Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/516

Rh 498 REVELATION has been released once more and lias made war on the holy city he is for ever overthrown and the last judgment follows (xx. ). In xxi-xiii. 5 the glory of the heavenly and eternal Jerusalem is set forth. In xxii. 6-21 several epilogues may be detected. Unity and Integrity. The above analysis will have shown the essential unity of the book. The more atten- tively we scan the connexion of the descriptions with each other the more clearly do we perceive the unity, the artistic and systematic arrangement, of the book. This is completely overlooked by those who fancy that in the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven vials of wrath, the whole course of the judgment is simply repeated in ever new imagery. Leaving all other objections out of account, this supposition is refuted by the simple observa- tion that the author has not merely placed the different scenes side by side but has linked them together in such a way that each scene follows as a consequence from the scene before. A correct perception of the plan of the book further negatives the opinion of older scholars and of Volter in modern times (Die Entstehung der Apokalypse, 1882) that the book consists of different parts by different authors. 1 But it is probable enough that the work has been interpolated and touched up in various places (certainly in i. 1-3) ; and several verses of the epilogue (xxii. 6-21) are not by the author of the book, as indeed the language itself is sufficient to prove. Unless we are utterly deceived, the book underwent systematic if not very radical revisions even before the middle of the 2d century. 2 To the additions then made belong, amongst others, the famous words (xix. 13) icat Ke/cA^rat TO 6Vo/za avrov 6 Xoyos TOV 6eov, which do not fit into the passage. An exact investigation of the extent of the alterations and additions would be a very useful work. 3 Language. The language is more Hebraic than that of any other New Testament book. The author thought in Hebrew and wrote in Greek. But the gross violations of Greek grammar are not to be explained from ignorance. " In the language of the Apocalypse there is nothing of the bungling and happy-go-lucky style of a beginner ; indeed it bears the stamp of consistency and purpose." The author writes, e.g, xapts KOI flprfvr] airo 6 wv KOL 6 TJV KCU 6 epxo/icvos Ka ' BTTO T ^ v cirra Tn/cu/mToov. . . /cat O.TTO 'Irjcrov Xptcrroi), 6 ftdprvs, 6 TTICTTOS (i. 4, 5), although he has shown in a hundred passages that he knew very well the rules which he has here broken. He must have deliberately intended to break them in order to give to the words of his greeting a certain elevation and solemnity. Of course only to a foreigner could it have occurred to employ those means for this end. Author's Standpoint. That the book is not written by a disciple of the apostle Paul, that its author is filled with Jewish hatred and abhorrence of the heathen state, that in other ways traces of the Jewish spirit crop up here and there in the Apocalypse, is beyond question. But many critics, especially the so-called Tubingen school, as well as Eenan, Mommsen, and others, have gone still farther ; the author of the Apocalypse, say they, was an Ebionite and a decided opponent of the apostle Paul. In support of this hypothesis, which they put forward as if it were an 1 See Theol. Lit.-Zeitung, 1882, No. 24. 2 The redaction of the Apocalypse took place long before Irenauts (before 185 A.D.), for it can be shown that the o-irovticua ical dpx< av6.ypa(j>a. to which he appeals already exhibited the Apocalypse in the form in which we now read it (Iren. , v. 30). 8 The state of the text is much more uncertain than in most of the New Testament books, because there are far fewer uncial MSS. of our book than of the Gospels and Epistles ; in fact there are only five, of which only three are complete. The best MSS. are the Sinaitic, the Alexandrine, and the Ephraemi Parisiensis (incomplete). The so- called textus receptus of the Apocalypse is especially bad, owing to causes which Delitzsch was the first to point out (Handschriftliche Funde, 1861-62). established truth, they appeal chiefly to the following observations : (1) in ch. vii. only 144,000 Jews are sealed, therefore the author regarded only born Jews as full members of the Messiah's kingdom; consequently (ver. 9 sq.} the multitude which is not numbered forms a wider circle, viz., the proselytes, who are not counted and also not sealed, and are therefore of lower rank ; (2) in ii.-iii. the author displays the greatest abhorrence of those who eat meat which has been offered to idols and who practise " fornication " ; by these none but disciples of Paul can meant ; (3) in xxi. 14 the author speaks only of tweh apostles, and thereby undoubtedly excludes Paul ; (4) the author praises (ii. 2) the Ephesians because they have found the false apostles to be liars and have rejected them, but by these false apostles only Paul could be meant; (5) the author cannot conceive (xi. 1, 2) that the temple at Jerusalem should ever be destroyed, and proves by this how much he himself still clung to the temple worship. The point in dispute is of the highest importance for the proper understanding of the history of primitive Christianity. If the Tubingen school is right, the Pauline epoch was followed in Asia Minor by an Ebionitic epoch, and in this case Catholicism may very well be the product of a compromise between Paulinism and Jewish Christianity. But on this very point it can be clearly shown that the Tubingen school is in the wrong; for the above arguments amount to nothing. (1) The 12x12,000 (vii. 4 sq.} can only, like James i. 1, be in- terpreted allegorically and referred to Christians generally without respect of nationality ; the twelve tribes are the Christians. This interpretation is the only possible one, because (a) in xiv. 3 it is said of the 144,000 that they are bought from the earth, and because (b) besides the 144,000 who are sealed no one survives the horrors of the last time. We must not overlook the fact that iu ch. vii. two entirely different visions are presented, which are not to be fused into a single vision: the 144,000 are on earth, the unnumbered multitude (ver. 9 sq. ) are not a supplement of these 144,000, but are already in heaven and represent the sum of all the children of God from the beginning. Thus, if the 144,000 were exclusively Jews, in the last time there would be no Christian at all from among the heathen ; that is, no heathen would be saved. But that this is the author's meaning not even the Tubingen critics can maintain. Thus the "twelve tribes " are to be understood allegori- cally. As Abraham is the father of all believers, so all believers make up the nation of the twelve tribes. (2) The polemic against the eating of meat offered to idols and against "fornication " is not peculiar to the author, but is to be found in several early Christian writings. It is not a polemic against Paul ; at most it is a polemic against lax disciples of Paul ; further it is no sign of Ebionitism, for very many Gentile Christian writers of the 2d century (e.g., Justin) combated'the eating of meat offered to idols. The rule mentioned in Acts xv. 29 may really have been made between 58 and 70 A.D., and may have been a condition of intercourse between Jewish and Gentile Christians. After that time it gradually prevailed all over Christendom. (3) In the ideal description of the new Jerusalem it would have been impossible for the author to speak of thirteen apostles. (4) The plural air6(rTooi (ii. 2) shows that Paul is not meant, and the comparison with ii. 9 and iii. 9 makes it probable that Jewish emissaries are intended. But, apart from this, we see better than heretofore by the newly discovered Teaching of the Apostles thab the name "apostle" was not confined to the twelve apostles and Paul. If the author had wished to express abhorrence of Paul he could not have done it more obscurely than he has done it in ii. 2. (5) The author says expressly (xxi. 22) that he saw no temple in the new Jerusalem, " for the Lord is her temple and the Lamb " ; hence he felt that the temple worship was no longer needed to satisfy his religious wants ; in excepting the temple buildings from the universal destruction (xi. 1) he follows a Jewish notion, to which in his heart he has already risen superior. The arguments to prove the Ebionitism of the Apoca- lypse are therefore insufficient; rather, we should say, the Apocalypse shows us a Christianity free from the law, free from national prejudices, universal, and yet a Christianity which is quite independent of Paul. It is this that consti- tutes the high importance of the book. The author speaks not at all of the law the word does not occur in his work ; he looks for salvation from the power and grace of God and