ' ; !* in the latter epistle men tion is also made of preliminary punishment under which the unrighteous dead are kept unto the judgment of the great day.!5 The kingdom, ' the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' !8 is to be consummated at the parousia, with which all the final events are connected. An earthly millennial reign preceding the final issue is not thought of. Scoffers deride the hope of the Lord's appearing, but it is the long-suffering of God towards his people !nhat delays it; he 1 P. 33, ,T. 17 f- Cf. 1 Jno. 218. 2 J. 14 f. 3 p. 310. 4 p. 23. ^ Reference is made to the angels spoken of in Gen. 6-1. The description of their punishment is evidently taken from En. 10 ; further use of En. is acknowl edged in J. 14. 6 p. 24, J. 6. 7 p. 26 j. 7. s p 25 J 5 9 J. 21, 24. 10 p. 14. 11 p. 111. 12 p. 217, J. 13. ¦ 13 In V. 7 TTvpds is pretty certainly to be joined with 5k,,^'rather than with SelyiLa. ^ M 23. i2, .37, 16. 16 29. Cf. p. 69. 16 p. in. 1' P. 'P, eis Ojitas, to you-ward. THE ACTS 115 wishes that all the unfaithful may come to repentance. Christians by ' holy living and godliness ' can hasten the day of the Lord's appearing.! Second Peter describes in most vivid colors the great renewal of creation at the end. The world and all that is in it will be destroyed by fire, and there will be new heavens and a new earth, wherein only righteous ness shall dwell. 2 The Acts.^ It does not belong to our present study to inquire into the authorship of the Acts, the nature of the sources used in its composition and similar critical problems. It may, however, be observed that the discourses contained in the book and attributed to various persons (and it is in the discourses that the principal doctrinal teaching is found), even if we should not with some scholars regard them as simply the compositions of the historian, after the manner of the speeches in Thucydides for example, are given only in brief summaries, so that the form at least is due to the historian himself ; in so far they are his, and form a part of his own presentation of his theme. But the author was master of his material from what ever manifold sources derived, and his book is a homogeneous one. If diversity of thought and belief appears, it is such as the writer supposed to belong to the different historical situa tions described. And he has intended to give a true picture, incomplete to be sure, but sufficient for its purpose, of the faith and work of the infant Church in the earlier decades of its existence. Our interest here is concerned solely with the principal eschatological doctrines which are contained in this portrayal of the Church's life. The first disciples, incognizant of the Church as a body dis tinct from Judaism, found themselves confronted with the difficulty of adjusting the facts in the life of Jesus to their earlier belief in him as the Messiah and to their traditional expectations. Having come to accept him in the course of his earthly ministry as the one ordained of God to become the messianic deliverer and king, they were rudely thrown into 1 P. 8" *-, cf. EV. marg., Ac. 8W. ^ 310-18, of. p. 56. 3 Cf. Weiss Theol. 55 88-40, 42, Stevens Theol. 258 ff., Matthews Mess. 138 ff. 116 ESCHATOLOGY disappointment and despair by the crucifixion. But the resur rection restored their belief and hope ; they could now ask the Lord with confidence, whether this was not the time when he would restore the kingdom to Israel. ' After the forty days in which he spoke to them of the things concerning the kingdom of God,2 and after the Ascension and the pentecostal gift of the Spirit, that question, so far as recorded, was never raised again. The disciples had gained a new conception of the kingdom and of the Messiah. His death, so hard for them to understand at first, and so great a stumbling-block in the way of his accept ance by the Jews as the Messiah, was now seen to be a necessity laid upon him by divine appointment.^ Passages in the Old Testament which had not hitherto received a messianic applica tion were now seen to be prophetic of his humiliation and death. The suffering ' servant ' spoken of by Isaiah was understood to be the Messiah. This very humiliation became a proof of the Messiahship.* The death of the Messiah was seen to be an essential part of his appointed work. ^ But this was not the end ; the brief earthly work was only preliminary. Through the resurrection and ascension God had now raised him to his full messianic dignity; exalted to the right hand of God he was now made that for which he had been ordained, ' both Lord and Christ ; ' ^ now the title given to Jehovah himself is also given without modification to him, he is ' Lord of all.' ^ But the con summation of his kingdom lies in the future ; he must return to take to himself his sovereignty over all the world, he must come to complete his work as the deliverer and savior of his people. The outlook of the Church in consequence of this faith becomes then predominantly eschatological. Already it con ceives itself to be living in the ' last days.' ^ The apostles appeal to their Jewish brethren to repent, in order that God may send forth to them the appointed Messiah to complete his work.^ At that coming the dead will be raised, both the just and the un just. !•* Judgment will be held and Christ will be the judge.'! The kingdom of God'^ will be instituted with that perfect restoration of all things, in which sin will cease, as foretold by ' 16. 2 13. 3 428, 173. 4 gSS-SS, 172f.. 6 Cf. p. 85. 6 23«6, 531, 1332 f. 7 1036. 8 216 f., 324. 9 319-21 cf. pp. 49 ff., 130. 10 42, 236, 24I6. 11 1042, 1731. 12 13, 2828,31. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 117 the prophets.! The earlier Judaistic conception is gradually outgrown, and all national limitation of the expected kingdom disappears ; the Messiah is the Lord and Saviour of all nations.^ The awards of the judgment are expressed in the common New Testament terms : for the righteous, life,^ but oftenest, salva tion ; for the unrighteous (whose destiny is rarely spoken of), perdition.* It is clear that these simple eschatological doctrines underlie all the teaching of the book, but they are brought forward with less emphasis than in most of the New Testament writings. Other doctrines, such as the ' messianic woes,' the millennium, the new heavens and the new earth, are not men tioned. The dominant message of the preaching is, Jesus is the Messiah who will bring salvation to the repentant. As regards fullness of teaching about the Last Things and the emphasis thrown upon these, the Acts is one of the least escha tological books in the New Testament. The Eschatology of Our Lord. Inquiry into our Lord's eschatological teaching brings us face to face with the most difficult problems in the study of the New Testament. Ques tions regarding the sources of our knowledge and the interpre tation of these, some of them questions of profound theological significance, confront us with great force, and there are many fundamental points upon which scholars have not yet reached agreement. The literature of these investigations forms a library in itself. All that we can do here is to indicate as briefiy as possible grounds upon which one may reasonably base opinion and to state the essential features in the Lord's escha tological doctrine as thus exhibited. The Lord's doctrines of the future are only the final unfold ing of what he taught regarding his person, his office, and his work, as already revealed in part in his earthly life. The whole of God's great purpose for man is bound up with the essential truths of Jesus' Messiahship and the kingdom of redemption and glory which he came to establish. His eschatology centers in the doctrine of his Messiahship. The question then whether he did in fact believe himself to be the Messiah, and in what sense, becomes fundamental in our inquiry. We cannot avoid 1 32»f- 2 1036, 1347. 3 1118, 1348. 4 323, 820. 118 ESCHATOLOGY a somewhat long discussion of it. The subject of Jesus' mes sianic consciousness, or more broadly speaking, his self-con sciousness, has held a prominent place in recent discussion. Whether the consciousness of divine sonship arose out of the consciousness of Messiahship, or the reverse, how the latter arose and when (whether before or at the baptism, at the Transfiguration, or at some later date, when it was first declared), and similar questions, however much space they occupy in a ' Life ' of Christ, are not essential for our present purpose. In fact, we are treading on much surer ground in speaking of his self-testimony than in speaking of the processes of his self-consciousness. The inquiries which concern us here are, did he declare himself the Messiah, or assent to the lan guage of those who so declared him, and what did he teach regarding his Messiahship, the nature of his kingdom and its future ? The evidence which furnishes the answer to these questions is found (1) chiefly in utterances recorded in the Gospels, (2) in certain acts of the Lord's life, (3) in the beliefs of the apostolic Church. These wiU be spoken of in order. Our knowledge of the Lord's utterances. Before inquiry into the Lord's teaching about his Messiahship and the messianic kingdom, as given in the Gospels, something should be said of the sources of these records. In the present state of critical opinion the Fourth Gospel cannot be made, -with the general consent of scholars, the basis of investigation into the Lord's exact words. Whether the Gospel is in whole oir in part the work of St. John, the Apostle, or of another -writer, it contains, as critics of nearly all schools agree, an interpretation or exposition of the Lord's teaching rather than a precise verbal report. It can hardly be questioned that the form in which the sayings of the Lord are put is generally that of the author ; and in the broader sense of what we call form, it is probable that the author has put into his record a meaning which in his later spiritual enlightenment he found to be contained or implied in the Lord's teachiag, though perhaps not originally expressed there in so many words. Critical inquirers therefore are cautious in appealing to the testimony of this Gos pel in these respects unless it is confirmed at least indirectly by other New Testament sources. It must, however, be said that it is just this confirma tion, direct or indirect, which raises the question whether criticism has not gone too far in minimizing the historical character of the book. The theory which denies to it in all its parts an apostolic source, or the charac ter of an independent document, raises difficulties not to be set aside with a wave of the hand. The fact that a large part of its teaching is found in OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 119 substance, though in a much less developed form, in the synoptic record, and the fact that there is so much in the book pointing to an ultimate apostolic source, form data which cannot be permanently ignored, and cause many scholars to doubt whether the Johannine question has yet reached its final solution. It is the conviction of not a few students of keen critical instinct which is expressed by a recent writer on the subject : ' The time will come for gathering up the fragments of the Fourth Gospel which are of historic value for the story of the ministry of Jesus Christ . . . . and his teaching. . . . And when it comes, our own or a later genera tion may find that the broken pieces which remain are neither so few nor .so fragmentary as the literature of the last few years has led us to suppose.' 1 When we turn to the record in the synoptic Gospels it is necessary first of all to recognize here also the results of the v6ry active critical inquiries carried on in recent times.^ Much remains to be settled in regard to the origin of the Synoptics, and the sources used iu their composition, yet it may be said that substantial agreement has been reached regarding certain fundamental points. It is established that Mark is the oldest of the three Gospels,8 and it is also generally held that in a form not very different from that known to us it was one of the two fundamental sources used in the composition of St. Matthew and St. Luke. According to the testimony of Papias (earlier part of the second century), Mark is composed of reminis cences of the preaching of St. Peter.4 The view that its main source goes hack in some form to St. Peter is accepted as at least tenable by a large number of scholars, even among those who cannot be suspected of prejudice in favor of the Papias testimony ; e.g. Weizsacker, H. Holtzmann, Bacon, Jiilicher. The second fundamental source used by Matthew and Luke in common was a document, consisting chiefly, if not entirely, of discourses or sayings of Jesus. From this are derived those records of his teaching which are found in essentially the same form in both Gospels but not in Mark.^ This assumed document formerly called Logia (utterances) is now generally designated by the more neutral symbol Q (German, Quelle, source).^ Most scholars hold it to be older than Mark ; the latter seems to have been influ- 1 Brooke, Historic Value of the Fourth Gospel in Camb. Bib. Essays, 1909. 2 On the vast literature of the subject see the various N. T. Introductions, Bibhcal Encyclopaedias, etc. ; especially full is Moffatt Introd. to the Lit. of N.T. 3 By Mk., Mt. and Lk. are meant here the books and the authors of these as they now appear. 4 This tradition appears also in Justin, Irenseus, Clem. A. and al. 6 There is no doubt that both Mt. and Lk. used minor sources in addition to these two ; but it is improbable that Mt. used Lk. or vice versa. 8 It is of course supposable that the parallel, non-Marcan parts of Mt. and Lk. may not all be derived from a single document, that is, the two evangehsts may have used in common more than one document containing sayings. Cf . Harnack Lukas d. Arzt 108, Allen in Oxford Studies in the Synop. Problem 236 ; in that case Q would be taken as a general designation of these sources as a whole ; a single document is however more commonly assumed. 120 ESCHATOLOGY enced by it and to have derived some material from it. i There is reasonfor connecting this discourse document, at least in some form, with St. Matthew, the apostle. Papias 2 says that 'Matthew drew up the Lo^a, that is 0 the Lord The passage has been the subject of much discussion, but scholars of widely differing schools agree that the view which connects Q in some way with the Matthaean Logia and traces back at least its oldest portions to the Apostle is probable.^ If now our sources, Q and Mark, go back to a Petrine and a Matthsean origin or to any form of primitive apostolic tradition, they furmsh testi mony 'which cannot easily be set aside, especially if they concur in presents in"- a record which is self-consistent, and accordant with the facts of the Lo'rd's life and the beliefs of apostoUc Christianity. This testimony must however apply with much greater force to general content of thought than to exact language ; for the Lord's utterances are preserved in translation only (from Aramaic into Greek) and in a form into which they crystalhzed through frequent oral repetition. Variation in the records is abundantly ilkistrated by a comparison of parallel sayings in the different synoptics. On the other hand the hypothesis is strongly urged that the record of Jesus' teaching has been colored along its most fundamental lines by read ing back into it the beliefs of the apostolic Church. It must suffice to observe here (1) that a cautious historian will find great diflficulty in under standing how the principal doctrines regarding the Lord's person and work, new as they were, could have come into being and have been universally ac cepted except through the influence of his own teaching ; even the powerful personality of St. Paul could not have transformed so completely the teach ing of Jesus, given to the original apostles, without lea"ving clearer traces of the process of transformation and also of the opposition which must necessarily have been evoked, or at least traces of essential divergences; (2) the analogy of all ancient -writings which seek to carry back teaching to an authority prior to its actual origin points the way to the detection of the anachronism ; we should not fail to find in the synoptic Gospels the great doctrines of apostolic Christianity set forth conspicuously and in fuUy developed form rather than, as is the case, incidentally and often only by implication. Certainly the great controversies which agitated the apostohc Church, so strikingly absent from the Gospels, would have read into the Lord's sayings some clear, relevant utterances. The effect of reading a highly developed apprehension of doctrine into the earliest form of its utterance is seen distinctly in comparing the Fourth Gospel with the Synoptics. 1 Cf . Streeter in Ox. Stud. 166 ff. Wellhausen, Ein. 73 ff., however makes Q later than Mk. ; -with this Jiilicher, Ein. 322, agrees as regards the developed form of Q, while placing its primitive form before Mk. 2 Eusebius H. E. III. 39i6. 3 So, e.g., B. Weiss, Sanday, Harnack, Jiilicher, Wendt. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 121 The G-ospel Record of Jesus'' Messianic Teaching.''- (1) His Messiahship. The state of the inessianic hope and the concep tion of the Messiah in the generation to which Jesus addressed himself must have affected profoundly his attitude in speaking of his Messiahship. It has been held by some that at this time the messianic hope had become nearly extinct, or at least insignificant as a factor in religious or political thought with the Jews,^ but this view is generally rejected. Evidence of the activity of the hope among the masses at least is seen in our Gospels, in the popular revolutions,^ and in late apocalyp tic literature.* Doubtless the view held at the time concern ing the Messiah was not clearly defined and uniform. ^ The prophetic and spiritual character was certainly recognized.*' Some could even wonder whether John the Baptist were not the Messiah, or the one destined to become such.'' Yet so far as we have evidence it was everywhere believed that in his kingly office he would destroy the power of the Gentiles, deliver his people out of their hands, and establish his kingdom in visible glory. The national and political aspect is every where present in the picture.^ If Jesus had shared this idea of the Messiahship, he might have come forward with the cry, 'Lo here ! I am he.' This he does not do. He begins his preaching with the announcement of the coming kingdom,^ sajdng nothing of himself. His acknowledgment, or assertion of his Messiahship is indirect ; generally he seeks to hide it,!" at least until the very end. There are, however, at least two instances in which he acknowledges unmistakably that he is the Christ. The first occurs at Cfesarea Philippi in connection with St. Peter's confession, ' Thou art the Christ.' !! The Lord 1 The hterature is voluminous ; besides works on N. T. Theol., Bible Diction aries, etc;, see the following as among the more useful : Titius N. T., J. Weiss Predigt, Haupt Eschat, Holtzm. Mess, (an invaluable book), Briggs Mess. Cos., Bruce Kingdom, Baldensperger Selbstbewusstsein, etc., Wernle Reich., Well hausen Ein., Bousset Predigt, Dalman Worte, Wendt Teaching, Muirhead Eschat, Schweitzer QHJ., Mathews Mess., Lepin Jesus, Dewick Eschat, Dohschiitz Eschat 2 Bruno Bauer, Schweitzer, al. 3 Cf . Acts 537. 4Ap. Bar., 2 Es., Sib Or. Cf. Bousset Jud. 210 f., Holtzm. Mess. 28, Schtirer H. 601 ff. ^ cf. Holtzm. Mess. 15, Lepin Jesus 20 fl. 6 Lk. 1", Mt. 121. 7 Lk. 315. , ,, T, 8Cf. the 'Evangehcal Canticles,' the Magnificat, Lk. 146-55j and the Bene- dictus ib. 68-79, which are derived from, or inspired by, a Je-wish source and are throughout intensely Hebraistic in their view of the Messiah's office. 9 Mk. 114 1. 10 Mt. 1620, par. " Mk. 829, par. 122 ESCHATOLOGY himself had called forth this confession by his question as to whom men thought him to be, and he could not have failed to repel the ascription, if he had in no sense regarded himself the Christ. His failure to dissent is equivalent to assent.! In strong contrast is his attitude when Peter remonstrates against his submission to suffering.^ Some who deny that he claimed to be the Messiah interpret his command to tell no man of his Messiahship (v. 30) as containing such dissent. But few students of the Lord's life can conceive of his correcting funda mental error by a command not to speak openly about it.^ The second instance occurs at the trial before the Sanhedrim, when to the high priest's question, ' Art thou the Christ ? ' Jesus answers, ' I am,' * or according to St. Matthew ^ in words equally affirmative, 'Thou hast said.' ^ The messianic claim is no less certainly implied, though not so distinctly declared, in answer to Pilate at the Roman trial, ^ also in answer to the message of inquiry from John the Baptist, ' Art thou he ? ' ^ and in answer to the request of James and John for the first place in the kingdom.^ Jesus' claim to be the Messiah is attested with equal force by his acceptance or his use of certain appellatives to which a messianic meaning was attached either by himself or the peo ple. The title Son of David, the favorite designation of the Messiah with the people, he does not use himself, but he accepts it in withholding signs of disapproval when it is given to him by others, and in granting entreaties addressed to him in this name.!o His perplexing question to the Pharisees about the 1 The strong words of benediction in answer to Peter, Mt. 161?, are wanting in Mk. and Lk., and are therefore rejected by many. 2 Mk. 838. 3 Cf. Holtzm. Mess. 21 f. 4 Mk. 146i f. 6 2624. 6 Such is the interpretation generally given to these words by the commenta tors. The phrase o-i) ef-n-as, thou hast said, or its equivalent, a-i> \4yeis, ifte'ts X^7eTe, m answer to a direct question is found in the N. T. in the story of the Passion only (Mt. 2625, 64, 2711, par., Lk. 22'0) ; its use as a simple affirmative is not found in Gk. -wi-iters, neither is it, as is often stated, a common rabbinical formula. But it is shown by Dalman {Worte 258 f.) and others to occur in a tew c^es m rabbimoal -writings expressing assent with a certain reluctance, or out ot the questioner's own mouth. This is clearly the sense in Mt 2625. 'Tliere is no instance of its implying denial. Cf. Holtzm. Mess. 80 f., Zahn Kom. Mt. 2626, Thayer in Journ. Bib. Lit 1894. 7 Mk 152 uar 8 Mt. 112 fE., Lk. 718 ff. 9 Mt. 2020 If-, Mk. 1035 ff- ' 10 Apart from the triumphal entry, on which see pp. 137. 302 ct Mk 1048. par., Mt. 927, 1223, 1522. "^ > , • ¦ 1 OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 123 Davidic sonship of the Messiah ! is taken by some as a rejection of the title for himself, and a denial of its applicability to the Messiah altogether. ^ But it is evident that the Lord is not here denying a Davidic descent of the Messiah ; he is trying to show the Pharisees out of the Scriptures that in order to constitute one the Messiah there must be not only such descent but also a relation which sets the descendant as Lord above David himself.^ It has been seen above* that the title Son of (rod was applied to the theocratic people and the theocratic king, and probably also to the Messiah whom these foreshad owed. But did Jesus himself use or accept the title, and if so, was it with messianic meaning ; or is this, as some hold, a reading back of later ideas and terms into the Gospel record? The application of the title to him in the Epistles and the Fourth Gospel is too frequent to need illustration ; it is a designation adopted universally by the earliest Christian com munity, and this fact itself furnishes strong probability that it was used with this distinct significance in the Lord's own time. As Dr. Sanday says, ' How are we to account for the rapid growth within some 23 to 26 years of a usage already so fixed and stereotyped ? Where is the workshop in which it was fashioned, if it did not descend from Christ himself? When we think of the way in which the best authenticated records of his teaching lead us up to the very verge of the challenged expressions, it seems an altogether easier step to regard them as the natural culmination of that teaching than to seek their origin whoUy outside it. ' ^ The presence of the title in the Gospels is doubtless to be assigned to a correct tradition, though it is not unlikely that in some passages this may be a reflection of the more clearly defined Christology of the apos tolic Church. In St. Peter's confession « the words, ' the Son of God,' may possibly be an addition of the author, as they are not found in the parallel accounts of Mark and Luke. In our synoptic sources this title is applied to Jesus by various persons and in various circumstances ; '' in some cases it is used as a 1 Mk. 1236-37, par. 2 Cf. Holtzm. Theol. I. 310 f., Wellhausen Ein. 98. 3 Cf. Zahn on Mt. 224i «-, Wendt Teaching II. 133 ff. * ?:^;.,. „--„ 5 Hast. IV. 573. « Mt. IGW. ' E.g. Mk. 57, 146i, 1539, Mt. IP^, 21«>. 124 ESCHATOLOGY repetition of his own words.! There is no instance recorded in which he directly and of his own motion gives to himself the full designation the Son of Grod, though he accepts it from the mouth of others and assents to it when questioned as to his claim to it.^ He does, however, speak of his Sonship and God's Fatherhood, and not as men in general may so speak,^ but in a special sense, not applicable to other men ; ' No one knoweth the Son save the Father ; neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son wiUeth to reveal him.' * He never places himself on a common footing with his disciples with respect to sonship ; he says ' your Father ' and ' My Father,' but never ' Our Father ' ; the phrase in the Pater noster is for the disciples in common with one another, not in common with him.^ This unique Sonship is also accorded to him by the heavenly voice at the Baptism and the Transfigura tion. ^ We are certainly right then in holding that the Lord declared himself the Son of God in a sense in which no other could claim that relation. But did he therein declare himself the Messiah? The wealth of meaning which the title con tained for him lies beyond our present inquiry.'' But as it sums up all the truth of his personality, it certainl}- contained his Messiahship. Its messianic significance for others is at tested by the question of the high priest in which he makes the title synonymous with ' the Christ.' For Jesus himself also it contained the same messianic meaning. He assents to it before the high priest,^ he points to himself in the parable of the vineyard ^ as Son and heir of the messianic throne. The standing designation which Jesus gives to himself in the Gospels is the Son of Man. Duplicates being disregarded, it occurs some 40 times in the Synoptics and at least 11 times in St. John,!" but elsewhere in the New Testament only 1 Mt. 2740. 48. 2 LJj. 2270. 3 Mt. 60. 32. 4 Mt. 1127, Lk. 1022. The authenticity of this passage has been questioned, but on purely subjective grounds. It is derived from Q, and is accepted hy most critics, e.g. Dalman, Harnack ; and so far as Jesus' unique Sonsliip is concerned, it is confirmed by the Marcan som-ce, 1832, -where the words, ' neither the Son,' though wanting in some Mss., are well authenticated and are retained by nearly all critics. 6 Cf. Weiss Theol., § 17. 6 Mlt. 1", par., 9? par. 7 For an admirable article on the subject, see Sanday in Hast. IV. 570 ff. 3 Mk. 1461 1-, par. o Mt. 2137. 10 It is found in both Q and the Marcan document. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 125 once.! Except in this single instance (in the mouth of the dying Stephen) it is used only by the Lord himself, or in repetition of his words. Its origin, choice, and meaning raise questions among the most intricate in the study of the Gospels. ^ It can be touched upon here only in the briefest way. It is certain that our sources are correct in assigning the use of the title to the Lord himself. The apostolic Church could never have originated, or have brought in from apocalyptic literature, and read back into his mouth, as some claim,^ a term which the Church, as seen above, did not itself use ; and it is equally certain, notwithstanding contention to the contrary, that unless our Gospels are to be extensively rewritten in the interest of a theory, the Lord referred to himself in his earthly as well as his future character. In recent discussion much attention has naturally been given to the probable form and meaning of the term in Aramaic, the language in which Jesus uttered it ; * and in the opinion of most philologists, vib'S tov avOpunrov, son of man, is a literal Greek translation of a term meaning man as con trasted -with any other being, that is, in the Aramaic compound meaning hterally sore of man, the first part had entirely lost its force, so that the phrase meant simply man as a member of the human race, and was the usual, if not the only, expression for this idea. Jesus then is supposed to have used the expression when speaking of mankind at large, e.g. ' The Sabbath was made for man ' (Mk. 227). On the other hand he is reported in the Go.spels as using it frequently, when it would not be applicable to man in general, but only to himself, e.g. ' The Son of man coming in his kingdom ' (Mt. 1628). When the Greek translators understood it to be used in the former sense, they rendered it by simple avOpumo^, man ,- when in the latter sense, by 6 utos rov avOpunrov, the son of man, the literal translation ; in this case they saw in it a special self -designation of the Lord, and the peculiarity of the phrase thus used, perhaps not quite clearly comprehended by the disciples themselves, may have led to its retention in a full, literal transla tion. We cannot affirm that the Greek translators interpret -with accuracy in every instance the Lord's intention in the use of the words ; that is, there may be cases where there is room to question whether in the original he referred to man generally or to himself only (e.g. such question is raised by Lietzmann, Wellhausen, al. in Mt. 9^, 128). But such cases, if apart from 1 Acts 756. The form in Rev. has not the definite article. 2 For bihhography see the Bib. Dictionaries, Lives of Christ, and N. T. Theologies. A vast ht. is found in periodicals and special treatises ; for some of the more important works see Hast. IV. 589 ; of. also above p. 121 ; invalua ble for the discussion of different views and lit. of the subject is Holtzm. Mess. 3 .E.ff. Lietzmann, Wellhausen. ' Especially valuable here is Eiebig Der Menschensohn, 1901. 126 ESCHATOLOGY misinterpretation they exist at all, are too few to affect the general validity of the distinction made in our Greek sources. In nearly all places where the son of man occurs it is unquestionably clear that reference is made to Jesus himself. In all probability the correct translation of the term as used by the Lord in referring to himself is The man rather than the Son of man, ttiat is, the title is not man, or a man simply, it is the man. If this be thought too little distinctive for a title applicable to a single person only, the same might be said of the messianic titles, the Son of David, and the Son of God, given to only one among the many descendants of David and the many sons of God. (Cf. Zahn, Mt. 349 ff.) It should, however, be added that we still know too little about the Aramaic spoken in Palestine at the time to say quite certainly, it had no means of reproducing the separate expressions man and the son of man, and that different Aramaic terms may not have lain behind the distinction in the Greek translation of the Lord's say ings. (Cf. Dalman, Worte 195.) In any event the translation, the son of man, cannot be due to ignorance of the exact meaning of the original, for the translation was made not by our Evangelists, but by the authors of their sources, who doubtless were as familiar with Aramaic as with Greek. This self -designation of Jesus is nowhere explained by him ; but if the term the son of man is equivalent to the man (see above, fine print), it is parallel to, and illuminated by, a famil iar biblical usage, according to which the phrase ' son of ' followed by a defining noun denotes one whose essential nature, or category, is defined by the noun, e.g. ' sons of disobedience ' ! = the essentially disobedient, ' son of wickedness ' ^ = one essentially wicked ; so ' son of man ' = man, when his essen tial nature as man is made prominent. But in the Lord's use of the phrase the article is important. As he is the Son of God among many sons of God, and the Son of David among many sons of David, so he is the Son of man among many sons of men, the man among all men, he is the man who in the strictest sense can be called such, the only one in whom the race has reached its perfection.^ The passages in which the term occurs fall, with a small number of exceptions of a neutral character, into two general groups, the one referring to present rejection, humiliation, and suffering ; the other to future glori fication and power. In the former group the title is especially appropriate as contrasting the dignity of this unique being with his earthly lot ; the latter group points on to the con summate exaltation to which such a being is destined. The 1 Eph. 22. 2 Ps, 8922. 3 Zahn Mt p. 349 ff. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 127 view that the Lord uses this title to express his lowliness and submission to man's lot, and his sympathy with all that is human (while all this is doubtless contained in the idea) over looks the group of passages which speak of his eschatological glory. On the other hand to interpret wholly from the stand point of the eschatological passages, confining the meaning to the apocalyptic man, the man mentioned in Daniel and other apocalyptic writers, makes it necessary to reject the passages referring to present humiliation, or to interpret these with extreme arbitrariness. Whether the title, the Son of man, originated with the Lord himself,! qj. -vp-hether he adopted it from existing names of the Messiah, cannot be said with certainty. The very general opinion of present-day scholars ^ is that the term goes back ultimately to Dan. 7!^, where in reference to the eschatological kingdom the prophet speaks of ' one like unto a son of man ' coming with the clouds of heaven. ^ While this passage pretty certainly referred originally to the character of the kingdom rather than to the person of the Messiah, later it received, at least in some quarters, a messianic interpretation ; the terms. Son of man, that man, the man, referring to the Messiah, are found in apocalyptic literature in connections which show use of the Daniel passage,* though there is no evidence that this became the general interpretation. The Lord himself in speak ing of himself under this title shows at least in one instance that the representation of the passage in Daniel was before his mind. ^ On the other hand it seems certain that the Son of man, or the man, was not in our Lord's time a common designation of the Messiah. Not only is evidence of this lacking, ^ but had it been commonly understood thus, he could not have applied the title to himself so often and so publicly, while at the same time maintaining such reserve in declaring his Messiahship.'^ And 1 So, Zahn, Westcott, al. ' Cf. Holtzm. Mess. 51. 3 Some find the source in Ps. 84, or in Ezek. passim. Gunkel followed by Others seeks to trace the origin further back, into Babylonian tradition. 4 En. 461-6, 2 Es. 132 «• 5 Mk. 1462, par. If the ' Little Apocalypse ' (cf . p. 143) be attributed to Jesus, cf . also Mk. 13^6, par. 6 Dahnan Worte 197 fl. 7 The same fact would be shown in Mt. 1613-", if the words Son of man, which would put the answer into the question itself, are not due to the editor ; 128 ESCHATOLOGY because he gave to the passages in Daniel a messianic meaning, it does not follow that he borrowed his favorite self-designation from this source, any more than that he borrowed the title Son of Cod, which in his self -consciousness he applied to himself, from its existing use as a designation of the messianic king. As he must have reached his consciousness of divine sonship apart from the imperfect conceptions of such sonship found in the Jewish Scriptures, so the consciousness of his perfect humanity must have arisen and found its appropriate expression apart from apocalyptic literature. It would perhaps be safest to say that he found in the prophet Dan. the designation coin cident with that which naturally arose as the expression of his consciousness of his perfect humanity. The man, the one man in whom humanity reached its perfection; see above. If now the explanation of the name as given above (pp. 125 f.) be correct, and the disciples did not at first see in it a messianic meaning, the question arises, whether the Lord himself attached such a meaning to it. According to our sources it seems clear that he did. The Son of man is the title by which he desig nates himself in that large group of passages which refer to his future coming and the fulfillment of the messianic kingdom, when he will be seen at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven,! when he will send forth his angels to gather out of his kingdom all that is foreign to it ; ^ he designates himself by the same title in that other group of passages in which he speaks of his humiliation and suffering,^ experiences which he regarded as part of the divinely ordered destiny of the Messiah ; and still further this is the title which he takes in speaking of the mission,* and the powers ^ which are given to him alone among men. It is however without doubt an error to suppose the title to be with him a mere synonym of Messiah; it would probably be more nearly correct to take it in his use as including the Messiahship. He was the Messiah because he was the Son of man. The man, even as he was the Messiah be cause he was the Son of God ; or rather, because he was both they are wanting in Mk. and Lk. For a similar reason Jno. 1234 does not fm-- nish certain evidence. 1 Mk. 1462, par. 2 Mt. 134i. 3 E.g. Mt. 820, Mk. 83i 931 par. 4 Mk. 1046, Lk. 1910. 6 Mk. 210, 228, par. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 129 the Son of man and the Son of God. For him the title ex pressed his unique being, the one being in whom humanity reached its perfect realization and in whom at the same time divine sonship inhered. This being alone could be the Messiah, and when the Lord used the title he uttered his consciousness that he fulfilled the messianic ideal. If in what is said above the right view has been taken of the use of the terms, the Christ, the Son of David, the Son of God, the Son of man, it is certain, notwithstanding the contention of some critics to the contrary, that Jesus accepted these titles and meant thus to express the consciousness of his Messiahship. But without doubt that which ultimately led his followers to recognize him as the Messiah was not so much his self -designa tion by a significant title, as the relation of his own person to his message and his work. As the central theme in his preach ing was the kingdom of God, so he showed himself the central figure in that kingdom, its founder and leader. He broke the power of the prince of devils, and by that very act declared that he had brought in the kingdom of God,! j^g placed himself in his own person above the Mosaic law and laid down the qualifications for membership in the kingdom,^ those who would belong to it must follow him,^ he demanded absolute surrender to his will,* he forgave sin, he declared himself greater than the prophet, greater than the temple, greater than Solomon,^ the prophet that had no superior was his forerunner, the Elijah who should precede the Messiah.^ Why Jesus, if he really regarded himseH the Christ, should have so studiously avoided declaring this in explicit terms nearly all his life is not stated in our records. The view, that the one fact certainly excludes the other, is a very arbitrary reading of history ; and though those who hold this view regard any possible explanation as an unwarrantable reading into the records,' yet most scholars fail to find a real difficulty here. If the Lord differed radically from his contemporaries in his idea of the messianic office, a premature declaration of himself would, it is easy to see, have fatally impeded his religious mission, to say nothing of the danger of provoking political revolution. Only by a slow process of enlightenment could his hearers come to see that the Son of man was truly the Messiah. 1 Mt. 1228, Lk. 1120. 2 Mt. 5-7. ' Mt. 822, Mk. IO21. 4Lk. 92s ft., 1426 f.. 5 Mt. 126. ".¦^. 6 Mt. 1111.14 ; of. Weiss Theol. § 13, Holtzm. Theot I. 295 fi. ' a. Schweitzer QHJ". 220 f. 130 ESCHATOLOGY The denial on the part of certain scholars that Jesus claimed the title Messiah proceeds generally from the supposition that he must have taken it in its current, traditional acceptation, and that the adoption of it in a sense materially modified was equivalent to its rejection. The Lord's procedure here is how ever in keeping with his attitude toward the older revelation throughout; he rejects the partial and temporary phases, he seizes hold of, and unfolds, the essential and eternal. In at least three most characteristic particulars his break with the traditional conceptions was so complete that any messianic claim on his part was, in the mind of his Jewish contemporaries, an act of blasphemy. (1) The perception that the Messiah must suffer and die for his people, an idea at variance with every expectation inherited from the prophets, becomes a deter mining force in his course. Whether Jesus foresaw this from the beginning, or only later through the experiences of his life, is a question which need not detain us here.! But it is a strik ing fact, that from the epoch-making declaration of St. Peter at Csesarea Philippi, ' Thou art the Christ,' Jesus passed imme diately to teach the disciples that he must suffer and be put to death ; ^ and henceforth he sets his face unflinchingly toward Jerusalem and the cross. However or whenever he may have reached the consciousness that this was a part of his destiny, it can hardly be doubtful that he saw the applicability to him self of what the prophet, the Second Isaiah, had said concerning the suffering servant of Jehovah, though this is not directly declared in his teaching. 3 (2) He rejected entirely the Jewish conception of a political kingship to be established over the nations of the earth. In one word, ' Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's,' * he showed the remoteness of this thought from his purpose. The legions which he was able to summon to his aid were not those of the sword. « (3) AU national limitations disappeared from his doctrine of Messiah- ship. His mission began, to be sure, with ' the lost sheep of the 1 For various views see Holtzm. TheoL I. 353 ff. 2 Mk 827-31 par - Mlt. 10-15 evidently contains a reminiscence of Is. 5310-12. xhe verv general in thP^°i!.if f ^/'•'^"'=U° ^k. 183., 2237 to the mention of the Messiah's sufferings ^Pnf?.^,^Lt r ^T°V^^ historicity of the statement, for a thought so promi- exn iHt^ 4 i^i'"'?!',/* ''^'^'^ ^^*'' ^o^il'i probably have been made more expiiciL. 4 Mil. 12", par. 5 Mt. 26^2 f.. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 131 house of Israel,' ! but in its ultimate scope aimed to include the field which is the world. ^ There are utterances of his, such as the answer to the Syrophcenician woman and the command to the apostles, ' Go not into the way of the Gentiles,' ^ which are sometimes taken to prove that he shared his people's idea of a purely Jewish Messiah, at least in the earlier part of his career.* But in Jesus' self-consciousness as the Son of God and the Son of man there must have been given the consciousness of a Messiahship which was absolutely universal. His gospel was to be preached to all nations ; ^ his disciples were to be the light of the world. ^ The limitation at first imposed in the sphere of Jesus' own work and that of his disciples was but the natural preparation for the mission to all the world. '^ But if Jesus rejected these essential elements in the Jewish doctrine of the Messiah, was there then anything left ? Was he not a Messiah merely in name ? By many he is thought to have appropriated to himself the office by way of accommodation only, suiting his self -characterization to the highest term in his people's understanding ; the title was, it is said, a burden to him which he would gladly have been rid of ; it has no abiding value, 'in our time it is only a requisite for missions to the Jews.' ^ But however true it is, that the Lord, like every great originator in religious thought, must bring his message in forms already familiar to his hearers, yet he saw in the revela^ tions of the prophets, through all that was partial and tempo rary, an eternal truth ; * for him the figure of the prophetic Messiah contained a meaning not seized by the prophets them selves ; for him that figure had a permanent significance. It seems certain that it was the consciousness of his unique nature and office that led him to see in himself the Messiah and not the reverse, as some hold ; !" for it is not easy to understand how, if he had started from the prophetic conception of the Messiah, he should have so clearly distinguished the accidental features from the essential and have applied the latter only to himself ; in other words, some consciousness of the latter, as 1 Mt. 1524. 2 Mt. 1338. 3 Mt. 105. * Cf. Baldensperger Selbstbewusstsein^ 180 f . See also p. 140 « Lk. 244'. 8 Mt. 514. , 7 Cf . Wendt Teaching II. 197 ff. 3 Schulz, cited by Holtzm. Mess. 97. « Mt. 5" f-. i» Cf. Holtzm. Theol. I. 298 «- 132 ESCHATOLOGY characteristic of his own person, must be presupposed in this application. When the consciousness of his person and work unfolded itself, he must have seen that he himself fulfilled the messianic ideal. He was conscious that he was the Son of God and the Son of man, that his mission was to suffer for men, to deliver them with an eternal salvation, to establish the kingdom of God and to be its Lord. All this he saw to he contained in the person and work of the Messiah of the prophets. This for him was the essential and permanent significance of the Messiahship. The majestic person, in whom the prophets dimly and distortedly saw God coming to redeem and glorify his people, was for him a real though imperfect vision of him self. He did not liken himself to the Messiah, he did not adopt the messianic role, he was the Messiah. For him aU the truth of his being lay hidden in one or another of the pro phetic words. And so it is with the faith of the Church. His title the Christ (the Greek term has largely superseded the Hebrew equivalent, the Messiah) sums up all that is believed of his nature and office. (2) The Kingdom of God. Correlative with the Lord's doc trine of the Messiahship is that of the Kingdom of God. The king and his kingdom are necessarily implied the one in the other. Jesus began his public ministry by proclaim ing, not himself, but the kingdom,! and prominent in his teaching as he soon came to make his own person, frequent as are his sayings regarding the Son of man, yet reference to the kingdom is still more frequent. We in our everyday thought have largely made the term remote and figurative, but he on the contrary in parables, in discourses, and in isolated utter ances made it central in his message for the present and the future. ^or /JaoriXeia roiii dcov, kingdom of God, Mt. uses with few exceptions PaaiKtia tS>v oipavSiv, kingdom of heaven, which does not occur elsewhere hi the New Testament, except possibly iu Jno. S^. That Mt. in this is closer to the original source (so, Allen in Ox. Stud. 241) is improbable, for it is less likely that Mk. and the non-Mk. parts of Lk. (Q), in the considerable number of places where they have OcoZ for the Matthsan oipaviov, should have independently agreed in varying from the original, than that the 1 Mk. 1". OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 133 variation should be due to Mt. The entire absence of the Matthaean form from the other records of the Lord's words favors the supposition that the form was not used by the Lord himself (cf. Wendt Teaching I. 371). In any event the general equivalence of the two forms is sho-wn by a compari son of the parallel passages in which the forms are found. The theory that the two forms differ in reference, and that the form with ovpavStv always means the eschatological kingdom (of. Allen in ICC. Mt. LXVII fl.) requires violence in the interpretation of such passages as Mt. lin , 213i, and the parables of the sower, the tares, and the drag-net. The same method of interpretation would make the form with Oeov likewise escha tological. The view that ovpavoL is here put by metonymy for God, ac cording to well-known rabbinical usage (Schiirer II. 629, followed by many) is at variance with the fact that neither Mt. nor Jesus shows any reluctance to use the divine name. Most scholars take the Matthsean form to be intended to designate the heavenly origin and character of the kingdom ; cf. Holtzm. Theol. I. 249 ff., Stevens Theol. 28. We have no occasion here to enter into the manifold in quiries, historical and ethical, attaching to the Lord's use of this term ; we can only notice briefly those that are most essen tial to our present purpose, the consideration of his eschatology. (1) He himself nowhere declares precisely what he means by the term. For this reason some suppose, he must have taken it in the usual Jewish sense, as the realization of the Old Testa ment theocracy.! Such a kingdom was of course to be one of perfect righteousness, one where God's rule was absolute ; but it centered, nationally and politically, in Israel. If, however, as maintained above, Jesus' conception of his Messiahship grew out of the consciousness of his unique nature as the Son of God and the Son of man, his idea of the messianic kingdom must have been free from all national determination. And this is made clear in his teaching. The conditions of member ship in the kingdom have no relation to birth; they are set forth in the Beatitudes and are purely spiritual. Men should come from all corners of the earth and sit down in the king dom, while Jews should be thrust out.^ The early disciples, Jews as they were, found it hard to grasp this truth, but this slowness of theirs forms no sufficient evidence that the Lord had not declared the doctrine. (2) The phrase ^aaCKeCa tov 6eov, kingdom of Cod, can mean either the sphere of God's rule, 1 Cf. Weiss Theol § 18 h. 2 Mt. 8" '¦, Lk. I329. 134 ESCHATOLOGY his domain, or the activity of God, his reign.^ Many take the latter to be the predominant thought in Jesus' use of the ex pression. The reference, then, is to a spiritual condition of perfect obedience to God, the complete sway of his will in the hearts and conduct of men. But the idea of rule must pass over into that of the sphere of rule. There must be, if not now, at least in the end a people over whom God reigns. Not only in the eschatological expectations of the Jews is there the idea of a realm of God, but in Jesus' teaching also the objective aspect appears distinct, as when he speaks of entrance into it,^ of its coming and manifestation,^ of differences of rank in it,* of eating and drinking in it.^ (3) Much difference of opinion exists as to whether Jesus means to declare the kingdom to have already come in his appearing, or whether he places it wholly in the future. The disciples are taught to pray for its coming, and in many places the Lord clearly speaks of it as future, identifying it with the eschatological kingdom to be established at his parousia ; ^ this is the most frequent repre sentation, in both the Marcan source and Q. On the other hand there are utterances of his that appear equally clear in declaring it already present. One of the most striking of these is that given at the healing of the demoniac, 'If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come to you,' that is, in so far as the power of Satan is overthrown, the kingdom of God is introduced.'^ The very fact that the Messiah has come implies the presence of the kingdom, at least in some sense, in his activity. ' These acts of power are the morning-flush of the rising day of his glory, they are indeed proofs of the presence of the kingdom of God. ' ^ The para bles of the sower, the tares, the mustard seed, the drag-net, the leaven, though opinions may differ regarding the main truth intended, all clearly imply the presence of the kingdom before the End. To the same effect is Jesus' answer to the Pharisees, asking about the time of the coming, ' The kingdom of God is 1 Cf. Dalman Worte 75 ff., Bousset Predigt 101, Volz 299 f 2 Mt. 721, 183, Lk. 1328. 3 Mk. 1", Lk. 19". 4 Mt 18i Lk 728. 6 Mk. 1426, Lk. 1415. iii.. 10,1. 6 E.g. Mk. 91, par., 1426, Mt. 721, 8». 7 Mt. 1228, Lk. 1120, a saying probably from Q. On < Messiasgeheimniss. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 139 had previously acquired this belief through his utterances and course of action. But it would be wholly inexplicable that this belief should have originated with the disciples after the catastrophe ; one would have to suppose that these wonderful Easter experiences had produced in their souls something absolutely new in a purely magical way and without any psychological mediation.' ^ Some believed that John the Baptist had risen again in the person of Jesus,^ but they did not on this account receive this Jesus-John as the Messiah. And when we look at the new conception of the Messiah and his kingdom everywhere existent in the apostolic Church, it is equally certain that it could not have originated in the minds of the disciples themselves. It was hard for them to unlearn the doctrine of a national kingdom and glory,^ and the Messiah's resurrection and ascension could not in themselves transform the traditional hope ; these could at most only postpone its fulfill ment. Moreover the highly spiritualized idea of the kingdom reached in the Church, as seen in St. Paul and St. John, makes it difficult to understand how the doctrine of the Lord's return should have become prominent, if it had not been taught by the Lord himself. All these considerations make it reasonably certain, that these fundamental beliefs of the apostolic Church did not arise by any process of reflection within the Church itself, but through the teaching of Jesus ; in other words that we have here trustworthy testimony to Jesus' teaching regard ing himself and his kingdom.* The Place of Eschatology in Jesus' View of His Mission. The above study of Jesus' doctrine of his Messiahship and his king dom has been necessary because it is in that doctrine that his eschatology centers ; the contents and significance of the latter are determined by the former. But before speaking of the details of his teaching in regard to the Last Things, notice should be taken of a subject, in part anticipated above, the relative prominence of the present and the coming age in his thought. In recent New Testament study much discussion has been given to the question, whether Jesus did not regard his » Bousset Jesus 77. Cf. also Holtzm. Mess. 87, WeUhausen Kiii.^2. 2 Mk. 828, 614. 3 Mk. 1037, Acts l^. " See p. 120. 140 ESCHATOLOGY mission as wholly eschatological.! By a considerable number of scholars the question is answered emphatically in the affirma tive an answer which must materially modify the traditional view of the Life of our Lord. This interpretation of New Testament history makes Jesus in his earthly course, like John the Baptist, simply a prophet proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God ; he remains, throughout, his own forerunner. Not yet has the kingdom come, not yet is he the Messiah. The consciousness that he is destined to become the jNIessiah is a secret with him, which at first he did not intend to reveal even to his disciples. How the kingdom will come, how he wiU at tain his Messiahship he knows not ; aU that he leaves in his Father's hands, but he believes the fulfillment is not far off. On that first mission of the Twelve (Mat. 10) he sends them out, expecting that before their return God will intervene with power, the new kingdom will break upon the world. In the disappointment which followed and in view of the enmity of his people he came to see that his own death was necessary, serving God's purpose, but that it could not cause his work to fail, it must be the means of bringing in the kingdom ; he would soon return as the Son of man on the clouds of heaven. His mission was not to teach either about God or man's relation to God, or about human duty; he did not give men moral precepts, ex cept only for the short interim before the End, in preparation for it (an interimsethik, as it is called). Thus the whole con tent of his teaching, according to the extreme eschatologists, was eschatological, the announcement of the coming kingdom, whose blessings, since he did little to correct current concep tions, he must have understood to be in general those commonly expected by his people. That this will not be the permanent reading of Jesus' history can be pretty confidently asserted. We have seen above, how certain was his consciousness that he is, not that he is going to be, the Messiah, and that in his work the kingdom has already come to men ; we have also seen that he formed his followers into a lasting community. When we turn to his lessons of 1 Cf. J. Weiss, Predigt, Baldensperger Selbst, Schweitzer QHJ., Dohschiitz Eschat, Holtzm. Mess., Wellhausen Ein., Burkitt in Cam. Bib. Essays, Dewick Eschat. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 141 religious and moral truth we find him everywhere dealing with eternal verities, with the fatherhood of God whose love embraces every child of man, with love as the fundamental law of all human relations. It is a most striking feature in his utterances, that there is in them so little of the temporary and provisional, that they are for all time and all circumstances. Perhaps the most convincing objection to a purely eschatological interpreta tion of his aim is found in the fact that through all the centuries the profoundest spiritual needs of the world have been met in his person and teaching, to a large extent quite apart from his eschatology, which has fallen into the background and is often entirely overlooked. ' If eschatology is the key to all gospel questions, then it becomes the problem of problems how Christianity could go on without eschatology through so many centuries.'! But on the other hand no careful student of the Gospels will make the subject of eschatology in the Lord's conceptions insignificant ; on the contrary it will be seen to lie in the background of his characteristic themes, to shape the form of his utterances and to express the final meaning of his office and mission. As already seen, the outlook of the prophetic and apocalyptic writers in later Judaism is toward an approaching end ; to a very large degree is this true of the Church through out the apostolic age. And in this respect Jesus is in harmony with the movement of religious thought throughout this long period. As to how far he looked upon this end as close at hand more will be said below. The atmosphere of the age is often described as charged with eschatological expectation ; and Jesus is said to have taken over from the apocalyptic its most com mon conceptions. It would be more strictly just to say that he laid hold of certain great eschatological truths which in the progress of divine revelation had become common property, that he purified and spiritualized these and gave them their true sig nificance in their relation to himself. It was inevitable that he should express such truths in the forms made familiar by the prevalent apocalyptic ; and yet his divergence from the apoca lyptic writers is very marked. He says nothing of national and political glories in the coming kingdom, or of its sway over 1 Dohschiitz Eschat 58 f . 142 ESCHATOLOGY vanquished nations ; he gives no description of earthly splendors or material blessings in the new age, he does not picture the nature or inhabitants of the various heavens, the state of the dead, the resurrection, or the horrors of the judgment. There is no evidence that he was familiar with the non-biblical apoca lypses, though the leading eschatological elements contained in them had without doubt become more or less the common property of the time. These he taught, not however in the manner of the apocalyptic writers. With the exception of the great discourse concerning the Last Things, assigned to the week of his passion, as he sat on Mount Olivet over against Jerusalem, which will be noticed later on,! his doctrines of the future are brought in only incidentally, with a few simple touches, as bearing upon some topic of which he is speaking, and yet in a way which shows that they were profoundly influ ential in his thought. The truth which he taught his followers and the divine power which he brought into their lives were forces mighty for millenniums of earthly history, and yet it is clear that he is everywhere pointing to a consummation, an end. There is a sense in which his whole aim may be called eschato logical, that is, his aim is the complete redemption of man, the complete establishment of the kingdom of God ; and the realization of all this lies in the End. But this perfect consum mation of his messianic work is a fact, of which he is unwaver ingly assured from the beginning ; the question of the time of the final advent or the place of the kingdom was entirely sub ordinate. As compared -with late Judaism, and even -with the days of the Lord's earthly life, the eschatological attitude of mind, the outlook which -viewed things from the standpoint of the end, became more intense in the apos tolic age; and naturally so, for the Messiah had now appeared and the consummation of hope, greatly modified as the hope had become, could not be far distant ; abeady the ' Last Times,' which should precede the full messianic glory, appeared to be present. The disciples were mourning because the Bridegroom had been taken from them, but his return could not be long delayed (cf. Wellhausen Ein. 107, Dohschiitz Eschat. 74 f.). It is for this reason that eschatological traits are more prominent in the later Gospel records than in the earlier, and it is not unlikely that through the same influence the record of the Lord's words may have received in 1 p. 143. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 143 some cases a more distinct eschatological coloring than originally belonged to them. Matthew among the Gospels contains the most highly developed eschatology ; not a few of the sayings or allusions, as here given, appear to be additions to, or modifications of, the Marcan source, or Q ; next in order after Mt., as regards eschatological matter, comes Mark, and last Q. But eschatological matter is contained in all our sources, in Mark, in Q, in the matter peculiar to Mt., and in that peculiar to Lk. (cf . Streeter in Ox. Stud. 425 ff., Dohschiitz £sc/ia«. 79 ff., Sanday in Hib. Journ. Oct. 1911). But apart from this documentary evidence, the power of eschatology among the earliest disciples attests its certain attribution to the Lord himself. 'The behef s of the early Church may have modified, and did modify, the records of his utterances, but it is too great a paradox to maintain that what was so central in the belief of the primitive Church was not present at least in germ in what the Master taught,' Streeter op. cit. 433. The Little Apocalypse. The great discourse on the Last Things given in Mk. 13, Mt. 24, Lk. 21, and often called the Little Apocalypse, has since its critical treatment by Colani and Weizsacker (1864) been held by many scholars to be an ' apocalyptic leaflet ' (apocalyptisches Flugblatt) of Jewish or Jewish-Christian origin, which came into circulation shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and which Mk. (the source of Mt. and Lk.) in troduced, with the insertion of some genuine sayings of Jesus, into his Gospel.i It is seen to follow in its outline the conventional form of the Je-wish apocalypses -with their principal divisions : first, the beginning of troubles ; second, the culmination of the ' messianic woes ' ; third, the final catastrophe, with the appearance of the Messiah, the judgment, and the completion of the ages; it predicts future events -with a definiteness of detail in traditional imagery at variance -with the Lord's usage as seen else where I it attributes to him sayings held to be irreconcilable with one another. Such are the principal grounds for the theory mentioned. But the absence of all political and national traits shows that it cannot be a Jewish apocalypse ; and the supposition that Mk. should have picked up and inserted in his book a Jewish-Christian document circulating anony mously, or pseudonymously, is so at variance with the general character of his work, that it can be adopted only when other reasonable explanations of the facts are wanting. In point of fact the hypothesis is unnecessary. The salient apocalyptic features in the discourse follow, as do the Je-wish apocalypses in general, the traits found in the Old Testament, especially in Daniel (of. Briggs 134) ; and in so far it might be accepted either as spoken hy the Lord himself, whose words and conceptions so often attach themselves to the prophets, or as given in Q, to which some scholars refer it, or as compiled by Mk. from his sources. There is no part requiring the hypothesis of a document originating independently of these sources. On the other hand the analogy of the Lord's discourses as generally given in 1 Among numerous discussions, cf . Weiffenbach Wiederkunftsgedanke Jesu ; Briggs Mess. Gosp. 182 ff. ; Bacon Journ. Bib. Lit. Vol. XXVIH. ; Haupt Eschat 21 ff. ; Spitta, Stud. u. Krit. 1909 ; Streeter in Ox. Stud. 179 ff.; Doh schiitz Eschat 85 fl. ; Stevens TheoL 152 fl. 144 ESCHATOLOGY the Gospels suggests that we have here a group of sayings spoken on various occasions ; and the occurrence here of sayings found in other con nections in Mt. and Lk. points in this direction, as does also the apparent mingling of diflerent subjects, or at least the difficulty of combining in one outlook aU the representations found here. Only one other long discourse is found in Mk. (chap. 4) ; that also has an eschatological tone and is a compilation. The close juxtaposition of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Lord's coming, found in the Little Apocalypse in all three forms of the discourse, and made especially distinct in Mt. but not occurring elsewhere in the Lord's utterances, may be due to the compiler, whether Mk. or the author of his source, who clearly connected the two events in time. To his mode of thought and expression may also be due the minute picture of future events, characteristic, not of the Q sayings, but of the apocalyptic, as may be the presence of much of the traditional imagery. Also some parts may be interpretative additions made by the compiler. This hypoth esis, which regards the discourse as for the most part a group of sayings, not all originally relating to the same theme, but so interpreted, and therefore here combined and reported in familiar apocalyptic phraseology, seems to present the least difficulty. The Principal Expectations in Jesus' Eschatology. In the foregoing pages we have considered the fundamental concep tions of Jesus which determined the nature and contents of his eschatology, that is, his messianic office, and the kingdom which he came to establish ; and we have seen the place A^'hich escha tology occupied in his thoughts of his office and mission. It remains now to inquire into certain leading features, which with those already spoken of, make up the picture of the End, as it appears in his utterances. (1) The Parousia. The dominatiiig doctrines in the Lord's eschatology are those of his Coming and his future Kingdom. Regarding the former, two questions arise : what did he teach about the nature of his coming, and Avhat about its time ? The Pauline and Johannine writings speak of a coming or a presence in the Spirit, and the same idea may be alluded to in the Lord's promises, to be with his disciples, as given in St. Matthew.! There is a most real sense in which the Lord is continually coming to his children; and many understand this spiritual coming to include all that he intended in speaking of his parousia. In a special sense also there was a coming in the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and also in 1 1820, 2820. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 145 the resurrection, and many hold one or the other of these to have been the parousia of which he really spoke. But after the occurrence of the resurrection and the Pentecostal coming in the Spirit, it is inconceivable that the Lord's sayings, if they had originally referred to these events and had not distinctly declared an eschatological coming, should have been so com pletely transformed and made to refer rarely or indirectly to these events, but often and unmistakably to the one event of the advent at the end of the ages. If there had occurred a process of ' reading back,' it would have taken a direction the reverse of that found in the Gospel record. In view of the extraordinary spiritualization of messianic ideas in the apostolic Church it is hard to conceive how the expectation of a future advent could have become so intense and universal, unless it had been awakened by the Lord himself. Upon all sound critical principles we must attribute to him the announcement of a coming which, whether in our Gospel records it be described in vivid apocalyptic imagery, or alluded to only incidentally, is a definite event, a visible advent in glory and power, ushering in the final reign of the kingdom of God.! ^he question of the Lord's prediction regarding the time of his coming is a difficult one. He is recorded as saying that some of those listening to him should live to see the coming of the Son of man,^ that it should take place before the apostles on their mission should have gone over the cities of Israel,^ that the generation then present should not pass away till all was accomplished.* The Lord bids his hearers to be always ready for the coming of the Son of man.^ The sense of such passages interpreted by the uniform usage of the phraseology in the New Testament is so evident, that the numerous attempts of scholars to find refer ence to some event other than the parousia must be regarded as quite unsatisfactory. The same may be said of the theory of ' prophetic foreshortening ' which views future events across long intervals, as if near at hand. Whether, or not, such pas sages report accurately the very words of Jesus, it cannot be doubted that they express what the disciples understood him to 1 E.g. Mt. 1627, Mk. 1462, Lk. 926. On various senses of the Coming of. Haupt Eschat 189 fl., Stevens Theol. 165 fl. 2 Mk. 91 par. 3 Mt. 1023. 4 Mk. 13'0. 5 Lk. 123s-40. 146 ESCHATOLOGY foretell. The certain belief of the apostolic Church, that the great day was near, cannot be explained except on the supposi tion that the disciples had so understood his teaching. But an apprehension of his teaching which was radically wrong is very unlikely. His reported language in such connections may have been colored or made more precise than that actually used through the prepossession of his hearers, yet it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he in some form spoke of his return at a time not all too remote, that he looked for an earlier consummation of his kingdom than history has shown to be realized. In this conclusion the larger number of recent scholars are coming to agree. The supposition that this prediction is wanting in the oldest source, Q, and has been added in the later Marcan and Ma"tth»an source (cf. Streeter in Ox. Stud. 424 ff.) cannot be established. It is -without doubt true that eschatology is less prominent in Q, but our knowledge of that document is too meager to furnish data for certain inference in this particular doctrine; at all events eschatology is found in it and probably this very idea of the nearness of the parousia (Mt. 2334-^9 jg probably a Q passage). While escha tology in general became more developed in the later documents, Mt. and Mk., yet this doctrine of the coming as near is more likely to have been eliminated than to have been added to the record of the Lord's words at a time when the parousia and its signs were delayed. An example of later modification probably due to this influence is seen in Luke's version of the parable of the talents (cf . Lk. I911-28 .^yith Mt. 25^*^, different versions of the same parable), where we have a correction of the opinion that the kingdom would appear immediately, v. 11. It should be kept in mind that the question is historical rather than dogmatic. While we must speak with great reserve concerning the limitations of the Lord's knowledge, yet the doctrine of the incarnation carries with it a limitation in the ordinary sphere of human knowledge, as a feature of his incar nate life. There is a sphere in which life with him as with all men was a process of growth.! It is only in moral and spiritual truth that his oneness with the Father must be understood to raise him above all error. ' Religious perfection does not in clude omniscience.' ^ The fact of the final, absolute triumph of God's kingdom can never be a matter of doubt with him, but the exact time when this should be accomplished is that of a ' Lk. 262. 2 Baldensperger 205. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 147 historical event, dependent at least in part upon human condi tions, and he declares that no man knows the day and the hour, 'not even the angels, neither the Son.' ! But it is doubtful whether this declared ignorance of the precise time of the parousia is irreconcilable with those other sayings which place it within the generations then present, though many scholars so regard it ; ^ to many however it seems quite possible to understand the Lord to have referred in the one case to a somewhat long and indefinite period, in the other, to a precise date within that period. The householder knows the night is the period within which the attempts of a thief would be made, but no one can tell in what watch of the night he will come.^ ' In putting the date at the end of this generation he gives no real date.'* All Jewish prophecy placed the End in close connection with the appearing of the Messiah, and it would seem almost inevitable that Jesus, who was conscious that the messianic work had begun in him, should have hoped for its consummation at no distant time. In any event we cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that the disagreement between the Lord's hope and the course of subsequent history in no way affects the essential nature of his person, or his revelation to man. ' If we keep to the letter of his words, we cannot help agreeing that he was wrong regarding the outward form of his predictions, and especially the time of God's fulfillment. But this does not involve, I am sure, any imperfection on his side, any more than his opinion about the sun as a star going round the earth, or about the Pentateuch as a book written by Moses. . . . The form of his expectation was unimportant even for himself. He left it to his Father how and when he would realize it.' ^ Perhaps the greatest difficulty in supposing that the Lord looked for an early return lies in his knowledge of the obstacles which must hinder the growth of the di-vine kingdom. His profound insight into human nature 1 Mk. 1332, Mt. 2436. The genuineness of no saying of Jesus is more certain than this ; it could not have arisen at a time when it seemed at variance -with his accepted divinity ; on the contrary there appears an eflort to get rid of it. It is omitted in its connection in Lk. after 2133, and the words ' neither the Son ' are wanting in some later Mss. of Mt. 2 Cf. Holtzm. Theol. I. 401 f., Denney Jesus 355. 3 Lk. 1238-40. Cf. Weiss TheoL § 33 a, J. Weiss, Predigt 71, 96 fl. ^ Dohschiitz Eschat 116. * ibid. 184 f. 148 ESCHATOLOGY and his experience of hostility on the part of even God's chosen people made clear to him the slo-wness with which moral and spiritual truth must advance in the world. He does not, to be sure, say that the world should be evangelized before the parousia, but rather that the gospel must first be preached to all nations (Lk. 24*7, Mk. 18i°) ; yet this could not mean a mere proclamation of the gospel; the slow process of 'making disciples' was intended (Mt. 282"), and the Lord's anticipation of sometMng of this slowness is seen in his words. Such expressions in the eschatological parar bles as ' after a long time' (Mt. 25i»), 'into a far country' (Lk. 19i2), 'my lord tarrieth ' (Mt. 24*8), which clearly express this thought, may as some suppose be due to later editorial work in view of the delayed parousia (cf . Holtzm. Theol. I. 386 f .) ; yet these parables, as well as those speak ing of the growth of the seed (Mk. 4), all imply a considerable lapse of time, a delay. The questionable phrases mentioned crystallize what is really contained in the parables themselves. We cannot, however, for a moment .suppose that these two aspects of the future presented themselves to Jesus' mind as in perplexing conflict. His vision was steadily fixed on working the works of him that sent him ; all else he left in the hands of the Father who in the exercise of his o-wn power had fixed the times and seasons (Acts 17). And in this respect he was followed by his disciples who went on through the apostolic age planting and organizing churches, laying foundations in faith and morals, as those who would build a struc ture for ages of earthly history, yet ever cherishing an eager expectation of a near end. Only in one church, that of the Thessalonians, do we see the hope of the near advent seriously disturbing the settled order of Christian thought and conduct; and this failure was promptly reproved by then- apostle. The antecedents of the Messiah's coming, as they are com monly described in apocalyptic literature, appear also in the Lord's predictions of his parousia. The ' messianic woes,' times of trouble, convulsions in the heavenly bodies and in earth, wars, terrors, persecutions, apostasy will occur as signs that the end is near. The details of these prophecies and the imagery, taken directly from traditional apocalyptic repre sentations, are found only in the eschatological discourse (Mk. 13, par.), and we cannot say how far they are to be attributed to the Lord, and how far to the recorder of his sayings ; yet what is essential in the doctrine of the ' messianic woes,' as a time of trouble and testing, which shall precede the Lord's appearing, is contained in other parts of our record.! But the parousia itself will break upon the world suddenly, as a thief in the night. ^ The two thoughts are held by many to 1 Mt. 1017-22, 34-87, 2834 J., Lk. 1722, Ig? f. 2 Lk. 1239, OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 149 be contradictory.! g^^ j^^ie same juxtaposition of signs of the end and ignorance of the time appears in Jewish literature also,^ and in St. Paul. ^ Many find this difficulty in the Lord's sayings removed by the figure used, as seen above ; the uncer tainty pertains to the particular watch, not to the night as a whole. In another connection the suddenness appears to be represented as the unpreparedness of those who, like the gener ation of Noah, are not watchful, and blind themselves to the monitions of the signs.* (2) The Eschatological Kingdom. Little need be added to what has already been said concerning the kingdom of the future. If, as maintained above, the kingdom was in some sense already present in the person and work of Jesus, and if it consists essentially in the reign of God's will, then it is found at least in one aspect wherever that will is the control ling force in men. It may then ever be growing in power and extent, ever coming, as a moral and social evolution, in the promotion of which men are used as God's agents ; and every child of God finds in this advancement of the kingdom, with the blessings it confers, his sufficient motive to activity for himself and others. The various parables of the growing seed and the leaven seem to represent its perfection as the last result of such a process of evolution. Many find in this process and its final outcome all that is meant by the Lord's prophecies of a coming kingdom. But throughout apocalyptic literature and throughout Jesus' teaching there is found the representa tion of a great future event, a miraculous intervention of God, which apart from man's agency shall establish the kingdom in its final glory. A stone is to be ' cut out of the mountain without hands,' ^ the harvest is to come at the end of the period of growth, then the sickle is put forth. ^ God has fixed condi tions which shall precede the final event,^ but the consumma tion is his act alone. The idea of an invisible, spiritual state, the outcome of a gradual process of evolution, does not satisfy the terms of the Lord's prediction. Though a spiritualizing 1 Cf. Holtzm. TheoL I. 889. ^ cf. Volz 171 f. 3 cf. p. 89. * Lk. 1727 ; cf. J. Weiss in Meyer in loc and on Mk. 1832. cf. p. 147. 6 Dan. 245. 6 Mk. 429. 7 cf. pp. 78 f. 150 ESCHATOLOGY of the conception appears in the Fourth Gospel and St. Paul, an aspect which may not improbably be traced back to the Lord himself, yet even in these writers this form does not dis place that of the visible apocalyptic kingdom which shall come at the End.! c xhe kingdom of God is not established, so long as its dominion is only recognized by individuals ; it wants to be collective, universal.' ^ The Lord does not describe the glories of the kingdom which is to come, but he assumes its blessedness. He places it not in heaven but on earth. Everywhere he speaks of its coming, that is, to earth ; the petition, ' Thy kingdom come,' is followed by the defining words, ' Thy will be done on earth.' The Lord does not speak specifically to his followers of their entrance into the present heaven of God's abode. ^ In this respect he follows the usual biblical and apocalyptic idea, and doubtless he has also in mind the same idea of a renewed world, in which the distinction between heaven and earth disappears. In one instance he refers directly to this renewal ; * he also uses the apocalyptic phrase, ' heaven and earth shall pass away,' ^ a phrase always associated with the idea of world-renewal.^ How much in this may be symbol and how much literal reality we cannot say, but there is no compelling reason for resolving it altogether into the former. ' Because we have entered upon the dispensation of the Spirit, we are not reduced to the bar renness of intellectual purism ; we are not called upon to strip rudely away all that is still shrouded in symbol and metaphor. We may leave ourselves room for the expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, though we cannot guess what outward form of embodiment they may assume.' '' As regards also the members of the kingdom the Lord follows the common apoca lyptic representation. These are his faithful ones gathered out of a world where there are many enemies. The latter are driven from his presence into a punishment described in the conventional terms. ^ As in the apocalyptic writings, the 1 Cf . p. 304. 2 Dobschutz Eschat. 206. 3 ' Lay up treasure in heaven ' means, lay up there, as in a treasure house, the treasure which befits that place, whence as from a place of deposit it may be paid out to you again. * Mt. 1928, -^aXivyiveaU. 6 Mt. 5", Lk. 2133. 6 Cf. Titius N. T. 25, J. Weiss Predigt 105 fl., Bousset Predigt 87, AVell- hausen Ein. 103. 7 Sanday Hib. Journ. Oct. 1911, 103. 8 Mt. 2641. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 151 supreme foe is the prince of evil spirits, and the supreme triumph in the establishment of the kingdom is the overthrow of Satan and his hosts, and their consignment to the doom prepared for them. There is no intimation of a conquest by their conversion into friends. If these representations regard ing his enemies seem hard to reconcile with the measureless love and mercy which irradiate the whole character and teach ing of our Lord, we must observe that in these conventional apocalyptic forms may be expressed the terrible possibility of an unending hostility to, and separation from, God. (3) The Intermediate State and the Resurrection. Little is said on these subjects in the synoptic records, but the usual apocalyptic doctrines are expressed or assumed. In answer to the Sadducees' argument against the resurrection, the Lord shows from the Old Testament scriptures that the dead are raised.! j^ Q^g other connection also he speaks of the resur rection, and there it is mentioned as a fact which both he and his hearers accept without question.^ It is to take place among the events of the End, and both the just and the unjust would seem to be understood as sharing in it, though this is not distinctly stated, and some suppose that the just only are thought of. The difference of opinion in Jewish, and perhaps Christian, circles regarding the share of the unjust in the res urrection has already been spoken of.^ Their presence at the judgment is perhaps assumed in such sayings as, ' It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment,' etc.* A bodily existence of the wicked after the judgment is more distinctly implied in the words, 'Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.' ^ It is noticeable however that the Lucan account of the dispute with the Sadducees limits the reference to the righteous, to ' those who are accounted worthy to attain to that world and the resurrection of the dead.' ^ This variation from the Marcan and Matthsean accounts is perhaps due to editorial influence. It is clear that a distinction between the just and the unjust in this respect was not clearly defined in the Lord's teaching. 1 Mt. 1218-27, par. 2 Lk. 14". 3 pp. 62, 93. ^ Mt. II22. 24. 5 Mt. 1028. Cf. J. Weiss Predigt 109 fl. « Lk. 2035. cf. also 14" 152 ESCHATOLOGY The nature of the resurrection body is alluded to in only one place, in the argument with the Sadducees, where the Lord tells them that they know not the power of God, that is, to raise the dead in a form adapted to an existence whose conditions are entirely different from those of our present bodily life, to a state where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, for the risen will be as the angels. We seem to have here refer ence to what St. Paul calls the 'spiritual body,'! ^j^^ tj^g ap pearances of the Lord as given in the post^resurrection history agree with this identification. These narratives are designed to show that the Lord had really returned, not as a phantom, but in a bodily form which could be apprehended by the senses, though not subject to the conditions of matter. In the source peculiar to St. Luke,^ as also in the Johannine account,^ there are features, such as the eating of material food, which cannot easily be reconciled with the other facts in the narra tives. These may probably be regarded as traditions due to the intense realization of the identity of the risen Lord with the former Master, and the failure, notwithstanding the con flict with the appearances and disappearances recorded in the same narratives, to distinguish a ' spiritual body ' from that which has 'flesh and bones.' Concerning the subject so profoundly interesting to the later Christian world, and prominent also in late Jewish literature, the state of the soul immediately after death and before the judgment, the Lord says very little, as is true of the New Testament in general ; and this quite naturally, in view of the supposed nearness of the End, and the resurrection." What is recorded of the Lord's sayings is given in forms taken entirely from the current apocalyptic. As in the later Jewish belief, the state is not one of semiconscious existence, but of active consciousness, a capability of pleasure and pain, of a living union with God. The recompense, even if not the final one, awarded to the conduct of this present life is entered upon immediately after death. The patriarchs in the place of the departed, as living, still have God as their God,* the dying thief is at once admitted to paradise (not heaven, but the abode of the blessed dead).^ The only place in which the Lord speaks 1 Cf . p. 90. 2 2439-43. 3 2027. 4 Mt. 1227. 6 Lk. 23«. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 153 directly of the state of the dead is in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus,! which represents these as passing at death, the one to suffering, the other to blessedness. There is nothing here to intimate that the award, which follows at once, antici pates the final judgment day so far as to leave no room for the latter. Doubtless the parable is to be understood according to the usual apocalyptic view, which looked upon such award as preliminary, pending the final recompense. A final judgment still awaits Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Sodom, of which the earlier doom is only anticipative.^ But there is nothing indicating that this preliminary doom may be reversed at the end. The possibility, or impossibility, of a moral change in the interval before the judgment is not spoken of, either here or elsewhere. It should be noticed that the passage is not an exposition of dogma concerning the state of the dead, but a parable chosen from familiar beliefs to enforce a moral lesson. ' It does not take us beyond the broad fact that there is a state of being into which men pass at death, and that the divine righteousness follows them thither with moral decisions affect ing their condition there and reversing antecedent estimates and circumstances.' ^ (4) The Judgment and its Awards. As in all biblical and apocalyptic representations, so in Jesus' teaching, the day of judgment appears as an inseparable part of the great drama of the End. All nations will be gathered at the tribunal, both the living and the dead ; * the smallest act will be brought into account; ^ in some sayings, God appears as the judge,^ but oftenest Christ.'^ The awards of the judgment are conceived under the forms of the familiar Jewish eschatology, though there is little tendency to graphic picturing of the future state, such as is found in apocalyptic writers ; only a few pro foundly significant terms aire used to characterize the lot of the judged. The award of the righteous is eternal life,^ the inher itance of the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of 1 Lk. 1619-31. 2 Mt. 1122. 24. Cf. p. 69. 3 Salmond in Hast. II. 275. •" Mt. 2532, 1122, u par., 124i, par., 134i*-. 5Mt. 1236. 6 Mt. 1032*-, Lk. 926, 187. ''E.g. Mt. 722f., 1627, 2.7'i'-, Lk. 1327. « Mk. 1036. 154 ESCHATOLOGY the world,! immediate communion with God, 'they shall see God.' 2 The unrighteous go away into eternal punishment,^ they are cast out into outer darkness,* into the Gehenna of un quenchable fire. 5 The terrible thought of an unending penalty naturally leads students of the Lord's words to seek some trace of a possible reversal or mitigation. His statement regarding the one sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which shall not be forgiven in this age nor in that following the judgment,^ is thought to imply that other sins may be forgiven in the 'coming age.' But such an interpretation is not supported by his other utterances ; on the contrary it is in conflict with these. The words are an emphatic expression for never, which is used in the Marcan parallel. ^ Some have found in the ' few stripes ' with which the servant, ignorant of his lord's will, shall be beaten ^ allusion to a shortening of the period of punishment. This too is contrary to Jesus' teaching given elsewhere, and even if accepted, would not meet the hard case of those who having sinned knowingly might conceivably in a future state repent. We are without doubt compelled to accept the sayings as they stand with all their hardness, in view of the beliefs regarding the subject at the time, and the Lord's adoption of current modes of expression. These very facts, however, raise an im portant consideration regarding the finality of such utterances. The scope of Jesus' teaching on the subject, as addressed to men of his own time, led naturally to limitations. He had no occasion to touch the theme of a change of attitude in the ' com ing age ' ; and his well-known habit of enunciating general truths, without mentioning possible exceptions and modifi cations in varying circumstances, would make unlikely the introduction of such contingent factors into his eschatological teaching. The general tenor of his utterances on the subject is what we should expect. And it is also doubtless true that this element in his teaching is much intensified in the form in which it is preserved by the hearers of that generation, who could hardly have comprehended an eschatological punishment essen tially different from that of current belief, or have expressed ' Mt. 2534. 2 Mt. 58. 5 Mt. 2546. 4 Mt. 22i3. 6 Mk. 9«. 6 Mt. 1232. I rphe age to come ' does not refer to the period between death . and the judgment. 7 329. s Lk. 1248. OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE 155 it in essentially different forms. The part played by the recorder is strongly illustrated in a comparison of St. Matthew with the other Synoptists. The larger number of these hard sayings are found in the former, and many of these are seen by critical examination to be additions or variations due to editorial working over of the source. Our ultimate view of the great Christian truth contained in these sayings of the Lord must be affected by the revelation which he gave concerning God's attitude toward the sons of men. But when long cycles inter vene before the final judgment, we must in view of the tendency toward moral fixedness, the tendency of habit to pass into un changeable character, conceive at least the possibility of a soul passing into a self-induced, unchangeable attitude of enmity toward God, a state of ' eternal sin.' ! This is what would con stitute eternal punishment ; it is what St. John calls ' sin unto death,' that is, sin resulting in complete spiritual death. ^ Conclusion. In closing a survey of our Lord's eschatological teaching it is well to observe that there must of necessity be much in it which we cannot clearly represent to ourselves in the forms of our modern thought. He chose the terms, the imagery, and the conceptions familiar to his age, with all their Hmitations and imperfections, for nothing else could have had real meaning for his hearers. Perhaps we may say that noth ing could be more intelligible to us, especially in view of our biblical inheritance. The forms of the revelation given in prophecy can only very imperfectly shadow forth the realities to come. - The principal function of prophecy, so far as it is predictive, is to encourage, to warn, and to guide along the way in which God is moving, and toward the end to which he would bring his people. It can never be entirely understood until it is fulfilled. But yet in these prophecies of the Lord telling of his coming, the setting up of his Kingdom, the resur rection, and the judgment, though much may be in traditional form and symbolical, this, at least seems to be clearly taught by him : that there awaits the world a manifestation of his presence in the glory of a completed triumph of the cause of God over aU evil, a reign of God in the world ; that a great 1 Mk. 329. ^ 1 Jno- 5"- 156 ESCHATOLOGY testing of moral issues will stand at the meeting of the ages ; that the redeemed clothed in a new form will be gathered into one people of God ; that an entrance into life, then fully real ized, and into a closer union with God, will be granted to aU those 'who have loved the Lord's appearing.' ! The Eschatology of the Revelation. The exposition here given of the eschatology of the book of the Revelation pre supposes the views adopted in regard to its composition and interpretation found in the Commentary, as well as results reached in certain later paragraphs in the Introductory Studies. While eschatological teaching is introduced in other books of the New Testament incidentally, the Revelation alone has the prophecy of the Last Things as its entire theme. Hence the subject is unfolded here with features and details not found elsewhere. It was natural that the Church of the first century should produce such a writing, for Christian hope centered in the coming of the kingdom of God and his Christ. The mes sianic hope was the necessary offspring of the belief in an ulti mate triumph of good over evil, of God over Satan, and was especially intensified in times of imperial persecution. Such a time the Church was entering upon at the close of the century ,2 and it foresaw the advance of this persecution to the fierce conflict of the End. The framework of Christian eschatology in general was, as repeatedly pointed out above, that of Jewish apocalyptic ; but this is especially the case in the book of the Revelation. Yet as the conception of the Christ differs from, though growing out of, that of the Jewish Messiah, so the whole conception of the kingdom and of the final issues is per meated with a new and more spiritual idea. The author of the Revelation does not transform traditional apocalyptic by discarding its elements and figures — no New Testament writer does this in a thoroughgoing way — it is not likely that he himself conceived the future altogether apart from these con ventional forms ; but he adds facts of Christian revelation, and thus gives to his eschatological picture a new meaning, which must be seen to be such, when his additions are followed out to 1 2 Tim. 48. 2 See pp. 2OI ff., 208 fl. THE REVELATION 157 their consequence. It is not necessary to ask how far he used traditions in a purely figurative sense — that he does so in some instances cannot be questioned. The permanent meaning and value of his great panorama is spoken of else where. ! The time of the End, as generally in Jewish and Christian expectation, is near at hand.^ And yet the multiplied series of plagues, the period of Antichrist's domination, and the pre liminary millennial kingdom form a sequence requiring the assumption of a long lapse of time before the final catastrophe. It is a tempting supposition that the nearness declared refers only to the beginning. But it is clear that ' the things which must shortly come to pass ' ^ and ' the words of prophecy ' * include the contents of the whole book ; with this reference to the End agrees the- announcement of the Lord's coming.^ It is not possible to bring the two representations into exact accord. The dissonance is due to the fact, frequently seen, that the Apocalyptist is following different eschatological traditions in different parts, and does not attempt to bring these into actual harmony.^ A historical program followed with close logical sequence of time and space is foreign to the manner of our Apocalyptist, who is original and at the same time uses extensively conventional ideas. There is in this an intimation that he is conscious of using traditional conceptions in a sense not strictly literal. The prophecy of our book centers in a final catastrophe, like all apocalyptic, and the events group themselves into three classes : (1) the long series of prelimi nary movements ; (2) the crisis of the definitive conflict with Satan ; (3) the resurrection, the world-judgment, and the final state of the redeemed. (1) The Preliminary Events. (a) The messianic woes.'' This standing feature in apocalyptic prophecy appears here in the sending of divine visitations upon the world in preparation for the Great Day. These as given in our Apocalyptist's pic ture are the three series of the seals (chap. 6), the trumpets (8-9), and the bowls (16). These are partly natural plagues, though miraculously intensified, such as war, slaughter, famine,, ipp. 291fl. 2 Cf. 11.3, 311, 106, 226.7, 10. 20. 3 11,226. 4 13,2210. 6311,227.12.20. 6 Cf. pp. 722 f., 745. ' Cf . p. 38 f. 158 ESCHATOLOGY pestilence, earthquake, and the scorching heat of the sun; partly also they are supernatural, such as vast disturbances in the heavens, the corruption of the waters, the tortures of the hellish locusts and of the cavalry of fiend-like horses. But all alike are sent by opecial intervention of God and with special eschatological purpose. They are manifestations of his wrath, and have the twofold purpose of punishing and of leading to repentance. As in all apocalyptic representation, the former purpose is made most distinct, yet the latter is also included.! They constitute a part of ' that hour which is to come upon the whole world to try them that dwell upon the earth. '^ The forms under which the coming visitations are represented are derived for the most part from suggestions given in the famil iar plagues of the Old Testament, but the Apocalyptist does not always intend the literal meaning of his prediction, as for example in 6!*, where the heaven is said to be removed as a scroll rolled up, though in what follows it is seen to remain ; or in 8!^, where the extinction of a third part of the luminaries causes darkness for a third part of the day.^ (5) The perse cution of the saints. As elsewhere in 'the New Testament,* the last days are to be times of suffering for the Church. The hostility of the world-power, the Roman Empire (the Beast, as first manifested), with its demand of emperor-worship, already showing itself, will increase to the end of that domination and pass on with unlimited intensity into the succeeding reign of Antichrist. Satan through his special agents, the beast and the false prophet, and by the aid of all his servants, will wage relentless war with the woman's seed, who have the testimony of Jesus. ^ This dread prophecy springs from the universal observation of the increasing bitterness of the conflict through which moral progress wins its victorj^. But the saints who prove faithful are assured of final deliverance.^ (c) The destruction of Rome. The persecution of God's people in any age by the world-empire then existing gives to the conflict thus aroused the character of a supreme trial ; and the deliver ance of the saints, the triumph of the cause of God, is foreseen 1 See p. 554. 2 310. 3 gge Com. in loc. 4 Cf . Mk. 139 ff., A.C. 1422, 2 Tim. 812 *• <> 12", 18. « 310, phapt. 7, 126. 14-10 141-6. THE REVELATION 159 by prophets and apocalyptists to be realized only in the de struction of this great enemy, it may be Egypt, Assyria, Syria, or Rome. The Christian Apocalyptist at the end of the first century sees that a crisis in the trial of the Church was about to be precipitated in the Roman persecution, and was approach ing a climax in the attempt to displace the worship of Christ by the worship of Csesar.! The Roman Empire is the Beast in his earlier manifestation. ^ Naturally then the annihilation of Rome's power stands among the foremost events expected by the Apocalyptist. The fall of the imperial city forms a domi nant factor in the book, and the theme of one of its most splen did passages. Already its doom is near ; the king called symbolically the sixth is now reigning ; his successor, the seventh, who will be the last, will continue but a little while ; then Rome will be utterly destroyed by Antichrist.^ (d) The Coming of Antichrist. The Roman emperors and the priest hood maintaining the emperor-worship are only the humanly endowed agents of Satan, and their removal does not end this warfare against the Church. The expectation that the con flict with a hostile world-power must go on to an extreme of intensity, and the prevalent Jewish and Christian belief in the advent of a world-ruler, human yet possessing demonic powers, opened to the Apocalyptist a vision of the part to be taken by Satan's mightiest agent, the Antichrist.* When the Roman Empire shiDuld have fulfilled its destined period. Antichrist, the beast in his supreme manifestation, will come in the person of a demonized Nero returned from the dead,^ and with his allies, the ten kings of the earth, will destroy the imperial city. 6 He will rule the entire earth with awful tyranny; aided by the false prophet (a wonder-working priesthood), he will demand universal worship, the extreme form of emperor-wor ship begun by the Roman rulers ; and he will persecute the saints unto death. He will continue through the symbolical period, three and a half years. ^ (e) The Conversion of Israel. The Apocaljrptist, a Christian Jew, appears to introduce a prophecy, found elsewhere in the New Testament, that in the Last Times God's ancient people will repent of their rejection 1 See pp. 201 ff., 209. ^ pp. 407 f. 3 148, lew, 171-I95. * See pp. 397 fl. ^See pp. 400 ff. « 17i2-i7. v 133-18, 17«. 11. 160 ESCHATOLOGY of Christ.! They will be moved to repentance by preachers, whose words will be enforced by great miracles wrought in their presence. This conversion of Israel seems to be placed in the reign of Antichrist. (/) The overthrow of Antichrist hy the Christ and the temporary imprisonment of Satan. As the destined time of Antichrist's rule nears its end he will gather his adherents, the hosts of earth, at Harmagedon for the great battle against the Christ. The heaven will be opened and Christ will come forth as a warrior accompanied by the celes tial armies ; with the sword of his mouth he will slay the nations. Antichrist's followers ; Antichrist himself and his prophet will be cast alive into hell.^ An angel will lay hold of Satan, and binding him with a great chain will cast him into the bottomless pit where he will be bound a thousand years. 8 Christ does not appear in this scene as a being of love and compassion ; it is the day of his wrath against his enemies, proven incorrigible. The characterization is similar to that which appears repeatedly in the Gospels, especially the Fourth Gospel.* The Fourth Gospel, though distinctively the ' Gospel of love,' is also the Gospel of Christ's wrath, and its author often shows the disposition of a son of thunder, whether he be the Apostle or another. ((/) The Millennium. After the destruction of the hostile hosts of the earth with their leaders and the binding of Satan, no foe will remain to war on the saints, and a preliminary kingdom will be set up on earth. Here the martyrs raised from the dead wiU reign in blessedness with Christ a thousand years (a symbolical period). The rest of the dead will not be raised till the general resurrection.^ The seat of the millennial kingdom will be Jerusalem,^ but unquestionably an idealized Jerusalem, not the actual historic city, unsuited to the blessedness described, and long since destroyed ; yet the celestial city, the new Jerusalem, cannot be meant; that does not descend till a later period, at the time of the entrance of the new heaven and earth (21). In the proph ecy of the temporary binding of Satan, and a preliminary millennial kingdom on earth, to a share in which the martyrs 1 See pp. 588 ff. 2 low-ie, 1911-21 . cf. 2 Thess. 28-io. s 20^. 4 Cf . Mt. 2313-33, Mk. 36, Jno. 2i3-i6, 637-46, 815-66, 939-41 1138 RV mare 6 205. 6 209. ' ^" THE REVELATION 161 only are raised, the Apocalyptist differs from the other New Testament writers ; these connect all the events of the End immediately with the Lord's second coming. It is evident that he is adapting the earlier apocalyptic to one of the special purposes of his book, the exhibition of the blessed reward to be bestowed on martyrdom.! (2) The Crisis of the Definitive Conflict with Satan. The release of Satan, his last assaidt upoti Cod's people, and his eternal doom. After the thousand years of peace in the preliminary kingdom Satan will be loosed and will marshal the nations of the earth, the enemies of God, in number as the sand of the sea, who will come from afar from every quarter against the citadel of the saints, the Jerusalem of the millennial kingdom. Fire from heaven will consume the host, and Satan who deceived them will be cast into the endless tortures of hell. In connection with this battle nothing is said of any part taken by Christ. The difficulty caused by the presence in the earth of the hosts of hostile nations after they have previously been declared to be destroyed in the battle with Antichrist^ is due to the author's use of a familiar representation in two distinct but similar con nections, without attention to exact congruity.^ (3) The Resurrection, the World-judgment, and the Final State of the Redeemed. (a) The general resurrection and judgment. The complete triumph of God in the conflict with Satan will be followed by the resurrection of all the dead, the wicked as well as the rest of the righteous who not being of the number of the martyrs had not already been raised to a share in the millennial kingdom.* These all appear before the judg ment throne ; the sentence of the wicked is the second death, the unending doom of hell ; ^ to the righteous is awarded end less life in the new Jerusalem in perfect union with God.^ After this final judgment no change of state is contemplated. As regards the interval between death and the resurrection, the book is silent concerning the state of the wicked. Of the righteous dead it is said that they will enjoy a blessed rest from trouble, and their good works will be remembered in their behalf at the judgment.'^ To those who have died the martyr's 1 p. 737. 2 1614, 1921. 3 See p. 745. '^ 20i2-i3. 5 149-u 20". ^ 213-225. 7 See on 14i3. M 162 ESCHATOLOGY death special honor will be given while they await resurrection to their place in the millennium ; garments of heavenly glory will be given to them, while they remain in keeping beneath the heavenly altar ; and they are bidden to rest from their distressful yearning for vengeance for yet a little while, when their destined number will be filled up and their prayer answered.! Then will come their reward in the reign of the millennium. The supposed nearness of the end accounts for the small space in the Apocalyptist's thought given to the state of the dead. (6) The new heaven and earth, and the n^w Jerusalem. The concluding act in the drama of the End is, as generally in Jewish and Christian eschatology, the renewal of all things. A new heaven and a new earth, as befits the perfected kingdom of God, will take the place of the old ; the new Jerusalem having the glory of God will descend from heaven to the new earth to form the abode of God with his people. The new Jerusalem as viewed by the Apocalyptist is not heaven, the heaven of God's dwelling as everywhere conceived in the Bible ; it is the city of Jewish apocalyptic prepared from eternity and preserved in heaven to be brought down to earth after the judgment, as the place where God will dwell with his people. But in this con ception of a renewed world heaven and earth are completely blended. The throne of God and the Lamb with the redeemed worshiping before them is, as seen by the Apocalyptist in the final consummation, placed indifferently in heaven and in the new Jerusalem on the new earth ; or as we might say, the con ception of this new Jerusalem takes the place of heaven as generally thought of.^ How far the Apocalyptist formed to himself a clear idea of the attributes and perfections of the new state described under these figures it is impossible to say, but it is clear that the spiritual facts contained in them form for him what is most essential in his prophecies. This is seen in what he says of tlie nature of the kingdom, the conditions of mem bership in it, and the state of the saints therein. And for a true apprehension of his eschatology this must be constantly kept in mind in connection with his use of apocalyptic traits, more or less conventional, which form the outlines of his pictures. To his own mind he has thoroughly Christianized the 1 See on 6". 2 Cf . 7*-" with 21^^ ; see also 152. THE REVELATION 163 meaning of the traditions which he uses. The kingdom is universal, composed of every nation, kindred, and tongue of earth ; ! the gates of the city stand open to every tribe of the Israel of God, it is built upon the foundations of the Apostles of aU the world ; ^ its members are those who have been re deemed by the sacrificial death of Christ,^ they have gotten the victory over Satan through the blood of the Lamb and the word of his gospel ; * their salvation is attained only through faith in him and its steadfast maintenance;^ they are those who keep his commandments, who follow him in all things, who keep themselves unspotted from the world, have no guile in their mouth, no fault before the throne of God.^ But their blissful inheritance is not a good won by their own works, it is a free gift ; "> their accomplished salvation is ascribed to God and Christ,^ it is the Lamb that has redeemed them to God.® It is certainly a misinterpretation when the Apocalyptist is understood to ignore virtually faith as a primary condition of salvation and to assign the decision to works, the keeping of God's commandments, that is, to substitute a kind of Christian legalism for the doctrine of faith as found elsewhere. (So, Weizsacker, Holtzmann, JUlicher, Swete, al.) Great emphasis is, to be sure, placed on epya, works; cf. chapts. 2-3, passim, 14i3, 193 ; and of the final judgment it is said, that men shall be judged according to their works, 223, 2012-1^, 221^. But equally clear is the same characteriza tion of the judgment given by Paul, the great defender of justification by faith, cf. Eo. 2% 2 Co. 51", CoL 3^4 f- Works are throughout not thought of apart from the faith from which they spring and -without which they are taconceivable. All difficulty is removed by the utterance of the Gospel that the work of God which men must do is faith in Christ (Jno. 628 f-). ijo tjjg same effect our author coordinates the commandments of God which the saints are to keep with faith in Jesus (14i2). For the scope of the term ipya, works, see Com. on 2^. There is in New Testament soteriology no antithesis between faith and works except that between a living faith necessarily active and a belief which though real is inoperative in the life. This is the real antithe.sis discussed in the epistle of St. James. The severe stress of the times contemplated in our book explains the emphasis which the author throws on works ; in the awful temptation awaiting the Church the faith of- its members must manifest itself in their deeds. The final blessedness of the saints is described under various forms, for the most part figures whose spiritual meaning is plain. They will cease from all sorrow and pain, God will wipe 1 59, 79, 154. 2 2113-14. 3 15, 59, 714. 4 1211. 6 1412, 213. 6 144-5, 12. 7 216 2217. 8 710, 1210, 191 ; see Com. in loc. ' 59. 164 ESCHATOLOGY away every tear from their eyes, he will dwell in the midst of them, he will be their God and they his people.! Their inti mate spiritual communion with God and Christ is set forth in manifold figures ; as sharers in the divine throne, as kings and priests,^ they will enjoy the glory and the privilege of immedi ate access to God's presence ; they will be joined with Christ as a woman is joined to her husband,^ they will be the sons of God,* and bear the marks which show them to be wholly his,^ — all figures expressing the closest spiritual union. The comprehen sive term by which the eschatological state is expressed in the book is life ; the saints partake of the tree of life,^ of the water of life,'' the same idea is contained in the eating of heavenly manna ;^ they receive the crown of life ; ® they are enrolled in the book of life.!" In the prominence of the term life, the book agrees with other New Testament writings, especially the Paul ine and Johannine. Yet in the -writings of Paul and John not merely continued existence is meant, but also all the blessedness of the indwelling of the believer ia God, and consequently a state already begun in this life (see pp. 94, 102); while in the Revelation the state of undying existence after the judgment seems to be chiefly thought of. A fundamental difference is found herein by some between the Revelation and the Fourth Gospel ; in the latter the future life of the believer is only the continuance of what is begun here, the believer has already passed from death into life (Jno. 524) . -^j^jie ia the Revelation life is understood to be the unending state bestowed upon him at the judgment as the reward of his course here. This difference, however, though it may appear to exist in most eases, is not maintaiaed throughout the two books. In the Fourth Gospel life refers in some instances to the future state entered upon at the end (cf. 520. 39, 627, 40, 1225); on the other hand in the Revelation the figures of the continued leading forth to the fountains, the flowing forth of the waters from the throne, the feeding -with manna, the leaves ever gro-wing for healing (7i7, 21o, 221''' ", 27), all imply a continuing spiritual process similar to that meant ia the Gospel rather than a fixed condition beginning at the judgment. In the offer of life in 21o, 22i7 certainly a reference to the spiritual life of the present is included. Naturally the Gospel speaks oftenest of the one aspect of life and the Revelation of the .other, for the former book is chiefly con cerned with the present spiritual state, and the latter -with that belonging to the future world. 1 21*-', 715-17. 2 321, 510. 3 197-9. 4 217 5 312, 22*. 6 27, 222. 14, 19. 7 717, 216, 221. 17. 8 2" » 210 i»35, 138, 178, 2012.15, 21". THE REVELATION 165 A word should be added on the most striking differences in eschatology, already, alluded to, between the Revelation and the other New Testament writings. The appearance of the warrior Christ to battle with Antichrist at a time anterior to the general judgment and separated from it by a millennium, as described in 19!!"^!, the silence regarding any part taken by Christ in the last conflict with Satan and in the judgment after the thousand years as described in 20''''-^, are at variance with prophecies of the events of the Lord's coming given elsewhere in the New Testament. The Lord's destruction of Antichrist by the word of his mouth forms a part of St. Paul's prophecy of the parousia,! ^ut the ' coming ' (irapova-ia') there spoken of must according to the uniform usage of the Apostle be under stood of the advent for the general judgment and the estab lishment of the kingdom. And the only future coming of the Lord spoken of by other New Testament writers, apart from our book, is that with which these last events are associated in one group. What is elsewhere foreseen as immediately con secutive steps in one great movement is viewed by our Apoca lyptist as consisting of parts widely separated in time however closely connected in essential relations. In visions of a future immeasurably remote variation in perspective, the occurrence of a parallax, as it were, need not cause great difficulty, espe cially in our book where the greater fullness of detail would make easy the separation of things elsewhere combined. In some places in his book the Apocalyptist agrees with the other writers in condensing these last events into one connected series, and in assigning to Christ a coming to judgment ; cf. 1'', 2?, 10^ ]^4i4-20^ 22!2. In the particular chapters in which the variation spoken of occurs he views the steps separately, be cause he is especially interested here in a millennium as provid ing a reward for the martyrs ; and this carries with it the premillennial overthrow of Antichrist.^ The representation in these chapters of the last conflict and the judgment follows closely the earlier Jewish model ; hence the absence of Christ from these scenes. 1 2 Thes. 28. 2 see p. 736. 166 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE II APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE ! The Revelation of John follows, not only in form but to a considerable extent in matter also, the manner of a class of Jewish writings which were widely known and influential in the last two centuries before Christ and in the first century of our era, and which are now generally called apocalyptic. As regards the type of literature the Revelation is rightly placed in the same general class with these, much as it differs from them, and it cannot be correctly interpreted apart from these modes of thought and expression which greatly influenced its formal character. A knowledge of this apocalyptic literature is essential then to a right understanding of our book. In placing the Revelation of John in the class of apocalyp)tic writ ings, most of which lie outside of the canon of Holy Scripture, we do not detract from its practical value, or its canonical character. Driver's words in reference to the Book of Daniel are appropriate here : ' Just as there are Psalms both canonical and non-canonical (the so-called Psalms of Solomon), Proverbs both canonical and non-canonical (Ecclesiasticus), histories both canonical and non-canonical (I Mace), "midrashim" both canonical (Jonah) and non-canonical (Tobit, Judith), so there are analogously Apocalypses both canonical and non- canonical ; the superiority, in each case, from a theological point of view, of the canonical work does not place it in a dif ferent literary category from the corresponding non-canonical work, or works' (Dan. in CB. LXXXIV). The noun apocalyptic in distinction from prophecy is the term now commonly used to denote that group of eschatological hopes and beliefs which have been set forth above ^ as belong ing to the latest development of Judaism — a development in which a universal and transcendental outlook appears as the principal characteristic instead of the national and earthly. 1 Cf. Liioke I, Hilgenfeld JM. Apokalyptik, Baldensperger 172 ff., Bousset ¦lad. Apok. and Judenthum 230 ff., Volz 4 ff., Drummond 8 ff.. Porter Messages of the Apoc writers, the articles in Hast. Enc. Bib. and the Jewish Enc. For the hterature deahng with each of the apocalyptic writinsis respectively, see p. 181, Schiirer ni 188 ff. 2 p. gg^g. •'^ of APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE 167 While the expectations of both prophecy and apocalyptic cen ter in a coming messianic era, that is, in a final era in which the kingdom of God will be established, the former conceives this kingdom chiefly in political and earthly aspects, the latter in those that are non-political and supernatural. The main interest of the one is mundane ; of the other supermundane. The principal elements in the messianic hope of prophecy are the Day of Jehovah, in which punishment will be meted out to the heathen and faithless Israelites ; the deliverance of God's people from all their enemies ; the institution of Jehovah's kingdom in Palestine and the extension of its power over all the Gentiles ; the return of the scattered Israelites ; the resto ration of Jerusalem in great splendor ; the presence of God in his temple ; the reign of a Davidic Messiah in an era of perfect peace and glory. On the other hand in apocalyptic the princi pal factors of the eschatological hope are the advent of the ' coming age,' spiritually perfect in contrast with this ' present age ' hopelessly corrupt ; the universal judgment, not of Jew and Gentile as such, but of the righteous and the wicked, not of men only but also of angels and spirits ; the resurrection of the dead ; the everlasting destruction of the power of Satan and his hosts ; the superhuman Messiah reigning with God in a renewed heaven and earth ; eternal life in the presence of God and the Messiah for the righteous, and for the unrighteous unending punishment in Gehenna. By apocalyptic literature then is generally meant those writings which contain this latter form of eschatological hope in whole or in part. Apocalypse. aTroKaXui/'ts, aTroKaXwreiv, a term occurring in various but kiadred senses in the Septuagint and the New Testament, is common in the latter with the special significance of a supernatural unveiling, revela tion, of divine mysteries, of the unknown and hidden things pertaining to the kingdom of God and divine truth. In 2 Co. 12i-7 Pauluses it with reference to his ecstasies or visions ; and similarly it is used in Rev. li, as a descriptive title of the unveiling, the revelation, given by God of the consummation of his kingdom as recorded in this book (cf . Thayer, West cott, Introd. 34 ff.). It is not here a title designating the book as an apocalypse, that is, as belonging to a class of books caUed apocalypses. But from the use of the word in this opening description the book came subsequently to receive the title, the Apocalypse of John, and pseu depigraphio writings of a later date, containing professed visions of the future, adopted the title, e.g. the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of 168 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE Paul As a name of a type of literature apocalypse then is subsequent to the time of our book (cf. Zahn Ein. II. 596). The distinction between the author's use of the word in the opening verse and that of the title given to the book in hilrr time is shown by the defining words in each case ; ia the former the meaning is the revelation given by God of the mysteries de scribed; in the latter the Apocalypse of, i.e. written by, John. Modern writers taking the word apocalypse in its generic sense have applied the adjective apocalyptic to all writings whether Jewish or Christian which possess in common certain characteristic forms appearing in the Apocalypse of John and which contain an unveiling, a revelation, real or fictitious, of events and doctrines of the Last Things as these are conceived in the later, transcendental, eschatology spoken of above.! It is thus that such pre-Christian writings as the Book of Daniel, the Book of Enoch, as well as late Jewish books, e.g. 2 Esdras, are called' apocalyptic. The word is also applied in cases where these eschatological ideas are found, though not in the form of a professed revelation, e.g. the Psalms of Solomon. A curious feature in many apocalyptic writings is the writer's interest in fancies pertaining to the physical universe, the phe nomena of nature and the heavenly bodies ; these are a part of the secrets unveiled in the alleged revelations. Consider able portions of the Book of Enoch are taken up with such subjects. ^ The two classes of hopes styled by modern -writers, the one prophetic, the other apocalyptic, clearly belong to different stages of reUgious thought. It is desirable therefore to give them distinct names ; but it can hardly be questioned that those now in common use are not happily chosen as titles mutually exclusive ; for prophecy which in its essential character is a divine message relating to religious and ethical truth, calling to present duty, is not wanting in the -writings called apocalyptic ; and on the other hand apocalyptic ideas appear more or less distinctly in writings which we term prophetic. The apocalyptic -writings so far as they contain a product of genuine revelation — and this is undoubtedly the case in some instances — are prophetic. But the older prophecy is chiefly concerned with the call to present duty, and the prediction of the future is subordinate; while apocalyptic prophecy, though containing a moral and religious appeal to its readers, is occupied predominantly with the future. Such -writings then as the Book of Daniel, the Rev. of John, Is. 24-27, JMt. 24-25, belong to apocalyptic prophecy, that is, they are both prophetic and apocalyptic. 1 p. (33 ff. 2 17_36, 72_82 ; cf. SI. En. passim. CHARACTERISTICS 169 Characteristics of Apocalyptic Literature. The various writings, or parts of writings, styled apocalyptic, notwith standing many minor differences, agree so far in certain lead ing features as to justify the grouping of them into a special class with a designation of its own. Of these characteristic features the most fundamental is found in the group of escha tological expectations and beliefs, which speaking in a general way we may say are common to the class. A survey sufficient for our purpose of this apocalyptic form of eschatology has been given above, and the distinction pointed out between the apocalyptic and the older prophecy.! It is first of all in these religious and eschatological ideas that the distinctiveness of these writings as a type of literature consists. But there are also certain other characteristics of a more external and formal kind, the recognition of which will not only define the class more clearly, but will also serve to prevent the misinterpreta tion of many passages found in literature of this nature. (1) Visions and raptures. The highly elaborated vision, or similar mode of revelation, is the most distinctive feature in the form of apocalyptic literature. The subject matter is attributed by the authors to a special revelation, commonly given in visions, ecstasies, or raptures into the unseen world. It is true that in the older prophecy the vision is not only mentioned as a means of revelation, but also descriptions are given of the concrete pictures unfolded to the prophet ; ^ such pictures however are brief, simple, and altogether subordinate as constitutive factors. It is in the book of Ezekiel, who at least in this respect shows a tendency toward the apocalyptic, that we first find highly elaborated visions forming an essential element of the work.^ And this characteristic becomes more distinct and fundamental in the apocalyptic literature proper. Here the vision or rapture is a literary form wrought out with great fuUness of details, often with strange symbolism and with fantastic imagery. Examples of such constitutive traits are the vision of the four beasts and that of the ram and the he-goat in Daniel ; * the vision of the bullock, the sheep and 1 p. 167. 2 Cf. Is. 61-4, Am. 8i, Jer. in- i3. 3 Cf. the vision of the throne-chariot, 1-8, the rapture visions in 8-11, 40-48, cf. also 371-14. 4 7_8. 170 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE the seventy shepherds in Enoch ! symbolizing human history to the establishment of the messianic kingdom ; the visions given to Enoch in a rapture through the unknown regions of the earth, through Hades and the heavens,^ unveiling the secrets of nature, and the final abodes of the righteous and the wicked ; the vision in the Apocalypse of Baruch of the forest trees and the vine,^ and that of the lightning-crowned cloud pouring down twelve showers of dark and bright waters,* sym bolizing the fortunes of Israel, the ' messianic woes ' and the triumph of the Messiah ; the vision in Second Esdras of the mourning woman transfigured, symbolizing the final glorifica tion of afflicted Zion,^ and that of the eagle ® picturing the final destruction of the world power, Rome ; the revelations given in a rapture through the seven heavens, which form the principal contents of Slavonic Enoch ; the visions and raptures of the Revelation of John. It is this fundamental place of the vision, or similar mode of unveiling hidden things (apocalypse) in these writings, that has given them the name apocalyptic. (2) Mysteriousness. It is characteristic of these writings that the revelations, or half revelations, are often given in strange, unintelligible forms. The symbolical beasts are un imaginable monsters with their many heads and horns springing out and warring one with another ; "' inanimate objects are represented with attributes of men and animals ; ^ the extraor dinary and unnatural are preferred to the ordinary and natural.^ Hence a standing feature is the interpreter explaining the visions, allegories, and symbols ; sometimes this is God himseK,!" but commonly an angel,!! in accordance with the great promi nence assigned to the agency of angels throughout this literature.!^ This element of mysteriousness is probably due, at least in part, to the thought that the great secrets treated of could be com municated only under such mysterious forms ; and notwith- 185-90. 2i7_36. 3 36_38. 4 53_74. s 9_io, "¦¦ 11-12. 7 Dan. 7 f., 2 Es. 11 f., Rev. 13, 17. 8 Dan. 78, Ap. Bar. 36, En. 86-88, Rev. 9i. 9 Cf. Ap. Bar. 29, 736 1, En. lO^ff-, 80, 2 Es. 54-9, sib. Or. III. 796 fl.. Rev. 50-8, 87-12, 93-u. 10 Ap. Bar. 38 ff., 2Es. ISWff-. 11 Dan. 7Wff-, 8i6ff-, En. 12, Ap. Bar. 56 ff., 2 Es. 1029 .T. ; Huhn, II. 234 ff. 222 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE held by recent critics to be taken from non-extant apocalypses are the episode of the staying of the winds and the sealing of Israel (7!"^) ; the measuring of the temple and the history of the two witnesses (ll!"!^) ; the dragon's persecution of the woman and her seed (chapt. 12). If now in the paragraphs mentioned above as moulded after the Old Testament we may certainly believe we have a criterion of the author's method of handling matter not original with himself, then it is clear that the supposed fragments of non-extant apocalypses, if such they are, were treated with similar freedom. These suggested forms, symbols, and imagery, but were not literally followed ; they were worked over with a mastery that adapted them to the pur pose which the author had in mind. The original connection, if known, might to be sure make clear some details retained and obscure to us, as the figures of the olive tree and the candlestick in 11* are explained by the source from which they are taken, Zech. 4. But whether, for example, the prophecy of the occupation of Jerusalem by the Gentiles in 11!"^ is a Jewish fragment of the year 70 a.d., whether the picture of the Beast in 13!"!" jg g, fragment from the time of Caligula, Nero, or Vespasian, are questions which, though interesting from the standpoint of literary criticism, are secondary in the interpretation of the book. The ultimate inquiry must be, whether such paragraphs have a place in the author's plan and what is their significance in his intention. This inquiry will be considered in the respective places in the Commentary. The use of language as bearing on unity. The presumption of the foregoing pages in favor of the unity of the Apocalypse is confirmed by the use of language found throughout the book. That in its existing form it is the product of a single mind, whether originating or working over derived material, seems to be put beyond reasonable doubt by the uniform presence of a characteristic style.! As regards (a) vocabulary, (6) favorite expressions, (c) arrangement of words in a sentence, (c?) gram matical peculiarities and even grammatical errors, the book has among the writings of the New Testament characteristics of its 1 Weyland's effort to find a peculiarity of language in certain parts is not successful. Cf. p, 231, UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE 223 own, which appear with as great a uniformity as can be affirmed of any work of complex structure. It is not possible to excerpt any considerable portion which departs from this style so far as to justify its attribution to a different writer.! (o) Exclusive of proper names and a fe-w variations in the Mss., there are in the book nearly 875 different -words. Something over a hundred of these (about one in eight) are not found in any other New Testament book, though most of them occur in the Septuagint or non-biblical vreiters. These ¦words, not found in other New Testament writings, are largely due to peculiarity in subject matter ; fully a fifth of them belong to the parag-raph describing the downfall of the great city (chapt. 18), an equal number to the description of the New Jerusalem (21-22^), nearly 20 to the vision of the first six trumpets (8-9), nearly 10 to the vision of the seven bowls (chapt. 16), paragraphs which all fall naturally into the plan of the Apoca lypse and cannot reasonably be separated as inappropriate insertions. The long paragraph of the seven epistles (2-3), dealing with common topics of everyday Christian life, contains not more than 10 such words. Most of these peculiar words are the only words used in our book for their respective ideas ; that is, there are not in other parts of the book terms parallel -with these, which might be taken to indicate different authors. In the few cases of parallel words,^ these are found either in the same paragraph or distributed through paragraphs which cannot be omitted without destroying the structure of the book. In some cases ' an unusual word is chosen because of its special appropriateness (Cf. Com. in loc). There is nothing in these various iisages to indicate difference of authorship. As regards the rest of the vocabulary, that which is common to our book and the other New Testament -writings, no portion shows a use of terms sufiiciently diverse to set it apart from others. (b) Some examples of the use oi favorite words and expressions -will likewise indicate the work of one -writer throughout. The number of occurrences in each case is given after the example : aXpa (19), ivajSaiva (18), dvotyw (26), aTroKTeivo) (15), apviov (28), /BdWu (28), PiPXlov (23), y^ (82), ypdclxo (29), &iSmp.i. (57), Wvos (23), ivii>Tnov (35), &dXa(Ta-a (26), SpoVos (46), KdOrjfmi (33), fieyas (80), viKauy (17), ovopa (37), oipavoi (52), TrtTTTU) (23), Trpoa-Kvviw (24), irvp (25), (rropa (22), -uSwp (18). It win be seen that these words, to which many additions might be made, occur very often, and a comparison with the other books of the New Testa ment will show that -with perhaps the sole exception of alfia they occur much oftener here than elsewhere ; they may then be regarded as specially characteristic of the vocabulary of the book. And their distribution is significant; of these 24 examples every chapter contains from 12 to 19, lUpon language, grammar, etc., cf. Lucke II. 448 ff., Bousset 159 ff., Swete CXV. fl. and 311 ff. ^ E.g. SidS-nna&nda-Tiipavos; KvxXdeev and KiK^if; fidxa.ipa. ^nd poixcpala; irX-iiaaw and TaTijaia. 8 E.g. ;8i/3Xop£«(o» chapt. 10, elsewhere pi^Uov ; KariuTtppaylla 5i ; elsewhere 224 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE except chapt. 22 which has 8. Still more striking is the recurrence of set phrases. Examples of these, recurring sometimes with slight variation, are : Xdyos tov Oeov Kal ij pjxpTvpta Ir^crov 1^' ^, 6', 12ii' i', 204 . K^ptoj o foos, 6 TravTOKpaTwp 1\ 4*, 11", 15', W''^*, 19'^''^^, 2122; olvos tov Ov/jlov rij^ -Tropveias, or TOV Oeov, or t^s opyrjs 14*' i", 16i', 172, j^gs^ 191^; v\rj koI yXHcra-a koi Aaos Kal Wvoi &>, V, 10", ll^, 13^, 14^ ; ot /xt/cpot /cat oi /ieycUot Ilis, 13i6, 195, 18_ 20" ; dXij^tvo's with ttio-tos, aytos, or Si/caios 3?. ", 6i», 15', 16', 192. u, gp^ 226; oj /iao-iXe?s r^s y^s 1^ 6i5, 1.5', 16i4, I72.18, 183. s, 1919^ 2124; ^u>v^ ^ey^JX, 110, 52,K o'D, 72. w, 813, 10', 1112.1^, 121", 14?, 9, 15, w, 61.1'', 191, n 21'. It -wUl be noticed that these are distributed promiscuously thi-ough the book and that the paragraphs felt to disturb the unity share this trait of the -writer in common with others. (c) As regards the arrangement of the principal parts of a sentence the book shows extraordinary monotony. As a rule the governing word precedes the governed. The subject usually follows the verb, though there are many exceptions and these are found in every part. With far fewer variations the object follows the verb, though here too most chapters furnish one or more exceptions; attributives, that is, adjectives, adjective phrases and dependent genitives, follow the noun almost without variation, excepting aXXos and adjectives of number and quantity; but p.kya.% which occurs 80 times is found, when attributive, only once (I821) or perhaps twice (I61) before the noun. Variations from these principles of order, so far as they occur, are not grouped in any part of the book in such a way as to indicate different -writers. (d) In certain grammatical pecul iarities and irregularities, the Apocalypse stands alone among -writings bio-wn to us. It is not possible to take up these -with any f uUness here ; many -wilL be noticed in the Commentary. (For a good summary see Bousset 159 ff.) Most of these grammatical peculiarities occur many times and are charac teristic, not of any one section of the book, but of the whole. Some examples will suffice for the present purpose : (1) Departure from the laws of agreement in number, case, or gender: a verb singular -with several connected subjects, or with a plu. subj. (8^ 912) ; a pin. vb. -with neuter plu. subj. (1") ; the nominative in apposition -with some other case (li^) ; change of case or gender in an adjective or participle (114, 12=, I41'), especially m Xiym and exw (13", 9"), change to nominative in a dependent 'noun (7'). (2) Indifferent interchange of tense in the same paragraph (8', 11^'') (8) Omission of the copula, which is as often absent as expressed. (4) The article repeated -with each noun in a series, and -with adjectives and adjec tive phrases after a noun which has the article (21^, 4", 3"), an idiom occurring -with great frequency. (5) The repetition of the antecedent of a pronoun or adverb in the relative clause (38, 12^). Critical Analysts of the Apocalypse. The unity of the Apocalypse was first made the subject of extended critical investigation in the work of Volter, The Origin of the Apocalypse, which appeared in 1882. As early as the seventeenth century Grqtius {Adnotationes ad N. T. 1644), while hold ing to the apostolic authorship of the whole, assigned different parts to different places and dates, and his view, though generaUy rejected, was CRITICAL ANALYSES 225 followed by Hammond (A Paraphrase and Annotation upon all the books of the N. T. 1653) and a few others, e.g. Laokemacher and Clericus. This primitive movement toward criticism remained almost forgotten, certainly without any influential adherent, for more than a century ; even Semler, the forefather of modern biblical critics, while strongly opposing the canonical value of the Apocalypse, did not attack its unity. In the early part of the nineteenth century the question was taken up anew and with a nearer approach to scientific method by Vogel ( Commentationes VII. de Apoc Joann. 1811-1816), who attributed certain parts to the apcstle John and others to John the Presbyter. Vogel's hypothesis was not definitively accepted by any large number of scholars. Berthold {Ilistorisch-kritische Einleitung 1812-1819) adopted it with reserve ; Bleek at first followed it so far as to assign different parts to different dates, though maintaining unity of authorship (John the Presbyter), but subsequently he changed his view and maintained unity of date also {Beilrdge zur Evangelienkritik 1846, Vorlesungen iiber d. Ap., posthumously edited by Hossbach 1862, 116 ff.) ; De 'Wette in the first edition of his Introduction (1826) followed the earlier opinion of Bleek, but in the second edition (1880), under the influence of Ewald (Commentarius in Ap. Johan. 1828, Studien u. Kritiken 1829) re-fcurned to an energetic maintenance of the unity of the work. The unity became so far an axiom with scholars that Lucke (II. 870) could say, ' At the pres ent time [1852] all the hypotheses of the origination of the Apocalypse from parts composed at different times by one and the same author or by several authors seem to be given up and set down as ad acta.' But Schleier- macher's Introduction, published a few years before {Ein. in d. N. T., edited posthumously by "Wold 1845), and regarded by Liieke as the last in the critical movement against the unity (II. 869), was destined to give at a later date a new impulse to hypotheses of division. Schleiermacher, though not giving any detailed examination of the book, set forth the theory that it is composed of a large number of -visions seen by a single seer at different dates and having no relation to one another. He called attention, not to differences in historical situation and interruptions in logical order, but rather to what he considers incongruities in thought, especially as regards representations of Christ. In this he exerted an influence in much of the later criticism. Volter in 1898 says, ' The critical flame of recent times was as it were kindled by his judgment concerning the Apocalypse ' (Prob lem, p. 2). Both Weizs'acker and Volter, who revived the problem of unity in 1882, show at least in their later writings traces of Schleiermacher's leading in criticism, though not adopting his results as regards the compo sition of the book. Weizsacker in the course of an article in the Theolo- gische Zeitung (1882, p. 78 f.) incidentally expressed his opinion in quite general terms and without reasons : ' As regards the Apocalypse it is a question whether we are to look at it as a single document. I confess to the opinion that we have in this writing ... a composition which in its origin is a compilation.' In this article he does not really go much beyond his predecessors, but at a later d?M he gives a fuller, though still very brief, statement of his view, together -with reasons, as will be seen below. 226 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE Volter a little later in the same year published his work referred to above, The Origin of the Apocalypse, and for the first time gave a discussion of the problem, which took up the various parts of the book in detail. The two scholars offered different solutions of the problem and along lines which appear on one side or the other through aU subsequent criticism. Weizsacker- leads the movement in the direction of a combination theory, which in the form given by him conceives the author of the Apocalypse himself to have incorporated certain fragments into the organism of his work, though many later critics adopted a hypothesis of compilation which supposes a more or less mechanical collection of unorganized sources. Volter on the other hand maintained a theory of revision, according to which the present form of the book was reached through a series of versions enlarged and modified from time to time by later editors to conform it to new circumstances. Through these two scholars an overwhelming flood of critical discussion was set in motion, which has continued through these subsequent years. Their theories in the precise form advocated by them and in details are not followed ; but the influence of their methods and of their critical observations appears throughout. It will be seen that in later criticism the two processes of compilation and re-vision are often com bined. It is obviously impossible in this place to attempt any large survey of these numerous -writings ; the utmost that can be done is to state briefly the hypotheses advanced by the leaders in the various phases of the move ment, and to make some general observations on the validity of these. Volter. Volter's first edition was soon followed by a second, enlarged and modified, and this in turn by various others works, the last appearing in 1911. {Entstehung d. Ap.^ 1885; Die Offenbarung Johan. keine urspriing- lich jud. Ap. 1886; various articles in theolog. journals 1886-1891; Das Problem d. Ap. 1893 ; Die Offenbarung Johan. neu untersucht. 19041, igip.). In this long period of acti-vity he frequently changes his views, though these changes relate for the most part to details and not to his character istic propositions, revision and a Christian origin of the whole as opposed to the use of Jewish apocalypses as sources. According to his latest pubhca- tion he finds in the Apocalypse the work of five different periods (p. 51). (1) the primitive Apocalypse of John (probably John Mark, certainly not the apostle or the presbyter) written in a.d. 65. This consists of 14-6, 4.9^ 1114-18, 141-3. 6-8, i4--2o_ 191-10. In order to reconstruct thus the primitive Apocalypse it is necessary to omit or revise the f oUo-wing verses, which are included in these paragraphs, but are ascribed, altogether or in part, to later hands : 41, 5^. ». i". n-", ei", 7^-1', 11". is^ 141^ 192 b, sb, io_ (2) (56 fi.) An appendix added a.d. 68 by the author himself and consisting of 10, 17, 18, 111-18, chapters 17 and 18 being originally inserted between 10 and 11. Here again certain verses containing the work of a reviser are to be omitted at least in part; these are ll^, 171.6. " I820. (3) (135) a revision, consisting chiefly of au insertion made by Cerinthus in Vespasian's time (69-79 A.D.). This is composed of 12-13, 14^-12, 15-16, 19ii-21S; here must be omitted or modified 12", IS^, 1410, 154, igis^ 19 b^ 1913 b . .^^^ to prepare for this insertion, 51" >>, His. is .^ygre added. (4) (141 ff.) A revision made CRITICAL ANALYSES 227 early in Domitian's reign (a.d. 81-96). This transferred 17-18 from the original place between 10 and 11 to its present place after 16. To facilitate this change the redactor added 16i^ ", 17i, and to make the connection of the transposed passage with the following clearer he inserted 19^ t>. » ''. To hun are also due l''-8, 219-22-^1, except 22'. 12. is. 16-20^ ^^^ ^le made insertions or changes in 56. 9, n-u, ei^, T"-", 118, 1211, 138^ 141, 10^ lyu. (5) (143 ff.) The final revision made late in Domitian's time consisted of the addition of the introductory parts, I1-' and l^-S^^, also the insertion or change of 14i', 1615, 176^ 1910^ 22'. 12, 18, 16-20. As the principal g-uiding lines in his analysis of th^ Apocalypse, Volter finds in different parts of it want of consecutiveness, 'combination of dis cordant elements, disturbance of historical order, juxtaposition of a human and a divine Messiah and of Judaistic and universal conceptions of Chris tianity, and a Cerinthian distinction between a heavenly Christ and Jesus. And his reconstruction through a series of revisions is determined by the effort to reconcile differences, to separate and recombine according as har mony and historical and logical sequence are supposed to require. He has worked out his theory with wonderful ingenuity, though probably no one now will entirely accept it. But the influence of his criticism has been widely felt in later study. Some of the more important points in his argu ment will be noticed in the Commentary on passages with which they are concerned. Objections of a general character are : that he not only over looks the strong evidence of the work of one mind in the book, but he finds disagreements and difiiculties where none really exist, and employs an unwarranted exegesis, especially in passages touching the person and func tion of Christ. Further, it. is very improbable that all these different recensions, superior as they were in homogeneity according to the hypothe sis, should have been so completely displaced by this last one as to leave no independent trace of their existence. But apart from all other difficulties the arbitrariness of procedure in omitting and rearranging paragraphs, in erasing and modifying isolated verses and phrases in order to secure con formity to a theory, is opposed to all sound criticism. With a similar boldness in rearranging and re"vdsing it would not be difficult to show, for example, that the Epistle to the Romans in a primitive form taught the hmitation of justification by faith to the Jews, and that a reviser -added the parts in which the logical result of the doctrine is extended to the Gentiles. Weizsacker. Weizs'acker's very general utterance in favor of a composite origin of the Apocalypse, referred to above, was made more precise four years later in his Apostolic Age {Das Apostol. Zeitalter der christ. Kirche 18861, 18922), in which he presents his view briefly with grounds for the same (486 ff., 358 ff.). The statement of his argument here given is based on the second edition of his work. He regards the Apocalypse as the work of an author, the unity of whose plan is maintained by the sequence of the three connected series of scenes determined by the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls (489). Into the framework thus formed the writer has incorporated various single visions not his o-wn and having 228 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE various origins. The book then is not one grand scene moving on as a unit in itself, nor is it a series of such scenes joined to one another natu rally; it is an intricate composition which holds fast an artificial thread through many digressions, and maintains the connection by allusions which refer sometimes to what has preceded, sometimes to what is yet to follow (488) . The principal portions thus taken up from foreign sources are the introduction, including the seven epistles, chapts. 1-3, the conclusion in 21-22, and chapters 7, 10-11, 12, 18, 17-18. This analysis is based on the following grounds : the introduction and conclusion have no close connec tion with the great prophecies of the book and contain no reference to the condition and circumstances of the times refiected in these. The great prophetic portions, mentioned above as incorporations, have no relation to the three series of signs which form the framework ; while the latter relate to destructive wars vaguely pictured and great movements in nature, the former draw their material from present realities, or at least touch present historical circumstances (489). As regards /orm also, these parts do not fit into the structure of the plan. Chapter 7 is inserted between the sixth and seventh seals ; II1-18 with its o-wn introduction, chapt. 10, between the sixth and seventh trumpets, -transfers the scene to another place. After, or within, the last trumpet scene, two great scenes independent of each other are introduced in 12 and 13, but in 14 the former thread is resumsd. Chapters 17-18 come in after the seven bowls, but have no connection -with these. Weizsacker arg-ues further that the portions which he attributes to other sources are not, as are the other portions, sho-wn by an angel but are direct visions ; these portions do not have a common origin, for example, chapter 11 sets us in Jerusalem, while 13 and 17 show no relation to a Jewish provenience (490) ; visions are repeated with a different meaning, for example the 144,000 are in chapt. 7 the Christian remnant of the Jews, but in chapt. 14 they are those believers who have preserved themselves especially holy through cha,stity ; some things in the author's plan are not carried out, for example, the last three trumpets are to bring three woes, but only two, 91^, 11", are given ; there are anticipations revealing different writers, for example, IP anticipates chapt. 13 (491) ; there are differences in dates — while the book was "written at the end of the first century, some portions, as chapts. 7, II1-18, fall before a.d. 70 (492 ff., 858 ff.). Further details will be noticed in the Commentary. Weizsiicker's treatment of the problem is brief, being given in subordi nate parts of his history, and leaves much that is requisite for completeness (Weyland says of Volter and Weizsacker that 'they both contributed much to the solution of the problem of the Apocalypse. Each of them did it in his own way. The one gave too much, the other too Uttie.' Omwerkings. etc. 53), but his criticism is masterful and has led the way for all later efforts which seek to do justice to the evidence for unity on the one hand, and for diversity on the other, that is, the theory that a single author has conceived the plan as a whole and has incorporated into this fragments, isolated vi.sions, derived from earlier sources. Apart from objections to details, the great defect in the hypothesis, as Weizsacker presented it, is CRITICAL ANALYSES 229 that it fails to account for the incorporation of these large portions of the book into a plan in which they have no organic place. A -writer who could conceive and carry through a plan which, these insertions being omitted, moves on so clearly and harmoniously to a great consummation, a plan so powerfully dramatic, cannot be imagined to have broken it up and over loaded it with irrelevant matter of foreign origin, to such an extent that it is lost in the accretions. Had he wished merely to give an appropriate setting for these collected prophecies, he could not be supposed to have adopted this form, which in reahty fails of that purpose. This defect of Weizsacker's is one that appears in much of the criticism following his lines. No hypothesis which accepts the general unity of the Apocalypse and also the presence of incorporated material in it can be satisfactory, unless it furnishes reasonable grounds for assigning to all the material used a significant place in an organized whole. Vischer. In the same year with Weizsacker's work referred to above (1886) criticism of the Apocalypse entered on a new stage in the appearance of Vischer's treatment of the question {Die Offenbarung Johan, eine judische Apokalypse in christlicher Bearbeitung, 1886). As the Jewish apocalypses, Enoch, 2 Esd., the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and others were taken up in the first and second centuries by the Christians and received additions at their hands, so Vischer argued that the Apocalypse of John was originally a Je-wish apocalypse, which was worked over by a Christian ¦writer to adapt and recommend it to the use of his coreligionists. In this recension chapters 1-3 were prefixed in place of the original introduction, 226-21 -was added as a conclusion and numerous passages and phrases were mserted. (These occur in 56.8.9-14, q\,i6^ 'js-n^ 911, 118,i6, 12ii.i'', 138.»-i«, 141-5,10,12-13 153 1615,16 176,14 1320 197,9-10,11,13 204.6 21^-8.9.14,22,23,27 221.8 p. 116 ff.) Hamack -wrote a commendatory appendix to Vischer's brochure, and the theory was hailed widely as solving the chief difficulties of the Apocalypse. Many of Vischer's critical observations are of real value, though his theory as a whole is now no longer in favor. He founded his hypothesis on the supposition that there are running throughout the book two distinct and irreconcilable lines of thought, the one Jewish, the other Christian. He finds on the one hand a Jewish Messiah whose birth is still in the future and who is to appear merely as God's instrument of -wrath for the destruction of the world ; on the other hand, the Christian Messiah who has already appeared in Jesus, the Lamb who has redeemed men by his blood, and who now sits enthroned with God in heaven. In the funda mental Jewish document the messianic kingdona was confined to Jews who keep the commandments of God, while in the added parts it consists of an innumerable multitude out of every nation who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus through faith in him. In the one part God is judge, in the other Christ (71 ff.). And similarly the distinction is traced out through mani fold details in representation and expectation. In the recovery of this primitive Jewish apocalypse, Vischer begins his study vrith chapters 11-12, which after the erasure of a few (Christian) sentences he finds to be purely Jewish and to contain the key to the whole book (31 f). Then by a 230 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE process of free excision in the preceding and following chapters he succeeds in constructing an apocalypse conformed entirely to Hebrew eschatology. He endeavors to show that the excluded passages and phrases can aU be omitted without injury to the connection and in most cases to its improve ment even (34 ff.) . In this process the 28 instances of the mention of the Lamb are all excluded from the text (38 ff.), so are also the six: instances of the name of Jesus (60 ff. The name of Jesus occurs 14 times, but 8 of these are in the introduction and conclusion, parts by the hypothesis due to the reviser), and in short everything which has a distinctively Christian char acter. The indication of unity furnished by language and style Vischer meets with the contention that the primitive Jewish document was written in Hebrew or Aramaic and translated into Greek by the Christian reviser, who -wrote the added parts (37 f.). Vischer is much influenced by Volter; and his theory and method, widely as they differ, are open to a similar charge of arbitrariness, and disregard of the e-vidence for unity. Some details will be noticed in the Commentary. The difficulties arising from the assumption that such a Jewish apocalypse was entirely lost, and from a comparison of the treatment of other apocalypses by the Christians, have been spoken of above (pp. 218 ff.). Two general considerations are added here. (1) The foundation on which the hypothesis rests, the assumed coexistence of irreconcilable Jewish and Christian elements, is false. The same two elements, so far as they actually exist in the Apocalypse (not as they are by misinterpretation assumed to exist there) are found combined in the Gospels and the Pauline epistles. This we should expect in a Je-wish- Christian vpriter, above all in a Christian apocalyptist, since apocalyptic ideas and forms are to so large an extent derived immediately from Je-wish sources. But even if it were otherwise, the existence of incongruous ideas in the same "writing "without an attempt at mediation is too frequent in literature to establish in itself diversity of authorship. (2) It is pertinent to ask whether instead of beginning with chapts. 11-12 revised and made into a Jewish fragment it would not serve a saner critical process to begin with the Introduction (1-3) and follow the Christian keynote found there through the remaining chapters, where it so often reappears, and thus to deduce a Christian. character for the whole ; this procedure has the advan tage that it does not make it necessary to expunge or revise large parts of the book as impossible with an original Christian apocalyptist. Weyland. Independently of Vischer and at the same time, the Duteh scholar, Weyland, published in the Theologische Studien of Utrecht (1886) a dissertation presenting a similar hypothesis, but assuming too Jewish sources, from which the Christian compiler drew, instead of one. This view Weyland set forth more fully two years afterwards in a work {Om werkings-en Compilatie-Hypothesen toegepast op de Apokalypse van Johannes 1888) in which he also took cognizance of the hypotheses of Vischer and other later critics. He agrees essentially with "Yischer as to the parts of the Apocalypse to be assigned to Jewish and Christian sources respectively, differing only in some details. But the Jewish portions he assigns to two different documents, the first of which he places about 69 a.d., the other CRITICAL ANALYSES 231 81 A.D. (p. 111). The work of the Christian compiler, who combined rather mechanically (p. 68), he puts in a.d. 130-140 (p. 129). It is not necessary to give here Weyland's analysis in full. The following passages with a few modifications he assigns to his earliest Jewish source : 10, lli-i', 12-13, 14^-11, 15^, 1911-21, 20, 211-8 (p. 176). The other portions are assigned to his later Jewish source and his Christian source in essential agreement -with Vischer's table. His distinction between Jewish and Christian parts is made on grounds similar to those urged by Vischer ; he adds the absence of a fundamental thought running throughout (176 ff.) and also a peculi arity of language which he finds characteristic of the Christian redactor. As regards the use of language, he says, ' We shall not try to offer a proof of the difference in style between the different parts. This difference can be felt, at least by him who has feeling, but with great difficulty described ' (188). The critics are evidently without the ' feeling ' requisite, as they are for the most part agreed that no such diversity of style exists. ^Veyland's argument is occupied with the effort to prove a lack of unity and the pres ence of both Jewish and Christian elements. He does not take up in a systematic form the «"vidence for his theory of tiro separate Jewish docu ments, though in the course of his discussion he incidentally urges certain general differences, especially in dates and historical circumstances (101 ff.), and in the localities to which the visions relate (111 f.). Much of what is said above of objections to the theories and methods of Volter and Vischer is equally true of the work of Weyland. It is too arbitrary and introduces too many difficulties to be accepted as a solution of its problem. The sig nificance of Weyland's hypothesis in the course of criticism lies in the fact that it is the beginning of recent compilation theories, that is, those which view the Apocalypse as a complex, formed more or less mechanically from a number of independent documents. Sabatier. The fresh impulse given to criticism of the Apocalypse by- Vischer's publication produced in France the two closely related studies of Sabatier and Schoen, which however reached a result directly the reverse of Vischer's hypothesis. With these critics the nucleus of the book is a Christian apocalypse whose author has taken up into it a series of earlier Je-wish oracles. The main point in their position is similar to that of Weizs'acker, and they may be regarded as a link between him and the critics who. have taken the field since the waning of the theories of Vischer and Weyland, and who maintain a form of unity with incorporated frag ments. Sabatier's booklet (Les Origines_ Litteraires et la Composition de I'Apocalypse de Saint Jean, 1888) though published a year later than Schoen's, properly precedes the latter in our survey, because Sohoen's study is in part based on that of Sabatier, as presented in his lectures at the iicole des Hautes-Etudes and in an article published in the Revue Critique, 1887. As regards the Christian origin of the book Sabatier urges that the name John, as that of the author, is decisive ; for it is incredible that the author, if the Apostle, should have sent out in his name a Je-wish apoca- lypee, touched up with Christian passages ; or if some other Christian bear ing the name had wished to adapt a Jewish apocalypse to his readers, he 232 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE would merely have made brief Christian insertions and have kept for the book the great authority of the reputed Jewish "writer, as was done in the case of the other apocalypses (p. 8). Considering the book as a whole, Sabatier finds clear marks of unity and Christian origin; the epistolary form appears as a framework in the introduction and the close, and is also .suggested by the frequent use of the pronoun I in the body of the work; the introductory chapters 1-8, Christian in character and inseparably con nected with what follows, present in accumulated form the symbohsm and apocalyptic rhetoric of all the rest (p. 10 ff.) ; the body of the work is con ceived upon the basis of what is seen from the Gospels to be a traditional Christian scheme of the Last Days, the apxv wStVcuv, the dXixjiK /xeyaX-i], the TeXm, the beginning of sorroics, the great tribulation, the End — a scheme of the final destinies of the world here carried out in the form of an imposing drama in the three acts of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls (p. 17 f.). But within this framework Sabatier finds portions ha"7ing no relation to the context or dramatic movement, and entirely Jewish in conception and expectation ; their prophecies are connected with great historic situations, their scene is placed on earth, while that of the drama itseK is in heaven, and they contain duplicates of scenes given in other parts of the drama as primarily conceived (19 ff., 26 ff., 35 f.). The portions thus characterized and distinguished from the rest of the book are earlier Je"wish oracles which the author of the Apocalypse has inserted in his book, as prophecies concerning the destinies of humanity. These inserted oracles are (p. 27) : 111-18, 12-13, 146-20, 1618-16, 17-194, 1911-21^ 201-16, 219-22«; they were composed about 70 A.i>., while the book itself belongs to the end of the century (p. 36). Sabatier's work is of permanent value in the study of the Apoca lypse, but it exaggerates the Jewish character of the assumed insertions, overlooking the extent to which Christian apocalyptic adopts Jewish forms and conceptions ; like similar theories it raises difficulty in projecting for eign material into the "writer's plan in a haphazard way; and it fails to recognize the full scope and literary manner of the Apocalypse. See below, pp. 239 fl. Schoen. Schoen's treatment of the Apocalypse (L'Origine de I'Apoca lypse de St. Jean, 1887) is, as already said, based on that of Sabatier and is largely in agreement with it. It emphasizes in like manner the general unity and Christian origin of the book, but confines the inserted Je-wish oracles to somewhat narrower limits. These are lli-'^, 12, 13, 18, in which however there are additions or re"visions made by the Christian author, for example in 1216-12. i-"'', 138-10, I82O; on the other hand the introduction of the Jewish oracles has in some places influenced the Christian parts, for example, chapt. 10, composed by the author to introduce the adopted oracles in general, so 17i-6 to introduce chapt. 18, and 17'-i8 to explain the vision of chapt. 13 (132 fl.). The grounds taken both in defense of unity and Christian origin, and in the supposition of inserted Jewish oracles, are in general the same as those of Sabatier. The special significance of Schoen in reference to that form of criticism which recognizes in the Apocalypse both unity and diversity lies in the fact that he not only minimizes the incor- CRITICAL ANALYSES 233 porated material, but he also directly expresses the principle — though he does not carry this out practically into the exegesis of the difficult passages — that the Christian author gives to the borrowed oracles a new sense, that he sees in them a spiritual and symbolical force which suits them to the purpose of his great Christian apocalypse (144 f.). Spitta. The compilation theory received a striking form at the hands of Spitta in a work of great fullness and subtle criticism {Die Offenbarung des Johanne.^, 1889). According to his analysis the foundation of the Apocalypse is a primitive Christian writing with which a later Christian redactor combined two separate Jewish documents (227), each of these three writings being a complete apocalypse culminating with the triumph of the people of God and the punishment of their enemies. The earliest of these, the first Je-wish apocalypse, designated J2, was written in the time of Pom pey 68 B.C. ; the second, the later Jewish Apocalypse, Ji, in the time of Caligula ; the third, the primitive Christian Apocalypse, U (by John Mark, 502 f.), a decade before the destruction of Jerusalem. These documents were combined by a Christian redactor at the beginning of the second cen tury, or possibly a little earlier, in Domitian's time (464, 529). The nucleus of each of these three separate sources, taken in chronological order, the reverse of the order in our Apocalypse, is formed respectively by the visions of the 7 bowls, the 7 trumpets, and the 7 seals (466, 549 ff.). A detailed exhibition of Spitta's distribution of the parts of the book among his several sources is not necessary here ; it will be sufficient to indicate the passages which he places at the beginning and the close of the respec tive documents : U begins with address and introductory visions 1-5, and closes with 22^-21 ; Ji begins with the sealing of Israel 71-8 and closes with the millennium, the judgment and the End 201-21* ; J^ begins with 10 and closes with the new Jerusalem 219*. It is noticeable that Spitta, in con trast with Volter, Vischer, Weyland and others, joins 1-3 (with the excep tion of a few verses) closely with 4-5. Spitta's views will be noticed in the course of the Commentary. One who goes through the painful labor of reading his nearly 600 pages "will find many valuable suggestions, but his hypothesis and the arguments advanced for it are too artificial to furnish a solution of the problems undertaken. His own anticipation (544) that he would be regarded ' hypercritical ' is abundantly verified in the general opinion of later critics. It is interesting to observe that he perceives the difficulty in supposing three documents complete in themselves to have been thus broken up and interwoven with ong another. He offers a solu tion which he thinks extremely simple (' die denkbar einfachste ') ; the re dactor "viewed the record of the plagues and other events before the End as a narrative, not of parallel, but of different, events ; if then he wished to combine them it was necessary to insert one into the other, to make one flow out of the other, as a part of it (230 ff.). But Spitta's attempt to carry through this method of combination involves dissections and trans ferences as remote as possible from the simple. If the redactor had wished to present a unit in his book, he could not, according to Spitta's analysis, have made a worse failure ; if on the other hand he had wished simply to 234 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE preserve three separate documents, no plausible explanation can be offered of his process of rearrangement. Erbes. Somewhat on the same lines "with Volter, Erbes (Die Offen barung Johannis krilixch untersucht, 1891) sees in the present form of the Apocalypse a tvorking oi-er of earlier Christian documents. The first of these, I21-I318, 149i>-i2^ he assigns (184) to the year 40 a.d. ; the second, the Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle (146 ff.), containing most of the remain ing parts of the book, to 62 a.d. ; from this second document are, however, to be excluded numerous insertions due to the final redactor who combined the two early documents. Most of these insertions are brief, consisting of a verse or two; longer insertions are IS^-IO*, 19' •'-2019, 21^-22^. The final revision is assigned to 80 a.d. (In a later publication, Der Antichrist in d. Schriften d. N. T., 1897, he places the final redactor possibly in the earlier part of Vespasian's time.) The value of Erbes' observations is recognized in subsequent criticism, but his hypothesis is open to objections similar to those urged against Volter's treatment of the book. Rauch. As Volter's criticism was taken up and made the basis of a modified hypothe.sis by Erbes, so Vischer's theory received a new form at the hands of Ranch (Die Offenbarung des Johannes untersucht nach ihrer Zusammensetzung u. d. Zi4t ihrer Entstehung, 1894). Though the latter in his interpretation and criticism is an eclectic, adopting from all his prede cessors, yet in his results he agrees with Vischer in making our book a Jewish apocalypse with Christian additions. But in his analysis he goes even beyond Weyland ; he supposes a primitive Jewish apocalypse of the year 62 a.d. (137), a continuous writing, picturing the general judgment of the world and consisting of five parts (93 f., 121) : (a) the introductory visions (4-5)'; (b) the seal visions (6-7, 14i-^) ; (c) the trumpet visions (8-921, 111M9) ; j-^;) the judgment (I414-I54, 16" b. 18.19'. 20). (g) the renewal of the world (19ii-218). This apocalypse was subsequently enlarged by the insertion of five distinct Jewish fragments — (1) l0i''.2«,5-7,4,9-u hi-m 121-"; (2) 1218-13", 1613-16; (3) 146-13; (4) 156_1612,17a,21. (5) 171_196, 219-225 — some of them dating as early as 40 a.d. (134 f.). The Je"wish apocalypse thus enlarged was then christianized in 79-81 a.d. (140) by a "writer who added an introduction (1-3, except 1' •>) and a conclusion (226-21), and inserted numerous verses in whole or in part, that is, all the passages possessing a specifically Christian coloring, interspersed in every chapter (except 8) throughout the book (121 fl.). Ranch's arguments against the unity and in support of the .distinction between Je"wish and Christian por tions are the same as those of his predecessors. The five Je"wish fragments assumed in his theory are determined by the supposed inappropriateness of the passages in their respective connections. Other Forms of Analysis. In the foregoing paragraphs, the "Writers who have been most influential in recent criticism of the Apocalypse have been re"sdewed, and it will be seen that the pioneers in their respective directions are Volter, Weizs'acker (with his successors Sabatier and Schoen), Vischer, and 'Weyland. Other critics following similar lines of argument, some in one direction and some in another, have offered different analyses, to be CRITICAL ANALYSES 235 sure, but their hypotheses are in reality only modifications or expansions of those of their forerunners, or oftener are combinations of these. It remains then to speak very briefly of some of the most noteworthy among these followers, or elaborators. Schmidt (Anmerkungen iiber d. Composition d. Offenbarung Johannis, 1891) distinguishes three principal Jewish portions : the vision of the seals (4i-78) ; the vision of the trumpets (82-1116) -v^ith the interpolation of a vision of Jerusalem (IQi-lli') ; the book of the Messiah (121-226) with an interpolated "vision of the fall of Rome (146-26 ^nd 171-196). ¦With these five Je"wish parts, of distinct origins, the oldest dating before 70 A.D., an independent Christian document of the time of Domitian, con taining the seven epistles, was afterwards joined by a redactor who belongs to the early part of the second century ; be also added of his own the intro duction and conclusion: Briggs (The Messiah of the Apostles, 1895) views the book as " a collection of apocalypses of different dates issued in several successive editions. ... In the main these apocalypses came from an early date, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem" (301). In the gradual com bination of these separate documents the book passed through four editions : the first contained the apocalypses of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls ; the second added the apocalypse of the epistles ; the third the apocalypses of the beasts and the dragon ; in the fourth the final editor prefixed the title fl-', and added the close 22i8-2o. To him is due the present unity of the book ; he " transposed parts of the different original apocalypses, . . . and so rearranged the whole material as best to suit the symmetry he was aiming to produce " (290). St. John the apostle was the author of the apoca lypses of the epistles, the seals, and the bowls, and of all matter related thereto. The final editing was near the close of the first century, or early in the second century. J. Weiss (Die Offenbarung d. Johan., 1904), makes the foundation and the larger part of the book a Christian apocalypse complete in itself, written in the latter half of the sixties (112) by a John of Asia Minor (47 ff., 112). A second document entering into the composi tion in its present form was a Je"wish apocalypse framed in the year 70 a.d. (145) by a writer who combined several earlier visions, adding also material of his o"wn (115 f.). This Je"wish apocalypse formed the 'little book' to which the final editor refers in chapt. 10, and from which he means to say he derived certain of the prophecies following (42 f.). In the time of Domitian (6 f .) these two documents were combined by the final editor, who gave the book its present form, adapting these earlier prophecies to his o-wn times, rearranging, interpreting, omitting parts, and adding others (39 ff.). Even those who do not accept the hypothesis of Weiss cannot fail to recognize the value of his work in the study of the Apocalypse. Wellhausen (Analyse d. Offenbarung Johannis. 1907) supposes the principal author, or more strictly editor, to have been a John (not the apostle) who wrote in the time of Domitian. Into the apocalypse which he framed he took up a large number of earlier sources, many of them Jewish, working them over, furnishing them with introductions and conclusions and making insertions. Most of these sources are later than the destruction of Jerusa lem, but two at least, 111-^ and 12i-", fall just before that event (3 f.). A 236 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE later editor slightly revised this Johannine apocalj^se, giving it its present form. Wellhausen does not attempt to distinguish throughout the work of these two writers, nor does he assign to the Johannine work a definitely arranged plan. The Apocalypse, he says, is not a drama but a picture-book, and though there was some eflort to bring the pictures into sequence, it was unsuccessful because impossible. Various parts, for example, II1-2, ll'~i', are quite isolated and are brought into their present places by one of the editors through some feature quite external. It is only by decom position that the Apocalypse can be explained (15 f .). Wellhausen's method in both interpretation and criticism is so extravagant that his work cannot be regarded as making an important contribution to the study. Bousset (Die Offenbarung Johannis, in Meyer's Kom., 18961, 19062), starting from Weizsacker and Sabatier gives to the theory of unity -with incorporated material a guarded and well-reasoned form which has recommended it to a wide circle of scholars, even among those who do not accept all its details. He makes our book a carefully planned apocalypse, in the composition of parts of which the author (of the time of Domitian, probably John the Presbyter) has used material derived in some instances from documents, in others from eschatological traditions banded do"wn independently of "written sources (cf. below, on Gunkel) ; such derived material the writer uses, not mechanically, but with the purpose of his book consciously in mind. The most important passages in which this use is seen are : 7i~8, lli-i', 12, 14>4-2o^ 17, 18, 219-226. The influence of oral tradition or written documents is probably present in some places where it is not clearly demonstrable. Bousset does , not dissect sentences or verses in an attempt to distinguish different origins, nor does he confidently combine the incorporated material into a defined primitive document ; he has carried out his hypothesis with reserve, with sanity of judgment, and — what is essential in the study of the Apocalypse, but often wanting in its critics — with keen sympathy with, and high appreciation of, his author. Gunkd. The epoch-making book of Gunkel, Creation and Chaos (Schopfung und Chaos, 1895), which sets beyond reasonable question the perpetuation and infiuence of oriental eschar tological myths among the Hebrews through oral tradition, touches the Apocalypse chiefly in its interpretation, rather than in its literary structure ; but it reaches results that have an important bearing on the critical analysis. Gunkel does not take up the Apocalypse as a whole or present any tabular analysis of it ; he assumes that it contains many single visions which in their nature are independent and originally not planned with reference to one another (194) ; and he investigates certain parts (chiefly chapts. 12, 13, 17) according to the method of eschatological tradition. Starting "with the principle that the real author of the material in an apocalypse is not in general the "writer but a succession of generations, be finds that the "writer of the Johannine Apocalypse has derived much in the form and contents of his book, not only from the Old Testament and Je"wish apocalyptic "writings, but also from eschatological tradition handed do-wn orally through centuries ; even in some cases where his material is parallel with that kno"wn to us through literary sources, there may be evidence that he is drawing from CRITICAL ANALYSES 237 another form of tradition (207 ff.). Gunkel of course accedes to the Apoca lyptist a degree of independence which leads to interpretation, development, combination, and arrangement of the matter handed down (253). The study of a tradition in its history becomes therefore fundamental; imagery and symbols found in our Apocalypse are often taken unchanged from then- source, and thus many difficulties reach their solution in the form to which the representation may be ultimately traced up. This method of investi gation is urged by Gunkel as correcting two procedures much in vogue, that of the excessive dissection of the text in many critical analyses, and that of seeking the explanation of a large number of symbols and figures in the events of history contemporaneous with the writer. Unquestionably Gunkel has introduced a most valuable principle in the study of the Apoca lypse, though he has exaggerated its application. Bousset has made use of the method in his commentary, and also applying it in a special work on the tradition of the antichrist (Der Antichrist in der Ueberlieferung des Judenthums, des neuen Testaments, u. der alien Kirche, 1895) he has argued for the existence of this tradition in an oral form before the New Testament era and continuing through centuries independently of our Scriptures. The results of this inquiry he has applied in the study of some difficult passages in the Apocalypse (e.g. lli~i'). For a convenient survey, the different critical analyses of the Apocalypse exhibited above may be divided into three classes (Cf. Bousset 125 ff.), though these are not sharply distinguished throughout, for the hypotheses in some cases combine the characteristics of several classes, and it is not possible to assign the critic in every instance to one of these categories to the exclusion of relation to others. Yet the following general grouping "willbeusefulfor giving greater clearness to an intricate subject. (1) The revision theory. In this class are ranged those hypotheses which suppose a Grundschrift, a primary apocalypse (according to some, Jewish, according to others, Christian), complete in itself and afterwards worked over through successive revisions into the present form of the book by editors, who added material of their own, or wove in some already existing material. (2) The compilation theory. Here belong the various hypotheses which assume a number of Jewish and Christian sources brought together by a Christian redactor more or less mechanically and lacking a close inner connection, or a relation to a plan ; of course some critics of this class at tribute a larger activity to the redactor than do others. (8) The incor poration theory, or as some call it, the fragment theory. This views the Apocalypse as in reality a unit in so far as it possesses a definitely or ganized plan, conceived and carried out by a single writer; but in the execution of this plan the "writer is held to have used in certain places es chatological material derived from other sources (whether Jewish, Chris tian, or oral tradition), which he worked over more or less and adapted to his purpose. In such passages one may say that the creation is not the ¦writer's 0"wn, but that the me of it is his. Critics differ as to the extent to which such material has been taken up into the book, and also as to the modification which it may have received from the "writer's hands. At 238 UNITY OF THE APOCALYPSE bottom this view attributes to the -writer a procedure not fundamentally different from his use of the Old Testament. That he has used the latter constantly, that many of his passages are but a free working over of repre sentations found there is unquestioned (cf. pp. 221 f.). In the same way he may be conceived to have appropriated ideas and representations pre served elsewhere, in oral tradition or religious writings, in cases where these are thought to embody or illustrate a sacred truth. The merit of this hypothesis is that while it does full justice to the strong e"vidence for unity, it provides for the presence of material- which appears to have ex isted originally in some other connection, and it makes explicable the ap- .^parent disturbance in thought and the differences in historical situation. It is for these reasons that it has now gained the ascendency among scholars — scholars it should be observed who cannot be suspected of un friendliness toward incisive criticism in itself. Representatives of this school are Weiz.s'acker, Sabatier, Schoen, H. Holtzmann, Bousset, Jiihcher, Porter, Baljon, W. Bauer, Moffatt, Calmes, and many others. It may be in place to add that the present commentator considers this hypothesis to be required by sound criticism, and the follo"wing Commentary, as "will be seen in the interpretation of the passages in question, proceeds on this view, though a considerable limitation as to the amount of incorporated material in the Apocalypse, and the probability of a very free handling of this on the "writer's part are maintained ; also special emphasis is laid on the necessity of finding" in such material a meaning suited to the Apocalyp tist's plan. There is a useful, but frequently overlooked, truth in the words of Pfieiderer : ' The task of the exegete consists flrst of all in ascer taining approximately the probable sense which the author himself con nected with his visions and imagery ; but what sense these may have had in their original form is a question of secondary importance, all the more certainly as the author himself probably had for the most part no distinct knowledge of this' (Das Urchrist.^ II. 284). The traditional theory of unity, that which denies the use of sources al together in our book, has been defended throughout the whole period of recent criticism. Among those maintaining the unity in this absolute form are Beyschlag, Hilgenfeld, Dii.sterdieck, Hirscht, B. Weiss, Zahn, Warfield, Simcox (hesitatingly). In this long period of active critical inquiry, notwithstanding the many extravagances which mark its course, the gain which has come to our knowledge of the Apocalypse is inestimable. The book has been placed in a certain light ; its real aim, significance, and general structure have been settled beyond doubt ; the fanciful interpretations of it, in whole or in part, which have appeared so often in an earlier time, are no longer possible. The great service which criticism has rendered toward the attainment of this result must be acknowledged by every student of the New Testament. It may be observed here that the primary fault in much of the criticism is in reality a failure to apply thoroughly the historical method of study. The book is the work of a prophet and religious poet often transported "with the transcendent thoughts filling his vision, writing with the unrestrained free- SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 239 dom of a Hebrew in departing from ordered sequence and self-consistency, in seizing and mingling figures, in joining abruptly anticipation and retro spect, in suggesting rather than unfolding thought, and in drawing for his vehicle of expression from every part of Jewish life and literature, especially from Je'wish eschatology. The Psalms furnish frequent illustration of these literary habits ; and even if the presence of these features should be urged as evidence of composite structure there also, it is nevertheless true, that the Hebrew was accustomed to this mode of composition in his most familiar poetry and felt no difficulty in it. Yet the Apocalypse is treated by many of its critics very much as if it were composed in the library of a modern western scholar "without freedom in the use of material, without the influ ence of the "Writer's very distinctive manner, and according to canons requir ing every sentence to be coldly pruned and squared to conform to the rest. As regards the value of the data upon which the various hypotheses are based, it is significant that the critics are all agreed upon the presence of derived material in the book ; beyond this there is no consensus of opinion. In this respect the state of critical opinion differs "widely from that regard ing the Pentateuch and some of the Jewish apocalypses (cf. Bousset 125 f.). The different critical theories mentioned above will, so far as seems neces sary, be further discussed in the paragraphs on Criticism, appended to the respective sections of the Apocalypse, in the Commentary. VI. Some Chaeacteristics of the Authoe's Liteeaey Mannee It is tbe purpose of the following paragraph to call attention to certain characteristics of the writer's manner, which are im portant in the study of the Apocalypse. Some of these are insignificant in themselves, but they assume especial signifi cance, because they throw light upon difficulties which are fre quently raised concerning the meaning of a phrase or passage, and concerning the structure of the outline. It is a principle which should need no affirmation, that every book must be interpreted in the light of the author's purpose and his liter ary manner. Now in every part of our book problems in interpretation and in the criticism of its structure present themselves which are insolvable apart from these guiding lines. The author of the Revelation does not aim to write merely a burning prophecy of the Last Things, such as might have been given in a brief apocalypse not greatly exceeding the escha tological chapters in the Gospels. (1) Such a prophecy he 240 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER does indeed seek to give ; but (2) he seeks also to give with that and centering in it, a vivid portrayal of the great powers, divine and satanic, in their hostility to each other and in their relation to the events that were coming on the earth ; (3) his plan embraced also pictures of various other and subordinate causes and influences working in the drama of the world's fu ture ; and (4) he aims, like a true prophet, to comfort and en courage God's people in the perilous times before them and to call them to sustained fidelity in this great trial of their faith and patience. These four 'leading motives,' as they may be called, are felt throughout the vast symphony of the Apoca lypse, and the writer combines and interweaves them after a manner of his own. It is imperative then to perceive clearly what the special traits of his manner are in order to get at the meaning of details and to understand his principles in the group ing of paragraphs. In his treatment of his theme the canons of literary art, as laid down by our academic methods, may be departed from ; whether this is so or not, is a matter of small moment; the important inquiry with us is, what the author himself aimed at and whether his aim is carried out with con sistency. And if we keep before us the manifoldness of his subject and look for a presentation of this in keeping with the writer's characteristic habits of thought and composition as revealed throughout, we shall find strong ground for maintain ing a real unity in the book, that is, a unity of the kind defined above (p. 221), and, considering the prophetic and poetic nature of the work, a unity of splendid character ; most of the diver gencies and interruptions which are tlaought to contain evi dence of diiferent documentary strata disappear, and the presence of an original mind working freely with traditional material shows itself throughout. The characteristics men tioned below are those, not of a part of the book, but of the whole. Thus the conclusion to which historical and linguistic considerations led us in the former paragraph is confirmed. In the following survey of conspicuous features in the writer's manner some will be seen to clear up the meaning of figures, symbols, and minor expressions, while others help us to see the significance intended in larger paragraphs and the office of these in the general outline. Special attention shovld SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 241 be given to the light to be gained from the peculiarities of single sentences and short paragraphs ; for a writer's habits of mind often reveal themselves as certainly in a single sentence or passage, as in the treatment of the larger parts of his work. And so in our author some of the difficulties that are most noticeable in the sequence of thought and grouping of material, that is, some of the principal grounds of critical objection, will be seen to be but expressions of precisely the same literary habits which appear in sentences and short passages of undeni able unity. "What is here said is not to be taken as minimizing the difficulties encountered in the Apocalypse ; it is rather a plea for a more rigorous application of a principle fundamen tal in exegesis, to criticism. Criticism has, not without justice, been censured for a want of thoroughgoing exegesis.^ At all events the interpretation of the parts of the Apocalypse in which critical objections are especially raised cannot be settled off:-hand by any universal canon ; moreover we must in some instances be content to accept the result which seems least im probable, if we are to escape the insuperable difficulties attach ing to the denial of a real unity. The following are the principal characteristics of the writer which are especially helpful in elucidating the difficulties of the Apocalypse. (1) Repetition, overfuUness. (a) This feature appears with great frequency, as shown by examples below, within a single sentence or paragraph ; (6) and the same habit of mind extends to the larger unit of the book, leading to similar repetition and fullness in the parts which make up the structure of the whole. There cannot then be found in (b) an argument against the unity of the book. Examples of (a) are : his head, his hair, white as wool, as snow li4, hast received and heard 3', the heavens nnd. the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein 106, if any man desireth to hurt them . ¦ ¦ if any man shall desire to hurt them W, victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name 152, g^jj ^/^g ^g^/j ^y Jdngs, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of miglity men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great 1918, cf . also 118, Si^' ", 49ff-, 5'2f-, 615,74-8, 96, 122.«.8f.^ 136 f.^ 146^ 1714f., 186f-.17, 202.121'-, 218, 22'5 — this list could be largely increased. Examples of {b) are : the thrice 1 Cf. Zahn. Ein. II. 605. 242 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER repeated series of seven visitations, those of the seals, the trumpets and the bowls ; the message to the Church in a series of seven epistles, all cast in the one fixed form ; repe-ated hymns of praise, having the same or a similar theme, 48. n, 59£-.i2.i3, 710.12, nis.izf., i2ioff-, 1.5-31., igif.. 5,6 a., repeated pictures of the saints in triumph, 79*-, 14i «•, 15^ ; repeated acts symbolical of the End, 141.HG, 17-20 . repetition in the description of the New Jerusalem, 2122-25, 22^; parallelisms in the Introduction and the Conclusion, li and 226, 1 a j is ^nd 22r.i2,i8f.; 18 and 22". (2) Closely connected with the foregoing characteristic is the introduction of brief, indefinite expressions and statements which are afterwards made specific or fuller, sometimes after an interval. (a} Instances, either in clauses immediately con nected, or in a resumption after an interval but within the same sentence or paragraph are very numerous. (6) Here again the habit shown within the limits of a single passage appears also in the relation of more widely separated para graphs, that is, a representation is sometimes taken up again in a later paragraph with details and enlargements. The essen tial identity of (a) and (6) bears directly upon critical objec tions frequently urged against certain portions. (a) Examples within closely connected clauses are : 2* thy irorks, i.e. thy toil, patience, etc., so also in 29. 18 and through all the seven epistles ; 2" a stumbling block, i.e. partaking of idolatrous feasts, etc. ; 11^ my tu)0 u-itnesses, i.e. as characterized in "w. 4 ff. ; 12'6 the earth helped, defined in the follow ing parallel clause ; 146 eternal gospel, i.e. as given in the words of v. 7 (see Com.) ; 20' the camp of the saints, i.e. the beloved city ; similar cases are li4, 64, 74-8, 128 s. 9, 13125,13-15. Examples in which the more definite or fuller representation follows after an interruption but in the same paragraph are: 1^ the seven churches, ('.e. those specified in v. 11 ; also """ndisff.. gsandsmidift 103«aDd6. i4iand4f. i5iand5fE. (J) Examplcs in passages more or less ¦widely separated are : 126 """i i3-i7 . 131-8 and 17'-" ; 14' and 18 ; 16i9»andl8; 211-2 and 219-22-'. (3) Interruptions in the course of thought. Departure from logical order, already seen in some of the cases spoken of above, appears very often in the book. This is far from a fatal objection to unity ; it cannot even be regarded as a defect, in a work of fervid religious imagination, espeeiully in one proceed ing from a mind like that of a Hebrew propliet. The Hebrew mind in general does not bind itself by the strict law of con tinuity, which the Greeks have taught the western world, as witness the Psalms, for example, or the Pauline epistles. The SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 243 instances of this break in continuity which occur in the Apoca lypse may be arranged in three groups (for examples see below): (a) displacement within a single paragraph, a fre quent occurrence and very significant as regards the writer's manner; (6) the interjection of brief utterances ; (e) the in sertion of longer episodes between portions which as parts of one series belong closely together. Passages of this last kind are numerous, and not only disturb the casual reader, but also enter largely into the argument against the unity of the book. There are, however, several considerations which relieve the difficulty felt here. The habit of mind which permits the dis placement within a single paragraph and the insertion of paren thetical utterances, referred to above (a, 5), makes altogether conceivable the author's departure from logical order and his insertion of episodes in the treatment of the larger factors which make up the outline of tbe book. And if as viewed from this point these interruptions are natural with the author, it will be shown below that there are in his purpose special mo tives leading directly to the introduction of these episodes; so that these so far from destroying unity serve rather to prove its presence. The particular oifice which such episodes per form in the general plan will be pointed out in the paragraph on prefatory passages?- All that is sought here is to show that they fall in naturally as a part of the author's manner. Of these episodes there are two classes ; first, those containing an anticipation of the End, or of some eschatological event, as if already present before its actual entrance. Such anticipa tion is characteristic of a prophet. In a prophet's vision the end is present from the beginning. Our Lord anticipating the final triumph sees already in his earthly days ' Satan fallen ' (Lk. 1018), and the prince of this world ' now cast out ' (Jno. 1231); g^_ Paul frequently speaks of salvation as already ac complished ; and thus it is that our writer in his pictures of the future sometimes changes to the present or past tense, so cer tain and vivid is his vision of the coming event. ^ His tendency to look first to the result and afterward to steps preceding is seen in his repeated use of the grammatical figure hysteron- proteron, inversion of the logical sequence, for example, 5^' ^ to 1 p. 245. 2 117-13, 207-16. 244 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER open the hook and to loose the seals; cf . 3^^ am rich (the result) and have gotten riches (the process) ; 3^ come and worship, etc. (the effect) and know, etc. (the cause); 10^ the sealing up before the writing; 10^ the bitter sequel before the sweetness of the taste ; 12^° salvation, the blessed consummation, before its foundation, the establishment of the kingdom; 1%'^ the garment sprinkled with the blood of carnage before the battle. We are therefore prepared to find the habit of anticipation entering also into his program in its larger aspect. Second. The second class of these episodes consists of passages, some of them of considerable length, which may be compared to a pic ture within a picture. These portray in striking visions, as it were in an idealized inset, the persons, agencies, and forces at work in and through the great eschatological events foretold in the larger picture, they open an insight into causes and motives underlying the other scenes. (a) Examples of the displacement spoken of above : 26 belongs "with the other expressions of approval and before the censure, i.e. before v. 4 ; 6'2 s-" ", the celestial phenomena are inserted into the midst of the terrestrial 612 a and 14 s . 717 a ^he guidance to the fountains belongs with the thirst, v. 16 a ; 14^ the truthfulness and faithfulness of the saints belong "with then other virtues, v. 4 ab, and before their redemption v. 4 c ; cf . also li6 ' which belongs with v. 14 ; 3" with v. 8 ; 4« » with v. 3 and before "w. 4, 5 J-6 ; 133«* "with V. 2 a, whereas v. 2 J goes with v. 8 c f . ; 20i^"* "with v. 12 a ; 20i* -with V. 12 (f; 1914 separates "w. 12 f. from w. 15 f. ; 22i*f- separates v. 17 from V. 20. (b) For interjection of brief utterances, cf. l*, 8i3, 912, 11", 13"-, I318, 1412 f., 165. 7, 1616, 1820, 206. (c) The insertion of longer episodes wfil be fully illustrated in the following paragraph on prefatory passages. A single example of each class mentioned above (p. 243) is given here to show more distinctly what is meant : 79-12 the "vision of accomplished redemption before the events preliminary to the End have run their course ; 121-" grow ing that Satan's hatred of the Messiah is the real force at work in the persecution of the Church. (4) The systematic introduction of prefatory passages. The foregoing paragraph has shown the writer's tendency to open to the reader in certain anticipatory passages a glimpse into an issue whose actual entrance belongs to a later point in the sequence of events ; it has also been shown that it is a part of his purpose to give in certain visions lying outside of this se quence an ideal picture of the powers and forces at work in the eschatological events described. Now an examination of the SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 245 book will show that these two classes of interruptions in what may be called the action of the book are introduced, one or both of them, as a kind of prelude, at every great juncture or critical turning-point. It is a fixed habit of the author tp preface in this way each new stage in the march of the future, and as the judgments preparatory to the parousia approach their culmination these preludes assume larger proportions and become more complex ; in some instances after the announce ment of, or after tbe initial step in, a new series of movements, a new prelude intervenes before the series actually begins its course. In this use of preludes should be noticed tbe splendid alternation of light with shadow. Before every vision of gloom and terror the writer introduces a glimpse of the radiant glory that lies beyond — ¦ it is a burst of harmony which lingers on with one, whose ear is attuned, through all the hoarse tumult soon filling the air. Tbe assurance of hope, the promise of the vic tory of the Kingdom, is offered anew with every new approach of trial. Herein is carried out into detail the principle that determines the rise of the apocalyptic books in general ; see p. 175. Nothing could more clearly show that the supreme purpose of the book was to cheer and sustain the readers through the awful troubles that were coming on the world before the sway of Antichrist and his servants should be for ever broken. The characteristic here mentioned will appear in tbe follow ing brief survey which takes up in order each series in the movements determining the outline of the book. (1) The commission to the seven churches, the first paragraph after the introduction, is prefaced by a vision revealing the author of the commission, the great Head of the Church, in the midst of the seven churches (I12-20). (2) The eschatological move ments which fill up the rest of the book are prefaced in chapters 4-5 by the revelation of the divine powers controlling the whole destiny of the world to the end, while chapt. 5 also forms the im mediate preface to the breaking of tbe seals. (3) The great turning-point reached in the breaking of the last seal (8^) is prefaced by the anticipative vision of God's people brought in safety through the coming crisis (T^-^O- (4) After the initial step of the breaking of this last seal and before its sequel seen 246 SOME TRAITS OF THE -WRITER'S MANNER in the seven trumpet-blasts is introduced, there comes in as a preface the symbolic act (S^-^) showing that the judgments of the seven trumpet-blasts now to come are expressions of the wrath of God moved to intervention by the prayers of the saints. (5) After the judgments of six trumpets have run their course, the crisis reached in the seventh blast (11^^) is introduced by the double preface bidding the prophet anew to go on with his bitter duty to the end, now certainly near at band (10), and giving assurance of Israel's conversion in the last time (IV--^^). (6) After the sounding of the seventh trumpet, here again before the sequel is introduced, that is, before the appearance of the angels with the seven bowls (16^) there is brought in a preface of still greater complexity in keeping with the magnitude of the crisis; this preface consists of the following parts : (a) the song of praise anticipative of the end (ll^^^i^) and the symbolic occurrence showing the com ing judgments to be the acts of the God of the covenant (11^), (6) first, the allegory revealing Satan's hostility to the Christ as explaining the persecution of the Church, together with the assurance of his final downfall (12) and second, the symbols of his agents in these persecutions (13), (c) a prelude directly introducing the acts of judgment, consisting of the anticipa tion of the triumph of the saints (14^^^), proclamations (14^"^^), and symbolic acts (14^*"^''). (7) After the announcement of the next series, that is, the angels with the plagues of the seven bowls (15^), and before the initial step in the unfolding of the series (15 * *) , there is introduced as a prelude another glimpse anticipative of the final triumph (152~*). (8) After the plagues of six bowls are accomplished and before the crisis of the last (16" "•) the place of the usual preface is taken by a brief interlude of encouragement and warning (16^^) looking to the trial about to break upon the world. (9) With the plague of the seventh bowl (1Q'^''~^^') the long series of preparatory events beginning with the breaking of the first seal (6^) is finished and now is to begin the last chapter in the divine drama, the destruction of the arch-enemies with their stronghold, and the setting up of the eternal kingdom. This crisis is prefaced by an anticipative vision showing vividly the wickedness of the capital city of the Beast as the cause of the destruction now to SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 247 be visited upon her (IT--'"' i5-is) and explaining the symbol of the Beast and telling of bis coming overthrow (17*~i*). (10) The first act in the final chapter, the destruction of the great city, is not represented in vision, it is proclaimed in word and symbol (18^"*' ^i-^*) and the lament to be uttered over it is anticipated (18^~^^), also the heavenly song of exultation is heard after the destruction is accomplished (19^"^). (11) The crdminating movements ushered in by the appearing of the Messiah leading forth the armies of heaven for battle (19'^'^-'^^') are prefaced by the heavenly hallelujahs anticipative of the consummation (19^~^); the battle and the final events which are inseparably connected follow one another without pause (19"-225). (5) The introduction of an object not pre"7iously mentioned, as if already familiar to the reader. Some passages in which this usage occurs have on this ground been held to be impossi ble in their present connection — the usage is thought to show either the incorporation of a fragment or a derangement in the original order. But from a number of instances virtually parallel it would appear to be a part of the writer's manner to anticipate, as if familiar, objects to be made distinct later ; sometimes also expressions which, so far as appears are unfa miliar, are left unexplained. This trait in the apocalyptist is not hard to account for ; he writes with all the great factors of his visions present to his mind, and it is by no means incon ceivable that he should sometimes forget that he has not yet put the reader entirely on his own plane, and should introduce as if understood an idea or figure before he has reached its full presentation, or should use unfamiliar symbols and terms with out explanation. This may perhaps be criticized as a literary fault, yet it is one that may occur in any imaginative work. The most striking instance of this usage occurs in 11'^ where ' the (not a) beast that cometh up out of the abyss ' is intro duced with the article, as if known to the reader, though the reference is first made clear in 13^"-. But in view of other cases essentially similar the peculiarity can hardly give suffi cient ground for objection to the originality of the passage in this place. 1 The following cases may be compared: ' the seven 1 See Com. 248 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER churches ' 1^ though v. 11 first specifies which among the Asian churches are meant ; ' the second death ' 2^^, first made clear in 201* . similar are also ' the seven spirits ' 1*, ' the great city' IG^^ '¦the great 'harlot' 11'-, 'my two witnesses' 11^; the fol lowing are without subsequent explanation : ¦• the morning star ' 2^^, ' the seven thunders ' 10^. (6) Contradictions, abrupt changes, unimaginable concep tions. These features appear frequently and the attempt to get over the difficulties thus arising has led on the one hand to an artificial and impossible exegesis, on the other, to an ex treme critical process which finds in all differences a mark of different documents. In tlie work of a poetic mind moving freely through a series of stupendous visions the very charac ter of visions like that of dreams forbids us to look in all case.s for rigorous self-consistency or conformity to the realities of actual life. We are prepared to find in visions inconsistencie.s, sudden transitions, impossible combinations. It is true that incongruities may sometimes be traceable to the reminiscence of a source which suggested his thought to the author; the eschatology of Ezekiel, for example, which greatly infiuenced ]iim, has left its trace in the post-millennial gathering of the nations against the beloved city (20'"-, Ezk. 38), though ac cording to the earlier representation (19i8~2i^ ^11 earthly ene mies had already been destroyed. Yet here as elsewhere the author's use of a source is, as shown above, ^ an independent one and does not destroy the unity of his plan ; it is certain that there are not in these characteristics sufficient data for resolv ing the book into a series of excerpts put together unskillfully. The principal cases calling for consideration will be noticed in the Com mentary ; it is sufficient here to give without discussion a few examples to illustrate the writer's manner in the respect spoken of. Examples of con flict are : ' Straightway I was in the Spirit' i^, though the Prophet had been ' in the Spirit ' from l" on ; in 312 there is to be a temple in the new Jerusa lem, in 2122 there is no temple there ; the grass is unhurt in 94 though in 8' it had all been destroyed ; in I61 all the bowls are poured out upon the earth, but in -w. 8, 17 one is poured upon the sea, another upon the air ; in 17i' waters are said to have been seen, but iu v. 3 f. the Prophet sees a wilder ness, not water. Examples of abrupt transition, or of the merging of dif ferent representations are : II6 the right hand holding the seven'" stiirs, v. 17 1 p. 221. SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 249 the same right hand laid assuringly on the Prophet ; in 7i^i' the heavenly throne-room, the temple, and the pastures are combined in one picture ; in 132 the beast with seven heads suddenly becomes a beast with one head (one mouth), then a personal ruler (his throne) and in v. 12 he is identified -with one of his heads; in 171' f- the heads are first mountains, then kings; in 2012 the two conceptions, one of a book recording men's deeds, and another of a book containing a list of those destined to life, are blended. Examples of unimaginable conceptions (in all apocalyptic literature very numerous) are : the seeing of -writing within a sealed roll, a lamb taking the book and breaking the seals, the 'living creatures' holding harps, 5^-"; the smiting of the luminaries followed by a diminution, not of the inten sity, but of the duration of light 8^2; the fabulous nature of the locusts 9'*; a person clothed with the sun 12i ; a city 12,000 furlongs high 2116. (7) The use of symbols, types, and numbers employed sym bolically. As in all writing which seeks to represent vividly spiritual things, especially propliecy and the literature of visions, symbolism is the instrument used most extensively in our book. Symbols, using the word in its most comprehensive scope, enter into every representation, one might almost say into every sentence. These are taken largely from the Old Testa ment, especially from the apocalyptic portions of the prophets, but some are derived from apocalyptic tradition handed down through other sources, some from everyday life and observa tion, some certainly are to be attributed to the author's inven tion. As with the prophets of the Old Testament^ so here also we have symbolical actions.^ It is important to deter mine the meaning which the author attached to the symbols used and to avoid the fancifulness to which they easily lend themselves — a most common source of misinterpretation. In general they are not explained by the writer. Often the mean ing is clear in itself, or is made clear by tbe context, or by a use familiar to the readers ; in some cases, however, explanatory words are added ; ^ in still others the symbol is left obscure.* Care must be taken not to attach a mystic significance to all the details in a symbolical representation ; frequently these are designed merely to embellish the picture, to give it vivid- i E.g. Is. 20 2ff., Jer. bSi-', Ezk. 37i6fl'-, Zec. 1V«: 2 E.g. 72-8,10S-ii, 111'- 19, 1414-20, 18^1. 3 E.g. 120, 45, 5«^ 118, 129, 179 f., 12, IS, 18, 198. *E.g. 217 », gi, 9"S 103*'-, 133, 19126. 250 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER ness and power, very much as the details sometimes used to fill out a parable or a Homeric simile. It is a mistake (one, however, often met with in the interpretation of the Apoca lypse) to seek, for example, a special mystical meaning for the golden girdle, the flaming eyes etc. in 1^'*-, for the jasper, the sardine stone, and the rainbow in 4^, for the sun, moon, and stars in 12^.^ In general tbe context and the manner of apoca lyptic writers will guide with reasonable certainty to the pur pose of such details. The use of proper names and desig nations calls for special notice here. These are almost wholly typical except in certain places where reference is made to a distinct historical fact,^ and in the prologue and epilogue, where the visionary element with its peculiar style is subor dinate; even the names of the churches addressed in the epistles are not altogether an exception, for these are reaUy intended to be typical of the whole Church.^ Abaddon, Har magedon, Gog and Magog belong solely to apocalyptic lan guage ; and in our book Babylon, Egypt, Jerusalem, Jezebel, Sion, and Sodom have a typical sense only ; though the cities of Rome and Jerusalem sometimes form the theme, they are never called by their proper names ; Balaam is made the type of the Nicolaitans ; * Euphrates ^ is apparently thought of less really than tjrpically, as a kind of horizon-line beyond which lies the unknown and dreaded East ; the name Jew occurring but twice ^ seems to be in the author's mind a designation of the true child of God ; children of Israel in the description of the new Jerusalem "^ is the designation of the whole people of God, and the use in that passage, taken together with the general use of proper names shown above, furnishes strong presumption that this is the meaning of the term in the only other place (apart from the historical reference in 2^*) in which it occurs, the much discussed passage 72«-.8 Numbers, except as determined by definite reference in the context, are generally symbolical; to such an extent is this the case that even in some places where they designate an exact fact, for example, the -seven mountains' of Roine,^ we may probably regard this a coincidence. This trait is a part of the 1 See Com. in loc 2 p;_g_ 213. 3 p. 210. 4 2i4f. 6 914 igiz. 6 29, 39. 7 2112. 8 See Com. 9 179. SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 251 writer's inheritance. ^ The oriental mind shows a special fond ness for this use of numbers ; it appears alike in the Hebrew scriptures and in the records of other peoples. What pri marily may have caused a sacred or symbolical character to be attached to a particular number does not belong to our pres ent inquiry ; that at all events must be more or less a matter of conjecture, for the usage in most cases took its rise in pre historic time. But it is easy to see how in certain numbers the idea inherited by the Hebrews through their Semitic tra ditions should have grown. Whatever in an earlier age made 7 a sacred or typical number, it was inevitable that this char acter should be intensified by the importance of the week of 7 days in the Hebrew religion; similarly the number 12 must have been affected by the number of the tribes. In rabbinical and apocalyptic literature this treatment of numbers becomes especially frequent. In our writer then it is only one of the traits adopted from the general biblical and apocalyptic man ner. And the particular numbers thus used by him are nearly all found with similar meaning in the Old Testament and Jewish apocalypses. The numbers oftenest employed thus in our book are 3, 3^ (and in certain relations, its equivalent 42 or 1260), 4, 7, 10, 12, 1000 and multiples of 1000. It is not to be supposed that a specific meaning attaches invariably to a given numerical symbol, so that we could substitute this as a paraphrase in all cases ; in view of the vagueness character izing the style of visions we m'ay presume that the writer himself did not always have a precise intention in mind. Sometimes the tradition taken up by him determined the choice of the number. An essential thing is that we should neither take the number literally, nor seek to find in it a recon dite, mystical meaning. For the most part the general tenor of the representation will suggest a sufficiently definite sense. Three, one of the most frequent numbers in the Scriptures to denote adequateness, sufficiency, is used in our book "with the same meaning, for example the 3 plagues 9i6, the 3 woes 8", the effect of the earthquake 16i9 ; the third part aSected by the trumpet-blasts 8"-, 9'^ apparently denotes a large, but not the larger, part ; similarly the third part of the stars 124 j -tim 3 gates in each side of the wall of the New Jerusalem 21i' are due directly 1 Cf. Lucke n. 404 fi., Enc. Bib. HI. 8434 fl.. Hast. m. 660 fE. 252 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER to Ezekiel 4:8^"-, which furnishes the prototype for our author here; io Enoch 34-36 heaven has 8 gates opening toward each of the four quarters. The other cases in which the number occurs (66, 8") call for no comment here. Three and a half, always typical, is unquestionably taken from Dan. 72*, 12', where the 'time and times and half a thne,' i.e. three and a haH 'times,' denote the last period of the triumph of evil and the oppression of God's people, as accomplished in the rule of Antiochus, after which should come the Great Day of Jehovah, with the destruction of the enemy and the giv ing of the kingdom to the saints of the Most High. While the persecutions of Antiochus are seen to have lasted approximately 3J years (cf. Driver Dan. in C. B. 93 ; Introd. 494) it is probable that the author of Dan. uses the number typically of the indefinite but short period which he pictures as preceding the End. The theory is plausible that he derives the number from Semitic tradition, that primarily it figured the three months or more during which nature is in the grasp of frost and cold (cf . Gunkel 266 ff., 389 ff.) and that it afterwards became a symbol of the fierce period of evil before the last great triumph, a symbol of the time of the power of Anti christ, ' the tinles of the Gentiles,' Lk. 2124, or more widely, the symbol of any period of great calamity. The common explanation of it as ' a broken seven,' based on Dan. 92', is improbable, for the "typical use of a number grows out of its exact use with concrete objects (cf. Gunkel 267). At all eveut.s, whatever may have been the origin of the symbol, its significance in Dan. is plain. From Dan. it passes into the Talmud (cf . "Volz 170) as an eschatological number ; as such it appears also in 2 Es. 54, where it is said that the destruction of the great world-power will be seen by him to whom God grants to live 'after the third time.' The Ms. hsis post tertiam which unquestionably refers to the ' three times ' still granted to the last hostile world-power before its end. The AV, trumpet, is from the reading tubam, a corruption of turbatum; cf. Box Ez. Ap. in loc. The ellipsis of the noim after tertiam ' corresponds to the mysterious style of apocalyptic writing ' (Gunkel in Kautzsch, 359, cf. Charles Asc Is. p. 29). According to the Ascension of Is. 412 the last world-power, the iijcarnation of Beliar, wUl rule 3 years, 7 months, and 27 days. This by the Julian reckoning is equivalent to the ' 1385 days ' of Dan. I212 and is doubtless taken from that (cf. Liieke I. 285, Charles Asc. Is. in loc, Flemming in Heimecke's Handbuch 327). But this number of days in Dan. 12^2 like that in 8i4 is probably an inter pretation of the original 3| ' times ' in 726, suggested to a re"viser by the facts of history. The author of the Apocalypse in 12i4 takes the primary phrase of Daniel ' a time and times and half a time ' ; elsewhere he inter prets ' times ' as days, or years, and in the latter case gives variously 3^ years, or the equivalent 42 months, or 1260 days, the month being reckoned as 80 days (II2. ». 9, n, 126, 135-). ^ut in all places the meaning seems to be the same, the period of the last terrible sway of Satan and his agents in the wwU before the second coming of the Lord. Four in the ' four living creatures ' 4' and passim is traditional ; the representation of the cherubim is taken from Ezk. (1««- ; an earlier tradition may lie behind Ezk.) who makes them 4 (cf. Enoch 40), as the bearers of Jehovah's throne-car moving straight forward SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER 253 into the 4 quarters of the earth. ' Four-square,' as an epithet of the Holy City, 2116, also follows the pattern of Ezk. 48i6. 2". The ' fourth part ' given into the power of death 6>* can hardly have any other meaning than a large but not unlimited part. The other /b /«¦.¦,¦ (7"^- 9'4f-) which call for notice are seen to be associated with the 4 points of the compass. Seven, the preeminently sacred number with the Hebrews and found also among other peoples, the one used typically in the scriptures in every conceivable relation and numberless instances, where fullness, completeness, certainty is thought of, is the favorite number with our author and forms one of the dominant infiuences in his manner. There are the 7 churches -with their 7 angels, 7 stars and 7 lampstands ; the 7 spirits with their 7 lamps ; the Lamb with 7 eyes and 7 horns ; the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets and the 7 bowls, -with their respective 7 plagues ; two groups of seven angels ; the dragon and the Beast "with their 7 heads ; 7 mountains, 7 kings, 7 thunders. The number occurs 54 times ; also its presence in the writer's thought is seen even where it is not expressly mentioned, e.g. as a constructive feature (see cases below) or as determining the number of terms in a rhetorical series (512, 61^, 712). It is commonly understood to be used in an exact sense in the 7 churches, the 7 kings, and the 7 mountains, though even here a sjrm- bolical meaning is possible (see Com.). In all other instances it is unques tionably typical or schematic, denoting ideal completeness, entirety, sufficiency. In the case of the 7 spirits, the 7 thunders, and the 7 heads of the dragon, tradition may have had some influence in determining the number (see Com. on 14, 10', 12') ; in all other cases of its symbolical use its choice seems due to the author's fondness for the number. As a multiple of 1000 the 7000 killed in the earthquake 11" denote a large number but relatively to the whole population a small one, probably a tenth part (see Com.). As a constructive feature the number may be made the basis of an alto gether arbitrary analysis of the book (so Ewald 88 ff.), yet besides the clearly marked paragraphs of the 7 epistles, the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets, and the 7 bowls, there are others which without fancifulness can be seen to consist of 7 parts. The paragraph of the actual parousia with its culminating events, 1911-225, falls into the following 7 parts: (1) I911-16; (2)19i'-i8; (3)1919-203; (4) 204-6 ; (5) 20'-io ; (6) 20ii-i5 ; (7) 211-225. The fall of the ' great city,' I8I-I95, divides itself naturally as follows: (1) the proclamation I81-'; (2) the summons to the Christians 184-6 . (-3^ incitement of the spirits of vengeance 186^8 ; (4) lament of merchants and others 189-i9 ; (5) call to heaven etc. to rejoice 182" ; (6) the symbolical act and the cry of the angel I821-24 ; (7) the hymn of exultation IQi-^. Chapter 14, which forms a single paragraph as a complex prelude to the vision of the bowls, falls into the following parts : (1)1-5; (2)6-7; (3)8; (4)9-12; (5)13; (6) 14-16; (7)17-20. The epilogue 226-20, exclusive of the benediction, is commonly divided as fol lows: (1)6-7; (2)8-9; (3)10-15; (4) 16; (5)17; (6)18-19; (7)20. (Cf . R'V" and WH.) The great vision of chapters 4-5 consists of tioo de scriptive parts 41-^", 51-8, and five hymns 4'*' n, b^ *-' 12. i^. In this connection cf . also the introduction of V beatitudes, !», 141', I6I6, IO', 206, 22'. ». It is an interesting fact that a series of 7 is sometimes divided into 3-1-4, 254 SOME TRAITS OF THE WRITER'S MANNER or 4 -I- 3. Thus in the 7 epistles the first 3 form one group, the last 4 an other (see Com.) ; in the 7 seals the peculiarity of the revelation of the fifth marks the change to a new group ; a similar division is indicated by the angelic cry 8i' inserted between the fourth and fifth trumpets, and by the interlude 16*-' between the third and fourth bowls. Such a resolution of 7 is not a clearly established usage in other writers. (It is doubtful whether in Mt. 13 the grouping of the parables is intended as a di"vision of 7 into 4 + 3.) The explanation of the peculiarity is not certain. The theory that 7 originally owes its sacredness to the fact that it is the sum of 3 + 4 is in itseK improbable ; at any rate there is no indication of this thought with our author ; nowhere so far as the numbers are expressly named does he bring 7 into connection with 3 and 4, as constituent parts ; and we are perhaps right in thinking that he did not attach important sig nificance to the division, for he does not direct attention to it, and it becomes apparent only upon critical observation. Quite possibly it is a slight pause in the middle of a series due to a habit of mind seen throughout the book, a reluctance to move directly to an end through a long unbroken succession of steps. Ten, which among all the peoples using the decimal system is found frequently as a round number ior fullness, completeness, occurs often in this sense in the Bible and apocalyptic -writers. Our book uses it in this typical significance only. The ' ten days ' of tribulation 21" denote a period not long, but enough so to bring severe trial to the sufferers (see Com.). The other instances in which the number occurs are found in the represen tations of the dragon and the Beast, and in the interpretations of these (12', 131, 17^' ''12. 16) ; here the 10 horns are taken over from the prototype in Dan. 7', as a part of the tradition and are made typical of complete sway over the kings of the earth ; the reference in I712 to 10 kings is an apphcation of the traditional number used typically rather than an explanation of the choice of 10 as the number required by actual history. Whether the author of Dan. derived the number of the horns from Semitic tradition is not certain — that origin is possible (cf. Gunkel 832). Twelve like seven possesses preeminently a sacred character -with the Hebrews and is applied typically to a great variety of objects in both ci-vil and religious matters. In most cases this is probably traceable directly to the number of the tribes. Twelve thus becomes especially appropriate as a symbol of completeness in whatever pertains to the theocratic people as such, and to their ideal capital city. New Testament -writers still conceive of Israel as consisting of 12 tribes, nothwithstanding the disappearance of the ten (Acts 26', Ja. 11) ; and Ezekiel pictm-es the ideal city with 12 gates (4881*). go the author of the Apocalypse sees the eschatological Israel, which is sealed and kept faithful through the last woes, composed of the full number of tribes with the full number in each tribe, 12 tribes of 12,000 each (74") ; he sees the new Jerusalem {2V^^-) in the form of a cube, whose side measures 12,000 furlongs ; it has 12 gates inscribed with the names of the 12 tribes and guarded by 12 angelic warders ; it has 12 foundations bearing the names of the 12 apostles and a wall measuring 12 times 12 cubits. In the 12 fruits of the tree of life 222, the number, as shown by the added words, is I. 1-8] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 255 determined by the 12 months, the meaning being that the yield continues perpetually through the year. The number is used in one other passage, ' the cro"wn of 12 stars,' 12i, where the reference is probably to the 12 signs of the zodiac (see Com.). A tJiousond, as in common usage everywhere, is a typical unit of enumeration where large numbers are meant, e.g., ' the cattle on a thousand hills,' Ps. 50i", ' One of a thousand,' Job 9'. So in our book the 1000 years of the Millennium 204 denote a long but limited period ; and so a multiple of 1000 is used where large measures or large numbers of persons are spoken of, as in the sealing of Israel 74*-, the meas urement of the Holy City 21i6, and the number of the heavenly host 511. Its use in forming large multiples of 7 and 12 has been spoken of above. 666 and some other numbers which occur in only one connection can be spoken of most conveniently elsewhere ; see p. 403, and Com. 44, 95, 113, 1420. VII. Summary of the Contents of the Apocalypse 1 Prologue. I. 1-8. (1) Superscription, vv. 1-3. (2) Exordium, vv. 4-8. (a) Address and Salutation, vv. 4-6 ; (5) Proclamation of Christ's Advent — the Motto of the book, w. 7-8. In the Superscription, "w. 1-3, the writer announces the sub ject of his book, a revelation of things soon to come to pass. He vouches for the origin and sanction of its contents, which come from God himself through divinely ordained agencies — Christ, an angel, and the writer himself, a divinely commis sioned prophet to whom the revelations of the book are shown in visions, vv. 1-2. He commends the book to be read in Christian assemblies, and enforces the injunction to heed its words by the assurance that the time is near when its prophe cies shall be fulfilled, v. 3. The Exordium, vv. 4-8, falls into two parts, (a) Address and Salutation, vv. 4-6 ; (J) Proclamation of Christ's Advent — the Motto of the book, vv. 7-8. (a) The book is in the form of an epistle addressed to seven Asian churches, though intended for the whole Church. ^ At the opening the writer adopts the stereotyped formula of address and salutation found with slight variations in aU the New Testament epistles except 1 Throughout this section conclusions are assumed which are reached in other parts of the Introduction and in the Commentary. The summary must be con- Btantly supplemented by these fuller discussions. 2 gee p. 210. 256 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [I. 1-8 Heb., James, 1 and 3 Jno. He closes (22^1) likewise with a benediction of the readers similar to that in nearly all the epistles. In the address the writer calls down upon the read ers grace and peace from the divine presence ; and while there is nothing to suggest a limitation of these blessings to particu lar needs and times, yet the Apocalyptist has especially in mind the coming days with their stupendous issues ; the thought of the future dominates the whole passage. The epithets ap plied to God and Christ throughout appear to be derived di rectly from the vision of chapters TV.-V. (a passage quite probably written before this introductory greeting) and the divine persons are named in the same order as there. ^ Before the revelation of the future, that vision of chapters IV.-V., por traying the personages and motives working out the fulfillment of the messianic hopes, emphasizes the divine attributes which are closely related to such fulfillment. So here in the open ing benediction, the same attributes of God and Christ are rehearsed, because the writer is likewise thinking of the assur ance which these special attributes give to the readers regard ing the revelations and promises of tbe book. The blessing is invoked (1) from God as the eternal one, one therefore who as superior to all the changes of human history will in the end come in his eternal kingdom, v. 4 (cf. 4^) ; (2) from the all- searching Spirit, the revealer of the divine message to the churches, v. 4 (cf. 4^ 2'^) ; (3) from Jesus Christ, who opens the sealed book of the future and gives here in the Apocalypse a faithful revelation of the Last Days, v. 5 (cf. 5^), who though once slain is now risen to a new life into which his children will follow him, v. 5 (cf. S^^"'), and who will become supreme Lord in the messianic kingdom — in the language of Jewish eschatology, the Root of David, the ruler of the kings of the earth, v. 5 (cf. 5^). To him, because in his love he has re deemed us by his death and destines us for rule and priestly privilege in his kingdom, belongs the ascription of eternal praise, vv. 5 f. (cf. 5"'). (h) Tlie Proclamation of the Lord's Advent. The Exordium closes fittingly with a solemn announcement of the Lord's coming, tbe thought of which underlies what precedes, though not formally expressed. The 1 See pp. 426 f. I.9-III. 22] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 257 whole future foretold in the book centers in tbe parousia, a distinct announcement of which is therefore to be expected in these opening words. These verses have been called the Motto of the book, as summarizing its central theme. The procla mation of the Advent is made with striking dramatic force. The writer interrupts as it were his own words and lets his readers hear the well-known apocalyptic cry, Lo, he comes, every eye shall see him, to which then the writer himself re sponds, Even so. Amen, v. 7 ; and then, as the supreme assur ance, the voice of Jehovah is heard, / am the Eternal one, the Almighty, one whose purpose regarding the eternal kingdom cannot fail, v. 8. The Initial Vision. I. 9-III. 22. Christ's appearance to the Prophet with the command (1) to send a book of all the visions revealed to him to seven Asian churches (the Church), I. 9-20 ; (2) to include a special message to each of these several churches, II. -III. (1) The manifold introduction to the book (1'"*) now being ended, the writer enters at once upon his theme, the revelation from God which is made to him in visions and sent with all its varied messages to the churches. While sojourning in the island of Patmos he was lifted up into a state of ecstasy on a certain Lord's-day, and heard in words clear and loud like the sound of a trumpet the command to write in a book what is to be shown to him, and to make it known to seven designated churches of Asia Minor. It is in fulfillment of this divine in junction that he now after all his visions are ended writes this book. The somewhat indefinite announcement of the Super scription (vv. 1-2), that God had sent a revelation to his ser vants through the writer is made more specific ; it is the revelation given in these visions, a record of which he is com manded to send to the churches. At the sound of the call the Seer turns and beholds in a manifestation of overpowering splen dor one like unto a son of man, who as the head of the Church sends to it the message of all the visions that are to follow. The older prophets, e.g. Isaiah (VI.), Jeremiah (I.), Ezekiel (I.-IIL), describe visions in which they received their call ; and they dwell on their authorization and equipment for their work. 258 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [1. 9-III.22 But that is not the chief purpose of this vision. The simple command Write is in this place enough. The writer describ ing himself as a sharer with his readers in their afflictions and hopes, V. 9, here fixes his eye mainly on the exalted character of the great ^^uthor of the message and his intimate relation to his Church, to which the message is sent. Christ appears, portrayed in traits taken chiefly from descriptions of God and an angelic being given in the Old Testament, which are meant to picture him in dazzling glory and majesty, vv. 13-16. A symbolic meaning is not to be sought in the details, except so far as they form traits in a picture of resplendent glory, and contain current terms used in expressing divine activities.^ Two symbols, the lampstands and the stars, figuring the churches in two different aspects, are shown, which with their context reveal, the one, the Lord's presence in his Church, the other, the might of his holding hand, vv. 12 f., 16, 20. With awe-awakening voice like the sound of many waters, v. 15, Christ declares his transcendent being and the message which in his exalted state he sends to his servants; as the eternal one, V. 17, as in his essential nature the living one, who tri umphed over the grave and is Lord of life and death, v. 18, he sends this revelation which with warning and encouragement discloses things which are .present in relation to their great issues, and things which shall come to pass, leading up to the End, V. 19, when his eternal purpose shall be accomplished and his kingdom of life shall be established in the complete triumph of his saints over death. While the figure of the Son of man contains reminiscences of the Jewish Messiah, the Christian conception of the exalted Christ is the predominant characteristic in the vision. Verse 20 adds an explanation of two symbols which would otherwise be obscure. (2) The special messages to the seven churches, II.-III. The vision of the preceding chapter (lio-20^ while forming an introduction to the whole book, in that it defines its general scope and gives the Lord's authorization to the Prophet in his entire commission (vv. 11, 19), stands also as the immediate introduction to the group of special messages to the several churches now to follow. The head of the Church has revealed 1 See p. 249. I. MIL 22] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 259 himself as present within the Church, holding it in his sway to protect it, to chastise it, and to control its destinies. In that character now in view of what is coming on the earth he sends to these seven churches, which are typical of the Church as a whole, these special words of exhortation, of searching reproof and approval, of fearful warning and glorious promise. Noth ing more clearly distinguishes our book from other apocalypses than does this paragraph of the seven epistles ; yet nothing is more closely in keeping with its purpose and true prophetic character. The foremost duty of the prophets of Israel was to correct and instruct the people of God ; judgment must begin at Jerusalem. In the eschatological chapters of the Gospels ^ the thought turns in the outset from prediction and promise to urgent exhortation. And in general the foremost word of prophecy to Christians is. Take heed to yourselves, repent, be zealous — the most emphatic bidding to the imperfect Church. And so our author with the instinct of the genuine prophet introduces here in the foremost place these stirring words to the churches, regarding their present spiritual condition and their preparation for the coming crisis. The cursory reader, and many critics as well,^ m^-y fii^d in the insertion of the para graph a disturbance of the orderly plan of the book, but a true insight into its nature as a message of prophecy leads us to expect just here in the outset some such direct and searching address to tbe Church regarding its own life. The first con cern of the Church is its own present state, its fidelity to all that the Lord requires of it ; and only thus can it prepare itself for the future. What has been said of the destination of the book as a whole is true of the seven epistles also ; while each has its specific message for the particular church addressed, it has in the author's mind its lessons for all the others in the group, and he invariably speaks of the contents of each as, 'What the Spirit saith to the churches.' There can be no doubt that he saw in all the revelations given to him by tbe Spirit, both here and elsewhere in the book, a message for other churches besides the seven, the other churches of Asia and of the world at large. Four of the epistles (to the churches in Ephesus, Pergamum, 1 Mk. 18, Mt. 24-25, Lk. 21. 2 See p. 492. 260 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [I. 9-in. 22 Thyatira, Sardis) contain both praise and censure ; two (to the churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia) unreserved praise ; one only (to the church in Laodicea) unreserved censure. The writer shows an intimate knowledge of each of the congregations addressed. With penetrating insight he sees their faults and perils, he administers rebuke unsparingly, he threatens with the terrors of a fierce judgment, he allows no compromise with a low standard of Christian zeal and morality. But on the other hand he is also quick to see every virtue, to commend, to encourage, to strengthen. The flashes of wrath against the evils found in the churches are apt to blind us to the under lying manifestation of love aud tenderness. The presence of love in chastisement (cf. 3^^) is after all the keynote of aU the epistles. Gracious recognition and encouragement come first ; censure stands second. There is no irrevocable spurning of those rebuked, they are called with loving promise to repent ance. The 'lukewarm ' Laodiceans, chastised with stinging words of abhorrence, are the very ones to whom is given the most outspoken promise of intimate, loving fellowship, 3^". The most casual reader will have noticed the recurrence of certain fixed terms or elements of structure in every epistle. These are (1) 'To the angel of the church in — write'; (2) ' These things saith he ' ;^ (3) An epithet of the speaker, Christ, taken either from tbe vision of I. 10-20, or from some characteristic of Christ prominent in the author's mind, as seen later, and designed in all cases to enforce the message ; (4) ' I know,' followed by a characterization of the state of the church, with praise or censure ; (5) commands, warnings, promises suited to each special case ; (6) ' He that hath an ear' etc. — an appeal to every one to heed the Spirit's message to the churches ; (7) ' To him that overcometh ' etc. — an eschatological promise to the victor. The order of (6) and (7) in the last four epistles is the reverse of that followed in the first three ; so that in this respect tbe seven fall into two groups of three and four (see p. 253). But with this uni- 1 The words ' These things saith he ' introducing every epistle are like the ' Thus saith the Lord ' of the prophets ; a literal dictation of words is not meant, but the content of the Lord's will regarding the matter -with which the prophet is commissioned. IV-V] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 261 formity of structure there is no monotony of thought ; each epistle contemplates a different situation and brings a differ ent word of prophecy. The specific message of each epistle can best be reviewed in connection with the account of the particular church addressed, as given in the Commentary. The Scene in the Court of Heaven, IV-V. (1) God en throned in heaven, and surrounded by the • worshiping hosts of the angelic hierarchy, IV. (2) The sealed book and the Lamb, V. (1) The Introductory Vision (V^^-S^^}, designed to prepare the Church to meet the future foretold in the other visions, closes with the last of the seven epistles. The writer now passes to that future with the persons and forces working within it. With Chapter IV begins the long series of revelations of ' things that are ' and ' things that are to come to pass,' which grouped after the author's own manner make up a united whole, the main contents of tbe book, chapters IV-XXII. 5. The fulfillment of God's purposes concerning his kingdom is near. The vision here opened, consisting of two inseparably connected- parts, IV and V, furnishes the foundation and as surance of all that follows — God enthroned over all in eternal majesty and power, IV, giving over the book of his will to Christ, the Lamb, the revealer and fulfiller, V. These are the supreme ' things that are,' ^ out of which the ' things that are to come to pass ' must flow certainly and completely in spite of the powers of evil. The scene which presents itself here is one of wonderful magnificence. Heaven is revealed under the form of the monarch's throne-room. Jehovah appears seated on his throne in the splendor of many-colored light, v. 3, and surrounded by the highest beings of his celestial court. Be fore the throne the polished pavement of the royal hall stretches out like a sea of glass, v. 6 ; lightnings and thunders, and voices, symbols of the divine presence, proceed from the throne ; and before it burn seven lamps of fire, symbols of the Spirit of God. As befits the King of kings, God is attended by a company of angelic kings, four and twenty, seated on thrones and wearing crowns of gold, v. 4; and four Living 1 See Com. 1". 262 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [IV-V Creatures, the cherubim and seraphim, stand one on each of the four sides of the throne, vv. 6-8. These, the highest in the celestial hierarchy, raise continually a hymn of praise, worshiping God in his divine nature, his almighty power, and his eternal being, v. 8 ; while the four and twenty angelic kings respond with acts of lowliest adoration, and witli an anthem glorifying God as the creator of all, vv. 9-11. (2) In chapter V is given the second part of the vision, es sential to the completion of the former part. A roU firmly sealed is seen in the hand of God seated on his throne, v. 1 — a roll containing the decrees of God concerning the Last Things, and the consummation of his kingdom, now to be revealed in the following visions. A challenge is given to the whole created world to open the roll ; and no one is found worthy, V. 2. Then the Messiah, the Christ, is seen in the form of a lamb in the midst of the group assembled about the throne. He has the tokens of the fullness of power and omniscience (the seven horns and the seven eyes), at the same time he bears the mark of having once been slain, he is seen to be the victor over death. Only he, the possessor of these matchless attributes, may take the roll to open it, vv. 5-7 ; God's pur pose regarding his kingdom of glory, dimly apprehended hy the sages and prophets of old, can be fully revealed only by him who makes its accomplishment possible ; its deepest mean ing is seen only in him who fulfills the office of the promised Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, tbe Root of David, and who redeems by his death a people out of every nation to form the final kingdom and to be kings and priests unto God, vv. 6, 6, 9, 10. In the former part of tbe scene creation forms a theme of praise (4"), but in this second part all thought centers in the Lamb's work of redemption. The Lamb's act of taking the roll from the hand of God, the gift to him by God of the book of the supreme decrees of the divine will now to be made known and fulfilled, v. 7, forms a dramatic crisis of most momentous significance. The scene is one of marvel ous splendor. A grand anthem — the Adoration of the Lamb — at once bursts from the angelic ranks that stand nearest the throne, vv. 8-10 ; the hymn is caught up and wafted on an- tiphonally, swelling out through all the court of heaven, sung VI] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 263 by ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thou sands ; through all runs the theme, worthy is the Lamb, vv. 11-12 ; and then the whole created world to its farthest bounds, things animate and inanimate, the living and the dead beneath the earth, take up the refrain, and echoing the hymns of both parts of the great scene, join God, who sits upon the throne, and the Lamb who stands before the throne, in one common ascription of praise, v. 13. The strains cease, the offering of homage ends, as it began, with those highest in rank and nearest the throne ; the four Living Creatures re spond to the hymn with their great 'Amen,' the four and twenty kings prostrate themselves in silent adoration. It may well be questioned whether Christian literature possesses any where a work of art more grandly conceived and executed than this twofold scene enacted in the court of heaven. We cannot fathom tbe experience of transport in which the prophet and poet who composed it must have been rapt as he recalled his vision and tried to give it written expression. The representation of Christ in the form of a lamb, that was once slain, is in striking contrast, but not in conflict, with the glorious picture of the heavenly Son of man in the introductory vision (li"~2o~)_ There the majesty and power of the ascended Christ are chiefly thought of ; here the fruits of his redemp tive death. In its relation to the structure of the book it should be observed that this hymn, while fittingly arising here in recognition of the glory of the Lamb, at the same time forms, in keeping with the author's manner,^ the immediate introduction to the acts which are to follow in the breaking of the seals (chapter VI). The breaking of the first six seals of the roll, VI. The book of God's decrees concerning the coming of his kingdom, securely closed with seals which none but the Lamb can open, is now soon to be unrolled ; the promised revelation of the events of the Last Days is now to be given. It begins with the breaking of the first seal. The book cannot be unrolled till all the seals are broken, yet neither at the beginning nor at the end is tbe revelation of the contents said to be made by 1 Cf. p. 245. 264 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [VI reading from the roll, nowhere is there any intimation of .such reading; all is disclosed, portion by portion, in marvelous scenes, which present themselves to the Seer's eye in visions, unfolding in succession simultaneously with the Lamb's act in breaking the seals one after another, i Doubtless these visions are meant to be understood as corresponding respectively to the contents of certain parts of the book. The revelation of the main contents of the book must await the fuUy opened roll, it must form the sequel to the breaking of the last seal (81). All that precedes that is in a way introductory. So in one brief chapter are given with the breaking of the first six seals those preparative or premonitory manifestations which come before tbe immediate forerunners of the End. The por tents, which in eschatological writings are made an essential factor as ' signs ' of the coming day of judgment, fall into two classes ; in one group are phenomena which occur in the ordi nary course of the world, but with increased extent and se verity, such as earthquakes, famine, war, etc.; in the second group are the marvelous plagues sent by special intervention of supernatural power, such as water changed to blood, fabu lous monsters of torture, etc. Broadly speaking our author may be said to have distinguished the two groups, making the first the remoter ' signs,' assigning them to this introductory chapter VI, and announcing them as pictured in visions which accompany the breaking of the first six seals ; while the more a"wful and more distinctly supernatural plagues form the judg ments of the later period which follows the actual opening of the roll. In this he seems to have been guided by the form of apocalypse preserved in the Gospels (Mk. 13 par.), with which he was pretty certainly familiar, whether as there recorded, or as current in tradition. He presents then in this chapter visions of those stereotyped forms of visitation, war, slaughter, famine, earthquake, pestilence, etc., 'the beginning of woes,' as he regards them, and as they are denominated in the Gospels. ^ Such in brief are the contents of this chapter and its place in our book. At the breaking of the first seal one of the Living Creatures utters a summons with a voice of thunder, and there appears in 1 See Com. fii. 2 m^. 138. VI] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 265 obedience to the call a rider upon a white horse, with a bow and a crown, emblems of the victor in war. He symbolizes conquest with all the accompanying woes of captivity and sub jection to a foreign foe, vv. 1-2. At the breaking of the second seal and in obedience to the summons of the second Living Creature there appears a rider upon a red horse, with a great sword ; his office is to take peace from the earth and cause men to slay one another. He symbolizes the slaughter of war, vv. 3-4. The third rider, with the black horse and his balance for doling out bread by weight, personifies the distress oi famine. The grains for bread are to be sold at famine prices. Yet as none of these calamities, which form but the beginning of woes, can be conceived to be unlimited in its severity, so in this case the hardier plants, tbe olive and the vine, escape the devastation which cuts off the grain, vv. 5-6. The fourth rider, bearing the name Death, riding a pale horse and attended by his invariable companion Hades, receives authority over a large, but limited, part of the earth, and in certain specified forms of destruction. He personifies not death in general, but those particular forms of death which cut off in the sum total a vast multitude of men, bloodshed, famine, and wild beasts, vv. 7-8. The vision of the fifth seal opens a quite different scene. The souls of those who have already suffered martyr dom for the gospel's sake are seen in safe-keeping beneath the altar in the heavenly temple, and they are heard crying loudly for the speedy coming of judgment and the avenging of their blood. But they are bidden to wait in patience yet a little while till the destined number of their fellow martyrs shall be filled up in the persecutions now threatening. They are not admitted to the full fruition of the glorified state, but they receive white robes, an emblem of the blessedness which is already bestowed upon them, vv. 9-11. This cry for vengeance is more Jewish than Christian, yet it is not conceived as wholly personal ; it contains a yearning for the triumph of the cause of God and the coming of his kingdom. ^ The vision has a place here among the other events leading up to the End, for in common apocalyptic belief the prayers of the suffering saints for judgment were efficacious in bringing in the End •,^ and 1 See Com. 6io. 2 cf. En. 97^, 1043. See p. 79. 266 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [VII further, so far as the vision tells of other persecutions yet to come, it has a place among prophecies of pre-messianic calam ities. In the apocalypse of the Gospels also (Mk. 13^) perse cution stands in the eschatological series with earthquake, famine, etc.i The breaking of the sixth seal is followed in the series of visions by a great earthquake and a"wful portents in the heavens. So terrible are these that they can be de scribed only in the language and imagery currently applied in apocalyptic literature to the final dissolution of the world. In the words of stereotyped hyberbole the mountains are said to be removed from their places, the lights of heaven to be dark ened, and the firmament rolled away. The dwellers upon the earth from the highest to the lowest, believing in their terror that the great day of wrath has come, flee to the caves and caU upon the mountains to hide them from the presence of God and the wrath of the Lamb.^ The whole scene of the break ing of the seals is constructed with wonderful power and artistic skill. With a few bold touches, there is in each vision put before the reader a picture of extraordinary dramatic force. The four mysterious riders, mounted on horses whose colors correspond to the horsemen's missions, and equipped with their appropriate emblems, come forth one after the other in quick succession as they are summoned in tones of thunder, and sweep across the earth triumphant in their ministry of woe. The veil is then lifted and a glimpse opened into the abode of the martyred saints, whose cry for judgment harbingers the near advent of the day of doom. And now the series reaches its climax in vast catastrophes in nature, which seem to the whole family of terror-smitten men to be mingling heaven and earth in final and complete ruin, at the bursting forth of the wrath of God and the Lamb. Prelude to the breaking of the Seventh Seal. VII. (1) Sealing of the servants of God, vv. 1-8. (2) An anticipatory vision of the redeemed before the throne, vv. 9-17. With the events of the sixth seal (612-") close the visita tions which form the beginning of woes ; these are preparatory to the more awful judgments which are now to sweep over the 1 See Com. 69-u. 2 gee Com. 612. VH] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 267 world as the nearer forerunners of the End. In fact the first six chapters of the book, with the revelation of God's purpose and of the powers working in and through all, and with the events of the six seals, form a preparation for the breaking of the seventh seal (8^), when the book of the future will be un rolled and its main contents (following after what may be called the introductory part, indicated by the visions of the six seals) made known, or rather enacted in the world's final drama. Just here then at the critical turn, between the six and seventh seals, the author, after his characteristic manner,^ introduces an episode or prelude, designed to encourage the readers in the face of coming trial by the assurance of final deliverance and triumph. The despairing cry of the terror- stricken in the scene just closed (6^^) ' who is able to stand ' ? receives for the Christian an answer (1) in a vision of the safe-guarding of the servants of God, VII. 1-8, and (2) in an anticipatory vision of the redeemed gathered in heaven, after ' the great tribulation ' is passed, VII. 9-17. In the first vision of the prelude, vv. 1-8, the writer uses imagery drawn from some apocalyptic source,^ jiist as he fre quently applies symbols taken from Ezekiel, Zechariah, and other parts of the Old Testament. The spirits of the winds are seen about to let loose upon tbe earth these destructive apocalyptic agencies, but they are stayed by an angel till the seal of God shall have been stamped upon the foreheads of his servants, which like the mark set on the men of Jerusalem in the vision of Ezekiel (9*) shall guard them from destruction in the calamities about to overwhelm the world. The sealed are, as the Apocalyptist, following his source, designates them, all the tribes of Israel, that is, the whole Church of God, for with our writer as with others of the New Testament the Church is the true 'Israel of God.' Twelve tribes are sealed, no tribe is wanting to fill up the full number ; and those sealed in each several tribe are declared to number 12,000, a number typical of fullness ; ^ that is, none is omitted, every member of every tribe, every individual member of the Church receives the pledge of security. From the manner in which the scene opens we should expect 1 See p. 245. 2 See p. 5'13. ^ See p. 254. 268 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [VII the winds to be let loose after the sealing is accomplished, but this does not occur ; nor are these winds shown in the follow ing chapters of the book to be associated with the plagues sent upon the world. The writer however is probably not con scious of any defect here. He takes over the figures from his source without attempting to show any connection with later movements, perhaps regarding these winds as symbols of de structive forces in general and so, appropriately enough, rep resenting any or all of the trials against which the Church needs a seal of safety. Similarly he takes over from the source used the enumerating in detail of the tribes of Israel, not because he is thinking of the national Israel, but because such an enumeration vividly symbolizes the comprehensiveness of the guarding care of God, which in the coming woes will suffer no single servant of his to be swallowed up in the de struction of the world. The second part of the prelude, vv. 9-17, is one of those visions characteristic of the author which like a picture within a picture open up out of nearer scenes a view of a realized ideal lying beyond. It gives in anticipation a glimpse into the glory that awaits the victor after the coming struggle is ended. The sealing in the former vision is the promise ; the scene in this vision is the promise realized in all its fullness, when the 12 times 12,000 of the tribes of Israel, the 144,000 of the com plete Church of God (cf. 14^), are seen in their character as an innumerable multitude redeemed out of every nation and peo ple. The heaven represented is that of chapters IV-V. The throne-room is seen again with God enthroned there, the Lamb standing before the throne, the four Living Creatures, the Elders (the angelic kings) and all the host of angels. In the midst of these are seen the redeemed robed in white, holding palms of victory and praising God and the Lamb for their finished salvation. As in the scene of the fourth and fifth chapters, the angel hosts take up antiphonally the hymn of adoration, vv. 9-11. One of the Elders performs the familiar office of the ' interpreting angel,' ^ explaining the scene to the prophet and telling of the unending blessedness of the re deemed, vv. 13-17. 1 See p. 170. VIII-IX] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 269 The first series of visions following the openhig of the roll at the breaking of the last seal. VIII-IX. (1) Immediate sequel of the breaking of the seventh seal, VIII. 1-2. (2) Offer ing of incense on the golden altar, VIII. 3-6. (3) The visions of the first six trumpets, VIII. 7-IX. 21 ; (a) first four trumpet-visions VIII. 7-12; (J) the woeful cry of an eagle in mid heaven, VIII. 13; (e) the fifth trumpet- vision — the plague of fiendish locusts, IX. 1-12; (c?) the sixth trumpet- vision — the plague of fiendish horses, IX. 13-21. After the interlude formed by chapter VII, the prophet's vision returns to the breaking of the seals of the roll. The scene is still in Jehovah's throne-room, the Lamb still holds the roll. As in the earlier scene new objects and characters, not mentioned at first, were seen to be present as the vision advanced, e.g. the roll in God's hand, the Lamb, etc.,^ so here the seven archangels who wait on the throne of God are now seen. The breaking of the seventh seal opens the roll; and answering to its main contents there is given the whole series of visions now following in our book to the end (XXII. 5). These are arranged in an organized system framed on the author's favorite number, seven. The seven archangels, or throne-angels, with their respective trumpet-blasts introduce the visions and series of visions, which with certain interludes carry out the whole revelation of the mystery of God to its accomplishment. The first six of these visions tell only of sore judgments (VIII-IX). The seventh trumpet, as will be seen below, introduees not only such a judgment, but also other events that belong to the full accomplishment of God's purpose. The agency of the archangels as the ministers of the visions, and the use of the trumpet so closely associated with august, especially eschatological, announcements, are appropri ate to the superlative importance of the revelations which are to be given. (1) The Lamb now breaks the seventh seal and trumpets are given to the seven archangels, foreboding the announcement of momentous issues. The hosts of heaven stand silent with dread suspense in anticipation of the events to follow, VIII. 1-2. (2) Throughout the long silence which follows the break- 1 See Com. 56. 270 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [VIII-IX ing of the seventh seal there rises from the golden altar before the throne a cloud of incense, offered to add efficacy to the prayers of all the saints crying for judgment ; and there follow, with fire from the altar, hurled upon the earth, tokens that the prayers are heard and that the wrath of God is about to fall upon the world. These symbols of the relation of the prayers of God's people to the coming judgments form a fitting intro duction to the trumpet visions, in tbe events of which the prayers are seen to be answered. From these tokens of God's will the seven angels perceive that their time for action has come ; they prepare to sound their trumpets and usher in the threatened judgments, VIII. 3-6. (3) The visions of the first six trumpets, VIII. 7-IX. 21. (a) In the first four trum- piet-visions (8^~i2^ four plagues of a supernatural character, in part parallel to the Egyptian plagues, are hurled in quick suc cession upon the dry land, v. 7 ; the sea, vv. 8-9 ; the other waters, vv. 10-11 ; and the heavenly bodies, v. 12, working devastation and horror. In each region a large, though not the greater, part is smitten — the effect is limited. The suf fering and terror of men, though constituting the purpose of the visitations as punishment and warning, are not mentioned except in the instance of the third, where the death of many occurs incidentally. (5) Between the fourth and fifth trum pet-visions an eagle flying in mid-heaven forewarns the world that grievous woes are now to follow with the three remaining trumpet-blasts, v. 13. The first four plagues have fallen directly upon a portion of the natural world, and have thus wrought their effect upon men indirectly and to a limited extent. The fifth and sixth plagues, the first two woes, which are now to come are of a specially fiendish character and attack men directly in their persons, in the one case torturing but not killing, in the other both torturing and killing. (c) The plague of the fifth vision (9i-i2), the first of the woes pro claimed by the eagle (S^^), is inflicted by a swarm of hellish locusts let loose from the nether-world and equipped with fabulous forms and scorpion-like tails, for terrifying and tor menting. They are led by the angel of hell. By these fiendish creatures the enemies of God are tortured without the relief of death for the long space of five months, the length of the period X-XI. 13] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 271 in which the ravages of the natural locusts usually occur. (d) The plague of the sixth trumpet-vision (9^^-^'-'), the second woe, consists of an innumerable troop of fiendish horses, under the leadership of four angels prepared for the very day and hour of their work, but hitherto kept bound in the East. The horses like the locusts of the first woe are fabulous monsters ; they have the head of a lion and serpent-like tails ending in a head with its sting. With the tail they inflict torture and with the mouth they spit forth, as from hell, fire, smoke, and brimstone, killing a third of mankind. The angel leaders of the host, and the riders of the horses are not direct agents in the work of the plague — this work is tbe office of the monsters. The plague is sent upon the unbelieving heathen world, which notwithstand ing this warning continues in its idolatry and wickedness, vv. 20-21. In the successive steps of the trumpet-visions a cer tain climax is reached in the sixth. Though this is not the cidmination, it forms the last of the series which with its charac teristic preliminary episode (lOi-ll^*) introduces the seventh and final trumpet-vision (11^^ *•). Hence the vast havoc assigned to its plague, the destruction of a third part of mankind ; and hence the more august opening of the vision — a voice is heard from the altar, in answer to tbe prayers of the saints for judg ment, bidding the archangel himself to let loose upon the world the four angels with their innumerable troop of hellish horse. Interlude betweenthe sixth and seventh trumpet-visions. X-XI. 18. (1) Solemn announcement of the End as near ; forebod ing of wrathful judgment ; special message to the prophet himself. X. 1-11. (2) The Repentance of Israel, XI. 1-13. The first six trumpet-visions following one another in imme diate succession have been closed ; and now before the seventh, the Apocalyptist after his manner '- pauses and introduces an interlude which serves to prepare for the new vision and to lend impressiveness to it. The interlude consists of two parts: the first a prelude which has direct reference to the seventh trumpet-vision, forming as it were an overture to, it (lO^-i^), the second, a prophecy of an event looked for us necessary before the parousia (11'--'^^^. 1 See p. 245 ff. 272 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [X-XI. 13 (1) The vision of this paragraph (lO^""), directly prepara tory to tbe seventh trumpet-blast, is concerned with three agencies, the angel, the seven thunders, and the Prophet, (a) An angel descending in a glory befitting his mission from God, and assuming a position which shows his message to be ad dressed to the earth and the sea, that is, to the whole world, announces with a most solemn oath that the mystery of God, the consummation of the kingdom, is soon to be accomplished in the period introduced by the seventh trumpet-blast, vv. 1-2, 5-7. (J) Accompanying the angel's cry seven thunders, "vdth words which the Prophet hears but is restrained from writing down, forebode judgments of divine wrath as about to burst upon the world among the events of the coming vision, vv. 3^. (c) As another part of his mission the angel gives to the Prophet a message from God contained in a little scroll. The Prophet is bidden to receive the divine word into his heart, to appropriate it fully, in the figure here used, to eat it ; but he is forewarned that in the sequel he must find a bitter expe rience. As he faces the momentous issues of the last of the trumpet-visions, with the call to new prophecies concerning many peoples and kings, he feels the demand of his prophetic office urging him forward with intensified force — it is as if his commission were given to him anew — and he experiences the sweetness of a duty in which he is the special agent of God, the roll is sweet to the mouth ; but he is forewarned that he must find the discharge of that duty bitter also, in that he must in the new vision utter many oracles of wrath and woe, vv. 8-11. (2) In the second part of the interlude (lli-^^-) ^he Apoca lyptist passes abruptly to a prophecy of the final repentance of Israel. God's ancient people, the heirs of the messiauic promises, had rejected the Christ and bis gospel. This attitude of the chosen of Jehovah toward the Church of the Messiah sorely perplexed the Jewish Christian, but he could not beheve that the Israel of the covenant was to be cast off forever and fail of a share in the messianic kingdom. It became a clearly announced Christian prophecy, one which our Apocalyptist accepted in common with other New Testament "writers, that at the last Israel would be ' grafted in again ' (Ro. 11^3) among X-XI. 13] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 273 the people of God. And this ingathering was looked for in close proximity to the parousia ; it belonged among the events immediately preceding the End. This prophecy then could not fail of a place in a revelation of the last things written by a Jewish Christian. And the appropriate place for it is just here, before the opening of the seventh trumpet-vision which embraces the last great cycle of events. The author clothes the prophecy in a form derived from some apocalyptic writing, unknown to us, containing predictions regarding Jerusalem and its people, just as we have seen him adapting to his use passages from the Old Testament writers, and in chapter VII some apocalyptic fragment unknown to us.^ Jerusalem as frequently in the scriptures represents Israel, ac cording to the common usage of denoting a nation by its capital city. Jerusalem for its sins is to be given up to the ' nations, ' the punishment often inflicted upon Israel of old for its un faithfulness. The nations shall have it in complete subjection and profane it for the whole period of ' the times of the Gen tiles,' but a Remnant of faithful ones, as predicted by the prophets, shall be preserved ^ the sanctuary with its faithful worshipers shall be measured off as a precinct to remain un touched, w. 1-2. God's compassion for his covenant people has however not failed. He will send two mighty prophets, who will throughout the period call Israel to repentance, v. 3. These are like the two olive trees and the candlestick in the vision of Zechariah (Zec. IV), they are but the channels through which works the might of God, v. 4. Endowed with the marvelous gifts of Elijah and Moses they will work ' in the spirit and power ' of those great servants of God, preaching to Jerusalem repentance and obedience, laboring to ' restore all things ' before the Lord's coming, vv. 5-6. But as preachers of righteousness and workers of fearful miracles, they will incur the deadly enmity of the wicked, and of the Beast that cometh up from the abyss, tbe Antichrist. And when they shall have reached the end of their destined period they will suffer shame ful martyrdom, vv. 7-10. But afterwards a glorious triumph will be accorded to them in their resuscitation and exaltation into heaven in the sight of all. A great earthquake will accom- 1 See pp. 533 ff., 586. 274 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XI. 14-19 pany these events and destroy one tenth of the city. These marvels sent as further monitions will strike terror into all who escape the earthquake ; most (nine tenths) of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will now heed the words which had been uttered by the two prophets and will repent of their sins, vv. 11-13. Thus the purpose of God concerning Jerusalem (Israel) will reach its accomplishment — an event which must precede the parousia. The seventh trumpet-blast. XI. 14-19. (1) Announcement of the third woe, that is, the calamities to follow the sev enth trumpet-blast, v. 14. (2) Sounding of the seventh trumpet, and the outburst of joy in heaven, w. 15-18. (3) Answering manifestations in heaven and in the world of nature, v. 19. (1) After the interlude in X-XI. 13, the Apocalyptist takes up again the thread of the trumpet-visions broken off at the close of chapter IX. Looking back beyond tbe parenthesis formed by this interlude, he continues as if no interruption had taken place, declaring the end of. the second woe and announc ing the third as soon to follow, v. 14. (2) With these words of transition he introduces the seventh trumpet. The sound ing of this last trumpet proclaims the period of the end. To this period belong all the great movements that are now to fol low. Though the end itself is not to come immediately, its certainty and nearness are proclaimed in this sounding of the seventh trumpet. A loud hymn of praise bursts forth from heavenly voices celebrating the incoming of the kingdom of God, as if already present. The hymn is one of the author's characteristic anticipatory outbursts of praise, uttered at the beginning of a movement from the standpoint of the final issue. The Kingdom of the Lord and his Anointed has come and he will reign forever, v. 15. The four and twenty Elders, pros trating themselves before God in adoration, take up the theme, amplifying it and proclaiming the arrival of the last bitter con flict of the wrath of God with the wrath of ' the nations,' and the time of the judgment which shall give their reward to God's servants and destroy the destroyers of the earth, vv. 16-18. (3) The song is followed by a twofold response in action: XII. 1-17] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 275 («) the ark of the covenant is revealed in the heavenly temple, symbolizing God's fulfillment of his covenant in the coming reward of his servants ; (6) great catastrophes burst forth upon the world, symbolizing the wrath now to be visited upon God's enemies, v. 19. Chapters XII-XIII : As part of the preliminaries to the events which culminate in the great conflict with Satan and his agents and the overthrow of these, now to be enacted in the seventh trumpet-series, the Apocalyptist introduces here a reve lation of the forces operating behind the events and the agencies employed. 1 Two visions are given, which are not intended to depict things that are about to take place as parts of the dra matic movement ; they portray ' things that are,' ^ rather than things that must come to pass, though intimations of issues following are added. The first (XII) reveals the cause of the persecutions which the faithful suffer and must continue to suffer in the coming distresses ; this is Satan's fierce hostility to the Messiah. At the same time the initial defeat with which Satan meets, and his expulsion from the seat of his kingdom, as here described, assures his final downfall. The second vision (XIII) gives a picture of the agent through which Satan is waging, and will wage, unrelenting war with the Messiah's followers, the saints. This is the Beast (impersonated first in the Roman emperors and then in Antichrist), which receives all his might and authority from Satan, and which together with his helper, the second beast (impersonated in the priest hood of the ruler-worship), uses all his delegated power to accomplish Satan's purpose. (1) Satan'shostility to the Messiah. XII. 1-17. (a) Frus trated attempt to destroy the Messiah, vv. 1-6. (6) Satan's expulsion from his seat in the lower heavens, vv. 7-12. (e) Pursuit of the mother of the Messiah and persecution of the Messiah's brethren, vv. 13-17. For the exhibition of his thought in this vision the Apocalyp tist uses symbols and figures taken from some familiar legend,^ but he explains his use of these so far as to make his meaning reasonably certain. His procedure in this respect should guard I See pp. 244 fl. 2 See p. 442 f . » See pp. 613 fl. 276 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XII. 1-17 us against reading a meaning into minor unexplained traits, which are probably only touches to give vividness to the picture, whether taken over from the source, or specially added by the author himself. The vision consists of three parts. (a) The first part, vv. 1-6, is enacted, so to speak, on a stage whose background is tbe sky. A woman is seen arrayed in all the glory of the heavenly bodies ; she is about to give birth to a child. A dragon-monster, in a form similar to that found frequently in ancient mythology, stands before her ready to devour the cliild at the moment of its birth ; but the child is caught away and borne up to the throne of God. As a sequel the Apocalyptist, anticipating the third part of his vision (vv. 13-17), and without alluding to a transition from the sky to the earth, adds the woman's flight to a refuge prepared for her in the wilderness, v. 6. The dragon in the scene is Satan, the child is the Messiah, and the woman is the people of God as existing, not in actuality, but in idea; the concrete reality corresponding to this ideal is found in the Church of God, whether under the old or the new covenant, but neither of these is directly intended here. The scene is entirely ideal and such is the figure of the Messiah ; there is no relation to the Lord's earthly life,i no reference to the Messiah's coming into being, the Messiah in his ideal being is meant. And as the earthly Messiah is born of the people of God, so here the ideal Messiah is born of the ideal people of God, the woman, 'our mother,' as St. Paul calls her (Gal. 4^6). And the Apocalyptist means to represent under these symbols, taken from some popular tradition, Satan's deadly hatred of the Messiah from the beginning, and his hatred of God's people, be cause of their relation to the Messiah. At the same time the scene shows the futility of that hatred ; Satan is powerless to prevent the Messiah's exaltation to joint sovereignty with God, and a refuge is provided for God's people. Definite events of history are not thought of here ; so far as the vision tells of Satan's design from tbe outset, it relates to the past; but in the issues it relates to all time till the End.^ (h) The second part of the vision, vv. 7-12, pictures a scene entirely distinct from the former. The archangel Michael with his hosts attacks 1 See p. 617. 2 jftid. XII. 1-17] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 277 Satan in the seat of his kingdom, which is placed accord ing to a current Jewish belief in the lower heavens. ^ Satan and his hosts are overthrown, cast out from the center of his dominion and hurled down to earth. This event is not the original fall or revolt of Satan ; his place in the lower heaven has existed hitherto (v. 8), and he has hitherto been the foe of men before the court of God (v. 10) ; yet the event belongs to the Apocalyptist's past, not the future.^ The rage of Satan over his expulsion explains his increased fury in the present as well as the coming persecutions of the Church. The expulsion of Satan from the seat of his kingdom is the signal for an out burst of praise from voices in heaven, as if the final triumph were already come. The first part of the hymn, vv. 10-12 a, is anticipatory ; the beginning of Satan's downfall assures the com plete triumph of the End ; and the singers exult in the king dom of God and his Anointed, as if now established. The conclusion of the hymn, v. 12 h, reverts to the present and the woe which has befallen men in Satan's wrathful presence among them. (c) In the third part of the vision, vv. 13-17, the scene is on earth. Satan, baffled in his design against the Messiah, cast out from his domain in the lower heavens, and knowing that the time of his complete overthrow is cer tainly fixed, becomes the more furious in his rage against the Messiah's mother, the people of God. The Apocalyptist con tinues the figures of the first part and expands the account of the woman's flight, which was mentioned in anticipation in V. 6. The dragon as a water-monster hurls floods of water after the woman to sweep her away, but the earth swallows the floods, and she is borne on eagles' wings to a refuge in the wilderness, where she is nurtured in safety through the calami tous times preceding the end, times designated by the measure, stereotyped in apocalyptic phraseology, of three and a half years or 1260 days. 3 The people of God in its ideal being is divinely preserved to the end ; the gates of hell do not prevail against the Church. From his baffled pursuit of tbe woman, Satan turns to persecute her other children, the brethren of the Messiah. The writer here distinguishes between the ideal people of God and the actual children of God who form the 1 See p. 617. 2 See p. 618. = See p. 252. 278 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XII. 18-XIII. 18 present concrete reality corresponding to tbe ideal. These are the followers of Jesus, v. 17, who in this last age are exposed to the full force of Satan's intensified rage. But the deliverance of the ideal mother gives sure promise of safety to her children who keep the commandments of God and hold fast the testi mony of Jesus. (2) The Beast, the agent of Satan in his warfare against the saints ; and the Beast's helper, the second beast. XII. 18-XIII. 18. On the place of this vision in the plan of the book see pp. 275, 279. The Beast incidentally alluded to in XI. 7 is now introduced and described in his form and functions. He is the agent of Satan in his warfare with the followers of the Messiah (12", 13''), and from this point on he continues the dominant fig ure in all the anti-Christian hostilities that follow till the estab lishment of the millennium (20*). Satan does not appear in his own person as an active participant till the end of the millennium (20'"). This agent of Satan appears here in a traditional form designed to inspire awe and terror. He is a monster combin ing parts of divers animals : he has seven heads and ten horns; one of his heads has received a deadly wound, of which it has been healed. He is endowed with the full power of Satan for his work in the world, and through him the world worships the dragon, Satan. His activity is twofold : he exalts himself above God as the object of worship, which all who are not fol lowers of the Lamb are led to render him ; and he rules every tribe and people on earth with absolute sway, making war against the saints and overcoming them, vv. 1-10. In securing the worship of the world he uses the services of a deputy, the second beast, whom he endows with power to deceive men and lead them to pay the homage demanded. This second beast, possessing attributes unlike those of his master, the first beast, accomplishes his mission, that of deluding men and causing them to offer divine homage to the Beast, by means of great miracles wrought in the sight of men, and by making the image of the Beast speak to command the worship of itself under the penalty of death for disobedience, vv. 11-15. The Beast's deputy causes also men of all ranks and conditions to receive a XIV. 1-5] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 279 mark of religious devotion to the Beast, which is made essential for participation in civil and industrial life, vv. 16-17. The paragraph closes with the intimation that the Beast is a symbol of a man and bears a man's name indicated by a number, which some may have the skill to decipher, v. 18. It is essential to keep in mind that the Apocalyptist is not here introducing a new act in carrying out his dramatic plan ; we have rather a vision opening up, after the author's manner, a picture of the power which Satan uses in the last times, and a description of the special activities of that power in warring against God. A fuller discussion of the symbolism and sig nificance of the chapter is given elsewhere.^ It is enough to premise here, the Beast is Satan's instrument, as represented first in the succession of Roman emperors, symbolized by the seven heads, and then, after the destruction of the Roman em pire, as represented in Antichrist, in whom the emperor Nero will return from the dead, symbolized by tbe head wounded unto death and healed. The worship of the Beast is the em peror-worship already demanded in the Roman empire and destined to be carried to the extreme in worship which will be exacted by the coming Antichrist. The second beast symbol izes the priesthood and other functionaries, whose office it is to establish and maintain the ruler-worship, whether in the case of the Roman emperors, or the Antichrist. The redeemed with the Lamb on mount Zion. XIV. 1-5. Over against the appalling picture of the warfare upon the saints waged by the dragon and his agents, the beasts (XII- XIII), the Apocalyptist now opens a vision of the final triumph that lies beyond. Here as throughout the book the prophecies of darkest trial are lightened up by a glimpse into the blessed ness that awaits the victor at the end. The vision is anticipa tory ; it stands outside of the events moving toward the last issue. The whole company of the saints, symbolized by the number 144,000 (see p. 648), now redeemed and triumphant, are seen gathered together with the Messiah on mount Zion, the central seat of the perfected kingdom of God on the earth. As the worshipers of the Beast bore his mark (12>'^^, so the 1 pp. 393 fl. 280 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XIV. 6-20 saints bear the name of God and the Lamb, whose servants they are thus shown to be ; and at the same time they are thus sealed as victors (cf. S'-'^). While the saints are thus revealed on mount Zion, an innumerable host of angels in the great throne-hall of heaven are heard singing before the throne and before the four Living Creatures and the Elders a song of praise for the saints' redemption — a song which none can learn save those who have learned by experience the blessed ness of its theme, vv. 1-3. As an admonition to the readers the Apocalyptist specifies some of the virtues of the saints upon which their redemption is conditioned ; these are cardinal Christian virtues, chastity, truth, ready following of the Lord, complete consecration like the first fruits which were a holy offering belonging solely to God, and to sum up all in one word, blamelessness, vv. 4-5. Announcement of the last judgment, warnitig and promise. XIV. 6-20. This paragraph is prefatory to the march of events which is to begin again in chapter XV ; and it also con nects the remaining part of the book back with the sounding of the seventh trumpet (11^^). That trumpet-blast introduces the vast cycle in which God's purpose regarding his kingdom is to reach its fulfillment (10'^). But the outburst of praise which greeted the trumpet's sound (ll^^"^^) is not followed immediately in the Prophet's revelation by the actual begin ning of the final movements. We have seen that the Apoca lyptist first reveals in visions which form an interlude in the drama the motives and agencies at work — Satan's hostility to the Messiah and the instruments of his warfare — and in anticipation, the final triumph of the saints (XII-XIV. 5). Then the last series of plagues (XV-XVI), the third woe, predicted as part of the sequel of the sounding of the seventh trumpet (8^3, ll^*) is to form the immediate "precursor of the great day of the Lord. A fitting preface, therefore, to this be ginning of the End is this announcement (14^-20) of the judg ment, with its call of the world to repentance and with its warning and promise. The announcement is made in the most august tones and in solemn sevenfold form. It must be kept in mind that so far as the entrance of the judgment is XV-XVI] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 281 announced the announcement is anticipatory — in prophetic style the future is made present. (1) An angel is seen flying in mid-heaven and proclaiming to all the world the glad tidings of the near fulfillment of God's eternal purpose, and calling upon all peoples and nations to repent and worship the one true God, the creator of all, vv. 6-7. (2) A second angel proclaims the fall of the great world-power, Rome, the instru ment of Satan and the supreme earthly foe of God's people — a power whose removal forms one of the chief events in escha tological expectation, v. 8. (3) A third angel proclaims the terrible doom that awaits the worshipers of the Beast, vv. 9-11. (4) The Prophet himself admonishes the saints to hold steadfastly in all the coming trial to the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus, v. 12. (5) The Prophet's admonition is enforced and the saints are strengthened for martyrdom by a voice from heaven which pronounces blessed all those who shall die in the Lord before the great day enters, V. 13. (6) A vision of the Messiali as harvester figures the end of the world, vv. 14-16; and (7) another, under the fig ure of an angelic vintager, pictures the wrath of God in the destruction of the wicked, vv. 17-20. The seven last plagues, the plagues of the bowls, the third woe. XV-XVI. (1) Announcement of the subject of the vision, XV. 1. (2) Anticipatory hymn of praise, XV. 2-4. (3) Im mediate preparation for the outpouring of the plagues, XV. 5-XVI. 1. (4) The plagues poured out, XVI. 2-21. After the prophecies of the preceding chapter (14^^20^ pro claiming the judgment as close at hand and calling the world to repentance, there follows now the last series of visitations, the last of those terrible ' messianic woes ' which in all escha tological expectation are looked for before the Great Day. The plagues of the bowls now introduced take their place as a member in the momentous series heralded by the seventh trumpet-blast (11^^), the cycle in which the mystery of God is to be accomplished. They specifically prepare the readers for the two great events, the destruction of Rome (XVII-XIX. 5), which is in reality only an expansion of XVI. 19, and the con flict of the Beast with the Messiah (XIX. 11-21) to which the 282 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XV-XVI sixth plague looks forward. This series of plagues forms the third woe foretold in XI. 14 (cf. pp. 669 ff.). (1) The subject of this portion of the book is announced as in a kind of title by a vision of seven angels having the plagues in which are finished God's wrathful visitations sent upon the world before the last great crisis, XV. 1. These words do not announce something distinct from that which follows in vv. 5 ff. ; they state in a summary way the subject which begins in detail there and is unfolded from that point on through the rest of the paragraph to the end of chapter XVI. (2) Before the first step is actually taken in bringing in these terrible judgments, the Apocalyptist looks forward to the end and sees in an anticipatory vision the saints standing as victors in the court of heaven after the world-drama is finished, and praising God for his acts of righteous judgment. Both the thought and language of their hymn echo a familiar song of Moses ; and at the same time the hymn gives expression to the thought which forms a great factor in the theme of our book, the acts of the Lamb in revealing and establishing the righteousness of God in the judgment of the world. The hymn may therefore be called the song of Moses, and as well also the song of the Lamb. XV. 2-4. (3) The immediate ^repara^tW for the outpouring of the plagues now follows, XV. 5-XVI. 1, and is in keeping with the momentous character of what is about to take place. The details in the ordering of the scene and even the ornate phraseology used are chosen with a view to give majesty to the picture. The sanctuary of heaven is seen, conceived under the form of the ancient tabernacle, the shrine of God's abode with his people. From this, as from the immediate presence of God and as sent on a mission from him, come forth seven angels, perhaps the seven presence-angels, clothed in the white, glistening raiment symbolical of celestial beings, and wearing, like the Messiah in his glorified state (1^^), girdles of gold. Throughout the whole the agency of God himself is made con spicuous. One of the four Living Creatures, tbe supreme order in the heavenly hierarchy who stand nearest to God, is chosen as his intermediate agent, and hands to the seven angels vessels of gold filled with God's wrath. The tabernacle itself is filled with a cloud, symbolical of God's presence and power ; XV-XVI] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 283 he has entered into the sanctuary of his dwelling and abides there unapproachable till his righteous judgment of wrath has been visited on his enemies. It is his voice sounding from the tabernacle, that dismisses his ministers for their terrible work. As regards the phraseology, it is probably with the purpose spoken of above that the tabernacle receives the august desig nation, the sanctuary of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven ; God is the (jiod who liveth for ever and ever; the cloud of his presence is a cloud of glory and power. (4) In obedience to the voice from the sanctuary, the angels go forth and pour out the bowls of God's wrath, and the ensuing plagues burst one after another upon the world, XVI. 2-21. The plagues, nearly or quite all of them, contain reminiscences of the Egyptian plagues ; they resemble also, more or less closely, the series of trumpet-plagues (VIII-IX). The bowls in the case of the flrst four are poured out in succession upon the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun ; the last three, upon the kingdom of the Beast, the Euphrates and the air. But the effect of the outpouring is always manifested in an ensuing plague, which falls upon men. Even the drying up of the Euphrates, the sixth plague, is meant to open the way for a great scourge in the coming of the kings from the east ; and a second event following "with the same bowl, vv. 13-14, that is, the appear ance of three demons, lying spirits sent forth to work upon the kings of the whole earth, forms a part of the preparation for the world-calamity, the battle of the Great Day. The seventh plague, vv. 17-21, with its horrors undreamed of, culminates in the destruction of Babylon (Rome), in whose fall the present world order perishes and Antichrist becomes the unopposed lord of the earth. This destruction of Rome, only hinted at in these verses, v. 19, is described with fullness in the next para graph (171-19^). Two parentheses'- are inserted in the course of the description of the plagues : (a) Between the third and fourth bowls ejaculations from the angel of the waters and the personified altar are heard (16^-^ praising God, in language echoing the saints' hymn of XV. 3-4, for his righteous judgment in the plague of the waters. This praise is assigned to these two with special appropriateness. The I Cf . p. 243 f . 284 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XVII. 1-XIX. 5 former exults that the element over which he presides has been turned into a medium for visiting on the guilty a retribution related in kind to their offense. The altar, the symbol of the prayers of the saints for judgment, acknowledges that in this plague the prayers are receiving their answer. This parenthe sis divides the series of seven into two groups of three and four.i (6) In V. 15, when the agencies for gathering the hosts of the Beast for the great battle are already sent forth on their work and the dread hour cannot long be delayed, the Apocalyptist fittingly inserts, in the name of the Lord, a reminder of the sud denness of the advent, and a warning to the saints to be watch ful and prepared. The destruction of Rome hy Antichrist. XVII. 1-XIX. 5. (1) Introductory vision ; the woman seated on the scarlet col ored beast, vv. 1-6. (2) The angel's interpretation of the vision; Rome and the agency of her destruction, vv. 7-18. (3) Sevenfold declaration of her ruin, XVIII. 1-XIX. 5. After the series of plagues sent upon the world with the out pouring of the seven bowls (XVI), the last of which gives pre monition of special judgment to be visited on Rome, there now follows a vision, or series of visions, announcing the coming of the crowning catastrophe in the world-order as then existing, the destruction of the imperial city, in whose fall the Roman empire vanishes and Antichrist becomes triumphant over all the earth. The magnitude of this crisis, as viewed by the Apoca lyptist, is seen in the fullness with which he announces it. Fore bodings of it have been given among his other prophecies (14^, 1618), and now it is made the subject of a distinct part of the book. (1) The Seer is carried away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where is revealed to him with full and manifold assurance the judgment of the world-capital, together with the instrumentality through which this judgment is to be ac complished. An introductory vision pictures under the figure of a harlot seated upon a beast the guilt of Rome in her moral corruption and her fierce persecution of the saints, as the cause of her visitation, XVII. 1-6. (2) An interpretative passage explaining the significance of the woman and the beast shows 1 Cf . p. 254. XVII. 1-XlX. 5] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 285 the former to be the symbol of Rome, and the beast with his seven heads to be in the first place the symbol of the seven Roman emperors of whom the sixth was then reigning, and in the second place, in the head smitten unto death and restored (13^), to be the symbol of Antichrist, in whom one of the em perors once slain will become reincarnate, coming from the abyss with demonic power. In so far as the beast is identified with the head (the emperor) at any time impersonating him, it may be said, with reference to his impersonation in the particu lar head meant in vv. 8, 11, that the beast was and is not and is about to come. The beast in his last impersonation, that is, Antichrist, will with his ten vassal kings act as the instrument of God, making desolate the imperial city and utterly burning it with fire, vv. 7-18. (3) (a) An angel radiant with heavenly glory proclaims to all the earth the certain coming of Rome's fall and devastation, XVIII. 1-3. (J) A voice from heaven summons God's people to flee from her allurements and the consuming plague about to come upon her in righteous judg ment, vv. 4-5. (c) The same voice incites the spirits of vengeance to do their full work, vv. 6-8. (d') In a passage of intense pathos the Apocalyptist anticipates the dirge which the kings of the earth and others will utter as they stand in terror far off and look upon the smoke of her burning, vv. 9-19. (e) In startling contrast with this pathetic lament, the Apoca lyptist throws in ^ an apostrophe to heaven, to the saints, the apostles and the prophets, bidding them to rejoice in the judg ment which God has visited upon Rome in their behalf,^ v. 20. (/) A strong angel hurls a great mill-stone into the sea, typify ing her coming fall and utter disappearance from the earth, w. 21-24. (^) After these manifold assurances of the coming destruction, the Prophet passes over in anticipation to the end, without allusion to the beginning or progress of the destroyer's work; all is conceived to be flnished, and a loud chorus is heard from heaven celebrating God's righteous judgment upon the corrupt and corrupting city, and the vengeance taken for the blood of his servants, XIX. 1-5. This whole paragraph on the destruction of Rome is in its completeness, its skillful arrangement, its adaptation of the several parts, and in its sus- iCf. pp. 243fl. 2Cf. Com. 1820. 286 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XIX. 6-XX. 6 tained power throughout, the work of a poet and prophet of a high order. Sequel of the fall of Rome. XIX. 6-XX. 6. (1) Prophetic hymn hailing the kingdom of God, XIX. 6-10. (2) Appear ing of the warrior Messiah, XIX. 11-16. (3) The great battle of the Messiah with Antichrist, XIX. 17-21. (4) Im prisonment of Satan and the millennial reign of the martyrs, XX. 1-6. (1) With the fall of Rome the present order of the world closes and the beginning of the end is now entered upon. The chorus of alleluias celebrating the triumph of God's judgment in the crisis of Rome's destruction (191"*) is now followed immediately by the alleluias of the angelic hosts, in tones of many waters and mighty thunders, anticipating, as if already come, the full establishment of the Kingdom of the Lord God Almighty, and the perfected union of Christ "with his Church, flgured in the marriage of the Lamb, vv. 6-10. (2) The vision of the Apocalyptist now passes quickly over what remains. After this anticipatory hymn (19^"-'^''), he re turns to the critical events which must first intervene before the final issue. The picture is drawn with a few vigorous strokes. The short reign of Antichrist, the head slain and. restored, is passed over in keeping with this rapid movement. The prophecy of earlier visions has announced that power as God's agent in the overthrow of Rome (17^^*), and as succeed ing to a sway over all the earth (17^'!'^, 13^~^). But the mys terious period of his domination is not pictured in detail in the visions of the Seer, as it is not in apocalyptic tradition. Its general character has been shown in the prophecies of chapters XI and XIII. In the present chapter where the action is moving swiftly to the end the Apocalyptist comes at once to that which was of supreme moment in the Christian anticipa tion of Antichrist, his complete annihilation by the Messiah. The warrior Messiah appears here, followed by the hosts of heaven, to meet Antichrist, who has gathered his armies at Harmagedon for the battle of the great day of God (16"' i"). The Messiah, true and faithful to his character as the deliverer of his people and the destroyer of their great enemy, his eyes XX.7-XXII. 5] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 287 flashing with avenging fire, comes forth with tokens of certain victory ; he rides upon a white horse, the sharp sword of his irresistible word with which he will slay all his antagonists is seen, his garments are, as it were, in anticipation stained with their blood; the armies that follow him ride on white horses and are clad in white robes, symbolical of victory. His many crowns and the name written on his mantle proclaim him King of kings and Lord of lords, I911-I8. (3) In certain anticipa tion of the victory over Antichrist and of the slaughter of his hosts, and in a spirit of terrible vengeance, an angel summons the birds of prey from all quarters of the heaven to feast on the carnage of the battle now to follow. The Seer then comes to the actual conflict upon which all events since the outpour ing of the sixth and seventh bowls have been converging. He sees the hostile hosts in array, but gives no description of a battle; nothing is said of the clash of armies, or of a hard- won victory ; in fact nothing of the kind enters into the con ception ; all is achieved in an instant by the miraculous power of the warrior Messiah. The two leaders are seized and hurled down to the lake of flre, and all the hosts are slain by the sword from the Messiah's mouth, vv. 17-21. (4) The auxil iaries of Satan, that is, Rome and the imperial power, Anti christ and his adjutant the false prophet, together with all the kings of the earth with their armies, these all have been re moved in the events culminating in the battle of Harmagedon. Now Satan himself robbed of his power is seized by an angel, fettered, and imprisoned in the abyss for a thousand years. At the same time the martyrs are raised from the dead and reign with Christ over the earth throughout this period, undis turbed by Satan. In striking contrast with many apocalyp tists, who with an exuberance of sensuous figures dwell upon the delights, the luxuriance, and the glories of the messianic age, our prophet describes tbe blessedness of the saints in a single sentence of masterly reserve : they reign with the Messiah and have the immediate access of priests to God and Christ, XX. 1-6 The End. XX. 7-XXII. 5. (1) The destruction of the nations in their last assault upon the citadel of God's people, 288 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE [XX. 7-XXII. 5 and the final doom of Satan, vv. 7-10. (2) The general resurrection and judgment, vv. 11-15. (3) The new heaven and the new earth, and God's presence with his people in the new Jerusalem, XXI. 1-8. (4) The city of the new Jerusa lem, XXI. 9-XXII. 5. (1) After the long era of messianic peace on earth, the powers of evil are again let loose and gather all their forces for a final assault on God's people ; the profound quiet of the millennial lull is the harbinger of the outburst in which the storm gathers up all its fury for the last great onset. Satan released from his imprisonment goes forth to the four corners of the earth to deceive and assemble for the war the nations Gog and Magog, in which are embraced under a symbolic name all the tribes of men hostile to God. These come thronging up in countless myriads from all quarters, covering the face of the whole earth, and encompass Jerusalem, the seat of the Millennial Kingdom, and the camp of the saints. But, as in the battle with Antichrist (19"*-), so here also there is no shock of armies ; fire comes down from heaven consuming aU the hostile hosts, and Satan himself is cast into the lake of fire, where with the Beast and the false prophet he is to be tortured forever, XX. 7-10. (2) Satan and all his hosts being now forever overthrown, the general resurrection and judgment follow, as the expected sequel. The Seer beholds a great throne resplendent in the light of divine glory, he be holds God seated thereon as judge, before whose awful majesty the earth and the heavens, as belonging to the transitory, flee away ; only the eternal remains. All the dead are raised and stand before the throne, the books are opened and each is judged according to his deeds. All whose names are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire. Death, and Hades the abode of tbe dead, are personified in the scene, and as the last enemy to be overcome, are represented as cast into the same place of unending punishment with the others ; death exists no longer as a terror to the saints. The reward of the righteous in the judgment is not spoken of in this passage, XX. 11-15. (3) After the resurrection and the judgment, but one step remains to the fulfillment of all. The great drama of the world-ages reaches its end in the bringing XX. 7-XXII. 5] CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE 289 in of the new heaven and the new earth. The present earth and heaven have passed away, and the Apocalyptist sees in their place a new heaven and a new earth; he sees also the holy city, Jerusalem, hitherto standing in its ideal glory before God in heaven, now descending in splendor, as a bride adorned for her husband, to the new earth to form the tabernacle of God's abode among men. Here will be perfected the union of God and his saints ; they will be his people and he will be with them, he will take from them death and all sorrow and pain, he will give freely to every yearning heart the water of life, he will satisfy every soul athirst for God, the victor in the conflict with evil will walk with him in the union of perfect fatherhood and sonship. But the part of the wicked will be the lake of fire and the second death, XXI. 1-8. (4) The holy city, which in XXI. 2 f. was announced, in passing, as part of the great scene of the final renewal of all things, is now in XXI. 9-XXII. 5 described in detail. The prominence of a glorified Jerusalem as the center of God's kingdom in famil iar eschatological expectations makes a vision- of this charac ter essential in a full revelation of the End ; and the Seer con ceives the city, which had hitherto been hidden in heaven,^ as now coming down in wonderful splendor to form the seat of God's throne and tbe shrine of his abode on the new earth. The city as it presents itself to his vision cannot be conformed to an imaginable reality, it cannot be delineated with the measurements and conditions of structures of men's building. It is a divine creation, and the Apocalyptist struggles here by the use of symbols and marvelous imagery to represent its vast- ness, its symmetry, and its glorious perfection. His vision is much influenced by Ezekiel and other prophets. He is carried away in an ecstasy to the top of a high mountain whence he beholds the city coming down from heaven radiating the won derful light of God's presence, vv. 9-11 ; it is reared on the foundation of the apostles, the gate-towers of its high walls with their angel keepers assure entrance to all the tribes of the Israel of God from every quarter of the earth, vv. 12-14 ; it is vast in its boundaries beyond all the cities of men, and in its perfect symmetry its height is equal to its length and 1 Cf . p. 56. 290 CONTENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE PDQI. 6-21 breadth — it reaches up to God's seat in the heavens, vv. 15-17; it is built wholly of gold and precious stones, vv. 18-21 ; it contains no temple, for it becomes itself one vast sanctuary through the presence of God and the Lamb ; and because of the light of that presence it has no need of sun, or moon, or lamp, vv. 22-23; the divine light which streams out from it will lighten the nations of the earth, and "without ceasing they will come into it, as into the temple, to offer the homage of their costliest gifts, vv. 24-26 ; no wicked one, but only those enrolled in the Lamb's book of life, may enter in, V. 27 ; the water and bread of life are there, for from the throne of God and the Lamb proceeds a life-giving river, along whose banks grows in countless numbers the tree of life, which yields its fruit for food continually, and its leaves "will heal the nations of all deathful diseases of the soul, XXII. 1-2 ; there will be there the throne of God and the Lamb, before which the saints will offer worship, and as priests in the immediate presence of God, they will see his face ; they will bear the mark which shows them to be wholly his ; in the light of his presence they will need no sun nor lamp ; and they will reign for ever and ever, vv. 3-5. The Epilogue. XXII. 6-21. The long series of visions forming the revelation announced in chapter I. 1 is finished in XXII. 5. The contents of the roll of seven seals are fuUy re vealed, reaching their final chapter in the description of the glory and bliss of the saints in the new Jerusalem. The book proper, which the Apocalyptist is bidden to write (1^^) is ended, and he now in these last verses appends his Epilogue, between which and the Prologue, prefixed in the first chapter, there is a clear correspondence in form and matter. ^ The book .begins and ends as an epistle (1^^, 22^^). The epistolary introduc tion and conclusion form the framework into Avhich is set the whole message contained in the visions. The chief purpose of the Epilogue is to give the strongest possible sanction to the book and to bring its message home to the hearts and con sciences of the readers. The several parts of this paragraph are loosely connected; the thought and the speakers whose 1 Cf. p. 771. THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY 291 words are given change abruptly. The angel who talks with the Seer in the vision of the new Jerusalem (21'**) here authen ticates the revelations given in the book, v. 6 a ; the Seer him self affirms the revelation to have been given by angelic agency at the bidding of God, the inspirer of the prophets, v. 6 6 ; the Lord's own words are given, with his own voice as it were he proclaims his advent near, v. 7 a — the central thought of the book ; the Apocalyptist declares the blessedness of those who heed the prophecies of the book, v. 7 h. The author of the book vouches for his direct personal knowledge of what is re corded therein and shows how the angel affirmed his prophetic rank, vv. 8-9. The angel, vv. 10-11, the Lord himself, vv. 12-13, and the Apocalyptist, vv. 14-15, announce the nearness of the advent with its accompaniment of doom and reward. The Lord, again speaking with his own voice, proclaims himself, in his office as Messiah and introducer of the approaching day of God, to be the sender of this message to the churches, v. 16 ; and the Spirit and the Church in response lift up their prayer for his coming, v. 17. The author affixes a solemn warning against perversion or evasion of the teaching of his prophecy, vv. 18-19; he repeats the Lord's promise of his advent, and utters his own responsive prayer, v. 20 ; he then closes with the usual epistolary benediction, v. 21. VIII. Permanent and Transitort Elements in the Apocalypse Distinguished It has been shown above ^ that the purpose of the Apocalypse as immediately determined by the circumstances of the period in which it was written, and its essential character as a ' Tract for the Times,' must be kept constantly in mind in seeking to ascertain its meaning. And as we read it, we find that the writer was influenced in every chapter by the thoughts and forms characteristic of traditional apocalyptic. But as the centuries advanced beyond his time, the face of the world changed. Emperor-worship (so important an integral factor ipp. 208 ff. 292 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY in the origin and contents of the book), with all it represented as regards imperial hostility to the Church passed away, gov ernmental persecution ceased, Christianity gained a footing as the recognized religion of the State. What seemed the para mount dangers to the Church, when the Apocalypse was written, no longer existed. The question then arises, has the book a meaning and value for another age, our o"wn for example, in which the circumstances of society, and the needs and perils of the Church are very different ? Has it a meaning that can be expressed in language which does not employ the concep tions, imagery and terms of the apocalyptic writings? The very closeness with which its own time is aimed at in its con tents would seem to render it irrelevant to a time altogether dissimilar. No doubt as a document of a bygone and most interesting era in history, it is of extraordinary value. But what is its practical value for the faith and conduct of another age ? The question is complicated by the fact that its predic tions, forming as they do the principal part of its contents, were to a large extent not fulflUed. Rome was not destroyed, Nero did not return. Antichrist did not appear, the millennium was not set up, the End with its stupendous events has not come. The clue to the solution of these difficulties, leading to the separation of a permanent element from the temporary and formal, is found in the real nature and characteristics of proph ecy in general. The Apocalypse as a work of prophecy. The office of the prophet, in abeyance for some centuries but brought back again in one of the greatest of the order, John the Baptist,' forms one of the established ministries for the ' building up of the body of Christ.' ^ But while there were prophets in the apostolic Church and prophetic elements in the New Testa ment writings generally, the Apocalypse stands alone as a dis tinctively prophetic book. Here the author claims the name of prophet and emphasizes his special commission from God, as the bearer of an inspired message to the Church ; ^ his stand- iMt. nil.". 2 Cf. Eph. 8S, 4", 1 Co. 1228, li passim, Ac. 1532, Rev. 16«, IS^", al 3 228,1011,11.11.19,22^.8.10. INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 293 ing characterization of tbe book is 'words of prophecy.'^ In keeping with these claims the book is seen to be parallel in its fundamental character with the Old Testament prophecies. AU alike belong to a time of stress, or special emergency ; their message relates to the cause of God as one with the cause of his people in the crisis of the age ; the messengers announce themselves as specially commissioned speakers from God. Their prophecy is first of all directed to the spiritual condition of God's people, warning them of their duty and arraigning them for their failures. On the other hand it encourages, their hopes and steadfast activity through the promise of triumph, which God has in store for tbem in the near future. The fact that the prophecy of the Revelation is in the apocalyptic form does not differentiate it in its essential nature from those of the Old Testament. 2 And there is no more ground for question ing the reality of the mission from God in the case of our author, than in that of these older prophets. It is interesting to notice in this connection that the author does not, like other apocalyptists, deliver his message under an assumed name. A true prophet came in his own person, spoke in his own char acter as directly sent by God — his personality was important. And so the writer of pur book is too clearly conscious of his missson as a prophet to admit of his putting his message in any anonymous or pseudonymous form ; he speaks to the readers as the John well known to them, while he is careful to show his credentials attesting his true prophetic office.^ Certain canons of prophecy and their application to the Apocalypse. The grouping of the Revelation in this broad class with the pro phetic writings of the Old Testament gives certain valuable helps regarding the nature and form of the message. The contents of Old Testament prophecy, the character of its predictions, and the light thrown in that epoch and especially in the New Testament age upon their fulfillment or non-fulfillment, enable us to deduce a few simple canons for the right understanding of prophecy in general, which are applicable to the Revelation, and are of the utmost value in solving the difficulties mentioned above and in determining the permanent significance of the 1 13, 22?. i«. w-19. 2 Cf . p. 168. 3 1'- 9 f , 228-1". le. 294 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY book. (1) The contents of a prophetic message are determined by the circumstances, the needs, and the dominant religious conceptions of the age to which it is addressed ; for the mes sage is always designed to accomplish God's work in a par ticular historical situation. It is true that underlying aU prophecies are certain truths regarding the character of God and his will which are in themselves independent of historical circumstances. But these are always apprehended by the prophet through the media of the conditions of his own time. Such limitations are not only a necessary result of the limita tions of all human agencies employed by God ; they are also essential for the very purpose of the prophet's mission, which is to arouse God's people to their religious duty in the special emergency arising, and to assure them of God's good purpose for his kingdom of the future. In the Old Testament period the prophecies are inseparably bound up with certain political and local institutions and ideas; Israel is the people of God and beloved by him, while the nations, Edom, Assyria, Babylon, and the others, are his enemies and hated by him ; ' I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated' (Mai. 1^); Palestine is the country, Jerusalem the capital of God's kingdom soon to be established in splendor ; salvation is deliverance from the oppressing for eign nations ; to Israel the subject peoples of the earth wiU pay homage ; the future king is an idealized descendant of David, who will have the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession and break the nations with a rod of iron. In the course of Israel's history, with its varying internal conditions and its varying relations to foreign powers, it happens that sometimes one of these factors, sometimes another, comes more to the front in the national life and becomes the predominant theme in the prophecy of that epoch. ' At one time the idea of the congregation of Jehovah appeared as the ruling idea in the contents of the prophetic consciousness, at another time the kingdom of God, again the theocratic kingship, again the priest hood, again the abiding presence of God in the temple ' (Riehm 130). Now these ideas are not with the prophets figures or allegories of a coming spiritual kingdom, of the Church and the Christian life. They are held literally and form an essential part of the subject to which the contents of the prophecy INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 295 relate. But in the light of later history, and especially of the New Testament revelation, it is easy to see that these factors are temporary, that they do not form part of the ideal, uni versal, truth contained in the prophetic message. The con temporaries of the prophet could apprehend the permanent only through these transitory embodiments. The Christian reader makes the distinction. In the New Testament era the change in the idea of the kingdom of God, its place, its people, its destinies, its Savior and King, brings with it a vast change in the contents of prophecy ; and there runs through the New Testament a prophetic element conformed to these Christian ideas. It is not necessary to illustrate this characteristic of Christian prophecy, or to point out the general agreement in this respect of the Revelation with the other books. But in the New Testament also the same law holds as elsewhere regarding the contents of prophecy — the topic to which a prophetic utterance relates is determined by existing condi tions and beliefs. Now the gaze of the apostolic Church was turned intently to the future and the Lord's return, its out look was eagerly eschatological. Therefore its fortunes, its struggles, fears, and hopes were viewed from the standpoint of its eschatological expectations. The elements of its eschatology were however in many instances suggested by Jewish apoca lyptic ideas belonging to the times in the midst of which Chris- tion expectations took form. Thus it comes about that there appear in Christian prophecy factors which, however much modified, are a product of Jewish eschatology. Naturally such elements play a large part in the Revelation, though they occur elsewhere ; compare especially the eschatological discourses in the Gospels, also 2 Thess. 2i-", 2 Pet. 3^-13. Here belong in our book the following: the prophecy of Antichrist with his demonic powers, his world-wide tyranny, his blasphemous claim of divinity ; the coming of the warrior-Messiah with the armies of heaven to destroy Antichrist ; the elaborate programme of pre-messianic plagues ; the representation of the hostility of the world-monarchy to tbe people of God as a direct agency of Satan in his warfare against God ; the renewal of the earth and the heavens ; perhaps other prophecies also may be added to this class. It is important to observe, that these factors consti- 296 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY tute not a form or symbol but the actual contents of the respec tive prophecies. They are the historical element, that which is furnished by contemporary thought and experience. And as such they are to be distinguished from the great spiritual truths of God's eternal purposes in the world, his mighty control of the movements of human society, to work out his gracious will for the sons of men. These latter are the elements of permanent meaning in the prophecy. The former, as springing out of the accidents of contemporaneous history, as the media through which our Prophet seizes his divine revelation, may safely be regarded as circumstantial and transitory ; like the national and local ideas of the Old Testament prophets they do not possess final validity. The remark of Davidson (Hast. IV. 126) is especially appropriate here : ' Prophecy while maintain ing its spiritual principles unchanged from age to age, by sub stituting one embodiment of these principles for another age after age, seems itself to instruct us how to regard these em bodiments and constructions. They are provisional and tran sient. They* sustain the faith and satisfy the religious outlook of their day, but they have no finality.' (2) Many predictions of the prophets were not fulfilled. The central significance of prophecy is found not in the pre diction of coming events of history, but in revealing the truth of God. Yet since the truth thus declared by the prophet always has its bearing, in practical and moral aspects, on the future as well as the present of God's purposes, the prophet is also a foreteller. And his predictions, that God will deal "with men according to their character and conduct, are unerringly verified. The profoundest meaning of the prophetic message as a whole is fulfilled in Christ. Also important historic events, especially of the near future, are foretold ; for example, the return of Israel from exile, Jer. 29'" *¦ ; the deliverance of Jerusalem from the army of Sennacherib, Is. 37^'*-; the fall of Babylon, Jer. 50-51. On the other hand the instances of unfulfilled predictions are numerous. Most familiar among such are the announcements of the great eschatological crises as near, and the pictures of the reign of David's son in an earthly kingdom of glory, over a people enriched with every felicity. Also in the forecast of events of a more ordinary INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 297 kind, a comparison of the prophecies with subsequent history shows the lack of correspondence to be frequent. A few ex amples will suffice : the Egyptians were not carried off cap tive by the Babylonians (Jer. 46), nor by the Assyrians (Is. 20) ; the Jews, restored from exile, did not gain possession of Edom, Gilead, and Philistia (Ob. vv. 18-20) ; Judah did not take captive the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia (Joel 3*"^) ; Tyre was not laid waste by the Assyrians and after forty years restored to her prosperity to consecrate her wealth to Jehovah (Is. 23). The announcement in many prophecies that the great events of the End were near is attributed by many scholars to what is called the perspective character of prophecy ; the prophet is conceived to overlook the intervening ages just as one overlooks the low-lying intervals in a landscape and views a distant mountain as near.' This simile, however, does not remove the actuality of the error, the observer of the landscape really supposes tbe mountain to be near. The illusion — not irreverently may we call it so — in the prophet's case seems rather to spring from his vivid per ception of God's presence and work in the crisis of his day ; he sees God operating mightily in the great world-movements taking place, he sees the moral connection of these movements with the progress of God's Kingdom, and forgetting the slow ness of moral advance, he passes inevitably to the inference that the final goal is now about to be reached. * It is proper to observe that in some instances the failure of a prediction is apparent rather than real. It is sometimes clear that the fulfillment of the prophecy -was conditional, dependent on the future conduct of those ad dressed. Jonah's unqualified declaration that Nineveh should be destroyed in forty days, 3^, vyas annulled by the repentance of the Ninevites. Micah predicted unconditionally that Jerusalem should be plowed as a field, 812 ; but Hezekiah's repentance averted the fulfillment of the words, Jer. 261^. This conditional character in certain predictions, "which though uttered absolutely "were intended to "work a moral change, and therefore left their fulfillment in suspense, is directly asserted by Jeremiah, 18^-1", and it doubtless belongs to many cases, vyhere the issue does not correspond -with the utterance. Another class of predictions only apparently sho-wing error in the prophet occurs in the details of certain prophetic descriptions. As in similes and parables the essential thought is often for the sake of greater 1 Cf. Orelli, 33. 298 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY vividness developed by features having no separate applicability and in tended only to fill out the picture, so the prophecy of a coming event is sometimes given, not in a simple, concrete statement of the fact, but in an idealized picture dra-wn in detail vsrith traits suggested by ordinary expe rience. Thus the atrocities and devastation foretold in the prediction of Babylon's fall in Is. ISi'-i' "were according to Babylonian records not actu ally realized, but they are such as often occurred in the sacking of a city ; "what the prophet has in vie"w is the capture of the city in a siege, and he elaborates his portrayal of it by the use of these common accessories. Simi larly the minute geographical chart of the Assyrian march against Jerusa lem, Is. 1028--52, is only an ideal sketch of the "ways open to such an army of invaders. The predicted ignominious ti-eatment of Jehoiakim's dead body, Jer. 221^, 363°, ^ot verified by the event (2 Ch. 361° . gf, lxX. 368), is a touch taken from the frequent savagery of a conqueror and is added to make "vi"vid the prophecy of the king's death. But vrhile it is necessary in even the briefest notice of the fulfillment of prophecy not to overlook these classes of predictions vsrhose non-verification is only apparent, yet these constitute only a small number in comparison "with those which must be admitted not to have been realized in fact. The effort to avoid a supposed difficulty in such unfulfilled predictions by taking them as figurative or allegorical is now generally disallowed by scholars, because that explanation can be applied to only a limited number, and does violence to the prophet's evident intention to be understood literally. Equally indefensible is the view that the prophecies in question look forward to a time yet even now in the future, when they "wiU be fulfilled. The very nature of the prophet's message, as addressed to a need in a crisis actually present with the read ers, would make inappropriate an announcement belonging only to a future indefinitely remote. It is true that the spirit ual ideas regarding God's purposes and his dealings "with men may be realized at least partially again and again in the course of historjr and at last perfectly in the End. But that is not what the prophet evidently means in foretelling a definite con crete event as about to come. The prophecies regarding As syria, Babylon, the restored glory of Jerusalem and Palestine, cannot be fulfilled, because the circumstances of the world which are presupposed cannot, we may undoubtedly say, arise again. ' It is impossible that the evolution of the divine pur pose can ever again be narrowed within the limits of the petty world of which Judah Avas the center, or Egypt and Assyria INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 299 the extremes. . . . No sane thinker can seriously imagine for a moment that Tyre will again become the emporium of the world's commerce, or Jerusalem the seat of universal sover eignty. The forms in which Isaiah enshrined his spiritual hopes are broken and cannot be restored; they belong to an epoch of history that can never return.' Smith, Prophets 337. These unfulfilled prophecies, however, cause difficulty only when we conceive the prophet to speak from a state, in which he has often been compared to a musical instrument or a pen in the hand of another. But the prophets of at least the age of written prophecy are not so represented in the Scriptures. Even in their ecstasies they retain their consciousness iu ac tivity. What St. Paul says of the Christian prophets is appli cable to all: 'The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,' 1 Co. 14^^. They are not moved mechanically in either receiving or communicating truth. And they must hear and utter God's word through the medium of forms which are intelligible to themselves and to men in general. That which is especially revealed to them, that which forms the true con tents of their divine message, consists of spiritual truths to be declared to men and the relation of these to the exigencies of the time. The prophet beholds the social and political move ments taking place about him in the light of the revelation given to him. His supernaturally quickened perception may sometimes show him the future in which the present must issue; but his predictions must naturally be shaped by his present national and local circumstances, since it is through these that he apprehends his special revelation from God. While the final issue of God's will and purpose is made unmis takable to him, the precise manner in which this shall be ac complished is unknown to him ; often it could not be ccmpre- hended by him or by those whom he addresses. As he himself sees the future in tbe aspect of an issue from his present, so he must fashion his forecasts with this limited foresight. There fore while his prophecy of the final outcome of God's will is infallible, his pictures of future historical events in which he looks for this realization of the divine purpose belong to his circumscribed vision. The frequent failure of such historical 300 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY predictions cannot therefore cause surprise, or raise real diffi culty in the interpretation of prophecy. ¦ It is well to notice the attitude of the prophets themselves and of the New Testament writers toward an exact literal ful fillment of earlier prophetic utterances. For example, the messianic age was, according to the predictions of Isaiah, to follow the downfall of Assyria ; second Isaiah placed it after the destruction of Babylon, Daniel after the overthrow of the Grgeco-Syrian power, the Revelation a short time after the fall of Rome. But the earlier prophet did not, because of the prediction unverified in history, lose any of his authority "with his successors as an inspired messenger from G-od. The abid ing truth regarding the kingdom of God revealed through the prophets was accepted by the Church of the New Testament era as independent of the local and temporal details given in the Old Testament writings. It is clear that the prophet himself did not make infallibility in his historical forecasts essential to his office as the trustworthy announcer of the word of God. This is seen in the unconcern "with which the prophets and their followers recorded earlier utterances which were found to be at variance with after events. To quote again from Robertson Smith, ' It is plain from the very freedom "with which Isaiah recasts the details of his predictions from time to time — adapting them to new circumstances, introducing fresh historical or poetic motives, and canceling obsolete features in his older imagery — that he himself drew a clear distinction be tween mere accidental and dramatic details, which he knew might be modified or wholly superseded by the march of his tory, and the unchanging principles of faith, which he received as a direct revelation of Jehovah himself, and knew to be eternal and invariable truth' (Prophets 342). The recognition of this element of fallibility in certain details of prophecy due to the prophet's necessary relation to his present, to his belief that the eternal ideals revealed to him are about to be realized in forms growing out of the great world- movements of his own day, furnishes an important factor in the interpretation of the Revelation. The prediction of the near downfall of the Roman world-power, the graphically drawn picture of the destruction of the imperial city, the INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 301 accession of a half-demonic world-tyrant (Antichrist) who should soon be destroyed, and the immediate setting up of a millennial reign of the martyrs with Christ on earth, are pre dictions which history has not verified. But their failure can not give difficulty in the study of the Revelation, as a book of prophecy. They are similar in origin to the predictions given by the Old Testament prophets in connection with the great crises of their time. They enshrine great truths regarding the kingdom of God ; but the form in which the Apocalyptist saw the truth realized, the form in which he has clothed his revela tion, is derived from events and ideas belonging to an age now past. That form is transitory, the truth is eternal. We now distinguish the one from the other. We confidently believe in the final realization of the divine ideal revealed ; on the other hand, in view of what we see to be characteristic of prophecy, we do not look for anything like a literal fulfillment of predic tions shaped by the facts and conditions of a transient period of history. (3) In the above discussion it has perhaps -been made suffi ciently clear that the function of the prophet is not that of a writer who shall tell beforehand the history of the future. But it may be useful to speak more particularly of that point, because of its value in guarding against some prevalent misin terpretations of the Apocalypse. In one sense the prophet may be said to foresee the most distant end ; he sees the certain triumph of God's kingdom over all the powers of evil, the ac complishment of God's purpose of goodness for his children, but he does not know the time — 'of that day and hour knoweth no man ' — though he supposes it to be near ; nor has he any vision of the form, in which all will be actually realized, or the far-off changes which must first take place in the world. Political and social movements of the remote future are not of interest in his immediate mission, and doubtless could not be understood by him or by those to whom he speaks. 'The Spirit of God can give certainty to the prophet concerning the nearness of historical details only in the case of those which stand in some immediate connection with the circumstances of his present, not concerning those in which this is not the case ; because for the apprehension of the latter there is entirely 302 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY wanting in the prophet's consciousness every point of contact which makes it possible for the apprehension to arise ' (Riehm 104 f.). This is so because the inspiration of the prophet does not work magically, but through the media of his o"wn conscious ness and understanding. And so while definite events of the nearer future closely connected with his present, such as those mentioned above (p. 296), are foreseen by the prophet, the history of the distant future in which the cause of God's kingdom must meet entirely new conditions remains hidden. The operation of this law is abundantly illustrated on the one hand in the fulfillment of predictions relating to persons and kingdoms in the Assyrian, Babylonian, and other ages; on the other hand in the absence from the earlier writings of pic tures of the exact historic conditions existing in the New Tes tament era. The principle here stated of the prophet's inability to foresee incidental details in a remote future appears to be contradicted by a considerable group of passages found in the Gospels. It is there said of some act of the Lord's, or other fact recorded in the narrative, that it is a fulfillment of a saying of the prophets ; e.g. Mt. 223, 41^^ 279*-, Jno. 1233, 1525. jfow while it is true that the meaning of prophecy as a whole is summed up in Christ, yet that is quite different from a foresight of particular occurrences in the life of Jesus. Apart from those prophecies which may be said to contain general intima tions of the character and work of the true Messiah, the specific Old Testa ment utterances referred to in these passages in the Gospels were not origi nally spoken as prophecies ; e.g. the words quoted in Mt. 2i^, as predicting the flight into Egypt, are in the original connection (Hos. lli) ^ statement of the historic fact that Israel in the beginning had been delivered out of Egypt ; similarly in Jno. 3i3, the words quoted as predictive of Judas' base ness in betraying the Lord were uttered by the psalmist (41^) in the midst of a bitter experience and referred to a familiar friend who had become an enemy. A certain verbal parallelism in such places led the New Testament writer to see in the words a prophecy, according to the common Je"wish vie"w which gave to every utterance and event recorded in the Old Testament a meaning of unlimited scope, especially a prophetic meaning. The relation of such utterances to their occasion, or to the context in which they occur, was entirely disregarded. It is of course e"rident that such an interpretation of the words of the Old Testament is not helpful in determining the scope of prophecy. A striking contradiction of the principle of limitation here maintained has been supposed to be found in the words of Zechariah, 9', literally describing the Lord's entry into Jerusalem just before his passion (Mt. 21i-»). Now the prophet's words are a part of his picture portraying the Messiah as a king of peace ; in a figure he describes him as coming, not INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 303 in the pomp of a triumphal procession riding the war-horse, but in the lowly guise of one who rides the beast of peaceful Kfe. But Jesus, conscious of his Messiahship and of the true nature of the Messiah, here deliberately appropriates in action this familiar and distinctive characterization of the messianic king, just as on other occasions he applies to himself delineations understood to be messianic, e.g. Mt. 243°, 263*, Lk. 4" «-, 72°-2a. It would be contrary to all analogy to suppose that Zechariah foresees this detail in the Lord's doings, when its significance has already been abundantly sho"wn in the Lord's teaching. The importance of apprehending this law of limitation in the prophet's vision is at once apparent in the "interpretation of the Apocalypse; for it makes the fact clear, that the book is not a prediction of the great movements in the world and the Church in the later centuries of European history, or in the centuries which are yet to come. The question as to how many of the seals of the roll, if any, have yet been broken in the world's his tory, the attempt to find pictured in the visions such events as the rise of Mohammedism, the usurpations of tbe papacy, the Reformation, the great European wars, or to identify with figures portrayed in the book well-known historic persons ^ — these and many like inquiries all proceed from an utter misconception of the character of prophecy. It is true that events more or less parallel with the scenes here described have occurred in history, and it is quite possible that others even more closely parallel may occur in future ages ; yet it is certain that these are not the actual events which the Apocalyptist sees in his visions. Nor are we justified in projecting his scenes into the still dis tant future hidden from him, and finding in his visions assurance that there wiU yet come the strange figure of Antichrist ; the awful marvels of the plagues of the seals, of the trumpets and the bowls ; the establishment of a thousand years' reign of the martyrs on earth ; the hosts of the world marshaled by Satan in person for battle before an earthly citadel of the saints. What the book does assure us of, as a genuine work of prophecy, is the accomplishment, under other forms and through the ages, of those eternal purposes of God regarding his kingdom, which the Apocalyptist apprehended and proclaimed under the forms here used. 1 See p. 330. 304 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY The prophecy of a divine intervention, by which the final crisis is intro duced, is understood by many scholars to belong to this class of predictions whose fulfillment is not to be expected. The coming of God and Christ at the End with its attendant events of resurrection and judgment forms, as is urged, a cataclysm at variance with the evolutionary process of his tory known to us, and also at variance with the teaching of Jesus in what is assumed to be the original form of the parables which liken the King dom of heaven to growing seed — first the blade, then the ear, then the full-corn — , to the grain of mustard seed, and to the leaven leavening the three measures of meal (Mk. 426ff-, Mt. 1313-33). Thus the catastrophic establishment of the Kingdom by an objective coming of God in a return of the Lord, which is the common teaching of New Testament eschatology, is referred to the influence of traditional apocalyptic ; and the idea of a spiritual coming extending through the ages is substituted. (For the Lord's teaching in these parables cf. Holtzm. Theol. I. 287 ff., Mathe"ws Mess. 67 ff., Wendt Teaching I. 369 ff.) But as regards this view it may be said, that both natural science and history show the two processes, the evolutionary and the catastrophic, not to be mutually exclusive ; the former is often only the preparation for the latter. So the New Testament "views the kingdom of God in two aspects, as always coming and on the other hand as yet to come (cf. p. 134). We have not sufficient data for affirming positively that Christian prophecy is wrong in attributing the final estab lishment of the kingdom to signal acts of God's intervention. In any event the question as to God's manner of working out a result in a future, which seems immeasurably remote, is not one of pressing practical importance. The Apocalypse to he read from the author's historical and literary standpoint. If the principles regarding the nature and characteristics of prophecy in general as stated above are well founded, we must first of all read the Apocalypse his torically as we read for example an epistle of St. Paul. The Apocalyptist, as we have seen, comes with his message to the Church in the great crisis beginning near the end of the first century, when the very existence of Christianity was threat ened by the imperial government, when the emperor-worship was coming into mortal combat with Christian v/orship, and when persecution of the Christians unto death appeared immi nent throughout the world. The Apocalyptist saw in these movements the precursors of the Last Times, as did the prophets of old in the threatenings of the Assyrians, the Baby lonians, and other hostile nations. In these perils he sees him self sent by God to forewarn the Cliurch, to exhort, and to give assurance of the future. In a work whose subject is deter- TO BE READ AS A WHOLE 305 mined by these circumstances and wliose literary form is shaped largely by prevalent conceptions and inherited apoca lyptic imagery he shows that the long conflict between God and Satan is now becoming intense in the warfare waged against the Church by Satan's agents, the Roman emperors, that it will continue till, like the hostile world-monarchies of old, Rome is overthrown, and then that it will become still more intense in the rule of Antichrist, who forms but the sum and culmination of all that was most cruel and impious in his forerunners, the emperors. The picture in conformity with apocalyptic tradition shows series after series of marvelous plagues sent upon the world as visitations of punishment and warning. But over against all this terribleness it shows Christ, ever holding the Church in his hand, God surely work ing out his sovereign will, Satan overthrown, the saints re deemed in the eternal blessedness of the new Jerusalem. All this the Apocalyptist has worked out in a unifled composition of wonderful power and majesty. With this origin and these motives in mind we read the book as a kind of drama, or crea tion of ideal literature, in which every paragraph has its mean ing with reference to the outcome of the whole. There are passages which are remote from the facts of history and nature, there are obscure passages ; but it is not difficult to conceive the Apocalyptist to be using all these as contributing to the plan of his book and to his purpose. Thus we read the book entirely from the author's standpoint, with his view of the sig nificance of the events then taking place, with his understand ing of the marvels and imagery of the book as factors in his drama, with his anticipation of the future. As regards any particular detail, we do not ask what event in future history it denotes, but rather, adopting the author's understanding of it, what office it performs in the plan of his work as a whole. The book is thus viewed not so much in its parts as in its unity, in the composition of which the author, after his own manner, not ours, has chosen and disposed all the factors so as to bear nearly or remotely on the climax of his theme — the faithful people of God brought through all their conflicts, through all the assaults of Satan, triumphant into the everlast ing kingdom. An effort to show more fully the Apocalyptist's 306 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY meaning in the respective parts and their relation to the whole is made in the Commentary ; see also the Summary, p. 255 ff. The permanent prophetic element in the Apocalypse. But while we read the Apocalypse in its historical and literary as pects, we read it chiefly with its prophetic character in view; for as a prophecy it has its message for all time. The condi tions to which the Apocalyptist addressed his book passed away; certain historical predictions failed. But there is no failure in God's revelation. What was given to the Apocalyptist, what is given to us in the book, is the permanent truth enshrined in its transitory forms ; and upon this depends its practical useful ness in any age, its own or ours. It would be presumptuous to set forth as complete any statement of this underlying truth ; for new experiences must disclose new factors in a divine reve lation. But if we view our book in the light of older prophecies uttered in analogous crises and in the light of the general teach ing of the New Testament, we can broadly summarize its lead ing elements somewhat as follows : the eternal God is through all the movements of history, through all the course of the world's empires, through all the ascendency of iniquitous powers, surely working out his purpose to establish his reign of right eousness, peace, and blessedness; the warfare waged by the people of God against evil strongly intrenched in power must at times become bitter in the extreme, demanding steadfastness and readiness to sacriflce all, even life itself, but God's care for his own is unfailing, they are sealed for a final deliverance in a new and divine order ; the Church is in the safe-keeping of its divine Head who is ever present with it ; punishment, warning, and a call to repentance come to the enemies of righteousness in the present course of the world, but in the end all opposing forces of evil will be overthrown, and the faithful, redeemed, will be admitted to the perfect life of union with God and their Lord. But these truths and whatever else of divine revelation is given to our Prophet are not apprehended by him in this abstract form. y\s they were intended for immediate, practical use, so they were seen and communicated concretely in connec tion with their time. In a later age, our own or one yet to come, entirely different conditions in the world must call for a PERMANENT AND TRANSITORY ELEMENTS 307 different, though perhaps not final, representation of the great truths here embodied. The practical usefulness of the Apocalypse becomes apparent in these permanent elements in it. Where- ever in the condition of society at large, of the Church, and of individual life, similar spiritual issues are involved, there these fundamental truths are applicable and our book brings its prac tical message. The Church, whose vision reaches across the ages, which in its consciousness of an endless life counts a thousand years as one day, must always find encouragement and inspiration in prophecies of the new Jerusalem, far off as the fruition may be. But the hope of that consummation ceased to be a power felt consciously and strongly by Christian people in the events of their time, when the expectation that the end was. near passed away. With most Christians of to-day the things of the eschatological kingdom are shadowy and rarely thought of except in the vague trust that in some far-off seon evil will cease and good will reign supreme. If the message of the Revelation is to be used as a frequent source of practical help in the present course of the world, it must be seen to be more closely related to the conditions and emergencies of familiar experience. But this help is to be sought not in its supposed prediction of present events, but in the application of its permanent truths in present situations to which they are relevant. In other words the book must be used as we use any other part of the Bible. We read these first of all histori cally, having in view the precise situation addressed and the author's meaning as intended for that situation ; but the general truth thus apprehended we apply to all other cases in which it is seen to give us instruction concerning God's will and our own conduct. We draw from the. Revelation its practical mes sage as in the use of the epistles, the histories, the parables, or any other parts of Scripture, which though written primarily with reference to specific circumstances of another time, yet re veal universal truth. This is not the place to speak at length of the practical lessons given in the book ; these are too mani fold and must vary with varying contingencies. A few illus trations will suffice to indicate some of the classes of practical applications to which the truths of the book properly lend themselves. In every fierce conflict between good and evil it 308 THE APOCALYPSE AS PROPHECY utters its twofold message of threatening and encouragement to the combatants ; to the warrior wearily flghting for the right it opens a wonderful vision of God enthroned over all, unfailingly controlling the destinies of the world and surely bringing righteousness to a final, though perhaps long delayed, victory. In all the perils of the Church, in its weaknesses and its strength, in all the calamities threatening it, Christ is shown to be with it, walking in the midst of its candlesticks and hold ing it in his hand. In vast catastrophes and disasters falling upon men as if from an invisible hand, such as are seen in the visions of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, are shown, if not direct interventions of God, at least symbols of divine dis pleasure and revelations of an appointed cosmic order in which natural calamities may serve a spiritual purpose. The book taken as a whole is preeminently one for times of stress, in which organized government with all its civil, military, and re ligious powers wages war upon right, as the Roman emperors waged war upon Christianity. Perhaps in no event since the age in which the Apocalypse was written has the essential char acter of its great conflict been more nearly paralleled than in the world-war of the present century, the most gigantic struggle between righteousness and governmental iniquity kno"wn to history. In this instance, among other parallelisms stands out one, in which even the form is in part reproduced, the appalling atrocities committed by one of the parties to the war in its effort to destroy Armenian Christianity — atrocities committed in the service of an emperor seeking to make himself a world- ruler. Not that the Apocalyptist is for a moment to be under stood as foreseeing this, or other historical wars of later times ; what he sees is one form of the war of might upon right ; and whenever that war arises in history, his revelation of God's final arbitrament is directly relevant. To take another illustration relative to movements in society, the book brings us a message of assurance in one of the most common and disheartening re sults of moral conflict — the triumph of wrong. Here the Apocalypse shows us that the Beast may hold sway till he has filled up the course of his seven heads, that Antichrist may ter rorize the world to the end of his reign, yet the cause of right eousness will at last prevail ; thus it strengthens our struggling PERMANENT AND TRANSITORY ELEMENTS 309 hope in the progress of the world. If we venture to look into the future, it is not difficult to imagine other forms of conflict arising in the control of society, in which the message of the book will apply. We have ceased to expect the coming of Anti christ as a ruler holding sway over all the earth and opposing God. To the ancient world the dreaded power hostile to God and his people appeared embodied in the world-monarchs of the time, and naturally the climax of such hostility was looked for in a ruler who should sum up in his own person all the might and wickedness of his predecessors. That expectation has passed away. No emperor will again make himself a world- dominating power; no government will set itself the task of exterminating the Church throughout the earth. But great problems of social, industrial, and humanitarian right may arise, very likely bringing righteousness into bitter conflict with tyranny and iniquity, calling for our Prophet's exhortation to courage and self-sacrifice and for his proclamation of divine wrath and doom. To these illustrations drawn from conditions in society and the Church at large, might be added a quite different class of examples, showing the practical usefulness of the book. It brings aid to our vision, so dull in spiritual things, in that it stirs our religious imagination by its wonderful picture of the glory of God in the court of heaven, of the majesty of the as cended Christ, of the presence of the Holy Spirit in union with the Father and the Son, and of the sublime worship which the whole universe of created intelligences offers before the throne of God and the Lamb. It lightens up the darkness of the world, to which we journey through death, by its splendid visions of the blessedness of the saints before the throne and in the new Jerusalem ; for though these visions relate to the final state of the redeemed, after the resurrection, in the kingdom of the end, yet Christian imagination seizes upon them as in some way symbolizing also the rest and peace of that state after death which St. Paul foresees, when he speaks of ' having a desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is very far better ' (Phil. 123). Xhe warnings and promises of the seven epistles touch practically the daily individual life in a wide round of perils and duties. The whole portrayal of Satan's warfare 310 THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE against the Church, his devices, his mighty power, his final doom, since these represent spiritual facts, can be legitimately brought by the Christian reader into a practical relation to his own spiritual experiences. Even the three great series of mi raculous visitations may furnish him with a symbol of the dis asters and devastation wrought by evil in the soul, and of the poignant suffering of an offended conscience, at the same time a symbol of the wrath that remembers mercy. These few illus trations can serve only to indicate lines along which practical uses of the book may be found. When once we distinguish the permanent religious truths given in it from the transient em bodiment in which the Prophet apprehended and expressed them, we perceive the wide range of their applicability, and the book, often regarded as one of the least practical, becomes one of the most practical books in the Bible. IX. The Theology of the Apocalypse The doctrine of Grod. In his being and attributes the God of the Apocalypse is the same as elsewhere in the New Testament, though attention is fixed more upon certain properties of his character and withdrawn from others. He appears chiefly as the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the eternal one, the al mighty creator and ruler of the universe, the righteous judge, the Holy One, whom all in heaven and earth must obey and worship. He is not distinctly portrayed as the God who 'so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son ' ; it is no where in the book said ' God is love ' ; he is not in specific words declared to love even the righteous. If we read the book and compare it with other parts of the New Testament, view ing only the most outstanding features in the respective repre sentations, it might appear to belong in its conception of God to Hebrew rather than Christian thought ; there might seem to be truth in the statement that ' Its doctrine of God has no exact parallel in the rest of the New Testament ' (Swete cliv). This view however leaves out of sight certain facts essential to a comprehensive estimate. In the flrst place the book is not concerned with the preaching of the gospel and THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE 311 the evangelizing of the world — in which God's love would be emphasized — rather, it transports us to the end of the ages, and the last attempts of Satan and his agents to destroy the work of God in his children. As regards God's relation to the unchristian world, its subject is the retribution which righteous ness must inflict upon enemies remaining obdurately antago nistic to God. In so far then the thought is concentrated on one aspect of God's character, to the incidental disregard of others. Righteous judgment and wrath, from the nature of the case, flgure chiefly in the portrayal of God. But in this the book does not differ fundamentally from representations of the God of the Last Times given in other writings of the New Testament. The difference consists in the greater amplitude of the picture, in keeping with the nature of the book. The character of God as manifested in the end is- set forth sum marily by St. Paul in precisely tbe same traits ; ' Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suf fering ? . . . but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treas- urest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; who will render to every man according to his works, unto them that are factious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish.' Ro. 2*~^. Similar are the representations given in the parables of the wedding feast (Mt. 22^'i2f-), of the ten virgins (Mt. 25^2), of the pounds (Lk. 19^7), and in tbe eschatological discourse of the Gospels (Mt. 24®'™). As declaring the attribute of unrelenting wrath against the obdurate in the character of God cf. also Jno. S^^, 939, 12*0, I Pet. 417 f.^ 2 Pet. 2*-9, Jude, v. 15 ; see also p. 160. In the second place, the love of God for his people, and his re lation of fatherhood toward them, though not declared in ex press terms, are throughout contained in his attitude toward them and his acts in their behalf. It may be remarked that the actual word love, as applied to God's love for his children or mankind at large, does not occur in the Synoptists. That idea is expressed there by fatherhood, e.g. Mt. 5*^, while in the Fourth Gospel the latter term is almost wholly displaced by the former ; but in both the fact is explicit apart from the precise words used. So in the Apocalypse the loving care of 312 . THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE God for his people is as clearly manifested as his wrath against their enemies. In fact his righteous judgment inflicted on the latter is but the converse of his love for the former, and is in effect so characterized; cf. 11^^ 16**-, 19^, 6'*-. The establish ment of the perfected kingdom in the renewed world, to which every event in the book looks forward, has for a part of its pur pose the reward of those whom God loves, 11^^, 22^. And this love is revealed in manifold details in the course of the book. The following will serve as sufficient illustration : the perfect oneness of God and Christ in all the moral motives exhibited in the book makes the declared love of Christ for the saints (1^, 3'''i'', cf. 3^2) an expression of God's love. God protects and delivers the saints in the distresses and perils, 7^~^ 12*' "¦ '*; he will release them from all sorrow and pain, T^^^; 21* ; they shall have the immediate access of priests to his presence and shall share in liis throne, 1^, 51", 20*^ ; they shall dwell with him and he with them, he will be their God and they his sons, 21'' ', 22*. But more than this, God's compassion even towards his enemies is not without trace in the book ; see pp. 554, 569. It is evident then that the difference between the Apocalyptist and the other New Testament writers lies not in an essential difference of view regarding God, but in the emphasis which the very nature of his book causes him to lay on certain aspects of the divine character. And it follows that we cannot find here decisive indicia bearing on the question of tlie author's identity with any other New Testament writer. The doctrine of Christ. As is natural in a book of the Last Things the person and activities of Christ are chiefly those of the risen One. Apart from his function as the bearer of testi mony, that is, as revealer, which is a general term compre hending his activity after, as well as before, his resurrection, there is no specific reference to his earthly course, except to his death. But the book stands alone in its vivid revelations of the glorified Christ. While its doctrine does not in its essen tial significance go beyond that of the Fourth Gospel, where the divinity of the Logos and the eternal glory of the Son are plainly declared (e.g. 1'*-, 17^) or beyond the teaching of Paul (e.g. Col. 29, Phil. 2^), yet nowhere else are found these won- THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE 313 derful scenes revealing to the eye and ear the majesty of Christ's ascended state, and these numerous utterances ex pressing in terms applicable to -God alone the truth of his divine nature and power. He is seen in the first vision in a form having the semblance of man, yet glorified with attri butes by which the Old Testament writers have sought to por tray the glory of God ; his hair is white as snow, his face shines with the dazzling light of the sun, his eyes are a flame of fire, his voice as the thunder of many waters ; he announces himself as eternal, as one who though he died is the essentially living One, having all power over death, l^^-is. jjg appears in the court of heaven as coequal with God in the adoration offered by the highest hosts of heaven and by all the world, 56-14 jje is seen coining forth on the clouds as the judge and arbiter of the world, 14i*~'is. Wearing crowns and insignia which mark him as King of kings and Lord of lords, he leads out the armies of heaven to the great battle with Antichrist, J9H-21. jj^ keeping with these scenes, attributes and preroga tives understood to belong to God only are assigned to him either alone or as joined with God; he is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, 2213^ 1", 2** — a designation which God also utters of himself, 1^, cf . Is. 448, 48^2 ; worship is offered to him in common with God, 710, 5'^ — a worship which angelic beings are forbidden to receive, 191"; doxologies are raised to him as to God, 1"; the throne of God is his throne, the priests of God are his priests, 3^1, 22^, 20^ ; life belongs essentially to him as to God, compare 1^^ with 4"' i". It is not necessary to add further illus tration of the divine nature attributed to him by the Apoca lyptist. In some instances the writer might seem to identify Christ with God without difference of person; and for the most part in the representations mentioned above the idea of a ' subordination ' of the Son to the Father seems to be absent. But it is certain that the author does not confuse the person of Christ with the person of God, and equally certain that no Jewish or Christian writer thinks of a plurality of Gods. On the other hand there is a second class of pas sages which must be brought into comparison with those given above, if we are to gain a full view of the Apocalyptist's 314 THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE Christology. Christ is designated the Son of God, 2^3; God is his Father, 1", 2^^, 3•^•^ 14i; God is his God, S'''^; he re ceives his power to rule from God, 2^^ ; the revelation which he sends through the Prophet he receives from God, 1^. The problem presented by these two conceptions of Christ, appar ently irreconcilable, is that which appears in the New Testa ment generally. In the Fourth Gospel two distinct lines of thought are dominant: 'The Word was God,' 1^, and 'The Father is greater than I,' 14^3. So with St. Paul ; compare the declaration, ' being on an equality with God,' Phil. 2", with that of 1 Co. 113, 4 Xhe head of Christ is God.' The two con ceptions of the person of Christ had come to be held singly yet clearly, but there appears as yet no attempt to reconcile them. The idea of ' subordination ' was inseparable from the Lord's incarnate life and mediatorial work ; the fact of his divine exaltation came to be apprehended in that process through which the Spirit guides the Church into truth. The writers of the New Testament are prophets of a spiritual reve lation, not philosophic theologians, and they do not betray difficulty in holding the two views of the person of Christ in conjunction, without a clearly defined doctrine of unity. But they furnish the foundation truths upon which the Church at a later date based its precise deflnition of two natures in one person. It is worth while to notice the Apocalyptist's use of personal names in designating Christ. In the prologue and the epilogue (11-8, 226~2i^ he uses the customary names, Jesus, Jesus Christ, or Lord Jesus. In the body of the work (19-22^), the usual designation is the Lamb. Setting aside some passages where the ' testimony of Jesus ' is mentioned, — a phrase in which reference may be made to Christ in both his earthly and his heavenly state (l».2dcaBe^ 12", U^\ 17", 191°, 20*), we find in this part of the book the name Jesus or Christ in only five places (^19,iBtcaBe^ lliB, 1210, 20^'^w^''«) and in these reference is made to the risen Christ. Once Lord occurs and refers to the earthly Christ, 113. In all other cases, 28 in all, the Lamb is used, and almost without exception (the two exceptions, 7", 12", are per haps not really such) designates the risen Christ, though in some instances allusion is at the same time made to the redeem- THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE 315 ing death which had preceded the glorified state (5^'^'i^ 133). It will be seen then that the standing personal name which the Apocalyptist uses for the glorified Christ is the Lamb. This is the name given to him in the most august scenes. As the object of the worship offered by tbei hosts of heaven and earth, chapts. 4-5 ; as the unveiler of the destinies of the ages, chapts. 6-6 ; as one enthroned, before whom and to whom the redeemed render the praise of their salvation, 7'*-; as the controller of the book .of life, 13^ ; as the Lord of the hosts on mount Zion, 141; a^s the victor over the hosts of Antichrist, 17i*; as the spouse of the glorified Church, 19'^; as the temple and light of the new Jerusalem, 21^ '¦ ; as the sharer in the throne of God, 221, — Christ is called the Lamb. Nowhere in the occurrence of the name is there evident allusion to the figure of meekness and gentleness in suffering. But when the thought turns back to the redemption which the risen Christ had previously wrought by his death and to the results of his death in the victory gained by the saints and in their spotlessness before God, the Lamb is the only name given to Christ (5"'"'^ 7i*, 12", 133). In this, last connection the figure is clearly that of the Lamb as an atoning sacrifice, and is parallel with what is probably the correct interpretation of the words of the Fourth Gospel, 'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world,' Jno. l^-'*. The application to Christ of this figure of the Lamb as an atoning sacrifice is not common in the New Testament ; outside of the passages in the Revelation and the Fourth Gospel mentioned above it occurs only once, 1 Pet. li^ ; the thought in the figure of the paschal lamb, 1 Co. 5'' is dif ferent. The representation of the Messiah as a lamb in Enoch 9038, Xest. Jos. 19 is not parallel with our author's use ;i though it is possible that, as some suppose, there may have existed in popular apocalyptic a portrayal of the triumphant Messiah under the figure of a lamb. Yet it is altogether im probable that there could have been connected with such a repre sentation the idea of a redeeming sacrifice. Whatever be the source of the application of the figure to the triumphant Christ, whether originating with the Apocalyptist himself, or adapted by him from the sacrifice of the incarnate Christ, or from some 1 See Com. S*. 316 THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE current imagery, the scope of his use of the figure as a whole is significant as characteristic of his mode of thinking about the person of Christ. The Lamb is the Christ in the highest exaltation of his divine glory ; he is likewise the Christ who has suffered death to redeem a people unto God. The glorified Christ and the Lamb that had been slain are not thought of apart from each other ; and the Apocalyptist is not conscious of any antinomy; there is no trace of an effort to introduce a mediating unity. The exaltation viewed as a reward of the humiliation, as in Phil. 23*-, might seem to be hinted at, as for example in the words, 'As I also overcame and sat do-wn with my Father in his throne,' 3^1, but this thought is not brought in anywhere distinctly, as indicating cause and effect. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Apocalypse cannot be said to present essential divergence from the Pauline Epistles and the Fourth Gospel in its doctrine of the Spirit, though his operations are not so much emphasized in our book, nor made so specific. The same problems arise here regarding the personal ity of the Spirit, and his relations to God and Christ: The Spirit appears to be conceived as a person, and as such to be distinguished from God in the invocation of grace and peace from him, 1*, also in the seven Spirits before the throne of God, 4^, and perhaps in the utterance added to that of the voice from heaven, 14i3. The designation seven Spirits for the one Spirit is due to the symbolism adopted by the author ; see Com. 1*- In like manner the distinction from Christ is seen in the invo cation , 1*'-, in the Spirit's prayer addressed to Christ for his coming, 221'''. jj jg ,^q^ ^o be expected that the personality of the Spirit should be so distinctly conceived and expressed as that of Christ whose incarnate life gives force to the idea of his person. The Apocalyptist's conception of the unity of the Spirit with God and Christ is shown distinctly. The Spirit is God's Spirit, 3i, 4^, 5". He is also the Spirit of Christ, Christ hath, the seven Spirits of God, hath the seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God, 3i, 5"; at the close of each of the seven epistles Christ, the speaker, though naming the Spirit as if another person, identifies hinf with himself ; the words which he gives as his are called the words of the Spirit. This con- THEOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE 317 ception of identity and yet of distinction in the persons of God, Christ, and the Spirit is the same as that expressed by St. Paul, Ro. 8^~ii. But when we speak of the processes of personifica tion, identification, and distinction, we do not attribute to the author the completeness and precision of a later mode of think ing. The Apocalyptist does not feel difficulty in a certain personalizing of the Spirit, as distinct from God and Christ, while holding to the unity of God ; the relation of his concep tions of God, Christ, and the Spirit to one another and to the oneness of the divine being presented no problem to his thought, or the thought of that age. It is inconceivable that he should have viewed the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as three distinct and coordinate Gods ; it is equally clear that he placed Christ and the Spirit in an order above the highest angelic beings, above all created existences. These truths of religious faith which the Apocalyptist held singly, without the consciousness that there was needed a principal of unity, took form subsequently, when the Church entered upon the task of more precise theological statement, in the doctrine of the three persons in tbe unity of the Godhead. The principal office of the Spirit spoken of in the Apocalypse is that of revealer and inspirer. The ecstasies in which the prophetic visions are opened to the seer are due to his operations, lio, 4^, 17^, 21io. He is the organ of Christ's message to the churches in the seven epistles, ' Hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,' chapts. 2-3 passim; and .the same thought underlies the words of 22i^, as also the statement regarding God's revelation, 22". The Spirit is the inspirer of the prophets, 191" ; and in one instance he stands as the intercessor for the Church, 22", cf. Ro. 8^^. The renewing and sanctifying influence of the Spirit, made prominent in the Fourth Gospel and St. Paul (e.g. Jno. 3^-3, 7'*% Gal. 522'), is not directly mentioned in the Apocalypse. If, however, the allusion to the water of life, 221- ", be inter preted by Jno. 7^8 '•, that thought may be contained there. 318 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION X. History op Interpret ation Both the subject matter and the form of the Apocalypse are such that the book lends itself easily to various methods of interpretation. The author is commissioned to write of things which shall come to pass after the date of his writing (li^) ; and though the command includes also things belonging to his own present, ' the things that are,' yet these are "viewed chiefly in their relation to the future. Prediction, therefore, becomes the most prominent characteristic of the book; and that which is predicted is given in the form of visions unfolded in an, intricate series, with stupendous imagery, with vast movements in heaven and earth, with strange figures passing across the scene, with typical numbers and names, and with all the mysteriousness of the unreal world. Very rarely does the writer translate what is seen into the language of plain, realistic definition. Naturally then there is great room for fanciful explanations, and many hard questions arise regarding the meaning of the whole and its several parts to which mani fold answers have been given. Do the Seer's visions relate to events which are to culminate in his own immediate future, or does he survey the whole destiny of the Church and the world as it is unfolded in the course of history ; or still again, do all his predictions await the last great days for their fulfill ment? Are the events foretold to be understood as actual, visible facts, or are they but symbols of spiritual truths and experiences? Do the visions of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls give three parallel representations of the same events (the so-called Recapitulation exegesis), or do they form a con tinuous series each leading up to what follows? Is the reign of the thousand years a kingdom to be established on earth, or is it only a spiritual condition ; did it begin with Christ's earthly life, or with the conversion of the Roman empire, or is it wholly in the future? Who or what is the Beast; is he a person, a world-ruler, or the Roman pontiff, or some great heretic and enemy of the faith, or is he only the personification of all Avickedness in its hostility to God and his Church? Are the seven heads certain great historical kings, or great em- FIRST FOUR CENTURIES 319 pires that have succeeded one another in history, or are they symbols of evil forces in the spiritual world? What is the significance of the strange numbers employed? Is the great harlot the city of Rome, pagan or papal, or the capital city of the world-kingdom at some future period, or an apostate Church? These are some of the questions which have exer cised the ingenuity of interpreters in the course of the cen turies, and the answers given have been determined by various influences, especially by the circumstances, political or eccle siastical, of the interpreter's time, by his general attitude toward the interpretation of Scripture, by his view of prophecy and inspiration, by his theory of the critical analysis of the book, and by the peculiar characteristics of apocalyptic litera ture to which the book belongs. No attempt is made here to survey the vast body of literature which in the course of time has been occupied with the subject ; it is rather the aim of the present paragraph merely to present the views of those inter preters who have most influenced their own and later times, and thus to trace in a brief outline the more important steps in the interpretation of the Revelation through the different periods of its history and in its different systems, i (1) The first four centuries. For the purposes of the outline here intended it is convenient to group together the interpre ters of the flrst four centuries. Like ' every scripture inspired of God ' the Apocalypse was certainly meant to be to those to whom it first came ' profitable for teaching ' (2 Tim. 3"), and so the writer must have counted on its being understood in its chief lessons. Doubtless the readers had already been in structed orally in such eschatological teaching as appears in the Gospel record of our Lord's words, and in the epistles; and if so, they possessed the norm guiding them to the general understanding of a book which likewise told of the approach of the ' times of the Gentiles,' ' the messianic woes,' and of the near appearing of Christ in his kingdom, a book which also warned and encouraged the Church in view of what was iQn the history of the interpretation of the Apoc, cf. Lucke H. 951 ff., Bleek, Vorlesungen 'i,^ fl., EUiott, Horae Apoc Vol. IV., Bousset, Kom. 49 fi., Charles, Studies 1 fl. 320 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION coming on the earth. That there is much in it which was not understood by them or misunderstood, can hardly be doubted, but the monitions to preparedness and steadfastness, the reve lations of hope and comfort, were clear ; and as long as the eschatological expectations of the apostolic age continued active, the Church was not altogether far from the author's thought in the understanding of the book ; but as that expec tation died away, or was transformed, the Church entered into a wilderness of wandering in its conception of this portion of Scripture, from which it is only in recent years escaping through the rise and rigorous application of the historical method of study (cf. p. 2). Justin Martyr. The first post-apostolic writer who refers directly to the Revelation is Justin Martyr. He asserts (Dial. c. Tryph. 81) that it teaches a literal millennial kingdom of the saints to be established in Jerusalem, and after the thou sand years the general resurrection and judgment. And it is evident from the scope of his argument that this was the common view in the middle of the second century. In this respect at least he takes the book in a realistic sense. To the other prophecies he makes no allusion, i Irenceus. Although Irenseus did not write a commentary on the Revelation, he makes frequent use of it, giving an in terpretation of many of its representations. ^ Like Justin he finds in the book the doctrine of chiliasm, that is, of an earthly millennial kingdom ; Christ will come and after the conquest over Antichrist and his hosts, will set up his kingdom in a re newed Jerusalem, where the saints will reign with him in blessedness 1000 years, as the beginning of the incorrupti ble life in final glory. Then will follow the general resurrec tion, the judgment, and the renewal of the world. The Beast, Antichrist, is a person springing out of the tribe of Dan, iu whom will be concentrated all world-power and all apostasy and hostility to God's people. While in the mind of Irenseus the Roman empire embodies the world-power hostile to God, and he sees its dissolution predicted among the events preceding 1 The supposition based on Jerome De vir. illust 9 that Justin and Irenaeus VTTOte commentaries on the Apoc. is generally rejected. Cf . Liieke II. 558 ff. 2 See especially Adv. HcBr. V. FIRST FOUR CENTURIES 321 the advent of Christ, he does not identify Antichrist with any known Roman emperor. He suggests Aaretw?, Latinus, among possible explanations of 666, the number of Antichrist's name, but rejects it as he does all other precise names, inter preting the number in a highly artificial way as summing up Antichrist's essential character. The series of plagues that precede the End he takes literally of visitations similar to those sent upon Egypt. As a rule he understands the book realistically, yet in some cases a purely symbolical interpreta tion is given ; for example, the four Living Creatures about the throne of God symbolize tlie functions of Christ, the lion his kingship, the calf his priesthood, the man his humanity, the eagle his prophetic office ; the number four determines the number of the Gospels, i Irenseus is closely followed by Tertullian. Hippolytus (bishop of Portus Romanus, died 235). Like the writers just spoken of, Hippolytus is a chiliast, but he placed the millennium in a comparatively late future, in the year 500. He takes the book of Daniel as the norm for understanding the Revelation. The first beast he identifies with the fourth beast of Daniel, which he makes the Roman empire. Ojie of the heads will be wounded unto death in that the empire will be broken up by the ten Kings; it will then be healed in the res toration of world-sovereignty by Antichrist. Antichrist, who was represented by Antiochus Epiphanes and who will come out of the tribe of Dan, will reign 3^ years, persecuting the Church and putting to death the two Witnesses, the fore runners of the parousia (held to be Elijah and Enoch) ; his number may represent various names ; among these Aareti-os is especially suggested by his headship of the restored Latin sway, but the true meaning is a mystery only to be understood in the future. The great harlot and Babylon are Rome. The woman with child is the Church continually bearing through preaching the word of God, her flight into the wilderness is the flight of the Church from the persecutions of Antichrist, the two wings of the eagle given to her are faith in Christ who stretched out his two arms on the cross. Victorinus (bishop of Petavium, martyred about 303). The commentary of Victo- 1 m. 11. 322 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION rinus, long known in two much worked-over recensions, has re cently been recovered in what is generally accepted as a genuine form.i j^s yet only the concluding part has been published,^ but this is sufficient to show the author's standpoint. He un derstands the Revelation in a literal, chiliastic, sense. He places its date in the reign of Domitian, the sixth ruler reckoned from Galba. Some time after Nerva, the seventh, at a time still in the future for Victorinus, Nero will return from the dead as the eighth. This Nero redivivus is the Beast and Antichrist, and his coming is near at hand. The persecutions of Victorinus' time belong to the sixth seal ; with the seventh will come the End. The plagues of the bowls do not follow those of the trumpets in a continuous series, but are parallel with these, that is, they recapitulate these in another form. The two "witnesses are Elijah and Jeremiah ; the 144,000 are Jews who in the last days will be converted by the preaching of Elijah ; the woman fleeing into the wilderness symbolizes believers fleeing from the hosts of Antichrist. The second beast, the false prophet, will cause the image of Antichrist to be set up in the temple at Jeru salem. The commentary of Victorinus is the flrst among extant commentaries to use the Nero redivivus myth ; and its theory of recapitulation^ recognizes a difficulty in the formal composi tion, and offers a solution adopted by many later writers. Origen. It will be seen that with all the writers named above tbe earthly messianic kingdom at a date not too far distant is a dominating factor. The Revelation is taken literally. Like the Jewish apocalypses with which it has so much in common, it is understood, as in fact it was primarily intended to be, a source of comfort and encouragement in a time of flerce perse cution. Naturally this aspect of it could not be overlooked, but was rather kept alive as long as the Roman empire was hostile to Christianity and bent on its extinction. But over against this realistic understanding of the Revelation, there were influences leading to an entirely different conception of its nature. The growing force of Greek thought in the Church ' Discovered hy Haussle.iter in the Codex (.Htobonianus Lat. 3288 A. " Haussleiter in Theol. Literaturblatt 1895. ' Viz. that the events do not all form a continuous series, but some scenes re capitulate the events of other scenes; cf. p. 318 FIRST FOUR CENTURIES 323 was opposed to the literalism of Jewish apocalyptic, and the passage of the centuries without the appearance of the Lord to set up the looked-for kingdom led to an effort to find a non- literal meaning in the prophecies. Also the opposition to the heresy of Montanism, which made great use of the Apocalypse and gave extravagant form to its millennial teaching, caused it to be either rejected or differently interpreted. Thus a spiritu alizing or allegorizing exegesis arose. The leader in this was Origen, the vehement opponent of Millenarianism. A prom ised commentary of his on the Revelation seems never to have been written, but his understanding of it "can be seen from his theory of the interpretation of Scripture, and from his treatment of certain passages of the book found, in his writings. He lays down the principle that the true meaning of prophecy is to be found only by going beyond the literal and historical sense to the spiritual; and he says specifically of the Apocalypse that the mysteries hidden in it can be understood only in this way. His whole interpretation of the book is therefore spiritual rather than literal. At a definite period the Lord will come, not visi bly, but in spirit, and establish his perfected kingdom on earth. The time of his advent will coincide with the coming culmina tion of evil in the person of Antichrist, a future world-ruler, a child of Satan. The imagery of the visions is to be taken alle- gorically ; for example, the seven heads of the dragon are seven deadly sins, the ten horns are serpent-like powers of sin which assail the inner life, the roll with seven seals is the Scriptures, whose meaning Christ alone can unseal ; the warrior whose name is the Word of God, issuing upon a white horse from the opened heavens, is Christ, who opens heaven by giving the white light of truth to those who receive him. Methodius (bishop of a see, probably Olympus, in Lycia, early in the fourth century). This same spiritualizing procedure appears also in Methodius. He accepts a millennial period, as a preparation for the final blessedness, but the visions are taken allegorically. The woman with child is the Church bearing children into spiritual life, and since the true life of these is with the Spirit in heaven, they are removed from the assaults of the dragon, the devil. Methodius expressly denies that the woman's child can be Christ. The seven heads of the dragon are the chief sins, the 324 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION fallen stars are false teachers who are fallen from the faith, but claim knowledge of heavenly things. Ticonius (the exegete of the Donatists). With the reign of Constantino and the conversion of the Roman empire, Rome and a Roman emperor could no longer be regarded by the Church as the beast of the Apocalypse and Antichrist. On the other hand the persecution of the Donatist heretics by the Catholic Church led the adherents of that sect to find these antichristian powers in the rulers of what was viewed as a worldly and corrupt Church. The Donatists were of the true Church and as such were persecuted by the Satanic powers foretold in the Revelation, that is, by the Catholic hierarchy supported by the world-power. In these circumstances ap peared near the end of the fourth century the epoch-making commentary of the Donatist Ticonius, a work followed in its method even by many orthodox scholars. Ticonius' com mentary has not been preserved by itself, but the principal parts of it are recovered through its use by later writers, i His interpretation is throughout spiritualistic, he explains nothing by the events and circumstances of the age of the Apocalyptist. The millennial kingdom and the millennial reign of the saints are realized in the Church, between the first coming of Christ and the second ; Christ was the ' strong man ' who in his earthly appearance laid hold of Satan and bound him for a thousand years. Antichrist is sometimes conceived imper sonally, as the personification of the sum of evil powers present in the world ; again he is represented as a definite historical person, who in the last days will be set by Satan over his king dom in its war upon the true Church. The time wiU come when the true Church will be separated from the false in the sight of men ; then Antichrist will appear and continue his great persecution 3^ years. The two Witnesses symbolize the Church preaching Christ in the two Testaments. The Beast is the world-power, the seven heads are the sum of all the kings of the earth ; the head wounded unto death and restored forms an eighth head, who is one of the seven and symbolizes the cor rupt priesthood, which is of the world though claiming not to iThe chief sources for it are-Beatus, Primasius, Pseudo- Augustine, and Bede. On Ticonius cf. Bousset, Kom. 56 ff., Swete CCV. f. FIFTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURY 325 be such ; Jerusalem is the symbol of the Church, as Babylon is the symbol of the antichristian world. Ticonius is followed by Augustine,! in his spiritualizing method, though the latter in the application of the method avoids the heresies of the Donatists. Both writers adopt the recapitulation theory.^ (2) Prom the fifth to the end of the fifteenth century. What is here made the second period in the exegesis of the Apocalypse is characterized throughout the greater part of it, by the pre dominating influence of Ticonius and the spiritualizing method, with some following here and there of Victorinus and tbe realistic interpretation. But in the latter part of the period the course of events brought up again the chiliastic expecta tion, though in a much modifled form. Two commentators of the sixth century, Andreas in the East and Primasius in the West, who wrote extended works on the Revelation, served as agents transmitting the influence of Ticonius and others of the earlier period to the following centuries. Andreas (bishop of Csesarea in Cappadocia), author of the fullest and best known of the Greek commentaries, defines his method as that of Origen ; tbe threefold sense which he finds in Scripture is (1) the literal or historical, (2) the figurative or moral, (3) the spiritual or mysterious, which contains the mysteries of the future, expressed in symbols. He makes the last predominant in the interpretation of the Apocalypse, though he sometimes refers the symbols and imagery histori cally to the time of the Apocalyptist. The kingdom of 1000 years, as with Ticonius and Augustine, begins with Christ's earthly life and will continue till the knowledge of him is everywhere extended, the number of years being symbolical of completeness and multitude. The first resurrection is the believer's rising from spiritual death ; Babylon represents, not Rome, but the sum of the world-powers ; the temple is the Christian Church. On the other hand, Andreas adopts in many cases the realistic interpretation ; Antichrist will arise from the tribe of Dan and fix the seat of his rule at Jerusalem ; ' Augustine did not "write a commentary on the Apocalypse, but interpreta tions of parts of it are given in his -writings, cf . especially De civ. Dei 20, 7 ff. 2 For this theory see p. 322. 326 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION Andreas mentions several names and attributes as explanations given of 666, but rejects them all, holding the number a mys tery not to be understood till Antichrist comes ; he rejects the reference of the wounded head to Nero ; the seven heads are seven historical empires of which Rome is the sixth, Constanti nople the seventh; the two Witnesses are Elijah and Enoch; the first five seals relate to the past, the remaining seals and the trumpets and the bowls, to the future. Primasius (bishop of Hadrumetum in Africa) follows yet more closely than does Andreas the spiritualizing method of Ticonius, purged of its Donatistic errors. He saj's expressly in his preface, that he is guided by Augustine and Ticonius ; from the latter he introduces long excerpts. The general pro cedure of his exegesis consists in finding the abstract and uni versal in the concrete ; reference to historical events or persons is for the most part wanting, though some realistic interpreta tions also occur ; e.g. Antichrist is with him a person who wiU. come out of Dan, the two Witnesses are Enoch and Elijah, the four angels standing at the corners of the earth are the king doms of Assyria, Media, Persia, and Rome. The commentaries of other writers in the first half of this period follow, often through the influence of Primasius, often directly, the leading of Ticonius with a blending of earlier interpretations. There are differences in the explanation of details, but there is no independence of traditional methods. An exception occurs in Berengaudus, a ninth century commentator. He interprets the first six seals as covering the time from Adam to the rejec tion of the Jews in the fall of Jerusalem ; the first six trumpets are the preachers sent by God from the beginning of biblical history down to the latest defenders of the Church, the seventh trumpet represents the preachers who will come in the time of Antichrist ; the horns of the beast are the barbarian tribes who destroyed the Roman empire. But in many other cases Be rengaudus follows closely his predecessors. He does not ap pear to have exerted influence on the course of interpretation, though he may be said to have anticipated the principle of the later system which found in the Revelation prediction of the future history of the Church and the world. Joachim (Abbot of Floris in Calabria, died 1201) made a FIFTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURY 327 really new departure in the interpretation of the Apocalypse at the end of the twelfth century, expressing a change of view wrought by the course of history and the character of the age. From the time of Ticonius and Augustine it had been a belief, nearly universal, that the kingdom of the thousand years began with the earthly appearance of Christ, or with his resurrection and ascension ; Satan had been ' bound,' that is, his power had been in part restrained, but he was not destroyed, Antichrist and antichristian powers were still at work constantly in the world; at the end of the millennial period a final manifestation of evil in personal form would take place, with all its enmity toward the Church. Therefore as the ten centuries neared their end, a general unrest and fear seized society. Satan was about to be loosed for the last great conflict, the time of dread persecu tion was at hand, after which would come the judgment and the end of the world. The critical period however passed by, nei ther Antichrist nor the Lord appeared, nothing occurred in the experience of the Church or the world in which Christians could see their expectations and fears realized. This undisturbed passage of the time of expected crisis produced first of all a change of view in regard to the meaning of the thousand years. Augustine centuries before had taken it as symbolical of an in definite period, and this understanding of it now became gen eral. But the expectations which had been so actively aroused were not at once allayed; great interest in the coming of the Last Days continued, eschatological thought was busy. The Lord's appearance was believed to be not far off, and this fore boding was soon intensified by the condition of the Church itself, which now entered on a period of unconcern and self- content. Relieved as it was from fear of the sufferings believed to be predicted for the time now past, secure in its imperial domination, it beheld in its present state the fulfillment of the promises of millennial glory. Naturally deterioration and worldliness followed as the result in both official administration and individual moral life. Devout observers saw in these forces at work in the Church the presence of Antichrist and his agents. Such a predominance of evil could not continue, — in its very presence lay the presage of the End as near. The fore most writer to interpret the Revelation in this direction was 328 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION Joachim of Floris. Like Ticonius he views many of the proph ecies as referring to his own time. He divides the history of the world into three periods, that of the Father, the Old Testa ment period, that of the Son, the New Testament period, still continuing in Joachim's time, that of the Holy Spirit soon to come ; the last is the time of peace and glory, when Christ will appear again on earth — the millennium again conceived as future and not already begun ; the number of years, however, is not taken literally. This coming age would be the time of the ' contemplative life,' realized in perfected monasticism. A new order of monks, an order of the Holy Spirit, would arise which would ' refresh all the earth as streaming rain. ' Joachim divides and subdivides the Apocalypse in an artificial manner, and in ex plaining the different divisions uses the recapitulation method. In one part the Beast is Mohammedism, which received a deadly wound in the Crusades but revived again partially from time to time and is fully restored in the person of a Saracen king ; in another part the Beast is the devil. Of the seven kings, five of whom are fallen, the sixth is apparently Saladin, the seventh is Antichrist, after whose overthrow by Christ the millennial king dom will be established ; at the end of the millennium the hosts of Antichrist, which had fled to the remotest regions of the earth, would return to their assault and be destroyed ; then would come the judgment and the consummation. The false prophet represents the heretics of the time. Joachim did not attack directly the Pope, but the general corruption of the Church, which he believed would be restored to its primitive purity and simplicity through monasticism. In his view, the ' papacy in its true ideal belonged to the foundation of the Church; it was antichristian only in its worldliness. ' i Joachim's influence was powerful in the years immediately following, especially with the Franciscans, who held him as a prophet, and in their con flict with the Pope carried his interpretation of the Apocalypse to an extreme. Passages expressive of the later thought were interpolated into his writings, books were pseudonymously at tributed to him. There arose in these years a widely spread belief that the world was entering on the Last Days, a belief doubtless not wholly due to Joachim's influence, but fostered 1 Lucke II. 1010. FIFTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURY 329 by it and finding expression in his writings. The demand for the reformation of the Church was growing, and the Apocalypse thus interpreted became a powerful instrument in the hands of the leaders of this movement. The Pope in his struggle with the emperor, Frederick IL, had declared him to be the Beast ris ing out of the sea with names of blasphemy on his head ; and the opponents of the Pope were quick to retort that the latter was the Antichrist foretold in the Apocalypse. With the followers of Joachim and with all who set themselves against the corruption of the Church and the hierachy it became an axiom that the Pope was the Beast, the Antichrist, and that papal Rome, or the Roman Church, was the woman sitting on the scarlet-colored beast. Their destruction was foreseen as near, many reckoned the year or the decade. Thus there entered into the study of the Revelation a conception which, untenable as it is, dominated the exegesis of the book for cen turies and continued almost down to the present generation. Bousset observes with justness that ' The history of the inter pretation of the Apocalypse runs on from the fourth century into the thirteenth and fourteenth chiefly under the influence of two works, the commentaries of Ticonius and Joachim of Floris.' i Nicolas of Lyra (teacher of theology at Paris, died 1340). Near the end of this period there appeared for the flrst time in a fully developed form another view of tbe predictions of the Apocalypse, which was destined to be widely adopted in the following centuries, the view which regarded them as forecast ing the whole course of the Church's history. Though steps had been taken in this direction by earlier interpreters, a systematic and comprehensive application of the idea appears first in Nic olas of Lyra. Abandoning the theory of recapitulation, he finds in the course of the book prediction of a continuous series of events from the apostolic age to the final consummation. The seals refer to the period extending into the reign of Domi tian; in the later parts are predicted the Arian and other heresies, the spread of Mohammedism, Charlemagne, the Cru sades, and other historical details; the millennium is already present; Satan is to be loosed and return again with his hosts; then will come the End. I Kom. 82. 330 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION (3) From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the present time. The centuries here named may be taken as forming a single group in our survey, because of the presence of certain well-marked characteristics through the period taken as a whole. On the one hand the principles of interpretation which emerged in the latter part of the former period are the dominant rule with the larger number of writers quite into the nineteenth century ; on the other hand, parallel with this course of opinion, there arises and grows tlirough these years another movement which issues in the rigorous historic method of to-day — tlie method which most interpreters now recognize as alone legitimate. We have seen above the rise of the view that the Revelation is a prophetic epitome of the whole history of the Church and that important parts of it are directed against the Roman Church and the papacy. This antipapal aspect of it dominates a large part of the literature of the re formers and the reformed Church down to quite recent times. ' The reckoning of the thousand years' kingdom from the birth of Christ or his death and the founding of the Church, or from Constantine, as also the reference of the Antichrist of the Apocalypse to the papacy, gradually became a part of Protestant orthodoxy.' i Roman interpreters following the manner of their opponents easily identified the Beast and Antichrist with Luther and other leaders in the Reformation struggle, and the False Prophet with the Protestant sects. In applying the prophecies of the book to the course of history different writers according to their taste or time have seen different events and persons foretold. Place is found in the visions for the subsequent course of the Roman empire, for the invasions of the Goths and other barbarian tribes, for the Turks and their conquest of Christian lands, for the Crusades, the wars of the Reformation, the French revolution, and also for great historic figures, e.g. Constantine, Luther, Gustavus Adolphus, Napoleon, and so on with endless variety, as the phases of history changed and the fancy of scholars dictated. With some the recapitulation theory is adopted, each of the two series, the trumpets and the bowls, repeating and making clearer the series of the seals ; but generally the three series 1 Lucke II. 1018. FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 331 are viewed as unfolding a continuous history. The precise reckoning of future times and dates has fascinated many minds and has been carried out in elaborate computations. The mathematicians Napier and Whiston fixed the date of the End, the former between 1688 and 1700, the latter at 1715, which he afterwards changed to 1734 and again to a latfer date. Not so much a distinct system of interpretation as a special form of this continuous-historical theory is that of Au- berlen (1854) and bis followers, who see in the Apocalypse the prediction not of the historical details of the future, but of the decisive epochs and the spiritual forces active in the progress of the Church through its conflict with the world. The fan tastic character of much of the work belonging to the whole school of interpretation here spoken of should not, however, obscure the great service of many of its adherents in gram matical, philological, and archseological investigations and in acute exegesis. Over against these two ' leading motives ' — the forecasting of the future history of the Church or the world, and the reference of certain parts to the corruptions of the Roman Church — which run through this period, there appears, develops, and culminates that method of interpretation which approaches the Apocalypse and seeks to get at its mean ing from the facts and circumstances of the writer's own time. A special impulse in this direction was given by the effort of writers of the Roman Church to oppose the antipapal interpre tation almost universal with Protestant scholars. Ribeira. The first writer in this movement was the learned Spanish Jesuit, Franciscus Ribeira, who published his commen tary late in the sixteenth century. His position was deter mined by a return to the early Christian fathers. With him the first five seals relate to the age from the preaching of the Apostles to the persecution under Trajan ; with the sixth seal the Apocalyptist turns to the End, with which all the rest of the book is concerned; from his own time and the nearest future his vision passed over to the Last Days with no proph ecy of intervening events. The two Witnesses, Elijah and Enoch, Anti.hrist originating in Dan, the destruction of Babylon-Rome belong to the End. The deadly wound of the Beast healed represents Antichrist's imitation of Christ's death 332 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION and resurrection. Bousset rightly says of Ribeira and his im mediate Jesuit followers that ' they labored with a comprehen sive learning, with a knowledge of the fathers and the history of the exegesis of the Apocalypse, such that their works are not yet antiquated.' i • Alcasar, also a Spanish Jesuit, in a work of great fullness (1614) divides the Apocalypse into three parts, and develops the theory that the first and second parts (chapts. 5-11 and chapts. 12-19) refer respectively to the conflicts of the Church with Judaism and the heathenism of the Roman world, while the third part (chapts. 20-22) predicts the victory and rest of the Church in the thousand years' kingdom which began with Constantine and will continue till the end of the world. In the first four seals the beginnings of the gospel movement are pictured, then in the sixth seal passing over to the year 70 and the Jewish-Roman war the Seer describes the deliverance of the Christians (chapt. 7), the calamity visited upon the Jew ish nation (chapts. 8-9), their rejection, the opening. of the Cliurch to the Gentiles and the destruction of Jerusalem, with the conversion of a remnant of the Jews through the two Wit nesses slain and risen, that is, the Church rising out of its per secution to a higher life (chapts. 10-11). The second part opens with the birth of the Gentile Church from the Jewish, the man child born of the woman, and the persecution under Nero (chapt. 12). The vision of the bowls carries on the story of the progress of the gospel in overcoming the Roman world, the last chapter in which is formed by the conversion of the empire, Constantine being the strong angel who binds Satan. Beyond this general conception of the age closing with Constantine, there is in Alcasar no use made of the method spoken of above which finds in the Apocalypse the future history of the Church ; that is, he finds in the book no prediction of world-history beyond the time of Constantine, when the millennium began. His work is the first to attempt a complete exposition of the entire premillennial part of the book, as a connected and advancing whole falling within the Apocalyptist's age and the centuries immediately following. It becomes therefore important in the growth of a truly scien- 1 Kom. 92. FROM THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 333 tific method of exegesis, iu spite of its frequent misapprehen sion of symbols and other details. Later writers, following in the direction of these interpreters who interpreted the book from the standpoint of the Apocalyp tist's time, have become increasingly numerous in the progress of biblical study, till it may be said, unquestionably, that they hold the ascendency. The advance, however, to a consistent and comprehensive use of the method has not been made di rectly ; many of its followers have joined with it an allegoriz ing, or a church-historical interpretation. Grotius, the leader among Protestant scholars who first adopted the principles of Ribeira and Alcasar, agrees with the latter in his general analysis of the Apocalypse into the three parts mentioned above, with their respective themes, but he admits into his interpre tation more departures from the Apocalyptist's time, finding in the book prophecy of details in the reign of Constantine and of events of universal history. His commentary (1644) exerted great influence, and in addition to its philological and archse ological learning, it is signiflcant as the flrst among Protestant works to confute the reference of the Beast to the Pope, and as the first to call in question the unity of the Apocalypse, i a sub ject which assumes great importance among later interpreters. Some adherents of his school^ limited the prophecies in their main significance to the destruction of Jerusalem, but a broader application of the method has generally prevailed. The theory of Eichhorn (1791) is especially interesting in its treatment of the book as a great historic poem picturing in dramatic form the victory of Christianity over Judaism and heathenism, sym bolized respectively in Jerusalem and Rome. In the course of the succeeding years a gradual advance in criticism, in correct exegetical procedure and in the accumulation of illuminative material has definitively established the theory that the meaning of the Revelation is to be sought through the circumstances of the writer and the readers, and the directly practical purpose of the book. In this agree, in spite of important differences in other respects, most scholars of recent times. This latest interpretation of the Revelation has been pro- > Cf. p. 224. 2 Abauzit 1733, Hardouin 1741, Harenberg 1759, Ziillig 1834-40, at 334 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION foundly affected by two facts which have been recognized only within modern times, but which are very important among the circumstances originally shaping the book and so entering as large factors into its study according to the historic method. (1) The book is now seen to belong to the somewhat large class of apocalyptic literature and to have taken much in its form and matter from this source. Liicke's monumental work was the flrst to exhibit with fullness this group of writings and the relation of the Revelation to them. And the application of these results has revolutionized the interpretation of much in our book. (2) The critical study of unity, with the generally accepted view that the Apocalyptist made more or less use of other writings, whether combining these somewhat mechanically, or working them over and fitting them into a carefully ar ranged design, or presenting them in a redaction, has given a new aspect to the exegesis of certain parts, if not the whole. One other method of interpreting the Revelation should be mentioned in our outline of this period — that which conceives the Seer throughout his book, or through all except the first three chapters, to have been looking across the intervening ages to the time even for us still in the future and to have spoken only of the Last Days as thus viewed. Ribeira, as seen above, understood the Apocalyptist to pass over in the sixth seal to the time of the End. This view of the Spanish scholar was taken up and applied to other parts of the book in the last century by Maitland (1826), Kliefoth (1874), and some others; some un derstood the seven epistles to be addressed to the actual historic churches of the writer's time, others take them as picturing the various conditions of the Church throughout its earthly course, and still others refer even these to the eschatological era. This system of interpretation has not gained a large number of ad herents. Classification of different methods of interpretation. The dif ferent interpretations of the Apocalypse, spoken of above, have been grouped into three systems, which most English and American expositors, following Davidson's Introductio-n,'- have designated (1) the preterist, which sees the chief prophecies of 1 Vol. III. CLASSIFICATION OF METHODS 335 the book fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the Roman empire. (2) The continuous-historical, according to which the book embraces important conditions and move ments in the history of the Church and the world from the writer's age to the end of time. (3) The futurist, which places the events foretold entirely in the Last Days.i A better desig nation of these groups, at least of the flrst and third, is that current among German writers : (1) zeitgeschichtlich, contem porary-historical, (2) kirchengeschichtlich, church-historical, or weltgeschichtlich, tvorld-historical, (3) endgeschichtlich, eschato logical. Such a classification, however, is not to be carried out on rigidly fixed lines, for most of the interpreters combine, at least to some degree, elements belonging to different sys tems. As already pointed out, futurists take some parts as directly historical, preterists transfer parts to the Last Days, adherents of the ivorld- or church-historical method assign parts to each of the other systems ; in other words the different theories are not in practical application made mutually exclu sive throughout. And in fact the nature of the book is such that no one of the systems taken in its narrow limitations to the exclusion of the others can give a just conception of the Apocalyptist's meaning. Every apocalyptic writing is grounded in the present and the past, but at the same time looks forward to tbe future. But not much argument is needed to show that neither the continuous-historical, nor the absolute futurist method can be adopted as the determining rule in the study of the Revelation. The book, as shown by its opening, especially the letters to the seven local churches, and by its close, is addressed to the needs of a definite historic community, its message is first of all meant directly and dis tinctly for that community. Its contents then cannot be understood to consist principally of pictures of medieval and modern history, or of predictions of an eschatological era re moved from the readers' present by indefinite ages. Also the true conception of prophecy ^ forbids us to seek -here the de tails of future history. On the other hand in the use of what is certainly the correct method, the contemporary-historical, two 1 Davidson hunself makes a fourth class, that of the ' extreme futurists,' who refer the first three chapters also to the last time '^ Cf. p. 301. 336 HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION mistakes have often been made : (1) the ignoring of a truly prophetic character in the book, which gives to it a spiritual outlook not realized within the limits of the history of the Roman empire ; (2) the effort to extend too widely the inter pretation of symbolical language by circumstances of the writer's era. While the method followed in the present commentary is, as already indicated, the contemporary-historical, a more precise designation would be apocalyptic-prophetic, for the work is here regarded as possessing the marks of what it claims 'to be (cf. pp. 292 f .), the message of a prophet sent by God and guided by the Spirit, as truly as e.g. are the eschatological passages in St. Paul's epistles to the Thessalonians. But in both matter and form the prophecy is apocalytic. The prophet's thought here moves in a realm akin to that of the whole class of apoca lyptic writings, and his manner as regards the general scope of his work, its formal disposition, and its language and sym bols, is determined by this generic relation. This view of the book does not, however, withdraw it from the category of writings which are to be studied after the historic method; quite the contrary, it emphasizes the necessity of that method, for prophecy and apocalyptic are addressed first of all to the particular wants of the time in which they originate ; they not only reflect the circumstances of their day, but their meaning and true use can be apprehended only by approaching them from the standpoint of their origin. At the same time the genuine prophetic character of our book removes it from the class of purely artiflcial, literary apocalypses ; and even if it be seen that the author has made use in some cases of earlier apocalyptic documents, it is not hard to conceive that he has introduced such as a means for the elaboration of his wonder ful visions, giving them a meaning suited to the great purpose of his work. CIRCULATION AND CANONICITY 337 XI. Early Circulation op the Apocalypse and Its Recognition as Canonical i No other writing of the New Testament can claim in com parison with the Apocalypse more abundant and more trust worthy evidence that it was widely known at an early date. It is also shown beyond question to have been recognized from an early time in a part of the Church, and by certain fathers in all parts of the Church, as belonging in the category of author itative Scriptures. Many of the witnesses to these facts specify also the name of the author. But the question as to his person ality, whether he be St. John the Apostle or another John, need not complicate the inquiry of the present paragraph, in which it is not fundamental. That question can be best Considered separately.^ A rapid circulation of the Apocalypse from the outset would be favored by two circumstances : it was directly addressed to seven churches and each of these would be likely to obtain a copy of a message sent speciflcally to itself from a prophet and teacher well known to it, and of evident authority. But it was also seen to be a message to the whole Church,^ and its predictions and promises related to Christians everywhere in the perilous times upon which the Church was now entering. As it was heard when read in the Asian congregations, it must have stirred the profoundest emotions, and eventually copies of it could hardly fail to be carried afar in the busy intercourse of Asia Minor with the world. The Apostolic Fathers contain no certain trace of acquaint ance with the book. Some scholars have thought to find rem iniscences of it in Ignatius, Barnabas, and Hermas. But the parallelisms occur in ideas which the Apocalypse has in com mon with earlier known writings, or are too remote to furnish evidence of acquaintance.* The silence of these writers does not however prove their ignorance of the book ; they have in general no occasion to quote it. Possibly in the case of Hermas 1 Cf. Zahn Geschichte d. Neutest Kanons ; Grundriss d. Geschichte etc. ; forschungen zur Geschichte etc. ; Westcott On the Canon of the N. T. For a survey of testimony cf. Liioke 11. 516-657. A convenient summary is given by Alford Rev. Prolegomena 198-220 ; Speaker's Com. Rev. -106-426 ; Bousset Kom. 19-31 ; Swete CU-CXIV. ^ See pp. 343 fl. ' See Com. l^. * Cf. Zahn GK. I. 954 f. 338 CIRCULATION AND CANONICITY and The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles we might expect some echo of it, since they speak particularly of the Last Things ; but the absence of such reminiscence from these writings is far from convincing evidence that the book had not yet reached Rome, or the home of The Teaching. A few years later, testi mony to the book becomes direct and unquestionable. The earliest witness comes from the near vicinity of some of the churches to which the book was addressed. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in the early part of the second century, called by Irenseus a companion of Polycarp (of whom Irenseus himself was a younger contemporary) and a man of olden time, ap^^ato? avr)p,^ knew the book and accepted it as inspired. His testi mony is not preserved in his own words, but Andreas in his commentary on the Apocalypse,^ in which he shows that he had used the writings of Papias among many other earlier writers, reports him as bearing witness with Irenseus, Methodius, and Hippolytus to the inspiration of the Apocalypse. Most scholars are agreed that there is no ground to question the accuracy of Andreas' report of Papias. Justin Martyr, who became a Christian c. 133, tarried at Ephesus c. 135, and wrote his Apol ogy c. 150, and his Dialogue with Trypho 155-160,^ bears un questionable testimony in the words (Dial. 81), 'A certain man among us whose name was John, one of the Apostles of Christ, prophesied in a revelation made to him, that those who believe in our Christ would spend a thousand years in Jerusalem, and that after this the general . . . resurrection of all would take place aud a judgment.' Also his language regarding Satan (Apol. I. 28), ' The prince of evil demons is called a serpent and Satan and the devil as you can learn, by examination, from our writ ings ' alludes plainly to Rev. 12^, 20^. For other passages showing Justin's use of the Apocalypse see Zahn, (xK. I. 531 ff. Irenceus, born in Asia jNIinor, probably at Smyrna, c. 130-135, presbyter and bishop at Lyons (Gaul), in his great vfo^rV Against the Heresicx, written 181-189,* often quotes the Apocalypse, sometimes as the work of ' John a disciple of the Lord,' some times - John,' without nearer definition, as a person well known ; in one place (V. 30) he cites it as 'the Apocalypse' without 1 Euseh. n. E. V. 20. ¦: See p. 325. 3 Cf. Harnack, Chron. 284- * Cf . ibid. 723. CIRCULATION AND CANONICITY 339 any limiting designation, showing thus that the book was fa miliar to all. He mentions ' ancient copies,' thus showing its early circulation. He speaks of objections to the Gospel but nowhere of opposition to the Apocalypse. The Epistle of the Churches at Vienne and Lyons, written c. 177 to their brethren in Asia Minor and Phrygia in the persecution under Marcus Aurelius, shows acquaintance with the Apocalypse in a number of places, and in one instance speaks of it as Scripture. Most of this epistle is preserved in Eusebius, HE. V. 1 f. Melito, bishop of Sardis, one of tbe churches addressed in the Apoca lypse, a prolific writer and an active personality in the affairs of the Church in Asia Minor, wrote a work on the Apocalypse c. 175. Only the title is preserved (Euseb. IV. 26), but the fact that such a work was written attests the importance at tached to the Apocalypse at the time. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch (in Syria) in the latter part of the second cen tury, used the Apocalypse as doctrinal authority, appealing to it in opposition to the heresy of Hermogenes.i Tertullian of Carthage, at the end of the second and the beginning of the third century, quotes extensively from the book, and appears to know of no objection to it except that of Marcion (see below). The version which he used in his quotations agreed essentially with the Vulgate of later date ; it may there fore be reasonably argued that that version, since it retained its hold on the Church, was one supported by ecclesiastical use. 'Everything tends to show that the Apocalypse was acknowl edged in Africa from the earliest times as canonical Scripture ' (Westcott 267). Both Clement of Alexandria, contemporary with Tertullian, and Origen, also of Alexandria, a younger con temporary of Clement and the leading early critic of the canon of Scripture, followed the common tradition of the Church in accepting the book as canonical. The Muratorian Canon, a fragment belonging to a date near the end of the second cen tury ,2 giving so far as it is preserved a list of the books of the New Testament which at least the western church held to be canonical, includes the Apocalypse. This summary of testimony, which is far from exhaustive, will show that the Apocalypse within a little more than a cen- 1 Kuseb. H. E. IV. 24. 2 Cf . Zahn GK. II. 1-143, Westcott, 214 ff. 340 CIRCULATION AND CANONICITY tury after its appearance became known in all parts of the Church and was widely held to be a work of inspired author ity. But this general acceptance was not undisputed. The earliest opponent was Marcion, whose career as a religious teacher at Rome began c. 140. He rejected the Apocalypse.- But he rejected also all the Johannine writings and the other books of the New Testament except ten Pauline epistles and the Pauline Gospel, his recension of Luke. His rejection of these parts of the New Testament rested, not on historical ground, but on divergence from his dogmatic tenets, especiafly his anti-Judaism. 1 Somewhat later the so-called Alogi re jected the Apocalypse and the Gospel. The ground of this rejection seems to have been bitter opposition to the Monta- nists, who supported their millenarian doctrine and their ex travagant belief regarding a new outpouring of the Spirit by appealing to these books. ^ Stuart (I. 337) makes an apt com parison in the case of Luther : ' the leading reformer had a warm dispute with the Romanists on the subject of justifica tion by faith alone. They appealed with all confidence to the epistle of James as deciding against him. He, unable to over throw their exegesis, rejected the book itself and called it in the way of contempt epistola staminea.' One historical argu ment was adduced by the Alogi, viz. that there was no church at Thyatira and that therefore an inspired Apostle could not have written the epistle addressed to that church (2i"'-). But the Apocalypse itself gives evidence that one existed there at the time of the book, if not in the time of the Alogi. Who ever the author, he would not have assumed as fact a thing known to all to be erroneous. According to Epiphanius that city was a center of Montanism. In sympathy with the Alogi, as a zealous anti-Montanist the Roman presbyter Cains in the time of Zephyrinus (bp. 199-217) wrote a Dialogue against the Montanist Proclus in which he attributed the Apocalypse to Cerinthus. 3 Cains accuses Cerinthus of attributing to the apostle John the book which he had himself fabricated.* 1 ct. Zahn GK. I. 585 ff., Westcott 318 ff. 2 cf. Zahn I. 223 ff. 3 Euseb. //. E. III. 28. ¦i The attitude of Caius toward the authenticity of the Apocalypse, obscure In the passage in Eusebius, is made clear in certain Syriac fragments from Hip- CIRCULATION AND CANONICITY 341 Caius, in impugning the apostolic origin of the Apocalypse in the interest of anti-Montanism, reviews the book and finds various discrepancies between it and other parts of the New Testament; e.g. the signs of the End contradict the Lord's words about coming as a thief in the night, i A more charac teristic example of Caius' discrepancies is the following : hell ish locusts overrun the wicked, but the Scripture says the wicked shall flourish and the saints shall be persecuted. Caius' criticism was without any considerable influence in the west ; it was taken up and refuted by Hippolytus, his contem porary at Rome, a zealous defender of the Apocalypse as writ ten by the apostle John. Toward the middle of the third century Dionysius the Great, bishop of Alexandria, in his opposition to millenarianism and apparently influenced by Caius, took up anew the question of the authenticity of the Apocalypse ; and though concluding that the John who wrote it was not the Apostle, he neverthe less accepted it as divinely inspired, thus retaining its canoni cal authority. 2 The criticism of so illustrious a figure in the Church as Dionysius could not fail to exert influence, espe cially in Egjrpt and the east. Following in his footsteps Euse bius, the historian, bishop of Csesarea in the earlier half of the fourth century, saw a second John as the author of the book. The rejection of the apostolic authorship became now more frequent in the east, and in consequence the inspired authority of the book was less generally accepted there, or at least the testimony to its wide acceptance is less certain. Among those who either distinctly declared against it, or seem to have used it with reserve, were Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazian- zen, Amphilochius of Iconium, Chrysostom, Theodoret. The Peshitta, the vulgate Syriac version, does not contain it, and its presence in the earliest revisions of the old Syriac is due to a later hand. Similarly the earliest forms of the Armenian and Egyptian versions seem to have lacked it. But on the other hand in common with the whole western church adher ents of the traditional view are numerous in other churches polytus pubhshed by Gvyynn in Hermathena 1888. On Caius see Zahn GK. I. 222 ff. ; n. 973 ff. ' Cf. pp. 147, 351. 2 j-or his argument on authorship see pp. 354 fl. 342 CIRCULATION AND CANONICITY also, e.g. Ephrem Syrus, Basil of Csesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, Didymus.i It is clear that the canon appearing in those versions which lacked the Apocalypse was not regarded as a flnal, authorita tive pronouncement against the book. No synodical authority of the Church had as yet set forth a canon of the New Testa ment; individual opinion was restrained by no external in fluence save tradition and common consent. But it is not difficult to account for the rise of objections to the Apocalypse in this period ; and it should be noted that the impugners of the book did not appeal to the testimony of early history. The age of persecution, to which the book was directly ad dressed, had passed by, the most striking prophecies had not been fulflUed, and the meaning of the book had become ex tremely obscure to this generation. INIany might therefore hesitate to attribute it to inspiration; probably also many who have left in their writings few or no traces of using it may have accepted its canonicity, while flnding it for the reasons just stated less available than the other books of the New Testament as an authority to be appealed to, or to be quoted. The absence from a great version may be due to the thought that it was not well suited to reading in the congregations, rather than to a disbelief in its inspiration. Versions were primarily works of gradual growth, and designed for use in public service. The first action relating to the Scriptures taken by a synod is that of the council of Laodicea, not far from 360.^ This was an assembly of certain provinces of Asia Minor. It adopted an ordinance forbidding the reading of uncanonical scriptures in public worship. And in the list of canonical books given, the Apocalypse is wanting ; but that part of the de cree as now extant is not generally regarded genuine,^ though probably of early date. The third council of Carthage (397) adopted a decree regarding the Scriptures to be read in ser vice, and the Apocalypse, in keeping with the universal opin ion of the western church from earliest times, was included in the list of canonical books. The council of Constantinople » Cf. Liieke, 628 ff. 2 cf. Zahn, GK. II. 190 ; Westcott 439 £. 3 Cf. Zahn II. 193 fl. ; Westcott 445. AUTHORSHIP 343 (the Quinisextine, 692) ratified the decrees of Laodicea and Carthage, notwithstanding their apparent contradiction as regards the inclusion of the Apocalypse, and thus the book was formally acknowledged a part of the New Testament of the eastern church. But the action of the various councils, it is well to remember, did not create the New Testament canon ; it only registered what had come to be recognized by the gen eral consent of the Church. Neither such action of the coun cils, nor the opinion of the Church, thus formally recorded, could settle the question of authorship, purely a question of historic fact. The decision thus reached could only declare the conviction of the Church that the Apocalypse, like the other books of the canon, is the work of one who has here re corded truth apprehended through the influence of the Spirit, truth of special authority as the word of God. The fact that a part of the Church reached this recognition so slowly can raise no doubt as to its verity. A part of the Church, the western, was slow to recognize the inspired character of the epistle to the Hebrews. In each case the guiding Spirit of God led the whole Church eventually to discern the revelation of divine truth thus given to it. The two books form two of the richest treasures of the sacred canon. XII. Authorship 1 Information- regarding the author of the Revelation must be sought first of all in the book itself. Tbe book is in the form of an epistle, the writer of which designates himself simply as John the servant of Christ, a brother who is one with the readers in the persecution of the time and the Christian hope 1 Besides commentaries, encyclopedias etc., see among recent publications, Gutjahr, Glaubwiirdigkeit d. irendischen Zengnisses, etc. ; Schwartz, Ueber d. Tod d. Sohne Zeb., in the Abhandlungen d. kUnig. Gesellschaft d. Wissen. zu Gmtingen, Phil.-Hist. N. F. VII. 1904 ; Badham, Am. Journ. of Theol. 1899, 729 ff. ; 1904, 539 ff. ; Clemen, Am. Journ. of Theol. 1905, 643 ff. ; Bacon, Fourth Gospel in Research, etc., also articles in Hibbert Journ. 1903, I. 510 ff. ; 1904, II. 323 fl. ; HI. 353 ff. ; Moffatt, Introd. to Lit of N. T. 501 ff. ; 596 ff. ; Lightfoot, Essays on the Wofk entitled Supernatural Religion ; Zahn, Forsch. VI. 147 fl. ; Harnack, Chron. 320 fl. ; 651 ff. ; Corssen, Warum ist d merte Svang. etc., in Zeitschrift fur Neutest Wissen. 1901 ; J. Weiss, Offenbar. 156 tt.; Larfeld, Die beiden Johan. von Ephesus ; Chapman, John the Presbyter, etc. 344 AUTHORSHIP of the kingdom, 1''*'^ 22^. The particular John meant he nowhere specifies. Several persons bearing the name are men tioned in the Ne.w Testament, and probably others were known to the churches. But the writer assumes that his name needs no definition ; he is addressing directly the churches of seven Asian cities where he is well known, where he had evidently labored for a considerable time, for he is familiar with the exact circumstances and the spiritual condition of each one of the congregations, he knows the events of their past history, i Reports regarding a church might be brought to a stranger, as to Paul in the case of the Colossians, but here there is a minute personal knowledge of the special surroundings, and of the present and past experiences, of churches in seven important and somewhat widely scattered cities, including the great capi tal city of Ephesus ; and it is clear that these cities are not the whole field of the writer's labors, they are chosen out of a larger number,^ and together represent a considerable territory in which the writer had for some time gone up and do"wn bear ing witness- to the gospel. He does not enforce his message by appealing to an oflicial station in the Church, if he held any such, as St. Paul is constantly compelled to point to his apos tolic authority ; and yet we feel that there is throughout, and especially manifest in chapts. 1-3 and in the epilogue, 22^" ^i, the tone of one who speaks out of the consciousness that he is, and is acknowledged to be, a religious leader among the Chris tians of Proconsular Asia, and that he possesses the unques tioned right to address to these churches, and through these to others, a writing to be read in their public assemblies. He emphasizes his office as a prophet,^ doubtless because of the peculiar character of this message as differentiated from that of his familiar preaching. He refers to bis sojourn at Patmos, which if due to banishment was already known to the readers, in order to show them, as the prophets and apocalyptists fre quently do, the precise circumstances in which the revelations were given to him. He is now no longer at Patmos;* he might have told the churches by word of mouth about his vis ions, but he is conscious of the divine purpose in his message I Cf. especially 22-«. i", w, n^ 310. 2 cf . p. 210. 3 See pp. 292 £. * See Com. l^. AUTHORSHIP 345 as belonging to those beyond his reach in both space and time. There is nothing in the book to indicate that he does not con tinue his work in the Asian churches after his departure from Patmos. He reveals everywhere his Jewish nationality, but not a Judaizing tendency ; his mind is wonderfully stored with the ideas and language of the Jewish prophets and apocalyp tists, his Greek is often that of one who is thinking in the Hebrew idiom, yet his departures from correct Greek usage are pretty certainly not due to ignorance ; his general correct ness and his Greek vocabulary show him to have possessed an adequate command of the language. As a Christian his thought does not in its fundamentals differ from that of the other writers of the New Testament, though in some, aspects it is more distinctly developed, i This testimony regarding the author given in the book it self is against the view held by some,^ that an unknown writer or editor here assumes the name John. It is argued that the extant apocalypses are all pseudonymous, that the authors have antedated their books, and sought to give them authority by the assumption of a great name of the past, as that of Enoch, Isaiah etc. ; the inference is therefore drawn, that the author of this book follows the custom of his class. And this supposition is held to be required by what is claimed as estab lished facts, viz. ; that the book is an editorial compilation of various apocalyptic fragments, and that no John is known, neither the Apostle nor another, who suits the conditions of authorship presupposed in the book. In answer it should be said first of all that the Shepherd of Hennas survives as an example of a Christian apocalypse which is not pseudonymous, and further that our Apocalyptist shows himself too strongly assured of his own inspiration, as one of the now restored order of prophets, to admit of his assuming another's name to sanc tion his words. 3 As regards the composite structure of the Apocalypse enough is said elsewhere of the presence in the book of a single personality shaping both the language and the thought in the present form, whatever use he may have 1 See pp. 310 ff., 163 f., 356 ff. , ,„ . .. , .,,,. , 2 So, Semler, Volkmar, Scholten, more recently Weizsacker, Wernle, Bacon, al. 3 See p. 293. 346 AUTHORSHIP made of other material. i The theory of a fictitious John, im personating either the Apostle or the so-called John the Pres byter, raises difficulties of which no satisfactory solution is given. The advocates of a pseudonymous author generally take the assumed name to impersonate the Apostle ; the writer in choosing a name to give authority in his book could find none more available for his purpose than that of the foremost John known to the Church. But if at the time when the Revelation was written, the end of the first century, the Apos tle was really, as tradition represents, a resident among the Asian churches, it is not conceivable that another would have addressed this letter to them in his name ; nor would one have ventured to do so in the years soon following John's death; some clear evidence would be needed in the book to persuade surviving contemporaries, that it was the Apostle himself who was here speaking in a posthumous writing, and to explain why this writing had not appeared before. The -writers of pseudonymous apocalypses leave no room for question as to these points ; Daniel is bidden to seal his book to the time of the End, 8^, 12*- »; compare also 2 Esd. 14*^, Enoch 11 Nothing of the kind appears in the Revelation. So far as can be shown by any designation which the author gives himself he might be another John as certainly as the Apostle, and there is no intimation that the book of an apostle, now dead, is here brought to light. Especially would some indication of this kind be needed, if there were in the younger generation in the Asian church another well-known John called the Pres byter ; see pp. 362 ff. On the other hand if the view of many recent scholars be correct, that the Apostle had been martyred some fifty years before and had never resided in Asia, all the more certainly would a writer assuming identity with him be compelled so 'to designate himself in some way, and to explain the late appearance of the book. It is hardly necessary to point out that these considerations are of equal force against an unknown writer's use of the name of John the Presbyter. Most scholars of all schools of criticism, though differing as to who the John was, are agreed that the book was not pseu donymous, that it was written, at least in part, by a John well 1 .See pp. 216 ff. ; also paragraphs on Criticism in Com. AUTHORSHIP 347 known at the time to the Asian churches. The traditional view that the author was John the Apostle is held by many recent scholars, i The larger number of present-day critics identify t}xe author with John the Presbyter ; some few (e.g. Spitta) with John Mark. The last supposition is generally rejected, since there is nothing in the New Testament or early tradition associating Mark in this way with the Asian church. Opinion will probably remain divided between John the Apos tle and John the Presbyter, according to the attitude of differ ent minds toward evidence. But it cannot be too strongly emphasized that the question of the personality of the author is altogether subordinate to that of the canonicity of the book and its religious value. '^ Large parts of the Old Testament scriptures are of undetermined authorship ; not only the his torical books are such, but also most of the psalms, portions of the prophets, and other writings. And in part the same is true of the New Testament ; the writers of a third of the num ber of books are not announced in the books themselves, and inquiries regarding their personalities are far from reaching a uniform answer. But we accept, e.g. the priceless epistle to the Hebrews as we do the second part of Isaiah, each from the pen of a great unkno"wn. And we attribute to all such por tions the same authoritative character as to the rest of the Scriptures. So the Revelation has come to us declaredly the work of a Christian prophet, bringing its own credentials ; ^ and the Church has been guided with common consent to rec ognize in it a God-sent message of spiritual truths. As such the sympathetic reader accepts the lessons of its wonderful visions, its words of command and encouragement. In view of these facts it would perhaps be sufficient to rest the ques tion of authorship here. Certainly it would seem that the question of his personal identity, as not involving the essential truth of a part of our New Testament, might be studied with impartiality. Unfortunately one cannot follow the various dis cussions of the topic with the conviction that such has been the case. In the following brief survey of the subject a state ment is given of the chief arguments which have been offered 1 So, B. Weiss, Zahn, Sanday, Stanton, Reynolds, Drummond, Simcox, Batifol, al. 2 See pp. 337 fi. ^ cf . pp. 292 ff. 348 AUTHORSHIP as possessing force, and some comment on these is added. Two questions really preliminary to the inquiry, the personal ity of the so-called 'John the Presbyter, and the tradition of John the Apostle's sojourn in Asia, are most conveniently con sidered elsewhere (pp. 362 ff . , 366 ff . ) ; the results of the dis cussion there presented are taken into account here. Early testimony to the authorship of the Apocalypse. In estimating the trustworthiness of opinion regarding the author ship of the Apocalypse in the early years of its circulation, it is necessary to take into account especially the nature of the writing and the extent to which it was known. It was not an anonymous, or pseudonymous tract,i copies of which were manufactured in a statio and sent out to the public through the bihliopolce, the booksellers; it Avas a personal letter ad dressed in the author's unmistakable name to those churches in which he was well known, and it was to be read in their assemblies. Unquestionably it became familiar at once to the Christians in the capital city of Ephesus and the rest of the seven cities. And the hearers all knew from whom the mes sage came, as certainly as did the Corinthians in receiving a letter from St. Paul. Like other epistles addressed to churches, it must have been read repeatedly, recalling the per sonality of the writer, whoever he might be. It is quite con ceivable that a book like the Fourth Gospel might not be so certainly and universally associated with its author ; but it is hard to believe' that a message so personal as that of the Reve lation could have been wrongly attributed at, or near, the time of its reception. And it may reasonably be supposed that there were at least seven copies of it in existence soon after its first transmission. We have evidence of a considerable circu lation not long after it was written in the reference which Irenseus makes to 'all good and ancient copies.' ^ Irenseus himself, in his younger years a contemporary of many of a maturer age who were living when the book was first read in the churches, could hardly speak of copies as ancient, unless they belonged to a time very near the date of the book. And he shows also that discussion had arisen in those earlier years, 1 Cf. p. 345 f . 2 Haer. V. 30 ; Euseb. V. 8, 5. AUTHORSHIP 349 before the time when he was writing his work against the Heresies (c. 185-190), regarding the number of the Beast, and that appeal had been made to those who had seen the author face to face. The witnesses appealed to could not have been living at the time of the writing of the book against the Here sies; the dispute then must have been of earlier date, that is, the book must have been somewhat widely known at that early date. In these circumstances it would not be easy for much uncertainty or confusion to arise, within this period, regarding the personality of the author. We know from everyday ex perience how short a period is that of more than fifty years in our knowledge of the authorship of a book, which has made a deep impression and has been much read by us. Particularly is this true of a writing in which the author draws special at tention to his words by declaring his personality. We must therefore attach weight to this early opinion concerning the authorship of the Revelation, if it is clearly expressed and uniform. As bearing on the value of the witness of Justin Martyr, Papias, and Irenseus, here cited, reference must be made to what is said of these writers respectively on pp. 338 f., and to 'the discussion of the date of Irenseus and the value of his tes timony given on pp. 368 ff. The earliest testimony recorded is that of Justin, who lived some time at Ephesus, the center of the region to which the book was sent, at a date when the generation to which it flrst came had not yet passed away. He appeals to it as an acknowledged work, of John the Apos tle, i Papias, who belonged to that earlier generation, recog nized the book, according to Andreas, as inspired, but we have no words of his showing to whom he attributed it. It is a fair presumption from the manner in which Andreas refers to Papias' view of the book, that he regarded him as agreeing with his own opinion, that the author was the Apostle ; ^ at all events if Papias had expressed a divergent opinion, the histo rian Eusebius would certainly have stated it, since he is eager to establish the non-apostolic authorship and uses Papias' book in proof of the existence of another John, the Presbyter, to whom the Apocalypse might be attributed.^ Irenceus,^ who 1 Dial, c Tryph. 81. 2 cf. p. 338. ^ Cf. p. 362. 350 AUTHORSHIP was a younger contemporary of Papias and Justin and who had ample opportunity for knowing the opinion prevalent in Asia from the beginning of the century, makes frequent and explicit reference to the Apocalypse as that of ' John the dis ciple of the Lord,' and he shows distinctly that by this term he means John the Apostle. i From this time on the same testimony appears generally in the fathers, e.g. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, etc. Especially valuable is the testimony of Origen as the great student and critic of the his tory of the New Testament books. And in none of these authorities is there argument to establish this authorship; it is assumed as acknowledged. The opponents of the apostolic authorship in the second cen tury, Marcion and the Alogi, did not appeal to any early tes timony. Marcion accepted only the Pauline epistles and Luke, the Pauline Gospel. The Alogi rejected all the Johannine writings because the Montanists found here support for their doctrines.^ The absence of any historic evidence in favor of an author other than the Apostle is shown in their absurd attri bution of the Apocalypse to Cerinthus. In the third century Caius, presbyter at Rome, rejected the book for the same rea son as did the Alogi. And this seems to have been the motive that led Eusebius in the fourth century to attribute it to John the Presbyter. Near the middle of the third century Dionys ius of Alexandria, though taking it as inspired, assigned it on purely internal grounds to a John other than the Apostle, pos sibly John Mark. A fragment in Eusebius, HE. VII. 24 f., preserves his argument. Holding as unquestionable the apos tolic origin of the Fourth Gospel and the Epistles, he argues that the Revelation differs from these in characteristic ideas and terms, in language and grammatical idiom, and also in the author's naming of himself, though with none of the self-desig nations used in the Gospel. The substance of his argument against an identity of authorship in the two books, revived and widely adopted in modern times, is shown on pp. 364 ff. The presence of a second John at Ephesus he found to be indi cated in the fact that two tombs of John were to be seen J Cf. p. 368. 2 Cf. pp. 340 f. AUTHORSHIP 351 there.i Eusebius, notwithstanding his large acquaintance with the earlier Christian literature, was evidently unable to dis cover any tradition of a non-apostolic authorship of the Reve lation. So much external testimony to the personality of the author, traceable back to almost contemporaneous sources, is found in the case of almost no other book of the New Testament. 2 Internal Testimony. When we turn to the book itself and ask what evidence it furnishes, that the John who wrote it was the Apostle, there is little or nothing which possesses force enough to be considered decisive, either affirmatively or nega tively. The writer does not designate himself an apostle and there is nothing in the book which could come from an apostle only ; but on the other hand, nothing which we can confidently say an apostle could not have uttered. A number of intima tions are pointed out as against identifying the author with the Apostle, but these are not convincing. They are as fol lows : (a) a mark of subapostolic authorship is seen in 21i*, where the writer speaks of the apostles quite objectively, as a group in which he does not reckon himself, assigning to them the dignity with which a later generation sees them clothed. And he takes the same objective attitude toward them in 18^", where also he thinks of them all, it is said, as martyrs already in heaven. But it will be seen that the argument, if valid, would exclude the author from the number of the prophets also; yet he emphasizes his place among these. ^ For further answer to this argument see Com. on these passages. (6) An apostle who had heard the Lord's words recorded in Mk. IS^^ could not have written this book, whose very plan is a sche matic computation of tbe advent. It is however enough to say that the computation of the time of the End is no more precise in the Revelation than in the immediate context of that passage in Mark, that is, in vv. 14-31 ; nor is it more in con flict with the Lord's words than is that passage.* (c) There is nowhere in the book any reminiscence of a personal knowl- 1 On Dionys. cf. Alford 210 fi. ; Simcox Rev. in Camb. Gk. Test. XXHI. ff. ; S-wete CIX. f. . . » 2 On the absence of the book from the Syrian canon and uncertainty in east ern opinion see pp. 341 f. ' See pp. 292 f. * Cf • P- 149- 352 AUTHORSHIP edge of, or intercourse with, Jesus in his earthly life. There is, however, no appropriate place for such personal reminis cences of the author in a series of revelations in which the Christ appears only in his ascended majesty and the glory of his final triumph. Even his death is referred to only in its relation to bis great victory, and the victory of the saints in their final redemption. It might be queried whether memo ries of that life in Galilee would not furnish to many critics a mark of late impersonation, as do, for example, the words of 2 Pet. 1"-18. (d} The words of 14* show that the writer was an ascetic and therefore unmarried ; but according to 1 Cor. 9^ all the apostles were married ; the author then cannot be John the Apostle. So bizarre a piece of exegesis would be out of place in a serious survey of arguments, if it were not urged by critics who lay claim to scientific methods, (e) The apostle to whom were spoken the words of Mk. 10***, 'is not mine to give,' could not have put into the mouth of the Christ the promise of Rev. 3^i, ' I will give to him to sit with me in my throne.' Here also the exegesis is at fault. The latter passage merely individualizes the general messianic promise common from Daniel's time on, Dan. 7^^, that the kingdom should be given to the saints ; the former declares that the place of honor in the final kingdom does not depend on the Lord's personal favor, but is already prepared by God's eternal order ing for him who is greatest in service, v. 44. (/) One who heard the Lord's prophecy of the destruction of the temple, recorded in Mk. 13^ could not have written Rev. Ill, declaring its preservation. But with equal force it might be argued that no one, whether apostle or another, could have written the passage in the nineties, long after the temple had been de stroyed. For further discussion of the question see Com. in loc. (g') The author seeks to give his message the weight of his name, ' I John,' but not of an apostolic rank. He calls himself servant of Christ, brother, companion, but not apostle ; whereas Paul though using the former terms in self-designa tion, yet in nearly all his epistles announces his authority as an apostle. Paul's usage, however, was not a norm to be fol lowed necessarily by another. He wrote his epistles in the exercise of his apostolic authority, which was frequently called THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL 353 in question. The author of the Revelation wrote his book in no such circumstances ; his message is that of a prophet, it is that character which he emphasizes. i It is shown elsewhere (p. 368) that the title apostle was much less used to designate the Ephesian John even by those who distinctly witnessed to his apostleship. (A) The author of the Revelation is versed in the scriptures and apocalyptic literature, but the apostle John in his trial at Jerusalem was perceived (Ac. 41^) to be in the Jewish sense 'unlearned and ignorant.' But that judg ment of the council was based on the answer of Peter, speak ing for both himself and John,^ and it shows no more rabbinical learning than might be possessed by a member of any Jewish family devoutly instructed in the Scriptures. It is question able whether the Apocalypse reveals an author whose knowl edge of the Scriptures, popular apocalyptic, and rabbinical sayings went beyond the possible attainments in such a family. We need not discuss here Mk. 1^°, Jno. 19^^, 181*^, passages often cited to show that John's family was above tbe humblest rank. From this survey of the objections urged on internal grounds against the apostolic authorship of the Revelation, it may fairly be maintained that these cannot be regarded as de cisive, or even as furnishing strong presumption against that authorship. In view then of the exceptional force of the ex ternal evidence, and the e"vidence, discussed at length below, in favor of John's activity in Asia at the end of the century,^ there appears a reasonable degree of probability in the tradi tion that the book comes from the Apostle. In the contents, spirit, and impassioned language of the book, there is much that is akin to the vehement ' son of thunder,' who would call down visible judgment from heaven to consume the enemies of the Lord, Lk. 9^* ; and herein may be found some confirma tion of this conclusion. But this and similar features in the character of the Apocalyptist are too common to justify any sure inference. The Apocalypse and the FouHh Grospel. In seeking to de termine the personality of the Apocalyptist, we are not imme diately concerned with the relation of his book to other 1 Cf. pp. 292 f. 2 Cf. Ac. 116, 2", 3"^, 529. 3 Cf. pp. 366 fi. 2a 354 THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL writings whose authorship is not certainly settled. Yet in view of the widely accepted tradition which assigns both the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse to one author, the question is properly noticed here. In the third century Dionysius argued on internal grounds that it was impossible to accept iden tity of authorship ; and in recent times his argument has been taken up and expanded with a force to give it acceptance with the majority of present-day scholars. While some would ac cept the Gospel only as apostolic, and others the Apocalypse only, still others deny that character to both. No candid stu dent can fail to see that the assumption of a common author ship must face a number of weighty objections ; and one may well hesitate to assert categorically that these objections are inconclusive. We are accustomed to utterances to the effect that the question is definitively closed; e.g. 'It is one of the most certain theses of New Testament science that not another line from the author of the Apocalypse is preserved in the New Testament' (Jiilicher 241). Yet in examining the grounds upon which such a judgment is based, the impartial investigator must acknowledge that answers to these objec tions, and counter-arguments also present themselves, though these too may not be conclusive. The subject presents one of those questions in New Testament criticism in which mental bent, apart from the bias of prejudgment, is chiefly influential in determining the conclusion reached. In the comparison of the two books the Apocalypse must be taken, as is maintained throughout the present commentary, to be the work of one author, who, whatever use he made of apocalyptic fragments and other material, has so completely adapted these in lan guage and interpretation to his purpose, that the book as it lies before us is to be considered in so far a unit. The differences between the Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel which are held to preclude identity of authorship are grouped into the follow ing classes. (1) Linguistic differences. While the Greek of the Gospel is grammatically correct, that of the Apocalypse is frequently ungrammatical,! e.g. a nom. in apposition with other cases, or 1 Cf. p. 224. THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL 355 even after a preposition, as aTro d wv Kal 6 rjv Kal 6 epyopi.evo';, 1*; harsh changes of construction occur and lack of agree ment, as 2^^ 3^1, lli'i', 211*. Hebraisms are more frequent than in any other book of the New Testament. Favorite ex pressions of the Gospel appear in the Apocalypse either not at all or less often, or in a different sense; and vice versa.'- These linguistic differences, many of them not perceived in a transla tion, but appearing in almost every paragraph in the Greek, are so striking that the reader in passing from one book to the other feels himself almost certainly in contact with a different writer. Although these peculiarities have been exaggerated by some critics, they are not to be minimized, certainly not to be overlooked. An older explanation referring grammatical and similar differences to different ages of the same writer, who learned in later years to write better Greek (Hort, Westcott, al.'), cannot be accepted in view of the date of the Apocalypse. ^ But there are on the other hand counter considerations which must be noticed. The departures from correct grammatical usage are not due to ignorance ; the writer shows a knowledge and command of Greek too accurate to make such a supposition tenable. Beyond question both books come from writers, or a writer, whose mode of thought and native speech are Hebraic ; and that this Hebraic manner is followed more closely in one book than in the other may conceivably be due to causes other than duality of authorship. The whole character of an apoca lypse, a type of "writing Jewish in origin, contents, and manner, would lead us to expect a more Hebraic style in the Revelation than in the Fourth Gospel, which is a theological interpretation of the incarnate life of Christ. ^ Moreover as the Apocalypist in the selection and arrangement of bis matter shows careful observance of a fixed plan, a studied handling of his subject with reference to the production of a drama of visions, so he may be conceived to have adopted, perhaps half unconsciously, a diction and manner which he felt to be more consonant with the utterances of a prophet and ecstatic. 1 For a survey of hnguistic difierences see Liieke II. 662 ff. ;' and for criticism of Lucke, Stuart I. 377 fl. ; cf. also Speaker's Com. 464 fl. 2 ot. p. 20t) n. 3 There is not sufiacient -warrant for the supposition frequently advanced tnat tlie Apocalypse takes the name Jew as a title of honor, while the Fourth Gos pel takes it as one of dishonor ; see Com. 2', 356 THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL The Apocalyptist's choice of the form 'Icpova-aX-qp, in preference to 'Icpo- a-oXv/m, which is used in the Gospel, seems intentional (see Com. 21") ; so the oft-recurring dpviov, Lamb, to the exclusion of d/ivo's, the only form else where applied to Christ in the New Testament, is a technical term con sciously adopted as a fixed epithet of the ¦ Christ of heavenly glory (cf . pp. 314 if.). Over against these differences between the two books, striking parallelisms also in a linguistic respect have been often pointed out (cf. among others Bouss. Koin. 177 f.). Some of the more noticeable of these are the following. Only in the Johannine "writings is Christ called the Word (cf. Com. 19^^). His designation as the Lamb is more strongly emphasized in these writings than elsewhere in the New Testament (cf . Jno. 1^' ^^) ; m fact precisely this designation occurs elsewhere only in I Pet. 1". The fig ures of the -water of life, springs of vyater, and the Uke, are conspicuous here, cf. Jno. 4iof-.", 738, Rev. 7", 21«, 22". For the figure of the shepherd cf. Jno. 10' f-' 2^'-, 211*'-, Kev. 7". For the supersession of the temple cf. Jno. 421, Rev. 2122. "Worthy of notice is the agreement of Jno. 19'' and Rev. 1' in the form, varying from the LXX., of Zechariah 121°, quoted in each place in connection "with the crucifixion. The emphasis on the ideas of truth and falsehood, "whether taken separately or in contrast "with each other, so com mon in the Gospel and 1 Jno., appears in the Apoc. also, though the words, aX-^6aa and ij/eva-Ti]^, do not occur in the latter (cf. Com. 21'). oAj/ftvos, true to the ideal, occurs 10 times in the Apoc, 13 times in the Gospel and 1 Jno., only 5 times in the rest of the New Testament. papTvpla in the sense of testimony to divinely given truth is very frequent in the Apoc, Gospel, and 1 Jno., but occurs only once in the rest of the New Testament (Ac. 22'*). vtKttv as a kind of technical term for complete victory over the world and Satan, occurs in the Apoc. 11 times, in the Gospel and 1 Jno. 7 times, not in precisely the same way elsewhere in the New Testament, T7]pew Tcis €VToAas, or the sing., in the Apoc. twice, in the Gospel and 1 Jno. 9 times, in the rest of the N. T. twice. Trjpeiv tov Xoyov, or the plur., in Apoc. 4 times, the Gospel and 1 Jno. 8 times, not elsewhere in the N. T. I/Spaiort twice in Apoc, 5 times in the Gospel, not elsewhere in the N. T. Parallelisms such as are pointed out above, and the number could be considerably increased, furnish strong intimation that the Apocalypse, if not from the same author as the Gospel and 1 Jno., arose in common with these in a circle that was domi nated by a single personality. There is plausibility in the sug gestion 1 that the superior smoothness of the Greek of the Gospel and various linguistic differences are due at least in part to the employment of a Greek amanuensis. Josephus revised portions of his work in this way ; Paul wrote most of his epistles by the hand of another ; and there is force in the supposition that the phraseology was sometimes influenced by the amanuensis. In 1 Cf. Zahn, Ein. II. 629. THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL 357 spite of the marked differences in language and style it would appear that the Apocalypse in these respects is more closely akin to the other writings called Johannine than to any other books in the New Testament, and that these five books form a group bearing clearer marks of oneness, in the aspect under discussion here, than do any other New Testament writings not professedly from the same author. The phenomenon common in literature of the production by one author of writings differ ing widely in diction and manner must cause hesitation in forming a decision on these grounds alone. (2) Theological differences, (a) The Cod of the Apocalypse is chiefly represented as the creator and sovereign of the uni verse, enthroned apart in majesty, judging the world in wrath, not in mercy. In the Gospel he is the Father who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. In the one book he appears as the Hebrew God, in the other as the Christian. For the most part in the Apocalypse, the aspect is that of a being to be worshiped alid feared, more than to be loved. This dif ference, however, is due to the respective scopes of the two books. The Gospel seeks to give the complete revelation of the character of God as manifested in the incarnate Son ; the Apoc alypse is confined chiefly to one aspect of that character, that of the righteous judge. The difference is that between the whole and a part. There is no contrariety. For further discussion of this point see pp. 310 ff. (J) The Christ of the Gospel is the revealer of God to men, the source of spiritual renewal, the meek redeemer who lays down his life for the world. In the Apocalypse he is the mighty messianic prince of Jewish ex pectation, who rules the nations with a rod of iron. But here again the comparison is made from a partial view. In the Apocalypse, since it is the book of judgment, he is preeminently the victor over the prince of this world, the punisher of obdurate enemies, the rewarder of the faithful. But there appear here also and frequently the features predominant in the Gospel characterization. Christ is here the faithful /ia/STW?, witness, through whom the Christian possesses the f^aprvpia, the testimony, God's revelation given in the gospel; cf. V'', 3i*, 6^, 12i^.", 19io, 20*. He is the fountain of spiritual life for all who thirst, 21 «, 358 THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL 221'^. He is the Lamb who has redeemed men by the gift of his life; cf. 1^, 5^, 7i*, 12", 14*. Thus the highly spiritualized conception of the nature and functions of the Messiahship given in the Gospel discloses itself in the midst of the imagery of the Apocalypse. On the other hand the characteristics most con spicuous in the apocalyptic representation are not wanting in the Gospel, the Gospel of severity as well as the Gospel of love. These are implied in such passages as 2i^~i8, 5^'^"*^, 7^*, 8i^~^, 939-41^ 12^1, 1611 . ggg further p. 160. It may be argued "with force that the representations of the Christ in the two books point to a single author or at least to a group dominated by one mind. For the two representations form a complement of each other such as is found in no other books of the New Tes tament. In the Gospel we have the eternal Son who has laid aside the divine glory which he had in his union with the Father, and has become incarnate that he may give life to the world ; in the Apocalypse we have throughout the same eternal Son, returned to his heavenly majesty, his redemptive work accom plished, and at the end of the ages consummating his o"wn tri umph and the triumph of his people over the powers of e-yil. The Logos become flesh, and the Lamb (as the latter is used in the Apocalypse ; see p. 314 ff.), ideas which completely domi nate their respective books, are correlative conceptions, each contains the other. Not only does the portraiture of the one book presuppose that of the other, but also it is only in these books that the two conceptions are developed with such perva siveness and fullness. And it is only in these two books that we flnd with so frequent recurrence the Son's ' subordination ' to the Father.i The view that the writer of the Fourth Gospel who had a deflnite conception of how the Lord spoke on earth could never have represented him as speaking after the different and sustained manner of the Apocalypse,^ is utterly unwarranted in the case of one who had witnessed the Transflguration and the Ascension, one who had worshiped the Lord in the awe- inspiring appearances after the resurrection, ^ and who through many years of the life in the Spirit had beheld in him ' the Lord of glory.' (c) The Spirit is represented in the Apocalypse in the strange form of the seven Spirits, and his functions are 1 Cf. p. 314. 2 J. A. Robinson, oi. 3 cf . Mt. 28", Jno. 21". THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL 359 chiefly those of the producer of the ecstatic state and of the mediator of revelation and prophecy. He is not spoken of as the Helper, or as the agency of spiritual life, as in the Gospel, though the latter may be implied in 22^'". There is however no actual contradiction between the two books in the doctrine of either the person or the offices of the Spirit. His manifold operations are, to be sure, made less conspicuous in the Apoca lypse ; this might be expected in a book more concerned with the final consequences of the spiritual life than with its agencies and processes. For the general agreement of the Apocalypse with the other books of the New Testament in the doctrine of the Spirit see pp. 316 f. (3) Eschatological differences. The Gospel is almost wholly concerned with the present, not the coming, age. It speaks of judgment, resurrection, the coming of the Lord, eternal life, all as spiritual processes occurring in the present, e.g. 5^1"^^ \^i%-w_ But in the Apocalypse these terms designate instead eschato logical events. In this is seen the most striking difference be tween the two books ; they appear to be separated from each other by the widest reach of religious thought. Yet here again it is quite possible to mistake an apparent, for a real, diver gence, or at least to overlook the proper limits of the difference. The chief factors of traditional eschatology which form the theme of the Apocalypse are found in the final anticipations of the Gospel also, though in a subordinate relation. And on the other hand the form of judgment, resurrection, and advent, which are conceived in the Gospel in a spiritual way, is pre supposed in the spiritual relation of the faithful to their Lord in the present life as pictured in the Apocalypse.i In both cases it is a matter of antecedent and consequence ; but in the Gospel attention is largely fixed on the former, in the Apoca lypse on the latter. And a Christian Jew of the time, even the author of the Fourth Gospel, if he received visions of the Last Times and wrote a record of these, must have been dominated by the current eschatology inherited from Jewish sources, but christianized. The great difficulty lies in conceiving an author who so thoroughly spiritualized traditional beliefs as does the 1 For fuller discussion see pp. 101 ff., 163 f. 360 THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL Fourth Evangelist, to have entered so fully and with so much sympathy, as the author of the Apocalypse does, into the forms of traditional eschatology. It would however be rash, as the history of literature warns us, to affirm that a writer might not possess so great versatility, or be able to withdraw himself to so great a degree from one phase of a subject with its appropriate manner, and concentrate himself upon another and the manner belonging to it. The problem involved is analogous to that of a dramatist's power of vivid characterization. The writer of the Apocalypse shows remarkable versatility in the production of the paragraph of the seven epistles, which in its immediate aim, in its horizon and manner, differs so widely from other parts of the book as to form in the minds of many critics an argument for composite authorship, i Something of the same facility appears in his readiness in combining with Jewish messianic imagery the christian doctrines of faith in Jesus, and redemption from sin through his blood. A similar capability appears in the Evangelist, who, while retaining in a measure current eschatological notions, fixes his attention chiefly on the corresponding spiritual processes which are antecedent to those future events and prepare the way for them. A writer who accepted so unhesitatingly, as does the Evangelist, the literal application of utterances of the prophets to Jesus' history,^ could hardly have rejected every form of visible consummation of the future pictured by the prophets. It seems certain that he is not seeking so much to displace accepted eschatology as to interpret its most essential character as beginning to be realized in the present spiritual life. A striking parallelism to this aim followed in the Gospel is seen in the doctrine of Antichrist in the first epistle. The common belief in the coming of the great adversary, Antichrist, as one of the chief events of the Last Times, is evidently not denied, but it is pointed out that his essential work is already begun in the present opposition to Jesus as the Christ ; in a spiritual sense he has come already,^ as in the Gospel the judgment and resurrection have in a spir itual sense already taken place.* 1 See pp. 492 ff. 2 Cf. 1238-41 1318 1712 1924,88-37 3 Cf. 218.22^ 43, also 2 Jno. 7, 2 Thess. 2', 4 For a supposed difference between Rev. and Jno. as regards the term eternal life, and the place of faith and works in soteriology see pp. 164, 163. THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL 361 Conclusion. The reader who takes up the two books in his Greek Testament in immediate succession feels inevitably as he passes from one into the other that he is in a different atmos phere, that the language, manner, presuppositions, and outlook have changed. And if he analyzes the difference in the aspects spoken of above, it may seem impossible to attribute the writ ings to one author. Many find it so. And yet in view of what may be said, as we have seen, in the way of explaining divergences and establishing agreements, the question comes up with force, whether the subtler affinities are not such as at least to make the attribution of the books to one author supposable. At all events we may reasonably hesitate to consider the ques tion definitively settled in the negative. The confident, in some instances one might say the arrogant, tone of utterances often heard to the effect that all competent critics are at one in deny ing a unity of authorship, is certainly not warranted, though it is true that most present-day scholars hold to a diversity of authors. To say nothing of many scholars of the more con servative school, whose critical acumen it would be presumptu ous to deny, a number of critics, who are remote from the suspicion of undue deference to traditionalism, accept what is essentially equivalent to a common source. Harnack i ' con fesses to the critical heresy ' which carries both books back to one author, to be sure, on the supposition that the Apocalypse is a working over of a Jewish source by the hand — not that of the Apostle — from which the Gospel comes. But our question here is oneness of authorship, not apostolicity. J. Weiss 2 says, ' However different the two writings may be, they have so much in common that it must be said that the same circle must have shared in the publication of both ' ; and commenting on the difficulty in supposing writings so different to have been ac cepted and understood by the same readers and at the same time, he adds, ' it does not help much to assign the two writings to different authors.' Weiss' theory that both books are redac tions of writings of John the Presbyter does not concern the present discussion. What is of interest here is that he finds upon internal evidence that both books in their present form spring from one source, perhaps one person. Bousset » in his 1 Chron. 675. 2 offenb. 1.56. ¦• Kom. 179 ; cf. also En. Bib. I. 199. 362 JOHN THE PRESBYTER survey of the affinities between the Apocalypse and the other writings called Johannine finds these so clear that he concludes the books all originated in a circle which stood under the influ ence of one person, the Asian John, who in Bousset's view is the Presbyter. Here too the dominating influence of one per sonality must exclude the assumption of radically divergent views in theology, eschatology, and general religious outlook. Such theories of the books come nearer to the assumption of one writer, with freely working amanuensis, than to that of a plu rality of writers possessing views mutually exclusive. i XIH. The Two Johns ov the Asian Church A. John the Presbyter. The interest of the student of the Apocalypse in the person thus designated arises from the fact that he may vrith plausi bility be supposed to be the John well known to the Asian churches, and the author of the Apocalypse, if there are found insuperable objections to assigning this role to the Apostle. He is not mentioned in the New Testa^ ment. The designation, 'the Elder,' which the "writer of 1 and 2 John gives himself, assumed by many to refer to him, lacks as necessary for identification the addition 'John.' The term there used is entirely vague ; it might be given to an apostle (1 Pet. 5^), it may be official, ap plied to one holding the common office of presbyter, or it may denote simply superior age or dignity. It is evidently a designation famihar to the readers of those epistles, but if it were meant to distinguish the "writer from another of the same name, the name could hardly be omitted. There is nowhere in the literature of the second century (not even in Iron. Har. IV. 27-32, nor in Papias, Euseb. III. 39, 15) e-vidence of the use of the term as a widely kno"wn substitute for the proper name of a particular individual. Where found it refers to one specified in the context ; see p. 373. Except in an obscure fragment of Papias, preserved in Eusebius H.E. III. 39, no mention of the Presbyter John is found before the fourth cen tury. Eusebius is the first to point out the existence of such a person as evidenced by the fragment which he preserves from the introduction to Papias' book entitled Ao-ytmv KvpiaKtov iirjygcreK, Interpretations of utter ances of the Lord. The passage, so far as it need be given here, reads thus : el oi ttov kol TraprjKoXovdyjKiit's Tts Toi5 TTp€crj3vT€poL'i eXOoi, Toiis tSv Trpea-^VTepuiv av^KpLvov Xd-yous • Tt AvSpe'as rj tl Herpos eurei' ij tl $iXtmros rj Tt ®a)/Aas 7] la.Kwfio's rj Tt 'Icodvvrjs i} Marfctos -ij Tts Irepos tS>v tov Kvpiov 1 Tlie present commentator venture.s to say that his earlier con"yiction of the impossibility of maintaining a unity of authorehip has been much "weakened by a study of the two books prolonged through many years. JOHN THE PRESBYTER 363 imOijrSiv, a t£ Apio-Tiojv /cat 6 7rp£o-/3ijT£pos luidvvrj'S ot tov Kvpiov pmOriral Xeyova-iv ; that is, according to the interpretation adopted below, But fur thermore, if perchance there came [to me] anyone who had been a hearer of the elders, I was wont to inquire about the sayings of [these] elders regarding what Andrew or what Peter had said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James, or what John or Matthew or any other of the Lord's disciples [had said], and [I was wont to inquire] what Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, [or according to the emendation of the text adopted below, the disci ples ofJohnl are saying. The passage has given occasion to much exegetical controversy, which can be taken up only very briefly here. (Among the works referred to on p. 343 see especially Larfeld and Chapman.) It will he seen that Papias mentions two groups of persons whose words he sought to get. He marks the transition from one group to the other by the rhe torical variation from -^ ti to a te. The first group consists of apostles in cluding John. The designation oi tov Kvplov paOrfTal given to these refers "without doubt to their personal relation to the Lord when he "was on earth ; it was the testimony of such, handed down through trustworthy interme diaries, which vras of value for the purpose of Papias. The second group consists of two persons ; one Aristion, not an apostle and not known to us ; the other, called the presbyter John. Our inquiry is concerned with the personality of the latter. He has quite commonly been identified with John the apostle, because he is here called, as the text stands, the disciple of the Lord, and no other John is known among the Lord's personal disci ples in the New Testament, or, apart from this fragment of Papias, in the tradition of the first three centuries. The difficulty arising from the repe tition of John's name in the second group is in the opinion of many explained by a difference between the two groups as regards time and place. Papias' first mentioned inquiry, Tt elwev ktX. was meant to ascertain the testimony of such immediate disciples of the apostles as had lived long in Palestine and had had opportunity to hear many apostles all of whom at the time when the inquiry was made were dead except John. The inquiry spoken of in the second part, a tc Xeyovo-ti/, sought the testimony of such immedi ate disciples (not all necessarily apostles) of the Lord as were, at the time when the inquiry was made, still living and in Asia, viz. Aristion and John. The difference in tense, eiirev, Xiyovmv, marks the distinction. Papias him self may have heard these Asian disciples, but he seeks the report of others also who had heard them. The apostle John who lived on in Ephesus till the close of the century belongs to both groups ; hence the repetition of his name. The epithet o irpto-ySvVepos, the elder, which is given to him, is then explained as a title of honor, distinguishing him from others because of his age, or as an official title to mark him as the head of the Asian church; cf. Zahn, Ein. II. 220, 210; Chapman 35 f., 39. Thus a distinct John ceases to many minds to be a reality. John the Presbyter is called an invention of Eusebius, because the historian was the first to interpret the passage in Papias as vntnessing to his existence. But if Papias had in mind the activities of one and the same John at different times and places, he could hardly have chosen language less likely 3(54 JOHN THE PRESBYTER to convey that thought. Without some inore distinct note of the Apostle's place in both groups, the name in the second group, especially vpith the added o wp£o"/3vT£pos, must inevitably be understood of a different person. Moreover the added phrase, ot tov Kvpiov padgTai, the disciples of the Lord, in the second part further complicates the passage. It is certain that the phrase has the same meaning in both clauses, an immediate disciple of Jesus himself, such as were the apostles and others. If any variation were thought of, it must necessarily in some way be indicated ; but of this there is no trace.i And after the preceding words, ^ Tts £T£pos ruiv tov Kvpiov IJ.adr)T!j>v, or any other of the Lord's disciples, which summarily include all disciples other than those Just named, the repetition of the designation in this clause is harshly tautological. If emphatic repetition or specification were intended, there would at least be required some such addition as xai EKEtvot, these also disciples, etc. A chronological difficulty also arises not only in identifying the second John vpith the former, but in denominating the second group personal dis ciples of the Lord. The present XE-yovo-tv, are saying, marks the disciples of the second group as still living at the time when Papias -wrote. The pres ent cannot be used here, as often, of words given in an earlier vpriting, for the reports here spoken of are oral — this fact Papias emphasizes in the con text. And in view of the aor. eTttev in the parallel group, this cannot be taken as a historical present. It is true that Papias in both clauses is speaking of inquiries made in the past (di'E'Kptvov), and he might have used iXcyov instead of the present, but he thinks of the -witness of this group as still living, they are speaking at the present time and gi"ving the same testi mony ; they furnish an apt example of what he declares most valuable, to. irapa ^ujcrr/s <^v fxadriTai, Renan ; ot tovtwv padr^Tai, Bacon. This last emendation is less violent in form than the others, but it would make these two men, Aristion and John the Presbyter, who were hv- ing in the year 125, personal disciples of those just mentioned, that is of a considerable number of apostles, one of whom (James) had been dead eighty years, another (Peter) and perhaps several others, at least sixty years. The most probable emendation is that suggested in the recent work (1914) of Larfeld (see pp. 113-136), with whom the science of palaeography and ' Utterly without foundation is Harnack's interpretation which makes the phrase in the second clause refer to aged Christians who had come from Pales tine, and who as young children had merely seen the Lord and come into shght contact with him Chron. 660. JOHN THE PRESBYTER 365 diplomatics is a specialty. With abundant illustrations drawn from Mss. and inscriptions, he shows the methods of copyists in abbreviating proper names and also their frequent mistakes in reading such abbreviations. He cites the use of Iwv for Itoavvov in the late usage and shows the probability of its use in early times. But to in the Mss. is often "written in a form easily mistaken for Co, so that Imv is confused with tcov. And to is frequently mistaken for k. Thus tcov, vsTongly vpritten for ttov, abbreviation for Iomwov, became kov, an abbreviation occurring instead of kv for Kvpiov. A copyist who had just written in the preceding clause tov kv {= Kvpiav) pa6r]Tv might easily in the second clause mistake toiv ( = loiavvov) for kov or kv, and "write Tov KV paOrfoj.. The abbreviation kv is found in most Mss. of Euse bius. It is concluded then that what Papias wrote was ot tov 'Iwdvvov luSgrai, the disciples of John. In the text thus emended the art. before 'Iwdtwou may mark him as the one just mentioned, or the well-kno"vm. Larf eld's reasoning is so plausible and the reading so completely solves the difficulties of this much disputed passage, that we may accept his emenda tion with considerable confidence.^ If this be the correct form of Papias' words, the two persons Aristion and John the Presbyter become somewhat less shadovpy. They are younger contemporaries of John the apostle ; they are spoken of in a way implying that they are kno"wn to the unnamed friend of Papias to whom he addressed his book, and since he doubtless intended his book for a wider circle of readers, presumably the Asian churches, they are probably known to these also. They were not conspicuous enough to have left a great impression on the churches, if we may judge from the fact that there is no mention of them, except in this vpriting of Papias, unless it be true, as many suppose, that much, or all, that is said of John the apostle in the Asian tradition should be referred not to the Apostle, but to the Presbyter, the two being confused in popular thought. Aristion and John are specially mentioned by Papias among his authorities because as disciples of the Apostle they were able to report what he had said. The title Presbyter given to John is assumed to be familiar to the readers, and may have been used to dis tinguish him from his master, the Apostle. It is probably the official term presbyter. The term ot TrpEo-jSvTEpot, the elders, in the plu., as used in the passage of Papias, cannot be official, for presbyters, found in every church, were not as such personal authorities for the words of the Lord's apostles, in the sense here intended by Papias. The term appears to be a standing one to denote men of an older generation, the fathers, who were looked upon as authorita tive witnesses to the past. It occurs often in Irenseus and later "writers. In itself it might include the apostles ; but it is doubtful whether it was so understood. Irenseus at all events defines his use of it by the added words, disciples of the apostles; n.g. Hmr. V. 5, 1 ; 36, 2. And Papias also, if Lar- f eld's emendation be adopted, uses it thus ; for throughout the passage cited he is speaking of what his visitors reported from the elders, and as included 1 Harnack expresses his approval of it as probable ; Theol. Lit Zeitung, May 23, 1914. 366 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA in such reports he refers to what they told of the words of Aristion and John the Presbyter. These two then are elders in the sense here intended ; but they are also defined as disciples of the apostle John. We thus obtain a clue for the interpretation of the much disputed first clause, Tt 'AvSpsas ktX. Taken by themselves, the words ti . . . ehrtv ktX would most naturally be regarded as in apposition with tovs Ad-yovs, / inquired about the words of the elders, i.e. what the elder Andrew said, etc. Thus the elders in this con nection would be identified "with the apostles, and the clause is interpreted so by many. But another construction is possible, which makes the clause the object of the action contained in Xd-yovs, / inquired about the words ofthe elders in regard to the sayings of Andrew, etc. The elders as disciples of An drew, Peter, etc., were the proper witnesses of the sayings of these. This interpretation, required in the emended form of the second clause, is also free from chronological difficulty. If the apostles here named are the elders meant, the visitors to Papias to whom he addressed his inquiries would be contemporaries and hearers of a considerable number of apostles, some of whom had been long dead at the time when Papias must have been making his inquiries ; cf . p. 364. It must be said in conclusion that the sole explicit historical evidence for the existence of John the Presbyter, as distinguished from the Apostle, is this passage of Papias. And while we are compelled to interpret the passage as witnessing to his existence, yet there remains the extraordinary fact, not satisfactorily accounted for, that no other "trace of such a person appears till about the beginning of the fourth century, when Eusebius called attention to the significance of Papias' language, though Papias' book had been well knovpn through the centuries, when the Alogi and others were seeking for a non-apostolic authorship of the Johannine Apocalypse, and Dionysius was unable to find any evidence of a second John in Asia to whom to attribute it, except the two tombs at Ephesus ; cf. p. 350. In view of these circumstances the question cannot fail to arise whether the text of Papias used by Eusebius may not have contained some other error also besides that discussed on pp. 364 if. B. The tradition of John the Apostle at Ephesus. Few traditions of early Christian history have been held to be more certainly authenticated than that of the abode of John the apostle at Ephesus in the last years of the flrst century. But in recent times there has been raised among students of the Johannine question an array of objections, which are accepted by many' as conclusive against the truth of the tradition. The earlier criticisms of the last century, those of Ltitzelberger, 1840, and Keim, 1867, were generally disregarded, as not outweighing the e"pidence in support of the tradition. But since the publication of the De Boor fragments in 1888 (see below, pp. 381 ff.), the question has been reopened and a formidable line of argu ment presented against the traditional view ; see works mentioned on p. 343. In a discussion of the authorship of the .\pocalypse the question cannot be avoided ; since if it be shown conclusively that the Apostle had not lived in JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 367 Asia Minor, the book, which distinctly connects its author "with the Asian church, cannot have proceeded from his hand. It should be added, on the other hand, that even if it were certainly proved that he lived at Ephe sus, his authorship of the book would not necessarily follow, since the work of another John may have been attributed to him. And it is not amiss to repeat here that the apostolic origin of a book, however important in some respects, is not in itseK of such fundamental signiflcancc that the value of a part of our New Testament stands or falls with it (cf . p. 347). It would seem then that the question of an Ephesian residence of the Apostle might be studied vpithout exaggerating or minimizing the evidence on either side. First of aU it need not be seriously questioned that there was about the time to which the Revelation belongs a person named John, whether the apostle or another, prominent in the churches of at least seven cities of Asia Minor. The book itself, which as seen above, pp. 344 f ., cannot be re garded pseudonymous, bears full testimony to this fact; and even if it were pseudonymous, its assumptions must, except on suppositions that do too great "violence to the structure of the book and its representations, bear the same testimony.^ Of the other books of the New Testament it may he said that the attribution of the Fourth Gospel and the epistles to a John by the vpriters of the following generation, since the books bear un mistakable marks of Ephesian provenience, likewise indicates the presence there of an influential person bearing the name. The history of the Acts does not come dovpn to so late a date. The testimony of the writers of the second century to an Asian residence of the Apostle, which will be spoken of below, even K mistaken in the matter of personal identity, furnishes e"pidence of a John as well kno"wn to the Asian churches. Accepting then an Asian John, and in spite of the scantiness of e"vidence (cf. p. 366) the presence and influence of John the Presbyter in the Asian church, we have to ask, Did the Apostle also live and labor there, or was this true of the Presbyter only, who erroneously came to be thought of as the Apostle ? It is certain that only one of the name could have been prominent there at the time of the Apocalypse. The vpriter attaches no distinguishing epithet to his name, there is for the readers but one John who could address them thus (cf. pp. 344 f .). If this was the Apostle, and if the other John was there, the latter was top subordinate to be thought of by any one as the author of such an address to the seven churches. But if this John was the Presbyter, then the Apostle either had not labored there at all, or his pres ence and influence belonged to the past ; so that at the time of the Revela tion it was not necessary to guard against a possible confusion of the author "with him. It is convenient to take up first the evidence in support of the Apostle's 1 Prof. Bacon, who rejects the tradition of an Asian John, makes the sojourn at Patmos a clever fiction of the pseudonymous author impersonating the Apos tle ; Patmos was near enough to account for the self-styled Apostle s addressing a hook to these churches ; it was remote enough to forestah any objection ot the readers to the effect, that they had not knovpn of the Apostle s being m their vicinity. Hib. Journ. 1904, vol. 2, 331. 368 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA abode in Asia at the time ; but this must not be allowed to prejudge the argument, to be considered later, which is adduced against the tradition. The New Testament furnishes no direct evidence upon the subject ; see fur ther pp. 380, 390. The earliest writer of the second century who makes ex plicit mention of the Apostle's sojourn in Asia is Irenseus. His references to the presence there of one whom he designates ' John the disciple of the Lord ' are so definite (e.g. Euseb. H.E. III. 23, 3 ; IV. 14, 6) and his allusion to the Apostle in this designation so clear (cf. Euseb. V. 8, 4 ; 24, 16, Har. II. 22, 5, non solum Joannem sed et alios apostolos ; also III. 3, 4) that no doubt can be legitimately raised regarding the fact of his testimony ; the question of its value hinges solely upon its accuracy. The preference for the designation disciple instead of apostle found in Irenseus, Papias, and others is probably due to the fact that that term expresses more distinctly what was specially insisted on, the value of testimony given by those who had learned immediately from the Lord himseK. The same designation is given to the other apostles as well as John. Apostle was applied in some cases to those who had not been of the original twelve. Iren«us makes his reference to the Apostle clear beyond question. There is not the slight est force in the contention (e.g. Bouss. En. Bib. I. 198, a position essentially abandoned in the last ed. of his Kom. 46) that the use of the term disciple by Irenseus indicates reference to a John not knovpn as an apostle; cf. Chapman, 59 ff. It is noticeable that disciple is the word always used in the Fourth Gospel ; apostle as an official term does not occur there. The sole question regarding the vpitness of Irenteus is then, Is it correct? The proof of his error is regarded by many critics so con-pincing, that they un hesitatingly set his testimony aside. He is conceived to have confounded throughout John the Presbyter with the Apostle, and this mistake of his is thought to have perpetuated itseK, largely through his great influence, in the later writers of that and the following centuries. That the John of whom he speaks could not have been the Apostle but must have been the other John prominent in Asia is considered certain from e"vidence adduced for the Apostle's martyrdom at an earlier date, and from various indica tions that he could not have been prominent in Asia. Irenseus then, it is contended, is the real source of this tradition, so widely current and ap parently weU attested, concerning the Apostle. If his error is established, the trustworthiness of the tradition is held to be destroyed. See works mentioned on p. 343. It becomes then of the first importance in our inquiry to consider the date of Irenseus and his sources of information, as bearing on his credibil ity. Irenseus, in the latter part of his life presbyter and bishop at Lyons in Gaul, was probably by birth an Asiatic. At all events he had lived for a considerable time in Asia Minor and was thoroughly familiar with the church there and its traditions. The chronology of his life cannot be fixed in detail, but some intimations point clearly to approximate dates sufficient for our purpose. His great work, Against the Heresies, was written between 180 and 189 a.d. We have from somewhere near that date, either before or after, a part of a letter of his, important for our inquiry, vpritten to Flo- JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 369 rinus, a presbyter at Rome, who was falling into the error of Valentinianism (Euseb. H.E. V. 20). In this letter Irenasus speaks of his relation to Poly carp in a way which gives us some clue to the probable time of his birth. He says that while a boy, -Trats eti cov, he was wont to hear Polycarp in lower Asia discoursing on his intercourse with John and others who had seen the Lord. He speaks of his exact remembrance of not only the per sonal appearance of Polycarp, his place of discoursing, his cu.stomary entrance and exit, but also of the discourses which he was wont to deliver, telling what the immediate disciples of the Lord had said regarding the Lord's work and teaching. This teaching of the Lord as reported by Polycarp L-enseus says he so accurately understood and remembered that he can testify to its agreement "with the Scriptures. And it is this teaching which he wishes to bring back to the remembrance of the erring Florinus, who had been attending the lectures at the same time with Irenasus. It is to be noted also that throughout the passage the imperfect tense is used and other expressions showing that Irenseus is speaking of hearing Polycarp for at least some little time. He may perhaps not have been a permanent pu pil of his, but the language implies something more than the casual hearing of one or two sermons, as some would contend. Now if he so clearly com prehended and remembered the Christian teaching which Polycarp was re porting, he must have been at the time when he heard Polycarp a person of considerable maturity. What he here speaks of is quite different from stories of the Lord's miracles for example, which a child might understand and remember. Therefore when he speaks of himself as being in those days a boy, it is clear that he uses the term as one often does in speaking of early years from the standpoint of later life — and it was in that age that Irenseus was speaking in this letter to Florinus. The broad sense in which he takes the word he makes clear by his context. In another place {Hwr- III. 3, 4) he uses the similar but looser expression iv T-g wpdiT-g rjp.S>v ijXtKta, 'm our early age, in reference to the time of his seeing Polycarp.^ Harnack's supposition that he was a child of not more than twelve or flfteen years {Chron. 325) is utterly at variance with the context. What he says of his understanding and recollection of Polycarp's discourses would justKy us, without doing violence to the word irals, in supposing him to have been at least twenty or twenty-five years old. Now Polycarp's martyrdom occurred, as most agree, in 155 a.d. (so, Harnack, Zahn, al). We may therefore safely place the birth of Irenreus not far from 130 a.d., K not earlier, (Zahn dates it 115). The significance of so early a date in relation to the value of his testimony vpill appear below. Harnack, who is determined at all hazards to eliminate the authority of IreuKus from the Johannine problem, has constructed an elaborate argu ment (Chron. 320 ff.) to 'show that as regards the personality of the John 1 In Soph. Phil the young warrior and ship-commander Neoptolemus is regu larly called Tott, boy. In Hom. Od. IV. 665, Telemaohus, a young man about twenty, is called vio, iraU, a young boy. Lightfoot, Ignat I. 448, points out m late writers numerous cases of a similar term apphed to persons of thirty or more years. 2b 370 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA spoken of by Polycarp, Irenseus is not a trustworthy vpitness. As many critics share his view and as he puts the case against Irenseus in its strongest form, the more important points in his argument are here summarized. They may conveniently be tabulated as follows, criticism of the respective points being reserved till the conclusion, (a) Irenseus' work Against the Heresies was completed in the year 189. (b) The lapse of Florinus into Valentinianism could not have occurred before 190; for Irenseus -wrote to the Roman bishop Victor urging his deposition and Victor's bishopric began in 190, and furthermore Florinus is not mentioned iu Irenseus' work against the heresies, completed in 189. (c) It is unKkely that a Christian 60-70 years old should have fallen away into heresy, (d) If the lapse of Florinus could not have occurred before 190, and if at the time of the lapse he could not have been 60 or 70 years old, he must have been born as late as 120-130 A.D. (e) But the date of Florinus gives us a clue to that of Irenseus, since he must have been younger than Florinus by ten or fifteen years, probably more. For in his letter to Florinus he says uhov yap cte Trats in iiiv kv T-g KaTia Atria irapo. noXvKctpTrto Xa/ttirpois Trpcttro-oi'Ta ev T-g Paa-iXiKrj avX-ij Kal irapiiip.evov e-vSoKip,(.iv Trap' avToJ (Euseb. H.E. V. 20, 5), For irldle yet a boy I saw thee in lower Asia with Polycarp doing brilliantly in the royal court and striving to be held in good esteem by him. The language implies that Florinus must have already been a pupil of Polycarp for some time when the boy Irenseus saw him ; this is especially implied in the words XaftTrpuis -n-piia-a-ovTa EV T-fj jSacrtXtKij avX-g, lit. doing brilliantly in the royal court. The words are commonly understood to mean taking a conspicuous position in the royal court, though Harnack does not say what precise sense he gives them, (f) If now Florinus was born near 130, and Irenseus was at least 12 or 15 years younger, the birth of Irenseus is fixed at not far from 140, probably shortly before 142 (Chron. 329). (g) Irenseus then was about 13 when Polycarp died (155 a.d.). How long before this it was that he heard Polycarp in Asia is not indicated. This conclusion, that he was a young boy at the time alluded to, is confirmed by the added words, Tavra Kat tote 8ta to IXeos TOV Ocmi TO ett' £/Aot -yE-yovos tTTrovSattos yjKOivov (Euseb. V. 20, 7), tliese things even then through the mercy of God bestowed upon me I listened to earnestly ; he implies that it was only through the special mercy of God granted to him that a boy so young was able to understand the discourses of Polycarp. (/() It cannot be urged that Irenseus' knowledge of Polycarp's words about the Apostle rests not only on that early acquaintance but also on later intei^ course, since the possibility of any supposed later intercourse is certainly excluded. For the ardent interest which Irenseus felt as a boy in Poly carp's discourses would surely have impelled him later in life to seek his instructions; but there is no trace of this, it must he that Polycarp died soon after the time aUuded to. Although Trenreus is bent on influencing Florinus by appealing to the authority of Polycarp, he refers to early teaching only ; he evidently has no later teaching to cite. In the work on the heresies in speaking of his relation to Polycarp he says, ' whom I saw in my early age,' III. 3, 4. iii>pa.Kap.€v ; he had .^een him, but does not claim there to have heard him. From this whole line of argument it fol- JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 371 lows as a certain conclusion (sicheres Ergebniss) that only as a maturing boy did Irenseus see Polycarp and hear him preach ; he was never his pupil and never had association with him (p. 328). In his mistaken recollections of Polycarp's discourses he confounds John the Presbyter with the Apostle. Thus his testimony to the Apostle's residence in Asia Minor is completely ehminated, as is that of the later witnesses, since they merely echo what they had learned from Irenaus. The evidence adduced against John the Apostle's residence in Asia will be spoken of below. An examination of this argument will reveal its inconclusiveness at every point. In the following comments the letters, b, c, etc., refer to the re spective paragraphs above. As regards the date of Florinus' birth (against h, c, d), it is impossible to say how long before his open break with the Church and his actual deposition Florinus may have been uttering prin ciples accordant with, or at least leaning toward, Valentinianism. Irenseus' letter to him was a friendly message vpritten to him while he was yet acting as a presbyter in the Church ; it was designed to check his advance and recall him from error. It may have preceded the open rupture and deposi tion by a considerable time, that is, some time before 190, the earliest date at which Irenseus could have "ppritten to Victor urging deposition. How long Florinus may have been suffered to continue in his office is wholly un certain. The very fact of Irenseus' letter to Victor indicates some slowness on the part of the bishop to act. The absence of allusion to Florinus in the work Against the Heresies furnishes no evidence that his lapse had not already begun or actually taken place. Valentinianism is one of the heresies treated of, but there was no occasion to mention specifically the name of Florinus, nor of many others who were not the authors of the heresy but the followers. The assumption (c) is unwarranted that one would not at the age of seventy take the step toward which he had long been tending. Therefore data for the inference (d) that Florinus was born between 120 and 130 are entirely wanting. In the second place, whatever may have been the date of Florinus' birth, the supposition (e) that Irenseus was ten or fifteen years younger is with out any certain foundation. It rests on the very obscure words Xa/iirpois Trpatro-ovTa h rg ftaonXiK-g avXrj, doing brilliantly in the royal court. These are commonly understood to refer to some conspiouousness at the imperial court. Now even if that be the meaning, the words could quite conceivably be applied to a youth of twenty or twenty-five (the age attributed above, p. 369, to Irenseus at the time), performing some particular service in the imperial household. But there is great difficulty in taking the words in this literal sense. There was no imperial court in lower Asia, aud the at tempts of some scholars to connect the reference with an imperial visit to the province of Asia ^ have failed of any probable conclusion. The position of the words as part of what appears to be one phrase, irapa. HoXv/ctipTra) . . . Trap a-vT% shows almost certainly that they are to be taken as refer- iCf. Zahn, Forsch. IV. 277; Lightfoot, Contemp. Rev. 1875, Ignat and Polycaip, I. 2, 662 fl. 372 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA ring to Florinus' relation to Polycarp, and not to anything in his external situation, which in fact would have no bearing on the thought of the con text. The phrase T-rj jiaaiXiK-g avX-fj then not improbably refers to some court or hall where Polycarp gave his discourses;! and the first phrase Xap.TrpSiv KvptaKtiv Xoyuov cjida-Kei on vtto TovSai'tuv dvgpiOri, he was ad judged ivorthy of tnartyrdom ; for Papias . . , in the second book of the Say ings of the Lord says tlial lie was killed by the .lews. The comment is added that he thus fulfilled the prophecy of the Lord. This comment may be that of the chronicler, or it may be suggested by the source from which he is drawing ; at all events it shows the tendency to find a literal fulfillment of the Lord's words. Little weight was given to this fragment of Papias at the time when it was first made generally known (Nolte, Theol. Quartal- schrift 1862, 466 ff.). But the subsequent discovery of the same fragment in a modified form (De Boor) has brought the Papian testimony into special prominence in the Johannine question, and the statement of it given in these fragments is accepted by many critics without doubt as authentic in form and accurate in regard to the historical fact. Before speaking specially of the relation of the statement here given to the testimony of other writers, it is necessary to examine the fragments and inquire how far they furnish in themselves and in their transmission evidence of their probable authenticity as actual words of Papias. The passage in the chronicle of Georgios is given in codex Coislinianus III. 134. This codex of Georgios, though the best, differs here from all the others — there are 26 in all — which record the peaceful death of John. The passage as it appears in codex Coislin. is at once seen to be an interpolation, since the same codex cites in the context early writings to show thatthe Apostle died peacefully at Ephesus. And the carelessness of the interpolator, and perhaps also of the -writer from whom he drew, is seen further in the added statement that Origen also in his commentary on Mt. reports John's martyr dom on the authority of the successors of the apostles. What Origen really says (com. on Mt. 2(1'-'^) is that tradition, not the successors of the apostles, reports that John was banished to Patmos by the Roman em peror, and that this was the martyrdom predicted for him. However, it is evident that there existed at the time of this codex, the 10th or 11th cen tury, a statement attributed to Papias, which is here used by the inter polator to prove that the Lord's prophecy was fulfilled literally in the case of John as well as James. The interpolator's carelessness in reporting Origen deprives his reference to Papias of all value in itseK as evidence of what Papias actually said ; and this fact together with the divergence from accepted tradition would justKy disregard of the passage, were it not for its parallelism with the more recently discovered De Boor fragment. In 1888 De Boor brought to light a group of seven fragments contained m an Oxford Ms., Baroccianus 142, of an epitome of church history, dating from the 7th or 8th cent., among which fragments two report several state ments attributed to Papias.! xhe epitome in which this group of frag- ! See Text u. Untersuch. V. 2, 167 ff., also Z K G. VI. 478 ff. On the De Boor and Georgios fragments see further Harnack Chron. 665 f., Alt Lit 67 ; Zahn Forsch. VI. 147 ff.; Gutjahr 102ff.; Lightfoot JS'ssays, etc. 2nf.; Chap- 382 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA ments is found is a chronicle of various matters of Christian history from the beginning, compiled, as stated in the preface, from Eusebius and others ; it is worked together by the epitomizer in a manner and with modifications of his own. He has made great use of the -xpiO-Tiavr] laTopia, Christian History, of Philip of Side, a work of the fifth cent., now lost ; and from the language of the context it appears, as is generaUy agreed, that the De Boor fragments are derived from Philip as their ultimate source. Thus the report of Papias' testimony is traced back to the fifth century. The passage of interest in our inquiry reads, HaTrtas iv tv 'Pp.aiO)v ySatrtXEtus KaTthiKaadr] £is Har/xov, TctxtojSos 8e] 11770 TovSatW dvgpidg ; and that the words here bracketed ha"ving been man 65, 9.'') ff. ; Larfeld 149 ff. ; Am. Journ. of Theol. 1905, 04oS.; En. Bib. 11. 2509. JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 383 omitted by accident from the Ms. followed in Coislin. (the Georgios frag ment), a copyist supplied their place with the words, Kat 'IciKto/Jos 6 dSsX- (^6s avTov in the Ms. from which Baroccianus comes (the De Boor frag ment). Zahn. Forsch. VI. 147 ff., Ein. II. 474, avoids the difficulty by interpreting the John as the Baptist. None of these solutions have gained any general acceptance. We must admit that we have no data for conjectur ing what stood in Papias, K not these precise words. The real question is. Have we sufficient grounds to warrant the acceptance of the words as containing a genuine statement of Papias ? What evidence supports its authenticity ? Are there reasons for suspecting it ? These are questions which we always raise before using in historical investigation any document, especially one not noticed till it had been in wide circulation for several centuries. In answer we have assertions of great positiveness : the words are ' of faultless authenticity, a precious remnant of actual knowledge,' Schwartz ; ' It is indubitable that the works of Papias must have contained some statement of this nature,' Moffatt. But it is noticeable that scarcely a writer who speaks so positively advances any argument whatever to sup port authenticity, or answer objections. About all that is offered, even by those who recognize the necessity of some vindication, is that the reference in the quotation is speciflc to the second book of Papias, or (Bouss. Kom. 36) that the passage stands in an excerpt from Philip of Side with a series of Papian fragments recognized as genuine. As regards specificness of refer ence, it may be noted that the reference in Georgios to Origen spoken of above is equally specific — to the Com. on Mt. — and yet is grossly inaccu rate. As regards the acknowledged genuineness of the series of Papian fragments in which this passage occurs the statement is altogether mislead ing. That Philip or the Epitomizer, whoever he may be, intended to put forth here a series of statements on the authority of Papias is clear, but there is nothing to show a first hand use by him of Papias' book ; on the contrary, he seems in part to be following Eusebius as the source of his knowledge of Papias ; cf . Chapman, 95 ff. Not only does he in the begin ning of his compilation specifically mention his use of Eusebius, but the opening paragraph of the Papian passages in the De Boor fragments is con densed almost hterally from Eusebius, III. 39, 1-5. One clause in it, 'liadvvrp/ erepov ov Kal irpecr^-vTcpov iKoXecrev, cannot be from Papias, as it is taken verbally from Eusebius' argument against Irenseus. Another of the Papian sentences in the De Boor fragments speaks of Papias' error regard ing the millennium ; that he is here using Eusebius is seen in his adding, as does Eusebius, III. 39, 13, that Papias' error is the origin of that of Irenseus. Another of the Papian .sentences hi the fragments attributes to him the statement, that those raised from the dead by Christ were still liv ing in the time of Hadrian (117-138 a.d.). It is very doubtful whether Papias with his professed care for accuracy would have stated that these persons (the art. is used, as if aK were meant) were living at au age of 100 years as his own contemporaries.! From these instances it appears probable ! The supposition is plausible that the passage is a blunder on the part of the excerptor or compiler traceable to a misunderstanding of Quadratus quotea oy Eusebius IV. 3, 1-2. See Chapman loc. cit. 384 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASLA that the compiler from whom the Papian sentences came did not make use of Papias' book itself, and so cannot be relied upon to give the exact testi mony of Papias. Not all the Papian sentences in the De Boor fragments are traceable to Eusebius, but there is nothing to indicate a more immediate use of Papias' book. As to the sentence important here, that regarding John's martyrdom, the excerptor in at least one, though not very signiflcant, case cannot be quoting Papias exactly ; the word ^EoXd-yos was not applied to John till after the time of Papias. But apart from the lack of evidence to support the accuracy of the compiler in the De Boor fragments and the suspicion inevitably raised by critical examination, there are other consid erations also which compel us to pause before accepting this document as conclusive evidence that a statement of this purport stood in Papias. Philip of Side, to whom it is doubtless to be traced, was notoriously inaccurate. The Christian historians, Socrates and Photius, denounce his uutrustworthi- ness in unmeasured terms ; cf . Smith & Wace, Diet, of Christ. Bing. And even if the De Boor fragments be not derived from him, the chances of error are not diminished. The chroniclers aud excerptors often used their alleged authorities through later hands, and carelessly ; sometimes also with au inaccuracy due to argumentative purposes. Nowhere is greater care in sifting testimony called for than in the use of citations of early authorities found in compilers of Christian traditions. In the case of the De Boor fragment there appears the further reason for suspicion in the divergence of its statement from the testimony of other historical writers. The difficulty which is thus raised in the way of accept ing it as correctly reporting Papias is, as no one denies, great. Can this objection be removed by the theory of a confusion of the two Johns iu the mind of Irenseus and a few of his associates ? Papias' book furnished the source of a part of what Irenseus reported of the tradition of the Elders ; without doubt it was much used by him. How then could he, the younger contemporary of Papias, with this book before him recording the death of the Apostle at Jerusalem more than a century before the death of Papias, have caUed the latter a pupil of the former? How could he, when near the forties of the second century he heard Polycarp discoursing on his inter course with John, have thought that Polycarp was speaking of a man who had been dead a century? If in his youth he was capable of this mis take, his subsequent use of Papias' book would have corrected him. A con fusion in his mind of a John (the Presbyter), a leader in the Asian church at the end of the century, a man well known to many of his own contempo raries, with the Apostle reported by Papias as martyred in the forties of the first century, cannot easily be attributed, to him. Even if his desire to estab lish a direct apostolic tradition in Asia (cf. p. 379) had misled him to see the Apostle in the Presbyter, he could not be blind to the contradictory evi dence of this statement of Papias, if it existed. His maintenance of the Apostle's Asian residence would have been conscious misrepresentation, which Papias' book, if no other authority, would soon have exposed. Like wise as regards writers after Irenseus, it is difficult to believe that the book, used as it was through the early centuries, if it had contained this statement JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 385 so at variance with genei-al belief, should not have left some distinct echo, or trace of influence. Even the Alogi, while holding to the Asiatic origin of the Jolianuine writings, are eager tb establish the non-apostolic author ship of these, yet make no use of such a statement of Papias, which would have formed for them a conclusive historical argument. Eusebius could not, to be sure, have used the statement to support his opposition to the apostolic authorship of the Revelation, because he is zealous to maintain the resi dence of John in Asia ; but this very zeal of his for the Asian tradition would have led him to controvert the error of Papias, if the statement had stood in the copies of Papias known to him. Eusebius shows himself earnest to correct both Papias and Irenseus, where it is in the interest of his views to do so. Perhaps one further observation should be added against the authenticity of this statement in the De Boor fragment. The book of the Acts was known in Asia at the time and therefore probably to Papias. It does not then seem likely that with chapt. 12 before him he would have included John with James in the martyrdom at Jerusalem. This, however, cannot be strongly pressed, for contrary to Acts and Mt., Papias is reported, perhaps wrongly, to give a story to the effect that Judas, notwithstanding an attempt at suicide, lived on in unimaginable deformity as an example of impiety; see Lightfoot, Apost. Fath., p. 523. Considering then on the one hand the probability that the author of the Be Boor fragment did not use Papias at first hand, the untrustworthiness of Philip of Side from whom the statement is derived, and also the large possibilities of error in a late compiler or chronicler; and on the other hand considering the great difficulty raised by the fragment in its relation to the history of opinion in the early centuries, "we must conclude that the acceptance of its statement as historical evidence is not justified, unless strongly confirmed by other sources. A confirmation of it is found by the defenders of the fragment in those forms of testimony adduced against the Asian tradition which are discussed in paragraphs (3) and (4) below.' (3) Some early martyrologies are cited as attesting the Apostle's martyr dom. The Syrian martyrology places in its list ' The apostles John and James at Jerusalem ' Dec. 27, between Stephen Deo. 26, and Paul and Peter Dec. 28. The same entry stands in the Armenian martyrology, without mention of place and with unimportant variation in the order of days. The Carthaginian martyrology gives for Deo. 27, ' John the Bap tist and James the apostle ' ; but ' the Baptist ' is held to be a copyist's error for ' the Evangelist,' since John the Baptist is commemorated in the same martyrology in June. This evidence from the martyrologies is thought to be corroborated by the following authorities. The Pseudo- Cyprian tract De Rebaptismate (c. 250 a.d.), commenting on the Lord's ! Not all critics who deny that the John prominent in the Asian Church was the Apostle accept the De Boor fragment; e.g. Harnack, Chron. 666, says ¦ Papias could no more have written that John was killed by the Jews than that Paul died a natural death, unless he meant another John, the Presbyter ; but that also is not probable, since . . . the violent death of the Presbyter must have been recorded in the older literature.' 2 c 386 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA words to John and James, Mk. 10^9, says, ' he knew they had to be baptized not only in water but also in their own blood.' Aphraates, ' the Persian sage ' (4th cent.), in his homily on persecutions, speaking of the martyrdoms of Jesus, Stephen, Peter and Paul, says 'James and John walked in the footsteps of their Master.' Clement of Alexandria (c. 165-220) speaks of the teaching of the apostles including Paul as ending in the time of Nero, Strom. VII. 17. The Valentinian Heracleon (c. 180 a.d.) in a passage on the confession of Christianity quoted by Clement, Strom. IV. 9, speaks of Christians who had died without confession before the magistrates, adding ' among whom are Matthew, Philip, Thomas, Levi and many others.' Her acleon, it is argued, would certainly have included John in this list of names, if he had died a natural death. These various testimonies are taken to furnish proof of an early and widespread tradition that the Apostle was put to death and that the belief in his sojourn in Asia was erroneous. Before discussing this argument in detail, it is worth while to take into account certain general considerations. The Lord's words predicting suf fering to James and John, soon fulfilled in the event of martyrdom in the case of James, must .have led inevitably in later time to the supposition of some such fate in the case of John, especially as the New Testament re cords nothing to the contrary. However well established might have been the tradition, that the Apostle abode long at Ephesus, where he was sup posed to have written the books attributed to him, there was in so far nothing that excluded a martyr's fate in the end. Furthermore great lati tude in the use of the word martyr is found in the earlier centuries and con tinuing even into the later. Though the distinction between confessor and martyr, the latter being confined to those who had suffered death, comes to be established in the third or beginning of the fourth century, still the broader use of martyr occurs in late writers. We should expect then to find John reckoned among the martyrs, in either the broader or narrower sense of the word. And we might even expect legends telling of the place and manner of his martyrdom ; such however are not found. The legends of the cup of poison and the caldron of oil, harmlessly endured, attest "the influence of the Lord's words on tradition (cf. p. 380), and also the absence of traditions of actual killing. It is significant that critics who insist that the obscure words of Rev. 1^ are the sole origin of the story of John's banishment to Patmos (cf. Com. in loc.) are unable to trace any assertions of his martyrdom to a combination of Mk. 10^ and Ac. 12^. One more general observation should be made. Even if martyrdom be understood in its narrower sense, there is in the several testimonies presented in this paragraph (3) none, except that of the Syrian martyrology, which ueoes- ."^arily excludes altogether a residence of the Apostle in Asia at some time. Having in mind these general observations, we pass to a more detailed examination of the several sources cited above as proving the Apostle's martyrdom. The large subject of the martyrologies can be touched upon only very briefly here, but enough can be shown to make evident their re- JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 387 lation to the present question.! The custom of the Christians from the first of commemorating the days upon which their martyrs suffered led directly to the formation of a kind of calendar. These were local and prior to any formal oecumenical calendar of the Christian year. In time additions were made to these, including also the names of martyrs commemorated in other regions. The later lists were uncritical combinations, containing often duplications and discrepancies. The three oldest of such lists preserved are the Dispositio Martyrum (Burial of the Martyrs), the Carthaginian Martyrol ogy, and the Syrian Martyrology. The first is part of a kind of Roman almanac, dating from 354 a.d. • It is the oldest of all the lists and was much used as a source in the formation of others. The names are confined to those martyred at Rome and the vicinity. The saints of the first and sec ond centuries are not included ; it does not go back beyond 200 a.d. Even in the case of the great Roman martyrs, Paul and Peter, their martyrdom is not included, but the translation of their bones. Now important for our purpose is the fact that though designated in its title as a list of martyrs, the document contains at least two entries having no relation to martyrdom, the Nativity of the Lord, and the Cathedra Petri, the commemoration of Peter's founding of the Roman Episcopate. In this is seen the beginning of a tendency to broaden a so-caUed martyrology into a kind of ecclesiastical calendar. The Carthaginian list, which should be placed second in the order of time, is in its present form as late as the sixth century, but its principal parts are assigned to a very early date ; cf. Achelis pp. 23, 27. It shows the growing tendency to include other than the local saints, e.g. some of the apostles, and also other days besides those of the martyrs, among these the Epiphany. It contains moreover, what becomes conspicuous in later martyrologies, a series of names grouped about the day of the Nativity ; in this martyrology these are Stephen, John the Baptist, James and the Inno cents. The suggestion mentioned on p. 385 that John the Evangelist has been displaced here by the Baptist through the error of a copyist is doubt ful; for the Baptist appears in this Nativity cycle in many martyrologies; in the Armenian, Nestorian, Chaldean, Greek, al., and the repetition of his name in the list for June is not decisive, since such duplications are com mon in the martyrologies ; they arise either from a careless combination of earlier lists, or from a celebration of different events in the history of the same person. The third great list, the Syrian, the most important of Ori ental martyrologies, is preserved in a form which dates from the fifth cen tury, but it incorporates lists of much earlier origin. Though entitled a list of martyrs, it includes some who were such in no sense, e.g. Eusebius and Arius. It duplicates days, e.g. putting Polycarp Jan. 27 and Feb. 23, it designates Stephen an apostle, it differs from all other martyrologies in as signing a place, viz. : Jerusalem, for the martyrdom of John the apostle. 1 On the martyrologies see Achehs Die Martyrologien in the Abhandlung. d. konig. Gesell. d. Wissen. zu Gottingen, Phil.-hist N. F. 1900; Egli Zweiter Commentar zu Wrights S. M. in the Z WT, 1891, 273 ff. ; also his book Altchrist Stud. Martyr, etc. Zurich. 1887 ; Lietzmann Die drei alt Martyrol ; Smith's Dkt of Christ Antiquities II. 1 132 ff. 388 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA Valuable as is the Syrian martyrology, it is evident that it needs to be checked by other lists. An instructive study has been giveu by Egli {op. cit.), who compares it with the Armenian, Coptic, iEthiopic, the Syrian of the Melchites, Greek, Slavic and one or two others. An examination of the martyrologies in general reveals two facts helpful in our inquiry; first, entries not associated with martyrdom, and secondly, a tendency to group about the festival of the Nativity — whether celebrated in Dec. (Christmas) or in Jan. (the Epiphany) is immaterial in the present connection — persons standing in some special relation to the Lord ; cf. Egli, op. cit 279 ff. Among such occur David, the Magi, Joseph the husband of Mary, the four Evangelists, Mt., Mk., Lk., Jno. (these four all assigned to one day), but especially the five conspicuous figures Stephen, Paul and Peter, John and James. It becomes at once apparent that martyrdom is not the sole ground of selection in making up these groups. This particular Nativity-cycle of five, which appears in the Syrian martyrology and others, is assigned by Achelis, op. cit. 70 f., to a date later than that of the primitive list used by this martyrology. And it appears apart from the martyrologies in early writers also in connections where the writer is speaking, not of martyrs, but of foremost disciples; e.g. Gregory Nazian. Panegyric on Basil, Migne, Pat. 829 ; Gregory of Nyssa, Oration on Basil, ibid. 789. It seems reasonably certain then that the appearance of John's name in the Syrian, Armenian and other lists cannot be taken as evidence of a tradition that he was put to death ; though in the broader sense of the word he would every where be honored as a martyr. The mention of Jerusalem in the Syrian list as the place of his martyrdom, supported by uo other martyrology, is easily explained by the carelessness of the compiler of the list, who here fails to distinguish John from James ; cf. his carelessness in calling Stephen an apostle. We pass now to the early writers cited above (pp. 385 f.) as confirming the argument for the Apostle's martyrdom drawn from the martyrologies. We take these up in the order followed above. The words quoted (p. 386) from De Rebaptismate occur in a context, XIV-XV, which is concerned with baptism by blood ; and the proof that a martyr's blood is for him a bap tism, the author finds in Christ's words; first, in his words referring to his own baptism, Lk. 12™, ' I have a baptism,' etc., and secondly, in the words ad dressed to James and John, Mk. 10^. Xow the author is concerned here, not at all with the personal history of the two disciples, but wholly with the enforcement of his argument by an utterance of the Lord's. The num ber of persons included is immaterial ; if he had been thinking of the words as fulfilled in the case of one only, the Lord's saying would have served his argument equally well, but he takes it just as it stands, applying it rhetor ically and with partial inexactness — he is not recording history. Chrysos tom treats these words with precisely the same rhetorical inexactness, para phrasing 'Ye shall be slain for my"sake,' Homilies, on 1 Cor. XXXII. 10, though elsewhere he says John lived long after the fall of Jerusalem; Homilies on Mt. LXXVT. 2. The words quoted (p. 386) from Aphraates occur in the concluding parar JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 389 graph summing up his discourse. He says 'Hear ye the following names of martyrs, confessors and the persecuted ' ; and there follows a list of Old Testament worthies, most of whom were not slain, were not martyrs in the narrower sense ; and then, after the name of Christ, the five New Testa ment names and an indefinite mention of others of that time and the time of Diocletian. He does not, as is sometimes said (so, Moffatt Introd. 606) dis tribute his examples into three distinct groups, classifying the five New Testa ment names (and so, John) as ' martyrs,' the others of the apostles as ' con fessors,' and those who suffered under Diocletian as ' the persecuted.' The ' others of the Apostles ' he distinctly calls ' perfect martyrs,' like Peter and Paul; and certainly he could not think of those who were put to death under Diocletian as 'the persecuted,' but not martyrs in the strict sense. He is not at all concerned with a classiflcation of this kind, but with a com prehensive illustration of faithful sufferers. And it is noticeable that as his selection and grouping of Old Testament worthies is plainly suggested by Hebrews 11, so in the selection of the Christian names he is influenced by some prevalent usage, such as is seen above in the "vpritings of the Gregorys (p. 388), of grouping together these flve names especially connected with the Lord. But he shows his consciousness that they do not all stand on the same footing as regards actual martyrdom; he describes Stephen, Peter and Paul && perfect o-r faithful martyrs, but in speaking of John and James he avoids the term, saying that they followed in the footsteps of their Master, who as said in the preceding clause ' surpassed all in affliction and confession ' ; that is, they followed in his steps in affliction and confession, but did not equal him, they had not both suffered unto death. As regards the statement of Clement (p. 386), his historical careles.sness is seen in the immediate context, where he makes the assertion that the public teaching of Jesus began in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, and ended in the middle of the reign of Tiberius (cf. Lk. 3!). In another place, Quis dives 42, he supports the Ephesian tradition in recording John's release from Patmos and his removal to Asia Minor. Heracleon in the words re- fen-ed to (p. 386) is speaking of a distinction between real and unreal con fession of Christianity, and he says that ' true confession is that made by mouth before the magistrates.' Not all have been called upon to make that confession, some have died without that trial. Among such are those named and many others. Now while Heracleon has chiefly in mind martyrdom as the result of such confession, he does not limit his deflnition to. that, because he knew that martyrdom was not in all cases the result; other punishments were inflicted. What he is urging is readiness to meet the extreme consequences of trial before the tribunal. But if the tradition current at the time concerning John was accepted by him, the Apostle's name was not appropriate for his list. John had confessed before the magistrates and had suffered banishment as his penalty. Rev. 1^. We are brought to the conclusion then that the words of the authors cited above do not in any case, when rightly interpreted in the light of their context, furnish evidence that these writers supposed John to have been put to death as a martyr. 390 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA (4) A fourth line of argument is urged to prove, not directly the Apostle's martyrdom, but the error of the tradition that he abode in Asia and was a leader in the Church there at the end of the century. It is the argument from silence. None of the New Testament writers, it is argued, none of those of the second century, except Irenseus, Justin, and Polycrates, show any knowledge of John's sojourn in Asia. As a general answer to this argument it may be said that if the books of the New Testament in which knowledge of the kind could be looked for are genuine, they are all prior to the time. The Johannine writings of course cannot be taken into account here. As regards the second century literature, the three exceptions named form among the small number of writings of that period preserved a rather large body of witnesses numerically, to say nothing of the special com petency of these writers, as shown above. The argument, however, must be considered more in detail. On the assumption that the New Testament writings in question are of a late date, it is claimed that the composer of Paul's address to the elders of Ephesus, Ac. 20""^^, would not have put so harsh an epithet as ' grievous wolves ' into his description of those who were to come after him there, if John were one of these successors ; furthermore there is in the address no trace of John or his influence at Ephesus. It is not necessary to point out the misapplication of the words here put into Paul's mouth, K it be that they are not a truthful record of his owu language ; as a denunciation of false teachers the language is similar to that which he uses in Phil. 3^.!*'- But in any event we should not expect here in the supposed writer's picture of Paul's care for his churches any trace of the coming of John ; the his torical imagination of the author of the Acts is of a kind to guard him, even in the assumed invention of history, from allusions so false to Paul's habit of reticence regarding the labors of other apostles. A similar answer may be made to the appeal to the silence of the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, letters like the Apocalypse addressed to Asian churches, and also to the silence of the epistles to Timothy who was placed at Ephesus. If these are inventions of a later time, the authors show themselves in the writings clever enough to avoid so distinct an anachronism, which would be patent to all. An inventor transfers to an earlier date many things belong ing to his own time, but not distinctly personal allusions, if he be even moderately skillful. Appeal is also made to 1 Peter, likewise assumed to be pseudonymous and late. The writer addressing these same Christians of Asia assumes the name of Peter to give weight to his epistle ; John, ii; is argued, cannot have labored among them, otherwise his name would have been preferred. But that epistle is addressed to the Christians of a far wider region than the Asia of John's reputed labors, cf. 1 Pet. 1'; and if the writer's choice of Peter's name furnishes evidence against the presence of -Tohn in Asia, it would also furnish evidence against Paul's presence in Galatia. This argument from the silence of the New Testament and other writings is said to be enforced by the fact that in the distribution of mis sionary labors recorded in Gal. 2", John recognized churches which like those of Asia were composed chiefly of Gentile converts to belong to .Paul's JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA 391 sphere, not his own. But whatever may have been the immediate practice in carrying out that decision, Paul began his work iu every place to which he came with the Jews. And Peter preached in Gentile cities; at Antioch (Gal. 2!!), perhaps in Galatia and other places of Pauline labors (1 Pet. 1', 2 Pet. 3!~2) and probably also iu Rome (1 Pet. 5!^). At all events at the time of John's supposed residence in Asia, Paul had been dead many years, and the whole matter of apostolic labors and oversight of the churches had changed. Of the Christian writings outside of the New Testament the oldest is probably the epistle of the church at Rome, 1 Clement (c. 95 a.d.), written to the Corinthians as an exhortation against the divisions and other troubles which had arisen among them. This letter, it is said, assumes a certain pastoral care which would belong to Ephesus, if an apostle had been living there at the time, and especially as that city was nearer. We need not discuss how much longer was the short journey from Rome to Corinth by way of Brundusium, facilitated as it was by the active intercourse between the two cities. What is of more moment here is the fact that, quite apart from any question regarding the nature and disposition of the apostle John, the picture of the Asian church given in the Apocalypse and of the task laid upon its chief pastor, if such he was, is not of a kind that we should look to it at these times to undertake the care of other churches. But on the other hand, apart from any motive of Clement himself, it was natural that the Pauline church at Rome, following in the course of the Apostle's First Epistle to the Corinthians, which was written in part to meet the same troubles in Corinth, and which was made a part of the appeal in this letter from the church at Rome, should interest itself actively in his spiritual children there. We cannot draw from the sending of this letter any infer ence as to whether John was at the time li"ving in Asia. Of the letters of Ignatius, written when as a convict he was on his way to Rome to suffer martyrdom (o. 110-120 a.d.), one, that to the Ephesians, is held to be especially significant by its silence. While the epistle written to the Christians at Rome mentions the two great apostles whom they hon ored, Paul and Peter {Rom. IV), that to the Ephesians mentions Paul {EpJi. XIL), but not John ; the latter seems to have no place in the memo ries of the writer or the readers. But the error of this inference is appar ent from the context in each case. In the Roman letter Ignatius is urging the Christians there not to try to hinder his martyrdom, for which he is eager. He earnestly entreats them, he cannot, he says, give commands to them, as Peter and Paul had done. The allusion is meant to enforce his entreaty by calling up to the minds of the readers their two great martyrs ; it is an appeal to their memory of these not to oppose his sharing with the Apostles in this supreme act of discipleship. In the Ephesian letter the line of thought in the paragraph in question (XII) is entirely different. Ignatius is contrasting his present lot with the secure state of the readers. He is a convict on his way to martyrdom. Not improbably was the flgure of Paul frequently present in his mind; he was bishop of Antioch which was full of associations with the Apostle, as the seat of his labors (Ac. 11- ) 392 JOHN THE APOSTLE IN ASIA and the center from which his great missionary tours were made. But now especially he sees himself on the way to follow in the footsteps of the Apostle as a martyr. And as he. "writes this letter in answer to the greet ings of the Ephesians sent by their deputies to Smyrna, near to Ephesus, where he is halting in his journey, he is reminded that Paul also on his way to martyrdom had halted near Ephesus, at Miletus (Ac. 20!'*) and addressed words to Ephesian deputies ; he expresses the thought in the words, 'Ye are the high-road of those that are on their way to die unto God.' It is plain from these words that he thinks of Paul's last journey to Jerusalem, on which he had halted at Miletus, as only the beginning of his journey to Rome where he is eventually to be martyred. (Cf. Zahn Ignat. 607.) There would be here no reminder of John, unless he too had suf fered martyrdom. So far as the silence of this epistle is significant, it might be taken against John's death as a martyr. It cannot be said that the epistle excludes knowledge on the writer's part of John's sojourn at Ephesus, for there is no place in the letter requiring mention of it. But the words, 'the Christians of Ephesus who moreover were ever of one mind with the apostles' (XI), may perhaps contain reference to .lohn with others. Of the writings of Polycarp (-j- c. 155 a.d.), only the letter to the Philip pians is preserved. In this he speaks of Paul and ' the rest of the apostles' (III. IX. XI), but not of John, his teacher, whom he was wont to recall in his discourses, and whose name, it is said, we should expect him to specify before that of any other apostle, if the report of Irenseus were correct. But the reason for special allusion to Paul in a letter to the Philippians is ap parent. Paul had labored among them, had written an epistle to them and had shown them to be the object of his strong personal affection. An appeal to him was therefore of great weight in any exhortation addressed to them. That this was Polycarp's motive in mentioning Paul he makes perfectly clear. In an exhortation to the Philippians there was no more occasion for mentioning John than Peter or any other apostle. Hegesippus, who wrote a book of ' Memoirs ' near the end of the second century, says that Gnosticism did not arise till after the death of the apostles. And he makes mention of only one witness of the time ot Jesus, Symeon, as surviving into the time of Trajan. He evidently, it is argued, knew nothing of John's reputed long life, and residence in Asia. How far there is ground for this inference will be apparent from an examination of Hege.sippus. Only a few fragments of his work are preserved, chiefly in Eusebius. The fragment of interest here is given in H. E. III. 32. Euse bius is here recounting events in the history of the Church under Trajan, and as one of the striking events of the time, he tells on the authority of Hegesippus of the martyrdom of Symeon, the second bishop of Jerusalem, a son of Clopas (Jno. 19^5), a descendant of David, a nephew of Joseph, a man at the time 120 years old. Eusebius here quotes Hegesippus as saying that Symeon had remained in peace till that time, when he was brought be fore the tribunal on a charge, preferred by the heretics, of being a descend ant of David and a Christian ; for before this the heretics [Gnostics] had THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE 393 not appeared, but as soon as the apostles and the flrst generation of Chris tians had passed away they came forward with great boldness and activity. In other words according to Hegesippus the apostles, or at least some of them, had lived into the time of Trajan. In so far then this author con firms the tradition of the apostle John as living till this date. In other fragments Hegesippus speaks of the persecution by the imperial government ofthe descendants of David, and of the survival of some others of the rela tives of the Lord's family into Trajan's reign. But in none of the fragments is there in themselves, or in the connection in Eusebius, any implication as to the number of witnesses surviving from the Lord's time down to this date. There is not the slightest intimation that Hegesippus knew nothing of John as a survivor till the closing years of the century. We have thus traced the evidence adduced for the martyrdom of John and against his sojourn in Asia through its several parts, that is, the Lord's words to John and James ; the alleged testimony of Papias ; the testimony of the martyrologies and the writers held to be in agreement with Papias and the martyrologies; and the silence of the New Testament and certain authors of the subapostolic age and the second century. In every instance there appear good grounds for questioning the validity of the inference drawn against the tradition. And the several lines of evidence offered are not of a kind to give cumulative force to the series as a whole. On the other hand stands the almost contemporaneous evidence of the first half of the second century, which must be admitted to be strong, unless its force is broken by unquestionably strong counter-evidence. The above examina tion appears to show that the counter-evidence presented is not of that character. The balance of argument then leads to the conclusion that the Apostle's sojourn in Asia is probably a historic fact, and one that must be taken into account in estimating early external testimony to the authorship of the Revelation. XIV. The Beast of the Apocalypse Inquiry into the significance of tlie Beast, though belonging to the Commentary, may properly be taken up in the Intro duction, since the thing symbolized forms a cardinal factor in the purpose and scope of the entire book. The figure of the Beast is derived from tradition. There ran through ancient mythologies and Hebrew folk-lore legends of a monster oppos ing itself to supreme powers in conflicts which symbolized the struggle of chaos against order, evil against good, death against life.i Some form of that myth suggested to the author of 1 Cf. Com. 123. 394 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE Daniel (7) the figures of the beasts of his vision, and the same source furnished, partly through the medium of Daniel and partly no doubt in other ways, our Apocalyptist's repre sentation of Satan in the form of a dragon-monster, chapt. 12. In chapt. 13 the Beast, Satan's vicegerent in his war against God and the saints, is represented in a form similar to that given to Satan himself, but with some traits evidently drawn from Daniel, with others probably from other forms of the legend, and with still others doubtless added by the Apoca lyptist himself, in accordance with his habit of modifying and adapting derived material. Details in the imagery wiU. be spoken of more particularly in the Commentary. Traits of Daniel's four beasts are here united in one. Whether our author may not be following here the current form of the legend, and whether Daniel may not have distributed the traits among four beasts for better adaptation to his purpose to repre sent four kingdoms, is a question which it is not important to settle. As in some other instances when specially adapting a tradition to his purpose, the Apocalyptist adds explanatory words.^ The explanation,^ containing itself much that is enig matical, is introduced in 17''"^^. The tradition in the mind of the writer and the special use made of it are so far cleared up by the author's explanation and by studies in comparative eschatology that scholars are now generally agreed concerning the significance of the Beast, at least in those fundamental points essential in the interpretation of the book, though there remain differences of opinion regarding certain less important aspects. (1) The Beast as a symbol of the Roman emperors. Not only is the figure of such a monster derived from tradition, but also its application in the particular kind of conflict here thought of is traditional. A fabulous monster as a symbol of a world-^nonarchy hostile to Cod's people forms a familiar figure in apocalyptic. In the vision of Dan. 7'"-, a series of four monsters represent four successive empires, the Babylonian, the Median, the Persian, and a fourth, probably the Grecian, that of Alexander und his successors,^ the horns of the last 1 See p. 615. 2 por the identity of the beast of 13 and that of 17 see p. 695. 3 Cf. Driver, Dan. in C. B. 94ff. A SYMBOL OF THE ROMAN EMPERORS 395 symbolizing a succession of kings culminating in Antiochus Epiphanes, ' the little horn,' 7^. Under the name Rahab, such a monster is a symbol of Egypt in its hostility to God and his people ; e.g. Ps. 87*, ' I will make mention of Rahab,' or Egypt (RV marg.); cf. Ps. 89io, Is. 30^ (RV), Sl^- In Is. 27i three such monsters are mentioned as symbols of three world-king doms, one of them probably Egypt, the other two perhaps Assyria and Babylonia, perhaps later kingdoms.^ The elabo rate vision of 2 Esd. (11) pictures the monster as a symbol of the Roman empire, and so also in Sib. Or. II. 25, the dragon is the symbol of Israel's great enemy, the Roman power in the person of Pompey. The analogy of these cases would itself suggest that our author in the use of the symbol applies it to the world-monarchy of his own time, the Roman empire, or its impersonating emperors. And in fact the very purpose of apocalyptic writings in general carries with it such contem poraneous reference, for its aim is to encourage in the midst of sufferings inflicted by the existing world-monarchy inimical to God.2 But that the Roman power impersonated in the em perors is meant here the author shows in what he says of the Beast. In the vision of the woman seated on the scarlet-col ored beast in chapt. 17, the beast represents the power sus taining the existing imperial city Rome ; cf. p. 695. In the interpretative verses, 17''*-, his seven heads are defined as a succession of kings, that is, emperors, of whom one is reigning at the time, and the city, the seat of his imperial power, is that which sitting on its seven hills is holding sway over all the earth. It appears certain then, as the larger number of inter preters are now agreed, that the Beast so far as he is repre sented in his seven heads symbolizes the Roman imperial power, that is, the Roman emperors, as Satan's agent in his war against the saints. The question as to the particular emperors intended is spoken of elsewhere, pp. 704 ff. The view has been widely held that the seven heads defined as kings, 17!», represent not persons, but successive world-kingdoms, as do the beasts of Daniel, the word king being used in the sense of kingdom, as in Dan. 71''. The five kings, i.e. kingdoms, that have already fallen are then variously 1 Cf. Dehtzsch in loc. Skinner in C. B.; Bertholet 291. 2 See pp. 175 fl., 212 f. 396 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE identified, e.g. Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedonia and Syria (Antiochus); or Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greco-Syria; for other suggestions cf. Speaker's Com. 755. The Roman then forms the sixth kingdom, and the seventh is yet to come in the Apocalyptist's future. The Beast is dis tinguished from his heads; he is the power of world-monarchy in the abstract, hostile to God, and appearing in each several kingdom in succes sion ; but in the end he will appear in his own proper person as Antichrist. He may be said to have existed in the kingdom of Antiochus Epiphanes, Ihe prototype of Antichrist. In this sense it may be said of him, that he was, is not, and is to come, 17^ One of his heads may be said to have been wounded in the fall of that empire, and the wound will be healed in the coming of Antichrist. Cf. e.g. Hof mann Offenb. 228 ; Zahn Ein. II. 632 f. But the analogy of Dan. which the Apocalyptist has distinctly in mind here would require a succession of beasts, if a series of empires were meant ; the four empires of Dan. are represented by four separate beasts. On the other hand the heads and horns in Daniel's vision do not represent a succession of empires, but belong to a single empire, 7^*-, and the horns are expressly defined as kings in that empire, 7^^. Furthermore in Rev. the entire para graph 17-19^ is concerned with the destruction of Rome ; reference to earlier monarchies would have no relation to the woman of the introductory vision, 17'"^, in that paragraph. It seems certain that the ' kings ' of 17!" are persons, not kingdoms, and that the Roman emperors are meant. The identification of the Beast and Antichrist with the Roman emperors ' is held by some to be inconsistent with the Christian -siew as expressed else where in the New Testament. St. Paul, Ho. 13!*-, declares the existing governmental power, the Roman, to be ordained by God ; and in 2 Thess. 2' he sets the Roihan power in opposition to Antichrist, saying that it is only the former that prevents the appearing of the latter. This latter passage is the only one in the New Testament expressing directly this opposition, and it is not difficult to account for it in view of the Apostle's experiences. To him the order and security of the world maintained by the Roman gov ernment represented a divine ordinance in contrast with the awful tyranny and hostility to God anticipated as to come in the reign of Antichrist. The persecutions of Nero and those of Domitian, in part already begun and in part yet threatening the Christians at the time of our book, and the grow ing rigor in enforcing the emperor-worship, are all subsequent to the writ ing of these epistles of Paul. It must also be borne in mind that to one familiar -with the revolutions marking the course of Roman history it would not be difficult to conceive, as does the Apocalyptist, 17!^'-, the present Roman order to be destroyed by one who had been a Roman emperor. Other New Testament passages, e.g. Mt. 22^1, 1 Pet. 2!3«., which are cited as irreconcilable with the connection ot Antichrist with Rome go no further than does our authoi-, 13^^-, in counseling submissive obedience to established authority. It is furthermore true that the objection here .spoken of remains in reality with any theory of seven world-empires, for the Beast represented in the sixth head is in such theory the existing Roman power. ! On a Roman emperor as Antichrist see p. 399 ff. A SYMBOL OF ANTICHRIST 397 (2) The Beast as a symbol of Antichrist. Conclusive as is the evidence that the heads of the Beast are the Roman em perors in their office as Satan's agents in the war against God's children, it is however clear that this application of the symbol ism does not cover the whole significance of the Beast. Ac tivities and attributes are assigned to him which cannot be predicated of any Roman emperor in his ordinary human per sonality, as is also a career falling after the destruction of the Roman empire. It is true that the prevalence of emperor- worship and the practice of magic arts at the time might sug gest to the author the Beast's arrogation of divine honors, and the attribution of signs and wonders to him, even if he were thought of as only a Roman emperor. But as one who, like the head wounded unto death and restored,^ is some time to return to earth coming out of the abyss of hell, 13''^''^, 17^, and who is to marshal all the armies of the world against the spiritual hosts led out of heaven by the Messiah, "lO^^^i^, the Beast will then be more than man, he will join with his human personality a mighty demonic power. In that manifestation he will form the last great human leader of the enemies of God, he will hold a sway absolutely universal over all the earth and the kings of the earth, 13"^, 17^^' ^^ ; he will be wor shiped universally by all that dwell on the earth, save the fol lowers of the Lamb, 13^; he will receive his dominion after the seventh and last of the Roman emperors has fallen, 17""-; he will be the central figure upon whom will fall the vengeance of eternal fire after the last pre-millennial conflict, 19'"-. In all this concluding eschatological period, the period of the woeful 31 years, he is clearly more than a Roman emperor. He is the evident parallel of a personality which had now come to occupy a distinct place in eschatological expectation, the Antichrist. This parallelism will be the more evident from a survey of the conception of Antichrist. The rise of the figure of Antichrist belongs to the age im mediately preceding, and coincident with, the earliest years of the Christian era. It is Jewish in its origin and it is due to the growth of demonology in the late Jewish centuries. The possible influence of earlier ' oriental beliefs in preparing the 1 On the identity of reference in these two characterizations see p. 696. 398 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE way for it need not be considered here. The doctrine of a supreme spirit of evil in the person of Satan had already be come universal. There now began to appear in eschatological expectation a supremely wicked human figure, a person who would come possessing world-wide imperial power, opposing all righteousness, and exalting himself against God in the last great crisis. Vagueness in respect to Antichrist's relation to Satan was necessary, especially in the earlier stages of the idea ; sometimes he is thought of as Satan in man's form and the name Beliar, a name of Satan (2 Co. 6^), is given to him, e.g. in Sib. Or. III. 68 ; but he is generally regarded as dis tinct from Satan and acting as his great servant in the last days ; so, in 2 Thess. 2^ "•, and in Rev. Traces of such a com bination of superhuman powers with a human personality in the case of a historic individual are found in Daniel's descrip tion of Antiochus. While the Prophet unquestionably refers in the symbol of the ' little horn ' to the part of Antiochus in the eschatological events predicted, it is also plain that he con ceives him to be endowed with powers more than human ; cf . g9 ft., 23 ff._ jjg j^j^g jjQ^ jj^ mind the exact figure of Antichrist as known later, yet he shows the tendency to regard the great world-tyrant of the last time as possessing powers beyond the natural man ; and his description of Antiochus furnishes traits for later pictures of Antichrist. Subsequently the idea of the coming in the last time of a man endowed with Satan's char acter and might becomes distinct in both Jewish and Christian thought. He is referred to in Jewish writings, e.g. 2 Esd. 5^ Sib. Or. III. 63 ff., Ap. Bar. 36 and 40. In the New Testa ment, belief in his appearing is assumed as current ; ' Ye have heard that Antichrist cometh,' 1 Jno. 2^^; St. Paul speaks definitely of him in his nature and work under the name of the Man of sin, 2 Thess. 2^ *¦ ; he is alluded to probably in Mt. 24^^, Mk. 13^*, and possibly in Jno. 5*^. He appears in other early Christian writings, e.g. The Teaching of the Twelve 16 ; the Ascension of Isaiah 4, frequently in the Sib. Or., in the Christian as well as the Jewish parts. His prominence in Christian eschatology for centuries later is shown by Bousset, Antichrist. '- ! For the subject see Bou.ss. Judenthum 242 fl. ; Hast. III. Article Man of Sin. ANTICHRIST 399 The name Antichrist appears first in the New Testament, and there in the Johannine epistles only, 1 Jno. 2'^' ^, 4^, 2 Jno. 7 ; in the first case, 2^* ", it is evidently used as a familiar term and is taken in its popular sense ; in the other cases a special spiritual application is given to the word. Outside of the New Testament the name Beliar is used in a few cases, but generally except where the influence of the New Testament is apparent some descriptive term is used instead of a proper name. As regards his nature and activities he is conceived as the embodiment of all wickedness and of supreme hostility to God, he sets himself above God as the object of worship ; act ing in the might of Satan he appears in a twofold role, that of universal tyrant with undisputed sway over all the earth, and that of the deceiver of men through signs and wonders which he has the power to perform.^ See especially St. Paul's ac count, 2 Thess. 2'*-. If now keeping in view this idea of Anti christ and the general expectation of his coming before the End, we read what the Apocalyptist says of the Beast, we shall see that in much which he attributes to him it is this eschatological figure that he has in mind. The union of two successive impersonations, that of a Roman emperor, or series of emperors, and that of Antichrist, in the figure of the Beast, implies a relation between the two, which though not origina ting with the Apocalyptist, he uses with great skill. This relation is shown in the paragraph following, which will also make clearer the full meaning of the author in the symbol of the Beast. The connection of Antichrist with a Roman ruler does not appear with certainty in pre-Christian literature. The words 'Beliar will come from the stock of Sebaste,' Sib. Or. III. 63, are some times understood to contain the idea (le^aa-Toov being referred to o-e/3ao-To'? = Augustus ; cf . Bouss. Antichrist 96), but this meaning is not certain. Steps leading up to such a con nection can, however, be traced. The world-tyrant, who figures ! The Apocalyptist represents these miraculous powers used to deceive as exercised in part by the second beast, 131!-". But tliis ' other beast ' acts only with the powers which the Beast has given him as his deputy, 1312. The intro duction of a second beast as a mere instrament through which the Beast oper ates differs from the traditional representation of Antichrist, which concentrates all activity in one person ; it is probably due to historic circumstances ; see p. 410. 400 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE in eschatological literature, the one who iu the last days is to be vanquished by divine power, is at first a historic person, the culmination of a line of rulers in a given world-monarchy. Thus the eschatological figure of the 'horn' in Dan. is the historic Antiochus of the Grseco-Syrian line. The tall cedar of Ap. Bar. 36 ff., and the eagle of 2 Esd. 11, are in each case an imperial dynasty destroyed by God or the Messiah at the end of the ages. The last great enemy springs out of the line of existing world-rulers. When then the idea of Antichrist was fully developed it was an easy step to associate him in some manner with the existing Roman dynasty of world-rulers. To our Apocalyptist such association must have been directly sug gested by the circumstances of his era. A Christian apocalyp tist, living near the end of the first century, with a vivid memory of the awful persecution at Rome under Nero, and with the growing insistence on emperor- worship before his mind, together with all the threatening calamities of the time, could not fail to believe that the work of Antichrist had already begun, the mystery of lawlessness was already working (2 Thess. 2^). To a prophet at that time the soon-expected Antichrist would be only a reimbodiment and consummation of what was most atrocious in the present world-rulers. But possible fears and surmises of this kind assumed definite shape apparently in the last decades of the century through the influence of rumors spreading through the Roman world in regard to the emperor Nero. Antichrist as a Nero reincarnated. When Nero's career of hideous crimes -caused the Senate in the year 68 to condemn him to death he fled to a suburban villa and put an end to his own life. His death in this obscure place and almost alone made possible the circulation of rumors that he was not dead, but had fled ; and soon after the reports assumed the definite form that he had fled to the Parthians, the dreaded barbarian hordes of the East, and that he would return thence with a large army to wreak fearful vengeance upon the Roman world. These rumors, though ridiculed by some, spread through the provinces and with amazing persistence continued into the fol lowing century. Decrees appeared as issued in his name, and ANTICHRIST A NERO REVIVED 401 two (if not more) impostors claiming to be Nero arose; one gained a large following among the Parthians ; rumors of the coming of one threw Achaia and Asia Minor (the home of the Apocalypse) into great terror. These events are well attested by Roman writers,^ and they show how widespread a hold the personality of Nero had taken upon the minds of the populace in the Roman Empire. Belief in these rumors was shared by the Jews and Christians in common with others. The Sib. Or. bear frequent testimony to this; e.g. IV. 119-124, 137-139 (about 80 A.D.) ; V. 137-154, 361-385 (latter part of the cen tury). At first there was nothing superstitious attaching to Nero's person in these expectations, no allusion is made to a return from the dead. In the Roman writers referred to, and in the earlier Sibyllines he appears only as the well-known human tyrant. Yet there was also a certain mysteriousness about his predicted coming, and the return of one who as ruler of the world-empire had instituted a fiendish persecution of the Chris tians at Rome and who would, as expected, triumph over the then existing order of the world, would almost certainly be associated more or less in Christian thought with the last great enemy. Jews also whose nation had just been destroyed in the Roman wars, and who were now yearning for the inessianic deliverer, would be ready to see in this monster expected as the conqueror of Rome the world-tyrant of the last days preceding Messiah's coming. That this returning Nero finally came to be invested with a supernatural character, and associated in thought with Antichrist, is abundantly attested, though it is not certain just how early this began. His identification with Antichrist is distinctly expressed in a Christian portion of the Ascension of Isaiah, 4^, a passage possibly contemporaneous with the Apoca lypse. ^ It is there said that Beliar, Antichrist, will come in the person of an unrighteous king, a murderer of his mother, by which Nero is meant ; he is frequently designated as the matricidal monster in accounts of his attributes and his return. In the prophecy of his return ' from the ends of the earth ' given in Sib. Or. V. 361-385 (probably belonging to the end of the ! See Suetonius, Nero ; Tacitus, Hist I. 2, II. 8, 9 ; Dio Cassius LXIV. 9. 2 It is placed by Charles at the end of the first century ; by Flemming, in Hennecke, p. 292, either at the end of the first century or the beginning of the second. 402 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE first century) his cunning deception of men, the marvels wrought by him in nature, his ' destruction of all kings and the best of men,' form a picture plainly belonging to the Last Times. He is here demonic and, though not expressly named Antichrist, he appears to be so regarded ; certainly his works are those of Antichrist. Sib. Or. V. 217 (probably of the same date) gives to his return a distinct supernatural trait ; he is to be brought back ' in mid-air that all may see him.' Another trait of Anti christ is assigned him in Sib. Or. V. 33 f . (a passage placed by nearly all early in the second century) ; ' Then will he return making himself equal with God, but he [God] will convince him that he is not.' Such passages like the predictions of apocalyptic writings in general rest on popular traditions and beliefs, and attest an anterior existence of the Nero myth long enough to have become widely current. There appears then good ground for supposing it to have been in circulation at the end of the first century, the time of our author. And as he is frequently seen to have taken up a familiar idea and have adapted it to his use, so here he might readily picture the ex pected Antichrist under the form of the popularly dreaded Nero. That he has actually done so appears almost certain from the precise agreement of his characterization of the Beast "with this popular belief.^ Some have argued that a Nero revived could not be thought of till by the lapse of time he could no longer be supposed to be alive, that is, not until one or more decades after the beginning of the second century, as he was born 37 A.D.^ But the belief that he was still alive was far from universal in the latter part of the century, and the fear among the populace of his return from the East might long before have changed in the minds of many to a fear of his return from the dead. It was easier in that age than in our own to see in a striking work the activity of a notable personage of the past, returned among men, or to look for the return of such a person in the future. Elijah was ex pected by all to come again ; our Apocalyptist foretells the return of Moses and Elijah in the person of the two Witnesses, » The association of Nero with Antichrist persisted through the foUovring cen turies. Its acceptance by many is well attested ; e.g. by Commodianus c. 250 ; the commentator Victorinus, c. 300 ; Sulpicius Severus, about the end of the 4th cent. ; Augustine, De civ. Dei, c. 426. ^ cf . Zahn, Ein. II. 634. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST 403 11' **¦ ; in Jesus, the Baptist or one of the prophets was thought by many to have come back, Mk. 6" "•. The identification of the restored head, that is, of the Beast that was, and is not and shall come, with Nero revived from the dead is put beyond question if, as seems most probable, the number of the Beast, 666, is meant to denote the name Nero. The number of the Beast, 666, as denoting the name Nero. The designa tion of a name by numbers occurs in Greek popular usage of these times, and among the rabbis also it appears as a part of the so-called art of Gema- tria, which found recondite truth in the numerical value of words. (For Gematria, see Weber, System, 118; Hast. III. 566, Jew. En. s.v.) With the late Jews and the Greeks the letters of the alphabet were used to denote numbers ; a name then could be given enigmatically in the sum of the num bers denoted by its several letters. Thus in Gen. 14!* the number 318 was taken by the rabbis to denote Eliezer ; the numbers denoted by the respec tive letters of that name added together form this sum. The Christian SibylUne I. 324 ff. uses 888 for the name Tt^o-oCs, Jesus. Good illustrations of this usage among the common people are found in the graffiti, wall scratohings, at Pompeii; e.g. in one, a certain woman is designated by the number 45 (or 1045), another by 545. See Deissmann, Licht vom Ost. 207, and the various literature there referred to. It is in the use of this method that our author gives the name of the Beast as 666. The purpose in such cases is to express the name in a veiled way, perhaps as a mere literary mannerism, perhaps as a matter of prudence. The latter would probably be the chief motive with our author, if an emperor is meant, even though one no longer living ; cf . p. 405. It is not probable that the Apocalyptist would announce in words clear to every Roman hearer the return of one of the emperors as Antichrist ; it is evident that he does not expect even the Christian hearers iu all cases to 'perceive the exact personal reference ; for he declares that special wisdom and understanding, ao^ia, vols, 13'^, are needed to interpret his utterance. In the light of the rumors and expecta tions regarding Nero current at the time, many must have formed con jectures as to the meaning of the number, yet no interpretation became established in tradition. Irenseus has only uncertain guesses to offer, and he thinks the Apocalyptist intended the name to remain hidden till Anti christ should come. The language, however, implies that it is discoverable by those who have the requisite wisdom ; and the command, ' let him that hath understanding calculate the number,' shows that the author expects some to solve the enigma. The word 6vopxi, name, would suggest reference to a person, and the added phrase, 'it is the number of a man ', shows a definite personal name, and not a descriptive title to be meant. See Com. 13i6. The problem then is to find a known person, or in view of the writer's interpretative words in 17^-!!, a Roman emperor, to whom is appropriate the role described there and in 18!-s, and who at the same time bears a name the several letters of 404 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE which denote numbers amounting in the sum total to 666. If we are guided solely by the lines drawn by the author himself, we must reject as explana^ tions abstract descriptions of the character and activity of Antichrist, and the names of persons known in later history, e.g. Mohammed, Pope Benedict IX, Luther, and a host of others found in interpretations of the Apocalypse — all a part of the error of seeking European history in the book ; cf . pp. 301 ff. The extravagances which appear in the history of conjecture show that with skill and boldness almost any name may be made to yield the number ; for some of the solutions offered, see the Speaker's Com., 687 ff., 697 ff.; Diist. 458 f ., Stuart II. 453 ff., Zahn, Ein. II. 636 f. The alphabet used in writing the name must be either the Greek or the Hebrew, and the author gives no intimation of the choice between these. Solutions with Greek letters. Efforts to find the name contained in the cryptogram must have been made by many of the earliest readers. Ire nseus reports that many solutions were proposed in his time, all so far as appears using the Greek alphabet, some of these based on the reading 616 instead of 666 (see text, note in loc). He mentions three of these, only two of which were deemed worthy of much notice afterwards, rurdv. Titan, and AaT€ti/os, Latinus ; the use of the irregular a instead of i is paralleled in ^a/Seivos, ¦tauo-Teii'os and a number of similar forms. While Irenseus be lieved that the Apocalyptist intended the name to remain hidden, he pre ferred among the various guesses Tcirav, because among other reasons the Titan, the mythical monster who assaulted the gods, seemed a type of Antichrist. At the same time he pointed out in favor of Xareivos, Latinus, the fact that the Latins were the rulers of the world. This suggested con nection between Antichrist and a Roman ruler is striking, and it is not im possible that in so vague a term there may have been seen by at least some an allusion to Nero. Latinus was adopted by many in the following cen turies ; among modern interpreters who adopt it are Bleek, De Wette, Diist. It is true that this word marks a relation between Antichrist and a Roman emperor, but it is general, whereas the pei"sonal name of a particular indi vidual is required here. Many other solutions in Greek letters have been proposed, but none of them is so far appropriate as to be largely accepted. The most plausible among these is Fdios K.aiaap, Gains Ccesar (Caligula), which is elaborately defended by Spitta (134 ff., 369 ff.) and Erbes (15 ff.). But this solution requires the reading 616, contrary to the weight of Ms. authority and critical opinion, and it necessitates the rejection of the author's interpretative words in 17^. u, which these critics then attribute to a redactor, who is also supposed to have read his own meaning into chapt. 13 and revised it accordingly ; e.g. vv. 6 c. and 7 c. are insertions of his. Solutions in Hebrew letters. It has been left to modem scholarship, so far as recorded, to discover that by the use of Hebrew letters and the transliter ation of Nepwv Kalo-ap, Nero Ccesar, in the form "iDp ]Tti (the letters of which denote respectively 50, 200, 6, 50 and 100, 60, 200) we obtain the required number 666, and also the name which establishes the author's identfication of the Beast described by him with the Nero revived, as con ceived in the current expectations of the time. This solution reached in THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST 405 the earlier part of the last century independently by a number of scholars (Fritzsche, Benary, Hitzig, Reu&s) meets the conditions of the problem so exactly that it is accepted by most scholars of the present day. Its correct ness is supported by the fact that if the proper name be written Nepu), 113, that is, without the final consonant as in the Latin form Nero, the number 616 is obtained instead of 666, and thus is explained the variant reading found in some Mss. and adopted according to Irenseus by many in the sec ond century. See text, note on 13'^. Other interpretations obtained by the use of Hebrew characters are : Csesar of Rome (Ewald ; this requires the reading 616) ; Csesar of the Romans (Manchot) ; Trajan (Wabnitz) ; Volter at different times has advocated Hadrian, Trajan, Vespasian, in each case as a Nero revived ; Gunkel's proposal, Primal Chaos (377), also based on Hebrew letters, is derived from his theory tracing the Beast back to a Babylonian monster. Such explanations have not met with any con siderable acceptance, since they do not conform to the representations in chapts. 18 and 17, and raise rather than settle difficulties. Objections to the solution adopted above, which finds in the number the name Nero, are raised, (a) Our book is written in Greek, for Greek-speak ing Christians, and there is no intimation that any other than the Greek alphabet was to be used in solving the problem of the number. The earli est recorded attempts at a solution, as we learn from Irenseus, were based on that alphabet. In general what is urged in this objection is true, and it explains why the name Nero should not have been commonly thought of in that age as connected with the number. But our author was a Jew, he thought in the forms of Hebrew idioms, he was doubtless more familiar with the art of Gematria as practiced by the Jews than by the Greeks, and there must have been many Jews among the Christians of the seven churches addressed in the book; an intimation that such were contemplated among the readers occurs in the special mention of the Hebrew form of certain names; e.g. Q^\ 161^. It would not be unnatural then that the Apocalyptist should use the Hebrew alphabet in his enigma. And this would best serve his purpose. He does not wish to name the Beast openly (see p. 403) so that it would be unmistakable to all, as e.g. Sib. Or. V. 21 ff. openly designates the emperors by the numbers corresponding to their initials. He will conceal it at least in part ; he is sure that some of his readers, Jews, persons familiar with the forebodings regarding Nero, wiU have the knowledge and understanding requisite for reading the sym bol. In the troubles threatening the Christians at the hands of the imperial power it was not desirable to emphasize the announcement of the coming Antichrist as a revived Nero who should destroy the empire. It is enough for the author's purpose to ma;ke clear to the general reader that the conflict between God and Satan is now entering on its later stages, that the great adversary will employ the present world-power in a series of rulers as his agent, and then in immediate succession that agent will ap pear in Antichrist. The successive phases of the conflict are figured with sufficient distinctness for the less penetrating reader by the seven heads and the resuscitated head, while those to whom it is given to read the 406 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE enigma will like the Apocalyptist himself see more precisely an Antichrist in the final era working in the spirit of a Nero revived and demonized. Taking the Apocalyptist's picture of the Beast's activity as a whole we can see that he is chiefly interested in foretelling the progress of Satan's war fare with the Church on to the awful culmination in which Satan will work through the mysterious personality of Antichrist. /( appears certain that the precise relation of that personality to Nero or any other historic individ ual is a quite subordinate point in the author's mind. Obscurity as regards the personal reference in the number of the name, and in the wounded head, might remain for most readers, whether then or now, without the loss of the essential significance of the prophecy. Vast as is the space occupied by these two topics in the literature of the Apocalypse, it cannot be questioned that they are but details ; it has happened here, as not infre quently, that attention has been riveted on a minor factor to such a de gree as to confuse and obscure the understanding of the prophecy in its larger outlines. (b) A second objection to the above explanation of the number 666 is found in the fact that the Hebrew form of Csesar is IDp, which would give the number 676. That this is the usual form of the name when writ ten vrith Hebrew letters is unquestionable (cf. Zahn Ein. II. 636), but the form IDp in the scriptio defectiva, i.e. with jod omitted, is also attested ; cf. Ewald Apok. 263 ; Buxtorf Lex. Rabbin. Therefore whatever caused the Apocalyptist to use the less common form, no valid objection can be found here to the Neronic explanation of the number. Why 666 should have been used instead of 676 must be a matter of conjecture, but there is plau sibility in the supposition (Gunkel, 375 ff. ; J. Weiss 34 f ., al) that the number of the Beast, like his form, his many heads and horns, was a part of the designation of the monster represented in tradition. The Apoca lyptist then adopting this traditional number, together with other traits of the Beast, applies it to the name Nero, an application made easy by the alternative form "iDp. The identification of the name in 13^^ with Nero makes clear the obscure utterances in 13^ and 17^ regarding the head wounded unto death and restored, and the beast that was, and is not, and shall come out of the abyss. Nero is that head ; as once reigning he was, at the time of the Apocalyptist's writing he is not, that is, not living, and in Antichrist he will come again from the abyss. He was (one) of the seven and in his coming again he will be the eighth (17-'i), that is, of these last world-rulers acting as Satan's agents. Much confusion is brought into the Apocalyptist's representation by the failure to see that he frequently identifies the Beast and his respective heads. The heads rather than the Beast himself apart from THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE 407 these contain in some connections the most significant features in the imagery, as do the horns in Daniel's vision, our author's chief model here, and as do also the heads and wings in the monster of 2 Esd. 11-12. This the Apocalyptist shows in the repeated reference to the restored head in chapt. 13 (3, 12, 14) and in the emphasis placed upon the heads and horns in 17' '•' 'I The Beast is not thought of in distinction from the heads ; the heads represent him and thus the two become identified. The Beast exists now in the first head, now in the second, and so on. The particular historic person, who for the time being forms one of the heads, really embodies the Beast as a whole, he is the Beast, in the author's thought. This identification of the head and the Beast is evident in 13^ and 13^^ ; in the former verse it is the deadly wound of a head that is healed ; in the latter verse it is said in equivalent words that the Beast is healed. In itself the slaying of one head would not slay the Beast, for five heads had perished, 17^°, and the Beast survives in the sixth. And so with apparent self-contradiction the writer says in 17^' ^^ the Beast is not, that is, was not present in the world at the time of the apocalyptist's writing ; but in 17^" he says, one head is ; that is, was then present in the world. No doubt there is a certain ambiguity in this freedom of expres sion ; it is intelligible in an apocalyptist, who easily blends a symbol and the thing symbolized, though at variance with prosaic exactness. What the author means is apparent. He thinks of the Beast as existing, at the time of his writing, in the sixth head, but not existing as represented in a certain head then fallen. At no time in the period covered by the pre- miUennial visions does the Beast cease to exist, he is always present as Satan's agent. It cannot then be said with exact ness ' he is not ' ; but the writer so closely identifies the Beast with the head which represents him, that he can say, he was, is not, and will come, meaning that he had existed as represented in a certain head, that he does not now exist under that form, but that he will again so exist. It may be useful to sum up in a brief statement the result of the preceding discussion of the significance of the Beast. The Beast is Satan's agent in his warfare against the saints, as repre sented first in the successive Roman emperors, and then, after the 408 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE destruction of the Roman empire, in Antichrist, the supreme human embodiment of demonic wickedness and power, in whom will come Nero reincarnated. The Beast is already present in the person of the emperors, but his supreme manifestation will come "with the appearing of Antichrist. Question may be raised whether the Apocalyptist understands an absolute identification of Antichrist with Nero revived in actual person, or whether his Antichrist is not Neronic in the same sense in which the two witnesses in chapt. 11 are Elijah and Moses ; see p. 595. The latter supposition might import ambiguity into the conception, but only such as characterizes apocalyptic in general. At all events in the recognition of Nero in the Beast, it is necessary to avoid the not uncommon error of misplacing the emphasis. The dominant thought in the Apocalyptist's prophecy is not that Nero shall come again, but rather that Antichrist will come, the last and most terrible manifestation of the Beast, embodying a Nero reincarnate and demonized — Antichrist, of whom no more fiendish conception can be formed than that furnished by a Nero revived according to popular fancy, and invested with superhuman power. Thus the practical unity of Satan's great agent is preserved ; he is one throughout, yet he has successive impersonations, and a Roman emperor, in natural or supernatural form, constitutes each several one in turn. The Second Beast. The figure commonly designated the second beast, though this precise term does not occur in the Apocalypse, is properly considered here, since it is only in rela tion to the activity of the first beast that the figure exists at all in the book. The rank and function of the ' other beast ' introduced in 13"*" are stated succinctly in v. 12. He is merely the servant of the first beast, from whom he derives all his powers, and his office is the institution and enforcement of the worship of his master. The term beast is applied to him in 13^^ only ; elsewhere ' the beast,' a term used more than 30 times in the book, refers to the first beast, the figure of 13^"^, while the second beast is denominated the false prophet. He accomplishes his appointed work by deceiving the world, 13^*, 19^0, and in this he is assisted by the miracles which he is empowered to THE SECOND BEAST 409 perform. He causes an image of the Beast to be made and endows it with powers which work toward his end, IS^^. His essential character is that of deceiver. And it is in this char acter that in one instance — and in one only — an activity is assigned him apart from the worship of the Beast, though it is wholly in the service of the Beast ; an unclean spirit working marvels goes from his mouth to move men to join in the battle of the great day of God, 16^^'-. As the proclaimer of a worship professedly divine and the worker of miracles in its furtherance, he might according to the common use of the word receive the name prophet from the heathen themselves ; a Christian writer would call him, as the deluder of men in this work, a, false prophet, the designation which he bears elsewhere in the book, 1&^, 19^", 20^"- In the use of this designation the Apocalyptist appears to give designedly, after his manner, some intimation as to the meaning of the symbol. The distinct character and work which are assigned to him, as what is most essential in him, and his corresponding designation as the false prophet, mark his office as precisely parallel to that of the priesthood, or special Roman functionaries charged with the maintenance and extension of the emperor-worship throughout the empire. The majority of recent expositors agree in finding here the explanation of the symbol. Some scholars understand it to mean the body of heathen priests and prophets as a whole ; but this gives too general a reference, disregarding the function described here as the special office of the False Prophet. That no particular historic person is meant, as for example, Simon Magus, Alexander of Abon- otichus, ApoUonius of Tyana (for other names also suggested, cf. Gunkel 348), is evident, since no known person answers even approximately to the requirements of the description given here ; nor could any such person be assumed to perform this oifice in the era of Antichrist. A second beast as auxiliary to the first is peculiar to our author. Hebrew folk-lore, it is true, mentions two mythical monsters side by side. Leviathan and Behemoth ; cf . Job 40-41, 2 Esd. 6^'«-, En. 60'*-, Ap. Bar. 29*; but these stand in no such relation to each other as do the two beasts here. The two characteristics of Antichrist, on the one hand the political (that of world-tyrant), and on the other the moral (that of the 410 THE BEAST OF THE APOCALYPSE deceiver) are to a certain degree distributed by our author be tween two characters. These however are not coordinate, nor does the second beast possess certain powers wanting to the first, so that the first must 'secure the help of the second to ac complish his purposes ; on the contrary he himself confers the requisite powers on the one who is to be his instrument. This introduction of a subaltern doubtless springs from the circum stances of the Apocalyptist's era. The great significance of the emperor-worship among the facts that form the background of his book probably suggested to the Apocalyptist as a special feature in his visions the agency of the priesthood whose office it was to spread that worship ; cf. p. 201. The Beast as repre sented in the emperors was already claiming divine honors, and a subservient priesthood and other officials were zealous in paying the homage demanded and in enjoining it upon the Roman world. The vision then figures a great movement already in progress, one which would increase to the end of the emperors' reign, and finally reach its culmination in the days of Antichrist. The language of the vision points, in its immediate reference, only to the last era. The Beast whom the False Prophet is to cause men to worship is characterized, 13^'", as the one whose death stroke had been healed, i.e. Antichrist; but it is evident that the Apocalyptist has also in mind his own era and the closing years of the Roman empire. For some minor traits in the representation of the second beast see the Commentary on the respective passages in chapt. 13. The use of a separate tradition is found by some m the figure of the second beast ; so, Bouss., J. Weiss, Wellhausen, al. Bouss. Kom. 377 f ., following Weizsacker 498, distinguishes in Jewish tradition two separate conceptions of the last great human opponent of God. In the one he is a world-ruler ; in the other he is a deceiving prophet. And these two conceptions are held to have had originally no connection with each other ; the latter is a false Messiah belonging to Palestine ; hence iK t^s y^S; 13!!. This latter figure our Apoca lyptist has taken up and worked over into a subordinate of the first beast. The use of an earlier source representing Antichrist in this form is thought to explain the presence of some traits which are obscure in the account as given in chapt. 13, but clear in the original connection ; such are the ascent from the earth (yijs, land of Palestine, 13!!), tj^g ^.^^q horns like those of a lamb, the dragon-like speech, the mark of the Beast ; see Bouss. 366, 368. It is not necessary, however, to resort to this theory to find an explanation at least plausible of these obscurities ; see Commentary. As regards the THE TEXT 411 combination of the two ideas, that of the world-deceiver and that of the world-tyrant, the same is in reality implied in Paul's account of Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2' *-, for he is to come with all deceit of unrighteousness, and at the same time the world-power of Rome must be removed to make way for him ; which could only be said of a greater world-power. The symbol of a beast chosen to represent the deceiving priesthood of the imperial cult is probably suggested by the symbol of the first beast ; the chief and his dep uty are naturally represented under forms like in kind ; and the activity of the latter is only one phase of the activity of the former. For the same reason other traits in familiar descriptions of Antichrist would readily lend themselves for use in the account of the second beast. What is uppermost in the Apocaljrptist's idea is not the likeness or unlikeness to the flrst beast, but the service rendered in the establishment of his worship. XV. The Text^ The text of the Apocalypse is less certainly settled than that of any other book of the New Testament. Weiss (p. 1) enu merates in the 400 verses about 1650 variants, not including different orthographies of the same word, in the five available uncials ; while in the Catholic Epistles 432 verses contain only about 1100 variants, though the number of Ms. sources and therefore the possibility of variants is considerably greater. The fact that the book did not obtain early canonical recogni tion throughout the Church (cf. p. 341), and was therefore less read, explains the paucity of sources and the greater careless ness of copyists. Also the grammatical errors and other pe culiarities of the language led to frequent corrections or changes at the hand of the scribes. It should, however, be observed that the variants relate very largely to differences in the order of words, to the use or omission of the article or a connective, and to syntactical construction. Numerous as the variants are, and important in some. respects as is the choice among them, they are not of a kind to cause uncertainty in a single para graph taken as a whole. There is no question as regards the omission of any long passage, such as occurs, for example, in Mk. 169-20; Jno. 753-8"; Ro. 16^^-^^. 1 Cf . Scrivener-Miller, Introd. to Criticism of N. T. I. 320 fl, ; Gregory Tex«- kritik d. N. T. I. 120 fl., 316 fi. ; B. Weiss, Die Johan. Apok. : Bousset^ie Offenb. (in Meyer's Kom. 1906) 148 ff. ; and Zur Textkritik d.Apok. (m Texte u. Untersuch. 1894) ; von Soden, Die Schriften d. N- T I. 3, 204^ tt. 412 THE TEXT The uncial Mss. containing the Apocalypse entire or in part are the following : ^ K Codex Sinaiticus, IV. cent. Petrograd, A. Codex Alexandrinus, V. cent. London. C. Codex Ephraemi, V. cent. Paris. P. Codex Porfirianus, IX. cent. Petrograd. Q. Codex Vaticanus, Gr. 2066, VIII. or IX. cent. Rome. Tischendorf cites this Ms. as B ; WH as Bg, but most editors designate it as Q, after Tregelles, to avoid confu sion with B, the great Codex Vaticanus, which does not contain the Apocalypse. [jl, Gimel, Codex Kosinitsanus, IX. or X. cent. This Ms. located at Kosinitza, or by Soden at Drama, is not available, since it has not been collated or edited. Cf. Scrivener-Miller I. 377; Gregory I. 96; Soden I. 1, 101.] X AQ contain the Apocalypse entire. C lacks 3i9-5i*; T^*-"; 86-916; 1010-113; 1613-182; 196-2221. P lacks 1612-171; I92I- 209; 226-21. The cursive Mss. containing the Apocalypse, designated by the Arabic numerals, belong to the period of the X-XVI cen turies. No exact enumeration of these has been given. Scriv.- Mil. (1894) and Nestle (1899) make the number 184 and 185. Soden (1902) places it at 223. The statistical summary given by Soden, I. 1, 289, shows the paucity of Ms. sources for the Apocalypse in comparison with the other New Testament books. Taking the uncials and cursives together he finds for the Gos pels 1725 ; for Acts and Catholic Epistles 520 ; for the Pauline Epistles, including Heb. , 619 ; for the Apocalypse 229. Cursive no. 1, of the 12th or 13th cent, containing the Apoc. only, with the Commentary of Andreas (see p. 325). is of particular interest, since it was the only Gk. Ms. which Erasmus had for the Apocalypse in his first edition of the Gk. Testament (1516), the first published edition after the inven- ! The symbols in ordinary use for designating the Mss. are retained here and in the Textual notes. For the new system introduced into his work by von Soden, which unquestionably has certain advantages, see his explanation, I. 1, 37 ff. THE TEXT 413 tion of printing. (The Complutensian Polyglott printed in 1514 was not published till 1522.) Verses 16-21 of chapt. 22 are wanting in this Ms., and Erasmus supplied the missing passage by translating back into Greek from the Vulgate. In other places also he adopted translations from the Latin ; cf . Gregory II. 930. Though in later editions he introduced some corrections from other Gk. Mss. yet many of these trans lations from the Latin remained. And the Erasmian editions formed the basis of later printed editions, even of those of Stephanus, Paris, 1550, and of the Elzevirs, Leyden, 1624 and 1633, which came to be generally adopted as the so-called Textus Receptus. The name is due to the second Elzevir edi tion, whose preface contained the words, textum ergo habes nunc ab omnibus receptum. Thus the Received Text, which dominated New Testament study till the rise of the compara tively modern science of textual criticism, still contains some of these readings derived from the Latin, and not authorized by any Ms.i The ancient versions 2 so far as they represent a text anterior to, and independent of, our extant Mss. furnish important material in constituting the text. The principal versions used in the textual criticism of the Apocalypse are : ( 1 ) The Latin, including the Old Latin (sometimes called the Itala) and the Vulgate. (2) The Syriac, including the version pub lished by Louis de Dieu 1627, and the version published by Gwynn, 1897, 'The Apocalypse of St. John in a Syriac version hitherto unknown,' the former akin to the Harklean version, the latter to the Philoxenian. The Peshitta, i.e. the vulgate Syriac, does not contain the Apocalypse. (3) The Egyptian, or Coptic, including the Bohairic called also Memphitic, and the Sahidic called also Thebaic. (4) Ethiopic. (5) The Armenian. The citations found in the Fathers » are of special value for the study of the text, since for the most part they give a text which antedates our oldest Mss. ; these, however, must be used with caution, as they are often made from memory, especially ! Cf. WH. Introd. §§ 15, 346 ; Gregory II. 928 ff . . 2 Cf . the respective sections of the works of Gregory, Scuvener-MiUer, mentioned on p. 411, also WH. Introd. and articles in Hast. ' Cf. works mentioned above. 414 THE TEXT the short citations ; moreover there is an element of uncer tainty in the transmission and editing of the Mss. of the father containing the quotation. Irenseus quotes from the Apocalypse ; but most of what he quotes is preserved only in a Latin translation and the precise form of the quotation made by him is uncertain. Of special worth are citations found in Origen (f c. 254), the most erudite among early Christian scholars, and a critic of the text of the Scriptures. Hippolytus (f c. 237) has given a number of quotations of considerable length in his commentary on Daniel and his work on Antichrist. Especially valuable is the Latin commentator Primasius (6th cent.), as he has preserved in his work on the Apocalypse the entire text of the old Latin version. Andreas (early part of 6th cent.), the greatest of the early Greek commentators on the Apocalypse, has preserved the text which he followed, i Arethas (early, 10th cent.) wrote a commentary on the Apocalypse in which he incorporated large excerpts from the work of Andreas. Among others in whose writings evidence is found regarding the text of the Apocalypse are especially to be mentioned Ter tullian, Cyprian, Methodius, Ticonius, Epiphanius, and Jerome. As regards the value of the various witnesses to the text, it is beyond question that neither any single one of the sources nor any group of these has preserved the correct text in all cases. The Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest of the uncials, gives a text of the Apocalypse of much less value than that of some other parts of the New Testament. The highest authority for the Apoca lypse is assigned to Codex Alexandrinus. With this, C is closely related, but, as pointed out above, is defective. The two late uncials P and Q are allied to each other ; of the two P has preserved much the better text, but neither of them possesses high independent authority. ' P contains, in the midst of a somewhat degenerate text, so many good readings that it is entitled to an appreciable authority in doubtful cases ; while the comparatively few readings of B2[Q] which rise above its generally low level of character, are such as imply a source of no distinctive value,' WH. Introd. § 344. Among the cur- ! His com. apart from its relation to text-criticism was of great value. ' No later commentator was able to supplant Andreas, none of his predecessors could jmamtain himself be.side hini,' von Soden, I. 1, 702. THE TEXT 415 sives, the highest authority for the Apocalypse is assigned by critics to 95. Nos. 36 and 38 are also regarded as especially valuable. For others which stand out above the level of the cursives as a class, cf. Gregory I. 316 ff. In a classification of the most frequently cited authorities critics generaUy would place in a first class KAC 95 38, the Vulgate (codex Fuldensis) and Syriac versions, the fathers Prim., Cypr., Orig., Hipp., Method.; in a second class S, late correctors, PQ, most cursives, the Old Lat. Armen. and Ethiop. versions, Andr., Ticon. Great weight must be given to the agreement of the members of certain groups of authorities, though even here there are certainly errors.i Among the uncials the groups AC and X AC take precedence. When >, 120. The difficulty must be approached through 22^> '• i^, where the same statement is made regarding the angel. The purpose there is to emphasize the divine ratification of the Apocalyptist's message (see notes in loc.) ; and since the angel's testimony there spoken of relates to all the visions of the book, and these receive their final seal of authority from his solemn utter ance as the Lord's messenger, it is quite possible that the Seer should speak of all the visions themselves, not quite accurately to be sure, as ultimately given to him through the agency of this angel. Such an abrupt transition from Christ to his agent, or rather the blending of the two, is not difficult to understand ; it is similar to that found iu many places where God and his intermediary, though conceived as distinct, are also identified, e.g. Gen. 221° f.^ Ex. 32 ff.^ Jg. gii If. (though in the foregoing cases the reference to the angel may come from a later document, yet the writers felt no difficulty in the combination of the two ideas), also Ezk. 43^*'-, Ac. T^"*^, 23!! compared with 27^5. In later Jewish times and throughout the N. T. God's com munication with men is almost universally represented as mediate. And so the Apocalyptist having finished the rapt recital of his visions in 22=, can easily be understood to fall into the language of current belief in the unimpassioned epilogue in which he resumes the epistolary form adopted in the beginning. At all events whatever may have been its origin, this 1. 2] COMMENTARY 421 conception of the epilogue is evidently in the writer's mind and determines his form of expression when he turns back to write, with the same purpose of divine ratification, these words of the Superscription, I. 1-3, the part of his book written last, as in general with the title or preface of any book whether in ancient or modern times ; cf. the prefatoi-y words in Jer. 1'-', Lk. 1!-^ (cf. Zahn Ein. IL !)98, 389; Bouss. Kom. 182). That the writer in his Superscription is speaking of a completed work is shown by ipaprv- pr](Tiv, v. 2, and ra yeypap.p,€va, v. 3. This variation of the Supeiscription and the epilogue from the body of the book does not as some suppose (cf. p. 422) prove diversity of authorship ; on the contrary so apparent a dissimilarity is more easily traceable to the same author than to another, who is at pains to maintain his identity with the author of the rest of the book. 2. k\LapTvpr\a€v, has home witness : i.e. in this present book, the Revelation; cf. 222". — tov Xo-yov ktX. the word of Cod: in its most general sense the word of Cod denotes any declara tion, revelation, or truth coming from God. The particular reference is to be determined by the context ; here it refers to the revelations of this book, as is shown by the following words, 'the testimony ... he saw.' — ttiv jxapTvpiav ktX., the testimony of, i.e. borne by Jesus Christ : in the N. T. the gen. with fiaprvpia is probably always subj. ; that is its use in Rev. 1^, IV, 12"-", 19i», 20* (see notes in loc). That to which the testimony relates is generally shown by the context. When fiaprvpia 'Irja-ov refers to the gospel the meaning is the truth to which Jesus bore testimony, cf. Jno. 3^^"-, 8i*- The writer, here following a usage common with him (cf. p. 242), introduces first the general expression, the word of Cod, and then makes this more specific by the added words, the testimony of Jems Christ. In such cases Kai, not and, but namely, that is, is epexegetical, a use very frequent in the Apoc. ; cf. Blass § 77, 7; Kiihn. II. § 521, 2. — oo-a eTSev, namely of all that he saw : the clause is in apposition with the foregoing words and shows that reference is made there to the revelations which form the subject of this book and not to the Fourth Gospel and the Epistles, as some earlier scholars have taken it, an interpretation now generally rejected. The Apocalyptist in prefixing the Superscription to his book already completed (see above) defines in this verse his own part ; he has borne witness of a revelation which he describes in language repeat- 422 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.3 ing V. 1 ; it is a revelation from God mediated by the testi mony of Jesus Christ, and made known to himself in visions. 3. |iaKdpios, blessed: there are seven of these beatitudes in the book, 1^, 14i3, 16i5, 19^, 20", 22'-". The blessedness de clared is to be attained in the coming messianic kingdom. — 6 dvaYivoxTKov, ol dKovovTes, he that readeth, those who hear : the variation in number shows that by the first phrase the public reader is meant, and by the second those who hear the book read. aKovco here does not mean give heed to; that thought is expressed in the next clause, rrjpovvTe<; ktX. The Apocalyp tist makes clear that his book is intended to be read in the assemblies of the churches addressed. The reading of the 0. T. in the meetings of the synagogue (Ac. I521) was continued in the Christian assemblies, 1 Tim. 41^, in which was also added from the earliest time reading of writings of the apos tles. Col. 4", 1 Thess. 52^ Justin Martyr, Apol. I. 67, de scribing the Sunday services of his time says that it was customary to read the ' Memoirs ' written by the apostles. — TTJs irpo4)T]Teias, the prophecy: the author describes his book as that of a Christian prophet, and he emphasizes elsewhere this aspect of his work ; 10", 19io, 22^' ^' »• "• i^, 19 ; gee p. 292. — Td ¦ye-ypaiiiieva, the things which have been written : not simply the commands of the seven epistles, but the warnings and counsel which underlie the whole book. The Apocalypse is written for a distinctly practical purpose, the primary object of all prophecy. — 6 Kaipds, the time : the time of the events foretold is near; see on v. 1. The sentence gives a ground for hope in distress and for constant heed to warning. The EpUogue also contains the same admonition, 22'' i""". Textual notes, vv. 2-3. After oa-a, B. with some min adds te; wanting in unc. most sources, edd. — 3. tovs Xo-yous ACP min vers edd; tov Xoyov SQ 100 Ti. — some min and vers add Tavrrji to wpoc^TjTetas. Criticism of I. 1-3. Many critics, Volter, Spitta, Sabatier, J. Weiss, al., attribute this superscription to an editor, or to a later hand after the man ner of the long descriptive titles prefixed to certain epistles in some Mss., cf . Ro. James in Ti. The chief grounds urged are that such a superscrip tion is superfluous, the appropriate beginning of the book being made in vv. 4 ff. ; that the Apocalyptist is spoken of objectively in v. 2 ; and that the agency attributed to the angel in v. 1 is at variance with the rest of the book. It is true that if the book were an epistle, pure and simple, we 1. 4] COMMENTARY 423 should not expect anything to precede v. 4 (we might, however, if no such words had preceded, expect at least SoCXos Btov or Xpto-ToC to be added to '\tiidvvr)'s in v. 4, after the analogy of the epistles generally) ; but as the epistolary form is incidental, such introductory words are in place as a preface prefixed by the author before sending forth his completed work. Against the other objections see notes on vv. 1 and 2. Terms characteris tic of the author of the book appear in this paragraph, e.g. hiSaipj,, SeUvvp.!., papTvpiui and its cognates, Xd-yos . . . pjaprvpCa, TrpocjirfCLa, Tgpeu) with commandments. If the use of these were a studied imitation of the author, the striking variance regarding the agency of the angel, see above pp. 420 f., could hardly have occurred. I. 4-8. The Exordium. See pp. 255 f. (1) vv. 4-6. Address and Salutation. 4. Toictw?;?, John: the writer adds nothing to define his personality ; he is evidently so well known to the churches addressed that the name John alone is sufficient to identify him. That he stands in some special relation to these churches is sho"wn not only by his intimate knowledge of their affairs, as seen in the seven epistles, but also by the fact that he is the chosen agent to bear this authoritative message to them. See above, p. 344. —rats eirxd . . . ev tt) 'Ao-ict, to the seven churches in Asia: Asia as always in the N. T., except perhaps in Ac. 2^, is the Roman province embracing the western part of Asia Minor. The seven churches are those specified in v. 11. On the use of the article cf. p. 247. Other churches ex isted in the province, e.g. at Colossse, Col. 12 ; Hierapolis, Col. 413; Troas, 2 Co. 2i2, Ac. 20^; probably Miletus, Ac. 20", 2 Tim. 420 ; at Magnesia and Tralles, Ignat. Epist. ; and doubtless at other places. See on v. 11. The choice of seven in the address is quite certainly due to the author's fondness for the number seven as a determining number throughout the book ; cf . pp. 253 f . He regards these seven as representing the whole group of churches in the province ; his message is for them all. Cf. Ezekiel's selection of seven nations as rep resenting aU the Gentiles, chapts. 25-32. And it is certain that while the book is addressed directly to a limited circle of Asian churches, the author's purpose must also reach beyond these to all churches throughout the world. The revelations of the future which are given to him concern the final desti nies of the whole Church and world. After the close of the 424 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.4 special messages, chapts. 2-3, the writer speaks throughout to Christians in terms altogether general, without thought of local limitations. The consciousness of this universal destina tion of the book shows itself in the repeated injunction, ' He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches ' ; cf. also 22^-2i ; see above, p. 210. Xdpis, elpfjvT], grace, peace: combined in most of the episto lary salutations ; the former denotes the divine favor, the latter its result, peace of soul. Elsewhere in the N. T. the Spirit is not mentioned in these salutations. With the striking Trini tarian formula used here cf. Mt. 28", 2 Co. 13". — 6«v . . . £p)(^6|Ji£Vos, the one who is and ivho was and who cometh : this para phrase of the divine name, describing God as the eternal one, found also in v. 8, 4^ and with the omission of o kp^op-f-vcn in 111^, 16^, is derived from familiar usage. In Ex. 3i* the LXX has 6 03V taking the place of the name of God ; a Targum on the passage gives qui fuit est et erit dixit mundo ; a Targum on Dt. 32^^ has ego ille, qui est, et qui fuit, et qui erit. Wetstein and others cite similar designations of the gods in Greek writers. We might expect here 6 ea6fievo<;, who shall be, but the writer substitutes 6 e/a^o'/ieyo?, who cometh, as especially appropriate to the subject of his book. 6 rjv is boldly used as the parallel of the two participial clauses, since the vb. has no imperfect participle form. The whole clause follows aTro' as an indeclinable noun. This use is not found elsewhere, but is evidently adopted by the author designedly ; he perhaps regards the unchangeable form more appropriate to the majesty of God and to the grandioseness of the apocalyptic style. The grammatical anomalies are not due to ignorance of Greek construction, as shown by the pre dominantly correct uses in the book. Twv eirrd irv£u|idTci)v, the seven Spirits : these words raise three difficult questions : (a) What is meant? (6) Why, if the Holy Spirit is meant, is it designated as seven ? (c) Why then placed before Christ ? (a) The expression occurs in 3i, 4*, B'^ also, but not elsewhere in the Scriptures or the Jewish writings. Many scholars, ancient and modern, have identified the seven spirits with the seven angels of the Presence in 82. But this is certainly wrong, for angels everywhere in the book are called distinctly angels and are seen in distinct angelic form ; but the seven Spir- 1. 4] COMMENTARY 425 its are represented only in symbols, the seven lamps burning be fore the throne of God, 4^, and the seven eyes of the Lamb, 5^. Neither when Christ is described as he that hath the seven spirits, 31, could the words be easily understood of the angels. But conclusive is the connection in which the words stand here. The writer is using the form of benediction customary in the Epistles, in which the grace and peace invoked upon the readers come only from a divine source, God and Christ ; a created being could not then be inserted as the object of such invoca tion. It appears certain then that the Holy Spirit is meant. And this conclusion is borne out by 31, 4^, 5"- The designation of Christ as having the seven Spirits, 31, and of the seven Spirits as belonging to both God and Christ, 4^, 5", is in keeping with N. T. usage which identifies the Holy Spirit with the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ ; ef . Ro. 8^- The representation of the seven Spirits as seven lamps before the throne of God and as the seven eyes of the Lamb is taken from Zec. 42-10 ^^ favorite passage with our author ; cf. also Rev. 11*), where, as the angel explains to the prophet, the same symbols represent the Spirit of God active in the world, the eyes of God which run through the earth, vv. 6, 10 (on that passage cf. Hitzig, Da"vidson in Hast. I. 96). (6) In denominating the Spirit seven Spirits, in these four places which are virtually one, the writer departs from his own usage as well as that of others. In all other places (13 or 14 ; on 19i° see note there) he speaks of the Spirit as one. Some take the number seven to be de termined by the relation of the Spirit to each several one of the seven churches. 'The Spirit is one, yet in reference to the seven churches there are seven Spirits, for there is one mani festation ... of the Spirit's manifold life for each according to the needs of each,' Swete, The Holy Spirit in the N. T. 274. But this interpretation is clearly wrong ; the description in 4^ and 56 relates to what is fundamental and universal; there is no specific reference to the seven churches. Most older and many modern commentators have understood the phrase to de note the sevenfold operation of the Spirit, and find the origin of the designation in Is. II2, which late Jewish interpreters made the ground of attributing seven gifts to the Spirit of God (a wrong interpretation, as only six gifts are mentioned there); 426 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.4 so, Targum Jonathan in loc. ; En. 61" ; so also Justin Dial. 87, Cohort, ad Crcecos 32. It is true that manifoldness in the oper ations of the Spirit is a conception common enough, e.g. 1 Co. 12*, Ro. 12^, En. 49^; and the special significance attaching to the number seven would easily lead to the designation sevenfold to express the fullness and perfection of the Spirit's operations, a designation which has become familiar in Christian termi nology ; cf . the hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus. But the passages in our book are not parallel with those mentioned above ; there is here no question of the various operations of the Spirit, there is no intimation of a connection with the Isaian passage in the author's thought, or of an idea of a sevenfold character in the activities of the Spirit. It is difficult to suppose that the writer would seek to express the perfection of the one Spirit by representing it as seven distinct Spirits. The origin of the term must be sought elsewhere. A com parison of vv. 4-6 with chapts. 4-5 throws light upon the subject. As in the opening of the Pauline epistles the lan guage used in the address and salutation is often determined by certain themes which appear later in the letter, so it is in our book ; the address with the benediction has the appearance of being written after the body of the work was completed ; at all events the vision of chapts. 4-5, showing the divine person ages that are active in the great scenes of the book, was very vividly before the writer's mind in this opening part. But in that vision the Spirit is represented under the symbols of the lamps and the eyes, a symbolism taken directly and "without essential change from Zec. 41-1" (see above); and as often inthe use of symbolical language, the symbol and the thing symbolized are here identified, at least so far that the tvriter speaks of the Seven Spirits, meaning the one Spirit represented in the seven symbols. Now in the opening salutation, 1*-^, having that "vision of chapts. 4-5 distinctly in mind the writer takes over the same characteristic designations ; that is, the characterization of the Father given in 4*' " proclaiming him in his eternity and al mighty power, is reproduced in 1* ; that of Christ given in 5"¦l^ proclaiming him in his character as the messianic King of kings and the Savior who by his death and resurrection has redeemed and exalted his people, is reproduced in 15-6, -^vhile the sjonbol- 1. 5] COMMENTARY 427 ical designation of the Spirit given in 45, 5^ is repeated here in 1* verbally in the phrase, the seven Spirits ; in other words the phrase occurs here in the salutation as an unchanged trans ference from the vision, where it is due to a literal following of Zechariah in blending reality and symbol. It is highly probable that behind the seven lamps and eyes of Jehovah found in the imagery of Zechariah there lies an oriental con ception taken up in modified form into Hebrew popular belief, as in the case of the seven angels in 82, see note there ; but doubtless neither the prophet nor the Apocalyptist was con scious of that origin of the figure. It should be noticed that the article in the seven Spirits does not necessarily mark the phrase as a familiar term, see p. 247 ; in view of the close identification of the Spirit of God and God in Hebrew thought the designation is not likely to have existed as a concrete term and apart from some such symbolical connection as is found here. (c) This relation of the Salutation to the vision of chapts. 4-5 explains the position of the Spirit immediately after the Father. The first part of that vision is conceived in strict Hebraic form; and the inseparable connection of the Spirit of God with God in Hebrew thought causes the Spirit to be placed in immediate association with the throne of God and before the mention of Christ. Furthermore the part of Christ in the vast scenes which are immediately to follow that vision makes natural his introduction in closest proximity to those scenes and after the other persons of the Godhead. The Salu tation then follows the vision in the order of the divine per sons, as well as in the designations respectively given to them. This order does not indicate a subordination of the Son to the Spirit in the author's theology. On the order cf. 1 Pet. 11-2. 5. 6 [idpTus 6 TTio-Tds, the faithful witness: i.e. one whose testimony can be relied on ; see on 3". The appositive, as in the following words, is put in the nominative after a common usage of the author's ; see p. 224. The construction is doubt less intended ; perhaps the writer feels that the characteristic is expressed with more solemnity in the absolute form of an indeclinable. The term faithful witness stands without limi tation here and might in itself refer to any revelation made 428 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.5 by Christ (see on v. 2), to the gospel to which he bore witness, or to the witness borne in his death (I Tim. 61^). But these references are not in place here. As the blessing is here in voked from the heavenly presence, and as the two following epithets refer to the glorified Christ, evidently this epithet also is to be understood of the same activity. The writer is thinking, as in v. 2, of the revelation of the future given in this book ; cf. 22i^"- It is not certain that /iaprv? is ever used in the N. T. in the sense of martyr, though it occurs in cases where the witness suffered death in consequence of stead fastness ; cf. 213, 176^ ^Q_ 2220. — 5 irpcoTOTOKos ktX, the first born of the dead: i.e. the first of the dead born through the resurrection to a new life. The language implies the future resurrection of the saints. The two clauses 6 irpwroTOKO'; ktX. and ap-xpiv . . . rrj'i 7?)? standing together seem to show that the writer has in mind Ps. 882^ LXX. (EV. 892'^), irpaTOTOKov 6ijaopLaL avTOV, injrrjXov nrapa rot? ^aatXevatv rr)? 7^? ; but the words TCOV veKpav, gen. part, show that he does not take Trpoj- TOTOKo? in the Heb. sense of foremost, princely rank, but rather of priority of birth into a life into which other veKpol will follow. The language recalls the Pauline words 0? iartv ap^rj, TrpwTOTOKO'i iK T&v veKpSiv, Col. 11^; in the next sentence the men tion of Christ's work of redemption from sin by his blood is parallel with the Pauline teaching found in the same chapt. of the Colossian epistle, vv. 14, 20. Our writer in his connection with the church at Laodicea, 31*, must have become familiar with that epistle of St. Paul ; cf . Col. 41^. 6 dpxtov ktX., the ruler of the kings ofthe earth: the common Jewish idea of the Messiah's rule ; he is to be King of kings and Lord of lords in the messianic kingdom, when it shall be established upon earth ; cf. 17i*, 191". In the words immedi ately preceding and following this clause there is found con nected with this Hebraistic idea the Christian doctrine of the Messiah's redemption of his people by his death and resurrec tion ; cf. p. 230. — T(3 d'yaircovTL ktX., to him who loveth us, etc. : the appositive construction might have been continued, making these epithets parallel with the preceding, but the thought of what Christ in his love has done and will do for his people causes the writer to throw the utterance into the form 1. 6] COMMENTARY 429 of a doxology. For similar doxologies in this book, in which honor is ascribed to Christ in the same terms as in ascriptions to God, see 5i2' is, 710 ; and in other books 2 Tim. 4i8, Heb. I321 1 Pet. 411, 2 Pet. 31^- The present aya-TrcivTi marks the con tinuing love which prompts to the particular acts expressed in the aorists Xvaavri, iiroirfaev. — Xvaavxi . . . cv t^ atfiaTi axiToi), loosed hy his blood: as in the parallel passage 5^, Christ's death is spoken of as a loosing from the penalty of sin. Cf. Col. 11*, Mt. 20J8, Ac. 2028, (jal. 3i3, Eph. 1\ 1 Pet. 1". On the reading XovaavTi, washed, see below, p. 431. — Iv here is instrumental, denoting price ; cf. 5^ 1 Chron. 212*. 6. £TroiT]aev : instead of TroiTjaavTi, the writer breaking off into an anacoluthon, returning to the former construction in avTO). The clause can hardly be treated as a parenthesis (WH), as the thought is too important a member in the period. — PacriXetav, Upets, a kingdom, priests : the meaning is determined from the parallel 51", which the writer has in mind here, and from 20^, passages which show that reference is made not to the saints as forming the kingdom over which Christ now rules, nor their present priestly character, but to the reign of the saints and their priesthood in the messianic kingdom when it shaU be established (see notes in loc). The past tense in eTrot- r]CTev denotes what has been ideally or potentially accomplished in the act or purpose of God, while the actual realization is in the future — an idiom common in the N. T. ; cf. Ro. 82* 3", Eph. 25- 8, 2 Tim. 1^. ySatrtXeia, kingdom, here denotes, then, not the sphere of rule, but a sovereign power. This share of the saints in the messianic rule is frequently asserted in Hebrew eschatology, cf. Dan. 7"' 27, Wis. 3^, En. IO812, cf. also 1 Co. 62! The priestly character, lep€i<;, priests, -assigned to the members of the messianic kingdom is not a prominent thought in Jewish eschatology, though it is mentioned, cf. Is. 61^. It follows, however, as the full realization of what is declared to be the present privilege of the people of God. It is said of them in Ex. 196 that they shall be 'a kingdom of priests,' i.e. made up of priests, a phrase translated in the LXX /Saa-lXeiov lepdTevp,a, a royal priesthood, which is followed in 1 Pet. 2^. The Tar gums give 'king,s, priests,' or 'kings and priests' (Ewald, p. Ill), with which thought our author agrees, l^, 5"; cf. also 430 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.6 Jub. 3320. Whatever be the exact significance of the phrase in the Petrine use (cf . Huther in loc.) it is clear that Ex. 19^ was commonly understood to combine the two ideas of kingdom or kingship and priesthood. Since the special priestly func tions of sacrifice and mediation are not attributed to the body of Christian believers except in the symbolical sense, the term evidently denotes the privilege of free, unmediated access to, and communion with, God, such as in the worship of the Hebrew ritual is permitted to the priests only. That is the significance in Ex. 19^. For the same thought, cf. Heb. 10i^-22^ boldness to enter into the holy place; Heb. 41^, Eph. 21^, access unto the Father, 1 Pet. 31^, though in these places the term priest is not used. In the present passage te/set? is in apposi tion with /3aa-iXeiav ; in 51" the words are connected by kuI. The difference is not material, for while the two ideas are for mally distinct, they are in reality one ; the kingship of God's people in the messianic kingdom is another aspect of their priesthood, their spiritual union with God. The latter idea is more appropriate to Christian, the former to Hebrew, eschatol ogy. — The words iiroirja-ev ktX., made us a kingdom,, are cor relative with o a,p')((ov ktX., ruler ofthe kings ofthe earth, v. 5; in that verse Christ's supreme lordship in the coming messianic kingdom is declared, in this verse is shown what he in his redeeming love has provided for his children as their part in that kingdom. While there is a sense in which Christ's king dom is already present and the members of it are now priests, that is not the thought with which the writer is concerned in this place. The sentence has sole reference to the future. — T<3 66(3 ktX., to his Cod and FatJier: the use of a single art. favors the connection of ' avTov with both nouns ; cf . Ro. 15^, 2 Co. 1131, Eph. 13, 1 Pet. 13. For the words his Cod, cf. Jno. 20", Mt. 27*6, Eph. 1", Heb. l^. The dat. denotes the one to whom the priest's service belongs ; the same relation is ex pressed by the gen. in 206, -^^rhere Christ is added. — aiiT^, to him: i.e. Christ. 'The adoration of Christ which vibrates in this doxology is one of the most impressive features of the book,' Moffatt in loc. Textual Notes, vv. 4-6. a without ccrriv CQ most min edd; rmv SA a few min ; to-rtv added with ^, P a few min R. — 5. aya7rv C some vers. — ^axriXaav lEpeis >vXa(, all the tribes : no nation, not even the Hebrew, had accepted the Messiah ; the world as a whole rejected him, cf. Jno. 1^" '¦, 1 Jno. 51^. The fulfillment of the prophecies in this verse is not described in detail in the closing scenes ; it is however summarized in I911-21. — vaC, dp-Tiv, even so, amen: To the announcement of the Lord's coming given in familiar prophetic words the writer responds with strong asseveration, combining the Greek (vaC) and Heb. (api-ijv) particles. The particles are brought together in 2 Co. 126, not elsewhere in the N. T. 8. The speaker here is God, as shown by Kvpio<;, 6 6e6^. The words declare the sure ground of the announcement in verse 7; God the eternal one, the one who holds sway over all (iravTo- Kpdrap) will consummate his purpose. This abrupt introduc tion of God declaring some attribute or determination of his own, as a sure ground of the writer's thought in the context, finds parallels in Ps. 46i6, 89''*-. For a similar unannounced change of speaker, see below 16i5, 182° ; cf . p. 244. — t6 'ciK^a ktX., the Alpha and the Omega : the first and last letters of the Gk. alphabet. The formula, found also in 216, 2^13, -where it is explained, the heginnim/ and the end, expresses the eternity of God, as do the words here following 6 wv ktX. The same formula with the first and last letters of the Heb. alphabet occurs in the rabbis. On the thought, cf. Is. 41^ 446, 48i2_ Language essentially the same as this here applied to God is in 22i3 ap plied to Christ ; see also on v. 13 and p. 313. — 6 wv ktX., he who is, etc : see on v. 4. 1. 9] COMMENTARY 433 Criticism of vv. 7-8. Objection to these verses is raised by Volter, Spitta, al, chiefiy on the ground that the introduction closed with v. 6, and that these words have no appropriate connection with the context ; they are held to be disturbing between vv. 4-6 and vv. 9 ff. But their place as a fitting close of the exordium is shown in the Summary, p. 256 ; see also notes in loc. I. 9-III. 22. The Initial Vision. See p. 257. Christ's ap pearance to the Prophet with the command (1) to send a book of all the visions revealed to him to seven Asian churches (the Church) 1^-26, see p. 257 ; (2) to include a special message to each of these several churches, chapts. 2-3, see pp. 258 ff. 1.9. b{<^' \S ktX., it seems clear that a brightly gleaming metal, or metallic compound, is meant. As regards gender the word is commonly taken to be neuter, but if in the following clause the reading ¦jreirupaiju.cVijs be adopted, the nom. is ;(a\KoXt- jSavos, fem. Cf. on the word, Thayer, Bouss. Kom. Treirupcoii.evTis, refined : lit. having passed through the fire and become purified; cf. 3i3, Job 2225, Ps. IV in the LXX. The construction is the gen. abs. sc. ttj? x"'^'^°^''^'^^°^- See text note p. 446. «? has its usual relative force, as when refined. If weirvpmp.evo) is adopted, it is to be joined with ^aXKoXi- ^dvcp; KapLivcp is fem. — (t>(OVT| -viSaTtov ktX., voice of many waters: i.e. the deep, awe-inspiring sound of masses of moving water; cf. 142, 196^ 2 Es. 6", Dan. 106 lxX. It is noticeable that this reference to the voice is put in the midst of the description (vv. 12-16) of what the Apocalyptist perceived after he had turned to behold the speaker who had called to him in the outset ; it belongs therefore to what followed the words of the call in V. 11, that is, it anticipates the utterances of the rest of the vision. Such anticipation, a common trait with the writer (cf. pp. 243 f.), is easily accounted for when we remember that he is struggling to portray a series of visions now wholly past. In his vivid recollection of the scene as a whole, disregarding chronological order, he combines kindred matter ; in this case, whatever pertained to the Lord's personal manifestation — features, vesture, voice, surroundings. — The difference be tween v.- 10 and v. 15 as regards the simile used is significant. The loud clarion of the trumpet performs an introductory office, it prefaces a summons, an announcement, or a brief command ; cf. 116, 41^ g7-i3^ 91, 13^ 10^ 111^ ; but the simile would be inap propriate to the utterances of the Lord's great commission here, extending to the end of the seven epistles. The tones of these utterances, like those of the angelic hymns in 142, 196 are com pared to the sound of many waters. 440 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.16 16. «x<*v ktX.: for the looseness in construction see on v. 14. The words, had in his right hand, imply safe keeping, cf. Jno. 1023 . perhaps also the idea of controlling is included. In 2i the stronger word KpaTeco, hold fast (cf. 225, 71^ ig substituted for e%(B, but neither word contains in itself more than what belongs to holding in firm power. — daTepas eirxd, seven stars : symbols of the seven angels of the churches, v. 20. The use of stars as an appropriate symbol in connection with the churches may have been suggested by the familiar eschato logical words in Dan. 123, t]igy shall shine as stars forever; cf. also En. 1042, ^g shall shine as the lights of heaven. But it is not unlikely that the writer having in mind the representation of the churches by their angels (v. 20) is influenced by some fancy existent in popular tradition of seven stars as seven angels ; see on 82. Whatever may be the exact meaning of the ' angels ' of the churches (see on v. 20), they represent the churches in such a way that they are practically identical with these. We have then in the passage two symbols of the churches, the lampstands in the midst of which Christ is seen, and the stars which he holds in his hand. But these are really a representation under two aspects of the one fact of Christ's close relation to his, Church ; the former represents his abiding presence in it, the latter his abiding power in sustaining it. The effort of some commentators to explain the holding of seven stars in the hand by supposing a garland of jewels, or a constellation bound solidly together, lays upon the interpreta tion of a vision the law of too strict realism ; cf. pp. 248 f. — €K TOV o-T6|JiaTos «tX., from his mouth, etc.: the words denote the destroying power of Christ's condemnation ; cf. 2i6, 191°, Is. 114, 2 Es. 13*' i». Wis. 1815. The figure used combines the earlier conception of God as a warrior smiting his foes with the sword, and the later conception of annihilation by his sentence of judgment, boldly represented here as a visible accompani ment of Christ — o\j;is, countenance or appearance : the former is to be preferred ; in this enumeration of traits in detail the words of the clause are more easily understood as referring to a single one than as embracing all. — cbs 6 TJXios <|)aiv€i ktX. as the Sim shineth, etc. : i.e. like the sun when it shineth, etc. For the brachylogy cf. Jno. 658, j j^^^ 312 _T.fj 8wd|i€i, his might: 1. 18] COMMENTARY 441 i.e. when not dimmed by clouds or mist. The simile denoting the dazzling splendor of Christ's countenance is from Jg. 53i. 17. Prostration to the earth under the overpowering influ ence of supernatural manifestations is a familiar feature in the narratives of visions ; cf. Ezk. 128, Dan. 8", 10^, Mt. 176, Ac. 261*, En. 14i*. — eOt^ksv ti^v 8€|idv ktX., laid his right hand, etc. : the act as well as the words, fear not, gives assurance to the Seer. A criticism which finds difficulty in adjusting the representation to that of v. 16, holding the stars, overlooks the abrupt changes natural in visions; cf. pp. 248 f. — ky& €l|Ai «tX., / am the first, etc. : Many commentators connect with firj ^o^oiifear not, after the analogy of Mt. 1427, Mk. 650, Jno. 620; but in those cases e'7£o elpa precedes the pir) ^o0ov; also the parallel in v. 8 is against such connection ; furthermore the clause probably does not give a ground for fir) (l)o^ov, see on V. 18 at the end. — 6 irptoTos ktX., the first, etc.: the epithet given to God in v. 8 is here ascribed to Christ (see on v. 14) and declares his existence from eternity to eternity. 18. 6 tf&v, the living one : an epithet of God, common espe cially in late Jewish writings and the N. T., describing him as possessing life in his essential nature. Here the words describe Christ as possessing the same inherent life; 'As the father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son to have life in himself,' Jno. 526. The epithet has a broader significance than the following words which speak of the resurrection ; it con tains the ground of the latter. — kyev6\ir\v : see on v. 9. — i'X*> Tds KXets ktX., I have the keys, etc.: the words are con nected closely with both the foregoing clauses, which contain the ground and the evidence of Christ's power over death ; as one who has life in himself he has power to give life (Jno. 526-28-)^ and in his resurrection to unending life that power has been manifested. He has power to leave in death, or to release therefrom, he has the keys of death. Here again a prerogative of God is affirmed of Christ. According to the Targums (collected by Wetstein in loc.) four keys were in the hands of God alone, those of life, the tombs, food, and rain; or as otherwise given, three keys, those of birth, rain, and the resurrection of the dead. For the form /cXet? = /cXetSa? see Win. § 9, 2, e ; Blass § 8, 2. The expression the keys of death is 442 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.18 a part of the figure of the gates of death, i.e. of the prison-house of the dead, or of the palace of their king, a figure common in Greek writers from the time of Homer (II. V. 646, Od. XIV. 156), and in the Bible (Ps. 9i3, Is. 38io, Wis. 16i3, Mt. 16i3). The writer's habit of amplification (cf. p. 241) appears here in the phrase death and Hades; cf. 68, 20"*- If any distinction is thought of, the former refers rather to the state, the latter to the place ; or if personification is intended here, the former refers rather to the slayer, and the latter to the ruler of the underworld ; the gen. then is gen. poss. This utterance of Christ, beginning with I am the first, etc., and ending with the keys of death, is connected by most com mentators with the foregoing, as giving a ground for the in spiriting call, fear not. But the assuring touch of the Lord's hand and the words /li) o^ov are enough. These a"wful utter ances of divine majesty and power are fitted to increase rather than assuage terror. Neither can the mention of the power over death (which in reality forms only a part of the passage), taken by commentators to point to a connection with hrecra m veKpov, I fell as one dead, be fittingly associated with those words, for the words as one dead contain only a comparison to express the sudden and complete prostration of the Seer, who is not in a state of death, or unconsciousness even. The use of ow, therefore, introducing the command of v. 19, shows the proper connection of the passage ; it gives the basis of the message which Christ bids the Seer to write to the churches. It is as the eternal one and the Lord of life and death that he sends to his Church the message of this book with its commands and promises, assuring his faithful ones of the certain triumph of his kingdom over death and all the powers of evil ; see Summary p. 258. The office of the passage is similar to that of v. 8 ; see note there. 19. ypa.y]rov ktX., write etc. : the words relate to the whole book which the Prophet is bidden to write. The command is the same as that in v. 11, but in the repetition is made more spe cific, after the author's manner. — ovv, therefore : see on v. 18. — d etSes Kal d €l(rlv ktX., the things which thou hast seen, that is, the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter. A correct interpretation of the relation of the clauses 1. 19] COMMENTARY 443 in this passage is of the first importance for understanding the author's definition of the scope of his book. The command is generally understood to embrace three distinct objects, the things which thou hast seen, referring to the preceding vision in vv. 10 ff.; the things that are, referring to the state of the churches spoken of in the seven epistles ; and the things which are re vealed in the book as yet to come to pass. But as the com mand in this verse is a repetition of that in v. 11, a elBe<; repeats 3 jSXCTret?, and like that refers to the whole book ; it must then include the things referred to in both the following clauses. The a pteXXet yivea-Oai, the things which shall come to pass, are made known to the writer only through the visions ; and evi dently the a elalv, the things that are, are not made known other wise — what these are will be seen below. The two clauses then define what has been seen in the visions ; and Kai, before a elalv, is not and ; it is epexegetical, even, that is, a use occur ring in numberless cases in the book, where an appositive term makes more specific a general term ; see on v. 2 and p. 242. The aor. in etSe? then refers not merely to what is past at this moment of speaking, but to what is past at the time when the command to write is executed ; cf. ypdyjrov ktX. 19^ where the perf . KeKXr]fievoi anticipates the yet future event of the marriage of the Lamb. The scope of the book then is here defined as revelations of two classes of objects, things that are, and things that shall come to pass. For the former see following note. d elatv, the things that are: the class of visions designated in these words certainly includes things spoken of in the epistles to the churches, chapts. 2-3, which are chiefly concerned with facts then present, though the consciousness of the future un derlies the whole. But the actual condition of the churches as described there was known to the writer apart from any revela tion — that is not the kind of thing which forms the subject of a special divine revelation. What is made known to him in the vision is the Lord's special and direct message to the churches, his personal words of chastisement, approbation, and promise. There is however in the book much more than these two chapters that belongs to the category of things which are rather than to that of things which shall come to pass. Such is the revelation of the vision just seen, vv. 10 ff.; this is the 444 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [1.19 eternally present fact of Christ's exalted being and his relation to his Church. So likewise the vision of the court of heaven, chapts. 4-5, reveals facts independent of time, great truths which may always be denominated things that are. Chapt. 12 depicts a power at work already at that time in the events taking place ; much of chapt. 17 and other shorter passages are likewise to be placed in the same category. A very considerable part of the book has to do with a revelation of things existent, upon which the future is conditioned. As a work of true prophecy the book is intimately concerned with picturing the persons, powers, and causes at work in the events that are coming on the earth. This is an aspect of his work which the author distinctly announces in these words here at the outset, and which differen tiates it from the Jewish apocalypses in general. Failure to recognize this as a part of the writer's aim is the cause of much of the criticism, which rejects considerable portions of the book as having no place in a unified plan. — Some commentators (Ewald, De Wette, al) take a elaiv in the sense of what they mean, that is, what the a elSe?, interpreted to refer solely to the preceding vision, mean as explained in v. 20. But the explana tion of V. 20 touches only a part of that vision ; and moreover the evident contrast between a elalv and a piiXXei ktX. is against that interpretation. — /iera TaiJTa, hereafter : for this meaning cf. 912, Jno. 13^ 20. The symbols of the lampstands and the stars, which ap pear in the vision with a meaning not as a matter of course clear to the reader, are now explained. — to iiuaTfjpiov, as to the mystery : not the obj. of ypdf^ov, nor in apposition with a etSe?, probably not a nom. like the title of a paragraph or book (the ace. Xuj^i'ta? is against this) ; best construed as the ace. in apposition with ol cTrra . . . iKKXrjcriai elaiv; for the con struction cf. 1 Tim. 26, Ro. 83, 12i, see Blass § 81, 1, Kiihn. II. § 406, 6. The word fivaTrjpiov, mystery, denotes something secret, hidden, which is disclosed only to special persons, or in a special way; among derived senses, as here, something containing a hidden or symbolical meaning, which can be interpreted ; cf . 17°' ^ Dan. 2i3. See on the word Thayer s.v., Stewart in Hast. III. 465 ff. — eirl tiis 5€|i.ds : equivalent to e'l' r^ Se^ta v. 16, but the stars are here spoken of as resting upon the open hand, 1. 20] COMMENTARY 445 cf. 51, 201. — Xuxvias: parallel with aaTepcov ; it takes ir regularly the case of puva-T'^piov. -- 'dyy^Xoi, angels: the stars symbolize the 'angels' of the churches, a term of uncertain meaning ; but the interpretation of the book is not affected by the uncertainty, since the ' angel ' is completely identified with his church in the seven epistles. The different explanations of ' angel ' as used here may be grouped into the following general classes : (1) The angel is the bishop, or college of presbyters, or chief teacher, who represents the church. In support of this use of dyyeXo^ reference is made to Mai. 2', 3' ; so, many commentators, ancient and modern, among the latter Zahn, J. Weiss, Baljon. But a de cisive objection to this view appears to exist in the fact that the epistles are in each case addressed to the angel throughout, and yet presuppose a body of persons who are censured, praised, warned, and in general made to bear a responsibility which could be laid upon no individual officer. Moreover, such a meaning of a-yyeAos has no support in Christian terminology, and is contrary to the unvarying use of the Apocalypse. If ttjv -ywat/ca o-ou were the certain reading in 2^, it would furnish strong ground for this interpre tation; but see text-note in loc. (2) The word is taken in its ordinary sense, angel, and is explained as guardian angel, or at least, heavenly repre sentative. As such angelic patrons were assigned to persons (Mt. IS^", Ac. 12'^) and to peoples (Dan. lO'^'^"), so a church also may be conceived as having its personal patron or representative in heaven; so, Origen, Andreas, Bleek, B. Weiss, Porter, Moffatt, al. But the first objection raised above against No. (1) has equal force here. Christ addresses in the epistles the churches themselves and not an intermediary. And moreover no ingenuity has successfully removed the difficulty in supposing that Christ sends a comnranication to certain heavenly beings through an earthly agent, the Apocalyptist, in order to reach through these angelic representatives the spiritual life of the churches. (3) The angel of a church is equivalent to the church itself, or its personified life ; so, Arethas, Beatus, Liieke, De Wette, Diist., Holtzm. al.; others, as Bouss, Swete, Hort, accept this view as tenable. This interpretation grows out of No. (2). The highly developed angelology of late Judaism which assumed special angels not only for per sons and peoples, but also for inanimate things, is adopted by the author of our book. He uses the word angel nearly seventy times, including angel of the winds, 7\ of fire, 14'^ of the waters, 16^ of the abyss, 9" ; it is not hard then to suppose, that in a work of this poetic character, in which personi fication is common, he should have identified the angel and the sphere of his activity. Doubtless some such vague identification occurred in popular usage, when the angel of fire, of the winds, etc., were spoken of. It is cer tain that our author blends the angel and the church in the destination of the letters and their contents; compare 1" with the address and contents of the several letters. It is true that we have then two distinct representations of a church, the lampstand and the angel ; but the difficulty found here is 446 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [II. 1 not weighty ; the former may be understood to symbolize a church as hav ing a visible, organic existence ; the latter to represent it in its invisible spiritual life ; the latter is not so much a symbol of a church as an ideal con ception of its immanent spirit. The outward symbol of this spirit is the star, which is correlative with the lampstand (cf . LUcke TL. 433) . On the whole this view seems to account best for the language of the epistles and to present the least difiiculty. (4) The view of Ebrard, Volter, Spitta, al., that messengers sent from the Asian churches to John in Patmos are meant does not call for serious consideration. Such delegates could not hold the place in the Church universal which is symbolized by the stars in the hand of Christ, nor could the author be thought of as writing a letter to persons in his presence. Criticism of v. 20. This verse has been attributed by some critics (Spitta 31 ff., Volter Problem 387 f., Erbes 124 f., al.) to a redactor, on the ground that it introduces a false explanation of the lampstands and the stars. The argument is as follows : (1) The lampstands in the vision, "w. 10 ff., do not symbolize the churches, but the seven Spirits, as sho"wn by 4^, and by a com parison of 2^ with 3^ where the lampstands are parallel with the Spirits in distinction from the stars. (2) The stars are not a symbol of the churches, but a part of the picture of Christ's glory in the "vision, an ornament of his person ; or they represent the luminaries that light his way when he comes as a thief in the night, 3' ; but the churches with all the faults described in the letters could not be thought of as ornaments to the Christ or as lights to his way. Wellhausen (p. 5) argues that the lampstands cannot symbolize the churches, because the heavenly Christ cannot be thought of as walking about between Ephesus, Smyrna, etc. Such criticisms need only to be stated; their fancifulness is apparent. The appropriateness of the symbols to represent the churches is pointed out above in the notes on w. 12, 16. The Apocalyptist, in conceiving the imagery of the vision, must have had distinctly in mind the significance of the symbols as given in v. 20. Textual notes, vv. 9-19. 9. I»;o-ou (alone) K*CP 38 some vers edd; XpifTTov is added in Q many min and vers R. — 11. After Xc-youcn/s, P some min B, insert eyai up.i to A Kai to Cl o -jrpcoTos /cai o (.(rxp-Toq Kai ; wanting in most sources edd. — 13. vtoi/ S Q many min edd; viut ACP many min R, a correction. — /wkttois CPQ min edd; p.aa-BoL's K some min Ti; /ia^ots A many min Lch. — ;)(pvo-av K*AC edd; ^vagv ><=PQ min R Sod. —15. TreTrupcapevr/i AC Lch Ws WH ; -p,€v(o s some min and vers Blj Bouss; -p.£voL PQ many min R Ti WH mrg Sod. — 19. ytveo-^ai S° A many min R Lch WH Sod al; ytvecrOai X*CPQ some min Ti Ws. Chapts. II-III. Initial Vision. (2) Special Messages to the several Asian churches. See pp. 257, 258-261. We have come very generally to call these seven paragraphs epistles. In reality they are not such. No one of them is in complete epistolary form; they are special words addressed to tlie respective churches individually, but included in the one II. 1] COMMENTARY 447 common epistle (the book is in the form of a letter, cf. p. 255) sent to aU the seven. From this very fact, as well as from the admonition at the close of each, Let everyone hear what the Spirit saith to the churches, it is clear that like the rest of the book each several message is also meant for all. While in each case the condition and circumstances of the particular congre gation addressed are directly aimed at, there is in every 'epistle' spiritual truth for all. Every great revelation, whether O.T. prophecy, or N.T. epistle, is given in view of definite contemporary and local circumstances, but it brings in this form truth of universal significance. II. 1-7. The message to the Church in Ephesus. Ephesus near the mouth of the Cayster was at this time the foremost city of Asia Minor; it formed also a prominent center of non- Christian cults. It was the ' temple-keeper of great Artemis,' Ac. 1935, -whose shrine here was one of the wonders of the world; it became one of the chief seats of the worship of the deified Roman emperors; it was the special home of magic arts, whose formulas were known as 'E(^eo-ta ypapipLaTa, cf. Ac. 19'^- In the spread of Christianity, it became an important center; St. Paul made it the seat of his long missionary work in Asia, Ac. 191- 16; ApoUos labored there, Ac. 18^"-, Timothy was placed there for a considerable time, cf. 1 and 2 Tim. passim; the church there was one of those to which was sent the circular letter known to us as the Epistle to the Ephesians; it was the center of the work of the John of Asia Minor. These circum stances explain, at least in part, why the epistle to that church should stand first among the seven, and why as a kind of intro duction to the others it should possess certain general features; e.g. the emphasis on brotherly love, the first essential in any Christian society; the epithet of Christ in v. 1 and the promise in V. 7 are comprehensive and equally applicable to all the churches. The condition of the Ephesian church which determined the nature of the specific message sent to it was this: itinerant preachers, calling themselves apostles, known as adherents of the teaching of the Nicolaitans, had appeared there and had so far gained influence that opposition to them had cost the church a painful struggle (K6'jro'; v. 2) ; it had, however, proved itself 448 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [II. 1 equal to its task. Whatever may have been the peculiar doc trinal error of these teachers, it would appear that they had sophistically defended unchastity and participation in idolatrous feasts, vv. 14, 20, 24. The church had tested and rejected them and had broken their hold; it was persevering still in its intol erance of evil men and its abhorrence of the Nicolaitans, v. 6. These were the circumstances in which it had won the Lord's commendation, because it had endured steadfastly, had borne trial for Christ's name, and had not gro"wn weary in hard toil, vv. 2 f. Doubtless there were in such a community other cir cumstances also in which the Christians had exercised the same virtues, and the Lord's approval here expressed may be under stood of these triumphs likewise. But in this rigorous struggle to maintain purity of morals and teaching in the congregation. Christian charity had suffered; the earlier spirit of free and fervid brotherly love had been checked, v. 4; with all its splen did zeal for truth and right conduct, its patient endurance and toil, the church had not risen above the inevitable danger of a certain hardness of spirit toward the erring. And so with the Lord's words of commendation comes his reproof and the com mand to return to its first spirit of brotherly love, the foundation virtue without which it must cease to exist, its candlestick must lose its place among the churches. 1. For the 'angel' of the church see pp. 445 f. — rdhi \iyii, these things saith he : see p. 260. — The twofold epithet given to Christ in this verse, taken from li*"' ", expresses his firm power over the churches to do with them as he will, and his watchful presence in the midst of them. The epithet is appro priate here, but in all the other epistles as well. It stands here, not with sole reference to the contents of this epistle, but is chosen apparently, because this epistle holds an introductory place at the beginning of the whole series of the epistles, which in the mind of the writer form a connected unit. In all the epistles the epithets of Christ are designed to enforce his message ; at the same time they mark the oneness of the speaker with the glorified Christ, as he manifests himself elsewhere in the book, principally in the vision of l"**-, and as it were intro duce him again as visibly present in connection with each epistle. — KpaTuv : stronger than extov, see on li6. — ircpiiraTwv II. 3] COMMENTARY 449 ev |i£CTCg, ivalking in the midst of: the words denote constant and vigilant presence ; cf . Lev. 26i2. TrepiTraTew is a favorite word in the Johannine writings, occurring 17 times in the Gospel, 10 times in the Epistles, 5 times in the Apoc. 2-3. €p"ya, works: here, as elsewhere in the epistles, not merely deeds done, but life and conduct in general, including both outward and spiritual activities, as shown by the explan atory clauses added in each instance ; for this use of the word cf. Jno. 629. — Kal tov Kdirov, ktX., even thy toil, etc.: in appo sition with TO. epya, thy works, of which the whole passage to the end of v. 3 is an explanation. The ' works ' of the Ephe sians consist in two things, their hard toil (kottov), especially in opposition to false teachers, and their steadfast endurance (vTropLovrjv). These two virtues are then spoken of in order more fully in the following clauses ; the ko'tto?, hard toil, is made definite in the words ov hvvr) . . . ¦^evBeh, i.e. the active op position to, and testing of, the false teachers ; the vTropiovr), steadfast endurance, is taken up again in v. 3, vTro/xovrjv exeK repeating Trjv virofiov^v aov of v. 2, and explained as referring to the inward state of bearing trial and of unweariedness in well doing; in V. 3 /3ao-TaftB, Sear, refers rather to inward endurance of trial, in v. 2 to tolerance of something in others, as in Ro. 15i, Ignat. Pol. 1. Kai before oti, v. 2, does not introduce a third activity parallel with the two preceding, but an explanation; it is epexegetical, see on P. — 6iivi|: this form, not occurring in Attic prose, is found in a few places in the N.T., e.g. Mk. 922, Lk. 162; cf. Blass § 23, 2. — eireipaaas, hast tested: the aor. refers to a definite past act, while the presents, Bvvrj, exeti, show the present continuance of the feeling toward the Nicolaitans. — dTTOffToXous, apostles: the term is used here in a sense wider than in its application to the original apostles, denoting a class of itinerant missionaries bearing this name, whose existence in the Church is attested by Didache 11, also 2 Co. IP' l^ 12". Ac cording to Ac. 2029 Paul had foretold the entrance of ' grievous wolves ' among the Ephesians ; false teachers appear everywhere in the apostolic Church almost simultaneously with the true. The faithful are often warned of the necessity of testing those who claim to come with messages of the Spirit ; 1 Jno. 41, 1 Thess. 52»f-, 1 Co. 1429, Mt. 7i"-, Didache 11 f. The church at 2g 450 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [II. 4 Ephesus had done this ; im-eiparra^ here = iBoKi/iaaaii|i(av, reviling, calumny: What the calumnious charges were is not indicated, but they were evidently of a kind to expose the Christians to the penalties of the Roman law. — eauTovS : for this use of the reflex, pron. in the ace. with an infin., especially elvai, whose subject is the same as that of the governing word (Xejovrmv), cf . 39, Ac. 536, §9 . gge Blass § 72, 2. Usually a certain emphasis is given to the pron., but that is not the case here. — ovk elaCv they are not : 'He is not a Jew who is one outwardly,' Ro. 2*'- Throughout the book the Christian is with the writer the true Jew ; with him Christians constitute the 'Israel of God,' as with Paul (Gal. 6i6), and he writes as himself a Jew, with a jealous claim of the name for those who form the true people of God. In this use of the name Jew, the writer is said by many scholars to stand in contrast with the author of the Fourth Gospel, with whom the Jews is the designation of the foes of Jesus and his disciples, though of the same nationality. But however weighty may be the objections to identity of authorship in the two books (see pp. 354 ff.), it is doubtful whether a fun damental difference in the use of this name can be maintained. The author of the Fourth Gospel writing far from Palestine and the days of Jesus' earthly life, and dealing often with events in which the mass of the Jewish people with their rulers and leaders manifested their hostility to Jesus, uses the national name, though himself a Jew, with reference to the general attitude, as one might naturally do in addressing another people, and especially when the popular distinction between Jew and Christian had become marked. But a writer who says, ' salvation is of the Jews,' 4", who 454 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [11.9 speaks of an ' Israelite indeed,' i.e. a true Israelite, 1", and of ' the Jews that believed ' 8^', who denies by implication that certain of the Jews are truly the children of Abraham S^'-*^ (the real sense of this passage is not mate rially affected whether we read in v. 39 ia-ri or ^re, cf. Zahn Kom. in loc), agrees essentially in the matter here spoken of with the author of the Apocalypse. aDvavwYT] tov aaTavd, a synagogue of Satan : so also in 3^. Instead of being as they called themselves and were doubtless known, a synagogue, a congregation of Jews, which would be ' the congregation of Jehovah ' (i] crvvaiyaxyr) Kvpiov, Num. 163, 20*), as also they probably called themselves, they were really a synagogue serving Satan (cf. Jno. 8**), whom they served in this persecution of the Christians. 10. If pLTjBev be read instead of fii] (see text-note) the full construction is ptrjBev tovtcov a. — 6 SidpoXos, the devil : the real author of the persecutions is Satan, working through his ser vants the Jews and the Romans. — €| v\lS>v : this substitute for the indef. pron. with part. gen. occurs as subj. or obj. of a vb. ; cf . 39, 119, Lk. 11*9, see Blass § 35, 4. — iva ireipao-eTiTe, that ye may be tried : it is God's purpose that they may be tested in their trials. Some take it of Satan's purpose to tempt them to fall ; both thoughts may be included. — e|£Te . . . SeKa, ye shall have tribulation ten days : in the circumstances known to the writer the imprisonment appears inevitable (fieXXei ^dXXeiv), but it is to continue for a fixed time of not great length. On the symbolical number ten see p. 254. If eyvre be read instead of e^ere, it is parallel with ireipaaOriTe, express ing purpose ; but that reading is inferior as regards sense and authorities ; see text. note. — T)|j.£pv may be a gen. of measure after 6Xi-\^iv, a tribulation of ten days ; cf . Lk. 2**, Kiihn. II. 353, 3. — yivov ttio-tos ktX., shotv thyself faithful etc. : i.e. be ready to meet the extreme penalty of death, if it should come to that, as was possible and as had been the case at Pergamum, v. 13. — tov (ni^avov Tr[% ^cdt|s, the crown of II. 12] COMMENTARY 455 life: i.e. everlasting life as the crown, the reward, of victory. The phrase occurs also in Ja. I12. The crown occurs so often in antiquity as a mark of royalty, honor, a prize of victory, etc., that it is unnecessary to seek (so, some com.) for a local origin of the metaphor, i.e. in the games celebrated at Smyrna. The metaphorical use of the word is common ; with the Hebrews it denotes honor, dignity, e.g. Ps. 85, 103*, Job 3136, Wis. 516 ; in the N. T. it often denotes the eschatological reward of victory over evil ; e.g. I Co. 925, 2 Tim. 43, Ja. I12. The reference in the context to struggle and victory shows that to be the meaning here and in 31I- 11. See on V. 7. — Ik : denoting properly the source whence the effect proceeds, and so the agency or instrument ; see Thayer s.v. II. 5; Kiihn. §430, 2, 3. — tov GavdTou to{( 5£VTepov, the second death: the first is the natural death to which all are sub ject ; the second, the eternal death to which the condemned are given over at the judgment, 20"' ", 213. This designation of it occurs also in the Targums (see Wetstein), but our writer does not assume a full comprehension of the term on his readers' part ; he therefore explains it in 20i*, 213. -pj^e promise in this epistle is determined directly by the peril of the readers. They are in danger of the martyr's death here, but life eternal awaits them as their reward ; after this first death, the second can have no power to harm them. The reward promised here is the same as that of the former epistle, v. 7 ; but while it is there spoken of iu its general aspect, here it is viewed in special con trast "with the martyr's death, and with reference to delivery from the horrors of the second death. Textual notes, "w. 8-10. 8. See on v. 1. — 9. Before OXvj/w, K Q most min some vers and anc com. R read ra cpya xai, in agreement with the other epistles except v. 13 ; wanting in ACP some vers Prim edd ; but Sod in serts in brackets. The evidence for the words in v. 13 is similar, but K also omits them there. — 10. p-q ACQ some min Lch Tr Ws WH Blj al; p.ghf.v S P most min some vers and anc com. R Ti Sod, the more difiicuit reading. — efere S Q most min vers. R Ti Ws Sod Blj al; €xqTe. A some min Prim WH al, probably conformed to Trupaa-OrjTe by a copyist. — 7]p,epuiv SACP min edd ; •qp.epa's Q most min, a copyist's change to an easier construction. II. 12-17. The message to the Church in Pergamum. Perga mum, or Pergamus (the neuter is the more common form in 456 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [11.12 authors and inscriptions), in a northeasterly direction from Smyrna, in the valley of the Caicus, though less important as a commercial center, was in political and religious significance, in wealth and in the beauty of its public buildings, a rival of Ephesus. It possessed shrines of Zeus, Athene, Dionysos, and Asklepios. Of the last, the god of healing", its shrine, with its college of medical priests, formed a center for the gathering of sufferers from all quarters. But what is of special importance for the interpretation of this epistle, it was the foremost seat of the worship of the Roman emperors. In this city as the first place in the Asian province a temple had been consecrated (29 A.D.) to the 'divine Augustus and the goddess Roma,' and Pergamum continued to lead in this cult. Attitude toward this worship was made in time a test of loyalty to Csesar. Pergamum therefore became in the vision of the Apocalyptist a very center of Satan's devices against the Church, for the Asian Christians the seat of ' Satan's throne,' v. 13. In spite however of the powerful temptation to deny the faith, the church there had thus far stood firm. One member at least, Antipas, had fallen a martyr (v. 13), and the Lord bestows upon the church its meed of praise. But the Nicolaitans, the same false teachers who had appeared in other churches (Ephesus, Thyatira) with their lax doctrine regarding fornication and sharing in idol feasts, were active in Pergamum also ; and the church here, with all its steadfast loyalty to the name of Christ, had not taken the same rigorous stand against these teachers as had the Ephesians (vv. 2, 6). The possibility of regarding such laxity with a degree of leni ency cannot be judged altogether by the ideal Christian stand ard. The congregations were made up chiefly of converts from the Gentiles, with whom fornication was for the most part looked upon as a matter of indifference, and was likely to be excused by sophistical arguments, cf. v. 24, Eph. 56. And also in such communities it was difficult for Christians to continue social intercourse with their non-Christian friends without par taking, at least at a meal in a friend's house, of food which in its preparation for the market, or by some table-rite had been consecrated to a god. Questions about both of these practices m^ust have arisen in most Gentile congregations, and teachers II. 13] COMMENTARY 457 who found arguments for their excuse were likely to gain hearers. St. Paul, discusses both subjects in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (chapts. 5, 612-26, 8) and one of them in his circular letter sent to some of these Asian churches (Eph. 53-1*). Apparently the influence of the lax teaching had not become so great at Pergamum as at Thyatira ; at all events, the threats are less severe, cf. vv. 21 ff. ; but there were among the Pergamene Christians those who held the false views, even if they had not carried them out into practice, and the church suffered these to remain in its numbers (exei's v. 14). It is to meet the peril thus arising that this message is sent. The church is bidden to repent of its leniency. Though some might condone, or find arguments to defend, the practices in question, the sentence of the Lord's lips, ' the sword of his mouth,' condemns them, and in some signal visitation he will cut off those (aiiT&v V. 16) who thus offend. The candlestick of the church might remain in its place, but this visitation of some of its members will fall as a penalty upon the whole con gregation. The purpose of the warning is of course to lead the Pergamene church to heal the fault itself and to avert the visitation. If there were Jews at Pergamum, as there probably were, their part in the affairs of the Christians was not such as to call for mention in the epistle. 12. 6 'i\(t)V Ti]v po[i.aCa ktX., the sword of my mouth: see on v. 12, and l". 17. See on v. 7. — tm vikwvti ktX., to him that overcometh, etc. : here again, though the promise is universal, its form is determined by the circumstances of those addressed in this epistle. Those who resist the temptation to join in the pagan banquet shall in the inessianic kingdom share in the feast of heavenly manna. The particular blessing promised is one found elsewhere in Jewish eschatology. A pot of manna was stored up as a memorial in the ark (Ex. 1632-3*, Heb. 9*), and according to Hebrew tradition, when the temple was destroyed, II. 17] COMMENTARY 461 Jeremiah (2 Mace. 2*"-) or an angel (Ap. Bar. 65-io) rescued the ark and other sacred objects, and they were miraculously hidden in the earth to be preserved till the messianic time, when they would be restored. And feeding on manna became one of the promised blessings to be given in the messianic kingdom. ' In that time the treasures of manna will fall again from above, and they will eat thereof in those years,' Ap. Bar. 293. The same thought occurs in the rabbinical writings (cf. Volz 350), and is evidently referred to in Sib. Or. Proem. 87 ; III. 746. The idea is the source of the sym bol used by the Apocalyptist in this verse. A reference of the promise to the eucharist, or to the grace of Christ sustaining the Christian in trial (so, some of the older com.) is impossi ble ; the promise here, as well as in all the epistles, relates to the reward in the messianic kingdom, when the final victory shall have been won. — KeKpv|j.|iEVov, hidden: it is now hidden, but will be revealed in the coming age. The gen. is part., the only case of this use in the N. T. with a vb. of giving ; Win. § 30, 7 6; Blass § 36, 1, footnote. \|ni<|)ov XcvKTiv ktX., a white stone, etc. : As in all the promises, the gift here spoken of belongs to the eschatological state, and as will be seen below (fine print) it is a promise of defense against hostile powers ; an amulet containing as its secret in scription the victor's own new name will be bestowed upon him to give him power against every enemy. St. Paul bor rows the figure of the Christian's panoply of defense in the conflicts of the present life from contemporary warfare (Eph. 6" *•) ; but an apocalyptist more naturally takes the symbol of power and security in the future kingdom from familiar beliefs and practices regarding supernatural means of defense. The victor's new name characteristic of his new state will be given to him on a pebble, whose color befits his victory and glory, but none save himself will know that name written on the stone. Thus he will have a secret charm which will give him power against every assailant and avert every evil. With out, beyond the pale of the messianic kingdom, will be forni cators and idolators (22i5), as here at Pergamum now; but he who comes off victor over these present temptations will be rewarded by immunity from every allurement to evil. The 462 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [11.17 promise then, like that of the manna in the preceding clause, has a relation to the present circumstances of the readers. The choice of the victor's own new name (denoting his new state), instead of some other formula, as the secret inscription for the amulet, may be suggested by the fact that none but the redeemed himself . can fully know his blessedness in the future state ; at all events his defense in that state will be found in himself, in his new character and condition. This promise, ' I will give him a white stone,' etc., has received many dif ferent explanations. The following considerations will be helpful in avoid ing some untenable interpretations offered and in finding a clue to the probable meaning. (1) \prj<^o<; is a small, smooth stone, usually & pebble, such as was used in voting or counting ; sometimes it is a gem. (2) White in the Apocalypse is usually the color belonging to victory and glory. (3) The name written on the pebble is known, not to others, not even to fellow- victors, but only to the individual to whom it is given. It cannot then be anj' of the names of God, or Christ, for these are known to all, except the secret name of Christ spoken of in 19^^, but that is there said to be known only to Christ himself. It cannot be Christ's new name spoken of in 31^, for that is promised to all victors alike, as are the other names mentioned in that verse. It is clear from the emphatic forjn of the expression used that this absolute secrecy of the name is an important characteristic. (¦1) What is written on the pebble is the name of a person, not a mere for mula ; this is indicated by the word ovopa (not ypdp,pjxTa, cf . 'Ec^EO-ta ypdp,- paTa, p. 447), and by the similar phrase in 3'^. In view of what is said above (no. 3) this can hardly be other than a name given to the victor him self, as declared in the "word Kaivov ; a new and secret name is given to him. The practical identity of the name and the personality in biblical thought leads to the familiar representation of the bestowal of a new name upon entrance into a new state or character. ' Thou shalt be called by a new name,' Is. 62^, of. 651^, Gen. 3228, jjev. i^\ So the victor when he enters into the glorified state of membership in the messianic kingdom receives a new name. What now is the meaning when this new name is said to be given as a secret one, inscribed on a white pebble? Various answers have been given, {a) The judges in the Greek courts used black pebbles for a vote of condemnation, white for acquittal; hence the victor's acquittal in the day of judgment is symbolized, (b) At the games tickets were given to the victors, entitling them to food at public expense, and admitting them to royal banquets ; hence admission to the heavenly feast of manna is meant, (c) A rabbinic tradition tells of the falling of pearls together with the manna; as a reminiscence of that tradition the author connects the two objects here somewhat mechanically, {d) The symbol is taken from the jewels engraved with the names of the twelve tribes and set in II. 18] COMMENTARY 463 Aaron's breastplate (Ex. 28"'''-), or from the Urim (Ex. 28^°), assumed to be a diamond engraved with the name of Jehovah and set in the breast plate of the high priest; the priestly dignity of the victors is therefore denoted, (e) It was common to engrave various things on small stones ; the pebble then is used here merely as means of giving to the "victor his new name, and has in itself no significance. (/) Apart from objections which may be urged against details in these several explanations of the symbol, they all fail to combine the characteristics pointed out above as essential in the author's description, i.e. the whiteness of the pebbles, the victor's name as a new one, and the emphasis on secrecy. The emphasized secret name points to the probable explanation. A strong belief in the power of a divine name in invocations, adjurations, and incantations was everywhere current in the ancient world, among the Hebrews as well as among other peoples. Solomon's seal engraven with a name of God gave him power over demons (cf. En. Bib. IV. 4690). Also a magic power was attributed to other names and formulas. But the value of the mystical name or words was often thought to depend upon its being kept secret, lest others should make use of it. Such magical words were written on pieces of leather, small metallic plates, and probably on small stones ; cf. Heitmiiller Im namen Jesu; Jeremias Bab. im N. T. 104 ff. ; Haist. IIL 211, IV. 604, Extra vol. 640 f. This prevalence of magical practices suggests the origin of the symbol used here ; the Apocalyptist takes it from a usage familiar to aU his readers. A white pebble emblematic of victory, engraven with the victor's new and hidden name, will be given to him marking his en trance into his new state of being, and bestowing upon him a talismanic power against every evil. The interpretation has so strong probability in its favor that it is adopted with slight variations by most among recent commentators ; so, Bouss. Holtzm-Bauer, Moffatt, Swete, al. Textual notes, vv. 12-16. On the address see on v. 1. — 13. On the in sertion of ra epya crov after oiSa see on v. 2. — After rjptpati, QP most min some vers R insert ots, or ev ats, apparently a cori-ection, AvriTras being con sidered nom. For AvriTras, some, Zahn Blj Sw would substitute AvTtn-a, gen. — After ttutto's, AC some min Ti Ws Rv add p.ov; WH Sod bracket — OS before arnKTavd-g, omitted in some min. — 14. tid before ftaXaK, AC some min edd ; wanting in S ; tov PQ «'=¦ — 15. op.oim ACQ most vers edd ; o p.i(Ta> some min R. — 16. ow wanting in « P many min R. II. 18-29. The message to the church in Thyatira. Thyatira, southeast of Pergamum, between the latter and Sardis, though less conspicuous in political and religious history than most of the cities which make up the seven, was an important indus trial center. Foremost among its industries was that of dyemg and manufacturing woolen goods. Lydia, 'a seller of pui'ple,' who appears in the story of Paul's work at Philippi (Ac. 16" 0. was probably an agent of a Thyatiran establishment. The 464 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [11.18 guild of dyers was prominent, and numerous other guilds of craftsmen existed here, as .seen from inscriptions. The church, jjerhaps planted by St. Paul or some of his fellow-missioners in the course of his long stay in Asia (Ac. 19^6), was doubtless, like the other churches, predominantly Gentile in its composi tion. The Jewish element in the community is not mentioned in the epistle. From its beginning the Thyatiran church had grown in love and fidelity, in its ministration to the brethren, and patient endurance of trial. For these virtues the Lord bestows upon it his meed of praise (v. 19); and after the correction of the particular failure censured in the epistle, his strongest admoni tion for the future is to hold fast in its course till he comes again (vv. 24 f.). But the same erroneous teaching of the Nicolaitans regarding fornication and idolatrous feasts which had appeared elsewhere had gained a still stronger hold here. While its advocates were promptly silenced at Ephesus, and a comparatively small number of its adherents were tolerated among the brethren at Pergamum, here at Thyatira it was authoritatively taught by one claiming the inspired gift of prophecy and therefore possessing great influence with the Christians (see on v. 20). The self-styled prophetess had, in spite of distinct warning, carried on her work now for a con siderable time (v. 21) with the sufferance of the church (a^et? V. 20), and had gained a body of adherents who were following out the teaching into practice (v. 22). The pro phetic claim and the powerful influence of this leader gave to the false teaching here at Thyatira a significance which it had not assumed in the other cities. This fact is what differen tiates this epistle from the others aimed against Nicolaitanism, and what causes the wrathful tone of the epistle, from the epithet of Christ in the opening to the promise with its peculiar nature at the end (see on vv. 20, 27). The aim of the epistle is to strengthen the imperiled church, to summon the fallen members to repentance, and to threaten the impenitent, both the ' prophetess ' and her followers, with a signal visitation of judgment, which shall vindicate, in the sight of the scandalized churches, the Lord's abhorrence of the evil at Thyatira (vv. 22 f.). Doubtless many of the Christians belonged to the II. 20] COMMENTARY 465 guilds at Thyatira, and as feasts having a more or less idola trous character were held in connection with these, and as the temptation to unchastity might be increased through such association, it is evident that these brethren would be in special peril. There is, however, nothing in the epistle to indicate that the great question here brought before the church was, as some suppose (Ramsay, al), withdrawal from membership in the guilds. The exhortation is rather to hold fast to Christian fidelity and purity, as most of the brethren had hitherto done, in the face of the strong temptation which must beset them in their necessary connection with an unchristian society. The treatment which the church itself should extend to the erring is not specified ; the Lord's discipline of these, in case of con tinued impenitence, is announced in the threatened visitation (vv. 22 f.). 18. 6 vlos TOV 9€ov, the Son of Cod: this title of Christ is not used elsewhere in the book, though it is implied in v. 27, 35, al. Its choice here as a title of the Messiah is probably due to its presence in the passage, Ps. 2^"^, which the writer has in mind as about to be used, v. 27. — 6 '4\a)V tovs 6(t>6aX|iovs ktX., whose eyes are etc. : the epithet, taken from 1" *", has in view the teaching of the ' prophetess ' at Thyatira ; the Lord's keen, fierce vision penetrates its falseness, and he will tread its adher ents beneath his feet. — x(^^*^°^>'P°'V(?' burnished brass : see on li5. 19. Td ep-ya, thy works : see on v. 2. — Kal tt^v d-ydiTTiv ktX., even thy love etc. : the words define the ' works ' (on kui, namely, even, see on 1^), and there are not four distinct classes men tioned, but two, love and faithfulness (-ttio-tiv), spoken of first in general terms, then viewed in their specific aspects as shown in the appositional clauses immediately added (Kai before BiaKoviav even), love manifesting itself in ministration to the brethren's needs (BiaKoviav, cf. Ac. 1129, j Co. 16i5) and faith fulness showing itself in steadfast endurance of trial (virofiov-i^v). And in these Christian activities the Thyatiran church was still increasing; its 'last works are more than the first.' The par ticular form and source of trial, in which its steadfastness was shown, are not indicated. 20. The high praise of the church precedes severe censure. — - diiTiv, a prophetess: prophets take a very high rank in the apostolic Church ; they are spe cially inspired messengers from God, like the prophets of the O. T. ; they are often mentioned, e.g. Ac. 112?, I31, 1 Co. 1223, Eph. 411 ; on their office see especially 1 Co. 14 passim. The prophetic gift was exercised by women as well as men. Our author insistently claims the prophet's character ; see pp. 292 f. It is easy then to understand the indignation felt toward this woman who claimed to come with special divine authority for her corrupt teaching, who not improbably had come into direct personal conflict with our writer in his earlier work among the Asian churches (see on v. 21), and who had been able to main tain her ground now for some time and gather about her a band of followers. The woman was evidently a member of the church. The theory of some (following Schiirer) that she was a priestess of the Chaldsean Sibyl who had a temple at Thyatira does not suit the facts presupposed here ; her teach ing is assumed to be within the church, and the church is held responsible for her activity (a^et?) ; the epistle, like the others, has to do with members of the church only. Cf . Bouss. in loc. — iropvevCTai ktX. ; to commit fornication etc. : this definition of her teaching shows the error to be the same Nicolaitanism which had appeared elsewhere. II. 23] COMMENTARY 467 21. eScoKa a'dTfj xpovov ktX., I gave her time etc. : a definite event of the past is in view here, whether the warning was given by some special visitation, by the writer himself in his work at Thyatira, or in some other way, is not intimated ; the reference may be known to the Thyatiran readers. — 1[va iieTavoTJa-]] : for this use of iva with subjv. instead of the infin. after a noun, common in the N. T., see Burton § 216 : Blass § 69, 5. — ov GeXei, she willeth not : she still continues her course. 22. pdXX<''°VTai Trdffai. ktX. , all the churches shall know etc. ; the state of things at Thyatira was widely known and called for a manifestation of the Lord's displeasure. — 6 epevvwv ktX., he that searcheth etc.: from Jer. 171°, cf. Ps. 7^. Such evil as that at Thyatira is not hidden from the Lord, and each one in the church there will receive of him according to his deeds. An epithet of Jehovah is here applied to Christ. — eKdo-Tw KttTd Td ep-ya tiiiuv, to each according to your works : both reward and punishment are included, but the latter is prin cipally thought of in this connection. The description of Christ given in this verse is in agreement with the epithet of V. 18 and the promise of v. 27. 24. From the searching words of v. 23 the Lord turns back (cf. the message to the Ephesians, v. 6), to encourage those who have not yielded to the libertine teaching. With words inspiring confidence and hope he assures them of his approval, if they keep their present state of love and fidelity till he comes again. — v|xtv, Tots Xoiirots, to you, the rest : strongly empha sized in contrast with those who held the Nicolaitan error. — OVK e'YVtoo-av Td paOea Toii craTavd, have not known the depths of Satan: as shown by m? Xeyovaiv, the "writer is in this phrase quoting from language current with the libertine teachers, and apparently used by them to characterize their own knowledge of ' the deep things. ' Some suppose that their actual phrase was either simply ' the deep things ', or ' the deep things of God ' (cf. 1 Co. 216), and that our writer in irony either adds 'of Satan ' or turns their phrase ' the deep things of God ' into ' the deep things of Satan ', somewhat as in v. 9 he turns the self- designation of the Jews into ' a synagogue of Satan.' But this is against the natural sense of the language, and would require some such indication of the turn given to the original words as appears in v. 9. The entire phrase is to be attributed to the Nicolaitans ; and from the context it is clear that they used it in defense of their position. The precise form of their argu ment can only be conjectured. Knowledge of deep things was II. 24] COMMENTARY 469 a frequent boast of the Gnostics of a later time ; but we obtain from that source no light on the precise reasoning of the Nico laitans. The fanaticism that the Christian cannot sin was found among the Asian churches (cf. 1 Jno. V-", 3i6), and the Nicolaitans may have argued that by entering into the strong holds of Satan, by ' knowing his depths,' the Christian could demonstrate Satan's powerlessness in his case ; or that the real nature of sin could only be kno"wn in this way ; or that actual spiritual strength was gained by this personal contact with evil. Cf. Bouss., Moffatt, in loc, Volter Off'enh. 167 f., Zahn Ein. II. 65. Some light on their reasoning may perhaps be derived from that of the Corinthians, among whom the question of sharing in idolatrous feasts had arisen. Those who prided themselves on their ' knowledge ' and ' strength ' to see the hannlessness of such participation defended it in their own case, arguing that those who had scruples, the ' weaker ' breth ren, beholding their participation would be built up in knowl edge and strength. (In 1 Co. 8i6 oiKoBopiriO'^aeTai is an ironical repetition of the argument of the ' strong ' ; cf . Schmiedel, Baehmann in Zahn's Kom. Plummer in ICC. in loc.) — ov pdXXw . . . pdpos, Iput upon you none other burden, or weighty admo nition: What is the correlative of other — other than what? Mo,¥t com. find here a direct reference to the so-called apostolic de-eree. Ac. 15^ *•. The meaning then is that no restriction of their Christian freedom is imposed upon the Thyatirans, beyond the commands which are there given, and which they now ob- -servB. viz. : to abstain from things offered to idols and from iunrieation. It is true that these prohibitions are foremost in tluB ij-^-'Ae, and that the words used here may be thought to eommii i kind of reminiscence of that decree, though in fact tmn -nsm keyword of this sentence, ^dpo';, occurs there. But Bir-'-i- objections to this interpretation present themselves. Tin iTestion arising here at Thyatira is too remote from that >jff ¦ 7^ The apostolic Council to recall that decree ; the persons adirtA^^ the faithful, do not appear to have been perplexed as xo the restriction of their Christian freedom. INIoreover, the word aXXo here is, according to this interpretation, altogether isolated, and would require the addition of something to show reference to the decree, or to topics so remote from the context 470 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [11.24 as V. 20. It would seem necessary, then, to seek the correlative of dXXo in the near context, and since it cannot appropriately be found in vv. 21 ff. (efforts to find it there, De Wette in loc, hardly call for discussion), it must be sought in what foUows. After dXXoa ktX., as I also received, etc. : the power which the Messiah wiU give to his people to break the enemy in pieces is one which he received from the Father ; see p. 314. — t6v daTepa tov irpooivdv, the morning star : this obscure symbol is perhaps derived from the familiar apocalyptic saying that in the messianic kingdom the righteous shall shine as the stars ; cf. Dan. 123, 2 Es. 7^^ En. 1042. i^ refers then to the glory which shall be given to the victor ; and its mention here is perhaps suggested by the former clause ; the victor's share in the Messiah's conquest over his enemies may suggest the glory that is to follow. The star of the morning may be speci fied as being thought the brightest ; cf. Job 38^. In 22i6 Christ himself is the morning star ; see note there. The mean ing cannot be, as some take it, that he will give himself to the victor, a conception not possible in our Apocalyptist's idea of the eschatological kingdom. For various earlier explanations, generally rejected, see Diist., Alford in loc. Quite possibly the symbol is derived from some popular religious or eschato logical idea not elsewhere preserved. Textual notes, vv. 18-27. 18. See on'V. 1. — a-vrov after o^6aXp.ovi;, want ing in A some rain, omitted by Lch Ws, bracketed by WH. — (j>Xoya ACQPR most edd; (f>Xoi X Ti Blj. — 20. AQ some min and vers add aov after yvvaiKa ; wanting « C P most min and vers, omitted by nearly all edd. The addition of aov may be a mechanical error of the copyist through the influence of the aov occurring four times in the preceding words (Ws. p. 132), or it may be due to a copyist who identified the ' angel ' with the bishop ; some refer it to a reminiscence of 1 K. 2V^ (see Com. in loc.) The evi dence from both textual sources and exegesis seems to be decisive against it. 472 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [III. 1 For defence of the reading see Zahn Ein. II. 620 f . — 22. avTjys after epyiav, nearly all sources edd ; avrtov A some vers R. — jSaWo) ACP most min edd ; /3aA(D (fut.) S Q some min and vers R. — 27. avvrpifieTai X A C many min R edd ; awTpiPrjaerai P Q many min, a correction to conform with Troipava. III. 1-6. The message to the church in Sardis. Sardis in Lydia, south of Thyatira, at the meeting of numerous Roman commercial routes, was an ancient city, a seat of rule under successive kingdoms and famed for its wealth. Though it had long since fallen from this high position, yet under Roman dominion it had become an important industrial center ; its manufactures of woolen and dyed goods, like those of Thyatira, were well known. It was made one of the seats of the Roman provincial courts, and it vied with other Asian cities for the honor of erecting a temple for the emperor-worship. The church at Sardis, so far as appears from the epistle, was un troubled in both its external relations, and its internal state. Nothing is said of hostility on the part of the Jewish element in the community, nothing of the tribulation or endurance spoken of in all the other epistles except that to the Laodiceans ; and though Sardian Christians had fallen into immorality (v. 4), this is not attributed to the influence of Nicolaitan teachers in the church. This very freedom from the struggles forced upon the churches generally, and the hereditary Lydian character famed for its softness and love of luxury (cf . Aesch. Pers. 41, Hdt. I. 155) may account for the deep spiritual apathy into which the Sardian church had sunk. ' The atmos phere of an old pagan city, heavy with the immoral traditions of eight centuries, was unfavorable to the growth of her spirit ual life' (Swete LX.). The church is described as dead (v. 1), as spiritually asleep, not as totally extinct, for it is not con ceived to be beyond the appeal to arouse itself to a living activity (v. 2). Even those few members who had kept them selves from the immorality prevailing in such a community (v. 4) do not seem to be entirely exempt from this general characterization of the church; their firmness is acknowledged and its fitting reward is promised, but they are not commended for a vigorous Christian life fruitful beyond themselves. With the exception of these guarded words of approval and promise, the message is one of severe censure. Its purpose is to awaken III. 2] COMMENTARY 473 into renewed life, in an important Asian center, a church now in danger of utter extinction. 1. The epithet of Christ is twofold, as in most of the epistles. The first part, 'that hath the seven Spirits,' is a reminiscence of the words of 1*, but in the form which these words receive in 56 also, expressing the relation of the Spirit to Christ. (See on 2'', also p. 316.) The second part, ' that hath the seven stars,' is from li6. Each part of the epithet has its special reference to the contents of the message follow ing. He, whose eyes (i.e. the all -penetrating Spirit, see on 56) behold all things, pierces through the delusive complacency of the Sardian church and tells them in terrible words that their works fall short in the judgment of God (v. 2), that their claim to be a living church is but nominal ; they are in reality as asleep and in imminent peril of utter spiritual death (vv. 1-2). He that hath the seven stars in his hand, he that hath the Church in his keeping to do with it as he will (see on II6), warns the Sardians that unless they repent he will come upon them suddenly with judgment, at an unexpected hour (v. 3) ; but on the other hand the victor is assured of safety and reward in the End (v. 5). — Td eiTTd TrvevjiaTa, the seven Spirits : For this designation of the Holy Spirit see on 1*- — epYa, works : see on 22. Reference is here made to spiritual state as described in the following clause. — ovo|Aa oti ktX., a name that thou livest : the name is contrasted with the reality ; for this use of the word cf. Hdt. VII. 138. — veKpds, dead: not a state of complete spiritual death, which would exclude epieXXov airoOaveiv, about to die; cf. Eph. 51*, 'Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.' 2. -yivov, show thyself, be. For the use of yivopiai with the partic. forming a periphrasis see Buttm. p. 308, Kiihn. II. § 353, 4, A. 3. As there is nothing to indicate a change of sub ject the command is to be understood as addressed to all, in cluding those mentioned in v. 4, to throw off apathy and be watchful. — o-TTipio-ov : on this form of the aor. see Blass § 16, 2. — Td Xoiird, the rest: what still remains in contrast with the dead; both persons and the elements of Christian character are included. But even these are in peril of spiritual death. On TO, Xomd with defining rel. clause cf . 22*. — et^eXXov : the 474 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [in.2 imperf. seems to be used like the epistolary aor., but see Burton § 28. — Td ep^ya, thy works : their characteristic spirit ual life and activity as a whole. The line of argument here makes more probable a reference to the general character and condition of the church as a whole than to a short-coming in every individual virtue, and so favors the reading of the art. with epr^a (see text, note) ; without the art. the sense would be ' I have not found any works of thine, any Christian activity, fully carried out' (RV text). — ir£"irXiipas : the close con nection with rJKovaa<; seems to require this to be taken as the aoristic perf. as in 5'^, cf. Blass § 59, 4, Burton §§80 and 88. — TTJpei, jjieTavoTio-ov, keep (sc it), repent: the pres. of con tinued action, the aor. of a single act. — edv ovv, if therefore : i.e. in response to such a call to repentance. — tjIo) ktX., I will come, etc.: a special visitation may be meant as in 222*-, or the eschatological coming ; the latter is the meaning in the other places where this comparison with a thief is used (16i5, Mt. 24*8, Lk. 1239, 1 Thess. 52, 2 Pet. 3i6), but with a figure taken from so familiar experience, that cannot be altogether decisive for the present passage. — JSpav : for the ace. in this word to denote the time at which something occurs, see Blass § 34, 8 ; it is common in classical Gk. also, cf. Kiihn. II. 410, 5, A. 15. III. 5] COMMENTARY 475 4. The severe tone of the message is here softened by the recognition of those members of the Sardian church, few in number, who have kept themselves free from the taint of the surrounding pagan society. — 6v6[i.aTa, names : z'.e. persons; cf. 1113, ^Q_ jis — Q.^,^ €|x6Xvvav ktX., have not defiled, etc.: have not sullied their Christian character. It is doubtful whether the significance of the figure should be limited to unchastity, as many take it; the language in 71*, 22i* would suggest rather contamination in general, suffered through yielding in contact with the life in Sardis ; cf. Jude 23. — irepLiraTTio-ovCTiv |jl€t' e|xov, shall walk (about) with me: the words express intimate fellow ship with the Lord, as companions in the messianic kingdom. — ev XevKots, in white : white garments, especially appropriate here as symbolical of purity, are a standing characteristic of the blessed and of heavenly beings, as garments of glory; cf. 7''"'', Dan. 79, Mt. 283 ; of. also on garments of glory 2 Es. 239, gn. 6215, Slav. En. 223. ji^q special reference, as e.g. to the priest hood of the redeemed, or the resurrection body, is to be sought here. In this passage, as in v. 20 and 2i6, an eschatological promise is introduced before that connected with the formula 6 viKwv, he that overcometh. — d|ioi, worthy: i.e. to receive the gift of God, a gift of his grace, not the wage of works, Eph. 23. 5. From the recognition of the few unsullied ones in the Sardian church the Lord turns to every one who in the end shall prove himself a victor over evil. The promise in its open ing words is similar to that given to the ' few ' of v. 4. But the close companionship contained in the words ' walk about with me ' is not declared in the general words ' shall be arrayed in white raiment.' The part of the promise given in these words is especially appropriate to the victor over the corruption of the life at Sardis. Two other blessings are specified in the promise : (a) an indelible place in the book of eternal life, in contrast with the spiritual death into which the Sardians are now sinking, v. 1 ; (h) an acknowledgment of the victor's name, i.e. as a follower of Christ, before God and the angels in the day of judgment, in contrast with the judgment of condem nation now falling upon the readers' failure, v. 2. — oiJTtos, thus: if this be the correct reading, it is best taken, in this manner, i.e. in 476 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [III. 5 the manner spoken of in the words, ' in white ' ; these words are then to be considered as added afterward in apposition with oi/TCd? to make definite the meaning. Some render o^tar] XQ many min Ti Tr WH mrg. — 5. ovtois S"*AC most min vers edd ; euros K^PQ many min R Sod al. III. 7-13. The message to the church in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, southeast of Sardis, a meeting point of great routes from the latter city, from the coast, and from inner parts of the province on the northeast and southeast, and itself situ ated in the midst of a fertile region, was a city of wealth and commercial importance. Its geographical position, which gave it access to so large a territory, is supposed by some to be al luded to in the ' open door ' spoken of in the epistle (v. 8), but this is probably a misinterpretation (see note in loc). The church there is described as possessing little power (v. 8), i.e. as regards numbers, or wealth, or members of influence in the community, but its spiritual life receives the Lord's praise, with no addition of censure. The Jews were actively hostile to the church, and certain movements instituted against it in the past had apparently been instigated by them. But the Chris tians had met the trial with fidelity to the name of the Lord and with patient endurance (vv. 8, 10). The enemies of the church were not within, in the person of false teachers, they were without ; and so far as appears from the epistle they were chiefly Jews. The purpose of the message is first of all to forewarn the Christians of the great trial, the ' messianic woes,' soon to come upon all the earth, to exhort them to hold fast in their fidelity, and to encourage them with promises of the future — promises of their sure deliverance (v. 10), of their certain admission into the messianic kingdom (v. 7), of an eternally enduring place in that kingdom, and an open recognition of them as the people of God and the Messiah (v. 12). At the same time the readers are assured that the Jews themselves, or at least some of them, who are now their bitterest opponents will in the end come to do them homage as the beloved of the Messiah (v. 9). This epistle is singularly interesting in that it touches the question which must have perplexed every Christian Jew, the attitude of God's ancient people toward Christianity, and their ultimate relation to the coming kingdom of the Messiah. St. Paul in 478 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [III. 7 the epistle to the Romans had discussed the subject at consid erable length (chapts. 9-11). Our author here takes it up from a different standpoint, and in a single concrete case; yet this case is viewed in an eschatological light and thus becomes typical of a whole class (see on v. 9, and lli~'i3). The subject forms a prominent topic in this, the most distinctly eschato logical of the seven epistles. A glimpse is opened into the attitude of the Jews, arrogant in their claim to be the people of God and heirs of the Davidic kingdom of glory, contemning Jesus as a false Messiah (see on v. 7) and persecuting those that confessed his name. Over against this picture stands the Lord announcing himself the true Messiah, who bears the key of David's house, that is, supreme power over the messianic king dom to admit or exclude whom he will; to his own the door will be open and none, no Jew, no scribe nor Pharisee, as now (Mt. 2313) .^i^ ]3g able to shut it (v. 8). At the same time, in language borrowed from the prophets, foretelling that the Gentiles shall come to bow themselves at the feet of Israel, the Lord declares to his faithful ones that in the last days a rem nant of Jews will come to honor them, and recognizing him as the true Messiah will recognize them as the special objects of his love (v. 9). As Lord of that coming kingdom he will write upon the final victors those names which will show that they, and not the unbelieving Jews, belong to Jehovah as the true people of God, to the new Jerusalem, and to the glorified messianic king (v. 12). 7. On the 'Angel,' see on 126. — 5 dYios, the Holy One: the title elsewhere in the book given to God (43, 61°) is here attrib uted to Christ, and as shown by the added words, ' he that hath the key of David,' etc., it is used as a designation of him in his messianic character ; d ayio'i, or d 0740? tov Oeov, the holy one, or the holy one of Cod, was one of the recognized titles of the Messiah ; cf. Mk. I2*, Lk. 43*, Jno. 669, 1 j^o. 220, Clem. Rm. 235, cf . also Ac. 42?' 30. it characterizes him, not in his sinlessness, but as the one especially set apart, belonging exclu sively, to God ; as ' the anointed one ' he is uniquely ' the con secrated one.' The interpretation in the EV misses the messi anic reference. — 6 dXi^Givds, the true one: i.e. the true Messiah. Here as in general aXrjdivo^ is to be distinguished from aXi)6ri<} ; Ill- 8] COMMENTARY 479 the latter denotes what is truthful, the former what is genuine, true to the idea; here the one who is truly 'the holy one,' the true Messiah, as distinguished from a false one ; cf . ' the true light,' ' the true God,' Jno. 19, I Jno. 520. The word is frequent in the Johannine writings, occurring 23 times, in the rest of the N. T. 5 times. — 6 e'xcov ktX., he that hath the key, etc. : the epithet is taken from Is. 2222, -where the words refer to Elia- kim, who is to receive the key as the chief steward of the royal household ; as the king's representative he is authorized to exercise full administrative power in the palace in the king's name (cf. ^It. 16i9). The passage in Isaiah appears to have received a messianic interpretation with the Jews, and it is used here to express the Lord's supreme power in the messianic kingdom to open or close its door as he will ; cf. Heb. 36, Mt. 2813. The 'key of David' is the key of David's house, i.e. the Messiah's kingdom. The epithet given to Christ at the open ing of this epistle, like that in the following epistle, v. 14, and in part also in the preceding one, v. 1, is not taken from the vision of 126 ff.^ j^^^ from a thought prominent in the author's mind and expressed elsewhere in the book ; Christ is the Davidic Messiah, who will receive his own to share in his king dom, cf. 226, 321, 55, I911-16, 20*, 2216. The close connection of the epithet with the topic of the epistle is apparent. While the Jews, whose hostility is prominently in view, denied that Jesus was the Messiah, and claimed that they alOne, and not his followers, could have part in the final kingdom of David, these opening words on the contrary declare the Lord's true Messiahship, and his power in the coming reign of glory to open the door to his o"wn and to close it to the self-styled 'children of the kingdom.' 8. aov Td 'i^ya.,thy works: for the meaning of 'works' see on 22. The special meaning is given in the clause oti fUKpav ktX., namely that thou hast little power and yet, etc. The inter vening words IBoii BeBaKa ktX., behold I have set before thee, etc., form a parenthesis. , This punctuation, adopted by most com., is certainly correct, for in aH the epistles in which the formula oTSa aov ra epya, vague in itself, occurs there f oUow explanatory words, either a clause introduced by Sti, or nouns in apposition. The connection of the on clause with the sentence immedi- 480 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [III. 8 ately preceding, and giving a reason (Diist.), yields no proper sense, espe cially in view of the words rjv oiStts . . ¦ avT-gv. The same may be said of the connection of the clause with v. 9 to introduce a ground for what is prophesied. Gvpav f|V€(g"y|iev»iv, a door opened : the figure of an open door is used in the N. T. to denote (1) opportunity for an effective preaching of the gospel, cf. 1 Co. 169, 2 Co. 2i2, Col. 43; (2) an admission into a place or state, cf. Rev. 326, 4i, Ace. 1427, Jno. 10^' 9. The first use is spoken of as a Pauline contribution to Christian phraseology (Deissmann, lAcht v. Osten 225, thinks he took it from some popular Gk. usage), but the figure is one that suggests itself so readily that its origin need not be attrib uted to any single writer. We are pretty certainly right in taking the words here in the second sense ; the Lord promises to the Philadelphians as a reward of their fidelity a sure en trance into his kingdom, he has put before them an open door, which no one can shut. Many com. suppose the first sense to be intended here, the meaning being then that the Lord will open to the Philadelphians an opportunity to win many converts, and as some take it from the Jews, whose accession to their church is thought to be predicted in v. 9. But such a reference tb future missionary activity of the church is singularly out of place, thrust in as a parenthesis between the parts of a sentence concerned with a com mendation of the church for its steadfastness in the past. In fact the work of spreading the gospel is not one of the acti-yities urged upon the Church in these epistles, nor is it indeed in the book in general ; and naturally so, since the author's chief purpose is to help the Church to pass through the great trials about breaking upon it. On the other hand the second meaning is appropriate and is suggested by the context ; the recognition of the fidel ity of the Philadelphian church, expressed summarily in the words, / know thy works, leads easily to an immediate announcement of the final reward of their fidelity in an assured admission into the Messiah's kingdom. This interpretation is confirmed by several considerations, (a) The words, / have set before thee a door opened which no one can shut, are evidently adapted from the preceding verse ; they describe this act as one of those acts of opening and shutting there spoken of, i.e. as an act belonging to the eschatological kingdom, (b) The emphatic words, no one can shut, refer clearly to opposi tion to that which is offered in the promise of the open door ; this is most easily understood of Jewish hostility, which would shut out all Gentiles from the messianic kingdom, (c) The strongly marked eschatological tone of this epistle favors this interpretation. The prophecy of v. 9 is likevyise probably to be understood to relate to the Last Days ; see note there. III. 9] COMMENTARY 481 6e8(OKa, have set, lit. have given : the word is chosen to suit what is promised as a gift. — avTiiv : repeating pleonastically the rel. rjv, a Heb. idiom common in the N. T., see Blass § 50, 4, Win § 22, 4, b. — oti . . . Svvajiiv ktX. : namely that thou hast little (not a little) power, etc. : explaining to. epya, thy works; see above. The words piiKpav e;y;et9 Bvvapi.iv could not alone form a part of the to, epya, as this phrase is used in the epistles ; they are subordinate to the following, the sense being, though thou hast little power, yet thou didst keep my word, etc. For this use of Kai connecting clauses as coordinate where one of them is really subordinate and where Kairoi might be ex pected see Kiihn. II. 521, 4, Thayer s.v. I. 2, e. — fiiKpav, little : said, not of spiritual weakness, for the church is praised through out, but with reference to its opponents ; it is perhaps small in numbers, or in members of wealth, or influence. — eTiiptiaas, ovk TipvYJao), didst keep, didst not deny : the aor. shows that a definite past event is meant, some experience of trial brought upon the church, probably through the Jews, as the context would suggest. 9. Mention of persecution on the part of the Jews leads directly to the prophecy that some of those who are now the bitterest enemies of the Christians will come to do homage to them and acknowledge that they are the beloved of the Christ. For the language ' synagogue of Satan,' ' say they are Jews and are not,' see on 29. — 8l8(o, I give : for the form, instead of BiB(ofii, see Blass § 23, 3, WH. Select Readings, p. 167. The word is appropriate because the homage will come as a gift from God. The obj. of the vb. is not given in full in this clause ; the thought is completed, with changed construction, in the clause iroirjao) avTow ktX., I will make them to come, etc. — €K TTJs (Tvva'yw'yTJS : for this idiom, equivalent to some of the synagogue, etc., see on 21°. — twv Xe'ydvTwv : in apposition with awaycoyiji; . — eavTOVs : see on 29. — TroiTJ(7j = airta, the ' incipient cause " see Wis. 12^^, where strength is called StKatoo-Jviys a.px>] ; ibid. 14^', the worship of idols is ¦n-avTos a.pXV xaKov Kal airia ; cf . also ibid. 6^^, 14^^ ; for other examples of. Thayer s.v. Compare also the parallel use of tcXos, Ro. 10*, said of Christ who brings to an end law as a means of attaining righteousness. Some take dpxij in our passage to mean Head, Lord ; but for that idea dp)(f_ ^g,-^ TaiiTa iJKovaa 19i), introduces a new vision, or at least a separate part of a vision, whereas Kal iBov, Kal elBov introduce a subordinate part of one and the same vision. The length of interval between two visions is not shown, as it is in 2 Es. ; and it is doubtful whether this phrase can be pressed to indicate strictly the chronological order in which the visions were received ; for example, the insertion of the visions of 7i~i^ between the sixth and seventh seals is not improbably due to the author's method of arranging in an organized literary plan visions received at different times. — Gvpa fivewYiievq, a door opened in heaven : the door set open in the vault of the sky, here conceived as a solid firmament, is not IV.2] COMMENTARY 495 an opening through which the Seer might look from earth into heaven ; that idea would be expressed by the phrase, ' the heavens were opened,' cf. Ezk. li, Ac. 756, 10", Ap. Bar. 22i ; it is that to which the Seer is to come up (avd^a), and either pass through into the heavens, as does Enoch in Slav. En. 21-24, or stand before it beholding what is within, as do Enoch in En. 1415-25 and Levi in Test. Lev. 5. For the nom. Ovpa, (fxovri, with iBoii, a common idiom in the N. T., see Blass § 33, 2, footnote, Buttm. p. 139. — tj <|)(ovt| ktX., the voice, etc.: the voice is identified with that which spoke in 116 ; it is the voice of Christ, see note there. The introduction of Christ here as the agent showing a vision (Bei^co) of which he himself forms a part, the Lamb (5^*), has raised difficulty with many com.; but his function here is quite different from that of the angel, for example, who carries the prophet away and shows him a vision, as in 173, 21i6 ; he does not appear here, only his voice is heard sounding out of heaven and summoning the prophet up from earth; after the Seer's rapture, i.e. in the actual vision itself, Christ does not take the part of one showing a vision. His words, ' I will show thee what must come to pass,' are first fulfilled in the Lamb's act of breaking the seals. This passage then is not opposed to the reference of the voice of li6 to Christ, as some com. suppose, see note on li". At the same time Christ's agency in the- revelations of the book is here repre sented in the same way as in li ; it is through him that they are all given, directly or indirectly ; Bei^o) here repeats Bel^ai of 11. — XaXovo-qs : belonging with ijv is attracted into the construction of adXiriyyo';. — Xe-yav : with ^wvrj, const, ad. sens. — dvdpa : for dvd^rjOi, see Blass § 23, 4. — |i€Td TavTa, here after : as in li9, which shows that the words are to be joined with yeveaOai, not with evOeax; ktX., as WH punctuate. 2. evGecos iyev6\Lr\v ev Trvev|JiaTi, straightway I (came to be) was in the Spirit : the language would seem to imply the begin ning of an ecstasy, whereas the Prophet has been represented in such a state from li6 on ; it was in this state that he saw the open door, and heard the voice (v. 1). No author or compiler even, who wrote as introductory to the vision verse 1, with its implied ecstasy, could intend in the words of v. 2 the beginning of an ecstasy. The words are meant to include the immediate 496 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [IV.2 sequel of the summons, that is, the Seer's rapture in the Spirit into heaven, as well as the continuance of the ecstasy in which he received the revelations following. But the thought is expressed in a condensed form ; the Prophet is intent upon em phasizing the fact that all befell him under the influence of the Spirit. Similar cases in which the influence of the Spirit already present is again spoken of as if just beginning are pointed out; cf. Ezk. 11^'', En. 71i'^. There is no intimation (as some take it) that a mightier force of the Spirit comes upon the Seer here, as if such were thought to be needed to lift him to heaven. The language of this verse furnishes no evidence that this was the beginning of the book (see p. 531). Spitta's emendation and interpretation (63 f.) itfsepopirjv for eyevopirjv, ' I was carried away by the wind,' are of value only as an illus tration of the critic's nianner. — Gpdvos e'KeiTO ktX., a throne stood in heaven, etc.: heaven _ now opens before the Seer under the form of a vast throne-room. The central figure is God enthroned in great glory, surrounded by his court of angelic principalities and powers in varying orders. The leading features of the scene are those found in Is. &-^; Ezk. 126-28^ Dan. V"-; 1 K. 22", En. 39^0, Slav. En. 20-22, and elsewhere; but they are here combined and handled with the power of a master hand. No attempt is made to describe the person of God; the glory of his form manifests itself in brilliant vari colored light, according to the Hebrew conception of Jehovah dwelling in light (1 Tim. 6i6) and covering himself with light as with a garment (Ps. 1042). 3. 6 KaGrJixevos, he that sat: in a passage conceived entirely after the manner of the Heb. vision, the writer conforms to the customary style of later times in avoiding the name of God ; he does not himself share this reluctance, as elscAvhere with this scene in mind he uses the name unhesitatingly, cf. 7i6' 15, 125, 19*. — o|xoLOS opdaei XCGco Ldo-uiSi ktX., like in appearan,ce to a jasper stone, etc. : the language is meant to express merely the splendor of the light in which the prophet beholds God mani fested and encircled. In Ezk. 126-28 God and his throne are seen in the brilliancy of glowing metal (LXX rjXsKTpov), of fire and brightness round about; the 'terrible crystal' (v. 22), the sapphire and the rainbow contribute to the ' glory of Jehovah ' IV. 3] COMMENTARY 497 (v. 28); in Ex. 2416 Qq(J appears above a work of .sapphire; in Dan. 79 his raiment is white as snow, his throne fiery flames; in En. 14 his raiment shines more brightly than the sun, from beneath his throne come streams of flaming flre; in Slav. En. 22 his face is like metal glowing in the fire and emitting sparks. In all such representations the meaning of the symbolism is clear — it is an attempt to give God a visible appearance of glory suited to his being. A special significance is not to be sought in each particular element or color. So in, our passage the interpretation which finds in the precious stones a fiery red typifying the wrath of God, etc., a sea-green typifying the mercy of God, or the water of baptism, and so on through a series of guesses (cf. Diist. in loc), imports meanings which the analogy of symbolical representations shows to be entirely foreign to the writer's thought. In this place it is especially necessary to keep in mind this general significance of the symbolism, because it is not certain just what stones or what colors are represented here by the gems named. Jasper as used here cannot be our jasper, a dull opaque, cheap stone, red, yellow, brown, or green. Many identify the jasper of this passage with the opal, some with the diamond. The sardius is commonly, but by no means unquestionably, identified with our cornelian. The .smaragd, usually identified with the emerald (so, EV)is by some regarded as a brilliant rock-crystal showing prismatic colors. The whole subject of the relation of the precious stones named in the N. T. to those of the O. T., to those of classical antiquity, and of modern mineralogy is one of great obscurity. For a compendious discussion of the subject see Hast, and En. Bib. on Precious Stones, and also the separate articles on particular stones. Fortunately the inter pretation here is not affected by our ignorance of these details. tpis KVKXdGev TOV Gpdvov, a rainbow romid about the throve : taken from Ezk. 123, ip^^ being used instead of to^ov of the LXX. The word KVKXoOev, round about, seems to show that a complete circle, a halo, is meant (Cf. lOi, L & S. s.v.), though the passage in Ezk. and the common use of the word would suggest rather the segment of a circle overarching the throne. The bow is here taken from Ezk. as an element of splendor; there is no reference, as some understand it, to God's covenant 2k 498 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [IV.3 with his people, of which the rainbow was regarded a token. Gen. 93 ff. — o|Aoios (with ipi<;): only here an adj. of two endings; see Blass § 11, 1. — o-ixapa-ySivco: bc.XiOw. On the color see above. 4. The vision of the Seer passes on to the angelic orders who are gathered as courtiers about the heavenly King, forming the assembly of his council or ministers. Rabbinic writers speak of angelic powers as forming in the presence of God a senate or council to whom he communicates his decrees, and with whom he confers even (cf. Weber System 170 f.). Some idea of that kind appears also in Gen. 126, 322 ( t Let us ' and ' one of us ') ; in Is. 2423 such an assembly is conceived and the heavenly beings constituting it are called ' Elders' (cf. RV mrg., LXX, ¦ir pea ^VTepoi) ; in Slav. En. 41 the same word is used of certain angels, though the text there is not quite certain; cf. also ov TTpea^v; ovBe ayyeXo'; Is. 639. xhe four and twenty ' Elders ' of our passage are angelic kings, a rank in the heavenly hierarchy, though they are not elsewhere mentioned in the precise form and number here given. That thej are kings is shown in the fact that they sit on thrones and wear crowns. As such they form an appropriate feature in a picture of the court of the King of kings. ' Thrones ' are mentioned in Col. 116 JQ jj^Q enumeration of the different orders of the angelic hierachy. The number twenty-four has no parallel in Jewish literature, and it is likely that the author derives it from some representation current in popular tradition, but not elsewhere recorded. — irpeffPvTepovs, o-T€v . , . avOparrrov in the third case. ^a>ov includes both man and beast, OrjpCov the latter only. — |i6a)(cp, ox: EV, calf. In Ezk. Ii6 the LXX use pt,6axo'Q min Bouss; Stoorty some min. — 10. TTpoaKwovai in R seems to be due to Erasmus, who "wrote thus either through error, or to conform to his reading fiaXXovaiv. — For jBaXovaiv (fut.), SQ some min R read fiaXXovaiv- — 11. For -qaav, P some min R read eto-t ; Q some min read ovk rjaav ktX. ; they were not, and were created. (2) Chapt. V. Second part of the scene in the Court of Heaven. See pp. 261 f. The sealed book and the Lamb. 5i~i*. 1. The opening words of this the second part of the vision make clear the significance which the former part (chapt. 4) has in the plan of our book. The roll in the hand of God furnishes the key. God, the eternal and almighty one, as pic tured there in awful splendor, now in this roll presents before the angelic ranks assembled around him in his throne-room the decrees of his will regarding the consummation of his kingdom. The events that are to follow — the things written in the roll — are the working out of that sovereign will, which is now to move on in irresistible might accomplishing its eternal decree. Thus is revealed the strong foundation of the Christian's hope for the future, his ground of assurance through all the events that are coming on the earth. — etSov eirl ttiv Sefidv, Jsrt«' in the right hand : the imagery of the roll in the hand of God is taken from Ezk. 29'". The roll is better understood as held in the hand than resting on the open palm ; for the use of iv i ef . 20i. — pipXiov, a book: primarily a little hook, but in use the diminu- V. 1] C®MMENTARY 505 tive force has disappeared (cf. Kiihn. I § 330, 4, A. 4), and the word when denoting a volume becomes equivalent to /3//3Xo9, and is employed more frequently in the N. T. than the latter. When the diminutive is to be specified, some other form is used ; cf. ^i^XapiBiov 102. There seems no necessity for assigning to the book here any other than the usual form of a roll, the form specified in Ezk. (Ke<^aXi&), which is before our author's mind. As regards the contents of the roll it appears certain, as scholars for the most part are now agreed, that it con tains the counsels of God which are revealed in the following visions ; it is the book of these last things in the destiny of the world and the people of God now to be unfolded. These have been sealed, i.e. hidden (cf. Is. 29ii, Dan. 826), ^^^^ now the seals are to be broken and all is to be revealed ; cf . 2216, Slav. En. 333. Such a revelation is promised in the sum mons given to the Apocalyptist (4i) ; and he must in the out set have conceived the manifestation of God in the court of heaven to stand in direct relation to this unfolding of the future ; hence the representation of his grief when no one is found to open the book (v. 4). That this formed the contents of the roll is placed beyond question in that the revelations given are directly connected with the breaking of the seals. The book then in its contents is quite different from those mentioned in 35, 20i2. This is a book of the future of the world and mankind. A similar book is mentioned in many places. The idea is closely related to that of a heavenly pattern followed in all that is done on earth as the working out of God's will (Ex. 25"' *\ Eph. 2i6 ; on the latter passage see Haupt in Meyer's Kom.; Ewald in Zahn's Kom.). For men tion of such a book see Dan. IO21, 2 Es. 626, gn. 931-3, 1032, 10619, 108?, Jub. 513, 2332. ' These books contain the secrets of the future, and the opening of the books signifies the fulfill ment of the hidden things,' Volz. 94. Interpretations which find in the roll the 0. T., or the O. T. and the N. T., written the one within, the other without, and numerous symbolical interpretations remote from the evident relation of the roll to the contents of the Apocalypse, are fanciful and need not be considered here. For various views of the kind see the Speaker's Com. in loc. Some understand the roll to be the Testament of God, the document in which he assures his 506 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [V. 1 people, as shown in the visions, of their inheritance of the heavenly king dom, according to the common N. T. representation of Christians as the ' heirs of God ' ; so, Zahn Ein. II. 600, followed by J. AVeiss 57 ff., Blj. in loc. This view is suggested by the Roman custom of sealing a will with seven seals. But the great frequency of seven with our author as a symbol of completeness is sufiicient to explain its use here. . It is not easy to bring the first six seals and the events connected with the breaking of these into any relation to a sealed testament, or an inheritance. The author nowhere intimates any relation, or any idea of a testament as symbolized by the roll. Inheritance is mentioned but once in the book (21') and then not in a way to indicate allusion to the roll as guaranteeing it. But the analogy of the books referred to above suggests that the whole book, each part as denoted by its seal, has for its contents a prophecy of the future. ¦ye^ypaiip-evov . . oTrio-Gev, written within and upon the back : the writing was ordinarily confined to the inner side of a roll, but sometimes was also extended over to the outer side or back. Here as in Ezk. fullness of contents is indicated. Some of the writing on the back of the roll, even when rolled up, would be visible ; that within though not visible is assumed as a matter of course. The words eaoiOev, owicrOev, within, on the back, are both joined by almost all interpreters with yeypapp,evov according to the representation in Ezk. Zahn (Ein. II. ' 608) separates them, interpreting ' written within, and sealed on the back,' on the ground that e^uidev rather than oniaOev would be required for a proper correlation to eaiaOev. But eawOev would then be quite superfluous, for a roll is of course "written within ; and oiriaOev. taken with Ka.Teapayi.ap.evov, would likewise be so, if the book was in the ordinary form of the roll ; but on Zahn's view of the /or«(, and the sealing see below, p. 507. However, the compound d-jrto-^o-ypa^os, used to describe a roll written on both sides (see L and S. s.v.), shows the appropriateness of OTTiadev as a correlative here. The value of the words for the sentence is lost unless they are taken to denote fullness of contents. KaTeo-(t>pa'yio-|Jievov ktX., sealed with seven seals: the compound vb. sealed up is stronger than the simple vb. a(j)payi^eiv, the usual term, and like the number of seals marks the security of the sealing, appropriate in the case of a roll which none but the Lamb is worthy to open. The question as to how the roll could be formed, and how the seven seals could be affixed, so as to make possible, as is supposed to be implied in chapt. 6, the opening and reading of seven different parts one after another, as each of the seals was broken, is one which has V. 2] COMMENTARY 507 greatly exercised the ingenuity of commentators. (For various guesses see Diist.) But there is nothing in the description to indicate that the roll was peculiar in its construction, or that it was sealed in any other than the usual way. We can safely assume, that if any variation essential to the symbolism had entered into the author's conception, it would at least be inti mated in the description. As to the difficulty raised, it should be observed that in connection with the breaking of the re spective seals, nothing is said of an actual opening of the roll, or a part of it, nor of reading from it. The events which ac company the breaking of the seals one after another, as de scribed in chapts. 6 and 8, though these form the contents of the respective portions of the roll, are not represented as read from it ; on the contrary they are dramatic scenes vividly enacted before the Seer's vision in conformity with what is written in these several portions. See further p. 515. The view that the book consisted of separate leaves fastened together after the manner of a codex, or modern book, wrapped with cords to which were affixed seals on the side of the book turned away from the Seer, ' the back ' (oTTiaOev), is urged by Zahn (Ein. II. 608) ; it is contended that the words im Tr/v Be^idv are appropriate to an object in book form, but not to a roll which could be held on the open hand only by an act of balancing not supposable here; that iv r-rj Beim would be required as in lO^'*, Ezk. 2'. But it is doubtful whether these words can be pressed to specify the flat, open hand ; cf . 20^ im Tqv X"P« where the key pf the abyss and a great chain cannot be thought of as Ijdng on the open palm. It is further urged that avot^ai points to the opening of a codex, that for opening a roll, aveiXeiv (Ezk. 2^"), dveXiaaeiv (cf. Rev. 6^*) or dvaTTTiiaaeLv (Lk. 4^') would be used. But avot^ai is evidently chosen here with special reference to the breaking of the seals, cf. dvoliai ras o-c^paytSas, v. 9 ; for dvoiywpx in this latter connection cf. Eur. /. A. 325, Dem. 1048, Xen. Laced. 6*. 2. The uniqueness of the office of the Lamb in opening the book is set forth with dramatic force by the unavailing chal lenge to the whole universe to find one worthy of the service, and by the grief of the Prophet. — d^-yeXov lo-xwp<5v, a mighty angel : one whose call could reach to the farthest limits of the universe, cf. 103. — d|ios, worthy: one of mighty strength to break the seals and unroll the book is not needed, but a being whose rank and office give him before God worthiness to per form this supreme service in regard to the divine decrees. 508 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [V. 2 Worthiness and ability are here identical, hence iBvvaTo, was able, V. 3 ; cf. Mt. SH where iKavo^, able, is identical with the a^io<;, worthy, of Jno. 12?. The opening here spoken of, the reve lation of God's purposes, includes also their fulfillment. Mere disclosures of the future are vouchsafed to a prophet ; ' The Lord Jehovah will do nothing except he reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets ' Am. 3'. But the complete revela tion of God's will concerning the consummation of his kingdom includes the agency of its fulfillment. Only he who holds the Messiah's rank and has performed the Messiah's office of re demption can show the whole divine will carried out to its ful fillment. — dvoI|ai., Xvo-ai • hysteron-proteron. 3. ISvvaTo, was able: see on v. 2. — ev t<3 ovpav(3 ktX., in heaven, etc. : for this threefold division of creation, an emphatic designation of the whole universe, cf . Phil. 2i6, Ex. 20*. — ov8e, ovTe : if this be the correct reading (see text, note), ovBe is con- tinuative, and not, nor, while ovre is disjunctive, neither; see Blass § 77, 10; Kiihn. II, § 535, 2, c. — pXe'Treiv, look: i.e. into its contents. 4. e'KXaiov, wept: because, the roll being unopened, the prom ise of 41 seems to be void. 6. els Ik twv irpeo-pvTepwv, one of the Elders: no symbolical significance is apparent in the selection of one of the Elders as the speaker. It is a part of the Apocalyptist's art to bring vari ety into his descriptions by the use of manifold agencies (De Wette); cf. 6i«-, 7i3'-, 8i3, 9i3, 10*' 8, 1116, 146, igi, I71, al.— eviKiio-ev, hath overcome: has come off victorious over Satan and death, as in 321 ; cf . also the use of viKav throughout the book, where the Christian is the subject, e.g. 2?- n «"=-, I212, I52. The infin. avol^ai, to open, then expresses result, so that; as a result of his victory and his consequent redemption he is deemed worthy to open the seals. This meaning is made clear by v. 9, ' Thou art worthy to open the seals, because thou wast slain and didst purchase,' etc. The interpretation hast prevailed, got the might, to open, adopted by some, gives to vikuv a sense contrary to the usage of the book, and not certainly supported elsewhere. — 6 Xewv 6 eK ttis (t)vXTis ktX., the Lion of the tribe of Judah, etc. : Christ is here designated under known titles of the Jewish Messiah; (1) as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, a title taken V. 6] COMMENTARY 509 from Gen. 49*, and descriptive of his kingly might ; also in 2 Es. 113?, ]^23i the Messiah appears as a lion; (2) as the Root of David (i.e. a Branch from his root), a title taken from Is. Ill' 10^ of. Rev. 2216, 2 Es. 1232, Ecclus. 4722, and descriptive of his headship in the final Davidic kingdom. Also in 2 Es. loc cit. the two titles are brought together as here. But both in this sentence, i.e. in iviKrjaev, hath overcome, and more fully in vv. 6, 9, 12, the Christian conception of the Messiah's office is introduced in conjunction with the Jewish, and the emphasis is thrown on the former. Christ in the work here spoken of as the revealer and consummator of God's will acts in his office as the Messiah of the whole of God's people, both Jewish and Christian ; but the crowning act of his messianic work is his redemption by his death of a people gathered out of every tribe and nation to be a kingdom and priests unto God (cf. vv. 9- 10). Here as elsewhere with our author the Christian idea is the preponderating factor, though Jewish forms and concep tions are retained. 6. New features, the roll, v. 1, the Lamb in this verse, the myriads of angel hosts, v. 11, are gradually introduced as the vision unfolds itself. Christ appears here, not in the glory of the earlier vision (li6*-), but as a lamb bearing the mark of the death through which he has passed. It is this death with its redemptive results that fits him for the office of opening the roll. In the visions that follow this scene he is generally spoken of as the Lamb ; not until his appearance in 19ii "•, leading forth his hosts to battle, is he again represented in a form similar to that of the first vision. — ev [xeo-w tov Gpdvov ktX., in the midst of the throne, etc.: an obscure phrase, but unless we insist on attributing to the Apocalyptist a precise diagram probably not thought of, the words are best under stood to mean simply in the very midst of the group formed round the throne by the other beings. — dpviov, a lamb: the diminutive force is not to be pressed. The word, not found elsewhere in the N. T., except in the plural in a quite different sense (Jno. 21i^), is one of the set terms of the Apocalypse. For fuller discussion of its use see pp. 314 ff. While it is here, as elsewhere in the book, a designation of the glorified Christ, that aspect of it which marks him as having passed 510 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [V. 6 through an expiatory death and thereby bringing eternal bless ings to his people is emphasized throughout this scene. The Lamb once slain is contained in iviKrjaev, v. 5, and forms the very heart of the whole scene. The attempt of Vischer and his followers to expunge the idea (see p. 230) destroys the entire paragraph ; it is criticism run riot. eCTTT|K6s ktX., standing, etc.: the lamb stands alive bearing visible marks of having been slain. — €)(wv KepaTa eirTd, having seven horns: the horn is a common biblical symbol of power, and as such occurs frequently in the Apocalypse ; e.g. 123, 231^ 173' 12. Here fullness of power is indicated by the number seven; see p. 253. The lamb symbolizing the Messiah in En. 9033 has ' great horns.' — 60aXp,ov;. The reading aireaTaXpievoi (see text, notes) might refer to irvevfiaTa or to o^^aX/aov? ; the gender would not be decisive (constr. ad sews.), but the perf. is less appropriate here, since the activity is always continuing. The art. mio-ht be expected with a'lroareXXop.eva ; its absence is made an objection to that reading; so, B. Weiss Apok. 112 f.; and it is in fact found in some sources. Rut it is not indispensable ; without V. 8] COMMENTARY 511 it the partic. is predicate rather than attrib., the sense being, the eyes are, symbolize, the Spirits when these are sent forth. The combination of the lion and the lamb in this scene is said by some, e.g. Vischer and his followers, to be impossible. The might to open the book, the conquest, assigned to the lion are inappropriate to a lamb. Bous set also finds difficulty in the representation and suggests {Kom. 259) a mythological influence here. Comparing Marduk's appearance among the gods in the Babylonian creation-myth, following Gunkel, he suggests the possibility that there may be taken up here and worked over some elements from a mythological tradition telling of an assembly of the gods perplexed by their inability to perform a certain great task (vv. 2 fE.), when there suddenly appears in the midst a new and powerful divinity, fresh from a mighty victory over demonic power (v. 5) and equipped with the magic might thus won to open the book of fate, to bring to an end the old order of the world, and to enter on the new world-rule. Jeremias also (15 fE.) finds. this incongruity in the picture and explains it by the introduction of elements from a cosmological myth. But it hardly seems necessary to go so far afield to explain an incongruity which does not exist, if the author of the Apocalypse may be assumed to be familiar with the Christian doc trine that the Christ is one who must needs suffer, and yet one to whom all authority hath been given in heaven and on earth. 7. e'lIXiictjev : sc. to ^i^XCov ; the perf. is aoristic ; cf. Blass § 59, 4 ; Burton § 80. The Lamb receives the book from the hand of God ; cf. Ji, ' The revelation . . . which God gave him to show.' 8. e^ovTes eKacTos ktX., holding each one, etc. : the words are commonly referred to the Elders only, as the act described is thought to be more appropriate to them ; but the Living Creatures may also be included. — a'i, ivhich : the antecedent is OvpnapLaTOiv, incense, the pron. being attracted, as often, into agreement with the predicate ; or the words ^idXa^ . . . Ovpiia- fiaTcav may be taken as a compound expression, bowls of incense, the first noun determining the gender of the relative. — al Trpoaevxal twv d'yiwv, the prayers of the saints : the incense is, i.e. symbolizes, the prayers. The use of incense primarily belonging to a worship inspired by anthropomorphism became a constant feature of Hebrew ritual to give efficacy, as an acceptable offering, to the worship accompanied by it, and to symbolize the sweet odor of prayer rising to God ; cf. Dt. 3316 (RV mrg.), Ps. 1412, Qen. 82i. As angels were thought to pre sent the prayers of the saints to God (cf. Tob. 12^-''', Test. Dan. 512 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN [V. 8 62), so here they present the incense symbolical of prayer ; cf. 83. The service as shown distinctly by 83 is that of angels, not of idealized representatives of the saints ; there is then nothing here to support the view that the Elders are representatives of the Church in the great heavenly scene ; see on 4*. The saints here spoken of are the Christians, often so denominated in the Apocalypse, as elsewhere in the N.T.,e.^. 8^'^ lli3, 13'' i"- The saints are not to be thought of as present there in the court of heaven, for their prayers would not then be presented by others in their behalf. The introduction of the prayers of the saints here is strange. This part of the scene is heavenly and includes nothing earthly ; the latter is intro duced first in V. 13, in distinction from this part ; and the theme of all the utterances in the scene is praise, not prayer {Trpoaevxg is not praise, but supplication), and the utterances of the saints are included among those mentioned in v. 13. These words ' which is the prayers of the saints ' are very probably a gloss brought in from 8^. If genuine, they probably refer to supplications of the saints for the speedy accomplishment of God's "will con cerning the kingdom, as in 8', 6^° — an idea, however, not in keeping vrith anything else in the scene. 9-10. KaiVTJv, new: an epithet of songs expressive of grati tude for new mercies ; it is frequent in the Psalms, e.g. 333, 403, 9gi . cf_ is_ 4210. Jt ig especially appropriate when the cause of God is about to enter on a new stage ; cf . 143. oti ea-<|)d'yTis ktX., because: thou wast slain, etc. : the ground of worthi ness to open the roll is here declared to be the redemptive work of Christ, who by his death has purchased a people out of every nation to reign as kings and priests in the messianic kingdom. — Ti7dpao-as . . . ev t(5 at|xaTC aov, hast purchased by thy blood: cf. 1^- The author agrees with other N. T. writers in viewing the death of Christ under the figure of a purchase of a people which shall belong to God (t« 0ea>, u7ito Cod) • cf Ac. 2028, 1 Co. 620, 72,3, 1 Pet. ^m. ^ ^ Pet. 21.' The object of the vb. fiy6paaa ovpavm of v. 13. 14. The great act of homage closes as it began, with the angels nearest the throne, in the Amen of the Living Creatures and the mute adoration of the four and twenty Elders. In the antiphonal singing, in the Amen, and in the silent worship at the end, we not improbably have some reflection of usages in the public worship of the Church at the time. Textual notes, Chapt. 5^"^^. 1. eawOev APQ min edd; K Orig. read ep.TrpoaOev, probably through the influence of Ezk. 2^", and to secure a literal correlative to omaOev. — omaOev S A many min and vers most edd ; QP many min and vers anc com BouSs read e^wOev. — 3. ovSe before etti Tijs -yTjs and vwoKarui, AP many min R *Lch Tr WH AVs EV ; ovre X (the second clause is wanting in K) Q most min Ti WHmrg Sod. — ovre before jiXeweiv, most sources and edd, but AP some min R Bouss Sw read ouSe. See Ws Ap. 114 f . — 6. eo-TTj/cos APQ min most edd ; eo-r-r/KMs S some min Tr Ti WHmrg Bouss. — aTroaTeXXop.e.va Q some min and anc com Blj (in Com. p. 75) Bouss Alf ; a-weaTaXpuevoi. A WH Lch Ws RV Sod al ; a-7reaTaXp.eva S some min R Ti WHmrg. ; some min insert ra before the partic. See AVs 112 f . — 9. With r^-yopao-as tio 6eu), sPQ most min R add gpai ; wanting in A, omitted by edd, because in v. 10 ovtods and the third person of the vb., too well supported to be questioned, show that it cannot be read. See Ws p. 108. — 10. /SaaiXeiav i^A some vers and anc com most edd ; jSaaiXei^ Q min vers R Sod. — jSaaiXevaovaiv !

Q min vers Bouss Moff, see on v. 17. — 11. avairau- atovrai XC min R most edd RV ; avaTravaovrai AQP min WH Bouss Sw. CRITICISM OF IV-VI 531 irX-gpwOiaaiv AC min vers most edd; wXripuiamaiv KPQ min Tr Ti Sod al ; but the ellipsis of tov hpopxtv, or tov apiOp,ov supposed with this reading is too violent. The source of irXrjpoiaovTai R is uncertain. — 16. irtererc i