In Rev 3^ the Messiah is described as * he that hath the key of David.' This is part of a message of comfort to the persecuted Church of Phila- delphia. The whole verse is an adaptation of Is 22^2. The idea is that the steward who has the key of the house possesses the symbol of unlimited authority over the household. As the Scion of the house of David, Christ has supreme power in the Divine realm, admitting and excluding whom He will. ' And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder' (Is 22^^) is synonymous with 'And the government shall be upon his shoulder' (9^). Vested with that authority, pos- sessing that key, the Messiah sets before the Jew- ish Christians of Philadelphia, who are shut out from the synagogue, the ever-open door of His eternal Kingdom.
Literature. — F. Weber, Jildische Theologie, Leipzig, 1897, p. 382 f. ; C. A. Briggs, The Messiah of the Apostles, 1895, pp. ii, 74 £E. ; E. F. Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah, 1911, p. 175 flf.
James Strahan. DAY AND NIGHT (figurative).*— Besides their literal meanings, ' day ' has frequently, and 'night' on two or three occasions, a figurative signification.
1. By a species of synecdoche, 'day' is often employed generally as an equivalent for 'time'; cf. the similar use of dV in the OT (Gn 47-«, Jg IS^", 2 S 211, etc.). ' The day of salvation ' (2 Co 6^) is the time when salvation is possible ; ' the day of visitation ' (1 P 2^-), the time when God visits mankind with His grace, though some would make it equivalent to the day of judgment ; ' the evil day' (Eph Q^^), the time of Satan's assaults. In this use of the word the plural is much more common, and is illustrated by such phrases as ' for a few days' (He 12^% 'in the last days' (2 Ti 3^), 'good days* (1 P S^"). Sometimes 'days' is followed by the genitive either of a person or a thing. With the genitive of a person it denotes the period of his life or public activitjr. ' The days of David ' (Ac 7*') are the years of his reign ; 'the days of Noah' (1 P 3^"), the time when he was a preacher of righteousness to the disobedient world. "With the genitive of a thing, ' days ' refers to the time of its occurrence, as ' in the days of the taxing ' (Ac 5^^), ' in the days of the voice ' (Rev 10^).
2. In Rev. ' day ' is used as a mystical symbol for a certain period of time. As to the length of that time tlie interpreters of apocalyptic have widely differed. Some have taken the author to be using words in their literal meaning when he writes in IP 12" of the 1260 days (with which cf. the corresponding 42 months of 13^ and the ' time and times and half a time,' i.e. 3| years, of 12^''). More commonly the ' year-day principle ' (cf . Ezk 4^)
* For ' day ' and ' night ' in the literal sense see art. Time.
DAY OF THE LOED
DEACOi^, DEACOi^ESS
has been ajiplied, so that the 1260 days have stood for the same number of years. Similarly the ' ten days' of tribulation (2^^), instead of being regarded as a round-number expression for a short and limited period (cf. Job 19^ Dn 1^^)^ jj^s been taken to indicate a persecution of the Church at Smyrna lasting for 10 years. 3. In a specific sense • the day ' (Ro 13^^ 1 Co 3",
1 Th 55, He 10-^ 2 P l'^) and ' that day' (1 Th 5^
2 Th 1"*, 2 Ti V^- 1^ 4^) are used metaphorically for the Parousia with all its glorious accompaniments, in contrast Mith which the present world of sin and sorrow appears as ' the night.' ' The night is far spent,' St. Paul exclaims, ' the day is at hand ' (Ro 13'"-^). Elsewhere he conceives of Christ's people as illumined already by the glorious light of that day's dawn, so that, although they still have the night around them just as others have, they do not belong to it, but are ' sons of light and sons of the day ' ( 1 Th 5^), whose calling it is to ' cast off the M'orks of darkness ' and to ' put on the armour of light ' (Ro l.S^^ . gf i ^pj, 58) Jq keeping with this metaphorical description of the glory of the Parousia as a shining day is the conception of the heavenly city, illumined by the presence of the Lamb (Rev 21-^), as a city of unfading light : ' for there shall be no night there ' (v.-^ ; cf. 22^- ^). In this distinctive sense 'the day' is more fully de- scribed as 'the day of the Lord' (1 Th 5^ etc.), ' the day of our Lord Jesus ' (2 Co 1"), ' the day of Jesus Christ' (Ph P), 'the day of Christ' (v.i»),
' the day of God ' (2 P 3^2), ' the great day ' ( Jude ^), 'the great day of God Almighty' (Rev 16"). It is further defined by a variety of epithets in which reference is made to its characteristic manifesta- tions and events. Thus it is ' the day of judgment ' (2 P 2» 3^ 1 Jn4"), 'of wrath' (Ro 2^, Rev 61^), ' of slaughter ' (Ja 5^), ' of revelation of the right- eous judgment of God ' (Ro 2^) ; but also ' the day of redemption' (Eph 4=*'*), a day in which Christ's people shall not only have boldness (1 Jn 4""), but shall rejoice (Ph 2'"), and whose coming they are to look for and earnestly desire (2 P 3'^).