PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Gnomon of the New Testament — Volume 5
Bengel, Johann Albrecht, 1687-1752 · 237,321 words · 484 reading sections
Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
u Gregory, the bishop, the servant of the servants of God, to all bishops and noble men, and to all who are established in the island of Corsica, both greater and less, greeting, and the apos- tolical benediction. u Ye know, brethren and beloved sons in Christ, that it is mani- fest not only to you, but to many na…
487 wordsSECTION 302Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
283 signia by his son, at the instigation of Paschal II. ; that the clergy whom he had enriched, did not even supply him, when so deprived, with bread ; and, at last, that burial was for a long time refused to him. No drudge was ever treated by a purveyor worse. This was somethins new and remarkable : so it was ri…
486 wordsSECTION 303Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
again not much different in appearance, because all nations from the east and the west venerate the Homan Pontiff, just as they used in former times to obey the emperors.” In fact the spiritual title se- parates the name of king from the reality itself : for the Roman empire has been changed from the temporal to th…
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1 000th year of redemption, The bishop of Rome becomes Antichrist , even by the power of the sword. It was by no instantaneous metamorphosis that the Pope passed from the spiritual simplicity of the first bishops to a height beyond all majesty of the world ; but he imperceptibly acquired authority and influence, u…
473 wordsSECTION 305Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
bishops and abbots. Nor further back than the age of Hildebrand had Claudius Fleury anything to say respecting the morals of Christians , described in his French Treatise. But even at this time, first, a public protesting first waxed strong against this kingdom, made up of heaven and earth (with what purity, we do …
506 wordsSECTION 306Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
287 at what hour, on what day, in what month, in what year, and even more than this, they were born. However the time of the beast’s birth is sufficiently plain. For the apostasy and mystery of iniquity has increased in various ways from its earliest threads, and does still increase, until he comes forth 6 avrixsl…
468 wordsSECTION 307Apocalypse Xiii. 1,
We do not say that the rising out of the sea was completed in a moment ; but it has a remarkable extent, and that indeed, if you please, from Gregory VII. to Alexander III. See Erkl. Offenb. p. 670. The horoscope however, so to speak, comes to be observed. Prop. 10. Neither enemies , nor friends of the truth , ough…
477 wordsSECTION 308Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
289 different from the whore , and that the same is regarded, either as a body , or as an individual : but he neither distinguishes the paragraphs which treat respecting the body , and respecting the individual ; nor the sea and the bottomless pit , from which the beast has its twofold origin ; nor its heads and h…
467 wordsSECTION 309Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
290 Obs. 4. The rising of the beast out of the sea , is different from his rising out of the bottomless pit. — The Apocalypse often makes men- tion of the sea , often the bottomless pit ; but it never uses these two names promiscuously, and in the places respecting the beast it makes a most clear distinction : for…
507 wordsSECTION 310Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
291 (xvii. 1, 10), falls into the middle clause. — The present time is, according to the Divine of Halle, in reference to the vision of John; whence he gives this interpretation : One (that is, Domitian) is, and the other (that is, Antichrist) is not yet come. But this expression, one is, and that, which we shall …
503 wordsSECTION 311Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
tive for a proper name. — Append.], not by way of epithet. All tilings, which the Apocalypse says respecting Babylon, apply to Borne, and Borne only. This is Babylon, until it is entirely de- stroyed : but when did it begin to exist ? Then, when it began to be mighty. When Babylon ceased to exist in the East, it em…
486 wordsSECTION 312Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
293 him for xlii. months : moreover that power has continued to the present time. The nearer determination of this point is explained elsewhere. Obs. 14. The non-being of the beast and the kingdom of Babylon are contemporaneous. — The prophecy plainly fixes each of these to the middle of the three divisions, of w…
484 wordsSECTION 313Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
presents the horn too early, being set aside, the whole passage will admirably help towards forming a just idea respecting the Roman state. u Rome,” he says, u with its dukedom, which comprised a part of Etruria and Campania, revolted from the Greek emperors, A.c. 726, and became a free republic, under the governme…
454 wordsSECTION 314Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
295 accusers laid waste with their forces the dominions of the Church, and sent the heads of the accusation to Charles the Great. But he, before a year was yet completed, sent back the Pope with a great retinue of attendants to Rome. The nobles and bishops from Francia [between the Loire and the Seine], who attend…
465 wordsSECTION 315Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
Roman coins were stamped with his image. But the adversaries of the Pope, three hundred in number of the Romans, and two or three of the clergy, were condemned to death. The former were all beheaded on one and the same day in the Lateran plains ; but the latter were pardoned at the intercession of the Pope, and the…
482 wordsSECTION 316Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
297 shines, except by the rays of the Pope, as was seen when the Pope hacl his See at Avignon : on this account few perceive that Rome is distinct from the Pope. But the position of each will be changed : the woman will reign, the beast will carry her. Then indeed the difference will present itself to the eyes of …
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Lange, is this. u The beast, with reference to the last head, or rather (the commentator himself is not certain) at that time, when the last head, and strictly speaking the beast itself, as the eighth, rages, is an individual person (which however will not be any Pope),” etc.: Epicr. p. 387. I reply : The expressio…
487 wordsSECTION 318Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
299 terval of an hour give their power also, so recently acquired, to the beast. Obs. 21. The whole strength of the Roman monarchy , which is divided into ten kingdoms , shall be bestowed upon the beast. — This is stated, ch. xvii. 13, 16, 17. There shall be not only ten kingdoms, but ten kings ; and those kings …
478 wordsSECTION 319Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
with difficulty be shown in it, much less that of one time, as the text requires. In short, that kingdom expired much more quickly than either the fourth beast perished, or the Stone was cut out. Nothing remains, except the Roman empire, as Abbadie on Apoc. T. iv. pp. 446-537, besides others, proves on good grounds…
820 wordsSECTION 320Apocalypse Xiii. 1.
Obs. 28. Nor are the things which Daniel saw respecting the little horn at variance with this. — The little horn, which differs from the fourth beast, as a part does from the whole (for in ver. 11 it is not used for the beast himself), is the beast of the Apocalypse, either with seven heads, or the individual beast…
660 wordsSECTION 321Apocalypse Xiii, 1.
303 adjurations in both prophecies have reference to that very point. The interpretation which reduces long periods of time in them to a short space, cannot fail to cause great confusion. There is a paral- lelism of the times in Daniel and in the Apocalypse, but it is of a hidden character, and, when you have once…
509 wordsSECTION 322Apocalypse Xiii. 3.
Terms] of both with the second is indicated. The destruction of the fourth beast in Daniel is connected with the destruction of the former beasts, ch. vii. 12, ii. 35, 45, and with the destruction of the Apocalyptic beast which afterwards arose. Thus far concerning the ten Propositions. Whatever I have spoken conc…
488 wordsSECTION 323Apocalypse Xiii. 4.
305 which refers u/av to it. But if slbov is to be understood, it ought to be repeated from ver. 1, just as Pliny uses the verb of seeing by Ilyperbaton, H. N. Book VIII. c. 6 : Italy first saw elephants in the war with king Pyrrhus , and called them Lucanian oxen ; but (it saw them) at Rome 1 in a triumph , etc. …
513 wordsSECTION 324Apocalypse Xiii. 5.
306 which has been before reviewed on ver. 1. D. Lange says, that he does not regard the beast as a purely political power : Epicr. p. 389. But I have here refuted those, who in other respects agree with him, and who determine it to be a political power, although in different senses. See the same, p. 383. — rig du…
481 wordsSECTION 325Apocalypse Xiii. 6-8.
307 portant point is marked out in ver. 5 ; another, the calamity increas- ing, ver. 7. A fuller consideration of these months will follow at ver. 18 : by the use of which, there will be no doubt as to the meaning of the close of the power of the beast. Many persons, when they hear anything of this kind for the fi…
516 wordsSECTION 326Apocalypse Xiii. 10, 11.
it never adds, from the foundation of the world; nor indeed was He slain from the foundation of the world : Heb. ix. 26. They who allege that He was thus slain in the Divine decree, in a like sense will say that He was born, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, from the foundation of the world. 10. A/y/…
487 wordsSECTION 327Apocalypse Xiii. 12-15.
309 the idea of the beast, presented by the Apocalypse and held by me, he would not have blended with one another so many important points. We have replied above to the argument, which he subjoins at p. 393. — ex rrig y$5 g, out of the earth) The earth [land], as opposed to the sea , comp. ver. 1, is Asia ; which …
476 wordsSECTION 328Apocalypse Xiii. 17, 18.
service. Therefore also in this, nay, even especially in this, he will show to those who have understanding, and who are strong in rea- son, that he is in truth Antichrist, that he is in truth not Christ; hut that, in accordance with his name, he is opposed to Christ. It is Christ who shed His own blood. It is Anti…
478 wordsSECTION 329Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
311 number relating to a man. Thus fierpov, not r'o /xsrpov, cli. xxi. 17. The particle yap , for , stimulates us, affording hope, nay, even the key, for solving the number. For immediately afterwards both the quality of the number reckoned is indicated, namely, that it is the number of a man ; and the quantity of…
496 wordsSECTION 330Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
preferred this form, because in the books of the Old Testament he had for the most part been accustomed to the expression of numbers in the masculine gender; for instance, Ezra ii. 13, where the same number is used, as applied to men. Thence Ireneeus more than once says, sexcentos sexaginta sex. The same writer aga…
485 wordsSECTION 331Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
313 phemies and errors of Antichrist, which errors make up a body so compact and bound together, that the members depend mutually upon one another ; or [as others say] a great number of Papists , followers of Antichrist, in which the Romish beast prides himself, and far surpasses other holy and reformed churches. …
484 wordsSECTION 332Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
[numbers of six]. Weighty writers of military affairs speak other- wise, as Yegetius, 1. ii. c. 2, 6. It is certain that the legion cannot be made to consist of 6666 men, so as to fall in with the time of John or the time of the beast. 2) The thousandth number in an epoch, and in the numbers of years from the creat…
477 wordsSECTION 333Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
315 from many, much less from very many, but from one, that which is especially needed in the case of the beast is, that there may be a place where the seven heads and the ten horns may be fixed. 8 ) No one who shall have weighed the system of the numbers of this book, the whole picture of the beast, and especiall…
477 wordsSECTION 334Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
and we will look to them in the order of the Apocalypse, that is, in retrograde order. o 1) The number is said to be 666, the adjective alone being ex- pressed. A number expressed both by an adjective and a substantive (for instance, ten months, a hundred drachmae, a thousand soldiers), the one of which we call t…
495 wordsSECTION 335Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
317 3) It is to be observed, that the number is said to be that of one beast , not of many beasts : and that it is the number of the beast it- self, and not that of the name of the beast, which is proposed for computation. A number indeed is both assigned to the name of the beast repeatedly, and in ver. 18, only t…
509 wordsSECTION 336Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
or the quotient.” Whence the same writer, without noticing an- other number, which was expressed in a twofold manner, looked to the number 666 itself, endeavouring to extract its square root. See by all means the treatise quoted, ch. 10. What if there should be in the context another number expressed (as Potter req…
496 wordsSECTION 337Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
319 of the last persecution , and of future peace , and of the whole time from the Passion of the Lord , etc. Time and place have many points of resemblance. It is a resemblance, that Xenophon in his Cyropoedia says, upidpbv odov, the number of a journey , for length . Add Eurip. ed. Gr. p. 290, r. 3, ed. Lat. Par…
513 wordsSECTION 338Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
iff^vpov : also, the days of My people are as the days of a tree , Isa. lxv. 22, — of the people , that is of the individuals among the people. Among the Romans, Gallia Toyota. And this metalepsis was espe- cially befitting in a prophetical enigma, until the units of the times being found out, might themselves supp…
484 wordsSECTION 339Apocalypse Xiii. 18,
.321 if there be added to it the parallelism of the 42 months, the length of the first and second woes, which is analogous to these, the inter- vals after the first and the second woe, the union of the beast and the woman, must persuade even those who depend on 'pontifical authority, of the true interpretation of …
496 wordsSECTION 340Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
322 that they, both before the Reformation and afterwards, were long supported by that hope, that the war against the saints would quickly come to an end. It was plainly to their own great advan- tage that they did not comprehend the age of the beast (for it wras not then at hand). At one time the beast was acquai…
495 wordsSECTION 341Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
323 meaning than srog. Whence the comic writer said, sruv sviavrovg , and Plato in his Cratylus does not vary much from him. It has a closer reference to this, that the noun sviavrog is used for denoting any positive year, so to speak, while srog is only used to denote the natural year. Apollodorus, lib. iii., spe…
467 wordsSECTION 342Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
A Half-time contains of ordinary years, mi A Time (xa/pog), 222f The Number of the beast, 666$ Time 1, 2, and mi A Short Time, .... 888f A Millennium, .... 999§ A Chronus (period). mi* An Age, .... 2222f, The connection of the prophecy and the series of events confirm this as approximating to the lengt…
447 wordsSECTION 343Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
325 Accompliss. des Proplu p. 357. Nor are these influenced so much by the truth of the reasons, as by the probable appearance of the fact alone. Aretius on this passage proceeds more speciously, mutu- ally comparing the 1335 days of Daniel and the number 666. A space of six months is not only a part of a time, bu…
474 wordsSECTION 344Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
two periods of six months, one of which parts was reckoned from the beginning of the months, the other from the beginning of the year, viz. in spring and in autumn. See Ord. Temp. pp. 19, 27 [Ed. ii. pp. 16, 23]. Nor is it in the first month that the Jews increase the age by the addition of the year ; but it is in …
477 wordsSECTION 345Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
327 exalted sense. They have that name who embrace and approve of the most disgraceful novelty of Gregory as something divine. Thus the number of the name of the beast is known from the number of the beast, and somewhat exceeds it. This method is easy and simple, by which the number of the name of the beast is exp…
484 wordsSECTION 346Apocalypse Xiii. 18.
of the letters TEA and AIN02, the well-known word A ATEIN02 was formed. Or else they had heard that the name of the beast would be Latin , as about to occur in the Latin language, and not in Hebrew or Greek ; and by a u Suppositio Materialis” [See Ap- pend. Teclm. Terms], they interpreted that of the name AunTwg i…
511 wordsSECTION 347Apocalypse Xiv, 1.
329 thousandth years, as though the thousand years mentioned in ch. xx. had elapsed, the ancients expected the kingdom of the beast (as it is plainly seen from Andreas, for the name BENEAIKTOS, as it appears, furnished some ingenious reader of his with the number 666) : nor has the fame of that Benedict the suppor…
309 wordsSECTION 348Apocalypse Xiv. 2.
1. 'E/taroy, x.r.X.) They are the same cxliv. thousands which are mentioned ch. vii., but now in a much more splendid condition ; wherefore they are mentioned without the article a) : just as in ch. xvii. 3, Qrip'iov, the beast , without the article to, is the same beast as that which is mentioned in ch. xiii. 1, b…
588 wordsSECTION 349Apocalypse Xiy. 5. 6.
331 5. YsDdos) doAog,1 the text according to Andreas in Cod. Reuchl., which Erasmus follows, and in the Augustan . But the text in Andreas himself, as edited by Sylburgius, and Copt, (according to Wolf, wdio however defends the word doXog), together with all the copies, is ^ps udog. That expression of Peter, ours …
494 wordsSECTION 350Apocalypse Xiy. 7.
Gospel, or to the office of publishing it, which the angel here has. It is therefore a definite age,1 which, in accordance with the analogy of the other times, consists of two periods (chroni), and extends from the publishing of this Gospel to the judgment day itself. This length of the age in particular, besides m…
542 wordsSECTION 351Apocalypse X1Y. 8.
333 fixed too late. The passage from Matt. xxiv. 14, which lie com- pares, has been considered above, on ch. vi. 2. — rrriydg, fountains) The article is not added : for fountains are now in some measure contained under the sea ; although these, in themselves, also are something great in the universe. See Becmann’s…
475 wordsSECTION 352Apocalypse Xiv. 9-11.
9. ”A\\oc, another ) The preaching of the angel with the ever- lasting Gospel is a good, that of the second and third is also a good : but yet the second and the third angel are distinct from each other. Spener, for instance, properly confined himself within his own limits ; see Canstein, in his Life, § 32. But if …
516 wordsSECTION 353Apocalypse Xiv. 12-14.
335 these expressions, either the use or the omission of the Greek article is very opportune. — uvafialvei, ascendeth) The present, after a future, has the force of a future, but with emphasis. 12. 1 O/ rrjpovvreg, that keep) Either the abstract and the concrete, patience and they that keep , are here joined toget…
507 wordsSECTION 354Apocalypse Xiv. 15-19.
there might be the same cases. The middle reading [the original starting-point of the other readings] mixes the cases (nor does the word iyuv, which follows, make any difficulty. Comp. App. p. 778, Ed. II. p. 488). See above on ch. iv. 4, vii. 9, xiii. 3, No one is ignorant of the ordinary rules of construction ; b…
515 wordsSECTION 355Apocalypse Xiv. 20.— Xv. 2.
337 Hebrews nj, fi Xvjv'os, is feminine ; but to rfa Xqvov there is added a masculine adjective, after the Hebrew custom (see Buxtorf. Tlies. pp. 338, 399, 423) : and this certainly here tends to an amplification of the sense : as also among the Greeks.1 See Budsei Comm. L. Gr. col. 1500, 1501. Formerly some thus …
298 wordsSECTION 356Apocalypse Xv. 3-8.
22. K/xuvrag lx) A phrase of rare occurrence ; but that of Lycur- gus, contra Leocr., is similar, ri koiuv av v/xqv XdjSot ntapd ruv noXs- [uw. As to the preposition, the lxx. have, vois/v IxdixvjGiv lx rojv lydpuv, x.r.X. — xcci lx roZ dpi6[JjoZ roZ ovb[iarog auroZ) After xai there is added by Erasmus, lx too yapa…
586 wordsSECTION 357Chapter Xvi.
339 1. Tag srra tpidXag, the seven vials ) The Epistles to the VII. Churches are distributed into III. and IV. The VII. Seals are divided into IV. and III., and likewise the VII. Trumpets, as we have seen : and now also the VII. Vials. The Trumpets have shaken the kingdom of the world in a long circuit ; the vials…
470 wordsSECTION 358Apocalypse Xvi. 6-12.
fitable to have brought forward another, eh. iv. 8 : "A yiog, dyiog , dyiog, K vpiog b Qsbg 6 KavToxpdrup, b riv xa/ 6 a/v xa/ o sp%6ju,svog. There is a very great resemblance between those two passages and this passage, which is thus : b'mcuog si, o &v xa) o rjv, b otf/og. The subject there is, K bp/og b &ebg o &v…
536 wordsSECTION 359Apocalypse Xvi. 13-16.
341 fiwqyu'ysv, ver. 16. Most editions read, s^pdvdt j, either from the rhythm e roipatidri, or from habit.1 For efypdvdri often occurs in the New Testament, and here also it has been readily caught at by the copyists. — oc-jTouy of it) and so of those rivers also, which flow into the Euphrates. The Turks at the p…
490 wordsSECTION 360Apocalypse Xyi. 21-Xvii. 1-5.
g hi is used. Who was it therefore that gathered together the kings ? The sixth angel. Throughout the whole of this chapter, the noun angel is often understood. Without inconvenience this verse is con- nected by a leap with ver. 12. See Franc. Junius and E. Schmid. — ■ Ap/nayedojv) Thus many MSS. ;l but some few, M…
282 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical edition (1859); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.