The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 20

1111 epistle to the Bomans. mentions that the k, but to him who utten il The book Church of Corinth is that day keeping the " the Bevelation," not of the secrets of ~•a holy day (Eusebius, 'Hist. Eool.,' IV. histmy, but•• of Jesus Obrist." Seven gold~/ :uiiL 11). Comp. also Clem. Alex.,• Strom.,' e.ncUeaticka, The word 1t.uxvl11 ooours iu VIL xii. 98 (p. 377, Potter); Tertull., • Matt. v. 15; Mark iv. 21; Luke viii. 16; Cor.,' iii. and• De Idol.,' xiv., where.Domini'ou, :Ji 83; Heh. ix. 2; and seven times in lhis diea is obviously a translation of Kup,c,rc~ book. In Exod. xx. 37 we have seven "VX"°' ¼,u/_pa; 11,nd fragment vii. of the lost worka on one 1t.ux11la, seven lamps· on one lamp- of lren111us. That" the Lord's day u (~ Kup,- et.and. So also in Zech. iv. 2. It is by uo ~ 7/p,lpa) in this place ie the same as • the means certain that a similar figure ill not day of the Lord" (~ ~p,lpa ,-ou Kvfov) is not meant here ; the seven-branched candle- at all probable. The eontext is quite against stick familiar to all who know the Aroh of any moh meaning ae that St. John is spiri- Titus. If the Christ stood " in the midst of tually transported io the day of judgment. the candlesticks," his form would appear as Conlr-.uit oh. vL 17; xvi. 14; 1 John iv. 17; that which united the seven branches. But John vi. 39, 40, 44, 54; xi.. 24 ; xii. 48. it is perhaps moro natural to unde:ratand Whereae, seeing that the visions which Beven separate lamp-standa, each with ita follow .are grouped in sevena (the seven own lamp ; and these, in contrast with the tl8Jldlesticka, seven seala, seven trumpets, seven-branclied st,md of the temple, may aeven via.ls), the fact that they begin on the represent the elastic multiplicity of the first day of the seven. is eminently appro- Christian Churches thronghont the world priate. Great voice. The voice is evidently in contrast with lhe rigid unity of the Jewiah Christ's; but throughout the Apocalypse Church of Jerusalem. the speaker ie frequently not named. Dy a Ver. 13.-In ihe midst of tbe candlestick& ovnatruction common in .Hebrew, " eaying" " For where two or three are gathered to- agrees wil;h " trumpet," the nearest sub- gethe1 in my Name, there am-I in the mida\l' llt&ntive, instead of with "voice" (comp.' o( them" (Matt. xviii. 20; comp. 2 Cor. vi Ezek; iii 12; Matt. xxiv, 31 ). " Therefore 16). Like unto the Son of man. Here and in U ii from belind, for all the symbols and eh. xiv. 14 we have simply vll>s ,b,6,,,cnou, as references are to be sought for in U1e Old alBO in John v. 'n and Dan. vii. 13; not cl Testament" (I. Willia.ms); .comp. Isa. xu. vR.s Toti &,,ep,rou, as in Acts vii 56 and 11. everywhere else in all four Gospels. It is Ver. 11.-0n ample evidence (N, A, 0, and not certain that the absence of the articles all versions), "I am Alpha ••• the Last; forbids· us lo render the phrase, " the Son BQd" must be omitted; alBO "which are in of man ; " but it is safer to tender, "a son Asia." Write in a book; literally, into a of man." The glorifier! KC811iah still wears book (~lr IJ,J3>Jw). Over and over Again, that human form by which the beloved dis- twelve times in al], St. John remind& us that oiple had known him before the AsceuBiou he writes this book by Divine.command (John xxi.. 7). With the exception of Act.a (Tel'. '=9; oh. ii~• 8, 12, 18; iii 1, 7,14; xiv. vii. 56, the full form, "the Son of man." is :13; X1X. 9; :ui. 5; oomp. oh. x. 4). The used only by the Christ of himself. A gar- uvm Ohurohea. The order is not hap- ment do)ll'D. to the feet. The word .-oa11p1iY, laazard. It is precisely that which would be ao. x..,.,:,,, ("sti', talam), though frequent ia natun.l to a penon writing in Patmos or the LXX. (Ezek. ix. 2, i, 11 ; Zech. iii. 4, vafflling from Ephe11ua. Ephes1111 comes etc.:), ooours no.where else in the New T ~ flra u metropolis; then the. city on the ent. The robe ill an official one. Th&._ eoast, Bmyma; then the inland cities in mder,working round toward& Ephesns again. ;In shorl, it is just the order in whioh St. .John would visit the Churches in making t hemish renders it "a priutly gannent wn to the foote." Compare JOt1eph's "coa: of many colours," which literally mean:s a " coat reaching to the extremities." In · an apostolic oironit as metropolitan. With Exod. nviii. 31 " the robe of the ephod" the exception of what is told us in these of the high priest is o.-o36nis ,r~P'I'· The ohapten. the history of the Churches of angel in Dan. x. 5, 6 is described in Bimilu Pergamum, Thyatira, and Bardis in the language: "whose loins were girded with apost.olic or mb-apoaiolio ~ is quite un- fine gold of Uphaz" (comp. Isa. nii known. It waa an ancient objection to the 21, "I will. clothe him with thy robe. aAd A~lypse that in Thyatira there was no s!.rengthen him with thy girdle, and l will Church (see on oh. ii, HI). commit thy government into his hand"). Ver. 12.-To see the voice. As in Gen. "Enough is said to indieate that the Son of! llL 8, "the vvice" iB put for the speaker, me.n claims and fulfils the offloe whioh WQII 'l'hiil la the right method in 11tudying the as,;igued to the childMn of Aaron; that h@ ~velation; we must, like St. John, " tum blesses the people in God's N8JJl.e; thai he, to 188 the voice." We must look, not to ~tanda DB their Bepreaenta.tive beeore hill ihe &Tellis about which it seems to us to Father" (F. D. Maurioe). os. r. 1-20.]. '1'IlE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DmNE.