The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 146

torions tribe f4 Judah waa he who had tiTe form of ~ ( - ) , a reference to prevailed to orn 'the ·book, w·here· otheni the lowlineSB and meekness of our Lord; bad failed (o. Gen. xl 9, MJudah is a and th'l)' eee a oontraat in the po,- in- lion's whelp : " Heb. vii. 14, " For it is dicated by the aeven horns. But mob evident that our Lord sprang out of interpretations, however helpful and aug• Judah"). The Booi of David. The Boot of geative, are not warranted b7 anything in DaTid is a ~nym for Stem or Bf'fJ11Ch (a£ tlie grammar of the word: Bmce, although 18a. xi. 1, There shall come forth a Rod no doubt originally a diminutive, the word out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branoh shall had lost all auoh force in St. John's time : grtJw out of his 'J'OOts: " and BOJD. xv. 12, ae much llO, that the TaZyiDg ea.see were • Esaias aaith, There shall be a Boot ot formed from both words. Al it lla4 been J'esae"). Further, Obrist may be said to alain. We are here confronted with what haTe been the Boot of David, by mue of Stuart oo.119 · an " ll!Stbetical difficulty." ha pre-existence and his creative power.· How eould the Lamb, whioh was aliTe, It is one of the paradoxes of the Incarnation; standing,,and aclive, !!xhibit any appearance that he who is the Root of David 11bould whioh would give St. John the idea that it allO be a Braneh. Hath pteYailed 'to open bad been slain? Similarly, in the following the book; hath «mq"6t'ed 1M1n1a-,.,). Not, veraes, how could the Lamb take the book, 811 the Authorized Version appears to read, 'Or the four living beings handle harps and that the act of vieiory oonsisted in the bowls, or the elders play on harpe while opening · of the ·book, but the ability to also holding bowl11? In the first place, it open was a oonsequenoe of a former aot of is perfectly immateriAI to inquire. St. John victory, viz. the redemption. Bo in ver. 9 is not giving a circumstantial narrative of the ascription of praise runB, " Thou ari certain historical facte w biob oceurred in worthy becaU86 thou wast slain., (on the the material, sensible world : but he is infinitive epexegetio, see Winer). Some see reproducing ideas conveyed to him in 90me • reference here to eh. iii. 7, "He that wa;r (certainly not through· the senses}, openeth, and no man shutteth." And to which ideas are symbolical of events occur- 1-e ths ■evea IIIIIWI thereof; and the 16"611 ring in the natural and spiritual worlds, Hall !f'«'«1/ (Revised Version), Omit "to and of the oondition of men or bodies of loose. ' men. Therefore, if we oan ascertain what. Ver. 6.-And I beheld. Again a new these mental pictures are intended to feature of the vision is indicated {eee on· portray to us, it matters not in what way Ter, I). And, lo, in the midat of the throne the ideas were conveyed to the mind of the nd of Ule feur beasts, and in the midst of eeer. In the seoond place, it ·must be the elders. For a description of the position remembered that the whole is a vision; and ef the throne and the living beings and that although St. John Bays, "I saw," in the elders, see oh. iv.· 6. The passage point of fact none of the mental impressione would, perhaps, be more plainly rendered, which be obtained were conveyed through "Between the throne and the four living · the senses. Just as a person relating • creature& on the one h~nd, and . the elders dream saye, "I saw," when In reality hw on too ot~er, stood," eto. . The repetition of eyes had been shut and his senses asleep, ~ in the midst" is a Hebral8m ( of. Oen. i. 4, 6, llO the writer here says, "I saw;" and jlld- 7, LXX.). · The Lamb would ·thus oooupy as in a dream we receive distinct ideas oon- acentral position, where he would be viaible ceming 11n · objeot without knowing how or to all .· Stood a Lamb. : The Greek word why we kuow the particular fact, and that, ap,,(o.,, which is here employed. and whioh too, when such qualities seem oontradictoey, isoonslantlyused throughouttheApooalyps&, to others with whioh the object is iriveeted, oooun elsewhere in the New 'l'estament and yet no inccmgroity is apparen* to us, only in ,John :ni. 15. The Lamb of John ao St. John -1ised that these object■ i. 29 -is il.~&s. Thie word has therefore p088888ed qualities which, in the sensible been brought forward as an evidenoe that world; would have been imposBible, Ha11J18 the writer of the Gospel was not also the nven horDL Throughout the Bible A writer of the Apocalypse, since, when the emblem of power. Moses blessed the tribe word is applied as a title of our Lord, of Joseph in the words, "His homs .are like the term di1feri1. But the .passage John i. the horns of unicorns: with them he shaH 29 is a quotation from Isaiah, and the push the people together to the ends of the writer naturally adheres to lhe form found earth " (Dent. xxxiii. 17"). ·Hannah sang, in lhe LXX. version in that plaoo. But "Mine horn is exalted~ (1 Sani. ii. l"). on other oooaaions, when he is free to em ploy The - denotes perfection (see on eh. L his own diction, llll in John x:d 15 and in 4; v. 1, etc.). The symbol, therefore, attri- the Apooalyp■e, he invariably employs the but.es to the Lamb complete power (cf. ~ Ap,,Cw. Some haw found in the fact the words of Obrist in Matt. :s.:niii. IS. that ap11!o11 (Offlion) is originall7 a diJDinu. ".All power it pTen 1111to me ir.i heaven awl cm. v.1-14,] THE BE'OLATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 166