{"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":5,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["strong-- (Psa 103:20). His voice penetrated heaven, earth, and Hades (Rev 10:1-3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["no man--Greek, \"no one.\" Not merely no man, but also no one of any order of beings. \n\nin earth--Greek, \"upon the earth.\" \n\nunder the earth--namely, in Hades. \n\nlook thereon--to look upon the contents, so as to read them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["and to read--inserted in English Version Greek text without good authority. One oldest manuscript, ORIGEN, CYPRIAN, and HILARY omit the clause. \"To read\" would be awkward standing between \"to open the book\" and \"to look thereon.\" John having been promised a revelation of \"things which must be hereafter,\" weeps now at his earnest desire being apparently frustrated. He is a pattern to us to imitate, as an eager and teachable learner of the Apocalypse.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["one of--Greek, \"one from among.\" The \"elder\" meant is, according to some (in LYRA), Matthew. With this accords the description here given of Christ, \"the Lion, which is (so the Greek) of the tribe of Juda, the root of David\"; the royal, David-descended, lion-aspect of Christ being that prominent in Matthew, whence the lion among the fourfold cherubim is commonly assigned to him. GERHARD in BENGEL thought Jacob to be meant, being, doubtless, one of those who rose with Christ and ascended to heaven (Mat 27:52-53). The elders in heaven round God's throne know better than John, still in the flesh, the far-reaching power of Christ. \n\nRoot of David-- (Isa 11:1, Isa 11:10). Not merely \"a sucker come up from David's ancient root\" (as ALFORD limits it), but also including the idea of His being Himself the root and origin of David: compare these two truths brought together, Mat 22:42-45. Hence He is called not merely Son of David, but also David. He is at once \"the branch\" of David, and \"the root\" of David, David's Son and David's Lord, the Lamb slain and therefore the Lion of Juda: about to reign over Israel, and thence over the whole earth. \n\nprevailed--Greek, \"conquered\": absolutely, as elsewhere (Rev 3:21): gained the victory: His past victory over all the powers of darkness entitles Him now to open the book. \n\nto open--that is, so as to open. One oldest manuscript, B, reads, \"He that openeth,\" that is, whose office it is to open, but the weight of oldest authorities is with English Version reading, namely, A, Vulgate, Coptic, and ORIGEN.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["I beheld, and, lo--One oldest manuscript, A, omits \"and, lo.\" Another, B, CYPRIAN, &c., support, \"and, lo,\" but omit, \"and I beheld.\" \n\nin the midst of the throne--that is, not on the throne (compare Rev 5:7), but in the midst of the company (Rev 4:4) which was \"round about the throne.\" \n\nLamb--Greek, \"arnion\"; always found in Revelation exclusively, except in Joh 21:15 alone: it expresses endearment, namely, the endearing relation in which Christ now stands to us, as the consequence of His previous relation as the sacrificial Lamb. So also our relation to Him: He the precious Lamb, we His dear lambs, one with Him. BENGEL thinks there is in Greek, \"arnion,\" the idea of taking the lead of the flock. Another object of the form Greek, \"arnion,\" the Lamb, is to put Him in the more marked contrast to Greek, \"therion,\" the Beast. Elsewhere Greek, \"amnos,\" is found, applying to Him as the paschal, sacrificial Lamb (Isa 53:7, Septuagint; Joh 1:29, Joh 1:36; Act 8:32; Pe1 1:19). \n\nas it had been slain--bearing marks of His past death wounds. He was standing, though bearing the marks of one slain. In the midst of heavenly glory Christ crucified is still the prominent object. \n\nseven horns--that is, perfect might, \"seven\" symbolizing perfection; \"horns,\" might, in contrast to the horns of the Antichristian world powers, Rev 17:3; &c.; Dan 7:7, Dan 7:20; Dan 8:3. \n\nseven eyes . . . the seven Spirits . . . sent forth--So one oldest manuscript, A. But B reads, \"being sent forth.\" As the seven lamps before the throne represent the Spirit of God immanent in the Godhead, so the seven eyes of the Lamb represent the same sevenfold Spirit profluent from the incarnate Redeemer in His world-wide energy. The Greek for \"sent forth,\" apostellomena, or else apestalmenoi, is akin to the term \"apostle,\" reminding us of the Spirit-impelled labors of Christ's apostles and minister throughout the world: if the present tense be read, as seems best, the idea will be that of those labors continually going on unto the end. \"Eyes\" symbolize His all-watchful and wise providence for His Church, and against her foes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["The book lay on the open hand of Him that sat on the throne for any to take who was found worthy [ALFORD]. The Lamb takes it from the Father in token of formal investiture into His universal and everlasting dominion as Son of man. This introductory vision thus presents before us, in summary, the consummation to which all the events in the seals, trumpets, and vials converge, namely, the setting up of Christ's kingdom visibly. Prophecy ever hurries to the grand crisis or end, and dwells on intermediate events only in their typical relation to, and representation of, the end.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["had taken--Greek, \"took.\" \n\nfell down before the Lamb--who shares worship and the throne with the Father. \n\nharps--Two oldest manuscripts, A, B, Syriac and Coptic read, \"a harp\": a kind of guitar, played with the hand or a quill. \n\nvials--\"bowls\" [TREGELLES]; censers. \n\nodours--Greek, \"incense.\" \n\nprayers of saints--as the angel offers their prayers (Rev 8:3) with incense (compare Psa 141:2). This gives not the least sanction to Rome's dogma of our praying to saints. Though they be employed by God in some way unknown to us to present our prayers (nothing is said of their interceding for us), yet we are told to pray only to Him (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8-9). Their own employment is praise (whence they all have harps): ours is prayer.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["sung--Greek, \"sing\": it is their blessed occupation continually. The theme of redemption is ever new, ever suggesting fresh thoughts of praise, embodied in the \"new song.\" \n\nus to God--So manuscript B, Coptic, Vulgate, and CYPRIAN. But A omits \"us\": and Aleph reads instead, \"to our God.\" \n\nout of--the present election-church gathered out of the world, as distinguished from the peoples gathered to Christ as the subjects, not of an election, but of a general and world-wide conversion of all nations. \n\nkindred . . . tongue . . . people . . . nation--The number four marks world-wide extension: the four quarters of the world. For \"kindred,\" translate as Greek, \"tribe.\" This term and \"people\" are usually restricted to Israel: \"tongue and nation\" to the Gentiles (Rev 7:9; Rev 11:9; Rev 13:7, the oldest reading; Rev 14:6). Thus there is here marked the election-Church gathered from Jews and Gentiles. In Rev 10:11, for \"tribes,\" we find among the four terms \"kings\"; in Rev 17:15, \"multitudes.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["made us--A, B, Aleph, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, \"them.\" The Hebrew construction of the third person for the first, has a graphic relation to the redeemed, and also has a more modest sound than us, priests [BENGEL]. \n\nunto our God--So B and Aleph read. But A omits the clause. \n\nkings--So B reads. But A, Aleph, Vulgate, Coptic, and CYPRIAN, read, \"A kingdom.\" Aleph reads also \"a priesthood\" for priests. They who cast their crowns before the throne, do not call themselves kings in the sight of the great King (Rev 4:10-11); though their priestly access has such dignity that their reigning on earth cannot exceed it. So in Rev 20:6 they are not called \"kings\" [BENGEL]. \n\nwe shall reign on the earth--This is a new feature added to Rev 1:6. Aleph, Vulgate, and Coptic read, \"They shall reign.\" A and B read, \"They reign.\" ALFORD takes this reading and explains it of the Church EVEN NOW, in Christ her Head, reigning on the earth: \"all things are being put under her feet, as under His; her kingly office and rank are asserted, even in the midst of persecution.\" But even if we read (I think the weightiest authority is against it), \"They reign,\" still it is the prophetical present for the future: the seer being transported into the future when the full number of the redeemed (represented by the four living creatures) shall be complete and the visible kingdom begins. The saints do spiritually reign now; but certainly not as they shall when the prince of this world shall be bound (see on Rev 20:2-6). So far from reigning on the earth now, they are \"made as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things.\" In Rev 11:15, Rev 11:18, the locality and time of the kingdom are marked. KELLY translates, \"reign over the earth\" (Greek, \"epi tees gees\"), which is justified by the Greek (Septuagint, Jdg 9:8; Mat 2:22). The elders, though ruling over the earth, shall not necessarily (according to this passage) remain on the earth. But English Version is justified by Rev 3:10. \"The elders were meek, but the flock of the meek independently is much larger\" [BENGEL].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["I beheld--the angels: who form the outer circle, while the Church, the object of redemption, forms the inner circle nearest the throne. The heavenly hosts ranged around gaze with intense love and adoration at this crowning manifestation of God's love, wisdom, and power. \n\nten thousand times ten thousand--Greek, \"myriads of myriads.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["to receive power--Greek, \"the power.\" The remaining six (the whole being seven, the number for perfection and completeness) are all, as well as \"power,\" ranged under the one Greek article, to mark that they form one complete aggregate belonging to God and His co-equal, the Lamb. Compare Rev 7:12, where each of all seven has the article. \n\nriches--both spiritual and earthly. \n\nblessing--ascribed praise: the will on the creature's part, though unaccompanied by the power, to return blessing for blessing conferred [ALFORD].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["The universal chorus of creation, including the outermost circles as well as the inner (of saints and angels), winds up the doxology. The full accomplishment of this is to be when Christ takes His great power and reigns visibly. \n\nevery creature--\"all His works in all places of His dominion\" (Psa 103:22). \n\nunder the earth--the departed spirits in Hades. \n\nsuch as are--So B and Vulgate. But A omits this. \n\nin the sea--Greek, \"upon the sea\": the sea animals which are regarded as being on the surface [ALFORD]. \n\nall that are in them--So Vulgate reads. A omits \"all (things)\" here (Greek, \"panta\"), and reads, \"I heard all (Greek, \"pantas\") saying\": implying the harmonious concert of all in the four quarters of the universe. \n\nBlessing, &c.--Greek, \"the blessing, the honor, and the glory, and the might to the ages of the ages.\" The fourfold ascription indicates world-wide universality.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["said--So A, Vulgate, and Syriac read. But B and Coptic read, \"(I heard) saying.\" \n\nAmen--So A reads. But B reads, \"the (accustomed) Amen.\" As in Rev 4:11, the four and twenty elders asserted God's worthiness to receive the glory, as having created all things, so here the four living creatures ratify by their \"Amen\" the whole creation's ascription of the glory to Him. \n\nfour and twenty--omitted in the oldest manuscripts: Vulgate supports it. \n\nhim that liveth for ever and ever--omitted in all the manuscripts: inserted by commentators from Rev 4:9. But there, where the thanksgiving is expressed, the words are appropriate; but here less so, as their worship is that of silent prostration. \"Worshipped\" (namely, God and the Lamb). So in Rev 11:1, \"worship\" is used absolutely.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Revelation Chapter 6\n\n"]}],"introduction":"THE BOOK WITH SEVEN SEALS: NONE WORTHY TO OPEN IT BUT THE LAMB: HE TAKES IT AMIDST THE PRAISES OF THE REDEEMED, AND OF THE WHOLE HEAVENLY HOST. (Rev 5:1-14)\n\nin, &c.--Greek, \"(lying) upon the right hand.\" His right hand was open and on it lay the book. On God's part there was no withholding of His future purposes as contained in the book: the only obstacle to unsealing it is stated in Rev 5:3 [ALFORD]. \n\nbook--rather, as accords with the ancient form of books, and with the writing on the backside, \"a roll.\" The writing on the back implies fulness and completeness, so that nothing more needs to be added (Rev 22:18). The roll, or book, appears from the context to be \"the title-deed of man's inheritance\" [DE BURGH] redeemed by Christ, and contains the successive steps by which He shall recover it from its usurper and obtain actual possession of the kingdom already \"purchased\" for Himself and His elect saints. However, no portion of the roll is said to be unfolded and read; but simply the seals are successively opened, giving final access to its contents being read as a perfect whole, which shall not be until the events symbolized by the seals shall have been past, when Eph 3:10 shall receive its complete accomplishment, and the Lamb shall reveal God's providential plans in redemption in all their manifold beauties. Thus the opening of the seals will mean the successive steps by which God in Christ clears the way for the final opening and reading of the book at the visible setting up of the kingdom of Christ. Compare, at the grand consummation, Rev 20:12, \"Another book was opened . . . the book of life\"; Rev 22:19. None is worthy to do so save the Lamb, for He alone as such has redeemed man's forfeited inheritance, of which the book is the title-deed. The question (Rev 5:2) is not (as commonly supposed), Who should reveal the destinies of the Church (for this any inspired prophet would be competent to do)? but, Who has the WORTH to give man a new title to his lost inheritance? [DE BURGH]. \n\nsealed . . . seven seals--Greek, \"sealed up,\" or \"firmly sealed.\" The number seven (divided into four, the world-wide number, and three, the divine) abounds in Revelation and expresses completeness. Thus, the seven seals, representing all power given to the Lamb; the seven trumpets, by which the world kingdoms are shaken and overthrown, and the Lamb's kingdom ushered in; and the seven vials, by which the beast's kingdom is destroyed.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/5.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":5},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/6.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":6},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/REV/4.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"REV","chapter":4},"numberOfVerses":13}