The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 16

tiane, not excl118ively seen lilre St. John. Ver. S.-Who hare recont "To bear wit- "Efleft the things which" (Revised Version) neee" (papTufHw) and "witness." or "testi• makes "things which " in apposition with mony-,. c,.a,,,rupfa), are characteristic of St. "the Revelation," which is probably right. John's writings, and llerve to oonneot; k>- X111t (3~i); beoo.1188 God has so decreed. gether his Goepel, the Fint Epistle, and the Thia Dirine "musii" is frequent in the Apoc11lypse. Such woros should be carefully Gospel {iii. 14, SO; ix. 4; L 16; xii. 34; noted. and, so far as posBiblo, uniformly XL 9). Shortly. The meaning of ,., -rdxu translated, in order to mark. their frequency is mnoh disputed. But, like "firstborn" in in the Englibh Version. The Authorized the qnestiou about the brethren of the Lord, Version rings the ch..nges on "bear wit- "shortly" ought not to be pres&E!d in deter- ness," " boar record," "give record,'' and mining llie scope of the ApooalypSe. Oalling " testify," for ,u,yrup•i,,; and on .. witn01111," Je11u1 the jls-atlJorn Bon of Mary tells us "record," and "testimony," for pap,rvpfa. nothing' as to her having other children. The Revised Venion baa here made great. S&ying that the Apocalypse &hows things improvements. To bear witnesa to the truth which must ,hortly oome to paBB tellB us and the Word of God was Bt. John'a speoial nothing as to its referring to events near St. function throughout his long life, aniJ to thia John's own day. Probably it refers to them fact he calls attention in all hia ohief writ- and to muoh else in the Christian dispensa- ings (8118 Haupt on I John v.6). 'l'he teld.- tion. In the language of the seer, past, mon7 of Jesus Christ, like" the :Revelation of p1'0118ni, and future are interwoven together Jesus Obrist" (ver. 1), means that whioh he as seen by God, and more truth is oontained gave, not that which tells about him. And Uuw the seer himself knows. "The whole of all thin:gll that he saw; better, aa in the book ought to be received as a single word Revised Version, _,. of all IAinga 111d 1k, uttered in a single moment" (Bengel) It . ,au,, taking lura elll~" In apposition with does not follow, because St. John bad events what preoedea. The seer is here ~ n g near to hia own day in his mind, that his of the visions of the Apocalypac. not of the words are limited to those events for us events in Cbriali's life. The a.orii.te, lµop- (oomP,- Luke xviii. 7, 8; Matt. niv. 29; 2 .,.l,p11uE11 and E15~,, are rightly compared to of Pet. ill. 4, 8: Hab. ii. 3: see Westcott, •His- the uwrypa,fn, Thuoydidee (i. 1; Yi. 7, 93). toric Faith,' pp. 74, 75, and note on l Jo~n Ver. 3.-Be that; readtth this book pub- ii. 18 in the'Cambridge Bible for Schools'). licly in the church, and they that hear the ' ligniAecl. Je11U11 Christ signified, i.e. made bookread,are equallyblelSed. 'l'hereisgraee known by symbol and figure, the things promised to bofu minister and co:ggrega.tion which mustoometopaee. "Signity"(.,.,,,wzt- who live up to the spirit of the Scriptures. ,~,,,) is characteristic of St. .Tohn, to whom St. John here suggests that a usage oommon wonders are "aigns" (.,-,,,u,«i) of Divine in the Jewish Church (Luke iv. 16; Acts truths. "'l'his he said, aignijying [by moons xv. 21; 2 Cor. iii, 15) may be adoeted in of an allegory) by what manner <;>f death he the Christian Church. Probably Uue Y6lll8 1hould die" (John xii. 33; oomp. uiii. 32.; is the earliest authority for the. public reao.1- xxi. 19). By hia angel; literally, by means ingofthe New Testament Scripture. Uis very of hu angel {~.a nil Ar,/Aou). "Angel" precarious to argue that "the Apooalypse, here probably has its common meaning of a wliich points to this cUBtom_ csnnot have ■piritlllU messenger from the unseen world: been composed in the y$U" 68," ~11'8 this liu~ U iii the fact of his being Christ's Ohristian custom is of later origin tlia,i •68. m131!11enger; J&ther than his heavenly cha- The official oommunicationa of a.poetles were ne&ar, that is specially indicated. Whether sore to be read publicly in the cli111Ches (ece ooeand the ame ungel is employed through• Lightfoot on Col. iv. 16). Uatil the new out the Beve}&tion is not clear. He does lcctionary came into 1188, the blessing here not. .aome into the foreground of the narra- promised to the liturgical use of the Apooa-, tiYe until oh. xvii. I, 7, Hi (comp. oh. xiL ypse W88 sadly neglected in the English' 9; :u:L 9; nil. 1, 6, 9). The Revelation is Church. One might almost have sµp!JOl,ed ~ n (vers. 17-20) and ended (eh. xxil. that a bleBBing had bean pronowioed o» 16) by Christ himself; but the rusin portion/ ose who do not :read and do not hear tht,, is conducted " by means of his angel," Thus rophecy. The worda of this projlheoy; St. l'aul say11 of the Law that it was "ad- iterally, of U&a prQpheof; Le. "the prophf!CY' ministered by means of ang3ls in the hand of this book" (ch. ixii. 7, 18). ~ which of a mediator," i.& Moses (Gal iii. 19). In is a revelation in ~ to Obrist ill a J)IO- this case the mediator is John, a "servant" phooy in reference to John. "Prophecy " •pecially selected for this work (Isa. xlix. must not be narrowed down Co the vulgar 6; Amos iii. 7). Thus we have four grada- meaning of foretelling fntme events; it ia tions-the primary Agent. the Father; the the /orihtellmg of the mind of God. Pro- seooudary Agent, Jesus Christ; the instru- phecy, in the narrow 88llll8 of prediction, ment, his angel; the recipient, John. cannot well be kept. It ~ God's eall kl  cs. t. 1-20.] THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. I