Bousset has sought to prove a linguistic relation- ship such as to justify the belief that Rev. came from the same circles in Asia Minor from wliich tlie Johannine writings came. The John of Asia Minor was, he believes, not the apostle, but the presbyter John ; and though neither the Gospel nor the Apocalypse was written by him, Bousset supposes that both rest in some way upon him. That the John of Asia Minor was the apostle remains, however, stUl the more probable supjiosi- tion (See tlie elaborate argument of Zahn, For- icliungcn, vi. 1900, pp. 175-217). But the inference that the John of Kev. must in that case be the ajKjstle, is weakened by the observation that the apocalyptist does not speak with the authority of hi.< own person. Tlie authoritative autlior of his book is Christ. All that the author claims fur himself is that he is a genuine propliet. The common idea 'tliat he appears as a special authority before his readers rests on f.ancy' (Jiilicher, Einl. 176). It is not he but Christ who criticizes and commends the Churches. There remains, of course, the other possibility, tliat, like other apocalypses, this also IS pseudunymous, issued in the apostle's name. But we should in that case couhdeutly look for clear references to the ajiostle's experi- ences, whereas the writer regards himself every, where as a propliet, and seems to look upon the apostles from without (21'*, cf. 18-'"). That the apostle was the author of Rev., and tlierefore not 01 John (Baur, etc.), is now urged anew, chielly on the ground of external testimony, by B. \V. li-Mon {Intrud. to NT, 1900); but, though not impossible, it can never be so established as to be a weighty presupposition for the solution of the problem of the Gospel. That the writer of Rev. need not have known Jesus, remains a strong in- dication that he did not know Him.
In distinction from the Gospel, the Apocalypse can he historically interpreted and estimated with- out regard to the question of its autlior, i.e. of its final author; but a liook of tliis class cannot be understood at all apart from tlie stream of apoca- lyjilical tradition out of which it comes, of which it is in large measure a product. Of its authorship nothing more than guesses can be given. With the nature of the book itself and tlie resulting method of its interpretation it is possible to deal more positively.
Conclusion. — The historical value of this book as a witness to early Christianity, and the temper and expectation with wliich it faced its long struggle against the world, cannot be over-estimated. The religious value of aiiocalypaes in general lies not in their form or foreciust, but in the religious faith
that they express. The special religious worth of Rev. lies first of all in its Cliristiaiiity and then in what results from this ; in the fact that though chielly apocalyptical it is partly prophetic in char- acter, that though largely dependent on tradition it is not wholly without the marks of a creative sjiirit (Bousset, p. 11). ' The book has its imperishable religious worth because of the energj- of faith that finds expression in it, the splendid certainty of its conviction that God's cause remains always the best and is one with the cause of Jesus Christ ; but it is unreasonable to treat the detail of its phantasies as an authentic source for a history of the past or the future ' (Jiilicher, p. 168).
The form of the book is uncongenial to us ; but a fair historical judge will not condemn it for its form, which the age supplied, and which served the age. We shall do best justice to the form if we regard it as practically poetical. The line which must be drawn for a true appreciation of our book is not the rough line between literal and figurative speech, but the far more delicate one between pictures consciously fashioned to express spiritual realities, and visions of per.sons and actions literally taken, but valued for the spiritual realities that lie behind them. This is an important dis- tinction, but does not involve a fundamental con- trast. Our author is a poet, whether consciously or not, since, whether taken as word-pictures or as actualities his visions were to him, as they are to us, symbols of spiritual realities, of Christian faiths and hopes. — But, ajiart from form, are the faiths and liojies of the book fully Christian? It is hard not to judge the hatred of Koine and the desire for vengeance as in some measure a dejiarture from Christ. The dill'erence between His announcement of the fall of Jerusalem and this prediction of the fall of Rome is just the deiiier-lyiiig dill'erence between prophecy and ajiocalypse. Christ would not allow the kiiigduiii of God to be put into con- trast and competition with the kingdom of Cffisar (Mk 12"-"). St. Paul followed His contradiction of Judaism at this jjoint (Ro 13'"', so 1 P •2'»-") ; but the writer of Rev. seems hardly to escape altogether the Jewish confusion of religion with politics. To use the money of the realm, or rather to engage in transactions involving papers which must be attested by the ollicial stamp (x^payM-a) of the emperor (Ueissmann, Neue Bihdstudien, 1897, pp. 68-75), seemed to him the worship of the beast (13"). With this goes also the absence of love, and with it again tlie absence of hope for men. The missionary spirit of Christianity is not here. Christians are to liolil fast what they have, and the sinful world will be more sinful still until its speedy destruction. To the union of re- ligion with politics belonged, in the Jewish mind, the liojje that the saints would in the end rule over the world (20*'"'). Whether it is possible to regard this inilleiinial reign as taken by our author from some Jewish source for its tinderlying idea, or whether we must regard him as adopting the reality with the form, through the iulluence of his attitude towards Rome, it is in either case impossible not to regret the inlluence of these verses upon Christian history. To this criticism, however, two things are to he said. One is that as events, especially the Exile, brought about the transition from pro- phecy to apocalypse in Judaism, so events put Christianity at this crisis in the attitude of self- defence against the threatened extinction of its faith at the hands of Rome. The other consideration is that it was not for its chiliastic hope, but in spita of it, that Rev. held its place in the Christian Canon ; and it has not been this that has given the book its iiower.