The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 206

EXPOSITION. heaven, the ineffable bliss of which ft la CIIAPTER VIII. impossible for mortals to comprehend, and Ver. 1.-And when. Kai a-rcw, instead of which i", therefore, symbolized by silence. 1<al 8-re (as in the other seals), is iead in A, C, In the eaine way the new name is left unex- and gives a certain indefiniteneBS which does plained;as something beyond the kno)Vledge not belong to any of the rest (Alford). don of man in this life, and reserved for the life is, however, found in N, B, P, Andreas. Ke in heaven (see on eh. iii. 12). It ia the sab- had opened the seventh seal ; 11£ opBned. bath of the Church's history, into the foll Ail in the oase of the other seals, the silence comprehension of which man cannot now 11ecompanieJ1 the opening (see on eh. vi. 1, enter. The interpretation of this seal varies 3, 5,etc,). This completes the num~r. and with different wiiters, a.coording to the view sets the roll free (eh. v. 1). The contents of taken of the vision as a whole. Bede, the roll do not, however, become visible, nor PrimRSius, Victorinus, Wordsworth, agree ii:. ~ they portrayed otherwise than by the considering that it denotes the beginning of Jlilerlce of half an hour (see on eh. v. I). eternal peace. Those who take the preterist There was silence in heaven; there followed a view variously assign the aiknce to (I) the silence (Revised Version); a silence became; destruction of Jerusalem (Maurice); (2) i.e. where there had not been silence pre- A.D, 812-887 (King); (8) the period follow• viously, owing to the praises set forth at the ing A.D. 895 (Elliott); (4) the millennium close of eh. vii. This image may have been (Lange); (5) the decree of Julian imposing suggested by the silence kept by the congre- lilence on the Christians (De Lyra), etc.; gation without, while the priest offered in, Vitringa ,thinks it r~lates to the time wh8J!. cense within, the temple (of. Luke i. 10). the Church will be triumphant on earth; This thought, too, may have led to the fol- Hengstenberg, the astonishment of Christ's lowing vision, in which the angel offers enemies; Ebmrd, the silence of creation in incense (ver. 8), and in this sense the vision awe at the oalastrophes about to happe:q; and of the trumpets m11y be said to have grown Diiaterdieck, similarly, the silence of those in out of the seventh seal, though a similar a.et heaven, waiting for the same events. About precedes the visions of the sea.la (see eh. v. the space of half an hour. Moot writers are 8). But in no other way is there any con- agreed that the half-hour represents a ilwrl nection between the two visions; the events time. But if (as we have indicated above} narrated under the vision of the trumpets the silence is typical of the eternal rest of are not an exposition of the seventh seal, heaven, how ean it be short? Possibly the .but a separate vision, supplementing what answer is that the shortness refers to the has been set forth by the seven BPA'lls. 'l'he · time during which the seer was contem- fikllllfl is tyr.\ca I of the eternal peaee of plating this aspect of the vision. He had  2SO THE REVELATION OF ST. JORN THE DIVINE. (as. vm. 1_;13.