The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 128

lS). a token of God's faithfntne1111 in keepifig tiona which haYe been advanoed are (1) that his promises. It iB, therefore, a fit ,sign of the twenty-four olden reprel!tlnt the _great 1md comfort to those ~oouted Christians to minor prophets (St. Hippolytus).; (2:) higher whom, and for whose edification, this mee- angels-U1.e-celesti11.l priNthood, aa denoted sage was eent. Ill sight like unto an by their white garments and the number emerald. The (fµdpa-y1io~ is our modern twenty-four, the numb@r of courses of the green emerahl. n-was highly valued in Levitioal priesthood (Reuse); (3) simply Roman times. It wa.e one of the stones of angels (Hoffinann); (4) the elders of the the high priest's breastplate, and the fourth Church at Jernsnlem (Grotiud); (5) the foundation of the heavenly JenJ81i.lem (eh. doubled twelve signifies the acooesion of xxi. 19). The description in this Vel'B8 the Gentiles (Bleek, De Wette): (6) the recalls Ezek. i. 28, .. A.a Ula appearance of books of-the Old Te.stament, then the Jewish the bow that is in the cloud in the day of Church, while the folll' living creatures rain, BO was the appearance of the b1ightneas denote the Gospels, that ie, the Christian round about." Some bave found a difficulty Church (Wordsworth). (For this last view, in the e.&1100iation et a rainbow with its for which there is much to be Blilid, see varied ooloors, and the single gYeen hue of Wordsworth, ia Zoe.) Olothed in white rai• the emerald. _:But of eourse it is the form msnt; the natural garb of he&Ten, symbolical only of the rainbow which is alluded to, not of purity. And they had on their heads oroW'Jlll every quality which 11· rainbow may possess. of gold (,,-n,pd.vour, not a,a1i~µami). The A circular green appearance wu seen round crown of victory, not necessarily the kingly the throne, which perhaps may be described crown. Poosibly a :reference to the priestly as a green halo. If the purity of the jasper crown (see on eh. ii. 10). Trench a.114 (see above) be allowed to symbolize God's Vaughan, however, are of opinion that the purity and spirituality, and the sardine, man crowns here denote the kingly condition of clothed with fiesh, the green emerald may the saints. But Christians are nowhere in fitly :represent God's goodnesa displayed in the New Testament described 11.1 "king&." , nature. Ver. -5.-And out of the throne proOMdecl Ver. 4.-And. rounc! about the throne were lightninga and thundering■ and voioel. The four and twenty 1eata. Throughout the ~ n t tense (see on ver. 4). The whole vision no -past tense is used. The vision symbolical of the power and majesty of God. repreeenta the worahip of heaTen (so far as as of old he manifested his pre.enoe on it can be presented t.o human understanding) Sinai. "There were thunden and lightningB uitcontinuesetemally. Tkrona • •• aeata. and • • • the voice of the trnm~" (Exod. ffimder both by the same English word, as :r.iL 16). - And there were seven lampa of in Ula Revised Version. Some doubt is Are burning before the throne, whieh are the aUaehed to the ease or the first 9p&.,o,. ep&,,01 seTen Spiriu of God. The Holy Spirit, ii found in B, P : and this .makes the oon- represented in his 11evenfold operation, by flrtlction nominative after l3o6 (of. Tel'. 2): la.mp11, which illumine. The same idea ii btit N, A, 84, S5, read 6pc/J'OIJ1, which cauaea expl8Slled under another figure in oh. 1'. G. el&, to be understood. The point is im- where the searching, enlightening power of material, 1111 the meaning is the-ame. And. the Holy Spirit is typified by ..,_ eye,. upon Ula Natl I aw four and twenty eldera Ver. 6_.-And before the throne there was litting. Omit "I saw" (see above). The a ■ea of glasa like unto ory1tal. &a of number twenty-four, the double of twelve, glau, or a gl'"'fl 1/JIJ. The quality of represents the (ilhurchea of both the old "glassineu" may refer to the pure opr,,,a,r• and the new covenants. The elders are the GROii of the l!tla; or it may mean that. the _heads or repreeentatives of the body to l!8lil was in oonsistenoy like unto glass; that which they belong (see Exod. :r.i:r.. 7: :r.:r.iT. ie, solid and unyieldiug, so that there wu 1, and many others: see also the list of nothing strange in the fact that it supported elclen in Heb. :r.i.). In the Christian Church weights. In either case, the notion is--!'8- the AIDe distinction e:r.ista(see Acts xiv, 28, peated by parallelism in the ne:r.tclause, "like ••ordained them elden;" A.olB:r.:r..17, St. Paul unto crystal" But the gla81ly sea may mean aent for the elder, of Eph88UEI: Acts. :r.:r.i. 18, "a glaas laver," and bear no reference to whai " The elders were present"). So here the is ul!U&lJ.y called a 158&. The brazen la.ver elder• represent the saints of both th~_ Old is described (1 Kings vii. 23} a.a a "molten and New Testaments. Thus they oft'er " the sea." St John may therefore mean thllA prayers of the aainta" (ob. T. 8). Obrist, before the throne of God was a la.ver of the moreover, promised twelve thrones to his purest material,.j111t 811 tltebrazen laverwu diBoi.ples (Luke xxii. ~O) though not to the before the temple. One diffloulty here pre- exclusion of the aints of old, for both am sents itself, vis, that there would be no use conjoined in eh. x:r.i. 12, H. In oh, u. for a !aver ji:,, heaTen, where all ii pure, and 2, S, the victorious on01 1ing "the eong of the figure therefore appea.n a little in• Jfou, and of the Lamb." Oth8l ~terpreta.-: congruo111. But u U lltood lNJon the BIVBLATIOll', L  1-'$ THE REVELATION OF_ BT. JOHN THg DIVINE;· (en. IT.1-11.