Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/94

* REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN. 78 REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN. after the title of this book, apocalyptic. (See Ai"oc.LYPTic LiTERATUUE. ) Only in the light of this classification can the book be understood. The i)uipose of an a|)ocalvpse is usually to cx- ])lain the i)iesent dominion of evil in the world, and to encourage faith bv foretelling the ajiproaeh- ing end of evil and the fuUillment of the prophetic ho'Jies. The explanation of evil is usually found in the angel-world, and the consummation hoped for is a new world-age, which will come by a miraculous deed of God. Man can do nothing but ■wait for it with patient faith, and the seer's art consists chielly in discovering the time and man- ner of its coming. This he does by such a fitting together of ancient prophecies and apocalyptical images with the events of his own time as shall give assurance that the longed for end is at hand. Turning to the Book of Revelation, there can be no doubt that it is an apocalypse in the sense just defined, and the presumption that it is to be iicterpreted as such is strong. Like Daniel, it was written in a time of religious persecution at the bauds of the ruling kingdom of the world, and its aim was to encourage the faithful to resist the allurements and endure the violence of the w'orld power in view of the speedy coming of judgment and deliverance. Like Daniel, it has the course and end of world-history in view, and not prin- cipally the destin_y of the individual soul. Other apoealj-ptical features of the Book of Revelation are its con.stant use of the vision form with angelic interpreters; its abundance of highly wrought and fantastic imagery, derived in large part from the Old Testament and from apocalyptical traditions, though freely coml)ined and applied to new conditions: its explanation of the present dominance of evil as due to angel powers, whose malign rule is embodied in the Roman Empire; and its gen- eral scheme of the future, which with slight exceptions runs parallel to that of .Jewish apoc- alypses. The mark that distinguishes the book as Christian is the identification of the Messiah with .Jesus. We do not find, however, that this involves difTerences great enough to justify us in separating the book from the class and applying to it different methods of interpretation. It is, then, to be assumed that the predictions of the book concern the immediate and not the distant future, as indeed the writer explicitly affirms (i. 1, 3, xxii. 10-12). There is every probability that the earthly representative and agent of the power of evil is the Roman Empire. We shall expect to find visions or fragments from earlier writings or traditions, and to be able to distin- guish between their earlier setting and applica- tion and the meaning our author gives them. Furthermore, we shall expect to find the value of the book to lie not in disclosures of the course of Church history down to the present, nor in pre- dictions of still future events, but, historically, in its fitness to meet a great crisis in the life of the early Church, and permanently in its im- derlying faith in God and the certain victory of His cause. II. Consents and Pi.ax. After the opening admonitions, in the form of letters, to resistance and endurance, the book sets forth the approach- ing judgments which will lead up to the destruc- tion of Rome and of the satanic beings that in- spire and sustain it, and to the final blessedness of the faithful. The progress of the successive visions is not, however, simply chronological, for we seem to have reached the final judgment and consummation already in ehs. vi.-vii. The move- ment is rather toward greater concreteness and detail, and the writer is interested in accumu- lating a variety of ligurative and proi)hetic ma- terials for the expression in stirring and im- pressive ways of his one message that tlie day of Cod's coming to bring evil to an end and good to its rights, and its glory, is close at hand. The first suggestion of a ])lan is found in the suc- cessive sevens, the seals, the trumpets, and the vials, but these do not include various important sections of the book. The contents of the seventh seal seems to be set forth in the new scries of seven angels with trumpets (viii. 1-5), and the seventh trumpet (xi. 15-19) is followed, but not at once, by the seven vials of God's wrath (xv.-xvi.). But chs. vii., x.-xi. 14, xii.-xiv., xvii.- xxii. have no proper place in this scheme, and justice is not done to the new beginning in ch. x. It is therefore better to divide the book some- what as follows: Introduction (i. 1-8) I. The Seven Letters (i. 9-iii. 22). II. Preliminary Judgments ( iv.-ix. ). ( 1 ) The actors : God ( iv. ) ; Christ (v.) ; Destructive Powers (vi.) ; (2) Pi-omises (vii.); (3) .Judgments (viii.-ix.). III. Final Judgments ( x.-xx. ). The Prophet's new commission (.x. ) ; Promises (xi. 1-14) ; Summary or Prelude (xi. 15-19) ; the Actors: Satan (xii.) and the Roman Empire and emperor-worship (xiii. ) ; Summary promises and warnings (xiv.) ; Judgments culminating against Rome and its Satanic ujjhoklers (xv.-xx. ). IV. The Consum- mation (xxi.-xxii. 5). Conclusion (xxii. G-21). There are de])artures from any strict order, which are probably due in part to the use of unrelated sources, and in part to the author's practical aim, which leads him by anticipation to intro- duce encouraging voices and visions here and there before the end. III. The Ixterpbetatiox. The curious history of the interpretation of this book cannot here be reviewed. It has been supposed to have been written against Mohammed and the Turks; against the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church; against Luther and the Reformation; against Napoleon, etc. Many still hold that the book predicts the whole course of Church his- tory Jjast and to come. The form in w-hich this .so-called Church historical or continuously his- torical interpretation has still some advocates among scholars (Auberlen, W. Milligan, Biin- son) is that according to which the book contains in its symbols, not the definite events, but the conflicting powers or principles, good and evil, of Christian history. Almost all scholars, however, seek for the meaning of the book in the condi- tions of the writer's own time. The Roman Empire is recognized as the perse- cuting and godless power, the agent of Satan, whom the book assails amd whose fall it an- nounces. Isolated scholars of far older times knew this, but it was especially the work of Liicke, Bleek, and Ewald that established it. With this is commonly connected the view that Xero was the wounded head (xiii. 3), the name signified by 606 (xiii. 18), and the one whose return from Hades and attack upon Rome in alliance with the Parthians is predicted in chap- ter xvii. The immber 666 may, however, stand, as Clemen has recently argued, for jJ larivrj jiaat- ?ieta, the Latin Kingdom. In different parts of the book different periods