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PROLOGUE AND GREETING, 1
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See also:PROLOGUE AND GREETING, 1 . I—8. See also:Part I. See also:Vision of See also:Christ in the midst of the churches, i. 9–iii: 22. Vision of Christ in See also:Heaven, iv. 1-v. 14. Preparations for the End, vi. 1–xi. 19. Part II. Vision of the See also:Mother of Christ (i.e. the See also: 4-8, in which the writer salutes the Seven Churches of See also:Asia. Having so introduced his See also:work the author describes a vision of the ascended Christ, i. 9—0, who sends His messages to the angels of the Seven Churches, ii.-iii. With the conclusion of these epistles the See also:Apocalypse proper really begins. But the way has been prepared for it. Its contents are " the things which must quickly happen," i. 1. The visions are not for See also: Then he beholds the Almighty on His See also:throne surrounded by the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures. Before Him they all See also:bow in See also:worship and acknowledge that by Him were created all things and of His own See also:free will were all created. In the next See also:chapter (v.) the seer has a vision of a See also:roll in the See also:hand of Him that sat on the throne which none could open or look upon, till the See also:Lion of the tribe of See also:Judah, the mighty one with seven horns and seven eyes, appeared. Before Him all the elders and the living creatures See also:fell down and acknowledged that He had power to open the seven See also:seals thereof, and their See also:song was re-echoed by every thing alike in heaven and See also:earth. The contrast between these two chapters and those that follow is striking in the extreme. The See also:time of the seer's vision is one of direst need. The See also:life and See also:death struggle between the church and the See also:empire has now entered on its final See also:stage, and fear and trouble and woe are rife in the See also:hearts of the faithful. But when the seer is exalted to heaven he See also:sees no trace of the turmoil on earth. The vision of the Almighty is full of See also:majesty and See also:peace. All things do Him service; for all are the free creation of His will. The next vision serves to connect the Source and Sustainer of all things with the See also:world and its See also:history. The closing of the inter-mediate stage of the history of created things is committed to the Christ who will also be See also:Lord of the See also:age to come. The future of the See also:saints is assured: what can avail against Him that hath " See also:glory and dominion for ever and ever" the See also:wild attacks of See also:Rome and even of Satan and his hosts? The See also:Lamb that was slain has taken upon Himself the See also:burden of the world's history. In vi. we have the opening of the six seals, and the horrors of the future begin. The choice of three See also:series of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven See also:bowls, to See also:form the framework in which the history of the last woes is to be given, shows the same hand that addressed the churches as seven. But between the See also:sixth and seventh seals and the sixth and seventh trumpets the connexion is more or less disturbed by the insertion of certain interludes containing material See also:foreign in certain aspects to the Apocalypse. These are vii. 1-17 and x. 1-xi. 14. vii. z-17.—These verses, which interrupt the See also:plan of the book, fall into two See also:independent fragments, 1-8 and 9-17, which are inconsistent in their See also:original meaning with each other. For while 1-8 was most probably a Jewish apocalyptical fragment and strongly particularistic, 9-17 is clearly universalist in character and is probably from the hand of our author. The foreign origin of vii. 1-8 may be concluded with See also:Spitta, Bousset and others from the fact that the four winds, which in vii. I are said to be held fast lest they should break in elemental fury on See also:land and See also:sea, are not let loose or referred to in the subsequent narrative, and also from the mention of the 144,000 Israelites of the twelve tribes, to whom no further reference is made; for these can no more be identified with the countless multitudes in vii. 9-17 than with those who are "sealed" in ix. 4 sq. nor with the 144,000 in xiv. I ; for in both these cases the sealed are not See also:Jews but elect Christians. The See also:object of both fragments was to encourage the faithful in the See also:face of the coming strife. In the latter, in which the Apocalyptist looks forward prophetically to the issue, the assurance held out is of ultimate victory, but of victory through death or martyrdom. In the former (Jewish or See also:Christian-Jewish fragment) the sealing seemed to have carried with it the assurance of deliverance from See also:physical death, as in Ezek. in. 4 sqq. But in its new context this meaning can hardly be retained. Not improbably the sealing means to our author the preservation not from death, but through death from unfaithfulness, and the number 144,00o would signify mystically the entire See also:body of true Christians, which formed the true See also:people of See also:God. Chapter vii., then, interrupts the development of the author's plan, but the interruption is deliberate. He wishes to encourage the persecuted church not only to face without fear, but also to meet with triumphant assurance the onset of those evils which would bring panic and despair on the unbelieving world. viii.-ix.—These chapters, though presenting some See also:minor difficulties, do not See also:call for discussion here. They recount the six partial judgments which followed the opening of the seventh See also:seal and the blasts of the six trumpets. x.-xi. z-z3.—This See also:section bristles with difficulties. Chapter x. forms an introduction to xi. 1-13. In it the See also:prophet receivkes a new See also:commission, x. 1 r : " See also:Thou must prophesy again over many peoples and nations and See also:tongues and See also:kings." This new com- See also:mission explains his departure from the plan pursued in the earlier chapters of developing the seventh in each series into a new series of seven. The seer has a vision of the seven thunders, but these he is bidden to seal and not commit to See also:writing, He is instead to write down the new book of prophecies. The end is at hand. It is noteworthy that in the earlier visions it was Christ who spoke to the seer. Here and in the later visions, especially those See also:drawn from foreign See also:sources, it is an See also:angel. In xi. 1-13 we have a characteristic See also:illustration of our author's dependence on traditional materials and his free See also:adaptation of them to meanings other than originally belonged to them. For it is generally agreed among critics that xi. 1-13 is borrowed from Jewish sources, and that this fragment really consists of two smaller fragments, xi. 1—2 and xi. 3-13. The former See also:oracle referred originally to the actual See also:Temple, and contained a pre-diction of the preservation of the Temple. It must have been written before A.D. 70 and probably by a Zealot.' But our author could not have taken it in this literal sense if he wrote after A.D. 70 or even anterior to that date, owing to the explicit See also:declaration of Christ as to the coming destruction of See also:Jerusalem. The passage, then, must have a spiritual meaning, and its purpose is the encouragement of the faithful by the assurance of their deliverance not necessarily from physical death but from the dominion of the evil one. In xi. 3-13 we have another Jewish fragment of a very enigmatic character. Bousset has shown with much See also:probability that it is part of the See also:Antichrist See also:legend. The prophecy of the two witnesses and their martyrdom belongs to this tradition. The fragment was apparently written before A.D. 70, since it speaks of the fall of only a tenth of the See also:city, xi. 132 The significance of this fragment in our author's use of it is similar to that of xi. 1-2. The details defy at See also:present any clear See also:interpretation, but the See also:incorporation of the fragment may be due in See also:general to the emphasis it See also:lays on the faithful See also:witness, martyrdom and resurrection of the saints. xi. z4-sp.—The seventh See also:trumpet, xi. 15, ushers in the third woe, xi. 14. Its contents are given in xii.-xx. In xi. 15-19 the seer hears great voices in heaven singing a triumphal song in anticipation of the victory that is speedily to be achieved. This song forms a prelude to the chapters that follow. 1 The Zealots occupied the inner See also:court of the Temple during its See also:siege by the See also:Romans. 2 The linguistic See also:evidence, as Bousset has pointed out, confirms the See also:critical conclusion that xi. I–13 were independent sources. For whereas in ix.–x. the verb almost regularly begins the See also:sentence and the object follows the verb, in xi. 1–13 the object frequently precedes the verb and the subject nearly always. The See also:order of the genitive in xi. 4 is elsewhere unknown in the Apocalypse, and in xi. 2, 3 the construction of bt&LvaL followed by Kat instead of See also:infinitive or Iva is unique in this book. xii.—This is the most difficult chapter in the book. Its See also:main intention in its present context is apparently to explain Satan's dominion over the world and the bitterness of his rage against the church and against Christ. Christ, indeed; escapes him and likewise the Jewish Christians (" the woman," xii. 16) but " the See also:rest of her See also:seed," xii. 17 (the See also:Gentile Christians?), are exposed to his fury. But his time is at hand; together with his hosts he has been See also:cast down from heaven, and on the earth he " hath but a See also:short time." The attribution of the seven heads and ten horns to the See also:dragon, xii. 3, points forward to Rome, which is regarded as a temporary incarnation of Satan, xiii. 1, xvii. 3. But, though a few of the leading thoughts of this chapter may be obvious, we are plunged into problems that all but defy See also:solution when we See also:essay to discover its origin or interpret its details. Most scholars are agreed that this chapter is not, except in the See also:case of a few sentences, the work of our author. In other words, it has been taken over from pre-existing material-either Christian or Jewish—and the materials of which it is composed are ultimately derived from non-Jewish sources—either Babylonian, See also:Greek or See also:Egyptian—and See also:bore therein very different meanings from those which belong to them in their present connexion. Furthermore, the materials are fragmentary and the order irregular. (a) First of all, the chapter is not the free creation of a Christian writer. Such an one could never have so represented the life of Christ—a See also:child persecuted by a dragon and carried off to God's throne. No mention of Christ's earthly life and crucifixion. Furthermore, the victory over Satan is ascribed to See also:Michael. Again, a Christian could not represent Christ as the son of the wife of the See also:sun-god; for such is the natural interpretation of the woman crowned with the twelve stars and with her feet upon the See also:moon. Finally, even if " the woman " who is the mother of Christ be taken to be the ideal See also:Israel in the beginning of the chapter, at its See also:close she is clearly the Christian community founded by Him. We conclude, therefore, that the present chapter is not the work of our author. There are, however, traces of his hand. Thus 7—12, which is really a Jewish fragment recounting the victory of Michael over Satan, has to a certain degree been adapted to a Christian environment by the insertion of the rob-r r. (b) The order is not original. The See also:flight of the woman is mentioned in See also:verse 6 to a See also:place of See also:refuge prepared for her by God. Then comes an See also:account of the casting down of Satan from heaven. Then again in 13-16 the flight of the woman is described. This fact has been variously accounted for by different critics. See also:Wellhausen regards 1-6 and 7-14 as doublets, and differentiates two actions in the original account which are here confused. Spitta takes verse 6 to be an addition of the redactor, which describes proleptically what follows, while Gunkel sees in 6 and 7-16 parallel accounts. In any case we should probably agree with the contention of J. See also:Weiss, supported by Bousset in the second edition of his commentary, that 7-12 is a fragment of a Jewish apocalypse, of which rob-rr is an addition of our author. Next that 6 is a doublet of 13 sqq. What then is to be made of 1-5, 13-17? Different explanations have been offered. Gunkel3 traces it to a Babylonian origin. He urges that an adequate explanation is impossible on the See also:assumption of a Jewish or Christian origin. At the See also:base of this account lies the Babylonian myth of the See also:birth of the sun-god See also:Marduk, his See also:escape from the dragon who knows him to be his destined destroyer, and the persecution of Marduk's mother by the dragon. But Gunkel's explanation is an See also:attempt to account for one ignotuen per ignotius; for hitherto no trace of the myth of the sun-god's birth and persecution and the flight into the See also:wilderness has been found in Babylonian See also:mythology. More-over, Gunkel no longer lays emphasis on the Babylonian, but merely on the mythical origin of the details. A more satisfactory explanation has been offered by Dieterich (See also:Abraxas, 117 sqq.), who finds in this chapter an adaptation of the birth of See also:Apollo and the attempt of the dragon Pytho to kill his mother SchOpfung and See also:Chaos § 3, Religionsgesch. Verstandniss d. N.T., 54 sqq. Leto, because it was foretold that Leto's son would kill the dragon. Leto escapes to Ortygia, which See also:Poseidon covers with the sea in order to protect Leto. Here Apollo is See also:born, who four days later slays the dragon. Yet another explanation from Egyptian mythology is given by Bousset (Ojenbarung Johannis, 2nd ed., pp. 354, 355) in the birth of the sun-god See also:Horus. Here the goddess mother is represented with a sun upon her See also:head. See also:Typhon slays Horus. See also:Hathor, his mother, is persecuted by Typhon and escapes to a floating See also:island with the bones of Horus, who revives and slays the dragon.' There are obvious points of similarity, possibly of derivation, between the details in our See also:text and the above myths, but the subject cannot be further pursued here, See also:save that we remark that in the sun myth the dragon tries to kill the mother before the child's birth, whereas in our text it is after his birth, and that neither in the Egyptian nor in the Greek myth is there any mention of the flight into the wilderness. The insertion of the See also:alien See also:matter 7–12 between 1–5 and 13–17 may be due to our author's wish to show that the See also:expulsion of Satan from heaven after Christ's birth and See also:ascension to heaven was owing in some measure to Christ, although he has allowed Michael's name to remain in the borrowed passage, 7–12—a fact which shows how dependent the writer was on tradition. xiii.—In this chapter we have the two beasts2 which symbolize respectively Rome and the See also:Roman provincial priesthood of the imperial cult. Thus the world See also:powers of See also:heathen statesmanship and heathen See also:religion are leagued in a confederacy against the rising Christian Church. Against these the church is not to attempt to use physical force; its only weapon is to be passive endurance and See also:loyalty to God. That this chapter must be interpreted by the contemporary-See also:historical method is now generally admitted. Even Gunkel is obliged to abandon his favourite theory here, though he contests strongly the recognition of any allusion to See also:Nero. Various solutions have been offered as to the seven emperors designed by the seven heads of the beast, xiii. 1. But the details of this passage are not sufficiently definite to determine the question here. It will return in chapter xvii. There are, however, two facts pointing to a See also:late date. The first is the advanced stage of development of this, the Neronic-Antichrist legend. One of the heads " is smitten unto death," but is healed of the death stroke. This points, we may here assume, to the Nero redivivus legend, which could not have arisen for a full See also:generation after Nero's death, and the assumption receives large See also:confirmation from the most probable interpretation of the enigmatical words, xiii. 18, " the number of the beast .. . is six See also:hundred and sixty six." Four See also:continental scholars, Fritzsche, Benary, See also:Hitzig and See also:Reuss, independently recognized that Nero was referred to under the mystical number 666. For by transliterating Kairap Nepiav into See also:Hebrew in1 and adding together the sums denoted by the Hebrew letters we obtain the number 666. This solution is confirmed by the fact that it is possible to explain by it an See also:ancient (Western?) variant for the number 666, i.e. 616. This latter, which is attested by See also:Irenaeus (v. 30. 1), the commentary of Ticonius, and the uncial C, can be explained from the Latin form of the name Nero, which by its omission of the final n makes the sum See also:total 616 instead of 666. The above solution may be regarded as established, though several scholars, as Oscar See also:Holtzmann (See also:Stade's Geschichte See also:des Volkes Israel, ii. 661), Spitta and Erbes, have contended that 616 was the original See also:reading (Pai:os Kaivap=616) and that ' On the possibility of other points of contact between the Apocalypse and Egyptian mythology, see Mrs Grenfell's See also:article, " Egyptian Mythology and the See also:Bible," in the Monist (1906), pp. 169-200. 2 In xiii. 2 the description of the beast unites the features of the four beasts in See also:Daniel's vision (vii.). It is clear that our author identified the See also:fourth beast (vii. 23) with Rome, as did also the author of 4 See also:Ezra xii. to. But this was not the original significance of the fourth beast, for the author of Daniel referred thereby to the Greek empire; but, since the prophecy was not realized, it was subsequently reinterpreted, and applied, as we have observed, to Rome.chapter xiii. was part of a Jewish apocalypse written under Caligula between the years 39 and 41. But this Caligula See also:hypothesis cannot be carried out unless by a vigorous use of the critical See also:knife, in the course of which more than a third of the chapter is excised. Moreover the number 616 is too weakly supported to admit of its being recognized as the original. The figure of the first beast presents many difficulties, owing to the fact that it is not freely invented but largely derived from traditional elements and is by the writer identified with the seventh wounded head. The second beast, signifying the See also:pagan priesthood of the imperial cult, called " the false prophet " in xvi. 13, appears to be an independent development of the Antichrist legend. xiv.–xvi.—These chapters contain a vision of Christ on See also:Mount See also:Zion and the 144,000 of the undefiled that follow Him, xiv. 1–5, the last warnings See also:relating to the See also:harvest and vintage of the world, xiv. 6–2o: the vision of the wrath of God in the out-pouring of the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues, xv.–xvi. In the above section most critics are agreed that xiv. 14-20 originally represented the final See also:judgment and was removed frWn its rightful place at the close of an apocalypse to its present position. In its original setting " the one like unto a Son of See also:Man, having on his head a See also:golden See also:crown " (xiv. 14), undoubtedly designated the See also:Messiah, but the transformation of the final judgment into a preliminary See also:act of judgment by a redactor, necessarily brought with it the degradation of the Son of Man to the level of a See also:mere angel. Some critics hold that this apocalypse was the apocalyptic groundwork, but Bousset is of See also:opinion that it stood originally in connexion with xi. I-13. As regards xvi. the views of critics take different directions, but that of Bousset followed by See also:Porter seems the most See also:reason-able. This is that this chapter forms an introduction to xvii., which was an independent fragment. The writer throws this introduction into his favourite See also:scheme of seven acts, in this case symbolized by seven bowls. The earlier verses, 2–11, do not amount to much beyond a repetition of what is found in viii.–ix., save that as a preparation for xvii. references are inserted to the beast and his worshippers (ver. 2) and to Rome (ver. to). In xvi. 12–16 is a revised form of an older tradition. xvii.—This chapter presents great difficulties, especially if with the older and some of the See also:recent exegetes we regard it as written at the same time and by the same author. Even so strong an upholder of the unity of the book as Swete is ready to admit that portions of xvii., as well as of xiii., show signs of an earlier date than the rest of the book. He writes: " The unity of the Book . . . cannot be pressed so far as to exclude the possibility that the extant book is a second edition of an earlier work, or that it incorporates earlier materials, and either hypothesis would sufficiently account for the few indications of a Neronic or Vespasianic date that have been found in it (Apoc. of St John2, p. civ.). This chapter cannot be interpreted apart from the Neronic myth. Of this there appear to be two stages attested here. Of the earlier we have traces in xvii. 16–17 and xvi. 12, where there are allusions to Nero's confederacy with the See also:Parthian kings with a view to the destruction of Rome. Of the later stage, when the myth of Nero redivivus was fused with that of the Antichrist, we have See also:attestation in xvii. 8, 12–14, where Nero is regarded as a demon coming up from the See also:abyss to See also:war not with Rome but with Christ and the elect. This development of the Neronic myth belongs to the last years of the 1st See also:century, and is decidedly against a Vespasianic date. To meet this difficulty a recent interpreter—See also: 70; others Vespasian, and yet others Domitian. No solution of the difficulties of the chapter is wholly satisfactory, but the best yet offered seems to be that of Bousset (Offenbarung1, 410-18). He holds , that 1–7, 9–11, 15–18, belong to an original source, which was written in the reign of Vespasian and represents the earlier stage of the Neronic myth. To a reviser in Domitian's reign we owe 8,12–14 and 6b, a clause in 9, Hrra $pr- ... airrwv, and another in 11, S iv Kai See also:Duet Evre.v. If the clause Kai iK rov aiparos rwv paprupwv'Invoii in 6 is an addition, then he thinks the source was Jewish and the " See also:blood of the saints " was that See also:shed at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the forecast of the author related to the destruction of Rome. When the reviser recast the passage it dealt not with the destruction of Jerusalem, but with the persecution of the Christians. Nero was now a demonic See also:monster from the abyss, and the ten kings no longer Parthians but ghostly helpers of Nero. The destruction of Rome has now become a secondary event: the reviser's thought is fixed on the final strife between the Lamb and the Antichrist. xviii. xix. io.—This section describes in prophetic See also:language borrowed almost wholly from See also:Isaiah and See also:Jeremiah the coming judgment of Rome, and gives the ten See also:lamentations of the kings and the merchants and the See also:seamen over her, and the thanksgivings in heaven for her overthrow. xix. ii-2i.-The victory of the See also:warrior Messiah over the two beasts, the Roman Empire and the imperial cultus and the kings of the earth. Many of the ideas set forth in earlier chapters here coalesce and find their consummation. The Messiah, whose birth and escape from the dragon was recounted in xii. 5, and who was to See also:rule the nations with a See also:rod of See also:iron, at last appears in See also:discharge of His See also:office. The beast and the false prophet who are described in xiii. are cast alive into the See also:lake of See also:fire, and the kings of the earth who had assembled for this conflict, xvi. 14, xvii. 14, were slain by the See also:sword of Him that at on the See also:horse. The conception of the Messiah may be Jewish: at all events it is not distinctively Christian. The See also:title " Word of God " can hardly be said to establish any connexion with the prologue of the Fourth See also:Gospel; for the conceptions of the Messiah in that Gospel and in these chapters belong to different worlds of thought. It is to be observed that our author follows the apocalyptic scheme of two judgments which is first attested about See also:loo B.C. The first judgment precedes the See also:establishment of the temporary Messianic See also:kingdom, as here in xix. 19–21; and the final judgment follows at its close, as here in xx. 7–10. xx. i-6.—The See also:millennium, or the See also:period between the first and final judgments, when Christ, with His chosen, reigns and Satan is imprisoned. Rome has been overthrown, but, as Rome is only the last See also:secular manifestation of Satan, there is yet the final struggle with Satan and his adherents. But the time for this struggle has not yet arrived. Satan is See also:bound' and cast into the abyss, and the kingdom of Christ and of the martyrs and faithful confessors established for a thousand years. Thus it is shown that evil will be finally overcome; for that the true and ultimate power even in this world belongs to Christ and those that are His.
The main features of this section have been borrowed from Judaism. The Messianic kingdom was originally conceived of as of See also:everlasting duration on the present earth, but about too B.C. this See also:idea was abandoned and the hopes of the faithful were directed to a temporary earthly kingdom of 400 or 1000 years or of indefinite duration (see R. H. See also: More-over, the expectation that the saints would rise to See also:share in the blessedness of this kingdom is also found in Judaism, 4 Ezra vii. 28 (op. Cit. p. 285). xx. 7-lo.-See also:Release of Satan and final See also:assault on the city of God by the hosts of See also:Gog and Magog at the instance of Satan. Satan and the beasts condemned to eternal torment. xx. 4.-The Final Resurrection and Judgment. xxi. i–8.—The new heavens and the new earth. The language in this and the following section is highly figurative; but as Porter has well remarked: " Figurative language is the only language in which we can See also:express our See also:hope of heaven, and no figures can have greater power to suggest this hope than those taken from the literal longings of exiled Israel for the recovery of its land and city." xxi.' 9-xxii. 5.—The vision of the New Jerusalem. There are several grounds for regarding this section as an independent source possibly of Jewish origin and subsequently submitted to a Christian revision. This view is taken by See also:Vischer, Weyland, Spitta, See also:Sabatier, J. Weiss, Bousset and others. Our author has incorporated it as describing the consummation of the prevision contained in xi. 15-18, in which he foresaw the time when the kingdom of the world would become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and the saints should enter on their See also:reward. Moreover, he has already hinted at its contents in xix. 7 and xxi. 2, where he speaks of the church as a bride and the See also:marriage supper of the Lamb. But the section betrays inconsistent conceptions. The standpoint of the heavenly Jerusalem is abandoned in xxi. 24–27, xxii. 2, and the context implies an earthly Jerusalem to which the Gentiles go up as pilgrims. Outside the See also:gates of this city are unclean and abominable things. These inconsistencies are best explained by the hypothesis that our author was See also:drawing upon a See also:literary fixed tradition. The doublets in xxi. 23 and xxii. 5b, in xxi. 25 and xxii. 5a, and in xxi. 27 and xxii. 3, point in the same direction. Various additions were introduced, according to Bousset, by the last redactor, such as the frequently recurring reference to the Lamb, xxi. 9, 22, 23, 27, xxii. 1, 3. In xxii. 3 the fact that the words " of the Lamb " are an addition is clear from the context; for, after the clause " the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein " the singular follows, " His servants shall do Him service." xxii. 6-21.—The conclusion. The promises are sure, the end is near and the judgment at hand. The words of the book are the See also:message of Christ Himself and are inviolable. Unity.—From the preceding sections it follows that we cannot ascribe a strict literary unity to the book. The book is most probably the work of a single author, but it was not written wholly at one date, nor have all the parts come directly from one See also:brain. We have several See also:good grounds, for regarding vii. 1–8, xi. 1–13, xii., xiii., xvii., as wholly or in part independent sources, which our author has laid under contribution and adapted more or less adequately to his purpose. He appears to have taken over with but slight modification xx. and xxi. 9–xxii. 5. Furthermore, while certain fragments such as xi. 1-2 presuppose a date anterior to A.D. 70, others, as xvi. 12 and xvii. 12, require a date not later than Vespasian's time; other parts of xvii. postulate a Vespasianic date as the earliest admissible, and, finally, the See also:composition of the book in its present form cannot be placed before the closing years of Domitian. But to this question we shall return presently. Nevertheless, the book exhibits a relative unity; for, whatever digressions occur in the development of its theme, the main object of the writer is never lost sight of. This relative unity is manifested also in the See also:uniform character of the language, a uniformity, however, which is occasionally conspicuous by its See also:absence in the case of independent sources, as in xi. 1–13. The author or the final redactor has impressed a certain linguistic character on the book, which differentiates it not only from all secular writings of the time, but also from all the New Testament books, including the Johannine. And yet the Apocalypse shows in many of its phrases an undoubted See also:affinity to the latter— a fact which requires for its explanation the assumption that the book emanated from certain literary circles influenced by John. Date.—There are many indications of the date, which may be summarized as follows: (a) See also:Condition of the Asian churches. (b) Persecution of the church. (c) Attitude of the author to Rome. (d) The Antichrist legend. (e) See also:Primitive tradition and its confirmation through the See also:discovery of references in the text to certain edicts of Domitian. As a result of these considerations we may arrive at the date of the work with almost greater certainty than that of any other New Testament book. (a) Condition of the Churches.—See also:Christianity appears to have already had a See also:long history behind it. The fact that St See also:Paul founded the church of See also:Ephesus seems to have been forgotten. The earliest zeal has passed away and heathen ways of thought and life are tolerated and practised at See also:Pergamum and Ephesus, and faith is- dying or dead at See also:Laodicea and See also:Sardis. These phenomena belong to a period considerably later than the time of Nero. (b) Persecution of the Church.—Persecution is the order of the See also:day. Each of the seven letters concludes with praise of those who have been victorious therein. There had been isolated instances of persecution at Ephesus, ii. 3, See also:Philadelphia, iii. 8, ro, and at See also:Smyrna, ii. 9, and of an actual martyrdom at Pergamum, ii. 13. But now a See also:storm of persecution was about to break upon the universal church, iii. to, and in the immediate future. Already the seer beholds the destined number of the martyrs See also:complete, vi. 9—11: the great multitude whom no man could number, clothed in See also: 13. Such an expectation of persecution is inexplicable from Nero's time. There is not a trace of any declaration of war on the universal church in his period such as the Apocalyptist anticipates and in part experiences. Christian persecution under Nero was an imperial caprice. The Christians were attacked on slanderous charges of superstition and See also:secret abominations, but not as a church. Not till the last years of Domitian is it possible to discover conditions which would explain the apprehensions and experiences of our writer. So far as we can discover, no persecution was directed against Christians as Christians till Domitian's time. In the year A.D. 92 Flavius Clemens was put to death and his wife banished, on the ground that they were adherents of the new faith. Thus the See also:temper of the book on this question demands some date after A.D. 90. It marks the transition, from the earlier tolerant attitude of Rome towards Christianity, to its later hostile attitude. (c) Attitude of the Author towards Rome.—In earlier times the church had strongly impressed the See also:duty of loyalty to Rome, as we see from the See also:Epistle to the Romans and r See also:Peter. This was before the pressure of the imperial cult was See also:felt by the Christian church. But in the Apocalypse we have the experiences of a later date. The writer manifests the most burning hatred towards Rome and the worship of its head—the beast and the false prophet, who are actual embodiments of Satan. Such an attitude on the part of a Christian is not explicable before the closing years of Domitian; for, apart from Caligula, he was the first Roman emperor who consistently demanded divine honours. (d) The Antichrist Legend.—We find at least two stages of the Neronic and Antichrist myth in the Apocalypse. The earliest form is not attested here, that Nero had not really been slain, but would speedily return and destroy his enemies. The first pretender appeared in A.D. 69, and was put to death in Cythnus. The second stage of this legend was that Nero had taken refuge in the Far See also:East, and would return with the help of his Eastern subjects for the overthrow of Rome. Two pretenders arose in conformity with this expectation among the Parthians in A.D. 8o and 88. This widespread expectation has See also:left itsmemorial in our book in xvi. 12 and in xvii. 16-17, which point to the belief that Rome would be destroyed by Nero and the Parthian kings. Finally, in xiii. and xvii. 8, 12–14, we have a later phase of the myth, in which there is a See also:fusion of the Antichrist myth with that of Nero redivivus. This fusion could hardly have taken place before the first See also:half of Domitian's reign, when the last Neronic pretender appeared. As soon as the hope of the living Nero could no longer be entertained, the way was prepared for this transformation of the myth. The living Nero was no longer expected to return from the East, but Nero was to be restored to life from the abyss by the dragon, i.e. Satan. This expectation is recounted in xiii., but it appears most clearly in the additions to xvii. Thus in xvii. 8 the reference to Nero redivivus as the Antichrist is See also:manifest: " The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and is about to come up out of" the abyss and to go into perdition."' Thus again we are obliged to postulate a date not earlier than A.D. 90 for the book in its present form. (e) Primitive Church Tradition and its Confirmation through the Discovery of References in the Text to Certain Edicts of Domitian. —The earliest See also:external evidence is practically unanimous in ascribing the Apocalypse to the last years of Domitian. The See also:oldest testimony is that of Irenaeus v. 30. 3: be Exetvov See also:lie EppE617 Tof Kal Tt]v 'Arcata i 'tv ccopaKOTOS obbi yap apb 7roXXoi Xpovov &oaten, aXXa °XEbdv E7rl T17s f,2ETEpas yEVEas, srpds TW TfXet T7)s Dop.srtavo"v apxi-7s. The rest of the patristic evidence from See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria, See also:Origen, See also:Victorinus, See also:Eusebius and See also:Jerome will be found in Swete's Apocalypse of St John2, xcix. seq. Though a few later authorities, such as See also:Epiphanius and See also:Theophylact, assign the book to earlier or later periods, the main body of early Christian tradition attests the date of its composition in the closing years of Domitian. Not-withstanding, on various critical grounds, See also:Baur, See also:Hilgenfeld, See also:Lightfoot, See also:Westcott, See also:Hort and See also:Beyschlag assigned the book to the reign of Nero, or to the years immediately following his death, while Weiss, Dusterdieck and See also:Mommsen assign it to the time of Vespasian. When, however, we combine the preceding arguments with that of the early church tradition, the evidence for the Domitian date outweighs that for any other. And this conclusion receives remarkable confirmation from a recent fact brought forward by S. See also:Reinach in an article in the Revue archeologique, See also:ser. III. t. xxxix. (1901), pp. 350-74, and reprinted in Cultes, mythes et religions, ii. 356–8o (1906). This fact explains a passage which has hitherto been a total See also:enigma to every expounder, i.e. vi. 6: " A choenix of See also:wheat for a denarius, and three choenikes of See also:barley for a denarius, and the oil and the See also:wine hurt thou not." Swete writes here: " The See also:voice fixes a maximum See also:price for the main See also:food-stuffs. The denarius . . . was the daily wage . . . and a choenix of wheat ' Verse rr postulates either a Vespasianic or Domitianic date: " And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goeth into perdition." In verse to it is stated that five of the seven had fallen, " the one is and another is not yet come, and when he cometh he must continue a little while." If we reckon from See also:Augustine and omit Galba, Otho and Vitellius, each of whom reigned only a few months, we arrive at Vespasian. The vision, therefore, belongs to his reign, A.D. 69–79. Verse r r, with the exception of the words " which was and is not," leads to the See also:identification of the eighth with Nero redivivus. But what then is to be made of the above reckoning when it was taken over by the Apocalyptist who wrote in Domitian's reign? Some scholars are of opinion that this writer identified Domitian with the eighth emperor, the Nero redivivus, the beast from the abyss. But this is unlikely, notwithstanding the fact that even some pagan writers, such as See also:Juvenal, See also:Pliny and See also:Martial (?), traced a resemblance between Domitian and Nero. On the other hand, if we refuse to accept this identification, and hold that the beast from the abyss is yet to come, any attempt at a strict exegesis of the text plunges us in hopeless difficulties. For Domitian in that case would be the sixth, and the preceding five would have to begin with Galba—a most improbable supposition. But ttuthermore, since this new reckoning would exclude Nero, how could the eighth be said to be one of the seven, i.e. Nero ? Bousset thinks that the Apocalyptist, knowing not what to make of this reckoning, left it See also:standing as it was and attempted a new interpretation of the seven heads by taking them to refer to the seven hills of Rome in the addition he made to verse 9. the See also:average daily See also:consumption of the workman. . . . Barley was largely the food of the poor." According to the words just quoted from the Apocalypse, there was to be a dearth of See also:grain and a superfluity of wine; the price of the wheat was to be seven times the See also:ordinary, according to Reinach's computation, and that of the barley four times, This See also:strange statement suggested some historical allusion, and the discovery of the allusion was made by Reinach, who points out that Domitian by an See also:edict in A.D. 92 prohibited the planting of new vineyards in See also:Italy, and ordered the reduction of those in the provinces by one-half. As Asia Minor suffered specially under this edict, an agitation was set on See also:foot which resulted in the revocation of the edict. In this revocation the Apocalyptist saw the menace of a See also:famine of the necessaries of life, while the luxuries would remain unaffected. From his ascetic stand-point the revocation of the edict could only pander to See also:drunkenness and immorality. Reinach's explanation of this ancient crux inter pretum, which has been accepted by See also:Harnack, Bousset, Porter, Sanday, Swete and others, fixes the earliest date of the composition of the. Apocalypse as A.D. 93. Since Domitian died in 96, the book was therefore written between A.D. 93 and 95. Author.—Before entering on the See also:chief data which help towards the determination of this question, we shall first See also:state the author's standpoint. His book exhibits a Christianity that is—as Harnack (Ency. Brit 9, xx. 498) writes—" free from the See also:law, free from See also:national prejudices, universal and yet a Christianity which is independent of Paul. . . . The author speaks not at all of the law 1—the word does not occur in his work; he looks for salvation from the power and See also:grace of God and Christ alone ... nowhere has he made a distinction between Gentile and Jewish Christians. . . . The author of the Apocalypse has cast aside all national religious prejudices." The writer is not dependent, consciously or unconsciously, on the Pauline teaching. He has won his way to universalism, not through the Pauline method, but through one of his own. He has no serious preference for the people of Israel as such, but only for the martyrs and confessors, who shall belong to every tribe and See also:tongue and people and nation (vii. 9 seq.). The unbelieving Jews are " a See also:synagogue of Satan " (ii. 9). Yet, on the other hand, our author's attitude to the world reflects the temper of Judaism rather than that of Christianity. He looks upon the enemies of the Christian Church with unconcealed hatred. No See also:prayer arises within his work on their behalf, and nothing but unalloyed See also:triumph is displayed over their See also:doom. The Christian duty of love to those that wrong us does not seem to have impressed itself on our Apocalyptist. Is the Apocalypse pseudonymous?—All the Jewish apocalypses are pseudonymous, and all the Christian with the exception of the Shepherd of See also:Hermes. Since our book undoubtedly belong% to this See also:category, the question of its pseudonymity must arise. In the articles on Apocalyptic Literature and Apocryphal Literature (qq.v.) we have shown the large lines of differentiation between apocalyptic and prophecy. The chief ground for resorting to pseudonymous authorship in Judaism was that the belief in prophecy was lost among the people. Hence any writer who would See also:appeal to them was obliged to do so in the name of some great figure of the past. Furthermore, this belief that prophecy had ceased led the religious personalities of the later time to authenticate their message by means of antedated prophecy. They procured confidence in their actual predictions by appealing to the literal fulfilment of such antedated prophecy. In such literature we find the characteristic words or their equivalents: " Seal up the prophecy: it is not for this generation," which are designed to explain the late See also:appearance of the See also:works in which they are found. But this universal characteristic of apocalyptic is almost wholly lacking in the New Testament Apocalypse. The vaticinium ex eventu plays but a very 1 His freedom from legal bondage is as undeniable as his universalism. He lays no further burden on his readers than those required by the Apostolic See also:Decree of Acts xv. 28 seq.small part in it. Moreover, the chief ground for the development of a pseudonymous literature was absent in the early Christian church. For with the See also:advent of Christianity prophecy had sprung anew into life, and our author distinctly declares that the words of the book are for his own generation (xxii. ro). Hence we conclude that the grounds are lacking which would entitle our assuming a priori that the Apocalypse is pseudonymous. Was the Author the Son of Zebedee, the Apostle?—The evidence of the book is against this assumption. The writer demands a See also:hearing as a prophet (xxii. 6), and in no single passage makes any claim to having been an apostle. See also:Nay more, the evidence of the text, so far as it goes, is against such a view. He never refers to any previous intercourse with Christ such as we find frequently in the Fourth Gospel, and when he speaks of " the twelve apostles of the Lamb " (xxi. 14) he does so in a See also:tone that would seem to exclude him from that body. Here See also:internal and external evidence are at strife; for from the time of See also:Justin onwards the Apocalypse was received by the church as'the work of the Apostle John (see Swete, op. cit.2, p. clxxv). If the writer of the Fourth Gospel was the Apostle John, then the difficulties for the assumption of an apostolic authorship of the Apocalypse become well-nigh insuperable. Nay more, the difficulties attending on the assumption of a See also:common authorship of the Gospel and Apocalypse, independently of the question of the apostolic authorship of the Gospel, are practically insuperable. Some decades ago these difficulties were not insurmountable, when critics assigned a Neronic date to the Apocalypse and a Domitianic or later date to the Gospel. It was from such a standpoint conceivable that the thoughts and diction of the writer had undergone an entire transformation in the long See also:interval that intervened between the composition of the two books, on the supposition that both were from the same hand. But now that both books are assigned to the last See also:decade of the 1st century A.D. by a growing body of critics, the hypothesis of a common authorship can hardly be sustained. The validity of such an hypothesis was attacked as early as the 4th century by See also:Dionysius of Alexandria in the fragment of his See also:treatise 7rEpi ira'yyeXuav, in Eusebius, H.E. vii. 24 seq. His arguments, as summed up by Swete (op. cit., p. cxiv seq.), are as follows: " John the Evangelist abstains from mentioning his own name, but John the Apocalyptist names himself more than once at the very outset of his book, and again near its end. Doubtless there were many who bore the name of John in the early Christian communities; we read, for instance, of ` John, whose surname was See also:Mark,' and there may have been a second John in Asia, since at Ephesus, we are told, there were two tombs said to be John's. .. . Again, while the Gospel and the Epistle of John show marks of agreement which suggest a common authorship, the Apocalypse differs widely from both in its ideas and in its way of expressing them; we See also:miss in it the frequent references to ` life,' ` See also:light,' ` truth," grace ' and ` love ' which are characteristic of the Apostle and find ourselves in a totally different region of thought... Lastly, the linguistic eccentricities of the Apocalypse See also:bar the way against the See also:acceptance of the book as the work of the Evangelist. The Gospel and the First Epistle are written in correct and flowing Greek, and there is not a barbarism, a solecism, or a provincialism in them; whereas the Greek of the Apocalypse is inaccurate, disfigured by unusual or foreign words and even at times by solecisms." _ All subsequent See also:criticism has more or less confirmed the conclusions of Dionysius. On the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the signs of a relationship between the Apocalypse and the Gospel in the minor peculiarities of language? These, Swete holds, " create a strong presumption of affinity " between the two books, while Bousset infers that they " justify the assumption that the entire circle of Johannine writings See also:spring from circles which stood under the See also:influence of the John of Asia Minor." We conclude, therefore, that the Gospel and the Apocalypse 2 See Bousset, Off enbarung Johannin2, pp. 177–179; Swete2, pp. exxv–cxxix. are derived from different authors who moved in the same circles.' As regards the John mentioned in the Apocalypse, he is now identified by a See also:majority of critics with John the See also:Presbyter, and further the trend of criticism is in favour of transferring all the Johannine writings to him, or rather to his school in Asia Minor .2 For an independent discussion of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel, see JOHN, GOSPEL OF ST. (R. H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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