The
Expositor's Bible
Edited by
W. Robertson Nicoll, D.D., LL.D.
THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
BY
WILLIAM MILLIGAN, D.D.
PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY AND BIBLICAL CRITICISM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. AUTHOR OF "THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD," ETC.
In ordinary circumstances one who undertakes to
comment upon a book of the New Testament
may be justly expected to make every effort to
explain each successive clause and each difficult
expression of the book on which he writes. My aim
in the following Commentary is rather to catch the
general import and object of the Revelation of St.
John considered as a whole. The latter purpose
indeed cannot be attained unless the commentator
has himself paid faithful attention to the former; but
it is not necessary that the results of these inquiries
should in every case be presented to the English
reader. To him this book is for the most part a
perplexity and enigma, and he would only be embarrassed
by a multitude of details. It seemed well,
therefore, to treat the book in its sections and
paragraphs rather than verse by verse; and this is
the course pursued in the following pages. The
translation used is for the most part that of the
Revised Version. An examination of the words and
The University, Aberdeen,
May 1889.
THE PROLOGUE.
Rev. i.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass: and He sent and signified it through His angel unto His servant John; who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the season is at hand (i. 1-3).
Again, the book is a revelation of Jesus Christ; not so
much a revelation of what Jesus Christ Himself is, as
one of which He is the Author and Source. He is the
Head of His Church, reigning supreme in His heavenly
abode. He is the Eternal Son, the Word without
whom was not anything made that was made, and
who executes all the purposes of the Father, "the same
yesterday, and to-day, and forever."
Yet again, the revelation to be now given by Jesus Christ is one which God gave Him, the revelation of the eternal and unchangeable plan of One who turneth the hearts of kings as the rivers of water, who saith and it is done, who commandeth and it stands fast.
Finally, the revelation relates to things that must shortly come to pass, and thus has all the interest of the present, and not merely of a far-distant future.
Such is the general character of that revelation
which Jesus Christ Chap. iii. 14.
Therefore may he now, ere yet he enters upon his task, pronounce a blessing upon those who shall pay due heed to what he is to say. Does he think of the person by whom the apostolic writings were read aloud in the midst of the Christian congregation? then, Blessed is he that readeth. Does he think of those who listen? then, Blessed are they that hear the words of the prophecy. Or, lastly, does he think not merely of reading and hearing, but of that laying up in the heart to which these were only preparatory? then, Blessed are they that keep the things which are written therein, for the season, the short season in which everything shall be accomplished, is at hand.
The Introduction to the book is over; and it may
be well to mark for a moment that tendency to divide
his matter into three parts which peculiarly distinguishes
St. John, and to which, as supplying an important
rule of interpretation, we shall often have occasion to
refer. There are obviously three parts in the Introduction,—the
Source, the Contents, and the Importance of
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins in His blood; and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail over Him. Even so, Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord, God, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty (i. 4-8).
From the Introduction we pass to the Salutation,
extending from ver. 4 to ver. 8. Adopting a method
different from that of the fourth Gospel, which is
also the production of his pen, the writer of Revelation
names himself. The difference is easily explained.
The fourth Gospel is original not only in its contents
but its form. The Apocalypse is moulded after the
fashion of the ancient prophets, and of the numerous
apocalyptic authors of the time; and it was the practice
of both these classes of writers to place their names at
the head of what they wrote. The fourth Gospel was
also intended to set forth in a purely objective manner
the glory of the Eternal Word made flesh, and that too
in such a way that the glory exhibited in Him should
The Salutation is addressed to the seven churches
which are in Asia. On this point it is enough to say
that by the Asia spoken of we are to understand
neither the continent of that name, nor its great
western division Asia Minor, but only a single district
of the latter, of which Ephesus, where St. John spent
the later years of his life and ministry, was the capital.
There the aged Apostle tended all those portions of
the flock of Christ that he could reach, and all the
churches of the neighbourhood were his peculiar care.
We know that these were in number more than
seven. We know that to no church could the Apostle
be indifferent. The conclusion is irresistible, that here,
as so often in this book as well as in other parts of
Scripture, the number seven is not to be literally understood.
Seven churches are selected, the condition of
which appeared most suitable to the purpose which the
Apostle has in view; and these seven represent the
Church of Christ in every country of the world, down
The blessing is, Grace to you, and peace; grace first,
the Divine grace, in its enlightening, quickening, and
beautifying power; and then peace, peace with God
and man, peace that in the deep recesses of the heart
remains undisturbed by outward trouble, the peace of
which it is said by Him who is the Prince of peace,
"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you:
not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful."
The source of the blessing is next indicated,—the
Triune God, the three Persons of the glorious Trinity,
the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son. Probably we
should have thought of a different order; but the truth is
that it is the Son, as the manifestation of the Godhead,
who is mainly in the Apostle's mind. Hence the peculiarity
of the first designation, Him which is, and which
was, and which is to come, a designation specially applicable
to our Lord. Hence also the peculiarity of the
second designation, The seven Spirits which are before His
throne; not so much the Spirit viewed in His individual
personality, in the eternal relations of the Divine
existence, as that Spirit in the manifoldness of His
operation in the Church, the Spirit of the glorified
Redeemer,—not one therefore, but seven. Hence, again,
the peculiar designation of Christ, Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler
of the kings of the earth; not so much the Son in His
metaphysical relation to the Godhead, as in attributes
connected with His redemptive work. And hence,
Now, therefore, the Church, reflecting upon all that
has been done, is done, and shall be done for her, is
able to raise the song of triumphant thanksgiving,
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins in
His blood, and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests
unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the
dominion for ever and ever. Amen. In these words
the possession of complete redemption is implied.
The true reading of the original is not that of our
Authorised Version, "Unto Him that washed," but
"Unto Him that loosed" us from our sins. We have
received not merely the pardon of sin, but deliverance
from its power. "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of
the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we
are escaped."
The statement of these verses, however, reveals not only what the Christian Church is to which the Apocalypse is addressed; it reveals also what the Lord is from whom the revelation comes. He is indeed the Saviour who died for us, the witness faithful unto death: but He is also the Saviour who rose again, who is the firstborn of the dead, and who has ascended to the right hand of God, where He lives and reigns in glory everlasting. It is the glorified Redeemer from whom the book of His revelation comes; and He has all power committed to Him both in heaven and on earth. More particularly, He is "the ruler of the kings of the earth." This is not a description of such honour as might be given by a crowd of loyal nobles to a beloved prince. It rather gives expression to a power by which "the kings of the earth," the potentates of a sinful world, are subdued and crushed.
Lastly, the Salutation includes the thought that He
who is now hidden in heaven from our view, will yet
appear in the glory that belongs to Him. He is the
Lord who "is to come"; or, as it is expanded in the
words immediately following the doxology, Behold, He
cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and
they which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth
shall wail over Him. Even so, Amen. It is of importance
to ask what the glory is in which the glorified
Lord is thus spoken of as coming. Is it that of one
who shall be the object of admiration to every eye, and
who, by the revelation of Himself, shall win all who
And now the glorified Redeemer Himself declares
what He is: I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the
Lord, God, which is and which was and which is to come,
the Almighty. It will be observed that after the word
"Lord" we have interposed a comma not found in either
the Authorised or the Revised Version. Compare the Greek text of Westcott and Hort.
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living One; And I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; the mystery of the stars which thou sawest upon My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks are seven churches (i. 9-20).
After the Introduction and Salutation, the visions of
the book begin, the first being the key to all that
I John, he begins, your brother and partaker with you
in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are
in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus. It is no longer
only the Apostle, the authoritative messenger of God,
who speaks; it is one who occupies the same ground
as other members of the Church, and is bound to
them by the strong deep tie of common sorrow. The
aged and honoured Evangelist, "the disciple whom
Jesus loved," is one with them, bears the same burden,
drinks the same cup, and has no higher consolation
than they may have. He is their "brother," a brother
in adversity, for he is a partaker with them of the
"tribulation" that is in Jesus. The reference is to
outward suffering and persecution; for the words of
the Master were now literally fulfilled: "A servant is
not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me they
will also persecute you;" "Yea, the hour cometh, that
whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service
unto God."
"Tribulation" is the chief thing spoken of, but the
Apostle, with his love of groups of three, accompanies
it with other two marks of the Christian's condition in
the world,—the "kingdom" and "patience" that are in
Jesus. St. John therefore was in tribulation. He had
been driven from Ephesus, we know not why, and had
been banished to Patmos, a small rocky island of the
Ægean Sea. He had been banished for his faith, for
his adherence to "the word of God and the testimony
of Jesus," the former expression leading our thoughts
to the revelation of the Old Testament, the latter to
that of the New; the former to those prophets,
culminating in the Baptist, of whom the same Apostle
who now writes tells us in the beginning of his Gospel,
that they "came for witness, that they might bear
witness of the light;"
Animated by feelings such as these, the Apostle knew that, whatever appearances to the contrary might present themselves, the time now passing over his head was the time of the Lord's rule, and not of man's. No thought could be more inspiring, and it was the preparation in his soul for the scene which followed.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard
behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What
thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven
churches; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto
Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto
Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. The Lord's day here
referred to may have been the Sunday, the first day
of the Christian week, the day commemorative of that
morning when He who had been "crucified through
weakness, yet lived through the power of God." Compare
And I heard behind me, he says, a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. We need not dwell now upon these churches. We shall meet them again. They are "the seven churches which are in Asia" already spoken of in ver. 4; and they are to be viewed as representative of the whole Christian Church in all countries of the world, and throughout all time. In their condition they represented to St. John what that Church is, in her Divine origin and human frailty, in her graces and defects, in her zeal and lukewarmness, in her joys and sorrows, in the guardianship of her Lord, and in her final victory after many struggles. Not to Christians in these cities alone is the Apocalypse spoken, but to all Christians in all their circumstances: "He that hath an ear, let him hear." The Apostle heard.
And I turned to see the voice which spake with me.
And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks; and
in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a Son of man.
It was a splendid vision which was thus presented to
his eyes. The golden candlestick, first of the Tabernacle
and then of the Temple, was one of the gorgeous articles
of furniture in God's holy house. It was wrought, with
its seven branches, after the fashion of an almond tree,
the earliest tree of spring to hasten (whence also it
was named) into blossom; and, as we learn from the
But we are not invited to dwell upon the Church.
Something greater attracts the eye,—He who is "like
unto a Son of man." The expression of the original is
remarkable. It occurs only once in any of the other
books of the New Testament, in
Clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about
at the breasts with a golden girdle. And His head and
His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and
His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto
burnished brass as if it had been refined in a furnace;
and His voice as the voice of many waters. And He had
in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth
proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance
was as the sun shineth in His strength. The particulars
of the description indicate the official position of the
Person spoken of, and the character in which He
Not only so. It is even of peculiar importance to
observe that the attributes with which the Priest-King
is clothed are not so much those of tenderness and
mercy as those of power and majesty, inspiring the
beholder with a sense of awe and with the fear of
judgment. Already we have had some traces of this
in considering ver. 7: now it comes out in all its force.
That hair of a glistering whiteness which, like snow on
which the sun is shining, it almost pains the eye to
look upon; those eyes penetrating like a flame of fire
into the inmost recesses of the heart; those feet which
like metal raised to a white heat in a furnace consume
in an instant whatever they tread upon in anger; that
voice loud and continuous, like the sound of the mighty
sea as it booms along the shore; that sword sharp, two-edged,
The Apostle felt all this; and, believer as he was in
Jesus, convinced of his Master's love, and one who
returned that love with the warmest affections of his
heart, he was yet overwhelmed with terror. And when
I saw Him, he tells us, I fell at His feet as one dead.
In circumstances somewhat similar to the present, a
somewhat similar effect had been produced upon other
saints of God. When Isaiah beheld the glory of the
Lord he cried, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts."
A few more words are spoken by the glorified Person who thus appeared to St. John, but at this point we may pause for a moment, for the vision is complete. It is the first vision of the book, and it contains the key-note of the whole. As distinguished from the fourth Gospel, in which Jesus clothed as He is with His humanity is yet pre-eminently the Son of God, the Saviour while here retaining His Divinity is yet pre-eminently a Son of man. In other words, He is not merely the Only Begotten who was from eternity in the bosom of the Father: He is also Head over all things to His Church. And He is this as the glorified Redeemer who has finished His work on earth, and now carries it on in heaven. This work too He carries on, not only as a High Priest "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," but as One clothed with judgment. He is a man of war, and to Him the words of the Psalmist may be applied:
Yet we cannot separate the body of Christ from the
head, who is Son of man as well as Son of God. With
the Head the members are one, and they too therefore
are here contemplated as engaged in a work of judgment.
With their Lord they are opposed by an
ungodly world. In it they also struggle, and war,
and overcome. The tribulation, and the kingdom and
patience "in Jesus," Ver. 9.
Thus we are taught what to expect in the book of
Revelation. It will record the conflict of Christ and
His people with the evil that is in the world, and their
victory over it. It will tell of struggle with sin and
Satan, but of sin vanquished and Satan bruised beneath
their feet. It will be the story of the Church as she
journeys through the wilderness to the land of promise,
encountering many foes, but more than conqueror
through Him that loved her, and often raising to
heaven her song of praise, "Sing unto the Lord, for
He hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider
He hath cast into the sea."
Now then we are prepared to listen to the closing
words of the glorious Person who had revealed Himself
THE CHURCH ON THE FIELD OF HISTORY.
Rev. ii., iii.
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write; These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks: I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which became dead, and lived again: I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer: behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write; These things saith He that hath the sharp two-edged sword: I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is: and thou holdest fast My name, and didst not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols
and to commit fornication. So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner. Repent therefore; or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like unto burnished brass: I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first. But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest thy wife Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication. Behold, I do cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of you according to your works. But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, which know not the deep things of Satan, as they say; I cast upon you none other burden. Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and as a shepherd he shall tend them with a sceptre of iron, as the vessels of the potter are they broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father: and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before My God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and none openeth: I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name. Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall come no more forth: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one, and miserable and poor and blind and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest, and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches (ii., iii.).
These chapters consist of seven epistles addressed to the churches of the seven cities of Asia named in chap. i. 11, and now written to in the same order, beginning with Ephesus and ending with Laodicea. Each epistle contains much that is peculiar to it, but we shall fail to understand the picture presented by the two chapters as a whole if we look only at the individual parts. General considerations, therefore, regarding the seven epistles first demand our notice.
Each epistle, it will be observed, is addressed to the
"angel" of the church named. The object of this
commentary, as explained in the prefatory note, renders
an examination of the meaning of the word "angel"
here used a point of subordinate importance. A few
remarks, however, can hardly be avoided. The favourite
interpretations of the term are two: that the "angels
of the churches" are either the guardian angels to
whom they were severally committed, or their bishops
or chief pastors. Both interpretations may be unhesitatingly
rejected. For as to the first, there is a total
absence of proof that it was either a Jewish or an early
Christian idea that each Christian community had its
guardian angel; and as to the second, if there was, as
there seems to have been, in the synagogues of the
Jews, an official known as the "angel" or "messenger,"
he occupied an altogether inferior position, and possessed
none of the authoritative control here ascribed
to the several "angels" mentioned. Besides this, both
interpretations are set aside by the single consideration
that, keeping in view what has been said of the
number seven in its relation to the number one, the
seven angels, like the seven churches, must be capable
of being regarded as a unity. But this cannot be the
case with seven guardian angels, for such a universal
guardianship can be predicated of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the great Head of the Church, alone. Nor can
seven bishops or chief pastors be reasonably resolved
into one universal bishop or the moderator of one
universal presbytery. The true idea seems to be that
the "angels" of the churches are a symbolical representation
in which the active, as distinguished from
the passive, life of the Church finds expression. To
St. John every person, every thing, has its angel. God Chaps. vii. 2; viii. 2; xiv. 6, 8, 9; xv. 1, 6. Chap. xiv. 15. Chaps. i. 1; xx. 1; xxii. 6. Chap. xvi. 5. Chap. xiv. 18. Chap. vii. 1. Chap. ix. 11.
The interpretation now given is confirmed by the
fact that the "angels," as appears from the words of
chap. i. 20, "The seven stars are the angels of the
seven churches," are not different from the "stars," for
it is the province of the star, instead of hiding itself in
some secret chamber, to shine, and from its place in
the firmament to shed light upon the earth. The
uniformity of treatment, too, which must be claimed
for the number seven when used both with the churches
and the stars, is thus rendered possible; for if the
former may represent the universal Church in what
she is, the latter will represent the same Church in
what she does. Thus, then, in the seven "golden
candlesticks" and in the seven "stars" or "angels"
we have a double picture of the Church; and each of
the two figures employed points to a different aspect
Such then being the case, the seven epistles being addressed to the seven churches, and not to any individual in each, the following particulars with regard to them ought to be kept in view:—
1. They are intended to set before us a picture of
the universal Church. At first sight indeed it may
seem as if they were only to be looked at individually
and separately. The different churches are addressed
by name. In what is said of each there is nothing
out of keeping with what we may easily suppose to
have been its condition at the time. There is as much
reason to believe that each epistle contains an actual
historical picture as there is to believe this in the
case of the epistles of St. Paul to Rome, or Corinth,
or Ephesus, or Philippi. Any other supposition would
convey a false idea of the principles upon which the
Apocalypse is framed, would destroy the reality of the
Apostle's writing, and would compel us to think that
his words must have been unintelligible to those for
whom, whatever their further application, they were
primarily designed. The question, however, is not
thus exhausted; for it is perfectly possible that both
certain churches and certain particulars in their state
may have been selected rather than others, because
they afforded the best typical representation of the
(1) We have good ground for believing that, besides
these seven churches of Asia, there were other churches
in existence in the same district at the time when the
Apostle wrote. One of the early fathers speaks of
churches at Magnesia and Tralles. It is also possible
that there were churches at Colossæ and Hierapolis,
although these cities had suffered from an earthquake
shortly after the days of St. Paul. Yet St. John
addressed himself not to seven, but to "the seven
churches which are in Asia," as if there were no more
churches in the province. Chap. i. 4.
(2) Importance must be attached to the number seven.
Every reader of the book of Revelation is familiar with
the singular part played by that number in its structure,
and with the fact that (unless chap. xvii. 9 be an exception)
it never means that numeral alone. It is the
number of unity in diversity, of unity in that manifoldness
of operation which alone entitles it to the name of
unity. Such expressions, therefore, as the "seven
Spirits of God" or the "seven eyes of the Lamb," are
evidently symbolical. The same idea must be carried
through all the notices of the number, unless there be
something in the context clearly leading to a different
conclusion. Nothing of that kind exists here. Were
these two chapters indeed out of harmony with the
rest of the book, or had they little or no relation to it,
(3) The nature of the call to the hearers of each epistle to give heed to the words addressed to them leads to the same conclusion. Had each epistle been designed only for those to whom it was immediately sent, that call would probably have been addressed to them alone. Instead of this it is couched in the most general form: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
(4) The character in which the Saviour speaks to
each of the seven churches is always taken from the
vision of the Son of man beheld by St. John in the
first chapter of his book. It is true that in the case of
one or two of the particulars mentioned this is not at
once apparent; but in that of by far the larger number
it is so clear that we are entitled to infer the existence
of some secret link of connexion in the mind of the
sacred writer even when it may not be distinctly perceptible
to us. The descriptions, too, of the epistles
are no doubt fuller and more elaborate than those of
the vision; but this circumstance is easily accounted
for when we remember that the seven different delineations
of our Lord contained in the second and third
chapters are in the first chapter combined in one.
Keeping these considerations in view, the main point is
Thus to the first church—that of Ephesus—Jesus
introduces Himself as He that holdeth the seven stars in
His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks Chap. ii. 1. Chap. ii. 8. Chap. ii. 12. Chap. ii. 18. Chap. iii. 1. Chap. iii. 7. Chap. iii. 14.
(5) Many expressions are to be met with in the
seven epistles which find their explanation only in
those later chapters of the book where a reference to
the Church universal cannot be denied. The tree of
life of the first epistle meets us again, more fully
spoken of, in the description of the new Jerusalem. Chaps. ii. 7; xxii. 2, 14. Chaps. ii. 11; xx. 14. Chaps. ii. 17; xiv. 1. Chaps. ii. 26, 28; xx. 4, 5; xxii. 16. Chaps. iii. 5; vii. 9, 14. Chaps. iii. 12; xxi. 2, 10. Chaps. iii. 21; xx. 4. Comp. Trench, The Seven Epistles, p. 37.
(6) It is worthy of notice that the descriptions of our Lord given in the first and last epistles have a wider application than to the churches of Ephesus and Laodicea, to which they are immediately addressed, thus making it evident that, while each of these epistles has its own place in the series, it is at the same time treated as the first or last member of a group which is to be regarded as a whole.
To the church of Ephesus the Saviour describes
Himself as He that holdeth the seven stars in His right
hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks Chap. ii. 1. Chap. iii. 14. Comp.
(7) It ought to be noticed that all the cities to which
(8) The view now taken is confirmed by the general nature of the Apocalypse. That book is symbolical. It begins with a symbolical representation in the first chapter. Symbolism, by the admission of all, is resumed in the fourth chapter, and is continued from that point to the end. Now it is certainly possible that between these two groups of symbols a passage only strictly historical might be introduced. But if there be reason on independent grounds to think that here also we have facts used at least to a certain extent to serve a higher than a simply historic thought, it cannot fail to be allowed that the general unity of the book is thus preserved, and that a completeness is lent to it which we are entitled to expect, but which would be otherwise wanting.
The seven churches then of chaps. ii. and iii. are Chap. i. 19.
The universalism of the Apocalypse is from the first apparent.
2. A second characteristic of the epistles addressed
to the seven churches demands our notice, for these
epistles are clearly divisible into two portions, the first
consisting of the first three, the second of the other
four. Every inquirer admits the fact, the proof resting
upon the difference of place assigned in the two portions
to the call, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith to the churches. In the first three this call
comes in as a central part of the epistle, immediately
before the promise to him that overcometh Chap. ii. 7, 11, 17. Chaps. ii. 29; iii. 6, 13, 22.
There are two aspects of the Church which may be said to pervade the whole Apocalypse: first, as she is in herself, in her own true nature; and secondly, as she is engaged in, and affected by, a struggle with the world. The distinction between the two may be traced in the grouping of which we speak. The first three epistles lead us to the thought of the Church in the former, the remaining four to the thought of her in the latter, aspect. In the first three she is the pure bride of Christ; in the last four she has yielded to the influences of the world, and the faithful remnant within her is separated from her professing but unfaithful members.
The numbers into which the two portions of the
seven epistles are distributed illustrate this. Three
This impression is confirmed when we look at the
contents of the epistles. Let us take the first three,
and we shall find that in not one of them is a
contrast drawn between the whole Church and any
faithful remnant within her borders, that in not one
of them is the Church represented as yielding to
the influences of the world. No doubt she has evil
in her midst; and evil always springs from the world,
not from God. But she is not yet conscious of the
sin by which she is surrounded. She has not yet
begun to traffic with the world, to accommodate herself
to it, or to lust after what it bestows. The
great charge against the church in Ephesus is that
she has left her first love. Chap. ii. 4. Chap. ii. 14, 15. Comp.
When we turn to the second group of the seven
epistles, we at once breathe a different atmosphere; and
the contrast is rendered more striking by the fact that
in the first of the four we have the very sins spoken
of which have already twice crossed our path in the
epistles to Ephesus and to Pergamum. According to
the best critical reading of chap. ii. 20, the charge against
Thyatira is, "Thou sufferest" (Thou lettest alone; thou
toleratest) "thy wife Jezebel." Jezebel was a heathen
princess, the first heathen queen who had been married
by a king of the northern kingdom of Israel. She was
therefore peculiarly fitted to represent the influences of
the world; and the charge against Thyatira is thus Chap. iii. 8. Chap. iii. 11. Chap. iii. 17.
Attention to the promises to him that overcometh in
the different epistles seems to confirm what has been
said. There is a marked contrast between the tone of
these promises as they are given in the two groups of
epistles; and even where a certain amount of similarity
exists, the promises in the second group will be
found to be fuller and richer than in the first. At
Ephesus, at Smyrna, and at Pergamum "he that overcometh"
is rewarded much, as one still in a simple
and childlike state would be. The first promise made
to him is that he shall eat of the tree of life, which is
in the Paradise of God Chap. ii. 7. Chap. ii. 11. Chap. ii. 17.
When we turn to the second group of epistles there
is a different tone. We enter upon rewards conceived
in bolder and more manly figures. The first promise
now is, He that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works
unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
and as a shepherd he shall tend them with a sceptre of iron;
as the vessels of the potter are they broken to shivers. Chap. ii. 26, 27. Chap. iii. 5. Chap. iii. 12. Chap. iii. 21.
Such seems to be the relation to one another of
the two groups into which the seven epistles naturally
divide themselves. In the first group the Church
has stood firm against the world. She is full of toil
and endurance; in her poverty she is rich; and the
troubles of the future she does not fear. She holds
fast the name of Christ, and openly confesses Him.
Seeds of evil are indeed within her, which will too Chap. xviii. 4.
We have considered the epistles contained in these chapters as a unity representative of the universal Church in the two main aspects of her condition in the world; but before leaving them it will be well to look at them individually, and to mark the peculiar condition of each Church addressed.
1. The first epistle is that to Ephesus, the central
or metropolitan city of the district to which all the
seven churches belonged, and with which the almost
unanimous voice of antiquity associates the later years
of the pastorate of St. John himself. Hence, in part
at least, as we have already seen, the general nature
of the salutation with which the glorified Lord presents
Himself to that church. He does not merely hold
its star in His right hand, nor does He merely walk
in the midst of it alone. He holdeth the seven stars in
His right hand. He walketh in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks. He is present in every part of His
Church on earth. To every part of it He says, "Lo,
I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of
the age."
The church at Ephesus is faithful as a whole. I
know, is the language of her Lord to her, thy works,
and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear
evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles,
and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast
patience and didst bear for My name's sake, and hast
not grown weary. The tribute is a noble one. The
church is not only working, but toiling, in her Master's
service; she is firm amidst trial, whether from within
or from without; she views with abhorrence all
workers of iniquity; she tries, only in order to reject,
those pretended messengers of Christ who would have
preached another gospel than that the power of which
she knew. Amidst all the speciousness of their claims,
she had "found" them false. Then she turned again
to her steadfast endurance until it became a settled
principle in her life, and it could be said to her, with
Amidst all this the church at Ephesus was not wholly
what she ought to have been. I have this against thee,
had to be said to her, that thou didst leave thy first love;
and she needed words of exhortation and warning:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and
repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and
will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou
repent. The church had declined from the bright and
joyous feelings of her first condition. Might her very
zeal for the purity of Christian doctrine have had anything
to do with this? It is not impossible. Eager
defence of truth against error, notwithstanding its
importance, is apt to shift the centre of the soul's inner
Possessed of this spirit, we shall overcome; and the first love will meet its first reward. To him that overcometh, says the Lord, recalling the blessedness of Eden, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
2. The second epistle is that to Smyrna, a rich,
prosperous, and dissolute city, and largely inhabited
by Jews bitterly opposed to Christ and Christianity.
Here therefore persecution of those leading the pure
and holy life of the Gospel might be peculiarly expected,
as indeed it also peculiarly appeared. The church at
Smyrna thus becomes the type of a suffering church,
the representative of that condition of things foretold
in the words of Christ, and constantly fulfilled in
the history of His people, "A servant is not greater
than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they
will also persecute you."
It will be observed that at Smyrna the church is
still faithful, and that against her no word of reproach
is uttered. Hence the aspect under which the
Redeemer presents Himself to that church is purely
animating and consolatory, the same as that which,
in the introductory vision in chap. i., followed the
action of the Lord when He laid His right hand upon
the Apostle, who had fallen to the ground as dead,
and when He said to him, "Fear not." Chap. i. 17.
The state of the church is then described: I know
thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and
the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and
they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Tribulation,
persecution, the blasphemy of men calling themselves
the only people of God and denying to Christians
any portion in His covenant, are alone alluded to,
though the church is at the same time cheered with
the remark that if she had no share in worldly wealth
The church then was in the midst of suffering. Was not that enough; and shall she not be told that her sufferings were drawing to an end, that the night of weeping was gone by, and that the morning of joy was about to dawn? So we might think; but God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways, and we are like children bathing on the shore,
How often does it happen in the Christian's experience
that one burden is laid upon another, and
that one wave succeeds another, till he seems left
desolate and alone upon the earth. Yet even then he
has no assurance that his sufferings are at a close.
The consolation afforded to him is, not that there shall
be a short campaign, but only that, whether long or
short, he shall be more than conqueror through Him
that loved him. Thus our Lord does not now say to
His church at Smyrna, Fear none of those things that
thou art suffering, but Fear not the things which thou
art about to suffer: behold, the devil is about to cast some
of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have
tribulation ten days. It is hardly necessary to say to
any intelligent reader of the Apocalypse that the "ten
days" here spoken of are neither ten literal days, nor
ten years, nor ten successive persecutions of indefinite
3. The third epistle is that to Pergamum, a city at
the time devoted to the worship of Æsculapius, the god
of medicine, and in particular largely engaged with
those parts of medical science which are occupied
with inquiries into the springs of life. That the
wickedness of the city was both greater and more
widespread than was common even in the dark days
of heathenism is borne witness to by the fact that the
first words addressed to it by Him that hath the sharp
two-edged sword were these: I know where thou dwellest,
even where Satan's throne is. The word "throne"
(not, as in the Authorised Version, "seat") is intentionally
selected by the Seer; and its use affords an
illustration of one of his principles of style, the remembrance
of which is not unfrequently of value in interpreting
his book. Everywhere it is his wont to see
over against the good its mocking counterpart of evil,
over against the light a corresponding darkness. Thus
because God occupies a throne Satan does the same;
It will be observed, accordingly, that, whatever may
be said against the condition of the city, nothing is
said against the church within it. There is no hint
that she has yielded to the influences of the world. She
has certainly evil-doers in her midst; but these, though
in her, are not of her: and the Christianity of the great
majority of her members remains sound and sweet.
Let us listen to the words of commendation: And
thou holdest fast My name, and didst not deny My faith,
even in the days of Antipas My witness, My faithful one,
who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I
have a few things against thee, because thou hast there
some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak
to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to
eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the
Nicolaitans in like manner. Repent therefore; or else I
come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them
with the sword of My mouth.
We thus reach the close of the first three epistles
Such is the Church of Christ in Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum. Happy days of innocence and bliss! We may well linger over them for a little. Too soon will they pass away, and too soon will the Church's conflict with the world and her yielding to it begin.
4. With the fourth epistle we enter upon the second
group of epistles, where the Church is brought before
us less as she is in herself, than as she fails to
maintain her true position in the world, and as that
separation between a faithful remnant and the whole
body which meets us at every step of her history,
throughout both the Old Testament and the New,
The first of the four, the fourth in the series of
seven, is that to Thyatira; and to the church there
the Lord presents Himself in all the penetrating power
of those eyes that as a flame of fire search the inmost
recesses of the heart, and in all the resistless might
of those feet that are as "pillars of fire:" Chap. x. 1.
The commendation of the church follows, what is
good being noted before defects are spoken of: I know
thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and
patience, and that thy last works are more than the first.
The commendation is great. There was not only
grace, but growth in grace, not only work, but work in
Christ's cause abounding more and more. Yet there
was also failure. To understand this it is necessary, as
already noticed, to adopt the translation of the Revised
Version, founded on the more correct reading of the
later critical editions of the Greek. Even in that
version, too, the translation, given in the margin, of
one important expression has to be substituted for
that of the text. Keeping this in view, the Saviour
thus addresses Thyatira: But I have this against thee,
that thou sufferest (that thou toleratest, that thou
lettest alone) thy wife Jezebel, which calleth herself a
prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth My servants to
commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
And I gave her time that she should repent; and she
willeth not to repent of her fornication. Behold, I do
cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her
works. And I will kill her children with death; and all
the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth
the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of
you according to your works. Comp. chap. xviii. 4.
The trial was great; so also is the consolation: And
he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto
the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
and as a shepherd he shall tend them with a sceptre of
iron, as the vessels of the potter are they broken to shivers;
as I also have received of My Father: and I will give him
the morning star. It was a heathen element that
clouded the sky of the church at Thyatira. That
element, nay the nations out of which it springs, shall
be crushed beneath the iron sceptre of the King who
shall "reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and
before His ancients gloriously." Chap. xxii. 16.
5. The fifth epistle is that to Sardis, and in the
superscription He who sends it describes Himself as
One that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars.
Both expressions have already met us, the former in
chap. i. 4, the latter in chap. ii. 1. A different word
from that used in the address to Ephesus is indeed
used here to indicate the relation of the Lord to these
stars or angels of the churches. There the glorified
Lord "holdeth the seven stars in His right hand;"
here He "hath" them. Like every other change,
even of the slightest kind, in this book, the difference is
instructive. To "hold" them is to hold them fast for
their protection; to "have" them is to have them for
a possession, to have them not only outwardly and in
name, but inwardly and in reality, as His own. Thus
Christ "hath" the Holy Spirit, who in all His varied
I know, are the words addressed to her, thy works,
that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain,
which were ready to die: for I have found no works of
thine fulfilled before My God. Remember therefore how
thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent.
If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief,
and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
The world had been tolerated in Thyatira, the first of
the last four churches; in Sardis, the second, it is more
than tolerated. Sardis has substituted the outward
for the inward. She has been proud of her external
ordinances, and has thought more of them than of living
in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. True piety has
declined; and, as a natural consequence, sins of the
flesh, alluded to in the immediately following words
of the epistle, have asserted their supremacy. More
even than this, Sardis had a name that she lived while
she was dead. She was renowned among men. The
world looked, and beheld with admiration what was to
it the splendour of her worship; it listened, and heard
with enthusiasm the music of her praise. And the
church was pleased that it should be so. Not in
humility, lowliness, and deeds of self-sacrificing love
did she seek her "name," but in what the world would
Yet there also the Good Shepherd had His little
flock, and there again we meet them. But thou hast a
few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments.
These were to Sardis what "the rest" were to Thyatira.
They were the "gleanings left in Israel, as the shaking
of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the
uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches
of a fruitful tree."
6. The sixth epistle is to Philadelphia; and the
remarkable circumstance connected with this church
is that, though spoken of as having but "a little
power," it is not seriously blamed. In this respect it
resembles the church at Smyrna in the first group of
The superscription is, These things saith He that is
holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He
that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and
none openeth. The figure is taken from the Old Testament;
and both there and here the context shows us
that it is neither the key of knowledge, nor the key of
discipline, nor the key of the treasures of the kingdom
that is spoken of, but the key of power to open the
Lord's house as a sure refuge from all evil, and to
preserve safe for ever those who are admitted to it.
"I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,"
says the Almighty by His prophet, "and I will clothe
him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle,
and I will commit thy government into his hand: and
he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house
of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall
open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none
shall open."
The commendation of the epistle tells the same tale: I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name. The Church had "a little power," and she had shown this in the struggle.
So also with the promises: Behold, I give of the
synagogue of Satan, of them which say they are Jews, and
they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee. Because thou didst keep the word of My patience,
I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour
which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try
them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly: hold
fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. He
that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of
My God, and he shall no more come forth: and I will
write upon him the name of My God, and the name of
the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new
name. How fierce the struggle of Philadelphia had
been with the world we learn from these words, in
which the enemies of the Church—"Jews" they call
themselves, the people of God, but "they are not"—are
brought before us like vanquished nations at
her feet, as she sits in the heavenly places, paying
homage to her against whom they had so long, but
vainly, struggled. It is impossible not to see the
difference between this church and that at Smyrna.
No doubt there had been "blasphemy of them which
say they are Jews" in the latter case, but worse trials
were only spoken of as about to come. Here the trials
have come, and the church has risen triumphantly
above them. Therefore will the Lord admit her to
His heavenly mansions, and will make her a pillar in
His Father's house, whence she shall come forth no
more. He Himself "went forth" from His Father that
He might be the Captain of our salvation and might
die on our behalf. He returned to His Father, and
never again "comes forth" as He came in the days
7. The seventh epistle is to Laodicea, and here there
can be no doubt that we have the picture of a church
in which the power of the world carries almost all
before it. The church is addressed by Him who describes
Himself as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness,
the Beginning of the creation of God, upon which immediately
follows a charge as to her condition in which
there is no redeeming point. Only later do we see
that there is hope. I know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,
I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest,
I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one,
and miserable and poor and blind and naked: I counsel
thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest
become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe
thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made
manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou
mayest see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:
be zealous therefore, and repent. To interpret the
boasting of the church given in these words as if
it referred to spiritual rather than material riches
is entirely to mistake the meaning. Worldly wealth
is in the writer's view. The members of the church
generally have aimed at riches, and have gotten them.
Possession of riches has also been followed by its usual
effects. The seen and the temporal have usurped in
their minds the place of the unseen and the eternal.
Perhaps they have even regarded their worldly prosperity
as a token of the Divine favour, and are
Yet is Laodicea not altogether without hope. Behold, says He whose every word is truth, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. Even in Laodicea there are some who, inasmuch as they have fought the hardest battle, shall be welcomed to the highest reward. He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne. Beyond that neither hope nor imagination can rise.
The epistles to the seven churches are over. They
present the Church to us as she appears on the field
of history. They set before us the leading characteristics
of her condition partly as she was in "Asia"
at the moment when the Apostle wrote, partly as
she shall be throughout all time and on the widest,
as well as the narrowest, scale. These characteristics
may be shortly summed up as—in the first group of
three, love to the Redeemer, yet love liable, and even
beginning, to grow cold; persecution and trials of
many kinds; preservation by the secret grace of God
and in the hidden life: in the second group of four,
yielding on the part of the majority to sins associated
with unchristian doctrine; formalism in religion; weakness
in the midst of trial, even though not accompanied
by faithlessness; and lukewarmness, springing
from a preference of the things of time to those of
eternity. To these characteristics, however, have to
One brief concluding remark ought to be made.
The epistles now considered ought to be sufficient
in themselves to show that the Apocalypse is not a
series of visions intended only to illustrate one or two
ideas which had taken a strong hold of the Apostle's
mind, or one or two great principles of the Divine
government in general. St. John starts from the
realities around him as much as any writer of the New
Testament. It is true that he sees in them eternal
principles at work, and that he rises to the thought
of ideal good and of ideal evil; but he is not on that
account less true to fact, less impressed by fact. On
the contrary, his very depth of insight into the meaning
of the facts makes him what he is. He who would write
a philosophy of history is not less, but more, dependent
Hence also the mistake sometimes made of thinking
that the purpose of unfolding the principles of the
Divine government could not be a sufficient motive to
St. John to write. Dods, Introduction to New Testament, p. 244.
ANTICIPATIONS OF THE CHURCH'S VICTORY.
Rev. iv., v.
In answering these questions, we are aided by
the strictly parallel structure of the fourth Gospel.
The Prologue of that book, contained in chap. i. 1-18,
suggests the object which the writer has in view. The
next section—chap. i. 19-ii. 11—places before us
the Redeemer whose glory he is to describe. The
struggle of the Son of God with the world does not
begin till we come to chap. v. Between chap. ii. 12
and chap. iv. 54 there is thus a considerable interval,
in which we have the cleansing of the Temple and
the victory of Jesus over the unbelief of the Jew Comp.
While such is the general conception of the third
and fourth chapters viewed as one, we have further to
ask whether, subordinate to their united purpose, there
is not a difference between them. Such a difference
there appears to be; and words of our Lord in the
fourth Gospel, spoken upon an occasion which had
deeply impressed itself upon the mind of the Evangelist,
may help us to determine what it is. In the fourteenth
chapter of that Gospel Jesus encourages His Apostles
as He sends them forth to fight His battle in the world.
"Let not," He says, "your heart be troubled: believe
in God, believe also in Me." The section of the
Apocalypse upon which we are about to enter embraces
a similar thought in both its parts. Chap. iv. conveys
to the Church the assurance that He who is the ultimate
source of all existence is on her side; chap. v.
that she may depend upon Christ and His redeeming
work. The two chapters taken together are a cry to
the Church from her glorified Head, before she enters
After these things I saw and, behold, a door opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard, a voice as of a trumpet speaking with me, one saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter. Straightway I was in the Spirit: and, behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne; and He that sat was to look upon like a jasper stone and a sardius; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, like an emerald to look upon. And round about the throne were four-and-twenty thrones: and upon the thrones I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments, and on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God (iv. 1-5).
The first voice here spoken of is the voice of chap.
i. 10: "And I heard behind me a great voice, as of
a trumpet;" and it is well to remember that that voice
introduced the vision of a Son of man who, while both
King and Priest, was King and Priest in judgment.
It is impossible to doubt that the sound of the same
voice is intended to indicate the same thing here, and
that the King whom we are about to behold is One
who has "prepared His throne for judgment."
The Seer is introduced to a scene which we first
recognise as the glorious audience-chamber of a great
King. Everything as yet speaks of royalty, and of
royal majesty, power, and judgment. The jasper stone
as we learn from a later passage of this book, in which
it is said to be "clear as crystal," Chap. xxi. 11.
The four-and-twenty elders occupying thrones (not seats) around the throne are to be regarded as representatives of the glorified Church; and the number, twice twelve, seems to be obtained by combining the number of the patriarchs of the Old Testament with that of the Apostles of the New.
The description of the heavenly scene is now continued:—
And before the throne, as it were a glassy sea like unto crystal and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within; and they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord, God, the Almighty, which was and which is and which is to come (iv. 6-8).
Up to this point we have been beholding a royal
court; in the words now quoted the priestly element
comes in. The glassy sea naturally leads the thoughts
to the great brazen laver known as the brazen sea
which stood in the court of Solomon's temple between
When we turn to the "living creatures," there can
be no doubt whatever that we are in the midst of
Temple imagery. These are the cherubim, two of
which, fashioned in gold, were placed above the mercy-seat
in the holy of holies, so that, inasmuch as that
mercy-seat was regarded as peculiarly the throne of
God, Israel was invited to think of its King as "sitting
between the cherubim." Comp. Bible Educator, vol. iii., p. 290, where the writer has discussed
this subject at some length.
As to the first of these, the human element in the
cherubim is at once intelligible. It can be nothing
but man; while the fact that they occupy so large a
position in the most sacred division of the Tabernacle
is sufficient to prove that man, so represented, is
thought of as redeemed and brought to the highest
stage of spiritual perfection. The other elements
referred to certainly do not indicate either new qualities
added to humanity, or an intensification of those already
possessed by it, as if we might cherish the prospect
of a time when the physical qualities of man shall
equal in their strength those of the animals around
him, when he shall possess the might of the lion, the
power of the ox, and the swiftness of the eagle. They
represent rather the different departments of nature
as these are distributed into the animate and inanimate
creation. Taking the "living creatures" together in
all their parts, they are thus an emblem of man, associated
on the one hand with the material creation, on
the other with the various tribes of animals by which
it is inhabited, but all redeemed, transfigured, perfected,
delivered from the bondage of corruption, and brought
into "the liberty of the glory of the children of God."
The second point above mentioned—the aspect worn
by the living creatures—demands also a few remarks, Chap. vi. 1, 3, 5, 7. Chap. xv. 7. Chap. xix. 4.
The Seer has beheld the audience-chamber of the Godhead in itself. He has seen also the Divine Being who is there clothed with majesty, and those who wait upon Him. He next passes to another thought:—
And when the living creatures shall give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne, to Him that liveth for ever and ever, the four-and-twenty elders shall fall down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honour and the power: for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they were, and were created (iv. 9-11).
In his beautiful comments upon the Revelation
Isaac Williams says, "The four living creatures, or
the Church of the redeemed, give thanksgiving to
God for their redemption; and then the twenty-four
elders fall down and attribute all glory to God alone,
inasmuch as prophets, Apostles, and all the ministering
priesthood, rejoicing in the salvation of the elect,
attribute it not to their own instrumentality, but to
God." The Apocalypse, with Notes and Reflections, p. 69.
Such then in chap. iv. is the call addressed by the Seer to the Church before she enters upon her struggle, a call similar to that of Jesus to His disciples, "Believe in God."
The fifth chapter continues the same general subject, but with a reference to Christ the Redeemer rather than God the Creator:—
And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a roll of a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the roll, and to loose the seals thereof? And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the roll, or to look thereon. And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the roll, or to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the roll, and the seven seals thereof (v. 1-5).
We can easily form to ourselves a correct idea of the
outward form of the symbol resorted to in these words.
The same symbol is used by the prophet Ezekiel, and
in circumstances in some respects precisely analogous to
those of the Seer. Ezekiel had just beheld his first
vision of the cherubim. "And when I looked," he says,
"behold, an hand was put forth unto me; and, lo, a roll
of a book was therein; and He spread it before me; and
it was written within and without."
At that moment one of the elders, the representatives
of the glorified Church, advanced to cheer him with
the tidings that what he so much desired shall be
accomplished. One who had had a battle to fight and
a victory to win had overcome, not only to look upon the
roll, but to open it and to loose the seven seals thereof, so
as to make its contents known. This was the Lion that
is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David. The description
is taken partly from the law and partly from the
prophets, for is not this "He of whom Moses in the
The eagerly desired explanation follows:—
And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as though
it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came, and He hath taken it out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne (v. 6, 7).
A strange and unlooked-for spectacle is presented to
the Seer. He had been told of a lion; and he beholds
a lamb, nay not only a lamb, the emblem of patience
and of innocence, but, as we learn from the use of the
word slaughtered (not "slain," as in both the Authorised
and Revised Versions), a lamb for sacrifice, and that
had been sacrificed. Nor can we doubt for a moment,
when we call to mind the Gospel of St. John and its
many points of analogy with the Apocalypse, what
particular lamb it was. It was the Paschal Lamb, the
Lamb beheld in our Lord by the Baptist when, pointing
to Jesus as He walked, he said to his disciples, "Behold
the Lamb of God," The point now spoken of has been doubted. A full discussion
of it by the present writer will be found in The Expositor for July and
August, 1877.
The Lamb has seven horns, the emblem of perfected
strength, and seven eyes, which are explained to be the
Spirit of God, sent forth in all His penetrating and
searching power, so that none even in the very ends Chap. i. 18. Chap. i. 18.
One thing more has to be noticed: that this Lamb
is the central figure of the scene before us, in the midst
of the throne and of the living creatures, and of the elders.
To Him all the works of God, both in creation and
redemption, turn. To Him the old covenant led; and
the prophets who were raised up under it searched
"what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did point unto, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that
should follow them."
Such is the Lamb; and He now comes, and hath taken
the roll out of the right hand of Him that sat on the
throne. Let us note the words "hath taken." It is
not "took." St. John sees the Lamb not only take the
roll, but keep it. It is His,—His as the Son, in whom
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; His by
right of the victory He has won; His as the First-born
of all creation and the Head of the Church. It is His
to keep, and to unfold, and to execute, "who is over all,
God blessed for ever. Amen."
Therefore is He worthy of all praise, and to Him all praise is given:—
And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation; and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests: and they reign over the earth (v. 8-10).
It is not necessary to dwell upon the figures that are here employed, the harp, as connected with the Temple service, being the natural emblem of praise, and the bowls full of incense the emblem of prayer. But it is of importance to observe the universality of the praises and the prayers referred to, for as the language used here of these men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, when they are said to have been made a kingdom and priests unto our God, is the same as that of chap. i. 6, we seem entitled to conclude that, even from its very earliest verses, the Apocalypse has the universal Church in view.
The song sung by this great multitude, including
even the representatives of nature, now "delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory
of the children of God,"
The song was sung, but no sooner was it sung than it awoke a responsive strain from multitudes of which we have not yet heard:—
And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders: and the number was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands; saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing (v. 11, 12).
These are the angels, who are not within the throne,
but round about the throne and the four living creatures
and the twenty-four elders. Their place is not so near
the throne, so near the Lamb. "For not unto angels
did He subject the inhabited earth to come, whereof we
speak."
Even this is not all. There is a third stage in the ascending scale, a third circle formed for the widening song:—
And everything which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever (v. 13).
What a sublime conception have we here before us!
It did so now:—
And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped (v. 14).
The redeemed creation is once more singled out for special mention. At chap. iv, 8, 10, they began the song; now we return to them that they may close it. All creation, man included, cries, Amen. The glorified Church has her heart too full to speak. She can only fall down and worship.
The distinction between chap. iv. and chap. v. must now be obvious, even while it is allowed that the same general thought is at the bottom of both chapters. In the one the Church when about to enter on her struggle has the call addressed to her: "Believe in God." In the other that call is followed up by the glorified Redeemer: "Believe also in Me."
Having listened to the call, there is no enemy that she need fear, and no trial from which she need shrink. She is already more than conqueror through Him that loved her. As we enter into the spirit of these chapters we cry,—
THE SEALED ROLL OPENED.
Rev. vi.
The Lamb then, who had, in the previous chapter, taken the book out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, is now to open it, part by part, seal by seal:—
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, Come (vi. 1).
Particular attention ought to be paid to the fact that
the true reading of the last clause of this verse is not,
as in the Authorised Version, "Come and see," but
simply, as in the Revised Version, Come. The call is
not addressed to the Seer, but to the Lord Himself;
and it is uttered by one of the four living creatures
spoken of in chap. iv. 6, who are "in the midst of the
throne and round about the throne," and who in ver. 8
of the same chapter are the first to raise the song from
which they never rest, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the
Lord, God, the Almighty, which was and which is and
which is to come." The word Come therefore embodies
the longing of redeemed creation that the Lord, for
the completion of whose work it waits, will take to
Him His great power and reign. Not so much for the
perfecting of its own happiness, or for deliverance from
the various troubles by which it is as yet beset, and
not so much for the manifestation of its Lord in His
abounding mercy to His own, does the creation delivered
from the bondage of corruption wait, as for the moment
when Christ shall appear in awful majesty, King of
This prospect is inseparably associated with the Second Coming of Him who is now concealed from our view; and therefore the cry of the whole waiting creation, whether animate or inanimate, to its Lord is Come. The cry, too, and that not only in the case of the first living creature, but (according to a rule of interpretation of which in this book we shall often have to make use) in the case of the three that follow, is uttered with a voice of thunder; and thunder is always an accompaniment and symbol of the Divine judgments.
No sooner is the cry heard than it is answered:—
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat thereon had a bow; and there was given unto him a crown: and he came forth conquering, and to conquer (vi. 2).
Few figures of the Apocalypse have occasioned more
trouble to interpreters than that contained in these
words. On the one hand, the particulars seem unmistakeably
to point to the Lord Himself; but, on the
other hand, if the first rider be the glorified Redeemer,
it is difficult to establish that harmonious parallelism
with the following riders which appears to be required
by the well-ordered arrangement of the visions of this
book. Yet it is clearly impossible to regard the first
rider as merely a symbol of war, for the second rider
would then convey the same lesson as the first; nor is
there anything in the text to establish a distinction,
frequently resorted to, by which the first rider is
thought to denote foreign, and the second civil, war.
The interpretation now given of the first rider as
The second Seal is now broken, and the second rider follows:—
And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another horse came forth, a red horse: and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slaughter one another: and there was given unto him a great sword (vi. 3, 4).
The second horse is red, the colour of blood, for it
is the horse of war: and slaughter follows it as its rider
passes over the earth; that is, not over the earth in
general, but over the ungodly. Two things in this
vision are particularly worthy of notice. In the first
place, the war spoken of is not between the righteous
and the wicked, but among the wicked alone. The
wicked slaughter one another. All persons engaged in
these internecine conflicts have cast aside the offers of
the Prince of peace; and, at enmity with Him who is
the only true foundation of human brotherhood, they
are also at enmity among themselves. Of the righteous
The third Seal is now broken, and the third rider follows:—
And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold a black horse; and he that sat thereon had a balance in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A measure of wheat for a penny (or a silver penny), and three measures of barley for a penny; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not (vi. 5, 6).
The third living creature cries as the two before it
had done; and a third horse comes forth, the colour of
which is black, the colour of gloom and mourning and
lamentation. Nor can there be any doubt that this
condition of things is produced by scarcity, for the
figure of the balance and of measuring bread by weight
is on different occasions employed in the Old Testament
to express the idea of famine. Thus among
the threatenings denounced upon Israel should it prove
faithless to God's covenant we read, "And when I
have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall
bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver
you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and
not be satisfied." Comp.
Nothing has yet been said of the last clause of this
judgment: The oil and the wine hurt thou not. The
words are generally regarded as a limitation of the
severity of the famine previously described, and as a
promise that even in judging God will not execute
all His wrath. The interpretation can hardly be
accepted. Not only does it weaken the force of the
threatening, but the meaning thus given to the figure
is entirely out of place. Oil and wine were for the
mansions of the rich not for the habitations of the
The fourth Seal is now broken, and the fourth rider follows:—
And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death; and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth (vi. 7, 8).
The colour of the fourth horse is pale; it has the
livid colour of a corpse, corresponding to its rider,
whose name, Death, is in this case given. Hades
followed with him, not after him, thus showing that a
gloomy and dark region beyond the grave is his
inseparable attendant, and that it too is an instrument
of God's wrath. In chap. i. 18 these two dire companions
had also been associated with one another;
and it is important to notice the combination, as the
fact will afterwards throw light upon one of the most
difficult visions of the book. "Death" is not neutral
death, that separation between soul and body which
awaits every individual of the human family until the
Saviour comes. It is death in the deeper meaning
which it so often bears in Scripture, and especially in
the writings of St. John,—death as judgment. In like
manner Hades is not the neutral grave where the rich
and the poor meet together, where the wicked cease
from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. It is
the region occupied by those who have not found life
It is not easy to say why authority is given death and Hades over no more than the fourth part of the earth, when we might rather have expected that their dominion would be extended over the whole. The question may be asked whether it is possible so to understand the Seer as to connect a "fourth part" of the earth, not with all the instruments together, but with each separate instrument of judgment afterwards named—one fourth to be killed with the sword, a second with famine, a third with death, and a fourth by wild beasts. Should such an idea be regarded as untenable, the probability is that a fourth part is mentioned in order to make room for the climactic rise to a "third part" afterwards met under the trumpet judgments.
The end of the first four Seals has now been reached,
and at this point there is an obvious break in the
hitherto harmonious progress of the visions. No fifth
rider appears when the fifth Seal is broken, and we
pass from the material into the spiritual, from the
visible into the invisible, world. That the transition is
Passing then into a different region of thought, the fifth Seal is now broken:—
And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slaughtered for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And there was given them to each one a white robe; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled (vi. 9-11).
The vision contained in these words is unquestionably
a crucial one for the interpretation of the Apocalypse,
and it will be necessary to dwell upon it for a
little. The minor details may be easily disposed of.
By the consent of all commentators of note, the altar
referred to is the brazen altar of sacrifice, which stood
in the outer court both of the Tabernacle and the
The main question to be answered is, Whom do these "souls" represent? Are they Christian martyrs, suffering perhaps at the hands of the Jews before the fall of Jerusalem, perhaps at the hands of the world to the end of time? Or are they the martyrs of the Old Testament dispensation, Jewish martyrs, who had lived and died in faith? Both suppositions have been entertained, though the former has been, and still is, that almost universally adopted. Yet there can be little doubt that the latter is correct, and that several important particulars of the passage demand its acceptance.
1. Let us observe how these martyrs are designated.
They had been slain for the word of God, and for the
testimony which they held. But that is not the full
expression of Christian testimony. As we read in
many other passages of the book before us, Christians
have "the testimony of Jesus." Comp. chaps. i. 2, 9; xi. 7; xii. 11, 17; xix. 10.
2. The cry of these "souls" is worthy of notice,
How long, O Master, the holy and the true, where the
word "Master," applied also in Margin of Revised Version.
3. The time at which the martyrs had been killed belongs not to the present or the future, but to the past. Like all the other Seals, the fifth is opened at the very beginning of the Christian era; and no sooner is it opened than the souls are seen. It is true that the Seer might be supposed to transport himself forward into the future, and, at some point of Christian history more or less distant, to console Christian martyrs who had already fallen with the assurance that they had only to wait a little time, until such as were to be their later companions in martyrdom should have shared their fate. But such a supposition is inconsistent with the fact that St. John in the Apocalypse always thinks of the Christian age as one hardly capable of being divided; while, as we shall immediately see more clearly, it would make it impossible to explain the consolation afforded by the bestowal of the white robe.
4. The altar under which the blood is seen may help
to confirm this conclusion, for that blood is not preserved
in the inner sanctuary, in that "heaven" which is the
5. The main argument, however, in favour of the
view now contended for, is to be found in the act by
which these souls were comforted: And there was given
them to each one a white robe. The white robe, then,
they had not obtained before; and yet that robe belongs
during his life on earth to every follower of Christ.
Nothing is more frequently spoken of in these visions
than the "white robe" of the redeemed, and it is
obviously theirs from the first moment when they are
united to their Lord. It is the robe of the priesthood,
and at their very entrance upon true spiritual life they
are priests in Him. It is the robe with which the
faithful remnant in Sardis had been arrayed before they
are introduced to us, for they had not "defiled" it; and
the emphasis in the promise there given, "They shall
walk with Me in white," appears to lie upon its first
rather than its second clause. Chap. iii. 4. Chap. iii. 5. Chap. iii. 18. Chap. xix. 8.
Putting all these passages together, we are distinctly
taught that in the language of the Apocalypse the "white
robe" denotes that perfect righteousness of Christ, both
external and internal, which is bestowed upon the believer
from the moment when he is by faith made one
with Jesus. It is that more perfect justification of which
St. Paul spoke at Antioch in Pisidia when he said to
the Jews, "By Him every one that believeth is justified
from all things, from which ye could not be justified by
the law of Moses."
These considerations appear sufficient to decide the point. The souls under the altar of the fifth Seal are the saints, not of Christianity, but of Judaism. It is true that all of them had not been literally "slaughtered." But it is a peculiarity of this book, of which further proof will be afforded as we proceed, that it regards all true followers of Christ as martyrs. Christ was Himself a Martyr; His disciples "follow" Him: they are martyrs. Christ's Church is a martyr Church. She dies in her Master's service, and for the world's good.
One point more ought to be noticed before we leave
For this kingdom then the saints of the Old Testament, together with all their "brethren" under the New Testament, who like them are faithful unto death, now wait; and the opening of the sixth Seal tells us that it is at hand:—
And I saw when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood; and the stars of the heaven fell unto the earth, as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs, when she is shaken of a great wind. And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it
is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand? (vi. 12-17).
The description is marked by almost unparalleled magnificence and sublimity, and any attempt to dwell upon details could only injure the general effect. The real question to be answered is, To what does it apply? Is it a picture of the destruction of Jerusalem or of the final Judgment? Or may it even represent every great calamity by which a sinful world is overtaken? In each of these senses, and in each of them with a certain degree of truth, has the passage been understood. Each is a part of the great thought which it embraces. The error of interpreters has consisted in confining the whole, or even the primary, sense to any one of them. The true reference of the passage appears to be to the Christian dispensation, especially on its side of judgment. That dispensation had often been spoken of by the prophets in a precisely similar way; and the whole description of these verses, alive with the rich glow of the Eastern imagination, is taken partly from their language, and partly from the language of our Lord in the more prophetic and impassioned moments of His life.
Thus it was that Joel had announced the purpose of
God: "And I will show wonders in the heavens and
the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, before the great and the terrible day of the
Lord come," and again, "The sun and the moon shall
Highly coloured, therefore, as the language used
under the sixth Seal may appear to us, to the Jew,
animated by the spirit of the Old Testament, it was
simply that in which he had been accustomed to express
his expectation of any new dispensation of the
Almighty, of any striking crisis in the history of the Lectures on the Revelation, p. 170.
While, however, the truth of these words may be allowed, it is still necessary to urge that the primary application of the language of the sixth Seal is to no one of such events in particular, but to something which includes them all. In other words, it applies to the Christian dispensation, viewed in its beginning, its progress, and its end, viewed in all those issues which it produces in the world, but especially on the side of judgment.
Nor ought such dark and terrible figures to startle
us, as if they could not be suitably applied to a dispensation
of mercy, of grace that we cannot fathom, of
love that passeth knowledge. The Christian dispensation
is not effeminacy. If it tells of abounding compassion
for the sinner, it tells also of fire, and hail, and
Although, therefore, the language of the prophets
and of this passage may at first sight appear to be
marked by far too great a measure both of strength
and of severity to make it applicable to the Gospel
age, it is in reality neither too strong nor too severe.
It is at variance only with the verdict of that superficial
glance which is satisfied with looking at phenomena in
their outward and temporary aspect, and which declines
to penetrate into the heart of things. So long as man
is content with such a spirit, he is naturally enough
unstirred by any powerful emotion; and he can only
say that words of prophetic fire are words of exaggeration
and of false enthusiasm. But no sooner does he
catch that spirit of the Bible which brings him into
contact with eternal verities than his tone changes.
He can no longer rest upon the surface. He can no
longer dismiss the thought of mighty issues at stake
around him with the reflection that "all the world's a
stage, and all the men and women on it only players."
When from the shore he looks out upon the mass of
waters stretching before him, he thinks not merely of
the light waves rippling at his feet and losing themselves
in the sand, but of the unfathomed depths of the
ocean from which they come, and of those mysterious
movements of it which they indicate. He sees sights,
he hears sounds, which the common eye does not see,
and the common ear does not hear. The slightest
motion of the soil speaks to him of earthquakes; the
handful of snow loosened from the mountain-side, of
avalanches; the simplest utterance of awe, of a cry
CONSOLATORY VISIONS.
Rev. vii.
We are not to imagine that the Seals of chap. vi.
follow one another in chronological succession, or that
each of them belongs to a definite date. The Seer
does not look forward to age succeeding age or century
century. To him the whole period between the first
and the second coming of Christ is but "a little time,"
and whatever is to happen in it "must shortly come
to pass." In truth he can hardly be said to deal with
the lapse of time at all. He deals with the essential
characteristics of the Divine government in time,
whether it be long or short. Shall the revolving years
be in our sense short, these characteristics will nevertheless
come forth with a clearness that shall leave man
without excuse. Shall they be in our sense long, the
unfolding of God's eternal plan will only be again and
again made manifest. He with whom we have to do
is without beginning of days or end of years, the I am,
unchangeable both in the attributes of His own nature,
and in the execution of His purposes for the world's
redemption. Let us cast our eyes along the centuries
that have passed away since Jesus died and rose again.
They are full of one great lesson. At every point at
which we pause we see the Son of God going forth
conquering and to conquer. We see the world struggling
against His righteousness, refusing to submit to
it, and dooming itself in consequence to every form of
woe. We see the children of God following a crucified
Redeemer, but preserved, sustained, animated, their
cross, like His, their crown. Finally, as we realize more
With the beginning of chap. vii. we might expect the seventh Seal to be opened; but it is the manner of the apocalyptic writer, before any final or particularly critical manifestation of the wrath of God, to present us with visions of consolation, so that we may enter into the thickest darkness, even into the valley of the shadow of death, without alarm. We have already met with this in chaps. iv. and v. We shall meet with it again. Meanwhile it is here illustrated:—
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sun-rising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand; of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand;
of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand (vii. 1-8).
Although various important questions, which we
shall have to notice, arise in connexion with this vision,
there never has been, as there scarcely can be, any
doubt as to its general meaning. In its main features
it is taken from the language of Ezekiel, when that
prophet foretold the approaching destruction of Jerusalem:
"He cried also with a loud voice in mine ears,
saying, Cause them that have charge over the city
to draw near, even every man with his destroying
weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from
the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the
north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand;
and one man among them was clothed with fine linen,
with a writer's inkhorn by his side.... And the
Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the
city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry
for all the abominations that be done in the midst
thereof.... And, behold, the man clothed with linen,
which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter,
saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded me."
In the midst of all this the safety of the righteous
is secured, and that in a way, as compared with the
way of the Old Testament, proportionate to the superior
greatness of their privileges. They are marked
as God's, not by a man out of the city, but by an angel
ascending from the sun-rising, the quarter whence
proceeds that light of day which gilds the loftiest
mountain-tops and penetrates into the darkest recesses
of the valleys. This angel, with his great voice, is
probably the Lord Himself appearing by His angel.
The mark impressed upon the righteous is more than
a mere mark: it is a seal—a seal similar to that with
which Christ was "sealed;" Comp.
When we turn to the numbers sealed, every reader who reflects for a moment will allow that they must be symbolically, and not literally, understood. Twelve thousand out of each of twelve tribes, in all a hundred and forty and four thousand, bears upon its face the stamp of symbolism. It is more difficult to answer the question, Who are they? Are they Jewish Christians, or are they the whole multitude of God's faithful people belonging to the Church universal, but indicated by a figure taken from Judaism?
The question now asked is of greater than ordinary
importance, for upon the answer given to it largely
depends the solution of the problem whether the author
of the fourth Gospel and the author of the Apocalypse
are the same. If the first vision of the chapter relating
to those sealed out of the tribes of Israel speak only
of Jewish Christians, and the second vision, beginning
at ver. 9, of "the great multitude which no man
could number," speak of Gentile Christians, it will
follow that the writer exhibits a particularistic tendency
altogether at variance with the universalism of the
author of the fourth Gospel. Gentile Christians will be,
as they have been called, an "appendix" to the Jewish-Christian
Church; and the followers of Jesus will
fail to constitute one flock all the members of which
are equal in the sight of God, occupy the same position,
and enjoy the same privileges. The first impression
produced by the vision of the sealed is undoubtedly
that it refers to Jewish Christians, and to them alone.
1. We have not yet found, and we shall not find in
any later part of the Apocalypse, a distinction drawn
between Jewish and Gentile Christians. To the eye of
the Seer, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is one.
There is in it neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian,
Scythian, bond, nor free. He recognises in it in its collective
capacity the Body of Christ, all the members
of which occupy the same relation to their Lord, and
stand equally in grace. He knows indeed of a distinction
between the Jewish Church, which waited for the
coming of the Lord, and the Christian Church, which
rejoiced in Him as come; but he knows also that when
Jesus did come the privileges of the latter were bestowed
upon those in the former who had looked
onward to Christ's day, and that they were arrayed
in the same "white robe." Under all the six Seals,
accordingly, embracing the whole period of the Gospel
dispensation, there is not a single word to suggest the
thought that the Christian Church is divided into two
parts. The struggle, the preservation, and the victory
belong equally to all. A similar remark may be made
on the epistles to the seven churches, which unquestionably
contain a representation of that Church the
fortunes of which are to be afterwards described. In
these epistles Christ walks equally in the midst of every
part of it; and promises are made, not in one form to
one member and in another to another, but always in
precisely the same terms to "him that overcometh."
It would be out of keeping with this were we now,
when a similar topic of preservation is on hand, to be
2. It is the custom of the Seer to heighten and
spiritualize all Jewish names. The Temple, the Tabernacle,
the Altar, Mount Zion, and Jerusalem are to him
the embodiments of ideas deeper than those literally
conveyed by them. Analogy therefore might suggest
that this also would be the case with the word "Israel."
Nay, it would even be the more natural so to use that
word, because it is so often used in the same spiritual
sense in other parts of the New Testament: "But they
are not all Israel which are of Israel;" "And as many
as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and
mercy, and upon the Israel of God." Chap. i. 7.
3. The enumeration of the tribes of Israel given in
these verses is different from any other enumeration of
the kind contained in Scripture. Thus the tribe of
Dan is omitted; and, contrary to the practice of at
least the later books of the Old Testament, that of Levi
is inserted; while Joseph also is substituted for Ephraim:
and the order in which the twelve are given has elsewhere
no parallel. Points such as these may appear
trifling, but they are not without importance. No
student of the Apocalypse will imagine that they are Comp. chap. xii. 9.
4. Some of the expressions of the passage are inconsistent
with the limitation of the sealed to any
special class of Christians. Why, for example, should
the holding back of the winds be universal? Would
it not have been enough to restrain the winds that
blew on Jewish Christians, and not the winds of the
whole earth? And again, why do we meet with
language of so general a character as that of ver. 3:
5. If God's servants from among the Gentiles are not now sealed, the Apocalypse mentions no other occasion when they were so. It is true that, according to the ordinary interpretation of the next vision, they are admitted to the happiness of heaven; but we may well ask whether, if the sealing be the emblem of preservation amidst worldly troubles, they ought not also, at one time or another, to have been sealed on earth.
6. The sealed are marked upon their foreheads, and in chap. xxii. 4 all believers are marked in a similar way.
7. We shall meet again this number of a hundred and forty-four thousand in chap. xiv.; and, while it can hardly be doubted that the same persons are on both occasions included in it, it will be seen that there at least the whole number of the redeemed is meant.
8. It is worthy of notice that the contrasts of the
Apocalypse lead directly to a similar conclusion.
St. John always sees light and darkness standing
over against each other, and exhibiting themselves in
a correspondence which, extending even to minute
details, aids the task of the interpreter. Now in many
passages of this book we find Satan not only marking
his followers, but, precisely as here, marking them upon
the "forehead;" Chaps. xiii. 16, 17; xiv. 9; xvi. 2; xix. 20; xx. 4.
9. One more reason may be assigned for this conclusion. If ver. 4, with its "hundred and forty and four thousand out of every tribe of the children of Israel," is to be understood of Jewish Christians alone, the contrast between it and ver. 9, with its "great multitude, which no man can number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues," makes it necessary to understand the latter of Gentile Christians alone. It will not do to say that the comprehensive enumeration of this verse may include Jewish as well as Gentile Christians. Placed over against the very definite statement of ver. 4, it can only, according to the style of the Apocalypse, be referred to persons who have come out of the heathen world in the fourfold conception of its parts. Now, whatever may be the precise interpretation of the second vision of the chapter, it is undeniable that it unfolds a higher stage of privilege and glory than the first. It will thus follow on the supposition now combated that at the very instant when the Apostle is said to be placing Gentile Christians in a position of inferiority to Jewish Christians, and when he is treating the one as simply an "appendix" to the other, he speaks of them as the inheritors of a far greater "weight of glory." St. John could not be thus inconsistent with himself.
The conclusion from all that has been said, is plain. The vision of the sealing does not apply to Jewish Christians only, but to the universal Church. When the judgments of God are abroad in the world, all the disciples of Christ are sealed for preservation against them.
Notwithstanding what has been said, the reader may
still find it difficult to conceive that two pictures of the The writer has treated this subject at considerable length in The
Expositor (2nd series, vol. iv.).
We are thus entitled to conclude that the hundred
and forty-four thousand of this first consolatory vision
represent not Jewish Christians only, but the whole
Church of God, and that the number used is intended to
represent completeness: not one member of the true
Church is lost. Comp.
It need only further be observed—and the observation
will help to confirm what has been said—that St. John
did not himself count the number of the sealed. He
heard the number of them (ver. 4). Already they were
"a multitude which no man could number" (ver. 9).
But He who telleth the innumerable stars that sparkle
in the midnight sky, and who "bringeth out their host
The second vision of the chapter follows:—
After these things I saw, and, behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God which sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I said unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat: for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes (vii. 9-17).
Upon the magnificence and beauty of this description
it is not only unnecessary, it would be a mistake, to
dwell. Words of man would only mar the sublimity and
pathos of the spectacle. Neither is it desirable to look
at each expression of the passage in itself. These expressions
are better considered as a whole. One point
indeed ought to be carefully kept in view: that the
palms spoken of in ver. 9 as in the hands of the happy
multitude are not the palms of victory in any earthly
contest, but the palms of the Feast of Tabernacles, and
The Feast of Tabernacles, it will be remembered,
was at once the last, the highest, and the most joyful
of the festivals of the Jewish year. It fell in the month
of October, when the harvest not only of grain, but of
wine and oil, had been gathered in, and when, therefore,
all the labours of the year were past. It was preceded,
too, by the great Day of Atonement, the ceremonial of
which gathered together all the sacrificial acts of the
previous months, beheld the sins of the people, from
their highest to their lowest, carried away into the
wilderness, and brought with it the blessing of God
from that innermost recess of the sanctuary which was
lightened by the special glory of His presence, and
into which the high-priest even was permitted to enter
upon that day alone. The feelings awakened in Israel
at the time were of the most triumphant kind. They
returned in thought to the independent life which their
fathers, delivered from the bondage of Egypt, led in
the wilderness; and, the better to realize this, they
left their ordinary dwellings and took up their abode
for the days of the feast in booths, which they erected
in the streets or on the flat roofs of their houses.
These booths were made of branches of their most
prized, most fruit-bearing, and most umbrageous trees;
and beneath them they raised their psalms of thanksgiving
to Him who had delivered them as a bird out of
the snare of the fowler. Even this was not all, for we
know that in the later period of their history the Jews
connected the Feast of Tabernacles with the brightest
anticipations of the future as well as with the most
joyful memories of the past. They beheld in it the
promise of the Spirit, the great gift of the approaching
Such was the scene the main particulars of which are here made use of by the apocalyptic Seer to set before us the triumphant and glorious condition of the Church when, after all her members have been sealed, they are admitted to the full enjoyment of the blessings of God's covenant, and when, washed in the blood of the Lamb and clothed with His righteousness, they keep their Feast of Tabernacles.
A most important and interesting question connected
with this vision has still to be answered. It may be
first asked in the words of Isaac Williams. "It is
whether all this description is of the Church in heaven
or on earth." The same writer has answered his The Apocalypse, p. 126. Professor Gibson, in The Monthly Interpreter, vol. ii., p. 9.
Appeal is first made to
The conclusion may be accepted without the "hesitation."
The colours on the canvas may indeed at first
appear too bright for any condition of things on this Chap. xxi. 3, 4. Comp. on the general thought Brown, The Second Advent, chap. vi.
The relation in which the two visions of this chapter stand to one another may now be obvious. Although the persons referred to are in both the same, they do not in both occupy the same position. In the first they are only sealed, and through that sealing they are safe. Their Lord has taken them under His protection; and, whatever troubles or perils may beset them, no one shall pluck them out of His hand. In the second they are more than safe. They have peace, and joy, and triumph, their every want supplied, their every sorrow healed. Death itself is swallowed up in victory, and every tear is wiped from every eye.
Thus also may we determine the period to which
both the sealing of believers and their subsequent
enjoyment of heavenly blessing belong. In neither
vision are we introduced to any special era of Christian
history. St. John has in view neither the Christians
of his own day alone, nor those of any later time.
As we found that each of the first six Seals embraced
the whole Gospel age, so also is it with these consolatory
visions. We are to dwell upon the thought
rather than the time of preservation and of bliss. The
THE FIRST SIX TRUMPETS.
Rev. viii., ix.
Six Seals had been opened in chap. vi.; the opening of the seventh follows:—
And when He opened the seventh seal, there followed silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stand before God; and there were given unto them seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should give it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel taketh the censer; and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it upon the earth: and there followed thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound (viii. 1-6).
Before looking at the particulars of this Seal, we have
to determine the relation in which it stands to the Seals
of chap. vi. as well as to the visions following it.
Is it as isolated, as independent, as those that have
come before it; and are its contents exhausted by
the first six verses of the chapter? or does it occupy
In answering these questions, it can hardly be denied that if we are to look upon the seventh Seal as standing independent and alone, its contents have not the significance which we seem entitled to expect. It is the last Seal of its own series; and when we turn to the last member of the Trumpet series at chap. xi. 15, or of the Bowl series at chap. xvi. 17, we find them marked, not by less, but by much greater, force than had belonged in either case to the six preceding members. The seventh Trumpet and the seventh Bowl sum up and concentrate the contents of their predecessors. In the one the judgments of God represented by the Trumpets, in the other those represented by the Bowls, culminate in their sharpest expression and their most tremendous potency. There is nothing of that kind in the seventh Seal if it terminates with the preparation of the Trumpet angels to sound; and the analogy of the Apocalypse therefore, an analogy supplying in a book so symmetrically constructed an argument of greater than ordinary weight, is against that supposition.
Again, the larger portion of the first six verses of this chapter does not suggest the contents of the Seal. Rather would it seem as if these contents were confined to the "silence" spoken of in ver. 1, and as if what follows from ver. 2 to ver. 6 were to be regarded as no part of the Seal itself, but simply as introductory to the Trumpet visions. Everything said bears upon it the marks of preparation for what is to come, and we are not permitted to rest in what is passing as if it were a final and conclusive scene in the great spectacle presented to the Seer.
For these reasons the view often entertained that the visions to which we proceed are developed out of the seventh Seal may be regarded as correct.
If so, how far does the development extend? The answer invariably given to this question is, To the end of the Trumpets. But the answer is not satisfactory. The general symmetry of the Apocalypse militates against it. There is then no correspondence between the last Trumpet and the last Seal, nothing to suggest the thought of a development of the Bowls out of the seventh Trumpet in a manner corresponding to the development of the Trumpets out of the seventh Seal. In these circumstances the only probable conclusion is that both the Bowls and the Trumpets are developed out of the seventh Seal, and that that development does not close until we reach the end of chap. xvi.
If what has now been said be correct, it will throw important light upon the relation of the Seals to the two series of the Trumpets and the Bowls taken together; while, at the same time, it will lend us valuable aid in the interpretation of all the three series.
Returning to the words before us, it is said that, at
the opening of the seventh Seal, there followed silence
in heaven about the space of half an hour. This silence
may perhaps include a cessation even of the songs
which rise before the throne of God from that redeemed
creation the voice of whose praise rests not either day
or night. Chap. iv. 8.
That preparation is next described.
St. John saw seven trumpets given to the seven angels
which stand before God. In whatever other respects
these seven angels are to be distinguished from the
hosts of angels which surround the throne, the commission
now given shows that they are angels of a
more exalted order and a more irresistible power.
They are in fact the expression of the Divine Judge
of men, or rather of the mode in which He chooses
by judgment to express Himself. We are not even
required to think of them as numerically seven, for
seven in its sacred meaning is the number of unity,
though of unity in the variety as well as the combination
of its agencies. The "seven Spirits of God"
are His one Spirit; the "seven churches," His one
Church; the "seven horns" and "seven eyes" of the
Lamb, His one powerful might and His one penetrating
glance. In like manner the seven Seals, the seven
Trumpets, and the seven Bowls embody the thought of
many judgments which are yet in reality one. Thus
also the angels here are seven, not because literally so,
but because that number brings out the varied forms
as well as the essential oneness of the action of Him
to whom the Father has given "authority to execute
judgment, because He is a Son of man."
As yet the seven trumpets have only been given to
the seven angels. More has to pass before they put
them to their lips and sound. Another angel is seen
who came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer
in his hand. At the opening of the fifth Seal we read
of an "altar" which it was impossible not to identify
with the great brazen altar, the altar of burnt-offering,
in the outer court of the sanctuary. Such identification Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Incense.
Further, it ought to be observed that the prayers
referred to are for judgment upon sin. There is
nothing to justify the supposition that they are partly
for judgment upon, partly for mercy to, a sinful world.
They are simply another form of the cry, "How long,
O Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Chap. vi. 10. Comp. p. 103.
The cry is heard, for the angel takes of the fire of the altar on which the saints had been sacrificed as an offering to God, and casts it into the earth, that it may consume the sin by which it had been kindled. The lex talionis again starts to view; not merely punishment, but retribution, the heaviest of all retribution, because it is accompanied by a convicted conscience, retribution in kind.
Everything is now ready for judgment, and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepare themselves to sound:—
And the first sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast into the earth: and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up (viii. 7).
To think, in interpreting these words, of a literal burning up of a third part of the "earth," of the "trees," and of the "green grass," would lead us astray. Comparing the first Trumpet with those that follow, we have simply a general description of judgment as it affects the land in contradistinction to the sea, the rivers and fountains of water, and the heavenly bodies by which the earth is lighted. The punishment is drawn down by a guilty world upon itself when it rises in opposition to Him who at first prepared the land for the abode of men, planted it with trees pleasant to the eye, cast over it its mantle of green, and pronounced it to be very good. Of every tree of the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, might our first parents eat; while grass covered the earth for their cattle, and herb for their service. All nature was to minister to the wants of man, and in cultivating the garden and the field he was to find light and happy labour. But sin came in. Thorns and thistles sprang up on every side. Labour became a burden, and the fruitful field was changed into a wilderness which could only be subdued by constant, patient, and often-disappointed toil. This is the thought—a thought often dwelt upon by the prophets of the Old Testament—that is present to the Seer's mind.
One of the plagues of Egypt, however, may also be
in his eye. When the Almighty would deliver His
people from that land of their captivity, "He sent
thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the
ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of
Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the
hail, very grievous.... And the hail smote throughout
all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both
The second Trumpet is now blown:—
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and there died the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, even they that had life; and the third part of the ships was destroyed (viii. 8, 9).
As the first Trumpet affected the land, so the second
affects the sea; and the remarks already made upon the
one destruction are for the most part applicable to
the other. The figure of removing a mountain from
its place and casting it into the sea was used by our
Even the figure of a "burnt mountain" is not
strange to the Old Testament, for the prophet Jeremiah
thus denounces woe on Babylon: "Behold, I am
against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord,
which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out
Mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks,
and make thee a burnt mountain."
The plagues of Egypt, too, are again taken advantage
of by the Seer, for in the first of these Moses "lifted up
the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river; ... and
all the waters that were in the river were
turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river
died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not
drink of the water of the river; and there was blood
throughout all the land of Egypt."
The third Trumpet is now blown:—
And the third angel sounded, and there fell from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of the waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter (viii. 10, 11).
The third Trumpet is to be understood upon the
same principles and in the same general sense as the
two preceding Trumpets. The figures are again such
as meet us in the Old Testament, though they are used
by the Seer in his own free and independent way.
Thus the prophet Isaiah, addressing Babylon in his
magnificent description of her fall, exclaims, "How art
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"
The fourth Trumpet is now blown:—
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; that the third part of them should be darkened, and the day should not shine for the third part of it, and the night in like manner (viii. 12).
This Trumpet offers no contradiction to what was previously
said,—that the first four members of the three
series of Seals, of Trumpets, and of Bowls deal with
the material rather than the spiritual side of man, with
man as a denizen of this world rather than of the next. Comp. p. 97.
The first four Trumpets have now been blown, and we reach the line of demarcation by which each series of judgments is divided into its groups of four and three. That line is drawn in the present instance with peculiar solemnity and force:—
And I saw, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a great voice, Woe, woe, woe, for them that dwell on the earth by reason of the other voices of the three angels who are yet to sound (viii. 13).
Attention ought to be paid to the fact that the cry
uttered in mid-heaven, and thus penetrating to the most
distant corners of the earth, proceeds from an eagle,
and not, as in the Authorised Version, from an "angel;"
and the eagle is certainly referred to for the purpose
of adding fresh terror to the scene. If we would
enter into the Seer's mind, we must think of it as the
symbol of rapine and plunder. To him the prominent
characteristic of that bird is not its majesty, but its
swiftness, its strength, and its hasting to the prey. Comp.
Thus ominously announced, the fifth Trumpet is now blown:—
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star out of heaven fallen unto the earth: and there was given to him the key of the well of the abyss. And he opened the well of the abyss; and there went up a smoke out of the well, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the well. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth: and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only such men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads. And it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when it striketh a man. And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war, and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold, and their faces were as faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to war. And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings: and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months. They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon (ix. 1-11).
Such is the strange but dire picture of the judgment
of the fifth Trumpet; and we have, as usual, in the
first place, to look at the particulars contained in it.
As in several previous instances, these are founded
upon the plagues of Egypt and the language of the
prophets. In both these sources how terrible does a
locust plague appear! In Egypt—"And the Lord said
unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of
Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon
the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land,
even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched
forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord
It is no doubt true that in the description before us the qualities of its locusts are preternaturally magnified, but that is only what we might expect, and it is in keeping with the mode in which other figures taken from the Old Testament are treated in this book. There is a probability, too, that each trait of the description had a distinct meaning to St. John, and that it represents some particular phase of the calamities he intended to depict. But it is hardly possible now to discover such meanings; and that the Seer had in view general evil as much at least as evil in certain special forms is shown by the artificiality of structure marking the passage as a whole. For the description of the locusts is divided into three parts, the first general, the second special, the third the locust-king. The special characteristics of the insects, again, are seven in number: (1) upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold; (2) and their faces were as faces of men; (3) and they had hair as the hair of women; (4) and their teeth were as the teeth of lions; (5) and they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; (6) and the sound of their wings was as the sound of many chariots; (7) and they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings.
Whether the period of five months, during which these locusts are said to commit their ravages, is fixed on because the destruction caused by the natural insect lasts for that length of time, or for some other reason unknown to us, it is difficult to determine. There is a want of proof that a locust-plague generally continues for the number of months thus specified, and it is otherwise more in accordance with the style of the Apocalypse to regard that particular period of time as simply denoting that the judgment has definite limits.
One additional particular connected with the fifth
Trumpet ought to be adverted to. It will be noticed
that the well of the abyss whence the plague proceeds
is opened by a star fallen (not "falling") out of heaven,
to which the key of the well was given. We have here
one of those contrasts of St. John a due attention to
which is of such importance to the interpreter. This
"fallen star" is the contrast and counterpart of Him
who is "the bright, the morning star," and who "has
the keys of death and of Hades." Chaps. xxii. 16; i. 18.
At this point the sixth angel ought to sound; but we are now in the midst of the three last woes, and each is of so terrible an import that it deserves to be specially marked. Hence the words of the next verse:—
The first Woe is past; behold, there come yet two Woes hereafter (ix. 12).
This warning given, the sixth Trumpet is now blown:—
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which had been prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year, that they should kill the third part of men. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates as of fire, and of hyacinth, and of brimstone. By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and the smoke, and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails are like unto serpents, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of mankind which were not killed with these plagues repented not of the works of their hands, that
they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood: which can neither see, nor hear nor walk: and they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts (ix. 13-21).
There is much in this Trumpet that is remarkable
even while we confine ourselves to the more outward
particulars contained in it. Thus we are brought back
by it to the thought of those prayers of the saints to
which all the Trumpets are a reply, but which have not
been mentioned since the blowing of the Trumpets
began. Vers. 3-5. Comp. p. 268.
The judgment itself is founded, as in the others already considered, upon thoughts and incidents connected with Old Testament history.
The first of these is the river Euphrates. That great
river was the boundary of Palestine upon the northeast.
"In the same day the Lord made a covenant
with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given
this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river,
the river Euphrates;"
The second Old Testament thought to be noted in
this vision is that of horses. To the Israelite the
horse presented an object of terror rather than admiration,
and an army of horsemen awakened in him the
deepest feelings of alarm. Thus it is that the prophet
Habakkuk, describing the coming judgments of God,
is commissioned to exclaim, "Behold ye among the
heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I
will work a work in your days, which ye will not
believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the
Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall
march through the breadth of the land, to possess the
dwelling-places that are not theirs. They are terrible
and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall
proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter
The last two verses of chap. ix., which follow the
sixth Trumpet, deserve our particular attention. They
describe the effect produced upon the men who did not
perish by the previous plagues, and they help to throw
light upon a question most intimately connected with
a just interpretation of the Apocalypse. The question
is, Does the Seer, in any of his visions, anticipate the
conversion of the ungodly? or does he deal, from the
beginning to the end of his descriptions, with righteousness
and sin in themselves rather than with righteous
persons who may decline from the truth or sinful
persons who may own and welcome it? The question
will meet us again in the following chapters of this
book, and will demand a fuller discussion than it can
receive at present. In the meantime it is enough to
say that, in the two verses now under consideration,
no hint as to the conversion of any ungodly persons
by the Trumpet plagues is given. On the contrary,
the "men"—that is, the two-thirds of the inhabitants
Two brief remarks on these six Trumpet visions, looked at as a whole, appear still to be required.
1. No attempt has been made to interpret either the
individual objects of the judgments or the instruments
by which judgment is inflicted. To the one class
belong the "earth," the "trees," the "green grass," the
"sea," the "ships," the "rivers and fountains of the
waters," the "sun," the "moon," and the "stars;" to
the other belong the details given in the description
first of the "locusts" of the fifth Trumpet and then
of the "horses" of the sixth. Each of these particulars
may have a definite meaning, and interpreters may yet
be successful in discovering it. The object kept in
view throughout this commentary makes any effort to
ascertain that meaning, when it is doubtful if it even
exists, comparatively unimportant. We are endeavouring
to catch the broader interpretation and spirit of the
book; and it may be a question whether our impressions
would in that respect be deepened though we
saw reason to believe that all the objects above mentioned
had individual force. One line of demarcation
certainly seems to exist, traced by the Seer himself,
between the first four and the two following judgments,
the former referring to physical disasters flowing from
2. The judgments of these Trumpets are judgments on the world rather than the Church. Occasion has been already taken to observe that the structure of this part of the Apocalypse leads to the belief that both the Trumpets and the Bowls are developed out of the Seals. Yet there is a difference between the two, and various indications in the Trumpet visions appear to confine them to judgments on the world.
There is the manner in which they are introduced,
as an answer to the prayers of "all the saints." Chap. viii. 3.
Again, the three Woe-Trumpets are directed against
"them that dwell on the earth." Chap. viii. 13.
Again, under the fifth Trumpet the children of God
are separated from the ungodly, so that the particulars
of that judgment do not touch them. The locusts are
instructed that they should not hurt the grass of the
earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only
such men as have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Chap. ix. 4.
Again, the seventh Trumpet, in which the series
culminates, and which embodies its character as a whole,
will be found to deal with judgment on the world alone:
"The nations were roused to wrath, and Thy wrath
came, and the time of the dead to be judged," ... and
"the time to destroy them that destroy the earth." Chap. xi. 18.
Finally, the description given at the end of the sixth
Trumpet of those who were hardened rather than
softened by the preceding judgments leads directly
to the same conclusion: And the rest of mankind
which were not killed by these plagues repented not of the
works of their hands, that they should not worship devils,
and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of
stone, and of wood. Chap. ix. 20.
These considerations leave no doubt that the judgments
of the Trumpets are judgments on the world. The
Church, it is true, may also suffer from them, but not
FIRST CONSOLATORY VISION.
Rev. x.
And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud: and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book-roll open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth: and he cried with a great voice, as a lion roareth: and when he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying, Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven, and the things that are therein, and the earth, and the things that are therein, and the sea, and the things that are therein, that there shall be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard it again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the book-roll which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the
angel, saying unto him that he should give me the little book-roll. And he saith unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey. And I took the little book-roll out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter. And they say unto me, Thou must prophesy again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings (x. 1-11).
Many questions of deep interest, and upon which the most divergent opinions have been entertained, meet us in connexion with this passage. To attempt to discuss these various opinions would only confuse the reader. It will be enough to allude to them when it seems necessary to do so. In the meantime, before endeavouring to discover the meaning of the vision, three observations may be made; one of a general kind, the other two bearing upon the interpretation of particular clauses.
1. Like almost all else in the Revelation of St. John,
the vision is founded upon a passage of the Old Testament.
"And when I looked," says the prophet Ezekiel,
"behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of
a book was therein.... Moreover He said unto me,
Son of man, eat what thou findest; eat this roll, and
go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my
mouth, and He caused me to eat that roll. And He
said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and
fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then
did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for
sweetness. And He said unto me, Son of man, go,
get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with My
words unto them."
2. In one expression of ver. 6 it is doubtful whether
the translation of the Authorised and Revised Versions, Comp. chaps. vi. 11; xx. 3.
3. The last verse of the chapter deserves our attention
for a moment: And they say unto me, Thou must
prophesy again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues,
and kings. Although prophecy itself is spoken of in
several passages of this book, Comp. chaps. i. 3; xxii. 7, 10, 18, 19.
From these subordinate points we hasten to questions more immediately concerning us in our effort to understand the chapter. Several such questions have to be asked.
1. Who is the angel introduced to us in the first
verse of the vision? He is described as another strong
angel; and, as the epithet "strong" has been so used Chaps. i. 7; xiv. 14-16. In chap. xi. 12 "the cloud" is the well-known
cloud in which Christ ascended, and in which He comes to
judgment. Comp. p. 25.
2. In what character does the Lord appear? As to the answer to this question there can be no dubiety. He appears in judgment. The rainbow upon His head is indeed the symbol of mercy, but it is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that He is Saviour as well as Judge. So far is the Apocalypse from representing the ideas of judgment and mercy as incompatible with each other that throughout the whole book the most terrible characteristic of the former is its proceeding from One distinguished by the latter. If even in itself the Divine wrath is to be dreaded by the sinner, the dread which it ought to inspire reaches its highest point when we think of it as "the wrath of the Lamb." The other features of the description speak directly of judgment: the "cloud," the "sun," the "pillars of fire."
3. What notion are we to form of the contents of
the little book-roll? They are certainly not the same
as those of the book-roll of chap. v., although the word
We are thus in a position to inquire what the special contents of the little book-roll were. Before doing so one consideration may be kept in view.
Calling to mind the symmetrical structure of the Apocalypse, it seems natural to expect that the relation to one another of the two consolatory visions falling between the Trumpets and the Bowls will correspond to that of the two between the Seals and the Trumpets. The two companies, however, spoken of in these two latter visions, are the same, the hundred and forty and four thousand "out of every tribe of the children of Israel" being identical with the great multitude "out of every nation;" while the contents of the second vision are substantially the same as those of the first, though repeated on a fuller and more perfect scale. Now we shall shortly see that the second of our present consolatory visions—that in chap. xi.—brings out the victory and triumph of a faithful remnant of believers within a degenerate, though professing, Church. How probable does it become that the first consolatory vision—that in chap. x.—will relate to the same remnant, though on a lower plane alike of battle and of conquest!
Thus looked at, we have good ground for the supposition that the little book-roll contained indications of judgment about to descend on a Church which had fallen from her high position and practically disowned her Divine Master; while at the same time it assured the faithful remnant within her that they would be preserved, and in due season glorified. The little book thus spoke of the hardest of all the struggles through which believers have to pass: that with foes of their own household; but, so speaking, it told also of judgment upon these foes, and of a glorious issue for the true members of Christ's Body out of toil and suffering.
With this view of the contents of the little book-roll everything that is said of it appears to be in harmony.
1. We thus at once understand why it is named by a diminutive form of the word used for the book-roll in chap. v. The latter contained the whole counsel of God for the execution of His plans both in the world and in the Church. The former has reference to the Church alone. A smaller roll therefore would naturally be sufficient for its tidings.
2. The action which the Seer is commanded to take
with the roll receives adequate explanation. He was
to take it out of the hand of the strong angel and to
eat it up. The meaning is obvious, and is admitted by
all interpreters. The Seer is in his own actual experience
to assimilate the contents of the roll in order
that he may know their value. The injunction is in
beautiful accord with what we otherwise know of the
character and feelings of St. John. The power of
Christian experience to throw light upon Christian
truth and upon the fortunes of Christ's people is one
of the most remarkable characteristics of the fourth
Gospel. It penetrates and pervades the whole. We
listen to the expression of the Evangelist's own feelings
as he is about to present to the world the image of his
beloved Master, and he cries, "We beheld His glory,
glory as of the only-begotten from the Father;" "Of
His fulness we all received, and grace for grace."
3. The effect produced upon the Seer by eating the little roll is also in accord with what has been said. It shall make thy belly bitter, it was said to him, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey; and the effect followed. It was in my mouth, he says, sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter. Such an effect could hardly follow the mere proclamation of judgment on the world. When we look at that judgment in the light in which it ought to be regarded, and in which we have hitherto regarded it—as the vindication of righteousness and of a Divine and righteous order—the thought of it can impart nothing but joy. But to think that the Church of the living God, the bride of Christ, shall be visited with judgment, and to be compelled to acknowledge that the judgment is deserved; to think that those to whom so much has been given should have given so little in return; to think of the selfishness which has prevailed where love ought to have reigned, of worldliness where there ought to have been heavenliness of mind, and of discord where there ought to have been unity—these are the things that make the Christian's reflections "bitter;" they, and they most of all, are his perplexity, his burden, his sorrow, and his cross. The world may disappoint him, but from it he expected little. When the Church disappoints him, the "foundations are overturned," and the honey of life is changed into gall and wormwood.
Combining the particulars which have now been
noticed, we seem entitled to conclude that the little
book-roll of this chapter is a roll of judgment, but of
judgment relating less to the world than to the Church.
It tells us that that sad experience of hers which is to Comp.
SECOND CONSOLATORY VISION AND THE SEVENTH TRUMPET.
Rev. xi.
And there was given unto me a reed like unto a rod: and one said, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. And the court which is without the temple cast without, and measure it not; for it hath been given unto the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months (xi. 1, 2).
Various points connected with these verses demand examination before any attempt can be made to gather the meaning of the vision as a whole.
1. What is meant by the measuring of the Temple?
As in so many other instances, the figure is taken from
the Old Testament. In the prophet Zechariah we
read, "I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and
behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then
said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me,
To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth
thereof, and what is the length thereof." Chap. xxi. 15, 17.
2. What is meant by the temple, the altar, and the casting without of the court which is without the temple? In other words, are we to interpret these objects and the action taken with the latter literally or figuratively? Are we to think of the things themselves, or of certain spiritual ideas which they are used to represent? The first view is not only that of many eminent commentators; it even forms one of the chief grounds upon which they urge that the Herodian temple upon Mount Moriah was still in existence when the Apocalyptist wrote. He could not, it is alleged, have been instructed to "measure" the Temple if that building had been already thrown down, and not one stone left upon another. Yet, when we attend to the words, it would seem as if this view must be set aside in favour of a figurative interpretation. For—
(1) The word "temple" misleads. The term employed
in the original does not mean the Temple-buildings
as a whole, but only their innermost shrine
or sanctuary, that part known as the "Holy of holies,"
which was separated from every other part of the sacred
structure by the second veil. No doubt, so far as the
simple act of measuring was concerned, a part might
have been as easily measured as the whole. But
closer attention to what was in the Seer's mind will
show that when he thus speaks of the naos or shrine
he is not thinking of the Temple at Jerusalem at all,
but of the Tabernacle in the wilderness upon which the
Temple was moulded. The nineteenth verse of the
chapter makes this clear. In that verse we find him saying,
"And there was opened the temple" (the naos) "of
God that is in heaven, and there was seen in His temple"
(His naos) "the ark of His covenant." We know,
however, that the ark of the covenant never had a place
(2) Even should it be allowed that the sanctuary and the altar might be measured, the injunction is altogether inapplicable to the next following clause: them that worship therein. And it is peculiarly so if we adopt the natural construction, by which the word "therein" is connected with the word "altar." We cannot literally speak of persons worshipping "in" an altar. Nay, even though we connect "therein" with "the temple," the idea of measuring persons with a rod is at variance with the realities of life and the ordinary use of human language. A figurative element is thus introduced into the very heart of the clause the meaning of which is in dispute.
(3) A similar observation may be made with regard to the words cast without in ver. 2. The injunction has reference to the outer court of the Temple, and the thought of "casting out" such an extensive space is clearly inadmissible. So much have translators felt this that both in the Authorised and Revised Versions they have replaced the words "cast without" by the words "leave without." The outer court of the Temple could not be "cast out;" therefore it must be "left out." The interpretation thus given, however, fails to do justice to the original, for, though the word employed does not always include actual violence, it certainly implies action of a more positive kind than mere letting alone or passing by. More than this. We are under a special obligation in the present instance not to strip the word used by the Apostle of its proper force, for we shall immediately see that, rightly interpreted, it is one of the most interesting expressions of his book, and of the greatest value in helping us to determine the precise nature of his thought. In the meanwhile it is enough to say that the employment of the term in the connexion in which it here occurs is at variance with a simply literal interpretation.
(4) It cannot be denied that almost every other expression in the subsequent verses of the vision is figurative or metaphorical. If we are to interpret this part literally, it will be impossible to apply the same rule to other parts; and we shall have such a mixture of the literal and metaphorical as will completely baffle our efforts to comprehend the meaning of the Seer.
(5) We have the statement from the writer's own lips
that, at least in speaking of Jerusalem, he is not to be
literally understood. In ver. 8 he refers to "the great
We conclude, therefore, that the "measuring," the "temple" or naos, the "altar," the "court which is without," and the "casting without" of the latter are to be regarded as figurative.
3. Our third point of inquiry is, What is the meaning
of the figure? There need be no hesitation as to the
things first spoken of: "the temple, the altar, and
them that worship therein." These, the most sacred
parts of the Temple-buildings, can only denote the most
sacred portion of the true Israel of God. They are
those disciples of Christ who constitute His shrine,
His golden altar of incense whence their prayers rise
up continually before Him, His worshippers in spirit
and in truth. These, as we have already often had
occasion to see, shall be preserved safe amidst the
troubles of the Church and of the world. In one
passage we have been told that they are numbered
It is more difficult to explain who are meant by "the
court which is without the temple." But three things
are clear. First, they are a part of the Temple-buildings,
although not of its inner shrine. Secondly, they belong
to Jerusalem; and Jerusalem, notwithstanding its degenerate
condition, was still the city of God, standing
to Him in a relation different from that of the "nations,"
even when it had sunk beneath them and had done more
to merit His displeasure. Thirdly, they cannot be the
Gentiles, for from them they are manifestly distinguished
when it is said that the outer court "hath been given Ver. 2.
The correctness of the sense thus assigned to this
part of the vision is powerfully confirmed by what
appears to be the true foundation of the singular expression
already so far spoken of, "cast without."
Something must lie at the bottom of the figure; and
nothing seems so probable as this: that it is the "casting
out" which took place in the case of the man blind
from his birth, and the opening of whose eyes by
Jesus is related in the fourth Gospel. Of that man we
are told that when the Jews could no longer answer
him "they cast him out."
If the explanation now given of the opening verses
of this chapter be correct, we have reached a very
remarkable stage in these apocalyptic visions. For
the first time, except in the letters to the churches, Chaps. ii. 24; iii. 1, 4. Comp.
4. One question still remains: What is the meaning
of the forty and two months during which the holy
The ground of this method of looking at the Church's
history is found in the book of Daniel, where we read
of the fourth beast, or the fourth kingdom, "And he
shall speak great words against the Most High, and
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think
to change times and laws: and they shall be given
The vision now proceeds:—
And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth. And if any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed. These have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during the days of their prophecy: and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall desire. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. And their dead body lies in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead body three days and an half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry: and they shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth. And after the three days and an half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell; and there were killed in the earthquake seven thousand persons: and the rest were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven (xi. 3-13).
The figures of this part of the vision, like those
of the first part, are drawn from the Old Testament.
That the language is not to be literally understood
hardly admits of dispute, for, whatever might have
been thought of the "two witnesses" had we read only
of them, the description given of their persons, or of
their person (for in ver. 8, where mention is made of
their dead body—not "bodies"—they are treated as one),
of their work, of their death, and of their resurrection
and ascension, is so obviously figurative as to render
it necessary to view the whole passage in that light.
The main elements of the figure are supplied by the
prophet Zechariah. "And the angel that talked with
me," says the prophet, "came again, and waked me, as
Having spoken of the persons of the two witnesses, St. John next proceeds to describe the power with which, amidst their seeming weakness, their testimony is borne; and once more he finds in the most striking histories of the Old Testament the materials with which his glowing imagination builds.
In the first place, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and
devoureth their enemies, so that these enemies are killed
by the manifest judgment of God, and even, in His
righteous retribution, by the very instrument of destruction
they would have themselves employed. Elijah and
the three companions of Daniel are before us, when at
the word of Elijah fire descended out of heaven, and
consumed the two captains and their fifties, Chap. i. 16.
The three figures teach the same lesson. No deliverance
has been effected by the Almighty for His people
in the past which He is not ready to repeat. The God
of Moses, and Elijah, and Daniel is the unchangeable
Jehovah. He has made with His Church an everlasting
covenant; and the most striking manifestations of His
power in bygone times "happened by way of example,
and were written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the ages are come."
Hence, accordingly, the Church finishes her testimony. Ver. 7.
Having spoken of the power of the witnesses,
St. John next turns to the thought of their evil fate.
The beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war
with them, and overcome them, and kill them. This
"beast" has not yet been described; but it is a characteristic
of the Apostle, both in the fourth Gospel
and in the Apocalypse, to anticipate at times what is
to come, and to introduce persons to our notice whom
we shall only learn to know fully at a later point in
his narrative. That is the case here. This beast will
again meet us in chap. xiii. and chap. xvii., where we
shall see that it is the concentrated power of a world
material and visible in its opposition to a world spiritual
and invisible. It may be well to remark, too, that the
representation given of the beast presents us with one
of the most striking contrasts of St. John, and one that
must be carefully remembered if we would understand
his visions. Why speak of its "coming up out of the
abyss"? Because the beast is the contrast of the
risen Saviour. Only after His resurrection did our
Lord enter upon His dominion as King, Head, and
Guardian of His people. In like manner only after a
resurrection mockingly attributed to it does this beast
attain its full range of influence. Then, in the height
of its rage and at the summit of its power, it sets itself
in opposition to Christ's witnesses. It cannot indeed
prevent them from accomplishing their work; they
shall finish their testimony in spite of it: but, when
that is done, it shall gain an apparent triumph. As
the Son of God was nailed to the Cross, and in that
hour of His weakness seemed to be conquered by the
Nor is that all, for their dead body (not dead bodies See margin of R.V.
If, however, this city be Jerusalem, what does it
represent? Surely, for reasons already stated, neither
the true disciples of Jesus, nor the heathen nations of
the world. We have the degenerate Church before us,
the Church that has conformed to the world. That
Church beholds the faithful witnesses for Christ the
Crucified lie in the open way. Their wounds make no
impression upon her heart, and draw no tear from her
eyes. She even invites the world to the spectacle;
If so, what a picture does it present!—the degenerate
Church inviting the world to celebrate a feast over the
dead bodies of the witnesses for Christ, and the world
accepting the invitation; the former accommodating
herself to the ways of the latter, and the latter welcoming
the accommodation; the one proclaiming no
unpleasant doctrines and demanding no painful sacrifices,
the other hailing with satisfaction the prospect
of an easy yoke and of a cheap purchase of eternity
as well as time. The picture may seem too terrible to
be true. But let us first remember that, like all the
pictures of the Apocalypse, it is ideal, showing us the
operation of principles in their last, not their first, effect;
and then let us ask whether we have never read of,
or ourselves seen, such a state of things actually
realized. Has the Church never become the world,
on the plea that she would gain the world? Has she
never uttered smooth things or prophesied deceits in
order that she might attract those who will not endure
the thought of hardness in religious service, and would
rather embrace what in their inward hearts they know
to be a lie than bitter truth? Such a spectacle has
been often witnessed, and is yet witnessed every day,
In the midst of all their tribulation, however, the
faithful portion of the Church have a glorious reward.
They have suffered with Christ, but they shall also
reign with Him. After all their trials in life, after
their death, and after the limited time during which
even when dead they have been dishonoured, they live
again. The breath of life from God entered into them.
Following Him who is the first-fruits of them that
sleep, they stood upon their feet. Comp. chap. v. 6. Chap. iii. 21.
The last words of the vision alone demand more
particular attention: The rest were affrighted, and gave
glory to the God of heaven. The thought is the same
as that which met us when we were told at the close
of the sixth Trumpet that "the rest of mankind which
were not killed with these plagues repented not." Chap. ix. 20.
The two consolatory visions interposed between the
sixth and seventh Trumpets are now over, and we
cannot fail to see how great an advance they are upon
the two visions of a similar kind interposed between
the sixth and seventh Seals. The whole action has
made progress. At the earlier stage the Church
may be said to have been hidden in the hollow of
the Almighty's hand. In the thought of the "great
tribulation" awaiting her she has been sealed, while
the peace and joy of her new condition have been set
before us, as she neither hungers nor thirsts, but is
Before it sounds there is a warning similar to that
which preceded the sounding of the fifth and sixth Chaps. viii. 13; ix. 12.
The second Woe is past; behold, the third Woe cometh quickly (xi. 14).
These words are to be connected with the close of chap. ix., all that is contained in chaps. x. and xi. 1-13 being, as we have seen, episodical.
The seventh Trumpet is now sounded:—
And the seventh angel sounded; and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. And the four-and-twenty elders, which sit before God on their thrones, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord, God, the Almighty, which art and which wast; because Thou hast taken Thy great power, and didst reign. And the nations were roused to wrath, and Thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy
servants the prophets, both the saints and them that fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy them that destroy the earth. And there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant: and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail (xi. 15-19).
1. By the kingdom of the world here spoken of is
meant, that dominion over the world as a whole has
become the possession of our Lord and of His Christ;
and it is to be His for ever and ever. There is
no contradiction between this statement of St. John
and that of St. Paul when, speaking of the Son, the
latter Apostle says, "And when all things have been
subjected unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself
be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto
Him, that God may be all in all." 2 Pet. iii. 13.
2. The song of the four-and-twenty elders. We
have already had occasion to notice that song of the
representatives of redeemed creation in which the four
living creatures celebrated "the Lord, God, the
Almighty, which was and which is and which is to
come." Chap. iv. 8.
3. The events of the close are next described. It is the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give reward to God's faithful servants, to whatever part of mankind they have belonged, and whatever the position they have filled in life. The whole family of man is divided into two great classes, and for the one there is judgment, for the other reward.
4. Before passing on it may be well to call attention to one or two particulars in these verses which, though not specially connected with that general meaning of the passage which it is the main object of this commentary to elicit, may help to throw light upon the style of the Apostle and the structure of his work.
(1) Thus it is important to observe his use of the Comp. p. 102.
(2) The next following clause, which we have translated
in a manner slightly different from that of both
the Authorised and the Revised Versions, is not less
important: both the saints and them that fear Thy
name, instead of "and to the saints, and to them that
fear Thy name." It is the manner of St. John to
dwell in the first instance upon one characteristic of
the object of which he speaks, and then to add other
(3) The verses under consideration afford a marked
illustration of St. John's love of presenting judgment
under the form of the lex talionis. The nations were
"roused to wrath," and upon them God's "wrath
came." They had "destroyed the earth," and God
would "destroy" them. In studying the Apocalypse,
all peculiarities of style or structure ought to be present
The seventh Trumpet has sounded, and the end has
come. A glorious moment has been reached in the
development of the Almighty's plan; and the mind
of the Seer is exalted and ravished by the prospect.
Yet he beholds no passing away of the present earth
and heavens, no translation of the reign of good to
an unseen spiritual and hitherto unvisited region of
the universe. It would be out of keeping with the
usual phraseology of his book to understand by
heaven, in which he sees the ark of God's covenant,
a locality, a place "beyond the clouds and beyond the
tomb." His employment of the contrasted words
"earth" and "heaven" throughout his whole series
of visions rather leads to the supposition that by the
latter we are to understand that region, wherever it
may be, in which spiritual principles alone bear sway.
It may be here; it may be elsewhere; it seems hardly
possible to say: but the more the reader enters into
the spirit of this book, the more difficult will he find
it to resist the impression that St. John thinks of
this present world as not only the scene of the great
struggle between good and evil, but also, when it has
been cleansed and purified, as the seat of everlasting
righteousness. These in the present instance are
striking words: "to destroy them that destroy the
earth." Why not destroy the earth itself if it is only
to be burned up? Why speak of it in such terms as
lead almost directly to the supposition that it shall be
preserved though its destroyers perish? While, on the
other hand, if God at first pronounced it to be "very
good;" if it may be a home of truth, and purity, and
holiness; and if it shall be the scene of Christ's future
However this may be, it was a fitting close to the
judgments of the seven Trumpets that the "temple"
of God—that is, the innermost shrine or sanctuary of
His temple—should be opened. There was no need
now that God should be "a God that hideth Himself." Chap. xxi. 3.
When too the shrine was opened, what more appropriate spectacle could be seen than "the ark of His covenant," the symbol of His faithfulness, the pledge of that love of His which remains unchanged when the mountains depart and the hills are removed? The covenant-keeping God! No promise of the past had failed, and the past was the earnest of the future.
Nor need we wonder at the lightnings, and voices,
and thunders, and the earthquake, and the great hail that
followed. For God had "promised, saying, Yet once
more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also
the heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth
the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, that those things which are not
shaken may remain."
THE FIRST GREAT ENEMY OF THE CHURCH.
Rev. xii.
Turning then for a moment to chap. xiii., we find it
occupied with a description of two of the great enemies
with which the Church has to contend. These are
spoken of as "a beast" (ver. 1) and "another beast"
(ver. 11), the latter being obviously the same as that
described in chap. xix. 20 as "the false prophet that
wrought the signs" in the sight of the former. At
the same time, it is evident that these two beasts are
regarded as enemies of the Church in a sense peculiar
to themselves, for the victorious Conqueror of chap. xix.
makes war with them, and "they twain are cast into
the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone." Chap. xix. 20.
Thus also we are led to understand the place of the chapter in the structure of the book. We have already seen that the seven Trumpets are occupied with judgments on the world. The seven Bowls, forming the next and highest series of judgments, are to be occupied with judgments on the degenerate members of the Church. It is a fitting thing, therefore, that we should be able to form a clear idea of the enemies by which these faithless disciples are subdued, and in resisting whom the steadfastness of the faithful remnant shall be proved. To describe them sooner was unnecessary. They are the friends, not the enemies, of the world. They are the enemies only of the Church. Hence the sudden transition made at the beginning of chap. xii. There is no chronological relation between it and the chapters which precede. The thoughts embodied in it refer only to what follows. The chapter is obviously divided into three parts, and the bearing of these parts upon one another will appear as we proceed.
And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered. And there was seen another sign in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them into the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman that was about to
be delivered, that when she was delivered he might devour her child. And she was delivered of a son, a man-child, who as a shepherd shall tend all the nations with a sceptre of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and threescore days (xii. 1-6).
In the first chapter of the book of Genesis we read,
"And God made two great lights; the greater light to
rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night:
He made the stars also." Chap. xxi. 12.
But though the light is thus early connected with
the thought of the Christian Church, and though the
subsequent portion of the chapter confirms the connexion,
the woman is not yet to be regarded as, in
the strictest sense, representative of that community
or Body historically viewed. By-and-by she will be so.
The resemblance, accordingly, borne by the first
paragraph of this chapter (vers. 1-6) to the first
paragraph of the fourth Gospel (vers. 1-5), is of the most
striking kind. In neither is there any account of the
actual birth of our Lord. In both (and we shall immediately
see this still more fully brought out in the
apocalyptic vision) we are introduced to Him at once,
not as growing up to be the Light of the world, but
as already grown up and as perfect light. In both
we have the same light and the same darkness, and
in both the same contrariety and struggle between the
two. Nor does the comparison end here. We have
also the same singular method of expressing the deliverance
of the light from the enmity of the darkness.
In
Such is the general conception of the first paragraph
of this chapter. The individual expressions
need not detain us long. The woman's raiment of
light has been already spoken of. Passing therefore
from that, it need occasion no surprise that He who
is Himself the Giver of light should be represented
as the Son of light. God "is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all." Comp. ver. 17. Comp.
The dragon of the passage is great and red: "great"
because of the power which he possesses; "red,"
the colour of blood, because of the ferocity with which
he destroys men: "He was a murderer from the
beginning;" "Cain was of the evil one, and slew his
brother;" "And I saw the woman" (that is, the woman
who rode upon the scarlet-coloured beast) "drunk with
the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus." Chap. ix. 10, 19.
The dragon next takes up his position before the
woman which was about to be delivered, that when
she was delivered he might devour her child; and the
first historical circumstances to which the idea corresponds,
and in which it is realized, may be found
in the effort of Pharaoh to destroy the infant Moses.
Pharaoh is indeed often compared in the Old Testament
to a dragon: "Thou didst divide the sea by Thy
strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the
waters;" "Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God;
Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which
hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made
it for myself."
The child is born, and is described in language
worthy of our notice. He is a son, a man-child; and
the at first sight tautological information appears to
hint at more than the mere sex of the child. He
is already more than a child: he is a man. There
is a similar emphasis in the words of our Lord when
He said to His disciples in His last consolatory discourse,
"A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow,
The woman's child being thus safe, the woman herself
fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared
of God, and where she shall be nourished by heavenly
sustenance. Thus Israel wandered forty years, fed
with the manna that fell from heaven and the water
that flowed from the smitten rock. Chap. xi. 3.
Such is the first scene of this chapter; and, glancing once more over it, it would seem as if its chief purpose were to present to us the two great opposing forces of light and darkness, of the Son and the dragon, considered in themselves.
The second scene follows:—
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels: and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the whole inhabited earth: he was cast down into the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuseth them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that tabernacle in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea! because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short season (xii. 7-12).
If our conception of the first six verses of the
chapter be correct, it will be evident that the idea often
entertained, that the verses following them form a break
For, as to the first of these two points, it is even
in itself probable that the Leader of the hosts of light
will be no other than the Captain of our salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The dragon leads the
hosts of darkness. The Son has been described as
the opponent against whom the enmity of the dragon
is especially directed. When the war begins, we have
every reason to expect that as the one leader takes
the command, so also will the other. There is much
to confirm this conclusion. The name Michael leads
to it, for that word signifies, "Who is like God?" and
such a name is at least more appropriate to a Divine
than to a created being. In the New Testament, too,
we read of "Michael the archangel" Brown, The Book of Revelation, p. 69.
Light is thus thrown also upon the second point
above mentioned: the particular conflict referred to in
these verses. The statement that there was war in
heaven, and that when the dragon was defeated he was
cast down into the earth, might lead us to think of an
earlier conflict between good and evil than any in
which man has part: of that mentioned by St. Peter
and St. Jude, when the former consoles the righteous
by the thought that "God spared not angels when they
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed
them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment," 2 Pet. ii. 4.
Several other passages of the New Testament are
in harmony with this supposition. Thus it was that
when the seventy returned to our Lord with joy after
their mission, saying, "Lord, even the demons are
subject unto us in Thy name," He, beholding in this
the pledge of His completed victory, exclaimed, "I
beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven."
In passages such as these we have the same thought
as that before us in this vision. Satan has been cast
out of heaven; that is, in his warfare against the children
of God he has been completely overthrown. Over their
higher life, their life in a risen and glorified Redeemer,
he has no power. They are for ever escaped from
his bondage, and are free. But he has been cast down
into the earth, and his angels with him; that is, over the
men of the world he still exerts his power, and they are
led captive by him at his will. Hence, accordingly,
the words of the great voice heard in heaven which
occupy all the latter part of the vision, words which
distinctly bring out the difference between the two
aspects of Satan now adverted to,—(1) his impotence
as regards the disciples of Jesus who are faithful unto Comp. R.V. (margin). Comp.
One other expression of these verses may be noted:
the short season spoken of in ver. 12. This period
of time is not to be looked at as if it were a brief
special season at the close of the Christian age, when
The third paragraph of the chapter follows:—
And when the dragon saw that he was cast down into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus; and he stood upon the sand of the sea (xii. 13-xiii. 1a).
We have already seen that the woman introduced
to us in the first paragraph of this chapter is the
embodiment and the bearer of light. She is there
indeed set before us in her ideal aspect, in what she
is in herself, rather than in her historical position.
Now we meet her in actual history, or, in other words,
she is the historical Church of God in the New Testament
phase of her development. As such she has a
mission to the world. She is "the sent" of Christ,
as Christ was "the sent" of the Father.
Persecuted, however, she is not forsaken. She had
given her the two wings of the great eagle, that she might
fly into the wilderness, unto her place—the place prepared
of God for her protection. There can be little doubt
as to the allusion. The "great eagle" is that of which
God Himself spoke to Moses in the mount: "Ye
have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how
I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto
Myself;"
The woman fled into the wilderness, but she was Comp. p. 150.
The most remarkable point to be noticed here is,
however, not the deliverance itself, but the method by
which it is accomplished. To understand this, as well
But side by side with this aspect of the Church
which met the approbation of "the earth," the dragon
saw that she had another aspect of determined hostility Chap. iii. 4.
One other point ought to be noticed in connexion
with these verses. The helping of the woman by the
earth seems to be the Scripture parallel to the difficult
words of St. Paul when he says in writing to the
Thessalonians, "And now ye know that which restraineth
to the end that he may be revealed in his
own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth
already work: only there is one that restraineth now,
until he be taken out of the way."
We have been introduced to the first great enemy of the Church of Christ. It remains only that he shall take up his position on the field. The next clause therefore which meets us, and which ought to be read, not as the first clause of chap. xiii., but as the last of chap. xii., and in which the third person ought to be substituted for the first, describes him as doing so: And he stood upon the sand of the sea, upon the shore between the earth and the sea, where he could so command them both as to justify the "Woe" already uttered over both in the twelfth verse of the chapter. There we leave him for a time, only remarking that we are not to think of ocean lying before us in a calm, but of the restless and troubled sea, raised into huge waves by the storm-winds contending upon it for the mastery and dashing its waves upon the beach.
THE SECOND AND THIRD GREAT ENEMIES OF THE CHURCH.
Rev. xiii.
Ver. 11.
The first is thus described:—
And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads names of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as though it had been slaughtered unto death; and the stroke of his death was healed: and the whole earth marvelled after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast, and who is able to war with him? And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, even them that tabernacle in the heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slaughtered. If any one hath an ear, let him hear. If any one leadeth into captivity, into captivity he goeth: if any one shall kill with the sword, with the sword must he be killed. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints (xiii. 1b-10).
The description carries us back to the prophecies
of Daniel, and the language of the prophet helps us to
understand that of the Seer. It is thus that the
former speaks: "Daniel spake and said, I saw in
my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of
the heaven brake forth upon the great sea. And four
great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from
another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's
wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked,
and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand
upon two feet as a man, and a man's heart was given
to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to
a bear, and it was raised up on one side, and three
ribs were in his mouth between his teeth: and they
said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After
this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which
had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the
In both cases there is the same origin,—the sea swept
by strong winds from every point of the compass, until
the opposing forces rush upon one another, mingle in
wild confusion, send up their spray into the air, and
then, dark with the reflection of the clouds above and
turbid with sand, exhaust themselves with one long,
sullen roar upon the beach. In both cases the
same animals are referred to, though in the vision
of Daniel they are separated, in that of St. John
combined: the leopard, with his sudden, cruel spring;
the bear, with his slow, relentless brutishness; and the
lion, with his all-conquering power. Finally, in the
case of both mention is made also of "ten horns,"
which are distinct from the lineal succession of the
1. The horns are not to be thought of as distributed among the heads, but rather as a group by themselves, constituting along with the seventh head a manifestation of the beast distinct from that expressed by each of the separate heads. In a certain sense the seventh head, with its ten horns, is thus one of the seven, for in them the beast expresses himself. In another sense it is like the "fourth beast" of the prophet Daniel: "diverse from all the beasts that were before it" and even more terrible than they.
2. The seven heads seem most fittingly to represent
seven powers of the world by which the children of
God had been persecuted in the past or were to be
persecuted in the future. The supposition has indeed
been often made that they represent seven forms of
Roman government or seven emperors who successively
occupied the imperial throne. But neither
of these sevens can be definitely fixed by the advocates
of the general thought; while the whole strain of the
passage suggests that the beast which, in the form now
dealt with, unquestionably represents a world-power
conterminous with the whole earth, grows up into this
form only in his seventh head and ten horns manifestation.
The other heads are rather preparatory to the
last than to be ranked equally along with it. Making a
natural beginning, therefore, with the oldest persecuting
power mentioned in that Bible history of which the
3. By such a rendering also we gain a natural
interpretation of the head beheld as though it had been
slaughtered unto death; and the stroke of his death was
healed. Other renderings fail to afford this, for no
successive forms of government at Rome and no
successive emperors furnish a member of their series
of which it may be said that it is first slain and then
brought back to a life of greater energy and more
quickened action. Yet without the thought of death and
resurrection it is impossible to fulfil the conditions of the
problem. The head spoken of in ver. 3 had not been
merely wounded or smitten: it had been "slaughtered unto
death;" and it was not merely his "deadly wound," Chap. xiii. 3, A.V. Chap. xiii. 3, R.V. Chap. v. 6. Chap. xii. 12.
4. Particular attention must be paid to the fact that
it is upon the beast in his resurrection state that we are
to dwell, for the whole earth marvels after the beast
not previously, but subsequently, to the point of time at
which the stroke of his death is healed. Vers. 3, 4. Ver. 7. Ver. 8. Ver. 5. Comp. p. 175.
5. Three points more may be noticed before drawing
the general conclusion to which all this leads. In the
first place, the beast is the vicegerent of another power
which acts through him and by means of him. The
dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great
authority. The dragon himself does not directly act.
He has his representative, or vicar, or substitute, in the
beast. In the second place, the worship paid by "the
whole earth" to the beast, when it cries, Who is like
unto the beast? and who is able to make war with him?
is an obvious imitation of the ascriptions of praise to
God contained in not a few passages of the Old Testament:
"Who is like unto the Lord our God, that hath
His seat on high?"; "To whom then will ye liken
Me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy
One;" "Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all
the remnant of the house of Israel.... To whom
will ye liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me,
that we may be like?" Ver. 6.
The whole description of the beast is thus, in multiplied particulars, a travesty of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Head and King, the Guardian and Protector, of His people. Like the latter, the former is the representative, the "sent," of an unseen power, by whom all authority is "given" him; he has his death and his resurrection from the dead; he has his throngs of marvelling and enthusiastic worshippers; his authority over those who own his sway is limited by no national boundaries, but is conterminous with the whole world; he gathers up and unites in himself all the scattered elements of darkness and enmity to the truth which had previously existed among men, and from which the Church of God had suffered.
What then can this first beast be? Not Rome,
either pagan or papal; not any single form of earthly
government, however strong; not any Roman emperor,
however vicious or cruel; but the general influence of
the world, in so far as it is opposed to God, substituting
the human for the Divine, the seen for the unseen, the
temporal for the eternal. He is the impersonation of
that world of which St. Paul writes, "We received,
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God,"
The influence of the beast here spoken of is therefore
confined to no party, or sect, or age. It may be found
in the Church and in the State, in every society, in every
family, or even in every heart, for wherever man is
ruled by the seen instead of the unseen or by the
material instead of the spiritual, there "the world" is.
"Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but
against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
Against this foe the true life of the saints will be
preserved. Nothing can harm the life that is hid with
Christ in God. But the saints may nevertheless be
troubled, and persecuted, and killed, as were the witnesses
of chap. xi., by the beast that had given unto
him to make war with them, and to overcome them.
Such is the thought that leads to the last words of the
The second enemy of the Church, or the first beast, has been described. St. John now proceeds to the third enemy, or the second beast:—
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight; and he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, the stroke of whose death was healed. And he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, who hath the stroke of the sword, and lived. And it was given unto him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that
there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead: and that no man should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name (xiii. 11-17).
The first beast came up out of "the sea" (ver. 1);
the second beast comes up out of the earth: and the
contrast, so strongly marked, between these two sources,
makes it necessary to draw a clear and definite line of
distinction between the origin of the one beast and
that of the other. The "sea," however, both in the
Old Testament and in the New, is the symbol of the
mass of the Gentile nations, of the heathen world in its
condition of alienation from God and true religious life.
In contrast with this, the "earth," as here used, must
be the symbol of the Jews, among whom, to whatever
extent they had abused their privileges, the Almighty
had revealed Himself in a special manner, showing
"His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments
unto Israel."
1. The two horns like unto a lamb are unquestionably a travesty of the "seven horns" of the Lamb, so often spoken of in these visions; and the description carries us to the thought of Antichrist, of one who sets himself up as the true Christ, of one who, professing to imitate the Redeemer, is yet His opposite.
2. The words And he spoke as a dragon remind us
of the description given by our Lord of those false
teachers who "come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly
are ravening wolves,"
3. The function to which this beast devotes himself
is religious, not secular. He maketh the earth and
them that dwell therein to worship the first beast; and,
having persuaded them to make an image to that
beast, it was given unto him to give breath to it, even
to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast
should both speak, and cause that as many as should not
worship the image of the beast should be killed. Vers. 12, 15.
4. The great signs and wonders done by this beast,
such as making fire to come down out of heaven upon
the earth in the sight of men, are a reminiscence of the
prophet Elijah at Carmel; while the signs by which
he successfully deceives the world take us again to
the words of Jesus: "There shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and
wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the
elect."
5. Finally, the fact that this beast bears the name
of "the false prophet," Comp. chaps. xvi. 13; xix. 20; xx. 10.
These considerations lead to a natural and simple
interpretation of what is meant by the second beast.
The plausible interpretation suggested by many of the
ablest commentators on this book, that by the second
beast is meant "worldly wisdom, comprehending everything
in learning, science and art which human nature
of itself, in its civilized state, can attain to, the worldly
power in its more refined and spiritual elements, its
prophetical or priestly class," Fairbairn, On Prophecy, p. 328.
Was there anything then in St. John's own day that
might have suggested the figure thus employed? Had
he ever witnessed any spectacle that might have
burned such thoughts into his soul? Let us turn to
his Gospel and learn from it to look upon the world as
it was when it met his eyes. What had he seen, and
seen with an indignation that penetrates to the core his
narrative of his Master's life? He had seen the Divine
institution of Judaism, designed by the God of Israel
to prepare the way for the Light and the Life of men,
perverted by its appointed guardians, and made an
instrument for blinding instead of enlightening the
soul. He had seen the Eternal Son, in all the glory of
Nor was it only in Judaism that St. John had seen
the spirit of religion so overmastered by the spirit of
the world that it became the world's slave. He had
witnessed the same thing in Heathenism. It is by no
means improbable that when he speaks of the image of
the beast he may also think of those images of Cæsar
the worshipping of which was everywhere made the
Yet we are not to imagine that, though St. John
started from these things, his vision was confined to
them. He thinks not of Jew or heathen only at a
particular era, but of man; not of human nature only
as it appears amidst the special circumstances of his
own day, but as it appears everywhere and throughout
all time. He is not satisfied with dwelling upon existing
phenomena alone. He penetrates to the principles
from which they spring. And wherever he sees a spirit
professing to uphold religion, but objecting to all the
unpalatable truths with which it is connected in the
Christian faith, wherever he sees the gate to future
glory made wide instead of narrow and the way broad
instead of straitened, there he beholds the dire combination
of the first and second beasts presented in this
chapter. The light has become darkness, and how
great is the darkness!
In speaking of the subserviency of the second to the
first beast, the Seer had spoken of a mark given to all
the followers of the latter on their right hand, or upon
their forehead, and without which no one was to be
admitted to the privileges of their association or of
buying or selling in their city. He had further
Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty and six (xiii. 18).
To discuss with anything like fulness the difficult
questions connected with these words would require
a volume rather than the few sentences at the close
of a chapter that can be here devoted to it. Referring,
therefore, his readers to what he has elsewhere written
on this subject, The Revelation of St. John: Baird Lectures published by Macmillan
and Co., second edition, p. 142, etc., 319, etc.
It is indeed remarkable that the Seer should speak
at all of "the number" of the name of the beast; that
is, of the number which would be gained by adding
together the numbers represented by the several letters
of the name. Why not be content with the name
itself? Throughout this book the followers of Christ
are never spoken of as stamped with a number, but
either with the name of the Father or the Son, or with
a new name which no one "knoweth" saving he that
receiveth it. Comp. chaps. iii. 12; xiv. 1; ii. 17.
1. St. John may not himself have known the name.
He may have been acquainted only with the character
of the beast, and with the fact, too often overlooked
by inquirers, that to that character its name, when
made known, must correspond. It is not any name, any
designation, by which the beast may be individualized,
that will fulfil the conditions of his thought. No reader
of St. John's writings can have failed to notice that
to him the word "name" is far more than a mere
appellative. It expresses the inner nature of the person
to whom it is applied. The "name" of the Father
expresses the character of the Father, that of the Son
the character of the Son. The Seer, therefore, might
be satisfied in the present instance with his conviction
that the name of the beast, whatever it be, must be
a name which will express the inner nature of the
beast; and he may have asked no more. Not only so.
When we enter into the style of the Apostle's thought,
we may even inquire whether it was possible for a
Christian to know the name of the beast in the sense
which the word "name" demands. No man could know
the new name written upon the white stone given to
him that overcometh "but he that receiveth it." Chap. ii. 17. Comp.
2. From this it follows that not the "name," but the "number" of the name, is of importance in the Apostle's view. The name no doubt must have a meaning which, taken even by itself, would be portentous; but, according to the artificial system of thought here followed, the "number" is the real portent, the real bearer of the Divine message of wrath and doom.
3. This is precisely the lesson borne by the number
666. The number six itself awakened a feeling of
dread in the breast of the Jew who felt the significance
of numbers. It fell below the sacred number seven
just as much as eight went beyond it. This last
number denoted more than the simple possession of
the Divine. As in the case of circumcision on the
eighth day, of the "great day" of the feast on the
eighth day, or of the resurrection of our Lord on the
first day of the week, following the previous seven days,
it expressed a new beginning in active power. By
a similar process the number six was held to signify
inability to reach the sacred point and hopeless falling
short of it. To the Jew there was thus a doom upon
the number six even when it stood alone. Triple it;
let there be a multiple of it by ten and then a second
time by ten until you obtain three mysterious sixes
following one another, 666; and we have represented
a potency of evil than which there can be none greater,
a direfulness of fate than which there can be none
worse. The number then is important, not the name.
Putting ourselves into the position of the time, we listen
to the words, His number is six hundred sixty and six;
From all that has been said it would seem that there
is no possibility of finding the name of the beast in the
name of any single individual who has yet appeared
upon the stage of history. It may well be that in Nero,
or Domitian, or any other persecutor of the Church,
the Seer beheld a type of the beast; but the whole
strain of the chapter forbids the supposition that the
meaning of the name is exhausted in any single individual.
No merely human ruler, no ruler over merely
a portion of the world however large, no ruler who had
not died and risen from the grave, and who after his
resurrection had not been hailed with enthusiasm by
"every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation," can
be the beast referred to. Whether St. John expected
such a ruler in the future; whether this beast, like the
"little horn" of Daniel, which had "eyes like the eyes
of a man, and a mouth speaking great things," Comp.
THE LAMB ON THE MOUNT ZION AND THE HARVEST AND VINTAGE OF THE WORLD.
Rev. xiv.
Even then, however, it was not wholly darkness and
defeat, for the Evangelist immediately adds, "Nevertheless
even of the rulers many believed on Him;" and
he closes the struggle with the words of calm self-confidence
on the part of Jesus, "The things therefore
which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me,
so I speak." Vers. 42, 50.
In this spirit we turn to the first vision of chap. xiv.:—
And I saw, and, behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, even they that had been purchased out of the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, a first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie; they are without blemish (xiv. 1-5).
The scene of the vision is "the mount Zion," that
Zion so often spoken of both in the Old and in the New
Testament as God's peculiar seat, and in the eyes of
Israel famous for the beauty of its morning dews.
There is more, however, than outward beauty or
sacred memories to mark the scene to which we are introduced.
Mount Zion may be "beautiful in elevation,
the joy of the whole earth, on the sides of the north, the
city of the great King."
Standing beside the Lamb upon Mount Zion, there
are a hundred and forty and four thousand, having the
Lamb's name and the name of His Father written on their
foreheads, in token of their priestly state. We cannot
avoid asking, Are these the same hundred and forty
and four thousand of whom we have read in chap. vii. as
sealed upon their foreheads, or are they different? The
natural inference is that they are the same. To use
such a peculiar number of two different portions of the
Church of God would lead to a confusion inconsistent
with the usually plain and direct, even though mystical,
statements of this book. Besides which they have the
mark or seal of God in both cases on the same part of
their bodies,—the forehead. It is true that the definite
article is not prefixed to the number; but neither is that
article prefixed to the "glassy sea" of chap. xv. 1, and
yet no one doubts that this is the same "glassy sea"
as that of chap. iv. Besides which the absence of the
article may be accounted for by the fact that the
reference is not directly to the hundred and forty and
four thousand of chap. vii. 4, but to the innumerable
multitude of chap. vii. 9. Comp. Lee in Speaker's Commentary in loc. The distinction
between the two references is there wrongly given.
The character of the hundred and forty and four thousand next claims our thoughts.
1. They were not defiled with women, for they are
virgins. The words cannot be literally understood,
but must be taken in the sense of similar words of
the Apostle Paul, when, writing to the Corinthians,
he says, "For I am jealous over you with a godly
jealousy: for I espoused you to one Husband, that I
might present you as a pure virgin to Christ."
2. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
They shrink from no part of the Redeemer's life
whether on earth or in heaven. They follow Him in
His humiliation, labours, sufferings, death, resurrection,
and ascension. They obey the command "Follow
thou Me"
3. They are purchased from among men, a first-fruits
unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was
found no lie; they are without blemish. Upon the fact
that they are "purchased" it is unnecessary to dwell.
We have already met with the expression in chap.
v. 9, in one of the triumphant songs of the redeemed.
Nor does it seem needful to speak of the moral qualifications
here enumerated, further than to observe that
in other parts of this book the "lie" is expressly said
to exclude from the new Jerusalem, and to be a mark
of those upon whom the door is shut, Chaps. xxi. 27; xxii. 15.
The appellation "a first-fruits" demands more notice.
The figure is drawn from the well-known offering of
"first-fruits" under the Jewish law, in which the first
portion of any harvest was dedicated to God, in token
that the whole belonged to Him, and was recognised
as His. Hence it always implies that something of
the same kind will follow it, and in this sense it is often
used in the New Testament: "If the first-fruit is holy,
so is the lump;" "Epænetus, who is the first-fruits of
Asia unto Christ;" "Now hath Christ been raised
from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep;"
"Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits
of Achaia."
Why shall nature thus rejoice before the Lord? Let
the Psalmist answer: "For He cometh, for He cometh
to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with
righteousness, and the people with His truth."
And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim over them that sit on the earth, and over every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; and he saith with a great
voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven, and the earth, and sea, and fountains of waters. And another, a second angel, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great, which hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, If any man worshippeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled unmixed in the cup of His anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment goeth up unto ages of ages: and they have no rest day and night, they that worship the beast and his image, and whoso receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their toils; for their works follow with them.
And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud I saw One sitting like unto a Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a great voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Send forth Thy sickle, and reap: for the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. And He that sat on the cloud cast His sickle upon the earth; and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, he that hath power over fire; and he called with a great voice to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her bunches of grapes are ripe. And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, the great winepress, of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs (xiv. 6-20).
The first point to be noticed in connexion with these
verses is their structure, for the structure is of importance
to the interpretation. The passage as a
In this first part indeed we read of an eternal gospel
proclaimed over them that sit on the earth, and over every
nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; and the first
impression made upon us is that we have here a
universal and final proclamation of the glad tidings
of great joy, in order that the world may yet, at the
last moment, repent, believe, and be saved. But such
an interpretation, however plausible and generally
accepted, must be set aside. The light thrown upon
the words by their position in the series of seven parts
already spoken of is a powerful argument against it.
Everything in the passage itself leads to the same conclusion.
We do not read, as we ought, were this the
meaning, to have read, of "the," but of "an," eternal
gospel. This gospel is proclaimed, not "unto," but
"over," those to whom it is addressed. Its hearers do
not "dwell," as in both the Authorised and Revised
Versions, but, as in the margin of the latter, "sit," on
the earth, in the sinful world, in the carelessness of Chaps. xvii. 1; xviii. 7. Comp. chaps. xi. 9; xiii. 7. Comp. Chaps. viii., xv.
In the light of all these circumstances, we seem
compelled to come to the conclusion that the "gospel"
referred to is a proclamation of judgment, that it is
that side of the Saviour's mission in which He appears
as the winnowing fan by which His enemies are
scattered as the chaff, while His disciples are gathered
as the wheat. There is no intimation here, then, of
a conversion of the world. The world stands self-convicted
The cry of the second angel corresponds to that of the first. It proclaims the fall of Babylon and its cause. The deeply interesting questions relating to this city will meet us at a later point. In the meantime it is enough to observe that Babylon is described as fallen. The Judge is not only standing at the door: He has begun His work.
The words of the third angel continue the strain thus begun, and constitute the most terrible picture of the fate of the ungodly to be found in Scripture. The eye shrinks from the spectacle. The heart fails with fear when the words are read. That wine of the wrath of God which is mingled unmixed in the cup of His anger, that wine into which, contrary to the usage of the time, no water, no mitigating element, has been allowed to enter; that torment with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; that smoke of their torment going up unto ages of ages; that no-rest day and night, of so different a kind from the no-rest of which we have read in chap. iv. 8—all present a picture from which we can hardly do aught else than turn away with trembling. Can this be the Gospel of Jesus, the Lamb of God? Can this be a revelation given to the disciple whom Jesus loved, and who had entered so deeply into his Master's spirit of tenderness and compassion for the sinner?
1. Let us consider that the words are addressed,
not directly to sinners, but to the Church of Christ,
which is safe from the threatened doom; not to the
former that they may be led to repentance, but to the
latter that through the thought of what she has escaped
she may be filled with eternal gratitude and joy They are so rendered in the margin of the Revised Version. Comp. p. 108.
At this point, after the thought of that spirit of
allegiance to the beast which draws down such terrors
upon itself, and before we reach the central figure of
the whole movement, we have some words of comfort
interposed. The meaning of the first part of them is
similar to that of chap. xiii. 10, and need not be further
spoken of. The meaning of their second part, conveying
The first three angels have accomplished their task.
We now reach the fourth and chief member in this
series of seven, and meet with the Lord as He comes
to take His people to Himself, that where He is, there
Another angel now appears, the first of the second
series of three, and styled "another," not by comparison
with Him who sat on the white cloud, and
who is exalted far above all angels, but by comparison
with the angels previously spoken of at the sixth,
eighth, and ninth verses of the chapter. This angel is
said to come out from the temple—that is, out of the naos,
out of the innermost shrine of the temple—and the
notice is important, for it shows that he comes from
the immediate presence of God, and is a messenger
from Him. Therefore it is that he can say to the Son,
Send forth Thy sickle, and reap. "The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father
doing." Comp. the "dried up" of the margin of the Revised Version.
The second angel of the second group of three next appears, having, like Him that sat upon the cloud, "a sharp sickle;" and he too waits for the summons to use it.
This summons is given by the third angel of the
second group, of whom it is said that he came out from
the altar, he that hath power over fire. The altar of this
verse must be that already spoken of in chap. viii. 3,
where we were told that "another angel came and
stood over the altar, having a golden censer," an altar
which we have been led to identify with the brazen
altar of chap. v. 9, beneath which were found the souls
of the Old Testament saints; and the "fire" over
which this angel has power must be the "fire" of
chap. viii. 5, the fire taken from that altar to kindle the
incense of the prayers of the saints. The angel is thus
a messenger of judgment, about to command a final
and full answer to be given to the prayer that the
1. What is meant by the statement that the sea
of blood thus created by the slaughter spoken of
reached "even unto the bridles of the horses"? The
horses are those of chap. xix. 11-16, where we have
again a description of the final victory of Christ over
all His enemies, and where it is again said of Him
that "He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of
the wrath of Almighty God." Ver. 15.
2. What is meant by the space of "a thousand and
six hundred furlongs," over which the sea extended?
To resolve it simply into a large space is at variance Comp.
One other point ought to be more particularly noticed
before we close the consideration of this chapter. The
harvest of the good is gathered in by the Lord Himself,
that of the wicked by His angel. The same lesson
appears to be read in the parables of the tares and
of the drawnet. In the former (although allusions in
each parable may seem to imply that angels take part
in both acts) it is said that "at the end of the Vaughan, u. s., p. 378.
THE SEVEN BOWLS.
Rev. xv., xvi.
One other preliminary observation may be made.
The third series of judgments does not really begin till
we reach chap. xvi. Chap. xv. is introductory, and we
are thus reminded that the series of the Trumpets
had a similar introduction in chap. viii. 1-6. It is the
manner of St. John, who thus in his Gospel introduces
his account of our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus
in chap. iii. by the last three verses of chap. ii., which
To introduce chap. xvi. is the object of chap. xv.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having seven plagues, which are the last, for in them is finished the wrath of God (xv. 1).
The plagues about to be spoken of are "the last," and in them the final judgments of God upon evil are contained. What they are, and who are the special objects of them, will afterwards appear. Meanwhile, another vision is presented to our view:—
And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire; and them that come victorious out of the beast, and out of his image, and out of the number of his name, standing upon the glassy sea, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, O Lord God the Almighty; righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all the nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy righteous acts have been made manifest (xv. 2-4).
It can hardly be doubted that the glassy sea spoken
of in these words is the same as that already met with
at chap. iv. 6. Yet again, as in the case of the hundred
and forty and four thousand of chap. xiv. 1, the definite
article is wanting; and, in all probability, for the same
reason. The aspect in which the object is viewed,
though not the object itself, is different. The glassy
sea is here mingled with fire, a point of which no
mention was made in chap. iv. The difference may
be explained if we remember that the "fire" spoken
of can only be that of the judgments by which the
Almighty vindicates His cause, or of the trials by
which He purifies His people. As these, therefore,
The vision as a whole takes us back to the exodus of
Israel from Egypt, and hence the mention of the song of
Moses, the servant of God. The enemies of the Church
have their type in Pharaoh and his host as they pursue
Israel across the sands which had been laid bare for
the passage of the chosen people; the waters, driven
back for a time, return to their ancient bed; the
hostile force, with its chariots and its chosen captains,
"goes down into the depths like a stone;" and Israel
raises its song of victory, "I will sing unto the Lord,
for He hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his
rider hath He thrown into the sea."
The song now sung, however, is not that of Moses
only, the great centre of the Old Testament Dispensation;
it is also the Song of the Lamb, the centre and
the sum of the New Testament. Both Dispensations
are in the Seer's thoughts, and in the number of those
who sing are included the saints of each, the members
of the one Universal Church. No disciple of Jesus
either before or after His first coming is omitted.
Every one is there from whose hands the bonds of
the world have fallen off, and who has cast in his lot
with the followers of the Lamb. Hence also the song
A second vision follows:—
And after these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened; and there came out from the temple the seven angels that had the seven plagues, clothed with a precious stone pure and lustrous, and girt about their breasts with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power: and none was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be finished (xv. 5-8).
The temple spoken of is, as upon every occasion
when the word is used, the shrine or innermost sanctuary,
the Holy of holies, the peculiar dwelling-place
of the Most High; so that the seven angels with the
seven last plagues come from God's immediate presence.
But this sanctuary is now beheld in a different light
from that in which it was seen in chap. xi. 19. There
it contained the ark of God's covenant, the symbol of
His grace. Here the eye is directed to the testimony,
to the two tables of the law which were kept in the
ark, and were God's witness both to the holiness of
His character and the justice of His government. The
This work is pointed out to them by one of the four
living creatures, the representatives of redeemed creation.
All creation owns the propriety of the judgments now
about to be fulfilled. Comp. chap. vi.
These judgments are contained, not in seven "vials," as in the Authorised Version, but in seven golden bowls, vessels probably of a saucer shape, of no great depth, and their circumference largest at the rim. They are the "basins" of the Old Testament, used for carrying into the sanctuary the incense which had been lighted by fire from the brazen altar. They were thus much better adapted than "vials" for the execution of a final judgment. Their contents could be poured out at once and suddenly.
The bowls have been delivered to the angels, and
nothing remains but to pour them out. The moment
is one of terror, and it is fitting that even all outward
things shall correspond. Smoke, therefore, filled the
sanctuary, and none was able to enter into it. Thus,
when Moses reared up the tabernacle, and the glory of
the Lord filled it, "Moses was not able to enter into the
tent of meeting:"
All due preparation having been made, the Seven Bowls are now poured out in rapid and uninterrupted succession. As in the case of the Seals and of the Trumpets, they are divided into two groups of four and three; and those of the first group may be taken together:—
And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth. And the first went, and poured out his bowl into the earth; and it became a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and which worshipped his image. And the second poured out his bowl into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man, and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea. And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of the waters; and it became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art Thou which art and which wast, Thou holy one, because Thou didst thus judge: for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood hast Thou given them to drink: they are worthy. And I heard the altar saying, Yea, O Lord, God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments. And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat: and they blasphemed the name of the God which hath the power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory (xvi. 1-9).
Upon the particulars of these plagues it is unnecessary
to dwell. No attempt to determine the special
meaning of the objects thus visited by the wrath of
God—the land, the sea, the rivers and fountains of
the waters, and the sun—has yet been, or is ever
perhaps likely to be, successful; and the general effect
alone appears to be important. The chief point claiming
attention is the singular closeness of the parallelism
between them and the Trumpet plagues, a parallelism
which extends also to the fifth, sixth, and seventh Chap. xv. 1. Comp. chap. viii. 7 and xvi. 2. Comp. chap. viii. 8, 9 and xvi. 3. Comp. chap. viii. 10, 11 and xvi. 4. Comp. chap. viii. 12 and xvi. 8.
Another feature of these Bowls will at once strike
the reader,—their correspondence to some of the plagues
of Egypt: for in the first we see a repetition, as it
were, of that sixth plague by which Pharaoh and his
people were visited, when Moses sprinkled ashes of
the furnace towards heaven, and they became "a boil
breaking forth with blains upon man and beast,"
One other characteristic of these plagues ought to be noticed. It comes to view no doubt only under the fourth, yet, as we shall immediately see, it is not to be confined to it. The plagues had no softening or converting power. On the contrary, as at chap. ix. 20, 21, the impiety of the worshippers of the beast was only aggravated by their sufferings; and, instead of turning to Him who had power over the plagues, they blasphemed His name.
From the first group of Bowls we turn to the second, embracing the last three in the series of seven:—
And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom was darkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they repented not of their works (xvi. 10, 11).
The transition from the realm of nature to the
spiritual world, already marked at the introduction of
the fifth Seal and of the fifth Trumpet, is here again
observable; but, as in the case of the sixth Trumpet,
the spiritual world alluded to is that of the prince of
darkness. With darkness he is smitten. That there
is a reference to the darkness which, at the word of
Moses, fell upon the land of Egypt when visited by
its plagues can hardly be doubted, for the darkness
of that plague was not ordinary darkness; it was "a
darkness that might be felt."
The sixth Bowl follows:—
And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sun-rising. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of devils, working signs, which go forth unto the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
(Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.) And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon (xvi. 12-16).
Probably no part of the Apocalypse has received more varied interpretation than the first statement of this Bowl. Who are these kings that come from the sun-rising is the point to be determined; and the answer usually given is, that they are part of the anti-christian host, part of those afterwards spoken of as the kings of the whole inhabited earth, before whom God dries up the Euphrates in order that they may pursue an uninterrupted march to the spot on which they are to be overwhelmed with a final and complete destruction. Something may certainly be said on behalf of such a view; yet it is exposed to serious objections.
1. We have already at chap. ix. 14, at the sounding
of the sixth Trumpet, been made acquainted with the
river Euphrates; and, so far from being a hindrance
to the progress of Christ's enemies, it is rather the
symbol of their overflowing and destructive might.
2. We have also met at chap. vii. 2 with the expression
"from the sun-rising," and it is there applied to
the quarter from which the angel comes by whom the
people of God are sealed. In a book so carefully
written as the Apocalypse, it is not easy to think of
anti-christian foes coming from a quarter described in
the same terms. 3. These kings "from the sun-rising"
are not said to be a part of "the kings of the whole
inhabited earth" immediately afterwards referred to.
They are rather distinguished from them. 4. The
"preparing of the way" connects itself with the thought
of Him whose way was prepared by the coming of the
Baptist. 5. The type of drying up the waters of a
Nor is this all. In the fate of these foes a striking
incident of Old Testament history is repeated, in order
that they may be led to the destruction which awaits
them. When Micaiah warned Ahab of his approaching
fate, and told him of the lying spirit by which his own
prophets were urging him to the battle, he said, "I
saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host
of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on
His left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab
that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And
one said on this manner; and another said on that
manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood
before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the
Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will
go forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his
prophets. And He said, Thou shalt entice him, and
shalt prevail also; go forth and do so."
Why Har-Magedon? There was, we have every
reason to believe, no such place. The name is symbolical.
It is a compound word derived from the
Hebrew, and signifying the mountain of Megiddo. We
are thus again taken back to Old Testament history,
in which the great plain of Megiddo, the most extensive
in Palestine, plays on more than one occasion a notable
part. In particular, that plain was famous for two
great slaughters, that of the Canaanitish host by Barak,
celebrated in the song of Deborah,
The seventh Bowl now follows:—
And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It is
done; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometh down out of heaven upon men: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof is exceeding great (xvi. 17-21).
The seventh or last Bowl is poured out into the air,
here thought of as the realm of that prince of this
world who is also "the prince of the power of the air."
Some of the effects of the earthquake are next
spoken of. More especially, The great city was divided
into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. As to
the meaning of "the cities of the nations" there can be
no doubt. They are the strongholds of the world's sin,
the places from which ungodliness and impiety have Chap. xi. 2; xx. 9.
Further effects of the last judgment follow. Every
island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Effects similar, though not so terrible, had been connected
with the sixth Seal. Mountains and islands
had then been simply "moved out of their places." Chap. vi. 14. Chap. xx. 11.
The same climax appears in the statement of the next effect, the great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, that is, fully more than fifty pounds. No such weight had been spoken of at the close of the seventh Trumpet in chap. xi. 19.
Again, however, there is no repentance and no conversion. Those who suffer are the deliberate and determined followers of the beast. As under the fourth Bowl, therefore, so under the seventh they rather blaspheme God amidst their sufferings, because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof is exceeding great.
THE BEAST AND BABYLON.
Rev. xvii.
And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls, and spake with me, saying, Come hither; I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication. And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of her fornication, and upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I marvelled with a great marvelling. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss: and he goeth into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall marvel, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not, and shall be present. Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And they are seven kings: the five are fallen, the one is the other is not yet come; and
when he cometh, he must continue a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goeth into perdition. And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast. These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they also shall overcome that are with Him called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. For God did put in their hearts to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth (xvii.).
The main questions connected with the interpretation of this chapter are, What are we to understand by the beast spoken of, and what by Babylon? The Seer is summoned by one of the angels that had the seven Bowls to behold a spectacle which fills him with a great marvelling. Thus summoned, he obeys; and he is immediately carried away into a wilderness, where he sees a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
1. What is this beast, and what in particular is his relation to the beast of chap. xiii.?
At first sight the points of difference appear to be
neither few nor unimportant. The order of the heads
and of the horns is different, the horns taking precedence
of the heads in the earlier, the heads of the horns
in the later, of the two. Comp. chaps. xiii. 1 and xvii. 3, 7. Comp. chaps. xiii. 1 and xvii. 3. Comp. chaps. xiii. 1 and xvii. 3, 12. Comp. chaps. xiii. 1 and xvii. 8.
The more positive points of difference, again, may
be simply and naturally explained. In chap. xiii. 1
the horns take precedence of the heads because the
beast is beheld rising up out of the sea, the horns in
this case appearing before the heads. In the second
case, when the beast is seen in the wilderness, the
order of nature is preserved. The distribution of the
names of blasphemy is in all probability to be accounted
for in a similar manner. At the moment when the
Seer beholds them in chap. xiii. his attention has been
arrested by the heads of the beast, and he has not yet
seen the whole body. When he beholds them in chap.
xvii., the entire beast is before him, and is "full of"
such names. The presence of diadems upon the ten
horns in the first, and their absence in the second,
beast depends upon the consideration that it is a
common method of St. John to dwell upon an object Comp. pp. 75, 199. Chap. xvii. 12. Chap. xvii. 12. Chap. xvii. 11.
While the points of difference between the beasts of
chap. xiii. and chap. xvii. may thus without difficulty
be reconciled, the points of agreement are such as to
lead directly to the identification of the two. Some of
these have already come under our notice in speaking Chap. xiii. 2. Chap. xii. 17. Chap. xvii. 14. Comp. p. 222. Ver. 8.
Turning then to the beast as here represented, we
have to note one or two particulars regarding him,
either new or stated with greater fulness and precision
(1) The beast was, and is not, and is about to come
up out of the abyss: and he goeth into perdition. The
words are a travesty of what we read of the Son of
man in chap. i.: "I am the first and the last, and the
living One; and I became dead: and, behold, I am
alive for evermore." Chap. i. 18. Comp. chap. xiii. 3. Chap. v. 6.
(2) The seven heads are seven mountains, on which
the woman sitteth. And they are seven kings: the five
are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come; and when
he cometh, he must continue a little while. Notwithstanding
all that has been said to the contrary by
numerous and able expositors, these words cannot be
applied directly to any seven emperors of Rome. It
may be granted that the Seer had the thought of Rome
sitting upon its seven hills in his eye as one of the
manifestations of the beast, but the whole tenor of
his language is too wide and comprehensive to permit Comp. chaps. vi. 13; viii. 10; ix. 1; xi. 13; xiv. 8; xvi. 19;
xviii. 2. Comp.
(3) And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also
an eighth, and is of the seven. The reader will notice
that the expression of the eighth verse of the chapter
"and is about to come up out of the abyss," as also
another expression of the same verse, "and shall be
present," are here dropped. We have met with a
similar omission in the case of the Lord Himself at
chap. xi. 17, and the explanation now is the same as
then. The beast can no more be thought of as "about
to come up out of the abyss," because he is viewed as
come, or as about "to be present," because he is
present. In other words, the beast has attained the
highest point of his history and action. He has reached
a position analogous to that of our Lord after His
resurrection and exaltation, when all authority was
given Him both in heaven and on earth, and when He
began the dispensation of the Spirit, founding His
Church, strengthening her for the execution of her
mission, and perfecting her for her glorious future.
In like manner at the time here spoken of the beast
is at the summit of his evil influence. In one sense
he is the same beast as he was in Egypt, in Assyria,
in Babylonia, in Persia, in Greece, and in Rome. In
another sense he is not the same, for the wickedness
of all these earlier stages has been concentrated into
one. He has "great wrath, knowing that he has but
a short season." Chap. xii. 12.
Before proceeding to consider the meaning of the
"Babylon" spoken of in this chapter, it may be well to
recall for a moment the principle lying at the bottom
of the exposition now given of the "beast." That
principle is that St. John sees in the world-power, or
power of the world, the contrast, or travesty, or mocking
counterpart of the true Christ, of the world's rightful
King. The latter lived, died, was buried, rose from
the grave, and returned to His Father to work with
quickened energy and to enjoy everlasting glory; the
former lived, was brought to nought by Christ, was
plunged into the abyss, came up out of the abyss,
reached his highest point of influence, and went into
perdition. Such is the form in which the Seer's
visions take possession of his mind; and it will be
It may be further noticed that the beast's being brought to nought and being sent into the abyss takes place under the sixth, or Roman, head. We know that this was actually the case, because it was under the Roman government that our Lord gained His victory. The history of the beast, however, does not close with this defeat. He must rise again; and he does this as the seventh head, which is associated with the ten horns. In them and "with" them he assumes a greater power than ever, gaining all the additional force which is connected with a resurrection life. The objection may indeed be made that such an exposition is not in correspondence either with the view taken in this commentary that the beast is active from the very beginning of the Christian era, or with those facts of history which show that, instead of falling, Rome continued to exist for a lengthened period after the completion of the Redeemer's victory.
But, as to the first of these difficulties, it is not
necessary to think that the beast rages in his highest
and ultimate form from the very instant when Jesus
rose from the dead and ascended to His Father. That
was rather the moment of the beast's destruction, the
moment when, under the sixth head, he "is and is not;"
and a certain extent of time must be interposed before
he rises in his new, or seventh, head. The Seer, too,
deals largely in climax; and, although in doing so he is
always occupied with the climactic idea rather than with
the time needed for its manifestation, the element of
time, if our attention is called to it, must be allowed its Chap. xii. 13.
The answer to the second difficulty is to be found
in the consideration that to the Seer the whole Christian
era appears no more than "a little season," in which
events must follow closely on one another, so closely
that the time required for their evolution passes almost
entirely, if not indeed entirely, out of his field of vision.
He has no thought that Rome will last for centuries.
"The times or the seasons the Father hath set within
His own authority."
2. The second figure of this chapter now meets us; and we have to ask, Who is the woman that sits on the beast? or, What is meant by Babylon?
No more important question can be asked in connexion
with the interpretation of the Apocalypse. The
thought of Babylon is evidently one by which the
writer is moved to a greater than ordinary degree.
Twice already have we had premonitions of her doom,
and that in language which shows how deeply it was
felt. Chaps. xiv. 8; xvi. 19.
Very various opinions have been entertained as to
the meaning of Babylon, of which the most famous
are that the word is a name for papal Rome, pagan
Rome, or a great world-city of the future which shall
stand to the whole earth in a relation similar to that
occupied by Rome towards the world of its day. These
opinions cannot be discussed here; and no more can
be attempted than to show, with as much brevity as
possible, that by Babylon is to be understood the degenerate
(1) Babylon is the representative of religious, not
civil, degeneracy and wickedness. She is a harlot, and
her name is associated with the most reckless and
unrestrained fornication. But fornication and adultery
are throughout the Old Testament the emblem of
religious degeneracy, and not of civil misrule. In
numerous passages familiar to every reader of Scripture
both terms are employed to describe the departure of
Israel from the worship of Jehovah and a holy life
to the worship of idols and the degrading sensuality
by which such worship was everywhere accompanied.
Nor ought we to imagine that adultery, not fornication,
is the most suitable expression for religious degeneracy.
In some important respects the latter is the more
suitable of the two. It brings out more strongly the
ideas of playing the harlot with "many lovers"
(2) We have already had occasion to allude to a fact
which must immediately receive further notice,—that
to the eye of St. John there is an aspect of Jerusalem
different from that in which she is regarded as the holy
and beloved city of God. Jerusalem in that aspect
and Babylon are one. Each is "the great city," and
the same epithet could not be applied to both were
they not to be identified. Not only so. The words
here used of Babylon lead us directly to what our
Lord once said of Jerusalem. "Therefore," said Jesus,
"behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and
scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and
some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city: that upon you may come
all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the
blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah
son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary
and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these
things shall come upon this generation."
It may indeed be thought impossible that under any
circumstances whatever St. John could have applied
an epithet like that of Babylon, steeped in so many Chap. xi. 8.
In forming a conclusion upon this point, it is necessary to bear in mind that to the eye of the faithful in Israel, and certainly of St. John, there were two Jerusalems, the one true, the other false, to its heavenly King; and that in exact proportion to the feelings of admiration, love, and devotion with which they turned to the one were those of pain, indignation, and alienation with which they turned from the other. The latter Jerusalem, the city of "the Jews," is that of which the Apocalyptist thinks when he speaks of it as Babylon; and, looking upon the city in this aspect as he did, the whole language of the Old Testament fully justifies him in applying to it the opprobrious name.
(3) The contrast between the new Jerusalem and
Babylon leads to the same conclusion. We have already
"These prophecies present two broadly contrasted women, identified with two broadly contrasted cities, one reality being in each case doubly represented: as a woman and as a city. The harlot and Babylon are one; the bride and the heavenly Jerusalem are one.
"The two women are contrasted in every particular that is mentioned about them: the one is pure as purity itself, 'made ready' and fit for heaven's unsullied holiness, the other foul as corruption could make her, fit only for the fires of destruction.
"The one belongs to the Lamb, who loves her as the bridegroom loves the bride; the other is associated with a wild beast, and with the kings of the earth, who ultimately hate and destroy her.
"The one is clothed with fine linen, and in another place is said to be clothed with the sun and crowned with a coronet of stars: that is, robed in Divine righteousness and resplendent with heavenly glory; the other is attired in scarlet and gold, in jewels and pearls, gorgeous indeed, but with earthly splendour only. The one is represented as a chaste virgin, espoused to Christ; the other is mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
"The one is persecuted, pressed hard by the dragon, driven into the wilderness, and well-nigh overwhelmed; the other is drunken with martyr blood, and seated on a beast which has received its power from the persecuting dragon.
"The one sojourns in solitude in the wilderness; the
"The one goes in with the Lamb to the marriage supper, amid the glad hallelujahs; the other is stripped, insulted, torn, and destroyed by her guilty paramours.
"We lose sight of the bride amid the effulgence of
heavenly glory and joy, and of the harlot amid the gloom
and darkness of the smoke that 'rose up for ever and
ever.'" Guinness, The Approaching End of the Age, p. 143.
A contrast presented in so many striking particulars
leaves only one conclusion possible. The two cities
are the counterparts of one another. But we know
that by the first is represented the bride, the Lamb's
wife, or the true Church of Christ as, separated from
the world, she remains faithful to her Lord, is purified
from sin, and is made meet for that eternal home into
which there enters nothing that defiles. What can the
other be but the representative of a false and degenerate
Church, of a Church that has yielded to the temptations
of the world, and has turned back in heart from
the trials of the wilderness to the flesh-pots of Egypt?
Every feature of the description answers, although
with the heightened colour of ideal portraiture, to what
such a professing but degenerate Church becomes,—the
pride, the show, the love of luxury, the subordination
of the future to the present. Even her very cruelty
to the poor saints of God is drawn from actual reality,
and has been depicted upon many a page of history.
With the meek and lowly followers of Jesus, whose
life is a constant protest that the things of time are
nothing in comparison with those of eternity, none have
less sympathy than those who have a name to live
One other remark has to be made upon the identification
of Jerusalem and Babylon by the Seer. It has
been said that he has one special aspect of the metropolis
of Israel in his eye. Yet we are not to suppose
that he confines himself to that metropolis. As on so
many other occasions, he starts from what is limited
and local only to pass in thought to what is unlimited
and universal. His Jerusalem, his Babylon, is not the
literal city. She is "the great harlot that sitteth upon
many waters;" and "the waters which thou sawest,"
says the angel to the Seer, "are peoples, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues." Chap. xvii. 15.
Babylon then is not pagan Rome. No doubt seven
mountains are spoken of on which the woman sitteth.
But this was not peculiar to Rome. Both Babylon
and Jerusalem are also said to have been situated upon
seven hills; and even if we had before us, as we certainly
may have, a distinct reference to Rome, it would
be only because Rome was one of the manifestations
of the beast, and because the city afforded a suitable
point of departure for a wider survey. The very
Again, Babylon cannot be papal Rome. As in the last case, there may indeed be a most intimate connexion between her and one of the manifestations of Babylon. But it is impossible to speak of the papal Church as the guide, the counsellor, and the inspirer of anti-christian efforts to dethrone the Redeemer, and to substitute the world or the devil in His stead. The papal Church has toiled, and suffered, and died for Christ. Babylon never did so.
Nor, finally, can we think of Babylon as a great city of the future which shall stand to the kings and kingdoms of the earth in a relation similar to that in which ancient Rome stood to the kings and kingdoms of her day. Wholly apart from the impossibility of our forming any clear conception of such a city, the want of the religious or spiritual element is fatal to the theory.
One explanation alone seems to meet the conditions of the case. Babylon is the world in the Church. In whatever section of the Church, or in whatever age of her history, an unspiritual and earthly element prevails, there is Babylon.
We have spoken of the two great figures of this chapter separately. We have still to speak of their relation to one another, and of the manner in which it is brought suddenly and for ever to a close.
This relation appears in the words, I saw a woman
sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, and in later words
of the chapter: the beast that carrieth her. The woman
then is not subordinate to the beast, but is rather his
controller and guide. And this relation is precisely
what we should expect. The beast is before us in his
final stage, in that immediately preceding his own
destruction. He is no longer in the form of Egypt, or
Assyria, or Babylonia, or Persia, or Greece, or Rome.
These six forms of his manifestation have passed away.
The restrainer has been withdrawn, Comp.
A second, most unexpected and most startling, follows.
We have seen that in the war between the ten kings
and the Lamb the woman is present. That war ends
in disaster to her and to those whom she inspires. The
Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and
King of kings. The name is the same as that which
we shall afterwards meet in chap. xix. 16, though the
order of the clauses is different. This Lamb, therefore,
is here the Conqueror described in chap. xix. 11-16;
and many particulars of these latter verses take us back
to the Son of man as He appeared in chap. i., or, in
other words, to the risen and glorified Redeemer. The
thought of the risen Christ is thus in the mind of
St. John when he speaks of the Lamb who shall overcome.
The leaders of the Jewish Church had believed
that they had for ever rid themselves of the Prophet
who "tormenteth them that dwell on the earth." Comp. chap. xi. 10.
What is the meaning of these words? Surely not
that Rome was to be attacked and overthrown by the
barbaric hordes that burst upon her from the North:
for, in the first place, the Roman manifestation of the
world-power had passed away before the ten kings
came to their kingdom; and, in the second place, when
Rome fell, she fell as the beast, not as the harlot.
Surely also not that a great world-city, concentrating in
itself all the resources of the world-power, is to be
hated and burned by its subjects, for we have already
seen that this whole notion of a great world-city of the
end is groundless; and the resources of the world-power
are always in this book concentrated in the
beast, and not in the harlot who directs their use.
There seems only one method of explaining the words,
but it is one in perfect consonance with the method and
purpose of the Apocalypse as a whole. As on many
other occasions, the fortunes of the Church of Christ
are modelled upon the fortunes of her Master. With
that Master the Church was one. He had always
identified His people with Himself, in life and death, Chap. i. 9.
Now there was one scene of the past—how well
does he remember it, for he was present at the time!—when
the Roman power and a degenerate Judaism,
the beast and the harlot of the day, combined
to make war upon the Lamb. For a moment they
seemed to succeed, yet only for a moment. They
nailed the Lamb to the cross; but the Lamb overcame
them, and rose in triumph from the grave. But the
Seer did not pause there. He looked a few more
years onward, and what did he next behold? That
wicked partnership was dissolved. These companions
in crime had turned round upon one another. The
harlot had counselled the beast, and the beast had
given the harlot power, to execute the darkest deed
which had stained the pages of human history. But the
alliance did not last. The alienation of the two from
each other, restrained for a little by co-operation in
common crime, burst forth afresh, and deepened with
each passing year, until it ended in the march of the
Roman armies into Palestine, their investment of the
This is the prospect set before us in these words,
and this the consolation of the Church under the trials
that await her at the end of the age. "When the
wicked spring as the grass, and all the workers of
iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed
for ever: but Thou, O Lord, art on high for evermore.
For, lo, Thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, Thine
enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall
be scattered."
Babylon is fallen, not indeed in a strictly chronological narrative, for she will again be spoken of as if she still existed upon earth. But for the time her overthrow has been consummated, her destruction is complete, and all that is good can only rejoice at the spectacle of her fate. Hence the opening verses of the next chapter.
THE FALL OF BABYLON.
Rev. xviii.
After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of devils, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness (xviii. 1-3).
At chap. xvii. 1 we read of one of the angels that
had the seven Bowls. The angel now introduced is
another, or a second. We shall find as we proceed that
we have entered upon a new series of seven parts,
similar to that in chap. xiv., where six angels and their
actions, three on either side, are grouped around One
higher than angels, and forming the central figure of
the movement. Kliefoth seems to have been the first to point this out.
The description given of this angel is proportioned
to the importance of his message. He has great
authority; the earth is lightened with his glory; the
voice with which he cries is mighty. It could hardly
be otherwise than that, with such joyful tidings as he
bears to men, the "glory of the Lord should shine
round about him, and a light from heaven above the
brightness of the sun."
At this point we are met by one of those sudden transitions, common in the Apocalypse, which so completely negative the idea of chronological arrangement. A cry is heard which seems to imply that Babylon has not yet fallen:—
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Render unto her even as she rendered, and double unto her the double according to her works: in the cup which she hath mingled mingle unto her double. How much soever she glorified herself, and waxed wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God which judged her (xviii. 4-8).
The first words of this voice from heaven deserve
peculiar attention: Come forth, My people, out of her;
that is, out of Babylon, the degenerate Church. We
are at once reminded of the striking teaching of our
Lord in chap. x. of the fourth Gospel, where He
compares Himself to the "door" of the fold, not the
door by which the sheep enter into, but by which they
come out of, the fold.
The words are in the highest degree important for
the interpretation and understanding of the Apocalypse.
We have already found in more than one passage
distinct traces of this double Church, of the true Church
within the false, of the few living ones within the Body
which had a name to live, but was dead. Here the
distinction meets us in all its sharpness, and fresh
light is cast upon passages that may have formerly
seemed dark. "Many are called," "many" constituting
the outward Church; but "few are chosen," "few"
constituting the real Church, the Church which consists
of the poor, and meek, and lowly. The two parts may
keep together for a time, but the union cannot last;
Having summoned the true disciples of Jesus out
of Babylon, the voice from heaven again proclaims in
a double form, as sins and as iniquities, the guilt of
the doomed city, and invites the ministers of judgment,
according to the lex talionis, to render unto her double.
The command may also be founded upon the law of
the theocracy by which thieves and violent aggressors
of the poor were required to make a double repayment
to those whom they had injured,
Judgment is next supposed to have been executed upon Babylon; and the Seer proceeds to describe in language of unexampled eloquence the lamentation of the world over the city's fall:—
And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived wantonly with her, shall weep and wail over her, when they look upon the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and merchandise of horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits which thy soul lusted after are gone from thee, and all things that were dainty and sumptuous are perished from thee, and
men shall find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, she that was arrayed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stone, and pearl! for in one hour so great riches is made desolate. And every shipmaster, and every one that saileth anywhither, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood afar off, and cried out as they looked upon the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city? And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, wherein were made rich all that had their ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate. Rejoice with her, thou heaven, and ye saints, and ye apostles, and ye prophets; for God hath judged your judgment on her (xviii. 9-20).
Three classes of persons are introduced to us: Kings,
Merchants, and Sailors. All are of the earth; and each
class, in its own strain, swells the voice of lamentation.
The words are largely taken from the Old Testament,
and more particularly from the description of the overthrow
of Tyre in Ezekiel (chaps. xxvi., xxvii.). There
is even a peculiar propriety in this latter reference, for
Tyre was known by the prophets as another Babylon.
In describing the "Burden of Tyre," Isaiah uses in one
part of his description the words, "The city of confusion"
(the meaning of the word Babylon) "is broken down."
It is unnecessary to enter into any examination clause by clause of the passage before us. We shall better catch its spirit and be made sensible of its effect by attending to a few general observations upon the description as a whole.
1. Not without interest may we mark that the classes
selected to mourn over the burning of the city are three
in number. We have thus another illustration of the
2. Emphasis is laid upon the fact that the city is
burned. Her destruction by fire has indeed been more
than once alluded to. Of the beast and the ten horns
it had been said that "they shall burn her utterly with
fire;" Chap. xvii. 16. Chap. xviii. 8.
3. Whether there is any other allusion to spiritual
traffic in the lamentations before us it is not easy to say.
Of one at least which may be quoted in this connexion
the interpretation is uncertain. When the merchants
of the earth weep and mourn over the loss of that
merchandise which they now miss, they extend it, not
only to articles of commerce bought and sold in an
ordinary market, but to souls of men. It may be that, as
often suggested, slavery alone is thought of. Yet it is
highly improbable that such is the case. Rather may Isaac Williams, The Apocalypse, with Notes, etc., p. 360.
The conclusion to be drawn is that Babylon is a
spiritual city. That, as such, she is Jerusalem is further
confirmed by the fact that, at the close of the chapter,
it is said, And in her was found the blood of prophets,
and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the
earth. Similar words met us in chap. xvii. 6; and
here, as there, they unmistakeably remind us of the
words already quoted in which our Lord describes the
great city of the Jews.
4. From all that has been said, it must be obvious
that nothing is here spoken of Babylon inapplicable
Babylon then is fallen, and that with a sudden and
swift destruction, a destruction indeed so sudden and
so swift that each of the three companies that lament
takes particular notice of the fact that in one hour did
her judgment come. Vers. 10, 17, 19.
More, however, so important is the subject, has to be said; and we are introduced to the action of the third angel of the first group:—
And a strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and minstrels, and flute-players, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft, shall be found any more at all in thee; and the voice of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth (xviii. 21-24).
Yet once again, it would seem, must we think of
We have now reached the close of the longest and
most important section of the Apocalypse, beginning,
as has been already pointed out, with chap. vi. It is
the fourth in that series of seven of which the book is
composed; and the main purpose of St. John in writing
finds expression in it. As the writer of the fourth
Gospel describes in the fourth section of that book,
It will thus be observed that there is no strict chronological succession in the visions of this book. There is succession of a certain kind, succession in intensity of punishment. But we cannot assign one series of judgments to one period in the history of the Church or limit another to another. All the three series may continually fulfil themselves wherever persons are found of the character and disposition to which they severally apply.
But while these three series constitute the chief
substance of the fourth, or leading, section of the seven
into which the Apocalypse is divided, they do not
exhaust the subject. The last series, in particular—that
of the Bowls—has proceeded upon a supposition
the most startling and pathetic by which the history
of the Church is marked,—that "they are not all
Israel which are of Israel," that tares have mingled
with the wheat, and that the spirit of Babylon has found
its way into the heart of the city of God. A phenomenon
THE PAUSE OF VICTORY AND JUDGMENT OF THE BEAST AND THE FALSE PROPHET.
Rev. xix.
Now we know from the fourth Gospel what the light was in which St. John looked back, at a distance of more than half a century, upon the life of Jesus. Nothing therefore was more natural than that, dealing only with the great principles at work in God's government of the world and guidance of His Church, and seeing these principles embodied in visions, the visions should present to him a course of things precisely similar to that which had been followed in the case of the Forerunner of the Church and the Captain of her salvation.
Turning then to the fourth Gospel, it has long been
acknowledged by every inquirer of importance that
the struggle of Jesus with the world, which the Evangelist
chiefly intends to relate, ends with the close of
chap. xii. It is equally undeniable that with the beginning
of chap. xviii. the struggle breaks out afresh.
Between these two points lie chaps. xiii. to xvii., five
chapters altogether different from those that either
precede or follow them, marked by a different tone, and
centring around that institution of the Last Supper in
which, Judas having now "gone out," the love of Jesus
to His disciples is poured forth with a tenderness previously
unexampled. In these chapters we have first
a narrative in which the love of Jesus is related as
it appears in the foot-washing and in the institution
It would seem as if we had a similar structure at the
point of the Apocalypse now reached by us. There is
a transition narrative which, so far as the thought in
it is concerned, may be regarded either as closing the
fourth or as beginning the fifth section of the book.
It is probably better to understand it as the latter,
because the mould of the Gospel is thus better preserved;
and, where so much else speaks distinctly of
that mould, there is no impropriety in giving the benefit
of a doubt to what is otherwise sufficiently established.
Although therefore the fifth section of the Apocalypse,
the Pause, begins properly with ver. 11 of the present
chapter, the first ten verses may be taken along with
these as a preparatory narrative standing to what
follows as Ver. 9. Chap. xx. 7.
What we have now to do with is thus not a continuation of the struggle. It is a pause in which the fall of Babylon is celebrated, and the great enemies of the Church are consigned to their merited fate:—
After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God: for true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great harlot, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and He hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And a second time they say, Hallelujah. And her smoke goeth up for ever and ever. And the four-and-twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah. And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should clothe herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are bidden unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are true words of God. And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (xix. 1-10).
Babylon has fallen; and the world, represented by
three classes of its inhabitants—kings, merchants, and
sailors—has poured out its lamentations over her fall.
Very different are the feelings of the good, and these
feelings appear in the narrative before us. A great
multitude is heard in heaven, not necessarily in the
region beyond the grave, but in that of the righteous, of
the unworldly, of the spiritual, whether in time or in
eternity. This "multitude" is probably to be identified
with that of chap. vii. 9. The definite article, which Comp.
Meanwhile the smoke of the harlot's torment goeth up
for ever and ever. Again, as once before, Comp. p. 250.
A voice from heaven is then heard calling upon all the servants of God to praise Him; and this is followed by another voice, as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth. He always indeed really reigned, but now He has taken to Himself His great power, and everything acknowledges its King.
Thus a new moment is reached in the history of
God's saints. The Lamb is come to claim His bride,
and His wife hath made herself ready. She has been
long betrothed, and has been waiting for the Bridegroom.
Through storm and calm, through sorrow
and joy, through darkness and light, she has waited
for Him, crying ever and again, "Come quickly." At
last He comes, and the marriage and the marriage
supper are to take place. For the first time in the
Apocalypse we read of this marriage, and for the first
time, although the general idea of supping with the
Lord had been once alluded to, Comp. chap. iii. 20. Comp.
Such is the moment that has now arrived, and the
bride is ready for it. Her raiment is worthy of our
notice. It is fine linen, bright and pure; and then it is
immediately added, for the fine linen is the righteous acts
of the saints. These acts are not the imputed righteousness
of Christ, although only in Christ are the acts performed.
They express the moral and religious condition
of those who constitute the bride. No outward righteousness
alone, with which we might be clothed as
with a garment, is a sufficient preparation for future
blessedness. An inward change is not less necessary,
a personal and spiritual meetness for the inheritance of
the saints in light. Christ must not only be on us as
a robe, but in us as a life, if we are to have the hope
of glory.
Thus "made ready," the bride now enters with the Bridegroom into the marriage feast; and, as the whole of her future rises before the view of the heavenly visitant who converses with the Seer, he says to him, Write, Blessed are they which are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Once before St. John had heard a similar, perhaps
the same, voice from heaven, saying, "Blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth." Chap. xiv. 13.
In particular, when we think of this marriage supper
of the Lamb, we cannot but return to that supper in
the upper chamber of Jerusalem which occupies so
strikingly similar a position in the life of Jesus. There
Jesus said, "Take, eat: this is My body, which is for
you;" "This cup is the new covenant in My blood:
All this St. John saw. All this, too, he heard confirmed
by the statement that, wonderful and glorious
as was the spectacle, it was yet true words of God.
He was overwhelmed, and would have worshipped his
angelic visitant. But he was interrupted by the declaration
on the angel's part, See thou do it not: I am a
fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold
the testimony of Jesus: worship God. These fellow-servants
are first the prophets, but then also all true
members of Christ's Body. The last not less than the
first hold the testimony of Jesus Comp. chaps. i. 3, 9, vi. 9, xi. 7, xii. 17, xx. 4.
By so contemplating Him we are prepared for the next following vision:—
And I saw the heavens opened, and behold a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no man knoweth, but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a
garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords (xix. 11-16).
Of the position of this passage in the structure of the Apocalypse we have already spoken; and, looked at in that its true light, it may be called the Pause of Victory. There is no renewal of the struggle. A Warrior is indeed presented to us; but He is a Warrior who has already conquered, and who comes forth not so much to subdue His enemies as to inflict upon them their final punishment.
Heaven is open, and our attention is first of all
directed to a rider upon a white horse. The description
given of this rider leaves no doubt as to who He is.
The "whiteness" of the horse is the emblem of a
purity that can be connected with the kingdom of God
alone. The description of the Rider—Faithful, who
will not suffer one word that He has promised to fail;
True, not true as opposed to false, but real as opposed
to shadowy—corresponds only to something essentially
Divine; while the particulars of His appearance afterwards
mentioned take us back to the glorified Son of
man of chap. i., and to other passages of this and other
books of the Bible which speak of the same glorious
Person. There are the eyes like a flame of fire of
chap. i. 14 and chap. ii. 18. There are upon His head
many diadems, a fact not previously mentioned, but
corresponding to the many royalties which belong to
Him whom all things obey. There is the name which
none but He Himself knoweth, for "no one knoweth
One thing therefore alone remains: that the great adversaries of His people shall be consigned to their doom; and to this the Seer proceeds:—
And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty 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. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered
together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and he that was with him, the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. They twain were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of His mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh (xix. 17-21).
The angel beheld at the beginning of this scene is
the first of the three forming the second group of that
series of seven parts of which the triumphing Conqueror
was the centre. He stood in the sun, which is
to be thought of as in the zenith of its daily path, in
order that he may be seen and heard by all. It is to
the birds that fly in mid-heaven that he calls; that is,
to those strong and fierce birds of prey, such as the
eagle and the vulture, which fly in the highest regions
of the atmosphere. His cry is that they shall come to
the great supper of God, that they may feast upon the
flesh of all the enemies of the Lamb. The idea of
such a feast is found in the prophecies of Ezekiel; and
there can be no doubt, from the many accompanying
circumstances of similarity between the description of
it there and here, that St. John has the language of
the prophet in his eye: "And, thou son of man, thus
saith the Lord God; Speak unto the birds of every
sort, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves,
and come; gather yourselves on every side to
My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great
sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat
flesh, and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the
mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth,
of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them
fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, Ver. 9. The writer has endeavoured to unfold this view of Jesus on the
Cross in two papers in The Expositor, first series, vol. vi., pp.
17, 129.
The punishment of the wicked, and especially of the three great enemies of the Church, now proceeds; and it ought still to be carefully observed that we have to do with punishment, not war or overthrow in war. It was so at ver. 17, where, after the triumphing Conqueror had ridden forth, followed by His armies, there is no mention of any battle. There is only the angel's cry to the birds to gather themselves together unto the great supper of God. The battle had been already fought, and the victory already won. We are now told indeed of the gathering together of the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army. But, whatever may have been their design, it is not executed. No actual fighting is spoken of. The enemies referred to are at once taken, apparently without fighting, and are consigned to the fate which they have brought upon themselves.
Two of the three great enemies of the Lord and of
His Church meet this fate,—the beast and the false
prophet. The first of these is the beast so frequently Chap. xiii. 14.
One point may be noticed further. According to what seems to be the best reading of the original Greek, we are told here, not that "the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet," but "the beast was taken, and he that was with him, the false prophet." In other words, the language of St. John is designed to bring out the closeness of connexion between these two beasts, the fact that the one is always dependent on the other. They are never separated. The first cannot act without the second. Hence in all probability the reason why, in treating of the doom by which these enemies of the Church are overtaken, a separate paragraph is not assigned to each. They are taken together.
A more important question has been raised in connexion
with the words before us; and it has been urged
that they conclusively prove that both the beast and
the false prophet are persons, not personifications. Burger in loc. Comp. p. 297.
The beast and the false prophet then are cast together
into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone;
and this lake of fire is further explained in chap. xx.
14 to be "the second death." It is impossible to
avoid the questions, How are we to conceive of this
"lake of fire"? and, What is its effect? Yet, so far
as at present concerns us, the answer to these questions
must be taken from St. John alone. In the first
instance at least we have nothing to do with the general
teaching of Scripture on what is called the doctrine
of "eternal punishment." Our only inquiry must be,
What impression is the language employed by the Seer
in these visions intended to convey? Upon this point
it would seem as if there can be little doubt. To
St. John it is no matter of consequence to tell us what
Looking at the matter in this light, we do not need to ask whether by "the lake of fire" we are to understand a lake in which the wicked are consumed or one in which they are upheld in undying flames. Either interpretation is consistent with the Apostle's course of thought, and with the impression which he wishes to produce.
No doubt it may be said that the principle of contrast,
of which we have so often availed ourselves in interpreting
this book, implies that, as the righteous shall
be upheld amidst the joys of everlasting life, so the
wicked shall be upheld amidst the torments of everlasting
death. But it is precisely here that the peculiarity
of St. John's mode of thought comes in. To
him "life" is in the very nature of the case everlasting.
Were it not so, it would not be life. Only therefore
in so far as the conception of everlasting torment lies
in the idea of "death" can it be truly said that the
principle of contrast, so deeply rooted in St. John's
mode of thought, demands the application of everlasting
torment to the wicked. But the idea of torment everlastingly
continued does not lie in the idea of "death."
Death is privation; when inflicted by fire, capacity for
torment is speedily destroyed; and death itself is cast
If what has been said be correct, the whole question of the everlasting suffering of the wicked is left open so far as these passages in the Apocalypse are concerned; and St. John's main lesson is that when the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire they shall no longer have power to war against the righteous or to disturb their peace.
When these two enemies of the Church had thus
been destroyed, the rest were killed with the sword of
Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came
forth out of His mouth. The persons thus called "the
rest" are those who stand to the beast and the false
prophet in the same relation as that in which "the rest
of the woman's seed," spoken of in chap. xii. 17, stand
to the man-child "caught up unto God and unto His
throne." The man-child exalted and glorified is the
same as "He that sat upon the horse," and in that
condition a sword proceedeth out of His mouth. Chaps. i. 16; xix. 15. Chap. xx. 15.
JUDGMENT OF SATAN AND OF THE WICKED.
Rev. xx.
Chap. xix. 21. Chap. xx. 9.
These considerations are of themselves sufficient to show that the overthrow of Satan, and not the reign of a thousand years, is the main theme of the first ten verses of the chapter. So far is the latter from being the culminating point of the whole book, that it is not even introduced at the beginning of any new and important section. It starts no new series of visions. It comes in in the midst of a section devoted to an entirely different matter:—
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no authority, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him
a thousand years. And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (xx. 1-10).
It is impossible within the limits of a commentary such as the present to discuss the different interpretations that have been given to a passage so difficult and so much controverted as the above. Nothing more can be attempted than to state briefly what seems to be the true meaning of the sacred writer, together with the grounds upon which the interpretation to be suggested rests.
The fundamental principle of that interpretation, to
be kept clearly and resolutely in view, is this: that the
thousand years mentioned in the passage express no
period of time. They are not a figure for the whole
Christian era, now extending to nearly nineteen hundred
years. Nor do they denote a certain space of time,
longer or shorter, it may be, than the definite number
of years spoken of, at the close of the present dispensation,
and to be in the view of some preceded, in the
view of others followed, by the second Advent of our
Lord. They embody an idea; and that idea, whether
applied to the subjugation of Satan or to the triumph
of the saints, is the idea of completeness or perfection.
Satan is bound for a thousand years; that is, he is
completely bound. The saints reign for a thousand
years; that is, they are introduced into a state of
perfect and glorious victory. Before endeavouring to
1. Years may be understood in this sense. In
The only difficulty connected with this view is that
in the third verse of the chapter Satan is said to have
been shut into the abyss until the thousand years should
be finished, and that in the seventh verse we read, And
when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed.
But the difficulty is more specious than real. Let us
familiarise ourselves with the thought that the thousand
years may simply express completeness, thoroughness,
either of defeat or victory; let us remember
that the Seer had represented the defeat of Satan by
the figure of being bound for a thousand years; finally,
let us notice, as we have yet to see more fully, that
Satan, although deprived of power over the righteous,
is still to be the deceiver and ruler of the wicked: and
it immediately follows that this latter thought could
find no more appropriate form than in the statement
that the deception took place, not "until," or "after,"
the thousand years should be finished. This is simply
the carrying out of the symbolism already employed.
To revert for a moment to the symbolism of Ezekiel,
let us suppose that, after the prophet had described the
burning of the weapons for "seven years," he had
wished to mention also some other step by which the
burning was to be followed. What more suitable words
could he have used than that it took place either "after
this," or "after the seven years were finished"? In
point of fact, this is exactly what the prophet does. He
has occasion to refer to further efforts made to secure
the purity of the land; and the words employed by him
are, "After the end of seven months shall they search."
2. What is the meaning of the last words of the
third verse of the chapter,—He (i.e., Satan) must be
loosed for a little time? What is this "little time"?
The words take us directly to that conception of the
Christian age which is so intimately interwoven with
the structure of the Apocalypse, and even of the whole
New Testament,—that it is all "a little time." This
is particularly apparent in the application of the very
same words to the souls under the altar in chap. vi. 11:
"And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet
for a little time, until their fellow-servants also and
their brethren, which should be killed even as they
were, should be fulfilled." The "little time" there is
undeniably that extending from the moment of the
vision to the close of the present dispensation. But,
if it be so there, we are entitled to suppose that the
very same expression, when used in the passage before
us, will be used in the same sense; and that, when it
is said Satan shall be loosed "for a little time," the
meaning is that he shall be loosed for the whole
Christian age. Again, in chap. xii. 12 we read, "The
devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing
that he hath but a short time." The "short time"
here referred to begins with the casting down of the
devil out of heaven into the earth spoken of in the
ninth verse of the same chapter. It must therefore
include the whole period of his action in this world;
and the manner in which that period is designated
corresponds closely with the description of the time
during which he is said, in chap. xx., to be loosed.
Again, in chap. x. 6 the angel swears that there shall
be "time" no longer, using the same word for time
that we meet with in the verse now under consideration;
so that it would appear as if to the author of Chaps. i. 3, ii. 16, iii. 20, xxii. 20, etc.;
3. Attention ought to be particularly directed to the
condition of the saints during the thousand years
spoken of. It is described in general terms as a first
resurrection. Certain words of our Lord in the Gospel
of St. John throw important light upon the meaning
of this expression: "Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that have
heard shall live," Comp. chap. vi. 9.
The condition of the saints thought of in this vision
is described, however, not only generally, but in various
particulars, all of which, it will be seen, correspond with
the apocalyptic idea of it even in a present world.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them. But we
have been already told that "they reign over the
earth." Chap. v. 10. Comp. the teaching of our Lord in Chap. ii. 11.
Nothing, in short, is said of the saints of God in this picture of millennial bliss that does not find a parallel in what the Seer has elsewhere written of their present life. On not a few different occasions their ideal condition in this world is set forth in as glowing terms as is their thousand years' glory and joy.
One expression may indeed startle us. What the
Seer beheld is said to have been the souls of them that
had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the
word of God. Is the word "beheaded" to be literally
understood? Then a very small number of martyrs
can be thought of. The great majority of those who
have died for the faith of Jesus have been martyred
in other and more dreadful ways. The word is the
counterpart of "slaughtered" in the vision of the souls
under the altar. Chap. vi. 9. Comp. p. 102.
4. The meaning of the doom inflicted upon Satan demands our notice. And the angel laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him. It is hardly possible to read these words, at the same time remembering St. John's love of contrast or even travesty, and not to see in them a mocking counterpart of the death and burial of Jesus, when the stone was rolled to the door of the sepulchre and sealed. If so, it is not enough to say that by the infliction of this doom the power of Satan was restrained, and his influence lessened. Much more must be implied; and the language can only mean that, in one sense or another, Satan was rendered powerless and harmless, as unable to act his part as though he had been laid in the grave.
5. The use of numbers in the Apocalypse ought to be
remembered. These numbers are invariably symbolical;
and, if the number a thousand is to be here interpreted
literally, it seems in that respect to stand alone. Nor
is it a reply to this to say that, though not in the strict
sense literal, it may signify a period of indefinite length.
Such an interpretation would be not less opposed than
the former to the genius and spirit of this book. The
numbers of the Apocalypse have always a definite
meaning. They express ideas, but the ideas are distinct.
They may belong to a region of thought different
6. The teaching of Scripture elsewhere upon this
subject has to be considered. Upon this point it is
unnecessary to say much, for the difference between
that teaching and any view commonly taken of the
thousand years' reign is acknowledged. It ought to be
observed, however, that this difference is not merely
negative, as if the rest of the New Testament simply
failed to fill in certain details of events more largely
described in the Apocalypse, but upon the whole substantially
the same. The difference is also positive,
and in some respects irreconcilable with what we are
taught by the other sacred writers. The New Testament,
unless this passage be an exception, always
brings the Parousia and the general judgment into
the closest possible connexion. It nowhere interposes
a lengthened period between the resurrection of believers
and that of unbelievers. It knows only of one,
and that a general, resurrection; and the passages,
7. One other consideration may be kept in view.
It would appear that about the time of the Advent of
our Lord there was a widely extended opinion among
the Jews, traces of which are also to be found among
the Gentiles, that a golden age of a thousand years'
duration might be anticipated in the future as a happy
close to all the sins and miseries of the world. See authorities in Lee (Speaker's Commentary) on Speaker's Commentary, u.s.
Putting together the different considerations now
adduced, we can have but little difficulty in understanding
either the binding of Satan or the reign of
the saints for a thousand years. The vision describes
no period of blessedness to be enjoyed by the Church
at the close of the present dispensation. Alike negatively
and positively we have simply an ideal picture
of results effected by the Redeemer for His people,
when for them He lived, and suffered, and died, and
rose again. Thus He bound Satan for them; He cast
Thus also we may comprehend what is meant by
the loosing of Satan. There is no point in the future
at which he is to be loosed. He has been already
loosed. Hardly was he completely conquered for
the saints before he was loosed for the world. He
was loosed as a great adversary who, however he
may persecute the children of God, cannot touch their
inner life, and who can only "deceive the nations,"—the
nations that have despised and rejected Christ.
He has never been really absent from the earth.
He has gone about continually, "knowing that he Chap. xii. 12.
The whole picture of the thousand years is in its
main features—in the binding of Satan, in the security
and blessedness of the righteous, and in the loosing
of Satan for the war—a striking parallel to the scenes
in chap. xii. of this book. There Michael and his angels
contended with the devil and his angels; and the latter
"prevailed not," Comp. the remarkable parallel in It is not to be denied that difficulties attend the interpretation
of the thousand years suggested in the text. The writer would
advert in a note to the two which appear to him to be the most
formidable.
1. In ver. 3 we read that Satan was cast into the abyss, etc., "that
he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years
should be finished." Let it be granted that "the nations" here
referred to can hardly be understood in any other sense than that
common in the Apocalypse: the heathen, the ungodly, nations or the
wicked in general. We then seem to read that there must be a time
during which Satan does not "deceive the nations," while the explanation
given above has been that he was no sooner subjugated
for the righteous than he was let loose to deceive the unrighteous.
In his Lectures on the Revelation of St. John (p. 224, note) the author
was disposed to plead that the words in question may not have been
intended to indicate that action on Satan's part was for a time to
cease, but rather to bring out and express that aspect of Satan by
which he is specially distinguished in the Apocalypse. In deference
to the criticism of the Rev. H. W. Reynolds (Remarks on Dr.
Milligan's Interpretation of the Apocalypse, pp. 9, 27), he would yield
this point. Notwithstanding the irregular constructions of the
Apocalypse, it is at least precarious; and it is better to leave a difficulty
unsolved, especially in a case where difficulties surround every interpretation
yet offered, than to propose solutions of the sufficiency of
which even the proposer is doubtful. It may be asked, however,
without resorting to the conjecture formerly thrown out, whether the
words "that he should deceive," even when taken in what is said to
be their only true sense, are irreconcilable with the view of the thousand years advocated in this commentary. That view is that the
subjugation of Satan for a thousand years means his complete subjugation.
When, therefore, it is said that he has been so shut up as
"to deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be
finished," the meaning may simply be that in the act of being subjected
he was deprived alike of authority and opportunity to deceive the
nations. It lay within the power of the Conqueror to grant or not
to grant him fresh liberty to do so. The "strong man" was then
bound, and "his goods were spoiled." He was completely subjected
to Christ. When, therefore, we are told of the thousand years during
which he was to deceive the nations no more, this language is only
the continuation of the figure used in the second verse of the chapter;
and what the Seer intends to express is, that during the process of
his subjection, and until he should be again loosed by Him who had
subjected him, he could do nothing. Satan, in short, must be permitted
to come up out of the abyss either in his own person or by his
agents before he can disturb the earth (comp. chap. ix. 2); and it is
the purpose of God that he shall not have power to disturb it until,
having been really "brought to nought" by Christ (comp.
2. The second difficulty demanding notice is presented by the
words of ver. 5, "The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand
years should be finished." Who are these called "the rest of the
dead," and in what sense did they "live"? The term "the rest,"
applied to persons, occurs in the following passages of the Apocalypse
in addition to that before us: chaps. ii. 24, ix. 20, xi. 13, xii. 17, xix.
21. In every one of these cases it refers to the remaining portion of a
class mentioned, but not exhausted; and it cannot be extended to any
class beyond them. Here, however, no class has been spoken of
except the righteous, or rather the "souls" of the righteous, described
by various particulars both of their character and their state. "The
rest" of the dead must therefore belong to that class, and to it alone.
They cannot be the general body of mankind, both good and bad,
with the exception of those previously mentioned. Again, what is
meant when it is said that the rest of the dead "lived"? The
same word had occurred in the immediately preceding verse, and it
must now be understood in the same sense. "If," says Dean Alford, who has been quoted with great confidence against the present
writer (Reynolds, u.s., p. 23), "in such a passage the first resurrection
may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while
the second means literal rising from the grave, then there is an end
of all significance in language; and Scripture is wiped out as a definite
testimony to anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual, then so is
the second, which I suppose none will be hardy enough to maintain"
(on
These answers to the two chief difficulties associated with the
interpretation here suggested of the thousand years may not be
satisfactory to all; but it is submitted that they go far at least to
meet them, and that in themselves they are neither unfair nor strained.
Against one thing only must the author of this commentary enter
his most decided protest,—the allegation that the interpretation here
offered is gained by dispensing with textual criticism (?) and by
sacrificing grammar to an idea. If there be one ground more than
another upon which it rests, it is upon the strictest principles of
historical interpretation. It ought only to be remembered that the
idiosyncrasies of an author are as much a part of such interpretation
as the literal meaning of his words; and that to that interpretation,
if honestly and thoroughly conducted, the most deeply ingrained
prejudices will in due time be compelled to submit.
The three great enemies of the Church have not
only been overcome, but judged, and for ever removed
And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire (xx. 11-15).
Upon various particulars mentioned in this passage
it is unnecessary to say much. The throne beheld
by the Seer is great, at once in contrast with the
"thrones" of the millennial reign, and as befitting the
majesty of Him who sits upon it. It is also white, as
emblematic of His purity and holiness. The Judge
is God, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father;
and thus the judgment is searching and complete, and
is answered by the consciences of those upon whom
it is executed. They see that the Judge's eye penetrates
into the most secret recesses of their hearts,
and that He is One who has been in the same position,
has fought the same battle, and has endured the same
trials as themselves. Thus His sentence finds an echo
in their hearts, and they are speechless. Comp.
The effect of the Judge's taking His seat upon His
throne was that from His face the earth and the
heaven fled away, and there was found no place for
them. Yet we are not to understand that after Chap. xxi. 1. 2 Pet. iii. 10, 13. Comp.
Many may doubtless think that such a hope is too
earthly, too material, to be suited to the spiritual nature
of the Christian dispensation. They fear that it has
a tendency to withdraw us from Him who is "spirit,"
and who must be worshipped, if He is to be worshipped
acceptably, "in spirit and truth." In connexion with the point here spoken of, reference may be
made to an interesting and instructive paper by Canon Dale Stewart,
Rector of Coulsdon, in The Churchman for December, 1887.
To return to the main question in connexion with the passage before us. Does it present us with the picture of a general judgment or of a judgment of the wicked alone? There is much in the passage that leads distinctly to the latter conclusion.
1. The whole vision is obviously an enlargement of
what we have already met under the seventh Trumpet,
when it was said that "the time of the dead to be
judged came." Chap. xi. 18.
2. The sources whence the "dead" are gathered
confirm this conclusion. These are three in number:
3. The "books" mentioned in the passage are clearly books containing the record of evil deeds alone. When it is said that "books" were opened, and that "another book was opened, which is the book of life," the "books" are distinguished from the "book." It harmonizes with this that the book of life is not opened in order to secure deliverance for those whose names are inscribed in it, but only to justify the sentence passed on any who are cast into the lake of fire.
4. The general teaching of St. John ought not to be lost sight of in considering this question. That teaching is that the eternal condition of the righteous is fully secured to them even in this life, and that in their glorified Head they have already passed through all those preparatory stages on their way to everlasting blessedness at the thought of which they might otherwise have trembled. In Him they have lived, and overcome, and died. In Him they have been raised from the dead, and been seated in the heavenly places. All along they have followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and everything that befell Him has in principle befallen them. We cannot say, in the Johannine sense of the word, that Christ has been "judged;" and therefore "judgment" cannot be predicated of the members of His Body. To these last "judgment," we have already seen, "was given" at the time when they entered on their millennial reign; and, with the result of this judgment (for that is the true meaning of the original) in their hands, it is impossible to think of them as judged again.
The judgment of these verses is therefore a judgment
of the wicked; and, when it is closed, all Christ's
THE NEW JERUSALEM.
Rev. xxi. 1-xxii. 5.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God: and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more: the first things are passed away. And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true. And He said unto me, They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (xxi. 1-8).
These words, like many others that have already met us, throw light upon the principles on which the Apocalypse is composed. They show in the clearest possible manner that down to the very end of the book chronological considerations must be put out of view. Chronology cannot be thought of when we find, on the one hand, allusions to the new Jerusalem which are only amplified and extended in the next vision of the chapter, or when we find, on the other hand, a description of the exclusion from the new Jerusalem of certain classes that have already been consigned to "the second death." By the first-mentioned allusions the passage connects itself with what is yet to come, by the second with what has gone before. For the same reason it is unnecessary to dwell upon the passage at any length. It contains either nothing new, or nothing that will not again meet us in greater fulness of detail. One or two brief remarks alone seem called for.
The Seer beholds a new heaven and a new earth.
Two words in the New Testament are translated
"new," but there is a difference between them. The
one contemplates the object spoken of under the aspect
of something that has been recently brought into
existence, the other under a fresh aspect given to what
had previously existed, but been outworn. Trench, Synonyms, second series, p. 39. Comp. pp. 227, 357.
And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal, having a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east were
three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that spake with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall thereof was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, is the temple thereof, and the Lamb. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein; and His servants shall do Him service: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever (xxi. 9-xxii. 5).
The vision contained in these verses is shown the
Seer by the angel forming the third of the second group
The substance of the vision is a description of the
holy city, the new Jerusalem, the true Church of God
wholly separated from the false Church, as she comes
down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. Her marriage with the Lamb
has taken place,—a marriage in which there shall be
no unfaithfulness on the one side and no reproaches
on the other, but in which, as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, the Lord shall for ever rejoice in His
people, and His people in Him. Then follows, to
enhance the picture, a detailed account of the true
Church under the figure of the city which had been
already spoken of in the first vision of the chapter.
The treasures of the Seer's imagination and language
are exhausted in order that the thought of her beauty
and her splendour may be suitably impressed upon our
minds. Her light—that is, the light which she spreads
abroad, for the word used in the original indicates that
she is herself the luminary—is like that of the sun,
only that it is of crystalline clearness and purity, as
it were a jasper stone, the light of Him who sat upon Chap. iv. 3. Comp.
The Seer, however, is not satisfied with this general
picture of the greatness of the new Jerusalem. Like
that in Ezekiel, the city must be measured. Comp.
The measuring is completed, and next follows an account of the material of which the city was composed. This was gold, the most precious metal, in its purest state, like unto pure glass. Precious stones formed, rather than ornamented, its twelve foundations. Its gates were of pearl: each one of the several gates was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. In all these respects it is evident that the city is thought of as ideally perfect, and not according to the realities or possibilities of things.
Nor is this all. The glory of the city is still further
illustrated by figures bearing more immediately upon
its spiritual rather than its material aspect. The outward
helps needed by men in leading the life of God
in their present state of imperfection are dispensed
with. There is no temple therein: for the Lord, God,
the Almighty, is the temple thereof, and the Lamb. The
city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
upon it: for the glory of God lightens it by day, and the
lamp thereof by night is the Lamb. There is in it no
sin, and every positive element of happiness is provided
in abundance for the blest inhabitants. A river
of water of life, bright as crystal, flows there; and on
this side of the river and on that side is the tree of life,
not bearing fruit only once a year, but every month,
not yielding one only, but twelve manner of fruits, so
that all tastes may be gratified, having nothing about
it useless or liable to decay. The very leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations, and it is evidently
implied that they are always green. Finally, there
shall be no curse any more. The throne of God and of
the Lamb is therein. His servants do Him service.
They see His face. His name is in their foreheads.
One important question still remains: What aspect of the Church does the holy city Jerusalem, thus come down out of heaven from God, represent? Is it the Church as she shall be after the Judgment, when her three great enemies, together with all who have listened to them, have been for ever cast out? Or have we before us an ideal representation of the true Church of Christ as she exists now, and before a final separation has been made between the righteous and the wicked? Unquestionably the first aspect of the passage leads to the former view; and, if there be anything like a chronological statement of events in the Apocalypse, no other may be possible. But we have already seen that the thought of chronology must be banished from this book. The Apocalypse contains simply a series of visions intended to exhibit, with all the force of that inspiration under which the Seer wrote, certain great truths connected with the revelation in humanity of the Eternal Son. It is intended, too, to exhibit these in their ideal, and not merely in their historical, form. They are indeed to appear in history; but, inasmuch as they do not appear there in their ultimate and completed form, we are taken beyond the limited field of historical manifestation. We see them in their real and essential nature, and as they are, in themselves, whether we think of evil on the one hand, or of good on the other. In this treatment of them, however, chronology disappears. Such being the case, we are prepared to ask whether the vision of the new Jerusalem belongs to the end, or whether it expresses what, under the Christian dispensation, is always ideally true.
1. It must be borne in mind that the new Jerusalem,
though described as a city, is really a figure, not of a
place, but of a people. It is not the final home of the
redeemed. It is the redeemed themselves. It is "the
bride, the wife of the Lamb." Chap. xxi. 9.
2. The vision is really an echo of Old Testament
prophecy. We have already seen this in many particulars,
and the correspondence might easily have
been traced in many more. "It is all," says Isaac
Williams, as he begins his comment upon the particular
points of the description—"It is all from Ezekiel:
'The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me
in the visions of God, and set me upon a very high
mountain, by which was as the frame of a city;' The Apocalypse, p. 438.
3. This ideal view of the Messianic age is also
constantly brought before us in the New Testament.
The character, the privileges, and the blessings of
those who are partakers of the spirit of that time are
always presented to us as irradiated with a heavenly
and perfect glory. St. Paul addresses the various
churches to which he wrote as, notwithstanding all
their imperfections, "beloved of God," "sanctified in
Christ Jesus," "saints and faithful brethren in Christ."
4. There are distinct indications in the apocalyptic vision which leave no interpretation possible except one,—that the new Jerusalem has come, that it has been in the midst of us for more than eighteen hundred years, that it is now in the midst of us, and that it shall continue to be so wherever its King has those who love and serve Him, walk in His light, and share His peace and joy.
(1) Let us look at chap. xx. 9, where we read of
"the camp of the saints and the beloved city." That
city is none other than the new Jerusalem, about to
be described in the following chapter. It is Jerusalem
after the elements of the harlot character have been
wholly expelled, and the call of chap. xviii. 4 has
been heard and obeyed, "Come forth, My people, out
of her." She is inhabited now by none but "saints,"
who, though they have still to war with the world,
are themselves the "called, and chosen, and faithful."
But this "beloved city" is spoken of as in the world,
and as the object of attack by Satan and his hosts
before the Judgment. Comp. Foxley, Hulsean Lectures, Lect. i.
(2) Let us look at chap. xxi. 24 and xxii. 2: "And
the nations shall walk by the light thereof; and the
kings of the earth do bring their glory into it;"
"And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of Commentary in Clark's Foreign Theological Library, in loc.
(3) Let us look at chap. xxi. 27, where we read, "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that doeth an abomination and a lie." These words distinctly intimate that the time for final separation had not yet come. Persons of the wicked character described must be supposed to be alive upon the earth after the new Jerusalem has appeared.
5. Another consideration on the point under discussion may be noticed, which will have weight with those who admit the existence of that principle of structure in St. John's writings upon which it rests. Alike in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse the Apostle is marked by a tendency to return at the close of a section to what he had said at the beginning, and to shut up, as it were, between the two statements all he had to say. So here. In chap. i. 3 he introduces his Apocalypse with the words, "For the time is at hand." In chap. xxii. 10, immediately after closing it, he returns to the thought, "Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand;" that is, the whole intervening revelation is enclosed between these two statements. All of it precedes the "time" spoken of. The new Jerusalem comes before the end.
In the new Jerusalem, therefore, we have essentially
a picture, not of the future, but of the present; of the
ideal condition of Christ's true people, of His "little
flock" on earth, in every age. The picture may not
yet be realized in fulness; but every blessing lined in
upon its canvas is in principle the believer's now, and
will be more and more his in actual experience as he
opens his eyes to see and his heart to receive. We
THE EPILOGUE.
Rev. xxii. 6-21.
And he said unto me, These words are faithful and true: and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly come to pass. And, behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.
And I John am he that heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee, and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them which keep the words of this book: worship God (xxii. 6-9).
Attention has been already called in this commentary
both to that characteristic of St. John's style as a
writer which leads him, at a longer or a shorter
interval, to the point from which he started, and to
the fact that light is thus frequently thrown on the
interpretation of what he says. Comp. p. 373.
The person introduced with the words He said unto
me is not indeed named, but there can be little doubt
that he is the angel spoken of in the Prologue as sent
to "signify" the revelation that was to follow. Chap. i. 1.
Again, when the Seer is overwhelmed with what he
has seen, and may be said to have almost feared that
it was too wonderful for belief, the angel assures him
that it was all faithful and true. A similar declaration
had been made at chap. xix. 9 by the voice which
there "came forth from the throne," Chap. xix. 5.
Again, we read here that the Lord sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly come to pass; and the statement is the same as that of chap. i. 1.
The next words, And, behold, I come quickly, are
probably words of our Lord Himself; but the blessing
upon him that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this
book again leads the Seer back to the Prologue, where
a similar blessing is pronounced. Chap. i. 3.
Again, the remembrance of the Prologue is in the
Apostle's mind when, naming himself, he proceeds, I
John am he that heard and saw these things. In precisely
the same manner, after the introductory verses
of the Prologue, he had named himself as the writer
of the book: "John to the seven Churches;" "I John,
your brother." Chap. i. 4, 9.
That the Seer should have fallen down to worship
before the feet of the angel which showed him these things
has often caused surprise. He had already done so
on a previous occasion, Chap. xix. 10.
The prophecy is now in the Seer's hands, ideally, though not actually, written. He may easily speak of it, therefore, as written, and may relate the instructions which he received regarding it. He does this, and again it will be seen how closely he follows the lines of his Prologue:—
And he saith unto me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unrighteous, let him
do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still. Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie (xxii. 10-15).
To the prophet Daniel it had been said, "But thou,
O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even
to the time of the end."
It is by no means easy to say whether the following
words, He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness
still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy
still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness
still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still, are to
be considered as coming from the Apostle or from the
angel who has been speaking to him. This difficulty
is the same as that experienced in the fourth Gospel Comp. See a fuller treatment of this important point by the author in
his Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, p. 286, etc.
Hence, accordingly, the conversion of Israel or of
the heathen finds no place in the Apocalypse. The
texts supposed to offer such a prospect will not bear
the interpretation put upon them. It does not indeed
follow that, according to the teaching of this book,
neither Israel nor the heathen will be converted. St.
John only sees the end in the beginning, and deals, not
with the everyday practical, but with the ideal and
everlasting, issues of God's kingdom. Hence, in interpreting
In connexion with thoughts like these, we see the
peculiar propriety of that declaration as to Himself
and His purposes next made by the Redeemer: Behold,
I come quickly. He comes to wind up the history of
the present dispensation. And My reward is with Me,
to render to each man according as his work is. He
comes to bestow "reward" Comp. chap. xi. 18. Chap. i. 8. Chap. i. 5.
To enhance our estimate of the happiness of those
who are within the city, there comes next a description
of those who are without. They are first denoted Comp. Comp.
The last words follow:—
I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things for the Churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright, the morning star.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come. He that will, let him take the water of life freely. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen (xxii. 16-21).
Once more in these words it will be seen that we
return to the Prologue, in the opening words of which
we read, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
gave Him, to show unto His servants; ... and He
sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant
John." Chap. i. 1.
First, He is the root and the offspring of David, not
the root out of which David springs, as if He would
say that He is David's Lord as well as David's Son,
For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The Saviour had declared, "Behold, I come quickly," had spoken of the "reward" which He would bring with Him, and had used various images to set forth the happiness and joy which should be the everlasting portion of those for whom He came. These declarations could not fail to awaken in the breast of the Church a longing for His coming, and this longing now finds expression.
The Spirit and the bride say, Come. We are not to
think of two separate voices: the voice of the Spirit
and the voice of the bride. It is a characteristic of
St. John's style that where there is combined action,
Once more the Seer—for it seems to be he that speaks—turns to the book which he has written.
In the Prologue he had said, "Blessed is he that
readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy,
and keep the things which are written therein." Chap. i. 3. Comp.
Yet once again, before the parting salutation, Christ and the Church interchange their thoughts. The former speaks first: He which testifieth these things saith, Yea, I come quickly. It is the sum and substance of His message to His suffering people, for they can desire or need no more. The "I" is the Lord Himself as He is in glory, not in the feebleness of the flesh, not amidst the sins and sorrows of the world, not with the cup of trembling and astonishment in His hand, but in the unlimited fulness of His Divine power, clothed with the light of His heavenly abode, and anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. Especially is the Church told that this revelation is all she needs, because throughout the book she is supposed to be in the midst of trials. To the troubled heart the Apocalypse is given; and by such a heart is it best understood.
Jesus has spoken; and the Church replies, Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus. Amen to all that the Lord has
promised; Amen to the thought of sin and sorrow
banished, of wounded hearts healed, of tears of affliction
wiped away, of the sting taken from death and victory
from the grave, of darkness dissipated for ever, of the
light of the eternal day. Surely it cannot come too
soon. "Why is His chariot so long in coming? Why
tarry the wheels of His chariots?"
The salutation of the writer to his readers alone
remains. It ought to be read differently from its form
in the authorised English version, not "The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all," but The grace
of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. For the saints the
book had been written; to them it had been spoken:
they alone can keep it. Let no man who is not in
Christ imagine that the Revelation of St. John is
addressed to him. Let no man imagine that, if he has
not found Christ already, he will find Him here. The
book will rather perplex and puzzle, more probably
offend, him. Only in that union with Christ which brings
with it the hatred of sin and the love of holiness,
which teaches us that we are "orphans"
We have reached the end of this singular, but at the
same time most instructive, book of the New Testament.
That the principles upon which it has been interpreted
should be generally accepted were too much
to hope for. Their acceptance, where they are received, Expositor, July, 1888, p. 58.
i iii v vi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392