Conceptions jj- requires little scrutiny of its contents, however, to assure us that this is true only of its form. In the matter of the designations it applies to our Lord, for example, the cursory reader is impressed by their novelty and astonished by the richness of their sugges- tion; but on analyzing their content he soon discovers that they embody in their splendid phraseology no other conceptions than those he has been made familiar with in the other books of the New Testament. In- deed, there is a sense in which it would not be untrue to say that the Book of Revelation, written as it was at the close of the first Christian century (c. A. D. 96), gathers up into an epitome and gives vivid, and we may say even emotional, expression to the whole century's thought of Jesus. A certain comprehensive- ness Is thus imparted to its chrlstological allusions which has puzzled the critical student and been made by him the reproach of the book and even the occasion of denial to it of unity of composition.^ It is in truth
1 Cf. Holtzmann, N. T. Theologie, I., 467 : " The Old Testament and Jewish conceptions of the Messiah form no doubt the fundamental basis of the christology, though they are on every side outvied and sur- mounted ; so that such a conglomeration of all Biblical and even Jewish strata of doctrine results as is wholly without example else-
286
The f Fitness of the Apocalypse 287
merely a witness to the unity of the conception of Jesus which characterized the whole Apostolic Church, finding, indeed, varied expression according to the Idiosyncrasy of each writer, but remaining through all variety of expression essentially the same.
The long list of designations in which this concep- tion of Jesus is at least in part embodied in the Book
of Revelation may be perhaps somewhat Two Classes of 1 1 t • 1 1 • 1 ttt
Designations roughly divided into two classes. We
say roughly divided because the sepa- rating line is an uncertain one and the two classes melt insensibly into one another. These two classes may perhaps equally roughly be discriminated as simple and descriptive designations : simple designations, that is to say, names merely designating our Lord, though, of course, no one of these names merely designates our Lord, but all have more or less of a descriptive ele- ment; and descriptive designations, that is to say, des- ignations which are more or less elaborate descriptions of His nature and functions.
The simple designations are, in accordance with the general character of the book as a symbolical Apoca- lypse, both few and infrequently em-
Simple ployed.'' In the formal opening of the Designations f , , • 1 /• 1
book we nave — as in the formal open- where in the N. T., and has become one of the chief occasions for the current hypotheses which attack the unity of the composition." He quotes Bousset as speaking of the christology of the Apocalypse as a "confused conglomeration of the most diverse conceptions" (Meyer's Com. on Rev., i6i). Cf. R. Palmer, The Drama of the Apocalypse, p. 105, who complains that " the point of view of the seer is continually changing," so that it is impossible to obtain a unitary doctrine from him.
2 Cf. Holtzmann's enumeration, Theologie des N. T., i, 467, and Gebhardt. Doctrine of the Apocalypse, p. 77.
2 88 The Designations of Our Lord
ing of several others of the New Testament books (Mt I^'^^ Mk i\ Jno i^ Rom i\ i Cor i\ Gal i\ I P i^ 2 Pi\ [Jno i^, 2 Jno 3], Jude i) — the full cere- monious name, 'Jesus Christ' (i^'*'^). In the formal closing verses of the book the place of this solemn des- ignation is taken by the somewhat more descriptive designation 'the Lord Jesus' (22"°'^^ cf. however, v. r. 'Jesus Christ' in verse 21). The simple 'Jesus' occurs more frequently ( i^'^ 12^"^ 14^- 17® ic^^^''^^ 20* 22^^), and, if we may be allowed the expression, ap- pears to be the more emotional, as distinguished from the more formal, simple designation of our Lord In this book. The simple ' Christ ' occurs only twice (20^''), although in what we may call Its more descrip- tive form — that is in Its appellative use — ' the Lord's Christ (Anointed),' 'God's Christ (Anointed),' — it occurs twice more (at 11^^ 12^*^). The term 'Lord' seems to be a designation of Christ at 14^^: and His Lordship is of course copiously recognized elsewhere, not merely by implication as in the designation of a day as " the Lord's day " ( i^^) ,^ but in a series of elab- orately descriptive designations the simplest of which is perhaps ' the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ' (19^''), varied to 'the Lord of Lords and King of Kings ' ( 17^^, cf. i'^ 2^'^^ 3'^ 5^). Of the more common Messianic designations, besides the fundamental ' the Christ' (11^^ 12^*^; and In compounds i^--^) and ' Christ ' ( 20^'^) , only ' the Son of God ' occurs, and that but once (2^^ cf. ' my Father,' 2^'^ 3^"^; ' His God and Father,' i®; 'my God,' 3"'^"), and accompanied by