d. A woman (ch. xii) clothed with the sun is seen in heaven, and a great red dragon with seven crowned heads stands waiting to devour her offspring; her child is caught up unto God, and the mother flees into the wil- derness for 1200 days. The persecution of the woman and her seed on earth by the dragon is described as the consequence of a war in heaven in which the dragon was overcome and cast out upon the earth.
The Revelator (ch. xiii), standing on the sea-shore, sees abeast with seven heads, one wounded, with ten crowned horns, rising from the water, the representative of the dragon. All the world wonders at and worships him, and he attacks the saints and prevails. He is followed by another two-horned beast rising out of the earth, who compels men to wear the mark of the beast, whose number is 0G6.
Next (ch. xiv) the lamb is seen with 144,000 standing on Mount Zion, learning the song of praise of the heav- enly host. Three angels fly forth calling men to wor- ship God, proclaiming the fall of Babylon, denouncing the worshippers of the beast. A blessing is pronounced on the faithful dead, and the judgment of the world is described under the image of a harvest reaped by angels.
John (ch. xv, xvi) sees in heaven the saints who had overcome the beast, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Then seven angels come out of the heavenly temple having seven vials of wrath, which they pour out upon the earth, sea, rivers, sun, the seat of the beast, Euphrates, and the air, after which there are a great earthquake and a hail-storm.
One (ch. xvii, xviii) of the last seven angels carries John into the wilderness and shows him a harlot, Baby- lon, sitting on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. She is explained to be that great city, sitting upon seven mountains, reigning over the kings of the earth. Afterwards John sees a vision of the destruc- tion of Babylon, portrayed as the burning of a great city amid the lamentations of worldly men and the re- joicing of saints.
Afterwards (ch. xix) the worshippers in heaven are heard celebrating Babylon's fall and the approaching marriage-supper of the lamb. The Word of God is seen going forth to war at the head of the heavenly armies ; the beast and his false prophet are taken and cast into the burning lake, and their worshippers are slain.
An angel (xx-xxii, 5) binds the dragon, i.e. the dev- il, for one thousand years, while the martyred saints who had not worshipped the beast reign with Christ. Then the devil is unloosed, gathers a host against the camp of the saints, but is overcome by fire from heaven, and is cast into the burning lake with the beast and false prophet. John then witnesses the process of the final judgment, and sees and describes the new heaven and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem, with its people and their way of life.
In the last sixteen verses (xxii, 6-21) the angel sol- emnly asseverates the truthfulness and importance of the foregoing sayings, pronounces a blessing on those who keep them exactly, gives warning of his speedy
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■ i judgment, and of the nearness of the time when these prophecies shall be fulfilled.
V. Schemes of Interpretation.— Few, if any, books of tii,. Bible have been the sport of so greal differences of view as this, arising largely from prejudice and the pas- sion of the times. We can give here bul a brii f out- line of these conflicting opinions, which prevail even to the present day.
1. Historical Review.— The interval between the ap- ostolic age and tha( of Constantine has been called the Chiliastic period of Apocalyptic interpretation. The visions of John were chiefly regarded as represi nta- tions of general Christian truths, scarcely yel em- bodied in actual facts, for the most pari to be exem- plified or fulfilled in the reign of Antichrist, the com- ing of < Ihrist, the millennium, and the day of judgment. The fresh hopes of i lie early Christians, and the severe persecution they endured, taught them to live in those future events with intense satisfaction and comfort. They did not entertain the thought of building up a
definite < secutive chronological scheme even of those
symbols which some moderns regard as then already fulfilled; although from the beginning a connection be- tween Rome and Antichrist was universally allowed, and parts of the Revelation were regarded as the filling- up of the great outline sketched by Daniel and Paul. The only extant systematic interpretations in this pe- riod are the interpolated commentary on the Revela- tion by the martyr Victorinus, dr. A.D. 270 I Biblio- tkeca Palrum Maxima, iii. II 1. and Migne, Patrohgia Latina, v. 318; the two editions should be compared), and the disputed treatise on Antichrist by Hippolytus (Migne, Patrohgia Grceca, x, 726). But the prevalent views of thai age are to be gathered also from a pas- sage in Justin Martyr (Trypho, 80, 81), from the later
1 ks, especially the fifth, of [renaeus, and from various
scattered passages in Tertullian, Origen, and Methodius. The general anticipation of the last days of the world in Lactantius, vii, II 25, has little direct reference to t he Re\ elation.