In the third we pass beyond both the two previous phrases. The doctrme that God is Love, ■isserts, in the strongest possible form. His Person- iility, and the possiljility of personal intercourse between God and Man. This is indeed the drift of the two contexts in which it occurs. The man who is witliout love does not know God, for God is love. Knowledge of Him, in other words, is possible, but possible through likeness in nature. And so later the same point is more strongly emphasized: ' God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in him' (1 Ju 4'*). The object for which Christ came to earth, that man shoidd have this fellowship with Him and with the Father, depends on the fact that God is love. But it is possible to "o a little further than this. The doctrine that God is love helps to clear up those ditlicult phrases (mentioned above, p. fiS'^i in which Christ .speaks of the mission of tlie Paraclete. The account of the work of the I'ather, the Son, and the Spirit is full of contr.adic- fions, if they are conceived on the analogy of three separate indi\'idual3 ; but these particular difficulties are in some dej;ree modilied if we think of them as Three es.sential eternal modes of the Di\ane Life, bound together in a perfect love. Such a thought explains the peculiar language used of the Word in His relation to the Father {^v rpdi rbv 8(bv, 6 Civ fis t6v Kb\Trov rov Trarpbi, P*"*). We cannot wonder that from this text has arisen the preci.se theology of the Holy Trinity.
B. The A POCAirrSE.— The task of describing the theology of the Apocalyjise is one of very preat dithcuity. There is no l)ook more obscure, or more doubtful in its historical reference. The method of the author is to explain his ideas by means of an extremely complicated symbolism, to which it is hard to find the key. In interpreting OT prophecies, the first thing to be done is to decide, if possible, on the historical occasion from which they arose. Hut in the case of the Apoca- lypse there is gieat difficulty in getting any certain clue to the occasion. The majority of modern critics are of opinion that the book was written in the time of Nero ; but they are not unanimous, and the ancient tradition is unvaried in favour of the times of Domitian. It will be neces<iary as far as possible to ignore these difficulties in the present discussion : they are dealt with in special articles. See John (Gospel, p. 707 fl.) and Kevelation.
• Philo {dt Smnn. I. xiii., Tom. I. p. 632 Mang.) uses the ■ame phrase, but with the association of uJidiiiuneu iutellectual wieion.
The aim of the book is limited, and is defined both at the beginning and at the end : it is to describe things 4 5eT -)tvi<r8ai iv rdxfi (cf. P 22"). The visions recorded are not set down as mera pieces of the individual history of the writer : they are events which are full of meaning for the future. But interpreters are not agreed as to whether tliey are to be referred to the immediate history of the time, or to the whole course of the Church's life, or to the remote future at the end of the world. It is well to remember that St John, supposing that he is the author, is capable, as has already been noticed, of idealizing in a remarkable waj' ; so that he speaks of the sinless ness of the regenerate at the same time that h« provides against the commission of actual sin. It IS possible, therefore, that the descriptions even of the end of things are the i)ictorial exposition of principles permanently at work. In any case it will be sulHcient to consider the working of the principles, leaving aside the question of their manifestation. The book falls into two very obvious and clear divisions. The first three chap- ters contain the opening vision and the Epistles to the Seven Churches : this forms the first division. The second (chs. 4-22) contains the Apocalypse proper — the vision or series of visions in which the things which must shortly come to pass are revealed.*
(a) The Doctrine of God. — There is no part of the book devoted to the exposition of this doctrine ; such doctrine, therefore, as may be gathered from it, underlies the language in which the proper subject of tlic liook is tre.ated. We gnther much, first, from the titles used of God. (a) In tlie salutation ( P) we have the assertion of the etemitxj of God 6.itI> 6 wy Kal 6 ^i" ical 6 ipxof^cos. The name stands undeclined in the nominative, in spite of its con- struction with the preposition dvi ; and the im- perfect ?v is treatecl as a participle. The phrase thus stands for a Being who is subject to no change, but is always, through all the changes which occur j it is an expansion of the old covenant- name Jehovah. The phrase is repeated in P, and is there sanctioned by the words, used by the
n diets to authorize their mess.ige, X^7(i 6 Kvpioi. s worth noticing that in 4", when the same words recur in the ascription of glory by the four beasts, their order is changed. The words ex- pressing permanence occur in the second instead of the first place : 6 ^k, xal i iiv, gal 6 ipxoiiefos. After the consummation of things (11") o ipxapufosia omitted (cf. 16''). The same meaning is carried by the striking phrases ri 'A «ai rd'fi (P 2P 22"), i TrpiDros Koi 6 eo-xaro! (I" 22"), ^ ipxh """' ''^ tAo5 (22"). God is conceived as eternal : from Him all things take their origin, and to Him all things return. In 10" and 15' ti} fw>Ti th toi>! aiSivas ruir aluvuv, the endless continuity of an eternal Being is declared ; in 15^ 6 /SaatXeus rCiv ativvojv, the idea of rule or dominion is involved. (^) This brings us to a second idea which is frequently o-ssociated with God in this book, 6 wayTOKpirup—the iill-nding(\^ 4' 15' 16'-" 19»"> 21'"). It is noticealjle that, with the exception of P 4', and possibly 21'^, this title is ussed in connexion with some statement as to the Divine judgments ; i.e. with the catastro-'hic declaration of the principles of His rule. This should be compared with the idea of judgment already traced in the Gospel of St. John (see above, p. ()Si**). Besides this, the phrases should be noted in which the creation of the world is ascribed to God (10' 14'). These simply contain references to it aa a fact. In 4" the Will of God is definitely assigned as cause, both for the conception and realization of the created order : Jii tA 0i\rifii. cov f/crax koJ