Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/514

Rh 490 R E V R E V its own administration, separate from that of the lower town. This last retains a mediaeval character, with narrow tortuous streets and high tile-roofed houses often enclosing large storehouses within their thick walls. Reval has more interesting antiquities than any other town of the Russian Baltic provinces. The old church of St Nicholas, built in 1317, contains many antiquities of the old Catholic times and old German paintings, of which a Dance of Death is especially worthy of notice. It contains also the graves of Holstein Beck and of the Due de Croy, who was denied burial for his debts, and whose mummy, dressed in velvet and fine lace, was exposed until 1862. The "Domkirche" contains many interest- ing shields, as also the graves of the circumnavigator Krusenstern, of Pontus-de-la-Gardie, Henry Matthias, Karl Horn, &c. The church of St Olai, first erected in 1240, and often rebuilt, was completed in 1840 in Gothic style; it has a bell tower 429 feet high. The oldest church is the Esthonian, built in 1219. Water is brought from Lake Jarvakyla by an aqueduct. The pleasant situation of the town, surrounded by beautiful parks, attracts in summer thousands of people for sea-bathing. The population of Reval has increased rapidly since it has been connected by rail with St Petersburg and with Baltic Port, 30 miles distant; it reached 50,490 in 1881, against 27,325 in 1867, of whom one-third are Germans, the re- mainder Esthonians, with a few Russians and Jews. Nearly 15,000 inhabitants belong to the Greek Church. The manufactures are not important, but trade grows steadily. In 1882 the exports (grain, spirits, &c.) were 1,746,244, the imports (coal, iron, chemicals, &c.) 6,858,247. In 1882 Reval was visited by 589 foreign ships (291,450 tons), mostly English, German, and Scandinavian, and by 802 coasters (103,000 tons). It has regular steam com- munication with St Petersburg, Helsingfors, Konigsberg, &c. The high Silurian crag now known as Domberg was early occupied by an Esthonian fort, Lindanissa. In 1219 or 1233 the Danish king Waldemar II. erected there a strong castle and founded the first clmrch of the Holy Ghost. In 1228 the castle was taken by the Livoniau knights, but nine years later it returned to the Danes. About the same time Liibeck and Bremen merchants settled there under the protection of the castle, and their settlement soon became an important seaport of the Hanseatic League. It was fortified early in the 14th century, and in 1343 sustained the siege of the revolted Esthonians. Waldemar III. sold Reval and Esthonia to the Livonian knighthood for 19,000 silver marks, and the town belonged to the knighthood till its dis- solution in 1561, when Esthonia and Reval surrendered to the Swedish king Erik XVI. A great conflagration in 1433, the pesti- lence of 1532, the bombardment by the Danes in 1569, and still more the Russo-Livoniau War, broke down its formerly wealthy trade. The Russians not only devastated the neighbouring country but also besieged Reval twice, in 1570 and 1577. It was still, however, an important fortress, the forts and walls having been enlarged and fortified by the Swedes. In 1710 the commander Patkull surrendered it to Peter I., who immediately began there the erection of a military port for his Baltic fleet. The successors of Peter I. continued to fortify the access to Reval from the sea, large works being undertaken especially in the first part of the present century. During the Crimean War the suburb Reperbahn, situated on a low slip of coast, was destroyed in view of a possible landing of the allies. REVELATION, BOOK OF. The book of the New Testa- ment called " Revelation of John " ('ATroKaXvi/as 'I<adwov) so long passed for the most obscure and difficult document of early Christianity that scholars hesitated to apply to it the historico-critical method of investigation. Since this hesitation has been overcome, it appears that the matter of the book is neither obscure nor mysterious, although many special points still remain to be cleared up. With- out being paradoxical we may affirm that the Apocalypse is the most intelligible book in the New Testament, because its author had not the individuality and originality of Paul or of the author of the Fourth Gospel, and because historically we can trace and comprehend its author's posi- tion much better than we can, for instance, the theology of Paul. But all interpretations not strictly historical must be excluded. The ethico-spiritualistic, rationalistic, and dogmatic explanations, such as were first attempted by the Alexandrine theologians, are fatal to the understanding of the book, as are also the explanations drawn from church history which were first put forward by mediaeval sects. To see with Hengstenberg " demagogy "in " Gog am Magog" (xx. 8), to identify "Apollyon" (ix. 11) witl " Napoleon," or in antichrist to detect the emperor the pope or Mohammed or Luther or Calvin the interpretations are not a bit worse than those which turt the book into a compendium of morality or dogma whereir is set forth by means of imagery and allegories the triumpt of virtue over vice or of orthodoxy over heterodoxy. The justification of the interpretation which explains the book entirely in the light of the historical circumstances attend- ing its origin and of the views current amongst primith Christians follows, above all, from observing that as a literary production the Revelation of John is by no means unique, but belongs to a class of literature (comp. APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE, vol. ii. p. 174) which then had a very wide currency amongst the Jews, and the numeroi remains of which even the most orthodox theologians do not hesitate to interpret by the help of the history of the time. The apocalyptic literature, in the strict sense of the word, began with the Jews in the 2d century B.C. ; in fact it developed as an aftergrowth of the prophetical literature, from Avhich it differs less in kind than in degree. For more than three centuries it had sought to revive the drooping spirit of the people by revelations of a near future when, after one last dreadful onset of a hostile world, Jahveh would appear in the person of His Messiah to con- quer the nations of the world and to set up the kingdom of glory for Israel. Every time the political situation cul- minated in a crisis for the people of God the apocalypses appeared stirring up the believers. In spirit, form, plan, and execution they closely resembled each other. Their differences sprang only from the difference of the times, for every apocalyptic writer painted the final catastrophe after the model of the catastrophes of his day, only on a vaster scale and with deepened shadows. They all spoke in riddles ; that is, by means of images, symbols, mystic numbers, forms of animals, &c., they half concealed what they meant to reveal. The reasons for this procedure are not far to seek : (1) clearness and distinctness would have been too profane only the mysterious appears divine ; (2) it was often danger- ous to be too distinct. The apocalyptic writers in their works supplied revelations on all possible questions, but their principal achievement was regularly a revelation of the history of mankind in general and of the people of Israel in particular; in their most essential features the apocalypses are political manifestos. It is characteristic of all apocalypses that they pass under false names, being attributed to the most celebrated persons of the Old Testament ; thus we still possess apocalypses under the names of Daniel, Baruch, Ezra, Moses, and Enoch. These old heroes are represented in the respective works as speaking in the first person, and exhorting their readers to await with hope and patience the coming of the Messiah. Usually the apocalypse contains a brief summary of history, beginning with the time of the nominal and ending with that of the actual author, in order that the reader, perceiving how much of the prophecy has already been fulfilled to the letter, may look with assured con- fidence for the fulfilment of the rest. Lastly, the particular features in the descriptions as well as the images and metaphors are usually borrowed in great measure from the books of the old prophets, but they are painted in