Immediately after the triumph of Constantine, the Christians, emancipated from oppression and persecu- tion, and dominant and prosperous in their turn, began to lose their vivid expectation (>f our Lord's speedy ad- vent and their spiritual conception of his kingdom, and to look upon the temporal supremacy of Christianity as a fulfilment of the promised reign of Christ on earth. The Roman empire, become Christian, was regarded no longer as the object of prophetic denunciation, but as the Bee fa millennial development This view, how- ever, was soon met by the figurative interpretation of the millennium as the reign of Christ in the hearts of all true believers. As the barbarous and heretical in- vaders of the falling empire appeared, they were re- garded by the suffering Christians as fulfilling the woes denounced in the Revelation. The beginning of a reg- ular chronological interpretation is seen in Berengaud < assigned by some critics to the 9th century), who treated the Revelation as a history of the Church from the be- ginning of the world to its end. The original Commen- tary of the abbot Joachim is remarkable, nol only for a further development of that method of interpretation.
hni tor die scarcely disguised idei ii iiicai i I Babylon
with papal Rome, and of the second heasl or Antichrist with some universal pontiff. The chief commentaries
belonging to this period are that which is ascribed to Tichonius (cir. A.D. 390), printed in the works of Augus- tine; Primasius of Adrumetum in Africa i A.M. 550), in Migne, Patrohgia Latina, Ixviii, 1406; Andreas of Crete (,ir. A.I i. ('..in. Arethas of ( lappadocia, and QEcu- menius ofThessaly in the LOth century, whose commen- taries were published togi ther in Cramer's Catena I Oxon. 1840); i he Explanatio I /**■. in the works of Bede (A.D. 735) ; the Expositio of Berengaud, printed in the works of Ambrose; the Commentary ofHaymo (A.D. 853), first published at Cologne in 1531; a short treatise on the seals by Ansehu, bishop of llavilbcrg (A.D. lib", i,
printed in D'Aclury's Spicilegium, i. 101 ; the /
of abbot Joachim of Calabria (A.D. 1200), printed at
Venice in l.V.'T.
In the dawn of the Reformation, the views to which the reputation of abbot Joachim gave currency were taken up by the harbingers of the impending change, as byWycliffe and others; and they became the foun- dation of that unai historical school of interpretation, which up to this time seems the most popular of all. (For the later commentaries, see j- vi. below.)
2. Approximati Classification of Modern Interpreta- tions.— These are generally placed in three great di- visions.
(1.) The Praterist expositors, who an- of opinion that the Revelation has been almost, or altogether, fulfilled in tic- lime which has passed since ii was written : that it refers principally to the triumph of Christianity over Judaism and paganism, signalized in the downfall of Je- rusalem and of Rome. The most eminent expounders of this view are Alcasar. Grotius, Hammond, Bossuet, ( alinei.Wetlslcin.Kichhorn. Hug, Herder, Kwald.Liicke,
DeWette, Dusterdieck, Stuart, Lee, and Maurice. This is the favorite interpretation with the critics ol Ger- many, one id' whom goes so far as to slate that the writer of the Revelation promised the fulfilment of his visions within the space of three years and a half from the time in which he wrote.
Against the Praterist view it is urged that prophecies fulfilled ought to be rendered so perspicuous to the gen- eral sense of the Church as to supply an argument against infidelity; that the destruction of Jerusalem, having occurred twenty- live years previously, could not occupy a large space in a prophecy; thai the sup- posed predictions of the downfall of Jerusalem .and of Nero appear from the context to refer to one event, bul are by this scheme separated, and. moreover, placed in a wrong order: that the measuring of the Temple and the altar, and the death of the two witnesses (ch. xi), cannot lie explained consistently with the context.
(2.) The Futurist expositors, whose views show a strong reaction against some extravagances of the pre- ceding school. They believe that the whole book, ex- cepting perhaps the lirst three chapters, refers principal- ly, if not exclusively, to events which are yel to come. 'Ibis view, which is asserted to be merely a revival of the primitive interpretation, has been advocated in recent times by Dr. .1. II. Todd, Dr. S. R. Maitland, B. Newton, C. -Maitland, I. Williams, De Burgh, and others.
Against the Futurist it is argued thai ii i- nol consist- ent with the repeated declarations of a speedy fulfil- ment at the beginning and end of the book itself (see
i, :>; xxii, 6, 7, 12, 2ii). Christians, to whom it was originally addressed, would have derived no special comfort from it had its fulfilment been altogether de- ferred for so many centuries. The rigidly literal inter- pretation of Babylon, the Jewish tribes, and other sym- bols which generally forms a part of Futurist schemes. presents peculiar difficulties.
(.'..) The Historical or Continuous expositors, in whose opinion the Revelation is a progressive history of the
fortunes of the Church from the lirst century to the end
of time. The chief supporters of this most interesting interpretation are Mede. Sir I. Newion. Yiiiinga. Ben- gel, Woodhouse, Faber, E. B. Elliott, Wordsworth, Heng- stenberg, Ebrard, and others. The recent Commentary of dean Alford belongs mainly to this school.