It is the Christianity, not the Judaism, of the book that has made and kept for it a pliice in
266
EEVENGE, REVENGER
REZIN
Christian Scriptures. It aimed to put Christ at the centre of religious faith and hope. His words are the complete law of God, His testimony is the full contents and inspiration of prophecy. Tlie Churches are under His eye, and rospon.siljle only to Him. He also opens the book of God's hnal purposes for mankind. His birth, death, and re- surrection began that victory of good over evil, which His coming and reign will bring to a glori- ous completion, for His coming is the coming of God. llie power and abiding worth of the book is in this splendid faith, against all a^)pearances, iu tlie kingship of Christ and God ; in the strong hope wliich maintained itself amid [)Orsecution and unto death ; and in the intensity of emotion through which tlie language, though both our ignorance and our knowledge make it in part less impressive than it was at hist, has still the power, and in many passages the unimpaired power, to stir in us an answering hope and faith.
LlTKRATURB. — The principal books in which a historical under- standing; of Rev. has been furthered, and several of the im- portaiu articles and discussions rejrarding it, have been named in the course of this article. The text may be studied with the help of Weiss (Die Johan. Apoc. : Textkrit. U ntersuchuti'im, lb91), Gwynn (Tfu Apocalypse 0/ St. John, 1S97), and Gregory {Text-KrUi/c d. NT, 1900) ; the older critical \'iew (contemporary- historical) in the Commentaries of Liicke, Bleek, and Ewald. In America, Stuart's Commentary (1S45) defended this general method, with some 'church-historical' features. Of recent critics the works of Vischer, Spitta, Gunkel, and Bousset are most de- serving of study. The Commentaries of Bousset (Meyer's Series, lSO(j) and Holtzmann (2nd ed. 1893) are of the greatest value. See also the Introductions of Uoltzmann, Jiilicher, Zalm, and Bacon ; also the Uistories of the Apostolic Age by Weizsacker (ii. 18 ff. lCl-205), McOitfert, and Bartlet; the NT Theolo,jir» of Weiss, Beyschlag, Stevens, Holtzmann, Titius (Die nexttest. Lfhre von der Seligkeit, iv. 19U0), and artt. on Apoc. by Harnack in Eneyc Brit.^ and Bousset in Encyc. Bidl. Of other books bearing iu an important way upon the understanding of Rev., reference may be made a^ain to Gunkel, Schopfuttg und Chaos (ISQ.n); Bousset, Der Antichrist (1895, in English, The Antichrist Legend, 1896); Lueken, Michael (1898) ; W'einel, Wirkungen des Geistes, etc
(1899). Frank C. Porter.
REVENGE, REVENGER.— See Avenge, and
GOEL.
REVEREND. — In earlier English there is no ditierence in meaning between ' reverend ' (from Lat. reverendus, pass. ptcp. of reveren to fear, re- vere) and reverent (through Old Fr. reverent). Only the form ' reverend ' occurs in AV : Ps 111" ' Holy and reverend is his name' {W trny) ei-\^; LXX S.-ftov Kal (poliep6i', Vulg. sanctum et terribile), and 2 Mac 15'- ' Reverend in conversation' (aiSripova ttji/ airdi>- TTttnv, Vulg. verecundum vis^u, RV ' reverend in hearing '). RV maintains the mod. distinction be- tween ' reverend ' = to be revered, and ' reverent ' (asfromact. ptcp. ) = revering. It retains 'reverend' in Ps 111" and 2 Mac IS'^and adds Ph 4^ marg. (Or. ac/ivii, RV ' honourable ') ; and it also introduces 'reverent' into Tit 2' 'reverent in demeanour' (^k KaTacfTij/xari iepoTrpejreis, AV ' in beliaviour as be- Cometh holiness'). The older versions that use the word always spell it 'reverent' (Bish. in Ps 111", Gen. and Dou. in 2 Mac IS'^).
J. H.\STINGS.
REVIVE. — In some of the examples of ' revive ' In .W it is evident that the meaning is literally to come back to life from the dead (or transitively to bring back to life). Thus 1 K 17=" The soul of the child came into him again, and he revived' ; 2 K 13'*' ' When tlie man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet' ; Neh 4' ' Will they revive the stones out of tlie heaps of tlie rubbish which are burned?'; Ro 14" ' Christ both died, and rose, and revived.' And, even when this is not the meaning, the word i;arries greater force than it now bears to us. Thus Ro 7' 'When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.' Cf. Erasmus, Commune Crede, 89, 'It Is more probable by the deade to understonde those
that have departed from theyr bodies afore th« daye of judgemente (for as soiie as they shall be revived and risen agayne, they shall be judged)' | Lk 15^ Rhem. ' This my soune was dead, and ia revived' ; and Shaks. I Henry VI. I. 1. 18 —
* Henry is dead, and never shall revive.*
J. Hastings.
REZEPH (in. ; B'Pd^fit, B'" "Pd.^fs, A Tr,v 'Pd^td, 2K 19'-; BQ°« 'Pd0£9, nQ* 'I'd^es, A Pd^.f, Is 37'- ; Vulg. Bosepk 2 K 19'=, Kesejph Is 37'^).— Mentioned in the message of the Rabsliakeh of Sennacherib to Hezekiah, when demanding the surrender of Jerusalem, with Gozan and Ilaran, and the children of Eden which were in Tehissar. The district in which this town was situated be- longed, for several centuries, to Ass3'ria, and its name occurs, as was to be expected, many times in the Assyrian records, generally under the form Rasapjia (also Basapa and Eosapi). The site ia now represented by Rusufa, between Palmyra and the Euphrates, and is thought to be the 'V-qaaipa. of Ptolemy (v. 15). The earliest mention of the place in the Assyrian records is in the Eponym Canon, where we learn that Ninip-kibsi-usur was the prefect in B.C. 839. From B.C. 804 to 774, the prefect was Igi-guba-eres, or Ninip-Sres, who, judging from the length of his term, and the fact that he was twice eponym, must have enjo}"ed the contidence of his superiors to an unusual degree. Other prefects mentioned as having held the office of eponym were Sin-saJlim-anni in 747, and B6l-6mur-anni in B.C. 737. As all the above-named prefects of Rezeph have Assyrian names, it is very probable that they were, without exception, Assyrians. The tablet K 9921, however, mentions a governor {hi;l pihati) named Abda',* \\\\o seems to bear a native name, and probably held otKce at a later date than the eponyms whose names are given by the Assyrian Canon. The district was an important trade-centre in ancient times, as the tablets and lists from Nineveh show.