And the thouglit, as has been said, is worthy of its setting, for this sealed book is the book of destiny, the prophetic history of the world as fore- known in the purpose of God ; and the fact that the Lion of the tribe of .Judali alone prevails to open the book is the symbolic expression of what would be described in modern language as the central significance of Clirist in history. That the Lion is also tlie Slain Lamb attaches this sig- nificance especially to His sacrilice of Himself : ' For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to (iod by thy blood . . . and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests.' In a word, the purpose of history is the founding of a redeemed humanity.
To touch on some of the details — the conception of a book containing the future history of tlie world is found in Enoch, Ixxxi. 1,2:' And he said unto me : O Enocli, observe the writing of tlie heavenly tablets and read what is written thereon . . . and I read the book of all the deeds of men, and of all the children of flesh that will be upon the earth to the remotest generations ' ; and more especially xciii. 2, 3 : ' Concerning the children of righteousness ... I will speak to you . . . ac- cording to that which I have learned from the heavenly tables.' (Then follows a prophetic scheme of the history of Israel divided into seven weeks.)
The seals obviously imply the secret nature of the record (not here, directly, ratification), as in Dn 12''. If the vision of ch. 5 stood alone, the sevenfold sealing might simply emphasize this idea, but the successive opening of the seals im- plies that the leaves of the book or parchment-roll are sealed down in successive portions, and the idea of completeness in the seven is thus referred to the history (cf. the seven weeks of Israel's history in Enoch).
The visions connected with the opening of the several seals are of less central interest, belonging rather to the general furniture of apocalyptic. The second to the sixth signify clearly war, famine, pestilence, persecution, convulsions of nature. As to the meaning of the first horseman, expositors are not agreed. Swete takes the first two together as representatives of war in its two aspects of victory and carnage. At the seventh vision the scheme, instead of moving directly to its com- pletion, branches out into new ramifications.
LiTBRATURE. — See Literature at end of preceding article.
W. Montgomery.
BOSOR.— See Beor. BOTTOMLESS PIT.— See Abyss.
BOWL. — The word is used in the RV instead of ' vial ' to translate <pid\T}, which occurs 12 times in Revelation. The change was desirable, as the former word, a modification of ' phial,' lias come to mean a small glass vessel or bottle, as in Milton's ' precious vialled liquors.' (f>i6.\-q meant in classical Greek (after Homer, to whom it was a cinerary urn) a broad shallow bowl used in drinking or in offering libations. Its saucer shape allowed its contents to be poured out at once or suddenly. It was often of finely-wrought gold or silver (Herod, ii. 151 ; Pind. Neni. ix. 122), and it is a familiar object in classical art. In the LXX <pi6.\-q denotes a bronze bowl or basin (Plir) used in tlie sacri- ficial ritual of Tabernacle or Temple (Ex 27^) — the vessel in which the priest caught the warm blood of the victim, to dash it upon the altar. These uses of the word, with striking modifications, are reflected in Revelation. (1) In a single passage (5**) it is employed with its classical connotation, except that the offering which the vessel holds is not the pagan libation of wine, but the Levitical gift of incense. ' The '(wa and the irped^uTepoi [re- presenting perhaps all Nature and all saints] fell down before the Lamb, having . . . golden bowls [0id\a? xp^^^j] ^ull of incense.' The Vulg. has ' phialas aureas,' but the proper Lat. equivalent of (pLoKr) was ' patera,' as in Virg. Geor. ii. 192, ' patei'is libamus et auro.' The subjoined interpretation of the bowls and their contents as ' the prayers of the saints' is probably an editorial gloss suggested by Rev S'* (see INCENSE). (2) In every other passage where the word occurs the (pidXrj does not exhale a cloud of fragrant incense, sent up with the adora- tion of saints, but is filled with the hot, bitter, poisonous wine of the wrath of God, which earth is made to drink — a figure resembling the prophetic ' cup of reeling ' (Is SP''- -^), but even more appalling. The seven angels who have the seven bowls are 'laden with the seven last plagues' (Rev 2P). Every emptied (piakr) means an added judgment falling on land or sea or air (16"). Hence in common speech the words 'vials' and 'wrath' have become almost inseparably linked together.
James Strahan.
BREAKING OF BREAD. — See Love-Feast, Eucharist.
BREASTPLATE.— See Armour.
BRETHREN.— In the OT this term refers to : (1) birth from the same parent or parents (very fre- quently, e.g., in Gn 37-50) ; (2) membership of the same nation (e.g. Ex 2^'), with special emphasis on the bond thus established between the various single tribes (e.g. Nu 18-, Dt 3'-"), even when one of them is separated off (Dt 10" IS^-^) ; (3) membership of other groups lying between the family and the nation, i.e. clans and single tribes (see Dt 18^, where the Levite's ' brethren ' are his fellow- Levites) ; (4) metaphorical applications which are too general and too various for exact delimitation.