2. Religious ideas (theolorjij) of Revelation. — The biblicotlieological study of Kev. should pro- ceed, according to the nioaem view of this dis- cipline, largely by the comparative nietliod. We are not to assume that the author had a theology of his own ; and we are most concerned to know the sources and influence of the Christian ideas of the book, and how they fit into the history of Cliristian thought. This is far more an average book, tliat is, an embodiment of average beliefs and hopes, than the letters of St. Paul or the Gospel of St. Jolin. It expresses the faith and tlie temper of Christianity in the early years of its conflict, its struggle for existence against a hostile world. As its message is one of a speedily coming judgment and deliverance, its underlying theology will concern the persons through whom, and the way in which, salvation is to be eB'ected. God and Christ, redemption past and to come, are its themes. The general conception of the deliverer and the deliverance will be determined by the conception of the evil from which men desire to be delivered. The theology of our author will be fundamentally determined by the question whether he conceives of the evil chiefly as political or as religious. The answer to this question is not altogether easy. Although Rome now embodies the spirit of evU itself, and is endowed with its authority, yet on the one hand it is througli its religion that its evil ^wer is exerted (2" 13""^), and on the other band it is only a temporary repre-
sentative of the ultimate evil power, the Devil and Satan, the destroyer (9"), the deceiver of thj wliole world (12"), the real persecutor of the sainti (1212.17). Titius is doubtless, on the whole, right in suggesting that the political view of evil and salvation seems to be oflered to the writer by some of his sources, but that it is disavowed by him (Die mutest. Lehre von dcr Scligkcit, iv. 35) ; yet the case is not wholly clear, and the central problem in the interpretation of the Cliristianity of the book lies just here. Tlie fall of Rome would seem to be a chief act in that Divine judgment which is to bring blessedness to the faithful. But this Jewish ' Mpoc-.ilj'ptical connexion of politics and religion ' is not the teaching of the book as a whole, otherwise Clirist's person and work, and the Christian conduct and hope, must have been determined by the goal of political world-ruler- ship. It is not, indeed, decisive that ' the conduct of the faithful is not political, but is characterized exclusively by patience (13'° 14'^) ' (Titius) ; for this is true also in the Bk. of Daniel, the occasion of Avhich, like that of Rev., is not war, but religious persecution. Here literal worldrulership is un- questionably hoped for, and yet the conflict with tlie beast, as in Rev., 'is tarried on, on the one side by executions, and on the other by quiet martyrdom' (cf. Dn ll^"). Many Jews expected that worldrulership was to come to them through God's direct intervention, upon purely religious conditions on their part. Nor can we say with confidence that the literal worldrulership of the saints was not in our author's mind (2^- -'' 321 5'" 20^'^). When the Roman empire is regarded as the Satanic power, it is notea.sy to escape the con- ception of a kingdom of the saints which shall literally displace it. Nevertheless, it remains true that for our autlior the ultimate evil power is not Rome but Satan, and that the final struggle and victory are in the spiritual realm. It is not the worldrulership of Rome, but its blasphemous claims, that made it the present agent ol Satan's power. Both by temptation and by violence it endangered the Christian life and the Christian faith. Any power that opposed the sole worship of tlie one God, whether Jewish (2'> 3») or Roman (2" 13^ etc.), is Satanic.
(a) God. — The fundamental faith ot the book is, then, that God alone is to be worshipped, since He alone is eternal and all-powerful. Monotheism is the basis on which the apocalyptical hope rests, since this is always only the hope that the real kingship of God will soon become manifest and actual. God is He who was, and who is, and who is to come (1** 4", cf. 11"), while the power of evil ' was, and is not ; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition' (IV"' "). The ditrerence between these two definitions saves the Christian faith which this boolc represents from dualism. The doctrine of God is Christianity's great inheritance from Judaism, and is given here not only in Jewish terms, but in the Jewish spirit. God is the Creator (4" 10* 14'), omnipotent [iraiiTo- KpiTup] (1» 4« ll" 15» 16'- i-i 19«- "> 21-'^ ; elsewhere in NT only 2 Co 6'*). Fear, not love, is the temper of worship (14' 15^ 19' lli'). God is indeed described as one to be feared, one whose coming self- manifestation will be in WTath and judgment (6'«- " 11" 14"-"- '»• » 15'- » 16' 19"). He is a King who is absolute in power and just in His judg- ments. This justice is His supreme quality, on which faith and hope rest (6'» 15^ 16' 19'-2).