250 REVELATION, BOOK OF
EEVELATION, BOOK OF
Becent investigation, however, showing the large dependence of the visionary upon memory, does not allow us to saj' with confidence of the abund- ance of OT allusions in Rev., ' This is literary art, and not the way in which living vision in the spirit expresses itself (Weizsacker).
Three important questions, then, are opened by the general comparison of Rev. with Jewish apocalypses : Is it pseudonymous ! Is it a literary unity, or is it composite ? Are its \'isions actual, or a literary form ? The questions converge in the etl'ort to recover the author's personality, and tlie method and purpose or spirit of his work, the self-consciousness of the man. Weizsacker, to whom the recent course of criticism is directly due, gives his answer to our questions in this sum- mary fashion: 'The Apoc. of John was not written by the apostle. It is also not the record of a revelation or a vision which the author experienced on a day. It is, further, not the work of a homo- geneous conception ' (Apostolic Age, ii. 174).
iii. Contents and Composition of Revela- tion.— 1. Contents of the Book.
The Book of Rev. reads briefly as follows: — An introduction, giving title, author, address, and subject (li-S), is followed by the appearance of Christ to John at Patuios, and the charge to write to the seven Churches (l^-^**), to each of which a letter is dictated by Christ (or His angel-spirit), in which the Church is praised or blamed vnih reference to past trials and heathen influences, and in view of a greater trial soon to come iu con- nexion with the approaching coming of Christ (2. 3). The seer then sees heaven opened, and, being summoned up thither, he sees and describes the throne of God, and the twenty-four elders, seven spirits, and four living beini^s, who praise God the creator (4). He sees the sealed book in God's hand, and the Lamb as if slain with seven horns and seven eyes (the spirits of God) ap- pears amid the praises of the highest angels and of all creation, as the one who alone can open the seven seals (5). He opens six seals. The first four introduce four horsemen who seem to be agents of judgment (war, famine, pestilence). The fifth reveals the prayers of martjTed souls for vengeance ; the sixth an earthquake, which brings destruction to nature and terror to men (0). Before the destructive powers(winds)are.loosed, 12,000 from each of Israel's twelve tribes are sealed (71-^), and John sees a countless multitude of all nations who have passed through the great tribulation, in heavenly blessedness (79-17). Xhe seventh seal brings silence in heaven (81). Then 'the seven angels' appear (8'-), and, after the prayers of the saints have again been offered before God (83-'), six of the angels sound their trumpets. The first four bring forth earthquake and volcanic phenomena with destructive effect upon a third of earth, sea, rivers, and heaven (Si^-l^). The remaining three are to be three woes (813). The fifth (first woe) brings demonic Iocus^beings from theabyss, under their king Apollyon, who torment unsealed men five months (91-12). The sixth brings armies of cavalry from the Euphrates, destroying one-third of men (91>-2i). Before this second woe is declared to be past [in 111-*], the seer receives a new commission and message, a httle book which he eats (10) ; and it is revealed to him that Jerusalem, except the temple and inner court, will be trodden by the Gentiles 42 months, and that ' the two witnesses ' will prophesy during that time, and then be killed, and after SJ days raised to heaven (lliU). The leventh trumpet (third woe) sounds, and heavenly voices announce the establishment of the kingdom of God and Christ (111&-18). Storm and earthquake follow the opening of God's heavenly temple (111»). The seer then beholds the unavailing effort of the dragon Satan to destroy the Messiah at His birth ; the dragon's fall from heaven, and his persecution of the woman who bore the child, and of her other seed (PiilT). Out of the sea comes a beast with ten horns and seven heads, whom the dragon equips with his own authority. He wars against the saints anti is worshipped by all other men (131 lo). This worship is furthered and enforced by another beast out of the earth with miraculous powers, who stamps men with the number of the beast, (MB (I3111S). Over against these evil powers the Lamb is seen with the 1-14,000 undeflled on ilt. Zion (1 lis). Angels announce the eternal gospel of the worship of God in view of judgment to come, the fall of Babylon, the punishment of the worshippers of the beast, the blessedness of martyTS (146-13). One like a son of man (Messiah or angel ?J reaps the earth with his sickle, and another angel gathers the grapes into the winepress of God's wrath (14 n-'io). Seven angels, after the heavenly praises of the redeemed are heard, pour out seven bowls containing the seven Last plagues, the sixth of which brings remote nations to the last war at Har-Ma^edon, and the seventh an earthquake which destroys cities, dinilea Babylon, destroys nature (15. 16). The city is then seen as a woman seated on a scarlet beast, at last wasted and destroyed by the beast and its 10 horns (17ii»). Angels utter prophetic woes over Babylon, announcing its fall because of its persecution of prophets and saints (18). After heavenly rejoicings over the city's fall, and the readiness of the Lamb's bride (19l-10), the Messiah appears as warrior and king, tbo two beasts are ca8t into the lake of Are, and their followers