All these varying views of ' John's ' meaning cannot be true in every particular. Yet we are, perhaps, nearer the truth in saying that portions of all of them must have passed through his mind than in deciding dogmatically in favour of one of
• The letters of both the Greek and the Hebrew alphabets have each a numerical value.
t ■ip''p not TDp ; cf. art. Antichrist.
t Cf. V.5 with the description of Antiochus Epiphanes in Dn 1136ff. It seems to the present writer that ' John ' may have thought of Domitian as combining Caligula and Xero in himself in much the same way as the Beast, which is Rome (133), combines in itself all the ferocities of Daniel's first three beasts (lion, bear, leopard, Dn V-^ff-)- Like U Ezr. 12i0ff- he would consider Da.mel's fourth beast to be Rome.
them. It seems to the present writer that the loose way in which the prophet and pastor who Avrote the Apocalypse dealt with the traditional material that lay to his hand was probably as intentional as the frequent grammatical anomalies and harsh Hebraisms of his text, which no Greek scholar supposes to be due to inadvertence. The man who had the literary genius and the prophetic inspiration to write the songs of triumph and the hortatory portions of the Apocalypse may be be- lieved to have had a method in his carelessness. He was certainly capable of adopting a fixed style of writing and carrying it through in the way that st}'le on the whole required. If he left some strings flying for his readers to cut or fasten up as the spirit might lead them, may it not be a sign that he considered himself and his companions in the ' kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ ' to occupy a sphere which, just because it was supreme and Divine, was not hermetically sealed to the rest of the world, but was open, like the New Jerusalem, to receive testimony and tribute from every quarter ?
3. The Apocalypse of John as a product of the Apostolic Age, and a testimony to Jesus as the Christ. — Enough has perhaps been .said to show that questions regarding the importance and function of apocalyptic literature in the faith and life of the Apostolic Age are best answered in connexion with a study of the Apocalypse of John. No known apocalyptic writing of the same or greater bulk is comparable with it in vitality of connexion with primitive Christianity ; and there is no likelihood that any such writing existed. Attention may be fastened on three matters : (a) the historical situation, (b) the relation of apoca- lypse to prophecy, (c) the hortatory and dogmatic teaching of the Apocalypse.
(a) The historical situation. — We have seen that the period of apocalyptic literature is roughly the 250 years of the last struggles of the Jewish people for political and religious independency The first apocalypse of the OT is contemporaneous with the great sacrifices made by the elite of the Jewish people to maintain the national testimony to Jah- weh. The sacriticial spirit passed into the com- munity that confessed Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, risen, and ascended, as Lord and Messiah. Very early the sacrificial spirit was called forth. But the first persecutors were not heathen in name. They were the representatives of the city which ' spiritually is called Sodom and Eaypt, where also the Lord was crucified' (Rev IP^ cf. 1 Th 2"^-, 2 Th 21-12). ^ To St. Paul the power of Antichrist lay in the jealousy of the Jewish synagogue, and it would seem from the passage in 2 Th 2 that the power 'that restrains' (6 Karexwi', t6 Karexov) is the Roman Empire. Certainly the representation in the Acts of the Apostles favours this view (16" 21^2 2225ff- 251W-)- Between the ministry of St. Paul and the time of the Apocalypse a change had taken place. In the Apocalypse the Roman Empire is clearly the instrument of Antichrist. The Dragon gives power to the Beast (IS''), and it is obvious that in 'John's' time, and especially in the province of Asia, Christians were per.«ecuted under Imperial authority simply because of their Christian profession. Christianity was a crime pun- ishable with death, in so far as it was inconsistent with the worship of the Emperor (P 13'^'-)- Doubt- less there were ditterences in the administration of the law, but the tone of the Letters to the Seven Churches (chs. 2 and 3) and of the whole Apoca- lypse indicates a time when the worst might be apprehended. The beginning of this Imperial attitude to the Christians may perhaps be found in the summer of A.D. 64, when, as Tacitus in- forms us (Ann. xv, 44), Nero sought to fasten on
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the Christians the odious charge of incendiarism, and it has been held that the Apocalypse belongs to the time of the Neronic persecution. This view may now be regarded as superseded. Nero is cer- tainly a figure in the Apocalypse (see above), but he is a figure of the past. The Beast is alive in his bestial successor Domitian, whom 'John' con- siders Nero Redivivus * (cf. 13* with 17'M-
It was under Domitian that persecution of the Ciiristians first became a part of the Imperial policy. It is this legalized persecution and the fact tiiat the centre of the storm lies among the Cliurches of Asia that rouse the spirit of prophecy in the autiior of chs. 2 and 3, and, as we venture to think, of the whole Apocalypse. And, assuredly, it was the spirit of prophecy, and not of delusion, that gave him tlie certainty that the Lord Jesus would ' come quickly ' to deliver His people from a situation in which the choice lay between death and unfaithfulness to Him. Every prophet is an escliatolugist. He sees the end of what is opposed to tiie will of holiness and love. It is only for a moment — though the moments of God and history may be long — that cruelty and violence can reign or the meek and righteous be oppressed.