REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN.

ON THE TIME OF THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOOK.

The older theologians proceeded almost uniformly on the supposition, that the Book of Revelation was composed in the closing period of Domitian's reign—an opinion that finds, in Vitringa especially, an excellent though brief defence. On the whole, however, little comparatively was done to establish this opinion on solid and satisfactory grounds; even Bengel did not go deeply into the matter. The feeling for the genuine historical interpretation of the Apocalypse was still not awakened, so that but little weight could as yet be attached to this most important inquiry, and it was passed hurriedly over. The interest felt in it was less on account of the exposition, than for the defence of the authority of the old ecclesiastical tradition, which had declared in favor of the composition under Domitian. But there being no right feeling awakened for the true historical interpretation, the power failed, in connection with that interest, to give a lucid exhibition of the proof. This can only be found when one understands how to obtain from many scattered indications a living image of the existing condition of the Seer, which forms the proper starting-point for the announcement of the future. Vitringa has some excellent observations in this respect, but they are confined to the seven epistles. lu regard to the remainder of the Book, the question as to the historical starting-point can scarcely be said to be so much as mooted. With him, as with Bengel, and so many unfortunately even to our own day, the prophecy swims, as it were, in the air ; and nothing, consequently, could be derived from it for determining the period of its composition. In more recent times the position advanced originally by Grotius, Hammond, Lightfoot, for the purpose of understanding certain passages of the fate of Judaism, that the Book was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, has been pretty generally acquiesced in. And on the authority especially of Ewald and Liicke the precise opinion, that the Apocalypse was composed under Galba, has obtained very general consent. By many it is uttered with a sort of naive confidence, and most of all by those who have brought almost nothing of an independent investigation to bear upon the subject.

"We shall, first of all, examine the external testimonies that relate to the point at issue. From these we shall gather the result that, what Lampe has said in his Comm. on John i. p. 62, "all antiquity agrees in the opinion of Domitian's being the author of John's banishment," is no paradox, but the simple truth. For, the deviations from this result are on the part only of such as do not deserve to be heard and considered.

The series of testimonies for the composition under Domitian is opened by Irenacus. lie says, B. V. c. 30, " For if it were necessary at present to declare plainly his name (i. e. the name of the person indicated by the number 666 in the Apocalypse xiii. 18), it might be done through him, who also saw the Apocalypse. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our generation, toward the close of Domitian's reign."* Iremeus was in a posi

tion for knowing the truth. According to the beginning of the chapter, the numbers 666 (in opposition to the other reading 616) bear testimony to having seen John in the face.* He speaks not by way of conjecture or on constructive reasons, but as of a matter established beyond any possibility of doubt. He neither expressly refers, nor alludes to the passage, ch. i. 9, from which the opponents of the composition under Domitian might so naturally attempt to account for the testimonies of antiquity to that era. Nor does he announce it, as if communicating something that had hitherto been unknown, but with another design altogether, he introduces it as a thing then generally known and acknowledged. This is evident from the circumstance of his contenting himself with only a brief indication, and his being quite silent regarding the persecution of Domitian, and the apostle's exile to Patmos, the occasion which gave rise to the composition of the Apocalypse in the existing circumstances of the period— confident that his first readers would readily supply all this themselves.

Clemens of Alexandria (in the work Quis dives § 42, and in Eusebius III. 23) says: "For since he (John) after the death of the tyrant returned to Ephesus from the isle Patmos,"t &c. The manner in which he speaks of the matter shows that there is implied a generally known tradition : the tyrant, the Eoman Emperor of the first century, Domitian, who, as is well known, pre-eminently deserves that name. It cannot be alleged that Clemens spoke of the tyrant, and not of Domitian, because he was ignorant of the name. He would in that case have chosen a general designation, not such an one as pre-supposes that he had in view a definite person.

Origen on Matth. xx. 22, 23, says: "But the sons of Zebedee have drunk the cup and been baptized with the baptism, since Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword ; and the king of the Eomans, as tradition testifies, condemned the witnessing John on account of the word of truth to the isle Patmos. But John himself instructs us regarding his martyrdom, not saying indeed who had adjudged him to it, yet declaring in the Apocalypse us follows : ' I, John, your brother and companion in tribulation,' &c., and seems to have beheld the Kevelation on the island."* Here the king of the Romans forms the contrast to Herod the king of the Jews. Origen is silent respecting the name, because he was generally known, and the blank was easily supplied from the tradition, to which he refers. That tho omission of the name is not, with Liicke p. 410, to be accounted for by his not knowing it, is evident from the analogy in Clemens, where more definitely, though still without the application of any proper name, the term " tyrant" is used ; it is evident also, from the analogy in Eusebius III. 20, where " the isle" is the well-known traditional island Patmos; and, finally, from a comparison of the other preservers of the tradition, in particular Irenaeus, who expressly names Domitian. Had Origen not been well assured regarding the name connected with the tradition — for which not the semblance of a reason can be given, and which is a mere refuge invented for the occasion — he would not have pointed so unconditionally to tradition, without at least intimating that he ascribed to it only a partial credibility.

The assertion, proceeding only from interested considerations, that what the ancients knew of John's exile to Patmos was inferred simply from the statement in ch. i. 9,

is contradicted by Origen as distinctly as he well could. He remarks expressly, that he derived the fact of John's banishment to Patmos primarily from a substantial tradition, of whose credibility he, the critic, suggests no doubt. He introduces the testimony of John himself only as a confirmation, and remarks that it is less complete than the tradition, since the latter alone, besides what was common to the tradition and the Apocalypse, mentions who condemned the apostle. The tradition could not simply have been drawn by Origen from Irenseus. For, he refers to this far more than is to be found in the merely indicative statement of Irenaeus, who says nothing, indeed, of the condemnation of John and his banishment to Patmos. We have no right, with Liicke, to lay the emphasis on, " he appears to have seen the Apocalypse on the island," and thence conclude, that the composition of the Apocalypse was only regarded by Origen as having probably taken place in Patmos. It is only a modest expression, which refers not so much to the execution of the particular work, as to human knowledge in general, according to the adage,

ahlijv 81 •< ni.1 Xi'n •<;'.»' ''Hum fiofvot fliol, ioixvlar 8s xal ivOgianoi

(the certain cause is known only to the gods, and the probable to men). More cannot justly be attributed to the "he appears," since the tradition, to which Origen refers, on the part of its other vouchers connects the composition of the Apocalypse with the banishment to Patmos as an undoubted fact.

Eusebius, in B. III. ch. xviii. of his Church History, says, " Under him (Domitian) tradition relates, that the apostle and evangelist John, who was still alive, on account of his testimony for the divine word, was condemned to reside in the isle Patmos.* In B. III. ch. xx. : " Then also that the apostle John returned from his banishment from the island, and took up his dwelling again at Ephesus, the tradition of our older men has delivered to us."* Again, in B. III. ch. xxiii., "John governed there (in Asia) the churches, after his return from exile on the island, subsequent to the death of Domitian."f Also in the Chronicon under the fourteenth year of Domitian, "The apostle John, the theologian, he banished to the isle Patmos, where he saw the Apocalypse, as Irenaeus says."

Eusebius is quite consistent with himself in the several passages, and always speaks with the same confidence (comp. besides Demonstr. III. 5). When in the Chronicon he refers to Irenseus as a sure voucher, it is so far of importance as it shows him to have had no suspicion that that Father had formed it by merely combining notices together. But it does not at all prove that Irenaeus was the only source of the tradition to Eusebius. The contrary is manifest from the circumstance, that what Eusebius gives as the testimony of tradition, contains more than what is stated by Irenaeus, and also, because in one of the passages he refers to several depositaries of the tradition. Never once does Eusebius point, by so much as a single syllable, to any other view regarding the author of John's exile, and the time of the composition of the Apocalypse. So that there must then in this respect have been perfect unanimity in the church. Finally, under the name of Victorinus of Petabio, who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in the year 303, we have a writing on the Apocalypse, which is printed in the third volume of the Bibl. Patr. Lugd., and which as to its substance is undoubtedly genuine, for it bears too exactly the character

* Tore (5?) ovv not rov diroarohov 'luumi;i> uffd rr/r tcaril Tt/v w/aov rffti M Tijf 'EQiaov tiiarptflt/v &Trtiir$(v<u u Tuv -xop' i//tfv upxaiuv iuai Xoyof.

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of the style which Jerome ascribes to Victorinus (see the collection of his expressions in the Bibl. Patr., and other reasons for its substantial genuineness, may be seen in Liicke, p. 494). But in this work the composition of the Apocalypse under Domitian, during the exile in Patmos, is spoken of as a matter of undoubted certainty.*

These are all the testimonies on the time of the composition of the Apocalypse belonging to the age of living tradition. They declare with perfect unanimity that John was banished by Domitian to Patmos, and there wrote the Apocalypse.- Variations begin only to appear in the age of theology and learning. Epiphanius is the first, who puts forth another view. But even there the tradition still has such sway, that all persons of any critical acumen, all who know how to distinguish between historically accredited facts and conjectures and combinations, declare themselves on its side. At the head of these is Jerome, who did not reckon it worth while even to notice the existence of a different account, which must therefore be held to be every way improbable.! The matter stands precisely similar with the question regarding the genuineness.

For the more correct appreciation of the other and differing accounts we submit the following remarks:

1. It is only in writers of inferior rank that these accounts are to be found. Epiphanius, who is the first in point of time, is also by far the most important. But the judgment which Vitringa expressed regarding him, " that he was an extremely incredulous person, and in the mention of traditions or sayings of the ancients much less exact than he seems to be," is now generally received. To pitch him against Irenseus, and treat with discredit the testimony of the latter, on the ground of what he has said, would betray a palpable want of critical acumen.* The late Syriac translator and Pseudodorotheus carry still less weight. And Theophylact furnishes a test for the measurement of his sagacity, in announcing, instead of the Apocalypse, that the Gospel was composed at Patmos, without probably a single authority to support the statement^

2. None of those who deviate from the tradition venture to refer to it, while this is quite common with those who place the exile of John and the writing of the Apocalypse under Domitiau.

3- " Only those (remarks Liicke) who place the exile under Domitian, indicate the continuance in a definite way." All the others speak in a vague manner, and do not venture to go into more exact specification: precisely as we should have expected, on the supposition of the one class resting on historical tradition, and the other following uncertain conjectures.

4. The deviators are quite at variance among themselves, while the statement which places the composition under Domitian has the fixed impress, that is the mark of truth. The Syriac translation makes the exile of John and the composition of the Apocalypse to have taken place under Nero, Epiphanius under Claudius, and according to Pseudodorotheus he was banished to Patmos by Trajan.

5. The deviators show also by their vacillation and wavering that they have no firm ground beneath their feet. Pseudodorotheus, after he has placed the banishment of John to Patmos under Trajan, adds, " But others say, he was banished to Patmos, not under Trajan, but under Domitian, the son of Vespasian."* Arethas, who at ch. vii. 1-8 places the composition of the Apocalypse before the Jewish war, at ch. i. 6, makes it to have been written under Domitian.

6. We can with tolerable certainty discover the extraneous grounds, which have given rise to these departures from the historical tradition, and through which they lose all their importance. They have no higher origin than the opinions of our modern critics, who on the ground of the first plausible conjecture and discovery on the internal field, disregard and tread under foot the weightiest and most solid testimonies. Epiphanius ranks in the same line with Ziillig.

It cannot but appear strange, that all those who depart

* Before Theophylact on John: TVd d£ Tpoiovoi (3aoMuf iv r§ vfoip HuTfti,! 6iti rim hoyov Tov Kvpiov. . . Kial 6i ol t.zyovoi, M Tpalavov a{ir&v ItupiaOjjvai iv Ilur^y, uMA. M bo/ieriavov,

XVI

from the tradition, amid their other diversities agree in this, that they place the composition of the Revelation before the era of Jerusalem's overthrow. That what impelled them to this was the belief of certain passages in Revelation having respect to the Jewish catastrophe, seems probable alone from the analogy of later critics and expositors, who from Grotius downwards have been chiefly influenced by this consideration to disallow the composition of the Apocalypse under Domitian. But it is raised to certainty by expressions of Andreas and Arethas, who in reference to certain passages expressly affirm that they were understood by some of the Jewish war, who consequently could not do otherwise than transfer the composition of the book to a time previous to that war.* But in proportion as the exposition of the Apocalypse was then in a state of infancy, the less consideration can justly be attributed to what has sprung from such a ground.

Why the Emperor Claudius should have been fixed on may be gathered from those who have latterly contended for the composition under his reign. Grotius, Hammond, and others derive their chief argument in favor of Claudius from Acts xviii. 2, and the well-known passage of Suetonius (Claud, c. 25), which speak of the expulsion of the Jews, and this is supposed to have involved also John's banishment to Patmos. Another argument may still be found in the original passage Matt. xxiv. 7, " And there shall be famines and pestilences in various places," on which Rev. vi. 5-8 rests; for this has often been re. ferred to the times of Claudius, in whose reign a famine four times broke out and a pestilence twice—comp. Acts xi. 28, the comm. on Sueton. c. 18, Schott Comment, in Sermones de reditu, p. 27.

* Andreas says on ch. vi. 12: Kai eUov on v»'o<Je Tt>v ottpaylia T^v Ixrriv, icai oew/t&f filyaf tyevero, Ka.1 6 ;/?.ioj- lytvfro /il^.af u; adxxof K. T. A. Kai ravra rivcf elf T^v M Otoeawaoiavov irohopKtav tftha/3w airavra rdv elpn/ievuv Ikootov ryjOTroAoyj/aavref. Also on ch. vii. 1: Koi Tovrd raw fa d Pu/iaiuv Trufau rolf 'lovSaioif

It was the more natural to think of Nero, when one once abandoned the ground of testimony and gave way to conjectures, since, having been the first to begin the work of persecution against Christians, and the person under whom the most distinguished of the apostles, Peter and Paul, suffered martyrdom, he was regarded in ancient times as distinctively the persecutor. Tertullian already makes John, not indeed banished by Nero to Patmos, yet put by him into a barrel of boiling oil.*

We are not, however, to suppose that with the result we have now attained, the inquiry respecting the composition of the Apocalyse is to be regarded as closed. External testimonies alone cannot decide the matter. It is conceivable, that what was originally conjecture, may have clothed itself in the garb of tradition, and under this form deceived even the most honest inquirers. But we must put the matter in its fair and correct position— that we have no longer to speak of two equally accredited views of antiquity; that we must recognize upon the one side a well-supported tradition, and on the other an uncertain conjecture; that we must proceed to the investigation of the internal grounds with the consciousness of having already at the outset won a firm position, from which we should not suffer ourselves to be driven by any uncertain conjectures, but only by the most conclusive arguments. But the more careful examination of the internal grounds, far from invalidating the external testimonies, rather yields the result, that the Book could have been composed at no other time than during the reign of Domitian.

1. Let us first bring into view the condition of the churches in Lesser Asia, as that appears in the seven epistles.

Dr. Lucke himself is obliged to admit, p. 243, that the Revelation supposes a condition of the churches, which, in contradistinction from the earlier one of Paul's time, may be designated the age of John. First of all, the seven epistles presuppose a time, when that word of the Lord, " But when the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept," and that word, " Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold," had already passed into fulfilment. The blessed period of the first love is past, even there too, where it still relatively stood fast; zeal has relaxed and corruption make great inroads; we feel ourselves everywhere transferred to the later times, " in which a grievous corruption, that not suddenly but by gradual advances had sprung up, and acquired new strength as it proceeded, had already befallen those churches."

In Ephesus the love which Paul, in ch. iii. 18 of hia epistle, had besought for the Ephesians, has become cooled. " But I have somewhat against thee, that thou hast left thy first love." (Rev. ii. 4.) Already it is a time, when that which still remained is in danger of perishing. " Remember from whence thou hast fallen (it is said in ver. 5), and repent and do the first works; else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." Paul, in his farewell discourse to the church at Ephesus, Acts xx., still makes no mention of any blemishes among them, but only warns them against the snares of the threatening foe. The Epistle to the Ephesians, written by Paul (according to Wieseler in this Chronol. of the Apost. age, p. 455) during the period of his first two years' imprisonment at Rome, or in the year 61 or 62 (according to Harless about the year 62), everywhere conveys the impression of fresh life, of a first love. The apostle begins at the very outset with an expression of thanksgiving to God for all the rich spiritual gifts which he had conferred on that church. He lauds in particular the love of the Ephesians, their brotherly love, which has its eource and foundation in the love of Gorl

cli. i. 15, 16, " Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers."

The church of Sardis appears in a still sadder condition. " I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead"—is the word to her, iii. 1—your light has already well-nigh become extinct.

Laodicea had become lukewarm; wretched and miserable, poor, and blind, and naked. The condition of the Laodicean church in Paul's time is partly to be estimated by that of the Ephesian, according to Col. iv. 16, partly and more particularly by that of the church of Colosse; comp. Col. ii. 1, iv. 13,15, 16. The Epistle to the Colossians was written about the same time with that to the Ephesians (see Wieseler), and not long before the close of Paul's life, when suffering imprisonment at Rome. There, just as in the Epistle to the Ephesians, he gives thanks for what he had heard of their faith and love: " We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love to all the saints." (Col. i. 3, 4.) According to ch. ii. 5, the apostle is with them in spirit rejoicing and beholding their order and their faith in Christ.

Dr. Liicke thinks, p. 413, that the change in question can be explained, though a period of only ten years had intervened. But even this short space is not secured. The date of the Apocalypse is supposed by him to havo been separated from that of the Epistles to Ephesus and Colosse by a period of somewhere about six years. And then it is clear as day, that even a space of ten years could not account for so radical a change. It bespeaks a change of persons, the arrival of a new generation: comp. Judg. ii. 7, according to which the people served the Lord so long as Joshua and the elders lived, who had seen the mighty works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel. In regard, especially, to what concerns the Laodiceans it will not do merely to say: Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. It were indeed a source of despair, if such a change on the part of established Christians could be explained from a change of times, and, God be thanked, is without an example in the history of the Christian church. The world can certainly become demoralized in a short time, but Christians retain their anointing. And then in the decennium immediately following the composition of the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, no change of times can be pointed out, which should have brought such perils with it, endangering even the elect. It came only at the period, to which the church tradition assigns the composition of the Apocalypse, under the reign of Domitian. There, all the premises are to be found, which are required to explain the facts. We have, in that case, an interval of more than thirty years. During thai period the apostles had all, with the exception of John, gone to their rest, and so the boundary set by the apostle Paul in 2 Thess. ii. 6 had been crossed; gone, too, were the Christian fathers, who had seen the great deeds of the Lord, while a storm of persecution, such as the Christian church had never yet seen, passed over the less firmly established new generation. Hence, the Seer writes, according to ch. i. 9, to his companions in tribulation and in the patience of Jesus Christ. Then did the word of the Lord in Matth. xiii. 20, 21, find a mournful fulfilment: "But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he who heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and bye he is offended."

Farther, we find in the churches to which John wrote, the errors of those, whom he designates by the symbolical names of the Nicolaitans or Balaamites, deeply rooted and wide-spread. According to ch. ii. 21, the Lord had already given ample time to their operations: " And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not." How strong the pressure of the Nicolaitans was upon the church at Ephesus, is manifest from its being mentioned as a matter of high desert, that they hated the deeds of these Nicolaitans. They must there have been already excluded from the church. For in apostolic times this was the form in which hatred manifested itself —comp. 1 Cor. v.—and it could not otherwise have been a fact of a public character, as it appears to have been. In the church at Pergamos the matter had not been brought to such an exclusion, a proof how strong the party there was. So also in the church at Thyatira. It must there have found its way to the dictatorship; as may be inferred from the Jesabel, the wife of the angel, the weaker half of the party in office.

The rise of the importance of this sect can only be explained in connection with the influence which heathenism had preserved in men's minds, by reason of persecution, as a similar temptation and inclination to apostasy to Judaism in consequence of Jewish persecution meets us in the epistle to the Hebrews. And among Israel also the heathenish tendencies were never stronger than in the times of severe oppression on the part of the world, before the conquest of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and under Antiochus Epiphanes. Pergamos, which was a chief seat of this heresy, is described as the throne of Satan, the main centre of the heathenish persecution. Antipas, the faithful witness, had there suffered martyrdom. The community had under the persecution maintained their faith, but they were not to come out of the conflict without wounds. In Thyatira, the second seat of the heresy, the promise given shows that the temptation to false doctrine sprung from a terrible pressure on the part of heathenism. " He that overcometh and keepeth my words to the end, to him will I give power over the nations . . . and I will give him the morning star (a glorious supremacy)." If the church internally resists the pressure of heathenism, does not allow itself to be drawn aside to heathenish errors, it shall also gain externally the victory over it Therefore, the temptation had come in from " the power of the heathen." Whosoever withstands it, receives in turn. " the power of the heathen." Then, for the rise of this heresy out of the heathen persecutions, there is the analogy of ch. xi. In consequence of the overflowing of the heathen the fore-court of the temple is there given up, such, namely, as had no deep root, they are overcome through the heathen persecutions, and are drawn over to the fellowship of those, who in their minds were heathenish.

; Accordingly, the getting the victory over this error implies what could not have existed before the times of Domitian, when for the first time a severe persecution, and one that threatened the annihilation of the Christians, swept over the church, and especially did not exist in the reign of Galba, during which there was no proper persecution of the Christians.

In the epistles of Paul there still occurs no trace of such a gross and wide-spread falling away into the region of heathenism. The errors, with which Paul contends, were chiefly of Jewish origin, as were also the troubles which then pressed upon the Christians. Ilymeneus and Philetus, according to the second epistle of Paul to Timothy, written at the very close of the apostle's life, succeeded with their refined philosophical error in turning only a few from the faith—Araiflnovot T\» ttrtar nlaur. The farther spread of such errors was expected only in the coming future; v. 17, comp. Acts xx. 29, 30.

The proper kernel of our heresy meets us, for the first time, in the second epistle of Peter, which the apostle wrote, according to ch. i. 13, 14, when he had death in immediate prospect. To the name of the Nicolaitans here corresponds there the comparison with Balaam, ch. ii. 15, 16. The errors appear there chiefly to belong to the future; although the liveliness of the description, and the circumstance that the errors are sometimes spoken of as present, show that the apostle had the first beginnings of the evil already before his eyes. The occasion of its rise is indicated in. ch. iii. 4, Where, say the opposing party, is the promise of his coming ? The desire for this must have been awakened by the violence of the persecution and the tribulations of the world. What the Christians had latterly to suffer under Nero was well fitted, particularly at Rome, to call forth the first workings of the evil, and especially to open the eyes of the apostle in respect to the magnitude in the future, when the persecution should increase and widen, of the danger that should thence threaten the church. We are conducted a step farther by the epistle of Jude. The errors, which in the second epistle of Peter appeared as still chiefly lying in the future, are here represented as already present. "The errors (says Heydenrich in his defence of the genuineness of the second epistle of Peter), which Peter had announced as ready to appear, were now in actual being, and strove to gain a footing in the church, with which Jude was more immediately connected. How appropriate that he should repeat, and call up to the recollection of his readers, what at an earlier period Peter had so impressively and profoundly uttered for their warning!" That what was future in Peter had now become present, was the proper motive to Jude for writing his epistle.* But even in Jude the error is still by no means so far advanced and sofully disclosed to view, as in the Revelation. There also it is said only, that " certain men had crept in unawares." We see ourselves here, therefore, brought into a quiet, isolated region, the path to which only began to be indicated in the latest epistles of the New Testament.

 

II. Of great importance for determining the time of composition is the passage ch. i. 9, " I John, your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." From this passage various proofs may be derived in confirmation of the view that the Book must first have been composed under Domitian. First, the prophet designates himself as the companion of Christians in Lesser Asia, to whom he primarily wrote, in their tribulation, and indeed in such a tribulation as kindled the desire after the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of glory. For, as the world then sought to lay the church at its feet, the church needed to have her faith quickened in regard to the coming glory, that she might be able to bring fully into exercise the patience of faith. The discourse here, therefore, must be of a Christian persecution in the proper sense, and one that was of a general nature. But such a persecution first happened under Domitian. That which took place in Nero's time was confined to Rome.

Then the Seer presents himself here to our view as one who had suffered exile on account of his fidelity to the Christian testimony. Such local deportations, besides punishments of a capital nature, there is good evidence for believing were inflicted during the persecution of Domitian. On the other hand, under Nero, history knows only of capital executions at Rome, and never once mentions anything like deportations from one place to another.

Finally, the Seer, John, was on the isle of Patmos when he received the Apocalypse. But it was under Domitian that tradition affirms John to have been banished thither.

Now, everything has been brought into requisition to dispose especially of the second and third of these points. Liicke, in his Introduction, p. 244, would fain have us to make no account of the passage in determining the period of the composition. For the exposition is doubtful regarding the exile to Patmos, and the tradition of such an txile of John is not harmonious—problematical. We do not need to enter on the latter point here; as the subject ha already been discussed in the preceding investigations. To remove the exile to Patmos from our text in an ?xegetical way, Liicke has certainly bestowed great painj in the treatise on the Revelation of John i. 1, 2, and 9, in ',he Studien and Kritiken for the year 36, p. 654, sa. But w cannot avoid feeling our suspicions awakened as to the Jesuits there obtained, when we see how the main object ii view comes out in the inquiry, for example in the words p. 661: " If we have rightly interpreted the passage, ch. i. 9, the exegetical reason, at least, disappears for the traditicn, that John was ever banished to Patmos as a martyr;" and a more careful examination only serves to prove this sispicion to be well grounded.

Liicke reasons thus: What may hinder us from determining thus tbe phraseology of the Apocalypse, that "the testimony of Jems Christ," with " the word of God," may be understood jartly, as in ch. xx. 4, and xii. 17, of the gospel generally, so far as it refers to the testimony of Jesus, partly in a more special sense, if a particular prophetical word of God is meant, which was to be given or communicated through Jesus ? Ch. i. 9 stands too near to ch. i. 2, not to be interpreted pre-eminently by it. If there the special revelation of the future is meant, so also here. Patmos is toe place selected by God himself, •where John must receive that revelation. Dr. Bleek confesses that he has arrived at the same view, in the Evangelienkritik, p. 192 : " The nearness of the passage (ch. i. 2) renders it at least probable that we should explain in a corresponding manner ch. i. 9, as indicative of the design, on account of which the Seer Lad withdrawn himself to the isle of Patmos, viz. that he might there receive the divine revelation which he unfolds in his Book."

From the first we feel compelled to think unfavorably of this interpretation. The air of martyrdom swims all around us in the Book of Eevelation. Just as it can be rightly understood and appreciated only by those whc have experience of tribulations,* so it could only have been written by one who had himself drunk of the bitttr cup of martyrdom, had himself felt the force of its temp'/ations, and in experience had known the sweetness of taat consolation which he stretches forth to others. The persecution on the part of the worldly power of heathecdom is the starting-point of the whole ; and that the ruthor was himself affected by it is evident from the pre/ailing tone of sadness, and the wrestling character of kith :-•— comp. the " I wept much" in ch. v. 4, which penades the whole Book. The Book becomes a riddle, whenever we lose sight of the truth that it was written by a nartyr (as such John is already designated by Polycrates of Ephesus, in Euseb. v. 24); and we must proceed on tois ground, even though ch. i. 9 did not exist. Such passages as ch. vii. 9-17 indispensably require this key. &> only would a partaker of the tribulation of Jesus Christ administer consolation. "We, therefore, cannot feel disposed to abandon a mode of explanation which if in such perfect harmony with the whole spirit of the Book, unless con* Btrained to do so by the most urgent necessity.

But so far from this being the case, the interpretation which understands the pnssage of martyrdom is the only (tenable one. For, never and nowhere do the expressions " the word.of God," and " the testimony of Jesus Christ," of themselves mark a prophetical ennouncement. In ch. i. 2, they certainly have that import, but only in connection with what precedes, and without prejudice to their more general signification: " The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent aud signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who (here also, as formerly in the gospels and in the epistles *), testified of the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ that he saw." In the passage before us, however, no such restrictive clauses have preceded, nor is there to be found any such reason for the more general mode of expression, as occurs above, in the allusion to the gospel and the epistles; here, therefore, the discourse can only be of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus in. general.

But were the phrase, " for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus," doubtful in themselves, they would still receive from the connection in two ways a more precise and definite import. First, by the preceding context: your companion in the tribulation and patience of Jesus Christ; the words, " I was in the isle that is called Patmos," etc., representing more definitely the part which the Seer had in the tribulation and patience of Jesus Christ. Then, by the sojourn on the island. This was fitted for no other purpose than as a place of banishment. Not for the preaching of the gospel, to which several in earlier tim'es referred the expression, " on account of the word of God," etc. For, the island, which, according to Pliny, H. N. iv. 12, was thirty thousand paces in circuit, was too insignificant to draw toward it the regard and labors of fl,n apostle, or of any one occupying so high a place as to have intrusted to him the oversight of the churches in Asia. Nor had it any peculiar fitness as a place where the Revelation was to be received. This might as well have been imparted to the Seer in his own dwelling. The only circumstance, which, with any appearance of probability, might be alleged as a reason for the apostle undertaking a visit to Patmos, in order to receive the Revelation there, is the nearness of the sea—a circumstance which has actually been adduced by Zullig, in his Revelation of John Th. i. p. 233. One might point with that view to ch. xiii. 1, " And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea." But it were to overlook the power of the Spirit, if we should suppose, that the prophet must, or even could make a voyage, in order to have the sea within view. Daniel, when far in the interior of the solid land, saw the four winds striving on the great sea. It was also in the Spirit only that Daniel found himself on the river Ulai, in ch. viii. 2. In the Revelation we can the less think of anything else, as the Seer had before him constant examples of the use of the sea as a symbol by the older men of God, Nor is there to be found a single case, in which a prophet undertook a journey to a distant place, that he might there receive a vision.

The argument from the manner of expression and the

connection is still farther strengthened by a comparison of the passage, ch. xiii. 10, which implies, that at the time when the Book was composed, beside capital executions there were also banishments to different places on account of the faith of Christ—a passage, which entirely accords with the one before us in the sense we put on it. In regard also to the particular expressions, see the passages ch. vi. 9, " I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held;" xi. 11, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ;" xx. 4, " Those that were beheaded for the testimony of Jeans and for the word of God;"—in all which Unquestionably it is faithfulness in confessing Christ in the midst of sufferings, which is denoted by these expressions.

Finally, the reference of our passage to the martyrdom of John is still farther confirmed by comparing it with Matt. xx. 22, 23, Mark x. 38. There the Lord announced to James and John that they should drink of his cup and be baptized with his baptism. A literal fulfilment of this declaration is what, both from its own nature and from the example of James, as well as 'the analogous case of Peter, we naturally expect to find. At the same time, we are not to overlook the circumstance, that in respect to John it was tempered by another announcement in John xxi. 20-22, according to which a martyrdom in the proper sense, as involving the loss of life for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, does not come into view. The exile to Patmos is the only event in which the fulfilment can be sought. This was recognized already by Origen in Matth. Opp. iii. p. 719. To the like effect Jerome, in his commentary %on the passage in Matthew ; who, besides, refers to the report of John having been put into a barrel of boiling oil,—a report which had its rise in the feeling, as if the banishment to Patmos did not seem sufficient to fulfil the word of Christ. For the same reason, Victoriuus of Petabio aggravates the exile in Patmos, by describing it as a banishment to the works in the mountains, and Theophylact (on the same passage) still makes John, after the exile, be sent back to Patmos by Trajan.

Exception has been taken against the reference of the passage, to the exile of John, because only the greater culprits were doomed to this punishment; criminals of an ordinary kind were appointed instead to work in the mountains. But it is easy to show, that the fact on which this argument is based does not rest on a solid foundation.* There is at any rate no want of proof that this punishment was especially suspended over those who were accused of misdemeanor against the state religion of Kome.t

III. The persecution of the Christians, which proceeded from the supreme magistrate himself, from the Roman state and its rulers as such—this forms the historical starting-point of the Eevelation. Such a persecution, being intended to repel the invasion which the new religion made upon the state's sovereignty, its pretended divinity, implied that the conflict between the deified worldpower, and the worship of the true God and his Son, had already begun. The beast, the world-power, has, according to ch. xiii. 1 (comp. xvii. 3), upon its heads the name of blasphemy. Its adherents, according to ch. xiii. 4 (comp. xviii. 8), ask in a confident and insulting tone, Who is like the beast ? It opens its mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven (xiii. 6). According to xiii. 8, it is worshipped by its adherents as a polemical demonstration against the Lamb. According also to xiii. 12, the false prophet directs to this worship, and according to ver. 15 he has power to compass the death of those who do not worship the image of the beast.

We have here an important proof that the Revelation could not be composed before Domitian's time. " Domitian,"saysReimarus, onDio Cassius, p. 1112, "was the first, Caligula perhaps exceptcd, who among the Romans laid claim to the name of God, and therefore nearly the wholo odium connected with that ought to rest upon him," Certain approaches, indeed, to this claim are" to' be met with in the earlier Ciesars, in particular in Augustus. But in those cases it was the flattery of others which prompted what was done, and the emperor himself rather exercised a restraining influence.* But here the emperor took the initiative, and the claim was so extravagantly urged, that scarcely anything of a similar kind is to be met with among the later emperors, and on this very account Domitian is quite notorious in antiquity. Philostratus, in the life of Apollonius, B. viii. c. 4, p. 324, makes Apollonius defy the claim of Domitian, " who would have himself regarded as the god of all men. According to Suetonius, he began his letters thus, " Our Lord and God commands that it should be done so and so ;" and formally decreed that no one should address him otherwise either in writing or by word of mouth.* According to Dio Cassius, Nerva caused the gold and silver images of Domitian, which were very numerous, to be melted.f Pliny says, that he regarded any slight to his gladiators as an act of impiety toward his divinity .:{: He states, that Trajan was content with the place next to the gods, but that Domitian put himself on a footing of equality with them ; nay, raised himself above them, and as if he alone almost had any claim to godhead, chose for his statues the most hallowed sites in the temple, and caused entire hosts of victims to be offered to himself.§ In the downfall of Domitian, Pliny saw an irony in real life on his pretended divinity.* *

 

Hence, it is self-evident, that under Domitian Christianity had to enter on a struggle of life or death with the imperial power, which always claimed, even in the hands of its most discreet possessors, more than Christians could yield. A sharp collision was now, therefore, inevitable. It is true, we cannot produce distinct historical statements to the effect that Domitian urged his impious claim precisely against the servants of God and his Son, and considered the honor given to these as a robbery of that due to himself. But this omission is easily explained from the decided aversion of heathen authors to Christianity, who could not but regard it as fatal to relate what would appear to give Christians the right side in the matter, and thereby awaken sympathy in their favor. Still, there are not wanting plain enough notices, which, when properly explained, perfectly supply the defect of particular accounts.

The chief passage here is that of Dio Cassius, B. Ivii. p. 1112, Eeim.: " In this same year Domitian put to death, beside many others, the consul Flavius Clemens, although he was his uncle, and had to wife Flayia Domitilla, who was also a relative of the emperor. Both were accused of impiety, for which also many others were condemned,

How the accusation of " impiety" is to be understood, is clear from what immediately precedes, where we learn that a person who had been accused did homage to Domitian, and named him frequently Lord and God*—a title under which he had already been addressed by others. It may farther be understood from what is said at p. 1107: "So much, however, was conceded to him, that almost the whole world, as far as subject to his dominion, was filled with his images and statues, both in silver and gold;" and from all that has been said of Domitian's selfdeification ; since he would scarcely allow any other god to stand beside himself, and the one divinity which had a place in his heart was his own pretended one. To the same result we are conducted by the passage quoted from Suetonius. According to this author Clemens waa put to death " on account of a very slender suspicion." From the connection this suspicion could only be that of resistance to authority. And the suspicion and the accusation of impiety are seen to harmonize, the moment we suppose that Clemens ventured to disavow the emperor as his lord and god, and do homage to his statues, on the ground of fidelity to his heavenly King.

That Domitian looked upon Christianity with a jealous eye, may also be inferred from what Eusebius has related in his Church History, iil 19, 20, from Hegesippus, as to Domitian causing the relatives of Christ to be sent for to Rome, because he was afraid of the coming of Christ.

It is clear as day, then, that for all that respects the conflict of the world-power with the kingdom of Christ, we obtain an excellent historical starting-point, when we understand the Apocalypse to have been composed under Domitian, while such is entirely wanting on any other hypothesis.

The Eevelation supposes, that, at the period of its composition, the Antichristian action of the world-power was accompanied by the Antichristian operation of the worldwisdom ; that this last had already taken up a decided opinion against Christianity, implying of course that it had now become a power in public life. In proof of this see ch. xiii. 11,-ss., according to which the false prophet persuades to the worship of the beast, gives spirit to the image of the beast, and effects that those who would not worship the image should be killed. Here, again, we are left without any definite accounts, and for the reasons already mentioned. We find notices, however, which leave no reasonable doubt that under Domitian the pretensions of the Roman emperor against Christ obtained support in a species of false worldly wisdom, which condescended to garnish those pretensions, and to give them a dazzling appearance, more unquestionably from hatred to Christ, than from avaricious flattery. The most remarkable notice of the kind, and that which furnishes the key for understanding others of a less definite nature, occurs in Philostratus' life of Apollonius, B. vii. 4. After relating how Domitian persecuted the philosophers, he continues, " But some also were led to discourse in a manner that was serviceable to the delinquencies,"* tending to vindicate the emperor's misconduct by giving a scientific color to his divine pretensions. He boasts of his hero, that he had kept free from any such delinquency, for, " having taken wisdom for his mistress, he was free from dependence on Domitian, . . fearing nothing in respect to himself, but moved with pity on ' account of what was fraught with destruction to others. "f There were, therefore, philosophers who, by their discourses in respect to the emperor's claims, brought others into trouble ; and who could these be but the Christians,

the only persons that set themselves with determined energy against such claims ? After considering this passage, one can scarcely doubt, when it is elsewhere related how the Stoic Palfurius Sura under Domitian had acted the part of a very bitter delator, and was in consequence condemned after the emperor's death, that this philosopher pursued the vile business in his capacity as a philosopher, employing his philosophy and eloquence for the persecution of Christianity, and for garnishing the antichristian claims of the emperor.* Dio Cassius names, among many delators who were condemned to death under Nerva, another philosopher, Seras.f From all this what Pliny says of Nerva's measures against the delators, appears in a new light.;]:

IV. The Eevelation was composed at a time when there was an organized bloody persecution, which extended over all Christendom. Ch. xiii. 7 is alone sufficient to prove this, according to which the beast makes war with the saints and overcomes them; and power is given him over all tribes, and peoples, and tongue?, and nations, Christians over the whole earth. It appears also from xiii. 8, according to which all, that dwell on the earth, worship the beast; ii. 13, which speaks of the martyr-crown being won far from the centre of the Roman state, and under the direction of the magistracy, acting as Satan's instrument (xiii. 3); vi. 9, where the prophet sees under the altar the souls of those, who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they had; xvii. 6, where he sees the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; xvi. 6, according to which they have shed the blood of saints and prophets; xviii. 20, in which God is said to avenge upon the new Babylon saints, and apostles, and prophets, while in ver. 24 the blood of saints and of prophets is declared to have been found in her. Finally, ch. xx. 4, where the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God revive again, and those who had not worshipped the beast, nor his image, nor had received his mark upon their forehead and their hand. No doubt, the future is in these passages represented as present, but only in so far as it was to be a continuation of the present. There is never found a trace of what for the time being existed only within local boundaries, appearing afterwards as a heavy tribulation or general persecution extending to the whole of Christendom. Comp. besides ch. vii. 14.

There is a onesidedness in the representation given of Christ. Throughout we see only the aspect he presents to the enemies of his kingdom, and indeed specially the heathen enemies ; the Jews appear only as insignificant opponents, as tails of smoking firebrands, that were briefly despatched in the epistles. And this consideration, coupled with the longing desire that is manifested toward the coming of Christ, and the lively faith in respect to then earness of his approach; all lead to the conviction, that a general conflict of heathenism and Christianity, a conflict of life and death, had already entered.

Now, that such a bloody persecution existed under Domitian, can certainly be proved, and nothing but the confusion of a Dodwell could deny it.* This is just what

might have been expected from the relation in which Christianity stood to the claim of divinity put forth by Domitian, which he urged with unsparing rigor. "It was enough," says Suetonius, "that tiny word or deed against the majesty of the emperor was objected against any one;"* and as majesty is here meant, the mere confession of Christianity must have appeared as a capital offence against it. But we possess explicit testimonies even from heathen writers, although, for the reasons already mentioned, these are cautious and reserved in their words. In one of the passages formerly quoted, Dio Cassius says that Domitian put to death "many others'' besides the Flavius Clemens, whose death itself inferred the martyrdom of many companions ; for when the emperor conducted himself in such a way toward his nearest relatives, how should he have spared others? According to the same author, Nerva punished many delators with death, who, we may be sure, only suffered themselves what they had brought upon, others; he set free those who for high treason had been condemned, or were under investigation ;f and forbade accusations respecting that crime and the Jewish manners to be any longer received. With that prohibition, another (Nerva c. ii.) against setting up gold or silver statues, •went hand in hand; for the claim of divinity in Domitian, and the persecution of Christians, stood to each other in the relation of cause and effect. Philostratus, in the passage already quoted, complains, that under Domitian a certain class of philosophers had become to others the occasion of death. The notices of Christian authors lead to the same result. In the account of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius, in Ruinart, p. 13, it is said, that he with difficulty escaped the earlier storms of the many persecutions that took place under Domitian.* Eusebius, in his Ohronicon, under the year 2112, reports on the authority of Brutius, that " very many Christians suffered martyrdom under Domitian." He relates in his Church Ilistory, iii. 19, 20, that Domitian caused tho relatives of Christ to be fetched from Palestine to Kome.

Thus, therefore, we have an excellent historical starting-point in this respect, for the composition of the Apocalypse, if we refer it to the time of Domitian. But none such can be found, if the period of composition is transferred to the reign of Galba. For, there was then no persecution of Christians, and the only bloody persecution conducted under public authority, which had previously occurred, that under Nero, had both been of short continuance, and did not pass beyond the limits of Borne — not to mention, that it had not been raised against Christians so directly "for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus," as is here supposed. The extension of this persecution beyond the limits of Rome, is in itself not probable. And the Christians, according to the credible report of Tacitus, f were not punished primarily as Christians, but on the ground of having been the first to begin the burning of the city,! so also Eusebius in his Church History, ii. 25. The first person, who positively says, that the persecution of Nero spread beyond Kome, is Orosius, a late author, and one who is the less to be regarded, as Tertullian knows only of Rome.§ In other

* TotV ffo/.at ;[«/«ivaf /loiif irapayayuv Tuv irol.ljJv tnl iurffiov.

things he merely copies Suetonius, and introduces but this one circumstance from his own hand.* If the reasons for and against the extension beyond the limits of Kome •were otherwise equal, we should still feel constrained to decide for the latter, on the simple ground, that from Nero being the first persecutor of the Christians, it was quite natural in process of time to attribute to him more in this respect than originally and properly belonged to him. Against this view of the Neronian persecution as a merely passing and lox;al one, an argument might certainly be raised from the first Epistle of Peter, if it were indeed the case, first that this Epistle was written immediately after the outbreak of that persecution, and then that it proceeds on the supposition of a general persecution of the Christians. But both assumptions are untenable. That the Epistle was written not after, but before the persecution of Nero, in which Peter Avon the crown of martyrdom, has been proved by Wieseler, (p. 564, ss.). And the persecutions, which are discoursed of in the first Epistle of Peter, and to exhort to steadfastness under which is one object of the epistle, are essentially different from those in the Revelation. "What in the first Epistle of Peter is only a subordinate aim, in the Apocalypse is all-predominant: the persecutions referred to in the former are only such as are inseparable from the existence of Christianity itself. No indication exists of a threatening martyrdom, none of persecution by the world-power as such, nor even any certain marks of occasional judicial persecutions. Christians are represented as suffering reproach among the heathen, being reviled as evil-doers, ch. ii. 12; they have much to suffer, especially in the way of calumny, ii. 23, iii. 9, 16, iv. 14. The strongest passage is cla. v. 8, 9, " Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions aro accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." But this passage simply indicates, that the heathen mind was then beginning to become fully conscious of the antagonism that existed between it and Christianity, and the danger which thence threatened its views and feelings; it implies nothiffg in regard to persecutions of blood in the proper sense, nor to any interference on the part of the magistrate, nor to the supposed fact, that the heathen state had already taken the matter into its own hand.

V. The Revelation was written in the midst of persecutions, during which not only executions, but also banishments, took place. This is clear from ch. xiii. 10, "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." In this passage, as the comparison with Luke xxi. 24, Amos i. 6, Ps. Ixviii. 19, &c., shows, it is not merely imprisonment, but also deportations and exiles that arc meant, which is also confirmed by ch. i. 9, where the Seer describes himself as being in the isle Patmos " for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Nothing of this sort is reported concerning the Neronian persecution. All the sources, Tacitus and Suetonius at their head, make mention only of capital punishments, which were also the only appropriate ones for such a charge. On the other hand, in the persecutions under Domitian, banishment, especially to desert islands, is often and expressly referred to. According to Dio Cassius the wife of Flavius Clemens was exiled to Pandatereia. According to him also, Nerva recalled those who had been banished.* And according to Eusebius,

* Sec Zonnras, p. 588, B.: To<f inf tuclvmi t%e?.a8eloi ioypan ItravcK6elv r$>/K£ Ka

both in his history and his Chronicon, the sister's daughter of Flavius, Domatilla, was for her Christian confession banished to the island Pontia.

VI. Domitian, above almost every other, was a fit representative of the terrible bloody beast, full of names of blasphemy, and of the horrible woman drunk with the blood of saints and of the witnesses of Jesus—comp. ch. xiii. 17. What Pliny says of Domitian in his Panegyr. c. 18, not unfrequently reminds one of the Eevelation, and suggests the thought, that to the author of the latter Domitian sat for the picture of the beast. He describes him as the " most savage monster," that sometimes gulped the blood of relatives, sometimes employed himself in slaughtering the most distinguished citizens, before whose gates fear and terror watched. He was himself of frightful aspect, pride on his forehead, fury in his eye, constantly seeking darkness and secrecy, and never coming out of his solitude, excepting to make solitude.* A similar description is given also by Tacitus in his Agricola. In ch. xliv. he mentions it as a great consolation in respect to Agricola's early death, that "he thus escaped that last period, in which Domitian no longer at intervals and during vacant periods, but constantly, and as with one stroke, made havoc of the state." How little the insipid Nero can in this respect be compared with Domitian, is manifest from what is said of both by Philostratus, B. vii. c. 4. Nero, says he, led the life of a plaj'er on the harp and flute, and for such a life little vigor was required. Quite otherwise with Domitian; "he was a man of great bodily strength, and despised the pleasures which music yields, and which tend to soften the mind ; he found his

enjoyment in the pains and lamentations of others, and thought that the king by night should put an end to all other works, but give a beginning to deeds of murder."

" He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity ; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints" (ch. xiii. 10). The view given in this passage pervades the Apocalypse. We see in it under the altar the souls of those who were slain for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus ; we hear them crying with one voice, and saying, " How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?" And as this cry is heard, we see how God does judge the blood of his servants that had been shed. It is worthy of remark, that even the antichristian heathen world had a suspicion of the greatness of the guilt which Domitian had incurred by his persecution of the Christians, and of the retribution to which he had in consequence exposed himself. A proof how vigorously the feeling had then been awakened respecting the retributive righteousness of God in Christendom ! For only as a reverberation of the powerful movement that had arisen there can we account for what was then felt in the heathen world. It could not wholly withstand the strong impression that flowed in upon it, but against its own will and principles was drawn within the sweep of the movement. "The gods," says Philostratus, viii. 25, " drove Domitian from his dominion over men ; for he had killed the consul Clemens, to whom he had given his own sister (?)"* "Especially through this deed," says Suetonius, "he hastened his own downfall ;" and then proceeds to give along series of pre-intimations that announced beforehand the coming catastrophe.f

Having thus obtained the result, that the Revelation was written under Domitian, it will not be difficult to determine more exactly the period to which it should be referred within this circle, even apart from the tradition, which, according to Irenams, ascribes it to the closing period of Domitian's reign. Heathen writers (see, besides those already quoted, Juvenal Sat. iv. v. 153) agree in this, that the bloody persecution of the Christians, in the midst of which the Revelation was written, was soon followed by the death of Domitian. Accordingly, and in conformity also with the statement of Brutius in Eusebius, and in the Chronicon Paschale, under the fourteenth year of Domitian, that many Christians suffered martyrdom during that year, the Revelation must have been composed shortly before the death of Domitian. There can be no doubt that it was only this event which put a stop to the persecution of the Christians, although Tertullian and Hegesippus maintain the contrary, and represent Domitian as himself putting a stop to all his persecuting measures. The mild treatment which Domitian gave to the relatives of Jesus, and which rests on good historical authority, furnished the occasion for this representation, as in Eusebius it appears only as a report attached to the latter. It looks from the first very unlike Domitian that he should have come to a better mind; and the closing of the persecution suits much better to Nerva, who is called by Martial soft and good natured, and who endeavored to rectify everything that Domitian had put wrong. It was Nerva who, according to Dio Cassius, set all at liberty that had been accused of high treason, who recalled such as had been banished, and ordered that no farther accusations of the kind should be received. It was Nerva who, according to Pliny, adopted the most stringent measures against the delators. According also to Tacitus and Philostratus, it was the death of Domitian which first put an end to his

(hoc suo telo Jupiter, q. d. etiamsi me percutere volucrit, Beroaldus). Tactum do coelo Capitolium templumque Flaviae gentis, etc.

fury. And not till the tyrant had gone did John effect his return from the isle Patmos to Ephesus, as we learn from Clemens of Alexandria, and Eusebius in his Church History (B. III. 20, 23).

That the Apocalypse could not have been written so early as the time of Galba, is evident from the absence of any, even the most cursory, reference to the fall of Jerusalem, as an event nigh at hand. Unquestionably, any reference to this event did not properly enter into the plan of the author; its starting-point is a frightful rise of the hostile power of heathenism, its theme the triumph of Christianity over heathendom. But since the fall of Jerusalem occupies so prominent a place in the prophecies of our Lord regarding the future development of His kingdom, which form in a manner the text on which John comments,•—since, also, it was precisely in the time of Galba that the fate of Jerusalem was preparing for its accomplishment,—it would have been unnatural had the author of the Apocalypse made no reference whatever to it. We should the rather have expected him to do so, when even in the epistles we see how constantly respect is had to the existing heathen oppression, which had then come forth into the foreground, but which did not exclude some incidental reference to the subordinate Jewish persecution. See what is intimated respecting the humiliations that were to overtake the Jewish persecutors in ch. iii. 9; where, however, not a single word occurs respecting the fall of Jerusalem, which could scarcely have been the case if that crushing catastrophe had still been future. Further, since the prophet applies the name of Jerusalem and of Zion to the church, it would have been very natural, had the outward Jerusalem and Zion still existed in their former dignity, to have given some indication that their pretensions were soon to be laid in the dust. That these names should have been simpliciter applied to the church, that the latter also should be represented, without the slightest explanation, as the temple (ch. xi. 1), is most easily explained, if there was but one thing to which the terms now could refer. To the same conclusion points also the analogy of Ezekiel, who received the vision of the new temple and the new city in the fourteenth year after the destruction of the old ones. See ch. xl. 1.

In unison with its place in the €anon, the Revelation must form the key-stone to the books of the New Testament, and be separated in particular from the epistles of Paul by a considerable space of time and by the epoch of Jerusalem's fall. This appears from the doctrine, which is clearly and distinctly unfolded in it, that the second coming of Christ and the resurrection were at a great distance from the present time; that in the middle lay a period of a thousand years; be/ore, the overthrow of Eome by the ten kings, the conquest of these kings by Christ, and the destruction of the heathenish world-power; afterward, the revival of heathenism, its new conflict with the church, and the glorious victory of the latter. An easy transition to this manner of viewing things is to be found in 2 Pet. iii. 8, where the possibility is indicated of the Lord's coming being so long deferred, that it would be regarded in a human aspect as very distant. There is no room for an opposition with the earlier writers of the New Testament, as these plainly declare, that they did not know the time of the Lord's coming. But a decided advance is made in the knowledge, and an advance of such importance that it could scarcely have been made so early as the period assigned by some for the opmposition of the Book. It seems to require a basis of new circumstances and relations, and in particular that the appearance of the Lord to execute judgment on Jerusalem should have already belonged to the past. So long as this event had not taken place, it must have been very difficult to determine what in our Lord's discourses referred to it, and what to the end of the world. The asseveration of our Lord, " Verily I say to you, this generation shall not pass away till all is fulfilled," in Matt. xxiv. 3-i, must have rendered doubtful the indication of a more distant future by the end of all things, until history had entered as an expositor—until the destruction of Jerusalem as an isolated fact, not connected with a general catastrophe for the world, had shown that there was not an absolute and final, but only a preparatory fulfilment to be looked for. It presented, so to speak, a microscopic view of the judgment, where everything was to be seen on a small scale, which at the actual end of the world was to appear in its proper greatness. Hence, all that our Lord in Matthew prophesies regarding his coming, refers immediately both to the destruction of Jerusalem, and to the end of the world, with all its manifold and recurring signs, preludes, preparations, and warnings; and it is a vain undertaking, which has been latterly attempted again, by Dorner, to endeavor to distinguish mechanically and externally what should be referred to the one event and what to the other. There is a pervading reference, as we have said, to both events, the destruction of Jerusalem being contemplated as the nearer, and that also which was to be the exact image of the other, the final judgment of the world. But as to the period of the latter, no definite marks occur in our Lord's prediction. Till this historical commentary was given, the matter must needs have been allowed to hang in suspense, after the example of our Lord, and as appears to have been actually done by the apostles. It was only when such a commentary had been given that the ground was laid for imparting the new explanations, which are unfolded in the Apocalypse, just as of old when the seventy years of Jeremiah were on the point of expiring, Daniel came forth with his prophecy of the seventy weeks of years.

It is not necessary to do more than set opposite to these strong external and internal grounds for the composition of the Apocalypse under Domitian, a reference to those passages in it, which are said imperatively to demand its composition before the destruction of Jerusalem. Ziillig