{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"REV","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Revelation","commonName":"Revelation","introduction":"AUTHENTICITY.--The author calls himself John (Rev 1:1, Rev 1:4, Rev 1:9; Rev 2:8). JUSTIN MARTYR [Dialogue with Trypho, p. 308] (A.D. 139-161) quotes from the Apocalypse, as John the apostle's work, the prophecy of the millennium of the saints, to be followed by the general resurrection and judgment. This testimony of JUSTIN is referred to also by EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 4.18]. JUSTIN MARTYR, in the early part of the second century, held his controversy with TRYPHO, a learned Jew, at Ephesus, where John had been living thirty or thirty-five years before: he says that \"the Revelation had been given to John, one of the twelve apostles of Christ.\" MELITO, bishop of Sardis (about A.D. 171), one of the seven churches addressed, a successor, therefore, of one of the seven angels, is said by EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 4.26] to have written treatises on the Apocalypse of John. The testimony of the bishop of Sardis is the more impartial, as Sardis is one of the churches severely reproved (Rev 3:1). So also THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH (about A.D. 180), according to EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 4.26], quoted testimonies from the Apocalypse of John. EUSEBIUS says the same of Apollonius, who lived in Asia Minor in the end of the second century. IRENÆUS (about A.D. 180), a hearer of POLYCARP, the disciple of John, and supposed by ARCHBISHOP USHER to be the angel of the Church of Smyrna, is most decided again and again in quoting the Apocalypse as the work of the apostle John [Against Heresies, 4.20.11; 4.21.3; 4.30.4; 5.36.1; 5.30.3; 5.35.2]. In [5.30.1], alluding to the mystical number of the beast, six hundred sixty-six (Rev 13:18), found in all old copies, he says, \"We do not hazard a confident theory as to the name of Antichrist; for if it had been necessary that his name should be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the apocalyptic vision; for it was seen at no long time back, but almost in our generation, towards the end of Domitian's reign.\" In his work Against Heresies, published ten years after Polycarp's martyrdom, he quotes the Apocalypse twenty times, and makes long extracts from it, as inspired Scripture. These testimonies of persons contemporary with John's immediate successors, and more or less connected with the region of the seven churches to which Revelation is addressed, are most convincing. TERTULLIAN, of North Africa (about A.D. 220), [Against Marcion, 3.14], quotes the apostle John's descriptions in the Apocalypse of the sword proceeding out of the Lord's mouth (Rev 19:15), and of the heavenly city (Rev. 21:1-27). Compare On the Resurrection of the Flesh [27]; A Treatise on the Soul, [8, 9, &c.]; The Prescription Against Heretics, [33]. The MURATORI fragment of the canon (about A.D. 200) refers to John the apostle writing to the seven churches. HIPPOLYTUS, bishop of Ostia, near Rome (about A.D. 240) [On Antichrist, p. 67], quotes Rev. 17:1-18, as the writing of John the apostle. Among HIPPOLYTUS' works, there is specified in the catalogue on his statue, a treatise \"on the Apocalypse and Gospel according to John.\" CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (about A.D. 200) [Miscellanies, 6.13], alludes to the twenty-four seats on which the elders sit as mentioned by John in the Apocalypse (Rev 4:5); also, [Who Is the Rich Man Who Shall Be Saved? 42], he mentions John's return from Patmos to Ephesus on the death of the Roman tyrant. ORIGEN (about A.D. 233), [Commentary on Matthew, in EUSEBIUS Ecclesiastical History, 6.25], mentions John as the author of the Apocalypse, without expressing any doubts as to its authenticity; also, in Commentary on Matthew, [16.6], he quotes Rev 1:9, and says, \"John seems to have beheld the Apocalypse in the island of Patmos.\" VICTORINUS, bishop of Pettau in Pannonia, who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in A.D. 303, wrote the earliest extant commentary on the Apocalypse. Though the Old Syriac Peschito version does not contain the Apocalypse, yet EPHREM THE SYRIAN (about A.D. 378) frequently quotes the Apocalypse as canonical, and ascribes it to John.\n\nIts canonicity and inspiration (according to a scholium of ANDREAS OF CAPPADOCIA) are attested by PAPIAS, a hearer of John, and associate of POLYCARP. PAPIAS was bishop of Hierapolis, near Laodicea, one of the seven churches. WORDSWORTH conjectures that a feeling of shame, on account of the rebukes of Laodicea in Revelation, may have operated on the Council of Laodicea, so as to omit Revelation from its list of books to be read publicly (?). The Epistle of the churches of Lyons and Vienne to the churches of Asia and Phrygia (in EUSEBIUS, [Ecclesiastical History, 5.1-3]), in the persecution under Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 77) quotes Rev 1:5; Rev 3:14; Rev 14:4; Rev 22:11, as Scripture. CYPRIAN (about A.D. 250) also, in Epistle 13, quotes Rev 2:5 as Scripture; and in Epistle 25 he quotes Rev 3:21, as of the same authority as the Gospel. (For other instances, see ALFORD'S Prolegomena, from whom mainly this summary of evidence has been derived). ATHANASIUS, in his Festival Epistle, enumerates the Apocalypse among the canonical Scriptures, to which none must add, and from which none must take away. JEROME [Epistle to Paulinus] includes in the canon the Apocalypse, adding, \"It has as many mysteries as words. All praise falls short of its merits. In each of its words lie hid manifold senses.\" Thus an unbroken chain of testimony down from the apostolic period confirms its canonicity and authenticity.\n\nThe ALOGI [EPIPHANIUS, Heresies, 51] and CAIUS the Roman presbyter [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.28], towards the end of the second and beginning of the third century, rejected John's Apocalypse on mere captious grounds. CAIUS, according to JEROME [On Illustrious Men], about A.D. 210, attributed it to Cerinthus, on the ground of its supporting the millennial reign on earth. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA mentions many before his time who rejected it because of its obscurity and because it seemed to support Cerinthus' dogma of an earthly and carnal kingdom; whence they attributed it to Cerinthus. This DIONYSIUS, scholar of ORIGEN, and bishop of Alexandria (A.D. 247), admits its inspiration (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 7.10]), but attributes it to some John distinct from John the apostle, on the ground of its difference of style and character, as compared with John's Gospel and Epistle, as also because the name John is several times mentioned in the Apocalypse, which is always kept back in both the Gospel and Epistle; moreover, neither does the Epistle make any allusion to the Apocalypse, nor the Apocalypse to the Epistle; and the style is not pure Greek, but abounds in barbarisms and solecisms. EUSEBIUS wavers in opinion [Ecclesiastical History, 24.39] as to whether it is, or is not, to be ranked among the undoubtedly canonical Scriptures. His antipathy to the millennial doctrine would give an unconscious bias to his judgment on the Apocalypse. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM (A.D. 386), [Catechetical Lectures, 4.35,36], omits the Apocalypse in enumerating the New Testament Scriptures to be read privately as well as publicly. \"Whatever is not read in the churches, that do not even read by thyself; the apostles and ancient bishops of the Church who transmitted them to us were far wiser than thou art.\" Hence, we see that, in his day, the Apocalypse was not read in the churches. Yet in Catechetical Lectures, 1.4 he quotes Rev 2:7, Rev 2:17; and in Catechetical Lectures, 1; 15.13 he draws the prophetical statement from Rev 17:11, that the king who is to humble the three kings (Dan 7:8, Dan 7:20) is the eighth king. In Catechetical Lectures, 15 and 27, he similarly quotes from Rev 12:3-4. ALFORD conjectures that CYRIL had at some time changed his opinion, and that these references to the Apocalypse were slips of memory whereby he retained phraseology which belonged to his former, not his subsequent views. The sixtieth canon (if genuine) of the Laodicean Council in the middle of the fourth century omits the Apocalypse from the canonical books. The Eastern Church in part doubted, the Western Church, after the fifth century, universally recognized, the Apocalypse. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA [On Worship, 146], though implying the fact of some doubting its genuineness, himself undoubtedly accepts it as the work of St. John. ANDREAS OF CÆSAREA, in Cappadocia, recognized as genuine and canonical, and wrote the first entire and connected commentary on, the Apocalypse. The sources of doubt seem to have been, (1) the antagonism of many to the millennium, which is set forth in it; (2) its obscurity and symbolism having caused it not to be read in the churches, or to be taught to the young. But the most primitive tradition is unequivocal in its favor. In a word, the objective evidence is decidedly for it; the only arguments against it seem to have been subjective.\n\nThe personal notices of John in the Apocalypse occur Rev 1:1, Rev 1:4, Rev 1:9; Rev 22:8. Moreover, the writer's addresses to the churches of Proconsular Asia (Rev 2:1) accord with the concurrent tradition, that after John's return from his exile in Patmos, at the death of Domitian, under Nerva, he resided for long, and died at last in Ephesus, in the time of Trajan [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.20,23]. If the Apocalypse were not the inspired work of John, purporting as it does to be an address from their superior to the seven churches of Proconsular Asia, it would have assuredly been rejected in that region; whereas the earliest testimonies in those churches are all in its favor. One person alone was entitled to use language of authority such as is addressed to the seven angels of the churches--namely, John, as the last surviving apostle and superintendent of all the churches. Also, it accords with John's manner to assert the accuracy of his testimony both at the beginning and end of his book (compare Rev 1:2-3, and Rev 22:8, with Joh 1:14; Joh 21:24; Jo1 1:1-2). Again, it accords with the view of the writer being an inspired apostle that he addresses the angels or presidents of the several churches in the tone of a superior addressing inferiors. Also, he commends the Church of Ephesus for trying and convicting \"them which say they are apostles, and are not,\" by which he implies his own undoubted claim to apostolic inspiration (Rev 2:2), as declaring in the seven epistles Christ's will revealed through him.\n\nAs to the difference of style, as compared with the Gospel and Epistle, the difference of subject in part accounts for it, the visions of the seer, transported as he was above the region of sense, appropriately taking a form of expression abrupt, and unbound by the grammatical laws which governed his writings of a calmer and more deliberate character. Moreover, as being a Galilean Hebrew, John, in writing a Revelation akin to the Old Testament prophecies, naturally reverted to their Hebraistic style. ALFORD notices, among the features of resemblance between the styles of the Apocalypse and John's Gospel and Epistle: (1) the characteristic appellation of our Lord, peculiar to John exclusively, \"the Word of God\" (Rev 19:13; compare Joh 1:1; Jo1 1:1). (2) the phrase, \"he that overcometh\" (Rev 2:7, Rev 2:11, Rev 2:17; Rev 3:5, Rev 3:12, Rev 3:21; Rev 12:11; Rev 15:2; Rev 17:14; Rev 21:7; compare Joh 16:33 Jo1 2:13-14; Jo1 4:4; Jo1 5:4-5). (3) The Greek term (alethinos) for \"true,\" as opposed to that which is shadowy and unreal (Rev 3:7, Rev 3:14; Rev 6:10; Rev 15:3; Rev 16:7; Rev 19:2, Rev 19:9, Rev 19:11; Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6). This term, found only once in Luke (Luk 16:11), four times in Paul (Th1 1:9; Heb 8:2; Heb 9:24; Heb 10:22), is found nine times in John's Gospel (Joh 1:9; Joh 4:23, Joh 4:37; Joh 6:32; Joh 7:28; Joh 8:16; Joh 15:1 Joh 17:3; Joh 19:3, Joh 19:5), twice in John's First Epistle (Jo1 2:8; Jo1 5:20), and ten times in Revelation (Rev 3:7, Rev 3:14; Rev 6:10; Rev 15:3; Rev 16:7; Rev 19:2, Rev 19:9, Rev 19:11; Rev 21:5 Rev 22:6). (4) The Greek diminutive for \"Lamb\" (arnion, literally, \"lambkin\") occurs twenty-nine times in the Apocalypse, and the only other place where it occurs is Joh 21:15. In John's writings alone is Christ called directly \"the Lamb\" (Joh 1:29, Joh 1:36). In Pe1 1:19, He is called \"as a lamb without blemish,\" in allusion to Isa 53:7. So the use of \"witness,\" or \"testimony\" (Rev 1:2, Rev 1:9; Rev 6:9; Rev 11:7, &c.; compare Joh 1:7-8, Joh 1:15, Joh 1:19, Joh 1:32; Jo1 1:2; Jo1 4:14; Jo1 5:6-11). \"Keep the word,\" or \"commandments\" (Rev 3:8, Rev 3:10; Rev 12:17; compare Joh 8:51, Joh 8:55; Joh 14:15). The assertion of the same thing positively and negatively (Rev 2:2, Rev 2:6, Rev 2:8, Rev 2:13; Rev 3:8, Rev 3:17-18; compare Joh 1:3, Joh 1:6-7, Joh 1:20; Jo1 2:27-28). Compare also Jo1 2:20, Jo1 2:27 with Rev 3:18, as to the spiritual anointing. The seeming solecisms of style are attributable to that,inspired elevation which is above mere grammatical rules, and are designed to arrest the reader's attention by the peculiarity of the phrase, so as to pause and search into some deep truth lying beneath. The vivid earnestness of the inspired writer, handling a subject so transcending all others, raises him above all servile adherence to ordinary rules, so that at times he abruptly passes from one grammatical construction to another, as he graphically sets the thing described before the eye of the reader. This is not due to ignorance of grammar, for he \"has displayed a knowledge of grammatical rules in other much more difficult constructions\" [WINER]. The connection of thought is more attended to than mere grammatical connection. Another consideration to be taken into account is that two-fifths of the whole being the recorded language of others, he moulds his style accordingly. Compare TREGELLES' Introduction to Revelation from Heathen Authorities.\n\nTREGELLES well says [New Testament Historic Evidence], \"There is no book of the New Testament for which we have such clear, ample, and numerous testimonies in the second century as we have in favor of the Apocalypse. The more closely the witnesses were connected with the apostle John (as was the case with IRENÆUS), the more explicit is their testimony. That doubts should prevail in after ages must have originated either in ignorance of the earlier testimony, or else from some supposed intuition of what an apostle ought to have written. The objections on the ground of internal style can weigh nothing against the actual evidence. It is in vain to argue, a priori, that John could not have written this book when we have the evidence of several competent witnesses that he did write it.\"\n\nRELATION OF THE APOCALYPSE TO THE REST OF THE CANON.--GREGORY OF NYSSA [tom. 3, p. 601], calls Revelation \"the last book of grace.\" It completes the volume of inspiration, so that we are to look for no further revelation till Christ Himself shall come. Appropriately the last book completing the canon was written by John, the last survivor of the apostles. The New Testament is composed of the historical books, the Gospels and Acts, the doctrinal Epistles, and the one prophetical book, Revelation. The same apostle wrote the last of the Gospels, and probably the last of the Epistles, and the only prophetical book of the New Testament. All the books of the New Testament had been written, and were read in the Church assemblies, some years before John's death. His life was providentially prolonged that he might give the final attestation to Scripture. About the year A.D. 100, the bishops of Asia (the angels of the seven churches) came to John at EPHESUS, bringing him copies of the three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and desired of him a statement of his apostolical judgment concerning them; whereupon he pronounced them authentic, genuine, and inspired, and at their request added his own Gospel to complete the fourfold aspect of the Gospel of Christ (compare MURATORI [Fragment on the Canon of Scripture]; EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.24]; JEROME [Commentary on Matthew]; VICTORINUS on the Apocalypse; THEODORET [Ecclesiastical History, 39]). A Greek divine, quoted in ALLATIUS, calls Revelation \"the seal of the whole Bible.\" The canon would be incomplete without Revelation. Scripture is a complete whole, its component books, written in a period ranging over one thousand five hundred years, being mutually connected. Unity of aim and spirit pervades the entire, so that the end is the necessary sequence of the middle, and the middle of the beginning. Genesis presents before us man and his bride in innocence and blessedness, followed by man's fall through Satan's subtlety, and man's consequent misery, his exclusion from Paradise and its tree of life and delightful rivers. Revelation presents, in reverse order, man first liable to sin and death, but afterwards made conqueror through the blood of the Lamb; the first Adam and Eve, represented by the second Adam, Christ, and the Church. His spotless bride, in Paradise, with free access to the tree of life and the crystal water of life that flows from the throne of God. As Genesis foretold the bruising of the serpent's head by the woman's seed (Gen 3:15), so Revelation declares the final accomplishment of that prediction (Rev. 19:1-20:15).\n\nPLACE AND TIME OF WRITING.--The best authorities among the Fathers state that John was exiled under Domitian (IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 5; 30]; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA; EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.20]). VICTORINUS says that he had to labor in the mines of Patmos. At Domitian's death, A.D. 95, he returned to Ephesus under the Emperor Nerva. Probably it was immediately after his return that he wrote, under divine inspiration, the account of the visions vouchsafed to him in Patmos (Rev 1:2, Rev 1:9). However, Rev 10:4 seems to imply that he wrote the visions immediately after seeing them. Patmos is one of the Sporades. Its circumference is about thirty miles. \"It was fitting that when forbidden to go beyond certain bounds of the earth's lands, he was permitted to penetrate the secrets of heaven\" [BEDE, Explanation of the Apocalypse on chap. 1]. The following arguments favor an earlier date, namely, under Nero: (1) EUSEBIUS [Demonstration of the Gospel] unites in the same sentence John's banishment with the stoning of James and the beheading of Paul, which were under Nero. (2) CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA'S'S story of the robber reclaimed by John, after he had pursued, and with difficulty overtaken him, accords better with John then being a younger man than under Domitian, when he was one hundred years old. Arethas, in the sixth century, applies the sixth seal to the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), adding that the Apocalypse was written before that event. So the Syriac version states he was banished by Nero the CÃ&brvbrsar. Laodicea was overthrown by an earthquake (A.D. 60) but was immediately rebuilt, so that its being called \"rich and increased with goods\" is not incompatible with this book having been written under the Neronian persecution (A.D. 64). But the possible allusions to it in Heb 10:37; compare Rev 1:4, Rev 1:8; Rev 4:8; Rev 22:12; Heb 11:10; compare Rev 21:14; Heb 12:22-23; compare Rev 14:1; Heb 8:1-2; compare Rev 11:19; Rev 15:5; Rev 21:3; Heb 4:12; compare Rev 1:16; Rev 2:12, Rev 2:16; Rev 19:13, Rev 19:15; Heb 4:9; compare Rev 20:1-15; also Pe1 1:7, Pe1 1:13; Pe1 4:13, with Rev 1:1; Pe1 2:9 with Rev 5:10; Ti2 4:8, with Rev 2:26-27; Rev 3:21; Rev 11:18; Eph 6:12, with Rev 12:7-12; Phi 4:3, with Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8; Rev 20:12, Rev 20:15; Col 1:18, with Rev 1:5; Co1 15:52, with Rev 10:7; Rev 11:15-18, make a date before the destruction of Laodicea possible. Cerinthus is stated to have died before John; as then he borrowed much in his Pseudo-Apocalypse from John's, it is likely the latter was at an earlier date than Domitian's reign. See TILLOCH'S Introduction to Apocalypse. But the Pauline benediction (Rev 1:4) implies it was written after Paul's death under Nero.\n\nTO WHAT READERS ADDRESSED.--The inscription states that it is addressed to the seven churches of Asia, that is, Proconsular Asia. John's reason for fixing on the number seven (for there were more than seven churches in the region meant by \"Asia,\" for instance, Magnesia and Tralles) was doubtless because seven is the sacred number implying totality and universality: so it is implied that John, through the medium of the seven churches, addresses in the Spirit the Church of all places and ages. The Church in its various states of spiritual life or deadness, in all ages and places, is represented by the seven churches, and is addressed with words of consolation or warning accordingly. Smyrna and Philadelphia alone of the seven are honored with unmixed praise, as faithful in tribulation and rich in good works. Heresies of a decided kind had by this time arisen in the churches of Asia, and the love of many had waxed cold, while others had advanced to greater zeal, and one had sealed his testimony with his blood.\n\nOBJECT.--It begins with admonitory addresses to the seven churches from the divine Son of man, whom John saw in vision, after a brief introduction which sets forth the main subject of the book, namely, to \"show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass\" (the first through third chapters). From the fourth chapter to the end is mainly prophecy, with practical exhortations and consolations, however, interspersed, similar to those addressed to the seven churches (the representatives of the universal Church of every age), and so connecting the body of the book with its beginning, which therefore forms its appropriate introduction. Three schools of interpreters exist: (1) The Preterists, who hold that almost the whole has been fulfilled. (2) The Historical Interpreters, who hold that it comprises the history of the Church from John's time to the end of the world, the seals being chronologically succeeded, by the trumpets and the trumpets by the vials. (3) The Futurists, who consider almost the whole as yet future, and to be fulfilled immediately before Christ's second coming. The first theory was not held by any of the earliest Fathers, and is only held now by Rationalists, who limit John's vision to things within his own horizon, pagan Rome's persecutions of Christians, and its consequently anticipated destruction. The Futurist school is open to this great objection: it would leave the Church of Christ unprovided with prophetical guidance or support under her fiery trials for 1700 or 1800 years. Now God has said, \"Surely He will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants the prophets\" (Amo 3:7). The Jews had a succession of prophets who guided them with the light of prophecy: what their prophets were to them, that the apocalyptic Scriptures have been, and are, to us.\n\nALFORD, following ISAAC WILLIAMS, draws attention to the parallel connection between the Apocalypse and Christ's discourse on the Mount of Olives, recorded in Mat. 24:4-28. The seals plainly bring us down to the second coming of Christ, just as the trumpets also do (compare Rev 6:12-17; Rev 8:1, &c.; Rev 11:15), and as the vials also do (Rev 16:17): all three run parallel, and end in the same point. Certain \"catchwords\" (as WORDSWORTH calls them) connect the three series of symbols together. They do not succeed one to the other in historical and chronological sequence, but move side by side, the subsequent series filling up in detail the same picture which the preceding series had drawn in outline. So VICTORINUS (on Rev 7:2), the earliest commentator on the Apocalypse, says, \"The order of the things said is not to be regarded, since often the Holy Spirit, when He has run to the end of the last time, again returns to the same times, and supplies what He has less fully expressed.\" And PRIMASIUS [Commentary on the Apocalypse], \"In the trumpets he gives a description by a pleasing repetition, as is his custom.\"\n\nAt the very beginning, John hastens, by anticipation (as was the tendency of all the prophets), to the grand consummation. Rev 1:7, \"Behold, He cometh with clouds,\" &c. Rev 1:8, Rev 1:17, \"I am the beginning and the ending . . . the first and the last.\" So the seven epistles exhibit the same anticipation of the end. Rev 3:12, \"Him that overcometh, I will write upon Him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven\"; compare at the close, Rev 21:2. So also Rev 2:28, \"I will give him the morning star\"; compare at the close, Rev 22:16, \"I am the bright and morning star.\"\n\nAgain, the earthquake that ensues on the opening of the sixth seal is one of the catchwords, that is, a link connecting chronologically this sixth seal with the sixth trumpet (Rev 9:13; Rev 11:13): compare also the seventh vial, Rev 16:17-18. The concomitants of the opening of the sixth seal, it is plain, in no full and exhaustive sense apply to any event, save the terrors which shall overwhelm the ungodly just before the coming of the Judge.\n\nAgain, the beast out of the bottomless pit (Rev 11:7), between the sixth and seventh trumpets, connects this series with the section, twelfth through fourteenth chapters, concerning the Church and her adversaries.\n\nAgain, the sealing of the 144,000 under the sixth seal connects this seal with the section, the twelfth through fourteenth chapters.\n\nAgain, the loosing of the four winds by the four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, under the sixth seal, answers to the loosing of the four angels at the Euphrates, under the sixth trumpet.\n\nMoreover, links occur in the Apocalypse connecting it with the Old Testament. For instance, the \"mouth speaking great things\" (Dan 7:8 Rev 13:5), connects the beast that blasphemes against God, and makes war against the saints, with the little horn (Dan 7:21; Rev 13:6-7), or at last king, who, arising after the ten kings, shall speak against the Most High, and wear out the saints (Dan 7:25); also, compare the \"forty-two months\" (Rev 13:5), or \"a thousand two hundred and threescore days\" (Rev 12:6), with the \"time, times, and the dividing of time,\" of Dan 7:25. Moreover, the \"forty-two months,\" Rev 11:2, answering to Rev 12:6; Rev 13:5, link together the period under the sixth trumpet to the section, Rev. 12:1-14:20.\n\nAUBERLEN observes, \"The history of salvation is mysteriously governed by holy numbers. They are the scaffolding of the organic edifice. They are not merely outward indications of time, but indications of nature and essence. Not only nature, but history, is based in numbers. Scripture and antiquity put numbers as the fundamental forms of things, where we put ideas.\" As number is the regulator of the relations and proportions of the natural world, so does it enter most frequently into the revelations of the Apocalypse, which sets forth the harmonies of the supernatural, the immediately Divine. Thus the most supernatural revelation leads us the farthest into the natural, as was to be expected, seeing the God of nature and of revelation is one. Seven is the number for perfection (compare Rev 1:4; Rev 4:5, the seven Spirits before the throne; also, Rev 5:6, the Lamb's seven horns and seven eyes). Thus the seven churches represent the Church catholic in its totality. The seven seals (Rev 5:1), the seven trumpets (Rev 8:2), and the seven vials (Rev 17:1), are severally a complete series each in itself, fulfilling perfectly the divine course of judgments. Three and a half implies a number opposed to the divine (seven), but broken in itself, and which, in the moment of its highest triumph, is overwhelmed by judgment and utter ruin. Four is the number of the world's extension; seven is the number of God's revelation in the world. In the four beasts of Daniel (Dan 7:3) there is a recognition of some power above them, at the same time that there is a mimicry of the four cherubs of Ezekiel (Eze 10:9), the heavenly symbols of all creation in its due subjection to God (Rev 4:6-8). So the four corners of the earth, the four winds, the four angels loosed from the Euphrates, and Jerusalem lying \"foursquare\" (Rev 21:16), represent world-wide extension. The sevenfoldness of the Spirits on the part of God corresponds with the fourfold cherubim on the part of the created. John, seeing more deeply into the essentially God-opposed character of the world, presents to us, not the four beasts of Daniel, but the seven heads of the beast, whereby it arrogates to itself the sevenfold perfection of the Spirits of God; at the same time that, with characteristic self-contradiction, it has ten horns, the number peculiar to the world power. Its unjust usurpation of the sacred number seven is marked by the addition of an eighth to the seven heads, and also by the beast's own number, six hundred sixty-six, which in units, tens, and hundreds, verges upon, but falls short of, seven. The judgments on the world are complete in six: after the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet, there is a pause. When seven comes, there comes \"the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ.\" Six is the number of the world given to judgment. Moreover, six is half of twelve, as three and a half is the half of seven. Twelve is the number of the Church: compare the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve stars on the woman's head (Rev 12:1), the twelve gates of new Jerusalem (Rev 21:12, Rev 21:21). Six thus symbolizes the world broken, and without solid foundation. Twice twelve is the number of the heavenly elders; twelve times twelve thousand the number of the sealed elect (Rev 7:4): the tree of life yields twelve manner of fruits. Doubtless, besides this symbolic force, there is a special chronological meaning in the numbers; but as yet, though a commanded subject of investigation, they have received no solution which we can be sure is the true one. They are intended to stimulate reverent inquiry, not to gratify idle speculative curiosity; and when the event shall have been fulfilled, they will show the divine wisdom of God, who ordered all things in minutely harmonious relations, and left neither the times nor the ways haphazard.\n\nThe arguments for the year-day theory are as follows: Dan 9:24, \"Seventy weeks are determined upon,\" where the Hebrew may be seventy sevens; but MEDE observes, the Hebrew word means always seven of days, and never seven of years (Lev 12:5; Deu 16:9-10, Deu 16:16). Again, the number of years' wandering of the Israelites was made to correspond to the number of days in which the spies searched the land, namely, forty: compare \"each day for a year,\" Num 14:33-34. So in Eze 4:5-6, \"I have laid up on thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days . . . forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.\" John, in Revelation itself, uses days in a sense which can hardly be literal. Rev 2:10, \"Ye shall have tribulation ten days\": the persecution of ten years recorded by EUSEBIUS seems to correspond to it. In the year-day theory there is still quite enough of obscurity to exercise the patience and probation of faith, for we cannot say precisely when the 1260 years begin: so that this theory is quite compatible with Christ's words, \"Of that day and hour knoweth no man\" [Mat 24:36; Mar 13:32]. However, it is a difficulty in this theory that \"a thousand years,\" in Rev 20:6-7, can hardly mean one thousand by three hundred sixty days, that is, three hundred sixty thousand years. The first resurrection there must be literal, even as Rev 20:5 must be taken literally, \"the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished\" (Rev 20:5). To interpret the former spiritually would entail the need of interpreting the latter so, which would be most improbable; for it would imply that \"the rest of the (spiritually) dead lived not (spiritually)\" until the end of the thousand years, and then that they did come spiritually to life. Co1 15:23, \"they that are Christ's at His coming,\" confirms the literal view. \n\n\n\nNext: Revelation Chapter 1\n\n","order":66,"numberOfChapters":22,"sha256":"b1b2f4bdd3f0b8f87a417893c7249b3d441d62238b27ae65a7aee09d89d78f53","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":22,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/22.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":22},"totalNumberOfVerses":374},"chapter":{"number":22,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["The harmonious unity of Scripture is herein exhibited. The Fathers compared it to a ring, an unbroken circle, returning into itself. Between the events of Genesis and those at the close of the Apocalypse, at least six thousand or seven thousand years intervene; and between Moses the first writer and John the last about one thousand five hundred years. How striking it is that, as in the beginning we found Adam and Eve, his bride, in innocence m Paradise, then tempted by the serpent, and driven from the tree of life, and from the pleasant waters of Eden, yet not without a promise of a Redeemer who should crush the serpent; so at the close, the old serpent cast out for ever by the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, who appears with His Bride, the Church, in a better Paradise, and amidst better waters (Rev 22:1): the tree of life also is there with all its healing properties, not guarded with a flaming sword, but open to all who overcome (Rev 2:7), and there is no more curse. \n\nstreet of it--that is, of the city. \n\non either side of the river--ALFORD translates, \"In the midst of the street of it (the city) and of the river, on one side and on the other\" (for the second Greek, \"enteuthen,\" A, B, and Syriac read, ekeithen: the sense is the same; compare Greek, Joh 19:18); thus the trees were on each side in the middle of the space between the street and the river. But from Eze 47:7, I prefer English Version. The antitype exceeds the type: in the first Paradise was only one tree of life; now there are \"very many trees at the bank of the river, on the one side and on the other.\" To make good sense, supposing there to be but one tree, we should either, as MEDE, suppose that the Greek for street is a plain washed on both sides by the river (as the first Paradise was washed on one side by the Tigris, on the other by the Euphrates), and that in the midst of the plain, which itself is in the midst of the river's branches, stood the tree: in which case we may translate, \"In the midst of the street (plain) itself, and of the river (having two branches flowing) on this and on that side, was there the tree of life.\" Or else with DURHAM suppose, the tree was in the midst of the river, and extending its branches to both banks. But compare Eze 47:12, the millennial type of the final Paradise; which shows that there are several trees of the one kind, all termed \"the tree of life.\" Death reigns now because of sin; even in the millennial earth sin, and therefore death, though much limited, shall not altogether cease. But in the final and heavenly city on earth, sin and death shall utterly cease. \n\nyielded her fruit every month--Greek, \"according to each month\"; each month had its own proper fruit, just as different seasons are now marked by their own productions; only that then, unlike now, there shall be no season without its fruit, and there shall be an endless variety, answering to twelve, the number symbolical of the world-wide Church (compare Note, see on Rev 12:1; Rev 21:14). ARCHBISHOP WHATLEY thinks that the tree of life was among the trees of which Adam freely ate (Gen 2:9, Gen 2:16-17), and that his continuance in immortality was dependent on his continuing to eat of this tree; having forfeited it, he became liable to death; but still the effects of having eaten of it for a time showed themselves in the longevity of the patriarchs. God could undoubtedly endue a tree with special medicinal powers. But Gen 3:22 seems to imply, man had not yet taken of the tree, and that if he had, he would have lived for ever, which in his then fallen state would have been the greatest curse. \n\nleaves . . . for . . . healing-- (Eze 47:9, Eze 47:12). The leaves shall be the health-giving preventive securing the redeemed against, not healing them of, sicknesses, while \"the fruit shall be for meat.\" In the millennium described in Eze. 47:1-23 and Rev 20:1-15, the Church shall give the Gospel-tree to the nations outside Israel and the Church, and so shall heal their spiritual malady; but in the final and perfect new Jerusalem here described, the state of all is eternally fixed, and no saving process goes on any longer (compare Rev 22:11). ALFORD utterly mistakes in speaking of \"nations outside,\" and \"dwelling on the renewed earth, organized under kings, and saved by the influences of the heavenly city\" (!) Compare Rev 21:2, Rev. 21:10-27; the \"nations\" mentioned (Rev 21:24) are those which have long before, namely, in the millennium (Rev 11:15), become the Lord's and His Christ's.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["no more curse--of which the earnest shall be given in the millennium (Zac 14:11). God can only dwell where the curse and its cause, the cursed thing sin (Jos 7:12), are removed. So there follows rightly, \"But the throne of God and of the Lamb (who redeemed us from the curse, Gal 3:10, Gal 3:13) shall be in it.\" Compare in the millennium, Eze 48:35. \n\nserve him--with worship (Rev 7:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["see his face--revealed in divine glory, in Christ Jesus. They shall see and know Him with intuitive knowledge of Him, even as they are known by Him (Co1 13:9-12), and face to face. Compare Ti1 6:16, with Joh 14:9. God the Father can only be seen in Christ. \n\nin--Greek, \"on their foreheads.\" Not only shall they personally and in secret (Rev 3:17) know their sonship, but they shall be known as sons of God to all the citizens of the new Jerusalem, so that the free flow of mutual love among the members of Christ's family will not be checked by suspicion as here.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["there--so ANDREAS. But A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac read, \"(there shall be no night) any longer\"; Greek, \"eti,\" for \"ekei.\" \n\nthey need--A, Vulgate, and Coptic read the future, \"they shall not have need.\" B reads, \"(and there shall be) no need.\" \n\ncandle--Greek, \"lamp.\" A, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic insert \"light (of a candle, or lamp).\" B Omits it. \n\nof the sun--so A. But B omits it. \n\ngiveth . . . light--\"illumines.\" So Vulgate and Syriac. But A reads, \"shall give light.\" \n\nthem--so B and ANDREAS. But A reads, \"upon them.\" \n\nreign--with a glory probably transcending that of their reign in heaven with Christ over the millennial nations in the flesh described in Rev 20:4, Rev 20:6; that reign was but for a limited time, \"a thousand years\"; this final reign is \"unto the ages of the ages.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["These sayings are true--thrice repeated (Rev 19:9; Rev 21:5). For we are slow to believe that God is as good as He is. The news seems to us, habituated as we are to the misery of this fallen world, too good to be true [NANGLE]. They are no dreams of a visionary, but the realities of God's sure word. \n\nholy--so ANDREAS. But A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, \"(the Lord God of the) spirits (of the prophets).\" The Lord God who with His Spirit inspired their spirits so as to be able to prophesy. There is but one Spirit, but individual prophets, according to the measure given them (Co1 12:4-11), had their own spirits [BENGEL] (Pe1 1:11; Pe2 1:21). \n\nbe done--Greek, \"come to pass.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["\"And\" is omitted in Coptic and ANDREAS with English Version, but is inserted by A, B, Vulgate and Syriac. \n\nblessed-- (Rev 1:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Both here and in Rev 19:9-10, the apostle's falling at the feet of the angel is preceded by a glorious promise to the Church, accompanied with the assurance, that \"These are the true sayings of God,\" and that those are \"blessed\" who keep them. Rapturous emotion, gratitude, and adoration, at the prospect of the Church's future glory transport him out of himself, so as all but to fall into an unjustifiable act; contrast his opposite feeling at the prospect of the Church's deep fall [AUBERLEN], see on Rev 17:6; Rev 19:9-10. \n\nsaw . . . and heard--A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac transpose these verbs. Translate literally, \"I John (was he) who heard and saw these things.\" It is observable that in Rev 19:10, the language is, \"I fell before his feet to worship him\"; but here, \"I fell down to worship (God?) before the feet of the angel.\" It seems unlikely that John, when once reproved, would fall into the very same error again. BENGEL'S view, therefore, is probable; John had first intended to worship the angel (Rev 19:10), but now only at his feet intends to worship (God). The angel does not even permit this.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Literally, \"See not\"; the abruptness of the phrase marking the angel's abhorrence of the thought of his being worshipped however indirectly. Contrast the fallen angel's temptation to Jesus, \"Fall down and worship me\" (Mat 4:9). \n\nfor--A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, ANDREAS, and CYPRIAN omit \"for\"; which accords with the abrupt earnestness of the angel's prohibition of an act derogatory to God. \n\nand of--\"and (the fellow servant) of thy brethren.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Seal not--But in Dan 12:4, Dan 12:9 (compare Dan 8:26), the command is, \"Seal the book,\" for the vision shall be \"for many days.\" The fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy was distant, that of John's prophecy is near. The New Testament is the time of the end and fulfilment. The Gentile Church, for which John wrote his Revelation, needs more to be impressed with the shortness of the period, as it is inclined, owing to its Gentile origin, to conform to the world and forget the coming of the Lord. The Revelation points, on the one hand, to Christ's coming as distant, for it shows the succession of the seven seals, trumpets, and vials; on the other hand, it proclaims, \"Behold, I come quickly.\" So Christ marked many events as about to intervene before His coming, and yet He also says \"Behold, I come quickly,\" because our right attitude is that of continual prayerful watching for His coming (Mat 25:6, Mat 25:13, Mat 25:19; Mar 13:32-37 [AUBERLEN]; compare Rev 1:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["unjust--\"unrighteous\"; in relation to one's fellow men; opposed to \"righteous,\" or \"just\" (as the Greek may be translated) below. More literally, \"he that doeth unjustly, let him do unjustly still.\" \n\nfilthy--in relation to one's own soul as unclean before God; opposed to holy,\" consecrated to God as pure. A omits the clause, \"He which is filthy let him be filthy still.\" But B supports it. In the letter of the Vienne and Lyons Martyrs (in EUSEBIUS) in the second century, the reading is, \"He that is lawless (Greek, 'anomos') let him be lawless; and he that is righteous let him be righteous (literally, 'be justified') still.\" No manuscript is so old. A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, ANDREAS, and CYPRIAN read, \"let him do righteousness\" (Jo1 2:29; Jo1 3:7). The punishment of sin is sin, the reward of holiness is holiness. Eternal punishment is not so much an arbitrary law, as a result necessarily following in the very nature of things, as the fruit results from the bud. No worse punishment can God lay on ungodly men than to give them up to themselves. The solemn lesson derivable from this verse is, Be converted now in the short time left (Rev 22:10, end) before \"I come\" (Rev 22:7, Rev 22:12), or else you must remain unconverted for ever; sin in the eternal world will be left to its own natural consequences; holiness in germ will there develop itself into perfect holiness, which is happiness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["And--in none of our manuscripts. But A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and CYPRIAN omit it. \n\nbehold, I come quickly--(Compare Rev 22:7). \n\nmy reward is with me-- (Isa 40:10; Isa 62:11). \n\nto give--Greek, \"to render.\" \n\nevery man--Greek, \"to each.\" \n\nshall be--so B in MAI. But B in TISCHENDORF, and A, Syriac, read, \"is.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["I am Alpha--Greek, \". . . the Alpha and the Omega.\" A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, ORIGEN, and CYPRIAN transpose thus, \"the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.\" ANDREAS supports English Version. Compare with these divine titles assumed here by the Lord Jesus, Rev 1:8, Rev 1:17; Rev 21:6. At the winding up of the whole scheme of revelation He announces Himself as the One before whom and after whom there is no God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["do his commandments--so B, Syriac, Coptic, and CYPRIAN. But A, Aleph, and Vulgate read, \"(Blessed are they that) wash their robes,\" namely, in the blood of the Lamb (compare Rev 7:14). This reading takes away the pretext for the notion of salvation by works. But even English Version reading is quite compatible with salvation by grace; for God's first and grand Gospel \"commandment\" is to believe on Jesus. Thus our \"right\" to (Greek, \"privilege\" or \"lawful authority over\") the tree of life is due not to our doings, but to what He has done for us. The right, or privilege, is founded, not on our merits, but on God's grace. \n\nthrough--Greek, \"by the gates.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["But--so Coptic. But A, B, HIPPOLYTUS, ANDREAS, and CYPRIAN omit. \n\ndogs--Greek, \"the dogs\"; the impure, filthy (Rev 22:11; compare Phi 3:2). \n\nmaketh--including also \"whosoever practiceth a lie\" [W. KELLY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["mine angel--for Jesus is Lord of the angels. \n\nunto you--ministers and people in the seven representative churches, and, through you, to testify to Christians of all times and places. \n\nroot . . . offspring of David--appropriate title here where assuring His Church of \"the sure mercies of David,\" secured to Israel first, and through Israel to the Gentiles. Root of David, as being Jehovah; the offspring of David as man. David's Lord, yet David's son (Mat 22:42-45). \n\nthe morning star--that ushered in the day of grace in the beginning of this dispensation and that shall usher in the everlasting day of glory at its close.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Reply of the spiritual Church and John to Christ's words (Rev 22:7, Rev 22:12, Rev 22:16). \n\nthe Spirit--in the churches and in the prophets. \n\nthe bride--not here called \"wife,\" as that title applies to her only when the full number constituting the Church shall have been completed. The invitation, \"Come,\" only holds good while the Church is still but an affianced Bride, and not the actually wedded wife. However, \"Come\" may rather be the prayer of the Spirit in the Church and in believers in reply to Christ's \"I come quickly,\" crying, Even so, \"Come\" (Rev 22:7, Rev 22:12); Rev 22:20 confirms this view. The whole question of your salvation hinges on this, that you be able to hear with joy Christ's announcement, \"I come,\" and to reply, \"Come\" [BENGEL]. Come to fully glorify Thy Bride. \n\nlet him that heareth--that is, let him that heareth the Spirit and Bride saying to the Lord Jesus, \"Come,\" join the Bride as a true believer, become part of her, and so say with her to Jesus, \"Come.\" On \"heareth\" means \"obeyeth\"; for until one has obeyed the Gospel call, he cannot pray to Jesus \"Come\"; so \"hear\" is used, Rev 1:3; Joh 10:16. Let him that hears and obeys Jesus' voice (Rev 22:16; Rev 1:3) join in praying \"Come.\" Compare Rev 6:1, Rev 6:10; see on Rev 6:1. In the other view, which makes \"Come\" an invitation to sinners, this clause urges those who themselves hear savingly the invitation to address the same to others, as did Andrew and Philip after they themselves had heard and obeyed Jesus' invitation, \"Come.\" \n\nlet him that is athirst come--As the Bride, the Church, prays to Jesus, \"Come,\" so she urges all whosoever thirst for participation in the full manifestation of redemption-glory at His coming to us, to COME in the meantime and drink of the living waters, which are the earnest of \"the water of life pure as crystal . . . out of the throne of God of the Lamb\" (Rev 22:1) in the regenerated heaven and earth. \n\nAnd--so Syriac. But A, B, Vulgate, and Coptic omit \"and.\" \n\nwhosoever will--that is, is willing and desirous. There is a descending climax; Let him that heareth effectually and savingly Christ's voice, pray individually, as the Bride, the Church, does collectively, \"Come, Lord Jesus\" (Rev 22:20). Let him who, though not yet having actually heard unto salvation, and so not yet able to join in the prayer, \"Lord Jesus, come, \"still thirsts for it, come to Christ. Whosoever is even willing, though his desires do not yet amount to positive thirsting, let him take the water of life freely, that is, gratuitously.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["For I testify--None of our manuscripts have this. A, B, Vulgate, and ANDREAS read, \"I\" emphatic in the Greek. \"I testify.\" \n\nunto these things--A, B, and ANDREAS read, \"unto them.\" \n\nadd . . . add--just retribution in kind.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["book--None of our manuscripts read this. A, B, Aleph, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, \"(take away his part, that is, portion) from the tree of life,\" that is, shall deprive him of participation in the tree of life. \n\nand from the things--so Vulgate. But A, B, Aleph, Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS omit \"and\"; then \"which are written in this book\" will refer to \"the holy city and the tree of life.\" As in the beginning of this book (Rev 1:3) a blessing was promised to the devout, obedient student of it, so now at its close a curse is denounced against those who add to, or take from, it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Amen. Even so, come--The Song of Solomon (Sol 8:14) closes with the same yearning prayer for Christ's coming. A, B, and Aleph omit \"Even so,\" Greek, \"nai\": then translate for Amen, \"So be it, come, Lord Jesus\"; joining the \"Amen,\" or \"So be it,\" not with Christ's saying (for He calls Himself the \"Amen\" at the beginning of sentences, rather than puts it as a confirmation at the end), but with John's reply. Christ's \"I come,\" and John's \"Come,\" are almost coincident in time; so truly does the believer reflect the mind of his Lord.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["our--so Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic. But A, B, and Aleph omit. \n\nChrist--so B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS. But A and Aleph omit. \n\nwith you all--so none of our manuscripts. B has, \"with all the saints.\" A and Vulgate have, \"with all.\" Aleph has, \"with the saints.\" This closing benediction, Paul's mark in his Epistles, was after Paul's death taken up by John. The Old Testament ended with a \"curse\" in connection with the law; the New Testament ends with a blessing in union with the Lord Jesus. \n\nAmen--so B, Aleph, and ANDREAS. A and Vulgate Fuldensis omit it.\n\nMay the Blessed Lord who has caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, bless this humble effort to make Scripture expound itself, and make it an instrument towards the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints, to the glory of His great name and the hastening of His kingdom! Amen.\n"]}],"introduction":"THE RIVER OF LIFE: THE TREE OF LIFE: THE OTHER BLESSEDNESSES OF THE REDEEMED. JOHN FORBIDDEN TO WORSHIP THE ANGEL. NEARNESS OF CHRIST'S COMING TO FIX MAN'S ETERNAL STATE. TESTIMONY OF JESUS, HIS SPIRIT, AND THE BRIDE, ANY ADDITION TO WHICH, OR SUBTRACTION FROM WHICH, SHALL BE ETERNALLY PUNISHED. CLOSING BENEDICTION. (Rev. 22:1-21)\n\npure--A, B, Vulgate, and HILARY 22, omit. \n\nwater of life--infinitely superior to the typical waters in the first Paradise (Gen 2:10-14); and even superior to those figurative ones in the millennial Jerusalem (Eze 47:1, Eze 47:12; Zac 14:8), as the matured fruit is superior to the flower. The millennial waters represent full Gospel grace; these waters of new Jerusalem represent Gospel glory perfected. Their continuous flow from God, the Fountain of life, symbolizes the uninterrupted continuance of life derived by the saints, ever fresh, from Him: life in fulness of joy, as well as perpetual vitality. Like pure crystal, it is free from every taint: compare Rev 4:6, \"before the throne a sea of glass, like crystal.\" \n\nclear--Greek, \"bright.\"\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/22.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":22},"nextChapterApiLink":null,"nextChapterReference":null,"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/21.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":21},"numberOfVerses":20}