The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 15

EXPOSITION. CRAPTER L narratiTea, to correspond with the twen&J· 'Com elders; and eaeh of these into thffll Tm: TrrLL The simplest form of this, as of other books ef the New Testament, ia the ' ' " ~ or chapters, to correspond. with oldest: ' The Revelation• of John' (' A1r0K'• body, soul, and 1pirit, making Beventy-lwo chapters in all A1'lflis '1,.,.f.-11011). Other fonns worth noting are: •The Revelation of John the Apostle Vere. 1-S.-TTie euper&Otiptioa. This consists of a brief description of; the oon• and Ev&llgeliet;' • The Revelation of the holy and ID08t gloriOIJll Apostle and Evange- tents and origin of the book, and a com- list, the virgin, the beloved, that leaned on mendation of it to the reader and hearer. the breast, John 'the Di vine.' • The divine' as Ver. 1.-The Revela.tm.a of lesu ChriR. a title for St. John, which is retained here This phrase ooelll'S elsewhere in the N&w in both the Authorized Version and the Re- Testament only in I Pel i 7, 18 (oomp. 1 Pel iv. 18; l Cor, i. 7; 1! These. i 'I; vised Version, is certainly as old a.a Eusebins Gal. L 12). It means the revelation whloh (' Pr$p, Evan.,' xi. 18). Recent disooveries Jesus Obrist makes, not that which reveals at Ephesus have shown that "divines" him. John is the uwirer, Jesus Obrist the (B•oll.6-yo,) WDB a title of the chief priests in Author, of the book. Revelation (no«lf- the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. It is 11.,n/,,s) is a word rellerVed for the gospel; no Old Testament prophecy i• oa.lled a :revela- possible, but hRrdly propable, that this tion {oontrast l Sam. xx. SO). Ii mee.ns the suggested the title for .St. John. It prob- tinlJ!Jiling of Divine mysteries (Eph,·lli. 8}, ably points to his witneu to the Divinity and from this ii easily alipa i n t o ~ of the Logos or Word. Eusebius (' Hist. the mystery unveiled. Ohrist is both the l!:ecl.,' Ill. xxiv. 18) remarks that John Mystery and the Revealer of it He OODle8 omitted the h:nma.n genealogy of the to reveal himself,aud in himself the Father, whose Image he is. Thus in its opening Saviour, and began with his Divinity (.-ijs words the book takes us beyond itself. What 6~ 8eo1'.o')'l,u &1rdp{0La-9a1). is revealed is not secrets about the future, / 'Ver. 1-eb. iiL 22.-THB INTBODUOTIOlf, but a Person. And the Revealer iB not Most wriiers agree that the first three man, but God: not John, but the Divine chapters are introductory. They may be Bon, oommiseioned by the Fa.the~ For even the uuincarnate Word receives from the thus subdivided: eh. i.1-8, th11 BUpet'sorip- Father tliat which he revea,ls. Which ~cl twn; vers. 4-8, the addreu aftd greeting; gave unto him. This is remarks.bly in har- vers. 9-20, the introauctonJ ·11isicm ; eh. ii., mony with the Ohristology of the Fourth iii., thll epistl~ to th6 , _ Oh1Jf'CM8 of .Aria-. Gospel (v. 20; vii. 16; xii. 49; xiv. 10; 'l'he earliest eystema.tio commentator on xvii. 7, 8 : com.1p. Mark xiii. 82; Acts i. 7'>, The simple in,finitive to express a pu11111M1 the Apocalypse in the Greek Ohurch, An- after" give" is oommon to Gospel and A[C'- dreas of 018811.rea, in Cappadocia. (,LD. 450- oalypee (iii. 21: vii. 2: xiii. -14; John i'I'. 000h divides it into twenty-f11uz 11.6-yiu, oz 7, 10; vi. 52). llia sel'VantL All Ohri.._ BBVEL.A.'l'lOlllo • 2 THE REVELATION OF ST. JORN THE DIVINE. [cu. 1. 1-20.